South Africa: Parliament fire flare up contained Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo has confirmed this morning that the fire that flared up on Monday afternoon has now been contained. On Monday afternoon, the Presiding Officers of Parliament noted with distress yet another flare up of flames on the roof of the National Assembly Building in Cape Town. The almost two-day brave and courageous battle by firefighters against the flames that gutted various buildings of Parliament suffered a set-back when flames suddenly flared up from the roof of the Building on Monday afternoon. Firefighters at the scene were reinforced following the sudden re-emergence of the raging fire. There were six firefighting appliances and a hydraulic platform, with 34 firefighters actively fighting the flames at the scene on Monday. The resurgence of the fire follows earlier information from firefighters regarding the risky high temperature levels at the gutted buildings. Mothapo said on Twitter this morning that there was a bit of positive news this morning. the fire flare up that occurred yesterday afternoon has now been contained. The roof where the flare up occurred and the third to fifth floors were destroyed. Twenty crew members remain on site to monitor situation and assess parts of the building. He said significant progress has been made by firefighters in the battle against the flare up at the roof of National Assembly Building. He said by midnight the fire had been drastically reduced. However, he said further damages were caused at several floors of the building. The multi-agency and multi-pronged team of engineers, which arrived at Parliament on Monday was scheduled to begin with its investigative work. The Presiding Officers continue to be encouraged by the resilience, courage and bravery of the firefighters in their battle to bring the fire under complete control. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-01-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Book released on defence of Vietnamese islands against Chinese invaders Researcher Vo Ha has released the book Truong Sa 1988 Ho So Mot Su Kien Lich Su (Truong Sa 1988 A Dossier on a Historical Incident) on the protection and development of Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelago of Vietnam, focusing on the protection of Gac Ma (Johnson), Colin and Len ao reefs in Vietnams Truong Sa Islands against Chinese invasion 33 years ago. Historical researcher Vo Ha poses with his book 'Truong Sa 1988 A Dossier on a Historical Incident' in a Nang. His book collects 159 articles on the fight of Vietnam navy soldiers in the protection of the Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands, Vietnam, in 1988. Photo courtesy of Vo Ha The 300-page book, which was printed and published by the a Nang Publishing House and Phanbook in 2021, is one of the most fully documented collection of documents, stories, reports and articles on the protection of the Spratlys, particularly the brave fight of Vietnamese naval soldiers against Chinese invaders on Gac Ma (Johnson) reef on March 14, 1988. Its a collection of 159 articles published in two newspapers Nhan Dan (the People) and Quan oi Nhan Dan (the Peoples Army) written by 39 reporters from February to June of 1988, before and after the incident, featuring the tense situation in the waters off Truong Sa Islands of Vietnam. Ha, 37, who is works at the a Nangs party committees Publicity and Education Commission, said he began working with a data store on the countrys sovereignty on seas and islands in 2011, which he was initially unfamiliar with, during his study at a Nang Universitys history teacher's training faculty. Many documents and articles in the data store were collected and complied following incidents that occurred on Truong Sa 33 years ago. A series of leading articles, diplomatic notes, and reports from the two newspaper report truly what happened on the islands, Ha said. Tran Van Lanh, a naval soldier, who was wounded in the defensive fight at Gac Ma (Johnson) Reef in 1988, joins a memorial service in honour of navy martyrs during the fight. VNS Photo Cong Thanh I recognise there is a blanket in history documenting Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel), which was inadequately included in the school curriculum, especially beyond the normalisation of Vietnam-China ties in 1990, he said. Ha said young generations of Vietnamese should know deeply of the historical records and documents on the fight and protection of seas and islands by previous generations. In his foreword to the book, Ha wrote:China illegally occupied some parts of Truong Sa Islands between 1976-1988, and the fight of the Gac Ma (Johnson) reef was an outbreak of the 22-year-invasion by China of Viet Nams islands and seas. In 1974, China invaded west ofthe Paracels and illegally occupied the entire Hoang Sa Island under management of the Republic of Vietnam, or the Sai Gon administration. The book also highlights the strong will and spirit of Vietnamese people in protection of the countrys sovereignty of the Truong Sa and Hoang Sa archipelagoes, which Vietnam has continuously exercised and managed from the 17th to 19th century and until today, he added. The book includes five parts: General information on China illegally taking reefs on Vietnams Truong Sa Islands by force in 1988; Declaring Vietnam's sovereignty of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos and legal historical evidence from 1988; International opinions on Chinas infringement and illegal actions on Truong Sa Islands in 1988. The fourth and fifth parts depict support from Vietnamese people heading to Truong Sa Islands and life on Truong Sa Islands. A document in the book reveals that China mobilised a fleet of 40 ships with 1,000 naval soldiers for the invasion of Truong Sa Islands. About 20 ships including guided missile destroyers, frigates and disguised fishing vessels began illegally operating in water off Truong Sa from the middle of 1987. China occupied Chu Thap (Tizard bank or Fiery Cross Reef) on January 31, 1988, before illegally landing on Chau Vien (London Reef) on February 18, the Gaven Reef on the 26th, and Hughes Reef on the 28th. Between December of 1987 and March of 1988, Vietnam sent transport ships and engineers to build and protect a ong (East London Reef), a Tay (West London Reef), a Lat (Ladd Reef), Tien Nu (Pigeon Reef/Tennent Reef), Toc Tan (Alison Reef), Nui Le (Cornwallis South Reef) and a Lon (Discovery Greet Reef). In March 1988, China sent 12 naval ships including a guided missile destroyer and seven frigates to Truong Sa Islands. Meanwhile, Viet Nam reserved only transport ships and mostly engineers to build on Gac Ma (Johnson Reef), Colin (Collins Reef) and Len ao (Lansdowne Reef) in the area of Sinh Ton (Sin Cowe Island). Three naval transport vessels of Vietnam (HQ 604, HQ 604 and HQ505) and a team of 70 engineers with construction materials were sent to reinforce infrastructures on Gac Ma, Colin and Len ao reefs from March 11-14, 1988. A group of four Vietnamese soldiers were assigned to land on the Gac Ma reef in the night of March 13. However, a Chinese guided missile destroyer and other armed naval ships launched fire on Vietnamese transport ships and navy soldiers on guard at the reef in the early morning of March 14. An article by Ngoc an, published on Nhan Dan newspaper on March 24, 1988, reported that Chinese warships (No 556, 653, 552, 505, 502) attacked Vietnamese ships in waters off Gac Ma and Colin reefs. Chinese ship 505 rammed the anchored HQ 604 ship of Vietnam before sending a motorboat with an armed group of 71 sailors to attack the Vietnamese flagged Gac Ma Reef. The Chinese forces, who failed in the the fight against an unarmed defence of Vietnamese naval engineers, fired on Vietnamese flag holder Tran Van Phuong in an effort to grab the Vietnamese flag. Chinese war ship 502 began firing artillery at the Vietnamese HQ 604 ship and 40 Vietnamese engineers on the Gac Ma Reef, while other Chinese war ships (552 and 556) also launched artillery fire on Vietnamese ship HQ-505 in Colin Reef and HQ-605 in Len ao Reef at the same time. Two Vietnamese ships HQ-604 and HQ-605 were sunk, but the captain of HQ-505, Vu Phi Tru, quickly decided to land the ship on the rear of Colin Reef, marking the countrys sovereignty of the reef, the article said. Another article showed that 64 Vietnamese naval soldiers were killed in action or missing after artillery attacks by Chinese ships, while 10 others were seized by Chinese force (they were released by the Chinese in 1991). Chinese illegally occupied the reef by force, and even hindered Vietnamese rescue ships from saving wounded and killed Vietnamese soldiers at sea, other articles reported. The book's author Vo Ha said its the first book that unveils the detailed defensive actions of Vietnamese soldiers against cruel Chinese attackers in the fight off Gac Ma Reef. March 14 has an annual memorial service honouring the 64 Vietnamese naval soldiers who were killed in the fight to protect Gac Ma Reef, from Chinese invaders on March 14, 1988. Nguyen Van Lanh, who joined the battle in 1988, said: They [Chinese soldiers] attacked Vietnamese soldiers to snatch the flag with a manual battle, but they failed. A Chinese sailor fired at Vietnamese flag holder Tran Van Phuong, but I kicked the gun out of the Chinese mans hand before taking the flag. I was stabbed by a bayonet in my back, shoulder and chest, but we kept holding the national flag to protect the countrys sovereignty. Chinese soldires then returned to their ships and began firing artillery on unarmed Vietnamese naval engineers on the reefs and our ships to kill our team, he said. Many martyrs lost their lives at sea, and their souls live on in the countrys history. Nine martyrs were from a Nang and 14 from Quang Binh Province. The brave fight on Gac Ma Reef helped the Vietnamese navy protect two other reefs Co Lin and Len ao from attacks by Chinese forces. Tran Van Thoa, a 'prisoner' of the Gac Ma fight, has since opened a restaurant, named Gac Ma, in Quy Nhon City, Binh inh, to earn a living and to rendezvous with his valiant fellow soldiers. Call for establishing a Hindu Rashtra and genocide of Indias Muslims were made at a religious conclave recently in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. The author examines the countrys recent history to understand how we arrived here. Md Asif Khan | TwoCircles.net Support TwoCircles If we kill 20 million of them [Muslims] then we will be victorious. This is not a dialogue from some C grade Bollywood movie. These words were spoken by a Hindu extremist leader during a Dharm Sansad (Religious Parliament) event which was organized from 17 to 19 December in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. Many Hindu extremist leaders participated in this event and they delivered inflammatory speeches and called for genocide against Indias Muslims. Nobody took notice of this hateful event until the videos of hate speeches went viral on social media. After much outrage, Police filed an FIR but they did not invoke serious charges against these hatemongers, and to date, no arrest has been made in the case. A Thread with **TRIGGER WARNING*** A three day hate speech conclave was organized by hate monger Yati Narsinghanand. At the event, multiple calls to k!ll minorities and attack their religious spaces were made.#HaridwarHateAssembly Thread Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) December 22, 2021 This hate assembly was neither the first nor the last event organized by Hindu extremist leaders in India. Many such events were organized in the past and many will be organized in future as well. Such hateful campaigns are not limited to Muslims only but other minorities like Christians are also being targeted by radical Hindus in India. More than 300 attacks on Christians were reported in 9 months of 2021 and no less than 7 Christian events were disrupted by radical Hindu outfits on the eve of Christmas 2021 across the country. India has become the most unsafe country for minorities. But this cant happen overnight, how did this happen? People who are looking for the answer need to read the history of Germany or Rwanda. Fascism doesnt knock on your door suddenly. It is a long process that starts with hate speeches and ends with the mass killing of innocent people. Many anti-Modi Indians think that it started after 2014 and Modi is responsible for iteither they are gullible or deliberately avoiding the role of radical Hindutva ideology. Narendra Modi or BJP are not the pioneers of radical Hindutva ideology, they are the mere products of Hindutva ideology. Hindutva is a core ideology of RSS which was founded in 1925. This hateful journey was started almost 100 years ago when India was under British Raj. Founding members of RSS were impressed by fascists and Nazis like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. M S Golwalkar, 2nd chief of RSS, wrote in his book that Hindus should fight their internal enemies i.e. Muslims, Christians and Communists. He supported Nazis actions in Germany and suggested the same thing in India. RSS was banned by the Indian government after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, but the ban was lifted after 17 months. It was the responsibility of the Indian government to keep an eye on the activity of RSS but they failed. RSS was slowly making its space in Hindu society and the Indian political system but the so-called secular government turned a blind eye. RSS had its people infiltrated into state machinery and these RSS sympathizers were everywherefrom Media to intelligence agencies, even the so-called secular party had RSS sympathizers. For the present state of India, I blame the Hindu society and so-called secular Hindus who ruled this country for decades. They downplayed the activities of radical Hindu extremists by calling them fringe. Secular Hindus gave legitimacy to the Hindutva when they accepted them as opposition. At this time, the so-called secular Hindus were in power, and conservative Hindus were in opposition. Hindu extremists demolished 400-year-old Babri Masjid in broad daylight on 6 December 1992. The secular Hindu government did nothing to stop the bloody Rath Yatra of L. K. Advani, and did not punish those people who were responsible for the Babri demolition and aftermath. The Hindu society rewarded BJP with votes after the Babri demolition. The demolition of Babri was the first major step toward Hindu Rashtra. The so-called secular Hindu government who arrested 76000 Muslims/Sikhs/Dalits under TADA (Anti-Terror Law) from 1987 to 1995, failed to take any strong action against Hindu extremists who were responsible for Babri Demolition. When Indian Muslims were trying to heal their wounds of 1992, they received another blow in the form of the 2002 Gujarat anti-Muslim pogram. As usual, BJP gained more popularity after the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, and perpetrators got away with it. The 1992 and 2002 incidents exposed the radicalization of Hindu society and the apathy of secular Hindus toward Muslims. When Indian media and state machinery were fighting against imaginary Islamic terrorism, many radical Hindu groups were secretly working for the agenda of Hindu Rashtra in the first decade of 2000. India witnessed many bomb blasts in the first decade of 2000. Indian media and intelligence agencies blamed Muslims and arrested many innocent Muslims in various bomb blast cases. The Indian media, Hindutva groups and intelligence agencies created an anti-Muslim atmosphere in the country. Muslims were primary suspects if a bomb blast took place anywhere in the country. The Hindu majority society consumed that propaganda and started blaming Muslims. However, the Hindu radical organizations got exposed in 2008 when Hemant Karkare cracked the Malegaon bomb blast case. He exposed the conspiracy of these radical organizations who planted bombs across the country in Muslim majority areas. The so-called secular government of UPA did nothing to ban these radical Hindu outfits. In India, every element has played an important role in the rise of Hindutva the government, media and Hindu society never opposed Hindutva ideology. They gave a platform to radical Hindus and indulged in dialogue with them. They gave space to fascism by calling it Difference of opinion or Ideological differences. Fascism works in a very systematic way. It grows step by step and reaches its destination which is genocide. The journey of Hindutva is no different. They started as fringe and today they are mainstream. Propaganda is a very important tool of fascismit is used to dehumanize the oppressed people and glorify the oppressors. Every Hindutva project starts with propaganda and ends with violence. India has seen many incidents of hate crimes against Muslims and Christians. These attacks are not spontaneous. They are part of organized crime. Every week Right-Wing Hindu outfits invent some bogus conspiracy theory against Muslims and Christians and then start their propaganda. They spread hateful propaganda on social media to create a certain narrative. Following this, the radical Hindu extremist leaders start spreading propaganda through public rallies and mainstream media starts discussing this propaganda and TV channels invite these hatemongers to their studio to know their opinion and this is how their hateful propaganda is legitimized in the form of opinion. Once hateful propaganda turns into an opinion with the help of mainstream media, BJP leaders and lawmakers also start talking about it in their public speeches. Once this opinion gets enough popularity, the BJP govt passes a law that targets the oppressed community. The so-called Love Jihad Law, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Triple Talaq Law and Anti Conversion Law are a few examples. These unconstitutional laws serve more than one purpose for BJP. These laws target Muslims. Its a bitter truth that the majority of Hindus dont vote for the BJP for development. They vote for them so that the fascist regime can show Muslims their place. CAA and NRC were also designed to serve such kind of purpose. CAA was passed by the Modi government in December 2019. The Indian Muslims hit the street against CAA and NRC. Police under BJP rule unleashed violence against Muslim students and protesters across the country, and more than 25 protesters were killed. But Muslims didnt stop protests. The Hindutva ecosystem (Govt+Media+Police+Trolls) started its mission to label CAA protests as Anti-National. Sharjeel Imam became the first victim of this sinister plan, Hindu Right-Wing Media and Social Media trolls started spreading a short clip of his speech and dubbed him a secessionist. As usual, the so-called liberal Hindus also gave their support to the Hindutva narrative and declared Sharjeel Imam a villain. After Sharjeel, Uttar Pradeshs STF arrested Dr Kafeel Khan on the allegation of delivering an inflammatory speech during the CAA protest. Many Muslim activists were booked and arrested by police during the CAA protest. If the so-called Hindu liberals had given their unconditional support to Sharjeel Imam, if they had hit the streets against the witch-hunting of Sharjeel Imam, the situation would have been different. But at this time, the liberal Hindus were speaking the language of Hindu extremists. This left Indian Muslims on their ownthey were fighting against a fascist regime, and a giant propaganda machine called Indian Media. In February 2020, many Hindu extremist leaders delivered incendiary speeches, which resulted in an anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi. Muslims were killed, their houses and properties were attacked by a violent mob and in the end, Muslims were arrested and labelled as the masterminds of violence. The government and Delhi Police used the same modus operandi which they had used against Sharjeel Imam first, they created a fake narrative against Muslim activists through Indian media and then arrested them under draconian laws to satisfy the collective conscience of a morally dead society. The mob lynching of Muslims and attack on Christians are examples that how violence can be normalized in society if you have popular support from a radicalized society and fascist government. These attacks are the result of the radicalization of Hindu society and the dehumanization of minorities. Fascists always dehumanize and demonize a section of society so that it becomes easy to unleash violence against them. Nobody shows enough sympathy with dehumanized groups, and they become the easy targets of violence. I will give a few examples that show how systematic hateful propaganda ended up with violence against Muslims and Christians. Hindu extremists started propaganda of Love Jihad against Muslims more than a decade ago. They invented a bogus conspiracy theory that Muslim men trap Hindu women in their love and then convert them into Islam so that they can increase their population and convert India into an Islamic nation. At that time no one tried to stop their propaganda. When the BJP came into power in 2014, the fringe became mainstream. The radical Hindu outfits started attacking interfaith couples, and a so-called Love Jihad Law was enacted. Because of the passing of the law, the Hindutva groups do not need to attack interfaith couples, they just complain to the police and falsely accuse a Muslim man of Love Jihad and police would arrest that Muslim man under Love Jihad Law. The anti-Christian propaganda is also not new. Many years ago, Hindutva groups started accusing Christian missionaries of the forceful conversion of poor Hindus in India. The radical Hindu outfits didnt even spare Mother Teresa and accused her of conversion. Hindutva outfits kept spreading this propaganda for years to radicalize Hindus and dehumanize Christians by calling them rice bag converts. Now they have the popular support of society and the government and they are barging into churches and convent schools and attacking Christians. Dear Secular Hindus, we have reached here because for the last 70 years you were ignoring these fascists by calling them fringe. If you think you can defeat these fascists by electoral politics, then you are wrong. To defeat them, you have to start de-radicalization of the Hindu community, You can not defeat this Frankensteins monster without social reform of the Hindu community. Md Asif Khan is a social activist. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday held a meeting of the Chief Ministers' Council at party headquarters in the national capital to review governance and implementation of welfare schemes based on 28 subjects emphasized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The meeting, held under the chairmanship of BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, was attended by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, Ministers of Tripura, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand along with representatives of Chief Ministers of 12 states. The party's National General Secretary CT Ravi was also present in the meeting which lasted about two hours. Addressing the media persons after the meeting, CT Ravi said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a meeting with the Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of BJP and NDA ruled states in Varanasi recently. In that meeting, PM Modi talked about good governance and welfare of the general public." "State governments were asked to emphasize on about 28 subjects. They were asked to ensure better implementation of schemes related to these subjects. This meeting was convened to review the same," he added. Bihar minister Jibesh Mishra, Satpal Maharaj from Uttarakhand, Pranjit Singh Roy from Tripura, Bhupendra Singh from Madhya Pradesh attended this meeting. Apart from this, representatives of Chief Ministers of Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka attended the meeting. Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma also addressed the media persons after the meeting and said that the Uttar Pradesh government has set a perfect example in the implementation of public welfare schemes and it feels good when they are evaluated. "The Uttar Pradesh government is directly passing the money to the beneficiaries through 36 schemes related to Direct Bank Transfer (DBT). These include schemes related to farmers' interests, Ayushman Bharat, Ujjwala, scholarship, pension, housing scheme, MNREGA, and all public welfare programmes related to education," he added. Meanwhile, 28 points emphasized by Prime Minister and reviewed in the meeting include applying the DBT fund disbursal system to MGNREGA, an overall greater focus on DBT with Aadhar enablement; talking about time-bound plans for total coverage of eligible persons in various welfare schemes and programmes and outlining plans for the contribution of respective states in making Indian economy a five trillion dollar economy, making GST collection mechanism at the state level flawless, enhancing social media presence of ministers aiming to set at least five present of the number of constituency voters as targetted followers on social media for every minister. Academic endorsement of the various welfare programme and development schemes, evolving an effective mechanism of keeping track of the activities of fissiparous tendencies and divisive forces, time-bound action plans for the promotion of and participation in Gati Shakti Yojana, plans for implementation of National Education Policy and consolidating plans for education in the mother tongue, preparing an action plan for promoting the use of drones for transportation and opening drone schools under National Drone Policy, exploring the possibility of celebration of village foundation days in every village in order to strengthen a sense of belonging were also included in the 28 points reviewed in the meeting. (ANI) Schools and colleges in Goa have been closed for physical sessions, in wake of the rising COVID-19 cases across the country. Authorities held a meeting of the COVID-19 Task Force on Monday to review the situation in the state. A member of Task Force, Dr Shekhar Salkar said to ANI, "After the meeting of the COVID Task Force, it has been decided to close physical sessions for classes 8 and 9 till January 26. Students of classes 10 to 12 have to come only for the vaccination. Colleges will also remain closed till January 26." "The night curfew will be from 11 pm to 6 am. The Task Force will meet again a few days before January 26, to review the situation and decide the future course of action," he said. In the wake of a rise in COVID-19 cases in the coastal state, the Goa government on Monday imposed a night curfew in the state. The curfew will be in place from 11 pm to 6 am until further orders. The Goa government has also decided to close schools and colleges till January 26. The decision was taken by state Chief Minister Pramod Sawant at the Task Force's meeting on COVID-19 on Monday. Last week, Goa also reported its first case of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus on Monday after an eight-year-old boy who arrived in the state from the UK on December 17 was found to be tested positive for the Omicron variant in the state. (ANI) Speaking to reporters, former minister and senior Congress leader U.T. Khader said that the probe must be conducted by a sitting or retired district judge. "The government has handed over the investigation to CID. But when all accused persons are police officers, we cannot expect justice from the CID which is a wing of the state police department. The probe must be conducted by either a sitting or a retired judge," he said. On December 27, the police in Udupi district allegedly barged into a 'mehendi' ceremony organised in the Koraga community locality in Kotatottu village in Kundapur city and attacked the bridegroom and guests for playing DJ music. It is alleged that the police acted on behalf of upper caste people who live in the adjacent areas. Earlier, oppositon leader Siddaramaiah had charged that the Karnataka police had planned the attack on Dalit Koraga community. "The police foisted cases on Koraga community members who were victims of police atrocity. This gives room for enough suspicion that the attack on the community was planned by the police department," Siddaramaiah said. Siddaramaiah also urged the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to take action against the police personnel responsible for the incident. Meanwhile, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra has paid a visit to the locality and assured of action. --IANS mka/arm ( 264 Words) 2022-01-03-23:10:03 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate multiple developmental projects during his visit to the states of Manipur and Tripura on Tuesday. At around 11 AM, Prime Minister will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of 22 developmental projects worth over Rs 4,800 crore in Imphal. Thereafter, at around 2 PM, in Agartala, he will inaugurate the New Integrated Terminal Building at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport and will also launch two key development initiatives, the Prime Minister's office informed on January 2. "In Manipur, the Prime Minister will inaugurate 13 Projects worth around Rs 1,850 crores and lay the foundation stone of nine projects worth around Rs 2,950 crore," the official release said. In line with the countrywide projects to improve connectivity, the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of the construction of five National Highway Projects to be built at a cost of more than Rs 1700 crore. Another important infrastructure that will enhance seamless year-round connectivity to Silchar from Imphal and reduce traffic congestion, is the construction of Steel Bridge built over Barak River on NH-37 built at a cost of over Rs 75 crore. This Steel Bridge will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister during the programme. Prime Minister will also dedicate, to the people of Manipur, 2,387 mobile towers built at a cost of around Rs 1100 crores, the official release said. The projects being inaugurated by the Prime Minister include the Rs 280 crore worth 'Water Transmission system of Thoubal Multi-purpose project', which will provide drinking water supply to the Imphal city; the Water Supply Scheme project by Water Conservation, for Tamenglong Headquarters built at the cost of Rs 65 crore, to provide safe drinking water to residents of ten habitations of Tamenglong district; and the 'Augmentation of Senapati District Headquarter Water Supply Scheme' built at a cost of Rs 51 crore to provide a regular water supply to the residents of the area. In an effort to strengthen the health sector in the state, Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of 'State of the Art Cancer Hospital' in Imphal worth around Rs 160 crore on Purchasing power parity (PPP) basis. Further, to boost the COVID related infrastructure in the State, Prime Minister will inaugurate '200 Bedded COVID Hospital at Kiyamgei' which has been set up at a cost of about Rs 37 crore in collaboration with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the release added. Prime Minister will inaugurate three projects of the Imphal Smart City Mission, developed at a cost of more than Rs 170 crore, including the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC)', 'Development of Western Riverfront on Imphal River (Phase I)' and 'Development of Mall Road at Thangal Bazar (Phase I)'. The Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of 'Centre for Invention, Innovation, Incubation and Training (CIIIT)' to be built in the state at a cost of about Rs 200 crore. This project is the biggest PPP initiative in the State. Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for the construction of Manipur Institute of Performing Arts at Gurgaon, Haryana. The institute will be built at a cost of more than Rs 240 crore. In line with the mantra of 'Sabka Saath-Sabka Vikas-Sabka Vishwas', Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of 72 Projects worth more than Rs 130 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram. To strengthen the handloom industry in the State, Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of two projects worth Rs 36 crore namely, 'Mega Handloom Cluster' at NongpokKakching in Imphal East District, which will benefit about 17,000 weavers in Imphal East District and 'Craft and Handloom village' in Moirang. Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for the construction of Government Residential Quarters at New Check on to be built at a cost of around Rs 390 crore. He will also lay the foundation stone of a ropeway project at IbudhouMarjing, Imphal East. During his visit to Tripura, Prime Minister will inaugurate the New Integrated Terminal Building of Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) Airport and launch key initiatives: Mukhyamantri Tripura Gram Samriddhi Yojana and Project Mission 100 of Vidyajyoti Schools. The New Integrated Terminal Building of Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport is built at a cost of about Rs 450 crore. Project Mission 100 of Vidyajyoti Schools is aimed to improve the quality of education in the state by converting 100 existing High/Higher secondary schools to Vidyajyoti Schools with state of art facilities and quality education. The project will cover about 1.2 lakh students from Nursery to class XII and will cost around Rs 500 crores in the next three years. (ANI) The Lieutenant Governor said that vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the pandemic. Taking to Twitter on Monday evening, Sinha said, "COVID-19 vaccination starts for children aged 15-18 years in Jammu and Kashmir. My humble request to the young friends to get vaccinated. Vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the pandemic." Meanwhile, on the first day of the vaccination drive for beneficiaries in the 15 to 18 years age group, more than 40 lakh children received their first jab of the COVID-19 vaccine till 8.30 pm on Monday, as per the Co-WIN portal. Terming the achievement as another "feather in the cap" in India's ongoing nationwide vaccination drive in which the country earlier crossed the milestone of administering over 100 crore vaccine doses, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted, "Well done Young India! Over 40 Lakhs between 15-18 age group received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on the first day of vaccination drive for children, till 8 pm. This is another feather in the cap of India's vaccination drive." Notably, the vaccination registration for children in this age group began on January 1 while the drive commenced on January 3. The vaccination is being carried out in consultation with hospitals, health centres and schools. (ANI) The Ganatantri Party in Bangladesh has urged President Abdul Hamid that anti-Liberation War individuals and political parties should be disqualified from taking part in the upcoming elections as members of the election commission. A seven-member delegation, led by party President Mohammad Arash Ali, took part in the dialogue at the Bangabhaban, Ganatantri Party leader Mahmudur Rahman Babu told IANS on Monday evening. The party also urged the President to take necessary steps to frame a law to constitute the next election commission in line with the constitution. During the dialogue with the President over the formation of the next election commission, the party proposed that there should be a council comprising the Prime Minister, Speaker, Chief Justice, Opposition leader, and Attorney General, which will recommend names of the next chief election commissioner (CEC) and other election commissioners to the President. "If it is not possible to enact the law due to time constraints, the next EC can be formed through a search committee consisting of persons working with constitutional bodies," Rahman Babu said. The party in its written proposal to the President said the search committee will recommend five names for CEC and ECs. "The proposed names will be sent for scrutiny to the business advisory committee of the Parliament. The committee will prepare a shortlist from which the President will form the EC," the proposal said. The party also proposed that there should be a process to make the election commission accountable for its failure. --IANS sumi/arm ( 265 Words) 2022-01-04-00:20:04 (IANS) The Chief Minister urged everyone to move away from the PSO (Personal Security Officer) culture. The Police must counter all threats to the society through a strong intelligence and active monitoring system, Sarma said while addressing the second conference of Superintendents of Police of all 34 districts of Assam at oil town Duliajan in Dibrugarh district in a bid to explore new dimensions of policing through sharing of experiences, education and motivation. Sarma, who also holds the Home portfolio, urged the Assam police to redefine their role and operational strategy. He said there is still a lot to be done to continue the reform initiatives of Assam police. Noting that building a technology-driven police force is one of the main objectives of the state government, the Chief Minister said the Assam police must ensure adaptation of state-of-the-art technology in its work to deal with the changing methods of crime and criminals. Several Ministers, Chief Secretary Jishnu Baruah, Director General of Police Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta, General-Officer-Commanding-in-Chief of four Corps of Indian Army Lt. Gen. Ravin Khosla were present at the two-day conference, where more than 94 police officers in the ranks of SP, additional SP and SDPO participated. --IANS sc/pgh ( 239 Words) 2022-01-04-00:24:04 (IANS) Ahead of the Uttarakhand Assembly polls, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Monday said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will break the record of not repeating the government in the state and will secure a higher number of seats that the last elections. Joshi who is also Uttarakhand election in-charge of BJP held a meeting of the election management committee at the party district office in Haridwar. Uttarakhand BJP president Madan Kaushik was also present in the meeting. Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Joshi said, "Our preparations are going very well. The party is working relentlessly to manage poll preparations systematically. Two mega rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi were already held. We will hold three-four more rallies. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami's popularity is also increasing." "This time the record of not repeating the government will be broken in Uttarakhand and the BJP government will come back to the state. This time we will surpass the number of seats we won and the voting percentage of last election," added the union minister. In the meeting, discussions were held on the strategies for the six assemblies of the district. Senior party leaders asked the local workers to work to strengthen the organization up to the booth level. Assembly polls in Uttarakhand are scheduled to be held this year. (ANI) It is not only the northern part of India that is in the grip of severe winter pollution but several cities in other regions -- including in the central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh -- are experiencing a worsening of winter pollution, finds a latest analysis from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). The analysis shows that air pollution during winter is a problem in all the cities in these two states, with Gwalior and Singrauli having the worst air quality -- as bad as the winter air quality of cities in the National Capital Region and Uttar Pradesh. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution is also high in these cities, with Indore recording the highest for the region. Singrauli, a small town in eastern Madhya Pradesh, but designated as a critically polluted area by the Central Pollution Control Board, has the most polluted air in the region with a 2021 average of 81 micrograms per metre cube. It is followed by Gwalior and Katni that have 2021 averages of 56 micrograms per metre cube and 54 micrograms per metre cube, respectively. The 2021 average has bypassed the 2020 average in all the major cities -- Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur and Ujjain -- and it does not meet the annual standard as well. "Satna has the lowest 2021 average value, but the quality of data from the city's only station is suspect. Bilaspur, Bhilai and Maihar do not have adequate data for computation of annual values," a release from the CSE said on Monday. "Even though real time air quality data is extremely limited in this region, whatever real time data is emerging from only 17 cities of these two big states indicate a growing crisis and vulnerability to winter smog. This demands early and stronger multi-sector action at a regional scale to meet the clean air targets," said executive director, research and advocacy, CSE, Anumita Roychowdhury. "Gaps in air quality data and lack of quality control of data makes it difficult to construct reliable air quality trends and do proper risk assessment," said Avikal Somvanshi, programme manager, Urban Lab, CSE. "The worsening of air quality in the region has not drawn adequate public attention. In winter, air quality of cities such as Singrauli, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Katni could get nearly three times worse than their annual average levels." The CSE analysis of air quality status in cities of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh is an assessment of annual and seasonal trends in PM2.5 concentration for the period January 1, 2019 to December 12, 2021. This analysis is based on real time data available from the current working air quality monitoring stations in central India. The analysis covers 18 continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) spread across 17 cities in the two states -- two stations in Gwalior and one station each at Bhopal, Damoh, Dewas, Indore, Jabalpur, Katni, Maihar, Mandideep, Pithampur, Ratlam, Sagar, Satna, Singrauli, Ujjain, Bhilai and Bilaspur. Air quality monitoring is still very limited in the central region. Cities in MP have data available for over two years; but real time monitors in Chhattisgarh became operational only in the latter half of 2021, which limits the possibility of assessing long term trends. Therefore, the data is indicative of the current status of air quality and seasonal variations in particulate pollution in medium and smaller cities in the region, the CSE release said. --IANS niv/pgh ( 575 Words) 2022-01-04-00:36:03 (IANS) "Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao has directed all educational institutions in the state to declare a holiday from January 8 to January 16," the CMO said. This decision was taken at a meeting convened by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to review the pandemic situation in view of the COVID-19 cases rising sharply in Telangana. The Chief Minister in the meeting directed State Health Minister Harish Rao and medical officers to strengthen all types of infrastructure in government hospitals in the state and equip existing beds, oxygen beds, medicines and testing kits as required in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases. The Chief Minister also told people not to panic about the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and urged them to be constantly vigilant and take self-control measures. He called on the people to remain vigilant at work and wear masks and abide by the COVID-19 rules issued by the government, CMO said. Meanwhile, Telangana on Monday reported 482 new COVID-19 cases, thereby taking the total tally of infections in the state to 6,82,971. The death toll in the state rose to 4,031 with one more new fatality. (ANI) Kotwal said that an abuser warned Kotwal that her phone number was being widely distributed on WhatsApp groups and social media pages, with instructions for others to collectively threaten her. She said that she receives caste-based and gender-based hate remarks online as a result of her work exposing atrocities against marginalised populations and casteism in Indian culture. Suchitra | TwoCircles.net Support TwoCircles NEW DELHI A Dalit woman journalist Meena Kotwal is facing online abuse and threats after she posted a video of herself burning the Manusmriti on December 25. Manusmriti is an ancient legal text or dharmashastra of Hinduism and is revered by some sections of Hindu society, while others believe the text demeans women. ? , pic.twitter.com/JEkd2I7sTm Meena Kotwal ( ) (@KotwalMeena) December 25, 2021 Kotwal, who is the founder of The Mooknayak, had posted the video on the occasion of Manusmriti Dahan Divas (Manusmriti Burning Day) to commemorate Dr Bhimrao Ambedkars metaphorical burning of the ancient law document that sustains the Hindu caste system in 1927. Talking to TwoCircles.net, she said she soon began to receive violent threats by men claiming to be associated with Hindutva nationalistic groups like Bajrang Dal, Karni Sena, Vishwa Hindu Parishad. You will suffer the same fate as Gauri Lankesh, multiple callers told Kotwal. In one of the conversations, the abuser warned Kotwal that her phone number was being widely distributed on WhatsApp groups and social media pages, with instructions for others to collectively threaten her, Kotwal recounted to TwoCircles.net. The men demanded that she should remove the video which she had shared. When she refused, they threatened her with physical violence. The Mooknayak is a media platform that reports primarily on disadvantaged populations. Meena has been unable to work for the last seven days due to fear. She is afraid to pick up calls and step out of her house. They have Manu in their minds, and that is why they attack the agency of women and want to lock them up inside their houses. They fear that Dalits like myself, especially Dalit women, will begin to understand their oppression and fight against them, Meena said. Even though Meena submitted a complaint three days ago, no FIR has been filed on the threats she is facing. This is not the first time there hasnt been any action against a case filed by her. In most circumstances, getting the police to submit a complaint under the Prevention of Atrocities Act is extremely impossible. I have a first-hand experience with this, Kotwal remarked. Three months ago, she had filed a complaint against a Twitter user for caste-based hate remarks. It was difficult to have the FIR lodged under the statute without public pressure and indignation on social media. In 1955, India enacted the Protection of Civil Rights (Anti-Untouchability) Act, and in 1989, the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act, which criminalises casteist slurs and abuse against SC/ST individuals or groups. However, the act has the most abysmal rates of conviction in the country at less than 8%. Dalit women journalists, particularly those who are outspoken, are rarely seen. They have resorted to intimidatory measures because they do not want the status quo to alter, Kotwal said. Kotwal has documented the brutalization of Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi people, particularly women. She was the first journalist to cover the gang rape of a nine-year-old Dalit girl in Delhi. As a journalist who reports frequently from a variety of on-the-ground places, Kotwal believes these threats are specifically made to frighten and intimidate her into not working. I want it to be known that if anything happens to me or my family, Bajrang Dal and other Hindutva organisations are to blame, she said. Kotwal said that she has received multiple caste-based and gender-based hate remarks online as a result of her work exposing atrocities against marginalised populations and casteism in Indian culture. Poor media freedom in India According to various international studies, India remains a dangerous place for journalists. India ranked 142 out of 180 nations on the Press Freedom Index in April 2021. According to the research, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and extremist right-wing Hindutva ideologues have created a hazardous atmosphere for journalists who dare to discuss or write on topics that trouble Hindutva devotees. According to Reporters Without Borders assessment, India is one of the most hazardous nations for journalists. If it had been a Savarna woman journalist, they would have taken to the streets, Kotwal said. Kotwal is dissatisfied with the lack of support for her, particularly from those who have been loud about hate crimes in India. The fact that I am a Dalit woman makes it even more difficult for me, Kotwal remarks. The International Dalit Solidarity Network, a non-governmental organisation that aims to end caste-based discrimination on a worldwide scale, recorded caste-based hate speech on social media platforms in their research. According to the survey, Dalit users have experienced psychological discomfort as a result of persistent casteist harassment and insufficient safety measures implemented by social media platforms that hold abusers accountable. According to the survey, as a result of this, many Dalit women have chosen to conceal their identity. These series of threats must be seen as what it is; a deliberate attempt to silence the voice of a Dalit woman, Kotwal asserted. Suchitra is an independent journalist working on social justice, focusing primarily on gender justice. She tweets at @Suchitrawrites Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday stressed the need to improve financial literacy among the masses and urged the professionals like Chartered Accounts to work in this direction by explaining financial rules and regulations in simple and easy language for the larger benefit of the public. Addressing the gathering at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) Bhawan, Ernakulam in Kerala, the Vice President said that one has to deal with many complex rules and regulations while dealing with subjects like accountancy and finance in day to day life. "There is a need to improve financial literacy among the masses and I urge the professionals like Chartered Accounts (CA) to work in this direction by explaining financial rules and regulations in simple and easy language for the larger benefit of the public. In this regard, he appreciated the government's efforts for easing the business environment through reforms such as GST and urged the CA professionals to play a proactive role in this regulatory transformation, right from the policymaking process to its grass root implementation. The Vice President said, "Chartered Accounts have an onerous responsibility in guiding the business community to follow the rules and regulations." Observing that a few black sheep bring bad name to whole business community, he advised the students to work hard, be disciplined and follow rules. "If you have caliber and capacity, and add character to it, you can excel in any field," VP Naidu said citing the example of nurses from Kerala who have earned a good name all over the world with their hard work. Lauding the role of Chartered Accountants in the economic advancement of the nation, Vice-President Naidu called them 'proud partners in nation building'. Noting that with the changing times, come newer dilemmas for their profession, he exhorted them to demonstrate ethical choices, values, and practices in decision-making. He said, "With hard work and dedication of its staff and members, ICAI has emerged as one of the most respected institutions in the field of education and professional excellence." Praising ICAI for becoming the second largest Accounting Body in the world, Naidu expressed happiness over the fact that approximately, 27.85 per cent of its members are ladies and 42.30 per cent of students are girls. "It is a healthy trend and must be sustained," he added. Praising the Ernakulam branch of ICAI for its yeoman service over the last 54 years, the Vice President hoped that the proposed building would cater to the academic and professional needs of the students in the region. Calling Chartered Accountants among the most sought-after professionals in the field of finance, accounting and auditing, VP Naidu wanted them to remain abreast of the latest developments in their field including new technologies. "The New Generation Chartered Accountant has to be extremely tech- savvy, adaptive and receptive," he said. Reiterating that the ultimate aim of all technologies and all professions is to make people's lives happier and more comfortable, the Vice President mentioned the example of how JAM trinity and DBT have transformed the lives of the millions of poor in our country. "It has plugged leakages in various government schemes and has made service delivery efficient and hassle-free for the people," he said. Reaffirming that the Indian economy is recovering fast from the unexpected setback caused by COVID-19, Naidu opined that in the post COVID scenario, the country can demonstrate a new saga of enterprise attracting the whole world with multiple strengths. "While the Government works with long term vision and absolute commitment, it is essential that organizations like ICAI align with that thinking," he said. Referring to the ongoing 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' commemorating the 75th year of India's independence, the Vice President called upon everyone to join this national campaign and make this a people's movement fuelled by the spirit of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat. (ANI) The National Commission for Women (NCW) has written to Delhi Police Commissioner regarding the Bulli Bai app case to immediately register FIR in the matter. NCW in the letter dated January 2 said that after the Sulli deal outrage this is another incident reported of the same portal GitHub which is "condemnable in the strongest possible words". "The Commission is extremely anguished and distressed with the abovementioned crime against a woman on cyber space. You are, therefore, required considering the gravity of the matter to immediately register FIR in the matter," reads NCW's letter to Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana. "The process must be expedited so that the alleged crime is not again repeated by the same portal 'GitHub'. It is disappointing that even after the lapse of so many months since the "Sulli Deals" outrage, there has been no concrete action taken in the matter which is utterly unfortunate and concerning. The action taken in the matter in both the cases must be apprised to the Commission at the earliest." Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police Cyber Cell detained a 21-year-old engineering student from Bengaluru, in connection with the 'Bulli Bai' application case on Monday. Mumbai Police has not revealed the identity of the suspect detained from Bengaluru yet, except for his age. Police have registered a case against unknown culprits under relevant sections of IPC and the IT Act. Earlier on Monday, Mumbai Police had also filed a first information report (FIR) against unknown persons based on complaints that doctored photographs of women were uploaded for auction on 'Bulli Bai' application hosted by GitHub platform. On Sunday, West Mumbai Cyber Police station registered a case against the 'Bulli Bai' app developers and Twitter handles that promoted the app. The case has been registered against the unknown culprits under sections 153(A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion etc), 153(B) (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 295(A) (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), 354D (stalking), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 500 (criminal defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act. After both the Delhi and Mumbai police lodged FIR in the matter under relevant sections, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a tweet on Sunday said, "Government of India is working with police organizations in Delhi and Mumbai on this matter." As the matter escalated, GitHub spokesperson said that the company has longstanding policies against content and conduct involving harassment, discrimination, and inciting violence. "We suspended a user account following the investigation of reports of such activity, all of which violate our policies. GitHub responds to law enforcement requests that comply with established legal procedures. We informed India police of our policy in this case, and will assist upon receiving valid legal process from them," said GitHub spokesperson. (ANI) He was addressing mediapersons after offering prayers to the village deity Tirupatamma at Penuganchiprolu in Krishna district on Monday. "Andhra Pradesh was not developed till 2014. Even after, both Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) came to power they failed to ensure the development of the State and merely gave statements," said Veerraju. He said that the TDP government initiated the construction of the capital city and spent about Rs 7,200 crore on it, out of which a major contribution was made by the Central Government. The BJP leader further alleged that the YSRCP government was misleading the public in the name of three capitals. "The farmers informed me that if the government would invest just Rs 10,000 crore, then the capital city will be a reality for the State," he added. (ANI) Delhi Police on Monday informed that two, including a juvenile, have been apprehended for the alleged murder of a man in his 20s in Dakshinpuri over a dispute. As per the police, the victim, Abhishek, was brought dead to Madan Mohan Malviya Hospital with a stab wound on the chest. A case under section 302/34 (Criminal acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against the accused Arun and the juvenile at Ambedkar Nagar police station, and the murder weapon (knife) has also been recovered, the police said. (ANI) "Due to fog/low visibility at Patna airport, all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights are affected and likely to be delayed," airport authorities said. As per the Meteorological Centre Patna, dense fog is being observed at Patna Airport. "Weather Update dated 04-01-2022: Minimum Temperature observed at Patna airport is 09.0C as on 8.30 IST of 04.01.2022," the Meteorological Centre said. (ANI) A Government Tool Room and Training Centre (GTTC) would be established at a cost of Rs 50 crore in Magadi taluk of Ramanagar district, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said. Speaking to media persons after launching a slew of development works at Chikkakalya village in Magadi he said, GTTC is an Indo-Danish project. The proposed GTTC centre would have the most advanced training machinery and equipment. Students would be provided technical training to suit the industrial needs. As the district is set to get many industries and an industrial cluster, setting up a GTTC would have a significant complementary role. It would enable the youth to get not only top-notch technical training, but it would also aid in their personality development as well, Bommai said. Reacting to demands of irrigation works for the region, Bommai said, the region needs preparations in water resources. it is possible to provide water from Markeandeya, Hemavathi and Kanva dam by preparing a comprehensive project report. A decision in this regard would be taken after discussing it with the authorities concerned. Replying to DK Shivakumar's reaction to the spat that happened at the programme in Ramnagar, Bommai said, "Unveiling of Dr B R Ambedkar and Nada Prabhu Kempe Gowda's statues was a pre-scheduled programme. Many meetings have been held about it. Media itself is witness as to who triggered the argument. RSS and BJP have nothing to do with this incident. It is a very unfortunate incident. The concerned people should introspect about it." Referring to Padayatra of Congress leaders for the Mekedatu project, Bommai said, it is a politically motivated programme. "Siddaramaiah has accused that Tamil Nadu BJP leaders are being arraigned against it. Will the Congress leaders of Tamil Nadu support the Padayatra?" Bommai said. "We need to work unitedly for the cause of Karnataka's language, land and water. DPR has been prepared for the Mekedatu project. It is before the Central Water Commission. The state government has taken the project seriously. Efforts are on to realise it," Bommai said. A meeting would be held on Tuesday to discuss the Covid situation and take appropriate decisions to tackle the pandemic, he said. (ANI) The victim has been identified as Santosh while the accused persons have been identified as Prince (19), Harshu (19), and Javed (19), said a statement by the police. On December 28, 2022, the teen's mother, a resident of Delhi's Mangolpuri reported that her son was allegedly abducted by a group of four boys-- namely Prince, Harshu, Paras and Javed (resident of the same locality), since they were absconding, as per the statement. During the interrogation, the accused persons revealed that on the afternoon of December 25, 2021, Prince had asked Santosh to lend the jacket to him for some time in order to impress girls, but the victim refused and taunted him on his poverty. They allegedly stabbed Santosh and threw his body into a drain. The body has been recovered, the police said. (ANI) The Court has directed the accused Yogesh Raj to surrender within a period of seven days. At present, Yogesh Raj is out on bail from the Allahabad High Court. The Court was hearing the petitions filed by the wife of the deceased police officer, who had opposed the bail in the Supreme Court. Inspector Subodh Singh, who was the in-charge of the local Siyana police station, and a 20-year-old civilian Sumit Singh, were killed in the December 3, 2018 violence, which was allegedly instigated by Raj. The mob went on a rampage over allegations of illegal cow slaughter and set Chingrawathi police post and dozens of vehicles on fire. Sedition charges were slapped on 44 people who were accused of instigating the violence in the Chingravathi area of Bulandshahr. As many as 44 people were sent to jail, out of which six have got bail eight months after the violence. (ANI) Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday informed that COVID-19 is spreading faster and people need to be cautious. He also informed that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has tested positive for COVID-19, is experiencing mild symptoms. "Today Arvind Kejriwal has been found positive. Symptoms are mild. He is in isolation right now and he has appealed to people who have come in contact with him to must go for tests," Jain told ANI. "All the protocols are being followed and he is put in isolation with great care. COVID-19 is spreading faster and people need to be cautious. If people wear masks always then they can save themselves," he added. On being asked about the meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) today over the COVID-19 situation in the national capital, the minister said, " We will let you know about the decisions that would be taken in the meeting". On rising Omicron cases in the national capital, he said, "yesterday I told that 84 per cent of Delhi''s total COVID-19 cases in the last two days were of the Omicron variant of coronavirus". Earlier on Monday, Jain said, "84 per cent of the COVID19 cases reported in Delhi in the past 2 days were of the Omicron variant. Delhi''s expected to report around 4,000 cases today with the positivity rate rising to 6.5 per cent. Currently, 202 patients are admitted to Delhi hospitals". Delhi has been witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks following the emergence of the Omicron variant. The city reported 4,099 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours taking the positivity rate in the national capital to 6.46 per cent, Delhi''s health department bulletin informed on Monday. The active cases in the city have gone to 10,986 and the cumulative tally of the COVID-19 cases now stands at 14,58,220. In the last 24 hours, Delhi also witnessed one COVID-related death taking the death toll to 25,100. (ANI) The potato has always been treated as a plebeian vegetable in India, but in many other countries it is the staple that substitutes for cereals. Ever since the tuber solanum tuberosum made its journey from South American continent to the older world, chaperoned by Portuguese conquistadors, it has played different roles on the culinary stage, stellar and supporting. It is one of the most widely grown crops and sustains many a large food business. From breakfast to dinner and snacks in between, potato is indispensable. So why should we be surprised when the Humpty Dumpty look-a-like reinvents itself (or let others do it) for another round of global conquest in the 21st century! Most crystal ball gazers focusing on foods of the future are of the unanimous opinion that potato milk is going to be one of the fastest emerging trends in the coming years. Understandably, this forecast has created considerable excitement in vegetarian-vegan circles. Other non-dairy milks like soya, almond are much more expensive and have begun to jade even the lactose-intolerant palates. Potato milk is dairy-free, cholesterol-free and fat-free with equivalent calcium as cow milk. Experts also point out that the mineral and vitamin content in potato milk is greater than any other vegan option. It grabbed attention after the Swedish Company, Veg of Lund, launched it as a retail product under its sub-brand DUG. Interestingly, what is being marketed abroad as potato milk is in fact not entirely yielded by potatoes and comprises pea protein, maltodextrin, chicory fibre, rapeseed oil, and natural flavourings. All those who wax eloquent about the virtues of potato milk and its sustainability and very small carbon footprint, etc. need to be reminded, that like mock meat processing and packaging of potato milk substantially erodes such claims. British and Dutch companies have also produced potato proteins based 'meat' for the growing vegetarian-vegan market. The Koreans are dishing out potato starch-based glass noodles - Japchae. Potato milk, rich in starch lends itself very well to thickening sauces and is a good substitute for cream and corn syrup. This is not all. Potato glass -- a transparent edible sheet is a favourite innovative garnish with some Indian chefs. During the passing phase of molecular gastronomy in our country, some had tried to dazzle their guests with this display of 'potato glass blowing'. In reality, not much complex science was involved as potato glass chips can easily be made at home. Readymade potato starch may not be readily available everywhere but this stuff to can be produced at home with little effort and some practice. What has turned our thoughts to potato was a recent news report about Indian authorities rejecting Pepsi Co's claim to their patent on a genetically modified potato variant which used to produce Lay's chips. The food major had made overtures to settle this dispute with the farmers but a government order preempted the settlements. Genetically modified crops have been a contentious issue. Farmers around the world (especially in poor countries) are very apprehensive about the risks and advantages involved and the scientific communities continue to be divided. The US Food and Drugs Administration has termed genetically modified potatoes as innate potatoes and reassured consumers that they are quite safe. Such reassurances have so far failed to allay the fears. Pondering the future of potato, we are reminded that how it was once a vegetarian ingredient substituted for meat in imported foods like Samosa in the medieval period and Hamburger in the modern age. We seem to have come a full circle with now the potato manifesting itself in an unabashedly meaty avatar. Disclaimer: The views expressed in the above article are that of the writer and do not reflect that of ANI. (ANI) Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 A total of 159 doctors have been infected with the virus in the past two days. Dr Binod Kumar Singh, Medical Superintendent of NMCH said on Monday, "72 more doctors of Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) in Patna have tested positive for COVID-19." On Sunday, Patna DM Chandrashekhar Singh had informed that 87 doctors of the hospital had tested positive. "All of them are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms and are in isolation on the hospital campus," he had said. As per the Union Ministry of Health's data, there are 1,386 active cases of the virus in the state. (ANI) The Supreme Court has stayed the order of the Allahabad High Court granting bail to one of the main accused Yogeshraj, a Bajrang Dal leader who allegedly lead a mob that killed a police officer in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr district in December 2018. A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh in its order stated that the matter is "quite serious" where under the pretext of the cow slaughter, a police officer has been lynched and directed Yogeshraj to surrender before the trial court within a period of seven days. The apex court further asked the trial court in Bulandshahr to send a report on the status of the case and charges against all the accused. Yogeshraj was out on bail since September 2019. The petition in the Supreme Court was filed by Rajni Singh, the wife of police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, who was killed in the mob attack. "The matter is quite serious where under the pretext of the cow slaughter, a police officer has been lynched. Prima facie, it is a case of people taking law into their own hand. We are of the view that Yogeshraj should be asked to surrender within a period of seven days from today and thus to that extent, the impugned orders granting him bail are stayed. We call for a report from the trial Court, Bulandshahr as to how much time do they need to frame the charges and to record the testimonies of the independent witnesses. List after three weeks," the Bench said in its order on Monday. A mob violence incident at Syana in Bulandshahr on December 3, 2018, left police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, who was handling complaints against cow slaughter, and a local resident, dead with bullet wounds. The violence erupted after cattle carcasses were reportedly found in a nearby village. Yogeshraj and others were accused of leading the mob and instigating it to attack police with illegal firearms, sharp objects, and lathis. Rajni Singh, the wife of the deceased police officer, has challenged the order of the Allahabad High Court which had granted bail to Yogeshraj, one of the main accused and a local leader of Bajrang Dal. The plea emphasised that though the incident of lynching had taken place almost three years ago, charges have not yet been framed in the case. (ANI) "During my tenure @PunjabGovtIndia had announced to bear the $20 fees for the pilgrims visiting Kartarpur sahib via the corridor, however due to Covid restrictions the passage was closed. To ensure 'Khule Darshan Didar' of the holy shrine, GOP must implement this decision," Singh tweeted. He further said, "Currently a pilgrim must have a passport to visit Kartarpur Sahib. I will urge GOI to relax this requirement & to work with the Pakistan govt to allow entry with an aadhar card. I am hopeful that both governments will agree to this in the interest of Nanak Naam Leva Sangat." The Kartarpur Corridor links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, the final resting place of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district. In a major decision, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government decided to re-open the Kartarpur corridor from November 17. It was closed in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.The visa-free 4.7-kilometre long corridor joins the Indian border to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan. It became operational in 2019. (ANI) Tamil Nadu should carry out data analysis to ensure all the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) scheme get their due share, said a top official of the Department of Food and Public Distribution. He also said the assets of Food Corporation of India (FCI) should be utilised to the optimum level under the Asset Monetisation scheme of the Central government. Holding a review meeting with the Tamil Nadu officials on Monday, Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, said the state government to undertake data analysis and verify the card holders under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), clean the data, remove duplication so that all eligible people benefit from subsidised food grains. During the review meeting, it was observed that Tamil Nadu needs to gear up its distribution of the entire allocation of the food grains made by the Central government. Pandey appreciated Tamil Nadu's efforts in getting 56 out of total 58 godowns of Tamil Nadu Warehousing Corporation certified from the Warehouse Development & Regulatory Authority (WDRA). Emphasising that diversification of crop is very important, Pandey also advised to formulate policies to incentivise the farmers to take up farming of pulses and oil seeds and reduce the dependence on imports. The state can undertake an awareness campaign and support the farmers to diversify the crops by providing due support for other crops as well. According to Pandey, the state government should carry out awareness campaign among the migrants on 'one nation one ration card' and encourage them to register on 'mera ration' App. The data collected can be analysed on various demographic parameters to frame welfare policies by the Government, he added. --IANS vj/pgh ( 292 Words) 2022-01-04-07:58:01 (IANS) Union Minister for Heavy Industries Mahendra Nath Pandey on Tuesday informed that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is admitted at Yashoda Superspeciality Hospital Kaushambi, Ghaziabad as a "precautionary measure". "I was unwell for the last 2 days due to which I got my corona tested and the COVID report came positive. It is requested to all those who have come in contact with me in the last few days, take care of yourself and get the investigation done as per the requirement," said Pandey in a tweet (roughly translated from Hindi). "I am undergoing complete treatment as a precautionary measure at Yashoda Superspeciality Hospital Kaushambi, Ghaziabad and now my health is stable. Many thanks for all your prayers," he added. Earlier today, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manoj Tiwari had been tested positive for COVID-19. (ANI) Every passenger of the Cordelia cruise ship, which will reach Mumbai on Tuesday evening, will undergo COVID-19 test as it has been sent back to Mumbai from Goa with all the passengers after more than 66 out of 2,000 onboard tested COVID-19 positive. "The ship is scheduled to arrive in Mumbai today evening and everyone onboard will undergo COVID-19 test," said Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official. "BMC has constituted a special team to conduct the test of passengers on board. Those who test positive will be sent to COVID centres or hospitals. Those who test negative will be sent to compulsory quarantine," the official added. Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Monday said that out of the 2,000 samples tested onboard the Cordelia cruise ship that sailed from Mumbai to Goa, 66 passengers tested positive for COVID-19. In a tweet, Rane said, "Out of 2000 samples tested from Cordelia cruise ship, 66 passengers tested positive for COVID-19. Respective collectors and MPT staff have been informed of the same. The authorities will decide whether to allow disembarking of passengers from the ship." Cordelia is the same cruise ship that was raided by Narcotics Control Bureau officials last year over an alleged drugs case in which Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, among others, was named. India reported 37,379 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the daily positivity rate in the country to 3.24 per cent, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday. According to Health Ministry, the country has so far reported 1,892 cases of Omicron of which 766 have been recovered. Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of Omicron cases (568), followed by Delhi (382) and Kerala (185). (ANI) The Delhi High Court was informed on Tuesday by the Union of India that Air India was in continuous losses and the government could not afford further losses. There were losses of Rs. 20 crore daily approximately and it could not allow wastage of more public money, the Union of India lawyer said. The submission of Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta came on Tuesday during the hearing of a plea moved by Rajyasabha MP Subramanian Swamy that sought to quash/set aside the Air India disinvestment process. SG Mehta argued that the successful bidder Talace Private Limited was fully owned by Tata Sons and unrelated to Air Asia. He also said disinvestment is a policy decision and the decision was taken in 2017 due to the heavy continuous losses. The bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh on Tuesday reserved its order on the petition and asked the parties to file their written notes in this regard. The bench has set January 6, 2022, for the passing of the order in the matter. Appearing in person, Subramanian Swamy argued that the process of bidding was malafide, arbitrary and against the public interest. Terming the disinvestment a "gigantic corruption", the petitioner also sought a full-fledged investigation into the role of the government and the process which he claimed was lacking in accountability. There is a clear statement that the insolvency process is ongoing in Madras High Court which passed orders against Spicejet and therefore it was not entitled to bid. As a result, this means that there was only one bidder and the bid cannot take place, said Subramanian Swamy. Senior Advocate Harish Salve appeared for the Tata Group. While opposing the Swamy plea he submitted that the successful bidder is a 100 per cent Indian company owned 100 per cent by an Indian. The share purchase agreement has been signed and everything is in the public domain. "All efforts" to hand over all operations of Air India to Tata Sons by the end of December, Secretary Ministry of Civil Aviation Rajiv Bansal had said recently. Tata Sons had won the bid for acquiring national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore, on October 8, 2021, ending Centre's attempts to privatise the debt-laden airline. Tata Sons, which originally launched Air India with a namesake branding (Tata Air Services) in 1932, bid for the carrier under its wholly-owned subsidiary Talace Pvt Ltd for Rs Rs 18,000 crore. The government earlier informed that the winning bidder--Tata Sons--will retain all employees for one year and the group will need to offer a voluntary retirement scheme if it decides on retrenchment after the period. The government has said that the interest of the employees and retired employees would be taken care of in the disinvestment process. The government will divest its 100 per cent stake in Air India, Air India Express and 50 per cent stake in ground handling company AISATS. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday slammed previous governments for leaving Manipur "on its own" and said that he has brought the BJP-led Centre to the state's doorstep. "There was a time when Manipur was left to be on its own. I came to Manipur multiple times before I became the PM. I knew the pain in your hearts. So, after 2014, I brought the entire Government of India to your doorstep," PM Modi said while addressing the public. Lauding the people of Manipur for "forming a stable government" in the state, PM Modi said, "60 per cent of households in Manipur have got access to clean tap water through the Har Ghar Jal programme, reflecting the commitment of the 'double-engine' government." PM Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of several developmental projects here today. The Prime Minister said that Manipur has seen commendable success in various areas. "1.80,000 houses have sanctioned under PM Awas Yojana, 4,25,000 people have benefitted under Ayushman Bharat Mission, 1.5 lakh free gas and 1.3 lakh free electricity connections have been provided," PM Modi said. "30,000 houses now have toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission 5. 30 lakh free vaccine doses have been administered so far," the he added while saying that today, Manipur is becoming a symbol of a new culture of change. PM Modi inaugurated 13 projects worth over Rs 1,850 crore and laid the foundation stone of nine projects worth around Rs 2,950 crore; spanning across sectors such as Road Infrastructure, Drinking Water Supply, Health, Urban Development, IT and more. He also laid the foundation stone of construction of five National Highway Projects to be built at a cost of more than Rs 1,700 crore, with a cumulative length of more than 110 km. (ANI) The arrested engineering student was earlier detained by Mumbai Police in Bengaluru and was brought to Mumbai for questioning. "Deputy Commissioner of Police of Mumbai Police Cyber Cell himself questioned the accused which went on for almost 10 hours," said a Police official. After questioning the first suspect for hours, Police on Tuesday detained one more suspect in connection with the case. Mumbai Police on Monday filed a first information report (FIR) against unknown persons based on complaints that doctored photographs of women were uploaded for auction on the 'Bulli Bai' application hosted on the GitHub platform. On Sunday, West Mumbai Cyber Police station registered a case against the 'Bulli Bai' app developers and Twitter handles that promoted the app. The case was registered against the unknown culprits under sections 153(A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion etc), 153(B) (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 295(A) (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), 354D (stalking), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 500 (criminal defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act. (ANI) Infiltration attempts through International Borders with Bangladesh and Pakistan registered a record in 2021 in comparison to the last five years with a total of 1,628 incoming apprehension as well as killings of 18 intruders, revealed government data. As per Home Ministry data accessed by ANI, a total of 1,252 intruders were apprehended in 2020; 1,408 in 2019; 1,173 in 2018; and 1,251 in 2017. However, 16 intruders were killed in 2020, six in 2019, eight in 2018 and 11 in 2017. The data is collated by the country's Border Security Force (BSF) based on its operations conducted between 2017 and 2021 during which a total of 6,712 intruders were apprehended while entering into Indian territory both from India-Bangladesh and India-Pakistan borders. The BSF has mentioned in its fresh data that 268 intruders were held while entering into Indian territory through the India-Pakistan border and the remaining 6,444 were held from India Bangladesh border between 2017 and 2021. Of the 268 intruders apprehended at the India-Pakistan border, 60 were held from Rajasthan, 19 from Jammu, 156 from Punjab and 33 from Rajasthan. Of the 6,444 intruders apprehended from the India-Bangladesh border, a maximum of 4,796 were caught from South Bengal followed by 585 from North Bengal, 558 from Tripura, 248 from Meghalaya, 214 from Guwahati and 43 from Mizoram and Cachar. In 2021 alone, 45 intruders were held on the India-Pakistan border (33 at Punjab border, seven at Rajasthan, three at Gujarat and two at Jammu) while trying to enter into Indian territory while 1,583 were caught at the India-Bangladesh border (1,248 from South Bengal, 100 North Bengal, 82 from Tripura, 75 from Guwahati, 64 from Meghalaya and 14 from Mizoram and Cachar). Of the total 18 killings of intruders in 2021, 14 (six each at Punjab and Jammu borders, and two at Rajasthan) were shot at on the India-Pakistan border while four were killed at the India-Bangladesh border while trying to flee from the BSF troops despite alerts to surrender or when they attacked the border security force. A senior officer in the BSF, which is mandated to guard 4,096 km India-Bangladesh and 3,323 km India-Pakistan borders, said most of the intruders who tried to infiltrate into Indian territory from Bangladesh were those trying to find jobs here while a few of them were engaged in the illegal trade of smuggling of drugs and human trade. However, the officer, on condition of anonymity told ANI, that those entering from Pakistan were suppliers of drugs, arms and ammunition. The BSF has been facing these issues for years despite the matter being always raised during annual and bi-annual DG and IG and sector Commander-level talks between the border guarding forces of both Bangladesh and Pakistan. (ANI) In view of increasing COVID cases due to the Omicron variant of the virus, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi on Tuesday cancelled the remaining part of winter vacation from January 5 to January 10 and has asked the faculty members to join duty 'with immediate effect'. In a notice, AIIMS said: "In continuation of the office of memoranda...it is to inform that the Competent Authority has decided to cancel the remaining part of the winter vacation i.e. from 5th to 10th January, 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19/Omicron Pandemic." "COVID-19: AIIMS, Delhi cancels remaining part of winter vacation from January 5 to January 10; asks faculty members to join duty 'with immediate effect'," the notice further read. Meanwhile, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has decided to impose a weekend curfew in the national capital. Addressing a press conference after the DDMA meeting today, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia informed that buses and metro trains will again run at full seating capacity to avoid crowding outside metro stations and at bus stops. The Deputy Chief Minister informed that cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been rapidly rising. "Delhi has reported around 11,000 positive cases in the past 8-10 days, of which around 350 patients are in hospital, only 124 patients need oxygen and 7 are on a ventilator," he added. Delhi has been witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks following the emergence of the Omicron variant. The city reported 4,099 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours taking the positivity rate in the national capital to 6.46 per cent, Delhi's health department bulletin informed on Monday. (ANI) The accused were booked in a case relating to vandalism, putting fire to a sweet shop which caused the death of a 22-year-old man, who died after sustaining burn injuries. Justice Subramonium Prasad on Monday reserved the order on bail pleas of Mohammad Tahir, Shahrukh, Mohammad Faizal, Mohammad Shoaib, Rashid and Parvez. According to police, violence had taken place near Shiv Vihar Tiraha on February 24, 2020 in which accused persons pelted stones, ransacked and torched several shops there. Two days later, a dead body of a person namely Dilbar was found from the said shop. An FIR under various sections of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the accused at Gokulpuri Police Station. At least 53 people have died while around 200 people sustained serious injuries in the violence that raged for three days in northeast Delhi. (ANI) Following this, the Patiala district administration and health department held a meeting. Sandeep Hans, Deputy Commissioner, said, "The Government has imposed night curfew in the state till January 15. The medical college will also remain closed till that date." He further said, "We are yet to complete the medical report of the students. However, we request people to maintain social distancing and wear masks in public places. In the state, schools and colleges will remain closed till January 15." Meanwhile, Prince Sodhi, Civil Surgeon, said, "The third wave of COVID-19 is here and people should avoid going to crowded places." (ANI) BJP's national general secretary and party's in-charge for Goa CT Ravi on Tuesday claimed that the BJP will register a hat-trick win in the upcoming Goa Assembly polls. "BJP will definitely hit a hat-trick win in Goa. Different surveys are showing that the party will come to power again and will win the upcoming elections. On issues like social harmony, law and order and development, we will contest elections in Goa and will come in power once again," said the BJP leader. Ravi said that BJP will contest elections on all 40 seats and will try to win them. "We will contest election on 40 seats and try to win all the seats. Our cadre is working on it and their network is good. Based on the inclusion of each assembly segment, we can achieve the target of winning hundred per cent," said Ravi When questioned about Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) being the main Opposition in the Goa Assembly session, he said, "They have nothing on the ground. Trinamool Congress (TMC) and AAP are only seen in the posters. But the ground reality is that they are not doing anything, not even a leader. What is Aam Aadmi Party in Goa? It is a leaderless party, a voterless party. How can they win? BJP is a cadre based party, we have voters too. We have done and are doing good work, so we are at the number one position. Who will come in Opposition I don't know but BJP will come to power and I am hundred per cent sure about it." Further targeting the TMC, he said that the people of Goa will not accept the West Bengal model. "TMC has reached Goa in West Bengal model, I think West Bengal model will not be accepted by the people of Goa. Their anarchy model is a corrupt model. A cultured citizen will never accept this," said Ravi. He further said that the BJP is confident because they have done good work in Goa. "BJP is confident that BJP is forming the government because we have done, and we are doing good work. The development work which happened in the last ten years was more than that happened in 50 years and on that basis, we will win the election. We have maintained law and order and reached every house with the issue of 'Aatmanirbhar Bhaarat' under the leadership of Dr Pramod Sawant. Earlier, Manohar Parrikar was there. He also did a good job by keeping a good development model," he said. The elections are expected to be a close fight and interesting fight among the political parties. The term of the 40-seat Goa Legislative Assembly will end on March 15. (ANI) Even as the political parties in Tamil Nadu are busy preparing for the upcoming urban local body elections, the alliance partners of the DMK are unhappy over its "big brother" attitude on seat sharing. The Congress has already raised concern with the state DMK leadership after several district secretaries of the DMK conducted interviews of party leaders who are tipped to become candidates in the polls. The Congress has voiced the party's displeasure in this regard to the DMK organising secretary R.S. Bharathi with the TNCC president K.S. Alagiri himself raising the matter. Sources in the Congress party told IANS said that the DMK has already conducted unilateral interviews of its party leaders in many districts. The Congress is sure that this would lead to seats like SC/ST reservation, women reservation and those where the DMK have not got suitable candidates will be open for alliance partners. Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), another alliance partner of the DMK, has also spoken to the DMK leadership regarding the unilateral selection of party candidates. VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan MP has already communicated to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin regarding these unilateral interviews carried out by the DMK district secretaries. VCK leadership told IANS that the Chief Minister was all ears to the concern raised and that they are sure of getting justice. The VCK is a powerful political party with roots among the Dalit communities and hence the possibility of the DMK heeding the suggestions and complaints of the VCK is high. While the SC/ST reserved seats may be provided to the VCK, there is a sizeable Dalit vote bank in seats that does not fall under the reserved category and hence the opposition raised by the VCK will be clearly taken up seriously by the DMK. The CPI and CPM have also aired their grievances to the DMK leadership on the party district secretaries conducting interviews to finalise candidates. A senior leader of the CPI who does not want to be named while speaking to IANS said: "The DMK has all the right to conduct interviews of their probable candidates but they should inform us about the seats to be allocated to us in the Urban polls. If things go like this, we may have to wait till the last moment to know about our seats which are not good in coalition politics." Sources in the DMK, however, dismissed the claims of both the left parties and the Congress saying that only VCK deserves a semblance of respect as others don' have any grassroots' support in the state. A senior DMK leader while speaking to IANS said: "What is the locus standi of Congress and that of the left parties? they don't have anything substantial at the ground. The VCK has something on the ground and the grievances they raise can be considered seriously. As far as we are concerned, we will stick to the coalition dharma and we don't have any issues sharing seats with Congress, left parties, and the VCK but they should not try and dictate terms with a political party that has a grassroot following." --IANS aal/shb/ ( 534 Words) 2022-01-04-10:58:02 (IANS) 21-year-old Vishal Kumar who was arrested in the 'Bulli Bai' app case will be presented before a Bandra court on Tuesday, informed the police. A case was registered based on a complaint received on Jan 1, the probe is underway. We've contacted the app hosting platform and are awaiting their reply. Further action is to be taken based on their reply," Additional Commissioner of Police and Delhi Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), Chinmoy Biswal told ANI here today. Earlier in the day, Mumbai police detained a woman in Uttarakhand believed to be the mastermind behind the 'Bulli Bai' app, informed the police. "The main accused woman was handling three accounts related to the 'Bulli Bai' app. Co-accused Vishal Kumar opened an account by the name Khalsa supremacist. On Dec 31, he changed the names of other accounts to resemble Sikh names. Fake Khalsa account holders were shown," said the Mumbai Police. A 21-year-old civil engineering student, Vishal Kumar was arrested by Mumbai Police on Tuesday after questioning for several hours. "A woman has been detained by the cyber cell of Mumbai Police in Uttarakhand. Seems like is the main mastermind behind the app. She will be presented before a court in Uttarakhand for transit remand. After obtaining the transit remand, she will be brought to Mumbai," said a police official. "Vishal changed his name on December 31. He took up a name related to the Sikh community," the official added. Vishal was detained from Bengaluru on Monday and was brought for questioning to Mumbai. Mumbai Police on Monday filed a first information report (FIR) against unknown persons based on complaints that doctored photographs of women were uploaded for auction on the 'Bulli Bai' application hosted on the GitHub platform. On Sunday, West Mumbai Cyber Police station registered a case against the 'Bulli Bai' app developers and Twitter handles that promoted the app. The case was registered against the unknown culprits under sections 153(A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion etc), 153(B) (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 295(A) (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), 354D (stalking), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 500 (criminal defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act. (ANI) Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Tuesday refused to discuss the reason behind his stepping down from the post of Chancellor of Universities citing the involvement of national institutions. Speaking to ANI, the Kerala Governor said, "Something definitely has happened which has made me take this decision that I don't want to continue as Chancellor (of Universities). But I won't discuss that (the reason) because it involves national institutions." Earlier on December 18, Khan slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Minister of Higher Education R Bindu over the issue of appointment in universities and said he is not able to work in an environment where "I find too much political interference in the working of universities." "I am not able to work in this environment where I find too much political interference in the working of the university and the autonomy of the university is being completely eroded," Khan had earlier said. Reiterating his demand that the Chief Minister should bring an ordinance to hand over the powers of the chancellor to CM himself, Khan said, "conflict comes when you assert your authority against some other authority. I have requested that you bring an ordinance, you become the chancellor, let anybody become the chancellor, but for me, it is not possible to see this kind of political interference." Governor had sent a letter to Chief Minister on December 8 expressing his displeasure over political appointments in state's universities. (ANI) Speaking to ANI, Javed Akhtar's lawyer said, "The court rejected the demand for issuance of a non-bailable warrant. The next hearing will be on February 1 at Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate." Akhtar had filed a criminal defamation complaint on November 3, 2020, against the actor over her reported remarks dragging his name in her feud with Hrithik Roshan. As per the complaint filed by him, Akhtar has taken objection to certain remarks made by Kangana Ranaut during an interview on a TV news channel. (ANI) Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to give the Delhi government the right to grant a job to the next of kin of any government officer, who dies of COVID or any other mishap. His statement came after BJP MLA Vijender Gupta questioned during the Delhi Legislative Assembly session whether the relatives of the government officers, who died during COVID-19 duties, were given jobs along with an ex gratia of Rs 1 crore. "We are of the view that if any government employee dies due to COVID or any other mishap, his/her family member should be provided with a job. But this right has been snatched from us. Tell Amit Shah, LG Anil Baijal to give us our right," Sisodia on the second day of the Assembly session today. The two-day session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly began January 3 in the Assembly Hall of Delhi Vidhan Sabha at Old Secretariat. (ANI) Refuting the allegations of breaking the law by quitting the post of Chancellor of Universities, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Tuesday said that he can only be blamed if this chancellorship was part of his constitutional duty. Speaking to ANI, Kerala Governor said, "If it (chancellorship) were part of my constitutional duty, I can be blamed but it is not. The law passed by Kerala Assembly has given this duty to me. If I see those who have made the law are themselves breaking that law every day, what shall I do?" "Something definitely has happened which has made me take this decision that I don't want to continue as Chancellor (of Universities). But I won't discuss that (the reason) because it involves national institutions," he added. His remarks came after Kerala Opposition leader VD Satheesan on Friday termed Governor Arif Mohammed Khan's decision to quit the post of Chancellor of Universities as illegal and unconstitutional. Satheesan said that the Governor cannot avoid the duties of the Chancellor without bringing the amendment in the university legislation. He further said, "As per the law, which is passed by the legislature of the Kerala Assembly, for all the universities, Governor is the Chancellor. He has to fulfill his duties as Chancellor. He has to do that. It is mandatory. Now there is no amendment, no ordinance. As per the law of the land, he has to obey the rules and provisions of the Act. He has to act accordingly as a Chancellor. I am not going to act as Chancellor means that I am not going to obey the provisions of the Act passed by the legislature." Earlier on December 18, Khan slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Minister of Higher Education R Bindu over the issue of appointment in universities and said he is not able to work in an environment where he "find too much political interference in the working of universities." "I am not able to work in this environment where I find too much political interference in the working of the university and the autonomy of the university is being completely eroded," Khan had earlier said. Reiterating his demand that the Chief Minister should bring an ordinance to hand over the powers of the chancellor to CM himself, Khan said, "conflict comes when you assert your authority against some other authority. I have requested that you bring an ordinance, you become the chancellor, let anybody become the chancellor, but for me, it is not possible to see this kind of political interference." (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that "double engine government" - BJP government at the Centre and in the state has ensured faster development and united effort towards the prosperity of a state -of which Tripura is an example. "The double engine has no match. Double engine government means proper use of resources. It means sensitivity, service accomplishment of resolutions and united effort towards prosperity. And Tripura is example of these," the Prime Minister said while addressing a public rally after inaugurating the New Integrated Terminal Building at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport here. "We are working to develop Tripura as the gateway to connectivity in the Northeast. Tripura is now becoming a trade corridor in the region. Several initiatives connected by rail and road have started transforming the region," PM Modi stated. He further stated that more than 1.80 lakh pucca houses have been constructed in Tripura. "Earlier,people owning a poorly built house with a rooftop were not eligible for the benefits under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana PMAY (Gramin). We identified the challenges and changed rules to benefit our poor," he said. "When every citizen will have their own pucca house with Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, water connection with Nal Se Jal, free medical treatment with Ayushman Bharat, then they will also be filled with Aatma Vishwas that will make them Aatma Nirbhar," he said while emphasising that government is providing basic facilities to people so as to give them confidence which will ultimately maje them self-reliant. Through Kisan rail, Tripura is exporting organic vegetables and fruits across the country. Tripura can also play an imp role by providing an alternative to single-use plastic. A huge market is being created in the country for bamboo products," he added. The Prime Minister inaugurated the New Integrated Terminal Building at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport in Tripura's Agartala and also launched key initiatives: Mukhyamantri Tripura Gram Samriddhi Yojana and Project Mission 100 of Vidyajyoti Schools in the state. Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, and Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Deb Burman were present at the event. The Prime Minister also visited Manipur, earlier in the day, where he inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of several developmental projects. (ANI) With reports emanating about Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan himself looking into the suspension file of M. Sivasankar, the once blue-eyed boy, it is being said that the suspension may end soon. Sivasankar's suspension has been extended twice so far and it's unlikely that it would happen for the third time. Sivasankar is cooling his heels at his home here after being released from the prison on February 4 last year. Sivasankar was the principal secretary to Vijayan, when his name surfaced along with the primary accused in the gold smuggling case, Swapna Suresh. Reports came out on how Sivasankar used his clout in the office of Vijayan and appointed Suresh at a high paying job in the IT department, even when she is alleged to have not even passed Class 10. The smuggling case came to light on July 5, 2020, when the Customs arrested Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate here, for allegedly smuggling gold in a diplomatic baggage destined for the Consulate. Swapna Suresh, who previously worked in the UAE Consulate, and her associate Sandip Nair were arrested in the case by the NIA from Bengaluru a few days later. Trouble started for Sivasankar after Swapna's arrest and then came out the tales of the relation with Sivasankar. Vijayan, unable to stand the massive onslaught, first suspended Sivasankar from service. In October 2020, Sivasankar was arrested and for 98 days he was in a jail, after which he got bail. And now with his file lying before Vijayan, in all likelihood Sivasankar will be reinstated as he has just one more year in service. Meanwhile, Vijayan is likely to take the call and all eyes are on which post will be given to his once most trusted official. --IANS sg/dpb ( 310 Words) 2022-01-04-13:20:06 (IANS) Amid rising COVID-19 cases in the state, the Punjab government has issued orders for all bars, cinemas halls, malls, restaurants, spas, AC buses to operate at 50 percent capacity. Speaking about the COVID-19 restrictions, Amritsar Deputy Commissioner, said, "Bars, cinemas halls, malls, restaurants, spas, AC buses will operate at 50 percent capacity subject to staff being fully vaccinated. Swimming pools and gyms remain closed. Only fully vaccinated staff will be able to attend government and private offices." The Deputy Commissioner further said that the 'No mask no service' rule will be followed. He added, "Non-essential movement will be banned from 10 pm to 5 am. If night curfew is violated, then legal action will be taken. The principle of 'No mask, no service' will be followed. All health workers have to report to their respective duties." Earlier in the day, the Punjab Government imposed a night curfew in the state from 10 pm to 5 am until January 15.In a press release, the government said, "Movement of individuals for all non-essential activities shall remain prohibited between 10 pm and 5 am within municipal limits of all the cities and towns of Punjab. The district authorities are accordingly asked to issue prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC and ensure strict compliance." (ANI) Speaking to reporters outside the airport, Nadda said that as a responsible citizen, he will go to the Gandhi statute abiding by all COVID-19 norms. Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy was seen accompanying Nadda. BJP president JP Nadda paid tribute at Mahatma Gandhi statue in Secunderabad. Heavy security has been deployed at the airport premises ahead of their arrival in Hyderabad. BJP has planned to organise a candle light rally from Mahatma Gandhi Statue, Ranigunj to Paradise X Roads in Secunderabad on Tuesday evening. The rally was to be led by Nadda and several BJP leaders are said to join the protest. Kumar was arrested by Karimnagar police on Sunday evening during a protest. He was then sent to 14-day judicial remand by the Karimnagar court on Monday. The arrest came after Kumar was taken into custody by police while he was holding a protest in Karimnagar. Earlier, Nadda had called the arrest of Kumar as the "murder of Democracy." "The arrest of Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay is highly condemnable and amounts to the murder of democracy. He was peacefully staging a protest following all COVID protocols in his office. Police forcibly entered his office and manhandled him," Nadda had said. "K Chandrashekar Rao government has gone mad seeing BJP's victory in recent bypolls and the support that our party is receiving in the state. We will take all legal and democratic recourse against the police action," he added. (ANI) The 'Delhi Sikh Gurdwara (Amendment) Bill, 2022' was passed unanimously in the House in the ongoing legislative assembly session on Tuesday. With this bill, there will be an addition of one more member to the list of nominated members of Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and there will now be a total of five members. This means that with the addition of one more member, there will be ten members in total. The amendment would take the number of nominated members under this subsection to five,i.e head priests of Sri Akal Takhat Sahib, Amritsar, Sri Akal Takhat Sahib, Anandpur, Sri Akal Takhat Sahib, Patna, Sri Akal Takhat Huzur Sahib, Nanded, and Sri Akal Takht, Damdama Sahib, Talwandi Sabo, Bhatinda, Punjab. Meanwhile, the 'Delhi Teachers' University Bill, 2022' was also passed in the assembly today. this bill was tabled in the assembly on Monday. Delhi Teachers' University is aimed at setting new standards of teachers' education in India. It will focus on preparing quality teachers through world-class exposure, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said while presenting the bill in the assembly. "Delhi Teachers' University will focus on preparing teachers of such standard. It will not be just a B.Ed. or any other teacher education institution. It will set new standards in the field of teacher education, like IIMs have set standards for management education, IITs for engineering education and AIIMS for medical education," Sisodia had said. Through the Delhi Teachers University, the aim of the Delhi Government is also to meet the shortage of teachers. As per an official statement from the Delhi government, the upcoming Delhi Teachers' University will be spread over 12 acres of land. It will have lecture halls, digital labs, and a library with world class facilities for 5000 students. The four storey building has been divided in two parts- Administrative floor and Education Floor. Ground floor will have an administration office, whereas classes will be run on the first, second and third floor. As of now the main university block is ready to open and other blocks are near completion. (ANI) "The Indian Navy's Boeing P-8I aircraft commenced operations from INS Hansa in Goa on Tuesday, with two aircraft arriving on December 30, 2021," an Indian Navy spokesperson said. The aircraft were inducted after fitment of indigenous equipment and Flight Acceptance Trials, the Navy said. Indian Navy had acquired the first batch of eight P-8I aircraft in 2013 that are stationed at INS Rajali, Arakkonam. "The second batch of four additional aircraft will be based at Indian Naval Air Squadron 316, to be commissioned at INS Hansa," the Navy said. In recent times, the Pakistani and Chinese Navy have been holding a lot of hardware cooperation along with joint exercises in the region. Indian Navy's move to deploy the P-8I surveillance aircraft is being seen a significant move in this backdrop. (ANI) Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said that stringent precautionary measures have been taken to control the spread of COVID-19 in border districts, adding that long-term measures need to be drawn up for the control of virus spread in coming days in the state. The Chief Minister was addressing a press conference at Kalaburagi Airport here today. "Long-term measures have been taken to control COVID-19 spread in border districts. Long-term measures will need to be drawn up for controlling the spread of virus in the state during coming days," said Bommai while speaking to reporters here today. Bommai said that instructions have been issued to augment medical infrastructure. "Arrangements have been made to ensure additional beds, ICU facilities, oxygen supply and adequate stock of medicines, As for any chances of declaring holiday for schools, it would be decided based on experts' suggestions," he added. Replying to a question about the possibility of imposing a lockdown in the state, he said that the previous two waves of Covid had dented the economy. Since the economy is showing recovery now, the state government is contemplating precautionary measures without affecting the daily economic activities, he added. He stressed the importance of public cooperation in controlling COVID-19 and appealed to citizens to follow the COVID-19 guidelines diligently. The Chief Minister Bommai also said that the process to fill up 14,000 posts in Kalayana Karnataka region. will be initiated. "Financial approval has been given to fill 14000 posts in Kalyana Karnataka region. Recruitment to fill 14000 vacancies in various departments including 5000 posts in the Education department would start soon," he said. Replying to a question on Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board (KKRDB), he said that full time officers would be posted to KKRDB. "The Board would be constituted in the next two days. A 3000cr action plan has been prepared for the Board and a decision in this regard would be taken soon," he added. Reacting to the incident in Ramanagar yesterday, Bommai said, "Such kind of behavior is not Karnataka culture. One can present their views in a gentle manner. This kind of bahaviour is not good for anyone." Congress Bangalore Rural MP DK Suresh and State Minister Dr CN Ashwathnarayan got into an altercation on stage over some development work in the presence of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday. At the event organized by the government, Bommai had unveiled the statues of Dr B R Ambedkar and Bengaluru founder Kempegowda. It was his first visit to Ramanagara after becoming chief minister. The fight broke out when Suresh objected to Narayan's speech. As Congress MP charged towards Narayan, security and police personnel intervened. Suresh was joined by Congress' Bangalore Rural MLC S Ravi and he went on to snatch the mike to stop the minister from speaking. Amid the commotion following the incident, Suresh sat down on the stage in protest. Meanwhile, Karnataka reported 2,479 new COVID-19 cases, 288 recoveries, and 4 deaths in the last 24 hours. Active cases in the state stand at 13,532. (ANI) A meeting of Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai with members of the COVID-19 task force and experts is going on in Bengaluru. State Health minister K Sudhakar, Revenue Minister R Ashok, BBMP Commissioner Gaurav Gupta, Chief Secretary, DGP Praveen Sood, BBMP officials, health senior officials and technical advisory committee members are also present in the meeting. "We are planning to take strict action to curb the Omicron and COVID-19 cases which have already doubled today and Bengaluru is in red-zone as per central government report. That's why we are preparing beds, oxygen and other needy things. Experts' suggestions will be considered," Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashok told ANI before the meeting. (ANI) The Centre on Tuesday again urged the Supreme Court to urgently hear the matter connected with the validity of EWS quota in postgraduate courses in medical colleges. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, after failing to get the matter listed on Tuesday, requested a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana to list the matter for hearing. Mehta emphasized that the matter needs to be considered on priority since resident doctors are protesting. The Chief Justice told Mehta that he has to constitute a special bench. Justice Ramana said: "Let me see tomorrow. This entire week is a miscellaneous week..." Mehta said the resident doctors are protesting and their concerns are genuine. The bench said: "If it is a three-judge bench matter, then it will be listed before a three-judge bench tomorrow". On Monday, Mehta asked a bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud to advance the hearing on the matter to Tuesday from January 6. The Centre has told the top court that Rs 8 lakh income criterion for determining the EWS is much more stringent than the one for the OBC creamy layer. The Centre has accepted the report of a three-member panel constituted to revisit the EWS criteria. The panel, in its report, said: "Firstly, the EWS's criteria relates to the financial year prior to the year of application whereas the income criterion for the creamy layer in OBC category is applicable to gross annual income for three consecutive years." The panel added, "Secondly, in case of deciding the OBC creamy layer, income from salaries, agriculture and traditional artisanal professions are excluded from the consideration whereas the Rs 8 lakh criteria for EWS includes that from all sources, including farming. So, despite being the same cut-off number, their composition is different and hence, the two cannot be equated". The panel comprised Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former finance secretary; Prof V.K. Malhotra of ICSSR; and Sanjeev Sanyal, principal economic advisor to the government. The panel was set up on November 30. On November 25, the Centre informed the Supreme Court that it has taken a decision to revisit the criteria of Rs 8 lakh annual income limit for EWS criteria and added that a fresh decision will be taken within a period of 4 weeks. On October 21, the Supreme Court had questioned the Centre over adopting the criteria of OBC creamy layer of Rs 8 lakh annual income for granting reservations under the economic weaker section (EWS), despite the latter not suffering from social and educational backwardness. The top court told the Centre's counsel "You just cannot pull out eight lakh from thin air. You are making unequal equal by applying the Rs eight lakh limit". In an affidavit, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that its decision to fix Rs 8 Lakh income limit for OBC and economically weaker section (EWS) is not arbitrary in the NEET All India Quota, and it was finalised after considering diverse economic factors in different states. The top court is hearing writ petitions challenging 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 10 per cent reservation for EWS in all-India Quota seats for postgraduate medical courses. As many as 15 per cent seats in MBBS and 50 per cent seats in MS and MD courses are filled through All India Quota from the candidates selected through NEET. --IANS ss/dpb ( 574 Words) 2022-01-04-15:24:03 (IANS) The tri-services inquiry team headed by an Indian Air Force officer is scheduled to make a detailed presentation to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the reasons behind the Mi-17 chopper crash that took place on December 8 which led to the death of Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 12 other military personnel. A senior Indian Navy chopper pilot was part of the investigation into the crash and played an important role in the probe. An Army officer was also part of the inquiry team, government sources said here. "The inquiry team along with the Indian Air Force top brass is scheduled to make the detailed presentation in the crash and its reasons to the Defence Minister along with other senior functionaries of the ministry on Wednesday," defence sources told ANI. The tri-services inquiry team has also made some recommendations for revising the standard operating procedures while operating choppers carrying senior officials of the defence forces, the sources said. On the crash details, the sources said the Mi-17V5 was flying following a railway line in the hills when they entered a thick cloud cover that emerged suddenly. The chopper was flying at a low altitude and knowing the terrain, it is emerging that the crew decided to fly out of the cloud cover rather than landing and hit a cliff in the process, the sources said. The sources suggested that since the entire crew was 'master green' category, it seems they were confident that they would be able to wriggle out of the situation as there was no distress call made to the ground stations to suggest an emergency. Sources added that the 'Master green' category is given to the best of pilots in the transport aircraft and helicopter fleets of the three forces as they are the ones who can land or take off in low visibility as well. Further, it said that one of the recommendations which is learnt to have been made by the inquiry committee is that in future, the crew should be a mix of master green and other category pilots so that if required, they can seek help from the ground stations. A number of other recommendations are also learnt to have been made by the inquiry committee headed by Air Marshal M Singh, General Rawat and the 13 others were killed in a Mi-17V5, crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu. (ANI) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday announced a compensation package of Rs 13, 265 crore for those lost land and property in the silver line project. The semi high-speed rail project which aims to connect Kasaragod in the north to Thiruvananthapuram in the south in four hours is a project of the second Pinarayi Vijayan government. Speaking at an event here in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala CM said, "The state government announces a compensation package of Rs 13,265 crore for those who lost land and property in silver line project. The land acquisition for the project will be completed in two years and the project will be completed in three years. At the time of construction, it will provide employment to 50, 000 people and after completion of the project it will generate 11,000 employment." Vijayan added, "Of this 3,460 crores rupees for the compensation for affected houses. The project is planned to implement without affecting the environment very little. It is expected to reduce the 2,50,000 ton carbon emission. It will complete in an eco-friendly manner." CM further informed, "The main allegation rising against the project is that it will affect the environment and environment and social impact study has not conducted so far. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the project will not affect the environment. It will not pass through ecologically sensitive zones or wildlife sanctuaries. It will not affect paddy fields, rivers, or water bodies. About 88 km of the silver line project will pass through elevated highways. Chief Minister also claimed that the project will help to reduce carbon emission. He said that 9300 buildings have to be acquired for the project. The rehabilitation will be completed in a good way. He added, "It will not affect any natural flow of water. Another allegation is that it will divide the state into two parts. There is no need for such concern. 63,941 crores of rupees expense are expected for this project. 56,861 Crores rupees will be spent in a period of five years. With the cooperation of international agencies, will take loans at low interest. The government is planning to complete the project by 2025." The Chief Minister also said that those who lost their houses will be paid an additional amount of Rs 4,60,000 than the compensation amount. He added, "Three types of compensation package will be available for those who lost houses. Apart from that, an amount of Rs. 1,60,000 and a house under the life mission project will be given. Or apart from the compensation, the poor will be given five cents of land and a house .or in addition to the compensation amount, five cents of land and four lakh rupees will be given. Otherwise, compensation plus 10 lakh rupees will be given." "People who lose a business establishment will get a compensation of up to Rs 50,000 and those working in a rented building will get Rs 2 lakh rupees," he added. (ANI) A letter by West Bengal Additional Chief Secretary BP Gopalika stated that the flights between the two metro cities will operate only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. "The State Government is extremely sensitive towards the inconvenience that may be caused to the passengers but restrictions are absolutely essential for containment of COVID cases in the State," the letter read. "However, the incoming domestic flights from Mumbai and Delhi will be allowed thrice a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with effect from January 5, 2022, and the same will be reviewed again shortly depending upon the COVID situation in the State," it added. Notably, this decision of the State government comes after Delhi and Mumbai for the past week have been reporting a surge in COVID-19 cases. Mumbai on Tuesday reported 10,860 fresh infections of COVID-19 and 2 deaths. The active cases in the financial capital of India are at 47,476. Delhi reported 5,481 new infections on Tuesday pushing the positivity rate to 8.37 per cent, the highest in over seven months. Meanwhile, West Bengal recorded 9,073 new cases and 16 deaths on Tuesday while the active cases are at 25,475. (ANI) In a major embarrassment to the party, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Tuesday said that Indian media should not fall for Chinese propaganda after few reports emerged that Chinese have hoisted flag which turned out to be fake. Singhvi said, "Would urge the Indian media not to take the CCP & Global Times propaganda machinery seriously. They are nothing but an absolute joke especially in the digital age, a psy ops that can be easily busted by few minutes of Google search." But his own party on Monday attacked the government on the same report and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi too criticized the government. The Congress on Monday slammed the government over reports that Chinese troops are celebrating new year at Galwan Valley. "How dare China raise the Chinese flag over Galwan Valley, where only the Indian Tri-colour can be flown, unfurled proudly. How dare Chinese continue to occupy Indian territory in Depsang plains up to 'Y junction' and our Prime Minister remains mum? How dare China continue to illegally occupy Indian Territory in Gogra, Hot Springs and our government doesn't utter a word?" Randeep Surjewala, Congress spokesperson had said. Now it is clear the PLA was not present at the the disputed area of Galwan Valley on the new year eve, which is now a demilitarized zone after the June 2020 clash between the two militaries and subsequent series of talks between India & China through proper diplomatic channels. It all started after a video surfaced on social media, shared by the Chinese media, showing PLA troop celebrating new year and unfurled the Chinese national flag, with a caption, 'China's national flag rises over Galwan Valley on the New Year Day of 2022', which read further 'the flag was special since it once flew over Tiananmen Square in Beijing'. --IANS miz/skp/ ( 315 Words) 2022-01-04-15:36:04 (IANS) Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday denied the media reports claiming the agency didn't find any evidence in 21 cases of rape and attempt to rape received by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). CBI in a statement mentioned that it has been reported in a section of media on Monday and Tuesday that 21 instances of Sexual Assault forwarded by NHRC, were closed by CBI alleging that no evidence of Rape, Attempt to Rape, Molestation, Sexual Assault was found in those complaints. News has been published saying it to be based on source input and Second Status Report dated 22 December 2021 submitted by CBI in the Calcutta High Court on Post Poll Violence Cases. It may be stated that Calcutta High Court had ordered CBI on 19 August 2021 to investigate the incidents involving offences of murder, rape and attempt to rape. As such, CBI has registered the cases meeting only these criteria which are under progress. It is clarified that CBI had received 29 complaints of sexual assault from NHRC related to sexual offences till 22 December 2021. Out of these, two cases have been decided by CBI for handing over to State SIT on the grounds of nature of offences, in line with the mandate given in the orders of the Calcutta High Court. Further, two complaints relating to the same incident of sexual assault were received by CBI which were amalgamated, resulting in the registration of only one regular case for investigation. The remaining cases are in progress. It may also be mentioned that State Police had referred 64 incidents to CBI in furtherance of the High Court order. Out of it, 39 offences were taken over by CBI by registering regular cases, four references are under process while 21 references were returned to State Police/SIT on the ground of nature of the offence, as CBI has been mandated in the order of the Calcutta High Court to investigate post-poll violence cases of Murder, Rape and attempt to Rape. As such, the reports, published in a section of media alleging that CBI has found no evidence in 21 cases listed as the offence of Sexual Assault by NHRC, contain a misrepresentation of facts, are blatantly mischievous, grossly misleading and entirely false. Accordingly, the same is strongly denied. It may be mentioned that at the time of submission of the Status Report, CBI had registered 50 Regular Cases and one Preliminary Enquiry into the incidents of Post Poll Violence. By the time of submission of the Status Report, CBI had submitted Charge Sheet in 10 cases while the remaining cases are under progress. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Tuesday said that the Samajwadi Party had ordered opening fire on Ram devotees and opposed the Ram temple. This statement came after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav claimed at a press conference on Monday that Lord Krishna comes in his dreams every night and tells him that he will form the government in Uttar Pradesh.Speaking to ANI here in Indore, Vijayvargiya, said, "I do not know how Lord Krishna is coming in their dreams and people are giving statements by being deranged because of fear of who will be coming in the dream. People have understood how they opened fire on Ram devotees and opposed the Ram temple." Addressing a press conference, the SP chief had said, "Lord Krishna comes in my dreams every night and says that you are going to form the government." He further said that Baba (Yogi Adityanath) has failed as Chief Minister and no one can help him in winning the elections. (ANI) With this, the active caseload rises to 25,475 in West Bengal. As many as 3,768 people have recovered from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 16,19,061. The recovery rate is 97.28 per cent. The new fatalities pushed the death toll of the state due to coronavirus infection to 19,810. The fatality rate of West Bengal is 1.19 per cent. A total of 2,15,46,941 COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the state so far, including 47,864 new COVID-19 tests in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, West Bengal reported 20 Omicron cases of COVID-19 variant so far, according to the Union Health Ministry data. (ANI) The court said the report should be submitted by January 20 this year. It posted the hearing of the prosecution's demand for further investigation into the case by staying the trial for another day. Earlier, police filed an application in the trial court at Kochi seeking permission for further investigation against actor Dileep. Police also urged the court to stay the trial and filed an application under Section 173 (8) of the CrPC. They pointed out that Balachandra Kumar, who claims to be Dileep's friend, has alleged that Dileep had obtained video footage of the attack on the actress and tried to influence witnesses in the case. Dileep is the eighth accused in the case for alleged conspiracy in which an actress who worked in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu was allegedly abducted and molested inside her car by a group of men who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President Jagat Prakash Nadda, who arrived in Hyderabad to protest against the arrest of Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday, said that the latter was manhandled, adding Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is ruling the state in an "undemocratic" way. "Sanjay Bandi was manhandled and then arrested. This is a live example of (Telangana chief minster) K Chandrashekar Rao's undemocratic rule in Telangana. It is my charge that KCR has lost his sense of proportion and mental balance. This state is proving to be one of the most corrupt states," Nadda said while addressing a press conference here. Nadda arrived at the Hyderabad airport earlier today and he was accompanied by Union Minister G Kishan Reddy. They then participated in a protest march and also paid tribute to the Mahatama Gandhi statue in Secunderabad. "I went to the Mahatama Gandhi statue to pay my respects following COVID protocols. Telangana government is the most undemocratic government. What has happened in the last two days is a murder of democracy. It is a form of autocracy here," Nadda remarked. Calling the protest a 'Dharm Yudh', Nadda said the party will seek legal discourse. "This is 'Dharm Yudh' for us. We will take all legal recourse and fight in democratic ways till the end. We will not overstep the laws and continue our fight," he said. "Bharatiya Janata Party will continue to protest against the arrest of Bandi Sanjay as it was undemocratic," he added. Taking to Twitter, he launched a scathing attack on the state government calling it' nature "dictatorship-like." "Participated in protest against atrocities of KCR Government. Under the leadership of KCR, Telangana govt. is the most undemocratic govt. Whatever has happened in the last 2 days is the murder of democracy and is autocratic and dictatorship-like in nature," Nadda wrote. BJP had planned to organise a candle light rally from Mahatma Gandhi Statue, Ranigunj to Paradise X Roads in Secunderabad on Tuesday. Telangana BJP chief was arrested by Karimnagar police on Sunday evening during a protest. He was then sent to 14-day judicial remand by the Karimnagar court on Monday. The arrest came after Bandi Sanjay Kumar was taken into custody by police while he was holding a protest in Karimnagar. (ANI) The Chinese propaganda on Galwan Valley went flat after a picture surfaced and went viral on social media showing Indian troops bravely hoisting the tri-colour high at Galwan Valley, though not at the disputed and demilitarized zone. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted the pictures of Indian soldiers standing with Tiranga proudly, with a caption, 'Brave Indian Army soldiers in Galwan Valley on the occasion of #NewYear2022'. Few days back, the Chinese media first shared a video of Chinese army, PLA troops at Galwan Valley, saluting their national flag, with a caption, China's national flag rises over Galwan Valley on the New Year Day of 2022', "the flag was special since it once flew over Tiananmen Square in Beijing". After a violent face-off in June 2020 in eastern Ladakh, between the two armies, the Galwan Valley is now a demilitarized zone, and both the armies are mutually disengaged from the disputed site and did withdraw two km away from river bend, where clash took place. After that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met their chinese counterparts. Many military commander level meetings did happen between India and China on disengagement in the Galwan Valley. --IANS nk/skp/ ( 215 Words) 2022-01-04-16:54:03 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered 51 cases, filed chargesheets in 20 cases as of January 1 in incidents involving offences of murder, rape and attempt to rape during post-poll violence in West Bengal, said the investigating agency's spokesperson RC Joshi on Tuesday. On August 19, 2021, the Calcutta High Court had ordered CBI to investigate the incidents involving offences of murder, rape and attempt to rape. "As such, CBI has registered the cases meeting only these criteria which are under progress. As of January 1, 2022, CBI has registered 51 cases, has filed chargesheets in 20 cases in about 4 months," said Joshi. He further informed that over 100 persons have been charge-sheeted. "No case meeting the criteria laid down by Calcutta High Court and referred by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has been closed," the CBI spokesperson noted. "In so far as 29 complaints of sexual offences referred by NHRC, CBI has registered seven regular cases and rest are being legally processed," he informed Condemning the reports on allegations levelled at the agency of finding no evidence in 21 cases listed by NHRC, he said, "CBI strongly refutes the reports published in a section of media alleging that CBI has found no evidence in 21 cases listed by NHRC relating to rape and attempt to rape, which were mandated to CBI by Calcutta High Court." "These reports contain a misrepresentation of facts, are blatantly mischievous, grossly misleading and entirely false," he added. CBI in a statement clarified that it had received 29 complaints of sexual assault from NHRC related to sexual offences till 22 December 2021. Out of these, two cases have been decided by CBI for handing over to State SIT on the grounds of nature of offences, in line with the mandate given in the orders of the Calcutta High Court. Further, two complaints relating to the same incident of sexual assault were received by CBI which were amalgamated, resulting in the registration of only one regular case for investigation. The remaining cases are in progress. Several incidents of violence were reported at various places in West Bengal after the announcement of the state Assembly poll results on May 2. A four-member team deputed by the Ministry of Home Affairs and NHRC's team also visited the violence-affected areas to separately probe the allegations. (ANI) As per an order by the state government, "Pre-school and 1 to 8 classes to remain close, online classes will continue. Educational institutions of classes 9-12 will function on 50 per cent capacity. Restrictions are to remain in effect from January 6 to 21." It further read, "Night curfew will be imposed from 10 pm to 5 am. Religious places to remain closed. Malls, cinemas, clubs, swimming pools, stadiums, gyms, parks will also remain close till January 21." Seventy-two more doctors of the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) in Bihar's Patna have tested positive for COVID according to the Medical Superintendent.A total of 159 doctors have been infected with the virus in the past two days. Earlier on December 29, the Bihar government had ordered to close the parks including the Jaivik Udyaan from December 31 to January 2. As per the Union Ministry of Health's data, there are 1,386 active cases of the virus in the state. (ANI) Maharashtra has reported 18,466 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the state health department informed on Tuesday. The cases of the new variant of COVID-19, Omicron have gone up to 653. There are 66,308 active cases in the state. Out of the 18,466 new COVID-19 recorded in Maharashtra, Mumbai reported 10,860 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. The state has witnessed 20 COVID-related deaths, while 4,558 patients have recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday issued fresh guidelines for sealing buildings in Mumbai. As per these guidelines, the whole building or a wing of the building complex/society will be sealed if 20 per cent of the building or a wing of building society is affected with COVID-19 cases or at least 10 COVID-19 cases are detected in the affected flats in total. The guidelines advise the patients and contacts to follow strictly the current guidelines of home quarantine and hygiene etiquettes during their time in quarantine. (ANI) Following the meeting of the screening committee in Delhi, Punjab Congress in-charge Harish Chaudhary on Tuesday said that the first list of final candidates will be released in a week and the party can also put forth its sitting MPs to contest the upcoming assembly polls in the state. "Punjab Congress will release the first list of candidates in a week. Congress party wants that Punjab Congress Lok Sabha MPs should also contest 2022 Assembly elections," Chaudhary told the media after the meeting. He further said, "All 117 seats are open to contest. Tickets will be given to all those candidates who the party thinks are capable of winning from their respective seats. Winnanbility is the criteria." A meeting of the Punjab Congress' screening committee was held today at 15 GRG. Another meeting of the screening committee will be held on January 5 at 10.30 am, informed Ajay Maken, chairman of the Punjab Congress screening committee. "We are progressing well on ticket distribution. We will meet again tomorrow at 10.30 am and continue the discussions," Maken said as he left the venue. On asking whether Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu will attend the meeting on Wednesday, Maken said, "Yes, all Punjab leaders will attend." Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was not able to attend today's meeting in person. "The chief minister will join via video conferencing," Maken said. On asking whether there is a difference of opinion Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and Channi on some seats, Maken stressed, "There is no rivalry. Everyone one of us is a single unit. All of us are take decisions." Meanwhile, Sidhu after the meeting said, "All is well in Punjab Congress. Our party will win Punjab under the leadership of party leader Rahul Gandhi and party's general secretary Priyanka Gandhi." Assembly elections are due in Punjab this year. (ANI) The delegation said they met him for his "valuable contribution" in supporting the farmers during the farmers protest against the three farm laws which have now been repealed. They presented him a 'siropa' and said they wanted to honour him in Punjab with 'Awaz-e-Hind' title.Malik had supported the demand for repeal of farm laws. (ANI) Patnaik had directed district collectors on December 30 last year to ensure that no inmates of Missionaries of Charity suffer from food security and health related issues. According to the CMO, this sanctioned assistance for 13 Missionaries of Charity institutions across eight districts of state will benefit over 900 inmates in various leprosiums and orphanages in the state. Mother Teresa had founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. (ANI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said that they have provisionally attached the assets worth Rs 3.36 crore belonging to Panna Lal Mahto alias Ganjhu and others in connection with the provision of Prevention of Money Laundering case related to the offences of Human Trafficking. "The attached properties include five land parcels in Argora, Ranchi, four land parcels in Khunti District, Cash deposits of Rs 17.71 lakh in various bank accounts and one Toyota Fortuner Vehicle," said an ED official. The official said that Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) District-Khunti Jharkhand had lodged two FIRs against Panna Lal Mahto and his accomplices in connection with human trafficking. Later they filed charge sheet in this connection. The ED initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of these FIRs and charge sheet. Further the matter was taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Ranchi, Jharkhand which also filed charge sheet under various sections of IPC Inter-State Migrant workmen (regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act, and Juvenile Justice (Care and protection) Act. The ED found in its probe that Panna Lal Mahto and his accomplices were running Human Trafficking racket in the guise of several Placement Agencies in Delhi. They also used to do illicit trade of poor and innocent persons (including minors) from different districts of Jharkhand on the pretext of providing them jobs in Delhi. The accused would traffic them to different states as domestic servant and other purposes. They never paid their victims what was promised to them. "These placement Agencies were running without obtaining licenses under the Delhi Private Placement Agencies (Regulation) order, 2014. Neither the labourers (victims) were registered under the provisions of The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979. Panna Lal Mahto and his accomplices used to ill-treat the victims and did not allow them to return back to their respective native village and forced them to work against their desire," said the official. He said that by committing the schedule offence, Panna Lal Mahto alias Ganjhu in connivance with others had trafficked about 5,000 persons through their well-organized placement agency racket in Delhi. He confessed to ED that he gained around Rs five crore. Investigation under PMLA, revealed that Panna Lal Mahto acquired various immovable and movable properties to the tune of Rs 3.36 crore, in his name and in the name of his wife Sunita Devi and projected them as untainted properties. The ED after identifying these properties have attached them. Further investigation in the matter is on. --IANS atk/skp/ ( 438 Words) 2022-01-04-19:38:02 (IANS) Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Tuesday said for a judge, one must be steadfast in holding on to their principles and fearless in their decisions and on bench, a judge cannot defend himself against even motivated attacks, but a retired judge is free to defend himself, when the need arises. In his remarks at the virtual farewell organised for retiring colleague, Justice R. Subhash Reddy, by the Supreme Court Bar Association, he said: "There are many qualities that a person needs to have to lead a good life: humility, patience, kindness and a strong work ethic. Most importantly, particularly for a judge, one must be steadfast in holding on to their principles and fearless in their decisions." "Our values are our greatest wealth, and we must never forget the same," he said. "Justice Reddy's journey is a testament to his values. His life and journey will continue to inspire many young lawyers," he added. Chief Justice Ramana said retirement is just like freedom regained, particularly for a judge. "He is free from all the restrictions that come with the office. He can express his views on all issues freely and frankly. When on the Bench, a judge cannot defend himself against even motivated attacks. A retired judge is free to defend himself, when the need arises." He said Justice Reddy always upheld and protected the people's liberties through his judgements, and valued the fundamental rights of all citizens of this country. "He has taken up several death penalty cases, and he would spend an immense amount of time on them to ensure that the person gets a fair chance at justice even at the last stage," he added. The CJI added that Justice Reddy is known for his compassion and consciousness about social realities. "The paramount standards of his ethical conduct and beliefs are all reflected in his fine and well-crafted judgments. People with genuine causes would never go empty-handed from his court," he said. Justice Reddy also showed a resolute and dedicated commitment on the administrative side of the Supreme Court while serving as a member of the Supreme Court Judges' Committee constituted for ensuring speedy disposal of rape cases across the country, he noted. The Chief Justice said: "Justice Reddy has a deep interest in philosophy, culture, music and education. He readily endeared himself to all his peers through his simplicity and sincerity." Justice Reddy practiced for 22 years at tribunals, civil courts, the Andhra Pradesh High Court and also before the Supreme Court in civil, criminal, constitutional, revenue, taxation, labour, company and service matters in both original and appellate side. He was appointed as an additional judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, his parent high court, on December 2, 2002, and sworn in as a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on June 24, 2004. Justice Reddy was elevated as Judge of the Supreme Court of India on November 2, 2018. --IANS ss/vd ( 507 Words) 2022-01-04-19:56:05 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu government has decided to shut down Amma mini-clinics launched by the previous AIADMK government. Tamil Nadu health minister Ma Subramanian on Tuesday announced that the Amma mini-clinics would be shut down in the state. He said that the clinics will be shut down due to their non-performance. Subramanian also said that the doctors employed in these Amma mini-clinics would be absorbed in other vacancies. Amma mini-clinics were launched on December 14, 2020, by the previous AIADMK government in memory of the late Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo, J. Jayalalithaa. There were 2,000 Amma mini-clinics across the state and 1,500 doctors were recruited to run these clinics. After Covid-19 cases spiked during 2021, the doctors of these clinics were diverted to Government medical colleges to attend to Covid patients. The AIADMK has criticized the decision of the state government. Former Chief Minister and AIADMK chief coordinator, O. Pannerselvam in a statement on Tuesday said that the DMK's politics of vendetta was the main reason behind the shutting down of the Amma clinics rather than non-performance. He said that the DMK government has also shut down the Amma canteens that were also opened by the previous AIADMK government in a bid to help the poor to get cheap quality food across the state. --IANS aal/skp/ ( 228 Words) 2022-01-04-20:30:05 (IANS) "140 students of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Kakryal (Katra) have tested positive for COVID-19. The University has been closed from January 1 after 13 students tested positive and further testing of students and staff is going on," said officials. According to officials, as many as 187 people in the university have tested COVID-19 positive in the last four days. Earlier on Monday, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University postponed the University exams until further notice after 13 University students tested positive for COVID-19 on the campus. In a statement, the university informed, "It is for the information of all concerned that the Major Exams of the university, scheduled to commence from 3rd January 2022, have been postponed till further notice." Reasi District Magistrate Charandeep Singh directed the university management to close the campus for the time being till further orders in view of the safety of the students. (ANI) Amid a tense situation, BJP national president J.P. Nadda led 'Satyagrah' at Mahatma Gandhi statue in Secunderabad here on Tuesday evening to demand release of party's state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar. Accompanied by several BJP leaders, Nadda offered floral tributes at the statue and returned without leading the planned candle-light rally as the police had denied permission for the same in view of the ban on rallies, meetings and other gatherings due to Covid-19 situation. Nadda did not address the BJP workers who had gathered there in large numbers. However, party leader incharge of Telangana affairs Tarun Chug announced that their 'satyagrah' led by Nadda was completed. He along with party workers raised slogans demanding release of Bani Sanjay. Union minister for tourism G. Kishan Reddy announced that the party will continue its peaceful and democratic protest with adherence to Covid protocol. He alleged that the TRS government was trying to suppress their voice and snatch their democratic rights. Soon after Nadda landed at Hyderabad Airport, a police official served a notice, informing him that there is no permission for the rally due to ongoing ban on rallies, meetings and public congregations in view of Covid-19 situation. The BJP chief told reporters that he assured the police official that they will abide by Covid rules. "I told him that I will be going to Mahatma Gandhi's statue to offer floral tributes. It is your responsibility to ensure that I abide by Covid norms," Nadda said adding that democratic rights can't be taken away in the name of Covid curbs. The saffron party had planned to organise the candle light rally from Mahatma Gandhi Statue, Ranigunj to Paradise X Roads in Secunderabad. Sanjay was arrested in Karimnagar town on Sunday night when he was staging a night-long protest demanding the government to amend orders relating to transfers of government employees and teachers. The Karimnagar MP was booked for violating Disaster Management Act and for attacking police personnel. A magistrate on Monday sent him and four others to judicial custody for 14 days. The BJP has called for a state-wide protest for 14 days against the arrest and alleged that Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is using undemocratic means to suppress the peaceful protests. --IANS ms/skp/ ( 387 Words) 2022-01-04-20:36:05 (IANS) Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday handed over the first caste certificate issued on the mother's credentials to a child of a single mother. This is the first time that the child of a single mother belonging to the scheduled caste community received a caste certificate based on his mother's caste certificate in Delhi. According to the Delhi government, previously, SC/ST caste certificates were issued only based on the fathers' caste certificate or paternal side certificates. Due to this procedure, many single mothers could not get SC/ST caste certificates for their children. Geeta Devi is one such single mother who had been struggling to get an SC caste certificate for her child for the past eight years. Her application was rejected multiple times stating that the father's caste certificate is not present. Aam Admi Party (AAP) MLA Vishesh Ravi had been pursuing this matter with the Revenue Department, Social Welfare Department and Department for the Welfare of SC/ST of Delhi. He wrote a series of letters to the Revenue Department officials and had multiple meetings with officials. He had also raised this issue in the Delhi Legislative Assembly highlighting the suffering of single SC/ST mothers in 2020. The circular to amend the procedure for the issuance of the SC/ST caste certificate based on the single mother's caste certificate was issued on July 20, 2020, with the prior approval of the Revenue Minister of GNCT Delhi. (ANI) Nearly a month after the Department of Telecommunications under the Ministry of Communications warned Starlink to get necessary permission required to offer satellite-based internet services in India, the Elon Musk-owned company on Tuesday informed some individuals in the country that it will refund their pre-orders. The Indian government had told Starlink, the satellite internet division of billionaire Musk's rocket company SpaceX, to stop "booking/rendering the satellite internet service" in the country sans a licence. Starlink later announced that it will apply for a commercial licence in India by January 31. Starlink said in an email that it is "looking forward to making Starlink available in India as soon as possible but does not have a timeline for receiving licences to operate". "As has always been the case, you can receive a refund at any time," the company said. An email sent to the company for an official statement went unanswered. Starlink had said last month that it will apply for a commercial licence in India by January 31, 2022. "We hope to have applied for a commercial licence on or before January 31, 2022 (unless we hit some major roadblock)," Sanjay Bhargava, India Director for Starlink, had said in a LinkedIn post. Bhargava in his post also said how Starlink could be great for connectivity in numerous situations. He said that a 100 per cent Broadband India will require collaboration across stakeholders, service providers, and technologies, and Starlink encourages everyone to think about their usage and develop connectivity plans for districts as well as private use. Earlier, Starlink had announced that it will focus on 10 rural Lok Sabha constituencies to provide internet services. "I am also keen to have 30-minute virtual conversations with MPs, ministers, secretaries to the Union government, or principal secretaries to states to see if they think 100 per cent broadband would help improve lives," Bhargava had said. Starlink shipped 100,000 terminals to customers recently. The project aims to provide global broadband connectivity via a constellation of satellites. SpaceX began satellite launches in November 2019 and opened its $99 per month beta programme for select customers around a year later. --IANS na/arm ( 369 Words) 2022-01-04-21:06:03 (IANS) The leaders of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States on Monday (local time) reiterated their commitment to de-targeting and reaffirmed that none of their nuclear weapons was targeted at each other or at any other State. In a joint statement, the leaders of the five countries said "we affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." "We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weapons--for as long as they continue to exist--should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war. We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented," the statement read. The five permanent member states of the UN Security Council also reaffirmed the importance of addressing nuclear threats and emphasised the importance of preserving and complying with their bilateral and multilateral non-proliferation, disarmament, and arms control agreements and commitments. "We remain committed to our Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations, including our Article VI obligation "to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control," the statement read further. "We each intend to maintain and further strengthen our national measures to prevent unauthorized or unintended use of nuclear weapons. We reiterate the validity of our previous statements on de-targeting, reaffirming that none of our nuclear weapons are targeted at each other or at any other State," it added. The five countries also underlined their desire to work with all states to create a security environment more conducive to progress on disarmament with the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons with undiminished security for all. They intend to continue seeking bilateral and multilateral diplomatic approaches to avoid military confrontations, strengthen stability and predictability, increase mutual understanding and confidence, and prevent an arms race that would benefit none and endanger all. "We are resolved to pursue constructive dialogue with mutual respect and acknowledgment of each other's security interests and concerns," the statement read. This is the first time for leaders of the five Nuclear-Weapon States to issue such a joint statement, which has demonstrated the political will of the five states to prevent nuclear wars, and given their common voice of maintaining global strategic stability and reducing the risk of nuclear conflicts, Chinese vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said. (ANI) Masisi's mandatory self-isolation is necessitated by having tested positive for Covid-19 following a routine test for the virus, John Dipowe, the acting permanent secretary in the Botswana government communications, said in a statement, Xinhua news agency reported. "Members of the public are assured that His Excellency the President does not have any symptoms and will continue to receive close medical monitoring from his doctors," said Dipowe, adding that the self-isolation is a precautionary measure in accordance with Botswana's Covid-19 health protocols. Botswana's Vice President, Slumber Tsogwane will act as the southern African country's president during Masisi's self-isolation period until further notice. Botswana has registered 219,509 cases of Covid-19 with 2,444 related deaths. So far, 48.6 per cent of the total population has received the first dose of vaccine, while 43 per cent fully vaccinated. --IANS int/pgh ( 171 Words) 2022-01-04-00:46:03 (IANS) On Sunday, Agnes Firmin Le Bodo of the centre-right Agir party tweeted an email she received containing graphic threats to kill her over her support for the vaccination pass, the BBC reported on Monday. "Our democracy is in danger," wrote Firmin Le Bodo, who is also a pharmacist and vaccinates people against Covid. In an interview with BFM TV, she said she had reported the threats to the police and would not be deterred from supporting the vaccine pass. The government is seeking to pass a law that would require people to show proof of vaccination to access public venues and transport with some exceptions. The legislation is expected to be approved in a vote this week but has angered vaccine opponents. France has one of the highest Covid vaccination rates in the EU. At least 91 per cent of the adult population have been fully jabbed, according to the French government. Another MP, Naima Moutchou of the Horizons party, shared a similar tweet which included a screenshot of an emailed threat. In parliament on Monday, Health Minister Olivier Veran condemned the death threats and the "selfishness" of vaccine opponents. Last week Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said police would strengthen protections for elected officials ahead of the vote on vaccine passes. Barbara Bessot Ballot of the ruling En Marche! party said MPs had received messages threatening to kill them for "attacking our freedom". "Those death threats are unacceptable," she wrote on Twitter. Throughout the pandemic, critics have accused French President Emmanuel Macron's government of violating freedoms by imposing Covid rules. Protests against these rules have been held regularly. For months France has asked people to show either proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test to access many public venues. But the French government has decided to remove the option to show a negative test in response to record increases in infections, driven by the highly contagious Omicron and Delta variants of Covid. --IANS int/pgh ( 363 Words) 2022-01-04-02:44:02 (IANS) The iPhone maker topped a market value of USD 3 trillion -- the first publicly-traded company ever to be worth that much, reported CNN. Shares of Apple (AAPL) were briefly up about 3 per cent to a new all-time high of USD 182.88, surpassing the USD 182.85 per share it needed to be worth USD 3 trillion. The stock later pulled back from that level. Earlier, Apple's market value first crossed the USD 1 trillion thresholds in August 2018 and passed USD 2 trillion in August 2020. Apple shares were up nearly 35 per cent in 2021. The company has benefited from booming demand for its new iPhone 13 and other older models as well as subscription services such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, iCloud and its popular App Store, reported CNN. Sales surged nearly 30 per cent to more than USD 83 billion in Apple's fall quarter, which ended in September. The company has a whopping USD 191 billion in cash as well. It seems that Apple will be joined in by other companies in the 3-trillion club - Microsoft (MSFT) is now worth about USD 2.5 trillion and Google owner Alphabet's (GOOGL) market value is right around USD 2 trillion. Still giant but further behind are Amazon (AMZN), which has a market cap of USD 1.7 trillion, and Elon Musk's Tesla (TSLA), worth about USD 1.2 trillion, reported CNN. (ANI) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has usually used China's economic achievements to denigrate democracy, but festering problems in the CCP, threaten to put the country's economy off-kilter and that could affect President Xi Jinping's goal of the indefinite rule just as he is about to start his third term in office. Jianli Yang, founder and president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China and the author of "For Us, The Living: A Journey to Shine the Light on Truth", writing in The Hill said that 2022 will be a big year for Xi, but he must fix China's economic slide. About 10 years ago, China's economic growth rate began to decline. After 30 years of rapid development, a slowdown is normal, but the overlap with Xi's governance may indicate that the decline in economic growth is related to Xi's policies. Especially in recent years -- whether it was anti-corruption, building a personality cult, tightening the control of ideology and speech, strengthening the party's control over the economy and society, or suppressing capital -- they all may have come at the expense of economic growth, said Jianli. This month, the political formulation of "keeping economic development as the central task," which had almost disappeared in China's policies in recent years, suddenly resurfaced in its Central Economic Work Conference. The recent Central Economic Work Conference acknowledged that China's economy faces three pressures: demand contraction, supply shock, and weakening expectations, said Jianli. Emphasis on China's economy had been an unwritten rule since Deng Xiaoping initiated reforms. However, in recent years, government officials have put less emphasis on economic development, and economic performance has not been a criterion for promotion, reported The Hill. Xi's anti-corruption campaign and political evaluation of officials have made some officials panic. As a result, they spend time and energy on political studies, political struggles, and dealing with tasks from above and guarding against rivals. Under such an atmosphere, many do not want to work. This inevitably has caused the bureaucratic system to slack, negatively impacting the economy. It has become evident that people cannot eat Xi's "whole process people's democracy." CCP often has claimed that "Democracy cannot be eaten." Chinese leader Xi Jinping recently portrayed China's political system under his rule as a "whole process people's democracy" -- more democratic, the CCP asserted, than any other democracy in the world. But many in China, perhaps including Xi himself, have come to realize that Xi's whole process people's democracy cannot be eaten, either, said Jianli. For sure, China's economy faces a difficult time. However, 2022 could be a special year for Xi. He may enter his third term of leadership, and strive to remain in power, following the 20th National Party Congress, which is expected to be held in October. In light of Xi's current control over the CCP and the Chinese military, no one may be able to stop him from remaining as the party's top leader, unless something unusual and unexpected happens in the coming year, reported The Hill. Xi likely knows that although no one in the CCP is making noise, many are privately questioning why he wants to change the decades-old system of an orderly succession of top leaders. Considering the harsh external environment and the difficulties and challenges facing China's economy, Xi Jinping needs to do anything he can to stabilize China's economy, and quickly, said Jianli. (ANI) New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday (local time) subpoenaed Donald Trump and his children Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump as part of her civil probe into the former US president's business practices and namesake company. Shayna Jacobs and Jonathan O' Connell, writing in The Washington Post said that both the adult children of former President Donald Trump served as executives at his company - Trump Organization. The subpoenas were disclosed on Monday in an unsealed court filing that also detailed a schedule for challenges to the requests that the siblings and the former president sit for depositions and provide records. Later in the day, Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr filed a motion to quash the subpoenas -- or to delay them until a parallel criminal probe is completed, reported The Washington Post. In the motion, attorneys for the Trump family argue that the New York criminal and civil investigations are connected and that James is trying to "circumvent the entire grand jury process" and "nullify [their] constitutional and statutory rights" by demanding their testimony on business matters that are also being examined in the criminal case. As potential targets of the criminal probe, the Trumps have a right not to incriminate themselves to law enforcement, the motion says, noting that if they were to be called to the grand jury as witnesses, they would get automatic immunity from prosecution under New York law, said Jacobs and Connell. James responded by issuing a statement vowing to compel the trio to testify. "For more than two years, members of the Trump family and the Trump Organization have continually sought to delay and impede our investigation into Donald Trump and the Trump Organization," the statement said. "These delay tactics will not stop us from following the facts or the law." James's office launched its civil investigation into the Trump Organization and its officers in March 2019, focusing on whether financial fraud was committed through property valuation practices. Investigators from the office are still requesting records and other evidence, reported The Washington Post. The Washington Post reported in December that James had asked the former president to give testimony on Jan. 7 at her agency's New York offices, a move Trump called politically motivated. His attorney, Ronald Fischetti, said at the time that Trump had firm grounds to challenge the subpoena, alleging that James's office was "working hand-in-hand" with the Manhattan district attorney in its long-running criminal probe of the Trump Organization. It is unclear if additional indictments will be filed. While James's office is a partner in the criminal case, her civil investigation is separate -- albeit with an overlapping focus. Her team has long been interested in the Trump Organization's alleged practice of undervaluing properties for tax benefits but inflating property values to try to obtain more favourable loan interest and insurance rates. The filing made public Monday shows that James has asked a New York Supreme Court civil judge to enforce the subpoenas to the Trumps. It is not the first time the office has asked Justice Arthur Engoron to intercede, said Jacobs and Connell. Engoron previously ordered Eric Trump, another son of the former president who has been heavily involved in the family business, to sit for a deposition. He also played referee when parties including the Trump Organization resisted handing over certain documents. Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump all took senior roles in their father's company early in their careers, working in adjacent offices in Trump Tower as each shepherded different projects and aspects of the business. When Trump entered the White House, the three children took different paths, with Ivanka Trump leaving the business to join him as a senior adviser. Don Jr and Eric remained in the private sector, with Don Jr focused more on politics and Eric handling many aspects of the Trump Organization business. (ANI) The shooting led to the shutdown of the city. Later, a dharna was held at a local police station demanding immediate arrest of the killers, according to Pakistan's vernacular media reports on January 2. The attack on Kumar is yet another example of continuing atrocities against minorities in Pakistan, especially Hindus, Ahmadiyyas and Christians. In recent years, there has been a surge in attacks on minorities and also their places of worship in Pakistan. The country has been slammed by the international community for not safeguarding the interest of minorities. (ANI) As per IOM, there are "664,000 newly displaced by conflict in 2021," reported Tolo News. "There are now an estimated 5.5 million Internally Displaced Persons in Afghanistan (IDPs), including those living in protracted situations, and 664,000 newly displaced by conflict in 2021," IOM said. "This is in addition to more than 924,744 undocumented Afghan returnees who returned from Iran and Pakistan between 1 January and the end of September, and the more than 2.2. million refugees and 3.5 million undocumented Afghan nationals already in neighbouring countries, primarily Iran and Pakistan," added IOM. Afghanistan is going through a severe humanitarian crisis, and many countries and humanitarian organizations have voiced their concerns, reported Tolo News. The situation turned volatile in the aftermath of dried funds from the international community after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in mid-August. Narmi, a mother of five children, living in Kabul is one of hundreds of thousands of displaced Afghans who are struggling with difficult conditions. "Life is passing. The government didn't help me. We don't have food at home," she said. "We have left our homes due to war and poverty. I am working to find food," said Mohammad Afzal, a displaced person. The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation said it has been trying to gain more humanitarian assistance from international donors to support the displaced people, reported Tolo News. A former media officer for a UN office in Afghanistan, Naseer Ahmad Haidarzai, said, "We are in a condition that both the international organizations and the Afghan government are incapable of solving." (ANI) Businesses in Kandahar may move to Pakistan or Iran as they continue to face different types of problems amid the economic turmoil in the country following the Taliban takeover last year. "Some have the intention to go to the neighbouring countries. In addition to electricity, there are other problems that are affecting the private sector," said Niamatullah Niamat, Deputy of the Kandahar's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, reported Tolo News. The joint Afghanistan-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce said that Islamabad is considering issuing a five-year visa for Afghan businesspeople. "There is a five-year visa for investors who want to invest in Pakistan," said Naqibullah Sapai, Head of the joint chamber. Post the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Afghan businesses are facing a lot of hardship due to various reasons like safety and security, electricity problems, break in the supply chain, as well as loss of investments and customers. Meanwhile, economists warned that the transfer of Afghan business investment to foreign countries is not in the interest of Afghanistan, reported Tolo News. "In fact, Pakistan wants to extend its control and take control of Afghan trade and markets and open a way to Central Asia," said Sayed Masoud, an economist. A factory owner who invested USD 3.5 million was forced to halt his business operations due to lack of electricity. "We are lost about what to do and which direction to follow. Nothing happened during the past 20 years," said Mohammad Naeem, the owner of the factory, reported Tolo News. To prevent the transfer of investment from Afghanistan to neighbouring countries, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the Islamic Emirate must provide essential facilities for the businesspeople. "We don't want other countries to give licenses to our merchants. We want our business people to remain in the country, but the Islamic Emirate should provide essential facilities," said Mohammad Younus, head of the chamber. Younus said that many Afghan investors moved their businesses abroad mainly to Turkey and the UAE, reported Tolo News. (ANI) Fines imposed on members of the Pakistani community who gathered at Syntagma Square to celebrate the New Year without wearing masks will not be cancelled, according to Greek City Times. Further, Greece Citizen Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos responded to a letter signed by the president of the community Cultural Community of Greece-Pakistan, Syed Mohammad Jamil, appealing for a write-off of the fees for several reasons. These reasons include the claim that the gathering was spontaneous and not organised as the Pakistani community did not know the city of Athens had cancelled all celebrations at Syntagma Square, according to Greek City Times. The appeal letter also said the Pakistani community left peacefully after being informed of this by police. Earlier, Community Cultural Community of Greece-Pakistan, Syed Mohammad Jamil to the Greece government appealed for a write-off of the fees Meanwhile, Greece Minister of Development and Investment, Adonis Georgiadis, characterised the images of hundreds of Pakistani's flooding Syntagma Square as "unacceptable" according to Greek City Times. Also, the Greece Citizen Protection Minister rejected the appeal and said on a social media post, "We will not cancel any fines imposed by the Hellenic Police on members of the Pakistani community during New Year's Eve on Syntagma for not wearing masks." "Laws are laws and apply to all, even if the presence of these people was spontaneous," he added. (ANI) Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Tuesday announced that the government will expand the "vaccine bubble" from February 24 to cover more places and residents must have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to enter the premises. Claire Huang, writing in The Straits Times said that the city's vaccination rate spiked on Monday, with almost 18,000 receiving their first dose, compared with the 1,000 to 2,000 jabs administered daily previously. So far, 73 per cent of the eligible population have had one jab. The spike in daily numbers came after Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan said last Friday that the bubble was to be expanded to cover cinemas, gyms and beauty centres before Chinese New Year on February 1, reported The Strait Times. Claire Huang further said that the move will bar unvaccinated Hong Kong residents from places including libraries, museums and schools, as officials seek to keep local COVID-19 cases at zero and reopen its borders with China. The bubble was rolled out about six months ago to the food and beverage (F&B) industry, as well as places deemed high risks such as bars and pubs, clubhouses and karaoke lounges. "At the moment, there is no plan to extend the application to shopping malls or private workplaces because the implications will be far-reaching," Lam said. "In order for Hong Kong to battle the pandemic and for people's lives to return to normal and to create favourable conditions for border reopening, we must boost our vaccination rate," said Lam. She said the bubble plan will be implemented in phases, with staff at government buildings and schools first to be required to get jabbed, reported The Strait Times. Local reports said F&B representatives had met with officials on Monday afternoon and had urged them to implement the plan only after the festivities so that the industry will not lose 20 to 30 per cent of the business. Hong Kong officials are trying to maintain the city's zero local cases record and reopen borders with the mainland, amid fears of a possible Omicron outbreak, reported The Strait Times. On Tuesday, Lam admitted that the recent Omicron cluster linked to an imported case had put a dent in long-awaited plans to reopen borders with the mainland. Lam said that the situation is manageable and there are no plans to tighten social distancing rules or to suspend classes. So far, Hong Kong has recorded more than 12,600 cases of COVID-19 and 213 deaths - numbers that are among the lowest in the world. (ANI) Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) chief, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, has said that the people of Balochistan are the owners of the resources of the province. He said that he will oppose any deal on Reko Diq if it is against the interests of the local people. "They have to remove our doubts. A refinery should be established in the mining area so that people should know the quantity of gold," he said. Reko Diq mine is located near Reko Diq town in Chagai District, Baluchistan, Pakistan. It is one of the largest copper and gold mines in the world. Sardar Aktar Mengal further said that his party's stand on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has not changed. And that it is not against development projects. "We are blamed that we are opposing progress. We are not opposed to progress but we support only that progress which is in favour of the people of Balochistan," he said. Earlier, he had demanded that his party would protest along with other parties in the provincial assembly and other forums if 50 per cent profit-sharing from Reko Diq gold project is not ensured to the people of Balochistan. Balochistan National Party (Mengal) is a political party in Balochistan, Pakistan and it believes in more provincial rights and greater autonomy for Baluchistan province. (ANI) The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and all bar associations on Tuesday threatened a blanket boycott if Judicial Commission is set to consider elevation of woman judge Justice Ayesha A Malik. The legal fraternity has called on Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed to postpone Thursday's meeting of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), scheduled to be held on January 6 to consider the elevation of Malik of the Lahore High Court (LHC) to the apex court, reported Dawn. In case the meeting is not called off, they said to boycott all court proceedings, from the superior judiciary to the lower courts. The January 6 session of the JCP was summoned after the CJP once again proposed the name of Justice Ayesha A Malik for elevation, reported Dawn. The last time this question came before the JCP on Sept 9, a lack of consensus during an extended meeting forced the commission to defer the appointment of Justice Malik -- who is fourth in the seniority order of the Lahore High Court (LHC) -- to enter the Supreme Court as the first-ever woman judge in the country's judicial history. Meanwhile, the PBC maintains that Justice Ayesha's proposed elevation violates seniority and called for reforms in appointment rules. Monday's meeting also resolved to approach parliament as well as political parties to lobby for amendments in articles 175A and 209 of the Constitution that deals with the appointment of the judges in the superior judiciary and their removal, reported Dawn. Article 175-A deals with the appointment procedure of the judges in the superior courts while Article 209 provides a forum for the removal of a superior court judge. The meeting recalled the CJP's own principle that no chief justice should initiate the process of elevation or the appointment of judges in the superior judiciary when he was nearing the end of his tenure. The incumbent CJP has less than a month remaining as he is scheduled for superannuation on February 1, reported Dawn. (ANI) The man is facing five charges including arson, possession of an explosive device, theft and housebreaking. The prosecutors are expected to add additional charges in the case, reported DW News. On Sunday morning, a fire broke out in the South African parliament in Cape Town. The National Assembly is situated in what is known as the New Wing, which suffered the worst damage in the blaze. The lawyer of the accused in the case, advocate Luvuyo Godla said that his client denies all the allegations and rejects all the charges against him. He said his client "denies and rejects those charges". The court has remanded the case for seven days for the prosecutors to collect the bail information. A specialist unit of the SA Police Service suspects that the accused got access to the parliament building by climbing over a fence and breaking a window. The case proceedings going on in Cape Town Magistrates Court were broadcast live on the South African News channel. On Monday, Fire in South Africa's parliament again broke out after a brief respite, the fire brigade said, reported Sputnik News. Currently, the fire is under control, reported DW News. "Further damages caused at several floors of the building," Parliament spokesman Moloto Motapo wrote on Twitter. Host President Cyril Ramaphosa's annual State of the Nation Address and the budget speech in February was on schedule in the month of February. As the fire gutted the National Assembly and other parts of parliament alternate venues are considered for the upcoming schedule. National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said the Cape Town International Convention Centre and Cape Town's city hall and municipal council chambers were being considered as alternative venues, reported DW News. (ANI) After visiting Paramhans Maharaj Samadhi in Teri city in Banda Tehsil of district Karak, (Kohat), the delegation reached the civil hospital, Teri. As the hospital was not being maintained properly, Dr Ramesh Kumar instructed the Chief Secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to visit the hospital within a week and make a master plan for the same. He further said it was the responsibility of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's provincial government to make a master plan to provide facilities to people. "If it fails, then it should allow the Hindu community to name the hospital in the name of Paramhans Ji Maharaj. Hindu community was ready to resolve all problems on priority," he added. Ramesh Kumar was elected to the National Assembly as a candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party on a reserved seat for minorities in 2018 Pakistan's general election. (ANI) No fatalities have been reported yet. Chief Fire Officer Mubeen Ahmed said that the blaze erupted in the towel factory at around 3:40 am, Dawn reported. As many as 14 fire engines were deployed to control the fire. The cause of the fire and estimation of financial loss could not be made immediately. (ANI) Sindh Government on Sunday said that the Omicron cases have reached up to 50% in the province especially in Karachi. The data collected by the provincial authorities clearly suggests that Pakistan is in the grip of the Omicron variant. A total of 351 samples of Covid-19 positive cases were collected and analysed and the data is worrisome as 175 of these samples were of Omicron variant, the provincial health authorities confirmed. Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, discussed the deteriorating health situation in Sindh with the health authorities. They apprised the Chief Minister of the rise in the cases of new variant and confirmed that the situation is challenging and worsening day by the day, reported Geo News. Tracking down the chain of the spread, it was confirmed that a few cases out of 175 omicron samples had travel history. The travel history was predominantly from the UK, Dubai, the USA, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Nairobi and Angola. The meeting was attended by Minister of Health, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Adviser Law Murtaza Wahab, and Parliamentary Secretary on Health Qasim Soomro, acting Chief Secretary Qazi Shahid Pervez, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary, Health, Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Dr Bari of Indus Hospital and others. Another key concern is the alarming rise in the cases in the past 30 days. On December 3, last year, a total of 261 new cases were detected which increased significantly and reached a total of 403 till January 2, 2022. The Chief Minister has urged the health officials to ramp up vaccinations and testing. He urged the people to adopt Covid-appropriate behaviour, failing which strict rules will be clamped. The CM was informed that a total of 29,579,471 vaccine doses have been administered in Sindh province. Sindh government's spokesman, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, also spoke along the same lines. (ANI) Hoping for a better life in United States, people have been migrating from Mexico but as number of people transiting has continued to grow, the UN in close coordination with the Mexican authorities, is ensuring that they receive life-saving aid, UN News reported. The UN team in the country, in close collaboration with the Mexican authorities, is working to ensure that they receive essential, and often life-saving, assistance. When life in her country became too dangerous, Natalia took her children and fled. She managed to cross into Mexico via the southern border, but once she arrived in the country, she had no means of providing for herself and her family. Her story is similar to those of many other desperate people who head to Mexico, increasingly seen as a country of transit and asylum: In 2014, 2,100 people arrived in the country to request refugee status; five years later, in 2019, that had risen to more than 70,000. The figures dropped in 2020, as travel restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic slowed global migration but, between January and November 2021, the country received more than 123,000 asylum requests from people coming from Caribbean, Central American and South American countries (Haiti, Honduras, Cuba, El Salvador, Chile, Venezuela, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil and Colombia). Natalia and her children are now being supported by the UN refugee agency, (UNHCR), which has found them a safe place to live, and psychological aid. Many others in a similar situation are being supported with life-saving information and other kinds of assistance at the shelters and institutions that work together with UN agencies in Mexico. As of July 2021, 70 per cent of asylum requests were concentrated in the border town of Chiapas, which receives daily flights of people expelled from the United States under Title 42 legislation (a public health order issued in March 2020 by the Trump administration, which justifies the expulsions on the grounds that there is a communicable disease, namely COVID-19, in the migrant's country of origin). Here, the close coordination of the UN agencies with the Mexican authorities is an important element in ensuring that people on the move are able to integrate well with the local host communities, and that they are able to prevent discrimination, xenophobia, and other forms of rejection. (ANI) Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu. [Photo/fmprc.gov.cn] After a bleak end to last year, the beginning of the new year has brought some unexpected cheer. Despite geopolitical tensions rising over the past year, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council issued a joint statement on preventing nuclear war and avoiding arms races on Monday. This is a welcome sign that the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states remain sober-minded of their common bottom line avoiding nuclear wars and reducing risks of nuclear conflicts as well as their shared responsibility to safeguard world peace and stability. The issuing of the statement by the five major powers is of positive significance to the building of stable major-country relations as it will enhance mutual trust, as Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu told the media on Monday. As legally recognized nuclear-weapon states under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the five countries should take their joint statement as a new starting point to strengthen coordination and play a positive role in building a world of lasting peace and universal security. It is particularly good to see the US affirming with the other four countries the importance of preserving and complying with bilateral and multilateral nonproliferation, disarmament and arms control agreements and commitments. Also that it is willing to acknowledge and respect the security interests of other countries. Concerns that it has ignored for far too long. That will help promote constructive dialogue with a view to reducing strategic risks. As one of the most active major countries in nuclear arms control and reduction, China has always upheld the concept that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought", which was included as the first clause of the statement. And it was China that prompted the other four countries to reaffirm that "none of our nuclear weapons are targeted at each other or at any other State" in the statement, which adds to the practical significance of the statement's assertion that nuclear weapons should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression and prevent war. Notably, China is the only one of the five countries that has promised no first use of nuclear weapons. If all nuclear-weapon countries, particularly the UK and France both of which are under the US' nuclear protection, make the same promise, the risks of a nuclear war would diminish markedly. China has always adhered to a self-defensive nuclear strategy and maintains its nuclear force at the minimum level required for national security. This in itself is an important contribution to global strategic stability. China will continue to contribute its wisdom and proposals to global nuclear governance, and is ready to conduct cooperation with all peace-loving countries. It is to be hoped the five countries will now act on their stated desire to work with all states to create a security environment more conducive to progress on disarmament with the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the five nuclear-weapon states' joint statement on the prevention of nuclear war and avoidance of arms races, his spokesman said. On Monday, the leaders of China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US issued the joint statement which said that they "consider the avoidance of war between Nuclear-Weapon States and the reduction of strategic risks as our foremost responsibilities". "We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weaponsfor as long as they continue to existshould serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war. "We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented," the statement added. Regarding Guterres' response, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: "The Secretary-General appreciates the recognition by the nuclear-weapon States of their need to comply with their bilateral and multilateral non-proliferation, disarmament, and arms control agreements and commitments, including their binding obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons related to nuclear disarmament. "He is encouraged by the nuclear-weapon States' commitment to pursue measures to prevent nuclear war, consistent with his long-standing call for dialogue and cooperation to this end. He looks forward to further details about future initiatives. "The Secretary-General takes the opportunity to restate what he has said repeatedly: the only way to eliminate all nuclear risks is to eliminate all nuclear weapons. He reiterates his willingness to work with the nuclear-weapon States and all Member States to achieve this goal as soon as possible." --IANS ksk/ ( 272 Words) 2022-01-04-12:46:01 (IANS) China's control of religious and ethnic minorities has increased under Xi Jinping's Presidency. Communist Party of China's dictatorship hold over the country also includes close monitoring and policing of religious practices of the ethnic minorities, according to Geneva Daily. While 92 per cent of the Chinese population is ethnically Han, over 50 per cent of the population is unaffiliated with any religion, while Christian minorities make up nearly per cent 5 per cent and Muslims are at a modest per cent of the population two per cent. Ever since Xi Jinping took office as the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the country has undergone notable cultural changes. The Xi administration has been steadily trying to create a China in line with the "Xi Jinping Thought". Earlier, the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era was formally mentioned at the 19th National Congress of the CCP in 2017, according to Geneva Daily. Aimed at governing China with the Rule of Law, and the following socialism with Chinese characteristics (as mentioned in the 14-point policy), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to consolidate social control of the state and rule the country with an iron fist. On the other hand, with top-notch surveillance tactics and rapidly advancing artificial intelligence and associated technology, western China has turned into a dystopian region where everything from vehicle number plates to the usage of citizens' front doors is being monitored. However, with the Chinese authorities consistently dismissing all international concerns, and denying allegations of mistreatment of its citizens, and with even Islamic countries refraining from taking up their cause, there is little hope for relief for the beleaguered Muslims of China, according to Geneva Daily. (ANI) After a pause of around a decade, the first freight train between Istanbul and Islamabad via Tehran reached Ankara on Monday. The first train through Lahore, Taftan, and Zahedan completed its 17-day journey in 13 days and the second train is already on its way to Turkey, according to Dawn. Pakistan Railways Director (Operations) Imtiaz Ahmad said that the train consisted of eight wagons carrying pink salt weighing 150 tonnes "Second train, which had departed from Azakhel dry port on December 28, carried 525 tonnes of soapstone. It has entered Iran and will reach Zahedan very soon where the trans-shipment-related work will be completed," he said. "Iran would only be used as a transit country for the Istanbul-Tehran-Islamabad (ITI) train service, and all the goods loaded from Pakistan would only be transported to Turkey," he added. Ahmad further revealed that a third train would also depart soon for Turkey, as the demand and load is currently under assessment by freight forwarders. "We are also expecting transportation of various goods to Pakistan from Turkey and the freight forwarders there are working on it," he said. After a gap of around 10 years, the resumption of the ITI train service from Turkey was scheduled for March 4, 2020, with its arrival in Pakistan on March 16 and return to Turkey after three days. However, later, mishandling, negligence, and other administrative issues allegedly on the part of the authorities concerned delayed the service, forcing Turkey and Iran to cancel orders for hundreds of tonnes of goods from Pakistan, according to Dawn. The Pakistani authorities, keeping in view these observations, suspended the services of the then Pakistan Railways Freight and Transportation Company director (commercial) on charges of inefficiency and misconduct to pacify the two countries. (ANI) "No question Omicron continues to surge through the country," Johnson said at a vaccination centre. "I think we've got to recognize that the pressure on our NHS, on our hospitals, is going to be considerable in the course of the next couple of weeks, and maybe more." Johnson said Omicron appears "plainly milder" than previous variants, but it would be "folly" to say the pandemic is over, Xinhua news agency reported. He urged people to take a test before "meeting someone you don't usually meet" and to get first, second and third vaccine doses where possible. The UK has so far reported 13,497,234 Covid-19 cases and 149,366 deaths. More than 90 per cent of people aged 12 and over in Britain have had their first dose of vaccine and more than 82 percent are fully inoculated, according to the latest figures. More than 59 per cent have received booster jabs. --IANS ksk/ ( 198 Words) 2022-01-04-13:02:03 (IANS) The envoy said in a statement that he "remains concerned by the ongoing political crisis which risks further derailing progress made since the December revolution", reports Xinhua news agency. He said he was "deeply concerned by the number of civilians killed and injured in the context of the ongoing protests". Perthes urged the security forces to abide by their obligations under international law and strictly uphold the rights of protesters to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, saying that perpetrators of violence must be brought to justice. The UN envoy also regretted the resignation of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Sunday. However, the envoy voiced respect for Hamdok's decision and commended the accomplishments made under his leadership, during the first phase of the transitional period. On Monday, Chairman of Sudan's Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan stressed the need to form an independent government with consent of all the Sudanese people after Hamdok resigned. Al-Burhan stressed the need to achieve the tasks of the transitional period with the top priority of realising peace and security and conducting elections in the country. Sudan has been suffering a political crisis after Al-Burhan, also General Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, declared a state of emergency on October 25, 2021, and dissolved the Sovereign Council and government. On November 21, Al-Burhan and the then removed Prime Minister Hamdok signed a political declaration, which included reinstating the latter as Prime Minister, but the deal has so far failed to calm the street. --IANS ksk/ ( 289 Words) 2022-01-04-13:26:01 (IANS) In an effort to conduct Winter Olympics scheduled to be held next month hassle-free, China is adamant on implementing a Zero-COVID policy, further complicating problems to its citizens. China started the Zero-COVID policy in 2020 and since then, it has created a slew of problems for its people ranging from frustration to food shortage, according to Hong Kong Post. For the Chinese Communist Party and its citizens, the New Year has begun on a tense note. The one thing the party cannot tolerate is any fresh criticism from the US about its ability to control the Coronavirus. The worst situation today is said to be found in Xi'an town and since December, it is in the grip of a Covid-19 wave, according to Hong kong Post. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party's determination to root out the virus from the country can be gauged from the fact though Xi'an reported less than 2,000 cases, it is hell-bent on clamping lockdown there. On the other hand, the US or the UK are reporting cases in thousands every day and yet no lockdown has been declared so far. Xi'an has recorded 143 infections since 9 December last year. For over two weeks now, Xi'an's 13 million residents are confined to their homes. The Xi'an residents cannot leave their homes even for a whiff of fresh air. Only one person per household is allowed to leave home every two days to buy essential goods. Nobody can leave the city whatever the circumstances. The process of seeking permission is cumbersome, according to Hong kong Po There appears no respite for the people of China before the conclusion of the Winter Olympics. (ANI) They President and the First Lady, both asymptomatic, got a positive result from a routine test on Monday afternoon and are currently under quarantine, Xinhua news agency quoted the office as further saying. "Considering the current context dominated by high levels of infection caused by the Omicron variant, the head of state and his wife underwent the rapid test, the results of which were positive for SARS-CoV-2," it added. The document said that the President carried out activities including visits to different locations, as well as holding meetings with several delegations at national level and beyond, during the last days of 2021. "In compliance with the current sanitary guidelines, even though they are asymptomatic, President Nyusi and his wife took the immediate decision to strictly comply with the quarantine protocol, while awaiting the definitive PCR results," the office said. Mozambican health authorities have announced that the Omicron variant is now the dominant strain in the country, as the numbers of new infections have increased in recent weeks. --IANS ksk/ ( 197 Words) 2022-01-04-13:34:04 (IANS) The total population is made up of about 51 per cent of men and about 49 per cent of women, while 69.9 per cent of the population is estimated to live in urban areas and 30.1 per cent in rural areas, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying in a statement. The numbers were sourced from the calculations done by the ministry's Central Statistical Organization in accordance with international statistical standards, the statement noted. The Ministry announced last year that the country's population had exceeded 40.15 million by the end of 2020, while the population in 2019 exceeded 39 million. --IANS ksk/ ( 128 Words) 2022-01-04-14:12:02 (IANS) The House of Representatives made the call iafter a parliament session, during which 80 of its members gathered to hear the briefing of the Commission's head on the failure to hold the presidential election on schedule, reports Xinhua news agency. "The High National Elections Commission should communicate with all departments and agencies involved in the electoral process in order to lift the state of force majeure and set a new date for the elections," said the statement. According to Emad al-Sayeh, head of High National Elections Commission, "conflicting legal rulings that were not released on time, and threats made to the Commission against publishing the final list of presidential candidates containing certain names" were among the factors that prevented the presidential election from taking place on time. Presidential election in Libya was scheduled for December 24, 2021. However, along with the parliamentary elections, it was postponed indefinitely over technical and legal issues, according to the Commission. The most notable presidential candidates in the fray include Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi; Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the eastern-based army; Aguila Saleh, the speaker of Parliament; and Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, the incumbent Prime Minister. The elections are part of a roadmap adopted by the UN-sponsored Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, which aimed at restoring peace to the country after years of political turmoil and violence. --IANS ksk/ ( 269 Words) 2022-01-04-14:18:04 (IANS) At least five people were killed in an avalanche in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province, Sputnik reported on Tuesday. "At least five people were killed by an avalanche in the Raghistan district of the northern Badakhshan province," the Russian News Agency quoted local elder Syed Nur as saying. Further details are awaited. (ANI) Xi and the power of Chinese culture Xinhua) 07:53, January 04, 2022 People visit the Museum of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing, capital of China, July 15, 2021. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua) BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese nation will not be able to rejuvenate itself without a rich and prosperous culture, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, told the Party at its 19th National Congress in 2017. Noting that Socialism with Chinese characteristics roots in Chinese culture, Xi stressed the need to combine fine traditional culture with the Marxist stand, viewpoint and approach. Drawing the essence of traditional Chinese culture, Xi, who is also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has applied them to the governance of the Party, the state, and the military. In late November 2012, shortly after the 18th CPC National Congress, Xi visited an exhibition in China's National Museum that reflected Chinese history since the First Opium War and put forward the concept of the "Chinese Dream." "National rejuvenation has been the greatest dream of the Chinese people since modern times began," he said. In 2014, while talking with teachers and students of Peking University, Xi said that core values carry the spiritual aspiration of a nation and country, and represent the standard for judging right and wrong. The core socialist values that China upholds are prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, the rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity and friendship. "These values embody the thoughts of the ancient sages," Xi told pupils while visiting a primary school in Beijing in 2014. Xi stressed efforts to creatively transform and develop traditional Chinese culture under the guidance of core socialist values to adapt the fine traditions with modern life. In Xi's eyes, China's excellent traditional culture is the root and soul of the Chinese nation. He emphasized the protection of traditional blocks, ancient buildings, the Grand Canal, grottoes, and other unique ancient relics. While presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on archaeology, Xi noted that to protect and inherit the historical and cultural heritage is to fulfill the responsibility for history and the people. A woman works on an embroidery at a workshop in Shibing County of Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Jan. 21, 2021. (Xinhua/Lei Guangjie) Xi also values the traditional culture of ethnic minority groups. During a visit to Guizhou Province, where a large number of ethnic Miao people live, Xi lauded the villagers' efforts to use Miao embroidery to pass down ethnic and traditional culture. "What's traditional is also fashionable," Xi said. Preserving traditional culture does not equate to rigidity and isolation. Culture will thrive with exchanges. Speaking at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, in 2014, Xi used tea and beer as a metaphor for the coexistence of Eastern and Western cultures. "The Chinese people are fond of tea and the Belgians love beer," Xi said. "To me, a moderate tea drinker and a passionate beer lover represent two ways of understanding life and knowing the world, and I find them equally rewarding." "When good friends get together, they may want to drink to their heart's content to show their friendship. They may also choose to sit down quietly and drink tea while chatting about their life," Xi added. The ancient Silk Road promoted trade and communication among Eastern and Western civilizations 2,000 years ago. The Belt and Road initiative that Xi proposed in 2013 drew the wisdom of ancestors and opened up a path of opportunities for different countries to achieve common prosperity in the 21st century. Xi also encouraged Chinese artists and writers to establish a distinctive Chinese style and demeanor in world literature and art. In 2012, Mo Yan was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature, and sci-fi writer Liu Cixin won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for his bestseller "The Three-Body Problem" in 2015. The Chinese are more aware that the national rejuvenation not only refers to better livelihood but also a confident expression of its civilization. "The time-honored Chinese culture is capable of adding glory to it today and in the days to come," Xi said. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Du Mingming) UK's West Midlands Police have recovered almost three million pounds of 'ill-gotten gains' during the last 12 months after its financial investigators pursued the 'dirty money'. The West Midlands Police said in a statement that the economic crime unit of the police have worked diligently to ensure crooks can't benefit from their illegally obtained cash now or in the future. "Our determined team have overcome the difficulties of the pandemic to continue retrieving money linked to crime, and targeting crooks who've benefited financially from their illegal activities," the statement read. Those criminals who do not pay up face extended prison sentences, although the debt never goes away and officers are able to recover what is owed in the future. Jenny Birch, head of Economic Crime Unit, said: "A criminal being convicted and sent to jail isn't always the end... it can just be the beginning for us." "The likes of drug dealers and fraudsters can accrue vast amounts of money, and it's down to us to trace it and prove it's been illegally obtained. These are often lengthy and detailed investigations and it's testament to the team we've been able to claw back so much money," Birch said. The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Foster said: "I'm so pleased to see our police force hitting criminals where it hurts most, in the pocket." "If these individuals think they can break the law and profit from their illegal activity then I'm afraid they're mistaken. I use this money to support community groups, via my Active Citizens Fund, meaning the proceeds of crime taken from criminals are used to tackle crime and support communities," Foster added. (ANI) Pakistan-origin British national and drug dealer Aqib Ali has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by Birmingham Crown Court for "operating a county lines network of drugs" in Birmingham and Warwickshire. 29-year-old Ali supplied the drugs on a commercial scale at street level through a county lines network which operated between Birmingham and Warwickshire, according to West Midlands Police. Aaqib Ali was sentenced to 10 years in prison at Birmingham Crown Court on December 23 on two charges of posessing and supplying Class A drugs. The Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) acted on information and executed warrants at address linked to him in Aston and Erdington in August. According to West Midlands Police, Aaqib Ali was the key player in supplying cocaine and heroin on a commercial scale at street level. Class A drugs were recovered from one of them along with 20,000 in cash and his drugs phone. A substantial amount of cocaine and heroin was found in his car, , according to West Midlands Police. Analysis of Ali's mobile phone, the police said, showed it had been registered in a false name, with messages proving that he was running a drugs network. "One message claimed he was making the equivalent of 2,800 a night from selling cocaine alone,the police statement added. Ali had only been released from prison on licence last December after being convicted of other drug offences and immediately set about returning to his criminal ways. DC Louise Ford, from the County Lines Taskforce at ROCU, said: "There's no doubt Ali was the one running this significant drugs supply chain. There were vast phone messages which proved he was the kingpin and while he will have recruited others to help, he was the one coordinating it all." "We're confident we've managed to crush his network and remove a prominent drug dealer from our streets. It also shows that if you return to crime you will be caught again, and face even more time behind bars," Ford added. (ANI) Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Tuesday said a special battalion of suicide attackers will be part of the future army of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Deputy Minister of information and culture and spokesperson of the Taliban Zabiullah Mujahid said that the battalion will be part of their special forces and will be active under Defense Ministry, Khaama News reported. Mujahid also said that the women will be recruited in the army on the basis of need. He added that specialists of the previous Afghan army will also be a part of the future army. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan had reportedly deployed suicide attackers to Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan but the news has not been confirmed officially, reported Khaama News. Earlier Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence said that they will form a 100,000-member Defense Force. According to the Ministry, efforts are underway to form a new military force. They emphasized that Islamic Emirate forces would be prioritized, according to Tolo News. "When they are enrolled, they will be sent to duties in squadrons. The process is about 80 per cent complete," said Inayatullah Khwarazami, the Defense Ministry's Spokesman. With the fall of the former government, the 350,000 Afghan National Defense and Security Forces also disbanded by August last year. (ANI) The drones attacked the Ayn al-Asad Air Base at dawn, but the air defence system shot them down outside the perimeter of the airbase, the Iraqi Joint Operation Command said in a statement. An Iraqi army source anonymously confirmed to Xinhua that two drones attacked the Ayn al-Asad Air Base, which houses some US military experts and agencies, and were shot down. The attack came a day after two drones were reportedly shot down at an Iraqi military base known as Camp Victory near rport. The attacks came on the second anniversary of a deadly attack by a U.S. drone on a convoy near Baghdad International Airport that killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, former deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces. On Jan. 5, 2020, just two days after the U.S. attack, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country. On Dec. 29, 2021, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi confirmed the end of the U.S.-led coalition forces' combat mission in Iraq after the withdrawal of the forces from the country. (ANI/Xinhua) The Taliban which has been sanctioned by the UN for terrorism has started holding talks with neighbouring nations about returning Afghan planes that Afghan pilots used to flee to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan after the Taliban took over in August, according to the Taliban movement's senior officials. "Over 40 aircraft have been flown to neighbouring countries, especially Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The negotiations have begun over the return of the aircraft," Islamic Emirate deputy spokesman Inamullah Samangani was quoted by Afghanistan's TV channel TOLOnews as saying, reported Sputnik News. The actual number of Afghan planes that have travelled to Central Asian countries is unknown, although according to certain estimates, there are over 164 aircraft, as per the news agency. "The governments of the two countries have been called upon many times to return the aircraft to the current Afghan government. Of course, they made offers, but so far they have not handed them over (aircraft)," the media quoted defence ministry spokesman Inayatullah Khwarazami as saying. Following weeks of successful advance on Kabul with little to no resistance, the Taliban movement reclaimed power in Afghanistan in August. The Taliban announced the revival of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in early September, led by Mohammad Hasan Akhund, a key figure in the first Taliban government. Thousands of Afghans attempted to abandon their country, fearing Taliban retaliation and denial of their basic rights and freedoms. (ANI) Afghanistan's hardliner and Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in an interview with Radio-Television of Afghanistan (RTA) on Monday, said that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will not include any of the ex-officials of the previous republic government in its cabinet. Baradar accused the ex-officials of being "corrupt". He said that the integrity of the Islamic State will be harmed if he includes even one of the former officials, reported TOLOnews. The interviewer asked Baradar about his stand on the international demand that Afghanistan should form an inclusive government. Responding to the question, Baradar said that during the Doha talks the US had given the names of some government officials to meet the same demand. He said, "These people cannot be with us in the government, because even if they are five (even if only five people are included), they will harm our government's standing and we don't want our government to be brought down by such people," Baradar claimed that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has fulfilled all the conditions being put in front of them as a precondition to their recognition. He said that as the conditions are fulfilled, the world should recognize them. He added, "The Islamic Emirate has fulfilled the requirements for recognition and the world should have recognized it." Speaking on the current economic crisis which Afghanistan is grappling with, Baradar said that if the world does not help Afghanistan, then the country will be majorly impacted. He also emphasized that not only Afghanistan will be burdened but neighbouring countries and the world will be put in a bad light. When asked about the girls' education and the reopening of the universities, Baradar said that right to access education is everyone's right. But he cited the country's economic crisis and moral issues as the reason for the universities not to be opened. "The education sector needs a strong economy. When economic challenges are resolved, we will provide educational facilities for all those who want to pursue their studies," he said. Baradar also denied the allegations by the former president Ashraf Ghani that he--Ghani-- would have been killed if he had not left Kabul. Afghanistan's acting Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund, during his first public address last year, accused Ghani of corruption and funds embezzlement, local media reported. (ANI) Atul Keshap, former US envoy to India, has been appointed as President of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), announced the US Chamber of Commerce. Ambassador Keshap most recently served in New Delhi as United States Charge d'Affaires to India, leading the U.S. Embassy team. He has held a number of senior U.S. government positions and is a 28-year veteran of the U.S. Department of State. Keshap was born in June 1971 in Nigeria. His father was Punjab-born Dr Keshap Chander Sen, who served as a UN development economist. His mother, Zoe Calvert, had earlier served in the US Foreign Service when she met and married Dr Sen in London. She had also served at the US embassy in India between 1958 and 1960. Nisha Biswal, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, and Ambassador Keshap's predecessor as President of USIBC, will remain deeply involved with the organization as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Senior Vice President of International Strategy and Global Initiatives and South Asia. "The U.S.-India Business Council is a critical and vital voice in driving ever closer commercial cooperation between the world's two largest democracies," said Myron Brilliant, Executive Vice President and Head of the International Division of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "We're ecstatic to have Ambassador Keshap as USIBC's next President. His deep expertise, and deep global network will empower the organization to even greater heights and serve our members well." Keshap said he is thrilled to join the U.S. Chamber's international powerhouse team. "As the next President of USIBC, I'm honoured and excited to continue my involvement in shaping and strengthening the robust relationship between the United States and India. I'm thrilled to join the U.S. Chamber's international powerhouse team and be part of the world's largest and most influential advocacy organization," said Ambassador Keshap. "India and its inspired citizenry hold a special place in my heart, and I believe there is no better place to continue this journey than serving as President of USIBC, which is committed and dedicated to enhancing commercial ties between the two countries," he added. "With the two countries on the cusp of entering an even more robust era in our strategic partnership, I feel privileged and honoured to lead USIBC." Nisha Biswal said Keshap's appointment will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge of India and the Indo-Pacific to his new role. "I'm thrilled to welcome my former State Department colleague to the U.S. Chamber family," said Nisha Biswal. "Ambassador Keshap brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of India and the Indo-Pacific to his new role. Across multiple U.S. administrations, he has been instrumental in expanding U.S.-India strategic and economic cooperation and growing commercial ties across multiple sectors. I look forward to working with Atul and the entire USIBC team to deliver to our members and leaders in both countries unmatched experience, advocacy, and networks to further deepen the U.S.-India partnership." Ambassador Keshap previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives; as well as Charge d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi; Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs; United States Envoy for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia in Washington, DC, as well as in a number of distinguished roles at the National Defense University, the White House National Security Council, and in diplomatic postings in Washington and abroad, including in India from 2005-2008. The U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) represents top global companies operating across the United States, India, and the Indo-Pacific. (ANI) JUI-F's Sardarzada Mir Zahid Khan Lehri was on a visit to his agricultural land near Ghazi village when unidentified attackers opened fire on him, Dawn reported. In the attack, Lehri and his guard were injured. They were rushed to hospital facilities, where they were proclaimed dead. Lehri was a member of the provincial council of JUI-F, Balochistan chapter. The Levies Force has registered a case against unknown attackers and started an investigation. (ANI) Dozens of Afghan media officials on Monday gathered in Kabul and expressed their concerns over financial problems and restrictions in accessing information from the Taliban, local media reported. The media officials said that economic problems, the restrictions in accessing information, and restrictions against women reporters are the main challenges they are facing right now, Tolo News reported. According to the local media officials, in the past four months, many radio stations have ceased operating in different provinces of the country because of the mentioned problems. "Our income is low, but our expenditures are high," Tolo News quoted Zahid Engar, head of Radio Sulh-e-Paygham as saying. The media officials also said in some provinces female reporters do not appear on duty because of the restrictions. "In Takhar province, we are facing financial challenges and we also cannot have female reporters at our outlet," said Kamila Sahar, owner of Rayhan Radio and TV station in Takhar province. "In Farah province, reporters are not permitted to visit the security department (officials) or the provincial governor unless they have been granted permission by the information and culture department," said Ibrahim Mohammadi, an official of a local radio station in Farah. Meanwhile, the Taliban officials present at the meeting said they will address media challenges. However, they emphasized that the media should consider national and Islamic values while reporting, Afghan media reported. "The media should reflect the voice of the people in a way that the positive gains of the government and the people should be preserved," Tolo News quoted Abdul Wahid, head of the strategic relations department of the Interior Ministry as saying. "We will do what we can to improve the situation of reporters and media," Tolo News quoted Jamal Nasir Farahmand, deputy media director for the Prime Minister's office. (ANI) As many as 43 candidates from 12 political parties have filed candidacy for to-be-vacant 19 seats of National Assembly polls scheduled for 26 January in Nepal. As per the figures announced by the Election Commission, three sides are contesting in the election in provinces 1, 2 and Bagmati and two sides competing in Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces. "The final list of candidates would be published on January 9, till then the commission will complete all polls-related procedures, including registering complaints against candidates. The commission would also provide election symbol to parties on January 9," Shaligram Sharma, spokesperson at the electoral body briefed. Nine political parties have participated in all the provinces and three parties only in specific provinces. As per the lucky draw made earlier, the tenure of eight members of the upper house from the opposition Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), four members from CPN-US and CPN-Maoist Center, and 3 members from Nepali Congress is set to expire while one seat has been reserved for nomination by the president. Election for the respective seats will be held only in the respective constituency. The National Assembly consists of a total of 59 members with a maximum of six years term. Since the NA is a permanent chamber, the term of one-third of its members expires every two years. For the first time, the lottery was held to decide the term of NA members. Accordingly, the term of 19 NA members had been completed in the first two years and elections were held to fill the first lot of vacant seats. Similarly, the four-year term of another one-third of the national assembly members (20 NA members), including the vice-chairperson, is to come to an end on March 5, 2022. The term of the remaining 20 others will expire in the next two years. The constitutional provision mandates that the election should be held 35 days before the expiration of the term of office of NA members. Accordingly, the Election Commission has fixed the date for the election on January 26. The Province Assembly members, the Chair and Vice-chair of the rural municipalities, the mayors and deputy mayors of municipalities, sub-metropolitan cities, and the metropolitan cities are the voters in the NA election. There are a total of 2025 voters to cast a ballot in the NA election. (ANI) In an effort to relieve lines at COVID-19 testing sites, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball announced Tuesday that the Roger Carter Community Center in Ellicott City will now offer PCR and rapid tests for county employees and their families. The site will be operated by Ally Health from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., on Wednesdays. Advertisement There is an urgent need for quick and effective testing, Ball said. By adding this site for employees we hope to help the system overall and reduce the wait times throughout our entire county. About 15,000 employees and their families are eligible to go to the site, including employees of the Howard County States Attorneys Office, the Howard County Sheriffs Office, the library system and staff at Howard Community College, Ball said. Appointments will be required with proper ID. Advertisement The public school system, Ball said, is working with a different contractor to provide a site for its employees. We are in ongoing conversations to see how we can be helpful, Ball said. Howard County Times: Top stories Weekdays Daily highlights from Howard County's number one source for local news. > Howard Countys COVID-19 metrics reached all time highs this week, with a positivity rate of 27.8% and a case rate of 185 cases per 100,000 people, according to the Maryland Department of Health. The county reported more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases last week, compared to 280 new cases in the first week of December. You should assume when you go out that COVID-19 is everywhere, Ball said. Testing is vital to fighting this pandemic. Our actions today are a critical step to keeping the essential services we need open for our county and our state. Howard County Health Officer Dr. Maura Rossman said that testing was just one tool to protect against COVID-19 spread. She stressed that everyone should get vaccinated and receive their booster shots. Masks should be worn indoors and while out in public, Rossman said, and people should stay home when feeling ill. Now is the time to make sure you and your loved ones are receiving full protection from the vaccine, Rossman said. We are working diligently to expand more testing and vaccination clinic hours to meet the growing demand. Representatives from the county states attorney office and the sheriffs office thanked Ball during the public announcement for opening the clinic for county employees. There are certain sectors of government that are essential and must continue to operate regardless of the challenges the pandemic poses to us, said States Attorney Rich Gibson. Services like police, fire, emergency services and the States Attorneys Office cannot cease to function without horrific consequences to our community. Our office is not immune; and weve been dealing with the impact of the virus on our staff as well. Thats why we are extremely grateful that County Executive Ball, who clearly appreciates the need to have testing readily available to county government employees and their family members, is also offering that same testing to our staff so critical services can, hopefully, continue uninterrupted without any crippling consequences created by staffing shortages. Advertisement Lynn Coleman, interim president of Howard Community College, said the college is working with the county health department to offer a vaccine clinic during the spring semester to reach anyone who needs a shot. The United Kingdom has reported 218,724 COVID-19 cases in the latest 24-hour period, exceeding 200,000 daily cases for the first time since the start of the pandemic, Xinhua News Agency reported citing official figures on Tuesday. According to the news agency, this brought the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 13,641,520. The country also reported a further 48 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 148,941, with 14,126 COVID-19 patients still in hospital, as per the official release cited by Xinhua News Agency. Earlier on Tuesday, British Health Secretary told Sky News that there's nothing in data at this point that suggests that Britain needs to move away from Plan B, which includes guidance to work from home and mandatory face masks in most public indoor venues. The British government is not planning to cut the isolation period from seven days to five days, as the United States has done, he said. More than 90 per cent of people aged 12 and over in Britain have had their first dose of vaccine and around 82 per cent have received both doses, according to the latest figures cited by Xinhua News Agency. (ANI) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held telephone conversation on Tuesday and discussed practical issues of bilateral cooperation as a follow-up to the results of the Russian-Indian summit held in Delhi on December 6. They also exchanged new year greetings. "On January 4, at the initiative of the Indian side, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephonic conversation with External Affairs Minister of India Dr S Jaishankar. The Ministers wished each other a Happy New Year & Merry Christmas," the Russian Embassay in India said in a tweet. The two leaders confirmed the intention to consistently strengthen relations of the special and privileged strategic partnership between the two countries in the spheres of economy and investments, nuclear energy, space, high technologies and healthcare. The two ministers agreed on further steps to expand interaction in regional and international affairs, including cooperation in the SCO, BRICS, RIC, as well as in the UN and UN Security Council. They also exchanged views on preparations for upcoming high-level contacts including a meeting of the Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade and economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation. Jaishankar said in a tweet that the two sides also discussed the follow up of 2+2 meeting and agreed to remain in regular touch. "Glad to exchange New Year greetings with Russian FM Sergey Lavrov this evening. Discussed the follow up of the Annual Summit and 2+2 Meeting. Agreed to remain in regular touch," he said in a tweet. Russian President Vladimir Putin had held the 21st India - Russia Annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 6 in New Delhi. (ANI) Days after Pakistan admits that there are "complications" regarding the Pak-Afghan border fencing, the Taliban has said that "issues" would be addressed through diplomatic channels. Taking to Twitter, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesperson of the Afghan Foreign Ministry said: "Recently, a few incidents have taken place along the Durand Line between Afghanistan and Pakistan that have given rise to the need for the authorities of the two sides to address the problem." "IEA believing in addressing problems through understanding, talks and good neighborliness, will address this issue through diplomatic channels," the tweet added. On Monday, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi acknowledged that there are "some complications" regarding the Pak-Afghan border fencing and the matter was being taken up with the Taliban. Qureshi said at a press conference in Islamabad that "certain miscreants" have blown the incident out of proportion. This follows the circulation of a viral video where Taliban are seen uprooting a portion of the Pak-Afghan fence along their side of the border. Previously, the Taliban's local affiliates said that they have stopped the Pakistani military from erecting barbed-wire fences and outposts in Afghanistan's western Nimroz province, reported local media. The Pakistani military personnel reportedly wanted to build their outpost on Afghanistan soil in Chahar Burjak district of Nimroz province, reported Khaama Press. The Pakistani military went up to 15 kilometres inside Afghanistan and wanted to build check posts, said eyewitnesses and residents of the bordering district. This comes a week after the Taliban's provincial head of the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) destroyed the barbed wire of the Pakistani military in eastern Nangarhar province and warned them of repercussions in case they build fences on Afghan soil. The two countries have been at loggerheads over the nearly 2,400 kilometres of Durand Line which has always been a matter of conflict and chaos between the two sides especially after Pakistan started erecting fences on the line, according to Khaama Press. (ANI) Geneva [Switzerland], January 5 (ANI/Xinhua): Although most people recover from COVID-19 within five to seven days of the onset of symptoms, the World Health Organization (WHO) still recommends a 14-day quarantine, an official from the organization told a press briefing on Tuesday. However, said Abdi Mahamud from WHO's COVID-19 Incident Management Support Team, states must make decisions about the duration of quarantine based on their individual situations. In countries with low infections, a longer quarantine time could help keep case numbers as low as possible, he explained. In places with runaway cases, however, shorter quarantines may be justified in order to keep countries running, he added. The WHO official told journalists that it was possible to be infected by both influenza and COVID-19. However, since the two are separate viruses that attack the body in different ways, there is "little risk" of them combining into a new virus. According to the WHO, as of December 29, 2021, some 128 countries had reported cases of the Omicron variant. In South Africa, which had seen a sharp increase in cases followed by a relatively rapid drop-off, hospitalization and death rates have remained low. However, the situation will not be the same in other countries, Mahamud said. "While the latest studies all point to the fact that the Omicron variant affects the upper respiratory system rather than the lungs, which is good news, high-risk individuals and the unvaccinated could still get gravely ill from that variant," he added. Mahamud said that the Omicron variant could overtake other strains in a matter of weeks, especially in areas with a large number of susceptible people - primarily those who are unvaccinated. In Denmark, he said, it had taken two weeks for case numbers to double with the Alpha variant, whereas with the Omicron variant, it had taken just two days. "The world has never seen such a transmissible virus," he said. The WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization is set to meet on Jan. 19 to review the situation. Topics on the agenda for discussion include the timing of boosters, the mixing of vaccines and the composition of future vaccines. (ANI/Xinhua) Grace Dean/Insider Three GOP state representatives from Washington used taxpayer money to attend Mike Lindell's cyber symposium. The MyPillow CEO's three-day conference built on election lies was held in South Dakota in August. The three representatives used almost $5k in state money to make the trip, according to the Seattle Times. Three GOP state representatives from Washington used taxpayer money to attend MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's cyber symposium, a three-day August conference in South Dakota filled with disinformation about voter fraud in the 2020 election, according to public records obtained by The Seattle Times. According to the Seattle Times, state Reps. Robert Sutherland, Vicki Kraft, Brad Klippert all "requested and received expense reimbursements from the Legislature for the symposium." In total, Washington state footed a $4,361 bill for the lawmakers' hotels and flights to the conference. On August 12, Washington state Rep. Sutherland posted a photo from the symposium, calling Lindell a "patriot." The three state representatives were also part of a group of 186 state lawmakers that signed on to a letter after the 2020 election, endorsing "forensic audits" of the election results in all 50 states. Insider reached out to the offices of the state representatives for comment. Lindell declined to comment. In the run-up to and during the conference, Lindell claimed that he had 37 terabytes of information related to voter fraud to reveal. The conference was livestreamed on his website, Frank. He also promised he'd give $5 million to anyone who could disprove his "data," but they had to attend the event in person. The event was headlined by speakers like Steve Bannon, as well as the son of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Eduardo. In between speeches, attendees watched a series of videos, including the same conspiracy theory-filled documentary four times on the first day of the symposium. On the second day of the event, Lindell rushed offstage when news broke that the $1.3 billion defamation suit voting-machine company Dominion filed against him would go ahead. Read the original article on Business Insider Memorial candles in Anaheim for drug overdose victims. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Four people are dead after a possible string of fentanyl overdoses in three unrelated cases in Anaheim that unfolded Monday, authorities said. Police did not find any drugs at the three locations but discovered foil and other drug paraphernalia, officials with the Anaheim Police Department said. Authorities think the drugs were ingested in a variety of ways at three separate locations. Officials are awaiting toxicology reports from the coroner's division of the Orange County Sheriff's Department to confirm whether fentanyl was involved in the deaths. Those reports could take up to eight weeks, Anaheim Police Sgt. Shane Carringer said. All three emergency calls occurred within about one hour, police said. "To get four deaths in the span of an hour in a city the size of Anaheim, that is an enormous increase for us," Carringer said. At 11:40 a.m., a woman was found dead in a motel room in the 800 block of South Beach Boulevard. Twenty minutes later, a man was found dead in the 1700 block of South State College Boulevard. Both were determined to have died of drug overdoses, authorities said. At 12:48 p.m., police responded to the 500 block of South Anaheim Boulevard, where they found three men. Two were pronounced dead at the scene, and the third was revived with Narcan, the brand name for naloxone, a nasal treatment used to counteract a known or suspected opioid overdose. That man was taken to a hospital in critical condition, Carringer said. Police did not provide the names or ages of the four people who died or of the man who was hospitalized. Though police do not have a definitive answer for all the deaths, they think some form of opioid was involved in at least one overdose, the one in which the man was revived with Narcan. "When you have that many people overdose on opiates, its pretty safe to assume that theres probably some level of fentanyl in it," Carringer said. "Because usually people dont miss their dosing that badly." Story continues Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is 80 times as potent as morphine and hundreds of times more potent than heroin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, drug overdose deaths in the United States topped 100,000, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, with synthetic opioids such as fentanyl making up nearly two-thirds of all drug deaths over a 12-month period. "People inadvertently take fentanyl, because the dealers will cut it with heroin," said Linnea Axman, a family nurse practitioner and doctor of public health with the University of Phoenix College of Nursing. "Fentanyl is very easy to manufacture." Axman said that when she worked in homelessness outreach to medically underserved people, her patients were not always clearly aware what they were using when they used heroin. "Could they give it a name? Not always," Axman said. "They were aware the heroin was cut with something, but the need to use heroin overruled any fear of overdose." Police announced the deaths Monday on social media to alert the public about the "alarming" series of events and to try to stave off additional deaths, Carringer said. Some California prosecutors are seeking to charge drug dealers with murder if they are convicted of selling or making drugs with fentanyl that leads to someone's death. Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer announced the new legal approach in response to a jump in fentanyl overdoses in the last five years. These dealers are essentially handing a loaded gun to unsuspecting victims knowing that they will probably die, and they dont care," Spitzer said. "Fentanyl is cheap, its easy to get and its killing people who had no idea they were taking it." This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. People parade downtown, carrying a cardboard coffin to represent homicide victims and demand that city authorities work to reduce gun violence in Memphis, Tenn. on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. Good morning, Memphis, where we celebrate the Grizzlies ' fifth straight victory last night over the Brooklyn Nets.. Meanwhile, we are focusing on the record-setting year of homicides in Memphis. The majority of the cityhomicide during 2021 were classified as murders 304 to be exact. The first occurred on Jan. 2, 2021, and the last on New Years Eve, our Micaela Watts reports. The circumstances of each murder were driven by different reasons, and there are many different solutions to the problem depending on whom you ask. Lack of conflict resolution skills, fair wages, mental health, or ease of gun access could be debatable causes for intent. Micaela breaks down what different professionals say are causing so much crime to take place in our city. Tom Lee Park design plans springs lawsuit A group filed a lawsuit against the city of Memphis and Memphis River Parks Partnership claiming parking plans for Tom Lee Park violate a mediation agreement, our Corinne Kennedy reports. In the lawsuit, plaintiffs Joe Kent, Britney Thornton, Jeremy Ellison, Pearl Walker, Kathleen McMillan and Gina Dickerson claimed design plans for the park changed between the end of mediation and the beginning of construction reducing the number of parking spaces. "The design agreement produced as a result of the 2019 mediation cannot be scrapped and disregarded. The improvements to be constructed at Tom Lee Park are in substantial non-compliance with the requirements of the mediation agreement," the plaintiffs said in the suit. Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis Memphis police chief on residency requirements Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis endorsed the idea of changing residency requirements for new police officers. Davis supported the idea of new police recruits being allowed to live outside of Shelby County, our Samuel Hardiman reports. Currently, new recruits are required to live within county limits. We know there are highly qualified candidates who live less than 30 minutes on the other side of the county line. They may want to come to Memphis to serve, but dont want to give up their homes, Davis wrote. Story continues Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. Saturday marks what would have been his 87th birthday. Celebrating Elvis Presleys Birthday Saturday marks what would have been Elvis Presleys 87th birthday. In celebration of the late Kings birthday, Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises will hold several events, reflections and concerts starting Thursday. From the Birthday Bash celebration to "Viva Las Vegas" movie screening and sing-along, our Bob Mehr provides us with a list of events this week to celebrate Presley. David Krog and Amanda Krog and their daughter Doris Krog in front of their new restaurant Dory in Memphis, Tenn., on Friday, April 10, 2020. Dory makes USA TODAYs Top 10 New Restaurants of 2021 list Memphis restaurant Dory was named on of USA TODAYs Top 10 New Restaurants of 2021, placing in fourth among restaurants across the country. The post reads, "In most restaurants, the menu is the same, and returning customers know what theyll order. And thats, well, okay. But in Dory, Dave and Amanda Krog have established the first tasting-menu-only restaurant in Memphis. Daves creative imagination and culinary expertise create a new six-course, seven wine tasting journey each month with locally sourced ingredients whenever possible." Our Jennifer Chandler reported back in February that Dory offers a one-of-a-kind tasting menu for a dinner experience, and later reported observations about its bar. The 901 was written by Ray Padilla, the digital producer for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at raymond.padilla@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @Ray_Padilla_. This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: The 901: Memphis homicides cause; Tom Lee Park lawsuit BEIJING (AP) American activists are appealing to Tesla Inc. to close a new showroom in Chinas northwestern region of Xinjiang, where officials are accused of abuses against mostly Muslim ethnic minorities. Tesla on Friday announced the opening of its showroom in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital, and said on its Chinese social media account, Lets start Xinjiangs all-electric journey! The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an American organization based in Washington, D.C., on Monday urged Tesla and its chairman, Elon Musk, to close the showroom and cease what amounts to economic support for genocide. Pressure on foreign companies to take positions on Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan and other politically charged issues has been rising. The ruling Communist Party pushes companies to adopt its positions in their advertising and on websites. It has attacked clothing and other brands that express concern about reports of forced labor and other abuses in Xinjiang. No American corporation should be doing business in a region that is the focal point of a campaign of genocide targeting a religious and ethnic minority, the groups communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, said in a statement. A message was left Tuesday seeking comment from Austin, Texas-based Tesla, which has disbanded its media relations department. Activists and foreign governments say some 1 million Uyghurs and members of other mostly Muslim minorities have been confined in detention camps in Xinjiang. Chinese officials reject accusations of abuses and say the camps are for job training and to combat extremism. On Friday, the ruling party's discipline agency threatened Walmart Inc. with a boycott after some shoppers complained online they couldn't find goods from Xinjiang in its Walmart and Sam's Club stores in China. In December, Intel Corp., the world's biggest maker of computer chips, apologized for asking suppliers to avoid sourcing goods from Xinjiang after the state press attacked the company and comments online called for a boycott of its goods. Story continues The United States has barred imports of goods from Xinjiang unless they can be shown not to be made by forced labor. Asked about Tesla's situation, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she could not comment on a particular company, but that the private sector should oppose human rights abuses and genocide in Xinjiang." The international community, including the public and private sectors cannot look the other way when it comes to what is taking place in Xinjiang," Psaki said. China is one of Teslas biggest markets. The companys first factory outside the United States opened in Shanghai in 2019. Other foreign auto brands including Volkswagen, General Motors and Nissan Motor Co. have showrooms in Xinjiang operated by the automakers Chinese joint-venture partners. VW also operates a factory in Urumqi. If Tesla and Musk are bowing to Chinese government pressure, it's in contrast to the U.S., where Musk has repeatedly clashed with government agencies. Last year he moved Tesla's headquarters to Austin from California after a spat with Alameda County health officials over reopening a factory at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. He also has fought with the Securities and Exchange Commission over a 2018 tweet claiming that he had financing to take Tesla private, when that funding was not secured. He and the company agreed to pay $20 million each to settle allegations that he misled investors. Musk branded the SEC the shortseller enrichment commission, distorting the meaning of its acronym. Short sellers bet that a stock price will fall. Tesla also faces inquiries by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems. The company has said both are partially automated driver-assist systems despite their names. Los Angeles-based FCS is one of the largest community-based and Latinx-led private medical groups in California Oakland, Calif. --News Direct-- Altais Healthcare services and technology company Altais, has finalized the agreement to acquire Family Care Specialists Medical Corporation (FCS). FCS was founded in 1988 and provides all-age family healthcare to communities in the eastern and northern Los Angeles metropolitan area. It is comprised of a medical group with more than 120 staff, an independent physician association with more than 340 primary care physicians and specialists, and a nationally recognized family-medicine residency program. The deal was announced in October. Altais is a healthcare services company pioneering integrated, scalable technology solutions and business models that are designed to enhance the patient experience, improve health outcomes, reduce cost, and drive professional gratification among physicians. Altais invests directly in physician practices, clinics, and related business models. In 2020, Brown & Toland Physicians, a network of 2,700+ independent physicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, joined the Altais family of companies. Altais also opened two independent primary care clinics serving essential civic employees and educators in the Monterey-Salinas market. FCS was formed by six Latinx physicians who still lead the group. They are all native Angelenos from the East Los Angeles community. Their aims for FCS were to provide high-quality and affordable healthcare and cultivate future generations of physicians for their community. We founded Family Care Specialists with the goals of giving back to the community, in both healthcare services and medical education, said Dr. Hector Flores, co-founder and medical director of FCS. Our residency program continues to be an incubator for independent physicians who are committed to care for families in underserved communities. We believe the new relationship with Altais will provide FCS access to greater resources and technology. Driven by the power of our common cause, well enhance healthcare for the community at large. Story continues "Altais mission is to ignite an exceptional healthcare system that cultivates the health and well-being of physicians, patients and the clinical community, said Altais CEO Dr. Jeff Bailet. One of our primary goals in the pursuit of that mission is to support physician practices in delivering high-quality patient care and better health outcomes at lower costs. Family Care Specialists has done an outstanding job providing comprehensive healthcare to underserved communities in the Los Angeles area and developing future generations of family-medicine physicians through its residency program. Our organizations aligned missions make us a perfect fit for bolstering value-based community healthcare to the residents of Los Angeles. FCS recently received Advisory Boards prestigious Innovation Showcase: Strategies to Advance Diversity Award. FCS will reinvest the $10,000 award into its extensive healthcare workforce development programs that are designed to advance diversity, ensure placement of residency graduates in underserved areas, and build future leaders in healthcare. * * * About Altais Altais is a healthcare services company that helps physicians and the clinical community maximize the health and well-being of their patients in an affordable and sustainable way. Altais has two divisions. Altais Clinical Services offers a range of affiliation and employment models for physicians, and high-quality, affordable care for patients. Altais Health offers a broad platform of clinical support tools and technology, along with high-touch support. Ultimately, Altais seeks to enhance the vibrancy of physician practice and strengthen the heart of medicine physicians connecting with patients and providing personalized, high-quality care. For more information about Altais, please visit www.altais.com. About Family Care Specialists The Family Care Specialists (FCS) Medical Corporation, aka FCS Medical Group, and the FCS IPA collectively serve approximately 30,000 beneficiaries comprised of Medi-Cal, Medicare, Commercial and Covered California coverage and 5% who are uninsured. The FCS Medical Group is dedicated to improving the health status of its patients, their families, and the entire community. FCS utilizes culturally and linguistically competent services and deployment of performance standards that reduce or eliminate health disparities. The FCS medical group is also the founding partner of the Adventist Health White Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program. The residency program is nationally recognized for its academic success, placement of more than 70% of graduates in medically underserved areas, and for contributing to diversity in the health professions. More than 65% of its graduates come from groups known to be under-represented in medicine. For more information about Family Care Specialists, please visit www.fcsmg.com. ### Note: In this transaction, Synergy Advisors, LLC, served as exclusive financial advisor to Family Care Specialists Medical Corporation and its principal physicians, and Kaufman Hall served as exclusive financial advisor to Altais and Altais Clinical Services. Editors, please note: Photos and interviews are available by contacting Robin Carr at (415) 971-3991 or Altais@landispr.com. Contact Details Landis Communications Inc. Robin Carr +1 415-971-3991 altais@landispr.com Company Website https://altais.com/ View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/altais-finalizes-family-care-specialists-acquisition-189094597 More than 300 Baltimore Police officers and other employees are quarantined because of COVID-19, a department spokeswoman said Monday. Of those quarantined, 227 police personnel have tested positive and 78 are awaiting test results, spokeswoman Amanda Krotki said. Thats roughly 12% of the 2,500 member force. Advertisement Krotki did not provide information on how the department is handling staffing shortages, but added: Were all still working and protecting the city. Other area agencies also are experiencing COVID-related absences. Advertisement A Baltimore County police union official said about 6% of its 1,800 members are out, while a Harford County Sheriffs Office spokeswoman said the virus is currently hitting about 3% of its staff. Law enforcement agencies and other front-line workers around the country are grappling with the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases that coincided with the emergence of the new omicron variant and following the holidays. Baltimore Police officers, as well as all city employees are required to get the COVID-19 vaccine or face weekly testing. The department disclosed that about 65% of its personnel have been vaccinated. More Marylanders were hospitalized Monday than at any other point during the pandemic, and more people are testing positive for the virus. The states seven-day average testing positivity rate stands at 26.87%, just shy of the state record. The shortages due to COVID compound the staffing issues that have hindered Baltimore police for years. Baltimore launched an aggressive marketing campaign two years ago seeking recruits to fill its depleted ranks, and in October increased starting pay for new officers. Still, attrition continues to outpace hiring. According to recent departmental data, the department experienced a net loss of 92 officers last year Baltimore hired 170 new officers, but 262 retired or otherwise left between January and November 2021. Baltimore County Police spokeswoman Joy Stewart confirmed Monday night that approximately 6% of sworn and civilian staff were impacted by COVID-19 but said the count was fluid and constantly changing. She didnt specify how many had tested positive or were quarantining after exposure. Advertisement County police union leaders said staffing shortages are forcing officers to work mandatory overtime. The patrol shifts are very short at the moment. There is a lot of mandatory overtime and that becomes taxing on my members, said Dave Folderauer, president for the Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 4, who estimated about 100 of the approximately 1,800 employees were out due to COVD. Breaking News Alerts As it happens Be informed of breaking news as it happens and notified about other don't-miss content with our free news alerts. > Folderauer said the county has been working to beef up staffing, but those new recruits wont be out on the street for nine months. Hiring is a big thing, but hiring takes time, he said. I believe the numbers for Baltimore County in the current class is around 59, but were nine months away. That wont have an impact on the agency at all until September or so. Stewart said Monday the department also had reestablished its telephone reporting team for non-emergency situations, limiting potential exposure and allowing for officers to stay on patrol. Like Baltimore, Baltimore County requires testing for all unvaccinated employees. Folderauer said the FOP opposed the requirement, but said if the county is going to impose testing, it should include all employees. Advertisement [I]f you have been vaccinated and you can still have COVID or contract COVID, youre potentially spreading that and were not identifying that potential spread of the disease, he said. In Harford County, which does not have a vaccine or testing mandate, fewer officers have been sidelined. As of Monday, nine out of 297 deputies were out due to COVID, or about 3 percent of the force, said Cristie Hopkins, a spokeswoman for the sheriffs office. A spokeswoman for Howard County Police said Tuesday there were 21 patrol officers on sick leave, or 10% of patrol staffing, but that the agency had no information on whether the illnesses were COVID-related. An additional five employees, or 7% of total staff, were out at the 911 Center, according to spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn. (Courtesy of Kyra Frankowski) Kyra Frankowski was 14 years old when her parents decided they didnt know what to do with her. Four days after entering the new year in 2014, she was ripped from her home in Ohio and dropped off at a camp in rural Utah which promised to disrupt years of behaviour problems. Upon arrival, she was stripped of her belongings, clothes, piercings - anything that showed signs of personality. In the four months that followed, she spent every second of every day in the wild, hiking until her feet bled, eating dehydrated foods that left her constipated for weeks, bathing with a bucket and sponge, and sleeping wrapped in a plastic tarp. This was Ms Frankowskis experience with wilderness therapy, a treatment that purports to help teens overcome behavioural and mental health issues through exposure to nature. Since the founding of the first wilderness therapy programme in 1990, hundreds of thousands of American teens have been sent to live outdoors for weeks at a time with a goal of disrupting and permanently replacing unhealthy behaviour and thought patterns. Proponents of wilderness therapy - referred to in the medical community as outdoor behavioural healthcare - say it can help teens heal from trauma, conquer challenges and find their true selves. But for many like Ms Frankowski, this therapy did exactly the opposite. Critics say the treatment lacks scientific support and can leave lasting scars as teens are often enrolled into programmes without their consent and are subjected to cruel conditions throughout their stay. There are ways that I was violated and humiliated as a child in this programme that I wouldnt wish on my worst enemy, Ms Frankowski tells The Independent. Basically, wilderness therapy programmes are dangerous, unregulated money-machines. They advertise as therapeutic opportunities for at-risk youth, offering to challenge kids with survival skills. In reality, they take a vulnerable, untrained kid out of their environment with or without their consent, and place them in a wild environment with undertrained and undereducated staff, and it often runs rampant with abuse and neglect of all kinds. Story continues Ms Frankowski is part of a growing movement to overhaul wilderness therapy programmes so that other teens dont have to go through what she did. Over the past two years, Ms Frankowski has built a 131,700-strong following on her TikTok account @yeahitsnatural with videos educating about the dangers of wilderness therapy. TikTok became a popular venue for teens to share their stories about wilderness therapy in 2020 after socialite Paris Hilton opened up about the trauma she endured when she attended a programme at age 16 in her documentary This Is Paris. For Ms Hilton - heiress to the Hilton hotel empire whose name became synonymous with wild partying in the early 2000s - wilderness therapy was part of a years-long journey through the so-called Troubled Teen Industry (TTI). Breaking Code Silence (BCS), an organization dedicated to raising awareness about TTI, defines it as a network of privately-owned, powerfully punitive, and often wilderness-based therapy programs, residential treatment centers, therapeutic boarding schools, group homes, boot camps, and faith-based academies. The industry is a big money-maker, according to BCS, bringing in roughly $50b each year. BCS sheds light on the range of TTI abuses by offering survivors a chance to share their experiences in an essay collection called Survivor Stories. The collection features more than 100 essays, some accounts dating back to the 1990s. We help bring your family back together The primary trade group in the wilderness therapy industry, the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Council (OBH Council), boasts 22 member programmes around the US. These programmes, accredited by the Council, advertise treatment for a range of conditions, from depression to autism to traumatic brain injury. Their websites are typically geared toward parents, promising to heal familial issues by tackling challenges faced by teens. For example, the website for RedCliff Ascent in Utah states: Your teen will discover the person they are inside, helping them strengthen broken relationships. We help bring your family back together. For Alicia Harris, wilderness therapy worked exactly as advertised when she attended the Anasazi Foundations programme in Arizona in 2017, although it was rocky at the start. The first couple of weeks I was there I cried every day and didnt understand how hiking five to 10 miles a day was supposed to cure my depression, Ms Harris told The Independent. After three weeks of carrying 30 pound backpacks all over the Arizona desert, making primitive fire for every meal, and carving spoons out of wood, I already felt a change in myself. I felt a change in my heart. The physical challenges represented my emotional challenges and I continued to walk forward in my life. I still dont know how to explain why Anasazi helped me so much, but it just did. It did for every other girl in the group, too. Going without simple necessities such as deodorant, toothpaste, toilets, shampoo, et cetera, made me appreciate so much in life. I saw the world differently after Anasazi. I finally had an appreciation for life and the world wasnt so terrible anymore. Ms Harris voiced her appreciation for Anasazi in a TikTok video last year, which featured photos of her smiling through tears of joy when she was reunited with her parents at the end of the programme. Her experience stands in stark contrast to the stories shared in the BCS essay collection. Neglect and abuse Many survivors described how they were sent to programmes after suffering sexual abuse, deliquent behaviour such as skipping school and excessive partying, or their parents finding out they were on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. Several told how they were ripped from their beds in the middle of the night by strangers sent by programmes to escort them to nature sites, where most or all of their personal items were taken away. While in the programmes, survivors described being forced to do physical labour - often construction projects to improve the camps themselves - and being sent out on days-long hikes in the woods. Many developed serious medical issues that went untreated, many tried to run away and many were driven to thoughts of suicide. Ms Frankowski penned her own survivor story for the BCS collection, detailing the three months she spent at the Second Nature Wilderness programme in Utah in 2014. Asked why she was sent to the programme, Ms Frankowski told The Independent the answer would vary depending on who you ask. In middle school, she was hospitalised three separate times for self-harm and suicide attempts. She underwent individual and group therapy, but she said: Despite this, my behavioural problems persisted. My relationships with my family and friends were dysfunctional and toxic, and I had found myself in an abusive relationship with a boy my age who took my innocence and sexually assaulted me, she said. I was absolutely miserable, and it was affecting everyone around me that I cared about. My parents didnt know what to do. Kyra Frankowski was 14 years old when her parents shipped her off to a wilderness therapy programme in Utah in 2014 (Courtesy of Kyra Frankowski) Thats when a psychiatrist recommended she undergo residential treatment - which she refused. Her parents then decided she would go to wilderness therapy - whether she wanted to or not - after she was arrested for shoplifting a bracelet. Ms Frankowski said her parents told her they could take her to the programme themselves or have someone transport her from her home in Ohio. She chose the former. Upon arrival, she said: I was forced into an invasive and humiliating squat-and-cough strip search where the staff giggled at me from the corner of the room. They removed all of my piercings and my personal items, and handed me a very basic, brightly coloured change of clothes and a massive backpack that I nearly couldnt lift, and I was driven two hours in the dark into the desert by strangers. When she reached her campsite she was told not to speak to anyone, before being wrapped in a tarp to sleep alongside staff. This was called burrito position or tarping and happened on several occasions - the staff were co-ed, she noted. The next morning when I struggled through our hike through the snowy mountains due to my asthma, I was ridiculed by the staff and had to stop several times before I was allowed my inhaler, she recalled. It only got worse from there, she said. Throughout my time at Second Nature, I witnessed and experienced neglect and abuse, she said. Cleaning consisted of rubbing things with dirt. We had billy baths every few weeks, which was essentially a sponge bath, using a dirty bandana, in the winter with a bucket of water and hand soap. We were given few changes of clothes which were often covered in holes from burns and falls, and only a few changes of underwear, which were washed infrequently. I dont remember seeing or hearing of any water purification methods, but we were given a few gallons for the whole group at each site we went to. For food, we ate things like dehydrated beans and rice, cold-hydrated oatmeal and powdered milk, and tortillas with string cheese. The food wrought havoc on Ms Frankowskis digestive system, to the point that she didnt relieve herself for weeks. After the issue caused her to lose feeling in her hands and feet, staff finally listened to her pleas for professional help. She visited a clinic a few hours away and was sent back to the camp the same day with prune juice. The experience wasnt any better for the other teens in her group, she said. Occasionally, a group member would refuse to continue hiking due to exhaustion, and we were forced to carry them and their heavy pack the rest of the way. When sick, students were forced to continue hiking, and given a warm cup of tea - if they were lucky, she recalled. Group therapy sessions were carried out by staff with little to no mental health training, who berated the teens to the point that Ms Frankowski saw one of her peers flee the camp in fear one night. We had to read extremely personal and vulnerable therapy assignments and letters from our families in front of the group and take constant verbal attacks disguised as feedback with no complaints, she said. Our letters to our families were heavily monitored, however, as staff would watch over our shoulders and we were told that our letters would not be sent if it was deemed inappropriate - if we were honest or complained about the conditions. There were also issues between other group members one night, a group member snuck off and found some of our toothbrushes, urinated on them, and put them back without saying a word. The stories Ms Frankowski shares publicly dont show the full picture, she said. Some of the worst parts, I dont feel completely comfortable sharing. (Courtesy of Kyra Frankowski) The one aspect of the programme that did live up to its promise was the nature itself. Up until that point and to this day, I have never experienced such natural beauty. There arent words to describe the scenery out there. Ms Frankowskis time at Second Nature finally came to an end in early April, when she was left with one last bad memory. After three months of close to no contact with my family, I was denied the traditional graduation ceremony where your family is allowed to join from home because I hadnt earned it, she said. Like many other survivors, including Ms Hilton, Ms Frankowskis time in wilderness therapy was followed by a stay at a residential treatment center with more grueling conditions. She spent the better part of the next two years at Eva Carlston Academy, which is viewed as another cog in the TTI machine. The Independents requests for comment from multiple wilderness therapy programmes including RedCliff Ascent and Anasazi went unanswered. What the research says - and doesnt say Wilderness therapy has been the subject of dozens of scientific studies examining the effects on participants. But questions have been raised about the reliability of many of those studies due to how they were funded. One of the most widely-cited studies cited by the programmes was published by Dr Michael Gass of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in 2011, which looked at outcomes from 12 programmes under the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Council that year. The study found that participating in wilderness therapy carried a much lower risk of injury than normal everyday activities, such as sports. Another study published by Dr Gass the same year found that OBH resulted in significant positive changes in all areas examined, including behavioural dysfunction, social problems, interpersonal relations and interpersonal distress. Dr Gass is the head of the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Center at UNH, which was created in 2015 with sponsorship from the OBH Council the trade group that oversees wilderness therapy businesses. The OBH Council website features a database of more than 136 publications on wilderness therapy. Seven researchers from the OBH Center are listed as authors on more than 100 of those publications. Experts questioned the quality of the OBH Councils research database in a 2017 article by Undark. They noted an absence of follow-up studies examining the long-term effects of wildlife therapy, as well as a lack of studies with a control group that did not participate in the programme. The Undark article also questioned potential conflicts of interest in publications, highlighting one 2018 study led by Redcliff Ascents executive director Steven DeMille that was described as groundbreaking by the OBH Center. A journal published by NATSAP has drawn similar scrutiny, as critics say it promotes research that touts the effectiveness of the very programmes that fund the organisation. Dr Emmanuel Monneron, a psychiatrist and consultant to BCS, condemned research featured in the NATSAP journal in an August blog post. aaEven if these studies were not influenced by huge conflicts of interests (i.e. the studies being funded and published by an organization to promote companies funding that same organization), they are far from being properly designed and not a single one of them is a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial, Dr Monneron wrote. No matter what NATSAP claims, theres currently no strong scientific evidence of the effectiveness of WT programs. A similar conclusion was reached in a 2017 report by Dr Nevin J Harper, a professor at the University of Victorias School of Child & Youth Care, who reviewed nearly 10,000 pieces of literature on wilderness therapy and identified ethical concerns [that] deserve further attention. In another report published in March 2020, Dr Harper stated the need for "Routine Outcome Monitoring," a method of looking at the effects of different psychotherapy treatments over time to identify areas of improvement, in the wilderness therapy field. Lasting effects The BCS Survivor Stories provide a subjective - albeit far from scientific - glimpse into some of the long-term effects teens experienced after wilderness therapy. Many survivors describe feeling detached from their loved ones, desensitised to their own feelings and overall, adrift. For Kyra, the first lasting effect that comes to mind is trauma. Upon leaving the programmes, I didnt know anything about how to be an individual my age, she said. I know nothing about how to socialise or what healthy kids my age were supposed to do. Id missed out on so many important steps in my adolescence and I felt simultaneously five years behind everyone and 10 years ahead. I felt completely alone in my experiences and in my life. I knew how to bust a fire with sticks and rocks, but I didnt know how to advocate for myself, how to deal with interpersonal conflict, or even how to make friends. Many of the issues that fuelled her enrolment in Second Nature came back even stronger, she said. I developed an eating disorder almost immediately upon returning home, which I did not have before, and it progressed to the point of almost needing to be institutionalised again, she said. Upon returning home, I relapsed with self-harm and was involved in several toxic relationships. In the years since, Ms Frankowski has been working through everything with a therapist, but she says: I still struggle to this day. I have deep, long-lasting emotional wounds from being sent to the programmes as well as what happened to me and my friends while in the programmes. I struggle daily with many of these lasting effects including agoraphobia, social anxiety, depression, nightmares, trust issues and irritable bowel syndrome. Im still learning how to be a person in the real world again, even eight years after being sent away. Ms Frankowskis recovery journey shifted in the fall of 2020 when she watched Ms Hiltons This Is Paris. I was shocked that anyone especially someone with such a powerful voice was talking about this, she said. For so long I thought I was alone and I was always told to be careful not to tell anyone where I was during that time. Then, someone from my hometown posted about their experience on Instagram. I finally felt free from the weight of that silence. After talking to this survivor and a few other survivors who were posting on TikTok, I felt ready to start sharing. It was slow at first, but the more survivors I met and the more community that I found, some of whom have been here talking for decades now, the more accepted I felt as a former troubled teen turned survivor. Ms Frankowski is now partnering with BCS in a bid to bolster regulation of wilderness therapy and other TTI programmes by introducing the Accountability for Congregate Care Act earlier this year. The bill seeks to improve transparency in these programmes by developing systems and infrastructure that will prevent catastrophic abuse and increase our understanding of evidence-based practices for youth in these settings. Since being introduced in the US Capitol by Ms Hilton in October 2021 with sponsorship from Rep Ro Khanna (D - California) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D - Oregon), the bill has received backing from many childrens rights groups including the Beau Biden Foundation. For Ms Frankowski, this bill is a vital step in a long road to preventing others from going through what she did. I do think the programmes need to be stopped altogether, but I believe that regulation and legislation is a step in that direction, she said. Zachary Wilson A fourth man from the Springfield area has been arrested in connection with last month's deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. Zachary John Wilson, of Springfield, was arrested Friday on federal charges of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building, according to the FBI. The FBI says Wilson was taken into custody without incident. More: Springfield brothers charged with participating in riot at US Capitol According to court documents, Wilson got on the FBI's radar when an anonymous tipster sent them screenshots from a Facebook post Wilson made announcing he was one of the first people to enter the Capitol and that he had gone to the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The FBI interviewed Wilson in January, and he allegedly admitted to going inside the Capitol, adding that he was a supporter of then-president Donald Trump and he wanted his "voice to be heard." Wilson denied destroying any property while inside the building, according to court documents. The Jan. 6 attack in Washington D.C. left five people dead and sent lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence fleeing to shelter. Now-former president Trump was impeached when the House of Representatives accused him of encouraging the violence at the Capitol with false claims the election had been stolen from him. More than 200 people have been arrested nationwide for allegedly participating in the riot. The three other Springfield-area residents charged in the case are Zachary Martin and brothers Michael and Stephen Quick. More: FBI arrests Springfield man in connection with U.S. Capitol riot This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield man arrested in connection with Jan. 6 US Capitol riot WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Groups representing U.S. airlines, aircraft manufacturers and airports urged the White House late on Monday to intervene to delay the use by wireless carriers of C-Band spectrum for 5G, which they warn could cause dramatic disruptions for air travel. "Time has run out and its imperative that the White House intervene today to delay the imminent rollout of C-band 5G signals," the groups said in a statement, issued just hours before the spectrum is due to come into use. "Starting Wednesday, the disruptions to our countrys aviation system are going to be incredibly challenging, especially at a time when the industry is currently experiencing COVID-related operational issues," the statement from the Aerospace Industries Association, International Air Transport Association, Regional Airline Association and others said. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler) The late Betty Whites love for animals has long been well known, but one particular act of generosity was mostly untold until this week. The beloved Golden Girls star paid for a private plane to relocate otters and penguins from Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans in the aftermath of 2005s Hurricane Katrina. We lost a conservationist, animal advocate, and friend, the Audubon Nature Institute tweeted on Friday, the day White died at the age of 99. When the penguins & sea otters were evacuated to [Monterey Bay Aquarium] for Hurricane Katrina, Betty White paid for the plane to relocate them. She did not ask for fanfare; she just wanted to help. Betty White at the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association's 44th Annual Beastly Ball in 2014. (Photo: Angela Weiss via Getty Images) The aquarium didnt know about Whites contribution until after the fact. Spokesperson Annie Matherne confirmed to HuffPost that White paid for a portion of the rescue mission, but the organization does not know the exact amount because Audubon didnt handle the transaction directly. Audubon Aquarium is built on high ground, with strong concrete walls and windows designed to withstand high winds. Aquarium staff had taken measures to prepare for the approach of Katrina. But in the aftermath of the storm, the aquariums generators faltered and filters in the marine tanks stopped working, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. Most of the facilitys 10,000 fish died. It was unknown before the storm of just how extensive the damage would be to New Orleans, as is the case with many hurricanes, Matherne said. Our hurricane plan does not include evacuating animals ahead of a storm because storms can shift and we do not want to unnecessarily stress the animals in our care. There are also a number of logistics ... that make an evacuation difficult. Katrina turned out to be a historic storm that left nearly 2,000 people dead, millions homeless and caused $125 billion in damages. The entire city of New Orleans lost power for weeks, which made evacuating the aquariums surviving animals necessary. Those survivors included, among others, all of the aquariums 19 penguins and two sea otters named Buck and Emma. Story continues Tom Dyer, who local news station WWL identified as a caretaker for the aquariums birds when Katrina hit, recalled in a Twitter thread that Monterey Bay Aquarium in California agreed to take the penguins and otters. Those animals flew on a private plane out of Baton Rouge, Dyer said. Tom Dyer kisses Patience the penguin at the Audubon Aquarium as it re-opened for the first time after Hurricane Katrina in May 2006. (Photo: AP Photo/Alex Brandon) At the time, he knew only that an anonymous donor paid for the flight. It leaked years later that the benefactor had been White, Dyer said. The animals later returned to the Audubon Aquarium, Matherne said. The otters, Buck and Emma, lived to the ripe old ages of 18 and 19, respectively. Reflecting on Whites gesture, Dyer commented: what a Classy Fucking Dame. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights to Pawo Choyning Dorjis lushly lensed Bhutanese drama Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom, one of the 15 films shortlisted for the Oscars international feature film race. Represented by Berlin-based Films Boutique, Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2019 and won the audience award at last years Palm Springs Film Festival. The critically acclaimed film is the second Oscar entry from Bhutan, a landlocked country in South Asia. The first official Bhutanese Oscar submission was in 1999 with Khyentse Norbus The Cup, a Tibetan-language drama. More from Variety The movie follows a young teacher who dreams of emigrating to Australia and instead finds himself assigned to a school in the most remote village in Northern Bhutan where there is no running water and electricity. While he wants to leave as soon as he arrives, the teacher bonds with local children who convince him to stay before the truly harsh conditions of winter hit. The film was shot on location in one of the most remote human settlements in the world and the production had to rely entirely on solar batteries. Most of the actors are local yak herders who have never seen the world beyond their village. Samuel Goldwyn Films will announce release plans shortly. The distribution company scored three nominations at last years Oscars for Thomas Vinterbergs Another Round (which also earned Vinterberg a best director nomination) and the Tunisian film The Man Who Sold His Skin. Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom is like a breath of fresh air during these dark and uncertain times, said Peter Goldwyn, president of Samuel Goldwyn Films. Pawo Choyning Dorji has made a film about what connects us as humans with so much heart that we are certain that it will connect with viewers. Story continues Samuel Goldwyn Films negotiated the deal with Julien Razafindranaly, head of sales at Films Boutique. Choyning Dorji said, With Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, I just wanted to share a story that was culturally, geographically and linguistically diverse from the rest of the world, but a story that touched upon the universal human value of trying to find where we belong. I think during this pandemic, when we suffer so much from sickness, separation and anxiety, celebrating the values that unite us together as humanity does so much to help us, added the filmmaker. Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom was produced by Dorji, Steven Xiang, Stephane Lai and Jia Honglin. The movie was submitted last year by the Bhutanese governments Ministry of Information and Communications but the entry was considered ineligible by the Academy because Bhutan did not have a proper official committee. A new committee society, including Khyentse Norbu, the director of Bhutans 1999 Oscar entry The Cup, was formed within the last year and unanimously selected Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jarrett Renshaw WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden will mark the one-year anniversary of the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump's followers with a speech on Thursday warning of the threats to democracy, while Trump abandoned plans for a news conference that day as he reprised his attacks on Democrats and the media. The White House said Biden would push back against Trump's false claims, adopted by many of his followers, that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud, as well as attempts to downplay the violence of the worst assault on the Capitol since the War of 1812. "The president is going to speak to the truth of what happened, not the lies that some have spread since, and the peril it has posed to the rule of law and our system of democratic governance," White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday, in the first preview of Biden's remarks. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will speak Thursday morning at the U.S. Capitol, one year after thousands of Trump supporters raided the complex https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democracy-under-siege-an-hour-by-hour-look-assault-us-capitol-2022-01-04 in a failed attempt to stop the counting of Electoral College votes by lawmakers that officially delivered the Democratic president's election victory. Immersive: How rioters got within 2 doors of Mike Pence's office on Jan. 6, 2021 Experience how close the rioters got in augmented reality by scanning this QR code with your phone. For more Immersive stories click here. Trump on Tuesday canceled a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida that had been scheduled for Jan. 6, saying he would address many of the same topics at a rally in Arizona on Jan. 15 instead. It was not clear why Trump canceled the news conference, which had originally been announced on Dec. 21. In a statement, Trump blamed what he called the "bias and dishonesty" of the House of Representatives probe of Jan. 6, as well as the news media, a favorite target. The Jan. 6 anniversary comes as Trump continues to fight to block the release of White House records sought by the House committee investigating the attack. Story continues Trump, some fellow Republicans and right-wing media personalities have pushed https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-disinformation/half-of-republicans-believe-false-accounts-of-deadly-u-s-capitol-riot-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKBN2BS0RZ false accounts to downplay the Jan. 6 attack, calling it a non-violent protest or blaming left-wing activists. Four people died on the day of the riot, and one Capitol police officer died the day after defending Congress. Dozens of police were injured during the multi-hour onslaught by Trump supporters, and four officers have since taken their own lives https://www.reuters.com/world/us/officer-who-responded-us-capitol-attack-is-third-die-by-suicide-2021-08-02. Psaki was asked what the president's message will be to the many Republicans who believe Biden stole the election from Trump, despite overwhelming contrary evidence. "What he's going to continue to do is speak to everyone in the country. Those who didn't vote for him, those who may not believe he is the legitimate president, about what he wants to do to make their lives better," she said. The White House is struggling https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-vote-changing-rules-if-republicans-obstruct-voting-rights-law-schumer-2022-01-03 to get voting rights legislation through the U.S. Senate that would counter new laws in Republican-led states that Democrats say would limit left-leaning voters. Two sources told Reuters that Biden and Harris do not plan to use the Jan. 6 event to push for voting rights legislation. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Jarrett Renshaw; additonal reporting by Nandita Bose and Merdie Nzanga; Editing by Heather Timmons, Rosalba O'Brien and Leslie Adler) Baltimores spending board is poised to approve an $8 million settlement with the family of a man who was exonerated after serving 17 years in prison on a homicide charge. The settlement, which is due to be approved Wednesday by the citys Board of Estimates, would close out a lawsuit filed by the family of Malcolm J. Bryant. Bryant was convicted of killing 16-year-old Toni Bullock in 1998. His sentence was vacated in 2016 with the help of the Maryland Innocence Project after a court-ordered DNA test on the victims nail clippings revealed a partial DNA profile that did not match Bryant. Advertisement Bryant was released from prison in 2016 and died in early 2017 at age 42. Bryants family sued the Baltimore Police Department as well as Detective William F. Ritz and forensic analyst Barry Verger in 2019 arguing their failure to disclose exculpatory evidence led to Bryants wrongful conviction. Advertisement The city law departments settlement committee has recommended settling the case, according to the Board of Estimates agenda for Wednesday. An attorney for Bryants family was not available for comment. In their lawsuit, the Bryant estate argued Ritz failed to disclose knowledge of another eyewitness whose account contradicted and undermined testimony from the only eyewitness to Bullocks death used at trial. Ritz also allegedly failed to disclose multiple pieces of evidence pointing to another possible suspect in the case. The suit states Verger allegedly failed to examine the fingernail clippings for DNA and falsely reported the fingernails were consumed, meaning no further testing was possible. Bullock, an 11th-grader at Carver Vocational-Technical High School who aspired to be an accountant, was walking home from a drugstore with her best friend on Nov. 20, 1998, when a man dragged her into a vacant lot and stabbed her multiple times. Maryland Policy & Politics Weekdays Keep up to date with Maryland politics, elections and important decisions made by federal, state and local government officials. > Police released a composite sketch, and presented Bullocks friend with a photo lineup that included Bryant. The friend picked him out as the killer. Bryant produced alibi witnesses, but he was convicted of murder by a city jury the following year. While in prison, Bryant maintained his innocence, and won numerous court orders to test evidence related to the case. In 2011, a court-ordered DNA test on Bullocks nail clippings revealed a partial DNA profile that included a rare identifier that did not match Bryant. Attorneys with the Innocence Project later obtained a court order to test a T-shirt that was worn by Bullock, which revealed a full DNA profile that matched the partial profile from the nail clippings. With the lab results in hand, prosecutors re-interviewed witnesses, visited the crime scene, and talked to Bryants alibi witnesses. Advertisement The only plausible reason is that the DNA is in fact that of the killer, States Attorney Marilyn Mosby said in 2016. And the DNA does not match that of Malcolm Bryant, which in all probability means he is not the killer. The lawsuit, brought by Bryants sons, Lamar Estep and Malique Bryant, sought unspecified damages, compensation for attorneys fees and punitive damages against each defendant. The settlement is one of the largest finalized by Baltimore in recent years related to conduct of the Baltimore Police Department. In 2020, the city paid out nearly $8 million to Umar Burley and Brent Matthews who were both sent to federal prison for drugs planted in their vehicle in 2010 by the departments disgraced Gun Trace Task Force. Four Democratic-leaning northeastern states are asking the Supreme Court to hear a case challenging the cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction created by Republicans' 2017 tax law. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland filed their petition to the high court after a federal appeals court ruled against them in October. "I am proud we are taking this issue to the Supreme Court to continue to fight on behalf of New York taxpayers," Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said in a news release Monday. Republicans created a $10,000 limit on the SALT deduction as part of their 2017 tax law in order to raise revenue to help offset tax cuts elsewhere in the law. But the cap is unpopular with politicians in high-tax, Democratic-leaning states, who argue that it has led to tax increases for residents and makes it harder for their states to provide robust public services. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland initially filed their lawsuit against the Treasury Department and IRS in 2018, arguing that the SALT deduction cap violates the Constitution. But a U.S. district court ruled against the states in 2019, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled against them in October. In their petition to the Supreme Court, the states argued that the court should take up the case because "Congress's unprecedented curtailment of the SALT deduction presents a novel and important question about the limits of federal taxation power." They also argued that the appeals court ruling was incorrect. "Contrary to the court of appeals' reasoning, the SALT deduction is not merely a matter of congressional grace," the states argued. "Rather, the deduction is rooted in the structural limitations placed on the federal government by basic federalism principles in the Constitution." The petition to the Supreme Court comes as Democrats are discussing rolling back the SALT deduction cap as part of a wide-ranging social spending and climate package. The House passed a version of the bill in November that would raise the cap to $80,000. But Senate Democrats are expected to take a different approach, due to concerns from some that the House provision would provide benefits to high-income families. Story continues Senate Democrats have yet to announce a deal on the SALT issue, and the broader spending package is in danger due to opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). One of the leading advocates in Congress for rolling back the SALT deduction cap is New York Rep. Thomas Suozzi, who is running against Hochul in the Democratic primary for governor. "Looks like @GovKathyHochul is finally getting serious about SALT. Better late than never," Suozzi tweeted in response to the Supreme Court petition. Pennsylvania State Police troopers are searching for the source of a bomb threat that emptied a Summit Township hotel late Monday night. Investigators said someone called the Baymont Inn Hotel, 8170 Perry Highway, on Monday at about 11:55 p.m. and stated that there was a bomb inside. The hotel and some nearby businesses were evacuated as bomb-sniffing dogs from the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office searched areas inside and outside of the building, state police reported Tuesday morning. No explosive devices were found and the hotel and neighboring businesses reopened, according to troopers. The incident remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call state police at 814-898-1641. This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Bomb threats: Bogus report leads to search of Summit Township hotel BOULDER, Colo. - Residents of Boulder County are scrambling to recover from the wreckage of an unprecedented suburban firestorm that burned down about 1,000 homes and required thousands of residents to flee the area this weekend. At least 991 structures were destroyed by the Marshall Fire, which began on Thursday amid wind gusts of up to 100 mph, while an additional 127 incurred damage, a preliminary report from the Boulder County Sheriff said on Saturday. One of three missing individuals was found on Sunday, while authorities were still searching for the two others and investigating the precise cause of the fire, according to local media reports. "It's been a devastating few days here for everyone in Boulder County, and certainly for our state, as we grapple with an unprecedented situation and the most destructive fire in our state's history," Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), whose home district includes Boulder County, told The Hill. President Biden approved a Colorado disaster declaration on Saturday, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in Boulder County. The city of Louisville - about 10 miles east of Boulder - incurred the most destruction, with 553 structures ruined. Meanwhile, 332 structures crumbled in the town of Superior - about 8 miles southeast of Boulder - and 106 were destroyed in unincorporated Boulder County, the sheriff reported. The fire had reached 6,219 acres and 74 percent of the perimeter had been contained by late Sunday night, according to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management. While the Office began allowing residents to reenter certain areas of Superior on Sunday night, Louisville's evacuation status remained in place. "Our focus has been on doing everything we can to help residents, to help our neighbors, who are struggling during a very difficult time," Neguse said. His office is working with local government officials to ensure residents have the resources they need, including the replacement of IDs and documents required to obtain state and federal aid, according to the congressman. Story continues "We worked very hard, late last week, right after the fires began, to coordinate with the governor as he made his request to the Biden administration for the major disaster declaration," Neguse said. "We were grateful that the administration authorized that declaration and did it so swiftly, which is rare." The Biden administration's declaration makes federal funding available to individuals through grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, through a designated Disaster Assistance site operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), according to the White House. Together with Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Neguse said he pressed for that individual assistance to be included, enabling residents to apply online for assistance. His office has aggregated all pertinent information on his congressional website. Federal funding is available not only to individuals, but also to state and eligible local governments, and to certain nonprofit organizations and statewide hazard mitigation measures on a cost-sharing basis, the White House said. While federal assistance will be helpful to many Boulder County residents, Roberto Camacho Barranco and Vanezza Villegas Arreola said they won't be able to take advantage of the temporary housing grants, even though they lost the home they purchased just one week ago. The couple and their six-year-old son, Matias, moved from Mexico to Superior just last year for Camacho Barranco's engineering job. But despite having started the green card application process, they are on an H-1B specialty occupation visa - meaning they do not qualify for assistance through FEMA. "We can do nothing about it, to expedite it, because it's been waiting for more than six months now," Camacho Barranco told The Hill, while driving home to Boulder County, after a trip away for the holidays. "You have to be a qualified alien, and that essentially means that either you or your son has to be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident." The couple and their son moved to an apartment in the area in June 2020 and began renting their house in Superior in February. They recently decided to buy that house from their landlord and closed on it last week, Camacho Barranco said. Because they were not home during the firestorm, they only know their house didn't make it - and are grateful that they had insurance. Camacho Barranco and his family are now looking for a long-term rental during the rebuilding process, possibly returning to the same apartment complex where they first lived with their son. "He turns seven on Thursday, so it's a bittersweet celebration," Camacho Barranco added. "We have been getting a lot of support from the whole community." Even longtime members of that wider Boulder County community - including the district's congressman - are reeling from the devastation that unfolded over the past several days. "Last year we had the largest wildfire [and] the second largest wildfire both happen in our district simultaneously," said Neguse, referring to the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires of summer 2020. Prior to this weekend, the state's 20 largest wildfires in history had all occurred in the past 20 years, while four of the top five largest occurred in the past three years, according to Colorado's Wildfire Information Center. "What made this fire so different, and so uniquely disruptive, is that it raged through suburban neighborhoods," Neguse said. "While they are arguably within the WUI - the wildland urban interface - they're a healthy distance from mountains and from national forest land." Although winds are known to be strong in this region of Colorado, gusts surpassed 100 mph on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service, which also emphasized "the recent record dryness." "Those who have lived in Colorado for as long as I have know just how uncommon it was that we had no moisture literally in November in December, and the conditions were set for something, tragically, to happen," Neguse said. The Denver region experienced its record driest July-December by over an inch, after precipitation "flat-lined" in June, according to the National Weather Service. "We had a very dry, crispy Front Range coming into the end of December," Jennifer Balch, a fire scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, told The Hill. "The fact that I'm talking about a winter wildfire, which should be an oxymoron, to me is a signal that part of what we're dealing with here is climate change," she continued. While Balch characterized climate change as "a very important part of the puzzle," she stressed that it's not the only piece - and that she thinks of climate change as "setting the stage." Superior, an old mining town, grew from 300 homes in the 1990s to some 13,000 homes today, she explained. "It's actually a combination of things that come together to create a wildfire disaster," Balch said, noting that warm temperatures, fuel and a spark are needed to start a fire. "And if you throw wind in the mix, then you get a disaster, if homes are in the way." Because there is no natural lightning source this time of year, Balch said she suspects that the spark either stemmed from an infrastructural failure or a human-caused source. As Coloradans begin to rebuild their many hundreds of lost homes, she stressed the importance of doing so with more fire-resilient and -resistant materials and with a stronger wildfire messaging campaign. "We're Colorado strong," Balch said. "But we need to build back smarter." For his part, Neguse looked to the disaster as a cautionary tale for other areas of the U.S., warning that Boulder County is not the only region prone to suburban wildfire destruction. "I hope that other communities are paying attention," he said. "This could happen in any suburban community in the country, given the right sort of - given the particular circumstance." Support local journalism. Unlock unlimited digital access to floridatoday.com. Click here and subscribe today. The rise of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has drawn concern from parents, school officials and medical professionals as Brevard students return to classes this week. Doctors in Brevard County and Orlando have urged caution, saying COVID-19 in children can lead to symptoms of long COVID-19 and myocarditis and can spread the virus to more vulnerable family members. But with Florida's restrictions on COVID-19 mitigation measures, most Florida school districts including Brevard plan to reopen after winter break with guidelines far looser than those implemented this fall. Brevard Public Schools is taking a largely voluntary approach. Teachers and staff return Wednesday and students on Thursday. Masks are strongly encouraged, but not required, in Brevard Public Schools facilities for staff, students and visitors. Parents disagree over whether the approach is sufficient to keep students safe. Omicron has so far appeared to be much milder than earlier COVID-19 variants, and children from the beginning of the pandemic have fared better than adults although there have still been deaths and hospitalizations. Staff at Florida Pediatric Group in Melbourne ran rapid COVID-19 tests. Ashley Hall, chair of Moms for Liberty in Brevard, which fought for masks to be made optional throughout the pandemic, called the precautions BPS have offered sufficient. We're happy with it the way that it is, said Hall, a mother of a Brevard student. It leaves it open for people that want to do what's right for them to do what's right for them. Families for Safe Schools, a group that advocates requiring masks in schools, has called upon the district to re-instate its mask mandate and extend winter break through Monday to allow families and schools time to prepare. More: Long lines for COVID-19 testing, hospitalizations increase on Space Coast In recent light of the extreme amount of positive COVID (omicron) cases, its transmissibility and impact on our student population throughout our community, Families for Safe Schools wants Brevard Public Schools to require masks for all staff, students and volunteers effective immediately, the organization said in a statement. Story continues COVID-19 case rates released by the Florida Department of Health last week showed a 309% increase in cases on the Space Coast from the week prior. From Dec. 24 to Dec. 30, Brevard County had 814.6 cases per 100,000 people, which translates to 4,979 COVID-19 cases. The new case positivity rate also increased from 8.1% to 23.8%, according to FDOH data. The state doesn't provide data on vaccine status of those cases. Many of Florida public schools strategies for limiting COVID-19 spread have been curtailed by the state government. Legislation passed this fall forbids public schools from requiring masks without allowing for parental opt outs or from requiring asymptomatic but COVID-19 exposed students to remain home from school. The Brevard County School Board and several others defied executive orders and emergency rules from state agencies to mandate masks in schools this fall but none are challenging the state so far in 2022. The School Boards mask mandate established near the end of August authorized district administration to allow parental opt outs when cases fell to 50 per 100,000. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends masks for all people in public indoor settings at or above that transmission rate. The boards policy did not allow the district to reinstate masks if cases rose past that level and expired at the end of November, meaning any new mask mandate would likely involve board action. District responds to rising cases BPS encouraged social distancing and handwashing and urged parents to vaccinate their children and keep them home when sick. The district has also gathered several thousand N95 masks to supply to students, staff and visitors, and said it will continue to replenish supplies during the pandemic. School Board member Matt Susin said district officials considered a mask requirement for employees and a variety of other mitigation strategies before the Monday evening announcement. Other districts have moved to take some additional steps. Palm Beach County School District is requiring masks for all visitors, vendors and staff members for at least two weeks starting Tuesday. Orange County will require all adults to wear masks inside schools through January. The Marion County School Board will meet Thursday to discuss a mask mandate with a parental opt out. More: Brevard County's COVID cases surge 311.6% in week ending Jan. 2; Florida cases up 142% Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Monday press conference in Broward County that public schools must remain open for in-person learning regardless of the impact of omicron. Impacts of COVID-19 on unvaccinated children Three weeks ago, Dr. Mihai Radu, a pediatric specialist at Atlantic Coast Medical in Merritt Island, had no patients testing positive for COVID-19. Now he said he has about 10-15 kids a week. This is also the case with Dr. Maged Farid, owner and practicing doctor at Florida Pediatric Group. Cars backed up almost to Huntington Lane on Barton Blvd. from the Rockledge City Center, formerly the Village Green Shopping Center, for people waiting in line to be testing for COVID-19. According to Farid, the kids who are testing positive are not as sick as they were during previous surges. And even though both vaccinated and unvaccinated children are testing positive for COVID-19, those who are vaccinated are more protected against COVID-19, Farid said. Vaccinated patients are not, they dont get very sick from it. They have just mild symptoms for a few days and then they recover...most of them dont end up in the hospital, Farid said. Statewide, 15% of children ages 5-11 have been vaccinated and 58% of children ages 12-19 have been vaccinated as of Dec. 30, according to FDOH data. According to Farid, a concern for some parents when it comes to vaccinating their children is myocarditis. It's important to get vaccinated, I get questions from the parents about the myocarditis issue because this is a risk to have myocarditis which is inflammation of the heart but the rate is very low, Farid said. Dr. Faris Al-Mousily, a pediatric cardiologist at Arnold-Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, said myocarditis can occur in kids after they get vaccinated and it can occur in unvaccinated kids who are infected with COVID-19. However, there are two key differences between the two groups of children who get myocarditis: the incidence and hospitalization rates, he said. More: Man arrested after refusing to wear mask at Melbourne Orlando International Airport According to Al-Mousily, recent research found that after vaccination only 10 children out of a million got myocarditis. In comparison, 40 children out of a million got myocarditis after being infected with COVID-19. The risk of having this on three different publications over the past few months, was somewhere between 1 to 10 in one million, so each million dose of the vaccine given the possibility of inflammation of the heart muscle or the covering of the heart is 1 to 10 in one million vaccines given, so, relatively low. If you take a look at the actual disease the incidence of that from the disease is about 40 in a million, so, quite higher," Al-Mousily said. Not only is the risk of myocarditis higher for unvaccinated children, Al-Mousily said, the severity of myocarditis can be worse for unvaccinated children. Myocarditis in unvaccinated children can mean longer hospital stays or ICU stays. For children who get myocarditis from the vaccine, they dont typically get hospitalized and if they do it's less intensive, Al-Mousily said. On top of Myocarditis, long COVID-19 is another risk factor unvaccinated children face, explained Farid. Long COVID is a patient that had mild symptoms with the disease. They were not vaccinated but then they had side effects different from the disease that were significant and lasting for a long time. We have several kids that are very tired, fatigued, they have foggy brain. We have one that had significant weight loss after COVID with no other explanation, Farid said. Radu said he's also concerned about children spreading COVID-19 even if they are asymptomatic and he presses that point when he talks to their parents, encouraging them to get vaccinated, too, asking "Do you want your kids to become orphans?" My advice is to be careful, Farid said. Bailey Gallion is the education reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallion at 321-242-3786 or bgallion@floridatoday.com. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard Public Schools encourages but doesn't mandate masks amid Omicron Jason Alexander, the ex-husband of pop icon Britney Spears, has been arrested for allegedly violating a restraining order. According to reports in Us Weekly, the 40-year-old is being held at Williamson County Jail in Franklin, Tennessee. He was charged with a violation of an order of protection as well as aggravated stalking, and his bond has been set at $30,000. A spokesperson for the Franklin Police Department told Us Weekly that a court hearing has been scheduled for 17 February. This time last year, Alexander shared a selfie hed taken in Washington DC attending the Save America rally which protested Joe Bidens victory in the presidential election . In the picture hes wearing a red Trump beanie with a 45 on it while a Trump 2020 flag flies overhead. Alexander, who is a childhood friend of Spears, was famously married to the pop star for just 55 hours in 2004. The pair exchanged vows at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas following a long night of partying, and their short-lived union was annulled a couple of days later. After her brief marriage to Alexander, Spears went on to wed aspiring musician Kevin Federline on 18 September 2004. Spears filed for divorce in 2007, citing irreconcilable differences. They have two sons, Preston Federline, 16, and Jayden James, 15. Since 2016, Spears has been dating actor, model and personal trainer Sam Asghari. The couple announced their engagement in September 2021. California is launching a program to pay off delinquent mortgage debt in the hopes of avoiding another wave of foreclosures like the one seen in the late 2000s. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) Federal COVID-19 relief dollars have already helped more than 140,000 California renters pay the debt they accrued to their landlords during the pandemic. Now, the state is offering similar relief to qualified homeowners who've fallen behind on their mortgages. The new California Mortgage Relief program will pay up to $80,000 worth of mortgage, property tax and insurance bills for qualified applicants. "The COVID-19 pandemic has left many California homeowners struggling to cover their mortgage costs," said Rebecca Franklin, president of the California Housing Finance Agency's Homeowner Relief Corp. "This program is designed to help low- to moderate-income Californians who have lost their jobs or experienced financial hardships due to COVID-19 and fallen behind on their payments get caught up and start fresh." The program is funded by a $1-billion grant from the federal government, which allocated $10 billion for mortgage assistance in March as part of the American Rescue Plan. The Treasury Department divvied up the money according to each state's population of unemployed workers and borrowers with delinquent mortgages. To qualify, a household must earn no more than the median income in its area (for example, $118,200 for a family of four in Los Angeles County), and the home at risk of foreclosure must be the household's primary residence. Here are the details on who's eligible, how to apply, when the aid will start flowing and how long the help will be available. Do you qualify? The program is designed to aid only homeowners who are already well behind on their mortgages on account of the pandemic, and who aren't in the process of working out a plan with their lenders to defer some debt to avoid foreclosure. According to the state program's website, you qualify for aid if you and the California property in question meet the following conditions: You own and occupy only one property, and it is your primary residence. Your residence is a single-family house, condominium or non-mobile manufactured home in California. You experienced a COVID-related financial hardship after Jan. 21, 2020. You have at least two past-due mortgage payments as of Dec. 27, 2021. Your household earns no more than the area median income in your county, which you can look up on the program's website. You must also have a limited amount of cash and other assets that can easily be converted to cash. The first mortgage you took out on your home was a "conforming loan," which meant it was small enough for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to purchase it from your lender. The limit rises annually; last year in Los Angeles County it was $822,375. At least one of these three things is true for you: You receive all or a significant portion of your income from welfare, food stamps and other forms of public assistance; you are "severely housing burdened" your mortgage and related costs consume more than 40% of your income; or your lender has denied an "alternative workout option" that would have helped you avoid foreclosure. Story continues People who received other forms of government assistance or loan forbearance from their lenders are still eligible to apply for the new program. But struggling homeowners should talk to their mortgage servicer about other options, such as a formal loan modification that lowers their payments, Franklin said in an email. In some cases, she said, those options may be more advantageous to the borrower than the state program. Notably, aid will also be available for qualifying people with reverse mortgages that is, they are borrowing against a fully paid-off home who have fallen behind on property taxes or premiums for home insurance coverage mandated by their lender. One other major caveat: Because the money goes directly to the company servicing your loan, you won't be able to obtain aid if that company isn't participating in the program. As of late December, state officials said that 43 servicers handling an estimated 83% of the eligible loans in the state were participating, and an additional 13 servicers handling 3% of those loans were entering the program. The state has reached out to the remaining servicers to try to get them to sign up as well. Susan Milazzo, chief executive of the California Mortgage Bankers Assn., said it makes more financial sense these days for lenders to take the state aid than to foreclose. "Mortgage bankers want to take every step necessary and available to them to keep homeowners in their homes," she said. What sort of financial hardships count? The definition is broad, covering anything pandemic-related that materially reduced your household's income or increased your living expenses, including temporary changes. Examples of income reductions include being laid off or having your hours cut when your employer was required to close its stores or limit in-person services. Examples of higher living expenses include COVID-related medical bills and higher food costs because you had to take in relatives who lost their jobs. You don't have to back this up with any specific proof or paperwork; instead, you simply have to attest that you suffered a hardship because of COVID and describe it. But be forewarned, false statements can result in you being prosecuted for perjury. How do you apply? You have to do it online, at camortgagerelief.org. If you don't have access to the internet or a computer, you can ask a housing counselor to assist you. For help finding a counselor certified by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, call (800) 569-4287. You may also get help from the company servicing your mortgage. The online application process starts with questions to determine your eligibility. If you meet the state's criteria, you can then complete an application for funds. Here's where you will need some paperwork to establish how much you earn and how much you owe. According to the program's website, among the documents you will need to provide are a mortgage statement, bank statements, utility bills and records that show the income earned by every adult in your household, such as pay stubs, tax returns or a statement of unemployment benefits. Applicants who are not reliant on public assistance or paying more than 40% of their household income to their lenders will also be asked for proof that their lender refused to defer debt or modify their loan to help them avoid foreclosure. The site provides links to the application in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Tagalog. "If you have all your information and documents gathered, you can fill out the application on a computer, smartphone or tablet in under 30 minutes," Franklin said. "Documents can easily be uploaded through your smart phone by using your phone's browser to log on to the application portal and taking a photo of the needed information and adding it to your application." When will your mortgage debt be paid? This is a key question, given that the federal government lifted its moratorium on foreclosures of government-backed mortgages at the end of July. According to the state Attorney General's Office, homeowners are still entitled to ask their lender for a debt-deferral deal that could keep them out of foreclosure for at least a few more months, but if your lender won't grant you forbearance, you'll need help in a hurry. A spokeswoman for the program said officials are hoping to get the aid flowing quickly; the state has been running a pilot version of the program since August, so it's not breaking new ground here, just scaling up. A key factor in how quickly your application can be processed is whether you provide all the necessary documents and attestations in a timely fashion. Applicants who are denied can reapply if their circumstances change. They can also appeal the decision by emailing appeals@camortgagerelief.org and making their case for a reversal. Once your application has been granted, though, you won't be eligible for any further aid from the program. When will the program end? There is no set date; instead, the state will continue to offer help to homeowners who became delinquent in 2020 and 2021 until it has spent all $1 billion from the federal government, a process that's expected to take three years. The state estimates that the money will be enough to help 20,000 to 40,000 borrowers. The money will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, with one important exception: Forty percent of the aid must go to "socially disadvantaged homeowners." Those are residents of the neighborhoods most at risk of foreclosure, based on the Owner Vulnerability Index developed by UCLA's Center for Neighborhood Knowledge. For the record: 10:06 a.m. Jan. 5, 2022: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the program would not cover mortgage debt accrued after Dec. 27, 2021. As long as they have missed at least two mortgage payments before that date, applicants whove missed payments in 2022 can have those covered through the same application. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Canadian flag An Ontario, Canada, court has awarded $84 million to the families of six people who died when Iranian military forces shot down a Ukraine International Airlines plane in 2020, The Guardian reported. In a statement on Monday, the families' attorney Mark Arnold said they were awarded compensation by the county for the loss of their relatives aboard flight Flight 752. The court decision was upheld by Justice Edward Belobaba of Ontario's Superior Court of Justice on Dec. 31, according to The Guardian. In what Tehran later called a "disastrous mistake," the Iranian Revolutionary Guard shot down the airplane in January 2020, killing all 176 people on board, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents. Arnold also said he will look into seizing Iranian assets in Canada and abroad, adding his team will look to seize whatever it can to pay what the families are owed. The families also filed a civil lawsuit against Iran and other officials they believe were to blame for the incident, The Guardian reported. A special Canadian forensic team in a 2021 report accused Iran of incompetence and recklessness over the downing of Flight 752, with Iranian officials criticizing the report as "highly politicized." The downing of the plane came in the aftermath of U.S. forces killing Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani in a missile strike at Baghdad International Airport in January 2020. The Canton City school board is giving Jeff Talbert an immediate pay raise, a longer contract and raises each year for the next five years that will take his salary over $200,000. CANTON The Canton City school board is making sure its leader stays put, giving Jeff Talbert an immediate pay raise, a longer contract and raises each year for the next five years that will take his salary over $200,000. The school board unanimously approved the revised terms of Talberts current contract Monday night and granted him a five-year extension. The board did not publicly discuss the contract terms during the meeting. Talbert and Board President John J.R. Rinaldi did not immediately return calls seeking comment Tuesday. The changes to Talberts current contract give Talbert a 3% pay raise retroactive to Jan. 1 that increases his base salary to $184,900. The new terms also will give the superintendent a $5,000 bonus in July 2023 as an incentive for him to complete the contract. The terms of Talberts new contract, which begins Aug. 1, 2023, and ends July 31, 2028, include: A base salary of $189,900 that increases by 3% in August 2024, August 2025 and August 2026; and increases by 2% in August 2027 to a base salary of $209,900; A $5,000 contract completion incentive that is paid in July of each year of the contract; 30 vacation days a year, three personal leave days a year and the ability to accumulate up to 265 sick days ; Term life insurance of $250,000 paid by the school board; Board-paid employee and employer contributions to the State Teachers Retirement System; A board-paid annuity in the amount of $5,000 annually over the course of the contract. Talbert said he feels fortunate and humbled to continue his role as the leader of the Canton City School District. "I am honored that the board has expressed its confidence in me by extending my contract," he said. "It is a testament to all the work that has been done by the dedicated Canton City Schools team." How does Talbert's salary compare to others? A survey by the American Association of School Administrators shows the median salary for superintendents in districts with an enrollment between 5,000 and 9,999 students is $192,000 a year. Story continues Akron Public Schools, which has an enrollment of just over 20,000 students and faces many of the same challenges as Canton, gave its new superintendent Christine Fowler-Mack a three-year contract in April 2021 with a base salary of $228,200. That calculates to $11 per Akron student. Talberts new salary equals $23 per student and will go to $26 per student by 2027, a Canton Repository analysis shows. Talbert, 51, was hired as Cantons superintendent in June 2020, succeeding Jeffrey Graham who left after one year on the job to take the helm at Lorain City Schools. The 1989 Timken High School graduate and former McKinley High School principal previously had worked as a superintendent at Osnaburg Local Schools, an assistant superintendent in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District and spent seven years as the superintendent of Alliance City Schools before returning to Canton. Since becoming superintendent in Canton, Talbert has restructured the way the district educates its roughly 8,000 students. A year ago, he unveiled the Design for Excellence plan, which reconfigured nearly every school building in the district in an effort to streamline staff and operations while also providing additional support for teachers and students. Talbert also has been leading the districts response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Canton was the only large urban school district in Ohio last year to offer in-person classes throughout the entire school year. The district also has seen its enrollment rise something it hasnt witnessed since at least 2017. Reach Kelli at 330-580-8339 or kelli.weir@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @kweirREP This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton City Schools Superintendent Jeff Talbert's contract extended New coronavirus cases leaped in Oklahoma in the week ending Sunday, rising 77.4% as 14,728 cases were reported. The previous week had 8,304 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19. Oklahoma ranked 40th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States increased 104% from the week before, with 2,833,203 cases reported. With 1.19% of the country's population, Oklahoma had 0.52% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 49 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before. Christmas and New Year's significantly disrupted who got tested, how many people got tested, what labs operated and what government agencies reported on time. Some of the Christmas weekend reports were shifted into the latest week. Most states reported no cases at all the weekend of New Year's, which will bump those reports into the following week. Consequently, week-to-week comparisons will be skewed and these numbers will be unreliable even as they're accurate to what states reported. Carter County reported 69 cases in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 62 cases. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 9,625 cases. Oklahoma does not directly publish county-level death data. Within Oklahoma, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Kay County with 413 cases per 100,000 per week; McClain County with 371; and Beckham County with 297. 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 Oklahoma County, with 2,339 cases; Tulsa County, with 1,563 cases; and Cleveland County, with 544. Weekly case counts rose in 36 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Oklahoma, Tulsa and Cleveland counties. Story continues MORE >> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases Oklahoma ranked 31st among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 66% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 73.3%, 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. In the week ending Thursday, Oklahoma reported administering another 70,539 vaccine doses, including 22,485 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 101,620 vaccine doses, including 30,185 first doses. In all, Oklahoma reported it has administered 5,308,000 total doses. Across Oklahoma, cases fell in 38 counties, with the best declines in Rogers County, with 114 cases from 173 a week earlier; in Pottawatomie County, with 139 cases from 180; and in Grady County, with 90 cases from 127. In Oklahoma, 71 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 126 people were reported dead. A total of 708,938 people in Oklahoma have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 12,419 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 55,114,057 people have tested positive and 826,060 people have died. MORE >> Track coronavirus cases across the United States Oklahoma's COVID-19 hospital admissions rising USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, Jan. 2. Likely COVID patients admitted in the state: Last week: 1,903 The week before that: 1,550 Four weeks ago: 1,473 Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation: Last week: 146,041 The week before that: 99,270 Four weeks ago: 86,518 Hospitals in 42 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 32 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 48 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 The Daily Ardmoreite: Carter County COVID cases increased by 69 and deaths by one this week Last week, China switched on a nuclear fusion reactor. The artificial sun is known as the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (or EAST for short). After turning it on, China noticed record high levels for sustained temperatures. According to Chinas state media, the EAST reactor ran five times hotter than the real Sun for over 17 minutes. Chinas artificial sun is a bid for clean energy An atom particle China says its overall goal with the nuclear fusion reactor is to provide near limitless clean energy. The hope is that the reactor can mimic the natural reactions that occur within stars like the Sun. The idea is one that has been proposed for years. However, creating a working artificial sun has proven to be difficult, despite decades of research. This latest run, though, could help China break through the walls that have been holding back researchers for years. Today's Top Deals The recent operation lays a solid scientific and experimental foundation towards the running of a fusion reactor, Gong Xianzu, one of the experiments leaders and a researcher with the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said. (via The Independent) If China can continue work on its artificial sun, we could see more breakthroughs in the future. 17 minutes might not sound like long, but when you have something running at more than 70,000,000 C for that long, its pretty impressive, to say the least. Previously we've also seen other artificial suns reach upwards of 100 million degrees, another record level. How nuclear fusion works 3D Render fusion reactor nuclear fusion The idea behind nuclear fusion reactors isnt exactly easy. The entire basis of the idea is built on replicating the physics of the actual Sun. Artificial suns do this by merging atomic nuclei together to generate massive amounts of energy. Researchers are then trying to find ways to transfer all of that energy into electricity. Theres probably a lot more math involved in the actual process, but thats the basic gist of what scientists are trying to accomplish. Story continues Because artificial suns dont require any fossil fuels to run, and they also leave behind no hazardous waste, physicists say there is far less risk to the environment. This is especially true when you compare it to other energy sources out there, like nuclear fission reactors. China isnt the only country working on creating an artificial sun, either. As mentioned before, the research into the idea has been ongoing for decades at this point. The same team from Chinas reactor will also work with a team in Marseille, France. Once completed, the artificial sun in Marseille will be the worlds largest reactor. Its known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The United Kingdom also has plans to build its own nuclear fusion power station. Onlookers were amazed by it When it debuted, some people in China went outside to see it. It glowed in the sky, as you can see in this video viewed all over Twitter. China looks to change the future of energy. China's "artificial sun" set a new world record after superheating a loop of plasma to temperatures five times hotter than the sun for more than 17 minspic.twitter.com/5rd9mCPDKY AuxGod (@AuxGod_) January 9, 2022 See the original version of this article on BGR.com By Samuel Shen and Selena Li SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's algorithm-driven quant funds boomed in 2021 as investors sought alternatives to a languid stock market, but the final months of the year saw some "flash boys" bogged down by heavy volatility and their sheer size. High-flyer Quant, a top hedge fund house in China that uses powerful computers and artificial intelligence (AI) to exploit market opportunities, last week apologised to investors for a record slump in performance. The fund house, which manages roughly 100 billion yuan ($15.69 billion), blamed the crash on wild shifts in investor sentiment and crowded trades in a sector that is "growing too fast in size." High-flyer's public apology echoes an earlier setback in 2021 at Shanghai Minghong Investment Management Co, another quant heavyweight fund that suffered losses following a surge in assets under management (AUM). "When you're small, high-frequency, rapid-trading strategies could create very beautiful performance charts," said Wang Li, chairman of Hangzhou Liberty Fund Management Co. But after big money gushes in, "the strategies no longer work." While high-frequency traders, known colloquially as "flash boys", typically ride on market momentum and gyrations, their trades can become ineffective if there is too much money betting the same way. When such funds grow too large, they lose their ability to move nimbly and exploit market inefficiencies. A High-flyer Quant fund, designed to enhance returns on the CSI500 Index, lost 13.1% during the last quarter, despite a 3.6% gain in the underlying index, according to fund distributor Simuwang.com. That wiped out most of the 21.9% gains from the first nine months. Another High-flyer fund using hedging strategies lost 12.1% during the final three months of 2021, bringing the year's performance to an 8.1% loss. That fate could befall other players in a sector that, according to Citic Securities estimates, has jumped ten-fold over the past four years to 1 trillion yuan. Daily turnover in China's A-shares market crossed a trillion yuan on most days in 2021. Around 25 hedge fund managers that use such quantitative strategies each saw their AUMs surpass 10 billion yuan last year, according to Kaiyuan Securities. Several, including High-flyer, exceeded 100 billion yuan in AUM. Investors rushed into quant funds, which seek to generate absolute, or enhanced returns, during a year in which regulatory crackdowns on sectors including tech and property roiled stock markets. China's blue-chip CSI300 Index lost 5.2% in 2021, despite record annual turnover in local stocks, fuelled in part by the rise of rapidly trading quant funds. The problem with top quant players like High-flyer Quant is that "their size is too big," said Shi Ke, partner at hedge fund manager iFund Asset Management Co. "Another issue is that AI can do a good job analysing historical data, but may not react quickly when market swerves." Story continues Last year, some clients made returns lower than the benchmark, while some others suffered paper losses, and "we feel very sorry," High-flyer Quant said in the letter, vowing to invest more in research. SHQX Asset Management, a Shanghai-based hedge fund manager, said many so-called CTA funds, which trade commodities using quantitative strategies, suffered towards the end of 2021 due to slump in commodity prices. There are signs of growing caution in the industry. Several fund managers, including High-flyer, Tianyan Capital and Evolution Asset Management, have stopped taking new money for some or all products. Breakneck growth has increased regulatory scrutiny. Top securities regulator Yi Huiman said in September growth in "quants" was a challenge to stock exchanges. Meanwhile, the Securities Association of China, a self-regulating industry body, is demanding more disclosure from major quant players about their operations. Yin Tianyuan, the Shanghai-based head of research at data provider Suntime Information, says some quant managers are voluntarily taking the heat out of their trading. "The largest quants with 100 billion yuan in China have almost all lowered the frequency of their algorithm to 'medium high'," she said. (Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Sam Holmes) The video features a certain "James Pond." YouTube/China Xinhua News Chinese state media on Tuesday published a weird James Bond parody video about Huawei phones. The US has imposed sanctions on Huawei, saying its technology acts as a proxy for spying by Beijing. The parody video appears to accuse the US of hypocrisy. Chinese state media released a strange James Bond-esque parody video Tuesday, taking aim at US fears about the telecoms giant Huawei. The video, entitled "0.07: No Time to Die Laughing," published by Xinhua News on Twitter and YouTube, depicts two spies one of whom is named "James Pond" meeting in a castle to make contact with "M." One of the spies, named "0.06," says that MI6, the British intelligence agency, has made China its "top priority." When Pond asks what China has done, 0.06 says: "According to this dossier, their National Security Agency is authorized to monitor all phone and internet use in 193 countries." The character then feigns the realization that she's been accidentally reading MI6's dossier on the US. Later in the video, M makes contact with the spies via radio and advises James Pond not to buy a Huawei phone. When Pond asks why he shouldn't, M says there's a "Chinese backdoor" on the device. M then asks the two spies to collect their "CIA-certified" phones from under the table. Huawei has been hit with sanctions from the US in connection with allegations that it allows Beijing to use its technology to spy on Americans. In June 2020, the Federal Communications Commission designated Huawei a national security risk. Huawei has consistently denied the accusations. Read the original article on Business Insider EAST PROVIDENCE, RI East Providence Municipal and Probate court hearings have been suspended for the next two weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic. The City Council also canceled its Tuesday meeting and won't reconvene until Jan 18, since members of the council tested positive for the virus. City officials said all Probate Court sessions are suspended until Jan. 14. The next session will be at 2 p.m., Jan. 25. Any questions can be directed to the East Providence Probate Court Clerk at 401-435-7500, extension 11037. Municipal Court hearings were suspended until January 14. This impacts the Thursday, Jan. 6, and Thursday, Jan. 13, Municipal Court hearings. Letters have been sent out to all who were scheduled to appear in court during the two-week period. Contact the East Providence Municipal Court Clerk with any questions at 401-435-7540. This article originally appeared on the East Providence Patch CoinDesk has joined a legal proceeding between the New York Attorney Generals office (NYAG) and Tether and its parent company as part of the news organizations effort to shed light on the reserves backing $78.4 billion of stablecoins. Tether, together with iFinex, which owns Tether and cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, petitioned the New York State Supreme Court in August to block the NYAG from providing CoinDesk with documents detailing the reserves. CoinDesk is now a party to the case because it has a stake in the outcome and the publication is arguing that the investing public does too. The public interest in disclosure of the requested information far outweighs any private interest [Tether] might have, CoinDesk said in a memorandum filed with the court Jan. 4. Neither Tether nor the NYAG objected to CoinDesk intervening in the case, according to a Dec. 20 filing signed by lawyers for all three parties. An order permitting the intervention signed by Judge Laurence L. Love was posted two days later. In June 2021, CoinDesk filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with NYAG asking for documents obtained during the offices investigation of Tether and Bitfinex, which the companies had settled earlier that year for $18.5 million The FOIL request also asked for a copy of Tethers submission to the NYAG in May 2021, when the stablecoin issuer published a breakdown of its reserves for the first time. This breakdown was identical to what Tether sent the NYAGs office in accordance with a February settlement, Tether General Counsel Stuart Hoegner said at the time. The NYAGs FOIL officer initially rejected CoinDesks FOIL request. The news organization appealed, and the appeals officer reversed the decision. In its petition, Tether argued that the exact composition of its reserves is a competitive trade secret and revealing this information would hurt its business. Assistant Attorney General James B. Cooney filed to dismiss Tethers petition on Dec. 6. Story continues Public interest or trade secret? Chiefly, CoinDesk argued in court papers that disclosing what, specifically, is backing the USDT stablecoin issued by Tether is in the public interest, and therefore should not qualify as a trade secret. Tether itself claimed it had proactively made the decision to publicize its reserve breakdown when announcing its settlement with the NYAG. The filings were signed by the news organizations chief content officer, Michael Casey, and submitted to the court by Lacy H. Koonce III and Olivia Hayes Franklin, attorneys at Klaris Law PLLC. They argued that the requested information does not fall into any FOIL Exemption. CoinDesks attorneys submitted an experts affirmation to explain why Tethers documents should be made public. In my opinion disclosing the information relating to USDTs backing assets would allow its users and the public to properly assess the claims to stability Tether makes and would be beneficial for the functioning of the market, wrote Robleh Ali, general manager of Wadagso Inc., a technology company focusing on digital currency and associated market infrastructure. Tethers claim of a secret investment strategy that cannot be disclosed to users does not conform to USDTs purported status as a stable asset supporting the functioning of the market and is more appropriate to a hedge fund a comparison explicitly made. USDT can either be an exotic investment with a secret investment strategy to match or a stablecoin it cannot be both. Ali criticized Tethers likening itself to Ray Dalios hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, in previous filings with the court. [T]here is a fundamental difference between the two, he wrote. Bridgewater holds itself out as an investment firm designed to produce returns for its investors, not as a stable asset to facilitate trading elsewhere. (Also, Bridgewater lists some of its public equity holdings and their value in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.) Also submitted was an affidavit, signed by the sites executive editor, Marc Hochstein, in support of CoinDesks answer to the Tether petition. Hochstein noted that New York Attorney General Letitia James said in her press release announcing the settlement that Bitfinex and Tether recklessly and unlawfully covered-up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines and Tethers claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie. Tether has until Feb. 4 to file a response to CoinDesks arguments. The court is scheduled to hear the parties arguments on Feb. 7. Read more: Tether Asks Court to Block NYAG From Releasing Documents to CoinDesk Tethers First Reserve Breakdown Shows Token 49% Backed by Unspecified Commercial Paper What We Know and Dont Know About Stablecoins Dollar Backing US Fed Official Calls Tether a Challenge to Financial Stability The Tether Put: Crypto Equivalent of Credit Default Swap? A Bridge Called Tether Millions in Crypto Is Crossing the Russia-China Border Daily. There, Tether Is King CoinDesk Answer to Tether P... by CoinDesk UPDATE (Jan. 4, 23:10 UTC): Updates links to court filings. Support local journalism. Unlock unlimited digital access to floridatoday.com Click here and subscribe today. About noon Thursday, Cynthia Wallace received a potentially ominous text from a friend: A brush fire was burning vegetation 3 or 4 miles from her house in Louisville, Colorado. But she did not feel immediately concerned. "We are we were in the middle of a town. I felt like, All right, well, the fire department's going to get that, " Wallace recalled. "I mean, obviously, forest fires happen in the forest. You don't just burn down a whole city. So we're fine," she said. But smoke from the wind-whipped Marshall Fire kept growing more intense as it approached. And by 1 p.m., her husband, Christopher Lewandowski, spotted flames in their neighbor's backyard beyond a fence. The former Indialantic residents packed a few bags, gathered their three children and fled minutes later to a hotel in nearby Thornton, another community southeast of Boulder. To their dismay, "we turned on the TV and all the video coverage was of our neighborhood." The wind-whipped Marshall Fire destroyed Cynthia Wallace's house last week in Louisville, Colorado. Fueled by hurricane-force wind gusts topping 100 mph, the Marshall Fire reduced their two-story, six-bedroom house to charred ruins and a concrete foundation. They lived in Louisville's Enclave neighborhood, where media images of destroyed homes have circulated around the world. A GoFundMe campaign has been established for the family of five. Wallace lived in Indialantic and Indian Harbour Beach from 2003 to 2013, working for Harris Corp. as a mechanical engineer and business developer. She and Lewandowski, who used to live in Indialantic and work for Harris Corp., married in 2016. They now work for Ball Aerospace in Boulder. Their children are Davis, 15; Bryce, 14; and Kaylee, 3. Their possessions are now gone, ranging from keepsake boxes in the basement to Kaylee's stuffed animals. I didn't realize a house could get that flat. I didn't realize an I-beam could melt. I didn't realize that your snowblower in your garage would flatten out to the ground it probably exploded," Wallace said. Story continues "The garage is a flat slab with nothing under it," she said. Former Indialantic residents Christopher Lewandowski and Cynthia Wallace with children (from left) Bryce, Kaylee and Davis. More: Palm Bay house, van engulfed in flames; firefighter treated for minor heat exhaustion More: Cape Canaveral firefighter-engineer 'hangs up gear' after Surfside search-and-rescue effort Two people remain missing and more than 1,000 homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged by the Marshall Fire, USA Today reported. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis toured the Louisville destruction zone on Sunday. By Tuesday, firefighters finally contained the Marshall Fire after it had burned 6,026 acres, the Boulder Office of Emergency Management reported. The cause of the destructive blaze remains under investigation. Your next thought is always, Hey, where do we live? Obviously, we have a fairly large family. So finding a place to rent that has four bedrooms is difficult," Wallace said. "There's already a tight housing market in Boulder. There's probably a tight housing market everywhere," she said. "And so, you kind of have this nauseous feeling in your stomach until you find out where you're going to be living," she said. For now, the family may move by week's end into a furnished five-bedroom house in Longmont, where they will stay on a temporary basis. Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1 Support local journalism. Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Colorado's Marshall Fire destroys home of former Harris Corp. engineers from Indialantic For the first time in more than 15 years, people who want to hunt, fish and trap in Indiana will have to pay more to do so in 2022. At the end of last year, the state's Department of Natural Resources announced that it would increase hunting, fishing and trapping license fees for the first time since 2006. The agency will also hike fees for commercial licenses, many of those for the first time since the 1980s. The combination hunting and fishing license will go up from $25 to $32. The individual fishing license will jump from $17 to $23 while the fees both hunting and trapping licenses are increasing from $17 to $20. Many commercial licenses are increasing by larger amounts. Fund Development Director of Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry, Amber Zecca, processes deer meat on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021, at D&D Meat Processing in Corunna Indiana. Here hunters can donate legally harvested deer meat to the hungry through a partnership between Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry and the DNR's Sportsmen Benevolence Fund. These changes will go into effect for the 2022 season, which runs from April 1 through March 31, 2023 those licenses go on sale on Wednesday, Jan. 5. The DNR's Division of Fish and Wildlife and its Division of Law Enforcement rely on the sale of these licenses and permits for funding to manage wildlife resources and enforce fish and wildlife laws. The costs of that work, however, have continued to increase over the years. Scrub Hub: Where are the best places to spot bald eagles in Indiana? At the same time, the funding the agency receives has continued to go down. The IndyStar reported in 2019 that hunting and fishing have been on the decline. It saw a nearly 22% drop in hunting licenses in the decade from 2006 to 2016, according to data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fishing licenses saw a drop of about 13% over the same period. William Crawford helps Brianna Smith shoot during archery class at Lew Wallace Elementary IPS 107, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018. The state began working to reach out to groups not typically associated with hunting including women, youth, urban residents and college students. Still, that hasn't been enough. That's why the Natural Resources Commission voted in its September meeting to increase the fees to address the funding shortfall and "ensure we can continue to protect Indiana's fish and wildlife resources for this and future generations." Story continues Hunting: Indiana hunters have donated deer for 2 million meals for hungry Hoosiers in last decade DNR says these increases will allow it to conduct fish and wildlife research, restore habitats, maintain public areas, educate new hunters and fishers, and provide assistance to landowners. The fee increase does not affect licenses for the remainder of the 2021-2022 license year which runs until March 31, 2022 even if those licenses are purchased after Jan. 1. A full list of new fees can be found here. The Scrub Hub: Your questions. Our answers. Do you have questions about the environment? IndyStar environmental reporters Sarah Bowman and London Gibson want to hear from you. Submit your questions here! Call IndyStar reporter Sarah Bowman at 317-444-6129 or email at sarah.bowman@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @IndyStarSarah. Connect with IndyStars environmental reporters: Join The Scrub on Facebook. IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana hunting, fishing licenses will cost more in 2022 LONDON (Reuters) - Insured losses of $44 billion from COVID-19 so far represent the third largest cost to insurers of any catastrophe, behind Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 attacks, insurance broker Howden said on Tuesday. However, initial projections of $100 billion-plus for COVID-19 insured losses now look "improbable", Howden said in a report on reinsurance renewals. That prediction was made by industry specialists in the early days of the pandemic nearly two years ago, as events were cancelled and businesses forced to shut down across the world. Insurers have since excluded COVID-19 from many policies. "There's only so much event cancellation coverage out there, theres only so much civil action coverage out there, and when you get to $40 billion, that's pretty much exhausting what was underwritten, said David Flandro, head of analytics at Howden. Property catastrophe reinsurance rates rose 9% year-on-year on Jan. 1, marking their biggest annual rise since 2009, Howden also said in the report. Reinsurers insure the insurers, and reinsurance rate rises are typically passed onto insurers' customers. Global property catastrophe reinsurance rates rose by 10.8% on average this year, reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter said in a separate report this week. Gallagher Re said earlier on Tuesday that some European property reinsurance rates rose by more than 50% after the region suffered record insured losses last year from natural catastrophes such as floods and storms. (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Jason Neely and Jan Harvey) New coronavirus cases leaped in Ohio in the week ending Sunday, rising 43.7% as 121,813 cases were reported. FREMONT Sandusky County's Emergency Management Agency (EMA) is distributing COVID-19 home self test kits almost as fast as it receives them. With 2022 only a few days old, the county's COVID case numbers continue to rise and more and more residents are trying to get tested. The number of test kits the agency got in Monday morning didn't last long, said Lisa Kuelling, director of Sandusky County EMA. "I think we have six left out there right now," Kuelling said Monday shortly before 9 a.m. Later Monday morning, Sandusky County EMA posted on its Facebook page it was out of COVID-19 home self test kits and did not know when it may get any more. Kuelling said she asked for 3,000 test kits in this last round from the state and received about 1,000. "We're kind of at their mercy," Kuelling said of the state, in terms of how many kits Sandusky County will get each time. 121,813 new cases reported for the week ending Sunday As expected, new COVID cases locally and statewide rose substantially following the Christmas and New Year's holidays. New coronavirus cases leaped in Ohio in the week ending Sunday, rising 43.7% as 121,813 cases were reported. The previous week had 84,768 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19. Ohio ranked ninth among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week, coronavirus cases in the United States increased 104% from the week before, with 2,833,203 cases reported. With 3.51% of the country's population, Ohio had 4.3% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 49 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before. Sandusky County COVID cases increase in last week Sandusky County reported 569 cases and nine deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 227 cases and two deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 10,789 cases and 192 deaths. Story continues Within Ohio, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Erie County with 1,621 cases per 100,000 per week; Lorain County with 1,571; and Cuyahoga County with 1,470. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week. Kuelling told Sandusky County commissioners in December there had been a recent surge in COVID cases with many local hospitals going on EMS bypass meaning the hospitals would not accept new patients due to being at full capacity. Hospital capacity fluctuates day-to-day Monday, Kuelling said surge capacity at hospitals fluctuates on a day-to-day basis. There were a lot of people going to local hospitals to get tested for COVID last week. Kuelling said she expects COVID case numbers and the demand for self-test kits to continue to remain high in the next few weeks. With classes resuming Monday at Fremont City Schools following winter break, positive COVID numbers were at about the same level as they were before vacation, said Superintendent Jon Detwiler. He said the district had some new positive cases reported, something to be expected with Christmas and New Year's family gatherings. He said there was a Zoom meeting scheduled with Sandusky County Public Health and other county school superintendents to go over new CDC guidelines regarding COVID and quarantines. dacarson@gannett.com 419-334-1046 Twitter: @DanielCarson7 This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Demand high for COVID self-test kits at Sandusky County EMA Fred Dufour/Getty With cheekbones so high and bulbous as to appear to threaten their owners vision, as an Australian newspaper described them a decade ago, the Bogdanoff twins drew attention wherever they went. The controversial celebrity scientists, who both obtained doctorates after penning a series of impenetrable and allegedly meaningless physics papers, were descendants of nobility and, later, a meme beloved on social media platforms like Reddit and 4chan. But their voyage through the stars ended recently in a Parisian hospital, where both Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff had been admitted on the same day last month after contracting COVID-19. Grichka, the younger twin, died in the intensive care unit on Dec. 28. Igor followed him on Monday. Both were 72. A source close to the brothers told French outlet Le Monde that neither had been vaccinated against the virus. The socialite scientists made headlines almost exactly a year ago for allegedly swindling a millionaire, a 53-year-old man identified only as Cyrille P. in the subsequent lawsuit, convincing him to invest hundreds of thousands of euros in various projects, including an attempt to revive Temps X, the pop science show that first skyrocketed the brothers to fame in 1979. Decades before they beamed themselves, decked out in futuristic spacesuits, into the homes of families all over France, the twins were born in a castle in Gascony in 1949. Descended from German and Austrian nobility, Igor and Grichka were raised by their grandmother, Countess Bertha Kolowrat-Krakowska, whose scandalous affair with Roland Hayes, the first Black American to attain international fame as a classical musician, produced the twins mother. The brothers went on to study applied mathematics at the Institute of Political Science and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. They then found a niche for themselves as writers, producers, and presenters of Temps X, which ran from 1979 into the mid-80s. Story continues Igor and Grichka first invited controversy with the 1991 publication of a book, Dieu et la Science (God and Science), which went on to become a French bestseller. Its debut, however, roiled academics after a University of Virginia astronomy professor filed a plagiarism lawsuit over the manuscript. Settling out of court, the Bogdanoffs began work towards their doctorates in 1993. After defending their theses and publishing five articles in several peer-reviewed physics journals, both brothers passed with the lowest possible grade. Tracing their story in 2002, a New York Times reporter wrote that one of their advisers described the twins as wunderkids who had difficulty understanding they were not the Einstein brothers. The adviser, Dr. Daniel Sternheimer, told the Times that teaching the brother was like teaching My Fair Lady to speak with an Oxford accent. Their papers, published in journals like Annals of Physics, claimed, among other concepts, to identify what happened both before and during the Big Bang. The Bogdanoffs work was first disputed in 2002, after a University of Tours physicist raised concerns in an email to another academic. The scientist, Max Niedermaier, called the twins writing delightfully meaningless combinations of buzzwords, fretting that their evidence had nonetheless been taken seriously. Asked why the brothers had been conferred their degrees, Dr. Sternheimer said, These guys worked for 10 years without pay. They have the right to have their work recognized with a diploma, which is nothing much these days. He called the subsequent scandal, nicknamed the Bogdanoff affair, a storm in a teacup. The dispute ended in a report that found the twins theses held no scientific value, but Classical and Quantum Gravity, another peer-reviewed journal that published a Bogdanoff paper, ultimately declined to print a retraction. Social media users would eventually stumble upon the brothers, who by the turn of the century had apparently discovered plastic surgery. (Both would repeatedly deny that they had ever had extensive cosmetic surgical procedures performed.) Beginning on Reddit in 2015, users ran wild with conspiracy theories about the brothers, claiming, among other things, that the Bogdanoffs had psychic powers and could control the cryptocurrency markets. This last claim stemmed from a television appearance in June last year, when Grichka remarked on French show Non-Stop People that he and his brother helped develop the source code for Bitcoin. Both also claimed that Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous name for the figure purported to have invented Bitcoin, had given them two ancient Bitcoin in physical form. In terms of credibility, a French editor told news site Decrypt at the time, Igor and Grichka are equivalent to a scientific version of the Kardashian family. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. NEW YORK CITY A groping case against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to be dropped by Albany County prosecutors, according to a report. The anticipated decision first reported Tuesday by the Times Union likely will forestall Cuomo's first scheduled court appearance on a misdemeanor forcible touching charge. Doubt swirled around that charge soon after Albany County sheriff's officials filed it in October, apparently without having consulted prosecutors. The Times Union reported it's unclear whether prosecutors will continue to probe the groping accusation. Cuomo's accuser Brittany Commisso told investigators that the former governor groped her in the workplace at the Executive Mansion. The accusation featured prominently in media reports and other investigations into Cuomo, who state investigators found sexually harassed 11 women. Other district attorneys in Manhattan opted not to pursue charges against Cuomo on accusations he misled the public about the number of deaths in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, Politico reported. Read the Times Union story here. This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch (Deletes reference to town hall as a first for Fed, as it is not) (Reuters) -The Dallas Fed will hold a town hall next week to solicit public input into its search for a successor to Robert Kaplan, who left his post as the bank's president last fall amid an outcry over his personal securities trading. Invitations to the January 13 virtual town hall went out by email on Tuesday morning, with a promise of questions to be answered "directly" by speakers including the Dallas Fed's chair and deputy chair, who lead the search committee, and the CEO of the search firm retained to help them, Egon Zehnder. Kaplan and Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren both retired early last fall after reports surfaced that they had actively traded securities during much of the pandemic crisis in 2020 when the Fed was conducting massive market and economic rescue efforts. Both said they had violated no ethics guidelines, but the scandal prompted Fed Chair Jerome Powell to tighten rules around personal trading by Fed policymakers, and an inspector general's probe into the trading is ongoing. The Boston Fed has no plans to hold a similar town hall, but it too has made efforts to makes its search more transparent than prior searches. It published a report last year after public outreach and tweaked its job description in response to calls for a stronger focus on diversity, community engagement, and credibility. Powell has pledged that the searches will cast a wide net in an effort to make Fed regional Fed presidents a more diverse group. Both Rosengren and Kaplan are white men; the remaining 10 Fed presidents include five white men, three white women and two men of color. (Reporting by Ann SaphirEditing by Chizu Nomiyama) A couple having a romantic dinner. (PHOTO: Getty Images) Welcome to A Millennial's Dating Diary series, where we explore real-life interactions and the hurdles of dating in Southeast Asia. The series will feature the dating stories and misadventures of Arika a 26-year-old, straight female marketing manager with a penchant for over drinking and fellow millennials. We've all been conditioned to look at the major red flags in relationships and dating, but what about all the underrated green flags people usually don't talk about or give enough credit for? Here are some of the things my friends and I have noticed from all our collective years of dating: 1. When they're consistent If there's a common denominator in the things my girlfriends complain about the most when dating, it's the fact that sometimes, the person they're interested in blows hot and cold. Their stories all sound very similar, too: everything starts out fine before the person they're into does a complete 180, and either starts to ignore them or just doesn't put in much effort anymore. "Honestly, dating someone consistent is such a blessing. If they're putting in the effort and taking the initiative to meet you, they're keepers," says my friend, *Adriana, 24, who's been casually dating since the start of the year. It's so sexy when someone can just say, 'I messed up, I'm sorry' or just admit that they made terrible judgments in the past. It's such a good showing of maturity. (PHOTO: Getty Images) 2. When they're genuinely nice While it's great that they're friendly to the service staff at restaurants and the like, what's even more impressive is if they're genuinely nice to people they don't even actually have to be. When I started exclusively dating *Mark, he told me of his plan to text all the girls he used to see casually. He wanted to let them know he's now attached and won't meet them anymore. I found this kind of weird. What does it matter if you used to sleep with this person and won't be sleeping with them again? With casual dating, these things are often expected. Story continues Much to my chagrin, though, Mark had a good point for wanting to do so. He didn't want to leave anything to chance ("The girls won't be messaging me anymore once I tell them this"), he didn't want any awkward encounters if he met them outside, and most importantly, he wanted to be polite. I remember feeling a little strange about this one, but a male friend later explained, "The whole casual part is more about not getting romantically involved; it doesn't mean you can be an a-hole and ignore someone." (PHOTO: Getty Images) 3. When they know what consent means On our first date, I distinctly remember *Mark had asked if he could kiss me. While it might seem small to some, his respectfulness towards me truly set him apart from other guys I saw casually. Since then, I have measured every single guy on the same scale. See, the thing is, no one had ever asked for permission to touch or kiss me before. A lot of times, guys would make their move by touching my thighs or placing their hands suspiciously low at the small of my back. Theres a huge difference between being friendly and being way too forward. Once, someone had attempted to go in for a kiss, and because I was so shocked (my friends can attest to how I scare easily) by his advances, I almost punched him in the face. Till today, when I tell someone new about how our first date went, I never fail to say to them about how he had asked me this because I think his respectfulness and knowledge of consent is something worth shouting about. 4. When they're self-aware "It's so sexy when someone can just say, 'I messed up, I'm sorry' or just admit that they made terrible judgments in the past. It's such a good showing of maturity," says my friend *Celine, who's currently in a relationship with someone she met on Tinder. "When *Andre first started talking about his ex and how their relationship ended, he didn't go into blaming her entirely. Instead, he owned up to parts of the relationship that he thought he could have done better. Hearing him talk about the relationship like that gave me an insight into how he would have potentially handled our relationship." 5. When they're honest We stan anyone who will openly admit to what they want to get out of a dating app, even if it's just to sleep around. It's 2022, and it's about time people came clean about what they want out of dating. To stay connected with our comprehensive coverage of COVID-19 in Florida, sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter. Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said Tuesday they don't want Floridians who aren't showing COVID-19 symptoms to get tested and that they are overwhelming already overcrowded test sites. If you dont have symptoms, you are not a case," Ladapo said at an afternoon news conference in Naples. The state's new testing guidelines are in direct opposition to the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that say people without symptoms can spread the omicron variant and that testing is critical in preventing more infections. Symptomatic or not?: Should you bother getting a COVID-19 test? Florida COVID testing: Public health experts say state heading in wrong direction on r omicron Ladapo criticized policies that emphasize people test frequently. We are trying to focus on high-value testing, on those who are at high risk, like the elderly, and people with symptoms, he said. Ladapo described the state's thinking this way: "It's not about restricting access to testing, it's about de-programming or de-normalizing this idea that you can't go anywhere unless you get tested," he said. "If you have no symptoms, please don't get tested. You're so unlikely to benefit from that, and you could be harmed." Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo speaks during a press conference, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022, at the Florida Department of Health-Collier County in Naples, Fla. Ladapo and DeSantis used the example of seemingly healthy schoolchildren who have been exposed but are otherwise asymptomatic. Those children, they said, are being unnecessarily harmed by keeping them away from the classroom and their peers as well as disrupting family life. Opposition to Florida's new policy was swift. Dr. Frederick Southwick, an infectious diseases specialist in Gainesville and a member of the Committee to Protect Health Care, said in an email, "Reduced testing will serve to underestimate the severity of the present surge and give Floridians a false sense of security. Masks, avoiding public spaces and most important vaccination are the way to reduce fear and reduce cases. Stopping testing is a way to game the system and hide the severe consequences of the Governors and legislatures laws prohibiting the mandating of masks and vaccines. The consequences of those decisions are now being revealed." Story continues Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, tweeted: Florida Surgeon General says we need to stop testing and get back to our lives. In fact, with ubiquitous testing, we can keep infections low and safely get back to our lives. Epidemiologist Michael Mina, a staunch supporter of testing who was an assistant professor of Harvard School of Public Health, tweeted after DeSantis' Monday news conference in Broward County: "WHAT!??! FL Surgeon Gen standing in front of an 'EARLY Treatment Saves Live' podium saying we need to stop testing. EARLY treatment is only possible if we test and diagnose early. Else our treatments are useless. A test is not some conspiracy - it is how we see the virus!" And state Rep. Carlos G. Smith, a Democrat from Orlando, urged DeSantis in a tweet Monday to again open state-run testing sites to help expand testing capacity. There is NOT a shortage of COVID-19 testing supply in Florida. There IS a shortage of leadership. Less testing + less prevention is NOT the answer. Previous coverage: DeSantis calls for monoclonal treatments The governor also called on the federal government to give Florida a large supply of monoclonal antibody treatment, something which earlier in the day he had told media in Jacksonville after a scheduled news conference there was delayed by protesters. One person was arrested. Arrest in Jacksonville: Gov. Ron DeSantis moves Jacksonville news conference after protest and handcuffing of community leader He criticized the federal government for how it allocates the supply of the treatment and said Florida is not getting its fair share. The state has been allocated 12,000 doses when it recently asked for 40,000 doses. That is woefully inadequate for what we need, DeSantis said. In a Tuesday evening news release, DeSantis said, After pressure from Florida, the federal government has begun planning to send 30,000 additional doses to our state, so we can stand up new sites and expand capacity at existing sites." He reiterated his position that Floridas policies of not doing lockdowns, of treating seniors first and making monoclonals available have brought more people to the state, while the federal governments approach of vaccinations and mandates has failed. They put all their eggs in one basket and have not been willing to pivot, DeSantis said. Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022, at the Florida Department of Health-Collier County in Naples, Fla. The governor this week has renewed his push for more availability of monoclonal antibody treatment against COVID-19 and says the federal government needs to release its stranglehold of the supply or allow states to purchase it directly. The federal government had announced it was halting the distribution of the treatment made by Regeneron and Eli Lilly to states but reversed course after receiving a letter from Ladapo, according to the governor's office. The federal government is allowing states to continue ordering supply. But DeSantis, a staunch critic of the president, says Florida needs at least 30,000 more doses a week than what it is receiving. The state plans to open new sites to treat 250 to 300 patients a day at each site. The governor said the state is ready to open new monoclonal testing sites, including in Collier County, if the federal government provides more stock. He said he intends to make at-home tests more readily available because the federal government has failed to provide them, but he offered no information on how he would get or distribute them. There continues to be long lines at testing centers throughout the state, and many pharmacies are reporting they don't have the at-home tests The antibodies are made in a laboratory and are given by infusion at state-run sites and can be effective against serious illness and can help people recover faster. Last summer and fall when the delta variant of COVID-19 was hitting the state hard, the state Division of Emergency Management opened 25 monoclonal antibody sites around Florida, including locations in Bonita Springs and Immokalee. Related: SWFL hospitals have no monoclonal treatments that work on omicron variant Cases double: Collier's weekly COVID-19 cases more than double as infections surge throughout Florida By the way: DeSantis has prioritized for the 2022 Florida legislative Session The Immokalee site was shut down in late September after it saw a slowdown in people coming for the therapy. The Bonita Springs location remains open by appointment only, Betsy Clayton, spokeswoman for Lee County government, said Tuesday. Florida ranked fourth among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week, coronavirus cases in the United States increased 104% from the week before, with 2,833,203 cases reported. With 6.45% of the country's population, Florida had 10.67% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 49 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before. According to the CDC, 95.4% of all new cases are attributed to the omicron variant. The state has surpassed 4.1 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in March 2020. The state Department of Health on Friday reported 298,455 new cases in the last week. One arrested at DeSantis news conference in Jacksonville In Jacksonville, the governor's morning news conference was delayed after five people demanded to speak with him in the Duval County Department of Health room where it was set to be held. But state staff said they could not be there as reporters watched. "It's a state building, but it's not open to the public, not every room in here," facility manager Johnny Lance told the protesters. "There's private business in some areas and I am asking everyone who is not media to leave the room." If they did not leave, the protesters were told them would be charged with trespassing, he said. Then members of the governor's staff tried to set up a later meeting with protesters, but they refused to leave. One protester, Northside Coalition of Jacksonville community leader Ben Frazier, then decried DeSantis' stance on COVID-19 measures, saying he had been "asleep at the wheel" in recent weeks as the numbers of people infected and hospitalized had risen. "We come in peace," Frazier told officials asking him to leave. "This governor does not care. He wants to run away and duck his tail between his legs. Why? He does not want to deal with the people." All about Ben Frazier: Jacksonville activist Ben Frazier, arrested ahead of Gov. DeSantis' press conference: Who is he? Police officers were called in. Frazier was put in handcuffs and escorted out, his motorized wheelchair brought behind him by officers. Taken to a police cruiser, he demanded to know if he was being arrested and on what charge as protesters yelled "Shame, shame." He received a notice to appear later before a judge on a charge of trespass with warning, and was released before noon, the sheriff's office said. The news briefing was moved to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement building nearby, where DeSantis said he had "no idea" what happened at the protest at the original site. Local lawmakers decried what happened to Frazier. Rep. Angie Nixon (D- Jacksonville) said what happened to him was shameful, adding that the people come last in Florida and that DeSantis is "the enemy of the people." "The Governor runs and hides when the people demand to be a priority," she wrote in a statement. "In Florida, peacefully questioning authority gets you arrested. Public service is the peoples business and the Governor must answer for his failings." The leader-designate of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Ramon Alexander of Tallahassee, said the hypocrisy of the "Free State of Florida" was on full display in Jacksonville. "Its only free if you agree with him, and you can only attend his events if you are a cheerleader for his political ambitions," Alexander wrote. "Youre free to catch the virus in Florida, but dont you dare question the Governors policies." State Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the only Democrat on the Florida Cabinet and a candidate for governor, called what happened to Frazier and the protesters "extremely disturbing events." She said Frazier was taken away simply for wanting to speak to DeSantis about public health policies. "The Governor should be ashamed," she wrote. The Jacksonville news conference was DeSantis' second of the New Year, after the omicron variant surged across Florida in recent weeks. In Monday's Broward Health Medical Center appearance, he was critical of vaccines while pushing for more monoclonal treatments, saying they are not preventing infection from the latest omicron variant. And he repeated that at Tuesday's news conference. "We are not seeing vaccinations stop the spread of omicron; in fact, probably higher incidences in higher vaccinated areas like Miami-Dade than in areas that have less for whatever reason," he said Tuesday. "That's just the reality, so folks can just understand. It is very contagious." But since the beginning of nationwide vaccine rollouts, doctors and scientists have emphasized that although the virus can infect inoculated people, they offer the best protection against severe illness and death, even for those who catch the heavily mutated omicron variant. Those with booster shots are the most protected, authorities say. DeSantis' last public appearance was Dec. 17 to tell the public his administration's plan to fight the virus. In the week leading up to that day, Florida added an average of about 5,300 new infections. In the past seven days, the number of new infections have skyrocketed to nearly 52,000, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. Reporters Dan Scanlan of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and Mike Stucka of the USA TODAY Network contributed to this article. This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: DeSantis urges healthy, asymptomatic Floridians to forgo COVID testing Then-President Trump with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) in October 2018 after signing a presidential memorandum focused on sending more water to farmers in California's Central Valley. (Nicholas Kamm / AFP-Getty Images) Devin Nunes made his resignation from Congress official over the weekend, clearing the way for him to take over as chief executive of former President Trump's new media and technology company. In a letter addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), Nunes said his resignation as a member of Congress was effective 11:59 p.m. Saturday, according to a copy of the correspondence obtained by The Times. Pelosi's office received the letter Monday. "It has been the honor of my life to represent the people of California's San Joaquin Valley for the last 19 years," wrote Nunes, a Republican from Tulare. Nunes is taking over as the top executive of Trump Media & Technology Group, which in the coming weeks is expected to launch Truth Social, Trump's answer to Twitter and Facebook. The social media companies kicked the former president off their platforms last year for his role in inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol and efforts to overturn the presidential election. Trump's firm describes its venture as "Americas 'Big Tent' social media platform" and says it "intends to even the playing field by providing people with open media platforms where they can share and create content without fear of reputational ruin." The new gig for Nunes solidifies the 48-year-old's place as a key member of Trump's inner circle, underscoring the importance the former president frequently places on loyalty over relevant experience, so much so that he has given Nunes the reins of a company that values itself at $875 million. A review of Nunes' congressional record reveals his rapid rise from backbencher to media executive should not come as a surprise; the former dairy farmer wasted little time becoming one of Trump's staunchest political allies and waged battle on the former president's behalf against the Justice Department, Democrats and social media companies. Story continues In some ways, hes one of the more unlikelier figures you wouldve seen going full Trump and full MAGA of the sitting members of Congress, said Rob Stutzman, a California-based Republican consultant who has followed Nunes' ascent. It seems a bit unpredictable that this would end up being the trajectory of his congressional career." Nunes entered Congress in 2003 after winning a tough primary against a state lawmaker and a former mayor for a newly drawn congressional district in the San Joaquin Valley. For his first six terms, Nunes kept a low national profile, focusing his legislative energy on battling with environmentalists over water policies that he said harmed farmers. "Before Donald Trump became president, Devin Nunes was actually pretty focused on local issues," said Thomas Holyoke, a political science professor at Fresno State University. "Devin was sponsoring videos on how farms were going dry here in the valley in order to save small fish up in the delta region and how the environmentalists were all crazy wackos who wanted nothing less than to completely destroy agriculture. That's really where he made his big mark and won a tremendous amount of support in parts of the valley, on the water issues." Nunes gradually turned his attention toward national security, a move that would put him firmly in Trump's orbit. In 2015, he became chairman of the influential House Intelligence Committee. After Trump won the party nomination that year, Nunes drove to the Bay Area and met with the candidate, joining him on a flight to Los Angeles and then to Tulare for a presidential campaign fundraiser. Shortly after that, Nunes joined the executive committee of Trumps transition team. Nunes' role atop the Intelligence Committee gave him an influential platform to defend the president against allegations that Russia had aided Trump's campaign. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III ultimately concluded that the Trump campaign welcomed Russian help in the 2016 campaign but did not engage in a criminal conspiracy with the Kremlin. Nunes was a fierce critic of Mueller and accused the FBI of violating rules in its investigation. His committee's Republican majority wrote a memo raising concerns "with the legitimacy and legality of" the Justice Department's and FBI's use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act during the 2016 election cycle. When Muellers report was released in April 2019, Nunes alleged the special counsel "ignored a wide range of abuses committed during the FBIs investigation of the Trump campaign," and echoed Trump in bashing the investigation as the "Russia hoax." Nunes didn't just spar with the Justice Department. He shared Trump's disdain for mainstream media and social media companies, decrying what he has described as their anti-conservative bias, and has repeatedly sued news organizations alleging defamation. When House Democrats impeached the former president in late 2019 on allegations he pressured an ally to dig up dirt on future President Biden , Nunes again was one of Trump's most vociferous defenders, accusing the opposing party of waging "a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign." Trump rewarded Nunes' loyalty on Jan. 4 of last year with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The White House credited the Intelligence Committee chairman with unearthing what it called "the crime of the century," a reference to alleged FBI malfeasance in its Russia investigation, and described the congressman as a "public servant of unmatched talent." Two days later, a pro-Trump mob swarmed the U.S. Capitol, battling police officers and contributing to the deaths of five people, all in an unsuccessful effort to block Congress from certifying Biden's victory. Later that day, after the Capitol had been cleared of rioters, Nunes joined 138 other House Republicans in objecting to the presidential election results. Democrats in the House were joined by 10 Republicans in impeaching Trump last January on allegations that he incited the insurrection. Trump was acquitted in the Senate by a 57-43 vote, short of the 67 votes required to convict him. Nunes, who voted against impeachment, told Fox News that the entire process was "nonsense," adding that "the president makes a lot of mistakes. All presidents make mistakes." This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Morning, neighbors! It's me again, Kathy Cioffi, your host of the Atlanta Daily. First, today's weather: A thick cloud cover. High: 56 Low: 38. Rent this space: Are you a local business owner or marketer in Atlanta? We'd love to start showcasing trusted businesses who can solve problems for our amazing local readers. Learn more about how it works. Here are the top 5 stories today in Atlanta: Inspired by the Golden State Killer case to use genealogy and DNA profiling to solve the 1995 cold case rape and murder of Nacole Smith and a 2004 East Point sexual assault, Atlanta Police say detectives believe they have identified the man responsible. In 1995, Smith, 14, who went missing as she walked to school, was shot twice in the face after she was brutally assaulted and raped. Nine years later, 13-year-old Betty Brown in East Point was assaulted. Rape kits with DNA samples taken from both Smith's and Brown's cases returned matches to GBI forensic investigators. Then, in 2021, investigators used genealogy and ancestral databases to identify the suspect. "We got word just after Christmas that the GBI forensic lab was able to match his DNA profile to the DNA profile obtained in Nacole's investigation and in the unsolved rape of the victim from East Point," said Atlanta Police Det. Scott Demeester. But Brown, the East Point victim, told reporters Tuesday morning, "It's bittersweet." The suspect, 49-year-old Kevin Arnold, died of liver and kidney failure while in hospice care in August 2021 in Fulton County, having never been charged or arrested for the crimes of which he's accused. (Atlanta Patch) While students are learning virtually today, Atlanta Public Schools will provide meals to them. Initially, the district planned to reopen school buildings this week, but officials announced Saturday that APS would pivot to online classes instead from Tuesday through Friday. To help families while children are learning remotely, APS will distribute meal kits from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at eight schools. (Free: ReporterNewspapers.net; Subscription: The Atlanta Journal Constitution) Tops on Andre Dickens' agenda after being sworn in as Atlanta's 61st mayor was signing two executive orders renewing the citys emergency measures in response to the pandemic. Monday, Dickens extended Atlantas mandate requiring people to wear masks in all indoor public spaces, including inside private businesses, according to an order obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also called for a temporary moratorium on evictions for residents living in properties funded by a variety of entities. We survived the Olympic Park bombing and we will survive the COVID-19 pandemic, Dickens said. (Free: Westweb.in; Subscription: The Atlanta Journal Constitution) If you're planning to take MARTA, be sure to build in extra time for your trips. As COVID-19 continues to take a toll on staffing, MARTA is canceling some train trips and has already reduced the frequency of service on many bus routes. Select train trips may be canceled because staffing shortages due to COVID-19, the agency told customers on social media late Monday. Customers are advised to allow extra time to complete their trips. As of Monday, 1,203 MARTA employees have tested positive for COVID-19 during the pandemic. And more disruptions may be coming. After record-high COVID caseloads in recent days, Georgia's Department of Public Health didnt publish new case and death information Monday, citing the overwhelming volume of data. (Free: Atlanta Patch; Subscription: The Atlanta Journal Constitution) During these chilly winter days when daylight seems scarce, Woodruff Park is sparkling in downtown Atlanta. PRISM: Winter Lights, now in its third year on display, is an outdoor exhibit curated by the experimental public art company Dashboard and presented by Atlanta Downtown Improvement District. Featuring light installations by national and local artists, the exhibit explores themes of imagination, identity, and the artists journey through sculptures on the parks main lawn, which are open for free to the public through Jan. 31. (WABE 90.1 FM) Today's Atlanta Daily is brought to you in part by our friends at GoodRx the best way to save money on your prescriptions. GoodRx helps you locate the lowest prices for medications at local pharmacies, so you're not overpaying. Works for pet medications too! To see how much you can save, go to GoodRx.com. Story continues Today in Atlanta: January Wednesday Crafts, Pick Up Your Take-Home Craft Kit at DeKalb County Public Library (10:00 AM) Preschool Story Time at DeKalb County Public Library (10:30 AM) Learn about Making Authentic Connections at Work via an Online Event (5:00 PM) Stem Wine Bar's January Wine Events: California's Hidden Gems (6:00 PM) From my notebook: Atlanta Public Schools is hosting COVID-19 vaccination events for eligible APS students (ages 5 and older), families, and staff on Saturday, January 8 from 10 a.m. 2 p.m. We will be offering first shots, second shots, and boosters! Register today at http://tinyurl.com/apsvax (Facebook) Congratulations Mayor Dickens, City Council President Shipman and new and returning City Council members. We look forward to working together as we build out the Atlanta BeltLine! (Facebook) Theres a variety of hidden gems scattered throughout the Atlanta History Center's 33-acre campus. This staff favorite is located on the lower level of Swan House. Its a boars head soup tureen designed and crafted in China ca. 1780owned by none other than Swan House architect Philip Shutze. When filled with hot soup, steam would curl out of the boars' nostrils. A party favorite for sure. You can find this dish and its twin on display, along with other standout pieces from Shutze's collection, in the terrace level of Swan House. (Facebook) Are you looking for a spot at an Atlanta Public School charter school for the next school year? Charter school applications for the 2022-2023 school year are now open! Visit ApplyAPSCharter.org to apply! (Facebook) MARTA is now offering a signing bonus up to $3,000. MARTA is hiring bus operators & technicians! Join us for a job fair at MARTA Headquarters on Sat., Jan. 8, from 9 a.m. to noon and become part of our team of #MARTAheroes who keep Atlanta moving. (Facebook) More from our sponsors thanks for supporting local news! Events: Feeling Overwhelmed? Anxieties? Re-center yourself with Holistic Fitness for all levels! (January 8) Add your event Housing: EZ 100% No Down Payment Home Loans 2022 (Details) Add your listing Job listings: Atlanta College Jobs, Positions & Part Time Employment (Details) Add your job listing Loving the Atlanta Daily? Here are all the ways you can get more involved: Send a friend or neighbor this link so they can subscribe Get your local business showcased in front of readers Send me a news tip or suggestion at atlanta@patch.com Thanks for following along and staying informed! I'll be in your inbox tomorrow with another update. Kathy Cioffi This article originally appeared on the Atlanta Patch DUBLIN, CA The Dublin Unified School District will provide at-home COVID-19 test kits to families on Thursday, days before students return to class Monday. Two rapid antigen tests per student can be picked up from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Dublin High School (8151 Village Parkway) or Fallon Middle School (3601 Kohnen Way). State health officials provided the district with 13,000 free tests, said Superintendent Chris Funk in a Monday letter to families. The COVID-19 tests are offered "in an effort to keep our school community healthy and safe as we return from winter break," Funk said. Families picking up tests should either have their students in the car or bring a student identification card or report card, school newsletter or another material linking them to a Dublin school, Funk said. Students are advised to take tests, at minimum, the day before school or the morning of their first day in class. Ideally, students should take tests three days before returning to school and the morning of class. The district is also offering COVID-19 PCR tests through Friday at its office, 7471 Larkdale Ave. Samples collected through PCR testing are analyzed in a lab and, unlike rapid antigen tests, results typically come days later and cannot be quickly obtained at home. While PCR testing is less convenient, results have a higher level of accuracy. Families are asked to upload the student's results online, regardless of whether they are positive or negative. Get more details from the district about at-home testing and back-to-school. This article originally appeared on the Dublin Patch SAN JOSE, Calif. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was convicted Monday of four federal charges of fraud for exaggerating to investors what her blood testing company's machines could do, how much money the company could earn and how widely the machines were being used. Holmes faces a maximum of 20 years in prison per charge, likely to be served concurrently. A sentencing date could be set at a hearing next week. As a first-time offender, Holmes is unlikely to face the full term. She could also be fined and required to pay restitution to her former investors. Of the 11 charges, Holmes was acquitted on all that related to defrauding patients and one count of conspiracy. The jury remained deadlocked on three counts of defrauding investors. The underlying wire fraud amounts on those counts ranged from $99 thousand to $5.3 million. In total, Holmes was found guilty of defrauding investors of nearly $145 million. The underlying wire fraud amounts for those charges ranged from $38 million for PFM Healthcare Master Fund, a San-Francisco based healthcare hedge fund, to almost $100 million for Lakeshore Capital Management, a fund connected to the DeVos family office. As the verdict was read out, Holmes appeared stoic, sitting much as she had during the course of the trial, bolt upright and nearly motionless. After court was adjourned, Holmes went to her family. Her father, Christian Holmes, kissed her on her forehead, and she lightly touched her mother, Noel, and her partner, Billy Evans. The four left the courthouse hand in hand and, taking no questions, walked steadfastly through the crowd and the cold. Holmes remains free on bond. Holmes, 37, was the force behind marketing a modernized blood test, advertising a cheap finger prick that could run any commercially available blood diagnostic on a device about the size of a large PC at lower cost than conventional labs that take up entire rooms. As a freshman at Stanford University, Holmes became taken with the idea of performing blood tests on just a finger pricks worth of blood instead of drawing it from a vein, which she said was inspired by her fear of needles. She filed for a patent for a wearable drug delivery patch and at 19 dropped out to form a company and recruit engineers and scientists to try to bring her ideas to life. Story continues Holmes recruited big names to her board of directors, like former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and drew hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment. Feted at conferences, gracing the covers of glossy business magazines, Holmes was held up as an icon of female leadership and achievement. And in 2014, she became the worlds youngest female self-made billionaire, and her company was valued at over $9 billion. But The Wall Street Journal reported in 2015 and 2016 that Theranos' devices were inaccurate and that the company was secretly resorting to running blood tests on other companies' machines, the very ones her company was supposed to be disrupting. She initially faced 12 fraud counts, but the ninth, referring to an individual patient, was dismissed during the trial, the result of an error by prosecutors. The jury deliberated for seven days. On the third day, jurors asked the judge to listen to audio clips of a 2013 call Holmes had with investors, which was recorded without her knowledge. Holmes told investors that the device could perform any blood test and that the company was on track to earn over a billion dollars, and she implied that the devices were being used on military medevac helicopters. None of those statements were true. A week into deliberations, the jury sent a note that said it was deadlocked on three charges. U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila, at the prosecutors request, read the jurors instructions known as an Allen charge telling them to resume deliberations and try to reach a verdict on the outstanding charges. The jury remained unable to reach a unanimous verdict, it said in another note Monday. Federal prosecutors have said Holmes duped investors into supporting a product she knew was faulty, particularly as Theranos began to teeter on bankruptcy. This is a case about fraud, about lying and cheating to get money, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Leach said in opening arguments. The government's case included text messages between Holmes and her former business partner and ex-boyfriend, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, discussing Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou. The couple expressed concerns over Carreyrou's writing a negative article, with Balwani promising to "nail" the reporter. Balwani, who faces his own charges and a separate trial, did not speak at Holmes' trial. In her own testimony, Holmes repeatedly told prosecutors that she genuinely believed the statements she made to investors were true. At the time, you were not worried people would be given an inaccurate impression? Leach asked her. I was not, Holmes said. During cross-examination, Holmes admitted that allegations raised by former Theranos employee Erika Cheung who expressed concerns several times about quality issues with the company's signature blood-testing devices were true. I sure as hell wish we treated her differently and listened to her, Holmes said. She then answered that she now understood that Cheung's concerns were correct. The defense tried to paint Holmes in a more humanizing light as a young visionary who made mistakes, countering the prosecution's characterization of her as shrewd and calculating. Defense attorney Kevin Downey asked Holmes to recount the early days of Theranos, as she sought advisers through the Stanford community, developed a business plan, attracted investment and she thought nailed expectations. He asked her whether she ever intended to mislead her investors. No, she said. Variety The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame Sunday evening in Nashville, in an emotional medallion ceremony that went on as scheduled the day after Naomi Judds death. The Hall had announced Saturday that the induction would go on in the wake of the tragedy due to the wishes of the family. [] From left: Anthony Dabrowski, 34; Raimond Hansbrew, 40; and Davaughn Tate-Johnson, 31, are three city residents who have filed excessive-force lawsuits in federal court against a single Erie police officer, Patrolman Joshua Allison. Raimond Hansbrew sees the scar along his hairline every time he looks in a mirror. Its a painful reminder of an encounter he had with Erie police in May 2018. Its a reminder of the legal battle still ahead, too. Hansbrew, 40, is one of three city residents who in just over six months have filed excessive force lawsuits in federal court against a single Erie police officer, Patrolman Joshua Allison. The Erie Times-News reported on the first of the lawsuits in December. The most recent lawsuit arrived in federal court on June 8, just over a week after Erie police came under increased scrutiny because of a viral video that showed an officer kicking a seated protester in downtown Erie late on May 30. That officer, whom city officials have declined to name, later received three days unpaid suspension, but an internal investigation found his actions were technically justified under the Erie Bureau of Polices use of force policy. The violence that took over downtown on May 30 came hours after a peaceful protest in memory of George Floyd, a Black man whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25 sparked a national reckoning over the role of police in America. Josh Allison was sworn in as an Erie Bureau of Police officer on March 5, 2015. The three lawsuits filed against Allison raise new questions about how police use force in the city of Erie. The Erie Times-News identified the lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Erie and last week spoke with each of the plaintiffs about their claims against Allison and the Erie police. Allison did not return a message seeking comment for this article. Here are the plaintiffs stories, according to the interviews, the lawsuits and other legal documents: Hansbrews lawsuit Hansbrews complaint dates back to May 14, 2018, when police responded to his home in the 500 block of East 22nd Street for a domestic disturbance. A criminal complaint filed against Hansbrew after the incident corroborates some details in the suit. Other details differ substantially. Hansbrew claims he complied with the two officers who arrived at his home. The criminal complaint, written by Allison, claims Hansbrew seemed intoxicated and screamed obscenities at the officers, which led the officers to arrest him. Story continues As the officers tried to arrest Hansbrew, they took him to the ground. The criminal complaint alleges that Hansbrew refused to give his hand to one of the officers and repeatedly reached toward his waistline despite multiple requests to stop resisting. During the encounter the fact that the defendant refused to comply with lawful commands and the defendants level of physical resistance, both (the other officer) and I were placed in fear for our safety, Allison wrote. Hansbrew says thats an exaggeration and that he was complying with the officers orders. You can comply with them and do whatever they ask or whatever, he said in an interview with the Erie Times-News. At the end of the day, theyre still going to figure out how to say, Stop resisting. Hansbrew in his lawsuit claims that he suffered serious injuries to his head when he was slammed to the ground onto large pieces of gravel during the arrest. His lawsuit also claims that once the officers brought him to the Erie police station to be booked, the situation got worse. He said Allison began shouting at him, and he turned to shout back. Were in each others faces like two wrestlers or something, just yelling," he said. Then, he claimed in the lawsuit, Allison slammed his head into a cement wall. Hansbrew told the Erie Times-News he believes he lost consciousness. He awoke in a holding cell to find his head bleeding, he said. Hansbrew said he had to ask for medical care repeatedly. Police finally took him to UPMC Hamot, he said, where he received 20 stitches to his head. Allison describes the interaction differently in the criminal complaint he filed against Hansbrew. As Hansbrew was shouting during the booking process, he was close enough that small droplets of spit exited his mouth and landed on my face, Allison wrote. Believing the defendant was going to continue spitting or head butt me, I placed an open hand on the defendants face and placed his head against the wall. Police charged Hansbrew with aggravated assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct in the incident. The most serious charges, felony counts of aggravated assault, were dropped when Hansbrew agreed to waive his preliminary hearing in June 2018. He pleaded guilty in September 2018 to resisting arrest and received six months of probation. Hansbrew said the scar at his hairline is a lingering reminder of the violent arrest. There have been lasting psychological effects, too, he said. I think I got PTSD, he said. He fears police when they drive by, he said, even if hes not doing anything wrong. I'm not the same me, he said. I know I ain't like I used to be. Hansbrew filed his federal lawsuit without a lawyer, but has retained Erie lawyer Charles Sunwabe, who said he will represent Hansbrew in the case. Hansbrew said he hopes the suit brings accountability. He knows and likes some police officers, he said, but feels police who abuse their power give the rest of the force a bad reputation. Its not like I hate all police, but get the bad ones out of there, he said. If yall ever want to be cool with the community, you cant hide these guys. Anthony Dabrowskis lawsuit Anthony Dabrowski, 34, filed the third and most recent excessive force lawsuit naming Allison. He claims that about a half dozen Erie police officers beat him during an arrest on July 8, 2018. Dabrowski called the police as he was walking by the Erie County work-release center, on East 16th Street, because he saw a van in the parking lot that he believed to have been stolen from a friend of his. Charging documents that were later filed against Dabrowski confirm police responded to the area because he called in a report of a stolen van. Dabrowski in his lawsuit claims that police questioned him about why he was in the area and that one officer punched Dabrowski in the face when Dabrowski reached into his pocket to retrieve his ID. Police said the van had not been reported stolen. Dabrowski claims that he began walking away, then turned back and told the officers that he would never call the police again for anything. The criminal complaint later filed against Dabrowski alleges he shouted obscenities as he walked back toward the officers. Allison, who filed the criminal complaint, wrote that he decided to arrest Dabrowski because Dabrowski was shouting curse words and a family was on a porch outside a nearby residence. The officers then approached Dabrowski to arrest him, according to the lawsuit. I put my hands behind my back to comply with their demands, Dabrowski wrote in his lawsuit. Then, the officer applying the handcuffs shouted to the other officers that I was resisting arrest. Next thing I knew, I was pinned to the ground and attacked by six officers. In an interview with the Erie Times-News, Dabrowski said the officers peeled me up onto my left, exposing my right side, my right ribs. Another police officer came up and kicked me three times in my ribs, and immediately I just started screaming, he said. Dabrowski doesnt know which officer kicked him. But he knows Allison was involved in the incident, because Allison filed the charging documents against him. In the criminal complaint against Dabrowski, Allison described the incident differently. The defendant refused to provide his hands to the officers while tensing, bracing and thrashing, he wrote. Five officers were required in order to subdue the defendant. Police filed charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct against Dabrowski, though the charges were reduced in court a month later. Dabrowski ultimately pleaded guilty to a summary count of harassment. Dabrowski claims that he asked to go to the hospital after the arrest, but police refused. After his release, he wrote in the lawsuit, he went to UPMC Hamot and learned he had two fractured ribs. I want them exposed, Dabrowski said of the officers. They should not represent anybody, let alone our city. Davaughn Tate-Johnsons lawsuit oembed: January arrest has become part of civil rights lawsuit No caption No credit SEO Warning Layout Priority Davaughn Tate-Johnson sued Allison in December. Tate-Johnson, 31, claims in his lawsuit that Allison punched him three times as two other officers were holding Tate-Johnsons arms behind his back during an arrest in January 2019. Officer Allison punched Mr. Tate-Johnson three times in his stomach in quick succession, while Mr. Tate-Johnson stood restrained by the other two officers unable to move or shield his body from the blows, Tate-Johnsons lawyer, John Mizner, wrote in the complaint. According to the criminal complaint police later filed against Tate-Johnson, officers responded to East 26th and Elm streets at about 2:49 a.m. on Jan. 4, 2019, for a report of a burgundy Chevrolet Suburban driving at high speed. The officers who responded located a vehicle matching that description with no headlights on at a red light at East 26th Street and East Avenue, police wrote in the complaint. Police wrote that there was a strong odor of marijuana and alcohol coming from the vehicle and that Tate-Johnson had bloodshot eyes and refused to step out of his vehicle. Police also wrote that Tate-Johnson continued reaching for his waistband until officers had to pry his hand to place him in handcuffs, and that Tate-Johnson kicked his legs when police tried to search him and attempted to crawl under the vehicle to resist complying with the officers. Mizner wrote in the lawsuit that video taken by a witness disproved the officers claims, and that Tate-Johnson refused to exit his vehicle because he feared for his safety. Tate faced charges related to the arrest. He pleaded guilty in February 2019 to a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia and summary counts of disorderly conduct and compliance with a police order. Other charges, including resisting arrest and driving under the influence, were withdrawn when Tate entered the plea, according to court records. In a response to the lawsuit filed in January, Allisons lawyer wrote that Tate-Johnson was "argumentative, combative and non-compliant. Because Mr. Tate-Johnson refused to comply with officer commands and continued to struggle with officers who were attempting to gain control over him, Defendant Officer Allison utilized two-three control strikes to Mr. Tate-Johnsons midsection, which, in conjunction with the efforts of the other officers, allowed the Erie police to gain control over Mr. Tate-Johnson, the lawyer wrote. In an interview with the Erie Times-News, Tate-Johnson said he kept his hands on the steering wheel of his vehicle because he did not want the officers to claim he was reaching for something. The wrong move gets you killed, Tate-Johnson said. So I wasn't trying to make the wrong move. Tate-Johnson, who said he has an associate degree in criminal justice from what was formerly called the Tri-State Business Institute, wants officers to start wearing body cameras. That process is underway. The city in late May announced it had chosen an Arizona-based company to equip Erie police officers with body cameras. Its just not saving me, its saving them, also, Tate-Johnson said. It works hand in hand. I think if they would have had body cameras that night it would have never happened. Citys response Allison joined the Erie Bureau of Police in 2015. On the day of his swearing-in, the Erie Times-News reported he had most recently served as an Edinboro University of Pennsylvania police officer and had previously worked as a law enforcement officer for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In 2017, Allison and another officer were awarded the City of Erie Combat Cross and received commendations for their actions during a January 2017 incident in which a city man was shot by the officers after he fired numerous gunshots at them on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Soldiers & Sailors Home. The man, Deandre R. Tate, survived the shooting and is now serving 25 to 50 years in state prison for crimes including attempted homicide. City Solicitor Ed Betza declined to discuss the pending litigation against Allison. In general, he said, police officers report their uses of force internally, so the city should be aware of any incidents involving force before a lawsuit is filed. When officers are sued individually, Betza said, they typically receive legal representation through the citys insurance carrier. Any settlements reached as part of the lawsuits would also be covered by the insurer, Betza said. Allison has not yet been served with Hansbrews or Dabrowskis lawsuits. In Tate-Johnsons case, Erie lawyer Patrick Carey is representing Allison on behalf of the citys insurer. Carey could not be reached for comment Friday. Erie police Inspector Mark Sanders, of the bureaus Office of Professional Standards, also declined to discuss the cases against Allison. He said an officer being sued repeatedly doesnt necessarily mean there is a problem. Some officers are more active, Sanders said. Some, because of their assignment, are more exposed to cases like that. The existence of multiple lawsuits doesnt prove an officer has acted improperly, he said. Betza agreed. We dont make decisions based on how often somebody is sued, Betza said. We make decisions based on the actions of the individual. Contact Madeleine ONeill at moneill@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @ETNoneill. This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie officer named in 3 excessive force lawsuits Emma Watson captioned the post with a quote about the meaning of solidarity Israel's former ambassador to the UN has accused Emma Watson of anti-Semitism over an Instagram post supporting Palestinian protesters. The actress, best known for playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, reposted an image showing a photograph of a pro-Palestinian protest, with the banner "Solidarity is a Verb" placed over it, to her 64.2 million followers. She captioned the post, which has been "liked" more one million times, with a quote from Sara Ahmed, an academic specialising in feminism, intersectionality and critical race theory, about the meaning of solidarity. Danny Danon, the former Israeli ambassador to the UN, tweeted: "Ten points from Gryffindor [one of the four houses of Hogwarts school in the Harry Potter books] for being an anti-Semite." The current ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said: "Fiction may work in Harry Potter, but it does not work in reality. If it did, the magic used in the wizarding world could eliminate the evils of Hamas, which oppresses women and seeks the annihilation of Israel, and the PA [Palestinian Authority], which supports terror. I would be in favour of that." The Palestinian Authority is the internationally recognised representative body for Palestinians, and currently exercises partial control over the West Bank under Israel's security oversight. This sort of messaging diminishes attention to real cases of anti-Semitism Her Instagram post came after Palestinian militants in Gaza fired rockets towards the Mediterranean Sea, which exploded off the coast of Tel Aviv, prompting Israel to conduct retaliatory strikes. The Israeli military said they had targeted a Hamas rocket manufacturing facility and a military post in retaliation for the two rockets being fired from Gaza on Saturday, landing in the Mediterranean Sea off central Israel. It remains unclear whether the rockets were intended to hit Israel. However, Hamas often test-fires missiles towards the sea. There were no casualty reports from Saturday's launches. Story continues Watson's post also drew support from high-profile figures. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a former Cabinet minister, responded to Mr Danon's tweet by writing: "Repeat after me Mr Showing solidarity with Palestinians is not anti-Semitism. Appalling comments from former Israeli Ambassador to the UN. The picture and quote that Waston posted on Instagram "These constant attempts to stifle any and all support for Palestinians must be called out. Solidarity @EmmaWatson #Palestine #EmmaWatson." Donald Moynihan, the McCourt Chair at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University in the US, tweeted: "This sort of messaging diminishes attention to real cases of anti-Semitism." Mr Danon did not expand upon the reasoning behind his accusation of anti-Semitism. According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), anti-Semitism is "a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews". The IHRA says manifestations of anti-Semitism "might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity" but adds that "criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic". Watson has previously shown support for Black Lives Matter and transgender rights. The Instagram post marks the first time that she has gone on record about the Palestinian cause. The image she reposted, including the "Solidarity is a Verb" comment, was created by the Bad Activist Collective in May last year when Israeli jets bombed Gaza in response to rocket attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. By Eric M. Johnson and Tim Hepher SEATTLE/PARIS (Reuters) -Allegiant Air is poised to order 50 Boeing 737 MAX jets worth $5 billion at list prices, people familiar with the matter said, rejecting offers by traditional supplier Airbus as the no-frills carrier seeks to capture a boom in post-pandemic U.S. tourism. The surprise deal stems a series of setbacks for Boeing Co and overturns the airline's previous strategy of picking up second-hand jets at bargain prices, which had helped it accumulate over 100 jets built by Boeing's European rival. The switch of suppliers is the third such airline defection in as many weeks, this time working in Boeing's favor after the U.S. planemaker lost hard-fought medium-haul contests to Airbus at Dutch KLM https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/airbus-wins-dominant-share-air-france-klm-jet-purchase-sources-2021-12-16 and Australia's Qantas https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/airbus-wins-order-renew-qantas-fleet-sources-2021-12-15. Such "flips" are rare due to the cost of retraining pilots, but reflect fierce competition for new business as the aerospace industry seeks to recover from its worst-ever recession. Boeing, Airbus and Allegiant Air, a unit of Allegiant Travel Co, all declined to comment. The deal is the latest sign of accelerated growth among "ultra-low-cost" carriers that combine rock-bottom fares with optional charges. Carriers like these are expected to emerge in a position of relative strength from the COVID-19 pandemic. "The leisure market is coming back in droves relative to the business market," said one of the people familiar with Allegiant's plans. ORDER RACE The Las Vegas-based carrier operates a total of 122 A319 or A320 jets, only 13 of which were ordered directly from Airbus, according to European data. The 737 MAX planes will help Allegiant's growth strategy and replace aging aircraft over the coming years, though it will continue to be an Airbus operator. Story continues The order comes after a contest waged at least partially between the 737 MAX 7 and the Airbus A220, two of the people said, though some larger 8200 variants may also be involved. "This is huge. Allegiant was in line to order the A220," Leeham Co analyst Scott Hamilton said, adding that the outcome suggested Allegiant had received a "screaming deal" from Boeing as well as the ability to get deliveries more quickly. The new Boeing planes would replace retired jets and feed Allegiant's growth plans over the coming years. Mexico's Viva Aerobus in December announced a commercial alliance with Allegiant to offer flights between the United States and Mexico. The deal, which is likely to be counted in December's orders for Boeing, caps a tight annual order race with Airbus. Boeing bounced back from a safety crisis to sell some 700 MAX through end-November, only to lose two of the industry's most widely watched contests to rival Airbus at Qantas and various subsidiaries of Franco-Dutch group Air France-KLM. Both planemakers are due to publish 2021 data next week. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle, Tim Hepher in Paris and Rajesh Kumar Singh in ChicagoEditing by Matthew Lewis) Plans to construct a new power plant in Killingly were dealt a serious blow this week after a federal agency upheld a request to end an energy supply agreement between the developers of the project and ISO-New England. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday accepted a November termination filing by ISO-NE citing the likely failure of NTE Energy to achieve certain critical path schedule milestones, including commercial operations of the Killingly plant, by June 1, 2024, as laid out in a 2019 capacity supply obligation tariff. NTE, developers of the planned 650-megawatt, natural gas-fired plant slated for Lake Road in the Dayville section of town, secured an obligation in ISO-NEs 2019 forward capacity auction for the 2022-23 supply period. Tom Broffman of Dayville participates in a 2016 rally against the new proposed power plant along Lake Road in Dayville in this file photo. That means it agreed to produce a certain amount of power at a specific cost that would be funneled into the larger New England power grid. But ISO-NE, which operates the New England bulk energy power system and administers its wholesale electricity market, contends NTE has not met the financial or operational benchmarks that would enable the plant to produce the promised power within the contracted timeframe. More: Former race car driver opens cigar lounge in Uncasville with his wife NTE agreed to begin producing power in June 2022, but an automatic two-year extension moved that deadline to mid-2024. ISO-NE argued its monitoring of NTEs progress found the developer wont hit its critical path schedule milestones in time to meet that extended deadline. FERC commissioners wrote they agree with ISO-NE's characterization that NTE has made virtually no progress on the Killingly project since first awarded a capacity supply obligation. More: 'We are not a racist town.' Conn.'s first Sikh city council member reacts to defaced signs We do not agree with NTE that ISO-NEs requested termination is premature or based on faulty assumptions, the FERC statement read. FERCs ruling, which went into effect on Tuesday, means NTE will be unable to take part in a Feb. 7 ISO-NE energy auction. Story continues In its written rebuttal to ISO-NEs filing request which NTE described as unripe" the development company said it experienced three significant developmental delays: a challenge by incumbent generators; administrative challenges by environmental groups that resulted in a complaint to the state Supreme Court; and various COVID-19 issues. More: Norwich got just over half the COVID-19 tests CT promised. Residents snatched them up. NTE Managing Partner Tim Eves, in an emailed statement on Tuesday, said the company is very disappointed with FERCs decision. The Killingly Energy Center is important for grid reliability, and we will continue to work to be the bridge for the regions carbon-free future, he wrote. The Connecticut Siting Council, the agency responsible for approving such projects, in February 2019 approved NTE Energy's petition to refile for a certificate of environmental compatibility and public need, a crucial document needed before construction could move forward. More: Plainfield police again form special unit to solve major cases, relieving patrol officers The council rejected NTE's application in May 2017 without prejudice, meaning although the company did not demonstrate a public need for a combined-cycle plant off Lake Road in Dayville, developers were free to reapply in the future. The council partly cited the failure of the company to qualify in that year's energy auction as a reason for the rejection. It formally approved NTE's application for a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need in June 2019. No plant means millions in unrealized town revenue Under a pair of 2018 Town Council-approved agreements, the town of Killingly was in line for $5 million under a community environmental benefit agreement, or CEBA, once the facility was built, along with $120 million in projected tax revenue over the course of 20 years of operation. Town Manager Mary Calorio said that projected revenue was never a sure thing. None of that money was appropriated for any projects since we knew everything was in a holding pattern until the plant was actually built and running, she said. Were not an affluent community and that money would have gone a long way to helping with certain capital and community projects, but its not realistic or fiscally responsible to allocate money you dont have in hand. More: Rapper Mic Nickels remembers Norwich Free Academy days in recently-released memoir Town Council Chairman Jason Anderson called FERCs decision a huge blow to the project. They didnt have all their financing lined-up and for them to finish the project in time to meet a June 2024 deadline with a 30-33 month construction period - meant theyd have to break ground today, he said. And with that kind of rush, what risks does that take? He said noting NTEs inability to take part in this years energy auction would push any development off for several years, at best. More: Dayville resident and her brother turn old Moosup VFW into modern event, wedding venue It they cant bid again until the 2025-26 auction, it makes it more difficult to finance if they dont have power to sell until then, Anderson said. Yes, having that revenue coming into the town would be great but there was always the possibility it wouldnt come through. There was never any guarantee and wed never look to spend money before we had it. The project has drawn sharp criticism from some environmental groups and state lawmakers, including Gov. Ned Lamont, who in January 2020 bluntly signaled his opposition to the project. More: Poppy and Rye owners retiring, business to become La Stella Pasta and Pastry I dont want to build Killingly, he said at a Connecticut League of Conservation Voters summit. I'm not positive you're going to see Killingly built at all. The largest public proponents of the plan have been union workers anticipating the hundreds of new construction jobs such a project would require. John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965 This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Federal agency ruling means major setback to Killingly power plant Dan Pastore, the co-founder and chairman of FishUSA, has filed as a candidate for the 16th Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly. Pastore, 62, a Democrat from Fairview Township, filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Monday. "I just want to focus on making the federal government work as best as it can for everybody in our region," Pastore told the Erie Times-News on Tuesday. While he's never run for political office before, he said he's followed politics for a long time and has "been concerned about the growing divisiveness and polarization in Washington and across our region." Pastore said he was especially concerned about the events of Jan. 6 and "our current representative's efforts to undermine the electoral process." Pastore said he thinks he can offer a better approach. Dan Pastore, co-founder and chairman of FishUSA, is shown at the Fairview Township business in 2015. A Democrat, Pastore is seeking the 16th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Kelly, 73, a Republican from Butler, officially announced in December that he is seeking a seventh term. A supporter of former President Donald Trump, Kelly was among the Republicans who objected to the certification of Pennsylvania's Electoral College votes on Jan. 6. Running for re-election: Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly seeks a seventh term in Congress From 2020: U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, other Pa. House Republicans pledge to oppose Electoral College tally The Federal Election Commission website on Tuesday listed three candidates for the 16th District seat: Kelly, Pastore and Democrat Richard "Rick" Telesz, a dairy, commodity soybean and corn farmer from Volant in Lawrence County. The other Dem: Richard Telesz running for Democratic nomination in U.S. Congress District 16 race Pastore, who described himself as a "moderate Democrat," said he wants to focus on nonpartisanship. "I think the only way to get things done is we have to be willing to work across the aisle, understand everybody's perspective and come to reasonable resolutions of the issues," he said. Story continues Pastore said his experiences working with his family's construction business, as the owner of his own businesses and as a lawyer help him understand how laws and government regulation affect businesses and workers. FishUSA is an online retailer of fishing tackle that launched in 2000. It has corporate offices, a Pro Shop and a warehouse in Fairview. Pastore said it employs 60 people in Erie County. He said he works for it full-time now and doesn't actively practice law. He previously co-founded and later sold Erie.Net, a public internet provider. Milestone: Online retailer FishUSA in Fairview Township celebrates its 20th anniversary Pastore is also the commissioner representing the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's First District, which includes Butler, Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Forest, Lawrence, Mercer, Venango and Warren counties. He was appointed to a four-year term in June of 2019. Mover of the week: Dan Pastore named commissioner of Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's 1st District He received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1980 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1985, according to information from the Fish and Boat Commission's website. He has practiced law in Erie, focusing on real estate and commercial litigation. Pastore is married and has three adult children. The 16th District includes Erie, Crawford, Mercer and Lawrence counties and a portion of Butler County. However, state lawmakers are in the process of redrawing the state's congressional districts, which could expand the 16th District. For subscribers: Mike Kelly ethics probe: What are the possible outcomes for the 6th-term congressman? Kelly was first elected to Congress in 2010 and is a ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means. Contact Dana Massing at dmassing@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @ETNmassing. This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Dan Pastore: Dem, Fairview businessman seeks Mike Kelly seat in Congress Prosecutors have dropped charges against two Monroe County deputies who fought with three Navy sailors on Duval Street in Key West late last month. Monroe County State Attorney no action documents announcing the decision filed Monday state that Key West police failed to view or collect bystander video before arresting both men. Regarding the felony battery charge that Deputy Trevor Dawson Pike faced, Assistant State Attorney Val E. Winter wrote that his actions were justified under the circumstances to defend himself based on witness cellphone video. And the video showed Deputy Connor Scott Curry did not engage in any conduct which was criminal or unjustified, Winter wrote. Curry was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge. The deputies were off-duty and not in uniform. A still frame from a video taken by witnesses shows an off-duty Monroe County Sheriffs Office deputy fighting with a United States Navy sailor Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021, on Duval Street in Key West. Monroe County State Attorney Dennis Ward said the decision was made after reviewing the cellphone video, footage from the police officers body cameras and the reports. Deputy Pike was protecting himself and acted in self-defense, Ward said. Key West police arrested Pike, 25, and Curry, 23, after the early morning fight on Dec. 18. Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay immediately announced his deputies were suspended without pay. But several days later, a group of women who witnessed the fight and filmed it sent him the footage that Ramsay said clearly showed Pike was defending himself against the sailors, and that Curry largely stayed out of the altercation. By the end of the week, the sheriff reinstated Pike and Curry and put them back on patrol. Ramsay declined to comment Tuesday on the Key West Police Departments investigation of the fight, but said he was pleased with the State Attorneys Offices decision. At the end of the day, the two officers have been vindicated. And, at the end of the day, my assessment of the incident has been validated, Ramsay said. The fight left one sailor, James Black, with serious head injuries after Pike punched him in the face and his head hit the sidewalk pavement. Two of the other sailors, Angel Low, 26, and Jose Bejar Jr., 22, were arrested on disorderly conduct charges. Story continues However, the charges against Low were dropped, Ward said Tuesday. Bejar and, despite his injuries, Black are being charged. Witnesses said Black was one of the most egregious aggressors. Several witnesses told Key West police that the sailors repeatedly tried to start a fight with Pike and Curry, according to body camera footage. The women who took the video also told responding Key West police officers that the off-duty deputies were defending themselves. Key West Police Officer Thomas Clark was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene. He was recorded on body camera video telling his supervising officer, Sgt. Alex Rodriguez, it appeared Pike was defending himself. Nevertheless, Rodriguez ordered his officers to arrest everyone but Black, who was airlifted to a Miami hospital that day, on disorderly conduct charges and Pike on felony battery. Ramsay said last month that the order was given without collecting evidence or witness testimony, adding that had he not seen the video, his deputies law enforcement careers would be over. A poor investigation was done and a hasty decision was made, Ramsay told the Miami Herald/FLKeysnews.com. Ward on Tuesday said Rodriguez completely ignored what Clark told him and had the two deputies arrested. I dont know why the sergeant did that, Ward said. Key West Police Chief Sean Brandenburg wasnt available for comment on Tuesday. In December, Brandenburg told the Miami Herald/FLKeysNews.com: I am not going to second guess the decision of my officers. It is up to the state attorney and the judge to decide whether the arrested men are at fault. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said on Monday it was time to "unwind" the "testing psychology" many Americans have developed throughout the pandemic, as COVID-19 cases surge in his state. "We are going to be working to unwind the sort of testing psychology that our federal leadership has managed to, unfortunately, get most of the country in over the last two years," Ladapo said at a news conference Monday. As Omicron surges, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo says the state is working to "unwind" the COVID "testing psychology" that the federal government has prioritized. pic.twitter.com/cju0o1uVJm - The Recount (@therecount) January 3, 2022 He added that people were planning and living their lives around testing but said it was "really time for people to be living, to make the decisions they want regarding vaccination, to enjoy the fact that many people have natural immunity." Lapado's comments come as COVID-19 cases are surging in Florida and around the country. The Florida Department of Health reported 298,455 new cases with a positivity rate of 26.5 percent for the week of Dec. 24 through Dec. 30, compared to 128,186 cases the week of Dec. 17 and 29,514 cases the week of Dec. 10. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) acknowledged at Monday's press conference that Florida was struggling with testing shortages as people flood the state's testing sites but said the federal government has "total control" over testing supplies, according to WFLA. DeSantis added that Ladapo would be releasing new testing guidance focused on testing "if you have a reason," per WFLA. Lapado cited an example of prioritizing an elderly grandmother over a third grader and said the focus would be on testing that could "likely change outcomes," according to WTSP. Story continues Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, said in a tweet that the surgeon general's comments were "completely backwards." "Florida Surgeon General says we need to stop testing and get back to our lives," Jha said. "In fact, with ubiquitous testing, we can keep infections low and safely get back to our lives." In 2020, then-President Trump also suggested that less testing would be beneficial for the pandemic. "If we stop testing right now, we'd have very few cases, if any," Trump said during a White House event about the administration's actions to help senior citizens. Republicans have recently upped the pressure on President Biden over testing shortages, with people struggling to buy at-home tests or schedule appointments for tests amid the omicron surge. Two top Republican senators on Monday called on the Biden administration to provide answers about how it has spent billions of dollars in testing funds for COVID-19 amid shortages in such tests across the country. By Noel Randewich and Paul Lienert DETROIT (Reuters) - Shares of Ford Motor and General Motors surged on Tuesday, lifted by investors' growing enthusiasm about their future electric pickup offerings. Ford's stock jumped more than 11% to its highest level since 2001 after the Detroit automaker said it will nearly double production capacity for its red-hot F-150 Lightning electric pickup to 150,000 vehicles. It said the model has already attracted nearly 200,000 reservations ahead of its arrival this spring at U.S. dealers. GM rallied 7.3% a day ahead of its public debut of the Chevrolet Silverado electric pickup, which is slated to go on sale in early 2023. GM CEO Mary Barra is set to unveil the Silverado EV at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Tesla's announcement on Sunday that it delivered 308,600 vehicles in the fourth quarter, crushing analysts' forecasts of 263,026, also heightened excitement about electric vehicles, one of the hottest investment themes on Wall Street. Tesla shares climbed more than 13% on Monday, but gave back 4.4% on Tuesday. Ford has now gained nearly 17% over two days, a strong start to the year after surging 136% in 2021. GM has climbed 12% over two sessions, adding to its 41% gain last year. Not all of Wall Street's EV makers got a lift on Tuesday. Rivian dipped 0.8%, leaving its gain since its initial public offering in November at 31%. Lucid Group lost 4%, while Nio dipped 5%. The rally in GM shares came even after Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp released data showing it outsold GM in the United States in 2021, marking the first time the Detroit automaker has not led U.S. auto sales for a full year since 1931. Ford CEO Jim Farley in early December told CNBC host Jim Cramer that Ford had to stop taking reservations for the Lightning. (Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Marguerita Choy and Nick Zieminski) Ford announced on Tuesday that it would almost double the annual production of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck. The company said it would make 150,000 vehicles per year "to meet soaring customer demand" as the first round of reservations for the new truck officially turn into orders on Thursday. "The reality is clear: People are ready for an all-electric F-150 and Ford is pulling out all the stops to scale our operations and increase production capacity," said Kumar Galhotra, Ford's president of Americas and international markets. Ford initially planned to produce about 80,000 of the electric trucks, but customer demand for the trucks priced at about $40,000 before taxes prompted them to increase output. "With nearly 200,000 reservations, our teams are working hard and creatively to break production constraints to get more F-150 Lightning trucks into the hands of our customers," Galhotra added. Within the next two years, Ford intends to have the capacity to produce 600,000 electric vehicles each year. President Biden test-drove a Ford Lightning as part of a visit to the company's plant in Dearborn, Mich., in May, during which he touted electric vehicles as the "future of the auto industry." "This sucker's quick," the president told the White House pool reporter at the time. Ford's latest announcement comes just one day ahead of General Motors publicly introducing its Chevrolet Silverado electric pickup, scheduled to take place on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Last month, Toyota also announced a plan to invest about $35 billion into 30 models of battery-powered electric vehicles by 2030. That plan came after Toyota did not join a group of car companies, including Ford, General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, that pledged at the COP26 summit in Scotland last year to transition all car and van sales to 100 percent zero emissions by 2040. John C. Milhiser Former United States Attorney for the Central District of Illinois John Milhiser has announced hes running for secretary of state as a Republican. It is a privilege to run for this office and continue to fight to make our state a better place to live. I am running because we can do better in Illinois. We can have good government. We can have safe communities, and we can rebuild trust in our leaders, said Milhiser in a press release. Milhiser resigned his post as U.S. attorney in February when he, along with most other Trump appointees were asked to resign by President Joe Biden. This is a routine part of presidential transitions. Earlier: John Milhiser resigns as U.S. attorney for central Illinois He was also previously the Sangamon County states attorney. He currently teaches government, history and English at the Springfield Public Schools Lawrence Education Center, a school offering adult education high school credit courses. Democrats have already reacted to Milhisers candidacy, calling him a pawn of former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and conservative donor Ken Griffin. Rauner and Griffin are most famous for waging a disastrous four-year war on good government in Illinois, decimating our social safety net and nearly plunging our state into junk status. Rauner and Griffin are now back, choosing their own slate of hand picked puppets instead of letting voters to have their say. said Democratic Party of Illinois Executive Director Abby Witt in a statement. Ken Griffin is a billionaire hedge fund manager known for spending millions in Illinois politics, most recently when he spent just over $53.7 million on a campaign against a proposed constitutional amendment to allow the state to implement a graduated income tax. Milhiser had not yet filed the paperwork where he would have to disclose any campaign donations, as of Tuesday afternoon. He could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Dan Brady is the only other Republican in the race. Brady is a member of the House of Representatives, serving Bloomington-Normal and rural McLean County. Story continues Brady has earned endorsements from at least 43 state lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Jim Durkin as well as three of Illinois five congressional republicans. Having Republican lawmakers support and guidance behind me is significant, Brady said in a statement on Tuesday. Their support will allow us to build an effective campaign infrastructure from Cairo to Waukegan as I prepare to share my message with voters in the months ahead. The last time a Republican was secretary of state was from 1991 to 1999, when George Ryan served before running for governor. Since 1999, Democrat Jesse White has held the office, being elected to the office six times. Milhisers announcement comes on the same day as U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin announced his endorsement of Chicago Democrat Anna Valencia for the race. Valencia is currently Chicagos city clerk. More: Illinois Department of Agriculture picks Rebecca Clark as manager of the Illinois State Fair Anna Valencia is ready to make history as the first woman to be elected as Illinois Secretary of State, said Durbin in a press release. She is part of the newest generation of Democrats who are critical to our future in this state. Valencia was Durbins campaign manager during his 2014 senate campaign. I was honored when he trusted me to run his re-election campaign back in 2014, and I am thrilled that he has once again put his faith and trust in me by endorsing me in this race, said Valencia. Valencia has also been endorsed by Illinois other senator, Tammy Duckworth, who is also a Democrat. On the Democratic side, Chicago Ald. Pat Dowell, Chicago Ald. David Moore and former state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias are also running. This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: John Milhiser to run for Illinois secretary of state in 2022 election JERUSALEM (AP) When Israel's new government took office last June, it indicated it would press ahead on an egalitarian prayer site at Jerusalem's Western Wall a sensitive holy site that has emerged as a point of friction between Jews over how prayer is conducted there. But the plan is coming up against the limits of Israels fragile government, which is struggling to move forward on the issue due to its own internal divisions. The inaction has disappointed both Israeli groups that promote religious pluralism and their American Jewish allies, who view the issue as an important test of recognition from the Israeli government. Anyone can topple the government if they sneeze in the wrong direction, said Anat Hoffman, chairwoman of Women of the Wall, a group that advocates for pluralistic prayer at the holy site. They are very cautious with the temperature of the hot potatoes that come their way and the Western Wall is a special hot potato. The Western Wall is considered the holiest site where Jews can pray. Under ultra-Orthodox management, the wall is currently separated between mens and womens prayer sections. Under the more liberal Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism, women and men pray together and women are allowed to read from the Torah, which Orthodox Judaism prohibits. Those streams are a minority in Israel but make up the majority of American Jews. Israel's refusal to recognize these liberal streams has long been a point of tension with American Jews. After years of negotiations, Israel approved a plan in 2016 to officially recognize a special prayer area at the Western Wall. The $9 million plan vowed to expand an egalitarian prayer site and make it more hospitable to prayer and religious events held by Jews who don't follow Orthodox traditions. The deal was welcomed by Jewish American leaders and seen as a significant breakthrough in promoting religious pluralism in Israel, where the ultra-Orthodox authorities govern almost every facet of Jewish life. But then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never implemented the plan due to objections from powerful ultra-Orthodox allies who had initially endorsed it. Story continues He shelved the plan the following year, leading to strained relations with American Jewish leaders that continued until he left office last year. His tight relationship with President Donald Trump further unsettled the heavily Democratic-leaning Jewish community. American Jews have long lamented that Israel should be as accepting of their religious practices as they are of their financial and political support. The new government, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett the child of American immigrants brought hope that the plan may be revived. As Israel's minister of diaspora affairs at the time, Bennett voted in favor of the plan when it was initially tabled and repeatedly expressed the importance he placed in the relationship with the U.S. Jewish community. That his coalition excludes any ultra-Orthodox parties only heightened the feeling that the time was ripe for the plan to move forward. Under Bennett's leadership, contacts between U.S. liberal Jewish leaders and Israeli government officials have surged. Bennett himself met with the leaders in what was perceived as a major step in repairing ties. But Bennett heads an unwieldy coalition of parties from across the political spectrum ranging from nationalist parties to dovish liberal ones and even an Islamist faction that was united behind the goal of ousting Netanyahu and very little else. While the Western Wall plan features in agreements that brought the coalition together, its leaders have generally chosen to sidestep divisive issues that might rattle its stability. Moving ahead with the Western Wall plan could spark an outcry from ultra-Orthodox opposition parties, which in turn could exert pressure on more sympathetic elements of the coalition to oppose the move. And while the government isnt likely to fall over the Western Wall plan, a public brawl over the issue within government ranks could wear down the already delicate ties that bind the coalition. We need to be careful. The make-up of this government is complex," Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai told The Associated Press. He said that Bennett had decided to hold off on the plan for now. My bet is that it will happen in the end but it wont happen tomorrow or the next day. Bennett's office did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, the Western Wall rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, did not disclose his position on the agreement but said the site is not the place to engage in political struggles. Tensions at the Western Wall continue to flare. On Monday, dozens of women arrived to pray wearing skullcaps and prayer shawls items reserved for men under Orthodox Judaism. In what has become a monthly ritual, they were met by young women shrieking in an attempt to drown out their prayers. In November, thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered to protest the Women of the Wall. They heeded a call by ultra-Orthodox leaders to not have the site desecrated. Netanyahu, now in the opposition with his ultra-Orthodox allies, retweeted one such call. Ultra-Orthodox rabbis strictly govern Jewish practices in Israel such as weddings, divorces and burials. The ultra-Orthodox religious establishment sees itself as responsible for maintaining traditions through centuries of persecution and assimilation, and it resists any inroads from liberals it often considers to be second-class Jews who ordain women and gays and are overly inclusive toward converts and interfaith marriages. Bennett's government is taking steps to loosen the ultra-Orthodox hold. It has passed a reform in kosher certifications for restaurants and is attempting to allow conversions to Judaism outside of the ultra-Orthodox rabbinate. The liberal streams have made strides in Israel in recent years, establishing synagogues, youth movements, schools and kindergartens. A former leader of the liberal Reform movement in Israel is now a lawmaker and Israels secular majority has become more accepting. But authorities have generally tended to regard them as a somewhat alien offshoot imported from North America that does not mesh with how religion is typically practiced in Israel. That helps explain why the Western Wall agreement is so important to them. Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said that if implemented, the agreement would open the door to other steps toward religious pluralism in Israel. This is an issue that wont change everything, but it will change and symbolically shifts things towards more respect or legitimacy," he said. "I hope this government will find the political will to do it. Gov. John Carney held a virtual press briefing Tuesday afternoon about Delawares response to COVID-19. Watch a replay of thepress conference below. Carney's briefing came one day after Delaware reentered a state of emergency to allow members of the Delaware National Guard to serve as nurses to alleviate the strain placed on the state's hospitals. The number of COVID-19 cases in the state continues to spike as testing centers remain overwhelmed following holiday gatherings. Delaware saw 2,328 new positive cases and a record-breaking number of hospitalizations on Jan. 1. On New Year's Eve, there were 3,554 new positive cases, a high not seen at any point in the pandemic, according to the Delaware Division of Public Health. Surge numbers: Positive cases, hospitalizations reach record highs as new year arrives Big jump: Daily positive COVID-19 cases up 77% from last week, Division of Public Health reports National update: Biden to address nation on omicron as US reports 1M cases in a day Watch Gov. John Carney's update This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: COVID update: Gov. John Carney briefing on Delaware response Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday she expects a push during the coming legislative session to create more transparency for parents concerned about the books available to students at public schools. "Parents need to know what books are in the library," Reynolds told reporters during a forum hosted by the Iowa Capitol Press Association. "They need a chance to weigh in. They need to know what the curriculum is as well as what they're using in teaching in classes. And I think you're going to see parents that are engaged and paying attention." Reynolds said she anticipates a parent-driven effort to bring forward legislation, though she did not say exactly what she expects the legislation to do. But, broadly, she said she shares the concerns parents have raised with her about transparency in schools. "I'm telling you, what some of the parents brought forth to me, it's concerning," she said. "I would be concerned." Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds answers questions during the Iowa Capitol Press Association legislative preview forum, on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Debates over books that are taught in the classroom and housed in school libraries have ricocheted through school board meetings nationally and across the Des Moines metro. Some parents and conservative politicians have taken particular aim at books that feature stories of LGBTQ people or Black people. In Iowa, they include books like "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas, "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie and "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe. More: Concerns raised by Des Moines metro parents about LGBTQ-related books in school libraries reflect national debate Some students and librarians have pushed back against the challenges and bans, and LGBTQ students and students of color have argued it's essential to see themselves reflected in literature. More: As Iowa school districts face new book challenges, students, librarians speak out against bans School districts typically have policies in place that allow parents to challenge books and curriculum materials and create a structure for those books to be reviewed. Story continues In some districts, such as Ankeny, a challenged book has been pulled from library shelves. In others, including Urbandale, a review panel voted to keep several books available despite parent complaints. Reynolds did not say how potential legislation might alter those processes but again stressed transparency. She said information that school districts already make available to the state's Department of Education should also be available to parents. "I think the legislators have and will continue to hear from parents on this issue," she said. Politics newsletter signup: Get political analysis and headlines delivered to your inbox daily The Iowa Legislature is scheduled to convene its 2022 session Jan. 10. Reynolds will deliver her condition of the state address Jan. 11. Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Register. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Gov. Reynolds expects legislative push amid debates over library books Melody Butler, a registered nurse in New York, woke up the day after Christmas with a headache, chest tightness and a feeling of malaise an at-home rapid test confirmed she was Covid-positive. Eight days later, she returned to work at the hospital, still a bit fatigued and prepared to wear full protective gear to prevent any potential spread. As the highly transmissible omicron variant took hold and spread throughout the holidays, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week revised its isolation recommendations, reducing the isolation time for asymptomatic health care workers from 10 days to seven with a negative test or fewer days if there are staffing shortages. Out of an abundance of caution and concern, Butler, who is fully vaccinated, weighed her options when deciding when it was safe to go back to work. But, she said, knowing how overwhelmed her colleagues were with staffing shortages only added pressure on her to return. The hospital "did inform me about the new recommendations, but they said, You come back to work when you feel youre ready, Butler, 35, said. I did not feel threatened, but I know how tight staffing is right now. Im very well aware of how many people are out sick. Health care workers across the country find themselves once again at the forefront of another Covid-19 surge, but this time many are being sidelined after testing positive, leading to a nationwide hospital staffing shortage. Hospital staff now find themselves toeing the line between patient safety and care and staffing shortages when trying to decide when it's safe to return to work after a Covid infection. You want to be as safe as possible and reduce the spread of the virus, but you dont want your health care infrastructure to totally break down or suffer too much from unneeded isolation, said Franklin Rosenblat, an infectious disease doctor in Michigan. Lots of health care workers have tested positive for Covid, and there have been staffing shortages because of the amount of hospital staff affected. Story continues While his hospital had discussions with its staff about developing policies for Covid-positive workers after the holidays, he spent much of Monday fielding questions from nurses who tested positive or feared testing positive. I think the main fear is always for our patients, Rosenblat said. Nurses especially have a tight bond with their patients, and they want to make sure that theyre not putting the patients at risk, so that anxiety is really something that I have to respect because they have a patients best interest foremost in their mind. He recommends taking a rapid test if possible before returning to work and wearing personal protective equipment an N95 mask, eyewear, face shield and gloves after a shorter quarantine. These measures, he said, are proven mitigating strategies for both health care staff and patients. And symptomatic people, he said, regardless of how mild the symptoms are, should definitely stay home. Case counts have been rising across the country, with the United States hitting 1 million new Covid cases Monday, according to NBC News data. For the past few weeks, Rosenblat, 59, has come in to work to find the emergency room full of patients. He said that hes used to the frantic pace of the pandemic, and that hes treated more than 100 Covid patients since March 2020. But, he added, the past few weeks have been the most concerning so far. Anna Bershteyn, an assistant professor in the department of population health at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, emphasized the need to be cautious after leaving isolation and quarantine. Something people often forget is, you dont just go back to what you were doing, she said. After five days, you do need to wear a mask and socially distance. You can go out and do those essential things, but you need to be cautious as you do them. Bershteyn said she wants to reassure the public that the changing CDC recommendations for isolation are founded on data and research compiled over almost two years. In late November 2020, a study led by researchers at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, published in the peer-reviewed Lancet Microbe, found that SARS-CoV-2 viral load peaked in the upper respiratory tract the first five days after the onset of symptoms. She also said that while recommended isolation periods are shorter now, the return-to-work recommendations for immunocompromised or symptomatic people outlined on the CDC site are a little more stringent, proposing a Covid test-based strategy and consultation with infectious disease specialists. But in the short-term, according to Bershteyn, as long as recommendations are backed by data and people keep the most vulnerable in mind, shes hopeful for the coming months. The goal is not zero transmission; the goal is to get us all through this, she said. Lets keep up essential services while also reducing transmission. As the nation continues to navigate the spread of new variants, hospitals need to find alternative methods to bolster their staff, said Miles Corak, a professor of economics at the City University of New Yorks Graduate Center. With much of his research on inequality, he said that bringing in more staff could leave room to address the concerns of current health care workers, who are feeling two years of exhaustion and fear. He suggested rehiring newly retired health care workers with higher pay or improving working conditions, hospital ratios and pay, for all staff, so more people apply. In some measure, we are sort of facing the consequences of a lot of structural forces, he said. We dont pay as much attention to workers as we pay to other forms of investment. Though Butler said she was fortunate enough to return to work when she felt comfortable, shes concerned that as cases rise and more health care workers test positive, people will get back to work sooner than they should. My concerns are that if a health care worker is sick and theyre informed about the new return-to-work policy, that they may feel pressured to come back sooner than theyre physically able, she said. And its really important that they do listen to their body and make sure they are meeting the criteria to return to work. Registered nurse Akiko Gordon, left, and respiratory therapist Janssen Redondo tend to a COVID-19 patient inside the ICU at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles on Friday. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) The number of coronavirus-positive patients has spiked dramatically across Southern California since Christmas but some health officials are noting important differences in how the latest surge is playing out in hospitals compared with last winter's devastating wave. In Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, the coronavirus-positive patient count has more than doubled in the last nine days. And in L.A. and San Bernardino counties, the daily hospital census has surpassed the peak seen during last summer's spike. Some officials remain concerned that hospitals could still face challenges as the highly contagious Omicron variant infects people at what experts are calling an unprecedented rate. But there are signs that the crunch at a number of Southern California's hospitals may not be as severe as last year, before vaccines were widely available. Roughly two-thirds of patients who have tested positive at hospitals run by the L.A. County Department of Health Services were admitted for something other than the coronavirus, according to Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly. That is starkly different from what the county's public hospitals saw in earlier surges, when most coronavirus-positive patients were hospitalized because they had been sickened by the virus, Ghaly said. This time around, many "may have not known they were COVID-positive ... but they're in the hospital for something else," Ghaly said. During last winter's surge, more than 80% of COVID-19 patients were in the hospital because they were experiencing severe illness associated with the disease, according to the Department of Health Services. "The difference we are seeing this year is largely due to the fact that we have a higher number of individuals who have been vaccinated and boosted," department officials wrote in a statement to The Times. "With the Omicron variant being highly transmissible, we cant emphasize enough the importance of having everyone get vaccinated and boosted as soon as they are eligible." Story continues It's unclear whether this same trend is playing out statewide. The California Department of Public Health did not immediately respond Monday when asked how many coronavirus-positive patients have been hospitalized directly because of COVID-19 compared with those found to have an ancillary infection upon admission. But if the current trend holds, Southern California may avoid some of the worse-case hospitalization scenarios envisioned weeks ago. Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the UC San Francisco Department of Medicine, held out cautious hope that a surge in coronavirus patients at his institution's hospitals were stabilizing. "Still too soon to be sure and, to me, an argument to be more careful, but it's hopeful," Wachter wrote on Twitter. "Omicron," he added, "may be hitting a big immunity wall" in San Francisco. That's not to say there aren't risks to health and public safety due to soaring coronavirus infections, however. In L.A. County, officials said they've "begun to see delays in ambulance response to 911 calls due to several factors, including a decrease in staff that are unable to report to work due to COVID-related illness and ambulances experiencing extended waiting times to offload patients at hospitals." According to the L.A. County Department of Health Services: "People should reach out to their physicians for suggestions to treat mild COVID symptoms. Do not seek COVID testing at emergency departments but at established sites. We urge all L.A. County residents to do their part in helping stop the spread of COVID-19 during this latest surge." On Sunday, 1,994 coronavirus-positive patients were hospitalized in L.A. County up 121% from the tally seen on Christmas Day. L.A. County surpassed its summertime COVID-19 hospitalization peak on New Year's Day, when 1,792 patients with coronavirus infections were in its hospitals. During the summertime Delta surge, the patient count in the nation's most populous county peaked at 1,790 on Aug. 17, state data show. However, the number of seriously ill patients remains well shy of last summer. On Sunday, 278 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care units countywide about 40% below the August peak. The latest totals also are a far cry from last winter, when more than 8,000 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized countywide on the worst days, and ICUs were at times inundated with more than 1,700. Southern California has the worst per capita COVID-19 hospitalization rate in the state. Regionwide, for every 100,000 residents, 21 people are hospitalized with a coronavirus infection. Experts have said it's a concern when that rate is 5 or worse. The comparable rates are 17 in the Greater Sacramento area, 15 in the San Joaquin Valley, and 10 in the San Francisco Bay Area and rural Northern California. Within Southern California, the Inland Empire has the worst rates, with San Bernardino County's at 31 and Riverside County's at 25. L.A. and San Diego counties have a rate of 20; Ventura County, 18; and Orange County, 17. Like L.A., San Bernardino County has already surpassed its summertime hospitalization peak. As of Sunday, there were 655 people with coronavirus infections in its hospitals, 113% of the summer peak of 580 hospitalizations. San Diego and Ventura counties have reached 98% of the number of coronavirus-positive patients seen at the peak of their summer surges. Orange County, at 92%, and Riverside County, at 88%, are approaching theirs as well. Roughly 87% of current hospitalized patients are unvaccinated in Orange County, figures show. Given the high level of local transmission, Ventura County officials announced the region would close its buildings to the public as a precaution for three weeks starting Wednesday. Services will still be offered online and by appointment. "More people are infectious and spreading the virus indoors," Ventura Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin said in a statement. "Taking these steps limiting close contacts, wearing a mask indoors to prevent getting infected and infecting others, isolating when symptomatic, testing and getting vaccinated can reduce the likelihood of severe COVID affecting you, your family and community." Starting Monday, Newport Beach also temporarily closed its City Hall and community centers. In a statement, officials said that "all city services will continue, although some will be conducted only through virtual and drop-off" methods and that they anticipate the new protocols will be in place through mid-January. Though the statewide patient count remains below the height of last summer's surge, it too is swelling rapidly. There were 6,789 coronavirus-positive patients hospitalized throughout California on Sunday, an 81% increase since Christmas. Health officials have long cautioned that even if Omicron infections are milder than Delta ones, significant spikes will invariably fuel a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations. How severe that proves to be, however, remains to be seen. So far, COVID-19 hospitalizations have not risen as fast as coronavirus cases perhaps a result of Omicrons lower severity, on average, to many people. It's also possible that vaccinations can partly explain why there's a lower rate of hospitalization. L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer last month estimated that while 15% to 20% of coronavirus cases required hospitalization during the surges of 2020 and last winter, only 5% to 6% of cases required hospitalization during the summer Delta surge, which "really reflects the power of those vaccines." It's too soon to say what that percentage will be for the current surge. "Because some people may not be hospitalized right away after testing positive for COVID-19, increases in hospitalizations generally lag behind increases in cases. As a result, it is too soon to say whether there will be a change in the percentage of cases hospitalized associated with the recent increase in cases," the state Department of Public Health said in a statement. Still, the number of coronavirus cases has raised alarms. L.A. County recorded 23,553 new cases Saturday and 21,200 more Sunday, far above last winters peak average of 16,000 cases a day. And officials said those numbers are likely undercounts because of lags in weekend reporting. According to estimates from Californias COVID-19 computer models published Monday morning, every infected person in L.A. County is on average transmitting the virus to two other people greater than at any point since the early months of the pandemic. "We hope that by working together to implement essential public health safety measures, we can stay safe, protect those we love and keep our schools and businesses open," Ferrer said in a statement Sunday. "During this surge, given the spread of a more infectious strain of the virus, lapses can lead to explosive transmission." Officials said the latest spike in cases can be attributed both to the Omicron variant, which is estimated to be two to four times as transmissible as Delta, and increased travel and large gatherings over the recent holiday season. The ultra-contagious nature of Omicron, officials say, heightens the urgency for residents to take steps to protect themselves. Those include wearing masks while in indoor public settings, avoiding crowded situations and most importantly getting vaccinated and boosted when eligible. To date, about 75% of all Californians have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, and 67.5% are considered fully vaccinated. However, that still leaves millions who have yet to roll up their sleeves, including all children under the age of 5, who are not yet eligible. "We all need to do our part to really protect 2022; it's already not looking so great for the first couple of months," said Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, an Orange County deputy health officer. "But the reassuring part of all this is we have known, basic preventive measures that we can take for ourselves and our families." This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Chicago missed out on a traditional white Christmas, but robust weed sales made for a green holiday season across the state. Recreational cannabis sales hit a new high in December at nearly $138 million, up 14% from the previous month, according to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. The December total smashes the previous record set in July, when Illinois recreational weed sales hit $128 million, helped by a late-month boost from attendees at the annual Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, industry analysts said. For the year, Illinois recreational sales reached nearly $1.38 billion, more than doubling the total from 2020, the first year of legal recreational marijuana sales in the state. Illinois legalized medical marijuana sales in 2015. The states 110 dispensaries sold more than 30 million weed products during 2021, with nearly a third of the recreational cannabis revenues generated by out-of-state customers, according to the state. Illinois has yet to release medical marijuana sales for December, but patients spent $362 million on prescribed products through 11 months, putting the state on track to generate nearly $1.8 billion in total retail cannabis sales for 2021. Sales have been ramping up since Illinois legalized recreational marijuana in January 2020. The state generated $1.03 billion in total cannabis sales during 2020, including $669 million in recreational weed and more than $366 million in medical sales. Illinois is one of 18 states that have legalized recreational marijuana use, which is still prohibited by federal law. But public sentiment and political pressure for federal decriminalization are mounting as more states legalize cannabis, fueling rapid growth of the nascent industry. Cannabis research firm Headset projects legal U.S. weed sales to surpass $30 billion this year and reach $45.8 billion by 2025. Illinois is projected to generate $2.55 billion in annual cannabis sales by 2025, according to Headset. Last summer, Illinois awarded 185 new recreational dispensary licenses through three lotteries with a focus on social equity applicants, but the rollout has been delayed by lawsuits challenging the process in Cook County Circuit Court. rchannick@chicagotribune.com BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian drugmaker Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd will launch its generic version of Merck's antiviral COVID-19 pill, molnupiravir, and price it at 35 rupees ($0.4693) per capsule, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday. The overall cost for a patient treated with a 5-day course of 40 capsules of the generic drug, to be sold under brand name 'Molflu', will come up to 1,400 rupees ($18.77). In comparison, the treatment with Merck's pill in the United States costs $700. "Molflu is expected to be available from early next week in pharmacies throughout (India) with particular focus on states with high caseload of COVID-19," the company spokesperson said. India last week gave emergency use approval to molnupiravir along with two vaccines, as the country braces for a possible spike in coronavirus cases due to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. The South Asian nation reported 37,379 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, its highest since early September. With a view to turn India into a manufacturing hub, Merck has entered into licensing agreements with eight domestic drugmakers, including Dr Reddy's, to make and supply generic versions of molnupiravir to over 100 low- and middle- income countries. A total of 13 companies in India will make molnupiravir, the country's health minister said last week. Governments around the world have been scrambling to buy a similar but more effective antiviral treatment from Pfizer, while Merck's pill has faced some setbacks after disappointing trial data. ($1 = 74.5800 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli) Campus News UB Confucius Institute celebrates 12 years of impactful programming UBNOW STAFF As we bid farewell to the Confucius Institute, lets be confident that we will find new ways to continue the work of the Confucius Institute: promoting Chinese language learning, fostering a better understanding of Chinese society, and engaging in research and teaching about China. As the UB Confucius Institute (UBCI) wound up operations at the end of 2021, faculty, administrators and community partners celebrated its impactful work at the university and throughout Western New York over the past 12 years with a celebration that featured a program of music and dance at UB, and a banquet at Eastern Pearl Restaurant in Amherst. Established in November 2009, UBCI has sponsored China-related research, teaching and artistic production at UB; Chinese language teaching and student exchange at UB and in local K-12 schools; and cultural events that fostered better understanding throughout Western New York of Chinese traditions and contemporary culture. Annual funding was provided by the Office of Chinese Language Council International (aka Hanban) and UB in cooperation with Capital Normal University, UBs longtime partner in Beijing. For the afternoon program on Dec. 12 in the Drama Theatre in the Center for the Arts, John Wood, senior associate vice provost for international education, gave welcoming remarks on behalf of Nojin Kwak, vice provost for international education, who was traveling overseas. We can never know how much the encounter with China made possible by UBCI will influence the many thousands of local K-12 students who benefited from its programs, not to mention our own students at UB, Wood said. Its thus most unfortunate that current circumstances leave UB with no choice but to close the institute. For those of us whove been involved in our longstanding collaborations with China, this new era of rising geopolitical tensions is distressing to contemplate, as we lose a key local resource for engagement with China. The program that followed Woods remarks included vocal performances by the Buffalo Chinese Chorus, Nichols School Chinese Chorus and soloist Robert Liu; instrumental pieces performed on guzheng by Zhongbei (Daisy) Wu, visiting associate professor of music and Confucius Institute director at Alfred University, and on viola by Leanne Darling, adjunct instructor of viola performance at UB; and dances presented by the Buffalo Fanghua Dance Group, Buffalo Taichi Group, Buffalo Qipao Group and UB management student Yijun Zhu. A highlight of the evening banquet at Eastern Pearl was the presentation of the Confucius Educator Award to local K-12 Chinese language teachers Yajie Zhang of Nichols School and Shue Zheng of City Honors School, and to Xuehong Lu, director of the Chinese Language Program at UB for nearly 20 years before her retirement in 2018. The awards recognized the recipients distinguished teaching and outstanding leadership in developing premier Chinese language programs at their respective institutions. The banquet program also included remarks from UB administrators and community partners of the Confucius Institute. Lixin Zhang, president of the Chinese Club of Western New York when UBCI was established, spoke about the central role UBCI played in bringing the communitys annual Chinese New Year gala to the Center for the Arts and in many other collaborative programs. Paul Casseri, superintendent of Lewiston Porter Central School District, thanked UBCI for helping to place 10 J-1 visiting teachers from China in the district, for Confucius classroom funding and for collaborating on numerous other programs that introduced Lewiston Porter students and teachers to Chinese language and culture. Other speakers at the evening program include Stephen Dunnett, professor emeritus of education, former vice provost for international education and longtime chair of the UBCI board of advisers; Zhiqiang Liu, UBCI director and professor of economics; and UBCI associate director Bruce Acker. Dunnett reflected on UBCIs impact throughout the years, noting how proud he was of his association with the institute and its many contributions to increasing knowledge of Chinese language and culture, and support for academic research about China. He said he saw UBCI as an outgrowth of UBs pioneering programs in China in the early 1980s, which made the university especially well known in that country. At a previous ceremony honoring Confucius Institute advisory board members, John Thomas, professor and dean emeritus of the School of Management, received the Confucius Educator Award for his leadership in several groundbreaking executive MBA programs in China and elsewhere in Asia. From 2010-21, the Confucius Institute partnered with faculty in many UB departments to co-sponsor 74 lectures by professors and other leading specialists in China studies throughout North America; 26 major conferences, symposia and art exhibitions featuring scholars and artists based in the U.S. and China; and more than 25 teacher workshops and seminars. The institute hosted six J-1 visiting professors from China to teach in the UB departments of Linguistics, Learning and Instruction, and Art, and arranged for 42 J-1 teachers from China to teach Chinese language and culture in K-12 schools in Erie and Niagara counties. Through the Confucius Institute, more than 80 UB students and 75 high school students received full or partial funding to study in China, including 12 students who were awarded Confucius Institute scholarships for semester or year-long study at Chinese universities. In all, more than 35,000 students from UB and throughout Western New York studied in Chinese language programs affiliated with the UB Confucius Institute. Liu concluded the Dec. 12 program by thanking and congratulating UBCIs sponsor and partner Capital Normal University in Beijing as well as local community collaborators, and UB faculty and staff. As we celebrate 12 years of the Confucius Institute, lets take pride in what we have accomplished, together, in the past 12 years; lets be grateful to our sponsor and partners; and lets congratulate each other, he said. Together, we had a fabulous run. As we bid farewell to the Confucius Institute, he noted, lets be confident that we will find new ways to continue the work of the Confucius Institute: promoting Chinese language learning, fostering a better understanding of Chinese society, and engaging in research and teaching about China. Documents obtained by a House panel investigating the assault on the US Capitol mounted by pro-Trump rioters nearly one year ago reveal how the former presidents allies planned a campaign to intimidate election officials and spread voter fraud falsehoods. That revelation came as a new poll found that as many as 91 per cent of Republican voters believed the 2020 election was not won by president Joe Biden fair and square, in figures that suggest a widening divide among Americans. Voters for Mr Biden meanwhile said by 75 per cent that false accusations of fraud could trigger another attack like Jan 6, according to YouGov and Yahoo. Another document obtained by the committee was reportedly drafted for the former president for his signature, calling for the seizure of evidence in service of the false claims of voter fraud that propelled the attack and his spurious bid to overturn election results. In recent weeks, the committee has accelerated its probe into the attack, fuelled by conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Mr Trump, and a violent attempt to reject the votes of millions of Americans. On Thursday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver remarks to mark one year since the attack, according to the White House. At the Capitol, lawmakers will hold a memorial service. Meanwhile, the former president who has waged a legal challenge to block the committees access to records will deliver remarks from Mar-a-Lago reviving his baseless narrative that the election was stolen from him. Follow for live updates Key Points New documents show how Trump team planned to target election officials Committee has firsthand evidence that Ivanka Trump urged ex-president to stop violence Trump could face seditious conspiracy charge over Capitol riot, expert says Several sentencings in Capitol riot cases to occur this week Capitol Police detail changes made in year since January 6 at press conference Story continues GOP braces for conspiracy-laden Trump riot speech 20:00 , John Bowden Republican lawmakers are openly cringing at the prospect of former President Donald Trump speaking this week about the riot that overtook the US Capitol last year. The former president has never recanted his false claims about voter fraud and the 2020 election, and even reportedly floated conspiracy theories to his supporters at Mar-a-Lago events suggesting that he could be reinstated before Joe Bidens term concludes. I don't think that's a good idea, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, a Republican, told Politico. Sen Pat Toomey, a retiring Pennsylvania GOPer, added to the news outlet that the speech, planned for the one-year anniversary of the riot, was not a terribly good idea. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was more muted in his criticism, telling reporters at a news conference that it would be interesting to hear what Mr Trump had to say. The Senate GOP leader publicly broke with the president and refused to support objections to the 2020 elections certification last January, enraging the former president. Capitol Police detail changes made in year since January 6 19:45 , John Bowden At a press conference on Tuesday, US Capitol Police officials detailed the changes the agency has made to improve security and other aspects of their work in the year since thousands of Trump supporters stormed the complex. J. Thomas Manger, the chief of US Capitol Police, explained that the agency had formalised the process for requesting and receiving aid from neighboring jurisdictions, received more equipment for the agencys civil disturbance unit, while also strengthening mental health support resources for officers. He also defended the agencys track record in the face of a question about a recent incident in which a House aide in a nonpartisan office brought a gun through a security checkpoint; the aide was stopped soon afterwards, but the image of the firearm on the security screening machine was missed initially by an officer. Trump probably thought watching rioters destruction was fun, niece says 19:20 , John Bowden Former President Donald Trumps estranged niece Mary Trump speculated that Mr Trump was likely enjoying watching rioters being murderous on his behalf as the events of January 6 unfolded. Speaking with SiriusXMs Dean Obeidallah on Monday, Ms Trump responded to reports that the committee could prove that Ivanka Trump, a White House adviser, was urging her father to act during the chaos. The ex-president waited hours as the attack unfolded to go on camera and tell rioters to leave the building, and never did so on live TV. Mr Trump probably thought, one, that it was fun to watch all of these people being murderous on his behalf...[and] two, that that would be the best way for him to stay in power, she said. Post poll: Republicans who watch Fox News 18 per cent more likely to support rioters 18:55 , John Bowden A poll published by The Washington Post on Monday found that Republicans who regularly watch Fox News were far more likely to hold the view that those who stormed the Capitol on January 6 were peaceful than were those Republicans who do not watch the network often. The poll also showed a 20-point gap between Fox News Republicans and non-watchers regarding whether they think the election was stolen by President Joe Biden, with Fox News viewers more likely to say that it was. Those beliefs could come back to bite the GOP in the months ahead, as the survey also found less confidence among that group regarding whether they believe the midterm elections will be administered fairly. New analysis shows massive volume of Facebook posts calling for violence ahead of Jan 6 18:30 , John Bowden A new analysis published in The Washington Post and ProPublica reveals the extent of the planning and calls for action that occurred on Facebook in the weeks and days leading up to the Capitol attack. More than half a million posts were identified on the platform between 3 November, 2020, and 6 January, 2021, that questioned or outright denied the legitimacy of President Joe Bidens victory, the Post and ProPublica reported. Many called for outright violence against elected and unelected officials including former Attorney General Bill Barr, who drew the ire of Trump supporters by declaring that he saw no evidence for claims of widespread voter or election fraud. Looks like civil war is becoming inevitable, read one all-caps post that was published on the platform during that period.The surge in election-related conspiracies following the 2020 vote came as the company disbanded its Civic Integrity Team, which the Post and ProPublica report coincided with a noticeable drop in policing of such content. Facebook officials have vocally denied that their platform played a key role in the organisation of the crowds that descended on the Capitol that day. Mother who brought young teen to riot to be sentenced 18:05 , John Bowden One of two parents who are accused of bringing their 14-year-old child to the Capitol and storming the building with the minor in tow will be sentenced on Friday. Virginia Marie Spencer plead guilty to one count of demonstrating, parading, or picketing in the Capitol; because of her presence near Speaker Nancy Pelosis office while rioters were outside calling for her death, prosecutors are seeking a three-month prison sentence followed by a lengthy probation period and a fine. Her husband, Christopher Spencer, faces multiple charges, to all of which he has plead not guilty. Ms Spencer previously faced a number of charges, but accepted a plea agreement in September. Mr Spencers trial date is unclear, and it whether they will face further consequences at the state level for bringing their teenage child to the attack is not publicly known. More sentencings will occur throughout the week 17:40 , John Bowden Tuesdays proceedings are just the beginning of a long week of news regarding sentencings for those convicted of or pleading guilty to participating in the riot. Sentencing hearings in the cases of Mitchell Paul Vukich, Nicholas Alvear, and Nicholas Perretta will occur on Wednesday, while Virginia Marie Spencer will be sentenced on Friday. The rapid pace of the sentencings underscores the volume of cases that DC courts are still working through as a result of January 6. Sentencing of second Capitol rioter to occur Tuesday afternoon 17:15 , John Bowden A second Capitol rioter will be sentenced on Tuesday as the proceedings in Michael Joseph Rusyns case are set to begin at 1:00 p.m. eastern. Mr Rusyn, who plead guilty to one count of demonstrating, parading or picketing in the US Capitol, appears to have gotten a relatively light charge given what federal prosecutors say he was involved in during the January 6 attack. According to the sentencing memo filed in a US District Court, Mr Rusyn was involved in two separate scenes where rioters clashed with and overwhelmed law enforcement. He was also accused of lying to investigators in the course of the probe into his and others actions. His conduct...is more serious than that of other misdemeanor defendants who were not present when points of entry were breached and police lines were overwhelmed, reads the sentencing memo. Prosecutors are hoping for a sentence of 45 days and a $500 fine for Mr Rusyn. Youre affected by it: Capitol Hill staffers vent frustrations one year after Jan 6 16:50 , John Bowden Capitol Hill staffers are still traumatised by the violence and chaos that unfolded at their workplace nearly a year after thousands of Trump supporters stormed the complex. In interviews with The Independent, many described how they were haunted by rioters explicit death threats against themselves and members of the House and Senate. No matter who you are, if you work up there, if youre a staffer up there, youre affected by it. If you were there, it is gonna leave a scar, said a staffer with the office of the Clerk of the House. The staffer, who remained anonymous, excoriated members of Congress for showing public support of Ashli Babbitt, a woman killed by police during the riot while attempting to breach the House chamber while lawmakers were inside against police orders to turn back. Youll just see a tweet where a member you know supports Ashley Babbitt, and its like f*** you. You know what I mean? Like f*** yourself, he said. Sentencing to begin shortly for 19-year-old rioter 16:10 , John Bowden Sentencing begins at 11:00 a.m. eastern for Leonard Pearson Ridge IV, a 19-year-old from Pennsylvania who has plead guilty to one charge in relation with his participation in the January 6 attack. Mr Ridge plead guilty to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted area, a charge for which federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia are seeking 45 days in jail, community service hours, and a $500 fine. [T}he defendant used social media to boast about the riot, including that he had stormed the U.S. Capitol Building and that individuals had broken down doors, reads the federal governments sentencing request. The defendants conduct on January 6, like the conduct of scores of other individuals, took place in the context of a large and violent riot that relied on numbers to overwhelm law enforcement, breach the Capitol, and disrupt the proceedings. The requested sentence is necessary and appropriate in light of the defendants participation in the riot and his particular actions described herein, it continues. Trump could face seditious conspiracy charge over Capitol riot, expert says 15:43 , John Bowden A former US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan speculated during an MSNBC appearance that former President Donald Trump could be charged with seditious conspiracy, a violation of the US code that carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Barbara McQuade told the news network that Mr Trumps supposed refusal to stop the riot from occurring could potentially rise to the level of attempting to obstruct an official procedure. There is a crime making it illegal to corruptly impede or obstruct an official proceeding, which includes proceedings before Congress, she said. If he had the power to stop that riot from happening and to permit the vote to go forward, his failure to do that could be that effort to corruptly obstruct the official proceeding. The US code defines seditious conspiracy as any attempt by two or more people to overthrow the US government, as well as any attempt to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, which could potentially include the congressional procedure to certify the results of the Electoral College vote on January 6. Trump backers say by 91 per cent that election not won fair 13:55 , Gino Spocchia As many as 91 per cent of Trump voters told pollsters that the 2020 election was not won by US president Joe Biden fair and square, a new poll has found. The poll by Yahoo News/YouGov poll also found that as many as 75 per cent of Trump voters (75 percent) falsely said the 2020 election was rigged and stolen. That was reportedly the highest figure yet, and suggests a widening divide among Americans over 2020s vote and the following Capitol riot. Biden voters meanwhile said by 75 per cent that false accusations of fraud could trigger another attack like Jan 6, pollsters said. The concerns echo fears of analysts and commentators about the risk of future unrest in the US should Mr Trump or a similar figure return to the White House. The most memorable images of the Capitol riot 13:20 , Gino Spocchia The Capitol riot will long be remembered for the destruction that occurred as hundreds of Trump supporters swarmed the seat of American democracy, and the five lives lost that day. It will also be hard to forget the figures who appeared in now iconic images of the day that rocked the US, including the sight of Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman confronting rioters in a hallway of Congress. Lawmakers were also famously pictured hiding from rioters or barricading themselves into the House chamber, with the QAnon Shaman and others on the other side. Nathan Place writes: One year on, these are the most memorable images of the Capitol riot How many accused Capitol rioters have been charged? 12:55 , Gino Spocchia The US Justice Department has said at least 275 people have been charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding on 6 January, and around 40 have been charged with conspiracy to obstruct a congressional proceeding. Another 31 accused rioters have been sentenced to prison already, the department says, and another 165 have pleaded guilty to federal charges, with four facing up to 20 years in prison for felonies. In total, around 640 have been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds, with over 75 charged with entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon, 45 with destruction of government property, and over 30 have been charged with theft of government property. The FBI remains on the hunt for 350 people suspected of rioting on the Capitol. Fewer than half of Republicans recall attack violence' 12:20 , Gino Spocchia Fewer than half of all Republicans who responded to a new poll have said the 6 January attack on the US Capitol was not very or extremely violent. In fact, about four in 10 said the attack carried out by supporters of Donald Trump was very violent or extremely violent, and three in 10 Republicans said the attack was not violent at all. The poll, carried out by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found a sharp divide between Republicans and Democrats, with about nine in 10 of the latter describing 6 January as violent. The trend follows similar polls that suggest Republicans are more likely to support violence against the government and are more likely to feel that 2020s election was stolen as alleged by Mr Trump before the attack on the Capitol. US could fall to a right-wing dictatorship by 2030 11:55 , Gino Spocchia A political science professor has warned that the US could be under a right-wing dictatorship by the end of the decade. Thomas Homer-Dixon, who is the founding director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University, British Columbia, wrote in a recent editorial that By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability. Mr Homer-Dixon said that could feature widespread civil violence. By 2030, if not sooner, the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship. His warning comes after an American political science researcher and former US military generals all recently warned of increasing political instability in the wake of 6 January. Tom Fenton writes: US could be under a right-wing dictatorship by the end of the decade, expert warns How many police officers were injured on 6 Jan? 11:35 , Gino Spocchia Some 140 police officers - including about 80 Capitol Police officers and about 65 Metropolitan Police Department officers - were assaulted in the attack while on 6 January, The police departments have revealed how injuries sustained ranged from bruises and cuts to concussions, rib fractures and burns while one police officer even suffered a mild heart attack. Among the more than 350 suspects still wanted by the FBI, more than 250 are suspected of assaulting law enforcement officers during the attack. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick was killed during the riot while physically engaging with protesters, and two other officers died in the days and weeks after the riot by suicide, police have said. FBI still hunting for 350 Capitol riot suspects 11:15 , Gino Spocchia The FBI is still hunting for 350 suspects almost one year on from the attack on the US Capitol that killed five people and injured dozens of others. Thursday will mark exactly one year since Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol to try to stop the certification of electoral college votes for president Joe Biden. The former president had told his supporters beforehand to march on the home of Congress. Around 800 rioters entered the building, attacking law enforcement officers and sending lawmakers fleeing for their lives. More than 725 people have been arrested and a few sentenced. Rachel Sharp writes: FBI still hunting for 350 Capitol riot suspects almost one year on A third of Americans say justice sometimes justified against government 10:56 , Gino Spocchia Twelve months on from the Capitol riot attack, an astonishing third of respondents to a University of Maryland/Washington Post poll said it was sometimes justified to use violence against the US government. As many as 34 per cent of respondents agreed with the sentiment that it was sometimes justified for citizens to take violent action against the government. Which was only a few percentage points higher than the share (29 per cent) who said they still believed that president Joe Bidens victory in the 2020 election was illegitimate. John Bowden writes: A third of US says political violence justified a year on from Capitol riot Ivanka told Trump to stop the violence, Liz Cheney says 10:35 , Gino Spocchia Congresswoman Liz Cheney said on Sunday that the House panel investigating 6 January had received eyewitness accounts about how the first family watched and reacted to the attack on Congress. She told ABC Newss George Stephanopoulos: We are learning much more about what former president Trump was doing while the violent assault was underway, The committee has firsthand testimony now that he was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television as the assault on the Capitol occurred. While Mr Trump did not use the briefing room next door to the Oval Office to deliver such a message, he did go on to tweet that his supporters were special on 6 January. Ms Cheney added on Sunday that We know his daughter we have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence, citing an eyewitness. He could have told them to stand down. He could have told them to go home and he failed to do so. Its hard to imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty than that. Ivanka told Trump to stop the violence, says Jan 6 committee From the QAnon Shaman to zip-tie guy: The most notable Capitol rioters and what happened to them 10:15 , Eleanor Sly With the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol looming, more than 700 people have been arrested for their alleged part in the most serious breach of the building since the War of 1812. Many are facing only minor charges, but others are in far more serious trouble and among those already sentenced are some of the most familiar faces from the abundant footage of the days events. As the hard work of identifying, arresting and prosecuting those involved in the riot continues, heres whats happened so far to some of the days most notorious figures. Andrew Naughtie reports: The most notable Capitol rioters and what happened to them Democrats planned contingency election after predicting Trump would try to steal 2020 election 09:15 , Rory Sullivan The Democrats started planning a contingency election six months before the 2020 election, after realising that Donald Trump might try to steal the vote. Maryland Rep Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who was closely involved in the attempted impeachment of the former president following the Capitol riot, said preparation began in May 2020 to prevent the election from being stolen. In his new book Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and Trials of American Democracy, he writes: Trump was going to steal the election and nothing was going to stop him not the Electoral College vote, not the popular vote, not the law or the courts. With that increasingly obvious plan in mind, we began to sketch out different scenarios for how Trump would work to bring about a constitutional crisis, Mr Raskin adds. Eric Garcia has more details: Inside Democrats plan to prevent Trump from stealing the election Could Indiana Rep. Greg Pence be called to interview by 6 Jan Committee? 08:25 , Rory Sullivan Not long before the rioters broke into the Senate on 6 January 2021, the Republican congressman Greg Pence and his more famous brother - the then vice-president Mike Pence - were whisked away to safety by the Secret Service. The 65-year-old Indiana representative has rarely spoken publicly about the events that day. But last July he said couldnt be prouder of his brothers actions. There is the chance he could be asked to recount his experiences by the January 6 committee, whose members have said they will not give details about the individuals being called. Rep. Pence voted twice against forming a committee to investigate the attack last year and also voted against impeaching Donald Trump. Read more here: Jan. 6 attack posed loyalty test for Indiana Rep. Greg Pence Jan 6 riots prompt change for Capitol Police 07:30 , Rory Sullivan In the year since the storming of the Capitol, the police department tasked with protecting the symbolic heart of American democracy has transformed. After the attack, the leaders of the Capitol Police were dismissed over criticism of intelligence failures. Over the intervening months, the forces funding has jumped by 15 per cent and people have a greater awareness of its role. Its a sea change between this year and last year in terms of how the Capitol Police are thinking, and operating, said Chuck Wexler, the head of the Police Executive Research Forum. Theyre going to be over-prepared, and willing to be criticized for being over-prepared. However, there is still fear in some quarters about the forces ability to respond to another attack. Jim Jordan could face jail time if he defies House Committee 06:38 , Maroosha Muzaffar Former US Attorney Barabra McQuade said that Republican representative Jim Jordan could face jail time if he defies the 6 January committee. In an interview with MSNBC, Ms McQuade said that Jim Jordan doesnt have a leg to stand on if he defies the House select committee and refuses to talk if he is issued a subpoena. She said: This is absolutely a situation thats unprecedented, subpoenaing a member of Congress. As a professional courtesy, they have first been requested to come forward, but if they continue to refuse, Chairman [Bennie] Thompson (D-MS) said they will use subpoenas if necessary. Ms McQuade added: I imagine they will fight them, you know, asserting some of the same legal arguments we heard from others. But I think, if Congress wants this information, there is nothing in the law that prohibits them from issuing subpoenas to fellow members of Congress. She said that if Mr Jordan at some point if he continues to fight, then the committee will demand that he come by issuing a subpoena. At that point his options are to be held in contempt, which can include jail time if he is prosecuted for that crime; so the same path that we have seen for Steve Bannon. So I think it is going to be difficult for him to manage, because unlike Steve Bannon, hes an elected official. Mike Pence was a hero on 6 January, House Committee member says 05:59 , Maroosha Muzaffar Rep Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said that former vice president Mike Pence was a hero and a patriot on the day of the Capitol riots. A member of the House select committee investigating the events of 6 January, Mr Raskin told CBS News that on that day, he [Mike Pence] was a hero. And this is a guy who, I felt, went along with way too much during the Trump administration. But on that day, he was a constitutional patriot. Former president Donald Trump had attacked Mike Pence in a tweet and said that Mike Pence didnt have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. Some Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol had also called for Mr Pences execution, chanting hang Mike Pence. Kevin McCarthy accuses Democrats of politicising 6 Jan riots 05:36 , Maroosha Muzaffar Kevin McCarthy, California Republican and House Minority leader accused the Democrats of using the Capitol riots as a partisan political weapon to further divide our country. In a letter to the GOP, Mr McCarthy wrote: As we have said from the start, the actions of that day were lawless and as wrong as wrong can be. Our Capitol should never be compromised and those who broke the law deserve to face legal repercussions and full accountability. He continued: Unfortunately, one year later, the majority party seems no closer to answering the central question of how the Capitol was left so unprepared and what must be done to ensure it never happens again. Instead, they are using it as a partisan political weapon to further divide our country. Public hearings could begin in a matter of weeks from now, House Committee member says 05:12 , Maroosha Muzaffar Representative Adam B Schiff, a Democrat from California and a member of the House committee investigating the Capitol riots, said that public hearings could begin in a matter of weeks, if not a couple of months from now. The committee aims to release its final report before the November midterm elections. The New York Times reported that the committee is planning for a more public stage for its investigation in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and vice-President Kamala Harris are scheduled to give speeches on Thursday, marking the one year anniversary of the 6 January riots. Documents Mark Meadows shared led to more questions, House Committee member says 04:46 , Maroosha Muzaffar One of the members of the House Committee investigating the 6 January Capitol riots has said that the documents that the then chief of staff, Mark Meadows, shared with the committee have led to more questions. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California told NPR that before Mr Meadows reversed his stand to cooperate with the committee, the documents he shared revealed a large amount of information to the committee. She added: Many of those documents are very revealing but lead us to having more questions. For example, in one text, there was a reference that there should be a further discussion on Signal, which is an encrypted app. Wed like to know what that consisted of. There are references to communication with state officials in an effort to try and overturn the election. Wed like to know more about that. Mark made a trip to Georgia. You know, wed like to know a lot more about that. January 6 Committee has firsthand testimony of Trump's inaction, Liz Cheney says 04:13 , Maroosha Muzaffar Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney said that the 6 January committee had first-hand testimony that former president Donald Trump watched the riots unfold even as calls from several of his allies, family members and conservative TV hosts pleaded with him to quell the riots. Ms Cheney said that the committee has firsthand testimony now that he was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television as the assault on the Capitol occurred. She said that the former president could have easily walked the few steps to the White House briefing room and told the rioters to stop and go home. She added: We know, as he was sitting there in the dining room next to the Oval Office, members of his staff were pleading with him to go on television to tell people to stop. We know Leader McCarthy was pleading with him to do that. We know members of his family, we know his daughter we have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence. How January 6 broke the House 04:00 , Alex Woodward The Independents interviews with multiple House members and former staff, paint a picture of a hostile work environment in the wake of the Capitol riot. One year on, the heart of American democracy is riven by distrust and division that goes far beyond partisan politics as usual. The Independents Eric Garcia reports on how the attacks on the Capitol sparked a crisis for democracy and the people who keep it running: More toxic, more difficult: How January 6 broke the House January 6 committee studying whether to subpoena Republican lawmakers 03:51 , Maroosha Muzaffar The House select committee investigating the 6 January Capitol riots is studying whether it can subpoena Republican lawmakers, chairman Bennie Thompson said. He told NBC that the committee members are investigating whether some sitting Republican members of Congress can be issued subpoenas. I think there are some questions of whether we have the authority to do it. Were looking at it. If the authorities are there, therell be no reluctance on our part. Trump allies planned harassment and intimidation campaign against election officials and weak House members, documents show 03:00 , Alex Woodward A "strategic communications plan" from Trumps allies called for targeting the homes of secretaries of state and election officials across the US, according to documents obtained by the House committee investigating the Capitol attack. The plan called for protests at the homes of election officials, Secretaries of State, GOP state legislators and members of Congress deemed weak. It also singles out Michigans secretary of state, who was confronted by pro-Trump protesters outside her home on 6 December 2020. Trump allies planned harassment campaign against election officials, documents show A hodge-podge of extremist beliefs' 02:15 , Alex Woodward What do many of the more than 700 people charged in connection with the Capitol riots have in common? They come from all over America, with regular jobs and backgrounds, and are united in the baseless narrative that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. For those who track and study extremism in the United States, that such a broad range of people chose to engage in the riot in some way is concerning, reports The Independents Richard Hall. Thats almost more alarming, because its not alarming, says Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the George Washington Universitys Program on Extremism.. Theres not a profile. They range from 18-81 in age. They come from 45 different states they are all over the map. The unifying idea is that we have to stop the steal [of the 2020 election]. But its kind of a hodge-podge of extremist beliefs. Richard Hall reports on the banality of extremism that led a mob to rush the halls of Congress in an attempt to disrupt a democratic election: Extremism experts explain the most alarming thing about the Capitol rioters What happened to high-profile Capitol riot cases 01:15 , Alex Woodward QAnon Shaman, the zip tie guy, and rioters who threatened violence against lawmakers and Nancy Pelosi heres what we know about the state of some of the higher-profile cases tied to the Capitol riot. A person suspected of planting pipe bombs around the Capitol is still at large. Andrew Naughtie reports: The most notable Capitol rioters and what happened to them Attorney General Merrick Garland to deliver remarks ahead of Capitol riot anniversary 00:30 , Alex Woodward US Attorney General Merrick Garland will address Justice Department employees in a speech on Wednesday ahead of the one-year anniversary of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. His remarks are expected to reaffirm the departments unwavering commitment to defend Americans and American democracy from violence and threats of violence. But is not expected to address any of the charges related to the hundreds of Capitol riot cases. While he will not speak to specific individuals or charges, the Attorney General will discuss the departments solemn duty to uphold the Constitution, follow the facts and the law, and pursue equal justice under law without fear or favor, according to a statement. Trump family seeks to quash subpoenas from New York AGs probe into Trump Organization 00:00 , Alex Woodward Trump and his eldest son and daughter Donald Jr and Ivanka have filed a motion to quash subpoenas from New York Attorney General Letitia James investigation into the Trump Organization. In a statement on Monday night, the attorney general said that for more than two years, members of the Trump family and the Trump Organization have continually sought to delay and impede our investigation into Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, but despite their names, they must play by the same rules as everyone else. These delay tactics will not stop us from following the facts or the law, which is why we will be asking the court to compel Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump to testify with our office under oath, she said. Our investigation will continue undeterred. Investigation reveals dozens of GOP officials with connections to the Oath Keepers Monday 3 January 2022 23:30 , Alex Woodward Dozens of members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group have been arrested in connection with the Capitol riot, but an investigation from ProPublica which obtained a list of 35,000 members of the group points to the organisations growing footprint within the Republican Party. At least 48 state and local Republican government officials were on the list, including 10 sitting state lawmakers, two former legislators, and elected officials, law enforcement chiefs and other officials in several states. The investigation also found more than 400 people who signed up for membership or updates from the militia using email addresses tied to their work in government, military or political campaigns. How the extremist landscape has shifted since 6 January Monday 3 January 2022 22:20 , Alex Woodward Domestic extremist groups from the QAnon conspiracy movement to far-right militia groups and white nationalists are leveraging local issues to amplify their platforms. The strategy has also been echoed among more-mainstream conservative groups, as right-wing figures on the stages of rallies and at CPAC urge followers to focus on local campaigns to make change. A forthcoming analysis from the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council previewed by NBC News reporters Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins found that despite an initial decline, domestic extremist groups have evolved and resurfaced, encouraging local action while recruiting and spreading their messages through culture-war debates including vaccines, race and education. The domestic extremist landscape was battered by Jan 6 Jared Holt, a resident fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab and author of the new report, told NBC News. But extremism is dynamic and fluid. It is always trying to adapt to fit the container that its in. Trump lawyers drafted letter for seizure of election evidence in interest of national security, documents show Monday 3 January 2022 22:01 , Alex Woodward Outside lawyers working for Trump drafted a letter for his signature that would have called for the seizure of evidence in service of the false claims of voter fraud he and his allies promoted in the days leading up to the 6 January insurrection, according to documents turned over to Congress. An entry on a four-page list of evidence that ex-New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik is refusing to turn over to the House Select Committee to investigate the attack shows Mr Kerik is in possession of a document listed as a draft POTUS letter, meaning a draft letter from the president. The draft document, which Mr Kerik is purporting to withhold under attorney-client privilege despite his not being an attorney, is further described as a DRAFT LETTER FROM POTUS TO SEIZE EVIDENCE IN THE INTEREST OF NATIONAL SECURITY FOR THE 2020 ELECTIONS dated 17 December 2020, more than a month after most news organisations called the 2020 election for Joe Biden. Andrew Feinberg has more: Trump lawyer drafted letter to seize election evidence, documents show One-third of Americans believe violence against government sometimes justified Monday 3 January 2022 21:49 , Alex Woodward In a University of Maryland/Washington Post poll, 34 per cent of respondents agreed that it was sometimes justified for citizens to take violent action against the government. That share of respondents was only a few percentage points higher than the share (29 per cent) who said they still believed that President Joe Bidens victory in the 2020 election was illegitimate. Broken down into reasons for potential violence, 22 per cent of that share who said violent acts were sometimes justified said that it would be morally acceptable to use violence in the case of government violat[ing] or tak[ing] away rights or freedoms. Another 13 per cent of those who said violence was justified said that any violation of the US Constitution by the government would warrant a violent response by citizens. A third of US says political violence justified a year on from Capitol riot Capitol police chief: Threat level much higher in 2021 but similar attack is less likely Monday 3 January 2022 21:07 , Alex Woodward US Capitol Police chief Tom Manger told CBS News that the threat level facing the Capitol is much higher than it was a year ago and exponentially higher than it was five years ago." The federal agency has expanded its capacity to investigate threats, including opening field offices in California and Florida, and believes it is better positioned to handle a similar assault. There could be a situation where something unexpected happens that were not prepared for, but I will tell you that today, it is much less likely something like [the Capitol riots] could occur because of the things that weve put into place, he said. What we know about those charged in Capitol riot cases and the alarming banality of extremism Monday 3 January 2022 20:20 , Alex Woodward Far-right personalities and outrageous cases that have dominated headlines about those charged in connection with the Capitol riot may be obscuring an alarming fact about those who stormed the Capitol on 6 January. They are not interesting, says Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the George Washington Universitys Program on Extremism. Youve got construction workers and yoga instructors. They come from a cross-section of America, he tells The Independent. The Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys get a lot of media coverage, understandably so, but the vast majority of them are quite typical. Richard Hall reports: Extremism experts explain the most alarming thing about the Capitol rioters Trump officials who resigned in wake of Capitol attack have since remained silent or come to embrace him again Monday 3 January 2022 20:00 , Alex Woodward A report from Politico surveys several Trump-era officials who resigned in the wake of the 6 January attack on the Capitol, marking rare moments of public dissent against the former president from within his administration. They have since muted, moved on, or, in certain instances, come to embrace Trump all over again, Politico reports. The outlet contacted 18 Trump officials who left office as a result of the attack or whose departures appeared timed to the attack; one agreed to speak on record. Meanwhile: New Yorks top prosecutor subpoenas Donald Trump, Ivanka and Don Jr in fraud probe Monday 3 January 2022 19:37 , Alex Woodward The former president and his two oldest children Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka have been subpoenaed by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James. The subpoenas target Trump and his children to cooperate with the ongoing investigation into the Trump Organization, the company that includes about 500 business entities owned by Trump and his family members. Donald Trump and oldest children subpoenaed in New York fraud probe January 6 was the beginning: Freshman members of Congress revisit their experience during attacks Monday 3 January 2022 19:15 , Alex Woodward US Rep Sarah Jacobs remembers a buzzing that I will never forget, describing to NBC News the sound that came from the gas hood she wore in the House chamber as rioters banged on the doors. Its all-consuming, because you have this hood on, and its like all you can hear, she said. She added: I feel like a lot of people believe that January 6th was the end ... and I believe January 6th was the beginning. Republican Rep Tony Nehls, who was wearing a Texas flag face covering that day, said a rioter He was within shouting distance of the rioters who were trying to get inside looked at him through the broken glass door and said youre from Texas. You should be with us. And at that point I said: No, sir, I cannot support what youre doing. This is criminal, he told NBC. From the QAnon Shaman to zip-tie guy: The most notable Capitol rioters and what happened to them Monday 3 January 2022 18:45 , Alex Woodward More than 700 people have been arrested on charges related to the Capitol riot. Many are facing only minor charges, but others are in far more serious trouble and among those already sentenced are some of the most familiar faces from the abundant footage of the days events. As the hard work of identifying, arresting and prosecuting those involved in the riot continues, The Independents Andrew Naughtie shares what we know so far with some of the more familiar figures charged in the attacks: The most notable Capitol rioters and what happened to them Trump allies planned harassment and intimidation campaign against election officials and weak House members, documents show Monday 3 January 2022 18:15 , Alex Woodward Trumps allies planned a campaign of harassment and intimidation against election officials and weak Republicans leading up to the attack on the Capitol, documents provided to the committee show. Documents provided to the committee and obtained by The Independent include a 22-page strategic communications plan which was to be executed between 27 December 2020 and 6 January 2021, with the goal to educate the public about the baseless voter fraud claims and to inspire citizens to call upon legislators and Members of Congress to disregard the fraudulent vote count and certify the duly-elected President Trump. It also called for rallies and protests to be organised in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, including protests at the homes of local officials, secretaries of state, and weak members. Andrew Feinberg reports: Trump allies planned harassment campaign against election officials, documents show More toxic, more difficult: How January 6 broke the House Monday 3 January 2022 18:00 , Alex Woodward The attack on the Capitol on 6 January was an assault on democracy, meant to undermine the democratic process. But Capitol Hill is also an office where 435 members of Congress, together with five non-voting delegates, 100 Senators and thousands of staffers that range from seasoned professionals to earnest recent college graduates and interns, all work. The Independents interviews with multiple House members and former staff, paint a picture of a hostile work environment in the wake of the Capitol riot. One year on, the heart of American democracy is riven by distrust and division that goes far beyond partisan politics as usual. Washington correspondent Eric Garcia reports: More toxic, more difficult: How January 6 broke the House On week of Jan 6 anniversary, Schumer says Democrats will once again try to bring voting rights legislation to a vote Monday 3 January 2022 17:42 , Alex Woodward Democratic Senator leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday that the Senate would once again take up federal voting rights legislation, and if legislation is blocked by Republicans for a fourth time, he warned that his caucus would move to begin debate on a change to the chambers filibuster rule. Over the coming weeks, the Senate will once again consider how to perfect this union and confront the historic challenges facing our democracy, he said in a letter to senators on Monday. We hope our Republican colleagues change course and work with us. But if they do not, the Senate will debate and consider changes to Senate rules on or before January 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to protect the foundation of our democracy: free and fair elections. Schumer says Senate will take up voting rights, consider filibuster change Liz Cheney: Trump is at war with the rule of law Monday 3 January 2022 16:20 , Alex Woodward Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney said the former president is only likely to intensify his false claims about the 2020 election as the US approaches the one-year anniversary of the Capitol riots. Mr Trump has demonstrated that he is at war with the rule of law, she told CBS News on Sunday. Hes demonstrated that hes willing to blow through every guardrail of democracy, and he can never be anywhere near the Oval Office again, she said. Trump is at war with the rule of law says Cheney ahead of Capitol riot anniversary Republican lawmakers who objected to election results raked in $8m in corporate campaign donations Monday 3 January 2022 16:00 , Alex Woodward Campaigns for Republican lawmakers who objected to the results of the 2020 presidential election collected more than $8m in donations from corporations and trade groups, according to a report by Accountable.US. The report found that while many corporate PACs paused donations to federal campaign after the attack, some of the largest including the American Bankers Association, Boeing, Raytheon Technologies, Lockheed Martin and General Motors continued to support campaigns. Major corporations were quick to condemn the insurrection and tout their support for democracy and almost as quickly, many ditched those purported values by cutting big checks to the very politicians that helped instigate the failed coup attempt, Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig said in a statement. The increasing volume of corporate donations to lawmakers who tried to overthrow the will of the people makes clear that these companies were never committed to standing up for democracy in the first place, he added. Adam Kinzinger: Jan 6 seems like yesterday to me, I bet it feels like an eternity to Kevin McCarthy Monday 3 January 2022 15:33 , Alex Woodward Congressman Adam Kinzinger one of two Republicans serving on the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, and who will not seek reelection this year fired off at GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy for inaction against far-right US Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene and obedience to the former president: How would you like to wake up today as Kevin McCarthy and know you have another whole year of being subservent to the whims of Trump and MTG all because of ambition? Jan 6 seems like yesterday to me, I bet it feels like an eternity to @GOPLeader Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) January 3, 2022 A complicated portrait of Ashli Babbitt Monday 3 January 2022 15:27 , Alex Woodward Donald Trump and his allies have sought to characterise Ashli Babbitt who was fatally shot by a US Capitol Police officer after she climbed into the House chambers on 6 January as a political martyr. The former president has euologised her at his rallies and even recorded a posthumous birthday message. The phrase who killed Ashli Babbitt emerged as a far-right meme and rallying cry, and US Rep Paul Gosar claimed the officer who killed her was lying in wait to execute her. The life of the Air Force veteran and proponent of election lies is far more complicated than the heroic portrait presented by Trump and his allies, according to an in-depth report from the Associated Press. Ashli Babbitts love rival claims she harassed her and rammed into her car GOP leader accuses Democrats of using Capitol riot as political weapon' Monday 3 January 2022 15:19 , Alex Woodward In a letter to House Republicans, GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy reminded his colleagues many of whom have downplayed the attack on 6 January or defended and euologised rioters that the actions of that day were lawless and as wrong as wrong can be. Our Capitol should never be compromised and those who broke the law deserve to face legal repercussions and full accountability, he said. He also claimed that House Democrats are no closer to answering the central question of how the Capitol was left so unprepared and what must be done to ensure it never happens again but are instead using the attack as a partisan political weapon to further divide our country. Republicans overwhelmingly rejected bipartisan attempts to form a committee to investigate the riot, and Mr McCarthy pulled all Republicans out of the current select committee. Mr McCarthy said that House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis will send a memo to House Republicans outlining meaningful and measurable steps that should be taken to protect our Capitol from all threats steps that the current majority party is negligent in acting upon. More than 725 people arrested for participation in Capitol riot Monday 3 January 2022 14:43 , Alex Woodward In its year-end review of the staggering number of cases wrapped up in the Capitol riots, the US Department of Justice reports more than 750 arrests have been made, and at least 350 people are still wanted in connection with the attack. More than 225 people are charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including more than 75 people charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Roughly 145 people pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, and 20 others pleaded guilty to felonies. Among those charged with felonies, six pleaded to charges related to assaults on law enforcement, and four face statutory maximums of 20 years or more in prison as well as potential financial penalties. Two face statutory maximums of eight years in prison as well as potential financial penalties. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to deliver remarks on Jan 6 anniversary Monday 3 January 2022 14:32 , Alex Woodward Biden and VP Harris will deliver remarks on Thursday to mark one year since the January 6th deadly assault on the Capitol, according to the White House. At the Capitol, lawmakers will hold a prayer and moment of silence, followed by a Historic Perspective conversation between historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham to establish and preserve the narrative of the assault, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office. Lawmakers will then share their experiences that day, followed by a vigil on the Capitol steps. Meanwhile, Donald Trump whose supporters mounted the attack in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election will give a speech from Mar-a-Lago to revive his baseless narrative that the election was stolen from him. Ivanka twice told Trump to stop the violence at Capitol riot but was ignored, witness confirms to Jan 6 committee Monday 3 January 2022 14:28 , Alex Woodward Ivanka Trump told her father to stop the violence at least twice on 6 January, according to US Rep Liz Cheney. We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence, she told ABC News on Sunday. He could have told them to stand down, she said. He could have told them to go home and he failed to do so. Its hard to imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty than that. Ivanka told Trump to stop the violence, says Jan 6 committee Capitol riot committee will submit evidence of crimes for prosecution, chairman says Monday 3 January 2022 14:23 , Alex Woodward The chair of the committee investigating the 6 January attack said lawmakers on the panel are duty-bound to submit any evidence of potential criminal activity uncovered by their investigation to the Justice Department, even if Republicans threaten retaliation. The Independents Washington DC correspondent John Bowden has more: Capitol riot committee will submit evidence of crimes for prosecution, chairman says By Leika Kihara and Kantaro Komiya TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will gear up efforts to deal with a possible surge in Omicron coronavirus cases and aim to deliver oral treatment using Pfizer Inc's drugs nationwide next month, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday. Kishida also said the government will decide next week whether to extend border controls, which he said had prevented a spike in infection numbers. "We'll prepare to shift the focus of Japan's Omicron response to domestic measures to guard against the worst-case scenario of a possible spike in community transmissions," Kishida told a news conference. Aside from antiviral pills developed by Merck & Co Inc already delivered nationwide, the government will aim to roll out "at the earliest date possible in February" Pfizer's oral treatment drugs in Japan, he said. As more oral drugs become available, Japan will allow more patients to receive treatment at home to avoid a resurgence in infections from triggering a shortage of hospital beds, he said. Japan is betting heavily on oral treatments to keep serious infections and deaths at bay should a feared sixth wave of the pandemic emerge. The government agreed in November to pay Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics about $1.2 billion for 1.6 million courses of their drug molnupiravir. "If a spike in infections lead to a shortage of hospital beds, we must flexibly consider ramping up curbs on activity," Kishida said. The prime minister also said he will forgo overseas visits before the next session of parliament starts on Jan. 17 to focus on laying out anti-pandemic measures. There have been media reports that Kishida was planning to visit Australia and the United States before parliament convenes. In December, Japan confirmed its first known case of an Omicron infection that could not be traced back to overseas travellers. A total of 993 Omicron cases have been found in Japan as of Monday, including 295 cases considered as community transmissions, according to the health ministry. Story continues Jiji news agency reported that daily COVID-19 infections in Japan exceeded 1,000 on Tuesday for the first time in three months. The southernmost prefecture of Okinawa has entered the "sixth wave" of the coronavirus, Okinawa goveror Denny Tamaki told reporters on Tuesday, noting the highly transmissible Omicron variant's role in the spread of infections. Okinawa reported a fresh 225 virus cases on Tuesday, the highest in more than three months, said Tamaki, adding infections inside U.S. military bases in the prefecture continued to increase. A coronavirus cluster linked to a U.S. base in Okinawa was discovered last month. (Reporting by Leika Kihara and Kantaro Komiya; additional reporting by Ju-min Park and Sakura Murakami; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Michael Perry & Simon Cameron-Moore) AUSTIN, TX An Austin brewing company is encouraging the public to get a free COVID-19 booster through Austin Public Health, and in return, will give guests a free beer and half-off pizza. Jester King Brewery will host Shot Fer a Pint on Thursday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at its location. The public is invited to come to the Pole Barn at Jester King to get their booster and receive a free Jester King beer for those 21 years or older, or get half off any pizza. Event organizers said the event will have Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines available. Those interested in getting the booster shot must be 12 years old or older. APH staff and emergency crews will be on-site, Jester King officials said. This article originally appeared on the Austin Patch Britain's Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York, looks on during the funeral of Britain's Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth, who died at the age of 99, in Windsor, Britain, April 17, 2021. Chris Jackson/Pool via Reuters A federal judge shot down multiple arguments made by Prince Andrew's lawyer during a Tuesday hearing. The Duke of York has denied Virginia Giuffre's sexual abuse allegations and sought to throw out her lawsuit. One of the key issues at play is whether a 2009 settlement agreement between Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein shields Prince Andrew from liability. A federal judge appeared unconvinced by several arguments Prince Andrew's lawyer made during a Tuesday hearing over whether to dismiss a sexual abuse case against the Duke of York. Prince Andrew has vehemently denied Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre's allegations that he sexually abused her when she was a minor. He has sought to throw out the lawsuit she filed against him in August, arguing that a 2009 settlement agreement between Giuffre and Epstein contains language that shields him from liability. In the Tuesday hearing, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan aggressively questioned Andrew's defense lawyer, Andrew Brettler, about the wording in the 2009 agreement, which settled Giuffre's claims against Epstein for $500,000. The agreement included language stating that Giuffre would not pursue "second parties and any other person or entity who could be included as a potential defendant." Brettler argued Prince Andrew clearly fell under the category of "potential defendant." "Potential defendant is someone who could have been named a defendant in that lawsuit, but was not," Brettler said. "I think it's unquestionable that Prince Andrew could have been sued in the 2009 Florida action." Kaplan disagreed, saying that he understood Andrew's side, but he also understood Giuffre's. "The real question is what did she have in mind, and what did [Epstein] have in mind, if anything, in referring to other persons who could have been included," Kaplan said. In this Aug. 27, 2019, photo, Virginia Roberts Giuffre holds a news conference outside a Manhattan court. Associated Press/Bebeto Matthews Kaplan also shot down Brettler's argument that Giuffre did not sufficiently detail the allegations in her lawsuit against Prince Andrew. The lawsuit alleges that Andrew had sexually abused Giuffre in New York, London, and the US Virgin Islands when she was just 17, but Brettler complained that it does not provide dates, locations, or even descriptions of the alleged sexual abuse. Story continues "Before Prince Andrew should be required to answer these very serious allegations, we should be told what the allegations are," Brettler said. Kaplan said "it just isn't the law" to provide those details in a complaint, adding that Prince Andrew would "have every right to that information" during the discovery process. Kaplan also disagreed that Giuffre hadn't sufficiently described her allegations against Andrew in the lawsuit. "It was sexual intercourse. Involuntary sexual intercourse. There isn't any debate over what that means at least since someone else was in the White House," Kaplan said. Tuesday's hearing came just days after a jury found the longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. Kaplan said he would make a decision "soon" on whether to dismiss Giuffre's lawsuit, and thanked both sides for their "passion" during their arguments. Video: What will happen in the weeks after Queen Elizabeth II's passing Read the original article on Insider It was an astonished group of 25 or more tramps who were rounded up in Galva at Christmas time by W. O. Houghton, the genial owner of the Houghton Lumber Company. These men, down on their luck, were taken to a local restaurant by Mr. Houghion and told to eat their fill at his expense. One man who said he had not had anything to eat for three days, drank five cups of coffee and ate correspondingly. It was a fine time for these diners and a rather expensive one for Mr. Houghton, who said, however, that he enjoyed it as much or more than anyone else. SEOUL (Reuters) -A South Korean court ordered that private educational facilities, including cram schools, should be temporarily excluded from government COVID-19 vaccine pass mandates, the health ministry said on Tuesday. The injunction is one of the first legal obstacles to South Korea's vaccine mandates, which require passes or testing for entry to facilities including restaurants, cafes, gyms, and bars, as well as privately-run schools. A Seoul administrative court ruled that the mandate at private education facilities such as tuition centres, libraries and study cafes should be blocked while it considers a legal challenge filed against the Ministry of Health by federations of private education and parents' groups, the ministry said. The ruling said mandates effectively limit "the rights (of unvaccinated people) to use cram schools and study facilities," said Yonhap news agency. It first reported the exemption, which the ministry confirmed. The health ministry said the mandate should be expanded to protect unvaccinated people and reduce the number of critically ill patients, and it will shortly decide whether it will appeal against the injunction in cooperation with the justice ministry. The passes are required for people aged 17 and older and there is a plan to extend the requirement to children over the age of 12, but will not apply to public schools. In the face of protests, the government delayed the start of the extended mandate to March from February, and then added a one-month grace period. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a meeting with a group of students and parents last month that the vaccine pass was not intended to force vaccination or discriminate against anyone unvaccinated but to minimise the risk of infection at vulnerable facilities. More than 42.6 million people, or 83.1% of the 52 million population, have been fully vaccinated, including about 19 million who have received booster shots, health authorities say. (Reporting by Josh Smith and Hyonhee Shin;Editing by Robert Birsel and Barbara Lewis) LA CROSSE A change to Kwik Trip's fuel payment options went into effect Monday requiring guests to now either pre-pay for their fuel or pay at the pump. With this change, customers can no longer get gasoline at the pump and then go inside to pay. Kwik Trip announced the change Nov. 30. The change is in an effort to improve customer service, the company said in a statement. "Our co-workers spend so much time watching the fuel islands for drive-offs, they cant focus solely on the guests in the stores," the statement said. Guests can still use cash, check or card to pre-pay for their fuel in the store, or use a credit, debit or gift card to pay at the pump. The payment changes do not apply to side diesel fuel islands, which still have the option to pay inside after filling up. Kwik Trip spokesperson Dave Niemi said the company could not offer a statement regarding customer feedback to the fuel payment change at this time, as it is too soon to tell how guests feel about it. Headquartered in La Crosse, Kwik Trip has more than 700 convenience store locations in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, according to its website. Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli. This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Kwik Trip change goes into effect, requiring pre-pay or pay at the pump Omicron cases in Western New York climb, following national trends with increasing case rates still to come Dont be misled by reports of 'mild omicron,' UB researchers caution Get vaccinated. Wear good masks cloth masks alone are no longer good enough. Avoid large gatherings, especially indoors when masks cannot be used at all times...A combined approach to preventing infection is best and will lower your risk significantly, BUFFALO, N.Y. University at Buffalo scientists who do the genomic sequencing of the SARS-CoV2 virus in Erie County are seeing omicron cases increase, an indication that the region is exhibiting a similar trajectory to national trends. And despite reports of a quick omicron spike in other countries, the UB scientists note that there are reasons why that may not be the case here. Based on a batch of 344 samples taken through Dec. 21, the researchers report that the level of omicron in the region at that time was approximately 18%. Omicron was detected in deidentified samples provided by KSL Diagnostics, Catholic Health and Kaleida. This was nearly spot on with the national average of 22% omicron for that period, said Jennifer Surtees, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, who leads the sequencing effort. It is important to note that the sequencing data are not real-time data and that the actual levels of omicron are likely significantly higher. As of Dec. 25, omicron represented an estimated 58.5% of variants in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it continues to climb. Our scientists are continuing to track the incidence of COVID-19 in our community, providing crucial public health information to officials and providers alike, said Allison Brashear, MD, UBs vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School. We know the omicron COVID-19 variant is more transmissible than other variants, and it is highly likely that this variant is responsible for the recent substantial and stark increase in COVID-19 cases in Erie County, said Erie County Commissioner of Health Gale Burstein, MD, also a clinical professor of pediatrics in the Jacobs School. Higher hospitalizations are likely Surtees noted that with such high numbers of omicron in Western New York, it is entirely likely that the sheer numbers will likely lead to higher hospitalizations, even though many people dont experience severe illness. With so many COVID-19 cases being diagnosed, hospitals are strained, partly as a result of capacity in terms of beds, but more importantly because staff are getting infected and getting sick, she said. As we move further into this wave, hospitalizations will continue to increase because of the sheer number of people being infected. Surtees pointed out a key difference between the U.S. and South Africa, which has reported a quick peak and lower virulence. The population in South Africa is just younger than in the U.S. and we know that younger people are less likely to get seriously ill from SARS-CoV-2 infection, although some definitely do, she said. For these reasons, public health officials are once again urging people to do everything they can to limit the spread. We are asking people to continue to make choices that protect your health and those around you, said Burstein. Get vaccinated and boosted, wear masks with tight seal to the face, practice social distancing, and stay home and away from others when sick. And please, if there are people in your lives who are more vulnerable to COVID-19 because of their age, immunocompromising conditions or vaccination status, make those good choices to protect them, too. Surtees stressed the importance of whats known as the Swiss Cheese model of preventing infection, which combines all these approaches: Get vaccinated. Wear good masks cloth masks alone are no longer good enough. Avoid large gatherings, especially indoors when masks cannot be used at all times. Get tested regularly. And recognize that rapid antigen testing is not perfect and can lead to false negatives. A combined approach to preventing infection is best and will lower your risk significantly, she said. Tom Russo, MD, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Jacobs School, agreed. Behavior is a critical factor that influences the likelihood of getting infected. Please avoid indoor situations when interacting with individuals outside of your household where masks cannot be used at all times. This usually occurs when eating/drinking is involved. Although the risk of infection is less outdoors, it can still occur when people are close together for a prolonged period of time. Please be careful and use good judgement. Concerns are growing about what looms ahead in the next few weeks based on the increased transmissibility of omicron and evidence that incidence of the variant is continuing to rise. Increased incidence Surtees explained that evidence of the increased incidence of omicron is based, in part, on the presence of whats known as the S gene dropout. Certain types of PCR tests amplify three different genes from the SARS-CoV-2 genome to test for the virus, she said. One of those genes is the S gene, which encodes the spike protein. She explained that when there are small deletions within the spike gene, as is the case with omicron, the short nucleic acids called primers, which are used to amplify the genes, are unable to recognize the S gene, so it isnt amplified. In other words, it will test positive for the other two genes in the test, but there wont be amplification of the S gene, Surtees said. The S gene dropout is therefore a useful proxy for omicron, she said, and it allows us to predict the level of omicron from certain PCR tests, which is closer to real time than sequencing, which currently takes about a week. Not all testing sites use tests that exhibit the S gene, but KSL Diagnostics, a UB testing partner, does. Since May 2020, KSL Diagnostics has been conducting between 15 and 20% of COVID-19 PCR testing in Western New York. In the first two weeks of December, we saw just a handful of S dropouts, accounting for less than 5% of the positive samples, said Lakshmanan Suresh, PhD, founder and managing partner of KSL Diagnostics Inc. The S dropouts started increasing dramatically from the third week of December, and as of today, over 95% of the positive samples in our lab are this type, he continued. Based on what I am seeing out of our lab, I would say that the predominant variant circulating in our community is the omicron variant. Do not equate omicron with the common cold Symptoms of the omicron variant include sore throat, nasal congestion, fatigue, headache, fever and loss of the ability to taste or smell; in short, they can mimic those of any respiratory virus, but Russo cautioned: Do not equate omicron with the common cold. Although early data suggests omicron may be less virulent than earlier variants, this is still a potentially lethal virus. And even so-called mild infections can be pretty miserable. He added that those at highest risk for developing severe disease or a bad outcome from omicron include the unvaccinated, the immunocompromised, pregnant women, seniors and those with significant underlying disease, especially if not boosted. Russo noted that people tend to be concerned primarily with the immediate consequences of COVID-19 (mild disease versus hospitalization and death). However, it is clear that long COVID can be very problematic in carrying on with the daily activities of living, he said. Possible long-term consequences of COVID-19 infection that may not be clinically apparent for years or decades is a real concern. Therefore, your best strategy is to not get infected. GARLAND, Texas (AP) An attorney for a man accused of driving his son to a Dallas-area gas station store where the 14-year-old is accused of fatally shooting three teens and wounding a fourth says the father didn't know his son had a gun. Attorney Heath Harris told The Dallas Morning News he believes evidence will show that 33-year-old Richard Acosta, who is charged with capital murder, is innocent. Our position is he didnt do anything to solicit or encourage his son to do this, Harris said. An arrest affidavit for Acosta released Tuesday afternoon says that surveillance video shows him in the drivers seat of a Dodge Ram pickup stopped just yards from the front door as the suspect was in plain view standing in the front doorway shooting people inside. Acostas son, Abel Elias Acosta, has been on the run since the Dec. 26 shooting in Garland. Police have charged the teen with capital murder and warned that he is armed and dangerous. Richard Acosta, who surrendered to police a day after the shooting, remained in Dallas County jail Tuesday on $3 million bond. Surveillance video shows a shirtless boy or man with a handgun approaching the store in a crouching position. He swings the door open and shoots from the doorway. Police said the shooter fired more than 20 rounds from a .40-caliber pistol before fleeing in the pickup driven by Acosta, who they said also brought the shooter to the gas station. Harris said he thinks evidence will show that Acosta initially went into the store alone to pick up medicine for his wife and that after he got back into his pickup, his son said he needed something and went inside alone. Harris said the father heard gunfire but didn't know the source. Harris said the son was hysterical when he ran back to the pickup and the father drove them home. The son then got into a car and fled, Harris said. The affidavit also said that prior to the shooting, the surveillance video showed that the driver of the pickup went into the store and appeared to buy some medicine" before returning to his vehicle. Story continues Police named those killed in the shooting as 14-year-old Xavier Gonazalez, 16-year-old Ivan Noyala, and 17-year-old Rafael Garcia. A 15-year-old who was a cook at the store was taken to the hospital following the shooting and was expected to survive. Investigators believe the shooting was a retaliatory attack on one or more of the people in the store, Garland police Lt. Pedro Barineau said. Police initially took a different 14-year-old boy into custody, saying he was the shooting suspect. They released him to his family the next day and said he was not being charged. Two state legislators have scheduled office hours locally to meet with members of the community. Sen. Kim LaSata, R-Coloma, will host office hours Friday and Tuesday. I always look forward to the fresh start of a new year, said LaSata. Last year, I held 21 office hours meetings with folks across the 21st District, and I hope to connect with even more people in 2022. The senator will be available to answer questions and provide information and assistance, as well as take suggestions on issues affecting communities and businesses in the district. No appointment is necessary. Friday, LaSata will be at Five Lakes Coffee in Sturgis from 1-2 p.m. and Tuesday, Jan. 11, she will be at the NODE in Niles from 10-11 a.m. State Rep. Steve Carra will host office hours Friday, Jan. 21. He will meet with the public from 8:30-9:30 a.m. at Broadway Cafe in Cassopolis and from 10:30-11:30 a.m. at Bullseye Marketplace in Three Rivers. No appointment is necessary to attend office hours. Carra will provide an update on his legislative work and listen to feedback from people in the community. Questions or concerns can also be directed to Carras office by calling (517) 373-0832 or by email at SteveCarra@house.mi.gov. Carra represents the 59th House District, which includes all of St. Joseph County, as well as the city of Dowagiac; the villages of Cassopolis, Marcellus and Vandalia; and the townships of Calvin, Jefferson, LaGrange, Marcellus, Mason, Newberg, Penn, Pokagon, Porter, Volinia and Wayne in Cass County. LaSata Carra This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: News LeMoyne-Owen College and Christian Brothers University joined Rhodes College in Memphis in delaying the return of in-person classes for the spring semester in light of soaring COVID-19 infections. Soon after, Southwest Tennessee Community College announced plans to delay. LeMoyne-Owen, which previously planned to return for the spring on Jan. 10, has pushed in-person courses to Jan. 24. Students will attend class virtually in the interim. CBU won't return in-person until Jan. 31. The start of classes has been delayed one week, and will take place remotely beginning Jan. 15, the university said. Southwest plans to return in person classes on Jan. 25, and will have remote classes beginning Jan. 18. More: Rhodes College to start classes remotely, with in-person plans for Jan. 31 The transitions are the latest in education plans amid the latest COVID-19 surge, where active cases have exceeded previous records and where a third of all tests in Tennessee are coming back positive as the contagious omicron variant spreads. It's the latest change for theschools, which, despite restrictive state laws, have attempted to mitigate the impact of the pandemic with various testing protocols, masking requirements and, among the three private schools, vaccine mandates. State exceptions for some institutions to implement mandates for COVID-19 vaccines despite the state law banning such requirements ceased in early December after President Joe Biden's mandate was blocked by federal judge orders. At LeMoyne-Owen, residence hall move-in will continue on Wednesday by appointment. A negative COVID-19 test from within 48 hours is required for entry. At CBU, the school's physician assistant and nursing programs will meet according to previous schedules and formats. The college's health services will remain on its normal schedule during the two weeks of remote learning, but other campus operations and facilities are limited. Dining services are limited and take-out only. Campus events and meetings are either moving remote or are rescheduled, the college said. Story continues Exceptions are made for international students and some other students to stay on CBU campus during the remote instruction period, and an emergency fund is available for students who need financial assistance or remote learning technology. "Were all in this together, and we all understand that the COVID-19 pandemic requires us to continuously modify our plans in order to safeguard the health of our employees and students," said Dave Archer, interim CBU president. At Southwest, most employees will remain virtual until students return to class on Jan. 25. On campus events are canceled. In the announcement, the college encouraged vaccination, masking and other mitigation measures. We have operated safely and successfully during three semesters of on-campus instruction during the pandemic and I am confident this upcoming semester will be no exception, Southwest President Tracy D. Hall said in a statement. While the pandemic continues to evolve, our commitment to keeping students moving forward has not changed. The health and safety of our students, employees and the greater community remain top priorities. The University of Memphis, set to return in-person on Jan. 18, has not announced a decision on delaying class or shifting remote. The university sent a note to campus over the winter holiday encouraging people to get vaccinated and get booster shots. Leaders planned to convene after the holidays to assess plans. Public K-12 schools in the Memphis area have resumed classes in-person since the winter break. Laura Testino covers education and children's issues for the Commercial Appeal. Reach her at laura.testino@commercialappeal.com or 901-512-3763. Find her on Twitter: @LDTestino This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Southwest, LeMoyne-Owen, CBU, Rhodes delay class as COVID-19 surges Soledad Peralta recounts the events surrounding her daughter Valentina Orellana-Peralta's death during a news conference near LAPD headquarters on Dec. 28. (Los Angeles Times) To the editor: Your article on President Biden discussing the killing of 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta with the Chilean president-elect comes shortly after a story in the Guardian of London on that and four other recent killings by the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPD practice of shooting to kill has now attracted international attention. The same day's print California section had another article about a police killing in Riverside County. It is no surprise when there are calls for defunding police when killing of suspects is a frequently used enforcement tactic rather than arrest and trial in a court. Henry Hespenheide, Hermosa Beach .. To the editor: The surveillance and body-cam videos show Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. and what looks like a platoon of LAPD officers heading upstairs to the second floor of the Burlington store, where Jones will shoot Daniel Elena-Lopez intentionally and Valentina Orellana-Peralta unintentionally. You can hear one of the officers say that the suspect is near the "fitting rooms," but no one seems to notice. Two cops with nightsticks could have disarmed and cuffed a guy armed with a bicycle lock. One psychiatric social worker could have talked him into dropping the lock and surrendering himself. Had either of these alternate scenarios transpired, Daniel Elena-Lopez would now be receiving the clinical help he clearly needed, while Valentina Orellana-Peralta would have attended the quinceanera and then continued to pursue her dream of becoming an engineer. Once again we see LAPD officers only taking lives, not saving them. Leigh Clark, Granada Hills This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Country founded on right to life of all human beings, born and unborn The abortion issue is not merely a difference of opinion. It is a matter of fact. When we say that two plus two is four, we are not expressing an opinion. We are expressing a mathematical fact. Those who deny this fact are not expressing an opinion. They are making a misstatement. So, too, when we say that abortion kills human beings, we are not expressing an opinion. We are stating a biological fact. Those who deny this fact are not expressing an opinion. They are making a misstatement. Pregnancy is not a disease. Abortion is not healthcare. Induced abortion is the direct and deliberate destruction of the most helpless members of our human family, the innocent unborn. It is the ultimate child abuse. Except for age and size, the only difference between the child before birth and the child after birth is place of residence. The fate of the first and most fundamental right, upon which our nation was founded the "unalienable" right to life of all human beings, born and unborn, lies now in the hands of nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Let us pray that right reason will prevail and that they will restore to all Americans, born and unborn, their creator-endowed right to life. Richard A. Carey, Needham Ask your state legislators to support the Death with Dignity bill I appreciate what our legislature has done this year to help the state recover from the impact of the pandemic. Theres another piece of important legislation that I would like our legislature to pass, the Death with Dignity bill. It would offer terminally ill people the option of medical aid in dying when their pain and suffering becomes intolerable. Similar laws have already been passed in 10 other states plus Washington D.C. Our bill currently has 66 House sponsors and 18 sponsors in the Senate. Many doctors say that not all pain can be "managed" at the end of life. Thats a euphemistic way of saying what many of us have observed: there is often excruciating pain involved. Someday, it will be considered barbaric to allow people to die that way. Story continues Please contact your legislators (masslegislature.gov), especially Senate President Karen Spilka, and urge them to call the co-chairs of the Public Health Committee to pass the Death with Dignity bills H.2381 and S.1384 as soon as possible. That is the first important step toward the full Legislature passing it next year. It would be a compassionate gift to the 70%-plus of citizens who have expressed their desire for the option of a peaceful, painless death. Lisa Widawsky, Northborough Reelect Adam Steiner as Framingham's District 3 city councilor Adam Steiner needs your vote on Jan. 11 to re-elect him as Framingham District 3 city councilor. Framingham needs Adams leadership and experience. In 2019, his City Council colleagues elected him council vice chair and chair of the Finance Committee. Adam centers decisions on constituents' needs. Adam listens and responds to their questions and concerns. Adam celebrates the people and places that make D3 a wonderful place to live and work. Vote for Adam on Jan. 11 to continue his excellent work for D3 and all of Framingham. Learn about Adams commitment to education, the environment, seniors, and all Framingham, at steinerforframingham.com Norma Shulman, former president, Framingham Townwide PTO and 27-year Town Meeting member, Framingham As former chair of the Framingham Economic Development Industrial Corporation, the Framingham Downtown Renaissance, and as an attorney, I work constantly with small businesses. As a result, I am personally interested in who serves on City Council. In the District 3 election, Adam Steiner is the best candidate. His re-election is crucial if Framingham is to continue to make economic progress, especially the downtown. Adams experience and involvement will ensure that the business community has a friend and advocate to help build an environment that creates jobs, tax revenue and opportunities for all. Please join me in supporting Adam Steiner. Michael G. Gatlin, District 6, Framingham We write to offer our support for Adam Steiner for Framingham City Council in the January 11 special election. Throughout his tenure, Adam has been a consistent, steady, and thoughtful partner. As finance chair, Adam helped secure state funding for a city-wide free wireless internet pilot program to provide internet access to all Framingham residents. This kind of collaboration with local government is invaluable, and Adam is accessible, open-minded, and focused on our shared service a true leader. As we transition into a new administration, Adams experience, leadership, and team-first mentality make him the right choice for Framingham District 3. State Reps. Jack Patrick Lewis and Maria Robinson, Framingham I support Adam Steiner for District 3 City Councilor because he has been and will be a dedicated City Councilor. Adam does his homework, participates in discussions, and makes appropriate amendments to the motions. Adam has been an involved City Council member as chair of the Finance Subcommittee where he effectively leads the subcommittee and is vice-chair of the Council where he has capably acted as chair when necessary. While others may focus on personal agendas, Adam has shown that his allegiance is not to any one individual or any one group but to what he knows is right. Joel Winett, former longtime Town Meeting member and town moderator, Framingham As an educator and parent of two Framingham High School graduates, I know that Framingham must adequately support our schools. Thats why Im supporting Adam Steiner for District 3 Council. Adam knows education both he and his wife are public school educators. He also knows Framingham he grew up here and has two children that have gone through FPS. Lastly, as chair of the councils finance subcommittee, he has experience looking deeply at issues to make sure we get the most we can from every dollar spent. District 3, please join me in supporting Adam for Council! Adam Blumer, Framingham Having worked directly with both candidates, either on the City Council or SIFOC, the clear choice for District 3 is Adam Steiner. Framingham is best served when there is a diversity of opinions. I have witnessed how Adam has effectively used his independent voice. He stands up to proposals when he believes they are not in the best interest of his district and Framingham. Adam has experience we can trust. He also has perspective as a parent of children in our public schools. I encourage the voters of District 3 to re-elect Adam Steiner. Robert Case, Framingham City Council, District 5, former chair, SIFOC, former chair Precinct 8, Town Meeting, Framingham This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Letters: Support right to life, Death with Dignity bill and Adam Steiner in District 3 DOVER The city's newly elected and returning city councilors, school board members and mayor took the oath of office Monday night in the auditorium at City Hall. Mayor Bob Carrier, who ran unopposed in the election, was sworn in for his second term as mayor, after serving more than a decade on the City Council. Carrier thanked the community for its confidence in him to lead Dover through the challenges it will inevitably face and said the support he saw in the crowd is what gives him the determination to continue moving Dover forward. Mayor Bob Carrier is sworn in for his second term Monday, Jan. 3, 2022 at City Hall. Real estate: Check out Strafford County's 10 most expensive homes sold in 2021, and a look ahead to 2022 Two years ago when I stood on this stage in my first inaugural address, no one could have imagined the trials that we would face, Carrier said. Over the past few years our community has risen to face the challenge of COVID-19. While we are still battling a pandemic, we continue to move forward. With our new council and our new school board, our first mission is collaborative. We will work together, we will listen. We will understand budgets and we will do the best we can. Carrier said he hopes to work with the City Council to ensure Dover stays on track with the continued growth in population and boom in development it has seen in the last few years. He said as the waterfront park and Cathartes development make headway this year, it will be a reminder of the good things in store for the Dover community. More on the park: 5 exciting features to expect from Dover's waterfront park 'Great milestone' in Dover': Waterfront development takes big step forward Dover Mayor Bob Carrier, center, was joined by incoming Rochester Mayor Paul Callaghan, left, and Somersworth Mayor Dana Hilliard during Dover's inauguration ceremony at Monday, Jan. 3, 2022 at City Hall. The City Council and School Board met before Monday night's ceremony to be officially sworn in, make committee appointments and adopt procedural rules for the upcoming term. New City Council sworn in New and re-elected members of the City Council and School Board were introduced to the community Monday night, as Don Briand read each name and recited a short bio of each individual. Story continues Michelle Muffett-Lipinski (Ward 1), Robert Hinkel (Ward 2), Deborah Thibodeaux (Ward 3), Debra Hackett (Ward 4), Dennis Shanahan (Ward 5), Fergus Cullen (Ward 6), Lindsey Williams and Linnea Nemeth (at-large) were sworn in as councilors. Members of the Dover City Council and School Board are sworn in Monday, Jan. 3, 2022 at City Hall. Dennis Shanahan, now serving his fourth term on council, was elected and sworn in as the new deputy mayor, replacing Dennis Ciotti, who did not run for re-election to the council. Newcomers to the council are Hinkel, Nemeth and Hackett. Nemeth said with Dover's 400th anniversary coming in 2023, this term is pivotal in charting the citys future. 'Legacy will last': Richard Flynn dies at 93, rose from Dover police to NH safety commissioner There's going to be a lot of looking forward to the future and looking back to our past, Nemeth said. Recent spikes and COVID and the health of our community are a concern of mine, and thats something that I hope well look closely at in our next session. Im excited to hit the ground running. 'A great 52-year run': Hashem family sells Strafford Tire & Battery in Dover Robert Hinkel said his priorities include a commitment from the city on climate issues, more attention on mental health and substance abuse and creating a more collaborative budget process between the city and the school district. I feel honored and privileged to be elected by the residents of Dover, and I feel really fortunate to be amongst my peers, which is a very impressive group of people, Hinkel said. New School Board chair chosen The newly elected Dover School Board gathers with Superintendent William Harbron, lower right, for their inauguration Monday, Jan. 3, 2022 at City Hall. In front, from left, are Jessica Rozzo, Carolyn Mebert and Harbron. In back, from left, are Maggie Fogarty, Michaela Demeter, Kathleen Morrison, Robin Trefethen and Michelle Clancy. After a hotly contested School Board campaign season centered around COVID-19 policies, especially masking, the community elected candidates who favored universal masking as a way to keep students safe and learning in person. School Board members Maggie Fogarty (Ward 1), Robin Trefethen (Ward 2), Carolyn Mebert (Ward 3), Micaela Demeter (Ward 4), Jessica Rozzo (Ward 5), Michelle Clancy (Ward 6) and Kathleen Morrison (at-large) were sworn in Monday night. Their first task was to vote on the board's officers. Mask lawsuits: Lawyer unsuccessfully fighting Seacoast school mask mandates has law license suspended In an unanimous vote Monday night, Carolyn Mebert was elected to lead the School Board as chair with Jessica Rozzo as vice chair and Kathleen Morrison as secretary. Mebert has been a member of the board for the past six years. She said she is looking forward to the eventual post-pandemic normal and focusing on achieving goals that lead the district to provide a quality education for all of its students. She started her address by thanking outgoing School Board Chair Amanda Russell, who served the district for 10 years. This is a great team, Merbert said. I'm looking forward to working with the City Council in a very congenial fashion as we work through the budget issues. We've got two new major programs in the district, a literacy curriculum and a new math program, which I hope will help close the achievement gap. This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Dover NH Mayor Bob Carrier sworn in, elected officials look to future Brendan Smialowski/Getty Several law enforcement officers who were violently assaulted by rioters as they defended lawmakers during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot last year sued former President Donald Trump on Tuesday for his role in inciting the attack. Lawyers for injured Capitol officer Marcus Moore described the former president as the leader of a violent mob who took their cues from his campaign rhetoric and tweets, and flocked the nations capital at Trumps invitation. Trump was in a position of extraordinary influence over his followers, who committed assault and battery on Marcus Moore, his lawyers wrote in a complaint filed in federal court on Tuesday. Trump, by his words and conduct, directed the mob that stormed the Capitol and assaulted and battered Marcus Moore. Moores lawyers said that their client was one of nine officers guarding the House Chambers doors when a mob of rioters dressed in Trump gear and carrying large Trump flags, crushed Moore against the wall. He struggled to breathe over the heavy odor of bear spray and other chemicals, as rioters hurled fire extinguishers, poles, and other objects at Moore and his colleagues, while hammering them with fists. Inside the Feds Hunt for Hundreds of Capitol Riot Fugitives The 10-year Capitol Police veterans lawyers filed similar lawsuits on Tuesday on behalf of Metropolitan Police Department Officers Bobby Tabron and DeDivine K. Carter for physical and emotional injuries that resulted from Trumps alleged incitement of the Jan. 6 attack. Carter was punched and struck repeatedly, hit with projectiles, and sprayed with chemicals, as he tried to protect the Capitol, according to the documents. Tabron, meanwhile, was struck in the side of the head by one of Trumps supporters with such force that it knocked his helmet sideways and left him dazed. According to his lawyers, Moore feared for his life as some rioters allegedly shouted: Take their guns and kill them. We are not going to die like this, Moore shouted to another officer, as he watched armed Trump supporters close in and outnumber the group of officers. He feared the mob was so intent on violence, he might not make it home alive, the lawyers wrote. Story continues The pair of lawsuits accuse Trump of playing a critical role in fanning the flames of an attack. As Trump concluded his speech near the White House, his followers who were already at the Capitol became insurrectionists, the lawyers wrote in Moores lawsuit. They argue in both complaints that Trump violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which in part prohibits preventing a U.S. officer from performing their duties and bars mob violence aimed at obstructing the functions of the federal government. Trump had inflamed, encouraged, incited, directed, and aided and abetted lawyers said in the lawsuits, adding that officers injuries were caused by Trumps now infamous speech on the Ellipse, followed by the former presidents refusal to direct his followers to stop their continued violence, as they burst through barricades and continued their assault at the Capitol, where lawmakers were certifying the peaceful transfer of power. The pair of lawsuits details Trumps efforts to delegitimize the election, including comments during the first presidential debate in September 2020, where he repeatedly insisted that the election would be rife with fraud. The officers lawyers said that Trump dialed up his efforts to overturn the election when he promoted the protest on Jan. 6, Be there, will be wild! which became a literal call to arms for his followers. According to the documents, Trump also violated laws against inciting riots, disorderly conduct, civil conspiracy, and aiding and abetting assault and battery. The lawsuits are part of a growing pile of complaints against the former president by those who physically witnessed the attack last year. Plaintiffs in both lawsuits each seek punitive damages and compensatory damages of $75,000. Other lawsuits were filed in federal court by Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell (CA), and Bennie Thompson (MS), in addition to fellow Capitol Police Officers James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby, which are scheduled to be heard next week. Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. LOUISVILLE, Ky. Thousands of students returned to class in-person Tuesday as Jefferson County Public Schools reopened in the face of record-high COVID-19 rates across Kentucky, Louisville and the district itself. As of Tuesday afternoon, Kentucky's largest district has not announced a switch to nontraditional instruction. "Were pleased with the way JCPS staff and students have risen to the challenge today," district spokesman Mark Hebert said Tuesday afternoon. "We expect the same tomorrow students in classrooms learning." At some schools, though, students were met with instructions from teachers about how to prepare for a potential return to virtual learning. Educators reported noticeably high numbers of absent coworkers due to quarantines, with few substitutes taking their place. Interested in education? Sign up for The Hall Pass, our education newsletter At the end of the school day, some families got notes from principals telling them to keep school-issued Chromebooks at home and charged until Jan. 10 in case skyrocketing COVID-19 rates force classes online. Throughout the day, the number of active cases and quarantines posted on JCPS' COVID-19 dashboard climbed. By Tuesday afternoon, JCPS was experiencing its highest-ever number of active cases for both students and staff 1,660 total cases. Since Sunday afternoon, the number of cases in JCPS has more than tripled. The number of quarantines is up by 300% in the same timeframe. Similar to how the school year started in August under the threat of the delta variant, those in schools feared the figures reported on the district's public-facing dashboard are undercounts as overwhelmed school nurses and secretaries try to catch up with cases from winter break and weekend testing sites. Search the data: How many COVID-19 cases, quarantines are in JCPS? Meanwhile, Louisville reported a record-high positivity rate Tuesday at 27%. Kentucky has seen more than 30,000 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, doubling the prior week's figures, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday. Story continues Despite the wildly contagious omicron variant, a growing consensus from leaders is that schools need to stay open for kids. "We have no reason to think at this point that omicron is worse for children than previous variants," President Joe Biden said Tuesday, adding he thinks schools should remain open. JCPS did not introduce new mitigation efforts ahead of classes, instead reiterating its universal mask policy and encouraging vaccinations and voluntary testing. Dr. Sarah Moyer, Louisville's health director, said Tuesday she felt as if JCPS has "done everything that they can in order to make it a safe place." "I'm much less worried about our students being in class over these next weeks than I was about our students in gatherings over the last month," Moyer said. Districts across Kentucky are reevaluating their mask policies, although some are keeping masks optional. In neighboring Oldham County, an online petition asking the district to reinstate a mask requirement has more than 400 signatures. Related: Louisville health leader warns hospitals could face 'crisis mode' as omicron spikes Staffing numbers may offer JCPS and other districts little choice, though. More than 500 employees are currently positive for COVID-19, according to JCPS' figures. Another 50 are quarantined. COVID-related absences worsen pre-existing educator shortages. More than one-third of requests for substitute teachers in the first half of the school year went unfilled, according to district data. JCPS had around 90 vacant teaching spots at the end of December. A district spokesman said Monday there is no clear threshold of teacher absences that would trigger a closure. "If you want schools to stay open, sign up to substitute. Now," Emilie McKiernan Blanton, a Southern High School teacher, tweeted shortly before classes began Tuesday. By the end of the school day, she followed up: "THIS IS NOT SUSTAINABLE." Reach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Omicron: JCPS sees record number of COVID cases as students return The man accused of shooting and killing a Tallahassee man at a Lake Avenue apartment in June was declared incompetent to stand trial by a judge and ordered to undergo treatment. Domonique Colclough, 35, who is charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery, will be placed in a mental health facility by Florida Department of Children and Families. Initial reporting: Once committed, he will receive treatment until he is deemed suitable for further court proceedings including plea hearings, trial and sentencing. State Attorney Jack Campbell said more than "90% of the people who are found incompetent to proceed are restored to competency." In Florida, being "incompetent to proceed" is defined as not having "sufficient present ability to consult with (a) lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding" or having "no rational, as well as factual, understanding of the proceedings against her or him." The decision by Circuit Judge Kevin Carroll comes six months after police found the body of 33-year-old Jaruin Anderson dead from gunshot wounds at a Lake Avenue apartment. According to court records, Anderson was in his apartment with at least two other people when Colclough showed up and sat down on the sofa. Colclough, who knew Anderson, pulled out a black semi-automatic handgun and demanded Anderson hand over his money and cellphone, the witness told police. After turning over the money and phone, Anderson unsuccessfully tried to "disarm" Colclough, a witness said. Anderson, who is a father, ran to the front door in an attempt to escape when Colclough shot him. Within hours of the shooting, Colclough was identified as a suspect and arrested by the U.S. Marshal's Service. Contact Christopher Cann at ccann@tallahassee.com and follow @ChrisCannFL on Twitter. Never miss a story: Subscribe to the Tallahassee Democrat using the link at the top of the page. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Judge rules man arrested in Tallahassee fatal shooting is incompetent Exporters already see RCEP wins with trade By ZHU WENQIAN (China Daily) 08:10, January 04, 2022 A truck loads containers at Tangshan Port, North China's Hebei province, April 16, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua] A number of Chinese exporters said they have significantly benefited from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, as the agreement has helped lower tariffs and raise competence. The RCEP agreement, which took effect on Jan 1, covers roughly 30 percent of the world's population. It is expected to provide a strong boost to international trade and investment and contribute to global economic recovery. Xiamen International Trade Paper Products Co Ltd, a paper manufacturer involved in importing paper pulp and exporting paper products such as disposable cups and tableware, is among the first batch of companies that received certificates of origin from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, China's foreign trade and investment promotion agency. The CCPIT said it has more than 300 local branches nationwide providing complimentary services to issue certificates of origin to enterprises. On Saturday, it issued 158 certificates of origin to 69 Chinese enterprises nationwide. "With the certificates, enterprises can enjoy preferential tariffs when they export goods to RCEP member economies. This can help further stabilize the supply chain and promote trade within the region. It will help fight against trade protectionism," said Yan Yun, director of the CCPIT's certification department. "Enterprises can fill in forms, get their certificates online and print by themselves. We have staff members who work during holidays and weekends, and the whole process can be done electronically," Yan said. Wang Wenxian, general manager of the import and export business department of the paper manufacturer in Xiamen, said the company imports raw materials of paper pulp from Southeast Asian countries, South Korea and Japan, and the value of products it imports is about $100 million annually. "We mainly produce paper and paper products, and we export a large volume of paper tableware to overseas markets. Our exporting value is more than $50 million a year. Australia stands as an important market for us, and it accounts for about half of our export volume. We provide paper products to many McDonald's restaurants and 7-Eleven convenience stores in Australia," Wang said. Shandong Yijia Biotechnology Development Co Ltd is another company that received a certificate of origin on Saturday. The company mainly exports dried garlic and ginger slices to Japan. In addition, it exports similar products to Thailand, Malaysia and South Africa. Its annual export value to Japan is around $5 million. "After the RCEP agreement took effect, it can help us significantly lower tariffs. For instance, tariffs on exporting our agricultural products to Japan have been lowered to 8.4 percent from 9 percent before the agreement took effect, and they will be further lowered to 7.9 percent starting in April," said Song Aiyu, sales manager of Shandong Yijia. Meanwhile, Sartomer (Guangzhou) Chemicals Ltd, a company that provides resins for 3D printing and advanced electronics applications, mainly exports chemical products to Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. It is another company that received its certificate of origin on Saturday. "The RCEP agreement will have a remarkable positive impact on the regional economy. For our manufacturing base in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, we hope to double capacity by the second half of 2023 to meet growing demand," said Liu Bin, chief executive officer of Sartomer (Guangzhou) Chemicals Ltd. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Du Mingming) Today Windy with a mix of clouds and sun. High 56F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Low 38F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Tomorrow Windy with a mix of clouds and sun in the morning. Showers developing during the afternoon. High 57F. SSE winds shifting to NNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Higher wind gusts possible. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is fundraising off her Twitter ban, appealing to her supporters to give $1 in "emergency contributions" to help her fight against censorship. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images Marjorie Taylor Greene is fundraising off her Twitter ban, calling for $1 "emergency contributions." In a fundraising email, Greene said she needed help to fight against the "Silicon Valley Cartel." On Telegram, Greene appealed to Twitter to reinstate her account. Controversial Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is fundraising off her Twitter ban, asking her supporters to make $1 "emergency" contributions to help her fight tech censorship. "The Silicon Valley Cartel finally pulled the trigger," Greene wrote in a fundraising email sent on January 3 that Insider viewed. She added, "Twitter permanently banned my account!" In the email, Greene appealed to her supporters to "rush an emergency contribution of $1.00 right away" after signing a "Stand with MTG" statement of support. Greene also asked supporters to chip in contributions of "$10, $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000" if they "can afford it the legal maximum of $2,900 per individual" to help her "keep fighting for Donald Trump's American First agenda." "Communist Democrats fear you. So Big Tech canceled me. But I refuse to sit down and shut up. I will fight back twice as hard," Greene added. In March, Twitter said it would permanently suspend accounts that repeatedly post COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. A Twitter spokesperson told Insider that Greene was suspended for "repeated violations" of its COVID-19-misinformation policy. "We've been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy," the spokesperson added. Twitter said repeated violations of the company's COVID-19-misinformation policy on five or more occasions would result in a permanent suspension, though users could submit appeals. The congresswoman still has access to her official account, @RepMTG. Story continues Greene appealed on Telegram for Twitter to "reinstate her account immediately," saying she had been mistakenly suspended two out of five times. "Twitter forgot about the 2 times they accidentally suspended my account this past year. That means I've only had 3 strikes in their 5 strike system. Twitter has to reinstate my account immediately," Greene wrote on her Telegram channel on Monday. "The arrogant puppet masters should have learned over this last year that silly punishments like kicking me off committees and permanent Twitter bans don't work on me, they only make me more determined, stronger, & effective," she continued. "Yesterday started very big things. The sun is setting on Twitter." Greene also said on Monday that Facebook had suspended her account for 24 hours, one day after Twitter banned her account. A spokesperson for Meta, Facebook's parent company, told Insider that Greene had made a post violating its policies. The Georgia congresswoman has been a lightning rod for controversy since she took office in January 2021. She was stripped of her committee assignments last February after facing criticism for promoting conspiracy theories and endorsing political violence. Greene has also been vocal about her stance on COVID-19-related matters, comparing mask mandates to the Holocaust and likening President Joe Biden encouraging more Americans to get vaccinated to the Nazi regime. Read the original article on Business Insider State prosecutors are asking a Lee County Court judge to deny a motion seeking a new trial for convicted murderer Mark Sievers because of claimed new evidence. The state's response was submitted late Monday after lawyers for Sievers filed the request Dec. 22 before Lee County Circuit Court Judge Bruce E. Kyle. A Lee County jury convicted Sievers in December 2019 of the first-degree murder of his wife, Teresa Sievers, and recommended the death sentence. Kyle sentenced him to death in January 2020. The new evidence, according to the motion, involves a six-page letter writer Jimmy Ray Rodgers wrote in December 2020 to Mark Sievers' mother, Bonnie. Rodgers, with Sievers and Curtis Wayne Wright, was a co-defendant in the Teresa Sievers murder case, and tried separately. Sievers has claimed in court filings to not know Rodgers. The letter claimed Wrights testimony concerning the circumstances of the murder was a lie and that Sievers was not involved in a murder conspiracy with Wright. The letter also includes a list of "facts" claimed by Rodgers involving alleged off-camera interrogation of witnesses by Lee County Sheriff's Office detectives, coaching of those witnesses by detectives to tell a specific "Hit Man Story" story to implicate suspects including Rodgers, payments made to Rodgers' girlfriend Taylor Shoemaker, and coaching of Wright's testimony. Curtis Wayne Wright was sentenced to 25 years on prison on Monday Feb. 10, 2020 for his role in the murder of Teresa Sievers. He struck a deal with the state for his testimony in her murder. He was considered the main witness against Mark Sievers and Jimmy Ray Rodgers. Wright was sentenced to 25 years on prison on Feb. 10, 2020, for his role in the murder. He struck a deal with the state for his testimony in her murder and was considered the main witness against Mark Sievers and Rodgers. The 22-page motion for a new trial submitted in December acknowledges that Sievers direct appeal from his conviction and death sentence are pending at the Florida Supreme Court making his case not final for post-conviction purposes. 'New evidence': State responds with list of objections on motion by Mark Sievers citing 'new evidence' Story continues Death penalty appeal: Florida Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Mark Sievers death penalty appeal Notorious murder: Who killed Dr. Teresa Sievers? A look at one of Southwest Florida's most notorious murders "Should both his conviction and death sentence be affirmed ... Sievers has one year in which to file his initial post-conviction motion," the original motion, signed by attorneys for Sievers, Marie-Louise Samuels-Parmer and Maria DeLiberato of Tampa. Sievers' attorneys also cite that he is aware that time limits on filing newly discovered evidence claims are limited to one-year from the discovery of the evidence. Jimmy Ray Rodgers was back in the courtroom for his sentenced on Thursday, December 12th, 2019. He was sentenced to Live in prison after he was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Theresa Sievers. HIs brother Jackie Lee Rodgers Jr. got to talk to Jimmy and give his a hug after he was finger printed. "As such, this Motion is timely filed within less than one year of the discovery of the evidence and is also properly categorized and filed as a Motion for New Trial," it says. "Should the Court determine that this issue is more appropriately addressed in post-conviction, Mr. Sievers respectfully requests this claim be held in abeyance until his direct appeal is final and his initial post-conviction motion is due to be filed." In asking for a denial, assistant state attorney Cynthia A. Ross cited factors including: The deadline for filing such a motion is 10 days after written final judgment of conviction and sentence of life imprisonment or death, which in Sievers' case was issued Jan. 3, 2020, two years previous. The motion was untimely. Sievers has an appeal pending before the Florida Supreme Court. Attorneys for the former Bonita Springs man filed a similar motion with the state supreme court Nov. 8 asking the court to "relinquish jurisdiction to the trial court for the purpose of conducting further proceedings on new evidence that has come to light... ." State prosecutors had a number of objections to the Supreme Court motion including its timing and called it a waste of time and resources. Neither court has ruled on the motion. Connect with breaking news reporter Michael Braun: MichaelBraunNP (Facebook), @MichaelBraunNP (Twitter) or mbraun@news-press.com. This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Mark Sievers wants new murder trial based on co-defender's 'lies' A Latino couple in Southern California died from Covid-19 just hours apart from each other. Alvaro and Sylvia Fernandez, 44 and 42, both died from Covid on Dec. 19. The couple had met in their teens and were married for 25 years. "They were high school sweethearts. They've been together since she was 15," Salvador Fernandez, Alvaro Fernandez's brother, told NBC Los Angeles. "One couldn't live without the other." Image: Alvaro and Sylvia Fernandez at their high school prom. (via NBC 4) Family members told NBC Los Angeles the couple were unvaccinated and Alvaro Fernandez had diabetes. They tested positive for the virus days before their deaths, according to the family. Alma Hernandez, Alvaro Fernandezs sister, said Sylvia Fernandez was about to get vaccinated. "[Alvaro Fernandez] wanted to wait and do more research" before getting vaccinated, Hernandez told NBC Los Angeles. "He Googled information. He didn't want to believe everything that was on the news." "This is kind of an eye-opener for everybody in my family that whoever is not vaccinated definitely should have their vaccinations," said Hernandez, who is fully vaccinated, along with her brother Salvador Fernandez. In a GoFundMe page the family organized, they wrote that Alvaro and Sylvia Fernandez left behind four children two young adults and 17-year-old twins. The country is seeing a dramatic surge in Covid cases, mostly fueled by the highly transmissible omicron variant. The U.S. hit 1 million new Covid-19 cases Monday, according to data compiled by NBC News. California is averaging 22,794 daily cases with a 20.4 percent seven-day test positivity rate, according to recent statewide data. Covid hospitalizations in the state had increased by 8.2 percent in one day. In San Bernardino County, which is more than half Latino, there have been 401,938 total confirmed Covid cases and 6,056 total confirmed deaths, according to state data. Weve been undertested, undercounted, underfunded, and you have a couple of decades of issues with social determinants of health, Dr. Ilan Shapiro said in a phone call with NBC News. Shapiro is the medical director for health education for AltaMed, a Latino health care provider based in Southern California. Story continues Other states with large numbers of Hispanic residents, including New York and New Jersey, and the U.S. territory Puerto Rico are among those with the highest new numbers of Covid cases. For those who are still unvaccinated, Shapiro recommended not relying on "a computer" for information on the vaccine, but talking to a physician or health care professionals. While the omicron variant is considered more mild for those who are fully vaccinated and boosted, that doesnt mean its harmless, Shapiro said. Follow NBC Latino on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They're the community's next generation of leaders. And they came to age in one of the nation's most public, most emotional, even hostile environments in 2021. A school board meeting with COVID-19 polices on the agenda. This group of five teenagers came from Central Magnet School: Will Severn, Grady Knox, Delaney Reynolds, Anna Elam and Jadyn Hayes. They attended Rutherford County Board of Education meetings in September to speak in support of requiring masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The students were worried about learning loss because of frequent quarantines that diminished prep time for the ACT and other college admissions tasks. The teens were also concerned about the health of family members. Knox, a junior on the school's tennis team, told school officials his grandmother died from COVID-19 because someone in her presence didn't wear a mask. Knox was heckled from anti-mask opponents in the audience. The video of the speech went virial, as he and his Central Magnet peers captured national media attention, from CNN and the Washington Post to NBC and media outlets across Tennessee. If masks "can save a life," they are worth it, Knox said. He also spoke about students being able to receive "the education they deserve." Video went viral: Student heckled for saying grandmother died of COVID-19 because someone didn't wear mask Although their speeches were met with largely civil responses, people are "not entitled to be ignorant," said Severn, a Central Magnet School junior who encouraged his peers to speak. "A number of young people have risen to the forefront," said Severn, whose school for high achievers is known for stressing science, technology, engineering and math. "The science in this is clear. Masks are effective. Masks work." The speeches from Knox, Severn and other Central Magnet School peers impressed school officials. Board members apologized for heckling from the audience. The board concluded with approving a mask requirement. Story continues (Families were able to formally opt out their children.) Five of the Central Magnet High School juniors from left to right Grady Knox, Anna Elam, Delaney Reynolds, Jadyn Hayes, and Will Severn gather to discuss what they learned about speaking up for something they believe in, on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021, while on the steps of their school in Murfreesboro. COVID-19 cases rise again The board's policy stipulated the mask requirement could end if the county's positivity rate for COVID-19 decreased to 10% or below for three consecutive weeks, which occurred by Nov. 9. The same policy also stipulated that the mask requirement could return if the positivity rate returned to 15% or higher. State legislation, however, signed Nov. 12 by Gov. Bill Lee, almost entirely outlaws mask mandates, superseding the board's policy, said Rutherford County Schools spokesperson James Evans. Prior to the governor signing the law, Central Magnet had nine students meet with one of Lee's staff members to discuss their concerns for an hour, said Murfreesboro attorney Kerry Knox, who's Grady's father. Those meeting with the governor's representative were Severn, Knox, Hayes, Elam, Reynolds, Comfort Markwei, John Dickey, Bebe Falkner and Sally Gaither. The positivity rate climbed up to 21.4% on Dec. 27, according to Rutherford County Schools COVID-19 Data Dashboard. Students, meanwhile, are scheduled to return from winter break on Tuesday. The county, the past six weeks, has seen a rise in active COVID-19 cases from 632 on Nov. 15 to 2,760 Dec. 30, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. COVID-19 cases on rise again: About 96% of Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital COVID-19 patients unvaccinated 'We don't have to be quiet' The Central Magnet students who spoke up have different life goals. Grady Knox is considering majoring in pre-med at University of Chicago. Severn is interested in studying political science and international affairs at a one of his dream schools such as Harvard or Georgetown. A student council parliamentarian, Severn said he had a duty to represent his fellow students and speak up "to give them a voice." Reynolds wants to major in political science and pursue minors in business and theology. Her dream school is Yale. Speaking about the mask issue was an "act of compassion toward other people," Reynolds said. "It's so important to have our say," said Reynolds, who wants a career in which she "can help people for the better." Reynolds said her generation can truly change the trajectory of the nation's culture that has yet prevented mass shootings. The teens want to speak up about the civil rights issues championed by the Black Lives Matter movement. They want to change environmental policies in response to global warming and severe weather events. "There's no choice for us but to change," said Reynolds, who likes to be among "girls at the forefront of change." "We don't have to be quiet." Elam intends to be a pre-med major at a yet-determined college. She views the opposition to masks as coming from the conspiracy theories on social media. "I think it's a lack of education," Elam said. She decided to speak in support of masks as "having a chance to make a difference." 'Youth matters' Jadyn Hayes holds up an Our health isn't political sign during The Rutherford County School Board meeting on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. During the meeting, the Board voted 5-2 to require masks for 30 days starting Sept. 13 unless parents opted out, of wearing a mask. Hayes said she'd like to study zoological nutrition at Colorado State University. When Severn reached out to her to speak, Hayes agreed because she felt empathy for those dealing with COVID-19, including nurses such as her mother. Hayes wanted to speak up as people did across the nation after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis. People should pursue critical and independent thinking to develop "a sense of empowerment," she said. "Having courage to speak up is a very empowering feeling," Hayes said. "Youth matters. We deserve to be heard, and we deserve that opportunity to speak up." Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips and questions by calling 615-278-5158 or emailing sbroden@dnj.com Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden. COVID-19 cases in Rutherford County First confirmed case: March 13, 2020 Population in 2020: 341,486 Peak in active cases (Sept. 6, 2021): 4,145 Active cases as of Nov. 15, 2021: 632 Active cases as of Nov. 28, 2021: 907 Active cases as of Dec. 13, 2021: 968 Active cases as of Dec. 30, 2021: 2,760 Total confirmed cases through Dec. 30, 2021: 68,185 Total deaths to COVID-19 by Dec. 30, 2021: 731 Sources: Tennessee Department of Health, Rutherford County Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Census Bureau This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: COVID-19: Central Magnet School students advocate for masks in 2021-22 INDIANAPOLIS Former Vice President Mike Pence's political advocacy group wants the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the federal government's workplace vaccine and mask mandates. Advancing American Freedom, a nonprofit conservative organization founded by Pence in 2021, has submitted court documents arguing the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration violated the Constitution when it imposed the mandates without congressional approval. More: Federal appeals court reinstates Biden COVID-19 vaccine-or-testing mandate for large employers Lawyers with the group allege in court filings that President Joe Biden's administration is "attempting to use OSHA to accomplish an end that it has been unable to persuade Congress to support: the mandatory vaccination of the American public." The mandates say that workers at private employers with more than 100 employees, and some local and state government employees, must receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Workplaces also can have employees choose between getting vaccinated or wearing a mask and getting tested regularly for COVID-19. Businesses, trade associations and elected officials have challenged the mandates, which are technically called "emergency temporary standards," through a wave of lawsuits. In November, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals put a hold on the mandates until they could receive a closer review in the courts. Then another federal appeals court, the Sixth Circuit, dissolved that hold in December after it was given jurisdiction over the lawsuits. Federal law says the government can enact "emergency temporary standards" if it is determined employees need to be protected from exposure to "substances or agents determined to be toxic or physically harmful or from new hazards." In its brief submitted to the Supreme Court on Dec. 30, Pence's agency argues those mandates are typically issued only when there's a specific job-related danger limited to the workforce, such as asbestos exposure. Story continues Advancing American Freedom also argued that such mandates in the past did not force medical treatment on employees. The Sixth Circuit, however, noted the risk of COVID-19 in the workplace has not waned. "The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc across America, leading to the loss of over 800,000 lives, shutting down workplaces and jobs across the country, and threatening our economy," wrote Sixth Circuit judge Jane B. Stranch in a December opinion. "Recognizing that the 'old normal' is not going to return, employers and employees have sought new models for a workplace that will protect the safety and health of employees who earn their living there." Call IndyStar courts reporter Johnny Magdaleno at 317-273-3188 or email him at jmagdaleno@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @IndyStarJohnny. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Mike Pence's political group asks Supreme Court to stop COVID mandates One of the largest privatized military housing companies, which manages houses at Dyess Air Force Base, will pay more than $65 million in fines and restitution after pleading guilty to defrauding the U.S. military. Balfour Beatty Communities LLC pleaded guilty Dec. 22 to one count of major fraud against the U.S. as part of a plea agreement in which company officials admitted their employees falsified records of maintenance and resident satisfaction of military housing to continue to receive government funds. Department of Justice As part of the plea agreement, Balfour Beatty Communities agreed to pay about $33.6 million in criminal fines and $31.8 million in restitution, U.S. Department of Justice officials said. Housing at Dyess AFB is privatized, with Balfour Beatty Communities owning and managing on-base duplexes and houses. Hunt Military Communities is responsible for an apartment and townhouses off base, according to the base website. Dyess AFB recently hired a housing resident advocate, "whose job is to process residential complaints and advocate for residents if and when the organization is not meeting standards," a base spokesperson said Tuesday in a statement. Ensuring airmen, guardians and their families have safe, healthy housing options is a top priority for the Department of the Air Force," the statement said. The allegations made against Balfour Beatty Communities were that from about 2013 to 2019, company employees falsified information so that BBCs incentive fee requests reflected that BBC had met performance objectives, officials said. However, the company failed to meet those objectives in many of the quarters during that time, officials said. The objectives included primarily related to maintenance and resident satisfaction at various military housing projects. More: New Dyess Visitors Control Center showcases air base-community effort Instead of promptly repairing housing for U.S. servicemembers as required, BBC lied about the repairs to pocket millions of dollars in performance bonuses, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said in a statement. This pervasive fraud was a consequence of BBCs broken corporate culture, which valued profit over the welfare of servicemembers. Story continues The company is required to submit to U.S. military service branches proof that it had satisfied performance objectives. Balfour Beatty Communities officials in a statement accepted responsibility for the falsified records and stated they would make changes to prevent further fraud against the U.S. government. Balfour Beatty is committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct, company officials said in a statement. The wrongdoing that took place is completely contrary to the way the company expects its people to behave. The Company apologizes for the actions of communities to all its stakeholders. It has been made clear to all employees that breaches of policies, procedures, or law will not be tolerated. The company headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, agreed to serve three years of probation and engage an independent compliance monitor for a period of three years, officials said. More: Dyess AFB official responds to base being on outdated list of 'ones to avoid' Monaco said the Dec. 22 settlement sends a clear message to companies that if they do not maintain adequate compliance programs, voluntarily self-disclose misconduct, and fully cooperate with the government, they will pay a price that outweighs the profits they once reaped. The company also separately entered into a False Claims Act settlement with the U.S. to resolve its civil liability for $35.2 million. The amounts paid under the civil settlement will be credited against the amounts owed under companys criminal plea, officials said. Balfour Beatty Communities LLC operates privatized military housing communities at 21 U.S. Air Force, 18 U.S. Navy and 16 U.S. Army bases. The Western District of Texas is home to some of the largest military installations in the country and our district works tirelessly to protect and serve our military families, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Ashley C. Hoff said in a statement. The resolution entered with BBC concerns conduct that impacted military families in our district at Lackland Air Force Base and Fort Bliss Army Base. This resolution is an important step in holding private military housing providers accountable to our servicemembers and their families. More: Abilene recognized again for support of Dyess AFB with Barksdale Trophy According to court documents, two employees have pleaded guilty to their roles in the fraud scheme. Former community manager Stacy Cabrera pleaded guilty April 21 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, while former regional manager Rick Cunefare pleaded guilty June 9 to major fraud against the United States. Court records do not show when the defendants will be sentenced. The employees were accused of altering or manipulating data in property management software. They also allegedly destroyed and falsified resident comment cards to falsely inflate these metrics and, ultimately, to fraudulently induce the service branches to pay performance incentive fees which BBC had not earned, Department of Justice officials said.The actions of the employees led to lengthy and unnecessary delays in the resolution of maintenance issues to the detriment of servicemembers and their families, Department of Justice officials said. Changes implemented by BBC, according to a statement, include restructuring of the communities management team including the additional appointment of several key executives and a chief compliance officer for the U.S., company officials said. The company also enhanced its ethics and compliance training for all employees and has made significant improvements to the maintenance work order processing system, underpinned by enhanced controls and protocols that are aimed to prevent misuse and strengthen oversight, company officials said. The Dyess AFB housing resident advocate can be contacted at 325-696-8995. Laura Gutschke of the Abilene Reporter-News contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Company operating Dyess AFB housing to pay $65M in fraud settlement A Mississippi police officer responding to a shooting over the weekend discovered that the victim was her son. Authorities were called to the scene on Larkin Street just blocks from the Hazlehurst Police Department early Sunday, NBC affiliate WLBT of Jackson reported. We initially responded to the call not knowing, when I made it over there, the person was going to be my son that was laying there, Officer Laquandia Cooley told the station. The man, Charles Stewart Jr., 20, was dead in the middle of the street with a gunshot wound to the head. "As we get out, I look and I was like, 'This is my son, this is my son,'" Cooley said. "So I literally just go into a breakdown, you know? Like, why? Who would do this to my son?" It was not clear Tuesday what led to the shooting or whether an arrest had been made. Related video: Ex-cop charged in mother of four's murder takes plea deal I couldnt even believe what I was seeing. I was seeing my own son laying there on the ground dead. It was pretty much a panic. It was just, it was too much," Cooley said. Charles Stewart, the victim's father, described his son as a good person who got along with everyone. Its traumatizing for the whole family. Were just trying to cope day to day," he said. "Just trying to figure out why this happened and who could have did this. Police Chief Darian Murray confirmed the incident to NBC News. He told WLBT that the case will be handled by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation because it involves an officers family member. The state agency did not immediately reply to a request for comment. A Douglas County, Colorado, mother accused of subjecting her 7-year-old daughter, who died in 2017, to unnecessary medical procedures has pleaded guilty in the case, prosecutors said. Kelly Renee Turner, 43, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, Jan. 4, to child abuse negligently causing death, theft of between $100,000 and $1 million and charitable fraud in a plea agreement, the District Attorneys Office for the 18th Judicial District said in a statement. Turner will be sentenced Feb. 9, the office said. She is accused of falsely claiming her daughter, Olivia Gant, was terminally ill with failing intestines to raise donations before Olivia died in August 2017, KMGH reported. Prosecutors said Turner took her daughter to a hospital more than 1,000 times over five years for fabricated illnesses, KDVR reported. Doctors became suspicious when Turner later brought her older daughter to the same hospital for bone pain, leading to an investigation and her arrest in 2019, KCNC reported. An autopsy of Olivias exhumed body was inconclusive, according to the station. 21-year-old goes missing while organizing epic treasure hunt, California family says 11-year-old home alone for weeks survives on frozen food, Arizona cops say Missing teens wrote SOS in snow, helping helicopter find them, Oregon rescuers say Nashville SC upgraded its midfield by signing former New York Red Bulls maestro Sean Davis in MLS free agency. The club announced Tuesday the anticipated arrival of the ex-Red Bulls captain, who signed a three-year contract with Nashville through 2024 with a club option for 2025. Davis, 28, reportedly rejected a new contract from New York after seven seasons and winning two Supporters' Shield trophies. In 2021, Davis led MLS in total distance covered (249 miles) and total distance covered per game (7.1 miles). His skillset as a ball hawk in central midfield was on full display last season, leading the league in possessions won and recoveries, while playing every regular season minute. Only three outfield players did that in 2021. Ahead of the 2020 campaign, Davis was named captain at Red Bulls. With Nashville, he joins Dax McCarty, who also captained RBNY during his tenure (2011-16), as former RBNY leaders now playing for Nashville. Davis joins winger Alex Muyl as RBNY homegrowns to join Nashville for their second stops in MLS. After graduating from the RBNY youth academy and playing four seasons at Duke, Davis signed his homegrown contract in December 2014, ahead of the 2015 season. Since making his debut that April against the San Jose Earthquakes, Davis has played in 182 matches, scoring four goals and added 24 assists, including the MLS Cup Playoffs. For stories about Nashville SC or Soccer in Tennessee, contact Drake Hills at DHills@gannett.com. Follow Drake on Twitter at @LiveLifeDrake. Connect with Drake on Instagram at @drakehillssoccer and on Facebook. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville SC signs former New York Red Bulls Sean Davis in free agency It's a great place to visit or shop The new street is nice but shops have disappeared I have no reason to go there Vote View Results Corie Hess, pictured Friday, July 23, 2021, in Muncie, became an advocate for maternal mental healthcare after her own near-death miscarriage complications led to lasting anxiety and depression. "Just thinking back on my whole experience, it's really shaped my career," Hess said. "There's a lot of good that's come out of it, but it's taken me a long time to get to this place where I can see all of that." Hess has also become a maternal health specialist in her career as a psychologist. INDIANAPOLIS Corie Hess walked into the obstetrics unit, shaking. She was terrified. The COVID-19 pandemic was raging, she was entering the hospital alone, and the last time she had been pregnant, she'd had a miscarriage and almost died. That experience had been traumatic, and even though she had spent years going to therapy and educating herself on mental health, the anxiety would not fade. Hands trembling, she called her husband on video to steady herself for her appointment. Hess felt alone, but her story is far from unique. Many people exhibit mental health conditions after pregnancy or childbirth. Experts estimate that more than half of those who give birth experience some shift in their emotions after delivery. Of those, 15% will develop long-lasting depression. Oftentimes, mental health conditions such as depression can combine with others such as substance use disorder and become deadly. But even when the results arent so dire, for some of the many people who undergo serious complications in childbirth Hess included mental health conditions are a tormenting reminder of a near-death experience. More in this series: 'Obstetric deserts' threaten lives of pregnant people, amplifying maternal mortality in rural Indiana I didnt think I could go through that again Hess' journey to building the family she'd always dreamed of was filled alternating moments of hope, joy and tragedy. More than four years ago, Hess experienced a series of miscarriages before she gave birth to her first son, Alex, in 2017. A year later, she found out she was pregnant again. To celebrate, she and her husband drove from their home in Indiana to visit family in Massachusetts. On the way back, two months into her pregnancy, she noticed some bleeding. She rushed to the doctor, where she was given the heartbreaking news that this baby, too, had passed away. It was devastating, she said. Corie Hess with her sons Alex (left) and Evan. Corie Hess with her sons Alex (left) and Evan. Doctors gave Hess two options for handling her miscarriage: She could go into surgery, or take medication that would allow her to let the process happen at home. She chose the medication, because shed already used it before and wanted to be in a comforting environment. Story continues She prepared herself for the sadness and mental taxation of the experience. But when the time came, the medication didnt work. She called her doctor, who prescribed her another dose. A few days later, the bleeding started again a lot of it. There was just a lot of blood, she said. I couldnt stand up without it gushing out so I yelled for my husband, and I was like, We need to go, now. At the nearby emergency room at Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital Ball State Memorial Hospital, doctors put Hess away in a room immediately, but nobody examined her. She kept saying Im bleeding a lot, Im bleeding a lot, to the nurses who checked her in, but nobody seemed alarmed. About 20 minutes later, a doctor finally came in to check on her. After chatting with her for a bit, he left to get another doctor, leaving Hess alone in the room yet again. When another doctor finally came back to check on her about 15 minutes after that, she started feeling weak, her vision blurring. By now, Hess had lost so much blood that she started going into shock. Luckily, the obstetrician needed to treat Hess severe bleeding was on call and in the building. Emergency room doctors buzzed her down immediately. Thank God she was actually in the building, because if she hadnt been, I dont know what would have happened, Hess said. Shes the one that really kind of fought for me, took things over, got me the care that I needed. Hess was rushed into a trauma room, but shed lost so much blood that her body was too unstable to go into surgery. Instead, she had to go through two rounds of blood transfusions first. Thats when she realized she might be dying. To make matters worse, her husband had already left and her phone wasnt charged. She was alone. It was all really scary, because nobody was there with me, she said. I was all by myself. Hess next remembers waking up, post-surgery, by herself in a room in a new wing of the hospital. She still couldnt reach her husband and she was mourning the loss of a baby. After a torturously long night in the hospital, she was discharged the next day. It took me a long time to just really process what had happened, she said. I didnt think I wanted to have any more children. I didnt think I could go through that again, if something like that happened I dont want to risk my life, and risk my son not having a mom. For subscribers: Skeptics doubted vaccines long before COVID, despite health gains Im committing myself to helping Corie Hess, pictured Friday, July 23, 2021, in Muncie. In the months after this experience, Hess found herself feeling hopeless. So she started going to therapy, to work on healing the anxiety and depression spurred by that day. Its taken me years," she said, "to even be able to get to a point where I can talk about this without breaking down. At one point, she started researching, and learned about the high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity in her state of Indiana. I had no idea how big of a problem it was," she said, "and how many women were dying in childbirth and nearly dying, like my experience. Lexi's story: She was meant to be a mom. Her death might save the lives of pregnant mothers in her area. She wanted to become involved, so she joined Facebook groups that connected her with other women who had undergone traumatic experiences caused by pregnancy and childbirth. She found out about maternal health advocacy groups such as 2020 Mom and Mom Congress, and joined up to help where she could. In 2019, she went to Washington, D.C. with Mom Congress to share her story with legislators: That, she said, was a healing experience. When I think about people not feeling heard by medical providers and being ignored, and how that turns into death in some cases or near-death experiences, it just makes me so mad, she said. Every time I hear a new story, Im committing myself to helping to decrease maternal mortality rates in our country. But she wasnt done. That research Hess did while recovering from her traumatic near-death experience? It changed her career, too. Hess who has a doctorate and masters degree in psychology was already studying mental health issues, but her own story showed her what she most wanted to use her knowledge for. She realized that she had a unique position a psychologist who underwent a near-death experience. She had experience working specifically with kids and families, and in the last few years has also become a specialist in maternal mental health. In Muncie, Indiana, she started a local coalition of healthcare providers to improve access to mental healthcare in the community. In the last few years, that coalition has resulted in more providers trained in maternal mental health and helped to build a referral network, so people know where to go if they need help. Just thinking back on my whole experience, its really shaped my career, she said. Theres a lot of good thats come out of it, but its taken me a long time to get to this place where I can see all of that. A way of making meaning Somewhere in the middle of all of this work, Hess realized she was ready to have a baby again. She got pregnant right away. She was overjoyed and then she was anxious. She found out she was pregnant in February 2020, just about a month before much of the U.S. shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hess was in the middle of a pre-doctoral internship at a residential treatment facility for youth, which didnt offer telehealth. I was a mess, she said. I had to decide, "do I stay here and risk getting COVID while Im pregnant, or do I take some time off?' Hess took the time off. It was a hard decision, but given her previous experiences, she wasnt willing to put any risk to herself or her baby. The next few months of pregnancy were stressful. There were a few times, she said, where she feared she was losing her baby and had to go into the hospital, alone. That's what brought her to the hospital that one terrifying day. It was just awful. I remember shaking while walking in, and I had my husband on FaceTime, she said. Going to these appointments was really, really hard. But throughout it all, Hess was able to stay safe, and delivered her son, Evan, in August. He was born six weeks early, and ended up needing to spend about 12 days in the neonatal intensive care unit. That was also scary, she said, and strange. Family couldnt visit, and the first few months of her sons life were isolating. Hess experience delivering during the COVID-19 pandemic made her worried for others giving birth during 2020 and 2021. She fears now, more than ever, theres a need for expanded maternal mental health care. Indianas Maternal Mortality Review Committee appears to agree. Among other recommendations, the committees recent report recommends health systems increase screening for mental health conditions, expand resources for addressing mental health crises and improve linkage to mental health care when treating people post-pregnancy. Recently, Hess has also been pushing for federal recognition of the issue. With the organizations she is a part of, Hess advocates for Congress to pass the Moms Matter Act, which directs officials to create a program awarding grants for organizations to address mental health and substance use disorder for pregnant and postpartum women, particularly those in marginalized communities. The act currently sits in the House of Representatives health subcommittee. In the last few years, Hess has learned she wants to use her career and free time to be a voice for people like her, who have struggled to be heard in healthcare and have suffered from depression and anxiety as a result. Having gone through everything that I went through, I feel like this is a way for me to make meaning of the experience, she said. It has to. I have to use it to create some type of change or for some good. Follow reporter London Gibson on Twitter: @LondonGibson This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: After miscarriage, mom fights for maternal mental health care Nearly 700 Henry Ford Health System employees have tested positive for the coronavirus in the last seven days, the system's chief clinical officer said Tuesday. That's about 2% of approximately 33,000 employees in the health system that became the first in Michigan to announce last summer that it would mandate COVID-19 vaccines for its workers. The news comes as COVID-19 cases surge in Michigan and across the country, the highly transmissible omicron variant becomes more dominant, and short-staffed hospitals and testing locations continue to be overrun. More: 96 Michigan children hospitalized with COVID-19, breaking pandemic record More: Michigan health department reverses course, updates to CDC COVID-19 quarantine guidelines "If we have an ill employee, they are quarantined until seven days after their first symptom appeared, but they also have to have improvement in their symptoms. If they're still febrile or no improvement at all, we keep them off work because our first priority is to make sure that we don't infect our patients," said Dr. Dennis Cunningham, the health system's medical director of infection control and prevention. He said the health system could move to a five-day quarantine under new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was recently adopted by the state health department, if need be. Dr. Adnan Munkarah, Henry Ford Health System's executive vice president and chief clinical officer. In October, the health system said about 400 workers walked off the job rather than get the vaccine and another 1,900 workers received exemptions from the vaccine mandate. A spokesman said Tuesday the health system did not have a breakdown of the nearly 700 COVID-19 positive workers by vaccination status, such as vaccinated, vaccinated and boosted or exempted from the mandate. The health system also has had to temporarily close 97 beds across its hospitals, mostly because of staffing challenges, said Dr. Adnan Munkarah, executive vice president and chief clinical officer. Story continues And because of steep increases in infections in the community, the health system, among others, had to limit monoclonal antibody treatments, which reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from the coronavirus. Sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody product made by Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline, is the only monoclonal antibody therapy on the market in the U.S. that has shown in lab studies to be effective against the omicron variant. More: COVID-19 monoclonal antibody therapy gets even harder to find in Michigan More: Michigan doctors, nurses report violence, hostility amid COVID-19 surge Cunningham said the health system was down to its last 30 doses of monoclonal antibodies Tuesday, which would be used up by the end of the day. It had to adjust the criteria on who could receive the treatment to those who are most at risk, such as those age 75 and older, those with severe lung disease using extra oxygen and those on dialysis. Cunningham said the health system was expecting 300 more doses of sotrovimab this week. During a press call, he received a text that more doses had arrived, though he did not know how many. Nurses Aliaa Sharafeldin and Salah Hadwan infuse patients with monoclonal antibody treatments at Wayne Health Detroit Mack Health Center in Detroit on Dec. 10, 2021. Cunningham said he anticipated antiviral pills should be available sometime this month, but they, too, may be only used with certain patients because of drug interactions. He said the drugs would be distributed through Meijer pharmacies and the state is prioritizing southeast Michigan because of the number of cases it has. "I don't know the exact numbers of drugs, but Michigan has given us guidance on who to prioritize in terms of patients because the supply is not going to be anywhere near enough for every patient who's at risk," Cunningham said. "Eventually, we'll have more of that drug." Still, he said, the treatments are not a substitute for vaccination, which is the best way to protect from infection, hospitalization or dying from COVID-19. More: Michigan schools, flights, businesses grapple with latest COVID-19 surge More: Michigan reports a staggering 61,235 new COVID-19 cases, 298 deaths over 5 days "Michigan, I believe, as of today, only 60.5% of people 5 years of age and older have been fully vaccinated. That's going to make this last a little bit longer," Cunningham said of the state's fourth surge. "So, that's why we are very concerned about January. I'm thinking it's going to be a very rough month in terms of COVID." Michigan had 61,235 confirmed COVID-19 cases from Thursday through Monday, averaging about 12,247 per day, according to state data. As of Monday, the state health department had confirmed 289 omicron cases in Michigan through genetic sequencing, with the majority of them in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties as well as the city of Detroit. But that's estimated to be only a small fraction of the total number of cases of the strain in the state. Dr. Christine Nefcy, chief medical officer of Munson Healthcare, said Tuesday the state is taking about 10% of all the positive tests that are sent to it and sequencing them for the new variants and others. "It's a very time-intensive, complicated and expensive process. That's why we don't do it for all of the samples that are sent," she said. "So any data that we have about where omicron is and where it showed up is actually behind the reality." More: Fueled by omicron, Ontario shuts down schools, indoor dining and gyms More: Whitmer's State of the State will come in election year amid rising COVID-19 numbers "Typically, we see increases in patients and hospitalizations after holidays. And we are bracing for one of the bleakest months we have faced throughout this pandemic," Cunningham said. "Because we are seeing so much transmission I do want to take a moment to comment on at-home tests. If you have a positive at-home test ... you do not need to repeat the test at your doctor's office or the hospital. The home test while they're useful ... don't consider (a negative test) a free pass. If you have unknown exposure or feeling like you have symptoms of COVID, please act as if you have COVID until you're outside the incubation period, which typically we're talking seven to 10 days. The PCR test is the very best test available for COVID test results and many pharmacies and health departments offer it in addition to hospitals ... your own doctor can order one of these tests." Munkarah said the biggest challenge regarding testing within the health system is having enough staff to do the nasal swabbing for the increased demand. Munkarah said as of Tuesday, there were 480 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Henry Ford Health System, a 25% increase from the past week. One of the hospitalizations is a child under 17 years old who was not vaccinated, he said. As of yesterday, he said, 65% of patients had not been vaccinated and of the 60 patients in the intensive care unit about 65% had not been inoculated against COVID-19. Munkarah said the health system also made a "very important observation" in the past few days 95% of patients who are hospitalized or in the ICU had not received a booster vaccine, either. Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. "It is clear that the booster seemed to have a significant effect in protecting people from getting to the hospital," he said, also citing studies overseas where booster doses increase protection, including against the omicron variant. At Munson Healthcare, only 12 of the 76 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 were vaccinated, Nefcy said. She said of the 32 patients in the ICU, 30 were not vaccinated, and of the 13 people on ventilators all of them are unvaccinated. Staff writer Kristen Jordan Shamus contributed to this report. Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter. Support local journalism. Subscribe to the Free Press. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Nearly 700 employees test positive for COVID-19 at Henry Ford Health One practice we've utilized after publishing a mock draft is to send it out to NFL scouting personnel for review. Sure, we absolutely speak with talent evaluators prior to writing the mocks. But sometimes, we've found, the best and most useful criticism comes after we've projected the first round. After our most recent 2022 NFL mock draft was posted just before Christmas, we received one pretty straightforward (and amusing) response: "You forgot the Sauce." That would be Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner. The Cincinnati corner just missed our first-round cut last time, but the message was received loudly and clearly: That was a mistake. Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel reported Tuesday that Gardner is declaring for the 2022 NFL draft, which isn't that surprising. In three years with the Bearcats, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound corner made 99 tackles, intercepted nine passes and deflected 27 more. But the most stunning stat of his 37-game college career? Gardner never allowed a touchdown catch, per Pro Football Focus. In fact, he allowed only 60 catches on the 138 passes targeted at his man in coverage over three years, including a paltry 131 yards in 14 games this season. Cincinnati Bearcats cornerback Ahmad Gardner should be one of the first CB prospects off the board in the 2022 NFL draft. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Even with teams often avoiding his side of the field, those are some eye-opening numbers, especially as Gardner typically shadowed opponents' top receivers, played roughly equal snaps on each side of the field and even ventured into the slot at times. In Cincinnati's playoff semifinal matchup with Alabama, Gardner was credited with allowing only 14 yards on three catches (four targets), including one tackle for loss on a screen vs. Bama first-round receiver Jameson Williams. There are some questions about Gardner's change-of-direction skill and his ability to handle quicker, shiftier receivers. Given his unusual length, he also can play a bit upright at times and isn't quite as fluid flipping his hips as a smaller corner might be. Story continues But overall, Gardner has the instincts and playmaking ability to be a first-round corner, perhaps cracking the top 20 overall picks. Although he possesses a leaner frame, Gardner has worked hard to fill out, has generally tackled well and can get off blocks to make plays in space. He also showed improvement in his blitzing this season, registering three sacks and five total pressures in 11 pass-rush snaps this season. Gardner's best fit likely is in a press or off-man scheme, or with teams that use a lot of cover-3 zones. His length allows him to reroute receivers off the line and also play the ball effectively in the air at the catch point. One scout earlier this season compared Gardner, talent-wise, to 2021 Titans first-rounder Caleb Farley (minus the injury concerns). Assuming Gardner tests well, displaying enough long speed and change-of-direction skills, he could be in the mix for the top few CB spots in the draft, competing with the likes of LSU's Derek Stingley Jr., Clemson's Andrew Booth Jr., Florida's Kaiir Elam and Auburn's Roger McCreary. Photo credit: Nio Nio ET5 electric sedan promises range of 621 miles courtesy of a 150-kWh battery, set to follow ET7 sedan later this year. Planned sedan will offer a choice of three battery packs, 482 hp in top form. Chinese automaker has set its sights on Tesla's sedan models in its home market, with plans to expand to Europe. China's Nio took the wraps off its ET5 sedan, promising a sleek four-door that could challenge the Tesla Model 3 in its home market when it enters production later this year. The design of the planned model features a number of popular themes we've seen in recent years, remixing them into an attractive overall profile with a claimed drag coefficient of 0.24 combined with the versatility of a hatchback, with the concept version looking quite production-ready. Intended as a smaller companion to the ET7, which has the Model S in its sights, the ET5 follows the general footprint of the Model 3 while also offering autonomous driving sensors on the leading edge of the roof. Speaking of autonomous features, the automaker says that they will be rolled out after development and validation, taking a page from Tesla's book in planning for hardware before the software itself gets to a suitable production launch point. "With Nio Aquila Super Sensing and Nio Adam Super Computing, ET5 will gradually achieve a safe and reassuring autonomous driving experience for scenarios such as highways, urban areas, parking, and battery swapping," the automaker promised. Photo credit: Nio When it comes to the drivetrain, the ET5 is slated to be offered with a choice of a 75-kWh battery good for a range of 341 miles, a 100-kWh pack that will offer over 434 miles of range, and a monster 150-kWh battery pack that promises 621 miles, or 1000 kilometers of range. The ET5 will also offer all-wheel-drive, dual-motor versatility with two motors producing a combined 482 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque, which will allow for 4.3-second launches from 0 to 62 mph, the automaker says. Story continues Of course, that advertised 621-mile range comes with the asterisk of China's very optimistic CLTC testing methodology, so European and EPA numbers would certainly be lower. Still, stuffing a 150-kWh battery pack into something the size of a Tesla Model 3 should be an interesting entry into the range wars currently heating up among EV makers. The interior, meanwhile, is equally sleek and futuristic, and in keeping the genre canon it features a large infotainment screen mounted on the center stack, a 10.2-inch HDR instrument cluster, as well as our favorite feature we've noted in Nio cars in the past: the Nomi robot head protruding from the center of the dash. Photo credit: Nio On top of everything, Nio's vision of an electric future includes battery-swapping technology, which is still seen as a promising direction in a handful of EV-friendly markets like China. This scenario involves automated stations resembling car washes that will swap out batteries from the underside of the vehicle in about three minutes. Needless to say, there are some real infrastructure costs with this concept that have made it unpalatable to many automakers, especially in the age of fast-charging stations, even if 10 years ago it looked like a more promising feature of EVs of the future. "2021 marked Nio's first step into the global market," the automaker added. "After entering Norway, Nio will introduce its products and user-centric service to Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark in 2022. By 2025, Nio will establish its presence in over 25 countries and regions worldwide." The ET5 is scheduled to enter production in the second half of 2022, with the larger ET7 slated to arrive a bit earlier this spring. The four-door will be offered in China and in Norway at first, before making its way to other EV-friendly countries in northern Europe amid an ambitious expansion plan by the automaker. Unvaccinated students will have a chance to remain in school and out of quarantine even after they come in close contact with a COVID-infected person, if schools adopt an optional testing approach offered by the state. The new "test-to-stay" option uses frequent testing to keep students who are not positive and not experiencing symptoms in school, according to new guidance from the New Jersey Department of Health During a briefing on Monday, the day schools reopened after winter break, Gov. Phil Murphy said he had "no intention or plan" to close schools, despite an unprecedented surge in infections in the state and other parts of the country that began in mid-December. The state released "test-to-stay" testing guidance on Jan. 1, when schools were still on winter break. Most public schools in the state reopened on Monday though many have already gone remote to protect against the surge in COVID cases. Currently, unvaccinated students must quarantine at home if contact tracing shows they were exposed to a COVID-positive person in school. The new test-to-stay method, which was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention two weeks ago, would keep unvaccinated or partially vaccinated students who do not show COVID-related symptoms in school. This would be done by testing them immediately after in-school exposure, and every other day for five to seven days, according to the latest state guidelines, in a process called "serial testing." Tests would be performed using rapid antigen testing, which provides immediate results. Test-to-stay requires students to quarantine at home only if they test positive during this time. Masks would still have to be worn in school, and students are expected to quarantine when not in school. A wave of COVID cases, likely from the highly transmissible omicron variant, engulfed the state in December and, consequently, challenged schools statewide. Case numbers went from 16,626 on Dec. 25 to 29,740 on Jan. 1, with a transmission rate of 1.77 thats nearly two people infected for every positive case. Story continues Trending: As NJ calls for hospital reinforcements, Murphy doesn't revive COVID restrictions See the list: NJ schools closing due to COVID concerns. See who is remote The surge in COVID cases caused many schools to switch to remote instruction for the first few weeks of January 2022. Many closed their buildings and offered remote classes even before the winter break, while others have opted for early dismissals and half-days, both before and after the break. Meanwhile, schools in New York City, the nation's largest district, are using a simpler version of test-to-stay, to keep schools open despite a similarly enormous surge in infections. The New York Times reported that students will be sent home with rapid at-home tests when exposed to an infection in school and will return if they test negative or do not show symptoms. Tests in New York City schools will be repeated after five days, with parents and students expected to self-report results. The new approach took effect Monday and was adopted in part to prevent learning disruptions among the large numbers of unvaccinated elementary school children who attend the city's public schools. Only children whose parents consent to the program can participate. The main benefit of the New Jersey test-to-stay option is that it limits learning loss and keeps children in school, but state guidance leaves the decision on opting in to local school officials. Also, schools can offer the option only to students whose parents or guardians consent. Schools must have robust contact tracing and testing practices already in place. If they conduct testing on school grounds, they must get a government-approved waiver that allows them to administer, process and read the tests. State guidelines also require students who participate in test-to-stay to wear masks at all times while in school, including outdoors, except when eating or drinking. It also requires them to maintain a 6-foot distance from others and refrain from all extracurricular activities. These guidelines differ from current ones in use for the general student population. Even when transmission levels are high as they are now students are not required to wear masks outdoors when they are on school grounds, and required indoor distancing stands at 3 feet. Its difficult for the schools to practice this, and I think those guidelines are inadequate, said Dr. Stanley Weiss, a biostatistician and epidemiologist at Rutgers School of Public Health. Original social distance standards drew from the assumption that droplets accounted for nearly all COVID spread. Weiss said this assumption is faulty. "With omicron, even 6 feet is likely insufficient. Improved ventilation systems are critical. The omicron variant is far more transmissible than previous variants, said Weiss. Higher levels of the virus in the upper respiratory tract and omicron's stronger affinity to human cell receptors can lead to fewer viral particles causing infections. In New Jersey, pediatric hospitalizations are the highest since the onset of the pandemic, state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said Monday. Persichilli has asked pharmacies and testing sites to prioritize testing for children, to reduce the burden of COVID mitigation on schools. For schools that engage in on-site testing, all school testing vendors were asked to be in schools on the first day back from break. The omicron variant is a cause for concern, more so among unvaccinated children, than previous variants were, Weiss said. Children were relatively spared in the first phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, children are acquiring omicron and getting ill, especially with severe upper airway illness. Thus, parents should now reorient and take measures to reduce potential exposure of their kids. Story continues below gallery. The CDC has not urged schools to adopt test-to-stay, rather saying this is another valuable tool in addition to layered prevention strategies to mitigate COVID-19. Those include masking, social distancing, testing, ventilation, hand-washing and staying home when sick, with vaccination and boosters remaining the most effective way to prevent the spread of infection. The CDC endorsed the option after trials in the United Kingdom showed that daily testing for close contacts instead of quarantining did not affect school absence or transmission of the virus, compared with when students quarantined at home. Similar studies were conducted in schools in Los Angeles, California and Lake County, Illinois, in fall 2021. Mary Ann Koruth covers education for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news about New Jersey's schools and how it affects your children, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. Email: koruthm@northjersey.com Twitter: @MaryAnnKoruth This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Test-to-stay may help NJ schools keep unvaccinated students in class By Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea fired what the United States said was a ballistic missile on Wednesday, just hours before South Korean President Moon Jae-in attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a rail line he hopes will eventually connect the divided Korean peninsula. Nuclear-armed North Korea's first test launch since October underscored leader Kim Jong Un's New Year vow https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/nkoreas-kim-talks-food-not-nukes-2022-2021-12-31 to bolster the military to counter an unstable international situation amid stalled talks with South Korea and the United States. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command called it a ballistic missile launch and the U.S. State Department condemned, it while repeating calls for renewed dialogue with North Korea. "This launch is in violation of multiple U.N. Security Council Resolutions and poses a threat to the DPRKs neighbours and the international community," a State Department spokesperson using the initials of North Korea's official name. The launch took place at 8:10 a.m. (2310 GMT) from an east coast inland location into the sea, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. Japan's defence minister said the suspected ballistic missile had flown an estimated 500 km (310 miles). Hours later, Moon visited the South Korean east coast city of Goseong, near the border with North Korea, where he broke ground for a new rail line that he called "a stepping stone for peace and regional balance" on the Korean peninsula. Moon acknowledged the launch raised concerns of tensions, and called for North Korea to make sincere efforts for dialogue. "We should not give up the hope for dialogue in order to fundamentally overcome this situation," he said. "If both Koreas work together and build trust, peace would be achieved one day." Moon, who has led unprecedented efforts to engage with North Korea, has stuck to what many analysts see as a forlorn hope for a diplomatic breakthrough before his five-year term ends in May. Story continues Reconnecting the two Koreas by rail was a central issue in meetings between Kim and Moon in 2018, but the efforts went nowhere as talks aimed at convincing North Korea to surrender its nuclear weapons in exchange for easing international sanctions faltered in 2019. Kim's New Year speech made no mention of efforts by South Korea to restart negotiations or U.S. calls for dialogue. 'VERY REGRETTABLE' South Korea's National Security Council convened an emergency meeting, expressing concern that the launch "came at a time when internal and external stability is extremely important" and calling on North Korea to return to talks. The missile was fired from Jagang Province on North Korea's northern border with China, South Korea's JCS said, the same province where North Korea tested its first hypersonic missile https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-korea-says-it-test-fired-new-hypersonic-missile-kcna-2021-09-28 in September. "Our military is maintaining readiness posture in preparation for a possible additional launch while closely monitoring the situation in close cooperation with the United States," the JCS said. Speaking to reporters, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called North Korea's repeated missile launches since last year "very regrettable." The latest launch comes ahead of talks between the U.S. and Japanese foreign and defence ministers on Friday. U.N. Security Council resolutions ban all ballistic missile and nuclear tests by North Korea, and have imposed sanctions over the programmes. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea has become even more isolated, imposing border lockdowns that have slowed trade to a trickle and have prevented in-person diplomatic engagements. It has stuck to a self-imposed moratorium on testing its largest intercontinental ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons since 2017, but has test fired a variety of new, short-range ballistic missiles, including one from a submarine https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/nkorea-says-it-conducted-successful-missile-test-submarine-kcna-2021-10-19 in October. It argues it should not be penalized for developing weapons other countries already possess. The U.S. government's Congressional Research Service reported last month that North Korea was "continuing to build a nuclear warfighting capability designed to evade regional ballistic missile defences." At a regular news conference on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin urged all parties to "bear in mind the bigger picture", cherish the "hard won" peace and stability on the peninsula and stick to the use of dialogue and consultation to reach political settlement. (Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim and Ju-min Park in Tokyo, Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith in Seoul, David Brunnstrom in Washington and Emily Chow in Beijing; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell) Security officials believe the man who re-defected to North Korea by sneaking through the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) on New Years Day was the same person who sneaked into South Korea in 2020. Security surveillance reportedly captured an unidentified man crawling over a barbed-wire fence at the southern part of the border and entering North Korean territory on Saturday, South Koreas Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday, The Associated Press reported. The man, who was first reported missing on Dec. 30, has been described by the South Korean military to be in his early 30s, CBS reported. He reportedly worked as a cleaner in South Korea after he defected in November 2020. Although the exact identity of the defector remains unknown, officials said his description matches that of a former gymnast who jumped the fence to enter South Korea in November 2020. The defector managed to sneak past detection despite several hours of searching by South Korean soldiers on Saturday, BBC reported. A ministry official said four people were detected by a thermal observation device. It is possible that three of the four people were North Korean soldiers intending on seizing the defector. South Koreas Defense Ministry said that while North Korea has acknowledged its messages asking for the status of the defector through a military communication hotline, North Korea failed to elaborate on the mans condition. South Korean media outlets have claimed that the man, had economic difficulties and failed to adjust to his new life in South Korea. South Koreas Defense Ministry has yet to confirm these claims, but it has said that the man was not engaged in espionage or other suspicious activities. The ministry also did not mention potential reasons behind the mans return to North Korea. It is well documented, however, that many North Korean defectors struggle with adjusting to life in the South. Ji Seong-ho, a South Korean lawmaker who had also defected from the North, wrote about the difficulties in a Facebook post from Monday, claiming that 56% of defectors are from lower income groups while 25% are recipients of basic livelihood security. Police in Nowon District in Seoul offered to protect and care for him after they became concerned that he would re-defect back in June 2021. There was a lack of concrete evidence, so no further action was taken by police, according to Yonhap news agency. A cross-border affairs official said the re-defector was also given personal safety, housing, medical treatment and employment. Neighbors in South Korea say the man did not interact with them much, and saw him putting his possessions in the trash one day before he went across the border. He was taking out a mattress and bedding to garbage dumps on that morning, and it was strange because they were all too new, a neighbor told Yonhap. I thought about asking him to give it to us, but ended up not doing that, because weve never said hi to each other. This recent incident has reignited past criticisms against the South Korean militarys level of security in the DMZ with its border that is 248 kilometers (155 miles) in length and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) in width. Featured Image via Uri Tours (CC BY-SA 2.0) Story continues Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark! 'Symbol of power': North Korea bans leather coats after its citizens start copying Kim Jong-un's style North Korea bans laughing, drinking for 11 days on 10th anniversary of Kim Jong-il's death Man arrested 5 times in 3 days because he looked like North Korean fugitive North Korea executes citizens for watching K-pop videos, says Seoul-based NGO Hello, Oak Park and River Forest readers! Let's get to the news for Wednesday, Jan. 5. First, today's weather: Rather cloudy; windy, colder. High: 23 Low: 9. Rent this space: Are you a local business owner or marketer in Oak Park-River Forest? We want to start connecting local businesses with our amazing readers. Learn more about how it works. Here are the top 5 stories today in Oak Park-River Forest: 1. Two District 97 schools are expected to return to in-person learning today after remote learning Tuesday due to COVID-related staff shortages. Longfellow Elementary and Percy Julian Middle schools conducted e-learning yesterday. District 90 was able to stay in-person because of substitute teaching. (Wednesday Journal) 2. Three shootings occurred in Oak Park on New Years Eve, with additional gunfire reported on New Years Day. The Oak Park Police Departments weekly crime report said shots were fired through residential windows on North Lombard Avenue and Austin Boulevard. No injuries were reported. (OPPD) 3. Other incidents in the latest crime report include an armed robbery at an Oak Park ATM and an attack on the CTA Blue Line in late December. Vandalism was also reported at the Harlem Avenue Wendys and the Field Park field house. (Paid source: Oak Leaves) 4. Illinois lawmakers return to Springfield today for the beginning of a condensed legislative session that will end in April. Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park said a priority is balancing the state budget after the unemployment fund was strained beyond imagination by the pandemic. (Paid source: Tribune) 5. Betty White Day is official in Oak Park, according to a TMZ report. The village will honor the television icons Oak Park roots with a Jan. 17 celebration on what would have been Whites 100th birthday. (Patch) Today's Oak Park-River Forest Daily is brought to you in part by our friends at GoodRx the best way to save money on your prescriptions. GoodRx helps you locate the lowest prices for medications at local pharmacies, so you're not overpaying. Works for pet medications too! To see how much you can save, go to GoodRx.com. Story continues Today in Oak Park-River Forest: Preschool Playtime at the Gymnastics and Recreation Center . (10:15 a.m.) Kadampa Meditation Center hosts a virtual talk on making relationships work. (7 p.m.) From my notebook: On this date in 1952, the Forest Leaves published a full-page ad encouraging readers to donate to the March of Dimes to help fight the polio epidemic . The disease was ultimately eradicated by vaccines . ( OPRF Museum ) Sign-ups are open for River Forest Public Librarys 2022 reading challenges . ( RFPL ) The Oak Park River Forest Infant Welfare Society expects to move to its new Marion Street location in late February. ( Facebook ) Oak Park and River Forest High School canceled the ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new student center because of the surge in COVID-19 cases. ( OPRFHS) OPRF senior Tim Mellman made Politicos list of notable New Years resolutions for his pledge to get more involved with the politics and administration of my school. (Politico) More from our sponsors thanks for supporting local news! Featured businesses: Events: Lowered Costs for 2022, Get Your Cannabis Card in 24 hours from home! (January 8) Add your event Loving the Oak Park-River Forest Daily? Here are all the ways you can get more involved: Send a friend or neighbor this link so they can subscribe Become a supporter (there are perks!) Get your local business featured in front of readers Send me a news tip or suggestion at georgi.presecky@patch.com That's all for Wednesday! See you tomorrow for more local stories. Georgi Presecky This article originally appeared on the Oak Park-River Forest Patch University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center is seen here on Monday, Jan. 3, 2021. The Ohio National Guard have been sent to UH Samaritan Medical Center to help out. TOM E. PUSKAR/TIMES-GAZETTE.COM ASHLAND Ten members of the Ohio National Guard arrived at University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center on Thursday to help with the COVID-19 surge and support hospital staff. Gov. Mike DeWine announced Wednesday the mobilization of 1,250 members of the Guard to aid hospitals that are in dire need of extra support. The announcement was juxtaposed with Ohio's highest total number of COVID-19 hospitalizations during the pandemic, according to a news release from the governor's office. COVID OUTBREAK IN COUNTY JAIL: COVID-19 outbreak at Ashland County Jail limits capacity The Ohio Hospital Association reported last Wednesday 5,356 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide. One in four patients were COVID-19 positive. The number surpasses the previous hospitalizations record of 5,308 on Dec. 15, 2020. Of Monday's hospitalizations, 1,228 patients are in the ICU, which is approaching the record high of 1,318 ICU patients reported on Dec. 15, 2020, accord to the news release. Initially, DeWine authorized the deployment of 1,050 Ohio National Guard members on Dec. 17. Pie delight, anyone?: More Ohioans discovering unique Amish treat fry pies How the National Guard is making a difference at UH Samaritan University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center is seen here on Monday, Jan. 3, 2021. The Ohio National Guard have been sent to UH Samaritan Medical Center to help out. TOM E. PUSKAR/TIMES-GAZETTE.COM Ohio National Guardsmen at UH Samaritan are helping staff by transporting patients, stocking supplies and by being "patient sitters" for confused patients, Chief Nursing Officer Lisa Bushong said. "They're doing anything they can do to assist the staff caring for patients," she said. The Guard is not conducting COVID-19 tests at this time, Bushong said. Three to four Guard members are at UH Samaritan at a time and work 12-hour shifts, though 10 are on reserve. Training was provided to Guard members last week, and all wear PPE to protect them from COVID-19, Bushong said. "We're very happy to have them here," Bushong said. "The morale of our staff is pretty good. The National Guard helps with tha,t too ... some extra hands to help us." Story continues What led to the National Guard arriving at UH Samaritan University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center is seen here on Monday, Jan. 3, 2021. The Ohio National Guard have been sent to UH Samaritan Medical Center to help out. TOM E. PUSKAR/TIMES-GAZETTE.COM Over capacity and over flow issues have sparked the need for National Guard members to enter UH Samaritan's doors. Similar to January 2021, UH Samaritan has been overfilled for several weeks, Bushong said. UH Samaritan opened its overflow unit in the surgery wing due to the high percentage of COVID-19 patients. "It has been open since Christmas," Bushong said. COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Ashland County with 1,334 cases from Dec. 3, 2021, to Jan. 3, 2022, according to the Ohio Department of Health's COVID-19 dashboard. OHIO COVID-19 STATS: Ohio reports 20,598 new COVID-19 cases Friday, bringing total to more than 2 million Ashland, Holmes and Wayne case numbers Cases jumped by 175 between Christmas Day and New Year's Day to 506 new cases in Ashland County, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Holmes County increased by eight new cases to 89 in that same time period, according to the state health department. Wayne County increased by 561 to 900 between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1, according to the Wayne County Department of Health. As of Monday, Ohio has 18,942 new confirmed COVID-19 cases with 6,177 hospitalizations. Reach Grant at gritchey@gannett.com On Twitter: @ritchey_grant This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: National Guard assisting at UH Samaritan until Jan. 31 Old Christmas or Epiphany on Jan. 6, "is a way for us to return to our roots, our faith, our community and our family" in Holmes County's Amish Country. Christmas has come and gone for most, but for the Amish community in and around Holmes County, Old Christmas is celebrated Jan. 6. The holiday, however, is not about excessive shopping, overindulging at parties and lavishly decorated trees. It's an old-fashioned celebration built around honoring family a solemn occasion with the emphasis on reflecting and visiting. Where to get a COVID test: COVID testing kits are in high demand but few are available as case counts climb According to Marcus Yoder, executive director of the Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center in Berlin, Old Christmas, also known as Epiphany, commemorates the Magi bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. This is a holiday that has been in existence since the early church, Yoder said. Many churches, not just the Amish, celebrate Epiphany. It is a way for us to return to our roots, our faith, our community and our family, he continued. When we keep these holidays, it gives us a chance to connect with family, which is one of the biggest things. It may seem old fashioned, but by keeping this tradition, it gives us an opportunity to spend time with our family. It also gives the Amish community a chance to connect with history. History of Old Christmas Until the 1600s, Christmas was celebrated on Jan. 6. In 1582, the Julian calendar (which was based on phases of the moon) was discarded in favor of the modern Gregorian calendar. Pope Gregory XIII deleted 10 days from the calendar to make it match the seasons of the year. That led to Christmas Day being celebrated on Dec. 25, though many protestant groups, including the Anabaptist, continued to celebrate Christmas on Jan. 6, leading to the name Old Christmas. Deep-fried delight: More Ohioans discovering unique Amish treat fry pies The Amish kept their tradition of celebrating Old Christmas while also adopting the Dec. 25 holiday of mainstream culture essentially celebrating Christmas twice. Story continues Old Christmas is recognized around the world in countries such as France, Germany, Austria and other parts of Europe. In America, it is notably the Amish who celebrate Epiphany. Closed for Old Christmas A sign on the front door at Stony Point Hardware south of Maysville states the business will be closed on Jan. 6 for Old Christmas. Historically, the day starts with a fast until noon and then a large meal is enjoyed later in the day. Amish employees typically do not work on Old Christmas, and many Amish-staffed businesses are closed for the holiday. The East Holmes Schools, which serve several hundred Amish students at the elementary level, are in session on Jan. 6, and the Amish students are excused from school for the day. Staff at Mount Hope, Flat Ridge, Chestnut Ridge and Wise elementary schools, use the day to get other work done. We are in session as a district, but it is a day where our Amish students generally dont attend, East Holmes Superintendent Erik Beun said. Its often a nice work day for buildings to work through lots of things. The staff generally takes advantage of that time of not having kids there. Junior Yoder of the Cabin Store in Mount Hope said his store, like many Amish establishments will be closed for Old Christmas. "Thursday is a day we'll spend with family," he said. "No gift exchange or anything like that. Just a nice meal and a day with the family." This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Faith and family: Ohio's Amish ready to celebrate Old Christmas Jan. 6 People waiting in line for COVID-19 testing at Pulaski High School on West Oklahoma Avenue in Milwaukee on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. Milwaukee Public Schools are providing COVID-19 testing for MPS students and staff at six area locations. Due to an influx of reported positive COVID-19 cases among district staff, Milwaukee Public Schools has temporarily transitioned to virtual learning, beginning Tuesday. As the omicron variant continues its rapid spread across the country, local institutions are facing staffing shortages, new procedures and tough choices. With students on the cusp of returning to classrooms Tuesday after winter break, districts including Milwaukee Public Schools announced a temporary move to virtual learning. Teachers' advocates say the district's plan doesn't do enough to address issues of staffing, testing and quarantine protocols. Health care officials are urging people to get their COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots. They say the vast majority of patients filling hospital beds are unvaccinated, and the omicron variant is overwhelming an already-strained system. "The situation is growing more challenging by the day. Beds are very tight and wait times are long," said Mary Beth Kingston, chief nursing officer for Advocate Aurora Health, in a news conference. "Our team members are under, I think, a lot of stress right now." On Monday, the state recorded the highest number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units during the pandemic, at 462. Meanwhile, businesses are responding to the surge by stepping up safety protocols: Bay View restaurant Odd Duck announced it will require proof of vaccination for its diners; the U.S. Speedskating board of directors said it wouldn't allow spectators for the 2022 Olympic Trials, which begin Wednesday at the Pettit National Ice Center and Fiserv Forum has again started mandating masks. Also Monday, the Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency use authorization of a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to include children 12 to 15. More: As Wisconsin passes 1 million all-time cases, more COVID-19 patients than ever are in the ICU More: Military nurses trade 'Navy green for Bellin blue scrubs' as they start work at COVID-stricken Green Bay hospital Full hospitals urge vaccination At nearly 1,500 on Monday, the number of patients with COVID-19 in Advocate Aurora hospitals has reached an all-time high, Kingston said. The number has doubled in the last 30 days and quadrupled in the last two months. Story continues Advocate Aurora is rescheduling some non-essential or elective surgeries and will move workers to locations they are needed most, said Jeff Bahr, chief medical group officer. That strategy is why the health system closed three Milwaukee-area urgent care centers last week, according to Bahr. Workers were moved from the urgent care centers where demand was fairly low to places with a higher need. With emergency departments extremely busy, Bahr asked people to be smart about visiting the hospital. Those who are exposed to someone with COVID-19 but are asymptomatic could take an at-home test instead of going to the emergency department, he said. "We want to promote testing, but we want to promote right care, right place, right time,'" Bahr said. Ben Weston, director of medical services for Milwaukee County's Office of Emergency Management, also works as a physician in Froedtert Hospital's emergency department. On Twitter he said that among the patients that come in, COVID-19 "is everywhere." Those who have received the vaccine and booster shot have milder cases of COVID-19 than those who are unvaccinated, he said. "Very few who needed to come to my ED were boosted against COVID. The few that I did see were mostly fine. A sore throat here, a headache there," he wrote in a tweet about the patients he has seen over the last week and a half. "Unvaccinated means sicker," he wrote. "There is no question about it. Yes some still go home, but often borderline with chest tightness or short of breath. Many get admitted. For the older folks or those with medical conditions who are unvaccinated, they get SICK. I worry most for them." In the Advocate Aurora system, 92% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are either unvaccinated, not fully vaccinated or due for a booster, Kingston said. While the omicron variant appears to be less severe than previous variants in healthy people with strong immune systems, it spreads so rapidly that hospitals are still being overwhelmed with patients. "We are seeing such an increase in transmissibility that we have more and more people infected, so were going to see more hospitalizations. Its almost a matter of proportion," Kingston said. Lukas Barnes, a senior at Pulaski High School, gets a COVID-19 test from Alex Martinez, from Summit Labs, out of New Berlin, at Pulaski High School on West Oklahoma Avenue in Milwaukee on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. Milwaukee Public Schools are providing COVID-19 testing for MPS students and staff at six area locations. Due to an influx of reported positive COVID-19 cases among district staff, Milwaukee Public Schools has temporarily transitioned to virtual learning, beginning Tuesday. Staff shortages key concern at MPS schools School districts are also contending with the case surge just as students and staff return from winter break. Milwaukee Public Schools on Sunday night announced it would move to virtual learning beginning Tuesday, with the goal to resume in-person learning next Monday, Jan. 10. The test positivity rate among staff over the weekend was close to 17%, said Bob Peterson, Milwaukee school board president. "When you think about 17% of your staff being out for that reason, plus there's flu and colds going on ... we were concerned about the potential staff shortages," Peterson said. Testing sites opened Monday at six schools. The district hopes that by the end of the week it will have a better sense of who is infected and who needs to quarantine. On Monday, the district's dashboard of staff and student cases showed 471 people had tested positive in the last seven days. Staff shortages present a major concern. Milwaukee teachers' advocates worry that with so many people out sick, and shortages of substitute teachers, there won't be enough teachers to cover classes, even virtually. Angela Harris, chairwoman of the Black Educators Caucus, said classroom paraprofessionals have been filling in when teachers are out. In general, there are few, if any, substitutes available, she said. She offered a likely hypothetical: "We have three teachers in our building that are out. We only have three paraprofessionals. If another teacher calls in that day, we are scrambling." The district is asking staff members who are not in quarantine to report to school Tuesday morning. Then, staff can decide whether they want to teach virtually from their classrooms or if they want to teach from home for the rest of the week, Peterson said. The Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, the teachers' union, had raised concerns on behalf of teachers whose children also attended schools in the district and would be home while their parents were teaching from their classrooms. The future of the district's plan remains unclear. "With the options on the table right now, I think going virtual is the safe thing to do. The question now is what are we going to do on January 10 when likely the numbers are not any better, if not possibly much worse," said Ben Ward, executive director of the union. Peterson, of the school board, said he hoped the move to virtual learning was short. "Hopefully this will be a short inconvenience and not a long-term problem. But I don't think anybody knows how fast this is going to spread through our community and decline," he said. Greendale schools were closed Monday "because of a high percentage of instructional staff in isolation or quarantine due to positive COVID-19 cases," according to a district letter. Greendale elementary students will return to classrooms Tuesday, while middle and high school students will be virtual the rest of the week. Other suburban schools opened as usual but are also closely monitoring the situation and are prepared to make changes as necessary. Alec Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News. Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal. DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee schools, hospitals face staff shortages with COVID-19 surge To provide our community with important public safety information, the Statesman Journal is making this daily update related to the coronavirus free to read. We'll update this story with the latest news about coronavirus and its effects in Oregon on Monday, Jan. 3. State sets record for new daily cases of COVID-19 Oregon had its highest daily number of new cases of COVID-19 reported to the state on Thursday, according to the Oregon Health Authority. The OHA reported 9,701 new cases of COVID-19 during the Dec. 30 to Jan. 2 holiday, and attributed 3,534 of those to Dec. 30. That is the highest number of new cases in a day since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, according to the OHA. The state has had a cumulative 430,931 cases since the start of the pandemic. The OHA attributed the spike in new cases to the omicron variant, which has led to spikes in new cases across the world in recent weeks. COVID updates: FDA OKs Pfizer booster for 12- to 15-year-olds; wait time revamped Our data show the Omicron variant is here and now fueling the surge in cases. It will likely lead to a rise in hospitalizations and, sadly, deaths, state health officer Tom Jeanne said in a statement. Marion County had 231 new cases reported in the long holiday weekend and Polk had 66. But other counties had large numbers including Clackamas (1,057), Deschutes (991), Jackson (572), Lane (696), Multnomah (2,565) and Washington (2,079). The rest of the new cases in the state were in Baker (16), Benton (243), Clatsop (50), Columbia (58), Coos (44), Crook (22), Curry (27), Deschutes (881), Douglas (119), Gilliam (5), Grant (3), Harney (7), Hood River (7), Jefferson (71), Josephine (161), Klamath (27), Lincoln (96), Linn (280), Malheur (11), Morrow (16), Tillamook (69), Umatilla (61), Union (41), Wallowa (6), Wasco (21), Wheeler (2) and Yamhill (91) counties. Of the new cases, 2,246 were from Dec. 31, 1,763 were from Jan. 1 and 2,158 were from Jan. 2. The state also reported 11 new deaths in Oregon from COVID-19. Story continues The new deaths were from Yamhill, Clackamas, Multnomah, Josephine and Multnomah counties and bring Oregons death toll from the coronavirus to 5,666. Hospitalizations increase with surge The number of patients in Oregon hospitals with COVID-19 continues to increase with the rest of the surge. The OHA reported 498 people were admitted to hospitals in the state as of Sunday, an increase of 36 from the day before and up from 440 on Wednesday. There also were 104 in intensive care units, up eight from the day before. COVID-19 patients at Salem Health Coronavirus patient numbers at Salem Health on Monday, Jan. 3: 50: Total COVID-19 inpatients, 38% unvaccinated. 8: COVID-19 patients in the ICU. 4: COVID-19 patients on a ventilator. COVID-19 by the numbers statewide Here's the most recent data from the Oregon Health Authority, as of Monday, Jan. 3: 5,666: People who have died from COVID-19. 430,931: Total cases of COVID-19. 498: COVID-19 patients in hospitals. Oregon COVID-19 cases by county Here are the number of cases, both tested positive and presumptive, and deaths as of Monday, Jan. 3. Baker: 2,326 cases, 36 deaths. Benton: 7,018 cases, 43 deaths. Clackamas: 36,536 cases, 429 deaths. Clatsop: 2,880 cases, 36 deaths. Columbia: 4,809 cases, 61 deaths. Coos: 6,439 cases, 122 deaths. Crook: 3,672 cases, 60 deaths. Curry: 2,032 cases, 40 deaths. Deschutes: 26,946 cases, 215 deaths. Douglas: 14,389 cases, 315 deaths. Gilliam: 202 cases, 4 deaths. Grant: 1,177 cases, 17 deaths. Harney: 1,261 cases, 34 deaths. Hood River: 2,311 cases, 38 deaths. Jackson: 27,213 cases, 394 deaths. Jefferson: 4,507 cases, 69 deaths. Josephine: 11,154 cases, 267 deaths. Klamath: 9,421 cases, 168 deaths. Lake: 1,081 cases, 21 deaths. Lane: 32,964 cases, 383 deaths. Lincoln: 4,008 cases, 58 deaths. Linn: 16,238 cases, 206 deaths. Malheur: 6,051 cases, 94 deaths. Marion: 42,357 cases, 547 deaths. Morrow: 2,065 cases, 25 deaths. Multnomah: 65,383 cases, 905 deaths. Polk: 8,924 cases, 111 deaths. Sherman: 201 cases, 3 deaths. Tillamook: 2,451 cases, 49 deaths. Umatilla: 15,725 cases, 187 deaths. Union: 3,569 cases, 64 deaths. Wallowa: 794 cases, 13 deaths. Wasco: 3,343 cases, 48 deaths. Washington: 47,745 cases, 443 deaths. Wheeler: 141 cases, 2 death. Yamhill: 10,598 cases, 159 deaths. Source: Oregon Health Authority This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: COVID-19 update: Oregon sets record for new daily coronavirus cases PORTLAND, OR If there was anyone left with doubt about whether omicron has arrived in Oregon, the report from the Oregon Health Authority released Monday should take care of that. The report says that from Thursday through Sunday, the state record 9,701 cases for an average of more than 2,400 each day. The state also recorded its largest single-day number of new COVID-19 cases 3,534 since the pandemic began. That record was set on Thursday, December 30. There have now been a total of 430,931 cases recorded in Oregon. There were also 11 new deaths, bringing the number of Oregonians who have died to 5,666. "We already have seen the impacts of the highly transmissible omicron variant across the country since late December," Deputy State Health Officer and Epidemiologist Dr. Tom Jeanne said. "Our data show the Omicron variant is here and now fueling the surge in cases. It will likely lead to a rise in hospitalizations and, sadly, deaths." The surge is also hurting hospitals around the state. There are 498 people hospitalized 104 in intensive care across the state because of COVID-19, an increase of 36 since yesterday. Overall, less than 10 percent of adult beds around the state are available. Jeanne says that the surge is a good reminder that everyone should get a booster shot or vaccinated if they haven't already. He says that you can find a place to get booster here. Meanwhile, OHA says the new cases were spread across 34 of Oregon's 36 counties. Here's the county by county breakdown: Baker (16), Benton (243), Clackamas (1057), Clatsop (50), Columbia (58), Coos (44), Crook (22), Curry (27), Deschutes (881), Douglas (119), Gilliam (5), Grant (3), Harney (7), Hood River (7), Jackson (572), Jefferson (71), Josephine (161), Klamath (27), Lane (696), Lincoln (96), Linn (280), Malheur (11), Marion (231), Morrow (16), Multnomah (2565), Polk (66), Tillamook (69), Umatilla (61), Union (41), Wallowa (6), Wasco (21), Washington (2079), Wheeler (2) and Yamhill (91). Story continues Here's what the state has released about the 11 people who died over the 11 new reported deaths: Oregons 5,656th COVID-19-related death is a 69-year-old man from Washington County who tested positive Nov. 26 and died Dec. 23 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregons 5,657th COVID-19-related death is a 69-year-old man from Yamhill County who tested positive Dec. 20 and died Dec. 26 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregons 5,658th COVID-19-related death is a 70-year-old man from Yamhill County who tested positive Dec. 10 and died Dec. 30 at Willamette Valley Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregons 5,659th COVID-19-related death is a 65-year-old man from Clackamas County who tested positive Dec. 24 and died Dec. 30 at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center. He had no underlying conditions. Oregons 5,660th COVID-19-related death is a 51-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive Dec. 22 and died Dec. 24 at Adventist Health Portland. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregons 5,661st COVID-19-related death is a 66-year-old man from Multnomah County who tested positive Dec. 15 and died Dec. 16 at Adventist Health Portland. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. Oregons 5,662nd COVID-19-related death is a 75-year-old man from Josephine County who tested positive Dec. 6 and died Dec. 29 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregons 5,663rd COVID-19-related death is a 75-year-old man from Jackson County who tested positive Dec. 19 and died Dec. 31 at Providence Medford Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregons 5,664th COVID-19-related death is a 61-year-old man from Jackson County who tested positive Nov. 13 and died Dec. 29 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. He had underlying conditions. Oregons 5,665th COVID-19-related death is a 93-year-old woman from Jackson County who tested positive Sept. 14 and died Dec. 24 at her residence. She had underlying conditions. Oregons 5,666th COVID-19-related death is a 66-year-old man from Multnomah County who tested positive Dec. 29 and died Dec. 30 at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed. This article originally appeared on the Portland Patch An airplane carrying smuggled migrants crashed in the West Texas desert and the pilot a Texas man ran from the site, abandoning severely injured passengers, according to the Presidio County Sheriffs Office. And hes still at large. Carrying six passengers, the four-seat aircraft was under-fueled and overloaded, investigators said. Extra weight, plus low fuel, helped bring the plane down north of the Presidio Lely International Airport around 3:50 p.m. on Dec. 30. Presidio sits on the Texas-Mexico border near Big Bend National Park, about 60 miles south of Marfa. Police say Tobias Penner Peters was attempting to transport the individuals from Presidio to another location in the U.S., but he lost control of the plane. Many were injured on impact but Peters managed to flee the scene of the smuggling attempt gone wrong. Tobias Penner Peters. Presidio first responders, U.S. Border Patrol agents, and the state Department of Transportation all descended on the scene, assisting PCSO deputies search and rescue efforts, the sheriffs office said. While Peters escaped, he probably didnt walk away unscathed, according to the sheriffs office. He likely suffered serious head trauma and may have also lost one of his eyes. Peters is described as 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighing about 185 pounds, with blue eyes and red hair, police said. He has properties in Seminole, Texas but sometimes travels to Ojinaga, Mexico, across the border from Presidio. The sheriffs office has warrants out for his arrest on charges of felony human smuggling, evading arrest, and deadly conduct. Anyone with information on Peters whereabouts is encouraged to call the Presidio County Sheriffs Office at 432-729-4848. Child abandoned on US side of Mexico border reunited with mom, border patrol says Car of woman missing for 2 years found in Texas woods with remains inside, cops say Pilot calls sister-in-law 5 minutes before crash outside her Wisconsin home, NTSB says Seven migrants were held captive at Texas home, border agents say New Paradise Pizza restaurant opens in New Smyrna Beach replacing former Pomodoro's Pizza with new owners Karen and Scott Chase of Edgewater, Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021. NEW SMYRNA BEACH With more than 40 years in the restaurant and food business, Karen and Scott Chase hope to make their new Paradise Pizza the go-to spot in the city. Originally from Maine, the couple have lived in Edgewater for three years. Their experience in the industry made them jump at the opportunity to own a restaurant with a brick oven. The small eatery on South Dixie Freeway opened its doors on Dec. 4. The location was home to previous restaurants, most of which relied on the unique cooking style. Most recently, the place was home to Pomodoros Pizza. New in Ormond Beach: Thai Elephant restaurant shows promise and brings new taste to Ormond Beach Italian Restaurant: New Don Giovanni restaurant in Port Orange is authentically Italian; so is the owner More in NSB: New Cafe del Soul brings unique, mostly vegetarian organic option to NSB Karen has been a server and a food truck owner and also ran her own gourmet to-go food business back in Maine. Karen and Scott Chase, owners of Paradise Pizza, hold a selection of pizza from the pizza bar, homemade lasagna and homemade cannolis. "Is it perfect yet? No. But we make our own sauce, we make our own lasagna, coleslaw, potato salad," said Scott. I love this place its adorable, Karen said. I have eaten at many brick oven restaurants in Maine I have never worked at one but I know I love it. Its so delicious. 'The oven is the key' The menu is not all about the brick oven pizzas, but they have been the most popular items so far, Scott said. Customers can choose between 10 pizza types, including cheese, Hawaiian, pepperoni, Greek and the most popular one so far meat lovers pizza. These 12-inch pizzas range between $11.95 and $15.95. Since opening, the couple has sold more than 40 meat lovers pizzas, which Scott said has at least a very indulgent half-pound of meat. A pizza cooks in the brick oven at Paradise Pizza. The oven is the key the taste, the flavor, the sealing everything in, Scott Chase said. We are trying to put good flavors together with a quality product, and you can taste the difference. The oven is the key the taste, the flavor, the sealing everything in, Scott said. We are trying to put good flavors together with a quality product, and you can taste the difference. The brick oven pizzas, although the most popular so far, aren't the only ones on the menu. Traditional oven pizzas are also available and havent disappointed. Story continues Local Nicole Roy, originally from St. Louis, said she has had a difficult time finding decent pizza in town. We thought the restaurant was fantastic, Roy said. The pizza had a ton of toppings, and the crust was homemade and delicious. Roy said she likes that a neighborhood place like Paradise Pizza is locally owned because its important to support local people. The menu also offers spaghetti dishes, homemade lasagna, seven sub sandwich combinations all of which range between $7.50 and $13.95 as well as Juniors Cheesecake slices for $7.95 and homemade cannoli for $2.99. Homemade cannolis at Paradise Pizza are $2.99 each. Customers can also get Junior's Cheesecake slices for $7.95. Were making everything ourselves, Scott said. Is it perfect yet? No. But we make our own sauce, we make our own lasagna, coleslaw, potato salad. If it costs me 50 cents more to use a quality product, so be it. Proving they can do it one more time When preparing the menu, Scott said the couple checked everywhere we could possibly go, trying out different tastes and putting together what they felt would work best at Paradise Pizza. We knew we wanted to have a better product than a lot of other places, he said. The brick over is high-maintenance, Scott said, but the fact that it has worked out well for them so far makes it worth the effort. Scott said he and his family have been busy with the restaurant, especially at night. The business is entirely family-run for now, and the co-owners have the help of their 14-year-old daughter Amanda. Besides getting the word out on social media, Scott said he saw customers call their own friends from the restaurant to let them know about Paradise Pizza. If we can keep doing that for the next two to three months, well be busy, he said. Scott Chase pulls a pizza out of the brick oven at Paradise Pizza. Were making everything ourselves, Scott Chase said. "If it costs me 50 cents more to use a quality product, so be it. The family is focused on making the new business work as the local pizza place it was intended to be. I want it to have a family atmosphere, Scott said. Where grandma can come, the kids can come, and feel comfortable. Besides applying for a beer and wine license, hiring some help, and expanding their takeout system, Scott said the are no bigger plans in the works. We just saw the opportunity and wanted to prove that we could do it one more time, he said. IF YOU GO WHAT: Paradise Pizza WHERE: 1518 S. Dixie Freeway, New Smyrna Beach HOURS: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday INFO: 386-410-3007 This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: New Paradise Pizza offers mix of oven pizza, Italian flavors in NSB HBO Max John Cena has a lunkheaded charm that serves him exceptionally well in Peacemaker, writer/director James Gunns spin-off from his 2021 superhero sequel The Suicide Squad. As its title implies, Gunns eight-episode HBO Max series (Jan. 13) focuses on Cenas patriotic psychopath, whose ironic ethos is summed up by his feature-film proclamation, I cherish peace with all my heart. I dont care how many men, women and children I need to kill to get it. A contract murderer whom everyone considers a racist even though he views himself as a good guy, Cenas Peacemaker is a homicidal hot-button antihero for our fake news and white nationalist-infested age, and in the hands of Gunn, he turns out to be the focal point of a profanely absurd saga thatin terms of laughs and dramafar exceeds its big-screen predecessor. Inside the Sick, Murderous Mind of the BTK Killer Peacemaker begins in the aftermath of The Suicide Squads conclusion, with Christopher Smith, aka Peacemaker, ready to leave the hospital after surviving a near-fatal gunshot wound courtesy of Bloodsport (Idris Elba), one of his Suicide Squad comrades, who was seeking retaliation for Peacemaker killing team leader Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). Since he still has an explosive in his head and years left on a jail sentence, Peacemaker winds up once again forced to work for Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), albeit by proxy, since she assigns him to Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) and a crew that includes Wallers own traitorous employees Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and John Economos (Steve Agee), as well as newbie Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks). Their mission, which they have no choice but to accept, is to track down and assassinate a series of targets known as butterflies that pose an imminent danger to the country, beginning with a U.S. senator. The mysterious nature of this butterfly threat is teased throughout Peacemakers early episodes, all as Gunnwho wrote each installment, and directed fiveconcentrates on the screwy condition of Peacemaker, whose dumpy trailer-park home and Ford Comet are both decorated with the Stars and Stripes, and whose best friend is a pet bald eagle named Eagly. That birds affection for Peacemaker is of a ridiculous varietyhe brings his master the critters he kills, and even hugs him at one pointand it more than lightly rankles Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), a costumed local kid whos more kill-crazy than his idol Peacemaker. Gunns gift at lunatic-moron banter is most evident in Peacemaker and Vigilantes back-and-forths, with the two ultra-violent nitwits routinely arguing about nonsense with gusto, and their brotherly rapport proves to be the shows most consistent source of comedy. Story continues Peacemakers set-up initially suggests a liberal-conservative dynamic in which Leota, a Black lesbian woman, will be the critical contrast to Peacemakers right-wing intolerance. Yet while that tension does sporadically materialize, Gunn thankfully eschews such an easy-bake scenario in favor of making Leota and Peacemaker unlikely allies, with the former quickly deducing that the latter is less an inherently evil bigot than a misguided buffoon whose worldview was warped by his father Auggie (Robert Patrick). The show itself bears that out, softening Peacemakers madness by casting it as the byproduct of an upbringing with a racist conspiracy-theorist dad who trained Peacemaker, as well as makes his weapons and shiny chrome super-helmets in a weird quantum unfolding storage area room in his house. Even without the eventual revelations about Auggies true horridness, his every interaction with his son is so abusive and nasty that the show elicits immediate sympathy for the led-astray Peacemaker. From its fantastic dance-routine credit sequence (set to Wig Wams Do Ya Wanna Taste It) to its overstuffed soundtrack featuring cuts from Cinderella, Hanoi Rocks and Motley Crue, Peacemakerthe show, and the characterhas a gung-ho glam-rock spirit. Momentum is central to the series, whose episodes never top 50 minutes, and whose story zips along with the same freewheeling energy that characterizes its dialogue. Pop-culture references abound, never more so than in an extended Peacemaker rant about all of the notable people John might have framed for a particular crime (Bill Cosbyhe just got out, hes got time on his hands!). Gunn also makes sure to have his protagonist derisively mock his fellow superheroes, including Aquaman (who apparently pays to have sex with aquarium fish), Batman (whos responsible for countless innocent deaths because he refuses to just kill the Joker once and for all), and Superman (who supposedly has a poop fetish). The source of Peacemakers demented facts? Facebook and Google, of course. Gunn takes aim at easy targets but refuses to make Peacemaker a vehicle for sermonizing, instead using of-the-moment cultural topics as amusing embellishments. The series guiding aim is delivering off-kilter R-rated bedlam with a dash of character drama involving Peacemaker, whose mounting introspection begets a crisis of confidence and purpose that complicates both his mission and his feelings about his hatemonger father. Cenas unhinged performance (replete with singing and dancing) is thus the lynchpin of the entire endeavor, straddling the line between cartoonish viciousness, stunted-adolescent bro boorishness, and damaged-soul kindness. Hes a dysfunctional macho military action figure come to life, and the actor manages the impressive feat of maintaining Peacemakers inherent over-the-top idiocy while simultaneously peeling back layers to reveal his grief, resentment, and guilt. Though Auggie is a virulent neo-Nazi who spouts ugly barbs at any minority he meets (including Annie Changs Detective Sophie Song), his belief that the country is being run by a shadowy deep state cabal turns out to be generally close to the truth in Peacemaker, whose underlying conspiracy theory is slowly exposed as Peacemaker works to take out the mysterious butterflies. More compelling than the specifics of that plot, however, is the camaraderie shared by Peacemaker, Leota, and the rest of their troop. Gunn carves out distinctive dispositions and hang-ups for all of his primary players, the better to have them clash with each other in various mix-and-match combinations, creating a lively and combative atmosphere of extremist superhero mayhem. Self-conscious but never smug, sociopathic and yet also sweet, and timely if never preachy, its the very sort of no-holds-barred, tongue-in-cheek endeavor thats become Gunns specialty. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Prince Andrews bid to throw out the sex abuse lawsuit against him, citing a 2009 settlement Jeffrey Epstein reached with the same accuser, appeared to be met with skepticism in a hearing Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who is presiding over the federal lawsuit brought in New York, said that there are multiple ways to interpret the 2009 agreement but that the language suggested that only Epstein and accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre could say exactly what the language was intended to mean. But we dont have Mr. Epstein here to say what his view was, Kaplan said of the deceased financier, who died in federal custody in 2019 after he was arrested on sex charges. The death was ruled a suicide. The hearing came less than one week after Andrews friend Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted on five of six counts related to the sex trafficking of children. Maxwell, who prosecutors said recruited and groomed four girls under the age of 18 for her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, faces the prospect of decades in prison. And she still faces two perjury charges that stem from statements she made in depositions given in a 2015 defamation lawsuit Giuffre brought against Maxwell that was settled in 2017. Maxwells conviction gave Epsteins victims a sense of closure they say they had been denied after Epstein died before going to trial. Epstein had been arrested a month earlier on sex charges. Federal prosecutors gave his offenses a fresh look following a 2018 Miami Herald investigation into a remarkably lenient plea deal he struck with federal prosecutors in South Florida a decade earlier. That deal had allowed him to plead guilty to two charges of solicitation, one of a minor, and ultimately required him to serve only 13 months in a county jail, with generous allowances to work out of a Palm Beach office most days of the week. After Maxwells conviction, Giuffre said she hoped to see others punished for their roles in Epsteins enterprise. Story continues Maxwell did not act alone, she said in a statement. Others must be held accountable. I have faith that they will be. Giuffre filed suit against Andrew in August 2021, accusing him of sexually abusing her between 2000 and 2002, when she was under the age of 18. She alleges that the abuse occurred at Epsteins New York mansion and on his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Little St. James, as well as Maxwells London home, where a notorious picture of Giuffre, Andrew and Maxwell was taken. Andrew has maintained his innocence and said in a 2019 BBC interview that he had no recollection of meeting Giuffre, and said he believed the photo had been doctored. He also claimed that he was incapable of sweating, a claim that Giuffres lawyers have asked him to provide medical evidence of in the suit. Giuffres 2009 settlement agreement with Epstein, released publicly Monday, included language suggesting that any other person or entity who could have been included as a Epstein defendant should be protected by the provision. Andrews attorneys had argued that the British royal would be covered by such language because Giuffres 2009 complaint against Epstein alleged that she had been sexually trafficked to several of Epsteins high-powered friends, including royalty. Kaplan pointed to other provisions of the settlement that seemed to suggest that Epstein and Giuffre would both have to agree to specifically exempt Andrew from any liability. If somebody got sued and said this person was in this release and it was OK with Giuffre, then it could be made available, Kaplan said. Kaplan even directed Giuffres lawyer, David Boies, to sections of the agreement that seemed to bolster the claim that Andrew wasnt protected by the settlement. He also pushed back on the suggestion by Andrews attorney, Andrew Brettler, that the reference to royalty necessarily applied to Andrew, suggesting that it could just as easily be applied to any other member of a royal family, such as, he said, the Sultan of Brunei. Kaplan didnt seem especially sympathetic to Andrews other arguments to dismiss the case. Andrews attorney, Brettler, argued that Giuffres claims of abuse were not specific enough, but Kaplan pointedly said, With all due respect, Mr. Brettler, thats not a dog thats going to hunt here. Andrew has also argued that the case should be dismissed because the law under which Giuffre brought suit had unconstitutionally been amended to allow a two-year period for people to file claims of abuse long after the statute of limitations had passed. Kaplan appeared skeptical about the claims, asking repeatedly whether Andrews objections to the laws applied to anyone who filed a lawsuit during the window of availability, or just Giuffre. Andrew had previously raised the issue of whether Giuffre had proper standing to bring the case as she primarily lives in Australia, but claims citizenship in Colorado. He had sought to block the process of collecting further evidence until the question of Giuffres residence was settled, but Kaplan denied the request last week. Kaplan said he would be ruling soon on whether or not the case could proceed, but Im not going to define that, he said. He reminded both sides to proceed with the process of collecting potential evidence as they awaited his decision. Days before the former governor was due to appear in court, the top prosecutor in Albany, New York will not pursue a case against Andrew Cuomo, who was accused of groping an aide at the governors mansion. While many have an opinion regarding the allegations against the former governor, the Albany County DAs Office is the only one who has a burden to prove the elements of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, Albany County District Attorney David Soares said in a statement on 4 January. A complaint from the Albany County Sheriffs Office alleges that Mr Cuomo forcibly place[d] his hand under the blouse shirt of the victim while at the governors mansion on 7 December, 200, for the purposes of degrading and gratifying his sexual desires. The charge of forcible touching is a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to one year in prison, if convicted. Mr Soares added that he was deeply troubled by the allegations but requested that the sheriffs office dismiss the complaint. In November, Mr Soares had criticised Sheriff Craig Apple for unilaterally and inexplicably filing the complaint without first speaking with his office, which was investigating the case for several months. Unfortunately, the filings in this matter are potentially defective in that the police-officer-complainant failed to include a sworn statement by the victim such that [the office] could proceed with a prosecution on these papers, Mr Soares said in a letter dated 4 November. He added that the alleged mistakes could be exculpatory. Mr Cuomo who resigned from his third term in office in August following widespread allegations of sexual harassment and abuse and the likelihood of a weeks-long impeachment investigation was set to appear in court for his arraignment on 17 November. Judge Holly Trexler moved his appearance to 7 January, after the district attorneys office requested a delay to reduce the risk of a procedural dismissal of this case and to give the district attorney more time to review it. Story continues During a press conference in November, Sheriff Apple admitted his surprise with the pace of the complaint through the criminal justice system, telling reporters that if we consulted with the district attorney on every misdemeanor there would be no justice in this county. Would I have liked to? Absolutely, he said. Everything moved too fast but needless to say, as far as the case goes, it has no effect on the case. Our victim is cooperative, and were moving forward. He added that the evidence against Mr Cuomo is overwhelming. A bombshell report from the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Mr Cuomo of harassing 11 women and engaging in unwelcome and nonconsensual touching, as well as making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women. The criminal charge was the only one to follow the report. Prosecutors in two other counties have declined to charge him in incidents that occurred in their jurisdictions. Last month, Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah announced that Mr Cuomo would not face a criminal charge in a separate case involving his alleged sexual harassment of a state trooper due to statutory limitations set by state law. She added in her statement that there is credible evidence that instances described in the allegations did occur, but we cannot pursue criminal charges due to the statutory requirements of the criminal laws of New York. Acting Nassau County District Attorney Joyce Smith said her offices exhaustive investigation of a 2019 incident found the allegations credible, deeply troubling, but not criminal under New York law. This is a breaking new story. More follows... Following a two-year pause, states must resume the process of pinpointing their lowest-performing schools and those with persistent achievement gaps, according to a recent draft of guidance from the U.S. Department of Education. But bowing to uncertainty sparked by the pandemic, officials will allow one-year changes to the criteria states use to identify those schools. That means the report cards states use to communicate student performance to the public could look quite different. Sign up here for The 74s daily newsletter. Donate here to support The 74's independent journalism. To help measure COVID-19s impact, states might also choose to rate schools on how much instructional time students lost or break out chronic absenteeism by whether students were attending school in person or remotely. The department will collect comments on the 31-page document until Jan. 17. This gives a clear signal to the field and to the states that we are restarting accountability, said Jennifer Bell-Ellwanger, president and CEO of the Data Quality Campaign. This data needs to be reported to families and the community. The nonprofit is among the organizations that have been calling for more statewide data on student performance during the pandemic even though standardized tests were canceled in 2019-20 and several states saw low turnout for testing last school year. Others say the department, by allowing such a vast array of changes, could leave parents and the public more in the dark about how well schools have performed. The department is recommending that states and districts update improvement plans to focus on the pandemics effects on the most vulnerable students. States can also give those schools more time to improve by not counting the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, and can change the achievement targets they need to hit to be removed from the states lowest-performing list. Uncle Sam is saying that not only is it okay to move the goalposts, states can install new goalposts if they want to, too, said Dale Chu, a senior visiting fellow with the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute who helped implement Indianas accountability system. Story continues In addition to the temporary changes, the document encourages states to consider long-term additions, such as adding new indicators of student success that could endure beyond 2022. Behind-the-scenes tinkering Under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, states must test students in reading, math and science and publicly identify their lowest-performing Title I schools and those where groups of students, such as English learners or students with disabilities, consistently underperform. Those schools, which receive extra funds to help students make progress, have up to four years to show improvement or face additional state intervention. Maria Cammack, deputy superintendent of assessment, accountability, data systems and research at the Oklahoma State Department of Education, said state officials arent talking about adding new measures of school quality for one year, but want to be as transparent as possible about data elements that can supplement its high-stakes accountability system. Everybody wants to understand unfinished learning, she said, adding that it can take a while for districts to report and interpret new information. Any changes enacted for a single year breaks our ability to monitor change in performance in a time where we need to understand it most deeply. Bibb Hubbard, president of the nonprofit Learning Heroes, said she appreciated the departments expectation that states include families in making decisions about changes to accountability. Parents, she said, rely on state report cards to understand their childrens progress in school and want the truth, even if it isnt good news. States, she added, should research which measures parents find most meaningful. Chu added that it could be hard for the public to keep up with all of the behind-the-scenes tinkering. If states add, modify [or] remove a bunch of indicators from their state report cards, he said, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get an honest accounting of how schools and students have fared. A key question for state leaders has been how to calculate whether schools have improved over the past few years in the absence of consecutive years of assessment data. Most states consider test score trends over multiple years as part of their accountability systems. The guidance suggests states could replace the growth measure with a different indicator like achievement gaps but experts say such a change could significantly alter which schools are identified for improvement. Growth is currently by far the best measure for differentiating between schools, said Cory Koedel, an economics and public policy professor at the University of MissouriColumbia and an expert on growth measures. I cant even name what a plausible back-up plan would be, he said. Chris Janzer, the assistant director of accountability at the Michigan Department of Education, added that theres no guarantee state testing will run smoothly this year. We dont know what test participation is going to look like this coming spring, especially with Omicron raging now, he said. Will we have another wave in the spring that causes more school disruptions? For 2021 testing, the department waived the requirement that states assess 95 percent of their students. But if schools fall short of that percentage in 2022, its possible they would be identified as low-performing based on participation rates alone, said Janzer, whose state saw 70 percent participation last year. Oklahoma had an overall participation rate of over 90 percent last spring, Cammack said, but in some districts, only about 30 percent of students took state tests, despite an assessment window that was three weeks longer than normal and included extended hours and Saturday sessions. Related: Parents Expected to Opt Children Out of Spring Testing in Large Numbers, Especially in Places Where Schools Havent Reopened Meet the moment Stanford University scholar Linda Darling-Hammond, who serves as president of the California State Board of Education, acknowledged that 2022 probably wont be a neat and tidy year in the realm of testing and accountability. But she is among those who see the guidance as a way to lay a path toward reauthorization of ESSA. The department, she said, is sending the message that accountability is important, but that states should also meet the moment and consider changes that allow more room for other measures of student achievement and school performance. Bell-Ellwanger, with the Data Quality Campaign, said the guidance presents an opportunity to add criteria that some say is lacking from many state report cards such as more data on what students do after high school. In December, her organization and Chiefs for Change, a network of district leaders, issued a report arguing that K-12 leaders could better prepare students for college and the workplace if data on college enrollment, jobs and other postsecondary trends were more accessible. As states signal that they are moving forward with recovery, she said, understanding college and career pathways and the economic mobility of students is important. The departments guidance notes that states could also consider adding opportunity to learn standards such as the extent to which students have access to qualified educators and a high-quality curriculum. A recent report from FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown University, highlighted growing efforts to rate schools on questions of equity, which could range from whether students have access to advanced courses or even if schools have Black and Hispanic mental health providers on staff. But the report noted that some measures might not be statistically valid and reliable enough for an accountability system that determines consequences for schools. They need to be predictive, said Thomas Toch, the director of FutureEd and co-author of the report. They need to confidently signal how students are likely to perform in school and beyond. But he added that just reporting data on some of those goals is still useful for the public even if they arent used to identify schools for accountability. The departments guidance takes this cautious stance, he said. Transparency has the power to focus educators and others efforts, even when they dont face direct consequences for the information thats collected. Related: Sign up for The 74s newsletter A 23-year-old man faces an assault charge after a shooting outside a Food Lion in East Raleigh on Sunday left one man injured, according to police. Officers responded to a report of a shooting at the Food Lion on North Raleigh Boulevard at 4:22 p.m., Raleigh Police Department spokesperson Laura Hourigan said in an email Tuesday. They found a man with a gunshot wound to his foot. Officers arrested Jurante Avery Graham of Raleigh and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, Hourigan said. The charge is a class E felony under North Carolina law. The shooting, which took place in the parking lot, followed an argument between Graham and the other man that began inside the store, Hourigan said. Shooting captured on video A video recorded by a shopper in the store and posted to Facebook on Monday shows two men, one of them wearing a light gray sweatshirt, and the other wearing a black sweatshirt, appearing to argue while standing next to an SUV. The man in the black sweatshirt then runs to another SUV, opens the door and appears to get something from the drivers side, possibly a firearm. He went and got a gun, says a woman who can be heard in the background. The man in the black sweatshirt then approaches the man in the gray sweatshirt, but before he is able to reach him, the man in the gray sweatshirt appears to fire two shots toward the man in the black sweatshirt. People inside the Food Lion are then heard screaming just before the video ends. PALISADES PARK A Republican who formerly served on the Board of Education was sworn in as a council member after a recount request by a longtime councilman was denied by a judge. Stephanie Jang took the oath of office Monday after defeating Councilman Jongchul Lee by 24 votes in the November election. Lee, who was first elected to the council in 2009 and has served in many roles, including deputy mayor, sued for a recount last month. Lee filed for a recount on Nov. 23 but was denied and told it was after the deadline. Under New Jersey law, candidates have 17 days to apply for a recount if they "have reason to believe that an error has been made in counting the votes of that election." Lee's attorney, Stephen F. Pellino, has filed for a motion to reconsider and said he believes the 17 days should be counted after the election has been certified, not from the election date. Stephanie Jang of Palisades Park at the polling place at Lindbergh Elementary School as a challenger in July 2020. But a judge in December denied the request, holding firm on the deadline. The judge, however, said Lee and his attorney had until Tuesday to present any evidence of potential vote fraud, which they declined to do. Last year, Jang was investigated on vote fraud allegations involving mail-in ballots in the primary election. The status of the investigation is unclear. Jang has previously said she never received an official letter or phone call regarding the investigation and doesn't know its status. 'Fresh start' Council President Chong "Paul" Kim, a Democrat, was sworn in on Monday to his second council term. "Thank you, the good people of Palisades Park, for giving me a fresh start and a renewed chance to listen more carefully, to speak up for the people and to make things right where they were wrong," Kim said. PALISADES PARK: Borough, Mariner's Bank settle over breach that drained $500K from municipal accounts He said his first term was about learning and pledged that his second term would be about "planning and execution" to improve the quality of life. His focus will be on adding public services, improving infrastructure and doing more for the school system. Story continues "Let's just do more to make assurances to the people that we want the same thing, a better and brighter future for Palisades Park," he said. Jang, who immigrated from South Korea with her parents and sister 42 years ago, said she raised her children in Palisades Park and first became a public servant in 2007, for the Board of Education. BERGEN COUNTY: Edgewater Colony, a unique cooperative community, is 'a little hideaway' on the Hudson She said she had spent two sleepless nights reading the nearly 80-page agenda ahead of the meeting and commended the council members for their countless hours of service over the years. "Today I take a new step as a councilwoman. I'm aware that every journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step," Jang said. "I will spend tireless hours learning and listening to the residents with my heart and head." Kristie Cattafi is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. Email: cattafi@northjersey.com Twitter: @KristieCattafi This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Palisades Park council swears in Republican Stephanie Jang U.S.-based retailers are increasing prices on some of their more popular at-home COVID-19 tests after a deal with the Biden administration to sell them at a lower cost expired last month, The Wall Street Journal reported. Walmart announced this week that it is raising its COVID-19 testing kits' prices to $19.98 a box, and Kroger Co. is now selling their testing kits for $23.99 a box, according to the Journal. The two retail giants, along with software giant Amazon Inc., agreed with the White House last year to apply discounts to the BinaxNOW tests, which usually cost more than $24 for a box containing two tests. Under the agreement, the BinaxNOW test previously sold for $14 a boxset, the Journal reported. The BinaxNow tests, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, are one of the most commonly used testing kits due to the recent surge of omicron variant cases in the U.S, The Journal reported. This comes at a time when testing kits have been hard to find, since BinaxNOW tests have been sold out on many prominent retailers' websites, or take more than a week to arrive when ordered. The Biden administration announced last month it will start delivering at-home COVID tests in January and added that tests will become available to residents free of charge by mail through a new website. Spokespeople for Walmart and Kroger told the Journal that they are committed to selling COVID-19 tests at cost for three months and are taking steps to make tests more available. The Hill has reached out to Walmart and Kroger for comment. PROVIDENCE, RI Rhode Island's 2022 legislative session kicks off Tuesday afternoon, with House and Senate lawmakers set to return to the State House. The new session will kick off at 2 p.m. Before moving on to new bills, both chambers are scheduled to vote on pending legislation from the 2021 session. These include: ARPA Funding: Both chambers are scheduled to vote on this proposal from Gov. Daniel McKee for using $119 million of Rhode Islands $1.13 billion American Rescue Plan Act State Fiscal Recovery Funds. During hearings earlier this month, both chambers Finance committees added safeguards and more specifics about how the federal funds will be used. Short-Term Rental Veto: Both chambers are scheduled to consider overriding the governors veto of this legislation sponsored by Rep. Lauren H. Carson (D-Dist. 75, Newport) and Sen. Dawn Euer (D-Dist. 13, Newport, Jamestown) to create a statewide registry of every short-term rental property listed for rent on the website of any third-party hosting platform that conducts business in Rhode Island. Auto Repair Veto: Both chambers are scheduled to consider overriding the governors veto of this bill sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin (D-Dist. 1, Providence) and Rep. William W. OBrien (D-Dist. 54, North Providence) to prohibit auto insurers from refusing to pay standard industry costs for auto body repairs. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are set to send bills across the hall after passage, to wrap up unfinished 2021 business on Tuesday. The Senate is also set to take up several judicial appointments. After wrapping up last session's business, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President J. Dominick Ruggerio will adjourn the 2021 session and officially convene the 2022 session. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the public will not be allowed to attend the sessions in person. However, both chambers will be livestreamed online, or can be watched Cox Channels 15, and 61, in high definition on Cox Channel 1061, on Full Channel on Channel 15 and on Channel 34 by Verizon subscribers. Story continues Also because of the pandemic, lawmakers will meet less during the month of January. Senators will meet weekly on Tuesdays and House lawmakers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This article originally appeared on the Cranston Patch Hey, people of Sacramento! It's me again, Jeri Karges, your host of the Sacramento Daily. First, today's weather: Clouds breaking for some sun. High: 54 Low: 51. Here are the top stories today in Sacramento: For more than two decades, KCRA 3 has teamed up with Vitalant to hold the Blood Drive for Life, which this year is taking place on Jan. 5-8 across two locations in Rocklin and Sacramento. Have you thought about giving blood, but weren't sure it was really worth it? Check out these stories about the people whose lives were saved by transfusion. If saving the life of a toddler who grows up to be on the varsity volleyball team doesn't motivate you, keep reading. Maybe the guy who survived two bouts of Leukemia thanks to generous blood doners will get you. (KCRA3) Total lunar eclipses, a multitude of meteor showers and supermoons will light up the sky in 2022. Here are the top sky events of 2022 that will be visible from Sacramento, so you can have your binoculars and telescope ready. (CBS Sacramento) Whether you're looking for full-time or part-time work, Patch has you covered. Each week, Patch and ZipRecruiter put together a roundup of the latest local jobs listed in the region. Here are some of the top jobs now available in Sacramento and across greater California. (Sacramento Patch) A closure on Interstate 80 at West El Camino Avenue caused delays for morning commuters on Monday. The interstate closed just before 6 a.m. At 6:41 a.m., a CHP spokesperson said the affected roadway had reopened and that the normal flow of traffic had resumed. (CBS Sacramento) One person has been arrested in connection to a suspected DUI hit-and-run that killed one person in south Sacramento, police said in a release on Sunday. The incident happened just after 1:20 a.m. on Sunday at the intersection of Stockton Boulevard and Fruitridge Road. Authorities said they located the suspected driver a short distance away in a stolen vehicle and under the influence. Oletha Durham, 33, was arrested on felony charges related to vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of a collision, vehicle theft and driving under the influence. (KCRA3) Today's Sacramento Daily is brought to you in part by our friends at Ring, the home security company. Ring does a lot more than doorbells: check out their full suite of smart home products at Ring.com. And thank you Ring for helping to make local news happen in Sacramento! Story continues Today in Sacramento: Come out for two shots in one at the Community COVID-19 Vaccination and Flu Clinic for Ages 5+ (2:00 PM) Tune in to STAB! Comedy Theater to see a show about conspiracies and the people who love them! Dr. Dunning and Mr. Kruger will be streaming live from the venue on Facebook and YouTube. (8:00 PM) New comedians get the opportunity to perform with seasoned pros at the Laughs Unlimited Pro-Am Showcase in Old Sac. (8:00 PM) From my notebook: We will see wet weather for the start of the week with Valley showers expected into Tuesday night. (Facebook) You still have a chance to make some magical winter memories at the ice rink downtown! Last day to skate is January 16 , 2022. (Instagram) Kindergarten registration for the 2022-2023 school year will begin on Tuesday, January 11, 2022. Dont wait until September, get your young scholar ready now! Learn more at https://bit.ly/3F2XaCx." (Facebook) Loving the Sacramento Daily? Here are all the ways you can get more involved: Send a friend or neighbor this link so they can subscribe Get your local business listed in front of readers Send me a news tip or suggestion at sacramento@patch.com You're officially in the loop for today. I'll be in your inbox tomorrow with your next update! Jeri Karges About me: Jeri Karges has been living in and loving the Sacramento region for over 30 years. Her passion is finding new and unique ways to enjoy the city and surrounding areas. On weekends, you can find her pestering her friends to sample the restaurant that doesn't have silverware, or try their hand at throwing an axe. Jeri also enjoys writing about retirement planning at https://rockinretirement.subst... This article originally appeared on the Sacramento Patch Traffic makes its way along the Florida Turnpike on Dec. 8. Despite many people addressing the County Commission on Tuesday asking for a tough stand against the proposed northern extension of the Florida Turnpike, the commission didn't make any change in its position. Last month, on a 3-2 vote, the commission agreed to send a letter to the Florida Department of Transportation reminding that agency that the county's comprehensive plan "protects the Farmland Preservation Area (FPA) regarding the development expressways or toll roads." The letter includes four points, one of which was to ask the state to "make every effort to avoid impact to existing developed residential subdivisions." In agreement: CEP is OK with Marion County Commission approach to possible extension of Florida Turnpike City of Dunnellon: Dunnellon City Council tells state it doesn't want northern extension of the Florida Turnpike Gathering: Meeting about northern Florida Turnpike extension draws hundreds to CF's Levy campus The letter ended with county officials asking FDOT "to partner" with them as the project goes through its different phases. Commission Chairman Carl Zalak and Commissioner Kathy Bryant were on the losing end of the vote. They favored stronger language: asking FDOT to follow guidance from the MCORES task force, which would prohibit any turnpike extension crossing the Cross Florida Greenway in Marion County. Disapproval voiced during the commission meeting Those in attendance at Tuesday's regular meeting, the county commission's first of the year, disagreed with the letter's wording. Similar to the December meeting, many speakers, locally and from surrounding counties, went to the podium and expressed their frustrations. Some held posters and others read aloud from prepared statements. If the turnpike extension is approved, speakers said, the roadway would severely impact the land, farmland, animals and people. They said the added concrete would ruin the area, pollute the water, rip apart people's lives, destroy the area's beauty and sully prime property for horses. Story continues Some told commissioners that they feel neglected and that their voices are being ignored. As a warning, some went as far as to remind commissioners that their decision will be remembered at election time. These are the four new proposed routes for northern Florida Turnpike extension. North A and North B routes (red and blue) impact southwest Marion County more than Central and South (yellow and purple). Though these are the four proposed routes, the study areas is all of Marion, Levy, Sumter and Citrus counties (outlined in dark green). [FDOT map] In the end, speaker after speaker asked commissioners to reconsider their stance and be like the Dunnellon City Council and the Levy County Commission. Both of those entities have urged FDOT to choose the "no build" option on the turnpike extension. When it was time for commissioner comments near the end of the meeting, Commissioner Michelle Stone told her colleagues and those in the audience that the letter does not give FDOT the right to build any roads that would go through the area. "All this board has done is send a letter reminding the FDOT of some of the details in our comp plan," she said. The state will decide whether, and where, any turnpike extension is built. The process is still in the study phase. Stone also read aloud portions of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If." The Florida Turnpike's northern terminus is now Wildwood, near where this photo was taken on Dec. 8. The state is considering a northern extension to U.S. 19 near Florida's west coast. Commissioners took no action and the letter, signed by Zalak as approved on Dec. 21, stands. More about the proposed northern Turnpike Extension The proposed Northern Turnpike Extension project would extend the turnpike's northern terminus from Wildwood/Interstate 75 west to U.S. 19. Three of the four proposed routes go through Marion. MCORES, which is short for Multi-use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance, was a 2019 state plan that called for building new toll roads in Florida. After extensive study, MCORES eventually was repealed, although the potential northern extension of the turnpike was allowed to proceed to the study phase. The Ocala Metro Chamber & Economic Partnership supports the county's position. The CEP president, Kevin Sheilley, in an interview with the Star-Banner last month, said if approved, construction will not happen for years. Sheilley said the CEP met with FDOT officials about the roadway and expressed concerns about the project. However, he said it's important that county officials be involved in the process so they could have a say in what happens. Star-Banner managing editor Jim Ross contributed to this report. Contact Austin L. Miller at 867-4118, austin.miller@starbanner.com or @almillerosb. This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Marion County Commission doesn't change stance on Florida Turnpike project With Alachua County Public Schools set to begin their spring semester Tuesday, the omicron variant is causing concern among district officials, staff and parents. Due to the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases, the school district has made the decision to reinstitute its mask policy for staff, vendors, volunteers and other visitors who come on campus. The district also strongly encourages parents to ask their children to wear masks while in the schools, especially now that the school board's hands are tied when it comes to implementing a mask mandate for students. At a school board meeting in December, district policy makers repealed their mask policy to comply with state law. COVID updates: Cases continue to climb in Alachua County and Florida Is omicron spiking near you? Use this free tool to compare the spread of COVID-19 Robert Hyatt, board chair, said the risks are more manageable now that all students have had the chance to get vaccinated. "What we will do is continue to follow as closely as possible CDC guidelines and follow every avenue that's available to us," Hyatt said. School Board member Leanetta McNealy said the district will continue to follow safety protocols such as washing hands and social distancing, but parents should be vigilant in making sure that their children understand the importance of masking in schools. Jackie Johnson, district spokeswoman, said in an email the district has been monitoring the spread of COVID-19 locally as Alachua County had a sharp uptick from 194 cases per week before the district went on break, surging to 2,072 weekly cases as of Dec. 31. Johnson said the district is concerned that cases will continue to increase with people returning to school from traveling and holiday gatherings. "But we're also concerned that a significant increase in positive cases in schools and the employee absences that would follow would make it more difficult for schools to operate effectively," Johnson said, in an email. Story continues In Alachua County as of Dec. 31, 68% of people ages 12 and older have been vaccinated. Paul Myers, spokesperson for the Alachua County Department of Health, said that of 19,260 children aged 5-11 in the county, 3,518 are fully vaccinated while an additional 1,786 have received just the first dose. "We are scheduled to provide (the) second dose (and most likely some first doses) vaccination clinics at Alachua County Public Schools beginning tomorrow Jan. 4, 2022," Myers said. States response to COVID surge Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a press conference in Broward County Monday morning addressing the states return to school and the surge of the Omicron variant. At the conference DeSantis said school needs to remain open and that schools are not the reason behind the recent surge. "Kids need to be in school," DeSantis said. "They do not need to be doing any crazy mitigation, just let them be kids." DeSantis praised State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on his decision to no longer quarantine healthy children after a positive exposure, stating that the policy the Center for Disease Control had on quarantining was not good. The quarantine rule, updated in September, allows for parents to decide for how long their children should quarantine if they are healthy. More options: New private school hoping to come to Gainesville by fall 2022 "We revised that (policy) and said, actually, if you're symptomatic send home, but if you're healthy, you need to be in school. And that is our policy," DeSantis said. Alachua County Public Schools states that if a student has had direct contact with a positive case, it is recommended that the parent quarantine their child for seven days, however, the child is allowed to return to school if there are no symptoms presented. Quarantine is not recommended for students who are fully vaccinated. For students who are at home quarantining, they can stay up to date with their school work through the canvas program which teachers are required to update daily. Parents' plan to send child back to school upended Sarah Rockwell, a parent within Alachua County was hopeful that she would be able to send her eight-year-old daughter Charlotte back to school. Rockwell, mother of two, made the decision to homeschool her children back in August when the delta variant was rapidly spreading throughout Alachua County. Sarah Rockwell's 8-year-old daughter, Charlotte, holds up her COVID-19 vaccination card after receiving her first dose of the Pfizer pediatric vaccine on Nov. 10, 2021. (Photo by Sarah Rockwell) Due to the relief that the Pfizer vaccination brought, allowing children ages 5-11 to be inoculated, she was going to reenroll her daughter for the spring semester so she could attend Talbot Elementary School. Children Vaccination Hope: Gainesville parents say COVID-19 pediatric vaccine is 'a huge sigh of relief' However, with masking no longer able to be mandated, Rockwell and her husband sat down to discuss their options because their daughter is considered high risk. "At that point omicron wasn't here yet. but we could see the signs that it was coming because South Africa was reporting about it. And I I told him that when that wave came, we were going to see major issues because it's so much more highly transmissible even then delta," Rockwell said. After hearing the news Rockwell and her husband sat their daughter down , explained to the new state law, the severity of the omicron variant and that she wouldn't be able to return to school. Charlotte cried, Rockwell said. "She's sad she's disappointed but she understands. She was excited because we were starting to move toward normal. Numbers were good. And she got vaccinated and it's really disappointing to me that we're basically throwing away all of the people who are in any way at high risk," Rockwell said. Teacher at high risk continues in classroom Maggie Paxson, a science teacher at Gainesville High School, has to be incredibly careful due to her health condition while she's teaching in the classroom. Paxson has a blood clotting condition called lupus anticoagulant. The ailment left her with damages to her left lung when she was 18-year-old freshman in college. She recalled she had three blood clots in her left lung and was in the hospital for a few weeks because of it. "I already have decreased oxygenation because of some tissue damage in my lungs. I could have a series of oxygenation issues. I could need a ventilator if were to get bad enough...I could die," Paxson said. She said she takes all the precautions to prevent getting sick. She's triple vaccinated, obtaining her booster shot, and she wears a KN95 mask while she's teaching her students. Last year she taught virtual classes but, with the Digital Academy no longer being an option, she now teaches in person. Paxson said her students have been great when it comes to masking in the classroom, a lot of them knowing that she is high risk. She said, she's even had kids with mask exemptions who would wear their mask while they were in her classroom. Paxson said what keeps her going is that she loves showing up to work and teaching her students. This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Alachua schools start new semester amid COVID omicron concerns A Boulder County official on Monday said downed power lines are no longer believed to be behind the devastating Marshall Fire that tore through northern Colorado last week. Local media reported that the blaze was believed to have been started by a downed power line, but Sheriff Joe Pelle said in a press briefing on Monday that the initial belief was based on "radio traffic" that he heard toward the beginning of the fire. "That changed when crews from Xcel Energy and fire investigators went to the scene and determined that the lines that they found that were down were telecom lines and not power lines, and so that's when we tried to correct the information and make sure we weren't pointing fingers," Pelle said. Pelle did not disclose any other possible causes of the fire during the briefing, saying he was being "very careful." During the press briefing, Pelle also confirmed that two people in Boulder County remain missing. The utility company Xcel Energy reported soon after the fire that it had found no evidence of a downed power line. Officials said some communication lines, which generally shouldn't be able to start a fire, may have been confused for live power lines. Alice Jackson, the president of Xcel Energy Colorado, said on Monday that about 400 structures in the burn path remain without power. She estimated that crews would be able to go out to the affected buildings, assess the damage and restore energy if possible by Thursday evening. As of this week, more than a thousand homes in Boulder County are believed to have been destroyed or damaged in the fire that spread out across 6,000 acres. Megan Rockey, left, a color consultant, performs a consultation with Ciara Krempley utilizing House of Colour principles at Rockey's home in Powell. House of Colour uses warm and cool-colored drapes to find which "season" compliment a person's skin tone and eye color, among other attributes. Although winter is officially here, Ciara Krempley will be thinking of summer when she goes to her closet to choose an outfit. At least in terms of color. The 29-year-old Downtown resident discovered earlier this month that she falls into the "summer season" after a session with a local color consultant Megan Rockey. Your words to think about are blue, soft, smoky and rose, Rockey instructed Krempley to consider when picking out clothes, accessories or makeup. Winter and summer are cool-based, she continued from the studio in her Powell home. Winter is as if they left the dye extra long like that fresh snow, green evergreen or red cardinal. Summer is as if youre looking at those same colors through a frosted pane of glass. Krempley's younger sister Kandis Sargeant, 28, turned out to be in the warmer, brighter "spring" category, just like their mother Nancy Sargeant. After determining Ciara Krempley was in the summer season, color consultant Megan Rockey gave her client a tutorial for 90-second makeup that applied her seasonal hues. Nancy Sargeant, of Tipp City, gifted her daughters a session with Rockey who opened her House of Colour franchise (the only one in Columbus and one of four in the state) this summer after being impressed with her own visit in October. There was this woman on our trip to Switzerland who always wore all these bright sweaters with lipstick and she looked great every time, Nancy Sargeant said. I thought, What is going on? and I asked her. She told me shed had her colors done. What a color consultant does Rockey, 39 and a mother of two, left a career in marketing to pursue being a color consultant and stylist, because after going through her own House of Colour session in Akron earlier this year she saw how beneficial it could be. Megan Rockey selects from 144 precision-dyed drapes to help her determine within which season a client falls. To determine one's season, consultants, who attend regular trainings, drape dozens of colorful scarves over a client's chest to see which hues make eyes brighten or faces glow versus those that might cause the skin to look jaundice or washed out. No. 1, this makes shopping so much easier, said Rockey a "winter season" person. No. 2, most importantly, it shows you in your best light. If when youre in your season and surrounding yourself with your colors, your face comes into focus and looks brighter. Story continues She likes to joke: We all have to wear clothes so lets pick the colors that are best for you. Color analysis for the purpose of fashion or makeup isnt a new concept. It was all the rage in the 1970s and 80s when popular books like Color Me a Season and Color Me Beautiful were published. Makeup company Mary Kay used to offer a version of seasonal color consulting and House of Colour, itself, was founded in 1986 in the United Kingdom. Franchises began popping up in the United States around 2010 and have steadily been increasing nationwide since. Quizzes designed to help takers determine their season on their own abound online. As for the resurgence in the practice Rockey has already analyzed more than 60 clients experts suggest that all the Zoom meetings people find themselves on could be playing a part as people might want to stand out virtually. Same goes for Instagram or YouTube. 'Here to have fun': Finding the right colors to bring joy to your appearance, outlook Rockey said that many clients, who are generally women in their 30s to 60s, just want to do something joyful for themselves. Were here to have fun, Rockey said. We know this isnt brain surgery so enjoy yourselves ... I had a teacher who took the day off to come in for some self-care. Earlier this year, Brigett Simmerman began to shed the pandemic weight she put on in 2020 and while she needed clothing that fit better, she also was looking for ways to simplify her closet. In doing some online searches for capsule wardrobe pieces that mix and match easily she came across Rockeys services. No way am I a fashionista this is for everybody, said Simmerman, 51, of Westerville. I thought this would allow me to buy fewer pieces and, that way, I wouldnt have to put in a huge investment. It did cost her $225 for the two-hour session, which also included a short makeup tutorial, but Simmerman said its been worth it as its already saved her money. For example, as she went through her closet after the session, she realized there was an expensive sweater she loved that she just never wore. Turns out the color wasnt in her season. Also, she recently purchased a gray blazer because it was on her color palette. (Clients are given a booklet containing all 36 of their preferred colors.) She said the whole experience improved her outlook. According to the House of Colour technique, there are two warm seasons (spring and autumn) and two cool seasons (winter and summer). Each season has 36 colors and none overlaps, except for a true red. "Ohio State red looks good on everyone," Megan Rockey says with a laugh. I underestimated how emotional this can be for someone, Simmerman said. Youre looking and presenting your best self and that makes anyone feel confident. As Krempley sat in a chair in front of a mirror and large window, she grew excited to learn her season as Rockey draped scarves, comparing each color to the previous. Once it was determined Krempley was a "summer," Rockey had her apply appropriate lipstick and then helped her discover her wow colors or hues that can be worn head to toe. Throughout the analysis, Rockey also offered various fun tips. Every person fits into one season that never changes, she said, and most people have a neutral color better than black, which technically falls only in winter. Seasons can vary within a family while geographic areas often produce more of one type than another. Rockey said she sees the most "summers" in central Ohio but can have clients fit into all four seasons in any given week. And dont worry. Buckeye scarlet a true red falls in the middle and looks good on everyone. This was all way more advanced than I ever thought it would be, Krempley said. A lot of thought went into the process. She felt the fun exercise would help her narrow down choices when shopping and move out of her comfort zone. Her mother, Nancy Sargeant, said shes still trying to adjust to her "spring "classification, but shes finding it easier to put together outfits based on her clear, warm, light palette. And small changes havent gone unnoticed. People have recognized Im wearing brighter colors, said Sargeant, donning a geranium red sweater. People will stop saying, Oh I like that coat, and instead say, You look good in that coat. Rockey said it takes about a year to fully integrate a season into ones life, which can also mean examining jewelry and hair color. (Their natural gray is one of their best hair colors.) Megan Rockey demonstrates how to use one's color wallet, full of swatches that fit in a season, to determine whether a patterned shirt meshes well with the preferred hues. And it doesnt have to be an all-or-nothing proposition and she definitely doesnt recommend throwing away a bunch of clothes. If you have that favorite yellow sweater, wear it, Rockey said. Wear it with a winter lipstick or surround yourself with those winter colors. award@dispatch.com @AllisonAWard This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: House of Colour consultant in Powell analyzes colors based on seasons A two-hour commute turned into a nearly 27-hour ordeal for Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., one of the drivers stuck on snowy Interstate 95 in Virginia. "I started my normal 2 hour drive to DC at 1pm yesterday. 19 hours later, Im still not near the Capitol," Kaine tweeted Tuesday morning. By midafternoon, he was still driving. A spokesman said at around 2 p.m. ET that Kaine had about two more hours of driving ahead before he would reach the Capitol. The estimate wound up being fairly on target. Kaine arrived on Capitol Hill shortly before 4 p.m. "26.5 hours later," he said after stretching. Sen Tim Kaine is finally at the Capitol, 26.5 hours later, he told us. pic.twitter.com/CAfN63zAU0 Julie Tsirkin (@JulieNBCNews) January 4, 2022 I once did it on my bicycle, and it took me 13 hours. Id gladly do the bike trip again, and I would never want to do this again," he said. "And it was 26 hours, and the only thing I ate was one orange, and the only liquid I had was one 16-ounce Dr Pepper. Kaine was one of hundreds of drivers trapped in freezing temperatures on a 50-mile stretch of I-95 after a crash involving multiple vehicles brought traffic to a standstill and the first mid-Atlantic storm of the year dumped more than a foot of snow on the region. Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton's running mate in the 2016 presidential campaign, said earlier in the day that his office had been in touch with the state Department of Transportation "to see how we can help other Virginians in this situation." But hours later, he still hadn't moved. "I'm frustrated, but not in serious trouble," he tweeted shortly afterward. Kaine said after he arrived that confinement to four wheels didn't stop him from getting work done. I probably had about 10 voting rights calls in the car," Kaine said. "I would rather have done them in person, but I wasnt going to not do them. Story continues During the trip, he also gave a shout-out to a Connecticut family for a random act of kindness. "A CT family returning in a packed car from Florida walked by in the middle of the night handing out oranges as we were stopped for hours on I-95. Bless them!" Kaine tweeted. A CT family returning in a packed car from Florida walked by in the middle of the night handing out oranges as we were stopped for hours on I-95. Bless them! pic.twitter.com/MrmZ1ZF6JJ Tim Kaine (@timkaine) January 4, 2022 Gov. Ralph Northam said earlier in the day that his office was trying to get the roadway clear. "State and local emergency personnel are continuing to clear downed trees, assist disabled vehicles, and re-route drivers," he tweeted in the morning. More than seven hours later, Kaine finally arrived at his destination. He said officials need to figure out what left so many stranded on the roads for hours. It was incredibly icy last night. ... It was really, really icy, he said. EXCLUSIVE: Advocates and political scientists think Abrams has a strong shot in 2022, but there is some concern about the negative impact of the Democratic Partys lack of action on Capitol Hill. Stacey Abrams is poised to be a strong gubernatorial candidate among Democrats seeking to win statewide races in states with traditional republican strongholds. US politician and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams arrives to meet with US President Joe Biden at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia on March 19, 2021. (Photo by Eric BARADAT / AFP) (Photo by ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images) As the 2022 election season kicks off, political organizers, civil rights leaders and scholars all believe Abrams will connect with voters in Georgia with more success than her last bid for the governors office in 2018. Abrams lost her gubernatorial contest against then Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who oversaw the states election system. She notably slammed Kemp for what she and Democrats described as voter suppression after his office purged more than 300,000 voters from Georgias registration rolls ahead of their contest. As Abrams put it, Kemp was the referee, the contestant and the scorekeeper. Stacey Abrams did what no other Democrat running for a statewide office did after losing, says Dr. Christina Greer, political contributor at theGrio and Fordham University professor of political science. She rolled up her sleeves and got to work. Greer contends Abrams established a political network to address voter suppression and educate eligible voters in Georgia about how to participate in their state democratic process. She emphasizes that the work of Abrams advocacy organization, Fair Fight, leveled the playing field in 2020 and aided two Democratic candidates in Georgia to win U.S. Senate seats (Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff) and then-presidential candidate Joe Biden to clinch the Peach States electoral votes. Rev. Raphael Warnock, Democratic candidate for Georgia senate, speaks with supporters near Coan Park in Atlanta, Ga., on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Stacey Abrams, former candidate for Georgia governor, appears at right. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) Since the 2020 election, voter suppression laws across the country have taken aim at the organizing efforts for Abrams and her contemporaries. Specifically, in the battle state Abrams is seeking office, Georgias Senate Bill 202 targets mail-in voting access. This stands to challenge the progress Abrams has made in the state through her advocacy and organizing. Story continues Ben Jealous, president and CEO of People for the American Way and previous contender for Marylands 2018 gubernatorial race, shares Greers outlook on Abrams second bid to become governor of Georgia. She hasnt just built a campaign apparatus, shes built a movement, and shes done that for years. And so she is a unique type of politician because shes also a movement builder, Jealous tells theGrio. While Abrams is poised to be the Democratic Partys gubernatorial nominee in Georgia, the Republican Party has two front runners for their nominee, incumbent Gov. Kemp and former Sen. David Perdue. Both Greer and Jealous believe regardless of who challenges Abrams, she has a strong shot at the governors mansion. But advocacy groups and some members of Congress are leery of the negative impact of Democrats on Capitol Hill not passing the Build Back Better (BBB) social spending package. The bill not being passed into law, they believe, could pose a political threat to party members seeking office and reelection in 2022. A key component of BBB that has members of Congress, advocates and President Joe Biden concerned is the popular child tax credit, which was expanded earlier this year under the COVID-19 stimulus package known as the American Rescue Plan. U.S. President Joe Biden (2nd L) speaks as (L-R) Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) listen during an event on the American Rescue Plan in the Rose Garden of the White House on March 12, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) The White House has touted the ability for the tax program to reduce childhood poverty, but without passing the social spending bill which would have continued payments for another year the administration will fall short of making good on its original economic projections. Despite the child tax credit being lauded by lawmakers and economists as a tangible way to tackle poverty in the country, it is set to expire next year if Congress does not take urgent action, Arisha Michelle Hatch, Vice President at Color Of Change said in a statement to theGrio. The lives of Black and low-income families should not be traded away in the name of bipartisanship. If Democrats want our communities to turn out to vote in 2022, they must carry out their campaign promises to stand up for us, by passing Build Back Better and ensuring the child tax credit is here to stay. TheGrio spoke with U.S. Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York, who will be seeking reelection this year and has been adamant about his desire to see BBB passed. Bowman is also part of the Democratic Partys Congressional Progressive Caucus who signaled that the BBB would have challenges if it did not remain attached to the presidents infrastructure package that was signed into law in November. Were talking maybe 4,000 children in my district that will no longer receive the child tax credit payments, Bowman told theGrio. If we dont get this done, if we dont do other things, why would they trust us to deliver in 2022 and beyond? So we have to get Build Back Better. Bowman thinks there is still time and interest in getting the package passed. It might be on life support, but its not dead, he added. Have you subscribed to theGrio podcasts Dear Culture or Acting Up? Download our newest episodes now! TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today! The post Can Stacey Abrams overcome voter suppression in her second bid for Georgia governor? appeared first on TheGrio. Mishawaka High School Tribune Photo/GREG SWIERCZ MISHAWAKA A student at Mishawaka High School faces charges in juvenile court after police and school officials say he made threats to carry out a shooting at the school in retaliation for being disciplined. Prosecutors filed two charges of intimidation against the 17-year-old boy Monday, saying he sent threats to Jessica Mann, an assistant principal at Mishawaka High School, after she gave him detention. According to court documents, the student threatened to "fire shots at" the school and Mann on Dec. 20 in retaliation for the disciplinary action. The threats caused the school to close and move to virtual learning for three days in a row before Christmas break. On Dec. 27, School City of Mishawaka Superintendent Wayne Barker sent a letter to families saying in-person learning would resume at the high school when classes resume Thursday. More: Edwardsburg schools close as threats spike after Michigan fatal school shooting "Making a threat to any public school is never a joke," Barker wrote in the letter. "It can have severe legal and financial consequences, and at the very least, it disrupts the learning environment for students and consumes staff resources." A message seeking comment was not immediately returned by a spokeswoman for the district. Mishawaka police arrested the teenager on Dec. 27, per a release from the department, and he has been detained in the juvenile detention facility since then. The release stated the student was being "cooperative." The student is currently in juvenile, or probate, court and prosecutors would have to file a special waiver to move the case to adult, or superior, court. The superior court system generally has more severe sentences should a defendant be convicted of a crime, as sentences, or dispositions, in probate courts are often focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment. Hearings and records in superior court are public, while some hearings and records in probate court are confidential by law. Email Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@sbtinfo.com. Follow him on Twitter: @marek_mazurek This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Mishawaka High School student charged for threatening to shoot school ADRIAN Candidates to be the next superintendent of Adrian Public Schools began the public interview process Monday, which kicked off three consecutive days of interviews by the Adrian Board of Education. Mondays interviewees were William Patterson, the assistant superintendent of secondary curriculum at Jackson Public Schools, and James Anderson, a high school principal in the Wayne-Westland Community Schools. Adrian Public Schools Board of Education President Beth Ferguson, center, addresses Monday's superintendent candidates during the first night of interviews. To her left is trustee Mike Buku, and to the right is vice president Jon Baucher. Current Superintendent Bob Behnke is retiring. His retirement date is March 31. Interviews were to continue Tuesday with Nate Parker, principal at Springbrook Middle School in Adrian, and Derrick Richards, director of curriculum and instruction/state and federal programs at Adrian Public Schools. The fifth and final candidate who will interview today is Rachel Kowalski, director of teaching and learning at Clintondale Community Schools. The interviews start at 5:30 p.m. each day, which is after The Daily Telegram's print deadline. They are being conducted in the Adrian High School cafeteria. The board has scheduled a special meeting Thursday, Jan. 6, to narrow the five candidates down to two with the final round of interviews taking place Jan. 11-12. The board of education asked each candidate a total of 22 questions. William Patterson Patterson said his desire to become the next superintendent of Adrian Public Schools is to take that next step in his 25-year educational career. Adrian is an extremely awesome school district and one that I would want to be a part of, he said. He holds a bachelors degree from Eastern Michigan University, and he received his masters degree in education from Spring Arbor University. William Patterson, the assistant superintendent of secondary curriculum at Jackson Public Schools, was one of two interviewees Monday for the position of superintendent at Adrian Public Schools. His teaching journey has consisted of seventh grade mathematics, being an assistant elementary principal and a middle school principal. He has worked with at-risk and low-income students and families throughout his career, and he referred to his leadership style as being a servant leader. In 2013, he was promoted to his current position at Jackson Public Schools. He completed his Ph.D. in 2015 at Michigan State University. Story continues Over the last eight years, I have learned how to be a more transformational leader, he said during Mondays interview. Patterson said declining enrollment is something school districts all across the state are facing. As superintendent, Patterson said he would be a visible school leader to the public so that he could know what is going on in the community and know what is working and whats not working. Hearing the communitys voice and the students voice is so important (for a school district) when you are facing a declining enrollment, he said. As a superintendent, you need to be able to see all of your students, and they need to be able to see you. Patterson is heavily involved with school organizations at Jackson, stating he would immerse himself into Adrian as well. Implementing a climate and culture of learning where students feel included, is critical, he said. William Patterson, the assistant superintendent of secondary curriculum at Jackson Public Schools, said his desire to become the next superintendent of Adrian Public Schools is to take that next step in his 25-year educational career. He was one of two applicants to interview for the position Monday. We want no students to be invisible in school, he said. Educators need to continue talking with students about their success and behaviors so that they can have a bright future. As superintendent, Patterson said his decisions would always be based on the best interests of students. Safety and security of students and staff is the No. 1 priority these days, he said, of successfully operating a school district. Patterson said he would engage in open and honest conversation with all school employees and he would frequently communicate with the board of education. Making data-driven decisions regarding where students academic growth should be for college readiness is another aspect he deems critical to education. He provided the board of education with a 90-day plan in the event he was selected as the next superintendent of Adrian Public Schools. I am very passionate about public education, and I am very passionate about seeing kids succeed, he said. What gets me up in the morning each day is making sure students have somebody looking after them. James Anderson Anderson, the principal at Wayne Memorial High School, which is part of the Wayne-Westland Community Schools district, said he is excited about the possibility of joining the team at Adrian Public Schools while also noting he was slightly nervous about the interviewing process. The Livonia resident said this is his first time pursuing a superintendent role in education. James Anderson, a high school principal in the Wayne Westland Community Schools, was one of two candidates to interview Monday before the Adrian Public Schools Board of Education to be the superintendent of schools. Jokingly, he said to the board, he had been stressing about the interview all year long, albeit, it being Jan. 3. Education is what I love, he said. This is what I love doing, and I want to give everything I can for our students. I care deeply about educating students. If selected as the next superintendent of Adrian, Anderson said he would move from Livonia and call the city of Adrian his new home. He, too, provided the board with his 90-day plan if named superintendent. With a career in education spanning more than 20 years, Anderson said he was promoted to his first administration role at age 27. In 2015, he became part of Harrison High School in Farmington Hills. The move ended up being a challenge for him, he said, as in March 2016 nearly one year later the Farmington school board announced the school would be closing following the 2018-19 academic year, citing lower student populations in the city of Farmington Hills. While an administrator there, he said he helped bridge the gap between the school and the community as the district downsized from three high schools to two. He was born in Saginaw and holds a bachelors degree in elementary education from Western Michigan University and a masters degree in educational leadership from Michigan State University. He secured his doctorate in 2016 from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Anderson has teaching experience in both elementary and middle schools. He became principal at Wayne Memorial High School in 2019. His first challenge, he said, if named APS next leader, would be getting to know each and every person in the school and in the Adrian community. Anderson said he would be fully integrated in both the schools and the city of Adrian. I always want to be visible, he said. I would join as many organizations as I can, and I would continue to build those relationships. Adrian schools, he said, are well known for their high graduation rates and strong student grade point averages. Something he sees as an improvement for the district would be increasing student assessment scores. With a career in education spanning more than 20 years, James Anderson, the principal at Wayne Memorial High School in the Wayne Westland Community Schools since 2019, said applying for superintendent of Adrian Public Schools would be his second mountain to climb. As superintendent, he would strive to promote the district as much as he could, continually referencing what makes Adrian schools stand out among the other Lenawee County schools. The landscape of public schools has changed drastically over the last 20 years, he said. We need to make sure we offer cutting-edge services that (students and families) cannot find at another district. Anderson called Adrians International Baccalaureate program, its partnerships with the local colleges, and its Advanced Placement courses some key offerings to bring prospective students into the Adrian district. Wayne Westland is a district, he said, comprised of generational poverty, yet despite those kinds of struggles, there have been plenty of student achievements and things to be excited about academically. He has not been able to have a fully normal year as principal at Wayne Memorial High School, citing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. In his educational career, he has worked with low- and high-economic students, he has successfully closed a school and he has successfully reconfigured another school district. With some other struggles and achievements along the way, Anderson said receiving the Adrian schools superintendent position would be his second mountain to climb and his second mountain to hurdle. "We are here (in education) for the sole purpose of our students," he said. "The student should always be the focus of our work." This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Adrian Board of Education begins superintendent candidate interviews Three Washington Republican lawmakers attended a 2020 election conspiracy conference put on by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on the taxpayer dime, according to a recent report. The Seattle Times reports that state Representatives Robert Sutherland, Vicki Kraft and Brad Klippert flew to South Dakota to attend Mr Lindell's "Cyber Symposium," a three-day conspiracy-laden event that made claims so legally questionable that Fox News refused to air ads for the event. The three Republican lawmakers then requested and received reimbursements for their travel from the state legislature, totalling $4,361. Mr Lindell promised that he would provide "irrefutable" evidence that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump, but no evidence of anything ever materialised. By the end of the event, Mr Lindell's own invited cyber experts said the data he'd collected was nonsense and the pillow company CEO himself was waylaid by an "attacker" who reportedly hugged him too hard. The three Washington lawmakers who attended on the public's dollar all have histories of promoting election fraud conspiracy theories. Mr Sutherland told his Facebook followers to "prepare for war" and called the election of Joe Biden a "coup" that could result in another civil war in December 2020. Ms Kraft, who spoke at Mr Lindell's event, supported Mr Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally which preceded the Capitol riot of 6 January and said during the time that as a lawmaker you would have to question and reject the results and the electoral votes being counted today. Mr Klippert sponsored several bills in 2020 to change the state's election system, which included scrapping mail-in voting, a system of voting the state has accepted as valid since 2005. All three lawmakers have signed onto a letter by Arizona state Senator Wendy Rogers that calls for "forensic audits" in all 50 states. Ms Rogers was a major proponent of the infamous Maricopa County "forensic audit" that resulted in nothing aside from further confirmation that Joe Biden had won the election in that county. Story continues Both Ms Kraft and Mr Sutherland defended their attendance to The Seattle Times, claiming they will use what they learned at the conference to develop new legislation related to elections. What exactly they learned from an event that produced no new information was not made clear. My constituents were demanding that I and others do something about it. Thus I set out on a journey to learn all I could about our election system(s), especially in WA state and in Snohomish County, in order to see if their concerns were legitimate, Mr Sutherland said in an email to The Seattle Times. Ms Kraft defended her attendance on taxpayer dollars by saying in an email to the publication that she went to "learn more about what a full forensic audit process looks like, how hackers could hack into an election system and to meet other legislators working on this issue. The conference helped me accomplish these objectives." Mr Klippert has not yet responded to a request for comment. When asked for a response to his party members attending the event at the public's expense, state House Republican Leader JT Wilcox said brushed off the idea that any taxpayer money had been wasted. I didnt pay any attention to the conference and Im sure that there are conferences attended by all sides that seem useless to many, but Im not in favor of applying a political litmus test to them. Seems like that judgment is up to the voters, he said. Both Ms Kraft and Mr Klippert are running for Congress in 2022. First reported by The Chicago Sun-Times, Rush said he plans to remain active in his ministry and inspire younger generations. Democratic Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush has announced that he is ending his political career after his 15th term in Congress. First reported by The Chicago Sun-Times, Rush said he plans to remain active in his ministry and to use his life story to inspire younger generations. The decades-long legislator is also the pastor of the Beloved Community Christian Church of God in Christ, which envisions itself as a multicultural, intergenerational, family-focused, ever-expanding community of believers who serve God diligently, dynamically and daily. Veteran Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush listens during testimony at a July House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Energy hearing titled Oversight of DOE During the COVID-19 Pandemic. (Photo: Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images) The 75-year-old ex-Black Panther and former Chicago alderman told journalist Lynn Sweet that his decision came not long after a conversation with his 19-year-old grandson, who expressed interest in learning more about his life. I dont want my grandchildren to know me from a television news clip or something they read in a newspaper, Rush said. I want them to know me on an intimate level, know something about me, and I want to know something about them. I dont want to be a historical figure to my grandchildren. He is, so far, the 24th Democratic member of Congress who will not seek re-election this year. According to the Sun-Times, Rushs district is so densely Democratic, it is all but inevitable that it remains blue. Rush is expected to make the announcement Tuesday at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, which is where the funeral for 14-year-old boy Emmett Till was held in 1955, a death that was a clarion call for the beginning of the modern civil rights movement. The congressman has worked actively to pass a federal anti-lynching bill named after the slain teen, an effort thats been repeatedly blocked in the Senate. The bill, which currently has 179 bipartisan co-sponsors, has passed in the House, most recently in 2020, but the objections of one Republican senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has kept it from becoming law. Story continues In March 2012, Rush wore a hoodie on the floor of the House of Representatives in honor of the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was killed by a member of the neighborhood watch in his Sanford, Florida community. Rush pulled the hood over his head and said, Racial profiling has to stop. Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum. He was escorted off the House floor. Elected to Congress in 1992 after serving as an alderman in Chicago for eight years, in 1999, Rush ran to be the citys mayor, but was defeated by Richard Daley in a re-election battle just weeks after his 29-year-old son, Huey (named after Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton), was shot and killed, prompting the lawmakers passion for gun control. Congressman Rush is currently a member of the House Agriculture Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee. Have you subscribed to theGrio podcasts Dear Culture or Acting Up? Download our newest episodes now! TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today! The post U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush to end 30-year career in Congress appeared first on TheGrio. The next month will be crucial on whether war can be averted (Ukrainian Defense Ministry Press Service) As Russian forces continued to mass on Ukraines border and recriminations ratcheted up between Moscow and the west, the recurring and foreboding theme among observers was not whether a conflict will break out, but rather when. One suggested timescale for a Russian attack to take place was last week, during the Christmas and New Year holiday period, when reaction from the US and Europe would have been slower in coming. There were supposed intelligence reports pointing towards this: Nato sent stern warnings to Moscow against taking hasty decisions; a claim from the Russian foreign ministry that Kyiv was planning a chemical incident in the separatist east would be used, it was said, as an excuse for hostilities to begin. That period has come and gone. The headlines in the international media about Ukraine in the last few days have, instead, been about Emily in Paris. Ukraines minister of culture, Oleksandr Tkachenko, complained that a character from Kyiv in the Netflix drama set in the French capital has been insultingly portrayed as a shoplifter, an illegal immigrant, and horror of horrors for fashion conscious Ukrainians having poor dress sense. Netflix has assured that they would be careful in future about pejorative stereotyping, the Ukrainian minister said. But the real life drama of what is happening at Ukraines borders continues and the next month will be crucial on whether war can be averted, despite the sabre-rattling. Senior security figures in Ukraine, including the head of military intelligence, brigadier general Kyrylo Budanov and defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov, have said that any assault is likely to take place at the end of January, or early February; when the conditions would be right for the movement of heavy armour. Ukrainian contingency plans are said to include countering airstrikes, artillery and armour offensives, followed by airborne assaults in the east and amphibious assaults in Odessa and Mariupul. Story continues There is a busy run-up to that time. Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security, is visiting Ukraine this week with a trip to the frontline. Meetings are due to begin between American and Russian officials on 9 January two days after the Orthodox Christmas in Geneva, with a Nato meeting on Ukraine scheduled for next week. There have already been several rounds of high-level talks between Washington and Moscow, without any sign of resolution of the crisis. Last week, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin had a telephone call in which the two presidents reportedly issued warnings to each other. There has also been a series of meetings between senior figures since last November. William Burns, the CIA director and former ambassador to Russia, met Putin; Nikolai Patrushev, the security council secretary; and Sergey Naryshkin, director of foreign intelligence. US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has been talking to Yuriy Ushakov, foreign policy aid to the Russian President. Anthony Blinken, the US secretary of state, met the Russian foreign minister in Stockholm, last month. Putins red line on Ukraine a breach of which the Kremlin says may trigger Russian action has broadened. The demand now is not only that Ukraine must not become a member of Nato, but that interoperability between Ukrainian and Nato forces must be halted; as, in Moscows view, it means Kyiv is joining the alliance by stealth. Russia has now proposed that Nato rescinds the promise made to Ukraine, along with Georgia, in April 2008: that it can join the alliance at some stage in the future. There should be also be an end to military assistance to Ukraine by the US and Nato, and an end to Western military exercises in the country. Nato military exercises, Moscow has put forward, should also end in all former Soviet countries. Natos expansion should be halted, with an assurance that Sweden and Finland would not become members. Most of these demands would not be acceptable to the west and the Kremlin know that. So, one can assume that these are opening gambits for negotiating a status quo which would be more acceptable to Russia and go some way towards addressing its complaint about the US reneging on promises to Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1990s that Nato will not spread eastwards. Russia also appears to have decided that the Minsk II agreement signed with the mediation of France and Germany to end the Ukraine strife has run its course. The Normandy format forum between France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia has been halted. Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for the failure of a settlement over the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics. The direct talks with the US are aimed by the Kremlin, it is thought, at bypassing Paris and Berlin and getting a deal which will be presented to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as a fait accompli. What happens if this does not work? Some senior American politicians appear to believe that a conflict is now almost inevitable. Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has said: I fear Putin is very likely to invade. I dont understand the full motivation for why now hes doing this, but he certainly appears intent on it unless we can persuade him otherwise. And I think nothing other than a level of sanctions that Russia has never seen will deter him, and thats exactly what we need to do with our allies. But the current Russian military build-up is taking place despite sanctions already in place after the annexation of Crimea having significant consequences. The Russian economy has grown by an average of 0.3 per cent a year, compared with a global average of 2.3 per cent. According to some estimates, up to 3 per cent in growth has been lost at a cost of $50bn a year. The threat of military action comes despite the fact that it is likely to lead to the halting of the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a project which began in 2011, and is of commercial and strategic significance to Moscow. If the Russians really have decided on military action, then the question may be if not now, when? Joe Bidens humiliating retreat from Afghanistan has led to speculation that it heralds an era of western defeatism. This is not just the view of adversaries, but allies. Consider how uncertainty about depending on America has led to a new impetus in talks among Sunni Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, with their traditional foe: Iran. Biden has declared that the US and its European allies will respond decisively to any Russian military action. But there are problems and divisions in Europe. The continents strongest leader, Angela Merkel, has retired; members of the new German government are split on how to approach Russia. Emmanuel Macron is occupied with the coming election in France. There has been a series of confrontations between the European Union and the nationalist governments in Poland and Hungary. In addition, Europe is once again the epicentre of the global Covid pandemic. To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here Nato will not put boots on the ground in Ukraine as the British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, correctly pointed out recently. But the cost of mounting an invasion would be high for Russia in terms of deaths and injuries. The 2014 war in eastern Ukraine, along with the continuing violence it spawned, has cost more than 14,000 lives so far. The Ukrainian forces 250,000 strong and armed with some western weaponry will be better able to withstand combat far better than they were seven years ago. This is likely to mean that a conflict would go on for longer and be more attritional, with a massive number of casualties. These are uncertain and dangerous times in the confrontation between Russia, Ukraine and the west. It may well be that negotiations will eventually defuse the crisis. But military brinkmanship can easily lead to fatal miscalculations the law of unintended consequences which has led to devastating wars in the past. MILAN In these uncertain times, Italian entrepreneurs are following their North Star, increasingly turning to what they are confident will provide a competitive advantage i.e., strengthening their companies manufacturing pipeline and supply chain. There is no reason to question whether this will continue in 2022, as the increasing price and scarcity of raw materials, shipment issues and political tensions weigh on companies bottom lines and inventories. More from WWD Zegnas first day of trading in New York on Dec. 20 was certainly newsy enough in itself, but chairman and chief executive officer Gildo Zegna was asked again and again about potential acquisitions, given the additional financial muscle provided by the public listing. The response once again was Zegnas reiterated interest in continuing to build the companys Made in Italy platform. I am a firm believer that nothing in the world compares to Italian craftsmanship and quality, and our goal is to create and have access to the best fabrics, textiles and other materials through our platform, he contended. We need scale. Last summer, Zegna and Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli also made headlines with what was surely a major new partnership between two of the most respected companies in Italy, one that could pave the way for more of the same in the industry. As reported, Zegna and Prada joined forces to acquire a majority stake in cashmere specialist Filati Biagioli Modesto SpA, and Bertelli at the time said: We need more skills and to be stronger. There are no doubts the luxury market will grow its evolving and we are adapting our industrial organizations to offer more service. Both Zegna and Prada have over the years built remarkable production platforms, but their leaders realize more needs to be done in such a competitive sector and to respond to the needs of increasingly savvy and demanding customers. Story continues Protecting the pipeline also factors into these deals through the injection of new capital into small and medium-sized companies that can at times struggle to be competitive, preserving the unique skills of artisans who have contributed to the success of the Made in Italy label and supporting the transition into more sustainable practices, which will be increasingly key. We see the integration of different companies and M&A activities as a positive and encouraging sign, said Claudia DArpizio, a partner at Bain & Co. in Milan. They help companies evolve and get managerial structures, which are crucial to face present and future challenges. One such example is Gruppo Florence, the luxury production pole established in 2020 by industry veteran Francesco Trapani through private equity fund VAM Investments together with Fondo Italiano dInvestimento and Italmobiliare. Its goal is to supply high-quality Made in Italy products to major luxury fashion brands by acquiring family-owned, small and medium-sized Italian companies. However, Trapani believes it is key for Florence to rely on the founders and leaders of these companies to stay on, safeguarding their technical and cultural know-how but helping them to guarantee prompt and flexible deliveries and solutions. Trapani is eyeing additional acquisitions after taking stakes in companies ranging from jersey specialist Manifatture Cesari to outerwear manufacturer Giuntini and knitwear firm Melys. These are all solid and technically advanced firms, which are starting to understand its good to be part of a bigger group, said Trapani, and whose small and medium size can represent a risk for the established and large brands Florence works with and that need to feel safe, the executive contends, warning against a possible fragmentation of suppliers. To be sure, luxury brands rely on the Italian manufacturing pipeline, which covers all product categories and production steps, and the level of service they demand is becoming increasingly more sophisticated, which leads to the requirement for a more structured organization. Mauro Grange, partner of the Made in Italy Fund, which is managed by Quadrivio and Pambianco and invests in wine, food, beauty, fashion and furniture, believes entrepreneurs are now more open to investors because they want to be helped to respond to these demands and not simply sell their companies. The fund, which has invested in companies ranging from Dondup and GCDS to Ghoud and Autry, operates with a long-term view. Its objective is to preserve the brand, working with the owners. Former Gucci and Golden Goose chairman Patrizio di Marco has also become an investor in the Made in Italy Fund and was named president of Ghoud and Autry. Grange believes the fund can help by providing a vision and a support to make bold decisions [that the founders of a company] perhaps would not make on their own. Very often they need to see things from a different perspective and we offer an outside point of view. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. New coronavirus cases leaped in Oregon in the week ending Sunday, rising 102.9% as 10,698 cases were reported. The previous week had 5,273 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19. Oregon ranked fourth among the states where coronavirus was spreading the slowest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States increased 104% from the week before, with 2,833,203 cases reported. With 1.27% of the country's population, Oregon had 0.38% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 49 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before. Christmas and New Year's significantly disrupted who got tested, how many people got tested, what labs operated and what government agencies reported on time. Some of the Christmas weekend reports were shifted into the latest week. Most states reported no cases at all the weekend of New Year's, which will bump those reports into the following week. Consequently, week-to-week comparisons will be skewed and these numbers will be unreliable even as they're accurate to what states reported. Lane County reported 785 cases and two deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 386 cases and five deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 32,273 cases and 383 deaths. COVID protocols: Oregon's game against Colorado Monday is postponed again Within Oregon, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Deschutes County with 562 cases per 100,000 per week; Grant County with 556; and Umatilla County with 419. 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 Multnomah County, with 2,346 cases; Washington County, with 1,447 cases; and Deschutes County, with 1,112. Weekly case counts rose in 30 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Multnomah, Washington and Deschutes counties. Story continues >> See how Lane County compares to Oregon Oregon ranked 20th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 74% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 73.3%, 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. In the week ending Thursday, Oregon reported administering another 81,258 vaccine doses, including 15,236 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 165,757 vaccine doses, including 28,166 first doses. In all, Oregon reported it has administered 6,831,952 total doses. Jenny Trosian with Lane County Public Health checks to ensure information on a COVID-19 test is noted correctly at a mobile clinic in Eugene. Across Oregon, cases fell in four counties, with the best declines in Tillamook County, with 33 cases from 46 a week earlier; in Baker County, with 21 cases from 25; and in Clatsop County, with 42 cases from 43. In Oregon, 57 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 67 people were reported dead. A total of 421,263 people in Oregon have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 5,655 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 55,114,057 people have tested positive and 826,060 people have died. >> Track coronavirus cases across the United States Oregon's COVID-19 hospital admissions rising USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, Jan. 2. Likely COVID patients admitted in the state: Last week: 908 The week before that: 673 Four weeks ago: 802 Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation: Last week: 146,041 The week before that: 99,270 Four weeks ago: 86,518 Hospitals in 42 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 32 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 48 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. The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Lane County COVID cases increased by 785 and deaths by two this week Dakota graduated from Bret Harte in 2013 and went to Davidson College, NC where she earned a bachelor's degree in Arab studies. After spending time studying in the Middle East and Europe, she is happy to be home, writing about the community she loves. Comment Policy Calaveras Enterprise does not actively monitor comments. However, staff does read through to assess reader interest. When abusive or foul language is used or directed toward other commenters, those comments will be deleted. If a commenter continues to use such language, that person will be blocked from commenting. We wish to foster a community of communication and a sharing of ideas, and we truly value readers' input. A group takes a snowy walk on the campus of Hope College Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022 in Holland. OTTAWA COUNTY It's beginning to look a lot more like winter in West Michigan. The weekend's snowfall has stuck around with temperatures hovering around freezing, and forecasters are expecting another half a foot of snow to fall by Friday with a winter storm that arrives in the Great Lakes from the northwest Wednesday. Much of the West Michigan lakeshore, including Ottawa, Allegan, Kent, Muskegon, Mason, Lake, Oceana and Newaygo counties, was placed under a winter storm warning for 4 a.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. Thursday. A snowy Centennial Park sits Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022, in downtown Holland. The National Weather Service's Grand Rapids office warned the winter storm could produce "near blizzard conditions," with strong winds and lake effect snow fall that may be heavy at times. Total expected snow accumulation is between 4 and 9 inches and wind gusts could be as high as 50 miles per hour in southwest and west central Michigan. Areas west of and along U.S.-131 are expected to see the worst conditions, the NWS said. More: Local road commission keeping an eye on snow plow driver staff as winter looms More: MiSustainable Holland: Control winter salt and sand to keep our water clean The storm could affect road travel with snow-covered or ice-covered roads and reduced visibility, including possible whiteout conditions. Scattered power outages are also possible during the storm, the NWS warned. The view of the Macatawa River as it sits frozen over after the season's first major snowfall Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022, in Holland. Cold temperatures are expected to accompany the snowfall. Temperatures are predicted to drop during the day from the low 30s to 19 degrees Fahrenheit in Holland by 4 p.m. Wednesday. The colder temperatures continue through Thursday and Friday with highs in the low 20s and and lows of 12 degrees and 10 degrees, respectively. Snow may continue throughout the day Thursday and into Thursday night along the lakeshore. The NWS said it was difficult to predict snowfall totals for Wednesday and Thursday but the heaviest snowfall is expected around the U.S.-131 corridor. A winter storm warning was also issued for counties in the northern lower peninsula, Leelanau, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Manistee and Wexford counties and Beaver Island, with expected snow accumulation of 5 to 10 inches in that region. Contact reporter Carolyn Muyskens at cmuyskens@hollandsentinel.com and follow her on Twitter at @cjmuyskens. This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Winter storm warning in effect through Thursday morning The daily tally of coronavirus infections in Japan has topped 1,000 for the first time in three months. The spike comes as health authorities rush to contain the more transmissible Omicron variant, which is rapidly spreading nationwide. The southern prefecture of Okinawa is currently a hotspot. Officials reported over 200 cases on Tuesday, the largest tally since September. Okinawa Governor Tamaki Denny said, "We consider Okinawa to be in its sixth wave of the outbreak." He explained that most cases are among people in the age range 20 to 50 and that many became infected through dining out in groups. Tamaki said that he's considering asking the central government to declare a quasi-emergency in the prefecture. Meanwhile, the tally of new cases in Tokyo has been above the 100 mark for two straight days. Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko said, "Omicron infections have been confirmed in Tokyo, and we are seeing a rapid increase after the New Year holidays." Japan's borders are coming under strain too. A hospital near Narita Airport is dealing with more coronavirus patients. Most of them tested positive upon arrival in the country. The doctors and nurses say all travelers are assumed to have the Omicron variant until a genome analysis proves otherwise. A member of the government's expert panel on the pandemic says he expects the variant to continue surging in the weeks ahead. Toyota Camry, take a bow. Prius, bask in the limelight. Strong demand for those models helped propel the Japanese carmaker onto the throne as the worlds largest auto seller at least for the first quarter of 2007. Through a shrewd combination of investing in environment-friendly vehicles, offering sharp new models and wooing drivers with brand power, Toyota has toppled GM from the top global sales spot for the first time ever, sales figured released on Tuesday show. Whether it becomes the worlds No. 1 automaker depends on annual worldwide vehicle production, rather than sales, and final bragging rights for that wont be decided until production numbers are tallied for the whole year. But analysts say Toyota is advancing precisely in those areas that General Motors Corp. has fallen behind, making it likely that Toyota will snatch from GM the title it has held for 76 years. Toyota Motor Corp. sold 2.35 million vehicles worldwide in the January-March period, surpassing the 2.26 million vehicles GM sold in the quarter, according to preliminary figures. In 2006, Toyotas global output rose 10 percent to 9.018 million vehicles, while GM and its affiliates produced 9.18 million vehicles worldwide a gap of about 162,000. In the first quarter, Toyota made 2.37 million vehicles worldwide, while GM has only given a planned production number of 2.34 million vehicles. But Toyota has long beaten GM in profitability, racking up record profits for the past four years, with $11.8 billion profit for the fiscal year through March 2006. GM lost $2 billion last year. The U.S. military in Japan accounted for another 242 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday as the winter coronavirus surge continues, according to military and Japanese reports. Marine Corps installations reported the bulk of those increases. The total at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, 25 miles south of Hiroshima, grew to 240 with another 50 counted on Monday and 47 on Tuesday, according to base news releases. That cluster started with eight confirmed cases on Dec. 27. Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji, 65 miles southwest of Tokyo, reported another 31 people with COVID-19 on Monday for 41 total since Dec. 27, according to a base news release Tuesday. Camp Fuji also raised its health protection level to Bravo, the third command to do so since Camp Hansen, Okinawa, on Dec. 17. The commander of Misawa Air Base in northeastern Japan, Col. Jesse Friedel, raised its level to Bravo on Dec. 29, citing a record number of cases on the installation. Condition Bravo means an increased risk of the virus spreading. It also entails indoor mask mandates and tighter restrictions on group gatherings, among other restrictions. The coronavirus wave that began in mid-December is attributed by some commanders to personnel returning from holiday leave or relocating to Japan on new assignments. Contact tracing reveals the virus spreading. The 270,000-square-foot Amazon Sortation Center under construction at South 24th Street and Veterans Memorial Highway in Council Bluffs will open in late 2022, an Amazon spokesperson said late last week.. The exact date has yet to be determined, according to Caitlin Polochak, public relations officer. The company will not start hiring workers for the facility until 30 days before that. Currently, the structure is almost completely enclosed, but work on the interior is in the early stages. The center is expected to employ 500 people when fully staffed and will receive customer orders from around the country and route them to destinations in Iowa. Amazons website says its jobs pay at least $15 an hour and have an average starting wage of $18 an hour. Full-time employees are eligible for comprehensive benefits starting on their first day. (However, many of its drivers work for subcontractors.) Amazon is also building a 2.9 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Davenport and a 700,000-square-foot distribution center in Sarpy County, Nebraska. The company acquired the 50.56-acre Council Bluffs site in June for $12.1 million and had to demolish and remove the foundation of a cold storage facility before it could perform grading to prepare the site for the sortation centers construction. XTL started construction of the cold storage building in spring 2016 but later bailed out of the project. Its plan was to build a 155,000-square-foot facility. Amazon plans to hire 100,000 veterans and military spouses by 2024, according to its website. The company said it created a total of 400,000 U.S. jobs in 2020. The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Ownership of Mt. Crescent Ski Area is moving to Pottawattamie County. The county said it was able to receive ownership with the help of the Iowa West Foundation and Mt. Crescent owners, Korby and Samantha Fleischer. The county finalized the deal on Dec. 30, 2021. The county purchased the business for about $3.5 million, paying for it with an Iowa West grant of around $1.4 million and American Rescue Plan Act funds, according to Pottawattamie County Supervisor Justin Schultz. We are beyond pleased to partner with the county and the Fleischers to support the transition of this regional destination Brenda Mainwaring, president and CEO of the Iowa West Foundation, said in a press release. The last two years have reminded us just how important outdoor recreational spaces are to our communities. By providing the additional support needed to make this transition a reality, we know that the County can continue to support conservation and recreation in our region for years to come. Schultz said the board examined the criteria of the American Rescue Plan and "determined we were able to leverage that money" for the purchase. "This is big news for Mt. Crescent and our county," he said. The ski area, which sits adjacent to the Hitchcock Nature Center, will continue to be managed by the Fleischers through the remainder of the current season. From there, the Fleischers will have the right of first refusal for operations contracts for two years, Schultz said. We have been lucky and blessed to have the opportunity to operate a popular ski area for the past 13 years and to be surrounded by dedicated staff, wonderful ski and snowboard enthusiasts and the best volunteer Ski Patrol around, the Fleischers said in the release. We are confident and excited that Pottawattamie County will protect and expand upon what our family has worked so hard to create. Once the management of the property has been transitioned, the county may begin exploring the feasibility of further recreational development of the area, the release said. Schultz said the county is looking at additional options to make it "an even bigger revenue generator." "This will always be a ski hill," he said. "We'll lease it out to other organizations to run it." Schultz said the purchase is part of a long-term plan to purchase the entire bluff in the Hitchcock Nature Center area, noting, "Getting Mt. Crescent is a big part of that." "This was several years in the making," he said, noting that negotiations broke down a few years ago before both parties came back to the table to finalize a deal. Mt. Crescent is located at 17026 Snowhill Lane in Honey Creek. For more information on hours and activities go to skicrescent.com. Iowa Reps. Jon Jacobsen, R-Council Bluffs, and Mark Cisneros, R-Muscatine, are promoting a bill that would ban employers from requiring workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or "discriminating" against employees, job candidates or customers based on their vaccination status. The two plan to introduce the bill when the Iowa Legislature convenes on Jan. 10. Jacobsen visited The Daily Nonpareil Tuesday morning with a group of people who support the bill. It embraces the standards weve had going back to the Nuremberg code in the 1940s, Jacobsen said, highlighting the prohibition on people being coerced into receiving medical treatment or being treated without their informed consent. What were saying with employer mandates is, theyre using this as a one-size-fits-all, he said. One size does not fit all. Jacobsen characterized vaccine mandates as a form of discrimination or even enslavement. If were working for an employer that has control over our bodies, thats no longer an employer-employee relationship, he said. Its slavery. Some people are even being denied medical or religious exemptions to vaccination mandates, he said. If approved, the bill would prohibit a person or business from inquiring about or maintaining records of an individuals medical treatment status (including vaccinations), except for the purpose of providing treatment and care to that individual, according to a press release distributed by Jacobsen and Cisneros. It would also make it unlawful for someone, based on their vaccination status, to be: Fired (or not hired) Provided incentives or disincentives Segregated from others or discriminated against Denied goods or services This bill is the complete package and will truly address the rightful concerns and hardships Iowans have been facing in light of these COVID mandates, Cisneros said in the press release. Health and safety has consistently fallen under state purview to address. We dont need to wait for any more court rulings, because by law, that power is given to the local elected officials of the Iowa Legislature. I look forward to working with my colleagues to get these necessary protections in Iowa law. Build your health & fitness knowledge Sign up here to get the latest health & fitness updates in your inbox every week! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol have arrested a Kimball man accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend in the head Monday. Authorities arrested William S. Serrano, known as Shane Serrano, 36, in the shooting death of Tessa Ghering, 21. The Kimball Police Department requested assistance from the State Patrol after officers responded to a shooting at a home in the Panhandle community, according to a patrol news release. At the scene, officers found Ghering dead of an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Two children were in the home at the time of the shooting but were unharmed. They are now with their mother. Information on social media indicated that Ghering had moved to Kimball in mid-2019 with her boyfriend. She listed herself as working as a nurses' assistant at Kimball County Manor. Her father, Ryan Ghering, has posted that he is fundraising for her memorial services. Serrano is being held at the Scotts Bluff County Detention Center, and charges are pending. The State Patrol is the lead investigating agency, with assistance from the Kimball Police Department and Kimball County Sheriffs Office. The investigation is ongoing. Of the 200,000 COVID-19 tests Anne Arundel County ordered last week, 100,000 will be going to the more than 80,000 students at Anne Arundel County Public Schools as well as school staff. The first priority was to get them to these families who have kids going back to school so that we can slow the spread of this virus in schools, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman said. Advertisement The tests were expected to arrive last week, Pittman said, but have yet to come. He anticipates theyll be here within days. [ Amid rising COVID cases, Anne Arundel County Executive Pittman reinstitutes mask mandate ] The other 100,000 will be distributed through our libraries, our churches and some of our partners who have helped us to reach underserved communities, Pittman said. Advertisement The county doesnt quite have the full picture of how much COVID-19 is spreading through the community, but officials know this trajectory is unsustainable. The COVID case rate is really unknown at this point because we only have the data from these PCR tests. Most people are testing with take-home tests, Pittman said. So the number of infections is higher than what is reported; I think theres a consensus on that. On Tuesday, the case rate calculated from tests that are reported to the county is up to 176 positive tests per 100,000 residents per day, Anne Arundel County Health Officer Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman said. Last week, the countys case rate reached 109 positive cases per 100,000 residents per day, and that was more than five times the 20 cases per 100,000 average at the beginning of last month. Nobody can keep up with the number of cases, Kalyanaraman said. Breaking News Alerts As it happens When big news breaks in our area, be the first to know. > Data the county is able to keep track of comprehensively is hospitalizations, which are skyrocketing. We have 252 COVID patients hospitalized. We were shocked when it went from the low 40s to the low 80s just about two weeks ago, and these numbers just keep shooting up, Pittman said. Kalyanaraman said the pressure on hospitals affects all residents, whether or not they have COVID-19. [ Anne Arundel Community College asks staff to work remotely until Jan. 9 ] This has put tremendous strain on our hospitals, Kalyanaraman said. They came out with their declarations last week that theyre continuing to have to adjust. That is going to change the ways people get care. More surgeries that people really depend on and need for their health are going to be postponed. Its just going to take longer to get care. This has a ripple effect; even if you dont think youre going to be harmed because of COVID, we all need health care. And hospitals are some of the most important civic institutions we have. Advertisement The University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie and the Luminis Health network, which includes hospitals in Annapolis and Lanham, shifted last week to crisis and contingency standards of care. The change means the hospitals can take emergency measures to ease some of the burden on doctors and nurses, including postponing some surgical procedures, cutting back on documentation and converting physical spaces to other uses as needed. This comes the same morning Gov. Larry Hogan announced a 30-day state of emergency, which allows the state to mobilize 1,000 members of the Maryland National Guard, open more testing sites and tap into other resources to combat the spread of COVID-19. The governor also announced Monday that face masks would be required in all state buildings. I think the governor is doing a good job on this, Pittman said. I feel like we have an ally in the governors office in this battle. Individuals facing mental health crises could find comfort and added anonymity when they gain the option to text a suicide prevention hotline, local experts say. The Federal Communications Commission in 2020 voted to require phone companies to support the 988 number to allow people to reach an existing suicide prevention hotline. In November, the commission voted to require a texting option, too. Phone companies have until July 2022 to implement the 988 number for calling and texting. People facing a physical injury don't hesitate to call 911, head to the emergency room and seek treatment, said Sheri Dawson, behavioral health director within the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. But individuals facing mental health issues still feel a stigma. "There's still shame," Dawson said. "It's OK not to be OK, just like it is on the physical health side." Texting allows for more anonymity, which may make people in crisis more apt to be honest about their thoughts and feelings, said Kris Bosiljevac, manager of the Boys Town National Crisis Line. Texting could prove popular with younger people, who over the years have been less likely to pick up the phone to reach out for help, Bosiljevac said. Instead, they're more comfortable chatting online. But the option to text also benefits individuals who are deaf, have hearing loss or speech disabilities. "It's a wonderful move," Bosiljevac said. "Everybody knows to call 911 when they've got a police emergency. The 988 is kind of that number for mental health situations. It's the whole continuum." The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline currently uses a 10-digit number, 800-273-8255, which routes calls to about 170 crisis centers, including the one at Boys Town. The FCC said that 988 already is accessible via the country's largest cellphone companies AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. Suicide rates largely have been going up in the U.S. for the past two decades, although they dropped slightly last year, when officials say nearly 45,000 people died by suicide. Suicide was the ninth-leading cause of death in 2019, according to the latest data provided by the state. It was the second-leading cause in those ages 15 to 24 and 25 to 34. When state officials started planning for the 988 rollout, they also decided to look at other protocols that aid those facing mental health crises, Dawson said. State officials knew the call center would need updates as far as how to answer calls and texts, Dawson said. But with additional grant funds, they decided to also consider the state's mobile crisis response teams and making sure individuals have somewhere to go after a crisis, if needed. "Within the state of Nebraska, in terms of crisis services, there has been active work in trying to continue to grow that continuum," Dawson said. Making sure people have someone to talk to, someone to respond and somewhere to go will help to "level the playing field across Nebraska" and ensure consistent standards of care, Dawson said. This report includes material from The Associated Press. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Egypt is expected to receive, this year, the permission to build two nuclear plants for electricity generation. Amjad Al-Wakeel, Chairman of Egypts Nuclear Power Plant Authority (NPPA), told Zawya the projects already in phases will be implemented in the second half of 2022. NPPA is coordinating with the contractor Rosatom of Russia to obtain international permission for the project, Al-Wakeel also indicated. The two partners signed, in November 2015, an agreement to build the Arab countrys first nuclear power plant in Dabaa with a capacity of 4,700 MW through 4 large units at an estimated cost of $28.5 billion. NPPA has launched phase 1 of the nuclear facilities in Dabaa [El-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant] on the Northern Mediterranean coast, involving designs, infrastructure and equipment, Al-Wakeel also told Zawya. The second phase of the agreement is set to be completed within five years and a half, and this includes installation of equipment and preparation for trial operation of the facilities. Phase 3 will start after obtaining permission for the nuclear facilitiesafterwards, we will begin trial operation for nearly one yearwe have nearly completed Phase 1 and are preparing to enter Phase 2.construction work and equipment installation will begin after we obtain permission for the project, Al-Wakeel stated. Once the project is completed, we will sign a contract for operation, maintenance and management of the facilitiesthis contract may extend for more than 60 years, Al-Wakeel said. Two North Platte residents are accused of passing a pair of counterfeit $100 bills at a convenience store on Christmas. Malia S. Caudillo, 42, and Scott L. Harbick, 37, made initial appearances in Lincoln County Court on Monday. Caudillo is charged with a felony count of first-degree forgery. Harbick is charged with aiding first-degree forgery and is also charged with first-degree forgery for passing a counterfeit bill at another convenience store on Dec. 26. Bail for Caudillo was set at 10% of $15,000, and bail for each of Harbicks cases was set at 10% of $15,000. Caudillo and Harbick are both scheduled for preliminary hearings Jan. 13. According to court records: Store surveillance captured Caudillo, an employee of the Fat Dogs at 1330 S. Dewey St., walk behind the stores counter and remove a pair of $100 bills from her purse. She then placed one of the bills in the register and handed Harbick bills and change for a pop that he had brought to the counter. Caudillo put the other $100 bill in a second register and exchanged it for smaller bills, which she then handed to Harbick as well. The counterfeit bills had the same serial numbers and a Chinese symbol printed on the backs of them. The bills also had wide white edges on the left and right sides. Early Dec. 26 Harbick changed a counterfeit bill with the same characteristics at the Fat Dogs on 102 Holiday Frontage Road. He came back a half-hour later with another counterfeit bill and asked to exchange it with smaller bills. The clerk then realized the bills were counterfeit and denied Harbicks request. More by Tim Johnson Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Lincoln County commissioners approved change orders Monday for the Lincoln County Courthouse second- and third-floor bathroom remodeling. Commissioner Micaela Wuehler indicated the changes would create a longer-lasting result. The additional cost would be $15,900. I think we all realize the value of doing a job right, Wuehler said. Its hard when youre working in a 100-year-old building. You dont always know whats behind walls when you start tearing things out. Dowhower Construction said it had run into some areas of the walls that were uneven. Initially we thought with some small adjustments that we could correct that, Wuehler said. Mark Luttrell (of Dowhower) said once the walls were removed, the variation was so great that it could not be corrected with small adjustments to the wall. It needed to be reframed properly. Wuehler said although the cost will be a little higher up front, it will save the county money in the long run. If we dont do it right while were in there working on it now, theres going to be cracking, Wuehler said. Its just best to do it up front. The board discussed recommendations on elected officials salaries from the Nebraska Association of County Officials. State statute requires the commissioners to set the salaries every four years. NACO recommended the base salary of $66,000 be increased to between a minimum of about $73,920 and a maximum of about $94,000. If we took their recommendation to move our base salary for our elected officials up to that number, the percentage would be about 12%, Chairman Kent Weems said. Weems said the board previously has set a value for each office and then added a percentage to the base salary depending on the duties performed by each. Currently the officials receive an annual cost-of-living increase. Deputy County Attorney Tyler Volkmer told the board the resolution has to be specific concerning the salaries, which will cover the years from January 2023 to January 2027. There has to be a built-in escalation (of salaries), Volkmer said. The values have to be spelled out in the resolution. The agenda item was for discussion only and no action was taken at Mondays meeting. The board asked Volkmer to draft a resolution that would meet the statutory requirements. The board will make adjustments as needed and vote on the resolution at the Jan. 10 meeting. The deadline for passing the resolution is Jan. 15. Highway Superintendent, Carla ODell gave a report on the projects that were completed in 2021. She said there were several overlay projects including the roads at Lake Maloney; the county portion of the entrance to Fairway Estates; and Eshelman Road from Hall School Road north. Every year, she said, her department adds a couple of bridge replacement projects. We started several years ago with approximately 140 of those old wooden bridges and were down to 18 now, ODell said. Some of those old wooden bridges were just about ready to cave in. ODell thanked the commissioners for allowing her department to purchase the equipment needed to maintain the county roads. Commissioners Joe Hewgley and Chris Bruns were both absent from Mondays meeting. More by Job Vigil Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A changing of the guard will begin for west central Nebraskas five state senators as the Legislatures short 60-day 2022 session opens at 10 a.m. CT Wednesday. Theyve served together in Lincoln since January 2017, with all but one leading a committee for at least four years in that time. But their sixth such session will be their last. Three will be term-limited out next January, and one of those Gothenburg Sen. Matt Williams officially serves a district that left ahead of him. None of the five expects to stand by as the 49 lawmakers decide how best to spend federal windfalls while mulling partisan-tinged battles linked to state or national issues. I think over the past five years, youve seen I get engaged from time to time, said Bayard Sen. Steve Erdman. If other senators threaten to hold up the whole session, thats their prerogative. Three weeks after senators close the 107th Legislature April 20, voters in The Telegraphs coverage area will start choosing half of a shrunken four-member 2023 delegation in the May 10 primary election. District 42 voters in Lincoln County will be joined for the first time by neighbors in Logan, McPherson, Hooker, Thomas and most of Perkins counties in picking a successor to North Platte Sen. Mike Groene. Venango Sen. Dan Hughes District 44 successor will likewise be chosen from a reconfigured district, one that still covers most of southwest Nebraska but stretches northeast to Dawson County after Septembers special redistricting session. Sens. Tom Brewer of Gordon (District 43) and Erdman (District 47) each will serve in the 2023 and 2024 sessions before both must retire due to term limits. Williams District 36, meanwhile, exists practically if not legally in two places. Lawmakers moved it to western Sarpy County, where voters will name his successor in the Nov. 8 general election. But until his term ends, Williams said, hell keep serving the people who twice elected him in Dawson, Custer and northern Buffalo counties. Theyre the ones who have contacted me and have worked with me in the past. He said itll be the same with Sens. Bob Clements of Elmwood and Jen Day of Omaha, from whose districts the new District 36 was carved. So I dont think anybody in the old 36 or new 36 will feel unrepresented, he said. Senators webpages still include their old district maps, though visitors to nebraskalegislature.gov can find their new districts by entering home addresses. As usual in even-numbered years, committee and floor action will reflect the Legislatures compressed second-session calendar. Leftover bills from 2021 remain technically alive, senators said, but most probably wont go anywhere unless theyre designated as priority bills for 2022. That leaves lawmakers, committees and Speaker Mike Hilgers of Lincoln until late February or early March to finish new bills required public hearings and choose which bills to prioritize over their remaining time. Two west central Nebraska senators again will be in the middle of those talks as chairmen of the committees with the longest names: Banking, Commerce and Insurance (Williams) and Government, Military and Veterans Affairs (Brewer). So will Hughes, who begins his second year leading the Executive Board that handles internal Unicameral matters. He previously chaired the Natural Resources Committee from 2017 to 2020. Erdman and Groene, who was Education Committee chairman those same four years, agreed with them that Nebraska isnt lacking for repairs and upgrades on which to spend federal COVID-19 and infrastructure aid as well as higher-than-expected state revenues. All warned against using Washington windfalls to start programs that cant be sustained if and when Nebraskas agricultural economy again dips and takes state income- and sales-tax revenue with it. Williams said he and Gering Sen. John Stinner, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, are among lawmakers who fear regular state revenues are artificially flush due to consumer spending driven by two years of COVID-19 aid for individuals. Brewer agreed. We will put ourselves in a horrible position if we put in programs that dont have a future to them, he said. Extending and improving broadband services was at or near the top of regional senators lists for pandemic aid. Rural roads and bridges also should benefit from COVID-19 aid or the funds from the infrastructure law Congress passed in November, they said. I think its pretty universal within the body that the buildout of broadband to unserved and underserved areas should go (through) fairly quickly and easily, Hughes said. Groene also renewed his pledge to steer some pandemic aid toward helping Sustainable Beef LLC complete its $325 million financing package for a new beef processing plant in North Platte. Some west central Nebraska senators expect to carry bills related to statewide or national controversies like election reform, gun rights, vaccine mandates and how racial issues are taught in schools and universities. But they generally agreed its premature to push for new limits on abortion this session. Its unclear whether either or both expected U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the issue will be released before senators adjourn. Theres other issues in 60 days that are hot-button bills for the social conservatives to concentrate on, Groene said. Most of the regions senators took dim views of a major state school aid plan authored by two Columbus administrators and endorsed by Fremont Sen. Lynne Walz, Groenes successor atop the Education Committee. Their reasons included the sessions brevity, skepticism rural districts would benefit as promised and Gov. Pete Ricketts past refusals to back higher sales taxes or fewer sales tax exemptions to fund higher aid. Thats kind of a big hurdle, and I dont see that happening especially in an election year, Hughes said. Groene, who called the Walz-backed plan terrible, said he and Omaha Sen. Lou Ann Linehan may revive their foiled 2019-20 school-aid rewrite as an alternative. Linehan chairs the tax-writing Revenue Committee. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A federal judge has rejected U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberrys first barrage of defense attacks on the indictment against the nine-term Nebraska congressman. U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. denied four of Fortenberrys motions to dismiss charges and a fifth motion to disqualify a prosecutor the defense contends should be called as a witness in the case. In a December hearing, Blumenfeld had sharply questioned Fortenberry attorney John Littrells attempt to disqualify lead prosecutor Mack Jenkins, who heads up a division that handles public corruption cases. One of the charges came because, prosecutors allege, Fortenberry didn't come clean to Jenkins. Blumenfeld asked whether defense attorneys would push for entire offices of prosecutors to be disqualified over involvement in an investigation. How far does that go? Blumenfeld asked at the Dec. 11 hearing. Fortenberry, who has represented eastern Nebraskas 1st District since 2005, is charged with three felonies two counts of making false statements to federal agents and one count of seeking to conceal the source of $30,000 in conduit political contributions from a 2016 California fundraiser. The funds originated with Gilbert Chagoury, a Paris-based Nigerian, who purportedly directed the donations to Fortenberry because of a shared interest in protecting Christians from persecution in the Middle East. It is illegal for foreigners to donate to U.S. political campaigns. In his rulings last week, the judge also rejected Fortenberrys defense teams motions to: * Dismiss one of the three felony counts because it involved the same fact pattern as another charge and therefore was redundant. * Dismiss the indictment on the allegation that prosecutors venue shopped and filed it in California, even though Fortenberry has no meaningful connection to California and is based in Nebraska. * Dismiss the indictment for failure to allege materiality, on the notion that Fortenberrys statements to investigators were not substantive in the course of an investigation. * Dismiss one of the counts because it fails to allege that Congressman Fortenberry had a duty to disclose what he had been told about where the campaign funds came from. The judge rejected all of those motions without comment. One of the charges against Fortenberry grew out of a July 2019 interview in Washington, D.C., in which Jenkins, an assistant U.S. attorney based in Los Angeles, asked some of the questions posed to Fortenberry. Prosecutors allege that Fortenberry lied during that interview, and an earlier interview at his Lincoln home, about the origin of the $30,000. They claim that Fortenberry had been informed that the money probably came from Chagoury during a 2018 phone call from the organizer of the California fundraiser who, by then, was cooperating with the FBI. The embattled congressman still has other challenges ahead. A hearing on the next set of challenges is expected next week. Writer Beer & Society There is nothing that cannot be discussed and worked out over a beer. Join me as I explore local beer, breweries and how they can civilize us. As patient volumes surge at Maryland hospitals amid soaring COVID-19 infections statewide, Gov. Larry Hogan implemented a temporary state of emergency Tuesday as well as other executive orders designed to give the state government more powers and tools to combat the health crisis. The Republican governor, however, did not implement statewide indoor mask or vaccination mandates, steps that public health experts and medical professionals say would curb the spread of the coronavirus in a state where more than 1 out of every 25 Marylanders has been infected since the beginning of December. Advertisement While we are hoping for the best, we are actively preparing for the worst, said Hogan, adding that the latest projections show state COVID hospitalizations could reach more than 5,000, well above Tuesdays pandemic high of just over 3,000. People stand in line for over two hours to get a COVID test at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air on Tuesday. (Kenneth K. Lam) Hogans new initiatives, announced at a news conference in Annapolis, give state Health Secretary Dennis R. Schrader broad powers to assist hospitals with soaring bed occupancy numbers and staff shortages; expand the emergency medical services workforce; mobilize 1,000 members of the Maryland National Guard to assist with COVID-19 testing sites and some patient transport operations; open 20 new coronavirus testing sites adjacent to hospitals, which have reported high numbers of emergency department walk-ins seeking testing; and begin providing booster shots for 12- to 15-year-old kids in the state. Advertisement Without requirements on masking and vaccinations, though, the states hospitals will not be able to recover lost footing as quickly, said Dr. Eric Toner, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. We have learned over the last year and a half that mask mandates work but voluntary masking recommendations do not, said Toner, also an internist and emergency physician. Masking is the least restrictive intervention we can employ to slow down transmission before our hospitals are completely overwhelmed. High-quality N95 masks should be worn by everyone while indoors in public spaces until the current surge has passed. [ Graphics: How are Maryland COVID cases, vaccinations and other metrics trending? ] Hogan directed the states employers to incentivize masks in workplaces, as well as encourage vaccinations and boosters among employees. He said we dont have the means to enforce a statewide mask mandate, and that people who choose not to wear masks wont change their minds under threat of a government requirement. But early on in the pandemic, the governor issued a mask mandate for public transit, indoor businesses, stores, pharmacies and other retail establishments. That mandate expired in May. He kept a partial mask mandate in place until July, and reinstituted a face coverings requirement Monday for inside state buildings and offices. Hogans decision to not require masks statewide is a political calculation that assesses what damage a mandate could have on his standing with constituents, as well as what the public will reasonably tolerate, said Dr. Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist and the Desmond M. Tutu professor of public health and human rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Mandates work, Beyrer said, but they may be unpopular among the Republican governors supporters, as well as those he might court in the future. Hes leaving it more to the counties to make decisions about other kinds of mandates, but this virus does not respect county boundaries or state boundaries, Beyrer said. From a public health perspective, to let that be at the county level is easy for a governor, but not as effective. Some local entities, such as Baltimore, Howard and Anne Arundel counties, have reinstated indoor mask requirements within the past month. Advertisement In addition to a mask mandate, Hogan should require state employees to be fully vaccinated, said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency medicine physician and former Baltimore health commissioner. This requirement should include booster shots, which are helping reduce transmission and severe illness, she said. If Hogan wont touch mandates, local executives and jurisdiction leaders can step in, Wen said, by implementing vaccination requirements to enter businesses, attend concerts and athletic events, eat in restaurants and work out in gyms. Other places such as New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia have implemented this step successfully, Wen said. Its the unvaccinated who make up the majority of people being hospitalized, and every step needs to be taken to stop transmission in this population so as to reduce the strain on the health care system, Wen said. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in a Tuesday interview that he would meet Wednesday with other regional leaders to discuss such a regional vaccine passport requirement. We have to be thinking about this in lieu of the governor, Scott said. I tell folks, look, hes not going to do anything, so we should assume hes not going to do anything. Hes going to punt to us and when it goes wrong, hell blame us. When it goes right and were in the national media as one of the cities dealing with COVID the best, hell take the credit. Thats just the way he is. Just take him as is and operate in our best interest. Advertisement interactive_content Meanwhile, the states hospitals are overwhelmed, said Dr. Ted Delbridge, executive director of the Maryland Institute of Emergency Medical Systems, which transports and matches patients to the right providers during emergencies. The 3,057 COVID-19 patients hospitalized Tuesday occupy 37% of the staffed acute care hospital beds and 45% of the staffed intensive care beds statewide. Meanwhile, flu and other seasonal illnesses also are bringing people into hospitals, Delbridge said. Our hospitals are struggling to deal with the number of sick people coming to them, Delbridge said. Its just plain sad. For our health care heroes, it takes a toll. Emergency departments at hospitals throughout the state are as busy as they ever have been, Delbridge said, while emergency medicine first responders are reporting delays in tending to calls due to resource limitations. He said patients experiencing heart attack and stroke symptoms should continue to go to hospital emergency departments, while people with less urgent needs, such as minor illnesses or injuries, should seek care elsewhere. Above all, he said, patients who are seeking COVID-19 testing should make use of state and local clinics, not hospitals. Advertisement Several hospitals statewide have adjusted protocols and internal standards to meet the demands of the moment, including University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, which announced its shift to made crisis-mode Monday. Such changes give hospitals greater authority to delay some surgical procedures to conserve providers and bed space; allows them to cut back on certain responsibilities, such as documentation, for the time being; and enables them to shift workers more readily between departments based on needs. Under Hogans executive order, inactive health care practitioners will be able to work without reinstating their licenses, while licensed providers can practice outside the scope of their licenses and those who have completed nursing school can work at any health care facility. Providers licensed in other states also will be able to work in Maryland, according to the order. The governors other executive order will authorize steps to beef up the emergency medical services workforce, allowing those who are licensed outside of Maryland to work here and expediting the licensing process in the state. Hogan also called on the federal government to increase its supplies of monoclonal antibody treatments, rapid tests and COVID-19 antiviral pills, all of which have been depleted during the latest wave of the virus. The state health department instructed providers last month to conserve monoclonal antibody therapies for certain patients based on need after the federal government found two of the three treatments to be ineffective against the new omicron variant, which became the dominant strain in the U.S. in less than a month. Breaking News Alerts As it happens When big news breaks in our area, be the first to know. > Hopkins Beyrer said such steps should provide some relief to hospitals. Its important to say that he talked about the things he can do, and what the fed needs to be doing, and thats appropriate, he said. The focus of what hes trying to do is reduce hospitalizations and deaths, and clearly hes doing so without stepping in the politically divisive issue of mandates. Advertisement Hogan called vaccines the single most important tool to combat the virus. He said 84% of last years COVID hospitalizations and an even greater share of the deaths were not fully vaccinated. Some people were hospitalized who were partially vaccinated, he said, which makes getting booster doses all the more important. The governor, who recently recovered from COVID-19, said his case felt like a pretty bad cold. Thats because I was fully vaccinated and boosted, he said. So, I didnt end up in the hospital or dead like so many other folks. Hogan said he also received monoclonal antibody treatment during his illness, which he believes prevented his condition from worsening. Baltimore Sun reporters Meredith Cohn and Emily Opilo contributed to this article. You are clearly a super-user of NUVO.net. Thats a good thing. It means you depend on independent and local news sources to keep you informed. You are a smart person. Coincidentally, independent and local news sources depend on you too. Youve read 25 articles this month and now, wed like you to be join our mission and become a NUVO Supporter. For as little as $4 a month, you can keep us alive and fighting -- and can have unlimited access to the independent news that cant be found anywhere else. Everyone who is anyone has covid right now. Photo: Andy Ryan/Getty Images Yesterday, I jumped in line at my local City MD, at Lexington and 79th. By the time I got swabbed two hours later, the blue check mafia had worked itself into a full-on Omicron meltdown. What remained of the media-holiday-party industrial complex collapsed in a single afternoon. It began, as these things often do, in the group chats. Everyone seemed to know someone whod tested positive that very morning. Suddenly, it all spilled on to Twitter. were calling the wave of COVID currently ravaging Brooklyn The Media Variant, tweeted BuzzFeeds Julia Reinstein. Business Insiders Jake Swearingen wrote: you have about 12 hours left to get covid if you want to stay on trend. The writer Jamie Lauren Keiles: everyone who is anyone has covid right now. Podcast czar Lydia Polgreen tried to de-escalate, tweeting, I dont think this means shutting back down. I think it has to mean accepting that getting COVID is just a thing thats going to happen to all of us, so behave accordingly (and get vaccinated). But it was too late. In true media fashion, the finger pointing soon began. One person tweeted that he mustve caught the variant at an LCD Soundsystem show on Thursday and that he was choosing to blame the awful, coked-out group behind me. Surely the most inane attempt at an Omicron-shaming came from Bryan Goldbergs resurrected Gawker, which posted a so-called blind item that asked simply: Which media companys very large holiday party resulted in a rash of COVID diagnoses? Hmmm, maybe all of them? BuzzFeed had a big one on West 26th Street. As Nate Freeman reported in his Vanity Fair column, the Architectural Digest folks partied at Dr. Clark and Larry Gagosian threw a shindig at his mansion on the Upper East Side. This magazine had its holiday party last week, too, just off Union Square. Media scolds, perhaps buzzing off an afternoon hit of Blue Bottle, were starting to freak everyone out. Jake Tapper tweeted a picture of CNNs Christmas sweater contest, affixed with this nervous parenthetical: Everyone is vaccinated and we took masks off for the photos. An editor hosting a holiday dinner on Saturday messaged me to say we will probably cancel/reschedule the party once omicron has culled the weak and only the strong remain. Pete Wells wrote that one of his top ten restaurants of 2021, Contento, in East Harlem, was closing for a couple of days in an abundance of caution. Marea closed its doors, too. By the next morning, the New Yorkers Charles Duhigg would send around an email with this subject line: CANCELLED: Drinks with Journalists: December 16, Brooklyn. (Even though it was always meant to take place outdoors.) An afternoon report from the Daily News detailed how a whole bureau of the Manhattan District Attorneys office was in quarantine after a holiday party. Dont Be Surprised When You Get Omicron, admonished a new headline in the Atlantic. Ok, I thought, I wont. Shuffling forward a few places in line, I began to tick off the last few days of media partying in my head and wondered if my migraine was more than the usual mid-week hangover. Monday was a movie premiere at MoMA with an after-party at the Polo Bar. Tuesday, the Irish Consulate on Park Avenue. And still to come: Midtown Christmas lunches and magazine parties and whatever else Id blindly RSVPd to. But of course Ive had to cancel all that. I had COVID, too. Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been walking a delicate balancing act on vaccinations, assiduously courting vaccine skeptics without going so far to the right that he lands in Marjorie Taylor Greene territory. Whats revealing about his line is that it keeps moving further and further to the right. Last month, when asked by Fox News host Maria Bartiromo if he had received his booster shot, DeSantis changed the subject. (Bartiromo, shockingly, did not pin him down.) Asked today by the Washington Post, DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw presented this refusal to answer as a matter of principle. Pushaw is not privy to the governors private medical decisions and unable to share information about his booster status or plans, reports the Post. Governor DeSantis has consistently said that vaccination (and by extension, boosters) should be a personal choice, and anyone who has questions or concerns should consult with a healthcare provider, Pushaw wrote. This, however, was not always DeSantiss position. Last spring, DeSantis told the news media he would let it know if and when he received his first dose. Im not sure were going to do it on-camera, well see. If you guys want a gun show, maybe we can do it, but probably better off not, DeSantis said at a news conference. We will let you know when I get the jab. Soon after, his spokesperson disclosed that he received a dose of Johnson & Johnson. So DeSantiss position that his vaccination status is a completely private issue is new. I asked Pushaw to explain the change. She refused to answer the question, instead insisting again upon his right to privacy, declining to explain why DeSantis was insistent on maintaining his privacy now but not last year: Again, Im not privy to the Governors personal medical decisions he has the same right to medical privacy as anyone else. Not sure why this is newsworthy. @GovRonDeSantis has said getting a booster should be a personal choice, consult with your doctor if you have questions. https://t.co/iYt1AdBqkv Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) January 4, 2022 We have no way of knowing what caused DeSantiss change of heart. The explanation that is most consistent with his public behavior is that hes continually extending himself to maintain the support of the anti-vaxxers who clearly form an important part of his base. DeSantis started by attacking vaccine mandates not only banning cities from requiring their employees get vaccines, but even banning private entities like cruise ships from insisting their passengers get jabbed. Then he appeared at a rally with an anti-vaxx activist who falsely claimed the vaccine changes your RNA, refusing to contradict this absurd lie. Then he hired as the states top health official an anti-vaxx nut who stood next to DeSantis as he ranted: People being forced to put something in their bodies that we dont know all there is to know about yet. No matter what people on TV tell you, its not true. Were going to learn more about the safety of these vaccines. Were finding that some of these vaccines, the protection from infection is less than 40 percent. Were going to learn more about the safety of these vaccines, right? Then, for good measure, DeSantis called for Anthony Fauci to be thrown in jail. If DeSantis has suddenly arrived at the principled conclusion that he can no longer disclose his vaccination status for reasons he wont share, that is his right. But it is a bad principle. DeSantis has spent the better part of a year encouraging vaccine skeptics to hold out, and turned his office into a platform to broadcast anti-scientific nonsense. If he admitted he has personally taken a complete vaccine regimen, it would at least mitigate a small amount of the harm hes perpetrated. Alas, even that small step is now too far for him. Trumps latest 2022 endorsee. Photo: Laszlo Balogh/Getty Images Donald Trump has focused a lot of his energies lately on endorsing 2022 candidates for office, particularly in disputed Republican primaries in which he can create a Trumpier-than-thou competition or settle old grudges with past detractors. It sometimes seems not a sparrow falls to the ground in GOP politics without the 45th president viewing the development narcissistically and interpreting it in terms of his own preoccupations. But Trumps latest endorsement Monday shows him reaching pretty far: Viktor Orban of Hungary truly loves his Country and wants safety for his people. He has done a powerful and wonderful job in protecting Hungary, stopping illegal immigration, creating jobs, trade, and should be allowed to continue to do so in the upcoming Election. He is a strong leader and respected by all. He has my Complete support and Endorsement for reelection as Prime Minister! Given Trumps well-known affinity for political strongmen, this may seem like a dog-bites-Hungarian story. But viewed historically, its very unusual, to put it mildly. Sure, presidents make nice with other heads of state in furtherance of foreign-policy interests and as a matter of diplomatic protocol, as do former presidents and future presidential aspirants. And in the Cold War era, U.S. leaders often snuggled up to evil people who shared their antipathy toward communists. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had headed up the allied war effort in World War II, got buddy-buddy with Spains Francisco Franco, who not only killed an awful lot of innocent people and enslaved many more but also sent troops (allegedly volunteers) to fight for Hitler on the Eastern Front. Ike and Franco, 1959. Photo: Alamy Anti-communist solidarity was the ostensible reason for chumminess between the Nixon and Ford administrations and Chiles murderous dictator Augusto Pinochet as well as Reagans stubborn support for the apartheid regime in South Africa. In the latter case, Reagan may also have been currying favor with the southern white racists he was luring into the GOP at the time. Thats another rationale for American elected officials picking favorites in other countries political battles: a desire to pander to domestic constituencies. For many years, pols in northeastern cities were tutored to express love for the three Is Ireland, Italy, and Israel. Occasionally, U.S. leaders have such an obvious ideological and temperamental kinship with a particular foreign leader (e.g., Reagan with Margaret Thatcher or Bill Clinton with Tony Blair) they can be described as strong political allies. That may largely explain Trumps much-professed affection for Brazils Jair Bolsonaro, a similarly fiery and erratic cult-of-personality figure who will almost certainly be the next foreign beneficiary of an explicit Trump endorsement. But in Orbans case, the scary thing is that Trumps admiration of the Hungarian apostle of illiberal democracy is most clearly aspirational. As my colleague Jonathan Chait put it a couple of years ago, Orban is what Trump dreams to become. Like Trump, Orban came to power democratically, and his regime still holds elections. But the Hungarian leader is a wizard at giving himself authoritarian powers that distort democracy into something very dissimilar, much like the heads, I win; tails, you lose system Trump transparently favors where his manifest greatness cannot be legitimately repudiated. So in Orbans Fidesz party, we see Trumps vision for the GOP: a populist model featuring Christian nationalism seasoned with racism and xenophobia, endless attacks on globalist elites, and an ever heavier thumb on the electoral scales. The only apparent domestic constituency for Orban-mania is among the right-wing intellectuals seeking to develop a full-scale MAGA ideology, led by the pseudo-intellectual Fox News gabber Tucker Carlson, who in August spent an entire week hosting his show from Budapest. Adulation for a right-wing, authoritarian, Central European Big Man is quite unseemly for Americans with any sense of history. In 2017, former president Barack Obama endorsed the French presidential candidacy of Emmanuel Macron in what was ostensibly a step as unusual as Trumps. But it really wasnt the same: Obama has zero future in public office, and Macron was facing right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen, who is an ideological cousin to Orban and Trump. Unlike Obama, Trump is not a retired politician who has been liberated from the usual rules about interfering in other peoples political business. And clearly Orban doesnt need his help in hanging on to power for the immediate future. So we can best understand Trumps endorsement of his beau ideal on the Danube as yet another mirror in which can be discerned an image of the endlessly self-regarding Man Who Would Be King. Its worth pondering since a second Trump administration this one without the disciplinary limitations that come with having to face reelection is now by some accounts a better-than-even bet. Can this part of the January 6 mess be prevented from recurring? Photo: Erin Schaff/UPI/Shutterstock As we approach the one-year anniversary of the Capitol riot, commemorations are largely focused on Donald Trumps culpability and the broader threat posed by his campaign to overturn the presidential-election results. Congressional Democrats are taking advantage of the democracy in danger theme to launch another probably doomed push for voting-rights legislation in the U.S. Senate. But theres another, often-overlooked problem at the center of the tragic events of January 6, 2021: the disputed congressional confirmation of Joe Bidens election win under the arcane procedures set out in the Electoral Count Act of 1887. Confusion over how this rarely noticed quadrennial ritual was supposed to operate let the country get very close to a constitutional crisis. Trump and his allies were trying to bully Vice-President Mike Pence into utilizing his alleged constitutional powers to disregard state-certified electors and either postpone Bidens designation as president-elect or toss the contest to the U.S. House. A similar miscarriage of justice might have occurred if Republicans had had enough votes in Congress to overturn specific states electoral-vote awards, which the Electoral Count Act makes possible. For the past year, calls to fix our election laws to avoid a repeat of January 6 have attracted no support from congressional Republicans. But now theres a small glimmer of hope. Politico Playbook suggests support for Electoral Count Act reform among various conservative groups might spur action in Congress though the report is maddeningly vague and does not name a single Senate Republican who would go along: In recent weeks, Cato, National Review, the Washington Examiner and AEIs Yuval Levin have all editorialized in favor of reforming the Electoral Count Act. Liberals and academics have been on board for a while. If Senate Republicans united in favor of ECA reform as their main alternative to Schumers [voting rights] legislation, it could complicate the majority leaders plan. If the Senate passed a narrow ECA reform bill, would it take the air out of the push for filibuster reform? Playbook indicates that Chuck Schumer views the idea of an Electoral Count Act fix as a distraction from his broader plans for a loud-and-proud effort to enact voting-rights legislation via an erosion of the filibuster, which two of his senators, Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema have adamantly opposed. Perhaps just as influentially, the Democratic Partys top election lawyer, Marc Elias, has sniffed out the rumors of an Electoral Count Act reform gambit by Republicans and warned Democrats not to accept it: Republicans and conservatives are attacking me over this because they know I am right. Don't believe their lies--fixing the ECA alone will not prevent GOP election subversion and will do nothing to stop suppression. Congress must pass the Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis Bill. https://t.co/VgimMXhPXX Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 3, 2022 Now, if the deal goes down as Elias describes it with Democrats having to drop their voting-rights efforts in order to get a deal on Electoral Count Act reform then of course all Democrats will rightly reject it. But what about the more likely scenario, in which Republicans continue to filibuster the voting-rights bills to death but offer an Electoral Count Act fix so they can claim some action on the election-reform front? Should Democrats continue to reject the possibility on the grounds that it wont solve the bigger problems with voter suppression and state or local (i.e., non-congressional) election suppression? Id say no. The current problem with the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis legislation Schumer is pushing is that Manchin and Sinema wont support the filibuster reforms necessary to enact either bill. Perhaps theyll change their position, but I think its overwhelmingly likely they wont (even if one does, the other may not). This has nothing to do with whether Senate Republicans offer to consider Electoral Count Act reform. And negotiating a fix with some or all Senate Republicans (remember, it would only take ten to overcome a filibuster) wont make broader action now or later impossible or even less likely. Indeed, Senate Democrats could complete their planned voting-rights push before publicly discussing Electoral Count Act reform. But no one should minimize the value of this narrower action. Its possible that an Electoral Count Act fix (most likely to clarify the purely ministerial role of the vice-president and raise the threshold for contesting state-certified electoral votes) could include some measures to stop state and local election subversion efforts, as conservative AEI scholar Yuval Levin, who has a lot of influence in Republican circles, has proposed. But even legislation that strictly deals with the endgame of presidential elections in Congress is very much worth pursuing, as legal scholar Matthew Seligman, an expert on disputed presidential elections, told me today. The risk of reversing the results of a presidential election through the manipulation of the Electoral Count Act is catastrophic, Seligman said. We saw on January 6 of 2021 how close the country came. Congress can fix numerous aspects of our election system. Whatever else it does, it must fix the ECA before 2025 because it is a singular vulnerability to a targeted strike at the heart of American democracy. The most likely perpetrator of such a targeted strike is, of course, Donald Trump. Seven Republican senators voted to convict him of impeachment charges for his conduct on January 6. Surely ten can be found to prevent a repetition of the nightmare in Congress that would have been a scandal for our democracy even if a mob hadnt been preparing to invade the Capitol. At a minimum, Democrats should not foreclose the possibility of a deal to fix the Electoral Count Act before it solidifies. There will be plenty of opportunities ahead for Democrats to demonstrate their commitment to the full range of voting-rights measures and to blast Republicans for abandoning their commitment to an issue that used to be central to the partys identity (certainly dating back to the 1957 Civil Rights Act prioritizing voting rights, backed strongly by Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon). But categorically refusing any bipartisan effort on election law that doesnt meet every need would be a mistake Democrats might regret three years from now. With Alabama hospitals treating more COVID-19 patients daily and the positivity rate for coronavirus tests exceeding 35% statewide, some state school systems are returning to online learning or implementing mask restrictions to avoid classroom outbreaks. As of Monday evening, Auburn City Schools, Opelika City Schools and Lee County Schools were planning to meet in person and keep masks optional when faculty and students return this week from winter break. In Opelika and Lee County schools, faculty report for a professional day on Tuesday, with students returning to the classroom on Wednesday. Auburn City Schools will host professional learning on Wednesday, with students returning to class on Thursday. In all three school districts, masks will continue to be required on school buses, as the Biden administration has extended its public transportation mask mandate through March 18. Officials at Auburn and Opelika city schools said they are looking forward to the return of students and staff and plan to continue to monitor the COVID situation, and they urge students and staff to stay home and seek medical attention if they have COVID symptoms. Daniel Chesser, public relations coordinator for Auburn City Schools, said the district will continue to take preventative measures by beginning each day screening students and staff for COVID-related symptoms. He said the system is following its Return to Learning Plan, which can be accessed online at www.auburnschools.org under the Parent tab. In Opelika, Public Relations Coordinator Becky Brown said the district will continue the preventative measures they used before the break, including cleaning protocols and hand-washing regimens. Representatives from Lee County Schools did not immediately return calls on Monday. Around the state In Sylacauga, students will attend classes remotely for three days when the new semester begins on Wednesday, Superintendent Michele Eller said in a statement. Considering the surge right here in our community following the holiday gatherings, this is the reasonable course of action to protect our students and teachers from exposure, she said. Shelby County schools in metro Birmingham started the post-holiday grading period online Monday for its nearly 21,000 students as part of a plan implemented before the latest surge. The system did the same thing last year to allow for additional quarantine time for anyone who might have been exposed to the virus or gotten sick over the break. Pike County's public schools will hold classes in person but require masks for all workers and students through Jan. 28, officials said in an announcement on social media. Our focus will remain on keeping our students and employees safe. By implementing these steps, we hope to keep our schools open through this surge, said the system, located in southeast Alabama. More than 1,100 people were hospitalized statewide with COVID-19 on Monday, or more than 3.5 times as many as in mid-December. About 36% of COVID-19 tests came back positive statewide over the last week a high for the pandemic and the positivity rate exceeds 40% in 10 of the state's 67 counties, according to statistics from the Alabama Department of Public Health. Community transmission is just spreading like wildfire right now, said Dr. Sarah Nafziger, vice president of clinical support services with UAB Health System. Less than 48% of the state's population is fully vaccinated, giving Alabama one of the nation's lowest vaccination rates despite months of work by health officials to promote the shots. With more than 16,450 dead of the illness, Alabama has the nation's third-highest death rate from COVID-19, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The rolling average number of daily new cases has increased by about 5,004 over the past two weeks, a jump of about 630%. There were nearly 1,058 new cases per 100,000 people in Alabama over the past two weeks, which ranks 20th in the country for new cases per capita. Hospitalizations aren't increasing as quickly as the overall COVID-19 case total, apparently because the highly contagious omicron variant doesn't make patients as sick as earlier versions of the virus, Nafziger said. But the latest surge is still straining health systems because of the large number of workers who are being exposed to the highly contagious variant or infected, she said. Were having a lot of staff who are testing positive, who are having to stay out of work because of that," said Nafziger. Dr. Don Williamson, president of the Alabama Hospital Association, said the number of medical workers who are out because of COVID-19 or flu is creating some staffing issues at hospitals across the state. It's just a much more transmissible virus, Williamson said of the omicron variant. I worry that as our cases continue to rise, we are going to see more and more people in the hospital, and it's going to happen when staffing was already challenging. Williamson said that even though omicron seems to be less severe, it is wrong to dismiss the variant as the equivalent of a cold. There are 210 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, about double the amount at the beginning of the month. If you believe that this variant is nothing more than the common cold, you are mistaken because we don't hospitalize for the common cold. Yet, we are seeing patients with this surge being hospitalized at increasing rates, Williamson said. Based on what we're seeing, there are fewer people who get severe disease, but there are clearly some who get severe disease. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Dr. Robert Lofton, who stepped down as Ward 3 Opelika City Councilman in December, passed away Saturday morning at age 75 after a long battle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrigs disease. Family members and Opelika city officials say Lofton was dedicated to his family, his job and his relationship with God. Sally Phillips, Loftons sister-in-law, said there are too many adjectives to describe him. He was extremely personable and he loved people, Phillips said. We often laughed and said if he could get a fence post to talk to him, in a few minutes he would know where the tree came from and where it grew. Lofton was born in Louisiana in 1946, and by the time he turned 16 he knew he wanted to be a veterinarian. After graduating from the Auburn School of Veterinary Medicine, he practiced for a year in Roanoke, Va. Later he moved to Lake Charles, La., where he built a small animal practice, University Animal Clinic, and worked there for 40 years. He was one of the smartest people Ive ever known, but he didnt flaunt that, Phillips said. He was a consummate professional in his job as a veterinarian. He loved the Lord and was a dedicated father and husband. As a veterinarian, he won several awards and was elected to positions on state and national boards. He also served as a deacon in his church and was active in the community with Little League, Boy Scouts and Kiwanis. Lofton was married to Lela, an Opelika native, and together they adopted a son, Jesse. Family was very important to him, Phillips said. They (Lofton and Lela) without a doubt had a perfect marriage. They took care of each other. They were like one. After Lofton retired, he and his wife moved to Opelika to help take care of his mother-in-law, and he started teaching at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. Phillips said that Lofton always wanted to make a difference in his community, and after he retired from his position at the university he decided to run for the Opelika City Council position. He also became a Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church of Opelika. Its like he moved into town and he made it his own, Phillips said. He loved it and wanted to serve it. He was always involved. Lofton was elected to the city council in August of 2020, took office that November and served in the position for about a year. He was also the council representative on the Opelika planning commission. Lofton resigned from his position on Dec. 1, 2021, citing his health. I am no longer able to perform the duties that I feel responsible for and that the citizens of Opelika deserve, he said in a press release. I want to thank my fellow council members, Mayor Gary Fuller, all city employees and the administration for their hard work. It has been a joy to work with them all. Opelika council president Eddie Smith said Lofton was a great addition to the city council and that the governing body has missed him since his departure. Smith said he first met Lofton about two years ago. In those two years, I came to really love and respect him. I valued his opinion, Smith said. I learned a lot about how to handle adversity from him not only from his illness, but before his illness. Smith said he and Lofton would often talk about their health. Im a paraplegic myself, so we spent a lot of time talking about things and ways to handle different situations as he became less mobile and about things that would help him navigate life better, Smith said. The special election for the Ward 3 position will be held on Jan. 11, and Mayor Gary Fuller said the person elected will have mighty big shoes to fill. Lofton touched a lot of people, and he made a sizable footprint in the City of Opelika, Fuller said. He said he will miss Loftons wisdom and love for Opelika. Hes a wonderful person, smart, and he was always thoughtful and very focused on what his task and job was as a member of the city council, Fuller said. Fuller said he remembered the first time Lofton attended an Opelika Council meeting, about two years ago. He had been on the faculty at the vet school in Auburn and recently retired from that, Fuller said, and, you know, he wanted to pay his civic rent. Fuller said Lofton kept attending meetings and learning about what we were doing, before he was elected. He was one of the best prepared new council people that I think weve ever had, Fuller said. Lofton is survived by Lela, his wife of 49 years, and their son Jesse Robert Lofton. Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Opelika First Baptist Church, with visitation Monday evening from 5-7 p.m. at Jeffcoat-Trant Funeral Home. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The first time Celeste Norris laid eyes on Ashli Babbitt, the future insurrectionist had just rammed her vehicle three times with an SUV and was pounding on the window, challenging her to a fight. Norris says the bad blood between them began in 2015, when Babbitt engaged in a monthslong extramarital affair with Norris longtime live-in boyfriend. When she learned of the relationship, Norris called Babbitts husband and told him she was cheating. Advertisement She pulls up yelling and screaming, Norris said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, recounting the July 29, 2016, road-rage incident in Prince Frederick, Maryland. It took me a good 30 seconds to figure out who she was. Just all sorts of expletives, telling me to get out of the car, that she was going to beat my ass. Terrified and confused, Norris dialed 911 and waited for law enforcement. Babbitt was later charged with numerous misdemeanors. Advertisement The attack on Norris is an example of erratic and sometimes threatening behavior by Babbitt, who was shot by a police officer while at the vanguard of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have sought to portray her as a righteous martyr who was unjustly killed. Trump has called her an incredible person and he even taped a posthumous birthday greeting to her in October. Trump has also demanded the Justice Department reinvestigate Babbitts death, though the officer who shot her was cleared of any wrongdoing by two prior federal investigations. This driver's license photo from the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA), provided to AP by the Calvert County Sheriff's Office, shows Ashli Babbitt. (Maryland MVA/Courtesy of the Calvert County Sheriff's Office via AP) (AP) But the life of the Air Force veteran from California, who died while wearing a Trump campaign flag wrapped around her shoulders like a cape, is far more complicated than the heroic portrait presented by Trump and his allies. In the months before her death, Babbitt had become consumed by pro-Trump conspiracy theories and posted angry screeds on social media. She also had a history of making violent threats. Babbitt, 35, was fatally shot while attempting to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speakers Lobby inside the Capitol, where police officers were evacuating members of Congress from the mob supporting Trumps false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. She was one of five people who died during or immediately after the riot, including a Capitol Police officer. On social media, Babbitt identified as a Libertarian and ardent supporter of the Second Amendment. Her posts included videos of profane rants against Democrats, COVID-19 mask mandates and illegal immigration. Her Twitter account, which was taken down after her death, was rife with references to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which centers on the baseless belief that Trump has secretly battled deep-state enemies and a cabal of Satan-worshiping cannibals that includes prominent Democrats who operate a child sex trafficking ring. This July 29, 2016 photo provided by Celeste Norris, shows Ashli Babbitt's damaged vehicle after a road rage incident where Babbitt, who then had the last name McEntee, rammed the back of Norris' SUV three times as part of a fight over an extramarital affair. Babbitt was later charged with numerous misdemeanors. (Celeste Norris via AP) (Celeste Norris/AP) Nothing will stop us, Babbitt tweeted Jan. 5. They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours....dark to light! Advertisement Among Q followers, The Storm refers to the predicted day Trump would finally unmask the pedophile cabal, arrest and execute those deemed traitors and restore America to greatness. Trump has repeatedly insisted Babbitt was murdered, and she has achieved martyr status among Trump supporters. Her name and likeness now appear on T-shirts and flags at pro-Trump rallies. A Maryland personal injury lawyer representing Babbitts husband, Aaron Babbitt, has raised $375,000 through a Christian crowdfunding site and has threatened to file a lawsuit against the Capitol Police. Key to that wrongful death claim is the contention that Babbitt, a former military police officer who was 5-foot-2 and weighed 115 pounds, would have peacefully surrendered had Capitol officers attempted to arrest her. FILE - A man uses a bullhorn while protesting the death of Ashli Babbitt, 35, who died due to a gunshot during the riot at the U.S. Capitol, outside the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, on Jan. 17, 2021. (Albert Cesare/The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP) (Albert Cesare/AP) Aaron Babbitt declined to comment in October when a reporter knocked on the door of the San Diego apartment he shared with Ashli and another woman. In a June interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News, Babbitt said he has been sickened by some of what he has seen written about his deceased wife. Theres never been a person who Ashli ran across in her daily life that didnt love her, said Babbitt, 40. Advertisement That is not how Norris felt about her. Court records involving the violent 2016 confrontation between Babbitt and Norris have previously been reported by media outlets, including the AP. But Norris, now 39, agreed to speak about it publicly for the first time in an interview with the AP and shared previously unreported details. She also provided documents and photos from the crash scene to support her account. Norris was in a six-year relationship with Aaron Babbitt when she said she learned he was cheating on her with a married co-worker from his job as a security guard at a nuclear power plant near the Chesapeake Bay. She eventually found out the other woman was Ashli McEntee, who at the time went by the last name of her then-husband. He was telling me about this foulmouthed chick thats on his shift, blah, blah, blah, Norris recounted. Come to find out a few months later ... they were basically having this relationship while they were at work. When she learned of the affair, she reached out to Babbitts husband, Timothy McEntee. You know, I was trying to keep my home life together, she said. Advertisement This July 29, 2016 photo provided by Celeste Norris, shows her damaged vehicle after a road rage incident where Ashli Babbitt, who then had the last name McEntee, rammed the back of her SUV three times as part of a fight over an extramarital affair. The license plate shown is from the vehicle owned by Ashli Babbitt. Babbitt was later charged with numerous misdemeanors. (Celeste Norris via AP) (Celeste Norris/AP) Norris said she tried for a few months to salvage her relationship with Aaron Babbitt before finally deciding to move out of their house. Within days, Norris said, Ashli moved in. A few weeks later, Norris was waiting at a stop sign in Prince Frederick, about an hour southeast of Washington, D.C., when she says a white Ford Explorer passed her going the other direction. Norris saw the SUV pulling a U-turn before speeding up behind her. She recounts that the SUVs driver began swerving erratically, laying on the horn and attempting to pass a Chevrolet Suburban that was in between them on the narrow two-lane road. When the driver of the Chevy pulled over, Norris said the white Ford SUV accelerated and rammed into her rear bumper. She said the SUV rammed her a second time and then a third, all while the vehicles continued to roll down the road. After Norris dialed 911, an emergency dispatcher advised her to pull over to the shoulder and stop. As she waited for help, Babbitt got out of her vehicle and came up to Norris drivers-side window, banging on the glass. Norris said the force of the impact caused her seatbelt to lock tight, preventing her from getting out of her car. Within minutes, deputies arrived. Advertisement A case report from the Calvert County Sheriffs Office obtained by the AP shows Ashli Babbitt was issued a criminal summons on charges of reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor defined under Maryland law as engaging in conduct that creates a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to another and punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. She was also charged with malicious destruction of property for the damage to Norris vehicle. FILE - U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd helps to direct the evacuation as the House chamber comes under attack by a violent mob during the congressional certification of the presidential election, at the Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. Minutes later, Byrd fatally shot Trump protester Ashli Babbitt, as she and other rioters were breaking into the Speaker's Lobby where members of Congress were retreating. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) (J. Scott Applewhite/AP) Court records show those charges were later updated to include traffic offenses reckless driving, negligent driving and failure to control a vehicles speed to avoid a collision. Photos from the scene provided to the AP by Norris show Babbitts white Ford Explorer with its front bumper smashed in. The SUVs grill is also pushed in and the hood dented. The rear bumper of Norris Escape is pushed in on the passenger side, with the detached Maryland license plate from the front bumper of Babbitts SUV wedged into it. Following the altercation, Norris and a friend went to the courthouse in neighboring St. Marys County, where she lived at the time, and petitioned for a peace order, a type of restraining order, against Ashli Babbitt. The resulting judicial order barred Ashli Babbitt from attempting to contact Norris, committing further acts of violence against her and going to her home or workplace. A copy of the order, dated the same day as the altercation, contains Norris contemporaneous account of what occurred, as written down by her friend. Norris hands were still shaking so badly she couldnt write down what happened for herself, according to a note on the document. In the weeks after the incident, Norris said, Babbitt falsely claimed to authorities that the collisions had occurred when Norris repeatedly backed her vehicle into Babbitts SUV. But when the case went to trial, Norris said, Babbitt changed her story, admitting under oath that she had collided with Norris vehicle but portraying it as an accident. Advertisement No transcript from the hearing was available, but Norris said the lawyer defending Babbitt made repeated references to her employment at the local nuclear power plant and years of military service, which included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Babbitt served on active duty with the U.S. Air Force, and then in the reserves and the Air National Guard until 2016. A judge acquitted Babbitt on the criminal charges. In February 2017, records show Norris asked for and received a second peace order against Ashli Babbitt, citing ongoing harassment and stalking. In a handwritten petition, Norris says that Babbitt had recently followed her home from work and that she had also received repeated calls in the middle of the night from an unlisted number. FILE - A sign against wearing masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus covers the office door of Fowler's Pool Services and Supply Inc, on Jan. 7, 2021, in Spring Valley, Calif. Authorities have identified the woman who was fatally shot inside the Capitol building on Wednesday as Ashli Babbitt, listed as an owner of Fowler's. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File) (Gregory Bull/AP) I lived in fear because I didnt know what she was capable of, Norris told the AP. I was constantly looking over my shoulder. In 2019, Norris filed a personal injury lawsuit against Ashli Babbitt, seeking $74,500 in damages, and she said she settled out of court with Babbitts insurance carrier for an undisclosed sum. By then, Aaron and Ashli had moved to California, where she grew up and still had family. Timothy McEntee was granted a divorce in Maryland in May 2019. McEntee did not respond to voicemails and messages left at his home. Ashli posted on Facebook that she married Aaron Babbitt the following month. Records show the couple owned a pool cleaning service with Ashlis brother. When a reporter visited the business the day after her death, a large sign on the locked door declared the building to be Mask Free Autonomous Zone Better Known as America. Advertisement In the year since Babbitts death, Trump and many Republicans in Congress have sought to recast the Jan. 6 insurrection as nonviolent a contention directly contradicted by hours of video footage and the public testimony of Capitol Police officers, 140 of whom were injured in the melee. In his video on Babbitts birthday, Trump also said: Together we grieve her terrible loss. There was no reason Ashli should have lost her life that day. We must all demand justice for Ashli and her family, so on this solemn occasion as we celebrate her life, we renew our call for a fair and nonpartisan investigation into the death of Ashli Babbitt. Aaron Babbitts lawyer, Terrell Roberts III, did not respond to numerous phone messages and emails seeking comment. But in written statements to the media, he has said her shooting was tantamount to an execution without trial. Given her background as a 14-year veteran of the Air Force, it is likely that Ashli would have complied with simple verbal commands, thereby making the use of any force unnecessary, Roberts said. The Capitol Police officer who shot Babbitt, Lt. Michael Byrd, said in a televised interview in August that he fired as a last resort. When he pulled the trigger, he said, he had no idea whether the person jumping through the window was armed. The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia cleared Byrd of wrongdoing in April, concluding that he acted in self-defense and in the defense of members of Congress. The U.S. Capitol Police announced in August that they had also cleared Byrd. Advertisement Afternoon Update Weekdays Updating you on the day's biggest news before the evening commute. > I tried to wait as long as I could, Byrd said. I hoped and prayed no one tried to enter through those doors. But their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers. ___ Associated Press correspondent Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck ___ Advertisement Contact APs global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. dick The pandemic hit you hard? Are you looking to start your own business? Prof. Goop has many years of experience to show how to maximize earnings with minimum effort selling vagina candles so you can start your own business selling pens with cum ink or something.Is reading comprehension too much for you? 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Do you wanna insert yourself in other conversations and scandals? Professor Jamil is here to give you a crash course on how to meddle in none of your business with little success.- Jameela Jamil Inserts Herself Into this post (Coming Soon): Me (and all the links to the original ONTD post are below the images) From Jan 28th to April 1st, fitting for a fool. Reply Thread Link wow, a distinct lack of swagger. this is how the virus wins, jared. Reply Thread Link Lmfao this is not the bday present I wanted Marvel Reply Thread Link I wonder what other movies will get pushed back. I wouldn't be surprised if the "Scream" sequel does. Reply Thread Link With a weeks notice? Nah. If anything theyll put it on P+ same day to spike subscriptions but no chains are really shutting down or lessening capacity so even that is a long shot. Edited at 2022-01-04 12:56 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link nah it's way too short notice that they would push Scream back when it's out next week someone on twitter suggested Morbius might have been pushed back because NWH is continuing to do extraordinarily well and it could potentially cannibalize Morbius' box office since they're going for the same demographic and it's part(???) of the same franchise which makes sense to me Reply Parent Thread Link it might even given them a chance to film a little cameo from a spider-man Reply Parent Thread Link Every time I see the trailer for this I'm shocked anew (but not really) by how monotone Jared Leto is. He's a bad actor, but I'd have thought he'd go full Tom Hardy. Reply Thread Link I don't know of anyone checking for Morbius anyway. I did see, though, that Sing 2 is already coming to VOD this week. IDK if that was pre-planned or not? Reply Thread Link It made less than 50M opening weekend, so its part of Universals PVOD deal with theatres. Friday marks day 14, so thats why its launching on VOD then. Reply Parent Thread Link Ahh, makes sense. Reply Parent Thread Link This is useful info to me, thank you <3 Reply Parent Thread Link I would if they had cast another actor as Morbius. Reply Parent Thread Link Hmm wasnt planning on watching it anyways Reply Thread Link This doesn't interest me at all I am worried about Scream as theatres in Ontario are now closing for "3 weeks" Reply Thread Link This is gonna flop regardless of the time of year it opens. If you wanna a hit, cut it down to 5min and place it in front of The Batman. Reply Thread Link I saw the trailer before No Way Home and thought it looked pretty bad tbh Jared Leto does not interest me in the slightest, if anything he puts me off of a movie in this day and age Reply Thread Link and no one caredddddddd Reply Thread Link i just wish they'd release spiderman online early so i could finally see it Reply Thread Link Same We can't all be Kim K. and get HD rips delivered to our home a week from theatrical release Reply Parent Thread Link Seriously! We were just lamenting that there was nothing to watch Saturday night. I would pay movie ticket prices just to rent it at home. Why does no one want our money! Reply Parent Thread Link they don't want our money because of the scarlett johansson lawsuit and the fact that they don't want to pay actors better for streaming which is not a very good reason imo!!! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Digital rumored date is 2/15/22 and Physical Disc release on 3/8/22. Reply Parent Thread Link delete the whole damn movie. Reply Thread Link keep pushing it until ends up getting dumped into being released on streaming like that one x-men movie lmaoooo Reply Thread Link The fact that I went "wait which one was that" lol Reply Parent Thread Link Given ongoing high and steady sales of crude oil to China and other Asian countries and the likelihood of a new iteration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) being agreed with the U.S. at some point this year, Iran announced plans last week to boost oil production from its supergiant South Azadegan oil field to at least 320,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the middle of 2023, from the current 140,000 bpd. This output from South Azadegan, and corollary increases in North Azadegan and other major fields that make up the oil-rich cluster of fields in the West Karoun region, will enable Iran to meet its long-standing target of 1 million bpd from this specific region within the next year or two, according to recent comments from the National Iranian Oil Companys (NIOC) managing director, Mohsen Khojastehmehr. To this end, OilPrice.com understands from sources close to Irans Petroleum Ministry, Javad Owji the countrys new Petroleum Minister, met recently with senior representatives from China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to discuss the development status of the West Karoun fields in general and of the South and North Azadegan fields in particular. As analysed in depth in my new book on the global oil markets, the development of the West Karoun fields up to a level where they are producing the requisite 1 million bpd of crude oil output was a key part of Chinas obligations under the wide-ranging 25-year deal between Iran and China. According to the Iranian sources spoken to exclusively by OilPrice.com at the time, China in return is able to buy any and all oil gas, and petchems products at a minimum guaranteed discount of 12 percent to the six-month rolling mean average price of comparable benchmark products, plus another 6 to 8 percent of that metric for risk-adjusted compensation. Indeed, in the series of deals exclusively reported at the time by OilPrice.com that showed that the official figures showing Iranian crude oil exports stood at negligible levels were nonsense, each of the 5.8 million barrels of oil in total that were sent to China from Iran via the Giessel, Stream, and Snow tankers were discounted by at least a clear US$10.95 to the headline Iranian grade price. In addition to this straight discount, according to the Iranian sources exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com at the time, an additional 8 to 12 percent discount proceeded from exchange rate differentials, and also Iran was offering (and still offers) offers China cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) cargoes at free-on-board (FOB) pricing. Despite all of these enticements, however, China according to comments from Irans NIOC, and the reason behind Owjis recent meeting with CNPC executives in Tehran has been delaying on the full implementation of the development plan for the entre Azadegan site. In recent years, for various reasons, we have lost part of our oil production capacity and joint fields are lagging behind the development plan, said Khojastehmehr. The South Azadegan project had been awarded to China for an output of 320,000 barrels per day and under the 11th administration this agreement did not take effect for various reasons, leading to US$6 billion in lucrum cessans [basically, lost profits], he added. According to the Iranian sources spoken to exclusively by OilPrice.com last week, the lack of decisive movement on South Azadegan (and any of the West Karoun sites) has largely been a result of the reticence of China to antagonise the U.S. government with overt actions in Iran whilst the Trade War issues are still in play. Chinas usual workaround solution to this to engage in dozens of contract-only projects on the same site that do not attract the same sort of attention as major development and exploration activities - has been stretched by similar activities across multiple other sites in the Middle East, notably in Iraq in recent months. However, it was decided at the meeting with Owji that China would put South Azadegan back up its list of priorities this year, said one of the Iranian sources last week. For Iran, the exploitation of South Azadegans full potential is crucial for three key reasons in its plans to achieve a quick bounce back to pre-sanctions crude oil production levels as soon as possible after sanctions are withdrawn as and when a new iteration of the JCPOA is agreed with the U.S. Firstly, South Azadegan was originally going to be lead-developed by Frances TotalEnergies, after the initial work on Phase 11 of South Pars had been completed, so the desire to make this a success now that the French company has pulled out of Iran entirely is profound, said the Iran source. Secondly, South Azadegan and its sister field, North Azadegan draw on the same deposit as neighbouring Iraqs Majnoon field, which makes developing it quickly essential in order that Iraq does not benefit from the site at Irans expense or destroy the favourable geology of the field through its drilling. And thirdly, South Azadegan is a key field in the massive West Karoun group of oilfields, also comprising North Azadegan, North Yaran, South Yaran, and Yadavaran, which together are estimated to contain at least 67 billion barrels of oil in place but also, propitiously, the average recovery rate across the West Karoun site is just 5-6 percent. For every one percent increase in the rate of recovery that can be achieved, the recoverable reserves figure increase by 670 million barrels, or around US$34 billion in revenues with oil at US$50 a barrel, one of the Iran sources highlighted. With the right developers, an increase in recovery rate across the site to at least 25% over a 20 year contract period could be expected to add US$838 billion in revenues for Iran, he added. The impact on the oil price of such an increase from South Azadegan and then from the additional input from all of the West Karoun fields would be significant, particularly against a background of uncertain demand in the coming months, given ongoing uncertainties over the Covid-19 pandemic and over Chinas likely marked decrease in economic growth, as analysed by OilPrice.com recently. Even without any of these production increases, a senior commodity analyst at global energy markets intelligence company, Kpler, told OilPrice.com that Iranian crude oil and condensate production could bounce back very quickly after the Petroleum Ministry orders the NIOC to ramp up production to an 80 percent recovery of full production within six months and to 100 percent recovery within 12 months. [As at the beginning of Q4 2021] Iranian crude oil production capacity stands at 3 9 to 4 million bpd according to the NIOC with current output holding near 2 4 million bpd, of which 1.7-1.8 million bpd is consumed in domestic refineries, and close to 1 million bpd of condensate and natural gas liquids [NGL] - LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] and ethane - are also being produced at present, primarily from the South Pars gas field, although total condensate and NGL production capacity stands at around 1 3 million bpd, said the Kpler analyst. Ultimately, we believe Iranian production could technically jump by 1 7 million bpd including 200,000 bpd of condensate and LPG/ethane, in a 6 to 9 month period from when sanctions are lifted, the analyst added. An immediate impact of a 5-10 percent fall in the oil price would be likely, the analyst concluded. By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The OPEC+ group continues to deliver lower supply increases than the monthly production quotas, according to the alliances estimates of compliance with the November crude oil output quotas. In November 2021, the members of the OPEC+ agreement complied with the production cuts at 117 percent, Amena Bakr, Deputy Bureau Chief and Chief Opec Correspondent at Energy Intelligence, reported on Tuesday, quoting delegates at the ongoing monthly OPEC+ meeting. The high conformity level with the cutsover 100 percentsuggests that OPEC+ is actually producing lower volumes overall than the collective quotas. The ten OPEC members bound by the OPEC+ pactand excluding exempted producers Iran, Venezuela, and Libyacomplied with the cuts at a massive 122 percent, while the conformity level of the non-OPEC members led by Russia was 107 percent, Energy Intelligences Bakr notes. This suggests that the OPEC members in OPEC+ faced more difficulties in pumping as much as their quotas dictated than the non-OPEC producers. The OPEC+ group has been undershooting its collective production targets for months and will likely continue to do so in the months ahead, analysts say. African OPEC members lack the capacity and investments to boost production, Russia is estimated to pump and export lower volumes than its quota, and the biggest Arab Gulf producers have the means to raise output but at the expense of shrinking their spare production capacity, which accounts for the majority of the spare capacity globally. The alliances inability to deliver on its production targetswith some estimates putting the overall output at around 650,000 bpd-730,000 bpd below the collective quotais set to support oil prices next year, analysts say. This underproduction could even become a major upside for oil this year, especially if Omicrons dent to global oil demand remains limited to jet fuel, as the most recent estimates and analyses showed at the end of 2021. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Libyas oil production has slumped to 780,000 barrels per day after maintenance work on a pipeline shut down 200,000 bpd output this week, adding to outages due to blockades at four oilfields since the end of December. Libya currently pumps around 780,000 bpd, a source at the National Oil Corporation (NOC) told Argus on Tuesday. To compare, the OPEC member exempted from the production cuts due to its volatile security situation produced 1.14 million bpd of crude oil in November 2021, according to the latest Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) from OPEC. The country saw in December major disruptions to its oil production again, amid chaos over the holding of the presidential elections that were scheduled to take place on December 24, but were later postponed. In recent months, Libyas oil production and exports had enjoyed relative stability, and the country planned to raise crude output, a crucial source of state income but also the bone of contention in the allocation of said oil revenues. However, with the December 24 presidential election approaching, chaos and clashes returned, and armed factions stopped production at oilfields again. On December 20, Libya declared force majeure on its oil exports after crude oil production had been shut in from four of Libyas oilfields, including the largest 300,000-bpd El Sharara field. Other oilfields that are shut in include El Feel, Wafa, and Hamada. The oilfields were shut in by members of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), which is tasked with protecting the oilfields, according to Libyas NOC. The PFG reportedly closed a valve on a pipeline going from Sharara to the Zawiya port, and another valve from Wafa to Mellita. On top of the blocked oilfields, Libya has to now contend with another 200,000 bpd production decline this week because of urgent repairs on a pipeline, NOC said this weekend. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: U.S. liquefied natural gas exports set a new record last year thanks to strong demand from Asia and Europe. With the difference in U.S. and Asian/European prices in the double digits, U.S. gas producers were in for a windfall. And despite criticism from Congress that they are exporting too much gas, they will continue doing the very same thing this year as well. They should enjoy the going while its good. The Energy Information Administration forecast in December that U.S. natural gas production was about to set a fresh record this year, reaching 97.5 billion cu ft daily by December. That would be up from 95.1 billion cu ft in October 2021. And producers will export as much of this as they can liquefy. Currently, the peak LNG capacity of U.S. producers is 11.6 billion cu ft daily, according to EIA data. But demand is much greater than that as Europe and Asia continue struggling through winter ahead of storage replenishment season. It is good news, then, that U.S. peak liquefaction capacity is set to grow to 13.9 billion cu ft daily by the end of this year, with nominal capacity at 11.4 billion cu ft, from 9.5 billion cu ft daily. And this will make the U.S. the biggest exporter of LNG in terms of capacity. This is certainly good news for gas producers such as Cheniere Energy, the biggest LNG producer in the United States. The latest data is bullish, and so is the outlook: in December alone, foreign buyers took in 13 percent of U.S. natural gas output, Bloomberg reported, adding that this was a sevenfold increase from five years earlier when much of the LNG export capacity did not exist. And this is where the risk lies for the flourishing LNG industry. We continue to expect more price volatility to be present in these markets relative to recent history, albeit at a more diminished level once exiting the peak demand season of winter weather, Natasha Kaneva, JP Morgans head of commodity research and strategy, told Bloomberg. This is particularly true in the U.S., where price volatility has long been absent. Sustained strong demand for LNG is good news. Price volatilitynot so much. Whats also not good news for U.S. LNG exporters is the fact that they are not the only ones building export capacity. Competition in the LNG space is not going to ease anytime soon. And in the context of greater demand and greater competition, U.S. producers just might overshoot. Related: Libyas Oil Production Crashes Down To 780,000 Bpd We saw it in the Permian most recently. The countrys most prolific shale play suffered a shortage of pipeline capacity for years, which hurt prices, until a bunch of new pipelines came online, boosting prices. And then demand slumped, and now these pipelines stay half-empty. The same happened with oil production during the so-called second shale revolution when everyones top priority was to pump as much as possible until the United States became the worlds largest oil producer, only to see prices drop under the weight of all the supply and the demand crash during the pandemic. The crash also saw a lot of unhappy investors who started demanding their returns after years of drillers burning cash to see just how much oil they can pump. According to recent forecasts by the Energy Information Administration, by 2024, the United States will have a peak natural gas liquefaction capacity of 16.3 billion cu ft daily. Yet just a year later, Qatars expanded North Field project will come on stream, adding 40 percent to the countrys annual liquefaction capacity of 77 million tons, helping it reclaim its number-one LNG exporter place. More LNG is coming from Russias Novatek, too, with its Arctic LNG 2 set to be completed by 2025. With all this supply coming soonthe Mozambique LNG project might become operational by 2027 as wellthe market could at some point become a buyers market once again. The EU is planning to ditch long-term contracts for gas, effectively boosting its exposure to the spot market, and thats good news on the face of it. But it is doing so in a bid to reduce gas consumption altogethera strategy similar to that of a smoker refusing to buy cigarettes lest hed smoke them all. Demand in Asia is also not a constant, and it will at some point weaken, increasing the risk for all these new LNG projects planned to become operational over the next few years. Just three years ago, the LNG market was oversupplied, and U.S. developers were shelving projects. Now, LNG is in great demand, and projects are back on the table. Not all of these will be profitablethis is simply the nature of the industrybut for now, the going is good, and producers are making the most of it. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Germany will need natural gas throughout the energy transition to renewable sources, the new German government said this week. "We will need gas throughout the transitional phase," government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said. The government's plans are to use natural gas as a bridge fuel and gradually wean itself off it by 2045. Germany has a very strong Green lobby that has now become part of the ruling coalition. Despite an anti-fossil fuel discourse, the Greens have now apparently accepted the necessity of at least one fossil fuel, perhaps not least because Germany has plans to shut down all of its nuclear power plants by the end of this year. Despite the still raging energy crisis, though alleviated in the past few days by much higher wind power production, Germany shut down three nuclear power plants at the end of 2021, with a total capacity of 4 GW. According to AFP, this capacity is equal to the power generation capacity of 1,000 wind turbines. However, the comparison ends there because nuclear can produce electricity continuously. This will leave Germany with three nuclear power plants, slated for closure at the end of this year. The anti-nuclear position of the German government earlier this week sent it on a crash course with Brussels, which plans to classify some natural gas and nuclear power projects as green, which would open the door to more investments in these sources of energy alongside wind, solar, and hydrogen. "We consider nuclear technology to be dangerous," Steffen Hebestreit told media in Berlin earlier this week, noting the issue of radioactive waste storage. The spokesman added that Germany "expressly rejects" the EU's assessment of nuclear energy as sustainable and that Berlin is mulling over the next steps. The strong anti-nuclear stance of Berlin may well set it on a collision course with neighbor France, which relies on nuclear energy for more than two-thirds of its electricity consumption. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Carroll County Republican leaders are looking forward to working with a strong team during the 2022 legislative session, with the reelection of Del. Jason Buckel of Allegany County as minority leader and the election of Del. Haven Shoemaker of Carroll County as minority whip, said Del. Susan Krebs, R-District 5. Were very pleased [Shoemaker] decided to step up this year, Krebs said this week. Our delegation works very well together. Advertisement The 444th session of the Maryland General Assembly will run from Jan. 12 through April 11 in Annapolis. Krebs said the Maryland House Republican Caucus aims to address a number of issues in the 2022 session, such as legislative redistricting and how to move forward during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said legislators would work to ensure area residents have access to health care, even with an overwhelmed system. Advertisement Shoemaker was first elected as a delegate in 2015 after serving as a Carroll County commissioner from 2010-2014. He has been a leader in the Maryland General Assembly on public safety and criminal justice issues and was recently appointed to the Judiciary Committee. He served as chief deputy minority whip since April and previously held the position of minority parliamentarian in the House of Delegates. It is humbling to be selected by my Republican colleagues during this tumultuous time in our state and nation, he said. I look forward to meeting the challenges of the 2022 legislative session as our caucus fights for a better Maryland. Shoemaker said this week the goals of the Republican caucus in the upcoming session are similar to those in years past. They include the prevention of tax increases for residents, the protection of liberties and resistance to government overreach. As legislators address redistricting this session, Shoemaker said, the Republican caucus wants to ensure all residents are adequately represented in the General Assembly. He said he would fight against gerrymandering. Sen. Justin Ready, who represents Carroll County and serves as the minority whip in the state Senate, said he will work with Shoemaker and Buckel to accomplish common goals, such as dealing with the surge of violent crime in the Baltimore region, addressing cost-of-living issues in the state, and providing parents with the opportunity to be more involved in their childrens education. The leader and whip run for those leadership positions as a team during the General Assemblys legislative session. First elected as minority leader in April, Buckel previously served as chief deputy minority whip beginning in 2017. I am honored by this show of confidence from my Republican colleagues, Buckel said. In 2022, Republicans in Maryland are standing at the precipice of opportunity. Failures of soft-on-crime policies that plague our communities, parents lack of voice in their childrens education, and Marylands high tax burden and spiraling cost of living all are energizing citizens to demand change. The members of our caucus can provide the change Marylanders still yearn for when we are united in our efforts. I am grateful for the continued opportunity to lead them. Douglas County wrapped up the old year and started the new one by tallying its highest weekly COVID-19 case count of the pandemic. The 4,731 cases reported for the week ending Saturday were the countys highest weekly total, surpassing the 4,268 cases recorded during the seven-day stretch that ended Nov. 21, 2020. The seven-day rolling average of new cases last week reached 700.9 cases per 100,000 residents, which also exceeded the November 2020 peak. In response, Douglas County Health Director Lindsay Huse on Monday urged residents to get vaccinated and boosted and to wear masks in indoor public places. She strongly urged parents to have their children wear masks when they return to school. The newly formalized Nebraska Infectious Diseases Society, which is made up of infectious diseases specialists from across the state, also recommended masking all students and staff in schools. The very high contagiousness of the omicron variant requires every step possible to prevent its transmission, members wrote in a statement. Masking gives schools the best chance of staying open. Statewide, Nebraska also posted its highest COVID-19 caseload in more than a year as the fast-spreading omicron variant fueled a nationwide surge in new cases. Nebraska as a whole reported 8,575 new cases for the week ending Thursday, up 47% from the previous weeks 5,826 new cases, according to a World-Herald analysis of federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. That statewide count was the highest weekly tally since the first week of December 2020. Nationwide, cases were up more than 80% last week, with nearly every state seeing rising numbers. As evidence of the omicron variants explosive spread, the U.S. on Thursday posted a new all-time high daily case number for the pandemic with nearly 569,000 cases. The biggest growth in cases now is in the South, with Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama reporting that their cases had tripled in just one week. But the highest case rates continue to be centered mostly in the northeast, including New York and New Jersey. Most Nebraska school districts, like those nationwide, return to classes this week. In addition to recommending masks, the Nebraska infectious disease group strongly encouraged vaccination for all children eligible for the shots, which includes kids 5 and older. Nationally, the Food and Drug Administration on Monday extended emergency use authorization for Pfizer booster shots in children as young as 12. The agency also shortened the recommended interval between the first series of shots and the booster from six months to five. The Omaha Public Schools and the Lincoln Public Schools will require face coverings for all students and staff. The Ralston Public Schools is requiring masks in elementary schools and highly recommending them in middle and high schools. The Westside Community Schools announced last week that it would require masks for all students for the first 12 days of the new semester. Meanwhile, the omicron variant appears to be gaining ground in Nebraska. Dr. Gary Anthone, Nebraskas chief medical officer, said Monday that omicron now accounts for between 30% and 50% of the positive coronavirus test samples that are being genomically sequenced in the state. But omicron accounted for 77% of the latest batch of positive samples sequenced by the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory, Peter Iwen, the labs director, said Monday. The laboratory, situated on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus in Omaha, likely is the largest sequencing facility in the state. Additional sequencing of samples is done at some universities, including Creighton University, as well as at a UNMC College of Public Health lab and in some commercial and federal labs. Some studies suggest that omicron causes less-severe illness than some prior variants, including delta. A British study determined that people who contracted omicron were significantly less likely to be hospitalized than people infected with delta. Other studies suggest omicron may not spread as easily to the lungs, which may explain why it appears less severe. But Dr. James Lawler, a co-executive director of the University of Nebraska Medical Centers Global Center for Health Security, said the more transmissible variant can make up for reduced severity through sheer volume. In addition, he said, researchers dont yet know how effective immunity produced by an omicron infection will be against other variants. If it is like any other variant, then that immunity probably wont be nearly as good as that conferred by vaccines. Allowing omicron to run its course unchecked will wreck our health system and critical infrastructure, Lawler wrote. Nebraska hospitals have been stretched for months by a combination of regular and pandemic-delayed care, as well as a high level of COVID patients. Smaller hospitals continue to face challenges transferring patients to larger hospitals. Overall, the average of 479 patients hospitalized with COVID last week was down slightly from 490 the week before. But new hospitalizations were up from 48 a day to 52. On Sunday, the states hospitals were caring for 516 COVID-19 patients. That included 324 in Omaha-area hospitals. In Iowa, which is facing its own surge in cases, hospitals and clinics in the middle of the state pleaded with residents to get vaccinated and boosted in a full-page ad Sunday in the Des Moines Register: Help. We are overwhelmed. Health system officials noted that they are caring for more COVID-19 patients than ever before and that the vast majority who are becoming seriously ill are unvaccinated. Nebraska added 14 deaths last week, bringing the pandemic total to 3,341. The states total COVID case count as of Thursday had reached 338,257. Some 40,000 additional vaccinations were administered in Nebraska last week, 25,000 of them booster shots. The vaccination rate among Nebraskans continues to tick up, from 59.5% to 59.9%. But the state still trails the national rate of 62%. World-Herald Staff Writer Martha Stoddard contributed to this report. Omaha World-Herald: Afternoon Update The latest headlines sent at 4:45 p.m. daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Julie Anderson Julie Anderson is a medical reporter for The World-Herald. She covers health care and health care trends and developments, including hospitals, research and treatments. Follow her on Twitter @JulieAnderson41. Phone: 402-444-1066. Follow Julie Anderson Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today As cases of COVID-19 surge in Douglas County, some schools and universities are updating their mask requirements. Creighton University and the Ralston Public Schools are the latest to require masks for students and staff. Beginning Saturday, Creighton University said Tuesday, Creighton will require face coverings to be worn in all indoor spaces on campus except in residence halls, dining halls, private office spaces and while exercising. Together, we navigated the fall semester safely and effectively, and I am confident we will continue to do the same for the spring term, the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, Creightons president, said on Twitter. All Ralston Public Schools students and staff will be required to wear masks when they return to the classroom on Wednesday. Previously, the district had required masks only for pre-kindergarten and elementary students and staff. A letter to families from Superintendent Mark Adler said the protocols will be reviewed on Jan. 25 and an update will be sent to staff, parents and students. By implementing this additional intervention, I hope to slow down the virus in our school community, Adler wrote. This will help keep our students and staff safe, which in turn helps keep your student attending school in-person, where the most powerful learning takes place. Adler said that since the first semester ended on Dec. 21, the district has seen an increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in its students and staff. Douglas County ended 2021 and entered 2022 by tallying its highest weekly COVID-19 case count of the pandemic. The 4,731 cases reported for the week ending Saturday were the countys highest weekly total, surpassing the 4,268 cases recorded during the seven-day stretch that ended Nov. 21, 2020. The seven-day rolling average of new cases last week reached 700.9 cases per 100,000 residents, which also exceeded the November 2020 peak. Douglas County Health Director Lindsay Huse has strongly urged parents to have their children wear masks when they return to school. The Omaha Public Schools have required masks all school year and will continue requiring masks for the upcoming semester. Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Little Germani and Gamani Pettis-Grayson brought love and joy to their friends, family and neighbors, including the grown-up ones. And their mother, Rameshia Pettis, was right there with them, literally and figuratively. They were very outgoing, outspoken, just living life to the fullest, said Nyabuay Thot, a close friend of Pettis and mother of some of 6-year-old Germanis and 5-year-old Gamanis good buddies. They were always smiling and laughing and just happy, happy, happy kids. Every time youd see them, theyre just full of life and joy. Thot described Pettis as a happy and protective mother who was as quick to share what she had with her neighbors as her boys were to share their toys with friends. The brothers lost their lives in a fire early Saturday in their home at Southside Terrace Garden Apartments in Omaha. Pettis, who goes by Mimi, was fighting for her life in the burn unit of a Lincoln hospital after being critically injured in the fire, apparently while trying to save her children. Germani and Gamani were pronounced dead after being taken to the Nebraska Medical Center, a police spokesman said Monday. Pettis, 28, was also taken to the hospital for treatment. She was later transferred to the burn unit at St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center in Lincoln, where she was listed Monday in critical condition. Pettis mother, Sherronda (Pettis) Cribbs, said her daughter suffered multiple severe burns and had severe cuts to both arms. Cribbs said she was told that Pettis had broken out a window with her hands in a desperate attempt to help the boys escape. I just know that my grandkids died in a fire, and my daughter almost died trying to get them out, Cribbs said. They told us that she was fighting her way to save her kids. Shes a hero to me. A fund drive is raising money to pay funeral expenses for the boys. The fire occurred about 6:30 a.m. Saturday at 5410 S. 29th Ave. Thats a two-story apartment in the 70-year-old Southside Terrace, Omahas largest public housing complex and home to about 1,200 people in more than 330 apartments. Light smoke was visible as fire crews arrived at the scene, authorities said, although a next-door neighbor, Bola Mugaye, who reported the blaze, said she saw smoke and fire coming from the apartment. Crews quickly extinguished the blaze after entering the building, authorities said. The cause of the fire was under investigation. Firefighters found the boys and their mother inside and brought them out. Mugaye, Thot and another neighbor, Gina Miller, said firefighters carried one boy to an ambulance and performed CPR on the other child and Pettis on the ground outside the apartment. They told us she still had a pulse and they brought her back, Cribbs said. Mugaye, whose apartment shares a wall with Pettis apartment, said she became aware of the fire after her mother was awakened by what sounded like people throwing things around next door. It wasnt until Mugayes mother woke her up that they smelled smoke, looked out the back door and saw smoke and fire coming from the first floor of Pettis place. Mugaye called 911. She pounded on the familys door but received no response, which made her think that maybe Pettis, Germani and Gamani had gotten out. Mugaye directed firefighters to the burning apartment when the trucks arrived and soon after realized in horror that the family had not escaped. They must have been trapped upstairs by the fire on the first floor, which appeared to be coming from the kitchen, Mugaye said. On Monday, friends and family were trying to come to grips with the grief over the boys death and the struggle facing their mother. I just told my son, and he was broken down, Thot said. I just told him God brings angels, and you see them for a little while, but after while, He takes them back. And I told him those two were his angels, and they will always be in his heart. Gamani went to a day care and preschool. Germani was receiving educational services at the University of Nebraska Medical Centers Munroe-Meyer Institute, Sherronda Cribbs said. Her husband, Curtis Cribbs, took the boys to school and brought them home every day. He loved his grandsons, she said. When their grandpa brought them home, they often ran to play with their friends. Mugaye said she was always happy when Gamani and Germani came to play with her son because they were so joyful and kind. They had a little bus toy that they played with that you could ride on, Mugaye said. Mimi would always bring it outside for them to play with, and they would push each other and the other kids around on it. She said Pettis was a really good mother who was nice to the other children and families, too. For my little one, if she has like snacks, or candies, or ice cream, shed bring them outside and share with my little one, Mugaye said. If she has food or toys, shell share with others. Thot echoed that, adding water balloons and barbecue to the list. She described Pettis as a loving, protective and patient mother. If one of her boys was having a tantrum, instead of yelling at him she would talk him through it to figure out how to help him. I learned a lot about patience and loving from her, Thot said. The fire caused an estimated $5,000 in damage to the building. Smoke detectors were present, but it was unclear if they alerted the occupants, an Omaha Fire Department spokesman said. Joanie Poore, Omaha Housing Authoritys CEO, said the only recent maintenance order for Pettis apartment was a report that the smoke detector batteries were out in August. She said that they were replaced and that fire officials said the alarms were in working order Saturday. There had been no reports of electrical or heating problems in the apartment, she said. Its a tragedy that this fire has taken the lives of two young children and critically injured their mother, Poore said. Were deeply saddened and will continue to support the family and extended family in any way we can. Sherronda Cribbs said she was receiving an outpouring of support from the community Monday. Meanwhile, she was beginning to plan a funeral for her grandchildren while her daughter lay in a coma. Gamani loved a little dog in a police uniform in the Paw Patrol show, Cribbs said. His big brother, Germani, loved Grover from Sesame Street. They toted around plush toys of the characters they doted on, and introduced them to people they met. Those toys were destroyed in the fire, Cribbs said. They loved those toys, she said. Im trying to find a Grover and a Paw Patrol toy to put in their coffins. Omaha World-Herald: Afternoon Update The latest headlines sent at 4:45 p.m. daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Kevin Cole Kevin Cole covers Omaha crime and public safety news. Follow him on Twitter @KevinColeOmaha. Phone: 402-444-1272. Follow Kevin Cole Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today COUNCIL BLUFFS Ownership of Mount Crescent Ski Area is moving to Pottawattamie County. The county said it took over ownership with the help of the Iowa West Foundation and Mount Crescent owners Korby and Samantha Fleischer. The county finalized the deal on Dec. 31. The county purchased the business for about $3.5 million, paying for it with an Iowa West grant of about $1.4 million and American Rescue Plan Act money, said Pottawattamie County Board member Justin Schultz. We are beyond pleased to partner with the county and the Fleischers to support the transition of this regional destination Brenda Mainwaring, president and CEO of the Iowa West Foundation, said in a press release. The last two years have reminded us just how important outdoor recreational spaces are to our communities. By providing the additional support needed to make this transition a reality, we know that the county can continue to support conservation and recreation in our region for years to come. Schultz said the board examined the criteria of the American Rescue Plan and determined we were able to leverage that money for the purchase. This is big news for Mount Crescent and our county, he said. The ski area, which sits adjacent to the Hitchcock Nature Center, will continue to be managed by the Fleischers through the remainder of the current season. From there, the Fleischers will have the right of first refusal for operations contracts for two years, Schultz said. We have been lucky and blessed to have the opportunity to operate a popular ski area for the past 13 years and to be surrounded by dedicated staff, wonderful ski and snowboard enthusiasts and the best volunteer Ski Patrol around, the Fleischers said in the release. We are confident and excited that Pottawattamie County will protect and expand upon what our family has worked so hard to create. Once the management of the property has fully transitioned to the county, officials will explore further recreational development of the area, the release said. Schultz said the county is looking at additional options to make it an even bigger revenue generator. This will always be a ski hill, he said. Well lease it out to other organizations to run it. Schultz said the purchase is part of a long-term plan to purchase the entire bluff in the Hitchcock Nature Center area, noting, Getting Mount Crescent is a big part of that. This was several years in the making, he said, noting that negotiations broke down a few years ago before both parties came back to the table to finalize a deal. Mount Crescent is at 17026 Snowhill Lane in Honey Creek. For more information on hours and activities, go to skicrescent.com. Members of the Nebraska Legislature assemble on Wednesday. If theyre to make this session a success, they must heed three guideposts: Use the sessions limited time wisely. Build trust with colleagues dont let the session bog down in rancor and stalemate. Exercise leadership to guide the session to a sound conclusion. Use the time constructively. This session consists of only 60 working days a short session, in State Capitol parlance, in contrast to the 90-day sessions in odd-numbered years. Thats not much time for lawmakers to properly debate and decide complex, high-priority issues at the top of the sessions agenda. Above all, the Legislature must decide how to allocate an extraordinary $1 billion in federal COVID relief and thats on top of adjustments in the states regular two-year budget. Wise distribution of that federal money, carefully targeted for one-time strategic needs, can have great long-term benefit for Nebraska. Senators will have to decide among the enormous range of demands by Nebraska interests, and the Appropriations Committee faces a difficult challenge upfront in finding time for the many hearings needed for public comment. Lawmakers also will need to decide how to reconcile their budget preferences with those put forward by Gov. Pete Ricketts. Meanwhile, the Revenue Committee will issue one or more major tax-cut proposals, and tax policy is an area where the Legislature often finds it especially difficult to reach agreement. At the Education Committee, Sen. Lynne Walz, the chairwoman, will see if she can find a successful path forward for her ambitious plan to transform the states financial aid approach for public schools. That plan at present involves guaranteed state support for all districts and $700 million in additional state aid in hopes of reducing pressure on property taxes. Boosting state aid (currently at $1 billion) by such a hefty amount will be a steep challenge, and unless school districts provide serious commitments for spending constraint, the bill will fall to a filibuster. Speaker Mike Hilgers and other senators have high hopes for the so-called STAR WARS initiative, which Hilgers says can strengthen Nebraska tourism and economic development by bolstering the states water-related recreational sites. The prison issue will loom over the session, with new debates likely on revamping sentencing policy and strengthening programming for those incarcerated on top of the ongoing debate over whether to appropriate $230 million for a new prison. Build trust. All these issues are enormously important for Nebraskas future, and addressing them will take careful deliberation and debate, with little time to spare. Theres a serious danger, however, that the session will be sidetracked by ill will over culture-war issues and election-year partisan tensions. These frictions have been building for months. A long string of divisive issues has roiled Nebraska political discussions, sometimes pulling state senators into the debate: COVID-related health standards. Gov. Pete Ricketts attacks on the Biden administrations 30x30 land conservation program. Critical race theory. The Biden vaccine mandates (which triggered a huge volume of angry emails to state senators). And the special session on redistricting last fall, which soured relations among some senators. As World-Herald reporting has noted, legislation is expected this session on hot-button issues such as abortion, critical race theory and vaccine mandates. A proposal to endorse a national constitutional convention is likely. And election-year considerations will fuel heightened partisanship by some senators and the Governors Office. Its no surprise that proposals on such hot-button issues would arise and be sharply debated this session. But the Legislatures floor debates in recent years have gotten notably nasty and at times personal, raising the discord and dysfunction to an extreme level, in the fashion of Congress. Such bitterness and division could short-circuit the Legislatures ability to reach agreement this year on top-tier issues. Once the debates on abortion and other culture-war issues have concluded, lawmakers must move past their anger, win or lose. Leadership. Managing the Nebraska Legislature, its often been said, is like trying to herd 49 cats. True enough. Its the price of having a legislature that rightly empowers senators to think for themselves rather than being dictated to by party enforcers. But at times on tough issues, the Legislature has been in peril of drifting amid uncertainty and irresolution. Hilgers, as speaker, must assert himself to keep matters on course. Committee chairs have a particular obligation to promote consensus-building. Hilgers has said this session has great potential to be transformative, and it does. But that progress will come to pass only if lawmakers use their time wisely, keep their differences from getting out of hand, and exert leadership to keep this session on track. Geitner Simmons is a writer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a former World-Herald editorial page editor. The views here do not represent the position of UNL. Hes a longtime student of Nebraska government and has a keen interest in Midwest studies and U.S. regionalism. Hes on Twitter @GeitnerSimmons. Readers can write him at gcolumn100@gmail.com. As the country continues to face the public health and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, with scientists now predicting that the American death toll will likely reach a million or more, I am reminded of the role Nebraskans played in the countrys effort to deal with an earlier crisis. Today, we associate the name of Henry Doorly with Omahas widely known zoo. But in 1942, as publisher of The Omaha World-Herald, he led an effort that placed Nebraska in the national spotlight for very different reasons. Americas steel industry was central to the countrys effort to gear up production of munitions, aircraft, tanks and other vital supplies in the heat of World War II. What many Americans did not realize was that about half the steel produced by the countrys mills came from scrap metal, melted down and reused. Scrap metal was, of course, everywhere, and about 150,000 junk peddlers were in the business of collecting and reselling it, much of it going to foreign buyers, including Japan. Yet, by the middle of 1942, a lack of scrap metal was forcing steel mills to slow, or in some cases, stop production, at a time when the war effort demanded more and more steel. Efforts to mount a nationwide drive to collect more scrap metal proved bureaucratic and unwieldy, and the government feared the worst. When Doorly lamented the state of the war effort, it was his wife, Margaret Hitchcock Doorly, who asked him what he intended to do about it. Moved by her concern, he quickly generated an idea: The World-Herald would sponsor a statewide competition, a contest to see which of the 93 counties in Nebraska could collect the most scrap metal per capita. Despite the misgivings of many observers, the people of Nebraska were inspired. They pitched in and responded with a stunning effort: In three weeks, they had produced 67,000 tons of scrap metal to aid the war effort. Doorlys approach quickly caught the eye of the Roosevelt administration and the national press. The Nebraska Plan, as it was known, became the model for a national campaign that encompassed all the states, and produced more than 5 million tons of scrap metal to aid the wartime production of steel. In this way, ordinary people, through their individual effort and sacrifice, and inspired by the model provided by Nebraskans, made a critical, little-known contribution to the countrys success in WWII. James Kimble documented this story in his fine book, Prairie Forge: The Extraordinary Story of the Nebraska Scrap Metal Drive of World War II. At the same time, a small group of volunteers in North Platte had decided that troops shipping out to the war should be provided food and hospitality when their trains stopped at the small station there. This idea, generated by local Nebraskans, transformed the station into the North Platte Canteen. Eventually, volunteers from as far as 200 miles away kept the canteen open from the predawn hours until the last train had passed in the dead of night. They did this every day, for every troop train, for the duration of the war from Christmas Day in 1941 until the war ended. They provided food and hospitality for more than 6 million troops, many of the volunteers using their own precious ration coupons to buy the food and supplies necessary to sustain the canteen. The sacrifice and effort they invested was an example of Nebraskans at their best doing what they could for fellow citizens and the common good. Bob Greene, writing about it in his book Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen, said he went in search of the best America there ever was, and found it in Nebraska. It exemplified, in the words of the late State Poet Bill Kloefkorn, Nebraska. This place, these people ... Now, we once again have the opportunity to rise to the occasion, to come together in the face of adversity. Nearly 420,000 Americans died in WWII over a span of about four years. We now have nearly twice as many COVID deaths in a two-year period. Scientists and public health experts have made clear that we can each do our part. We can get the vaccine and the booster, we can wear our masks in public settings and we can use good judgment in our participation in events involving large groups. This level of sacrifice is far less than that showed by earlier Nebraskans. It is not a symbol of political affiliation, or heroism, or extraordinary effort. It is simply what Nebraskans do. As one of the veterans tracked down by Bob Greene said, They were the greatest doggone people ... He was right. Lets do it again. Kenneth Keith of Omaha is series editor, Cambridge University Press Elements in Psychology and Culture, and professor emeritus in the University of San Diego Department of Psychological Sciences. China to continue contributing to global nuclear governance: vice FM Xinhua) 08:19, January 04, 2022 BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to contribute its wisdom and proposals to global nuclear governance, and is ready to carry out cooperation with all peace-loving countries, Chinese vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said on Monday. Ma made the remarks during an interview after the leaders of the five Nuclear-Weapon States, namely China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States on Monday issued a joint statement on preventing nuclear war and avoiding arms races. Ma told the media the significance of the joint statement, China's efforts and China's proposition on strengthening the global governance in the nuclear field. Ma said that by issuing the joint statement, the five Nuclear-Weapon States stressed that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought and reiterated that none of the nuclear weapons are targeted at each other or at any other State. This is the first time for leaders of the five Nuclear-Weapon States to issue such a joint statement, which has demonstrated the political will of the five states to prevent nuclear wars, and given their common voice of maintaining global strategic stability and reducing the risk of nuclear conflicts, he added. Noting that the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century and the impact of COVID-19, Ma said the international strategic security field faces many major challenges. The joint statement is conducive to enhancing mutual trust, said Ma, adding that replacing competition among major countries with coordination and cooperation is of positive significance to the building of major-country relations featuring overall stability and balanced development. China has always been advocating the idea that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," and has been playing a leading role in promoting the five countries to take joint actions. Thanks to China's efforts, the content of "reaffirming that none of our nuclear weapons are targeted at each other or at any other State" is included in the joint statement, according to Ma. Noting that the five Nuclear-Weapon states are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council as well as legally recognized nuclear-weapon states under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Ma said they bear a common responsibility to prevent nuclear war and safeguard world peace. "The five countries should take the joint statement as a new starting point to enhance mutual trust, strengthen coordination, and play a positive role in building a world with lasting peace and common security," he said. China has always maintained a nuclear strategy that is defensive in nature, pursued a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons, and maintained its nuclear force at the minimum level required for safeguarding national security. "This in itself is an important contribution to global strategic stability," he said. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Du Mingming) With a predicted due date of Dec. 29, Diamond Douglas was expecting to be a new mother this New Years Day. What she didnt expect was that her daughter, Golden Moiselle Douglas, would be the first baby born in 2022 at Howard County General Hospital. It was a perfect delivery, said Douglas, of Laurel, who was admitted to the hospital on New Years Eve. I was very anxious to deliver. Advertisement Golden was born at 3:11 a.m., on Jan. 1. She weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 19 inches long. The nurses got together a gift basket for her and there was a photo shoot in the hospital, Douglas said. Advertisement Last fiscal year, from July 2020 to June 2021, 2,641 babies were born at the Howard County hospital, according to Sharon Sopp, assistant director of communications for the hospital. The time and day the first baby of a new year arrives is unknown. One year, we didnt have a first baby until 10 a.m., Sopp said. They come when they want to. Diamond, 25, had originally been thinking of the name Dior for her newborn. When she learned the word meant golden in French, she thought Diamond and Golden was the perfect combo. Her babys middle name, Moiselle, is a nod to mademoiselle and her moms Creole background. On Monday, Diamond brought Golden from the hospital to their home in Laurel, which they share with Diamonds sister and mother. My New Years resolution is to be the best mom of the year, Diamond said. I was the first mom of the year, now I want to be the best. The first baby of new year born at Howard County Gen Hospital, Diamond Douglas of Laurel gave birth to daughter, Golden Moiselle Douglas, at 3:11 a.m. on Jan. 1. 7 lb 12 oz. (Howard County General Hospital) The first baby of new year born at Howard County Gen Hospital, Diamond Douglas of Laurel gave birth to daughter, Golden Moiselle Douglas, at 3:11 a.m. on Jan. 1. 7 lb 12 oz. (Howard County General Hospital) BLOOMINGTON Long lines for COVID tests returned locally Monday and omicron cases surged statewide, with Gov. J.B. Pritzker warning that hospitalizations are about as high as they were last winter before vaccines were widely available. It is frustrating and tragic that two years into the pandemic, with multiple widely available and free, life-saving vaccines, that we are once again in this horrible position, Pritzker said during a news conference in Chicago. The Illinois Public Health Department reported 6,294 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Sunday, the most since the pandemic began. Dr. Ngozi Ezike, IDPH director, said an average of 550 people are being admitted to hospitals each day. With hospital beds for other emergencies frighteningly limited, Pritzker joined the Illinois Health and Hospital Association in urging health care providers to postpone non-emergency surgeries and procedures as needed to accommodate the influx of COVID-19 cases. This surge is testing our health resources yet again, A.J. Wilhelmi, CEO and president of the IHA said. About 85% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state are unvaccinated. Locally, 1,434 new infections were reported from Thursday to Sunday in McLean County, as well as two additional deaths, both men in their 60s, according the department of health. Eighty-one percent of intensive-care bed units are in use and 97% of total beds are being used. Though hospitals have become accustomed to managing bed capacity and the needs of COVID-19 patients over the course of the pandemic, Wilhelmi said the best way for people to provide relief for health care workers and facilities is to get vaccinated and boosted. More than 19 million vaccines have been administered with about 60% of Illinois residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Pritzker fears the rise in COVID-cases will continue to increase as the virus incubates in those who were exposed during the holidays. He urged individuals to get tested as soon as possible. Studies suggest the omicron variant has more mild symptoms but is highly contagious. The state last week closed Secretary of State offices and lawmakers suspended two days of the upcoming Illinois General Assembly session. Illinois entered 2022 record numbers of COVID-19 infections, in a pattern repeating across the country. St. Louis County health officials said Monday that Missouri's most populous county has recorded a record high for average new daily COVID-19 infections in the last seven days. On Monday, wait times for tests varied from 30 minutes to nearly four hours at McLean County sites, as operations resumed after the holidays. Vehicles were in a line stretching more than two blocks long on Route 9 outside the Reditus Laboratories COVID testing site at the McLean County Fairgrounds and Interstate Center Monday morning. Wait times averaged two to three hours in the morning, but improved throughout the day. Wait times for a test average between one and two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays, and less than an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the fairgrounds site, Reditus spokesman Paul Swiech said. He said the company is expecting to increase staffing at the site to meet the demand. Swiech said that because of about an hour long technical issue with the TestDirectly website used to register appointments, the longest wait time Monday reached three to four hours for a test. The technical issue was later resolved and wait times shrunk. The COVID testing site at the fairgrounds administered 618 tests Monday. Appointments are not required for the Reditus testing site at the fairgrounds, but people are encouraged to pre-register for a test at testdirectly.com to make the process go quicker, Swiech added. The testing site recently expanded its hours to six days per week in response to a statewide initiative announced last week to open community-based testing sites Monday through Saturday. The county fairgrounds testing site, at 1106 Interstate Drive, Bloomington, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The location administered 671 tests last Friday, compared to 720 and 691 tests administered last Thursday and Wednesday, respectively, Swiech said. Capitol News Illinois and The Associated Press contributed to this story. Contact Kade Heather at 309-820-3256. Follow him on Twitter: @kadeheather Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Build your health & fitness knowledge Sign up here to get the latest health & fitness updates in your inbox every week! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. NORMAL The Normal Town Council will begin the year considering a new facility that aligns with a common New Years resolution: improving health and fitness. On Tuesday, council will consider participation in the National Fitness Campaign which includes the installation of a year-round, outdoor fitness court. The campaign works with cities, schools and businesses with the mission to build these outdoor fitness courts within a 10-minute bike ride of every American, according to the National Fitness Campaign website. The fitness court includes a functional fitness circuit training system of full-body exercises designed for adults and accommodates various skills levels and abilities, according to council documents prepared by town staff. The court costs $140,000 plus installation and preparation costs estimated at $40,000. The National Fitness Campaign awarded the town a $25,000 grant and will support the town in identifying additional funding sources for sponsorships to offset the cost of the project. Town staff said the site preparation and installation would be completed through the town, estimating it would require a budget of $20,000 for materials to be included in the fiscal year 2022-23 budget. The campaign originally contacted town staff in 2019 but the pandemic and other priorities caused the concept to stall. Council will vote Tuesday on whether to proceed with the project, accept the grant and seek additional funding. After funding is identified, the purchase of the fitness court will be brought before the council for approval. Town staff said it aims to finalize the project by June, begin installation by late summer and conclude in the fall of this year. In other business, the council will consider a resolution authorizing the towns participation in a settlement from a national class-action lawsuit over the opioid crisis. Multiple state and local governments have litigated against several opioid distributors, including McKesson, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Janssens parent company Johnson & Johnson as a manufacturer. Normal was not a party in the lawsuit and did not fund the litigation. The parties in the suit reached a proposed settlement that allows for states and other entities to opt into the settlement agreement to receive funds, totaling up to $26 billion nationwide depending on how many states and municipalities participate. Illinois could receive an estimated $790 million, and Normal could receive an estimated $281,000 over 18 years. Most of the money must be used for opioid-remediation programs. The Bloomington City Council voted last month to participate in the settlement and the city could receive an estimated $479,000 over nine years. Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Belleville High School students won't be returning to school in-person this week. District 201 was supposed to resume after winter break on Tuesday. Instead, students will have Tuesday off and classes will be remote Wednesday through Friday, Superintendent Brian Mentzer said in a robocall that went out to parents. "This pause is intended to be brief," Mentzer said in the call. "We will re-evaluate over the weekend." New daily COVID case numbers in Illinois are at an all-time high, according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. Every county, including St. Clair County, is considered to have high transmission. The seven-day average for new cases on Thursday was 18,321. That's more than 2.5 times than just a few weeks ago; on Dec. 13, the seven-day average was 7,153 new cases per day. It's been rising steeply ever since. "Despite our best effort to start second semester in person, the increase in infections throughout the community has impacted our ability to appropriately and safely staff our buildings," Mentzer said. The previous high for new cases was a seven-day average of 12,384 new cases in November 2020. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Frank Zuccarelli, a suburban Chicago power broker who ran one of the states most influential political organizations, died Monday. He was 70. Zuccarelli was Thornton Township supervisor since 1993, where he ran public assistance programs that helped some of the states neediest people. He also headed a powerful political machine that inspired countless visits from political hopefuls looking to get a boost at the ballot box and drew criticism for waste and patronage. Under Zuccarellis leadership, Thornton Township ran a large food pantry, hosted events at a Calumet City senior center and hired young people to mow lawns. He, in turn, would give workers shirts branded with Zuccarelli Assistance Program and referred to his political allies as the Z Team. I really do love the people, Zuccarelli told the Daily Southtown in a 2016 tour of his area where residents mobbed him for hugs, kisses, and handshakes. I dont have to fake it. He also was chairman of South Suburban Colleges board of trustees since 1987 and was active in the Cook County Democratic Party, where he controlled the most votes within the party. Zuccarelli was a supporter of Barack Obamas Senate campaign in 2004, even as other Democratic Party leaders supported Daniel Hynes. Obama later paid him back by campaigning for Zuccarelli and praising his organization. Everybody here, I think, recognizes what you have, Obama said. Zuccarelli also threw his support behind Kim Foxxs successful primary challenge to Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez in 2016. Deb Kopec, executive director of Thornton Township under Zuccarelli from 1994 to 2012, described him as a leader who believed in people and didnt want to disappoint them. He loved people and people loved him. Whether it was staff, residents coming in, I used to call him the kissing supervisor because he always had to hug someone and kiss them on the cheek and welcome them and wanting to help, Kopec said. He always said, People need a chance. Some need more than once chance. He believes everyone makes mistakes and deserves a reset. He was very open to all people, no matter what their circumstances were. Zuccarelli started his political career as a close ally of former state Rep. Frank Giglio, who feuded with Zuccarellis predecessor as supervisor, Frederick Redell. Zuccarelli defeated Redell, a two-term incumbent, by 51% to 49% in 1993 after a contentious race that included accusations that a candidates heart attack was brought on by Zuccarelli workers plastering the mans car with stickers. At least 800 signs were also stolen and defaced on both sides of the campaign. Two men Zuccarelli called a marginal part of his campaign were arrested for some of the thefts. Zuccarelli had a falling-out with Giglio, however, and Giglio challenged him for township supervisor in 2001 but lost after a campaign where they exchanged a stream of insults, accusations and personal attacks as each jockeyed to obtain the upper hand in their long-standing battle to take control of the townships Democratic organization. Giglio accused Zuccarelli of misspending township funds on political events, rewarding political cronies and supporters with high-paying jobs or contracts and spreading his influence over local school boards and municipalities by getting some of his political allies elected to those bodies. Zuccarelli described Giglio as the type of person who tries to shove things down peoples throats and get them to always do things his way. Giglio this week said he didnt recall the rancor between them and praised Zuccarelli for keeping Thornton Township as one of the best townships in Cook County. Politics was all his life. He really worked hard at it, that Ive got to say, and he built the township up from when he was president and a member of the South Suburban College. That was his base, Giglio said. From there, he helped a lot of people. U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly praised Zuccarelli as someone who always seemed like the old-school tough guy in a lot of ways but I know he really loved Thornton and was committed to the township and the college. He definitely was a power broker and you could see when he had his events, how many people came out. I remember Michelle Obama coming to one of his pasta Sunday spaghetti dinners that everybody came to, Kelly added. He commanded a lot of respect in the political world. Zuccarelli endured other controversies as township supervisor, though he remained popular with voters. He spent more than $106,000 on an advertising push aimed at garnering support for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to a South Carolina church that was the site of a tragic 2015 mass shooting, the Southtown previously reported. The townships ad purchases followed a $46,000 taxpayer-funded trip to South Carolina by Zuccarelli and 14 others that also drew criticism as wasteful. Zuccarelli had said the four-day trips main purpose was to get knowledge from the people directly in Charleston as to why their reaction was so much different than the reactions in Ferguson and Baltimore, a reference to police-involved killings of young African Americans in those cities that generated nationwide outrage and violent protests. Then, last month, as Cook County Democrats weighed whether to endorse Alexi Giannoulias for secretary of state, Zuccarelli acknowledged there was tension among committee members over filling a post that has had a Black incumbent since 1998 with a white male Giannoulias rivals are all people of color. Zuccarelli said while incumbent Jesse White may have started out being best known as an African American politician, he ended up as the finest executive in the secretary of states office that weve ever seen. We truly do need somebody who stands in Jesse Whites place, that can take his place, regardless of their color, Zuccarelli said. In an interview this week, party chair Toni Preckwinkle praised Zuccarelli as a real heavyweight in the south suburbs and noted he retained his electoral popularity even as the region changed demographically. He was a white person who was responsible for an overwhelmingly African American constituency in Thornton Township and was beloved by everybody. If hed run for committeeperson again, (hed have won), Preckwinkle said. That says something about the way in which he served the people he was responsible for and their regard to him. Zuccarelli told the Southtown he would sometimes clash with leaders in communities, such as Markham and Dolton, who resented his presence as a white politician in a changing area. In some cases, they say, You dont belong in my town. I say to them, This is my town too, you understand, Zuccarelli had said. This is Thornton Township and anything we can do as Thornton Township to assist the people, thats what the purpose of our government is for us to provide assistance with social services. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 SPRINGFIELD Former U.S. Attorney John Milhiser announced Tuesday that he will seek the Republican nomination for Illinois Secretary of State, becoming the second member of his party and sixth candidate overall to jump into the race to succeed retiring Democratic incumbent Jesse White. Milhiser is believed to have the backing of billionaire Ken Griffin and other wealthy GOP donors, who plan to finance a slate of statewide candidates against Democratic incumbents in the 2022 election. "I am running because we can do better in Illinois," Milhiser said in a news release. "We can have good government. We can have safe communities, and we can rebuild trust in our leaders. As the next Secretary of State, I will continue to work to end the culture of corruption that has been fostered for decades in this state." Prior to that, Milhiser was the twice-elected Sangamon County state's attorney. He started his legal career in that office in 1997 and spent time in the juvenile, civil and felony divisions before entering private practice in 2003. He returned to the states attorneys office in 2008 as the first assistant. He was appointed to the top job in 2010 and elected in 2012 and 2016. Milhiser's entry means that both party's nominations for the office will now be contested. State Rep. Dan Brady, a Bloomington Republican, announced his candidacy for the office in November. In response to Milhiser's entry, Brady released a list of more than 40 Republican state lawmakers who have endorsed his campaign. Brady also has the backing of U.S. Reps. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro; Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville; and Darin LaHood, R-Dunlap. Having Republican lawmakers support and guidance behind me is significant, Brady said. Their support will allow us to build an effective campaign infrastructure from Cairo to Waukegan as I prepare to share my message with voters in the months ahead. On the other side, four Democrats are vying for their party's nomination. They are former state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias; Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia; Chicago Ald. Pat Dowell and Chicago Ald. David Moore. Valencia announced Tuesday that U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has endorsed her campaign, giving her the support of both of Illinois' senators. Sen. Tammy Duckworth endorsed her campaign last July. "Anna is an exceptional candidate, and I trust her to effectively lead an office which touches all of our lives," Durbin said. It's a boost for Valencia, who has fallen behind Giannoulias in money and endorsements from major unions and elected officials. But it isn't a huge surprise she was Durbin's campaign manager in 2014. Historically, the Secretary of State's office has been a stepping stone position for candidates seeking higher office, with two former officeholders, Republicans Jim Edgar and George Ryan, going on to become governor. Another, Democrat Alan Dixon, went on to serve two terms in the U.S. Senate. It is the most prominent statewide office outside the governors office, controlling more than 4,000 jobs and touching the lives of nearly every Illinois resident by issuing drivers licenses and registering motor vehicles. Other responsibilities include keeping official state records, maintaining the 20-building Capitol Complex and overseeing the state library. White has held the office since 1999, an unprecedented run. Though he considered retirement previously, the popular Democrat was convinced to stay on a few times, thus saving his party from an expensive open statewide race. Democrats, eager to hold the office this coming year, were quick to pounce on Milhiser's entry, calling the former prosecutor "the first pawn in the latest political game from Bruce Rauner and Ken Griffin." "Rauner and Griffin are most famous for waging a disastrous four-year war on good government in Illinois, decimating our social safety net and nearly plunging our state into junk status," said Abby Witt, executive director of the Democratic Party of Illinois. "Rauner and Griffin are now back, choosing their own slate of handpicked puppets instead of letting voters to have their say." Lee Enterprises and other outlets reported last month that Griffin has agreed to help fund a slate of candidates to the tune of $200 million to $300 million. A spokesman for Griffin did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday. Milhiser will likely lean into his prosecutorial background in the campaign, which could be an effective strategy as several Illinois elected officials as well as people connected with former House Speaker Michael Madigan stand trial on various corruption charges this year. Last year, Milhiser's office brought forward a litany charges against former state Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, related to his alleged misuse of campaign money for personal expenses. McCann pleaded not guilty and will likely stand trial in 2022. State Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, who succeeded McCann and previously worked under Milhiser in the state's attorney's office, said his former boss is "not afraid of confrontation for the public good." "John is definitely a skilled attorney and he was a very good boss," McClure said. "We're friends and he's done a lot of really great things including going after corruption in state government. The most prime example that, of course, is Sam McCann." McClure, however, is among the majority of Republican state elected officials who has endorsed Brady, saying he was not aware Milhiser planned to run before pledging his support. Milhiser did not return requests for additional comment Tuesday. He has yet to open a fundraising account for his latest campaign. Candidates for office can begin gathering signatures to get on the June 28 primary ballot later this month. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A curious trio of billboards went up across Rockford in November. They showed five men in Roman collars bracketed by angry red type: Not one more penny! Until you reinstate our priests. The appeal to withhold contributions from the collection plate was the latest in-your-face gesture from the Coalition for Canceled Priests, a group that formed in the Chicago suburbs last year to advocate for clerics it says have been unfairly removed from the Roman Catholic ministry by bishops. Its provocative tactics, which have also included a Lincoln Park rally and a viral endorsement from Mel Gibson, reflect its belief that public and financial pressure are more likely to get results than working through the church hierarchy. Im not saying that all bishops are bad, far from it, but theres a lot of corruption going on, said co-founder the Rev. John Lovell, who has been sidelined for nine years. " There are priests being victimized who have done nothing wrong, and who dont deserve the treatment theyre getting from church officials. Lovell said none of the 20 or so priests the coalition supports has been charged with a crime, and some have received no explanation for their exile. Others, though, have been aggressively defiant toward their superiors. The conservative tilt of those priests, along with the groups entry into battles over the Latin Mass and COVID-19 vaccines, has convinced some that the coalition exists primarily as an extension of Americas culture war. I am stunned by the level of audacity, said John Gehring, Catholic program director at the social justice advocacy group Faith in Public Life. Theres almost this parallel magisterium, sort of a shadow culture within the church where clergy and bishops declare what is orthodox, and have no obedience or deference to church authorities. Focus on Rockford Though the coalition has taken up the cause of priests around the country, its focus has been the Rockford Diocese, which includes some of Chicagos western suburbs. Lovell said he is one of a dozen priests there who have been removed from ministry despite no finding of wrongdoing. That equates to cancellation, he said, though diocese spokeswoman Penny Wiegert said priests can be unassigned for many reasons, including health issues. She declined to provide the number of unassigned priests in the diocese. Lovells problems began in 2010, three years after he was ordained. According to a case summary prepared by his attorney, Lovells suitability for the priesthood was questioned after he was the subject of several complaints, though none constituted criminal behavior. The attorney, canon law specialist the Rev. Pius Pietrzyk, told the Tribune that some incidents buying a cassock for a seminarian who couldnt afford one, or reserving a hotel conference room where alumni of a Catholic high school club could play cards were viewed as boundary violations. Lovell denied doing anything improper, and said he thinks the complaints were payback for reporting a fellow teacher for inappropriate contact with a student. He was ordered to get a psychological evaluation at a counseling center that serves Catholic clergy. In a letter following the evaluation, former Rockford Bishop Thomas Doran wrote: I regard the present case of Father Lovell as concluded and no further action on the allegations therein is warranted. But Pietrzyk said that when Bishop David Malloy was appointed to lead the diocese in 2012, he took a different view of the case, issuing decrees that restricted Lovells ability to perform his clerical duties. Lovell remains a priest but cant celebrate Mass or hear confession. He said his pay and benefits were reduced, and after he was banned from diocesan housing, he had to move into his fathers house in the south suburbs and take odd jobs. (Wiegert said pay and housing depends on a priests status.) Pietrzyk said appeals to Rome have been fruitless, and that Malloy has declined to outline his concerns or how Lovell can address them. I just simply do not understand why, legally speaking, John has been shunted out of ministry like this, he said. It boggles my mind. Wiegert declined to address Lovells allegations, saying the diocese doesnt comment on personnel matters. Kelly ODonnell, a California-based canon lawyer who is not involved in Lovells case, said the hierarchy can remove priests permanently a process known as laicizing or defrocking only if they have committed a crime or a serious offense against the church, such as preaching heresy. It can be a long and convoluted process, she said, and some bishops have found it easier to deal with troublesome priests by leaving them unassigned. They just think they can toss them, she said. Its really sad. State of limbo While Lovells case has lingered for nearly a decade, a more recent removal prompted the formation of the Coalition for Canceled Priests. In May, the Rockford Diocese announced that the Rev. James Parker, pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Church in Batavia, would leave after a seven-year run but would not get a new assignment. The diocese said that was due to Parkers refusal to discuss various concerns that have arisen regarding his service as pastor. Wiegert would not specify those concerns and Parker declined to comment. But in an interview with LifeSiteNews, Parker said hed been warned about infringements such as celebrating Mass with his back to the congregation an old-school practice known as ad orientem as well as his failure to adhere to all of the dioceses COVID rules. Former parishioner Dan Wurtz, who moved to another church because of Parkers removal, said diocesan officials havent clarified the situation, angering the congregation. The bishop has never taken time to speak with parishioners who are so wounded by his decision, he said. Another parishioner, Craig Holuj, said Parkers removal was the last straw. He is a friend of Lovell, and together they founded the coalition to raise awareness and financial support for priests they deem canceled, he said. You have these priests living in a state of limbo, just kind of there, he said. And this is at a time when the Catholic Church is in dire need of priests. So it just makes no sense. The coalitions first order of business was to put on a fundraiser for Parker, which Holuj said brought in $20,500. Since then, the organization, which is seeking nonprofit status, has raised several hundred thousand dollars more, he said. Parkers fundraiser was followed by a September rally in Chicagos Lincoln Park that included a video message from Mel Gibson, the movie star known for following a stringent form of Catholicism. He suggested the priests removal had an ideological motive. (Bishops) passively sit by and tolerate any kind of nonsense, but if one of their priests utters something that resembles orthodoxy, well, then they spring into action, he said. They reprimand him and they bully him and do their best to cancel him. Clerical culture warriors Lovell said the views of the coalitions priests are rooted in tradition, not politics The church makes it quite clear in the catechism and canon law what her teachings are, he said but that line is sometimes hard to discern. One of the priests featured on the coalitions billboards, the Rev. James Altman of La Crosse, Wisconsin, was removed in July after making numerous inflammatory statements. In one video, he bashed Democrats and progressive organizations, called climate change a hoax and ridiculed fellow clergy as gutless cowards. Another priest, the Rev. Paul Kalchik, lost his post at Chicagos Resurrection Catholic Church in 2018 after he burned a rainbow banner that had hung in the parish, calling it sacrilegious. In November, speaking at a Baltimore rally organized by conservative media outlet Church Militant, he condemned tolerant views of homosexuality as one of the worst evils to befall the church and society. Neither priest could be reached for comment. Massimo Faggioli, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, said while politics have always influenced the inner workings of the church, the situation has become especially volatile in recent years. He attributes that to the sexual abuse crisis that chipped away at the churchs moral standing and the rise of norm-shredding politicians like former President Donald Trump who serve as inspiration to dissatisfied priests and laypeople. They have received encouragement from what theyve seen happening, he said. Theres a whole climate in which authority is very easily confronted and challenged and attacked publicly. But the Rev. Mark White, a suspended Virginia priest who received $11,500 from the coalition to hire a canon lawyer, said he is not in ideological lockstep with other priests in the group. He ran afoul of Bishop Barry Knestout of the Richmond Diocese by writing a blog that discusses, sometimes angrily, the churchs abuse crisis (Knestout has accused him of fomenting disunity and making inflammatory and contemptuous comments). What the coalitions priests do agree on, White said, is that they should be able to speak their minds without punishment. Were human beings who have ideas, he said. It seems like we should be allowed to express them. Unlikely role model The coalition has dipped into matters beyond the reinstatement of priests. It has highlighted the views of Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who has spread conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines. It has also resisted efforts by Pope Francis, Cardinal Blase Cupich and other leaders to curb the Latin Mass in the name of church unity, enlisting mobile billboards to circle Chicago churches with the message, Defend the traditional Latin Mass. Even so, Lovell said one of his role models is the very liberal Rev. Michael Pfleger, who has led St. Sabina on Chicagos South Side since 1981. Pfleger has tangled with the Chicago Archdiocese over his activism, and last year was investigated on decades-old allegations of child sex abuse. As they have before, his parishioners rallied around him, flooding a church sexual abuse hotline with so many calls that Cupich threatened to move the investigation to another diocese. In the end, a review board concluded there was insufficient reason to suspect Pflegers guilt and Cupich reinstated the priest. A lot of us dont have the popularity that Father Pfleger does so what the coalition is trying to do is try to be the voice for these priests that have no one, or very few people, to defend them, Lovell said. He acknowledged, though, that only one of the priests the coalition has supported has returned to the ministry. As for the groups billboards, Wiegert said they have had no effect on the Rockford Dioceses contributions. Charles Reid Jr., a canon lawyer and law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, said discontent within the ranks has been part of Catholicism for centuries. While the conflict might be particularly hot at the moment, he predicted that the coalition, like other fractious groups before it, will ultimately fade away. I just dont see that apocalyptic explosion, he said. I think this will peter out and people will be reconciled. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 BLOOMINGTON McLean County Unit 5 and Bloomington District 87 plan for students to resume in-person learning Tuesday following the winter break, having made no indication that schedules will be altered. School districts across the country are weighing next steps in response to a surge in COVID infections. New cases have tripled in the past two weeks to over 400,000 a day nationally, and districts from Syracuse, New York, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, have cancelled school or shifted to virtual learning. In Chicago, the teachers' union is urging the district to work remotely. Peoria Public Schools on Sunday said the winter break would be extended a week, until Monday, to give administrators more time to prepare for in-person learning. In the two weeks since our winter break began, an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases both locally and nationally has occurred due to the emergence of the omicron variant, Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat said in a social media post. District 87 Superintendent Barry Reilly said they have concerns about the positivity rate and number of cases in McLean County, but we continue to practice our safety protocols along with our test-to-stay program. I am most concerned about Omicron as every report I have seen indicates it is more contagious than other variants, he said. We will have to monitor this closely as transmissions within school have been relatively uncommon with other variants. Reilly said among nearly 700 district staff members, 21 people are currently COVID positive, with an additional three staff members quarantined with symptoms and two unvaccinated staff members quarantined because of close contact with a positive case. It is important to note that while Peoria is delaying its start, that is the only Central Illinois school district we know of making that decision, Unit 5 Superintendent Kristen Weikle said. Each district needs to decide what is best based on their students and current situation. Unit 5 will continue to monitor cases and the impact on our schools, as we have done for almost two years. She said while there is an uptick in cases in the community, the district saw minimal spread in the schools leading up to winter break. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Illinois Department of Public Health recently changed quarantine protocols, shortening the isolation period, but in a letter to Unit 5 families, Weikle said those changes do not apply to schools. Both districts have said students and staff will be expected to follow COVID protocols and procedures, available at district87.org/covid and unit5.org/Page/15895. Parents are asked to keep their students home if they have any COVID symptoms or have been identified as a close contact. Weikle noted Unit 5 utilizes layered mitigation strategies, as recommended by IDPH, including masking, social distancing when possible and the installation needlepoint bipolar ionization systems to enhance air purification. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Its time to start panicking about the possibility of losing democracy in the United States. A host of bills are being passed in electoral battleground states, many of which are controlled by GOP-majority legislatures and governors. They seek either to keep liberal-leaning constituencies from voting or, more nefariously, to let election officials overturn accurate results. In Texas, a new law, according to The Texas Tribune, specifically targets voting initiatives used by diverse, Democratic Harris County, the states most populous, by banning overnight early voting hours and drive-thru voting both of which proved popular among voters of color last year. And Republican legislators in Ohio have introduced a bill that would shorten early voting, ban returning ballots via drop boxes, and limit acceptable forms of voter ID. Georgias secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger who, following the 2020 election, repeatedly refused Donald Trumps call to find enough votes to overturn Joe Bidens victory is facing a Trump-endorsed primary challenger whod be far more amenable to doing so. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is also facing a primary challenge, from Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue, for similarly sinister reasons. In short, Republicans across the country are working to ensure that the next time a would-be autocrat like Donald Trump tries to snatch victory from electoral defeat, he succeeds. All of this is well documented. Recent weeks have seen a surge in coverage of Republican-led efforts to further undermine democracy. An extensively reported piece by Barton Gellman in The Atlantic has perhaps the most jarring headline: Trumps Next Coup Has Already Begun. Another ominous op-ed, 18 Steps to a Democratic Breakdown, ran in the Dec. 10 issue of The Washington Post. Democracy is unraveling before our eyes, and time is running out to do anything about it. To protect democracy against these predations, we first need to pass a new federal Voting Rights Act. There is simply no time to individually fight, through courts or ballot boxes, all of the state and local laws that are loosening our already-faltering grasp on majority rule. Weve been on this slippery slope for some time. In 2013, a Supreme Court ruling effectively retired the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which mandated that states with a history of discrimination against minority voters have electoral changes approved by the federal government. Now, as Old South states like Georgia are moving toward a system that would let election officials steal elections by disenfranchising voters and threatening to delegitimize results, were seeing how wrong that ruling was. And these latest state measures, however incremental, are edging the United States toward an autocratic abyss. Its time to stop playing games. We need to pass a federal voting rights law that supersedes the state and local laws further shredding our already-frayed democracy. There is still hope. On Dec. 13, the Democratic governors of 17 states signed a letter urging the U.S. Senate to act on voting rights, including codification of a law the House passed in August, named for the late John Lewis, to restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act. A few days later, President Joe Biden followed suit, rightly accusing the GOP of an unrelenting assault on voting. This must get done, whatever it takes. Likely, it will mean sidestepping the filibuster, as happened with the recent measure to increase the debt ceiling. Obstinate Democrats like Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema must get on board or watch as U.S. democracy is dealt a potentially fatal blow. The clock is ticking. Christopher Dale (@ChrisDaleWriter) of Little Falls, New Jersey, writes on society, politics and sobriety-based issues. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 In perhaps the saddest statement since Jan. 6 on the state of American Democracy, Republican lawmakers across the country have been asked to say three simple words: Joe. Biden. Won. But they just cant bring themselves to do it, even though Biden beat President Donald Trump by more than 7 million popular votes and trounced him in the Electoral College toll. In other words, those GOP lawmakers refuse to recognize the will of the people. Which means they no longer recognize democracy. An October poll found that nearly a third of Republican respondents said violence may be necessary to put Trump back in power. Which means those Republicans no longer recognize democracy as the only correct way to install leaders and peacefully transfer power. Sales of firearms in America are skyrocketing. Forbes reports that more than 30 million guns were purchased in America in 2020 and 2021, a record-setting trend that suggests some people are preparing for violence. These are frightening times for anyone paying attention to the trends. The storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 was the starkest example of a willingness to use violence to achieve what a free election couldnt. Before insurrectionists attacked from the outside, a few members of Congress inside had forwarded to the White House an elaborate scheme to effectively stage a military-backed coup to keep Trump in power. The scheme, outlined in a 36-slide PowerPoint presentation, concocted a story of electronically cast votes manipulated by China to tilt the vote toward Biden. The scheme called for nullifying all votes cast electronically. Trump would declare a state of emergency and federalize the National Guard in all 50 states to conduct a new presidential vote. Only paper ballots would be counted, and ballots deemed counterfeit would be thrown out. The result, the PowerPoint document states: Trump wins!! But it required Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6 to refuse certification of Bidens victory. Pence said he wouldnt cooperate, prompting Trump to tweet during the insurrection: Mike Pence didnt have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution. Active-duty members of the U.S. military participated in the Jan. 6 assault. Months later, the commanding general of the Oklahoma National Guard publicly questioned a directive from his commander in chief. When one side comes this close to abandoning the fundamental pillars upon which this nation is founded, the question becomes more than just theoretical: Can American democracy, or America itself, survive if this radical faction doesnt come to its senses? St. Louis Post-Dispatch Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 Each year, the president declares Jan. 16 to be Religious Freedom Day, and calls upon Americans to observe this day through appropriate events and activities in homes, schools, and places of worship. The day is the anniversary of the passage, in 1786, of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. History affirms the earliest settlers came to this country for religious freedom; some came from lands where worship was determined by the rulers. This influenced the First Constitutional Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. So few words with vast meaning: We the people are protected from government imposing any one form of religious worship. Wouldnt it be wonderful if, on National Religious Freedom Day, each one would realize and self-search within to be the best they can be, and share with others and attend a church of their choice. Then, pray that there will always be a National Religious Freedom Day. The Womans Christian Temperance Union welcomes women and men to join us in this effort. Loreta Jent, Education Dir. National Womans Christian Temperance Union Normal WCTU, Pres. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Stephen Wagner, a 10-year-old fourth grader at Hilltop Elementary School in Glen Burnie, died from COVID-19 complications on Dec. 29, according to a GoFundMe page set up in his honor. The goal for Stephens GoFundMe is $10,000 to cover funeral expenses, but by Tuesday afternoon donations had surpassed $13,400. According to an update from the fundraisers organizer, the extra money will be used to help the family with any unforeseen expenses. Advertisement Hilltop Elementary Principal Eileen Gagnon wrote a letter to parents and families Monday to inform them of Stephens death. Stephen was a kind and fun-loving young man who was a pleasure to be around. He worked hard to do well in school and always put forth his best effort. He was a good team player and worked well with his classmates, Gagnon wrote in the letter. Advertisement It was Stephens first year at Hilltop, and he was a member of the strings and chorus groups and played the viola, according to the letter. Our heart goes out to this young boys family. Were looking into what happened and are awaiting more information, Anne Arundel County Health Officer Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman said in a statement. Funeral arrangements for Stephen have not yet been set, Gagnon wrote in the letter. The schools counseling and student services teams will be available to speak with any students who want to talk about the effects of Stephens death on them. If the need is more urgent or occurs before classes restart, Gagnon encouraged people to call the Anne Arundel County Crisis Warmline at 410-768-5522. That service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Stephens death comes at a time when COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are surging in Anne Arundel County and in Maryland. The state recorded 14,494 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, according to Maryland Department of Health data. State health officials logged 3,057 COVID-19 hospitalizations Tuesday, an increase of more than 300 people from the day before. Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, Maryland has seen 13 coronavirus deaths of residents younger than 19. The Minister for National Security, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah has urged staff and management of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to address revenue leakages, particularly at key revenue-generating points in the country to help safeguard Ghanas economic security. Revenue leakages, he said, occur with the complicity of some staff of the GRA who he described as the few bad nuts. The actions of these fee bad nuts tend to obscure and negate the numerous positive works of the Authority. Now more than ever, the GRA and for that matter, Ghana, needs men and women of integrity to block leakages in the system. To succeed in doing this, the Authority must do all it can to root out those bad nuts, said Mr Kan-Dapaah. National Security Strategy The National Security Minister was speaking on Wednesday, December 29, 2021 at a sensitization workshop on the National Security Strategy for Commissioners of the GRA in Accra. The government, he said, had implemented measures such as the Immediate Tax Force (ITF) and the Revenue, Assurance and Compliance (RACE) Initiative to complement the efforts of the GRA in blocking revenue leakages, yet the leakages have persisted due to limited cooperation and collaboration between the GRA and security agencies. The coming into force of the National Security Strategy would avert this problem by promoting multi-agency cooperation toward safeguarding the economic security of the State, he said. That, he explained was because the strategy would place the work of the GRA at the very heart of all security considerations of the State, implying an enhanced cooperation between State Security and Intelligence Agencies and the GRA in preventing leakages. He said it would also open new channels of communication among actors tasked with the duty of enhancing domestic revenue mobilization and remove barriers that militate against efficient revenue collection. The failure of the GRA to mobilize the needed revenues for government, he pointed out, would serve as the catalyst to plunge the nation into an age of discord and possibly truncate Ghanas long years of relative peace and stability in the West African sub-region. He said developments which were recorded in the country such as increased agitations for the improvement in the living conditions of citizens leading to the emergence of pressure groups, and the recent gridlock in Parliament over the introduction of the E-levy, shed light on the magnitude of the economic security threats that confronted the country. Mr Dapaah said these economic security threats were tightly connected to the ability of the State to generate revenues and tackle the socio-economic problems facing the country. In pre-pandemic times, it was prudent for developing countries including Ghana to rely on external borrowings to augment shortfalls in domestic revenues generated for development. Today, he said, that alternative was no longer attractive due to rising debt levels and the ballooning of deficits occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. He said many countries in sub-Saharan Africa were exploring ways to widen the tax net and increase domestic revenue mobilization as the only potent means to restore their economies to normalcy and that Ghana was no exception, even though these measures sometimes imposed a certain degree of discomfort on the citizenry. Commitment President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in June 2021 launched the National Security Strategy blueprint to enable stakeholders in the security sphere to deal effectively with existing, new and emerging threats to the country. The Commissioner of the Customs Division of the GRA, Colonel Kwadwo Damoah (Retd), speaking on behalf of the Commissioner-General of the GRA, Rev Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, indicated the commitment of the GRA to mobilize adequate revenue for the economic development of the nation. He said the workshop would offer the GRA the opportunity to appreciate the National Security strategy better and help them address any threats that would impede their work. Source: graphic.com.gh Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Kwasi Poku-Boansi, a former member of the Asante Kotoko youth squad, has been appointed Vice Dean, School of Graduate Studies, at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). On August 1, 2021, Poku-Boansi was elevated to the status of Full Professor at KNUSTs Department of Planning. This makes him the universitys youngest full professor. Prof Michael Poku Boansis promotion was announced on Friday, March 19, 2021. After the Governing Council of KNUST confirmed the recommendations of the University Appointments and Promotions Committee and the Academic Board in regard to his application for promotion to full Professor in the Planning Department, he was elevated to the rank of Full Professor. Poku Boansis most recent position at KNUST is Vice Dean, School of Graduate Studies. His most recent position began on January 1, 2022. In the early 2000s, Boansi was a member of the Kotoko Youth Team, where he played alongside Francis Akwaffo and Gabriel Opoku-Ware, among others. Meanwhile, Asante Kotokos young team will have a new look starting next year, according to the clubs Chief Executive Nana Yaw Amponsah Source: Gbcghanaonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Another Covid variant has been found in France, according to scientists. The mutant strain has 46 mutations that are thought to make it both more vaccine-resistant and infectious than the original virus. Some 12 cases have been spotted so far near Marseille, with the first linked to travel to the African country Cameroon. But there is little sign that it is outcompeting the dominant Omicron variant, which now makes up more than 60 per cent of cases in France. Read Full Story .... dailymail.co.uk >>> : Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Resident Minister of Ebenezer Methodist Congregation in Breman, in the Ashanti Region, Very Reverend Benjamin Akwesi Ansong has commended Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for his understanding of religious diversity and tolerance. The Vice President, responded to the Church's invitation to join them for its 31st Night Service, and he was accompanied by his wife, Samira Bawumia, and other senior government officials. Church service Welcoming Dr. Bawumia to the Church, Very Reverend Benjamin Akwesi Ansong told the Congregation of his admiration for the Vice President's appreciation of religious tolerance. "We have in our midst tonight Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and it is refreshing. This shows his understanding of religious tolerance," the Methodist Pastor said, amidst cheers. "This is a Christian gathering, but he has thought it wise to demonstrate his love and joy, which is in line with what the Bible preaches that, rejoice with those who are rejoicing." "So if today we Christians have gathered here to express our joy and the Vice President (a Muslim) has joined us, we have to be extremely grateful to God for what he has done for our country Ghana. It is something we must hold so firmly." "If God has touched his heart and he has joined us here, we are happy and we have to pray for him too as we pray, and also pray for His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo and the leadership of this country." "The Bible says give honour to whom honour is due, so let us all rise up and pray for our guest," he said. Very Reverend Akwesi prayed for the Vice President, President Akufo-Addo as well as the country for continuous good leadership and prosperity respectively. Delivering a short remark, Dr. Bawumia urged the congregation to continue to uphold the peace the country enjoys by being tolerant of people with diverse religious beliefs. "We are one people and this is what will sustain the peace we enjoy as a country," Dr. Bawumia told the Congregation. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Local Government Minister, Mr. Dan Kwaku Botwe, has urged Ghanaians to sacrifice to support the E-levy to achieve the desired national development and job creation opportunities. He explained that the socioeconomic problems of the country required sustainable revenue generation strategies to tackle, noting that the government has no intention to make life difficult for the people of Ghana. "The E-Levy is a thought-through budget proposal to meet the huge demands of development," he noted. He said the government, therefore, needed the support and understanding of the public to realise the objectives of the E-Levy for the benefit of Ghanaians. He refuted claims that the E-Levy was a bad policy, which would make the Government unpopular. Mr. Botwe, who is also the Member of Parliament for Okere, said this during a mini durbar to climax the Annual Odwira Festival of the chiefs and people of Adukrom in the Okere District of the Eastern Region. Revenue mobilisation He said the government needed more revenue to meet the high demands of development, citing the huge numbers of graduates from the universities without jobs, who needed government's intervention. "The demand for good roads, schools, and hospitals amidst the huge burden of ensuring that there are job opportunities for the young ones far outweigh similar demands in my days as a youth and we, as a people must all come to that realisation". The Government, in the 2022 Budget and Economic Policy presented to Parliament, announced the proposed 1.75 per cent Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy), on mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances. However, this has not gone down well with a cross section of the public. While many have described it as a double taxation of the already burdened taxpayer, others have questioned its rationale in propelling national development when the combined revenue of oil, gold and cocoa, has not been utilised judiciously for the same purposes. Education Still at the durbar, Mr. Botwe called on the traditional authorities to pay more attention on education to ensure that no child was left behind. He pledged GH20,000 on behalf of the Master Dako Foundation, an establishment in honour of his late father, towards the Adukrom Education Fund. Earlier, Nana tutu Kono, the Chief of Adukrom, announced that the Traditional Council and stakeholders in education had instituted an Education Fund to improve standards and access to education in the area. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Dormaahene, Osagyefo Oseadeyo Agyeman Badu, has said chiefs across the country should be blamed for the current state of the country and not the political leaders of the country. According to him, instead of using the land resources at their disposal for the benefit of their citizens, chiefs use them only for themselves. We should not blame only Nana Akufo-Addo and his Ministers for the state of the country because we are also part. We sell lands in our communities and keep the monies to ourselves and not use it for the needed development, Mynewsgh.com quoted him. He said the chiefs should use the resources at their disposal to better the lives of their communities people. If there are resources at your disposal but its not being used for the good of the people and there is someone to criticize you for not helping with the development of your community, has the person committed a crime, he asked. Also, he said chiefs in Ghana have a leadership role to play which is essential to make Ghana a better place but unfortunately most of them were not playing these roles. Osagyefo Badu, according to the Mynewsgh.com report, said by failing to play their role as traditional leaders chiefs were contributing to Ghanas lack of development. He said the challenges the country was currently going through should save as a wake-up call for Ghanaian Chiefs to start playing their roles as traditional leaders. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Head Pastor of Ebenezer Methodist Congregation in Breman, in the Ashanti Region, Very Reverend Benjamin Akwesi has commended Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for his understanding of religious diversity and tolerance. The Vice President responded to the Church's invitation to join them for its 31st Night Service, and he was accompanied by his wife, Samira, and other senior government officials. Welcoming Dr. Bawumia to the Church, Very Reverend Benjamin Akwesi told the Congregation of his admiration for the Vice President's appreciation of religious tolerance. "We have in our midst tonight Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and it is refreshing. This shows his understanding of religious tolerance," the Methodist Pastor said, amidst cheers. "This is a Christian gathering, but he has thought it wise to demonstrate his love and joy, which is in line with what the Bible preaches, rejoice with those who are rejoicing." "So if today we Christians have gathered here to express our joy and the Vice President (a Muslim) has joined us, we have to be extremely grateful to God for what he has done for our country Ghana. It is something we must hold so firmly." "If God has touched his heart and he has joined us here, we are happy and we have to pray for him too as we pray, and also pray for His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo and the leadership of this country." "The Bible says to give honour to whom honour is due, so let us all rise up and pray for our guest." Very Reverend Akwesi prayed for the Vice President, President Akufo-Addo as well as the country for continuous good leadership and prosperity respectively. Delivering a short remark, Dr. Bawumia urged the congregation to continue to uphold the peace the country enjoys by being tolerant of people with diverse religious beliefs. "We are one people and this is what will sustain the peace we enjoy as a country," Dr. Bawumia told the Congregation. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the One Teacher One Laptop initiative. Speaking at the the 6th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Kumasi on Tuesday January 4, the National President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mrs Philippa Larsen, said Your excellency, I wish to commend you and your government for supplying customized laptops to teachers. We are grateful and wish to take this opportunity to remind the Minister of Education of other related issues that we had lengthy discussions on. We believe this is going to be done to ensure peace and tranquility on the educational front. President Akufo-Addo pledged to address the issue about concerns raised by teachers over the One Teacher, One Laptop initiative. The One Teacher One Laptop initiate was launched by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. During the launch, he handed over 350,000 laptops in fulfilment of governments pledge to equip Ghanas teachers with the requisite ICT skills to prepare the next generation for the Fourth Industrial revolution. At a brief but colourful ceremony at the campus of the St Marys Senior High School, Accra on Friday 3rd September, 2021 Dr Bawumia, assisted by the Minister for Education, Hon Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum; the Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa; and the leadership of Teacher Unions, handed over the first of these laptops, known as the TM1 (Teachers Mate 1) to the 71 teachers of the school. Effective teaching and learning is critical to developing the human capacity for work, innovation and creativity; necessary ingredients for capacity building. Teachers are the indispensable pillars to this necessary capacity building. This initiative, in collaboration with the Teacher Unions, is to support the vision of the Ghana Education Service of creating an enabling environment to facilitate effective teaching and learning Dr Bawumia stated. Under the initiative, Government is to provide every teacher in Ghana, from Kindergarten to the Senior High School level, with a laptop preloaded with educational materials and with access to an E-Library equipped with books recommended by the GES on the various subjects. The materials can be accessed whether online or offline, and with free Wi-Fi available in 722 Senior High Schools across the country, access to the almost innumerable resources available on the internet is expected to aid research, teaching and learning. The State takes up 70% of the cost of the laptop, while the teacher makes up the difference. The laptop, however, becomes the personal property of the teacher and serves the benefit of providing a tool for developing the teachers professional and personal capacity. This shift to ICT-based teaching and learning has many benefits for both teachers and students, according to experts in education. With the curriculum materials already installed onto the laptops, the suggested lesson notes prepared by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) can be downloaded onto the laptops and used to end the burdensome task of writing lesson notes into notebooks. This would perfectly be in tandem with the fifth skill and competence under the new standards-based curriculum, the promotion of digital literacy. The laptops would also help in the field of assessment. The filling of School-Based Assessment, report cards, cumulative records, and the building of learners individual portfolios would become easier if each teacher owns a laptop. Source: 3news.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video As part of efforts to help resolve the unemployment canker in the country, Bishop Charles Agyinasare has proposed an initiative he believes could help the country resolve the challenge and also generate revenue from it. Bishop Agyinasare at his 31st December watch night service revealed that in his recent trips to other nations, he met Ghanaian students who were given scholarships to study outside the country but are scared to return due to unemployment in Ghana. These students he said are afraid of returning to Ghana and joining the no-job situation. For this reason, he is proposing that instead of GETFund and the other bodies offering scholarships to our students to study abroad and expect them to return, they should rather give official permission for these students to seek jobs in the country where they studied after graduation. He said the beneficiaries of these scholarships and their employers could generate some revenue for the country. He opined that the President of Ghana and the Executive arm of government must give these beneficiaries and their employers bonds to sign so they can repatriate at least 5,000 pounds in three years or 140 pounds a month over a three-year period over their employment there. Bishop Agyinasare was of the view that this initiative if well implemented could give the country some revenue and not frustrate and destroy the future of our young people. He recounted how the former Senior Minister in 2017 disclosed that the payroll was full and the government would be unable to employ new workers. He also referenced comments recently made by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta advising young persons to go into entrepreneurship because the public sector was full to support his argument. Source: rainbowradioonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has advised the church to be resolute in promoting positive ethical values and practices in Ghanaian society. According to him, espousing the sublime qualities of truthfulness, honesty and patriotism should be a priority for the Christian community given the fact that these virtues helped to shape society for the better. Of the responsibilities given to Christians none was as important as the charge to salvage the society from evil deeds, the king observed, in a speech delivered on his behalf by Akyamfour Asafo Boakye Agyemang Bonsu, Asafohene. This was at a dedication service of the House of Power Ministry International, to officially unveil the church's newly-constructed edifice at Ajamasu near Anwiankwanta in the Ashanti Region. The facility, with a seating capacity of 22,000, was initiated by the Founder and Leader of the church, Prophet Francis Kwateng, with funding from the church members, philanthropists, and some corporate organizations. The Prophet Francis Kwateng Dome' is meant to coordinate activities of the church in Ghana and beyond. especially in the area of evangelism. The House of Power Ministry International, one of the fastest-growing churches in the country, is renowned for its evangelism outreach programmes intended to advance moral uprightness to transform society for the better. Otumfuo Osei Tutu said Christians were agents of change, and it was expected of them, therefore, to bring the needed transformation to the people through their deeds. He was hopeful the new facility would help expand the church's activities for the benefit of the people. Prophet Kwateng was glad the construction of the church had come to a successful end, saying it would help deepen the spiritual lives of members, their families, and the general public as well as many generations to come. He lauded the members and donors for their contributions. The Founder and Leader urged the members to take advantage of the serene atmosphere provided by the facility to strengthen their Christian faith. Giving a brief history about the new church building. Prophet Kwateng said he secured the present land in 2012, and that, work on the project commenced three years later. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Anne Arundel County fire marshals arrested a 25-year-old Arnold man Saturday after they say he lit a fire in his Arnold town house that sent a firefighter to the hospital with minor injuries and displaced three people. Fire marshals charged Aaron Christopher Skorupa with first-degree arson, reckless endangerment and malicious burning. Anne Arundel County fire investigators determined Skorupa put ignitable materials into his grill, set it on fire and pushed the burning grill into the living room of his townhome at 421 Knottwood Court, Battalion Chief Russ Davies said. Advertisement A witness told police and fire investigators Skorupa threw wood on the fire inside the living room before fleeing the scene. Police found and arrested him, Davies said. Skorupa is being held without bond and did not have an attorney listed in online court records. Advertisement About 40 firefighters responded to the fire around 10:40 a.m. Saturday and extinguished the flames in 25 minutes. The two-story house is in the middle row of town houses; no other neighboring residences were damaged by the fire. The fire caused an estimated $150,000 in damage to the home. The American Red Cross is assisting three people living in the townhome who were displaced by the fire. Paramedics transported one firefighter to the Burn Center at John Hopkins Bayview Hospital with a minor burn injury. The firefighter was released the same day. The Anne Arundel County Fire Department was assisted by the Annapolis Fire Department, Naval Academy Fire Department, county police, and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. The National Director of SOS Children's Villages Ghana, Mr. Alexander Mar Kekula is urging society to help build safe environments for children to grow in, and by extension build a better nation. He says this can be achieved by reaching out in diverse ways to teach and show children love, peace and compassion as well as assure them that we can be each others keeper. Mr. Kekula was speaking in an interview with Graphic Online when SOS partnered with the child-focused NGO, Bread of Life International to fete about 1,000 children in the Ashaiman municipality of the Greater Accra Region. The children, giggling, cheerful or carefree as they were handed packs of a variety of foods and drinks, expressed gratitude to the organisers. Mr. Kekula said while love and compassion could be taught by talking about them, a more pragmatic approach was by giving and supporting children in need, who, having been so loved, grow up as kind and compassionate members of the society and in turn spread the love. He pointed out that safety-nets that in times past ensured that every child grew up in homes that managed and cared for their needs are no longer in existence. We have a population of 30.1 million people in Ghana and a large portion of our population are children. Sometimes there is an average of three to four children per family. The poverty gap is also increasing as a nation even as we try to reduce poverty, there are many people who are giving birth to children but are not prepared in terms of the right skills, to have jobs, and we have many teenagers giving birth too early. Because of that, the safety net for children may not be there. We wish that we are able to reach out to every deprived child to support them, he said. Bread of Life International Mr Kekula observed that while it is practically impossible to reach out to all deprived children in the society because they cannot all be identified, besides the financial constraints, partnerships such as the one with Bread of Life International is very practical and a step in the right direction. You can never possibly reach out to them all because you may not know who those children are, so there should be attempts to reach out to children in different forms like what we are doing today. We are here in Ashaiman at the St. Augustines School where we are trying to reach out to children who probably may not have had lunch during the Christmas, to share with them. He said the partnership with the Bread of Life International was in its third year, having started in 2019 with an outreach programme at Tema Manhean and in 2020 at Agbogbloshie in Accra Central, hosting thousands of children to great feasts. We just want to teach them love, teach them compassion, teach them peace, teach them that we can be our brothers keeper. These are very young children and if you start teaching them love during this festive time, believe me these kids will grow with it, also supporting their other siblings when they are older. Besides that no child should go to bed hungry. The bigger picture The Founder of Bread of Life International, Michael Sam, told Graphic Online a lot of children not only in Ghana, go through the days without full meals as a result of poverty, and his desire is to see to empower and encourage more people to help combat the menace. Himself a beneficiary of the SOS training and upbringing, Michael said he finds it heavenly inspired to give back and support the vulnerable and those in need so they can realize their own dreams. Somebody helped me. SOS sponsored my upbringing and my schooling in the USA. It can only be good to give back to society, he said. Michael hinted of plans underway to make his intervention more sustainable including partnering with grocery stores, restaurants and other hot meals providers to reach out to more children. Ultimately, he seeks also to support the youth to go into farming by putting them in agriculture-based training institutions so they can learn to grow food. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Lagos State Police Command has arrested two fleeing suspects, Farouk Mohammed and Jamiu Kasali, who murdered Pastor Babatunde Dada of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG on 6th Avenue, Festac Town. The suspects, who claimed to be upcoming musicians, stabbed the 46-year-old pastor to death on December 2, 2021, and fled with his bag containing some money. It was gathered that the suspects had approached the unsuspecting pastor on the pretext of being strangers in Lagos who had no place to stay. The deceased lodged them in a room in the church which also served as his residence only to be attacked at about 12 noon the next day and abandoned in the pool of his blood to die. Read Full Story .... lindaikejisblog.com >>> : Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former President John Dramani Mahama has urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to accept responsibility over what he described as the poor governance in the country. Leadership is about responsibility. If you are elected a leader, you take responsibility. It is a poor leader who says it is not my fault. You are not elected to shift blame and refuse responsibility, he said. Speaking at the 40th anniversary of the 31st December coup dtat, he accused President Akufo-Addo of shifting blame to others for the myriad of problems bedeviling the country. According to former President Mahama, as President, he inherited a power crisis which he attributed to lack of investment over many years in power generation, but he did not put the blame on his predecessors. I did not say that it is not my fault. I went to Parliament and said I take responsibility for it and that we will fix, and indeed we fixed it. Today, somebody is saying I inherited a weak economy. Five years on, you cannot take responsibility and it is still about Mahama and the NDC. If you cannot do the job, just give way and let the NDC come and do it for you, he added. Anniversary The 31st December, 1981 coup detat, which was led by former President Jerry John Rawlings, led to the formation of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), a military junta that ruled the country for about 11 years and later metamorphosed into the National Democratic Congress (NDC) when Ghana returned to democracy in 1993. The 40th anniversary celebrations attracted top personalities of the NDC such as former President Mahama and his running mate in the 2020 general election, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, the National Chairman of the NDC, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the General Secretary of the party, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, and the NDC MP for Klottey Korle, Dr Zanetor AgyemanRawlings. Former President Mahama said the 31st December, 1981 coup detat gave birth to the Fourth Republic and also laid the foundation for a society that ascribed to the principles of probity and accountability. Revolution Dr AgyemanRawlings said the 31st December coup was a revolution and was important for the country because human history for many years had been shaped and built by a form of a revolution According to her, as a revolution, the 31st December, 1981 coup was meant to guide the country to build a better, just, inclusive and more prosperous society, but the exact opposite was what was currently happening in the country. People do not know the level of suffering of the people and they speak as if all is well. Corruption is now part of our national fabric. Not only is it scary but it is annoying, she said. Hung Parliament Mr Ampofo said the current situation in Parliament where the NDC and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) had the same number of seats was a testament that Ghanaians were not happy with the governance style of President Akufo-Addo. He said the country would have been worse off if the NPP had overwhelming majority in Parliament. For his part, Mr Asiedu Nketia said the current happenings in Parliament was the fault of the NPP and accused the NPP of seeking to circumvent the will of Ghanaians who had voted for a hung Parliament. The NPP want to win in Parliament but they do not have the numbers to win. Meanwhile, they are not modest enough to talk to NDC MPs, he said. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Convention People's Party (CPP) have extended good wishes to Ghanaians. The two parties acknowledged the challenges in 2021 created by the COVID-19 pandemic and prayed for Gods guidance for a blissful 2022. In separate messages signed by the General Secretary of the NPP, Mr John Boadu, and the General Secretary of the CPP, Nana Yaa Akyempim Jantuah, the parties expressed the hope that this year would see a rejuvenation and rebuilding of the economy. NPP In its message, the NPP acknowledged the challenges confronting the country as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The party, however, takes consolation in the fact that our government, ably led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has amply demonstrated the wherewithal to tackling the very challenges confronting the ordinary Ghanaian, it said. If for nothing at all, the budget of 2022, which has been, rightly so, christened the adwenkwa budget, provides a clear pathway for the post. COVID-19 socioeconomic rebound and transformation of our country for sustained growth and prosperity. We, therefore, have everything to celebrate in this festive season and beyond, it stated. It prayed for a brighter and more prosperous New Year for the country. CPP The CPP called for better collaboration between the government and all key stakeholders in the political, economic and social space to bring about cohesion and engender consensus building towards economic development in the country. It urged Ghanaians not to give up on their dreams and aspirations in spite of the difficult times they found themselves, stressing that we should never give up but continue to lift high our banner of honour and project the image of Ghana the black star of Africa through all their actions and utterances. The CPP called on Ghanaians to eschew intolerance which mostly resulted in violence and in a spirit of brotherliness and comradeship, come together to build the nation since Ghana belongs to all and not a selected few. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A MUM of two has died in hospital after undergoing a botched 4,800 liposuction operation in Spain. Sara Gomez, 39, was allegedly left with injuries like shed been in a knife fight following complications from the op carried out in Cartagena. Cops have since launched an investigation into the private Clinica Galna amid fears that the accused surgeon thought to be of Chilean descent - may be trying to flee the country. Ms Gomez, from Alcantarilla, Spain, was hospitalised on December 2 and passed away on Saturday having spent nearly a month in ICU. Read Full Story .... thesun.co.uk >>> : Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Monthly mean global atmospheric burden of methane and methane growth rate as analyzed from measurements collected by NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. Credit: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory. Credit: Science China Press In a paper published in National Science Review, an international team of scientists evaluated scenarios about what is causing methane concentrations to rapidly increase in the atmosphere. By combining new and novel isotopic datasets on methane source signatures with simple atmospheric models, they ran thousands of potential emission pathways and isolated those that best matched the observed change of methane isotopes in the atmosphere. Using this approach, the authors found that the methane sources most likely driving the increase are from human activities, including agriculture, landfills and waste management, and from the use of coal, oil and gas. These activities are responsible for more than 80 percent of the rise of atmospheric methane since 2007. The analysis suggests that wetland emissions have not contributed significantly to increases in atmospheric methane, despite continued warming and climate extremes. Climate change is causing rapid warming in the arctic and tropical regions where natural wetlands store large pools of carbon and emit methane. As climate continues to warm, there is widespread concern that wetland methane emissions will increase and contribute even more to atmospheric greenhouse gasses and climate change. Since 2007, atmospheric methane concentrations have increased at rapid rates, with 2020 having the largest observed methane increase since systematic measurements began. The precise causes are difficult to quantify because methane is emitted from a diverse number of natural and human activities, and the removal of methane is the result of complex chemical processes. Here, using new data on methane stable isotopes, combined with thousands of potential emissions scenarios, a new study confirms that emissions from anthropogenic sources, including agriculture, landfill/waste, and fossil fuel industry, are clearly the driver for the renewed rise of the potent greenhouse gas since 2007, while global wetlands play a minor role with a contribution of less than 20 percent. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with 80 times more warming potential than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period and responsible for almost half of global warming since the industrial revolution. Methane is also a precursor to ground-level ozone pollution and thus tackling methane emissions would bring short-term climate benefits as well as improve air quality. Since 2007, atmospheric methane concentrations have been increasing rapidly, and even more so since 2014, and the causes for the increase have been debated in terms of the contribution from natural processes versus human activities. According to the Global Carbon Project's Global Methane Budget, roughly one-third of global methane emissions come from microbes in natural wetlands that produce methane when decomposing organic material where no oxygen is available. Human activities are known account for about 60 percent of global methane emissions, which include agriculture, landfills and waste, and oil and gas activities, each accounting for 2025 percent of global methane emissions. This means that any changes in natural wetlands to the rising temperature could potentially have a significant influence on atmospheric methane levels. The scientists tested a comprehensive set of emission scenarios using data from different greenhouse gas inventories and wetland models. They found that the emissions scenarios assuming large wetland methane increases did not match the observed atmospheric isotopic record. In contrast, the methane emission sources linked to human activities better matched the observed atmospheric isotopes. The work provides a detailed attribution of methane growth to agricultural emissions that increased by almost 20 percent from 2000 to 2017 driven by rising livestock populations, landfills and waste emissions rising by 10 million metric tons, largely attributing to an over 40 percent increase in the world urban populations from 2000 to 2017. The emissions from oil and natural gas industry have increased by 5 million metric tons with large uncertainty, and coal production increased by 40 percent globally from the same period. "Increased human activities clearly emerge as the main cause of rising atmospheric methane concentrations. No evidence for strong natural feedback of climate on wetland methane emissions exists for now despite its potential dominant role in the future as the temperature goes higher," says Zhen Zhang, an Earth-systems researcher at University of Maryland College Park who led this study. The changes in CH4 emissions over the three periods are calculated relative to the average in the CH4 plateau period 2000-2006 (vertical reference line in orange). IFFCH4, AGWCH4, WETCH4, and BBCH4 represent the CH4 sectors of industrial fossil fuels, agriculture and waste, wetlands, and biomass burning, respectively. Credit: Science China Press "This study shows the value of observing methane isotope signatures as a technique to isolate and better understand methane sources. Sustained and strategic observations of methane over wetland regions are needed to detect climate change feedbacks, which become more likely each year as climate warms." said Benjamin Poulter, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The recent 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change also highlighted methane mitigation as an essential component to addressing climate change. This study demonstrates that mitigation in sectors dominated by human activities would have a significant impact on the growth of atmospheric methane. "The good news is the natural feedback is still not that strong. But without substantial mitigation actions, we will lose the opportunity to control methane as we will have no solution with the natural feedback once it's there," said Zhen Zhang. Explore further Study points to agricultural and industrial sources as the main cause of increasing atmospheric methane More information: Zhen Zhang et al, Anthropogenic emissions are the main contribution to the rise of atmospheric methane (1993-2017), National Science Review (2021). Zhen Zhang et al, Anthropogenic emissions are the main contribution to the rise of atmospheric methane (1993-2017),(2021). DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwab200 Credit: The Ohio State University Black holes really are giant fuzzballs, a new study says. The study attempts to put to rest the debate over Stephen Hawking's famous information paradox, the problem created by Hawking's conclusion that any data that enters a black hole can never leave. This conclusion accorded with the laws of thermodynamics, but opposed the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics. "What we found from string theory is that all the mass of a black hole is not getting sucked in to the center," said Samir Mathur, lead author of the study and professor of physics at The Ohio State University. "The black hole tries to squeeze things to a point, but then the particles get stretched into these strings, and the strings start to stretch and expand and it becomes this fuzzball that expands to fill up the entirety of the black hole." The study, published Dec. 28 in the Turkish Journal of Physics, found that string theory almost certainly holds the answer to Hawking's paradox, as the paper's authors had originally believed. The physicists proved theorems to show that the fuzzball theory remains the most likely solution for Hawking's information paradox. The researchers have also published an essay showing how this work may resolve longstanding puzzles in cosmology; the essay appeared in December in the International Journal of Modern Physics D. Mathur published a study in 2004 that theorized black holes were similar to very large, very messy balls of yarn"fuzzballs" that become larger and messier as new objects get sucked in. "The bigger the black hole, the more energy that goes in, and the bigger the fuzzball becomes," Mathur said. The 2004 study found that string theory, the physics theory that holds that all particles in the universe are made of tiny vibrating strings, could be the solution to Hawking's paradox. With this fuzzball structure, the hole radiates like any normal body, and there is no puzzle. After Mathur's 2004 study and other, similar works, "many people thought the problem was solved," he said. "But in fact, a section of people in the string theory community itself thought they would look for a different solution to Hawking's information paradox. They were bothered that, in physical terms, the whole structure of the black hole had changed." Studies in recent years attempted to reconcile Hawking's conclusions with the old picture of the hole, where one can think of the black hole as being "empty space with all its mass in the center." One theory, the wormhole paradigm, suggested that black holes might be one end of a bridge in the space-time continuum, meaning anything that entered a black hole might appear on the other end of the bridgethe other end of the wormholein a different place in space and time. In order for the wormhole picture to work, though, some low-energy radiation would have to escape from the black hole at its edges. This recent study proved a theoremthe "effective small corrections theorem"to show that if that were to happen, black holes would not appear to radiate in the way that they do. The researchers also examined physical properties from black holes, including topology change in quantum gravity, to determine whether the wormhole paradigm would work. "In each of the versions that have been proposed for the wormhole approach, we found that the physics was not consistent," Mathur said. "The wormhole paradigm tries to argue that, in some way, you could still think of the black hole as being effectively empty with all the mass in the center. And the theorems we prove show that such a picture of the hole is not a possibility." Westslope cutthroat trout and a bull trout swim in the Flathead River system of Montana. Credit: Jonny Armstrong, USGS In a new study published in Science Advances, University of Montana researchers found that climate change drives native trout declines by reducing stream habitat and facilitating the expansion of invasive trout species. "This study had three main questions: How have the distributions of native and invasive trout shifted in Montana over the last 30 years, how will they change in the future, and what factors are causing those changes?" said Donovan Bell, the study's lead author and a doctoral candidate in UM's Wildlife Biology Program. To answer those questions, scientists from UM, the U.S. Geological Survey and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks quantified the impacts of climate change on the distributions of five trout species (native westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout and invasive brook trout, brown trout and rainbow trout) in the northern Rocky Mountains. They used an expansive long-term dataset collected and maintained by Montana FWP, analyzing close to 22,000 data points from electrofishing surveys in Montana's streams and rivers over the past 30 years. The researchers found native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout occupancydefined as the amount of stream where a species is presentdeclined by 18% and 6%, respectively, between 1993 and 2018 and are predicted to decrease by an additional 39% and 16% by 2080. Although invasive brook trout also were expected to decline, invasive brown and rainbow trout have expanded their range due to rising water temperatures and appear poised to prosper during future climate change. The culprit for declines of both native trout species is likely climate change, researchers found, but the specific mechanisms of the declines varied by species. Bull trout, a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, require cold streams with adequate flow. But warmer water temperatures and lower summer water levelsboth driven by climate changehave degraded stream habitat and likely caused declines of bull trout. Meanwhile, westslope cutthroat trout were strongly limited by the presence of invasive trout species, including brook trout that can outcompete native trout, and rainbow trout that readily hybridize with westslope cutthroat trout. The threat from invasive rainbow trout is particularly concerning as their range is expanding due to climatic warming. "Our two native trout species in Montana will decline in the future unless appropriate conservation action is taken," Bell said. "Our results suggest that tailoring conservation strategies to specific species and specific climate-change threats is important for native fish conservation." For example, the conservation of bull trout in streams and rivers may be better aimed at protecting, reconnecting and restoring critical cold-water habitat. On the other hand, suppression of invasive trout species likely is more effective for the conservation of westslope cutthroat trout. "Globally, climate-induced changes to aquatic habitats are predicted to threaten at least one-third of freshwater fishes, and some invasive species could take advantage of such changes," said Clint Muhlfeld, a USGS scientist and study co-author. "These scenarios seem to be playing out in our backyard with native and invasive trout." The study also highlights the importance of using and maintaining long-term datasets covering large regions to shed light on the complex ways climate and invasive species work in concert to affect native species. "It's exciting to have the opportunity to use data meticulously collected over decades in Montana to convincingly answer complex questions like these," said David Schmetterling, fisheries research coordinator for Montana FWP. Andrew Whiteley, a study co-author and UM associate professor, said Montana already has lost populations of cold-adapted native fish species, and this likely will continue as climate change progresses over this century. "This is particularly troubling in a state where cold-water fisheries now contribute nearly $650 million a year to our economy," said Whiteley, who studies fisheries and conservation genetics. "But all is not lost for these economically, ecologically and culturally important species as long as appropriate conservation action is taken." Explore further Montana lake study reveals how invasive species affect native food webs More information: Donovan A. Bell et al, Climate change and expanding invasive species drive widespread declines of native trout in the northern Rocky Mountains, USA, Science Advances (2021). Journal information: Science Advances Donovan A. Bell et al, Climate change and expanding invasive species drive widespread declines of native trout in the northern Rocky Mountains, USA,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj5471 Livestock farming is one of the main emitters of greenhouse gases in the Netherlands, where climate change threatens to swallow up the low-lying fields. In the flat expanse of the Dutch countryside, Corne de Rooij nostalgically strokes the muzzles of his calves, wondering how long he will be able to keep them. Livestock farming is one of the main emitters of greenhouse gases in the Netherlands, where climate change threatens to swallow up the low-lying fields. "It's my passion and my life," the reserved 53-year-old says in a small voice in his stable in the southern Netherlands, where he raises calves and chickens. "If we have to stop raising them, it will hurt." Dutch farmers have found themselves pushed to the wall by the government, which is offering them a final choice to make their farms more climate-friendly, or change jobs. The new coalition government wants to release 25 billion euros ($28 billion) by 2035 to help reduce herd sizes and reduce emissions of nitrogen, a greenhouse gas emitted particularly by fertilisers and manure. The small, densely populated country of 17.5 million people is also densely populated with animals: nearly four million cattle, 12 million pigs and 100 million chickens. The Netherlands is the world's second biggest agricultural exporter after the United States, but agriculture is responsible for 16 percent of the Netherlands' greenhouse gas emissions. Cows are also major emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from their digestive systems. 'Uncertainty is huge' The government aims to help farmers diversify their business, to retrain, to innovate or even to relocate if their farm is near a protected natural area. But if they fail to comply, the government has warned it could even take the very sensitive step of expropriating land from recalcitrant farmers. The government insists it has no choice. Huge construction projects aimed at tackling a housing shortage have already been suspended by the supreme court in a case brought by environmental groups over greenhouse gas emissions. By pushing the agricultural sector to accelerate the climate transition, the government hopes to be able to resume some of these building projects, while reducing nitrogen emissions by 50 percent by 2030. Overall, the Dutch have realised that their country is too small to do everything at once: farming, a huge flower producing industry, one of Europe's biggest airports at Schiphol in Amsterdam, a dense road network, housing for everyone plus, in the middle of it all, nature zones. Prime Minister Mark Rutte's new coalitionhis fourthdoes not specifically mention reducing herd sizes, but it is a measure that has long been under consideration and has sparked the anger of the farming sector. Farmers, who have often been in the business for generations, have for years felt left out and lost, says de Rooij, who is based in the village of Riel, in the southern province of Brabant, near the Belgian border. "The uncertainty is huge" for him and his colleagues, who he says are constantly confronted with new rules which require more investment. The latest edict will cost him nearly a million euros to make his barns climate neutral. De Rooij says farming has become an "easy victim" that the Dutch government always points the finger at first, even if he says he is "obviously concerned" by climate change. "But give us time and money" and "clear objectives", he says. 'Starting blocks' The main Dutch farming union, LTO, says the government is right to release billions of euros to make the sector more sustainable. But it criticises the fact that more money has been earmarked to compensate farmers who stop, than to encourage those who want to stay on. "Farmers can see the change in the climate, they can see what they have to do, and they want to do itbut there is a cost," LTO president Sjaak van der Tak told AFP. "We are in the starting blocks, but society and politics has to make this transition possible." Until then, Corne de Rooij is learning to live with uncertainty. "I know quite a few colleagues who think they would be better off quitting, because in the Netherlands, you don't know which foot to dance on," he said. "The politicians have to get their feet back on the ground." Explore further Dutch agency: Netherlands could face higher sea level rises 2022 AFP Quantum teleportation (QT) of propagating microwaves: concept and implementation. (A) General concept. (B) Our experimental implementation of QT with propagating quantum microwaves and analog feedforward (also see note S1 for the full technical schematics). Here, an unknown input coherent state is teleported from Alice to Bob by exploiting quantum entanglement characterized by the two-mode squeezing level ST S. The feedforward signal is generated by the measurement JPAs with the degenerate gain G, in combination with two hybrid rings and a local displacement operation on Bobs side. The latter is implemented with a directional coupler with the coupling = 15 dB. Plots in dashed boxes represent quantum states in the quasi-probability Wigner phase space spanned by field quadratures p and q. Red dashed line marks a particular input signal path corresponding to operator H . (C) Details and labels of various experimental elements. Credit: Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abk0891 The field of experimental quantum communication promises ways of efficient and unconditional secure information exchange in quantum states. The possibility of transferring quantum information forms a cornerstone of the emerging field of quantum communication and quantum computation. Recent breakthroughs in quantum computation with superconducting circuits trigger a demand for quantum communication channels between superconducting processors separated in space at microwave length frequencies. To pursue this goal, Kirill G. Fedorov, and a team of scientists in Germany, Finland and Japan demonstrated unconditional quantum teleportation to propagate coherent microwave states by exploring two-mode squeezing and analog feedforward across a distance of 0.42 m. The researchers achieved a teleportation fidelity of F= 0.6890.004, which exceeded the asymptotic no-cloning threshold, preventing the use of classical error correction methods on quantum states. The quantum state of the teleported state was preserved to open the avenue towards unconditional security in microwave quantum communication. Quantum teleportation (QT). The promise of quantum communication is based on the delivery of efficient and unconditionally secure ways to exchange information by exploring the quantum laws of physics. Quantum teleportation (QT) is an exemplary protocol that stands out to allow the disembodied and safe transfer of unknown quantum states using quantum entanglement and classical communication as resources. Recent progress in quantum computation with superconducting circuits has led to quantum communication between spatially separated superconducting processes functioning at microwave length frequencies. Methods to achieve this communication task includes the propagation of two-mode squeezed (TMS) microwaves to entangle remote qubits and teleport microwave states to interface between remote superconducting systems. Fedorov et al. demonstrated the deterministic QT of coherent microwave states by exploring two-mode squeezing and analog feedforward across a distance of 0.42 m to provide a key feature for future microwave quantum local area networks and modular quantum computing. Fidelity thresholds and theory model. (A) Experimental QT fidelities F as a function of the measurement gain G and squeezing S for nd = 1.1 photons. Red bars denote SD of the experimental data. Light blue plane corresponds to the fidelity threshold F = 0.5 between quantum and classical regimes, while green plane denotes the no-cloning limit Fnc = 2/3. The experimental data violate the no-cloning limit for G = 21 dB in the whole range of squeezing levels. (B) Same data with the fitted theory model (orange plane). (C) Extended view over the expected QT performance for the same model, where dark gray dashed box outlines the area presented in (B). This theory plot demonstrates that further improvement of teleportation fidelities requires an increase of both the measurement gain G and squeezing level S. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abk0891 The process of quantum computing aims to achieve the classically impossible goal of transferring an unknown quantum state from one place to another without direct transfer. The task is typically quantified with a known teleportation fidelity to express the overlap in the phase space between an unknown input state and a teleported output state. By exceeding the classical fidelity threshold, researchers can thereby experiment transitions to the quantum realm via nonclassical correlations such as quantum entanglement. The precise value of the classical fidelity threshold is a subject of many scientific discussions depending on the teleported states and the respective Hilbert space dimension (the dimensional analysis of communication through a quantum channel). For instance, the value for a specific task of teleporting coherent quantum states that differs from the threshold for qubit states can be experimentally overcome with superconducting qubits. Furthermore, the teleportation of continuous-variable Gaussian states has many technical advantages compared with discrete variable states, where the experimental generation and control of weak coherent tones are significantly due to their origin from conventional microwave generators. Researchers can generate continuous-variable entangled states, in the form of two-mode squeezed light via weakly nonlinear superconducting devices including various Josephson parametric devices, to generate deterministic entanglement for higher communication bit rates compared to the frequently used non-deterministic entanglement generation schemes. Tomography and fidelity measurements. (A) Reconstructed Wigner functions of an input state, teleported state, and classically teleported state for the squeezing level S = 4.5 dB, the displacement photon number of the input state nd = 2.7, and the measurement gain G = 23 dB. Inset values represent the QT fidelity F and purity . (B) Fidelity F as a function of nd for two characteristic values of G. Black dashed line marks the operating point illustrated in (A). The statistical error is smaller than the symbol size. (C) Fidelity F as a function of nd and displacement angle d for two characteristic values of G. Light blue and green lines mark the classical and no-cloning limits, respectively. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abk0891 Experimental protocol and setup The experimental protocol of quantum teleportation contained several steps, including (1) entanglement generation and distribution between communication parties, usually named Alice and Bob. (2) Local operations on Alice's side aimed at generating a feedforward signal. (3) Feedforward and a local unitary operation on Bob's side, resulting in teleportation of the unknown quantum state by combining the feedforward signal with the entangled resource state. To accomplish this, Fedorov et al. used two entanglement Josephson parametric amplifiers (JPAs) in combination with a hybrid ring (microwave beam splitter) to generate path-entangled two-mode squeezed microwave states at the output of the hybrid ring. When superimposed at the hybrid ring, these states produced outputs that typically look like classical thermal noise. Due to the propagation of the two-mode squeezed states, they straightforwardly distributed the entangled states between Alice and Bob using superconducting niobium-titanium coaxial cables to implement step (1) of QT protocol, where the cables were shaped as half-wavelength waveguide resonators. On Alice's side, they used another hybrid ring to entangle a weak coherent state that served as the unknown input state with the shared two-mode squeezed state. The scientists guided the outputs of the second hybrid ring into a pair of measurement JPAs to perform strong phase-sensitive amplification along orthogonal amplification angles and superimposed the outputs of measurements at the third hybrid ring to produce the feedforward signal and conclude step (ii). During the final part of the QT protocol, the resulting feedforward application to Bob's part of the two-mode squeezed state implemented teleportation of the input state at the output of the directional coupler. This concluded step (iii) of the protocol. Experimental scheme of microwave quantum teleportation protocol with propagating states. The two cryogenic switches allow for quantum teleportation (switch position A) or characterization measurements (switch position B). The intertwined lines between the outputs of the hybrid ring symbolize the entanglement. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abk0891 Quantum teleportation (QT) measurements The experimental results of the microwave QT protocol showed the corresponding quantum-teleported output states and classically teleported output states. Fedorov et al. defined classical teleportation as the identical QT protocol without an entangled resource available to the communicating parties (Alice and Bob), implemented by switching off the pump tones of entanglement Josephson Parametric Amplifiers (JPAs), while the rest of the experimental protocol remained unaltered. However, the teleportation of a specific coherent state was not sufficient for general purposes of quantum communication. It is also important to demonstrate the successful teleportation of a set of quantum states to form a communication alphabet or codebook, where the orthogonality of quantum states forming the communication codebook are not required. Josephson mixer scheme. The frequency-degenerate Josephson mixer consists of JPA 3 and JPA 4 in combination with two symmetric microwave beam splitters to realize the Bell detection. Credit: Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abk0891 In this way, Kirill G. Fedorov and colleagues succeeded to implement a quantum teleportation (QT) protocol with propagating microwaves in a cryogenic environment across a distance of 0.42 m. During the experiments, they relied exclusively on conventional aluminum-niobium superconducting parametric devices to generate and control quantum microwave signals that made them fully compatible with other quantum superconducting circuits, relative to frequencies and fabrication technology, including quantum memory cells or superconducting quantum processors. The QT results developed in the study combined with technical advances could bring quantum area networks between superconducting computers within reach. These experiments will pave the way in the convenient microwave regime toward superconducting quantum supercomputers to explore advantages of secure quantum communication. More information: Kirill G. Fedorov et al, Experimental quantum teleportation of propagating microwaves, Science Advances (2021). Kirill G. Fedorov et al, Experimental quantum teleportation of propagating microwaves,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abk0891 Dik Bouwmeester et al, Experimental quantum teleportation, Nature (2002). DOI: 10.1038/37539 Journal information: Science Advances , Nature 2022 Science X Network Reinvesting some of the $2 billion Ontario is spending could keep more families together. Credit: Shutterstock Last spring, the Ontario government committed to redesigning the child welfare system to better prepare youth leaving state guardianship. As we head towards a provincial election in June 2022, few details of the proposed redesign are available. We urge voters to pay attention to action or inaction on this issuenot only for ethical reasons but for monetary reasons too. We undertook cost-analysis and interview research to help guide policy debate. In a new report, we estimate the costs of inaction on this issue and provide youth-informed recommendations. For youth under state guardianship the state has assumed the role of the parent. But state parenting falls short of how most people would treat their children. This includes cutting support when youth turn 18. Aging out There are approximately 11,700 children and youth under state guardianship in Ontario. Black and Indigenous children are highly represented, with Indigenous children comprising 30 percent of kids under Ontario guardianship alone. Each year, around 1,000 youth "age out" of the system. For many, the transition is difficult, creating lifelong adverse outcomes including low educational attainment and income, unstable housing and homelessness, worse physical and mental health and criminalization. Drawing on the work of Melanie Doucet, a social work scholar and former youth under state guardianship, we use the term "aging out" to mean youth who are turning 18 and will lose access to certain services and supports. We use quotation marks to denormalize the term. Sector redesign In March 2021, the province committed to redesigning child welfare, releasing its plan in July 2020. In February 2021, a moratorium was placed on "aging out" of guardianship until Sept. 30, 2022, so that youth can continue to receive supports and services after they turn 18 during the pandemic. No other changes for youth "aging out" have been made. Youth who "age out" by the end of September will face significant challenges. In the words of Cheyanne Ratnam, the co-founder and executive director of the Ontario Children's Advancement Coalition, and a former youth under state guardianship, "Child welfare is the largest pipeline into other violent systems, such as homelessness, prison and poverty." Report findings Our report, launched at a session held by Ontario's Office of the Children's Lawyer on Dec. 8, 2021, explains the situation in Ontario. It applies the approach of economist Marvin Shaffer and colleagues, which estimated the costs of youth "aging out" in British Columbia. We estimate that in Ontario the cost of inaction totals more than $2 billion. The figures we present draw on the limited data available, and we believe the numbers are likely much higher. We draw on Statistics Canada data, peer-reviewed academic research and data released by non-profits to produce these figures. Much of this report was shaped by the voices and experiences of youth who "aged out" and youth in transition workers. One youth, Jesse, says: "From the time you're 17 to 21, that's the most fragile time you should be involved with youth I can bet you $10 million if my life was aided a little more from 17 to 21, I can guarantee you I'd probably be in college right now, I probably wouldn't have a (criminal) record." Five hundred and sixty youth who "age out" each year don't finish high school, experience lost earnings over their lifetime and become trapped in precarious work options. We found that each youth who "ages out" of state guardianship stands to lose between $705,000 to $1,880,000 in earnings over their lifetime. Based on the combined total of taxable lost earnings of youth leaving state guardianship over their lifetimes, the province stands to lose approximately $118 million to $315.8 million in tax revenue. The majority of youth "age out" to poverty. Five hundred and seventy youth "aging out" each year rely on income supports the lifetime cost to the province is around $235 million. Five hundred and eighty youth "aging out" each year will experience homelessness. Over their lifetimes, they may cost the province approximately $629.8 million in emergency shelter. During the report launch we heard from frontline workers who can offer little more than a tent to some youth leaving the system amidst the housing crisis. Approximately 460 youth in state guardianship experience criminalization. Provincial imprisonment of these young people costs the province approximately $19.6 million to $36 million annually; and over their lifetimes, that number could be nearly $1 billion. These are just some of the areas the province may incur costs, the total estimated costs based on the adverse outcomes youth leaving state guardianship face in their lifetimes is more than $2 billion. Recommendations Our report presents 18 recommendations provided by youth who "aged out," youth-in-transition workers, people who used to be under state guardianship and people who work in the sector. Future youth-led data collection is needed to inform policy change, as there is little available in Canada. One key recommendation is to rethink the norm of independence at 18. From interviews with youth, all describe profound isolation, loneliness and few caring relationships underpinning the challenges they face. We must shift to a model of interdependencefostering non-professional caring relationships for youth under state guardianship that extend long after 18. One youth, Riyad, says: "Half the time I felt like nobody loved me, you know? I think people are just telling me they love me and they care about me but I don't think they do, you know, because if they did, why am I in an emergency shelter?" In addition, youth need continued financial support and services, and increased monthly funding adjusted for cost of living. The youth we heard from are unable to maintain housing and get post-secondary education due to financial hardship, lack of interpersonal support and trauma. Change is needed earlier for families, reinvesting some of the $2 billion Ontario is spending could keep more families together. It will cost less to reinvest early on, and it will help disrupt this trend of hardship for generations of youth to come. Explore further COVID-19 leaves youth forced out of foster care even more vulnerable This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Artist conception of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez The Webb team has completed tensioning for the first three layers of the observatory's kite-shaped sunshield, 47 feet across and 70 feet long. The first layerpulled fully taut into its final configurationwas completed mid-afternoon. The team began the second layer at 4:09 pm EST today, and the process took 74 minutes. The third layer began at 5:48 pm EST, and the process took 71 minutes. In all, the tensioning process from the first steps this morning until the third layer achieved tension took just over five and a half hours. These three layers are the ones closest to the Sun. Tensioning of the final two layers is planned for tomorrow. "The membrane tensioning phase of sunshield deployment is especially challenging because there are complex interactions between the structures, the tensioning mechanisms, the cables and the membranes," said James Cooper, NASA's Webb sunshield manager, based at Goddard Space Flight Center. "This was the hardest part to test on the ground, so it feels awesome to have everything go so well today. The Northrop and NASA team is doing great work, and we look forward to tensioning the remaining layers." Once fully deployed, the sunshield will protect the telescope from the Sun's radiation. It will reach a maximum of approximately 383K, approximately 230 degrees F, while keeping the instruments cold at a minimum of approximately 36K or around -394 degrees F. The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's largest, most powerful, and most complex space science telescope ever built. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency. Explore further Time saving tooling rods used on NASA's Webb Telescope sunshield Brown bears (or grizzly bears) mysteriously disappeared from some parts of North America for thousands of years prior to the last Ice Age and later reappeared, walking from Russia to Alaska across the Bering Land Bridge. Researchers suggest climate change could be the reason why. Credit: University of Adelaide An international team of researchers led by the University of Adelaide, suggest a change in climate is the likely cause of the mysterious disappearance of ancient lions and bears from parts of North America for a thousand years or more prior to the last Ice Age. In a study in Molecular Ecology, the researchers sequenced DNA from fossils of cave lions and bears from North America and Eurasia to better understand the timing and drivers of their past movement between continents. Co-author, Dr. Kieren Mitchell from the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA said, "There's a common perception that outside of mass extinctions or direct human interference, ecosystems tend to remain stable over thousands or even millions of years." "As illustrated by our study of the fossil record, that's not necessarily the case." "Previous research has shown that brown bears (or grizzly bears) disappeared from some parts of North America for thousands of years prior to the last Ice Age. They later reappeared, walking from Russia to Alaska across the Bering Land Bridgepossibly at the same time as people moved across the Bridge into North America too." "But no-one knows exactly why they disappeared in the first place, which is why studying this event is important." A key finding of the new research is that cave lions from the same area became extinct more than oncebefore their final extinction they also disappeared and reappeared thousands of years later, around the same time as bears. There is no evidence that people caused these temporary disappearances, and cold Ice Age conditions were not to blame. "Instead, it looks like a smoking gun pointing to some kind of change in their ecosystem," Dr. Mitchell said. The timing of lions and bear extinction from parts of North America (specifically Alaska and the Yukon Territory) coincides with evidence of widespread vegetation change in the region. The researchers suggest that warm temperatures before the last Ice Age may have caused a change in the abundance of different kinds of plants, which had knock-on effects on herbivores and then their predators (like bears and lions). Colder temperatures leading up to the last Ice Age might have reversed this change and made the area more hospitable for herbivores, and in turn their predators. "Overall, these findings demonstrate just how changeable past ecosystems have been, and also how the abundance of different species can be very sensitive to changes in climate," Dr. Mitchell said. Lead author from the University of Adelaide Dr. Alexander Salis said that "the shared patterns of dispersal between lions and bears correspond with the presence of the Bering Land Bridge that connected Russia and Alaska during Ice Ages." "The Bridge was periodically exposed and inundated by changing sea levels during the last few Ice Ages, allowing intermittent dispersal of animals and people between continents and changing the faunal composition." "While many might think that species arrive in a region and stay put, we show that the past was much more dynamic, involving multiple waves of dispersal and local extinctions in this case." Explore further Ancient DNA reveals evolution of giant bears in the More information: Alexander T. Salis et al, Lions and brown bears colonized North America in multiple synchronous waves of dispersal across the Bering Land Bridge, Molecular Ecology (2021). Journal information: Molecular Ecology Alexander T. Salis et al, Lions and brown bears colonized North America in multiple synchronous waves of dispersal across the Bering Land Bridge,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/mec.16267 University of Washington doctoral student Katie Holt examining adult Magellanic penguin corpses (circled) at Punta Tombo just after the Jan. 19, 2019 heat wave. Just over one-quarter of adult Magellanic penguin bodies were found between the colony and the ocean, indicating that they likely perished trying to get to the water. Credit: Anna Sulc/University of Washington In June 2021, an unprecedented heat wave hit the Pacific Northwest and Canada, killing an estimated 1,400 people. On June 28, Seattle reached 108 Fan all-time highwhile the village of Lytton in British Columbia recorded Canada's highest-ever temperature of 121.3 F on June 29, the day before it was destroyed by a heat-triggered wildfire. Climate change is expected to bring more such extreme heat events globally, with far-reaching consequences not just for humans, but for wildlife and ecosystems. In 2019, University of Washington researchers witnessed this in Argentina at one of the world's largest breeding colonies for Magellanic penguins. On Jan. 19, temperatures at the site in Punta Tombo, on Argentina's southern coast, spiked to 44 C, or 111.2 F, and that was in the shade. As the team reports in a paper published Jan. 4 in the journal Ornithological Applications, the extreme heat wave killed at least 354 penguins, based on a search for bodies by UW researchers in the days following the record high temperature. "This extreme event fell near the tail end of the breeding season for Magellanic penguins, so it killed a large number of adults, as well as chicks," said lead author Katie Holt, a UW doctoral student in biology. "It's the first time we've recorded a mass mortality event at Punta Tombo connected to extreme temperatures." The Jan. 19 heat wave was the highest temperature the researchers have ever recorded at Punta Tombo, where UW teams have been studying Magellanic penguins since 1982 under co-author P. Dee Boersma, a UW professor of biology. Temperatures at the site during the breeding season typically rise from the 50s F to the low 100s F. In a past season, researchers had previously recorded a shade high of 43 C, or 109.4 F, but that older record was not associated with a mass die-off of penguins, according to Holt. Close-up views of two adult Magellanic Penguins that died in the Jan. 19, 2019 heat wave. Both corpses were found in a heat-relief posture, with their feet extended behind the body, flippers out and bills open, which suggests that they died while panting. Credit: Katie Holt/University of Washington The extreme heat on Jan. 19 affected adults and chicks differently. Nearly three-quarters of the penguins that died264were adults, many of which likely died of dehydration, based on postmortem analyses conducted by the UW researchers. They found 27% of adult penguin corpses along paths heading out of the breeding colony to the ocean, where they could get a drinkpenguins have glands that can filter salt out of the water. A journey from the colony to the ocean can stretch up to one kilometer, and at its longest, might take an adult Magellanic 40 minutes to complete. Dead adults were often found on their stomachs with their feet and flippers extended and mouth open, a common panting and cooling pose for Magellanic penguins. Some sections of Punta Tombo, where thousands of Magellanic penguins gather to breed each austral spring and summer, fared worse than others. In the central section of the colony, about 5% of adults perished. But other sections saw few or no fatalities, indicating that microclimates and access to the ocean, as well as individual health and nutrition, may have influenced survival rates. UW researchers have documented past mass mortality events at Punta Tombo linked to severe rainstorms that killed primarily chicks, including one year where deluges killed 50% of the colony's recently-hatched offspring. The 2019 heat wave is a particular concern because it led to the loss of a large number of adults in a single event, according to Holt. "Any mass die-off like this is a concern," said Holt. "But what is most concerning about heat-death mortality is that it has the potential to kill a lot of adults. The population viability of long-lived seabirdslike Magellanic penguinsrelies on long lifespans. Adult Magellanic penguins can live more than 30 years, so they typically have many opportunities to successfully raise chicks. If we're losing large numbers of adults from a single event like this, that's a major concern." Based on examination of a subset of corpses, at least 8 out of 10 of the adults that died were males. That likely reflects the high prevalence of male Magellanic penguins at Punta Tomboroughly three males to every femalerather than a differential survivability in extreme heat. The colony's skewed sex ratio has grown over time. Research by Boersma's group shows that adult females are less likely to return to Punta Tombo to breed, likely because they have more trouble finding enough food in the open ocean outside the breeding season. This has likely contributed to an overall decrease in the size of the colony since the late 1980s. A Magellanic penguin parent feeding its chicks as its mate looks on. Credit: Natasha Gownaris/University of Washington The remaining 90 fatalities from the Jan. 2019 heat wave were chicks. Based on postmortem analyses, the chicks that perished tended to be well fed and did not show signs of dehydration. They may have died because with full bellies and small bodies, they could not regulate their body temperatures properly in the extreme heat, according to Holt. Climate change is expected to produce more extreme weather events of all types globally, though effects will vary by locality. The consequences of this heat wave, though grim, also show scientists the limits that some species can endure. Boersma is founder of the UW-based Center for Ecosystem Sentinels, which studies Magellanic penguins and other species that are seen as key indicators of ecosystem health. "Penguins could have the ability to cope, like moving breeding sites," said Holt. "But it will take time to investigate whether those adaptations are effective." Explore further The number of single male Magellanic penguins is rising at this breeding colonyhere's why More information: Unprecedented heat mortality of Magellanic Penguins, Ornithological Applications (2021). Unprecedented heat mortality of Magellanic Penguins,(2021). DOI: 10.1093/ornithapp/duab052 Do not let the image and the name of the depicted cosmic object fool you! What you see in this picture is not a wildfire, but the Flame Nebula and its surroundings captured in radio waves.The Flame Nebula is the large feature on the left half of the central, yellow rectangle. The smaller feature on the right is the reflection nebula NGC 2023. To the top right of NGC 2023, the iconic Horsehead Nebula seems to emerge heroically from the flames." The three objects are part of the Orion cloud, a giant gas structure located between 1300 and 1600 light-years away.The different colors indicate the velocity of the gas. The Flame Nebula and its surroundings are moving away from us, with the red clouds in the background receding faster than the yellow ones in the foreground.The image in the rectangle is based on observations conducted with the SuperCam instrument on the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) on Chile's Chajnantor Plateau. The background image was taken in infrared light with ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. Credit: ESO/Th. Stanke & ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Orion offers you a spectacular firework display to celebrate the holiday season and the new year with this new image from the European Southern Observatory (ESO). But no need to worry, this iconic constellation is neither exploding nor burning. The "fire" you see in this holiday postcard is Orion's Flame Nebula and its surroundings captured in radio wavesan image that undoubtedly does justice to the nebula's name! It was taken with the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), located on the cold Chajnantor Plateau in Chile's Atacama Desert. The newly processed image of the Flame Nebula, in which smaller nebulae like the Horsehead Nebula also make an appearance, is based on observations conducted by former ESO astronomer Thomas Stanke and his team a few years ago. Excited to try out the then recently installed SuperCam instrument at APEX, they pointed it towards the constellation Orion. "As astronomers like to say, whenever there is a new telescope or instrument around, observe Orion: there will always be something new and interesting to discover!" says Stanke. A few years and many observations later, Stanke and his team have now had their results accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. One of the most famous regions in the sky, Orion is home to the giant molecular clouds closest to the Sunvast cosmic objects made up mainly of hydrogen, where new stars and planets form. These clouds are located between 1300 and 1600 light-years away and feature the most active stellar nursery in the Solar System's neighborhood, as well as the Flame Nebula depicted in this image. This "emission" nebula harbors a cluster of young stars at its center that emit high-energy radiation, making the surrounding gasses shine. With such an exciting target, the team were unlikely to be disappointed. In addition to the Flame Nebula and its surroundings, Stanke and his collaborators were able to admire a wide range of other spectacular objects. Some examples include the reflection nebulae Messier 78 and NGC 2071clouds of interstellar gas and dust believed to reflect the light of nearby stars. The team even discovered one new nebula, a small object, remarkable in its almost perfectly circular appearance, which they named the Cow Nebula. The observations were conducted as part of the APEX Large CO Heterodyne Orion Legacy Survey (ALCOHOLS), which looked at the radio waves emitted by carbon monoxide (CO) in the Orion clouds. Using this molecule to probe wide areas of the sky is the primary goal of SuperCam, as it allows astronomers to map large gas clouds that give birth to new stars. Unlike what the "fire" of this image might suggest, these clouds are actually cold, with temperatures typically just a few tens of degrees above absolute zero. Given the many secrets it can tell, this region of the sky has been scanned many times in the past at different wavelengths, each wavelength range unveiling different, unique features of Orion's molecular clouds. One example are the infrared observations performed with ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy at the Paranal Observatory in Chile that make up the peaceful background of this image of the Flame Nebula and its surroundings. Unlike visible light, infrared waves pass through the thick clouds of interstellar dust, allowing astronomers to spot stars and other objects which would otherwise remain hidden. Explore further Hubble finds flame Nebula's searing stars may halt planet formation More information: Thomas Stanke et al, The APEX Large CO Heterodyne Orion Legacy Survey (ALCOHOLS). I. Survey overview, arXiv:2201.00463 [astro-ph.GA], Journal information: Astronomy & Astrophysics Thomas Stanke et al, The APEX Large CO Heterodyne Orion Legacy Survey (ALCOHOLS). I. Survey overview, arXiv:2201.00463 [astro-ph.GA], arxiv.org/abs/2201.00463 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain At the start of the year, it's always a good idea to look around and see what has changed during the previous 12 months. In mid-December, energy consultant Amy Myers Jaffe examined the state of sustainability finance in a terrific article titled "This Was the Year Investors and Businesses Put Big Bets on Climate: A lot of individuals, institutional investors and companies hope to profit from reducing emissions." This is no surprise. My Columbia colleague, Professor Satyajit Bose, created and leads our certification program in sustainability finance, and he, our students, alums, and faculty engaged in this area have been working to develop and grow this field for about a decade. The piece by Amy Myers Jaffee presents several data points worth noting: "Investor demand for climate-friendly stocks has surged in the past couple of years. Tesla Inc., for instance, had a market value of more than $1 trillion as of Friday, up from $300 billion in the summer of 2020. Hydrogen-fuel-cell firm Plug Power Inc. had a market capitalization of $19 billion, up from $270 million in 2018. The stock price of First Solar Inc., a U.S. integrated solar firm, was near its five-year high at $97 a share, rising steadily from barely $30 at the start of 2017. Clean-energy ETFs hit more than $25 billion in total assets in the first half of 2021, making their ownership as preponderant of a trade as technology stocks were during the dot-com craze (although I'm certainly not implying an inevitable collapse)." Of course, some of these increases must be viewed as part of an overall market rise. Nevertheless, not only are investors interested in these green stocks, but they are less interested in fossil fuel companies. I strongly believe that the only way for fossil fuel companies to survive is to redefine themselves as energy companies and gradually self-divest of fossil fuels. The organizational capacity of these firms should be utilized to get into the renewable energy business as quickly as they can. I am confident that an oil company executive reading this will think I am some kind of naive environmental academic, and perhaps I am. But they might want to remember Kodak, a company that helped invent electronic photography, but went bankrupt because they were unable to market their own inventions in photo technology and did not understand changing consumer preferences. Contrast that to AT&Ta monopoly broken up by the federal government but surviving to this day because it moved from telegraphs to land-line phones and then to cell phones, defining itself as a communications company and surviving through multiple technological revolutions. Fossil fuel companies can lobby Congress all they want, but in the end, they will either adapt or eventually go out of business. They don't need to believe me, but they should focus on what the financial markets are saying. Fossil fuel companies are losing ground to renewable energy firms in attracting new capital, as Amy Myers Jaffe reported in the Wall Street Journal: "When it comes to investing in real, nonfinancial assets, the shift is even more stark. Private-equity firms that were previously focused on traditional oil, gas and coal assets are pivoting to green portfolios as a selling point to institutional investors, especially pension funds. The firms raised $52.2 billion for new renewable funds in 2020, up from $44.6 billion in 2019. That contrasts with conventional oil, gas and coal funds, which brought in $8.3 billion last year, down from $20.9 billion in 2019 In contrast to the money being made on this climate-change mania, fossil-fuel-company stocks have fallen out of favor. Even with $70 oil, oil and gas stocks barely make up 1% of the S&P 500, down from 4% a year ago and over 11% a decade ago." The financial movement is an indication that climate science has been accepted by smart people who have decided to bet their livelihood (or at least their client's money) on the necessity of addressing global warming. Investors are reflecting trends in society as a whole; they are not leading anything here. Pension funds and university endowments have been directed to invest in the green economy. Some are under pressure to divest from fossil fuels, but the market performance of the fossil fuel companies would drive institutional investors away anyway. One would think that the recent terrifying super-charged tornado in Kentucky and several other midwestern states and a suburban drought-induced late December flash-fire in Colorado might bring climate skeptics to at least a grudging acknowledgment that something new and disturbing is happening here on Earth. The stark and horrifying images of destruction will not fade from memory, and the human suffering of thousands of Americans will impact our conscience and our politics. The effort to decarbonize the world economy will be a generation-long struggle, but it's very clear that 2021 represented a turning point of sorts. There is massive renewable energy and climate adaptation investment embedded in President Biden's U.S. government-wide green procurement policy and in the trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure law. Those moves mark a stark departure from the climate denialism of the Trump years. The U.S. government has tremendous influence and can create an investment environment that reinforces market tendencies. I think we are seeing that now. As a sustainability educator, I am struck by the need for professionals in this field to be educated in a number of disciplines if they are to be successful in understanding and advising investors about environmental risks and opportunities. The typical finance student in our business schools tends to know very little science. Occasionally you'll see a business school student with an engineering or computer science background, but they rarely know much about climate science, climate modeling, ecology, and earth systems science. Even those with an engineering background may not understand renewable energy and microgrids. Unlike standard investment analyses, looking at consumer demand, debt structure, revenue, earnings, return on investment, production processes and even political risk is insufficient. Environmental risk is complex. And no single professional can understand all the science they need to know to correctly advise and invest. What we need are professionals who know what they don't know and are good at tapping into the expertise needed to evaluate environmental impacts along with the usefulness and feasibility of emerging green technologies. At Columbia, we are working to educate such professionals in our sustainability management, environmental science and policy and sustainability finance programs. The effort to reduce greenhouse gasses from energy production and consumption is only the first phase of our effort to eliminate human-induced climate change. Much more challenging work will follow. Greenhouse gases such as methane are produced in part by landfills and livestock. They will need to be controlled. Carbon dioxide is produced by cement manufacturing, and other industries that emit greenhouse gases will also need to be addressed. Additionally, green technology is increasing demand for minerals that are being mined in destructive ways. Unlike energy generation, some of these production processes have not received a great deal of attention, but once the momentum behind green energy is established, we should expect to see increased attention paid to these critical environmental issues. Over the next several decades, the transition to a renewable resourcebased economy will require massive infusions of capital. That can only be accomplished if financial market professionals understand enough science to navigate uncertain conditions and new technologies. A clear regulatory environment is needed to assure investors that we are serious about mitigating climate change. The U.S. plays a critical role in leading climate policy. My hope is that even if a conservative American national government abdicated climate leadership once again, the market forces we saw in 2021 will be too deeply established to deter. Explore further Investors in renewables tripled fossil fuel performance over the past decade This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu. Credit: CC0 Public Domain McGill University scientists have developed a new system for sharing the enormous amount of data being generated by the CHIME radio telescope in its search for fast radio bursts (FRBs), the puzzling extragalactic phenomenon that is one of the hottest topics in modern-day astronomy. It is not uncommon for the CHIME/FRB project to pinpoint several FRB events in a single day of operation as it sifts through nearly 1 million gigabytes of data gathered by the telescope. With the new data sharing system, which uses Virtual Observatory Event (VOEvent), a standardized language for reporting astronomical events, key details about each FRB that CHIME detects can now be sent in real time to observatories all over the world, allowing them to train their instruments on the source and gather further clues towards unraveling the mystery of FRBs. "The enormous volume of data that CHIME/FRB generates and the large number of new FRBs that it detects each day is like a gold mine for a community that is eager to point every kind of telescope that exists at the next FRB," says Andrew Zwaniga, lead developer of the CHIME/FRB VOEvent Service and a research assistant in the Department of Physics at McGill. Accelerating the pace of research Free to use for anyone who has access to the internet, the new system fulfills the CHIME/FRB project team's goal of making every FRB detected by CHIME available for other telescopes to target with as little delay as possible. The development is a key step towards bringing the resources of the international research community to bear on the data the CHIME/FRB project is generating. "Since CHIME/FRB began operating in 2018, it has been like drinking from a fire hose in terms of the amount of data coming through," says Emily Petroff, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics at McGill who played a key role in refining the alert system ahead of its public release. "We simply cannot extract all the science from this; we need the world's help." Tuning in to CHIME The developers of the CHIME/FRB VOEvent Service say that "anyone who has access to a telescope and can reliably point it at a Northern sky location" will be able to make use of the alerts to make follow-up observations of the FRBs detected by CHIME. "We have prepared tutorials and substantial documentation for new and veteran users of VOEvents to get started quickly," Zwaniga says. "We are inviting comments and questions regarding VOEvents from the community on our public-facing CHIME/FRB community GitHub page." About CHIME Located in the mountains of British Columbia's Okanagan Valley at the NRC's Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory near Penticton, the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a cylindrical parabolic radio telescope, shaped something like a snowboard half-pipe. CHIME has no moving parts, instead relying on the Earth's rotation to sample radio signals from a broad swath of the Northern sky each day. CHIME was originally designed to detect radio waves from neutral hydrogen gas in the early Universe, but today the instrument is being used for several other scientific objectives beyond its original design, including the search for FRBs. With its huge field of view and broad frequency coverage, CHIME is a near-ideal instrument for finding and studying these bursts. About the CHIME Fast Radio Burst collaboration CHIME/FRB is a collaboration of over 50 scientists led by the University of British Columbia, McGill University, the University of Toronto, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). About fast radio bursts Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extremely energetic pulses of radio waves that appear to originate from well beyond our galaxy, the Milky Way. Each burst lasts just a few milliseconds, and they occur all over the sky. While the cause of FRBs remains unknown, using telescopes sensitive to wavelengths other than radioe.g. visible light, X-rays and gamma raysto observe the locations from which FRBs emanate will likely enable scientists to narrow down the range of possible explanations. Data from CHIME, shared through the CHIME/FRB VOEvent Service, will allow these telescopesmany of which can only focus on a small area of the sky at a timeto be trained on FRB-emitting locations with greater speed and accuracy. Explore further Fast radio bursts shown to include lower frequency radio waves than previously detected More information: More information is available at More information is available at www.chime-frb.ca/voevents LAKE GEORGE A Washington Correctional Facility officer was arrested after police said he violated an order of protection. Joseph R. Duers, 36, has been accused of being involved in an altercation with an individual who has an active order of protection against him. State police were called to a home in the town of Lake George on Saturday to investigate claims of a physical altercation. Duers was arrested at his home in the village of South Glens Falls by state police and processed at the Queensbury state police station. He was charged with first-degree criminal contempt, a felony, and second-degree harassment, a violation. Duers was arraigned at Warren County Centralized Arraignment and is scheduled to appear in Lake George Town Court on Thursday. Warren County would be kept whole in a common state Senate district, but split off from Washington County, under the latest map that Democratic members of the state Independent Redistricting Commission have drafted. Under a preliminary Democratic plan that the commission released in October, Warren County would have been split into two Senate districts, with Glens Falls and Queensbury in one district, and the rest of Warren County in a separate district. Also under the new Democratic plan, released Monday and headed to the state Legislature for consideration, Assembly districts in the region are somewhat altered, while in Congress, U.S. Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, and Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, are drawn into separate congressional districts. In the October plan, the two incumbents were drawn into the same congressional district. Warren County would be part of a new state Senate district that extends from Hague south through Warren County and Wilton, in Saratoga County, and into Fulton and Montgomery counties, including the cities of Amsterdam and Gloversville. The proposed new district, in which Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, would be the incumbent, would be oriented around small cities, instead of Adirondack Park communities, and would be more competitive politically than the Senate district that Warren County is now part of. Washington County would be drawn into an expansive Senate district that stretches north to Plattsburgh and west to include Fort Drum, Massena, Potsdam and Ogdensburg, under Plan A, the Democrat plan, which is one of two plans the 10-member commission approved Monday, with 5-5 votes for each plan. Plan B, which Republicans on the commission drafted, would also keep Warren County whole, but would link Warren and Washington counties with other Adirondack counties to the north. In the Assembly, the Democratic plan would redraw the district that state Assemblyman Matt Simpson, R-Brant Lake, now represents to extend farther south into Saratoga County. The district that Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, now represents would be extended to include northern Washington County and a small portion of southern Essex County. The Republican plan would add more of Washington County to the district that Simpson now represents, and extend the district that Woerner now represents farther south and west. In Congress, Stefanik and Tonko are now drawn into separate congressional districts. The two House members were drawn into the same district in the October plan. The Democratic map extends the current 21st Congressional District, which Stefanik represents, south to Gloversville, but leaves out Amsterdam, the hometown of Tonko. The Republican map does not extend the 21st District as far south, and does not draw Stefanik and Tonko into the same district. The Legislature will now vote on whether to accept or reject both plans. It is expected that the Republican plan has little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Legislature. If the Legislature accepts either plan, candidates would run in the new districts in the June primary election and November general election, with the general election winners taking office in January 2023. If the Legislature rejects both plans, the proposed redistricting maps would be sent back to the commission for revision. Congressional and state legislative district boundaries are redrawn every 10 years, based on the latest census. Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 9 FORT EDWARD Stacy Frasier said goodbye to her 15-year-old son, Cameron, on Tuesday, and she is not sure when she will see him again. Cameron, who has autism, mental health issues and cognitive delays, has been a resident at St. Christopher-Ottilie School in Jamaica, Queens since September 2018. He was ready to be discharged a year ago. The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed his transfer home to a local school that can accommodate his special needs. His mother only gets to see him four days a month, depending upon staffing and transportation, which is provided by the school. Hes no longer gaining anything from this program, Frasier said. Theyre at this point just counseling him and sending him to school and housing him. He is severely institutionalized as it is, and the longer hes there, the longer that mentalitys going to set in. Cameron just visited his family at their Fort Edward home for the holidays and interviewed for placement at local schools. Cameron is considered high needs, special needs and requires day treatment as well as occupational, physical and speech therapies. He cannot be tutored at home, even if tutors were available. An interview last week was canceled due to COVID-19 cases. We dont know when the next interview date is going to happen, Frasier said, and now Im sending him back to be told this morning that the facility is riddled with COVID, and he is going to have to mask up and not be allowed a mask off his face unless he is in his room. And hes got to be tested before he can even leave my house. The distance and separation has had a profound impact on Frasiers family and Cameron. Hell come home, well get into a routine, he gets readjusted, he gets comfortable, I get comfortable, we get to a point where its becoming normal again, and then he has to leave, she explained. Frasier has asked local government representatives for help and even contacted the White House. In an email response to Frasier, constituent liaison Patti Miller from the office of state Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, told Frasier that staffing shortages are a negative byproduct of the pandemic. The issue is a primary concern of the senator which he intends to raise with his legislative counterparts in the upcoming session, the Dec. 16 email said. The White Houses Office of Presidential Correspondence sent an email back on Dec. 15 saying: Our country faces many challenges, and messages like yours help us better understand how the Biden-Harris Administration can serve American families. Its a very frustrating situation, and I know Im not the only person going through it, Frasier said. Ive had conversations with caseworkers who have told me theres kids that need to go into residency that cant, and then theres kids like Cameron who need to go home that cant. Frasier said she is fresh out of ideas in this never-ending nightmare to get her son transferred back home. She has also made appeals on Twitter and other social media. Somebody somewhere has to hear that this is an issue, she said, because nobody is speaking about mental health care. Gretta Hochsprung writes features and hometown news. She can be reached at 518-742-3206 or ghochsprung@poststar.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 9 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Some people look and act younger than they are. Others seem to age prematurely, acquiring wrinkles, gray hair and an assortment of health problems earlier than their peers. Now, a new institute at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine will aim to find out why, and whether theres a way to slow or reverse the aging process and the toll it can take on peoples health. The Potocsnak Longevity Institute, which is launching this month, will focus on research related to aging, and on treating patients suffering from its effects. Advertisement Age is the most important risk factor for almost every disease we deal with, so if we can just slow down aging a little bit, we can impact the development of heart disease, cancer, lung disease, said Dr. Douglas Vaughan, director of the new institute and chair of medicine at Northwestern. Its the one huge risk factor we dont address in any type of way right now. Dr. Douglas Vaughan is seen in his lab, Jan. 3, 2022, at Northwesterns Simpson Querry Biomedical Research Center. The new Potocsnak Longevity Institute focuses on how to help people live longer, healthier lives through research and treating patients. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) The institute, funded with a donation from Chicago industrialist John Potocsnak and his family, plans to start accepting patients in coming months. Interested patients will be able to undergo a battery of tests designed to help assess their physiological, rather than chronological ages. Advertisement Doctors will be able to test things that arent often examined during routine doctors visits such as vascular function, heart rate variability, lung function, hearing, vision and metabolism. Based on a persons test results, doctors may then recommend certain interventions or medications, Vaughan said. The goal is to prolong the amount of time individuals can live in good health. Vaughan expects that health insurance plans may cover some of the services but not all. He said Northwestern plans to try to broadly serve patients by using some of its own resources and the endowment. Everybody ages at different rates, and its possible in 2021 and 2022 to accurately measure that biological age as opposed to your chronological age, Vaughan said. Most people are relatively close to where theyre supposed to be, but we do see people who are way off the curve in one direction or another, and we want to try to understand it. Patients may also have the opportunity to participate in aging-related clinical trials. Education and research will be key parts of the institute. The institute will build off research Vaughan has done on a group of Amish people who immigrated from Switzerland to Indiana in the 1800s. Some members of that group have a unique genetic variant that seems to protect them from parts of aging. Those who have the variant seem to live about 10 years long than those who dont have it, and they dont tend to as often develop certain age-related illnesses such as diabetes. That research has already led to development of a drug, with a Japanese pharmaceutical company, that is being tested in clinical trials. Northwestern is participating in the trials, giving the drug to high-risk patients hospitalized with COVID-19 because age seems to be one of the biggest risk factors for severe illness and death from COVID-19. The institute will also include a center focused on HIV and aging. Though modern medications have made it possible for people with HIV to live long lives, they still seem to develop certain age-related conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and heart disease earlier than others, said Dr. Frank Palella, associate director of the longevity institute, and director of the HIV and aging center within the institute. Thats likely because, even when HIV is well controlled, patients with the virus still experience more chronic inflammation and potentially harmful immune system activity than people without it, he said. The center will work on developing interventions that might help people living with HIV better avoid those age-related conditions, Palella said. Advertisement That research may benefit people living with HIV and people without it, by helping doctors to better understand what leads to those conditions and how to stop or delay them, he said. In opening the institute, Northwestern joins a number of other institutions that are exploring how to lengthen the healthy parts of peoples lives. Prominent programs include centers on aging at the Mayo Clinic, Harvard University and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California, which says on its website that, We believe it is possible for people to enjoy their lives at 95 as much as they do at 25. The institute will allow Northwestern, which already does research on aging, to expand and accelerate that research. Northwestern already receives nearly $40 million a year in research funding from the National Institute of Aging. Northwestern is not disclosing how much it received from the Potocsnak family. One of our major goals is to develop interventions that are going to be able to reverse what we can reverse, Palella said. I dont want to overly depict this as looking for the fountain of youth, but when we look at our aging population, in general, what are things that limit functionality? ... This brings the experts together. lschencker@chicagotribune.com I have been writing alone at home for the past three months while Ive been on family medical leave, and it is not the same as writing for the paper. Now, I work to sort my memories into a shape that resembles a story as I struggle to write a memoir. Im writing for an audience that is very small and might stay that way. But when writing for The Post-Star, I knew thousands of readers would be picking up the paper the next day. Many of them would, at least, glance at the headline over my column. My thoughts reached out to those readers, and they reached back by saying hello in the grocery store or at garage sales or sending me emails and letters. You appreciated my work, and I sought to be worthy of your attention, and that connection has given my life purpose. I came to Glens Falls with my wife and daughter 28 years ago, moving into a little house we rented on Cortland Street near the high school. We bought a house on Bacon Street, added two more girls to our family and moved to our house on the corner of South and Knight. All of that has been chronicled in detail in my columns, the kids growing up, the pleasures of raising a family in Glens Falls, our joys and sorrows. At the same time, I wrote about other people in the community and their struggles and victories, big and small. I never tried to maintain a journalistic distance from folks I interviewed. I got choked up. I got angry with people and felt happy for them. One of my happiest moments came when a veteran I wrote about who had gotten screwed out of his benefits had them restored by Veterans Affairs after the stories ran. Victories like that were rare. In 2000, I wrote a column about a man named Richard Guay I barely knew but had run into on the street several times. He died young, and more than 1,000 people came to his calling hours for one reason, I wrote in the column because they liked him. Seventeen years later, I met Richards son, who was a young boy when his father died. He told me he aspired to live up to my portrayal of his fun-loving father as a human lighthouse. That made me happy. Its a privilege to write for the public about your preferences and pet peeves, your good and bad days and the funny things your kids did. Its amazing to call people up and ask what they are going through and have them trust you to tell their story to the community. All that comes to an end when you retire, which is what Im doing. This is my farewell column, probably the only one of my life, except for the one that will be written by someone else. No story or series of stories I worked on captures what made the job great, which was the fun and excitement of the newsroom, the jokes and chatter in the midst of our serious purpose to tell the community about itself. I will miss being part of that. But retirement doesnt mean shutting up, and since writing is the only thing I know how to do, Im going to keep plowing away. Perhaps some of you will renew the connection we have had here, but in another place. I hope so. Until then, thank you. Will Doolittle is projects editor at The Post-Star. He may be reached at will@poststar.com and followed on his blog, I think not, and on Twitter at @trafficstatic. Love 9 Funny 7 Wow 1 Sad 14 Angry 1 Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Snow lovers might be asking if The Press of Atlantic City can run the South Jersey Snowfall Contest again after all this snow. After having participants guess the amount of snow that would fall in Lower Township, Cape May County for the month of January, a record amount of snow fell on the town. So, the answer is a yes. With 27.2 inches of snow in January, a monthly record dating back to the 1890s, there is a winner of a $100 gift certificate to Exit 0 Skin Care in West Cape May. Victor Cocco, of Pine Hill, is the winner of the South Jersey Snowfall Contest. He might have seen crazy for guessing 25.0 inches of snow. Turns out, he had the best snowy crystal ball of all and now has $100 to spend. The contest entries whittled down shortly after the New Year. When 11.0 inches of snow fell on Jan. 3, only 10% of the original entries remained. An additional three inches of snow on Jan. 7, left a little over 5% in the hunt for the prizes. While 0.6 inches of snow fell in the middle of the month, it wasn't until the Blizzard of 2022 that brought us to a winner, by default. An additional 12.2 inches of snow brought the monthly total to 27.2 inches. That eclipsed the guesses for every entrant, though Cocco was much closer than the others. Snowfall observations are taken by long-time, award winning weather observer Wayne Roop. Roop is part of the Cooperative Observer Network (COOP), which is run by the National Weather Service. National weather observer award presented to Lower Township man LOWER TOWNSHIP Each night around midnight, Wayne Roop goes out to the weather station in h Stay up to date on the snow, rain, nor'easters and everything winter will throw our way! Sign up for the daily weather newsletter for free. The newsletter will also give you access to forecast videos, articles, weather related content and more. Follow Meteorologist Joe Martucci on social media for more updates. Contact Joe Martucci: 609-272-7247 jmartucci@pressofac.com Twitter @acpressmartucci Local Weather Get the latest local weather, meteorologist Joe Martucci's 7-day forecasts, podcasts, and severe weather alerts. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. All city buildings in Atlantic City will be closed for a second consecutive day Tuesday due to hazardous conditions created by Mondays snow storm. Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. announced the closures at a news conference Monday night. He said he was closing the city buildings down again, because the city workers still had more to do to respond to the dangerous winter weather that hit South Jersey on Monday. The additional ice that would freeze onto city streets overnight heading into Tuesday could be especially dangerous. Safety is paramount, Small said. So, I am announcing that, again, for the second consecutive day, all city buildings will be closed. Essential city workers, including police, firefighters, emergency management staffers and communications staffers will be given their assignments by their superiors. Small said that he had spoken with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy about the storm. He said that the governor had pledged to deploy workers from the state Department of Transportation to help the city respond to the storm. The city is also issuing a Code Blue an initiative that mobilizes city resources for people who are without adequate shelter during periods of cold weather. A Code Blue is issued whenever the National Weather Service forecasts that the temperature will be below 32 degrees Fahrenheit or below 0 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill. Small said temperatures might be even less than 20 degrees Monday night and Tuesday morning. Atlantic City Fire Chief Scott Evans said the city saw 5 to 6 inches of snow and experienced high winds. He noted that the storm had turned roads into a sheet of ice. Although the city public works put in a strong effort to salt and treat the roads to make them as safe as possible, overnight freezing means additional treatment would still be needed, particularly on the citys secondary roads. Evans, who is also the Atlantic City Emergency Management coordinator, further warned about flooding Tuesday morning, including on the Black and White Horse pikes. This storm, as the mayor said, is not over, Evans said. Although the snow has passed, we still have a lot of mitigation to work with and still have to deal with some hazards that were going to see in the morning. Evans was echoing Smalls calls earlier in the news conference for residents to be careful. I just want to be clear, this is still a very dangerous storm, Small said. Atlantic City is urging residents to sign up for its Code Red emergency alert network via the link on the Atlantic City website. Contact Chris Doyle cdoyle@pressofac.com Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. State health officials say New Jersey may be only one week away from the peak of the COVID-19 omicron variant surge, but in the meantime, caseloads continue to soar statewide. New Jersey is starting the new year with more COVID-hospitalized patients than during the peak of April and May 2020, Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday afternoon. It was the governors first pandemic media briefing of 2022, and it was held remotely because his wife, Tammy, tested positive for the virus Sunday. Murphy said he and others in his family have tested negative and will continue to be examined in the coming days. The states caseloads are also continuing to reach unparalleled numbers since the start of the pandemic, with the state reporting over 20,000 cases per day over a three-day period. Last week, New Jersey broke its record for single-day reported caseloads on consecutive days, one of which was short of 30,000 newly confirmed cases. The numbers were seeing today blow anything we have seen since the start of the pandemic out of the water, Murphy said. Branding the trends as the omicron tsunami, Murphy said the state will remain committed to providing help where it is needed. That includes sending out strike teams of state and federal resources to help as hospitals cope with a surge of sick and a short-handed staff. Hospitalizations in the state climbed from nearly 3,000 on Dec. 27 to over 4,700 on Sunday, according to the governor. Thats come as hospitals and nursing homes face staff shortages, Persichilli said. She suggested that the shortage is due to staff being out sick and added that hospitals and nursing homes are planning for the loss of 30% of their staff at minimum. Hospital capacity may also be increased to handle the influx of patients, state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said. Among the measures hospitals and nursing homes are taking are planning to increase shifts from the usual eight hours to up to 10 or 12, as well as redeploying administrative staff to work with patients, she said. Theyre also planning to expand the number of patients that teams of health care workers see from up to eight patients to 15. Another change includes using EMTs to vaccinate people so that health care workers at vaccination sites can return to hospitals to alleviate the strain from staff shortages, she said. Murphy and Persichilli offered an optimistic take on the latest case numbers, saying the latest models suggest the omicron wave will reach its peak sometime around Jan. 14. We cannot summarily give up the fight, Murphy said. We need to remain in a war footing to ensure that we can get resources to where they need to be and when they need to be there. As has been the case since COVID-19 vaccines have begun reaching most of New Jerseys population, the unvaccinated continue to overwhelmingly be those filling hospital beds. Nearly 70% of the nearly 4,000 patients in the states 71 hospitals remained unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. Theyre also accounting for most of the states reported COVID-related deaths, Murphy said. New Jersey also has 102 children hospitalized for COVID-19, 76 of which have tested positive, Persichilli said. The record caseloads have officials pleading with New Jerseyans to take the omicron surge seriously by wearing a mask and getting vaccinating, especially receiving a booster dose if theyre eligible. New Jersey continues to lag in booster vaccinations, with only about 45% of those eligible for one having received a booster. On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved booster doses of Pfizers vaccine for children and teens 12 to 15. Boosters were previously recommended for everyone 16 and older, and federal regulators. Over 1,900 locations across New Jersey are administering vaccines, health officials said. On New Years Day, Murphy formally directed leadership in the state Legislature to extend his administrations emergency powers related to vaccine distribution, testing and that CDC guidance be maintained in high-risk settings. Murphy did not say whether he would immediately consider reenacting a statewide mask mandate to stunt the outbreak. Those decisions can be made at the local level through an executive order he signed in June, and several communities have already done so, Murphy said. Masks, however, will remain in schools and child care centers, settings in which many unvaccinated individuals remain, Murphy said. This brings us absolutely no joy, Murphy said. No one wants to see our kids smiles as much as I do, but this is what is necessary now to keep our schools safe. Schools in New Jersey and across the country have been evaluating a return to in-person learning since cases have spiked. However, state officials assert they are committed to keeping students in school, having recently implemented new test-to-stay guidance to allow a student exposed to the virus while in school, remain in school if are asymptomatic and test negative. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Eric Conklin: 609-272-7261 econklin@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressConklin Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A Pleasantville teacher is leading the way on state efforts to make New Jersey education more equitable. Tamar LaSure-Owens, a first-grade teacher at Leeds Avenue Elementary School, has been awarded the New Jersey Education Association Urban Education Activist award for her work on the Pleasantville School Districts Amistad, Holocaust and Latino heritage, or AMHOTINO, curriculum. The Urban Education Committee of the NJEA, the state teachers union, selected LaSure-Owens for the award. One of LaSure-Owens innovations was to teach the history of slavery as it was perpetrated both in the United States and across the Western Hemisphere. She teaches how the legacy of slavery, along with Hispanic and African American history, impacts both the United States and Latin America today. Its American history, and we need to know, from North America to South America, who we are, how were connected, why we look the way that we do, why our cultures are the way that they are, what makes them so rich, LaSure-Owens said. To teach students about the Holocaust and cultural diversity, she has hosted lessons with Atlantic City Rabbi Shalom Ever, who taught students about the Jewish holiday of Purim. She said teachers should recognize the importance of celebrating diversity inside a classroom in a way that keeps them engaged and inspires them to read and write more about a topic. This is history where students are definitely involved, they are engaged, they are interested, it connects to them, this is where they learn more, LaSure-Owens said. A Dec. 23 letter from the NJEA to LaSure-Owens praised her for her work teaching in Pleasantville and the impact her curriculum could have on students statewide. The committee would like to recognize the commitment and accomplishments of educators in New Jersey who promote equity in education in some of the most difficult learning environments often found in urban communities, the NJEA letter said. Your work with the Amistad Curriculum exemplifies your commitment to not only Pleasantville students but students across New Jersey. LaSure-Owens was invited to attend the NJEA Consortium for Representative Curriculum Design Sprint this week to discuss curriculum surrounding the Amistad, the Holocaust, the LGBTQ community and people with disabilities. She also was selected to serve the Equity Training Program of the NJEA Racial, Equity, Affirmation and Literacy Team Six (or NJEA REAL Team Six). Your experience, expertise and impact in creating inclusive and representative curriculum makes you an ideal candidate for this work, the NJEA said in a Dec. 16 letter about the NJEA Consortium sent to LaSure-Owens. Snowstorm forcing several schools to close Tuesday as well The snow storm Monday is continuing to impact school schedules across South Jersey. The Pleasantville school district first implemented the AMHOTINO curriculum this school year. According to an August letter written by Pleasantville Superintendent Natakie Chestnut-Lee, the AMHOTINO curriculum seeks to incorporate lessons about history, tolerance and diversity into all school subjects. It places a special focus on the histories of African Americans, Native Americans and Hispanic Americans, as well as the events of the Holocaust and other genocides in world history. The curriculum is designed to teach students to fight racism and hatred whenever and wherever it happens. To give our students a fighting chance of living in a more equitable society, we must change the way we teach them, Chestnut-Lee said then. LaSure-Owens, 48, is the districts AMHOTINO coordinator. She worked as an inspector for the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and served as a captain in the Army National Guard before starting her career in the Pleasantville schools in 2007 as a substitute teacher. She was hired for her first full-time teaching position in 2011, and the way she incorporated lessons about African American history and other topics soon spread across the district. She said the AMHOTINO curriculum provides multidisciplinary lessons to the students and helps them engage with history in a way that matters to them. She said she goes beyond the textbook and works to connect lessons to students experiences in modern-day New Jersey and the United States. All of those things help to paint a picture and make history real, relevant, connect, and that is just the beginning, LaSure-Owens said. Galloway council set for shift to GOP in Tuesday reorganization meeting GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP In an area where the partisan makeup of local governing bodies can stay She credited her success and the success of AMHOTINO programs to the multitude of people and organizations that have supported the district in designing the curriculum. These included the New Jersey Department of Education Amistad Commission, the Hispanic Association of Atlantic County, the Mainland/Pleasantville chapter of the NAACP, the Stockton University Holocaust Resource Center and the Pleasantville Education Association. She also thanked Chestnut-Lee for her support. New Jersey requires that students learn about several historical events to promote principles of tolerance and equality. The New Jersey Legislature passed the Amistad Law in 2002 requiring schools across the state to incorporate African American history into their curricula. In 1994, it passed a separate law requiring schools to teach students about the Holocaust and other genocides. Funeral arrangements set for former Holy Spirit football star Services have been set for Donta Pollock, a former Holy Spirit High School football star who The Amistad was a Cuban ship commandeered by 53 Africans who had been abducted from modern-day Sierra Leone to be sold into slavery in the Caribbean in 1839. The group was later incarcerated by U.S. authorities but ultimately freed after an 1841 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. Eighteen of the 53 Africans were killed at sea or died during litigation. LaSure-Owens has previously won praise for her work advancing the goals of the state Amistad and Holocaust laws. Her work at Leeds Avenue served as a model for state education officials in 2019, as they were trying learn how to ensure all schools were adhering to the guidelines laid out in the Amistad Law. This is still a process, its still developing, LaSure-Owens said. Contact Chris Doyle : cdoyle@pressofac.com Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Central Municipal Court of Atlantic County was all set to open Monday and begin hearing cases from nine municipalities, but then the snowstorm hit and the court opening day was postponed. It is the first consolidated municipal court run by a county in New Jersey. What we are going to do is rely on Howard Berchtold and the courts. They will make that decision (about when to reschedule Mondays cases), said Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson. The court is going to run smoothly. We have extraordinarily good people running it. Berchtold, the Atlantic County Trial Court administrator, was instrumental in getting the consolidated court up and running. But Levinson is concerned about getting the new courts permanent home finished. The county has almost finished renovating the historic court house on Main Street in Mays Landing to host the central municipal court, but problems with the supply chain are postponing getting some heating and air conditioning units delivered. Most court proceedings will be conducted virtually with in-person proceedings limited to once or twice per week, according to the county. Timothy Maguire will serve as the chief judge of the Central Municipal Court. Michele Verno, Richard Fauntleroy and Howard Freed will serve as associate judges, and Antoinette Tummon will serve as court administrator. Additional hires include deputy court administrators, violations clerks, municipal prosecutors and public defenders. Until the central courts permanent home is renovated, the in-person hearings will be held in the Criminal Court Complex at 4997 Unami Blvd. in Mays Landing. The permanent location of the Central Municipal Court will be at 5901 Main St. in Mays Landing, in the historic courthouse. Those in favor of the system say a consolidated court will be more efficient and save money for participating municipalities. They also say it will better enable nonprofits to help people struggling with social emotional problems. County officials announced Nov. 17 that Jewish Family Service had agreed to run a pilot social-services program in the central court. JFS will station three social workers in the court for its first 90 days of operation to immediately connect those in court with programs that provide mental-health and drug-addiction treatment as an alternative to traditional municipal fines. Opponents of the courts, meanwhile, have raised concerns over transportation, having lawyers and court staff unfamiliar with the municipalities they serve and whether the new court would be too lenient on municipal-level offenders. The Atlantic County Sheriffs Office will provide security and transport operations. The court also will handle all filings by the State Police and other state agencies, including the Division of Gaming Enforcement. The nine participating towns are Egg Harbor Township, Galloway Township, Hamilton Township, Linwood, Northfield, Ventnor, Estell Manor, Weymouth Township and Port Republic. For more information, visit aclink.org/centralcourt. REPORTER: Michelle Brunetti Post 609-272-7219 mpost@pressofac.com Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Dont let China achieve military superiority Congratulation is in order for Congressman Jeff Van Drew to help the Democrats and the 12 other Republican Congress members for passing the infrastructure bill. Now we will have much-needed improvements to infrastructure, but at what cost. Is this the stepping stone to the Build Back Better Green New Deal? What good will trillions of dollars we spend on building back a better green new deal be if we neglect military funding. I most likely wont be around at 81 when this lack of military funding leads to the demise of America. The new roads and bridges will be a great improvement for the Chinese when they come and all the big corporate giants that left America for cheap labor will be under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. We do have a strong military but the Chinese have a bigger navy now and if we dont do something about it and other military concerns soon, they are on the verge of conquering us in more ways than this. We are helping the Chinese in so many ways, not by building back better but by building backward better. Corporate America has crushed us in many ways through the mainstream media, free speech, social media and the lies that have infected our country and have pitted Americans against Americans. Winston Churchill once said a lie will travel around the world while the truth is putting on its boots. So let us not forget the words of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto after Pearl Harbor: I am afraid we have awakened a sleeping giant. The sleeping giant is still us and China is watching. Michael Tourigian Brigantine Change the channel, keep news media free Regarding the recent letter, Fox is maddening: I have a simple cure for the writer who is so mad that he wishes there was a lawsuit to stop Fox News and other conservative media outlets. Its called change the channel. As much as a point of view opposed to yours maddens you, censorship of the free press never did too well for the citizens of those countries forced to live under it. Paul Friedman Margate NEW YORK The extensive music catalog of David Bowie, stretching from the late 1960s to just before his death in 2016, has been sold to Warner Chappell Music. More than 400 songs, among them Space Oddity, Ziggy Stardust, Fame, Rebel Rebel and Lets Dance on 26 Bowie studio albums released during his lifetime, a posthumous studio album release, Toy, two studio albums from Tin Machine, as well as tracks released as singles from soundtracks and other projects, are included. Advertisement David Bowie arrives at the Fourth Annual Black Ball Concert for "Keep A Child Alive" on Oct. 25, 2007, in New York. (Stephen Chernin/AP) Financial details of the sale were not released. Warner Chapell is the music publishing wing of Warner Music Group Corp. Bruce Springsteen sold his catalog to Sony Music last month for a reported $500 million. Among others that have sold their catalogs in recent years, either in part or in their entirety, are Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Stevie Nicks. David Bowie, born David Jones in London in 1947, died in January 2016 after battling cancer for 18 months. As a performer, Bowie had unpredictable range of styles, melding European jadedness with American rhythms and his ever-changing personas and wardrobes. The gaunt and erudite Bowie brought an open theatricality and androgyny to popular music that changed the very meaning of being a rock star. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Advertisement Last year Warner Music Group reached a deal with the Bowie estate that gave Warner Music licensed worldwide rights to Bowies recorded music catalog from 1968. Chicago teachers are expected to vote Tuesday on whether to defy Chicago Public Schools orders to return to classrooms amid a spike in city COVID-19 cases. The Chicago Teachers Unions governing body the 600-member House of Delegates is expected to meet Tuesday. All of the unions 25,000 members are slated to receive an electronic ballot asking if they support working remotely instead of in person starting Wednesday. I am so pissed off that we have to continuously fight for the basic necessities, the basic mitigations, CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said Monday at a South Side news conference outside Park Manor Elementary School, where some teachers said they planned to work from home because of safety concerns. CPS students returned to buildings Monday after a two-week holiday break. District CEO Pedro Martinez told parents in an email Sunday night there are no plans to transition the district to remote learning, though some individual classrooms may need to make the switch temporarily if positive cases are reported. The end of winter break comes as Chicago is reporting an average of nearly 4,000 daily coronavirus cases, a 42% increase from the prior week, with about 600 kids testing positive a day. Some Chicago aldermen raised concerns about CPS reopening plans. We have families and staff reaching out with concerns about tomorrow given the high positivity rates in our most vulnerable communities, and vaccination still lagging behind in our communities with respect to other parts of the city, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, wrote in an email to Martinez Sunday. CTU submitted a proposal last week calling for the district to go remote for two weeks while more protocols are put in place. Short of that, the union asked CPS to have students and staff provide a negative test result in order to return to buildings Monday. CTU also wants CPS to set guidelines for when an individual school and the entire district would switch to remote learning and to distribute KF94, KN95 or N95 masks to all staff and students, among other demands. In an interview on CNBC, Mayor Lori Lightfoot downplayed the same old saber-rattling by teachers union leadership and said remote learning has had a devastating effect on children and their families. She reiterated that Chicago schools will remain open. We need to keep our kids in school, which is what were going to do in Chicago, she said. Schools are safe and are not the source of significant spread, Lightfoot said. In his Sunday email, Martinez sought to reassure parents that health and safety procedures such as indoor masking, in-school weekly testing and vaccination offerings will continue into 2022. Heres a breakdown of CPS coronavirus-related protocols: Any student, regardless of vaccination status, who is exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 is directed to stay home, get tested and isolate for 10 days. Unvaccinated students who traveled to any U.S. state or territory except for Guam and Montana should get tested and stay home for seven days after return, regardless of test status. Unvaccinated students who came in close contact of an infected person are directed to stay home and quarantine for 10 days from their last exposure regardless of their test result. Vaccinated students who are close contacts of a person who tested positive can attend school as long as they are not experiencing any coronavirus-like symptoms. Only students who are directed to quarantine by CPS or the Chicago Department of Public Health will have access to real-time online remote instruction. Students do not need test results to attend school. I stand firmly behind the decision to protect our students physical and mental health and promote their academic progress by keeping CPS schools safely open for in-person learning, Martinez said in his letter to parents. For months, CPS and CTU have been negotiating over a safety agreement for this school year. An agreement reached in early 2021 after tense negotiations led to students returning to campuses in waves during the last school year. About 330,000 students are enrolled in CPS, the nations third-largest school district. Some 51% of district students 12 to 17 years old and nearly 12% of students 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, a CPS spokesperson said. CPS says about 91% of its staff is fully vaccinated. CPS said it handed out 150,000 at-home test kits for use over winter break to students at 300-plus schools in communities with low vaccination rates. Some parents received emails this weekend that their childrens kits could not be processed. The date to return the kits was Dec. 28, but CPS extended that deadline to Dec. 30 after photos surfaced of overflowing shipping boxes. Martinez said on Dec. 30 that the district had received 37,000 registered test kits, and there were no issues with packages left near full drop-off boxes. One CPS teacher said he received an email Saturday that the sample he dropped off Dec. 30 could not be processed. Some of the COVID-19 samples collected this week were delayed in transit to the testing lab due to weather and holiday-related shipping issues. As a result, those tests could not be processed within the required 48-hour timeframe between the time the sample is activated and the time the sample arrives at the lab, the email read. When this happens, the test unfortunately cannot be reliably processed and yields an unsatisfactory result. A CPS spokesperson on Sunday could not immediately say how many test kits CPS were received, how many students tested positive and how many results were invalid. CPS maintains an online dashboard that shows positivity rates through its weekly testing program thats mandatory for unvaccinated staff members and voluntary for students. CPS is reporting 35,477 tests last week, with 1,919 people testing positive and 24,839 invalid results. Its unclear how many of the tests were through the at-home initiative. Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd, asked Martinez in an email Sunday about testing information. I also want to know what the plan is for testing, how many in-home COVID tests did CPS get results for and what are the goals and plan to vaccinate as many students as CPS possibly can. I am very concerned about the lack of information around plans for all of these things, she wrote. We are receiving messages from concerned families in our wards and I want to be able to give them information. Ald. Maria Hadden, 49th, tweeted Sunday that City Council members continue to press Martinez, Lightfoot and city public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady for solutions and better decisions. @ChiPubSchools hasnt done whats necessary for the return and its not okay for us to pretend like they have, Hadden wrote. Were in the highest covid spike yet. The testing and contract tracing systems for CPS were inadequate before the surge and staffing levels are critically low. Tribunes Gregory Pratt contributed. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Time for you to ask these questions with a truthful answer! Do you believe everything Biden and his administration tell you? Is it time for Biden to resign? Is the border safe or we in danger of more crime? Why should student loan debt be cancelled; is it fair for those who paid for their children's education? Have we ventured extremely into climate control without proper knowledge of the consequences? Do you believe in the extreme left Democrat party and their beliefs? Is Biden capable to turn around inflation? Should the oil pipelines be turned-on and America becomes energy independent? Will you buy an electric car in the next 2 years at a cost of over $50,000? Do you want term limits in all government? Do you like WOKE? Can you vote for what is good for America rather than be a party junkie? Should the crazy state of California leave the union? Would we be better off if it did leave the union? Do you want definition of sex to be male or female, not some made-up definition? Do you want parents to voice their opinion to schools, colleges, on what is appropriate subjects? You need to count the positives and the negatives within yourself with truth and integrity. There are many philosophies, but what is of basic importance is compassion for others, concern for others suffering, and reduction of selfishness! Vote your conscience for the good of all that is true and safe for all Americans! Chicago endured one of its deadliest years in at least the last quarter-century in 2021, according to Chicago Police Department data, information from other law enforcement and the Cook County medical examiners office. According to case data from the medical examiner released Monday, that office handled more than 1,000 homicides last year, including 836 in the city of Chicago. It was the first time the office had handled that many homicides since 1994, it reported. According to CPD, a total of 797 people were killed in the city, a figure not seen since 798 were slain in 1996. But that total count does not include people shot and killed in shootings on Chicago expressways, as they are the jurisdiction of the Illinois State Police. When that number is included the city reached at least 800 homicides, according to Tribune reporting in 2021. The CPD figure also does not include self-defense shootings or fatal shootings by police officers. According to the medical examiner, Blacks were the victims of 80% of the homicides handled by the office. More than 1,000 homicides here were gun-related, the office said. Males accounted for 88% of homicide deaths, the office reported in a statement. Eighty-six homicide deaths were under 18; 12 were under the age of 10. The Chicago police figure includes all manner of homicides, but the overwhelming majority of slayings in the city more than 90% were a result of gun violence, statistics show. All told, there were at least 4,300 gunshot victims, including those who suffered both fatal and nonfatal injuries, according to CPD data. The number is a significant increase from 2018, when 2,800 people were shot. The increase in gun violence, mirrored in other major cities, has coincided with the two years of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. The emergence of the coronavirus has caused disruption across the country but disproportionately so in communities already suffering from high rates of violence and decades of drained resources and services. The increase in violence also came as police departments nationwide found themselves under intense criticism in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by an on-duty Minneapolis police officer. A two-year snapshot of violence in Chicago shows about a 60% increase in homicides, though the one-year increase overall was significantly smaller at 3.2%. The 2021 increase was the first time Chicago has recorded more than 700 homicides since 778 were logged in 2016. That increase was quickly reversed, while the 2021 number comes in the second half of the two-year window and as the pandemic continues to roil American society. There were specific bright spots in the Chicago data, with police districts that have long suffered from high violence posting noteworthy declines in homicides over the one-year period between 2020 and 2021. Those include Austin on the West Side and Englewood and South Chicago on the South Side, according to department data. Department data also shows the continued prevalence of guns in Chicago. Officers here seized 12,000 firearms, a record number, according to a statement released last week by police with their year-end data. The number of firearm seizures also included 706 assault weapons, 61% more compared to all of 2020, the statement said. In the statement, Superintendent David Brown noted the effort his officers are making under trying circumstances. This has been a difficult year for everyone and there has never been a tougher time to be a police officer in this country, but the men and women of the Chicago Police Department have tirelessly served every neighborhood every day, Brown said. We must keep working together because keeping our streets safe will always be an all-in effort. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 If its been said once, its been said many times. Theres just something about Chicago you just have to see the number of former/native members of our community making moves in other cities and venues, including those helming some of the countrys notable archives at institutions in Washington, D.C. Native Chicagoan and former executive director of University of Chicagos Black Metropolis Research Consortium Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty was recently appointed director of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. Evangelestia-Dougherty joins Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian, who served as the president of the Chicago Historical Society in the early 2000s. And then theres Carla Hayden, the 14th librarian of Congress, who, since September 2016, has been overseeing the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. Hayden began her career at the Chicago Public Library. What is it about Chicago? queries Hayden. Theres New York, New York, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. I think Chicago epitomizes that in so many ways it gives you so many experiences and that being right down the middle, theres a value to that. You can relate east/west, left/right. You have everything, people from different backgrounds, cultures and when it snows, were all together. We talked with Hayden, (a lover of 57th Street Books) a South Shore High School, Roosevelt University and University of Chicago alumna about her literary moves, aspirations and goals now that shes reached the midway point of her 10-year term. The interview has been condensed and edited. Q: There seems to be a pipeline to Washington D.C. from Chicago (and we havent even mentioned Obama). Is our city the last test before greatness? Hayden: I think that through line is the experiences. For libraries, Chicago Public is one of the major library systems in the country with so many branches and so many neighborhoods, it prepares you. In Chicago, you have very strong ethnic communities. The second largest population of Polish people outside of Poland. My family is from Downstate, Springfield and Champaign. Growing up in the Land of Lincoln ... and then music, my dad was a studio musician and taught at Malcolm X College ... They put me on the South Side in a storefront library in the 70s. Giving storytime to kids in the neighborhood with autism. Thats when I got a chance to see what those branch libraries meant in the communities. In Chicago, branch libraries are integral to the communities, they are opportunity centers. I got a chance to work at the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library when it opened, and I was the childrens librarian at the Whitney Young branch. I got to see firsthand what libraries could be in communities; Chicago Public shaped that for me and then I went on to be the young adult coordinator planning programs for teenagers throughout the city. Chicago Public is where I really understood more about what public libraries could and should be. Q: Given your experience/background in Chicago, whats the major difference working for the Library of Congress versus Chicago Public Library? A: Scale, of course. Its a national library and serves Congress. It also serves the people that Congress serves. Thats everyone in the United States. Its got over 170 million items, the largest collection of human knowledge in the world, it includes not only books but original manuscripts like the papers of 23 presidents from Washington to Coolidge, history makers like Thurgood Marshall and Frederick Douglass, Clara Barton, millions of photographs, films, maps, audio recordings, music, comic books and hair. We have a lock of Beethovens hair, all of these things. Its a reference library so we loan materials to other libraries; we supply unique materials all over. Q: How do you decide what gets an LOC exhibit and what doesnt speak to many populations or communities and gets put on the back burner? A: One of the first things you do is see if there are any significant anniversaries like womens suffrage. If there are any historic commemorations, you look to see what you have in your collections. We received the archives of the AIDS quilt. Theres a variety of ways of how and what you display. Thats why we have rotating exhibits because when you have a collection that covers just about everything, you can be relevant. In terms of reaching out, we just got a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to connect with people in communities all over the country, to make sure that there are stories that might not have been covered or that are being worked on ... its called Of the People: Widening the Path. (The initiative will invest in community-based documentarians who will expand the librarys collections with new perspectives; fund paid internships and fellowships to engage the next generation of diverse librarians, archivists and knowledge workers; and create a range of digital engagements with library collections with underserved communities and institutions.) There are a lot of people doing a lot of good work in communities all over and thats a major focus for us now. Q: Youve done so many firsts: The first woman and the first African American to lead the national library. What does that kind of responsibility feel and look like? A: My colleagues in the library world have been so supportive. Theyre the ones that supported my nomination and recommended it because we are a community that believes in empowering people with what we do in libraries. Being the first woman since 1802 was very significant for the profession because were one of the four feminized professions where about 85% to 90% of the workforce is female and quite a few times the top management of those institutions doesnt reflect that. So professionally, that was significant and then personally, being the first person of color was especially significant for me because people like me were denied the right to learn to read. That meant quite a bit to me personally. Q: Is there anything left to achieve, anything on your vision board that you still have to get to? A: Halfway through, I really want to connect with as many people as possible, to expand the collections so theyre more relevant. Thats the whole part of working with communities of color in particular. Using technology to the fullest, thats going to be where Im really going to spend a lot of time. So people know more about the Library of Congress and that its something that is useful to them, making it more relevant. Were very good with researchers and scholars and things and, of course, informing Congress, but we need to also serve as many people as possible. Q: Is the Ark of the Covenant in the Library of Congress in any shape, form or fashion? A: Well, see were building, for the first time, a Treasures Gallery at the Jefferson Building so we can bring out some of these things so people could see and rotate. Were going to have an orientation center and a welcome area to have fun with all things that have been in those movies like National Treasure. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 As demand for COVID-19 testing hits new highs in the New Year, a potentially fraudulent testing site popped up in southwestern Illinois. "There unfortunately are those that are taking advantage of these crazy times to try to scam people," said Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. "So, if you have any doubt about the testing location that you're looking at, go ahead and ask some questions." Here's how COVID testing works in Illinois, and how to avoid fake testing. The Illinois Department of Public Health does not have the authority to license or regulate COVID-19 testing sites operated by health care providers, local health departments or private businesses, said agency spokeswoman Melaney Arnold. But the agency does regulate labs used for COVID-19 testing and requires all collection locations to partner with one. IDPH can investigate the labs for problems, but not the businesses they are associated with, Arnold said. If a testing site does not share information on their partner laboratory, the health department does not recommend patients use their services. Ezike recommended patients ask about the site's lab partner and also about who will send results and when. People seeking COVID-19 testing can find a list of legitimate sites at dph.illinois.gov/covid19/testing.html. Your local pharmacy, health care provider and health department will also have information about legitimate testing sites. If a site is not listed with the state or is not known to other local providers, it may not be legitimate. A list of legitimate testing sites in St. Clair County can be found at https://bit.ly/3qQInFw. In Fairview Heights, Illinois' public testing site is located in the parking lot near the empty Sears store at St. Clair Square mall (134 St. Clair Square). Patients will be asked to register through the MyChart mobile application. Wait times at the Fairview Heights testing site were hours-long as of Monday morning. Rapid testing is available from noon to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays in East St. Louis at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville East St. Louis Center (601 James R. Thompson Blvd.). Complaints about a site's protocols, missing results or serious service-related complaints can be directed to the state's health care complaint line at 1-800-252-4343. Patients who believe there may be fraud in COVID testing or other criminal activity should contact their local police department and the Illinois Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division, according to an Illinois Department of Health spokeswoman. The division hotline can be reached at 1-800-243-0607. Be ready to provide information on the testing site business and a partner laboratory if available for both complaint processes. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SPRINGFIELD The 2022 session of the Illinois General Assembly will be even shorter than originally planned due to a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, Democratic leaders announced. The session was originally scheduled to start this week with three meeting days Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. But leaders announced last week that they will meet only on Wednesday this week and likely will cancel all in-person meetings the following week, Jan. 11-13. In an announcement released Thursday, Dec. 30, House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch, D-Hillside, said COVID-19 cases in Illinois had increased 130 percent over the previous two weeks while hospitalizations were up 50 percent. This pandemic is not over, Welch said in a statement. We must take necessary precautions to mitigate the spread of the virus, reduce the burden on our health care systems and keep each other as safe as possible. Lawmakers typically meet from January through the end of May, with a short veto session that is usually held in October or November. This year, however, they originally planned to meet only from Jan. 4 through April 8 for a session that would focus mainly on passing a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. That was meant to leave them time to campaign ahead of this years primary, which was pushed back to June 28 due to delays in last years redistricting process. Since late October, however, Illinois has seen a massive surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, driven in part by the new Omicron variant, with daily case counts now far exceeding their November 2020 peaks. In January 2021, lawmakers convened a lame duck session primarily to consider a legislative package of education, criminal justice and health care reforms being pushed by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus. During that session, the House met in a convention center in downtown Springfield, several blocks from the Statehouse, while the Senate continued to meet in the Statehouse under strict testing, masking and social distancing protocols. When lawmakers convened the regular session later in January, both chambers adopted special rules allowing committee meetings to be held remotely and for some members to participate in floor debate and vote on legislation remotely. We continue to monitor the situation in an effort to protect our colleagues, our staffs and everyone else who is part of a legislative session day, Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park said. We have work to do, and weve proven that we can do it, minimize exposure and keep people healthy and safe. I encourage everyone to take advantage of the vaccines and booster shots available to protect themselves and those around them. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 David Peter Reimer, who shot himself in 2004, was a Canadian man whose penis was damaged beyond repair when he was a baby during a medically necessary circumcision gone terribly wrong. A psychologist named John Money then oversaw what was, in essence, an involuntary gender reassignment. Reimer, who had an identical male twin, was told he was a girl and had his testicles removed while still a toddler. He was given the name Brenda. But by the time he was a teenager, Remiers regretful parents had finally told him the truth and Reimer transitioned to living as a male. Money, meanwhile, had used the case as evidence for his conviction that gender identity was, primarily, learned. Advertisement Boy, a 2016 play by Anna Ziegler that now is at TimeLine Theatre, is a fictionalized version of Reimers case: a horrific example of what well-intentioned but naive parents can allow to be done to us when we we are too young to scream stop! and have someone actually listen. Zieglers 90-minute drama imagines Adam Turner (Theo Germaine), as a young male adult, falling in love for the first time with a young woman, Jenny (Emily Marso), the both trying to navigate what this relationship means. As you watch that journey, Adams past is revealed in flashback scenes, featuring both his traumatized parents (played by Mechelle Moe and Stef Tovar) and his creepy doctor, here known as Dr. Wendell Barnes and played, in oily fashion, by David Parkes. Since Reimers life and death were real, part of the experience of watching Boy involves the nauseating realization that this unethical act was perpetrated, not in the distant past but as recently as the late 1960s, and that the medical professional involved continued to practice (Money died in 2006). Moneys legacy is arguably complicated: He wrote early and extensively about the fluidity of gender, and argued that Reimers problems flowed from interference by the anti-feminist movement and by those who argued for gender immutability. Whatever. If there is one thing we have finally learned about gender and humanity at this point in our evolution, it is the crucial role of choice. For ourselves. Only we know who we are. Advertisement As a show at TimeLine, Boy functions as an overly efficient melodrama. As soon as you hear Barnes say the line and you can never tell her, you hear the cue for creepiness, which is the way director Damon Kiely and Parkes approach the character, which makes it yet harder to believe the parents would have been so duped. The script has a rigorously symmetrical structure: I found myself resisting some of that and wanting the central character of Adam, the only person who really matters here, to have more time to be, to breathe, and for the script to be willing to rip away some of this impositional neatness. Although carefully wrought and visually rich (the set is by Arnel Sancianco), the emotionally restrained production follows the same path: Whenever the actors are beginning to approach a deep place, and both Germaine and Marso do at times, were whisked elsewhere to a scene that could wait. Boy certainly has value as a dramatic work. Its just hard to contain this explosively experiential narrative in a very cautious off-Broadway play that feels somehow removed. You keep wanting Adam to be given more of a chance to self-actualize, to go further, to love as he has the innate human right to live. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@chicagotribune.com Review: Boy (2.5 stars) When: Through March 18 Where: TimeLine Theatre, 615 W. Wellington Ave. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Advertisement Tickets: $40-$54 at 773-283-8463 and www.timelinetheatre.com Enjoy someone else's drama A great theater city deserves a great theater critic. Enter Chris Jones. Subscribe now and get 4 weeks of full access for only 99. [ Black Button's 'Nevermore' has all the Poe darkness you'd expect ] [ 'My name is Lorraine Hansberry': New PBS documentary tells her story ] [ Read all of the Tribune's recent reviews of Chicago theater ] For 12 years, Iowans have been waiting for the state Legislature to finance the Natural Resources & Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund, a sales-tax supported fund for clean water, productive agricultural soil and thriving wildlife habitat. Despite 63% approval from voters in a 2010 referendum, the Iowa Legislature has not yet voted to raise the sales tax by three-eighths of a cent to fill the trust fund. And its not likely to happen again when the next legislative session begins next week. Nobody is in favor of a sales tax, said Rep. Robert Bacon, R-Slater, who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee. However, one of goals of the Republican-led state Senate is to do away with state income tax. If that were to happen this year or in an upcoming session, the possibility of replacing the lost revenue through higher fees or an increase in the sales tax could be open for discussion. If we phase out income tax, my opinion is were going to have to raise the sales tax. If we do, three-eighths cent would go toward iWill, Bacon said, referring to the Iowas Water and Land Legacy, a coalition working toward filling the trust fund. Bacon doesnt want to raise the sales tax because it disproportionately harms low-income people, but he knows many Republicans want to end income tax and return some of the states $1.2 billion surplus to Iowans. But there are other options for supporting Iowas environment, Bacon said. Soil health I know we need to look at soil quality, he said. Healthy soil retains more water, which reduces the risks of flooding, has more microbes that feed plants and is less prone to erosion. Planting cover crops and reducing tillage can improve soil health and improve water quality. The Iowa House considered legislation last year that would have added soil health to the list of projects that could get grants from soil and water conservation districts. House File 646 originally also included a tax of 6.75 cents per $1,000 assessed value for water quality projects in line with Iowas goal of reducing nitrate and phosphorus flowing from farm fields into streams, lakes and groundwater, the Capitol Dispatch reported. That language was stripped and the bill stalled. The 2022 Legislative session, which starts Monday in Des Moines, may revisit this bill or others related to soil health, said Ingrid Gronstal, water program director for the Iowa Environmental Council. There are some opportunities for moving smaller pieces forward, Gronstal said. Soil health is something of bipartisan interest. There are some concerns among environmental interests soil health legislation could seek to route state or federal money to updating underground drainage tile, which can whisk polluted water to lakes and streams. State parks Despite a record 16.6 million visits to Iowas state parks in 2020, the state park system has lost park rangers and state funding remains flat, IowaWatch reported. The ranger force down to 35 from 55 in 1995 is now one ranger for every 474,286 park visits, compared to the 1995 ratio of 1 to 217,700. Park rangers lead hikes and help campers, but they also are sworn law enforcement officers who deal with hunting, fishing and trapping violations, as well as operation of boats, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles. After the August 2020 derecho, Eastern Iowa park rangers helped clear debris to get parks reopened to the public. Bacon said he will be lobbying for four or five more rangers. We need a lot more law enforcement officers in the parks, Bacon said. Enforcement Gronstal said shed like to see the Iowa Department of Natural Resources put more money toward enforcement, permitting and monitoring to make sure animal-feeding operations and other companies are not allowing manure and chemicals to get into lakes, streams and groundwater. The Iowa DNR investigated eight fish kills through August this year and recently levied a $270,000 fine for a 2020 fertilizer spill that killed hundreds of fish and mussels in a creek near Dubuque. We really support the regulatory agency for the staff to have enough resources to ensure environment health and public safety, Gronstal said. Coal plants Iowa has nine remaining coal plants, major contributors to greenhouse gases that cause climate change. The Environmental Council would like to see the Legislature require utility companies to have an integrated resource plan that shows how they plan to supply energy in the next 10, 20 or even 50 years. They really need to tell their customers, regulators and others what their plan is to deal with their remaining coal fleet, said Kerri Johannsen, the Environmental Councils energy program director Bacon said utilities are welcome to make long-range plans, but he doesnt think the Legislature will require it. Right now, the Legislature is not in favor of mandates, he said. And that would be a mandate. Renewable energy Iowa generates 58% of its electricity from wind, the largest share of any state in the country. Some utility-scale solar projects also have been built in Iowa, but there has been conflict over other projects going forward. The Linn County Planning & Zoning Commission recommended a veto on a 750-acre solar farm west of Coggon based, in part, on opposition from neighbors. The Linn County Board of Supervisors will consider the project in January. The Environmental Council doesnt want lawmakers to pass state rules for siting solar project. We wouldnt want to see any kind of blanket prohibitions that would make it a lot harder to build renewable energy in Iowa, Johannsen said. Bacon also favors local control on solar. Right next door to the funeral home I used to own, the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) just put in a big building with solar panels. It doesnt interfere, Bacon said. Local control on that is fine. Digesters The Legislature in May passed a bill allowing animal-feeding operations to exceed animal capacity if they install an anaerobic digester to process manure. Since then, nine Iowa dairies have applied for digester permits. Both Gronstal and Johannsen expect more bills in 2022 to make it easier and more affordable for farmers to open digesters, multimillion dollar systems that convert manure and food waste into methane, which then can be changed into electricity and heat. The leftover digestate, which doesnt smell like manure, can be applied to farm fields. Digesters can potentially have some water quality benefits, Gronstal said. Thats not a technology thats going to be widespread. Other technology can get better bang for your buck on water quality. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 KANKAKEE A prosecutor said Monday he'll ask the Justice Department to review the case of two people charged in the shootings of two police officers at a northern Illinois hotel with the intention of pursuing federal death penalty charges. Illinois is not a death penalty state, but the U.S. Attorney General can authorize the filing of a petition to seek the death penalty in a federal murder case under certain circumstances, Kankakee County States Attorney Jim Rowe said during a bond hearing for Xandria Harris, 26, of Bradley in Kankakee County Circuit Court. I will be submitting an official request to the U.S. Attorney General for the Central District of Illinois and to the U.S. Attorney General to review the first degree murder case pending against Darius Sullivan and Xandria Harris for federal murder charges, and pursue a federal sentence of death against both defendants, Rowe said. Sullivan and Harris are charged with fatally shooting Bradley police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic, 49, and critically wounding her partner, Officer Tyler Bailey, 27, late Wednesday. Bailey is hospitalized at a Chicago-area hospital. The States Attorney will also seek life sentences for both Sullivan and Harris as the existing state-level charges proceed, Rowe said. Judge Kathy Bradshaw Elliott granted a request to deny Harris bail. You are a real threat to the community, Elliott told Harris. Sullivan, 25, of Bourbonnais was arrested Friday at a home in North Manchester, Indiana, police said. The case will go before a Kankakee County grand jury on Jan. 22. The next court date for Harris is Jan. 27 when she will be arraigned. In Wabash, Indiana, meanwhile, Sullivan is fighting extradition to Illinois. Rowe said he will start the process of asking Indianas governor to sign a warrant to have Sullivan extradited to Kankakee County. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 After COVID-19 forced Chicago Public Schools to transition to remote learning in 2020, the district shelled out $28.5 million in good-faith payments to 14 bus companies, with the expectation they would continue paying their workers. Nine of these companies also obtained federal Paycheck Protection Program loans intended to help businesses keep people on the payroll. But eight of the nine companies ended up laying workers off for varying lengths of time, CPS Inspector General Will Fletchers office wrote in its annual report released Monday. In the most extreme example, one vendor that received CPS good-faith payments obtained federal PPP funds and laid off all its drivers and bus aides by the end of the first week of closures and spent only 0.5% of its normal payroll post-closure, read the report, which chided CPS for not having a coordinated plan for communicating its intentions for the payments or a verification system to ensure drivers and bus aides were paid. The inspector generals office said it alerted CPS to the overlapping government funding in a September 2020 memo that led to written agreements for bus vendors to repay CPS about $3 million. The district has since recouped just over $2 million, according to the inspector general report, which summarized alleged CPS fraud, employee misconduct and financial mismanagement in the last fiscal year. The inspector generals office noted the need for transparency in how pandemic-related funds are spent. At its October meeting, Chicago Board of Education members discussed ways to allow the public to be able to track these expenditures in real time, instead of just releasing spending reports every few months. CPS is slated to receive $2.8 billion in direct emergency pandemic relief funding over five fiscal years, Fletchers office noted. CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who took over the top job in September, called Fletcher a great asset for the district. One of the things that I always look at when we look at any of these reports is making sure that we have the right procedures, that were learning the right lessons, so that we dont repeat some of the findings that they have, Martinez told the Tribune. The 65-page inspector general report comes as CPS busing woes continue. A nationwide bus driver shortage means CPS has paid thousands of families to find alternatives to district-provided transportation this school year. At last months meeting, the board adopted a resolution to devise transit solutions that prioritize diverse learners whose education plans require transportation. A progress report is due later this month. In its report, Fletchers office said it opened investigations into about a third of the 1,086 complaints it received. Among the findings: The sexual allegations unit handled 209 cases of reported adult-on-student sexual misconduct that led to the end of CPS employment for 41 people. Investigators explored allegations of a substitute teacher sexually abusing his daughter outside of school while she was a CPS student; a security guard having a sexual relationship with a 19-year-old high school student who became pregnant; a high school sign language interpreter having sex with a hearing-impaired 17-year-old student; and an elementary school teacher grooming two minor students and sexually abusing one of them. That unnamed teacher was reportedly charged with criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Fletchers office expressed concern of inadequate protections to prevent employees who were found to have engaged in sexual misconduct with CPS students, but who were not arrested or convicted for whatever reason, from finding employment with children outside the district. Significant loopholes exist for unlicensed staff and volunteers who have been permanently terminated or blocked by CPS for sexual misconduct, but who are not facing criminal charges, the report reads. Some of the OIGs most troubling noncriminal investigations involve unlicensed staff, volunteers and vendors, who can find another job working with children outside of CPS without their misconduct becoming known. A prior review by the inspector generals office found CPS failed to collect as much as $2 million in pre-kindergarten tuition over four years because of fraud, mismanagement and limited oversight of an outside companys work. Since that review, nearly $180,000 in pre-kindergarten debt has been paid. A pandemic-related pause on debt collections has limited the amount of money recouped, while some cannot be recovered because of unspecified errors. An elementary school assistant principal allegedly stole more than $195,000 over two years by diverting $175,000 in afterschool program fees to her personal bank account and by issuing checks for more than $20,000 to herself and her family. An elementary school teacher allegedly embezzled a $3,000 field trip donation that she reportedly spent on catering for her class reunion, airfare, a Chicago river cruise and a purchase from a pool and patio store. A teacher allegedly falsified time records by swiping in to CPS timekeeping system and immediately leaving to park her car or do something else before returning to school. The inspector generals office said it initiated its investigation after administrators determined the teacher was not with her class during a fire drill. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 I was both happy and sad to hear Trooper Dan Loussaert was retiring. I wish him the best in the next phase of his life, yet I am saddened to see an end to his great work for the Iowa State Patrol. I dont believe there is anyone who has done more to build good relations with the public and enhance the image of law enforcement in Iowa. Dan is a true professional. He is likable, respectful, knowledgeable and articulate. In my 46 years as an educator, I have never met anyone who gives a better presentation. He is remarkable to watch. For two hours, Dan would hold the full attention of a class, some with as many as 40 teenagers. For many of the boys, it probably helped that he likes cars and his hobby is drag racing. Throughout eastern Iowa, who knows how many students Dan has given his "Driver Safety" talk to? In my driver education classes alone, it has been over 2,000. He has spoken to every one of my 70 classes from 2010 to March of 2020. The schools he traveled to for me are Andrew, Bellevue, Calamus/Wheatland, Davenport North, DeWitt, Maquoketa, North Scott and Pleasant Valley. Unfortunately, Dans classroom visits ended with the COVID-19 pandemic. Congratulations Dan, you have had a career that most people could only dream about. Bill Mueller DeWitt Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Here's an open letter to Rock Island resident Linda Larson, pertaining to her well-written letter to the editor on Dec. 29, "Manchin's desertion." (Ms. Larson denounced the Democratic West Virginia Senator for being the only one among Democrats and Independents to oppose the Build Back Better bill, keeping it from passing.) Hi, Linda. I was right with you throughout your letter, until I tripped over the last sentence, "Let's fix it." I'm assuming that "it" refers to Manchin's "terrible decision." Being solution-oriented like you are, I must ask: What are we, in Rock Island, supposed to do about this situation? After all, our state's two senators were for the bill. Should we send Manchin "hate" mail? Should we write to our senators, asking them to urge Manchin to change his mind? Both of these tactics have been tried, with little luck. Or, did you mean that the state of Illinois should finance the programs that are now omitted by the non-passage of BBB? If so, I'd gladly pay my share of extra state taxes for such programs. If you were really writing to voters from Iowa, whose senators were against the bill, you might want to urge such voters to write to their senators. And now to everyone: Have an awesome 2022! Luanne Beinke Rock Island Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 South Dakotas growth spurt shows no signs of slowing. U-Haul data released Monday ranks South Dakota at number 11 as a growth state in the United States. Ready or not, here they come, Morgan Lewandowski, general manager of the Deadwood Avenue U-Haul Moving and Storage location in Rapid City, said Monday. Its going to be exciting to see how its handled. Data from 2021 compiled for the annual U-Haul Growth Index showed people coming to South Dakota in one-way U-Haul trucks increased nearly 28% year over year and departures rose 23% as overall moving traffic surged. South Dakota moved up 14 spots from its 2020 U-Haul rank as the number 25 growth state. Growth states are calculated by the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a state versus leaving that state in a calendar year. Arrivals into Rapid City were up 14% in 2021, according to Shawn Odden, president of U-Haul Co. of South Dakota. People are relocating from surrounding states particularly North Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming as well as from California, Texas, Washington, Florida and other locations nationwide. For 18 months, weve seen an uptick in customers moving into South Dakota, Odden said. Its a little higher in the Sioux Falls area. Were seeing a lot of demand in Sioux Falls and definitely in the Black Hills as well. We see it from all over the country. Theres a general increase in total customers moving into South Dakota. Customers arriving in South Dakota accounted for about 52.5% of all one-way U-Haul traffic in South Dakota during 2021. When you look at the numbers, around eight people are moving to the Black Hills each day. And no matter what happens with the economic data, we dont see that changing, Tom Johnson, Elevate Rapid City president and CEO, wrote in his December 2021 Economic Indicators column at elevaterapidcity.com. U-Haul's Lewandowski is part of the trend. She moved to South Dakota from Wyoming almost two years ago. Shes worked for U-Haul since 2015 and said she always wanted to end up in the Black Hills. Its the nations best-kept secret and people have discovered our secret, she said of the Black Hills. Everything you need is within a 100-mile radius. This years numbers its blowing our minds. Lewandowski said customers who move here like Rapid Citys mix of accessibility to shopping, health care and everything they need, along with the natural beauty of the Black Hills and short commuting time. Youll get people from California and Texas saying, My commute was two hours. They like the accessibility with a small-town feel, she said. Businesses are coming here. A lot of families are moving here with the business side of things. Lewandowski hopes the region can keep up with the growth ahead. Housing and storage shortages are already ongoing challenges. Theres almost no storage facilities with occupancy. As soon as I have a storage unit, its gone, she said. Ive seen all kinds of storage facilities popping up and thats the way to go if someone wants to get ahead right now, building a storage unit. (New residents) are coming. Weve got to be ready to help them. People are having a hard time getting into housing, so theyll put their stuff in storage and move into an apartment, she said. Stuart Martin, president of the Black Hills Association of Realtors, is seeing that same trend with apartment living. We actually have seen more people moving into Rapid City and the surrounding area and being OK with just moving into an apartment for the time being until we can find them a house or they can have a house built, Martin said. I think youre seeing a lot more people saying theyre willing to move here and find something when they get here. I think 2022 is going to trend the same way 2021 did. Hopefully, we dont see the large increases in home prices that we did in 2021 because weve figured out a little better way how to hedge against the (supply chain issues) so we can get new houses and new construction going on. It also goes into pre-existing home sales. We need more homes on the market, Martin said. The influx of new residents is caused by several factors, Martin said. South Dakota remaining open and having few restrictions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic appeals to people who dont want things dictated to them. The pandemic also fueled a work-from-home trend thats enticed people to move to the Black Hills. Were getting a lot of out-of-state people who are realizing they can work from anywhere, Martin said. Martin said growth at Ellsworth Air Force Base and Elevate Rapid Citys efforts to promote the region also contribute to the surge in new residents. In the real estate world, we take it day by day and try to do the best we can to help people moving in and find them the home they want to be in. Its sometimes taking a little bit longer than normal (because of supply and demand), he said. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 6 Angry 2 The Rapid City Council spent the majority of its Monday night meeting discussing Youth City Council items. The council approved a $23,000 expenditure request 6-2 for eight students and two adults to attend the National League of Cities Congressional Summit in Washington, D.C., in March. Council members Greg Strommen and Ron Weifenbach voted no. Strommen said he believes the expenditure is unnecessary and excessive and an irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars. I would encourage the Youth City Council to find creative ways to make a positive impact right here in the community, he said. I dont think theyre going to get that at some National League of Cities Congressional Summit in D.C. Council member Lance Lehmann, who serves as the council liaison to the Youth City Council, said $15,000 of the $23,000 will come from funds previously allocated to the youth council and the rest will come from the county. Council member Bill Evans said any time people can invest in the youth, its money well spent. The little bit of exposure these kids are going to get may change their lives, he said. I know as an educator of over 40 years that you can never invest enough in our youth. If we give them that little bit of exposure, it may be just what they need to launch a career or a life in a completely different area of work that they may never have considered unless they saw it. Mayor Steve Allender said he supports the trip and believes it to be a worthwhile investment in the students futures. The council also voted 6-2 to approve a letter of support regarding statewide social studies curriculum and standards to the state Department of Education. The letter encourages the board, South Dakota Social Studies Standards Revision Commission, and the Department of Education to keep the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings and Standards in the social studies curriculum. Lehmann and Strommen voted against sending the letter noting they dont believe the city should be an advocacy group. Youth City Council member Sho-Shanna Piper brought the topic to the youth council back in November when she learned the states draft for social studies standards removed the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings and Standards from the curriculum. Youth council secretary Tae Swanson said they wanted to set forth their opinions on how schools should be teaching history. We desperately want to learn more about this, Swanson said. During the meeting, the council also voted 6-2 to approve the reappointments of Amy Sazue, Bill May and Jess Rogers to the Human Relations Commission. Council members Pat Jones and Strommen voted no. Jones said he wanted to continue the item to the next January meeting to ask questions of the Human Relations Commission director. Contact Siandhara Bonnet at siandhara.bonnet@rapidcityjournal.com You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. PIERRE | A proposal to expand Medicaid eligibility in South Dakota will appear on the November ballot, the secretary of state's office announced Monday. Constitutional Amendment D was validated after an estimated 38,244 people signed petitions to put in on the ballot, more than 4,000 above the number necessary. Medicaid is a federal-state health insurance program for low-income people. South Dakota is one of 12 states that has not accepted federal incentives to expand Medicaid eligibility, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. South Dakota Public Broadcasting reported that Medicaid expansion has only failed once when put before voters, according to Health Affairs. Voters in Maine, Idaho, Utah, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri approved expansion. Montanans rejected expansion which would have been covered through a tobacco tax increase but lawmakers later approved it. The South Dakota amendment would expand Medicaid to people between 18 and 65 who earn 133% or less of the federal poverty level. The program would be made available to 42,500 additional South Dakotans in its first year, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Research Council. The Medicaid expansion question could require 60% approval to pass depending on what happens with a proposed amendment on the state's June ballot. That amendment would require 60% approval, not 50%, for any measure that raises taxes by at least $10 million or spends that amount. State Sen. Lee Schoenbeck, a supporter of the amendment, has said he was motivated by making it harder to pass a Medicaid expansion, though the Watertown Republican also said it should apply to any ballot initiative that levies taxes or spends significant state money. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 5 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 South Dakota Mines student Michael Frazer Garcia, a business management in technology major and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, is a finalist for the national Student Veteran of the Year award, according to an announcement from Student Veterans of America and a news release from South Dakota Mines. Frazer Garcia, of Brandon in eastern South Dakota, joined the Marine Corps in 2012 and served abroad in several locations. In Student Veterans of America, he held several positions, including treasurer, secretary and president. He also held positions on campus as the public chair for the student association and academic chair for Delta Sigma Phi fraternity. This nomination is not just about me, its about all those around me. I would not be here without the support of my wife and friends, everyone in the South Dakota Mines Veterans Club, and the gentlemen of Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity, Frazer Garcia said in a statement. Derek Flom, director of the Veterans Resource Center at Mines, said, Since the day Michael started to attend classes at South Dakota Mines he has been willing to jump in and help wherever he could. Michael is a very humble person, but his leadership as the president of the Veterans Club has been absolutely phenomenal. Frazer Garcia is also active in Mines Veterans Resource Center. The national Student Veteran of the Year winner will be announced Friday at the SVA National Conference in Florida. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 "The call came in as a report of flames and black smoke coming from the back deck," the release states. "When crews arrived on scene, the fire was already into the rafters and into the attic, which allowed the fire to spread throughout the home quickly. Crews attacked the fire from the front and back of the house and were able to stop the forward progress of the fire fairly quickly." FILE - Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. A new poll shows that a year after the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, only about 4 in 10 Republicans recall the attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump as very violent or extremely violent. A new poll shows that a year after the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, only about 4 in 10 Republicans recall the attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump as very violent or extremely violent. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) (Jose Luis Magana/AP) WASHINGTON Behind closed doors inside a nondescript office building at the foot of Capitol Hill on a recent chilly morning, the House inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was in full swing. As congressional staff aides shuffled through the halls going about their normal business, investigators quietly pulled shades over the windows in conference rooms on several floors and posted Do Not Disturb signs. Advertisement In one such room sat Ali Alexander, a prominent organizer of the Stop the Steal rallies with ties to far-right members of Congress who worked to help Donald Trump invalidate his 2020 election loss. A floor below was Kash Patel, a former Pentagon chief of staff involved in discussions about Capitol security. He had been in constant contact with Trumps former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on Jan. 6. Advertisement Facing questions elsewhere in the building were John Eastman, a lawyer who plotted with Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results; and Christopher Krebs, the Trump administrations most senior cybersecurity official, who was fired after systematically dismantling Trumps false declarations that the presidency had been stolen from him. The committee scrutinizing the pro-Trump mob attack has conducted much of its inquiry in private, drawing public attention mostly for the legal fights it is waging over access to evidence from Trump and some of his top lieutenants. But from a warren of offices in the ONeill House Office Building in southwest Washington, a few dozen investigators and members of Congress have ramped up a sprawling and elaborate investigation into the worst American attack on democracy in centuries. In recent weeks, with the anniversary of the riot looming Thursday, the panel has redoubled its efforts in the face of mounting resistance from the former president. It is rushing to make as much progress as possible before January 2023. Republicans are favored to regain control of the House this fall, and if they do, that is when they would take power and almost certainly dissolve the inquiry. We worked on Christmas and on New Years Day, said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the committee. The window for getting the job done requires weekends and holidays too. Theres a really firm commitment on the part of the staff to get it done. Working in color-coded teams, investigators have interviewed more than 300 witnesses, from White House officials close to Trump to the rioters themselves, and are sorting through more than 35,000 documents. During its first three months, from July through September, the committee had fewer than 30 staff members and spent about $418,000, according to the latest documents filed with the House. Since then, the panel has increased its staff to about 40 and is looking to hire more investigators. Soon, the inquiry will enter a new phase, with plans to hold a series of public hearings in early spring to lay out some of its findings. Those will feature, among other topics, state election officials testifying to the security and accuracy of the 2020 election. A final report will be issued, obviously before the November elections, Thompson said. For now, the ONeill building is the main hub of activity, where, depending on the day, political operative Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Trump, might appear outside flashing his signature Nixon-style V for victory sign to a sea of news cameras; or a lawyer for a Jan. 6 rally planner might arrive promoting a treasure trove of documents he says will leave senior Trump allies quivering in their boots. Reporters often dart up and down hallways trying to catch up to the various witnesses leaving the interview rooms. Inside, investigators and members of the nine-person committee are questioning witnesses, with the lawmakers juggling busy schedules of floor votes and other congressional hearings often bouncing between the interviews on a direct TV feed. Advertisement We are participating in the depositions and interviews regularly, and these are quite lengthy, said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a member of the committee. Even with other work that we have to do throughout the day, members are joining regularly to ask questions about specific areas. The so-called green team is following the money trail connected to Trumps efforts to promote the baseless assertion that he was the rightful winner of the election, including whether any groups defrauded contributors with false statements about widespread election fraud. The gold team is scrutinizing any plans that Trump made with members of Congress to try to overturn the election and his pressure campaign on local, state and Justice Department officials to try to keep himself in power. Domestic violent extremist groups, such as the QAnon movement and the militia groups, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, are the focus of the purple team. A fourth, the red team, is digging into the Jan. 6 rally planners and the Stop the Steal movement. The committee is led by Thompson and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who serves as vice chairwoman. Its top two investigators both former U.S. attorneys also come from different parties. Timothy J. Heaphy, whom President Barack Obama named U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, is the Jan. 6 committees chief investigative counsel; and John Wood, whom President George W. Bush hired as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is the committees senior investigative counsel. Advertisement Wood, an ally of Cheney, is closely supervising the team focused on Trumps direct involvement. One witness recently interviewed by the committee said arriving at the ONeill building, a gleaming glass-encased behemoth, was like entering the British intelligence agencys headquarters, with its modern lines and sterile feel. A congressional staffer escorted him up an elevator to a room with a U-shaped table and a large television on the wall. The TV had a live remote feed through which members of the committee could watch and listen. The witness said that before the deposition questioning began, he had been presented with a large binder full of evidence that investigators had collected on him. The lawyers conducting the inquiry were often adversarial and hostile in tone, he said, and were interested in the most minute details, even the moods and emotions of the people they were asking about. The committee appeared to be interested in a few key areas: any connections between the violence that took place on Jan. 6 and the group of political activists who planned the pro-Trump rallies that preceded it; any connections between the rally organizers and people in Trumps orbit, including members of Congress; and any role that White House aides, Trump campaign officials and members of Trumps family may have played in the putting the rallies together. These are professionals these are very skilled individuals who understand how to question witnesses to get to the truth, Cheney said of the panels investigators. Its not all antagonistic. Weve had the benefit of scores of people coming forward to say, Wed like to help. We have suggestions for other people you should talk to. As they investigate, committee members are looking into whether a range of crimes were committed, including two in particular: whether there was wire fraud by Republicans who raised millions of dollars off assertions that the election was stolen, despite knowing the claims were not true; and whether Trump and his allies obstructed Congress by trying to stop its formal count of electoral votes. Advertisement Recently, the committee has begun issuing subpoenas for bank records. Thompson said some of the financing of the rallies and advertisements that spread the misinformation about a stolen election could have run afoul of various federal laws. We have several subpoenas in the queue, Thompson said in an interview. The committee also is trying to obtain unreleased takes of Trumps Jan. 6 video, in which he told rioters hours into the violence to go home but also insisted that the election was stolen and fraudulent. We love you. Youre very special, Trump said to the rioters in the clip that was ultimately released. Witnesses have told investigators that Trump recorded other takes of the video, in which he did not tell the crowd to leave, that were never shown to the public. Thompson said these takes could shed light on his mindset at the time. We need to know as a committee, why did it take so long, as this riot was going on at the Capitol, for you to say, Stop? Thompson said of Trump. The panels investigators have not been slowed by the partisan infighting that sometimes takes place among committee staff on other congressional panels. Because Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, decided that Republicans would not participate in the panel, there are no staff members in the interviews running interference for Trump. Advertisement Were moving as swiftly as I think any congressional committee ever has, said Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., who led the first impeachment proceeding against Trump. But the panel is still facing a litany of lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies to try to block or slow down the committees subpoenas and document demands. Although the committee has interviewed hundreds of witnesses, some of the most crucial have yet to cooperate, Schiff said. Some witnesses are far more important than others, and I think that some really important witnesses are attempting to deprive the committee and American people of what they know, Schiff said. Theres still some very significant witnesses and very significant documents we havent obtained. c.2021 The New York Times Company Free 55-pound blocks of butter available at 6708 Zero Road, Casper, Wyoming, said the post. 4 p.m. Take as much as you want. No further explanation needed. On The Hook Towing became the unexpected proprietor of hundreds of enormous butter cubes after the company was called to pick up a downed semi-truck in Sinclair on Dec. 29. The truck had been transporting them when it wiped out. On The Hooks owner, Bob Maxwell, said the company didn't have details about exactly what happened to the truck, where it was going or who was driving it. Simply put, we were hired by their insurance company to dispose of the trucks contents and tow the trailer to the salvage auction, Maxwell said in an email. A request for more information about the incident wasnt returned by Wyoming Highway Patrol in time for publication. So the truck was fated for salvage auction. But what of the cargo? It was doomed to waste away in a landfill somewhere, Maxwell said. He took to Facebook that same day to see if anyone in Casper could take some of it off their hands. A picture included in the post, which is now deleted, showed six piles of the stuff strapped to the truck trailer. Before they knew it, hundreds of people had lined up. The supply went quickly some made off with five, six blocks of it but the line kept growing. In Facebook comments, some Casperites said they waited in line over a half hour for their share. On The Hook Towing ended up taking down the post to try to stem the flow of visitors. Once we were all out, people were still coming by, said Kristen Moore, who works for the company. Nanci Benson, who lives in Casper, scored three cubes that day. After learning about the giveaway on Facebook, she called up a friend to see if they were game to wait in line with her. I said, 'Hey, are you doing anything?' she said. There wasn't much left when they got there. Any free giveaway is bound to inspire a bit of a craze, Benson said. She recalled the line still being about half a mile long by the time they left. Caught up in the moment, Benson said she missed the "55-pound boxes" part of Maxwell's post. She was shocked to discover she was not taking home sticks, nor tubs, but blocks just under a cubic foot in volume. In the days after the giveaway, locals shared on Facebook how they're rationing out their supply. Butter can last up to a year in the freezer, if stored properly. But did you know, for instance, that canned butter has a shelf life of at least three years? Others clarified their stock into ghee, which can be kept in the fridge or pantry. Unsurprisingly, the cubes were frozen solid when Benson took them home. It took some patience and elbow grease to cut them down into more manageable portions. Benson had to heat kitchen tools in hot water to make a dent. Some she flavored some with honey and cinnamon (her take on the well-known Texas Roadhouse spread), and some with garlic, parsley and onion for baked potatoes. She's been giving a lot of it away to friends and neighbors buttering them up, if you will, she said with a laugh. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Responding to dwindling cattle profits and rising grocery store meat prices, the White House has announced it will invest $1 billion in local processors and revive made-in-the-U.S. meat labeling. The announcement comes as ranchers enter a third year of low cattle prices, even as supermarket rates remain high. Additionally, President Joe Biden announced during a livestreamed discussion with farmers and ranchers that he would get behind legislation proposed by U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and others. Cash sales for Montana livestock were more than $1.5 billion in 2020, down $100 million from the previous year. Observers worried that reforming the meat industry would prove tougher than a 10-cent pot roast. Fifty years ago, ranchers got over 60 cents for every dollar a family spent on beef. Today, they get about 39 cents, Biden said. Fifty years ago, hog farmers got 40 to 50 cents for each dollar they spent. Today, it's about 19 cents. And the big companies are making massive profits. As their profits go up, the prices you see at grocery stores go up commensurate. The prices farmers receive for the products they are bringing to market go down," he said. "This reflects the market being distorted by lack of competition. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: capitalism without competition isn't capitalism, it's exploitation. Four multi-national meatpacking companies control 85% of the beef market, which since 2019 hasnt given ranchers a sustainable price for cattle. A fire in the fall of 2019 at a Tyson meatpacking plant in Kansas somewhat limited processing space, which pushed ranchers taking calves to market into an economic bottleneck. With less room for cattle because of the fire, the price paid to ranchers for cattle decreased. Then in January 2020, Russian hackers shut down JBS, and meat processing fell by 40,000 carcasses. That ransomware shutdown was followed by COVID-19 outbreaks slowing down or shutting down meatpacking plants as workers became sick. Some died. Through the disruptions, supermarket meat prices generally increased, while prices paid to ranchers remained unsustainable. Ranchers argue that poor prices were paid, or cattle stuck around, longer than it took meatpackers to recover. The Justice Department and U.S. Department of Agriculture announced they would develop, within 30 days, a more useful way for ranchers to file complaints about antitrust violations in the meatpacking industry. Ranchers, along with pork and poultry farmers have for years asked for better enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act. The last attempt at reforms ended during the Obama years, with a key House Democrat working with Republicans to kill the effort. The fact remains that the Administration has not announced that it will take decisive enforcement action to protect Americas cattle producers from the harms theyve been experiencing for the past seven years, and we remain disappointed with that omission, said Bill Bullard, CEO of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America. Bullards remarks were issued in a press release expressing doubt of the entire Biden plan, though Billings-based R-CALF USA praised Biden for trying, calling the investment in independent meat processors unprecedented. Theres high demand for the independent meat processors in Montana. Meat cutter Lyle Happel said the last convention of the Montana Meat Processors Association drew probably 15 new members. Happel is the groups secretary and treasurer and a wild game processor in Bozeman. His sense is that there arent enough cutters available to expand the Montana meat processing industry easily. Everyone is already busy. The voicemail at Stillwater Packing in Columbus announces that the business is booked through 2023. There are 31 meat processing businesses inspected by the state of Montana, according to the Department of Livestock. USDA records show another 28 Montana processors regulated by federal meat inspectors. The Tester legislation mentioned by Biden is a bill the Montana Democrat introduced with Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Mike Rounds of South Dakota. The bill creates a special investigator for competition matters in USDA. A second bill creates a minimum threshold for cash trades for cattle. A third bill requires that only beef raised in the United States receives a Product of USA label, meaning that a foreign animal processed in the United States cant receive the designation. After Bidens event, Montanas Republican Sen. Steve Daines called on the president to launch a thorough investigation into allegations of price fixing by meatpackers. Daines has proposed or cosponsored bills, which he said Biden should support. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 " " Rambutans start out green then ripen to red, orange or yellow, depending on the species. Tran Vu Quang Duy/Getty Images You have to admire the first person who had the nerve to eat a rambutan. The small, round or oval fruit which looks a lot like a sea urchin is covered with soft, spiny protuberances often likened to hair. In fact, the name rambutan derives from the Malay word "rambut" meaning "hair." Rambutans are about 1 to 2 inches (3 to 5 centimeters) in diameter. They start out green then ripen to red, orange or yellow, depending on the species. The rind is firm and leathery, and covered in soft spines called "spinterns." Advertisement The Origins of Rambutan A tropical fruit, the rambutan was native to Malaysia and Indonesia. It's believed that Arab traders probably discovered the fruit around the 13th to 15th centuries and took it to the islands off East Africa. Today, the fruit is cultivated throughout Southeast Asia, in Vietnam (where it's known as "chom chom" or "messy hair"), India, and it even made the trek to South and Central America, and several islands in the Caribbean. An attempt was made to introduce rambutan in the southeastern United States with seeds from Java but it was unsuccessful. Rambutans grow on rambutan trees, which typically reach between 50 and 80 feet (15 and 25 meters) in height. The rambutan tree is evergreen and will usually produce fruit two times a year, depending on the location. In tropical areas, rambutan trees will fruit twice a year; those in Central America may only produce once a season. The trees are prolific producers, though, and will generate hundreds of rambutans with each crop. In 2020, the rambutan harvest was threatened in Guatemala when back-to-back hurricanes struck just as rambutan producers were harvesting and shipping the fruit. Rambutans grow in clusters of 10 to 20 fruit. However, the fruits are delicate and are easily bruised. They must be carefully harvested by hand. Lacking good refrigeration, rambutans have a short shelf life. They typically need to get to market within three days of harvesting. So how can you tell whether you have a fresh rambutan? " " Rambutan, which translates to "messy hair," originated in Malaysia and Indonesia. Here we see the fruit for sale at a street market in Bangkok, Thailand. David Longstreath/LightRocket via Getty Images Advertisement Dissecting This Funky Fruit We checked in by email with Norman Van Aken, a Miami, Florida-based restaurateur, chef, author and food guru to learn more about how this prickly produce could be used to its best advantage. To the question of freshness, Van Aken says, "Like most things in nature, rambutan glisten and have an alive look to them, moist...and the 'spines' are pliant." When shopping for rambutans, use Van Aken's advice. Look for color and life, no bruising or blackened spines. They are best when eaten right away but they can be stored for up to five days in your refrigerator's crisper drawer. But what do these funky fruits taste like? "The flavor is like an exotic grape, but much more perfumed," Van Aken says. "To eat them, take your fingernail or a paring knife and peel back the thin exterior (beneath the spines). Pull that back and the grape-like looking fruit is revealed. Take care to get rid of any of that 'bark' as it is bitter." Rambutans have a center pit, like a cherry. Cut them carefully and discard the pit it's inedible. Rambutans make tasty additions to salads, smoothies and desserts. They can also be used in drinks, mocktails and cocktails, or as an ingredient in dessert syrups. Van Aken uses rambutans or their cousins, peeled longans or lychees, to garnish a tropical fruit chutney that includes mango, pineapple and papaya (see recipe below). Rambutans are usually found in Asian markets but thanks to increased interest in this unusual fruit in the U.S., Europe and Canada, you can often find them in the produce section of specialty grocery stores, larger grocery chains and farmer's markets. " " You first have to peel off the skin from the rambutan to enjoy the fruit inside. Calvin Chan Wai Meng/Getty Images Advertisement The Health Benefits For such a tiny fruit, rambutans pack a nutritious punch and are considered a superfood, packed with cancer-fighting antioxidants. They're an excellent source of vitamins A, C and B-5 a B vitamin that helps your body convert food into energy. They also provide folate (especially important for healthy cell growth) and potassium, a mineral that assists with kidney function. Rambutans can be a good source of copper and iron, both minerals that work together to keep the blood healthy. Rambutans are also low in calories and in carbohydrates, so they're good for snacking. They are also a great source of soluble and insoluble fiber, which helps lower your cholesterol and provide the type of bulk necessary for good digestive and colon health. In other words, your heart and your gastrointestinal tract will thank you. Advertisement Tropical Fruit Chutney With Rambutan Ingredients: 1/2 cup sugar 1 small red onion, medium dice 1 mango, peeled and medium dice 1/2 pineapple, medium dice 1 tbsp. Chinese 5 spice powder Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste 1 cup apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp. peeled and chopped ginger 1 star anise pod 2 cups papaya, cleaned and medium dice Peeled and pitted rambutan and lychee Method: Mix first 6 ingredients (through salt and pepper) together in a large bowl and set aside. Add vinegar, ginger and star anise in heavy saucepan and reduce mixture on low to 3/4 cup. Remove from heat and strain off the star anise and ginger. Discard star anise and ginger. Add reserved fruit mixture to reduced syrup mixture in heavy saucepan. Cook on medium heat about 30 minutes or until the fruit is soft but not mushy, stirring occasionally. If the fruit gives off too much juice, strain off the fruit, set it aside and continue to reduce the syrup. Return the fruit to the syrup and continue to heat. Remove mixture from heat and add papaya. Mix. Reserve until ready to serve. Garnish with peeled pitted rambutans and lychees. Keep refrigerated for up to 1 month. Yield: 1 quart Recipe courtesy Norman Van Aken; 2018 All rights reserved. Now That's Interesting Nearly every part of the rambutan has been used medicinally in Malaysia. The fruit has been used as everything from an astringent to an antiparasitic. The dried fruit rind is ground up and sold in local drugstores as a cure-all and the leaves ground up and used as a headache poultice. Virginia State Police have responded to at least 867 crashes and 846 disabled vehicles across the state since the start of the new years first major snow, sleet and rain event, the agency reported. Most of the crashes involved only damage to vehicles. There have been few injuries and no reported fatalities. The majority of the crashes have occurred in the Richmond division, with 280 wrecks, between 12:01 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Monday, state police reported. The Richmond division had 178 disabled vehicles reported during that period. As of 8:30 p.m., state police emergency communications centers across the state had fielded more than 2,600 total calls for service. Monday's incidents included a jackknifed tractor-trailer that was hauling 18,000 pounds of plastic furniture; it blocked the westbound lanes on Interstate 64 at the 168 mile marker in Goochland County. There were no injuries. Dominion Energy utility crews have made made substantial progress in reducing the number of power outages caused by the storm. The number of Dominion customers without power at 9:30 a.m. stood at 132,231 in Virginia and North Carolina, down from 237,938 outages reported at 3:30 p.m. Monday. Northern Virginia still had the greatest number of outages, with 78,050 reported at 9:30 a.m. The Shenandoah Valley and Western Piedmont region followed with 37,531. The Richmond metro region and Tri-Cities area reported 8,064 without power. Rappahannock Electric Cooperative reported more than 90,000 of its member-owners were without power as of Monday evening due to hundreds of separate outage events. Crews were staged for storm response and had mobilized equipment and supplies in advance of the storm, but the utility expected some outages to persist through the end of the workweek. REC provides electric service to more than 170,000 connections in parts of 22 Virginia counties. Its service area ranges from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay. State police said the traffic crashes and disabled vehicles were caused by motorists driving too fast for conditions, and asked people to avoid driving unless absolutely necessary. The drive is not worth the risk of a crash, getting stuck, injury to you or your passenger or the cost of a repair, police said in a statement. The storm also caused large trees to fall and block portions of I-64 east of Charlottesville. Multiple crews with the Virginia Department of Transportation were dispatched to remove the trees, which prevented snowplows from clearing the interstate from Exit 124 at Pantops through Goochland, the agency said. Crews were using heavy equipment to cut the trees and remove them from the interstate, but high winds continue to topple other trees, making for dangerous conditions for the crews and impeding the progress of snowplows to clear snow from the highway, the agency added. State police said that even as the sun began to gradually return Monday afternoon to parts of western and central Virginia, the regions around and north of Staunton, Charlottesville and Fredericksburg continued to deal with treacherous road conditions. Police warned that after the sun sets and temperatures drop into the teens, anything thats melted during the day will freeze overnight and cause extremely dangerous, icy road conditions. Here is a breakdown of incidents that occurred in other regions of the state from 12:01 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.: Culpeper division: 32 traffic crashes and 71 disabled vehicles. Appomattox division: 118 traffic crashes and 130 disabled vehicles. Wytheville division: 55 traffic crashes and 80 disabled vehicles. Chesapeake division: 145 traffic crashes and 48 disabled vehicles. Salem division: 124 traffic crashes and 133 disabled vehicles. Fairfax division: 113 traffic crashes and 206 disabled vehicles. After COVID-19 forced Chicago Public Schools to transition to remote learning in 2020, the district shelled out $28.5 million in good-faith payments to 14 bus companies, with the expectation they would continue paying their workers. Nine of these companies also obtained federal Paycheck Protection Program loans intended to help businesses keep people on the payroll. But eight of the nine companies ended up laying workers off for varying lengths of time, CPS Inspector General Will Fletchers office wrote in its annual report released Monday. Advertisement In the most extreme example, one vendor that received CPS good-faith payments obtained federal PPP funds and laid off all its drivers and bus aides by the end of the first week of closures and spent only 0.5% of its normal payroll post-closure, read the report, which chided CPS for not having a coordinated plan for communicating its intentions for the payments or a verification system to ensure drivers and bus aides were paid. The inspector generals office said it alerted CPS to the overlapping government funding in a September 2020 memo that led to written agreements for bus vendors to repay CPS about $3 million. The district has since recouped just over $2 million, according to the inspector general report, which summarized alleged CPS fraud, employee misconduct and financial mismanagement in the last fiscal year. Advertisement The inspector generals office noted the need for transparency in how pandemic-related funds are spent. At its October meeting, Chicago Board of Education members discussed ways to allow the public to be able to track these expenditures in real time, instead of just releasing spending reports every few months. CPS is slated to receive $2.8 billion in direct emergency pandemic relief funding over five fiscal years, Fletchers office noted. CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who took over the top job in September, called Fletcher a great asset for the district. One of the things that I always look at when we look at any of these reports is making sure that we have the right procedures, that were learning the right lessons, so that we dont repeat some of the findings that they have, Martinez told the Tribune. School buses parked in a gated lot in 2020 after the coronavirus pandemic shut down schools in Chicago and across the country. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) The 65-page inspector general report comes as CPS busing woes continue. A nationwide bus driver shortage means CPS has paid thousands of families to find alternatives to district-provided transportation this school year. At last months meeting, the board adopted a resolution to devise transit solutions that prioritize diverse learners whose education plans require transportation. A progress report is due later this month. In its report, Fletchers office said it opened investigations into about a third of the 1,086 complaints it received. Among the findings: The sexual allegations unit handled 209 cases of reported adult-on-student sexual misconduct that led to the end of CPS employment for 41 people. Investigators explored allegations of a substitute teacher sexually abusing his daughter outside of school while she was a CPS student; a security guard having a sexual relationship with a 19-year-old high school student who became pregnant; a high school sign language interpreter having sex with a hearing-impaired 17-year-old student; and an elementary school teacher grooming two minor students and sexually abusing one of them. That unnamed teacher was reportedly charged with criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Fletchers office expressed concern of inadequate protections to prevent employees who were found to have engaged in sexual misconduct with CPS students, but who were not arrested or convicted for whatever reason, from finding employment with children outside the district. Significant loopholes exist for unlicensed staff and volunteers who have been permanently terminated or blocked by CPS for sexual misconduct, but who are not facing criminal charges, the report reads. Some of the OIGs most troubling noncriminal investigations involve unlicensed staff, volunteers and vendors, who can find another job working with children outside of CPS without their misconduct becoming known. Advertisement A prior review by the inspector generals office found CPS failed to collect as much as $2 million in pre-kindergarten tuition over four years because of fraud, mismanagement and limited oversight of an outside companys work. Since that review, nearly $180,000 in pre-kindergarten debt has been paid. A pandemic-related pause on debt collections has limited the amount of money recouped, while some cannot be recovered because of unspecified errors. An elementary school assistant principal allegedly stole more than $195,000 over two years by diverting $175,000 in afterschool program fees to her personal bank account and by issuing checks for more than $20,000 to herself and her family. An elementary school teacher allegedly embezzled a $3,000 field trip donation that she reportedly spent on catering for her class reunion, airfare, a Chicago river cruise and a purchase from a pool and patio store. A teacher allegedly falsified time records by swiping in to CPS timekeeping system and immediately leaving to park her car or do something else before returning to school. The inspector generals office said it initiated its investigation after administrators determined the teacher was not with her class during a fire drill. tswartz@tribpub.com In hindsight, Virginia was a testing ground and a grim portent of the Jan. 6 insurrection. On the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in January 2020, theologian Corey D.B. Walker, then a visiting professor at the University of Richmond, was among a group holding a prayer vigil as thousands of firearm-toting folks occupied downtown Richmond during a gun rights rally. Walker sees a through line from the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville to the Second Amendment gathering in Richmond to the U.S. Capitol riot. The Richmond gun rally turned out to be a peaceful event, though law enforcement had feared the worst including the storming of the Virginia Capitol. That didnt portend anything good for what would happen January 6, 2021, said Walker, now the Wake Forest (University) Professor of the Humanities, in an interview on Tuesday. Whether democracy survives that trauma is an open question we have to wrestle with. Democracy is a practice, it is not a declaration. It is not the finished product. It is an ongoing practice, he said. And if we dont cultivate it, we could lose the American Experiment. That loss would not be mourned by a chunk of the nation and one political party. Republican congresspersons some suspected of being collaborators are engaged in the cover-up of a crime. And yet, the lingering horrors of a year ago Thursday appear largely unshared at least to the extent theyd foster unity, vigilance and a sense of urgency. Im concerned that we dont understand the full depth and range of the problems and challenges we face as a society, Walker said. I think we see this as merely cosmetic and not structural and foundational. But you dont get a coup attempt unless theres something deeply, deeply wrong in the nation. Anyone who has been paying attention knows America is beset with more than a potentially lethal virus as it battles a crisis of identity and values and wages war with itself. Theres always been a strong minority, authoritarian element in American democracy, Walker said. The New Deal begat a right-wing conservatism headed by the business class; people rallied in New York in support of Hitler and fascism. The Cold War after World War II sparked McCarthyism. And always, Black freedom and advancement inevitably kindled white backlash. Whats different now, Walker said, is that one political party is openly authoritarian and courts violent extremists to attain or maintain power. Thats the danger. That is really what were facing in this moment. This might sound unfathomable to people who view politics through the haze of nostalgia. But, democracy is always up for grabs. It is always contentious, Walker said. We tend to think of democracy as a finished product. But democracy is always a practice; it is always a process. We must demonstrate the capacity of democracy to work. But government has become populated by too many people who hate government, oddly, for what it can do for the masses. Our sense of collective possibility has been eroded by the politics of the individual, said Walker, former dean for the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. The truth is, our nation has seldom been all-in on democracy. Black men were not granted the right to vote until 1870; women of all races, not until 1920. It took the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to ensure ballot access for all. The act was arrogantly gutted by a Supreme Court whose Chief Justice, John Roberts, blithely declared victory over racism. Since then, the Republican Party has chipped away at the ballot access of anyone it deems unsupportive. And since the defeat of Donald Trump, this tactic has evolved into the gaming of the election system by giving Republican-controlled legislatures undue power over election results. They hate our freedom was the mantra back in 2001, when this nation was attacked from without. Our response went against what this nation professes to believe in as it expanded its surveillance of innocent Americans, endorsed torture and deployed falsehoods to justify an invasion of Iraq. On that front, the terrorists won. Today, internal forces have distorted the meaning of freedom, patriotism and verifiable truth. Too many citizens have embraced the cause of sedition, stoked by Trumps lie of a stolen election. For them and the lawmakers who would further their cause, that insurrection was not an end, but a beginning. They are intent on turning January 6 into the new Fourth of July. They must be stopped. If youre unwilling to safeguard the voting rights of your fellow citizens, toss out the fools in Congress aiding and abetting a coup, and fight to preserve our democracy, the insurrectionists win. State Sen. Amanda Chase R-Chesterfield has made it official: She is scrapping her planned bid for Congress now that the state Supreme Courts new map has shifted the 7th District from the Richmond suburbs to Northern Virginia. The courts new map moves western Chesterfield County into the 1st District, represented by Republican Rob Wittman. Chase said in a statement that she no longer lives in the 7th District and will not challenge Wittman for the GOP nomination in the 1st District. I will not challenge a Republican representative who is doing a good job representing the people of their district, she said. With that, I plan to finish my two years in the Senate of Virginia and discontinue my run for Congress as it is already represented by Republican Rob Wittman. Chase had said last month that she would not challenge Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, when the Supreme Court released a draft map that would have moved her Chesterfield home into his district. Good is attending a fundraiser on Thursday for Chases 2023 Senate re-election bid. Chase said she spoke on Monday night to Wittman, whom she said promised to hold a fundraiser this spring for her Senate re-election campaign. State law prevents legislators from raising political contributions during the General Assembly session. The assembly will convene on Jan. 12 for a 60-day session. Chases next opponent is likely another incumbent, Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, after the courts new Senate map put them into the same district. Chase said Monday she is glad the final congressional map kept western Chesterfield and western Henrico in the same congressional district, even though Wittman lives in Montross, near the Potomac River on the Northern Neck. I think that was a good move, she said in a telephone interview. Chase last year sought the GOP nomination for governor, finishing third behind Glenn Youngkin, who will be sworn in as governor on Jan. 15. Before the Supreme Court moved the 7th District out of the Richmond suburbs, 10 Republicans had filed to run against Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, who said last week that she will run for a third term in the new district, even though it doesnt include her current home in western Henrico County. Congressional representatives dont have to live in the districts they represent, but Spanberger has not said whether she plans to move to the new district. She had won twice in the old district. Chase said she had no intention of moving to the new district to run for Congress. Im only going to run in the district I live in, she said. At least one other Republican contender, Taylor Keeney, a former aide to Gov. Bob McDonnell, has dropped out of the race because she lives in Goochland County, which is not in the 7th. State Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, says he will run in the new 7th, which includes parts of Spotsylvania, Orange and Culpeper counties that he already represents in the state Senate. He initially announced plans to run in the 7th, then announced plans to run in a new 10th District when the court issued its draft map, before reverting to the 7th when the court issued the final boundaries. Im eager to continue my service to our community, and I look forward to seeing many old friends again on the campaign trail, Reeves said. Two other candidates, John Castorani, of Orange, and Gary Adkins, of Stafford, also have confirmed their plans to run for the GOP nomination in the new 7th. Thousands of people were left stranded Tuesday along a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 95 that snakes through Northern Virginia a chaotic backup that came after an atypical snowstorm left government officials unable to clear the roadway. Road crews were still working to reopen the states main traffic artery on Tuesday afternoon as state officials apologized for the situation, calling it completely unacceptable. Problems began to compound Monday morning, when conditions along the untreated highway deteriorated rapidly amid snowfall, leaving trucks and cars stuck on the roadway. Traffic continued to flow slowly until midnight, state officials said, when traffic came to a standstill that persisted into Tuesday morning. There were no reports of injuries or deaths as of Tuesday evening, state officials said. Around 9 p.m., the Virginia Department of Transporation said all abandoned vehicles had been removed from the highway. Gov. Ralph Northam described the situation as the perfect storm, and blamed the chaotic scene on unexpected levels of snowfall and conditions that prevented officials from pretreating the roads. We all need to be clear that this was an incredibly unusual event, Northam said. I certainly understand the frustration and fear that many people feel, he added. Northam also placed blame on out-of-state drivers who missed the clear and consistent messaging from state agencies to stay off the roads during the winter storm. Among the thousands of people stuck was Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who reached Washington on Tuesday evening after 27 hours on I-95. Online, dozens of people reported running out of food, water and gas. Communication from the government about the severity of the situation didnt reach many drivers until Tuesday morning, nine hours after the state said the road came to a standstill. One motorist, who set out from Gaithersburg in Montgomery County, Md., emailed Washingtons WTOP radio that he was going to miss his fathers funeral in Hampton. ****** The backup was focused on a stretch of I-95 between Ruther Glen in Caroline County and Dumfries in Prince William County, in both directions. Marcie Parker, Fredericksburg District engineer for VDOT, said her crew had been working to clear snow and ice from the interstate in the early hours of Monday. They were working on unsalted roads, Parker said, because heavy rainfall leading up to the snowstorm meant chemicals and salt would have washed away any efforts to pretreat it. By daybreak, Parker said, snow was accumulating much faster than crews could clear it. Snowfall rates of 3 inches an hour hit the area from Caroline to suburban Washington on Monday morning, an exceedingly rare rate, according to Richmond Times-Dispatch meteorologist Sean Sublette. Because it was a degree or so above freezing, the snow was heavy and wet. Strong northeast winds meant blowing snow limited visibility for drivers, raising the risk for crashes. That was entirely too much for us to keep up with, Parker said. The trucks and the cars couldnt make it up and down the hills because we had too much snow and ice out there. The first major snag came when a tractor-trailer derailed from its lane shortly after 8 a.m. Monday, largely blocking passage and creating a chain reaction of stuck vehicles. Steve Brich, the commissioner of highways at VDOT, said that despite delays, traffic continued to flow along the interstate, albeit slowly. By midnight, a long stretch of I-95 had come to a standstill. ****** Del. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, a mother of two young boys, was one of the thousands of people suddenly stranded. Aird was on her way back to Virginia from New York state, where her family had spent the holidays. Aird said she filled up on gas and snacks less than two hours from home. Her GPS showed some traffic delays, but nothing they couldnt brave. It had been snowing for a lot of their drive already, so they saw no reason to be alarmed. Once we got back onto the highway, we waited and waited, and then never moved. I-95 literally became a parking lot, Aird said. They were near Exit 143B in Stafford County, and spotty cell service left them in the dark about the magnitude of the problem. It just got later and later, and you sort of have this hope in your mind that eventually the cars will start moving again. Theres no information. Its only getting colder by the hour. As the hours passed, the situation became a nightmare. Her boys, 10 and 14, were anxious and hungry. Aird scanned AM radio for information, which turned up nothing. Aird said the first message from the state came as an alert to her phone at 9:15 a.m. I-95 Drivers: State and locals coming ASAP with supplies and to move you, it read. Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said state troopers and other emergency rescue teams were going car to car to hand out water, blankets and gas as best as they could. Aird and her family started moving again around 12:30 p.m. No one reached them with supplies. They knew people were suffering, said Aird, noting that there were helicopters flying above the jammed traffic. They knew people were without resources and necessities back when it occurred in the middle of the night. They could have offered some resources during that point in time, versus leaving people with no information or knowing what to expect, she added. Airds oldest son turned 14 at midnight while the family sat in their car. Aird said they all sang happy birthday. Instead of cake, the spread was made up of granola bars, pretzels, corn chips and water. ****** The Northam administration defended its handling of the chaos on I-95, describing extenuating circumstances and teams that worked through the night to help improve conditions and provide aid to people who were stranded. Still, the state faced heavy criticism for being unprepared, reacting too slowly to the compounding crisis, and for not deploying all of its available resources. Incoming House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, urged Northam to deploy the National Guard, and questioned why he had not done so sooner. State officials also faced questions about their decision to keep I-95 open to traffic until Tuesday morning, even as signs suggested conditions were deteriorating. Northam said on a call with reporters that the Virginia National Guard couldnt be effectively deployed to respond to an immediate emergency because of the time it takes for civilians to be reached and to gear up. Northam also said the state and localities had all of the resources they needed to respond, but that the process was slowed by the magnitude of the problem and the practical difficulty of reaching stranded vehicles. A spokesperson for the Virginia National Guard said it has limited resources to help clear snow and tow vehicles. VNG resources would have made very little impact on the situation on I-95, said spokesman Cotton Puryear. Puryear said Guard members, if they had been deployed 12 to 24 hours earlier, perhaps could have helped get supplies to people in their vehicles. Asked why I-95 was not closed to more traffic when the road first became paralyzed, subjecting unsuspecting people to being stranded, a VDOT official, Kevin Gregg, said: As long as we could keep some traffic moving, we wanted to keep that option open. Several VDOT officials said state officials would study the incident to figure out if the state could have improved its response and handling of the situation. But, on the call with reporters, Northam said the state was as prepared as it could have been. We were prepared for the storm that was predicted, a few inches of snow, but instead, Mother Nature sent more than a foot of snow. mleonor@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6254 Twitter: @MelLeonor_ Staff writer Michael Martz contributed to this report. The weather pattern for the next couple of weeks is more typical of Virginia for the middle of January, with a brief shot of cold air for a couple of days, a modest warm up, some rain, and another shot of cold air. The pattern repeats about three times over the next 10 days, but it does not look like enough cold air will be in place for ice or snow during that time. Richmond will get a few colder nights in that stretch, with lows falling into the teens for a couple of nights next week, but no prolonged stretch of especially cold weather is ahead in the next week and a half. The rain and melting snow put a solid dent in the drought. Although most of the state is still abnormally dry, the area under a moderate drought dropped from 59 percent to 13 percent in the last week. The few cycles of rain in the next week and a half should keep us from falling back into a deeper drought, but an overly wet pattern is not expected. Friday is windy and cold in the wake of the small early morning system. Most of the day is sunny, and you may notice the air turns much drier Friday and Saturday, so crank up the humidifier in the house for a couple of days if you have one. But for early January, this weekend will be pretty good to be outside. Saturday will be cold, but with lots of bright sunshine and very little breeze compared to Friday. The morning starts in the teens and climbs into the 30s for the afternoon. Sunday is not quite as cold, starting in the 20s with a clear sky. But clouds will increase as rain approaches from the west late in the afternoon. Its still a little far out to precisely determine when rain arrives, but for the moment, it appears it will wait until after dusk, allowing highs to reach well into the 40s for the afternoon. Once the rain moves through Sunday evening or Monday morning, the pattern repeats, with another shot of Arctic air for a couple of days to start next week, meaning highs in the 30s to lower 40s with lows in the upper teens to 20s. Richmond Climate Check If you dont think it gets bitterly cold as often as a few decades ago, youre right. The coldest temperature recorded each calendar year in Richmond has been trending upward over the last 50 years as the planet has warmed. 10:30 a.m. Thursday update: Sun and scattered clouds through most of Thursday in Richmond, which gets afternoon temperatures in the upper 40s, and an area of rain and snow remains on track for Virginia on Thursday night. But the sweet spot of 2-4 inches will hold northwest of Richmond toward Charlottesville and Culpeper in addition to Fredericksburg and the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington. For metro Richmond, a few hours of rain develop Thursday evening, around 10-11 p.m., then a brief transition to snow takes shape for an hour or two before ending around 4-5 a.m. on Friday morning. The end result is a coating to an inch of snow for most of the metro area, but rain will change to snow a little bit earlier toward Ashland, Goochland, and Short Pump, where an inch or two is more likely. Southern parts of the metro area, toward Matoaca, Colonial Heights, and Hopewell will get very little snow at all before the precipitation ends. The sky clears quickly just before sunrise, making for a sunny Friday, but temperatures most of Friday will hold in the 30s with a gusty cold wind. Wednesday evening update: Seasonably cold, but quiet weather continues with lots of cloudy periods Wednesday night and Thursday. Some areas of fog develop early Thursday morning, especially north and west of Richmond where there is more snow on the ground. But a few breaks of sunshine on Thursday get temperatures into the 40s for most of the afternoon. The data show noteworthy trends for the storm that will impact Virginia on Thursday night, but none of them favor an increase in the snow forecast for Richmond. The storm is weaker, containing less precipitation, with much lower precipitation rates. The storm is faster, with precipitation starting earlier in the evening when the temperatures are still above freezing, and it only lasts about 6 hours. The rain/snow line will pivot across Richmond during the storm, but it probably comes during the second half of the storm. With that in mind, we will edge back a bit on the snowfall forecast for Richmond, calling it about an inch. The storm starts as rain a couple of hours after dusk, then changes over to snow before it all ends a few hours before daybreak. However, north and west of Richmond, temperatures will be lower throughout the storm, so 2-4 inches will be common toward Fredericksburg, Charlottesville, and Roanoke (Winter Weather Advisories have been posted in those locations). Precipitation will also start a few hours earlier toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. Statewide, this storm will not be anything close to the ferocity of the Monday storm, but travel is not recommended north and west of Richmond on Thursday night if it can be avoided. More specifically for Richmond In the wake of this system, Friday will turn mostly sunny, but windy and cold, with temperatures no better than the upper 30s in the afternoon. This leads to a clear and cold Friday night. Even as the winds back off during the evening, temperatures drop through the 20s after sunset and into the teens by daybreak Saturday. For the weekend, Saturday brings bright winter sunshine and very little wind, so it will be a nice winter day to be outside as highs edge into the lower 40s. Clouds roll back in later Sunday morning, and rain will be approaching late in the afternoon. Despite the clouds, highs will reach the lower 50s on Sunday. Once the rain clears Sunday night into early Monday morning, a fresh shot of cold air returns, keeping Monday through Wednesday dry, but with temperatures averaging a little bit below normal. Normal highs this time of year are in the upper 40s. Normal lows are in the upper 20s. ** Climate Check In about a week, Richmond enters its climatologically coldest time of the year. The normal high each day from January 12-18 is 47.4 degrees. The normal low each day from January 20-27 is 28.4 degrees. Most locations in Virginia had one of their five warmest Decembers on record. Most of the Lower Mississippi Valley and the Southern Plains had their warmest December on record. On Monday, NOAA will release its 2021 U.S. climate summary. Through November, Virginia was having its 16th warmest year on record since consistent records began in 1895. The nationwide ranking through that time was 7th warmest. In accepting the topmost role at a national veterans service organization this past summer, Lt. Col. Michael Okin tasked himself with equipping it to thrive into the future. Okin was elected commander in chief of the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW) at the organizations convention in August. Founded after World War I, the order is a lesser known veterans service organization that focuses on youth education and recognition along with veteran support service. Having served in the U.S. Army Reserve as a military physician for 21 years and been deployed to active duty during the Gulf War before retiring from the military in 1997, Okin has been active with the order for 15 years. In that time, hes been in a few different leadership roles, including as commander of the Virginia Piedmont chapter that includes Lynchburg. After moving to the Hill City in the late 80s, he practiced medicine locally until his retirement in that capacity in 2015, including at Central Virginia Family Physicians. Encouraged to continue his climb of the leadership ladder at MOWW to the top, Okin said he knew hed be faced with an organization whose membership was steadily dwindling. I think its my role right now to try and make that transition to a new generation, he said. Part of that involves something of a makeover for the order Okin said hed proposed hiring a marketing firm to help out about two years ago, and one has just recently been put under a contract. It also involves rethinking how younger members can get involved when work-life balance is a priority and time for busy, working young people and families is at a premium. Such changes arent going to happen in just a year, which is why Okin said theyll require commitment and buy-in from others. We have to have the fortitude to see it through, he said. I want to feel comfortable that we wont lose the momentum or the focus that weve developed during this year. Walking the line between tradition and innovation can be difficult with some older members seeming resistant to rebranding and change he recalled pushback to a recent request to open up MOWWs membership to enlisted personnel, not just officer ranks that membership is currently open to. Though he said he doesnt foresee that happening, he said the order will open up the option on a chapter level for non-officers to obtain a different membership. Such inclusion has, in a way, been present around Lynchburg in the orders Virginia Piedmont chapter. For the size of city that we are, we have a huge patriotic veterans population in town, he said. Its truly amazing. Retired Brig. Gen. Arthur Morrill III, who worked as MOWWs employed chief of staff for 11 years, was one person who encouraged Okin to accept his current position, citing his unreserved commitment. His engagement is really quite profound and hes got a very unique ability to be conversational in a very genuine way, he said. Okins ability to generate energy through involvement and leadership has been evident in his work to reinvent the order, in both traditional and non-traditional ways, Morrill said. Part of that includes streamlining MOWWs operations and making it easier for young officers to move up and contribute new ideas. The order is one of a kind among veteran service organizations, Okin said: It isnt political and doesnt lobby legislators, it doesnt sell services or provide benefits and our main focus is outward, not inward. Much of that entails working with youth through ROTC, JROTC, scouting groups and otherwise, and providing classes and seminars on civic and leadership education. Our hope is to develop these kids to stimulate the love of country and to be a creative and contributing member of society thats what we do, he said. The town of Rocky Mount is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that claims a former police officer was forced to resign after supporting two female employees who said they were harassed by the police chief. Justin Smith failed to state specific allegations to support his claim of retaliation, James Daniel, an attorney for the town, wrote in court papers. At a scheduling conference Monday, Judge Michael Urbanski set a hearing of Jan. 10 on the motion. Not long after Smith went to work for the police department in 2017, he learned that then-police chief Ken Criner had made terribly inappropriate and offensive comments concerning female employees, he claimed in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke. Among the allegations: Criner used derogatory terms for the women, said he wanted to get rid of them so he could hire some hotties, and accused one of them who was suffering from an aggressive form of breast cancer of taking advantage of sick leave. Smith complained to his superiors and helped the employees file complaints with the town officials and discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In asking that the lawsuit be dismissed, the town did not address the underlying allegations against Criner. Instead, it argued that Smith failed to make sufficient claims that would allow the case to move forward under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The plaintiff merely submits naked assertions without providing the actual factual basis legally required, Daniel wrote. Criner who was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit was placed on administrative leave for five weeks, two of them without pay. He retired last September after seven years as police chief and more than 30 years in law enforcement. Smiths attorney, Terry Grimes, argues that Criner retaliated against Smith after he came to suspect that the officer was behind the complaints involving the treatment of the two female employees, who worked in the departments records division. On May 20, 2020, he suspended overtime pay for employees, which resulted in a loss of income for Smith, the lawsuit states. At the same time, the town said in a letter to the complaining employees that its investigation of the case had been costly. Ten days later, The Roanoke Times published a story detailing the complaints against Criner, which until then were not publicly known. The town manager suspected that Smith was a source for the newspaper, the lawsuit alleges, and two days later Criner demoted him as an investigator and reassigned him to patrol duty. Smith left the department the following month as a result of the harassment and retaliation, according to the lawsuit. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A Virginia Tech student found guilty of cheating in one of his engineering classes by the universitys honor system is taking his case to a higher court. Identified only as John Doe in lawsuit filed in Roanokes federal court, the student is asking a judge to overturn an F he received in the class and to remove a finding of academic misconduct from his record. In taking the rare step of filing a legal challenge to a failing grade, the student argues that he is the victim of unclear policies regarding the use of online sources for a class taught remotely via Zoom during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The student was one of about 60 members of a computer coding class who were accused of cheating in December 2020, in part through their use of Chegg.com, an online learning platform designed to help students with their homework. In the rush to accuse so many students, Mr. Doe was lumped together with others who had signed up with a Chegg.com account, according to the lawsuit filed Dec. 27. Doe admitted that he used Chegg to check his answer on one of his virtual assignments, but denied cheating or plagiarizing. Chegg is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The publicly held company based in Santa Clara, California, says it offers legitimate help to millions of students through a variety of online platforms. We take any attempts to cheat, or otherwise use our platform improperly, seriously, Candace Sue, director of academic relations, wrote in an email Monday. But with surge of online teaching, the company has faced criticism of its homework help website, which allows users to post a question and receive an answer from a Chegg-identified expert within half a hour. A study published by the International Journal for Academic Integrity found that questions submitted from students in five fields of study computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics and chemistry increased by nearly 200% from April to August of 2020, compared to the same time period a year earlier. The growing number of requests indicates that students are using Chegg for assessment and exam help frequently and in a way that is not considered permissible by universities, an abstract of the study posted on the journals website states. In Does case, Tech professor Brian Vick filed a complaint with the Office of Undergraduate Academic Integrity. Doe contested the cheating allegation. But he was denied a fair hearing, the lawsuit contends, in part because Vick did not appear at the proceeding and was unavailable to answer questions. Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski declined to comment Monday, saying the school had not received a copy of the lawsuit. The complaint, filed against Tech and President Tim Sands, asserts that Does due process rights were violated. It asks a judge to issue a preliminary injunction lifting his F grade and removing a finding of academic misconduct. Doe is also seeking a permanent injunction that would allow him to receive credit for the course, and to receive compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial for disruption of Mr. Does educational progress. Because the class is a prerequisite for higher courses, the third-year student says he would lose an entire semester by having to retake it, delaying his graduation by a year. Doe, who sued anonymously because of the highly sensitive and personal nature of the case, was accused of cheating on five assignments. He argues in the lawsuit that Vicks teaching assistant used an online portal called Discord to help students with assignments and indicated that it was OK to rely on resources such as Google and YouTube, according to the lawsuit. As for Chegg.com, Doe acknowledged that he used the site one time to check an answer for an assignment, and asked that he receive a failing grade only for that portion of the class. It took a honor system panel composed of four students and two faculty members more than 10 months to schedule a hearing, and Doe complains in the lawsuit that he was denied an opportunity to present visual aids or to confront his professor during the proceeding. Mr. Doe faces significant and severe consequences as a result of the universitys decision to impose a failing grade and effectively suspend him, the lawsuit states. It was not clear what became of the 60-some other students who were accused of cheating in Vicks class. Robert Dean, a Roanoke attorney who filed the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. State Sen. Amanda Chase R-Chesterfield has made it official: she is scrapping her planned bid for Congress now that the state Supreme Courts new map has shifted the 7th District from the Richmond suburbs to Northern Virginia. The courts new map moves western Chesterfield County into the 1st District, represented by Republican Rob Wittman. Chase said in a statement that she no longer lives in the 7th District and will not challenge Wittman for the GOP nomination in the 1st. I will not challenge a Republican representative who is doing a good job representing the people of their district, she said. With that, I plan to finish my 2 years in the Senate of Virginia and discontinue my run for Congress as it is already represented by Republican Rob Wittman. Chase had said last month that she would not challenge Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, when the Supreme Court released a draft map that would have moved her Chesterfield home into his district. Good is attending a fundraiser on Thursday for Chases 2023 Senate re-election bid. Chase said she spoke on Monday night to Wittman, whom she said promised to hold a fundraiser this spring for her Senate re-election campaign. State law prevents legislators from raising political contributions during the General Assembly session. The assembly will convene on Jan. 12 for a 60-day session. Chases next opponent is likely another incumbent, Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, after the courts new Senate map put them into the same district. Chase said Monday she is glad the final congressional map kept western Chesterfield and western Henrico in the same congressional district, even though Wittman lives in Montross, near the Potomac River on the Northern Neck. I think that was a good move, she said in a telephone interview. Chase last year sought the GOP nomination for governor, finishing third behind Glenn Youngkin, who will be sworn in as governor on Jan. 15. Before the Supreme Court moved the 7th District out of the Richmond suburbs, 10 Republicans had filed to run against Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, who said last week that she will run for a third term in the new district, even though it doesnt include her current home in western Henrico County. Congressional representatives dont have to live in the districts they represent, but Spanberger has not said whether she plans to move to the new district. She had won twice in the old district. Chase said she had no intention of moving to the new district to run for Congress. Im only going to run in the district I live in, she said. At least one other Republican contender, Taylor Keeney, a former aide to Gov. Bob McDonnell, has dropped out of the race because she lives in Goochland County, which is not in the 7th. State Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, says he will run in the new 7th, which includes parts of Spotsylvania, Orange and Culpeper counties that he already represents in the state Senate. He initially announced plans to run in the 7th, then announced plans to run in a new 10th District when the court issued its draft map, before reverting to the 7th when the court issued the final boundaries. Im eager to continue my service to our community, and I look forward to seeing many old friends again on the campaign trail, Reeves said. Two other candidates, John Castorani, of Orange, and Gary Adkins, of Stafford, also have confirmed their plans to run for the GOP nomination in the new 7th. Classes are canceled in Chicago Public Schools Wednesday after the teachers union voted to refuse to show up for in-person work. Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted the Chicago Teachers Union late Tuesday for the work action, which the union said was endorsed by 73% of its members who voted. CTU said it took the step out of concerns about inadequate COVID-19 protections and intends to continue to teach remotely, though it remains unclear if that will happen starting Thursday. Advertisement As they waited for the outcome of the union vote Tuesday, Lightfoot, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and public health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady held a news conference where they again insisted that, despite the current spike in cases, children need to be back in school and that its a relatively safety environment with proper mitigation. Lightfoot also warned teachers who dont show up Wednesday will be placed on no-pay status a move that would likely escalate the dispute. Advertisement I have to tell you, it feels like Groundhog Day, that we are here again, Lightfoot said in reference to past strife with the CTU, including the 2019 teachers strike and then several rounds of thwarted school reopening attempts last year. She also accused union leaders of politicizing the pandemic. There is no basis in the data, the science or common sense for us to shut an entire system down when we can surgically do this at a school level, Lightfoot said. But with the spike in city cases and growing concerns about adequate mitigation, CTUs House of Delegates, its 600-member governing body, approved a resolution Tuesday for members to teach remotely from Wednesday until Jan. 18, unless an agreement with CPS is reached or the rate of Chicago COVID-19 cases falls below a certain threshold. That outcome sent the measure to a vote by the unions 25,000 rank-and-file members later Tuesday, with CPS parents having to wait until nearly 11 p.m. to learn if they could send their children to school Wednesday. Earlier Tuesday, Martinez said hed asked the union to delay its vote and had expressed optimism that CPS and CTU could reach an agreement. He said CPS submitted a proposal to CTU that includes metrics that would spur an individual school to transition to remote learning and would allow principals to restore the daily health questionnaires and temperature checks in place the last school year some measures CTU has demanded. Advertisement In a message to parents late Tuesday, CPS officials apologized for the possible inconvenience. They said that if CTU approved its work action, students should not report to buildings Wednesday, though Martinez later clarified that students will not be turned away and will be looked after if dropped off. Schools will also be open for regularly scheduled COVID-19 testing, but there would be no remote instruction Wednesday, and after-school activities, sports and other school events would be canceled. Students leave Darwin Elementary in Logan Square on Monday, the first day back to school from winter break for Chicago Public Schools. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) Beyond Wednesday, Martinez said the district will have a plan specifically for parents that will come out (Wednesday) in a very timely fashion about what the path forward is. I am still committed, though, to coming up with an agreement with the CTU. Lightfoot also expressed concern that the delayed reopening would stretch on past the Jan. 18 date planned by CTU leaders. CTU and CPS have been negotiating for months for a safety agreement for this school year. In a proposal submitted last week, CTU called for students and staff members to provide a negative COVID-19 test result before entering buildings Monday after their two-week winter break. Short of that, the union asked the district to go virtual for two weeks so additional safety measures could be put in place. The union said daily health questionnaires should be reinstated; KF94, KN95, or N95 masks should be distributed to all staff and students; and a school should shift to remote learning if 20% or more of staff is in isolation or quarantine or when a school safety committee says a transition is warranted because of infection rates or noncompliance with protocols, among other demands. Advertisement What we have proposed is more than reasonable, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in a Tuesday letter to state leaders. He pointed out that public schools in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles require negative test results to return to classrooms, and public schools in Atlanta, Cleveland, Milwaukee and elsewhere have chosen the short-term remote option. At CPS, Martinez said 200,000 KN95 masks for teachers and staff are being distributed districtwide. Indoor mask-wearing has been required since the start of school, while in-school weekly testing has been mandatory for unvaccinated staff members and optional for students. The testing program has experienced capacity issues from the start, and a winter break testing initiative flopped. The plan CPS has proposed to the teachers union battles the citys coronavirus spike at a school level, Martinez said. The district said a school would move to virtual instruction if at least 40% of its classroom teachers are absent for two consecutive days because of infection and the school-wide teacher absence rate because of infection is 30% or higher with the use of substitutes or internal staff. An elementary school would transition if half of its classrooms are missing at least half of their students because they are in quarantine or isolation. A high school would make the move if more than half of the student population has been instructed to stay home because of COVID-19. Under the CPS proposal, schools would resume in-person instruction after five to 10 school days unless the Chicago Department of Public Health said otherwise. Staff members of a school that starts learning virtually would be required to work in person unless they are told to quarantine or isolate. CPS said it is also offering financial incentives to substitute teachers and letting principals restore the health screeners and reinstitute the temperature checks to allow entry into buildings. The district ditched these policies when schools reopened for full-time, in-person learning in the fall. Advertisement The CTU has asked for the daily health screeners to come back. We are reactivating those, and what Ive said is that its up to schools, because in the past, when the health screener was in place, it created significant backlogs of children being able to get into the buildings, Martinez said before noting it is winter. What Ive shared with my principals, and they had meetings with all their staff yesterday, if you want to use it in your school, just talk to your staff because theres logistical issues. Talk to the parents, make sure they know because theres logistical issues. If you want to use it, please, if that reduces your anxiety, go ahead and use it. Martinez said there is no metric that would trigger the entire district to go virtual because COVID-19 is affecting areas of Chicago differently. The city is reporting nearly 4,600 daily cases a 7% increase from last week with a thousand of these cases in children. There are about seven child hospitalizations per day, according to city data. One of the things Im hearing the most misinformation about is that Chicago hospitals are filling up with children, that many Chicago children are dying of COVID, that its a really scary time to be a child right now with COVID in Chicago, Arwady said at a Tuesday morning news conference. And I want you to understand that while, of course, we are concerned about the rise in hospitalizations, that is being driven by unvaccinated adults. Child COVID hospitalizations remain very rare. Across the whole city, approximately 550,000 children, we are averaging just seven COVID hospitalizations a day right now for children aged zero to 17. Advertisement Arwady said Tuesday she feels extremely comfortable with children learning in person with the mitigations that are in place. Arwady, Martinez and Lightfoot have long emphasized that schools are where kids belong. If we pause, what do we say to those parents who cant afford to hire somebody to come in and watch their kids, who cant ship their kids off to some other place, what do we say to those students who are already struggling? Lightfoot said Tuesday at unrelated news conference. CPS doesnt need a one-size-fits-all strategy, Lightfoot said. We need to lean in to the science and the data and not push that to the side and give in to fear-mongering and hysteria, Lightfoot said. Lightfoot also reiterated that remote learning led to learning loss among Black children, including increases in failure rates for elementary school children. CPS students spent most of the last school year learning at home before the union and the district reached agreement for kids to return to classrooms in waves. Why on earth, when we dont need to pause, would we pause and risk falling back into the same old trap? Lightfoot said. Achievement gaps are real and theyre affecting kids of color at an exponential rate. Advertisement About 5,700 CPS students and 1,900 adults started the new calendar year in quarantine or isolation because they tested positive for COVID-19 or came in close contact with someone who had. The district said around 82% of teachers reported to work Monday, the first day back from winter break. Student attendance numbers for this week were not immediately available. Some 400 people tested positive Monday of 4,100 tests taken at CPS schools a 10% positivity rate, which is higher than usual, according to CPS data on the districts weekly testing program. CPS said 400 cases were reported Tuesday morning, with about 70% students and 30% staff. CPS said it is holding 33 vaccination events this week. About 91% of its staff is fully vaccinated. Just over half of CPS students aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated, according to the district, with about a quarter of the students 5 to 11 years old having received at least one dose. More than 330,000 students are enrolled in CPS, the nations third-largest school district. Illinois school districts may not temporarily transition to remote learning without consulting with their local health department. Remote learning days must be offered for the duration, per Illinois State Board of Education guidelines. The state on Monday shattered a record set just a day earlier for the number of COVID-19 patients filling hospital beds statewide. As of Monday night, hospitals were treating 6,600 patients with the coronavirus, up from 6,294 a day earlier. The previous one-day record for COVID-19 hospitalizations was 6,175 on Nov. 20, 2020. Advertisement State health officials on Tuesday reported 24,423 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, pushing average number of new daily cases to 23,586. The seven-day average of new cases has set a record on 12 of the past 13 days. The statewide case positivity rate the percentage of new cases as a share of total tests hit a seven-day average of 13.2% for the week ending Monday, near its highest level since testing became widely available. The positivity rate has more than doubled in the past two weeks. tswartz@tribpub.com FLORENCE, S.C. Florence-Darlington Technical College is working to revise and expand its dual enrollment program. Jermaine Ford, president, discussed the dual enrollment program near the end of his Monday presentation to the Florence Rotary Club when Dr. Carroll Player asked about it. "As we're reimagining Florence-Darlington Tech, we're also reconnecting," Ford said. "I've sat down with a number of superintendents [of school districts] and one of the things that I've realized is that the students in the high schools have to physically come to Tech and not do the educational experience right in the high school." Ford said making students come to the college creates a transportation barrier for some students. "Why would we put that barrier in place," he asked. What the dual enrollment program will look like is yet to be determined. He said he had asked his staff to develop a reimagined dual enrollment program. Ford said once that enrollment program has been developed, he's going to take it to the superintendents and let them look for flaws in it. After that, he said he's going to work with those in charge of implementing it to make sure they understand it. "One of the things that we want to do is create consistency," Ford said. "I no longer want to have 10 or 15 agreements with all of the various superintendents [and school districts] in the region. We have to have consistency." Ford said revamping and expanding the dual enrollment program is one of several improvements that are underway at the school with others to be unveiled soon. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes was convicted on four counts of fraud and conspiracy Monday, ending a lengthy trial that has captivated Silicon Valley. The jury found her not guilty of four other felony charges. On the three remaining charges, the jury was deadlocked. Holmes, who had bowed her head several times before the jury was polled by the judge, remained seated and expressed no visible emotion as the verdicts were read. Her partner, Billy Evans, showed agitation in earlier moments but appeared calm during the verdict reading. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila thanked the jury for its service and invited them to visit him in his office. Holmes, a once-celebrated entrepreneur, is accused of duping investors and patients about a flawed blood-testing technology that she hailed as a medical breakthrough. Nine of the 11 counts are fraud charges and two revolve around a conspiracy to commit fraud from 2010 to 2015. During that time, Holmes became a Silicon Valley sensation, one worth $4.5 billion on paper based on her promise that Theranos' technology would revolutionize health care. If convicted of any of the charges, Holmes, 37, could face up to 20 years in federal prison. After starting Theranos in 2003 as a 19-year-old college dropout, Holmes began working on a technology that she repeatedly promised would be able to scan for hundreds of health issues with just a few drops of blood taken with a finger prick. Conventional methods requires a needle inserted into a person's vein to draw a vial of blood for each test, which must then be carried out at large laboratories. But most people didn't know that the Theranos blood-testing technology kept producing misleading results that led the company to secretly rely on conventional blood testing. Full story and updates: Will SCOTUS take up challenge to Georgia's remarkable standard for implementing Eighth Amendment's ban on executing the intellectually disabled? | Main | Elizabeth Holmes convicted on 4 of 11 fraud charges ... but now can be sentenced on all and more January 3, 2022 "Racial Attitudes and Criminal Justice Policy" The title of this post is the title of this lengthy new paper soon to be published in the journal Crime and Justice. The article is authored by Francis Cullen, Leah Butler and Amanda Graham, and here is its abstract: Empirical research on public policy preferences must attend to Whites animus toward Blacks. For a quarter-century, studies have consistently found that Kinder and Sanderss four-item measure of racial resentment is a robust predictor of almost every social and criminal justice policy opinion. Racial animus increases Whites opposition to social welfare policies that benefit Blacks and their support for punitive policies that disadvantage this out-group. Any public opinion study that fails to include racial resentment risks omitted variable bias. Despite the continuing salience of out-group animus, recent scholarship, especially in political science, has highlighted other racial attitudes that can influence public policy preferences. Two developments are of particular importance. First, Chudy showed the progressive impact of racial sympathy, a positive out-group attitude in which Whites are distressed by incidents of Blacks suffering (such as the killing of George Floyd). Second, Jardina and others documented that Whites in-group racial attitudes, such as White identity/consciousness or white nationalism, have political consequences, reinforcing the effects of racial resentment. As the United States becomes a majority-minority nation, diverse in-group and out-group racial attitudes are likely to play a central role in policies including within criminal justice that the public endorses. January 3, 2022 at 07:05 PM | Permalink Comments More drivel. Posted by: Federalist | Jan 3, 2022 8:19:58 PM https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.local10.com/news/local/2021/12/12/juror-from-dayonte-reiles-murder-trial-discusses-their-inability-to-reach-unanimous-verdict/%3foutputType=amp Race-based sympathy for a murderer. Pretty sickening Posted by: Federalist | Jan 4, 2022 4:35:15 PM This press article, Federalist, make no mention of "Race-based sympathy for a murderer." Is there some other press account of this deadlocked jury that is the basis for your concern? Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 4, 2022 6:05:12 PM https://www.google.com/amp/s/wsvn.com/news/local/broward/foreperson-3-jurors-unwilling-to-convict-resiles-based-on-race-leading-to-mistrial/amp/ Posted by: Federalist | Jan 4, 2022 10:54:50 PM This new article indicates, if I understand the details right, that the jury had collectively decided to convict of manslaughter, but then the jury foreperson changed her mind in open court after that agreement was reached. She thereafter claimed that race-based concerns accounted for the votes of those who did not want to vote for murder, but the first article you linked suggests that other jurors may not have made the account of the reasons for the murder/manslaughter disagreement. Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 5, 2022 10:59:10 AM Yep Doug, nothing to see here. This was obviously not a manslaughter case. And race-based leniencenothing yo see here. And after all the invocations of all-white jury. Speaking of privilege, it would be interesting to see your take on the kid gloves treatment of the Hennepin County Sheriff and his DUI charge. Funny, if not so tragic. Posted by: Federalist | Jan 5, 2022 4:48:02 PM Post a comment A dentist with tools in hand. (PHOTO: Getty Images) SINGAPORE A dental assistant caught for embezzling nearly $45,000 in patient fees was given a chance to redeem herself by having her salary deducted until she paid the siphoned sum in full. However, Charlene Ashby Clay continued to misappropriate funds using a different modus operandi, and even sent the money home to buy property in Malaysia. The 24-year-old Malaysian was jailed for one year, four months, and two weeks on Tuesday (4 January), after she pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal breach of trust as a servant and one count of transferring benefits from criminal conduct. Another four charges, including falsifying accounts and cheating, were considered for her sentencing. Pocketed $44,861 from patients Clay was a dental assistant at Dr Smile Dental Clinic when she offended. Between 1 October 2018 and 25 March 2019, Clay was entrusted to collect payment for dental services from patients but pocketed them instead. On the Point-of-Sale (POS) system, Clay would state that payment was made by NETS or credit card, which could not be immediately verified as opposed to a cash payment. She would then misappropriate the cash. Unless the clinics bank account was checked, Clays misdeeds would not be detected. In this manner, Clay siphoned $44,861 in cash from 1 October 2018 to 25 March 2019. In late March 2019, the clinics accountant informed the owner about a discrepancy between the amount received by the clinic and its POS system. The records showed that the clinic collected $44,861 less than what it should have, based on what was keyed into the POS system. The clinic owner confronted Clay, who admitted to the offence. Clay then begged not to have her work permit cancelled and pleaded to continue working at the clinic. She claimed she was willing to pay the owner back. The owner decided to give her a second chance and the two agreed on 3 May 2019 that between $650 and $1,050 would be deducted from Clays monthly salary until the sum of $44,861 was fully repaid. Story continues Continued to pocket funds However, Clay had no intention to stop misappropriating funds, and switched to a different modus operandi. Between 25 March 2019 and 31 March 2020, Clay arranged to have patients pay in cash for their dental services. She would have patients pay the full payment for dental packages to her personal bank account via PayNow transfers, offering a discount to them if they did so. She had no authority to offer any discount but cheated 57 patients into believing that she could. When patients came to use their packages, she would transfer small sums of money to the clinics bank account as payment for packages so as not to arouse suspicion. She received up to $113,520 through this scheme. On 30 March 2020, the clinic owner told one of his patients to pay $200 at the counter after completing a maintenance procedure for her braces. But the patient said that she had already made full payment of $3,700 for the entire package. As the clinics policy was to charge the patient the cost of each procedure after every visit, the owner was puzzled. He then confronted Clay, who admitted that she had again embezzled the funds. In the same period, Clay remitted some of the misappropriated funds to a bank account in Malaysia. She used some of the money to pay for a property in Malaysia. In total, she admitted to siphoning $158,381 from the clinic. She made restitution of $12,348.03 which consists of the sums that were deducted from her salary every month from 3 May 2019. No more restitution was made after a police report was lodged on 30 March 2020. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Photo credit: Getty Images As many of us return to work after the big Christmas break, so have our children, who'll be excited to catchup with all their classmates on their first day back at school. The same goes for the Royal Family, including the Cambridge kids who will be settling in for a day of learning at their school, Thomas's Battersea. But, while most kids their age will be eagerly awaiting break time with their bestie, it seems the rules are a little different when you're a royal. In fact, according to one royal expert, Princess Charlotte "isn't allowed" to have a best friend and for very good reason. Speaking on ITV's Loose Women, Jane Moore revealed some of the strict rules at Thomas's Battersea, where Charlotte is currently in Year Two. "They don't encourage you to have best friends," Moore explained of the school's rules. "There are signs everywhere saying 'be kind', that's the ethos of the school." She continued: "There's a policy that if your child is having a party, unless every child in the class is invited you dont give out the invites in class, which I think is quite a good thing as you dont feel excluded." "It's a really great little school actually," Moore added. "It really focuses on kindness, it's a really big thing in that school and the pastoral care is amazing." But, according to the expert, it's not just the Cambridge kids who are expected to make friends with everyone, their parents are encouraged to get involved too. "It's a school that really expects parental involvement," Moore pointed out. "The parents are very heavily involved in the school so they [Kate Middleton and Prince William] will be as well." It's no wonder then, that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are often photographed dropping the kids off on the school run. Story continues Notably, on six-year-old Charlotte's first day at the school, Kate had some touching words of encouragement for her daughter, reportedly telling her: "George will help lead the way." According to Hello! magazine, George regularly looks out for his younger sister at Thomas's, where he is currently in Year Four. "Prince George is a very protective and lovely older brother," royal biographer Penny Junor said. "I'm sure he'll look after his little sister and take great pride in showing her the ropes." How sweet!? Watch: Queen Elizabeth Shared a Never-Before-Seen Photo of Her Grandchildren You Might Also Like China plans missions to moon's south pole Xinhua) 08:20, January 04, 2022 BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- China has approved the fourth phase of its lunar exploration program, including a basic model of a research station built on the moon over the coming decade, according to the China National Space Administration. Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the administration, said China would carry out lunar exploration in the future Chang'e-6, Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 missions. As planned, Chang'e-7 probe will be launched to the south pole of the moon first. Since Chang'e-6 is a backup of Chang'e-5 sample-return mission, it will be launched after Chang'e-7 to bring back samples on the lunar south pole. Chang'e-6 mission will be followed by Chang'e-8, a step toward building a model of a lunar scientific research station. "We also prepare to work with Russia to build the basic model of the lunar research station," Wu said in a recent interview. "The construction of the station will lay a solid foundation for us to better explore the lunar environment and resources, including how to use and develop lunar resources peacefully." The Chang'e-5 probe was launched in 2020, having retrieved a total of 1,731 grams of lunar samples. China is currently operating Chang'e-4 lander and the Yutu 2 rover on the far side of the moon. They made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar far side in 2019. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Du Mingming) The FBI is investigating several bank robberies in the Chicago area Monday. The first happened in Woodridge, officials said. About 9:50 a.m., investigators were called to a bank robbery at BMO Harris Bank, 2413 75th St., according to FBI public affairs. Advertisement The robber is described as a Black male, 6 feet with a medium build and who was last seen wearing a black mask, a gray jacket with black accents, jeans and black or brown shoes. About an hour later, there was a second robbery at another BMO Harris Bank in Homewood. Advertisement At 10:47 a.m., the FBI responded to 17600 S. Halsted St., officials said. The robber in that instance was described as a thin man wearing a face covering and a hooded sweatshirt. He had a note demanding money and was possibly armed, according to the FBI. Several hours later in the Gold Coast neighborhood, a robbery took place at a PNC Bank, 873 N. Rush St., according to the FBI. The robber was described as a man, approximately 6 feet and in his 20s. No arrests had been made and officials did not say whether investigators believed the same person was responsible for more than one robbery. Tips can be reported at 800-CALL-FBI or tips@fbi.gov. tatturner@chicagotribune.com One day in early October, Nicci Smith began experiencing numbness and tingling in her arms, hands and head while at work at a post-acute rehabilitation facility in the Omaha area. A nurse checked her blood pressure, which was high. Smith, 38, called her husband, who drove the Omaha woman to an emergency room. When they couldnt pinpoint a cause, health care providers did an MRI to make sure they hadnt missed anything. But the scan found something Smith wasnt expecting: a large aneurysm, or bulge, in a blood vessel behind her forehead. Later, Dr. Vishal Jani, system stroke and neurointervention director for CHI Health, recommended filling the aneurysm with a device thats relatively new in the United States but has been used in Europe since 2011. Called the WEB device, its a tiny, spherical mesh cage that comes compressed inside a long thin tube called a microcatheter. Its fed through a larger catheter that is snaked through a vein in the groin and up into the brain. Once deployed inside the aneurysm, the device opens like an umbrella. If sized properly, Jani said, it hugs the inside wall of the bulge, blocking off the opening and keeping blood from flowing in. Some 6.5 million Americans have aneurysms, and upward of 30,000 bleed or rupture each year. That can cause stroke, disability and even death. For some time, doctors have been using coils of tiny wires, or a combination of coils and mesh tubes called stents, to fill and block off aneurysms. In the right patient, the technique can be a less-invasive alternative to the other common treatment: surgically opening the skull and placing a small metal clip across the neck of an aneurysm. All are part of an ongoing evolution in the treatment of aneurysms. But Smiths aneurysm was whats known as a wide-necked aneurysm, a type that makes up between 26% and 36% of brain aneurysms, according to a January 2020 review in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery. As the name suggests, such aneurysms have a wide opening. Coils literally can fall out, Jani said. Smith, a mother of five, said she knew she also had the option to monitor rather than treat her aneurysm. But it was large enough that not treating it was not the best option, she said. Even during the month and a half between her diagnosis and the procedure, she said, she felt like a ticking time bomb. Her 9-year-old named the bulge Professor Umbridge after the evil, pink-garbed, bureaucrat-turned-headmaster in the Harry Potter series. On Nov. 15, Jani threaded a series of catheters and wires through Smiths veins as she lay prone in a catheterization lab at Omahas Immanuel Medical Center. Jani used three-dimensional X-ray imaging as a guide. He and Dr. Bharathi Jagadeesan, a neurointerventional radiologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, carefully measured the aneurysm in the images 7 millimeters by 6 millimeters so they could select the correctly sized WEB device. Jagadeesan, one of Janis mentors, has performed the procedure multiple times and served as a proctor for the procedure. Once they had chosen the device, Jani threaded the tip of the microcatheter into the aneurysm and steered the WEB device into it. As he deployed it, the device opened like a flower, expanding to fit the space. Nicely done, Jagadeesan said. You did great. Jani said the process is faster than coiling, which typically involves inserting and placing between four and 10 wires. The longer the procedure, the more likely a patient is to experience complications. He noted, nonetheless, that only a select subset of patients will be eligible for the treatment. He performed a second procedure the same day on a patient with a slightly larger aneurysm. It has to be the right size and the right place to use this device, said Jani, an assistant professor of neurology at Creighton Universitys School of Medicine. Chris Schneider, territory manager and clinical support for device-maker MicroVention, said Jani is the only physician in Nebraska currently performing the procedure. The nearest centers where the device is used regularly are in Kansas City, Iowa City, Minneapolis and Denver. At least we can offer a full spectrum of treatment at our doorstep, Jani said. Dr. William Thorell, a neurosurgeon with Nebraska Medicine, said that health system also has access to the device. Doctors there havent yet seen a case in which the WEB device is the favored treatment. Instead, he said, they use other techniques, including coiling with stents and surgical clipping, which must be done by a neurosurgeon. While the less-invasive inside-the-vein treatments require less recovery time, up to 20% require retreatment with large aneurysms, that increases to 40%. That can be an issue for younger patients. Youve really got to tailor your options to each individual patient, Thorell said. Smith spent a night after the procedure in the intensive care unit at Immanuel. By the next morning, she was feeling good and relieved to have the procedure completed. She also was ready to get home to her children and husband, Chris Smith, a youth pastor at a Papillion church. She said she has had a few mild headaches since the procedure but no other symptoms. Doctors will continue to monitor the aneurysm. A certified nursing assistant and medication aide, Smith said she was surprised at how unaware people are of aneurysms. Most people who have unruptured aneurysms dont know theyre there. Most aneurysms, according to the Cleveland Clinic, are small about inch to nearly an inch and an estimated 50% to 80% of all aneurysms do not rupture. As much as people thought, How could you live knowing you have this, she said, I just feel so blessed that we found out about it. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SIOUX CITY -- Shortly after being hired as an assistant Woodbury County Attorney 10 years ago, Jacklyn Fox identified areas in which she believed the office could be operating better. After spending the past decade prosecuting crimes and honing her skills, Fox on Tuesday announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for Woodbury County Attorney. If nominated, she could be running against her boss, Democrat Patrick Jennings. "Though I respect my boss, this isn't personal," Fox said. "I want to create positive change for the community. We can do better, and I want to be the person to implement that and make that happen." Fox, 36, of Sioux City, said she wants to see a county attorney's office that's more transparent with the community about decisions to settle certain cases via plea agreement rather than proceed to trial. She said crime victims, especially those of violent crime, deserve to see justice. "Sometimes we're amending (charges) rather than fighting for the rights of victims," Fox said. "I want to fight for victims' rights." An Urbandale, Iowa, native, Fox said she's always been someone who seeks to help people and brainstorm solutions to solve problems. The county attorney's office could do a better job of identifying and utilizing community resources, such as substance abuse treatment and other options, to help offenders, she said. Fox graduated from the University of Iowa with bachelor's degrees in social work and communications studies before attending law school at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, where she graduated in 2011. She was hired as an assistant Woodbury County Attorney in 2012, a job Fox said enabled her to pursue her interest in criminal justice and help care for her grandparents, longtime Sioux City residents Mel and Marilyn Fox, before their deaths. She is married to Woodbury County native Todd Peterson, and they have three children. Fox will continue to work in the county attorney's office while running for election. "I'm a doer, I'm a hard worker and I think it's time for a change," she said. Jennings has yet to publicly announce whether he'll be seeking a fifth four-year term. After winning his first term in 2006, he has never had an opponent in his three re-election campaigns. Love 5 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 2 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SIOUX CITY -- The Sioux City Council approved a third and final reading of a change to the municipal code on Monday, which paves the way for Coffee & Purrs, a proposed cat cafe, to open in the Commerce Building, 520 Nebraska St. The council voted 4 to 0 in favor of a zoning text amendment to alter the definition of animal boarding. Mayor Bob Scott was absent from the meeting. The previous definition of animal boarding prohibited the keeping of animals for profit in the Downtown Commercial zoning district. The zoning text amendment approved by the council alters the definition of animal boarding to permit the cats to reside in the cat cafe overnight. The business, however, must also be in compliance with Iowa Department of Agriculture regulations before opening its doors. "What we did find out is that this type of business would be regulated by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and there is actually an existing state code the business owner would have to abide by," said Jeff Hanson, the city's community development operations manager. "The current code would limit the number of animals per room to 12 and, then, anything above and beyond that would have to be in a separate room." Megan Thompson, who wants to open the cat cafe, has said that she would like to have a maximum of 40 cats residing in the cat room, an area where patrons could pay to cuddle with cats, which would be separate from the coffee shop. If Thompson were to divide the 785-square-foot area into two rooms and meet the Department of Agriculture's ventilation requirements, Hanson said the maximum number of cats she could have is 24. "Also within that code, there's requirements for the cleanliness, the odor, the lighting, the temperature, the noises, everything that was brought up from concerns from the Downtown Partners survey," he said. Councilman Alex Watters reiterated his support for the cat cafe, noting that he has seen it "work well" in other communities. "I think we need to have diverse businesses in our community, so I wish you well," he told Thompson. "We as a city support the (Sioux City) Animal Rescue and Adoption Center. That is a city entity and, so, I really would ask and encourage you to work with them. We need to make sure it's in its best interest." Thompson previously said the cats would be adoptable through the center, as well as the Siouxland Humane Society and Noah's Hope Animal Rescue. "The animals that are brought in all have to be from one facility," Hanson said of Department of Agriculture regulations. "You can't mix and match different facilities because of potential for disease." Councilwoman Julie Schoenherr asked if Thompson might be able to rotate rooms on a monthly basis, so that all three entities could be included. "I think that would be possible as long as we do a deep cleaning," said Thompson, who said she was always aware that she would need to follow certain rules. In other action The council also moved forward a local businessman's request to rezone property just west of North High School so that he can continue to develop it. On first consideration, the council voted 4 to 0 in favor of rezoning 1171 Outer Drive North from Neighborhood Conservation 2 to Neighborhood Conservation 5. The property is currently split zoned, with the southern portion zoned Neighborhood Conservation 5 where Building Blocks Preschool and Childcare is located. The central and northern parts of the property are zoned Neighborhood Conservation 2. Dan Hiserote, of Aftershock Ventures, LLC, is planning to develop the central portion of the property, between Building Blocks and the city's water tower. Hiserote, however, has no definitive plans for that portion of the property at this time. "What I would consider doing with it is looking at several options -- office complex of some sort, townhomes, multi-family (homes). We're bouncing around all those different ideas of what needs to fit in that area to make sense," Hiserote said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A cyberattack at an obscure, quasi-state agency over the summer stripped millions of dollars from the accounts of two auto insurance companies under liquidation through wrongful wire transfers, Gov. J.B. Pritzkers administration confirmed. The breach, which is under investigation by the FBI, led to losses of $6.85 million, although a portion of that has been recovered, administration officials said. Advertisement The cyberattack was carried out at the little-known Office of the Special Deputy Receiver, a nonprofit that works with the director of the Illinois Department of Insurance and exists largely to protect creditors and policyholders of financially troubled or insolvent insurance companies. While state officials were saying little about the cyberattack, the offices former chief financial officer, Douglas Harrell, told the Tribune that his email was hijacked by hackers who then directed others how to invest money with what appeared to be approval of his superiors. Advertisement Harrell said a quick call to bank officials blocked a significant amount of the $6.85 million from being lost before all transactions became final. The agency learned of the breach July 15 and contacted the Pritzker administration and the Illinois State Police, Harrell said. The Department of Insurance places financially troubled or insolvent insurance companies with the Office of the Special Deputy Receiver to oversee receiverships, where remaining assets and distributions are handled with court oversight. The special deputy receiver was formed as a nonprofit in 1991 to administer the estates of insolvent or financially troubled Illinois insurance companies placed in judicially supervised receiverships, according to the Illinois Department of Insurance. The basic leftover pieces of these companies and their policyholders are put into what are called estates. The estates of two car insurance companies Gateway Insurance Co. and Affirmative Insurance Co. were victims of the cyberattack by a criminal actor, said Caron Brookens, insurance department spokeswoman. The Gateway Insurance estate suffered a loss of $2,148,728 resulting from wrongful wire transfers, officials said. The Affirmative Insurance estate initially suffered a loss of $4,700,500 as a result of wrongful wire transfers, but $2,870,500 of Affirmatives money has been recovered, according to state officials and a company report. The theft is the latest example of how online scammers see agencies in and around state government as fertile targets. Cyberattacks may have diverted more than a billion dollars in unemployment checks intended for people laid off during the coronavirus pandemic in Illinois alone. Advertisement A ransomware attack in April crippled computer systems in Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raouls office, costing taxpayers millions to upgrade the office as it sought to regain its footing. Other attacks have involved whats known as SMS phishing or smishing, in which fake messages went to cellphones seeking to lure Illinois residents into clicking on phony warnings about drivers licenses so they would unwittingly fall victim to computer viruses. In an interview, Harrell said an internal review of what happened at the Office of the Special Deputy Receiver showed that cybercriminals had taken over his email and spied on him for two or three weeks. They controlled my email and gave directions, Harrell said. My folks thought I was directing them to invest in a certain way and that his bosses had approved the transactions, he said. Harrell said he spotted the wrongful transactions right away and called everybody within two minutes to address the matter with senior management, including the top technology officials and lawyers. He said he quickly called bankers handling the transactions and was able to halt the activity for some of the wires, allowing them to recall some of the funds before transactions were completed. Advertisement Whats really a shame is criminals just taking advantage of COVID, said Harrell, saying he and others were working from home because of the virus. Without a cybersecurity expert at our shop ... we werent prepared. We just didnt know how to protect ourselves properly from cyberhackers, particularly away from the office. Its just fraud through and through, Harrell said. Had Harrell and others been working in the office, he said, their face-to-face communication could have prevented the fraudulent activity the cybercriminals directed by using fake emails. I was a victim, Harrell said. Harrell said he stayed with the agency a few months to help address the matter but also eventually offered, as the highest-ranking financial person, to resign along with another top official, Joe Harris, who was controller. The Department of Insurance declined to give any details of the cyberattack, and would not say how the money was recovered, saying it could compromise any investigation. Advertisement Brookens confirmed Harrell and Harris no longer worked at the Office of Special Deputy Receiver but declined to give any more information on why they had left the agency. People familiar with the way the agency has worked over the years said one person would be able to initiate a wire transfer, but the process would take several steps on an account protected by a password. Another person would have to confirm the transaction. Gateway sold commercial auto insurance, such as for taxis and limousines, and Affirmative sold personal auto insurance, Brookens wrote in response to Tribune inquiries. Sign up for The Spin to get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Despite the cyberattack, policyholders may come out OK. The majority of the policyholders claims are covered under the Illinois or other state guaranty funds and will therefore not be impacted, Brookens wrote. Because the companies are in receivership and determination of final policyholder liability will take several years, the total number of policyholders potentially impacted is unknown. Advertisement Insurance companies under liquidation are backed by a guaranty fund that gets its money from active insurance companies, which are generally obliged to make up for losses from insolvent firms. This guaranty fund covers consumers insurance related-losses. The Office of the Special Deputy Receiver has insurance for cyber fraud, and recovery efforts are ongoing, Brookens said. Any exposed vulnerability has been assessed and (the receivers office) has added additional protocol and controls to ensure that it can best safeguard against any future criminal cyberattacks, Brookens said. Brookens also said the Office of Special Deputy Receiver has taken appropriate steps to mitigate the breach and prevent it from happening again. Even so, Rockford Republican Sen. Dave Syverson, minority spokesman for the upper chambers Insurance Committee, said hearings should be held to review how the cyberattack happened and what can be done to prevent future problems. Buckle Corp. of Jersey City, New Jersey, bought the charter of Gateway Insurance Co. for $4.2 million in 2020 through a court-supervised auction in Cook County, according to Marty Young, Buckles co-founder and CEO. Advertisement The new company did not take over the assets or the liabilities of the Gateway estate, giving a fresh start to the new firm. As of its Sept. 30 report, company officials said, the new Gateway Insurance Co. has 20,000 to 25,000 customers, across the country, including about 2% in Illinois. Only about 100 of the old companys customers are among the current customers in the new company, according to Buckle. RLong@chicagotribune.com Twitter @RayLong SIOUX CITY First-time Sioux City Councilman Matthew OKane said Monday he was "enamored" with the thought of spending the next four years representing the city he was born and raised in. OKane, a 35-year-old K-12 virtual art teacher for the Sioux City Community School District, took the oath of ofce in the City Council Chambers in front of a crowd of more than a dozen people, along with incumbents Dan Moore and Alex Watters. In remarks made after the swearing in ceremony, which was conducted by District Judge John Ackerman, O'Kane acknowledged the "great progress" that has been made in the city. "I want to keep that momentum and keep that growth exponential and equitable," O'Kane said. "I'm excited to be a part of the dialogue that moves the city forward." The Nov. 2 municipal election suggested satisfaction with the direction of the five-member council. Moore and Watters easily topped the voting in a low-turnout election. OKane, a political newcomer, grabbed the third open seat, narrowly beating Ike Rayford, another first-time candidate, by just 66 votes. O'Kane replaces Pete Groetken, a retired Sioux City police captain, who decided not to seek a third term. Moore, who will again serve as Mayor Pro Tem, is beginning his third four-year term on the council, while Watters is embarking on his second full term after being appointed in early 2017 to fill the seat left vacant by Keith Radig. "It's exciting to have you here," Watters said to OKane, after the two took their seats at their desks. Watters, a 35-year-old who works as director of talent and community engagement at Morningside University, described being reelected to the council as "incredibly humbling." He said representing the community is not something he takes lightly. "I think Sioux City is going through a tremendous transformation and real revitalization," he said. "It's just such an exciting time to be a part of that momentum." Moore, a 68-year-old attorney, thanked the voters for their confidence and trust, as well as his own family for their support. Moore then displayed a handmade gavel that once belonged to Dr. David Paulsrud, who served on the council from May 13, 1987 to Dec. 31, 1991. "We are here today because of those who cam before us," said Moore, who said Paulsrud gave him the gavel to use in his efforts to carry on the legacy of good governance in Sioux City. "This is a great city to be in. I'm so proud to be serving you." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. An agent who previously represented both Depp and Heard said in response to her breakup with Elon Musk, "You told me a thousand times you were just filling space." Get that news and more here. A 16-year-old Omaha boy fired at least 10 shots at a car that he and another teen were chasing, killing a 14-year-old girl in the cars back seat, a prosecutor said Monday. The 16-year-old, Christian X. Hernandez, and another 16-year-old, Samuel Lopez, have been charged in the Dec. 22 slaying of Isabella Santiago. Hernandez has been charged with first-degree murder, unlawful intentional discharge of a firearm at an occupied motor vehicle and two counts of use of a firearm to commit a felony. Douglas County Judge Craig McDermott ordered Hernandez to be held without bail. Lopez is accused of driving the car Hernandez was in. He has been charged with being an accessory to first-degree murder. McDermott ordered him to be held on $2 million bail. After she was shot, Santiago was driven to the fire station at 25th and L streets and then taken by ambulance to the Nebraska Medical Center, where she died. Hernandez and Lopez talked about catching up to the other car in order to shoot the people inside it, and at one point, the car came so close that it could have hit the other car, the prosecutor said. The teens, who the prosecutor said are documented gang members, had a dispute with the driver of the car Santiago was in. Hernandez, sitting in the right rear passenger seat, fired at least 10 shots at the car they were chasing, the prosecutor said. One of the bullets hit Santiago in the back and pierced her heart. Santiago was a ninth-grader at Omaha South High School. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Two months ago, a political lightning bolt struck in Nebraska as federal prosecutors announced indictments against U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry for allegedly lying to the FBI. Suddenly, the seemingly safe 1st Congressional District seat occupied by the Lincoln Republican since 2005 was in peril. Behind the scenes, GOP operatives quickly began discussing possible successors to the 60-year-old Fortenberry, to either challenge him in the May primary or replace him on the ballot if he dropped out of his race for reelection in 2022. And soon after, a prominent Democrat, state Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln, entered the contest. To be sure, the case against Fortenberry may take weeks, if not months, to wind through the federal court system. He has pleaded not guilty and he, his wife and other supporters are attacking the indictments as a setup by federal prosecutors with political motivations. His attorneys are aggressively contesting the charges, filing legal motions to dismiss them, to toss out statements he made to federal investigators and to move the trial out of California, where an investigation into illegal political contributions from a Nigerian-born billionaire began. But, with the May primary looming and the possibility of a trial as soon as February, several questions lay ahead for Fortenberry. First off, can he survive the allegations to continue to serve, and to win reelection to a post that has been held by a Republican since 1967? Can he continue to be an effective representative for a district that spans eastern Nebraska and includes Offutt Air Force Base, a top employer in the Omaha metro area? Hes been required to temporarily step down, because of the indictment, from congressional committee work. That work includes a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and his position as a ranking member of the Appropriations subcommittee that deals with spending on agriculture programs. Has the indictment made him vulnerable, to either be beaten by a fellow Republican in the May primary or to be defeated by a Democrat in the fall? What happens if he does win reelection, but then resigns later when his case is resolved, a course taken by two other recently indicted U.S. congressmen? That, some political observers fear, sets up a messy process in which a special election would be held to pick a replacement, among candidates selected by Nebraska political party officials, instead of by voters. Fortenberry campaign officials say hes full-steam-ahead in running for reelection and fighting off the indictments. Officially, the state GOP stands behind Fortenberry. And his defenders include Lt. Gov. Mike Foley, as well as the second-ranking Republican in the House, U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Jeff is respected by both Democrats and Republicans for his hard work ethic, and the serious way he approaches the domestic and foreign policy issues he champions Scalise said in a statement. Foley, a longtime friend, said that in his travels across Nebraska, he senses a reservoir of support for Fortenberry and a feeling that he was entrapped by a rogue agency, the FBI. They (Nebraskans) know Jeff. They trust him. They feel hes an honest man and cant believe that he would lie to law enforcement, said Foley, who called the indictments a misunderstanding in some conversations. But others express doubts. The odds of beating the federal charges appear to be against him. A 2019 Pew Research Center study found that 90% of those facing a federal criminal indictment in fiscal year 2018 pleaded guilty, with only 8% of cases dismissed. Of the 2% that took their case to trial, 83% were convicted, Pew reported. Beyond that, theres potential damage to his reputation as a family man and devout Catholic to be considered. At least a trio of potential GOP primary challengers are considering a run. J.L. Spray, a Lincoln lawyer and a Republican national committeeman, said he expects Fortenberry to stay in office and forge ahead with his reelection campaign. But, he added, the Republican Party has never shied away from contested primaries. Most of us think its a healthy thing. At least one former Fortenberry campaign aide, who asked to not be named, said the congressman would be vulnerable in a contested primary against a well-funded Republican, and was probably vulnerable even before the indictments came down. He is not the back-slapping, party builder that wins popularity contests within the Republican Party, the former aide said, but rather someone who enjoys thinking big thoughts about policy. He doesnt love to campaign, or love staying in touch with Nebraskans, the former campaign aide said, adding that it would be best if Fortenberry stepped aside and let another GOP candidate run in the primary. Everyones scared to say what Im saying to you, the former aide said. Foley, the longtime Fortenberry ally, scoffed at that. If someone thinks they can unseat Jeff Fortenberry, theyre on a fools errand, he said. If recent history is any indication, the Nebraska Republican has a rough road ahead. Two recently indicted U.S. representatives, Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of New York, both were able to win reelection in 2018 after being charged. But both ultimately resigned after reaching plea deals with federal prosecutors: Hunter, along with his wife, for misusing more than $150,000 in campaign funds, and Collins, along with a son, for insider trading and lying to the FBI. It hurt Hunter at the polls. An Iraq veteran whose father had been the congressional representative in the San Diego-area district for 28 years, Hunter barely won reelection in 2018 over a little-known Democrat in a highly Republican district. Brian Adams, a political science professor at San Diego State University, said a lot of local Republicans would have preferred that Hunter had dropped his reelection bid. But Adams said the GOP opted against sparking a fight within the party given Hunters high name recognition and strong support for then-President Donald Trump. An all-out party brawl to get rid of Duncan Hunter could have given an advantage to Democrats, Adams said. The professor, though, sees differences in the case against Hunter and Fortenberry. It was pretty clear that Hunter was a corrupt politician after news reports detailed his lavish vacations to Hawaii and Italy using campaign funds. Fortenberry, meanwhile, seems to have a defense, Adams said that he didnt recall all the details of a telephone discussion with an FBI informant. Randall Adkins, a University of Nebraska at Omaha political science professor, said its difficult to compare what happened in California with whats occurring in Nebraska because they are such different states. But, he added, if the party was moving him out of the way by trying to support someone else, then I think that would be a really bad sign for him. While discussions are occurring behind the scenes, no challengers have emerged. That may be because theres some significant motions yet to be decided in Fortenberrys case. Just last week, U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. denied four of Fortenberrys motions to dismiss charges and a fifth motion to disqualify a prosecutor the defense contends should be called as a witness in the case. Another court hearing on a separate group of legal challenges to the indictments is scheduled for Jan. 11. Meanwhile, Fortenberry forces maintain hes continuing to do the work of a representative. One example: In December, a bill he introduced to hasten research and treatment of a deadly disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, was signed into law by President Joe Biden. It appropriates $500 million over the next five years. Eric Berger, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln law professor, said that while it doesnt help Nebraska that Fortenberry cant currently serve on the powerful Appropriations Committee, it can be argued that not much is being accomplished in Congress anyway, so not much is missed. But Berger, who once clerked for U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, said there is zero chance that the former federal judge would pursue a case against a member of Congress for political reasons. He is going to follow what he sees as the law and the facts, Berger said. However, he added, he is not aware of how involved Garland might have been in seeking the indictment against Fortenberry, which came down in October. (The investigation into the illegal campaign contributions started during the Obama administration and continued during the Trump administration.) A recently released 82-page transcript of a July 2019 interview Fortenberry gave to the FBI sheds more light on what prosecutors call a scheme to deceive federal investigators and what defenders of the congressman call a political setup. The interview was requested by Fortenberry and his then-attorney, former U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, as a follow-up to a surprise visit, four months earlier, by FBI agents to Fortenberrys Lincoln home. The agents were investigating illegal conduit political contributions from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian-born billionaire. Much of the transcript details Fortenberrys relationship with Chagoury, who shared the congressmans concerns about Christian minorities being persecuted in the Middle East. There was also background information shared about his work in Congress concerning religious groups and how a 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles with a group of Lebanese-Americans came to be organized. But in the last quarter of the interview, an assistant U.S. attorney bore in, asking Fortenberry about a call hed received in 2018 from the organizer of the L.A. fundraiser. In that 10-minute phone call, the organizer, who by then was cooperating with the FBI, told Fortenberry that the $30,000 hed been given by the Lebanese-Americans probably came from Chagoury, who Fortenberry knew was living in Paris. Political donations from foreigners to federal political campaigns in the U.S. are illegal, and the FBI, in March, announced that it had tied $180,000 of illegal conduit contributions to Chagoury that ultimately were given to a handful of U.S politicians, including Fortenberry. Fortenberry, during the July 2019 interview, stated that the comment about Chagoury during the 2018 phone call was discomforting, so he had called an attorney at the Federal Election Commission to ask what he should do. But why, the prosecutor asked, didnt you call the organizer of the fundraiser to ask him what he meant when he mentioned Chagourys role? Fortenberry answered that there were other events that weekend conducted by the Lebanese-American group in L.A., and that Chagoury was possibly an underwriter for those events. But at that point, the congressman also recognized that the prosecutor was suggesting there were contributions funnel(ed) through an illicit foreign source. Why not ask the organizer that precise question (were the contributions illegal)? I followed the standard procedures of any fundraiser, I had a concern about a comment, I got (an) attorneys advice and I followed it, Fortenberry responded. Prosecutors allege that the congressman repeatedly lied about his knowledge, gained in the 2018 phone call, that the donations were illegal, and despite that knowledge, was asking for a second fundraiser by the L.A. group. Fortenberry was also charged with failing to amend his campaign donation reports to reflect that the contributions didnt come from a handful of individual American citizens in California, but from a foreigner living in France. But Fortenberry supporters see the case entirely differently. They maintain that an FBI informant was used to plant the information in the 2018 phone call, then, a year later, when investigators asked about the phone call and the congressman couldnt recall all the details, he was indicted. It was a gotcha tactic, according to Fortenberrys supporters, that should be tossed out of court, because prosecutors had misled the congressman, telling him that he wasnt a target of the investigation. Chad Kolton, a Fortenberry campaign spokesman, said that internal FBI memos indicate that agents intended to charge the congressman even before the 2019 interviews and that aggressive, deceitful practices were used to set up Congressman Fortenberry. He added that Fortenberry, once he realized the contributions were illegal, wanted to return them but was discouraged by federal investigators from doing so because it could have jeopardized their ongoing probe. Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, have maintained in court documents that they were under no obligation to say whether Fortenberry was a target of their investigation, and that this was not a setup, but a case where the congressman misled and deceived investigators. Some of the questions surrounding the Fortenberry case will be answered soon, with more rulings expected on legal objections in the criminal case. The deadline for challengers to file for the primary election is March 1. Lt. Gov. Foley predicted that Nebraskans havent seen the last of Fortenberry. I think hell prevail and come out of this stronger than ever, Foley said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Warning that Iowans fundamental freedoms and rights are under attack by the Biden administrations radical socialist agenda, a Republican county attorney is challenging Attorney General Tom Millers campaign for an 11th term. Her campaign will be about who is the best lawyer to stand up and advocate for Iowans, who will work hard for them and defend the issues that they care about, Brenna Bird said in announcing her campaign to unseat the longest-serving attorney general in the nations history. Miller, first elected in 1978, too often joined fellow Democratic attorneys general in opposition to former President Donald Trumps administration and has sided with attorneys general in California, New York and other blue states rather than represent Iowas interests, Bird said. Im going to defend us against the authoritarian regulations and mandates from Washington, stand up for agriculture, work in partnership with the governor to advocate for Iowa, said Bird, the Guthrie County attorney. Right now, we have three more years of the Biden administration ahead of us and its a time to stand up for our way of life, Bird said. Iowans have never been in greater need of an attorney general who will fight back against Bidens radical agenda, protect the rights of Iowans and stand up for the rule of law. Bird, 45, was raised on a seven-generation Iowa farm before attending Drake University and receiving her law degree from the University of Chicago. She and her husband, Bob also an attorney live on her grandparents farm near Dexter with their son. In addition to her work as county attorney, Bird serves as legal counsel to LS2, a Des Moines public affairs firm, and operates a private practice. Miller has won re-election handily, getting as much as 65 percent of the vote when hes had a Republican opponent. In 2010, when Bird then Brenna Finley challenged him, Miller received 54 percent of the vote to her 43 percent. But in announcing his re-election campaign in September, Miller warned against overconfidence. We never are, he said. And, of course, theres particularly no room for a Democrat to be overconfident in Iowa. Among the authoritarian overreach from the Biden administration and federal agencies that concern Bird are rules about masks, COVID-19 vaccinations and agriculture, and a lack of support for law enforcement. Bird disagrees with Bidens attempt to force vaccination rules on employers and their workers through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. I dont think the federal government has that power under OSHA to force people to get a shot to keep their job or for their employer to face massive fines, she said. Personally, she added, I chose to get a vaccine, but I didnt do it because the federal government told me to. Bird has a track record of standing up for what she calls conservative principles not only as county attorney, but also while serving as legal counsel to former Gov. Terry Branstad and then-Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds to oppose the radical overreach of the Obama administration. That included legal action against the Affordable Care Act and the fight against liberal states that were trying to dictate Iowas farm practices. I think that its important that we dont let the California Legislature or regulators define Iowa agricultural practices, Bird said. As attorney general, she said she would be an ally to Gov. Kim Reynolds in advocating for Iowa. I think our governor needs a partner in the Attorney Generals Office who can do what is best for the state of Iowa, Bird said. As county attorney, Bird prosecutes criminals and works with victims, and I stand for law enforcement. I think right now, law enforcement is under attack, even more than they ever have been, she said. Its always been a tough job, and they need a champion in the Attorney Generals Office who understands what its like to be in law enforcement. She also believes that after 38 years as attorney general, Tom Miller has lost touch with where Iowans are on the issues. I think this is a year when Iowans are looking to hire a good lawyer who will fight back and stand up for them, Bird said. For more on her campaign, visit https://birdforiowa.com/ Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Frank Zuccarelli, a south suburban power broker who ran one of the states most influential political organizations, died Monday. He was 70. Zuccarelli was Thornton Township supervisor since 1993, where he ran public assistance programs that helped some of the states neediest people. He also headed a powerful political machine that inspired countless visits from political hopefuls looking to get a boost at the ballot box and drew criticism for waste and patronage. Advertisement Frank Zuccarelli, shown in 2015, Democratic Party power broker in the south suburbs and Thornton Township supervisor since 1993, died Monday. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune) Under Zuccarellis leadership, Thornton Township ran a large food pantry, hosted events at a Calumet City senior center and hired young people to mow lawns. He, in turn, would give workers shirts branded with Zuccarelli Assistance Program and referred to his political allies as the Z Team. I really do love the people, Zuccarelli told the Daily Southtown in a 2016 tour of his area where residents mobbed him for hugs, kisses, and handshakes. I dont have to fake it. Advertisement He also was chairman of South Suburban Colleges board of trustees since 1987 and was active in the Cook County Democratic Party, where he controlled the most votes within the party. Zuccarelli was a supporter of Barack Obamas Senate campaign in 2004, even as other Democratic Party leaders supported Daniel Hynes. Obama later paid him back by campaigning for Zuccarelli and praising his organization. Everybody here, I think, recognizes what you have, Obama said. Zuccarelli also threw his support behind Kim Foxxs successful primary challenge to Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez in 2016. Deb Kopec, executive director of Thornton Township under Zuccarelli from 1994 to 2012, described him as a leader who believed in people and didnt want to disappoint them. Thornton Township Supervisor Frank Zuccarelli, standing left, speaks to Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs during the Cook County Democratic Committee slating meeting on Dec. 14, 2021, at IBEW Local 134. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) He loved people and people loved him. Whether it was staff, residents coming in, I used to call him the kissing supervisor because he always had to hug someone and kiss them on the cheek and welcome them and wanting to help, Kopec said. He always said, People need a chance. Some need more than once chance. He believes everyone makes mistakes and deserves a reset. He was very open to all people, no matter what their circumstances were. Zuccarelli started his political career as a close ally of former state Rep. Frank Giglio, who feuded with Zuccarellis predecessor as supervisor, Frederick Redell. Zuccarelli defeated Redell, a two-term incumbent, by 51% to 49% in 1993 after a contentious race that included accusations that a candidates heart attack was brought on by Zuccarelli workers plastering the mans car with stickers. Advertisement At least 800 signs were also stolen and defaced on both sides of the campaign. Two men Zuccarelli called a marginal part of his campaign were arrested for some of the thefts. Zuccarelli had a falling-out with Giglio, however, and Giglio challenged him for township supervisor in 2001 but lost after a campaign where they exchanged a stream of insults, accusations and personal attacks as each jockeyed to obtain the upper hand in their long-standing battle to take control of the townships Democratic organization. Sign up for The Spin to get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Giglio accused Zuccarelli of misspending township funds on political events, rewarding political cronies and supporters with high-paying jobs or contracts and spreading his influence over local school boards and municipalities by getting some of his political allies elected to those bodies. Zuccarelli described Giglio as the type of person who tries to shove things down peoples throats and get them to always do things his way. Giglio this week said he didnt recall the rancor between them and praised Zuccarelli for keeping Thornton Township as one of the best townships in Cook County. Advertisement Politics was all his life. He really worked hard at it, that Ive got to say, and he built the township up from when he was president and a member of the South Suburban College. That was his base, Giglio said. From there, he helped a lot of people. U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly praised Zuccarelli as someone who always seemed like the old-school tough guy in a lot of ways but I know he really loved Thornton and was committed to the township and the college. He definitely was a power broker and you could see when he had his events, how many people came out. I remember Michelle Obama coming to one of his pasta Sunday spaghetti dinners that everybody came to, Kelly added. He commanded a lot of respect in the political world. Zuccarelli endured other controversies as township supervisor, though he remained popular with voters. He spent more than $106,000 on an advertising push aimed at garnering support for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to a South Carolina church that was the site of a tragic 2015 mass shooting, the Southtown previously reported. Advertisement The townships ad purchases followed a $46,000 taxpayer-funded trip to South Carolina by Zuccarelli and 14 others that also drew criticism as wasteful. Zuccarelli had said the four-day trips main purpose was to get knowledge from the people directly in Charleston as to why their reaction was so much different than the reactions in Ferguson and Baltimore, a reference to police-involved killings of young African Americans in those cities that generated nationwide outrage and violent protests. Then, last month, as Cook County Democrats weighed whether to endorse Alexi Giannoulias for secretary of state, Zuccarelli acknowledged there was tension among committee members over filling a post that has had a Black incumbent since 1998 with a white male Giannoulias rivals are all people of color. Zuccarelli said while incumbent Jesse White may have started out being best known as an African American politician, he ended up as the finest executive in the secretary of states office that weve ever seen. We truly do need somebody who stands in Jesse Whites place, that can take his place, regardless of their color, Zuccarelli said. In an interview this week, party chair Toni Preckwinkle praised Zuccarelli as a real heavyweight in the south suburbs and noted he retained his electoral popularity even as the region changed demographically. Advertisement He was a white person who was responsible for an overwhelmingly African American constituency in Thornton Township and was beloved by everybody. If hed run for committeeperson again, (hed have won), Preckwinkle said. That says something about the way in which he served the people he was responsible for and their regard to him. Zuccarelli told the Southtown he would sometimes clash with leaders in communities, such as Markham and Dolton, who resented his presence as a white politician in a changing area. In some cases, they say, You dont belong in my town. I say to them, This is my town too, you understand, Zuccarelli had said. This is Thornton Township and anything we can do as Thornton Township to assist the people, thats what the purpose of our government is for us to provide assistance with social services. gpratt@chicagotribune.com DES MOINES -- With Iowas workforce still lagging behind the pre-pandemic level of filling jobs, lawmakers feel compelled to take action when they return next week to the Capitol for the 2022 legislative session but just how theyll do that is yet unknown. Legislative leaders acknowledged the need for more workers, which is an issue not unique to Iowa. They also acknowledged many different ways they could attempt to help address it: job training and preparation programs, boosting access to affordable housing and child care, cutting taxes or coaxing Iowans off unemployment and food assistance programs. But details were scarce in interviews with the governor and legislative leaders on how to proceed. Any plans, apparently, will have to wait to cement during the legislative session. I dont go anywhere, and the members of the (Iowa House Republican) caucus dont go anywhere, where that isnt probably the No. 1 topic of conversation --- Republican, Democrat, independent --- all across the state, said Pat Grassley, the Republican House speaker from New Hartford. Ive said any idea that anyone has needs to be looked at, Grassley said. That doesnt mean theyre all going to happen. That doesnt mean theyre all good ideas. But we have to be putting ideas on the table. While a shortage in filling jobs is not unique to Iowa, the issue persists here. In January 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, there were 1.68 million Iowans in the workforce, and the share of Iowans working was 70 percent, according to state workforce data. In November 2021, the last month for which state workforce data is available, there were 85,600 fewer Iowans in the workforce, and the share of Iowans working was down more than 3 percentage points, to 66.8 percent. It is a No. 1 issue that we hear when we travel the state, when we talk to Iowans, and we certainly want to do whatever we can from a legislative perspective to help that, said Jack Whitver, the Republican Senate majority leader from Ankeny. Whatever we can do to try to help those that dont have jobs get into the workforce, into jobs that are not just jobs but careers, that they can be successful. Gov. Kim Reynolds said she plans to introduce what she called a comprehensive bill to address the states workforce. That is all business and industry talked to me about when traveling the state, and in communities, I dont care what size, small, medium or large, Reynolds said. Workforce is by far their biggest issue. Reynolds announced her pending legislative proposal Tuesday during a session forum hosted by the Iowa Capitol Press Association. But said she does not intend to offer any details until next Tuesdays annual Condition of the State address. Its just an overall theme, because its impacting everything we do, Reynolds said. Reynolds did say her plan will involve working with refugee communities; helping underrepresented Iowans get job skills; supporting adult education; addressing access to affordable child care, housing and broadband internet; and making further changes to the states unemployment system. Reynolds and the state workforce development department already have implemented some changes to the unemployment system. Iowans receiving jobless benefits must now conduct more work search activities and work with a case manager, who will help Iowans receiving benefits conduct those work searches. A spokesman for Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend said the department will defer to Reynolds on potential legislative solutions until after the governors address. Our goal with (the new unemployment program) is to give unemployed workers both extra help and extra incentive to find a new career path as quickly as possible, Townsend said in a statement issued with the earlier changes. Iowa needs its people working, and well do whatever we can to help get you there. Whitver said one way Senate Republicans will attempt to address a shortage is through the groups ongoing effort to get Iowans off government assistance and into the workforce. Republicans say the changes will help employers find workers and help those Iowans get jobs that will improve their lives. But critics contend changes to those programs could push out people who need that assistance in order to survive. Thats one thing that weve been big on for five years now, but its even more appropriate now, or more needed now with the lack of workers in almost every field, Whitver said. Jennifer Konfrst, the Democratic House minority leader from Windsor Heights, said lawmakers should put more funding into programs designed to help child care centers create more openings, support child care workers and create more access to affordable housing. Konfrst also criticized majority Republicans for over the past five years pursuing a conservative agenda that, she alleges, has made Iowa appear unwelcoming to people from other states who may have considered moving here. Workforce isnt something that gets fixed by one magic bullet solution. It gets fixed by making Iowa a place people want to move and people want to work, Konfrst said. Its not just one thing. And over the years, especially recently, the Legislature has introduced bills that make Iowa an unwelcoming place. Zach Wahls, the Democratic Senate minority leader from Coralville, also highlighted housing issues --- including at mobile home parks where rent has increased dramatically in recent years --- and child care. He also said Senate Democrats will advocate for continued investment in job training and preparation programs. Were going to focus on career and technical education, apprenticeships, making sure that we are investing in the last-dollar scholarship and community colleges, Wahls said. Those job preparation (programs), that bucket is a big one. The 2022 session of the Iowa Legislature is scheduled to begin Monday. The session does not have a defined end date, but funding for legislators travel and lodging expenses expires after April 19, the 100th day of the session. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 They were the great train robberies of Omaha and Council Bluffs. Either heist would make for a great movie. One had South Omaha schoolchildren finding the robbers roost and the schools janitors the stash. The other was the biggest mail-train robbery in the United States at the time. It was a Saturday night in May 1909. The Union Pacifics Overland Limited passenger train, which had a mail car, was eastbound to the old Union Station. The railroad was using its relatively new Lane Cut-Off, which Interstate 80 now follows between I-480 and I-680. As the train was approaching 42nd Street in the still-existing deep cut, five bandits stopped it. Two went to the engine cab to control the fireman and engineer and others entered the mail car. When a mail clerk handed one of them a mail sack, which contained nothing of value, the bandit tossed it aside and said, Hell, I dont want that sack. Wheres the Reno sack? How did he know among the seven pouches taken by his gang that some had originated in Reno, Nevada? None were destined for Omaha. There were three Omaha and Ogden, Utah, pouches destined for New York City, Washington and Chicago. The two Reno pouches were for Chicago and New York. There were two Pocatello and Portland pouches for Chicago and that citys northwest terminal. Most of the passengers were unaware of the robbery. The conductor had gone toward the engine as soon as the train stopped, but Youve come far enough and better go back, shouted one of the bandits. He fired a warning shot in the direction of the conductor, who retreated. The conductor then maintained calm by instructing the brakeman and porters that if asked, they were to tell the passengers that the train was tied up by a switch engine. John P. Maurer, however, was in the observation car and was wise to the unexpected stop. Having $486 on him, he jumped off the train and hid in the weeds until daylight and the sheriff took him into town. Several days later, Brown Park School students John Krolik and John Swoboda and 19-year-old Frank Kudrna separately found revolvers in a gulch near the school at 19th and U streets. Police found more evidence. They hid into the night and captured three of the five suspects when they returned to their lair. The next afternoon in the school attic, janitors John Vavra and A.R. Bentz found six large and two small mail sacks and other items stolen in the robbery. Since the haul had been less than $1,000, the bandits likely needed a place to stash the evidence. Those convicted of the robbery were Frank Grigware, Donald W. Woods, Fred Torgensen, Lawrence F. Golden and Bill Matthews. In 2014, the Spokane Spokesman-Review wrote that the five man all had ties to Spokane. They moved as a group to Hot Springs, Arkansas; Memphis; and Kansas City. Golden, Torgensen and Woods often disappeared, and their absences coincided with train robberies. Their last move together was to Omaha just weeks before the train robbery. Golden was four years into a life sentence when he was exonerated. President Wilson pardoned him. Grigwar escaped from federal prison in Leavenworth in 1910 in a jail break that used a hijacked supply train. He avoided capture until 1934, when he was arrested in Alberta for poaching while using the alias of Jim Fahey. The FBIs new international fingerprint exchange turned up a match. But he never was extradited, and he became a school board chairman and a small-town mayor before his death in 1977 at 91. As for the Brown Park preteen sleuths, John Krolik, John Swoboda, Harry Whitaker, John Patach and Anton Kubat (the last three had found an electric flash lantern tied to the crime) received rewards of $2,000 apiece. Krolik also was paid $131 to travel to Boise to assist in the identification of Matthews. Eleven years after the Union Pacific robbery, four men between 17 and 23 from Council Bluffs (and five persons who were accused of being accessories) engaged in a mail-car heist that eventually was reported as $3.5 million. At 6 p.m. Nov. 13, 1920, train number eight moved eastward between the Union Pacific Transfer and the Burlington Station six blocks away. As the train moved slowly through the transfer, three men in work clothes climbed on. Mearl Phillips, 20, a mail piler for the Burlington, knew the engineer, Alonzo Quinby of Creston, Iowa, and entered the cab to start a diversion conversation. Fred Poffenberger, 19, and Orville Phillips, 19, and Mearls brother, entered a storage mail car that had 130 sacks. Behind that car was one occupied by mail clerks. The getaway driver, in a stolen car, was Keith Collins, 23. Poffenberger and the younger Phillips tossed out sacks, which Collins gathered up. The total reached 10 by the time the train reached the station and Collins picked up the two men. But he missed one of the sacks, which railyard workers spotted. Thats how the robbery was discovered as the train continued toward Chicago. That night, the loot of securities (possibly including $500,000 in easily negotiable Liberty bonds) and $50,000 in 50 packages of $10 bills was divvied up. Collins kept five sacks and $25,000. The remaining four sacks and the other $25,000 went to the other three men. The Phillips brothers sacks were said to contain more than $432,000 in canceled securities. No one but Collins knew what his sacks held. They were skittish. They hoped for a few hundred dollars and hit a jackpot. They were desperate to hide the loot. A pack of $20s was dug up in a chicken yard. A handful of diamonds was found in a corner of an old kitchen because the men didnt recognize their value. Money was stashed in an old churn covered over with hogs lard, a secret hiding place under a stairway and in the manger of an old stable. The engineer had a hunch Mearl Phillips had diverted his attention for a reason and when the train reached Creston, Quinby told a Burlington special agent, You get Mearl Phillips. He knows all about that robbery. As most of the very amateurish gang was ratting out each other, Collins left town and a national manhunt began. He turned up at the home of an uncle near Westville, Oklahoma, two weeks after the robbery. His $25,000 was in a frying pan in his Council Bluffs home. Collins went to federal prison on a 25-year sentence. Poffenberger got 20 years, Orville Phillips 13. Eventually all but $2,565 of the $50,000 was recovered. None of the stolen securities turned up and many likely were burned. As for the Liberty bonds, lore has it that they were thrown off the old Douglas Street bridge into the Missouri River. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 In the pantheon of deliberately petulant policies from red-state leaders eager to show the base how recklessly they will resist pandemic safety measures, one stands out: A handful of Republican-led states, including Iowa, now offer unemployment benefits to workers who get fired for refusing to abide by their employers vaccine mandates. Other red states, including Missouri, may soon join them. Its a pandering stunt that puts Republican politicians at odds not only with public health experts, but with the business community they supposedly revere. As we wrote in early November, Missouri Gov. Mike Parsons consideration of such a policy would effectively reward those who selfishly risk spreading the coronavirus to coworkers and customers, while sticking their employers with the bill. Thats because its the employers who pay into the unemployment pool that those workers would draw from. Normally, only workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own qualify for unemployment. What Parson has pondered, and what at least five other states have done, according to a recent Washington Post roundup, is to change those rules so that workers fired for deliberately violating their employers workplace rules regarding vaccination can collect unemployment which the employers ultimately pay for. In case that scenario isnt galling enough, consider the context: Most of these Republican states, including Iowa and Missouri, earlier cut off enhanced unemployment benefits to workers who had been displaced by the pandemic, as a lever to force them to get back to work. So a worker who is hesitant to return to the job for fear of being infected by a deadly virus is undeserving of unemployment benefits. But one who gets fired for refusing to take a simple, basic step to prevent transmission of that virus gets to start cashing checks. Welcome to the upside-down world of Republican politics today. The sick irony doesnt stop there. The GOP has long fancied itself the pro-business party, endlessly pontificating about the importance of letting private businesses run their own affairs, free from government-created costs. Yet the five red states that have done this so far Iowa, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas and Tennessee are effectively punishing private businesses for making the choice to impose responsible pandemic policies, by forcing them to pay unemployment to workers fired for violating those policies. We dont want to see undue costs brought into play as a result of this, Missouri Chamber of Commerce President Dan Mehan told the Post, explaining why his organization will be in the unusual position this year of doing battle with the states Republican leaders, should they attempt to join the list of states that reward pandemic recklessness on business dime. Mehan added: Usually, this threat is not coming from the Republican side. But in todays GOP, business autonomy, like public health, must be sacrificed for the political imperative of pandering to the base. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Emancipator, an abolitionist newspaper, was born in the 19th century at a time when many Americans were challenging the institution of slavery. Now, the Emancipator is being reborn as a publication that dares to imagine an America without racism. The project is being launched by the Boston Globe and is set to begin publication in the new year. Veteran journalist Amber Payne is coeditor in chief of the Emancipator, along with Deborah Douglas. On Fridays episode of A Word, Payne spoke with us about the Emancipators history and its vision for an anti-racist American future. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Advertisement Jason Johnson: So what is the Emancipator and whats the history of the original one? Amber Payne: Its a collaboration between the Boston Globes opinion team and Boston Universitys Center for Antiracist Research, which is run by Ibram Kendi, who many know and many read his work, especially in the last year, on how to be anti-racist. So the idea is were rebooting this idea of this abolitionist newspaper and taking the best of scholarship, commentary, data journalism, and stories from real lived experiences, from real people, to imagine a way forward. So were taking a little bit of a page from the solutions-journalism approach here and reframing this conversation on racial justice and equity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And if you look at the original, there were seven editions of the Emancipator that were produced by William Lloyd Garrison. That paper and the other abolitionist newspapers at the time, they were radical. And they were using this format, the newspapers, to get in peoples faces about rejecting these compromises. And these abolitionist newspaper editors, like Garrison, they were actually persecuted for being so bold to imagine this world where slavery just could end like that. Whats the difference between anti-racist journalism that youre going to do in the Emancipator and just reporting on race and racism? Because I think thats a distinction that a lot of people dont understand. If you simply talk about the injustices from some police department, that aint the same thing as being anti-racist. How do you explain that to your readers? Advertisement Advertisement What we are going to be doing is giving history and context behind something. OK, you want to use the racist police department. Looking at the history of where that comes from, racist policing. You have your straightforward breaking news approachI worked in breaking news for 10 yearswhere youre really giving the facts. And what were looking at is giving the facts, giving the context, letting people know if theres a through line that they might be able to track through history to help them understand someones attitude differently or better. Advertisement Part of the anti-racist newsroom and anti-racist journalism approach, were really defining this and figuring this out right now. But it is about going beyond just telling people what happened, and thats why we do have the commentary. Were calling it commentary instead of opinion, partly because sometimes that evokes especially to traditional news folks that its a rant that is not evidence-based. So its evidence-based opinion and explaining how policies are born, how they thrive, and how they can be deconstructed, if necessary. It does speak to what Dr. Kendi, who is a co-founder of the Emancipator, has been a proponent of. The idea is that its not the people, its the policies. How do we deconstruct the policies? Lets take a step further and not just report on them, but talk about how do we break them down and build them back up in a better way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whos the Emancipator for? Who is the audience that you are targeting, at least initially, with this new outlet? Were looking at targeting anyone who was convicted after the George Floyd incident, after his murder. Anyone who has mobilized, wanted to learn more, wanted to do more, wanted to understand and take a deeper look at racial inequality and how that actually does impact not only Black and brown people, but everyone. And so were really looking at this 20- to 45-year-old range of people who, yes, there are the Black people You preach to the choir, so that you can get that refrain. The choir needs to be armed too, with the understandings on the history of inequality in our country. I learn something every day. I have learned so much. And Im like, OK. Ive been covering marginalized communities. Ive been really a student of this history for a long time. And Im still learning things that are helping me to process the world around me, the conversations that Ive had with friends and family, and feel like, How do I equip myself to have those conversations instead of just push them to the side? In the more recent couple years, I felt like, Im going to have a perspective. Im going to take a side on this in some way, take a side for humanity. And if I see that someones not on the side of humanity, Im going to say something. Now, we can do that with journalism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were not here to cater to the white gaze in terms of really like, OK. Were going to take your hand, and were going to really break this down for you and pat you on the back. Its like, Hey, were this resource. You said you wanted to learn more and be a better human. Advertisement Its partly equipping people. How do you speak up at your PTA meeting when everybodys up there talking about critical race theory? What do you say? Or the neighbor next to you that you have been avoiding those conversations with, maybe you want to keep avoiding it. But how do you communicate that? And I see its a multiracial group of people were reaching because there are those people who are not the Black and brown people, who do want to read, learn, and do something. And so while we can equip them with, I keep saying history and context, but I just feel like the contextthere is so much reporting that is devoid of context. And that is part of why we are where we are. Because for a while, journalists were dancing around it. Advertisement Advertisement I remember in 2015, I was still overseeing NBCBLK at NBC Digital. And just the idea of using the word racist in a headline, Racist incident, and, How do we call Trumps lies? and Do we call him racist? And an executive that I worked with, we were speaking to some UVA students of the media studies persuasion, and someone had a question like, Well, why arent you calling out racism more blatantly? And this executive actually said, Im not in the business of calling people racists. So that happened. I was taken aback at that, and Im like, Well, I am in the business of calling out racist incidents and explaining why they are racist. And that gets to the path of, how did we get here and where do we go? Advertisement I want to continue with this idea that so much of Americas current racial interest has been sparked by what happened with George Floyd, and that was after years and years of other instances of violence and everything else like that. The pushback sometimes is that that interest is fleeting, right? The Emancipator is also launching at this time where theres this fear that this was a fad. How does this new outlet play a role in keeping the death of George Floyd from being just a moment to being part of a movement? Because thats what I think a lot of people are nervous about right now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is what were going to do every day. There has been an increase of coverage around racial equity injustice. And every outlet has their racial justice newsletter now. I have signed up for all of them. I enjoy them. And you have your writers, you have your Atlantic pieces, but thats still not at the focus of what these news outlets are doing. And this is our focus. This is what we are. This is our mission. Its refreshing to me that we can commit to that because Ive worked in legacy media companies for a long time where you just wait for those moments like, All right. Black History Month is coming. Advertisement And it is fleeting. And theres a knee-jerk reaction that I am tired of in journalism. And I cant help but have noticed in March 2020, as the pandemic was hitting, companies were making cuts. And there were some jobs that were geared toward racial equity editors and senior producers and that I took note of. And then those jobs went away because of the pandemic. And then by summer, after the uprisings, those jobs were back. And every Black journalists phone was ringing off the hook. Theres the level of news executives and newsrooms who are like, OK. Now we get it. We do want to cover this. We need to cover it. Is it for all the right reasons, because they believe in the storytelling? Or is it because they know that they have to do this now? Advertisement Advertisement Feet have been held to the fire on having this coverage being part of your mission and folded into what you do in the newsroom. If you dont do that, youre going to get called out by your employees or by other surrounding networks. So I fully believe that this is needed and that theres a high interest. Of course, I have that fear that people are going to move on. But its about keeping that drum beat. Its about keeping out there. And so I feel like were filling a void and filling a gap, because you can go to different outlets and different writers that you like to read, but having one publication that is really focused on this is going to be hopefully helpful. Listen to the entire episode below, or subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. Renting in Philadelphia worked out well for Benjamin Franklin: The citys favorite son arrived in 1723 and promptly fell in love with his landlords daughter, whom he later married. Rarely has it worked out so well since. Prior to the pandemic, landlords in the City of Brotherly Love filed between 1,500 and 2,000 evictions every month. But that number understates the number of renters forced from their homes; according to research from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, more than two in three forced moves nationally happen without a judges say-so. Landlords have other methods to make tenants go. Advertisement Phillys housing insecurity is both a function and a cause of the citys distinction as the poorest big city in America. In a paper published last year, the professors David A. Hoffman and Anton Strezhnev illuminate the conflict between landlords and tenants by analyzing 171,306 leases from almost two decades of eviction filings in Philly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What they found: Most leases are not good for tenants, and theyre getting worse. Hoffman, who teaches contracts at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, said Philadelphias bad leases are part of a larger trend. All we do is talk about how contracts have been transformed by technology, he told me. More contracts, over more terms, in more fields. Go shopping, get in a cab, make a reservation at a restaurant, go to a hotelthere are contracts everywhere and they all contain worse terms for you than if you didnt have a contract at all. The contracts we sign are just bonkers. Advertisement Advertisement In the case of the Philadelphia lease, Hoffman and Strezhnev found that what they call unenforceable and oppressive terms are very, very common. Those include sections that let the landlord off the hook for negligence, that waive existing rules about housing conditions, or that allow evictions to begin faster than state law dictates. Those terms might not hold up in court, but again, most people get evicted out of court. And tenants dont know that their lease might not withstand legal scrutiny. Worse yet, those terms are becoming more and more common. A plurality of the leases that Hoffman and Strezhnev surveyed are so-called shared leases, cookie-cutter forms that are spreading as landlords increasingly use free PDFs they find online. That may explain one of the curious trends in the data, which is that anti-tenant terms are more common in Philadelphias wealthier, whiter neighborhoods. Meanwhile, landlords in Phillys poorer, Blacker neighborhoods are apparently more likely to stick with the leases theyve got. Advertisement But thats not to say theres no racial bias in the terms. Provisions that threaten eviction for drug use or criminality are much more likely to show up in Black tenants leases even within a single neighborhood, despite the fact that almost all landlords give the same leases to all their tenants. This might reflect a different kind of racial sorting: Black renters in Philly may end up in apartment buildings with professional landlords, while white renters let second units from row house owners. Advertisement Advertisement One conclusion of the study is that housing advocates shouldnt count on the courts to stop landlords from writing shady lease terms. These leases ended up in court, but most do not. Another is to put pressure on the organizations, such as the Philadelphia Association of Realtors, that publish local lease PDFs for public use. Hoffman, for his part, is drafting what he says is a model lease hed like tenant organizations to approve and the city of Philadelphia to adopt. Whats the incentive for landlords? Hes still working on that, but he thinks maybe just getting the city stamp of approval would be enough to make a difference. Landlords may not be thinking that hard about their leases. More likely theyve just grabbed the first thing they saw online. On Dec. 19, Donald Trump told an audience at an event with Bill OReilly in Dallas that hed gotten a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. Some of the people in the crowd booed, and the ex-president took guff in the following days from some his supporters, many of whom reject the vaccine and believe that public health responses to COVID are, at best, hysterical overreactions being driven by know-it-all liberals. Trump frequently takes that position himself but, per his remarks at the event and other comments that OReilly made later, is annoyed that hes not getting enough personal credit for the vaccines having been developed under the auspices of his administration. Advertisement Initially, the backlash against Trumps statement mostly took place in the far-right, more overtly conspiracy-oriented part of the MAGA world, with his critics including Jan. 6 organizer Ali Alexander, QAnon guy Ron Watkins, and Infowars proprietor Alex Jones, whose site, I never tire of writing, has aired accusations that NASA is running child slavery colonies on Mars. The most mainstream-ish figures to express disappointment about the vaccine endorsement were probably cartoonist Ben Garrison and social media content farm pundit Candace Owens, although Owens said it wasnt Trumps fault that he was wrong about the issue because hes too old to do his own research online. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. But! On Dec. 30, the Twitter account run by the House Judiciary Committees Republican minority posed the following question: If the booster shots work, why dont they work? The ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee is Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a hardcore MAGA guy who, for better or for worse, is part of the elected Republican mainstream. His committees tweet highlighted a confrontation between the MAGA value of being dismissive about COVID and the MAGA value of defending anything that Trump does or says. It was a test of whether the movement has become too big for Trump to direct unilaterally. Advertisement Advertisement The result of the test was that the Judiciary Republicans account swiftly deleted the tweet in question after it started getting circulated. A spokesman for Jordan did not respond to a request to clarify his position on vaccine efficacy over the most recent holiday weekend. Donald Trump: still No. 1! As to why the Judiciary Committee GOP caucus was posting about the vaccine effectiveness issue in the first place, a perusal of its feed shows that its adopted the increasingly standard Republican approach of prioritizing the production of anti-Biden, anti-lib social media content above all other governing-related activities. Here is one of its latest retweets, for example: Make Gas Cheap Again. RT if you agree. Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) January 4, 2022 Conservative jurisprudence at its finest! When I was inside the Capitol riot last Jan. 6, the crowd and the chaos looked different than any other event I had documented in the Trump era. Some rioters acted like revelers at a party; others were attacking journalists and destroying whatever they could find. Still others appeared to have had even more sinister plans. They seemed to be all ages and from all parts of the country, and all had different stories to tell me. This was far removed from the Trump rallies that reporters had been warily attending for years by then. It felt impossible to understand what was really happening in the momentand what could happen next. Advertisement Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, sought data in that chaos. When the earliest arrests came after the riot, Pape began collecting information and systemically profiled the makeup of the rioters. He devoted much of the year to the project, and hes published extensively on what he and his team have found, including research that tied rioters home counties to the areas that had lost the most white population in recent years. Pape now says a much fuller picture of the insurrectionists has emerged, and he agreed to discuss the findings over the phone, one year later. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aymann Ismail: There was a lot of immediate speculation into what drove the rioters on Jan. 6. For example, some suggested they were motivated by financial insecurity or a hunger for anti-government violence beyond the election results. What were you expecting when you first started to research this? Did you have any initial theories? Advertisement Advertisement Robert Pape: It was clear the Capitol insurrection was right-wing political violence, so a lot of our basic knowledge of right-wing violence kicked in. Experts in political violence naturally assumed that right-wing political violence was largely a skinhead or militia group phenomenon. Thats actually true, but it was not true on Jan. 6. What we now know based on a more systematic analysis of who has been arrestedand our study that we published in the Atlantic in early February of last year was the first to really weigh this outis that Jan. 6 is really not a product of just the fringe. There was fringe involvedthat is, there were some militia groups involved and there were some extremist groups involvedbut overwhelmingly, the data shows that this is coming from the mainstream. Advertisement "The more the county votes for Trump, the less likely was the county to send an insurrectionist." Robert Pape If you go back and study whom the FBI has arrested with right-wing ideologies who perpetrated violence in the past, you would see that more than half the time, they are members of skinhead gangs or prison gangs or militia groups or extremist groups, like the Proud Boys. In this case, its only 13 percent of those who have been arrested are parts of those groups. A common assumption like you mentioned is that they would be economically motivated, because our right-wing extremists are typically 25 percent, or a third, unemployed. Another common assumption is that they wouldnt have much education, because with our typical right-wing extremists, only 10 percent have a college degree. Thats not the case here. Only 7 percent of the people arrested were unemployed at the time of Jan. 6. That was basically the national average at the time. Its very different than the economic profile of right-wing extremists in the United States, and elsewhere as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Your initial study looked at about 200 people who had been arrested. Since then, that number has swelled to about 730. What has emerged as the profile of the average rioter, a year later? What are some of the stories youve uncovered, and what do they tell us about what led to this? Weve now studied nearly 700 who have been arrested, and weve brought the study up to date as of early December. What we see is, over half of those who have been arrested are business owners, CEOs from white-collar occupations, doctors, lawyers, and architects. If you look at extremist group membership, again, 13 percent of those nearly 700 arrested as of early December are members of militia groups like the Oath Keepers or extremist groups like the Proud Boys. As I said, this is very different than about half that we normally find. Advertisement If you look at their ages, two-thirds of those arrested for Jan. 6 are over the age of 34. Theyre concentrated in their 40s and 50s. Normally for right-wing extremists, its two-thirds under the age of 34. Typically, only 10 percent have a college degree. Here, the Jan. 6 arrestees, 25 percent have a college degree, which is close to the national average of the U.S. electorate at 30 percent. About 15 percent of those on Jan. 6 had prior U.S. military service, but that compares with what we usually see in right-wing extremists at 40 percent. About 10 percent of the U.S. electorate has prior military service, so its a little higher than that, but much closer to the U.S. mainstream than to the usual right-wing extremists. What if we look at criminal history? Well, 30 percent of those arrested on Jan. 6 had prior criminal history, mostly for misdemeanors like marijuana charges, but with other right-wing extremists, its 64 percent have prior criminal history. The U.S. electorate overall has 20 percent with criminal history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When you look at this, its just one category after another after another that shouts out mainstream. The Jan. 6 insurrectionists really are best understood as a product of the mainstream. Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. In April, you presented a theory that counties with the most significant declines in the non-Hispanic white population were the most likely to produce insurrectionists. Did that theory hold up? What we found in April has just been reinforced over time. In the court records, the residence data is right there. We dont have fuzziness with this. As of early December, what we found is 52 percent are coming from counties that Biden won in the 2020 election. That is, more are coming from counties Biden won than Trump won. They were coming from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York Citynot upstate New YorkPhiladelphia, Houston, Dallas. They are a political minority in the places that they live. This is really quite striking. The more the county votes for Trump, the less likely was the county to send an insurrectionist. The more rural, the less likely to send an insurrectionist. Advertisement Now, what else do those counties have in common? The No. 1 feature of the county sending insurrectionists, aside from simply the size of the population overall, is that these are the counties losing the most white population in the United States. The more counties have lost non-Hispanic white population since 2010that is, between 2010 and 2020the significantly more likely is the county to send an insurrectionist. Advertisement There is a right-wing conspiracy theory called the great replacement, which says that white people are being overtaken by minorities and that this is going to cause a loss of rights for white people. It used to be on the fringe. Its been around a long time, but whats special now is that that theory is embraced in full-throated fashion by major political leaders and also by major media figures. If you live in an area thats losing white population, you can start yourself to connect the dots to the spinning thats going around with these narratives. Advertisement Advertisement You call the rioters mainstream compared to most right-wing extremists, but how mainstream are these beliefs among an average American voter? Right away we wanted to know how widespread these insurrectionist sentiments are in the body politic. We conducted nationally representative surveys. We didnt just simply draw people from a list of registered voters. We worked with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, who put together a panel of 40,000 people that are representative of the 258 million American adults in the country across hundreds of demographic variables. From that 40,000, we then randomly drew 2,000 to get a random sample. This is the gold standard of surveys. These are superexpensive, but they are the way to get accurate extrapolations of surveys to the general population. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What weve found now in multiple surveys, our summer survey and our fall survey, is that 21 million American adults agree with two radical beliefs: one, that the use of force to restore Donald Trump to the presidency is justified, and two, that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election and is an illegitimate president. That is, 21 million dont hold just one of those beliefsthey hold both of those beliefs. Its 8 percent of the body politic, but thats really significant. That really cant easily be characterized as just the fringe. We normally would think the fringe would be 1 percent or less. "What were seeing is really a quite stable 21 million who are in this insurrectionist movement." Robert Pape When you ask questions about their belief in the great replacement, you see that that is head and shoulders the No. 1 belief thats driving the difference between being in the 21 million versus being in the rest of the body politic. Yes, there are other beliefs: Many in the insurrectionist movement believe in the QAnon cult idea, that there is a satanic cult of pedophiles running the U.S. government. Many also fear loss of a job in the next 12 months. Many also believe that the second coming of Christ is happening within their lifetime. Many also think government is an enemy. But those are secondary factors. Head and shoulders, the leading factor is the belief in the great replacement. Underneath that, the No. 1 factor thats predicting whether someone believes in the great replacement versus not is racial resentmentthat is, specifically resentment of minorities who get what they see as special privileges. These fringe beliefs like the great replacement are now no longer confined to the fringe. This is overall a mainstream political movement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Is this a trend thats dying down now? Its been stable over time. You might think that after nine months or so, the insurrection, you would see that passions would cool, or you would see that arresting hundreds and hundreds of people, many of whom are going to serve jail time for breaking into the Capitol, would have a chilling effect on these insurrectionist sentiments, or that deplatforming Trump would deenergize the movement. What were seeing is really a quite stable 21 million who are in this insurrectionist movement. Further, weve asked questions about their activity, and fully 2 million of the 21 million report having been part of a protest in the last 12 months. This isnt just a set of latent beliefs. Theres real activity. Thats why this merits being called a movement. Advertisement I was inside the Capitol riot. I admit I was surprised by your findings in April, because I noted in my report the diversity I saw there. Id been to a lot of other Trump events that were very white, but there were plenty of people at the riot who werent. What do you make of that, given your research? Advertisement Advertisement I think that journalists are just a tremendous witness, but we often use them anecdotally. Were not really getting the most out of witnesses to history, so to speak, because the journalism world isnt really set up to do what Im describing in this broader survey. The academic world is not set up to do that either. There would be a real world of good that can be gained here by journalistic knowledge if done more systematically. When you have 700 people arrested, there are going to be really sensational stories that look great in the media, like the QAnon shaman with the funny headdress. The problem is that when people are reading them, theyre thinking that actually represents the movement as a whole. Well, thats really just not the case. The only way to find out really is this painstaking work. Advertisement Advertisement In order to see whether or not Jan. 6 is a one-off or not, this isnt just a guess. This isnt just spending a few weekends or doing it on the side while were teaching. The university was very generous in giving me time off here to devote myself to this. I have a research center here. I have nearly half dozen full-time researchers with Ph.D.s and other high qualifications at my research center, the Chicago Project on Security and Threats. We have a small little army of researchers, between 20 and 25 in any given week, that are able to really help us go through this painstaking work we have to do in order to really develop this work at this speed and also with such fidelity and such accuracy. The fuller picture we have now is the product of what we can really do with our social science tools. Advertisement Advertisement In your research, youve studied terrorism around the world, especially suicide terrorism, as you call it. Do you think these new mainstream far-right beliefs in the U.S. echo what youve seen other places? How so, and how is it different? Campaigns of terrorism often rest on a fair degree of community support for the legitimacy of the violence. Thats what we see here with 21 million basically thinking violence for these insurrectionists goals is legitimate. This is significant community support. Its that community support that makes the violent actors feel like theyre not criminals, that they actually have a popular mandate. Its that community support where that provides the well from which a lot of the violent actors come from. Advertisement Theres been a lot of speculation that this is largely a social media phenomenon. We have a tremendous amount of people in our law enforcement, in government, in the body politic, and even journalism, who are really focused on the role of social media and extremism. Myself, I have been doing that since 2014 with the rise of ISIS. My work has been about how ISIS has used social media to recruit in the United States and other countries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, this is a different phenomenon nowthat is, Jan. 6 and the current insurrectionist movement. Our nationally representative surveys also ask about the media consumption of people. What we see is in the 21 million, the No. 1 set of news sources are conservative mainstream news sources. Forty-two percent of the 21 million report that its Fox News, Newsmax, One America. Thats their major source of news. The next set of sources, 32 percent report that its liberal or centrist media like CNN, NPR, NBC. You might say, well, wait a minutehow could that be? Well, just keep in mind that weve known for a long time as scholars that when you watch news that you disagree with, it makes you angry. Advertisement Only 20 percent of these people report that their main sources are mainstream social media like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and only 10 percent report that its far right social media like Gab or Telegram. Thats really important, because if we keep thinking that this is mainly a social media phenomenon, that is its a fringe social media phenomenon, and that its also affecting the fringe of militia groups, we just keep painting the picture of the Jan. 6 insurrection as more and more the fringe when its in fact more and more the mainstream. Thats true across the demographics of the Jan. 6, thats true across the sentiments we can track in the body politic. Thats true in terms of their media consumption. What does an adequate response to this look like, to start at least? We need to have dialogue with our national leaders and community leaders over the real evidence about what this phenomenon is. This is a lot to absorb. Knee-jerk policy solutions that are intended to do any good can easily cause harm. Overreaction is as dangerous as underreaction. We need to have dialogue occur around the real evidence. Thats why this is important to use this period of time to not just talk about the past, what happened a year ago, but about where things are now, because that matters to the future. Were about to head into a volatile 2022 election season. You can think about the season as a wildfire season, where what Im describing for you is the combustible dry wood material that can be set off. What would set it off? That is not predictable with our social science tools. What we can track are the insurrectionist sentiments in the country and probe their scope and drivers. The best way to deal with this now is with dialogue. This story was originally published by High Country News and has been republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Silhouetted against an open-pit coal mine, steam billows from stacks at the Naughton Power Plant outside Kemmerer, Wyoming. For now, anyway; the coal units will retire in 2025. Ive been watching the town for a lot of years, since the railroad stopped using coal, and they said the town was dead then, said John Sawaya, a longtime resident and retired shop owner. Then one thing after another seemed to come in and keep the place going. Now, the new thing is nuclear energy. Advertisement Wyoming produces more coal than any other state, but low natural gas prices and a push for renewable energy caused production to fall by 21 percent in 2020. As coal revenue declines, leaders are looking to nuclear for help. TerraPower, a nuclear reactor company co-founded by Bill Gates, is partnering with power company PacifiCorp to open a 345-megawatt reactor in Kemmerer by 2028with a multibillion-dollar price tag, some of which will come from federal funds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Kemmerer plant, called a Natrium reactor, is one of several next generation nuclear reactors in the works for the West, along with plants in southern Washington and at the Idaho National Laboratory, even as aging reactors largely built in the 60s, 70s, and 80s are being retired. Both types of reactors generate power through fission, when uranium atoms collide with neutrons and split, releasing energy in the form of heat and radiation. But they use different materials to collect that heat and cool their cores: Traditional reactors use water, while a Natrium uses liquid sodium. (This is partly why older reactors are clustered east of the Mississippi River; they need access to surface water.) In a Natrium, heat is transferred to molten salt, to be either stored or used to generate power via steam turbines. Advertisement Advertisement Liquid sodium is safer because its boiling point is much higher than waters, which can help prevent meltdowns, said TerraPower spokesperson Jeff Navin. We wanted to create a reactor that is going to dramatically improve on the safety case of existing conventional technology. But not everyones convinced: A 2021 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists states that when it comes to both the likelihood of a catastrophic accident and the creation of nuclear waste, the new reactors fail to provide significant enough improvements to justify their considerable risks. Advertisement Sodium coolant can burn if water or air sneaks into closed chambers, and the reactors can experience hard-to-control rapid power increases, according to the group. TerraPower says its design will produce five times less waste by volume per megawatt hour than conventional reactors, because of TerraPower plants fuel efficiency. But a recent analysis by geochemist Lindsay Krall, who studies reactor waste, found that reactors using sodium instead of water result in a higher quantity of radioactive materials that need long-term storage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The project comes as utilities are trying to meet clean power goals across the Northwest. Wyoming supplies energy to states like Oregon and Washington, and maintaining those exports will require a shift toward sources that emit less carbon than coal does. I think whats really come together is a broader public recognition of the need to address climate change, said Alice Caponiti, who leads advanced reactor deployment for the U.S. Department of Energy. I do think thats a crystallizing focus. TerraPower honed in on Wyoming in part because its soon-to-be-retired coal plants offer infrastructure and a skilled workforce, according to Navin. In addition, many Wyomingites have already granted social license to industrial electricity generation. Theres a bucking horse on everything and a pride for producing energy [in Wyoming], said Scott Quillinan, senior research director at the University of Wyomings School of Energy Resources. A recent survey in Kemmerer, for example, found that the vast majority of respondents support the nuclear plant. A statewide survey by the University of Wyoming, however, found that many people want more information to better understand the likely trade-offs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That includes economic impacts. An estimated 1,600 coal jobs statewide could disappear over the next decade, and TerraPower says its plant will provide 2,000 construction jobs and 250 jobs operationally. But the bulk of coal revenue comes from sources other than jobscoal bonuses, severance taxes, and mineral royaltiesto the tune of $2 billion in 2020. Nuclear energy will only bolster local property taxes and state sales, and use taxes. The Wyoming Legislature recently passed a bill to tax nuclear energy at $5 per megawatt-hour, but TerraPowers facility is exempt. Theres going to be a revenue gap, said Shannon Anderson, a staff attorney at the Powder River Basin Resource Council. [Nuclear] is this shiny object that everyone seems really excited about, but its not the transition. Still, nuclear energy is giving Kemmerer residents hope. Sawaya believes the Natrium plant will be beneficialunless construction workers crowd his favorite fishing hole, that is. I think the town will still be here at the end of the next century, he said. Things keep changing, and so far the towns changed with em. CCTV: We noted that the 2022 New Year address by President Xi Jinping drew much attention from the international community. It has been given full coverage by international mainstream media quoting some of the most cited lines. So what is the significance of this address in guiding Chinas diplomacy? Wang Wenbin: Like many of you, I listened to President Xi Jinpings New Year address on the new years eve. President Xis address, with powerful words, courageous pledges, tender solicitude and good wishes, encapsulates his profound thinking about the future of China and beyond, demonstrates the responsibility of a major countrys leader for the world, inspires the over one billion Chinese people to fight for the future, and is warmly received by the international community. Just as President Xi Jinping noted in his New Year address, The past year has been a year of exceptional significance. In 2021, we experienced milestone events in the history of our Party and the Chinese nation, and also wrote a splendid new chapter in Chinas diplomacy. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and the strategic guidance of head-of-state diplomacy, China has made its contributions to promoting international anti-epidemic cooperation, presented opportunities for the realization of global economic recovery and provided strength for upholding international justice. This further demonstrates Chinas role as a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of the international order and a provider of public good. China has secured a complete victory in its fight against poverty and created a miracle in the history of poverty alleviation, making an important contribution to the world. China has provided two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to over 120 countries and international organizations, demonstrating its sense of responsibility as a major country. President Xi Jinping pointed out that only through unity, solidarity and cooperation can countries around the world write a new chapter in building a community with a shared future for mankind. In the coming year, we in the Chinese diplomatic service will follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy and hold high the banner of building a community with a shared future for mankind. Putting people first and with the well-being of the world in our mind and through vigorous and determined endeavor, we will press ahead with high morale and take concrete actions to create sound external environment for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and work together with all countries for a shared future and jointly open up a bright prospect for a community with a shared future for mankind. CCTV: On January 3, the leaders of the five Nuclear-Weapon States, namely China, Russia, the US, the UK and France, issued a Joint Statement on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Race, which has attracted international attention. What is Chinas comment? Wang Wenbin: At 9 p.m. on January 3, Beijing time, the leaders of the five Nuclear-Weapon States, namely China, Russia, the US, the UK and France, simultaneously issued a Joint Statement on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Race. The leaders affirmed that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought and reaffirmed that none of their nuclear weapons are targeted at each other or at any other State. They committed themselves to preserving and complying with bilateral and multilateral arms control agreements, and emphasized that the five States should avoid military confrontations and prevent arms race. China believes that this first Joint Statement by the leaders of the five Nuclear-Weapon States demonstrates the States political will to prevent a nuclear war. Their shared voice of maintaining global strategic stability and reducing the risk of nuclear conflicts is also conducive to forging major-country relations featuring overall stability and balanced development. China hopes that the five States can continue to enhance strategic mutual trust and strengthen communication and cooperation, and play a positive role in building a world with lasting peace and universal security. China has been advocating the principle that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. It effectively steered the five States toward joint actions. During the consultations of the Joint Statement, China made the case for including in the Joint Statement such key content as reaffirming that none of the nuclear weapons are targeted at each other or at any other State, thus playing an important role in reaching a positive and substantial statement among the five States. I want to stress that China follows a self-defensive nuclear strategy, stays committed to no first use of nuclear weapons, and keeps its nuclear forces at the minimum level required to safeguard national security. This in itself is a major contribution to global strategic stability. China will continue to provide its wisdom and solution to promote global nuclear governance, and stands ready to cooperate with all peace-loving countries. Reuters: According to reports, Vietnam has asked authorities in Guangxi to take urgent measures to ease congestion at the border caused by strict COVID control measures. Do you have any comment on these reports? Second, theres also been an increase in airlines canceling flights due to strict COVID measures. Should we expect Chinas border controls to tighten further over the Winter Olympics period? Wang Wenbin: On your first question, I am not aware of the specific situation and refer you to competent authorities. I want to point out that China adopts necessary COVID-19 protocols in light of the global COVID-19 situation with a responsible attitude toward the life and health of Chinese and foreign citizens. Chinas huge food consumer market is open to all countries. On your question related to the Beijing Winter Olympics, I would like to refer you to the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (BOCOG). As far as I know, BOCOG is in close communication with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to ensure sound epidemic prevention and control work based on scientific analysis and in light of the changing situation. Recently, the IOC, the IPC and the BOCOG published the second edition of the Beijing 2022 Playbooks. The epidemic control measures outlined in the Playbooks are formulated in accordance with the latest COVID-19 scientific research, expert opinions and the experience of other international competitions. These countermeasures are aimed to effectively reduce the risk of COVID-19; ensure the safety of and convenience for athletes and all Olympic and Paralympic participants during the Beijing 2022 Games; and protect the health and safety of the local population. We hope everyone can strictly abide by the Playbooks. China has secured a strategic victory in the fight against COVID-19 at home and put in place an efficient and effective epidemic prevention and control system. We are confident that we will overcome the challenges posed by Omicron and deliver a streamlined, safe and splendid Olympic Games for the world. Xinhua News Agency: The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into effect on January 1 in 10 countries including China. It marks the formal launch of a free trade area featuring the largest population, biggest economic and trade scale and greatest development potential. Do you have any comment on the role and influence of the RCEP? Wang Wenbin: Your description of the RCEP is very accurate. The 15 members of the RCEP account for 30% of the worlds total population, economy and trade, making the RCEP the largest free trade area in the world. With the RCEP officially coming into force, the proportion of zero-tariff products between China and ASEAN, New Zealand and other member countries increases significantly, and we are moving toward the goal of making more than 90 percent of trade in goods eventually tariff-free. This will unleash huge potential for trade growth in the region and represent a major step forward in promoting global trade and investment liberalization and facilitation. The coming-into-effect and implementation of the RCEP has enabled regional countries to deepen cooperation. In addition to tariff preferences, the RCEP has set a benchmark for economic and trade rules in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of rules of origin, customs procedures, inspection and quarantine. The RCEPs commitment to high-level opening-up in service trade and investment will facilitate the smooth flow of various economic factors and further consolidate and develop the industrial, supply and value chains in the region. By simplifying administrative procedures and reducing trade barriers, the RCEP will give a strong boost to regional economic integration with higher quality and at deeper levels. The coming-into-effect and implementation of the RCEP is a major victory for multilateralism and free trade. To achieve global economic recovery and prosperity, we must rely on multilateralism, greater openness and innovation sharing. Putting oneself first, seeking monopoly with ones advantages and closing the door on others will only be counterproductive. In the post-COVID era, openness and integration are the trend of the times, and multilateralism and greater openness are the right path to take. We must remove barriers, not erect walls. We must open up, not close off. We must seek integration, not decoupling. This is the shared voice of all RCEP members in addressing global economic governance issues. As one of the first members to formally complete the RCEP ratification process, China is committed to open regionalism. We uphold the multilateral trading system, promote regional economic integration with firm determination and concrete actions and boost regional trade and investment. Going forward, China will work with other parties to actively participate in the institutional building of the RCEP, jointly improve the overall implementation of the agreement and make new contributions to promoting regional prosperity and world economic recovery. Bloomberg: The South China Morning Post has reported that a Taiwanese company bought a shipment of Lithuanian rum that China would not allow to be imported. This is meant as a way of showing support to the Baltic nation. Does the foreign ministry have any comment on this story about the Lithuanian rum? Wang Wenbin: Im not aware of the situation you mentioned. I would like to tell you that the Taiwan authorities attempt to maintain the room for Taiwan independence activities through dollar diplomacy will prove to be all in vain. Associated Press of Pakistan: On January 3, Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the Pakistan-China Business Investment Forum in Islamabad. It aims at increasing Chinese companies investment in Pakistan. What is your comment? Wang Wenbin: The Chinese side appreciates the great importance Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Pakistani government attach to China-Pakistan business cooperation and the positive efforts theyve made in this regard. China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and our all-round cooperation has yielded fruitful results. As an important pilot project of the Belt and Road Initiative and a key platform for all-weather cooperation between the two countries, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has entered a new stage of high-quality development. Going forward, the project will focus on industrial, scientific and technological, social and livelihood cooperation. We are glad to see more interactions and exchanges between Chinese and Pakistani businesses, and to deepen and expand bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation for the benefit of the two peoples. China News Service: At the reopening ceremony of the Chinese Embassy in Nicaragua on December 31 local time, Nicaraguas Foreign Minister Denis Moncada said to the Chinese side that You are welcome in our Nicaragua with the certainty that both countries have ahead of us a future of successes and victories in our brotherly relations. He added that there is an ideological affinity between the two countries. Moncada also thanked China for donating one million doses of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine. Do you have any response to that? Wang Wenbin: On December 10, 2021, China and Nicaragua officially resumed their diplomatic relations on the basis of the one-China principle, which opened a new chapter in the bilateral relations. In just less than one month after that, both sides have secured fruitful early harvests with speedy actions and the China-Nicaragua relations have got off to a good start. The Chinese Embassy in Nicaragua officially reopened in the early hours of January 1, 2022 Beijing time. China has provided active anti-epidemic support to Nicaragua and the two sides have witnessed rapid progress in and enjoy broad prospect for practical cooperation. China firmly supports Nicaragua in pursuing a path of independent development. On the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, it stands ready to deepen mutual trust and expand cooperation with Nicaragua, promote steady and sustained progress in China-Nicaragua relations and deliver benefits to the two countries and peoples. Macau Monthly: On January 3, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with foreign ministers of the Bucharest Nine (B9) group over the phone. They highlighted their solidarity with Lithuania in the face of escalating political pressure and economic coercion by China. Do you have any comment? Wang Wenbin: The ins and outs of the Taiwan-related issues on the part of Lithuania are very clear. Acting in bad faith, Lithuania created the false impression of one China, one Taiwan and undermined Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is the crux of the difficulties in China-Lithuania relations. The US side not only defends Lithuanias erroneous act of creating the false impression of one China, one Taiwan, but also attempts to put together a small clique condoning the Taiwan independence forces under the pretext of supporting Lithuania. This will only lead the international community to question the US sincerity in upholding its one-China policy and its true intention on the Taiwan question. This act of the US will not erode Chinas firm determination to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, but will only send a wrong message to the Taiwan independence separatist forces and undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We urge the US to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiques. We also hope relevant sides can tell right from wrong, uphold an objective and fair position and avoid being misled and misguided by the US. CRI: China and the five Central Asian countries are celebrating their 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties in early January, which will be a major event in the relations between China and the countries. What is the foreign ministrys comment? Wang Wenbin: China and the five Central Asian countries are celebrating their 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties from January 2 to 6. Over the past 30 years, the relations have experienced leapfrog development and reached a historic high. Landmark breakthroughs and achievements with historical significance have been achieved, making the relations an example of a new type of international relations, and contributing to building a community with a shared future for mankind. At a new historical starting point, China stands ready to work with the Central Asian countries to build on past achievements and forge ahead for the future, and keep deepening political mutual trust and expanding mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields. Together, we will further upgrade and elevate the bilateral relations to new heights. The Paper: According to reports, on January 3, people in Iran gathered at events to honor former IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike two years ago. Irans permanent representative to the UN previously condemned the US assassination as an act of state terrorism. President Ebrahim Raisi said those in the US responsible for this should face justice for their actions. What is Chinas comment? Wang Wenbin: I noted relevant reports. The assassination of Qasem Soleimani is another example of how the US wantonly undermined the norms governing international relations based on the UN Charter. It is also one of the war crimes the US has committed with abuse of force. The US could go as far as to conduct targeted killing in a sovereign state through terrorist means in violation of international law, and also to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians around the world. All these illegal and brutal acts in the eyes of people around the world have been hidden by the US behind the facade of the rules-based international order it claims. The US repeats the mantra of upholding the rules-based international order, but facts have proven time and again that what the US really cares about is no more than the rules that meet its needs and serve its interests. What it is committed to is nothing but an order that maintains the US hegemony and enables it to override the voices of the international community. But such rules and order that violate international law will not be accepted by the people in the Middle East and the rest of the world. When the omicron variant crashed into the holiday season, it created a lot of confusion and frustration as Americans scrambled for COVID tests and reliable information. For the less than scrupulous, it also created an opportunity. Take Philadelphia, where a number of dubious coronavirus testing sites have cropped up, leading the public health department to warn residents on Monday to avoid unofficial tents offering such services. Last week, the Health Department was notified of small pop-up tents that were offering free COVID-19 testing operating in Center City. The staff who worked at these sites claimed they were funded by FEMA, the department said in a statement. Over the weekend, it was confirmed that these sites were not funded by FEMA. Philadelphia, which has its own list of approved testers, has faced a record-breaking COVID-19 surge, with an average of 2,654 new cases per day over the last two weeks. Local hospitals have been near capacity. Then came the outbreak of blue tents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two Free Covid testing stations on Chestnut right now. One at 13th & Chestnut by Sweat Gym and the another at 15th & Chestnut by the old CVS. #Philly pic.twitter.com/IKCm3muJ7p Nicole Michalik (@NicoleisNik) December 29, 2021 Apart from inaccurately claiming to receive funding from Federal Emergency Management Agency, these pop-up sites have reportedly been asking customers for personal information like Social Security numbers, which is not typically required for COVID-19 testing. (There do not appear to be any reported cases of this personal information being abused as of yet.) Customers have further claimed that in certain cases the sites did not even provide results of their PCR tests within the quoted turnaround time, forcing them to seek out at-home kits. Advertisement Advertisement The mystery was quickly solved, if only partially. At least some of the pop-up tents appear to be linked to Lab Elite, a coronavirus testing and toxicology company based out of Chicago. It was founded in December 2020 to meet the rising demand for testing caused by the pandemic and has been accredited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The company also operates testing sites in Chicago and Miami and collected about 4,000 samples in Philadelphia in December. Lab Elite apologized for the confusion and said it was surprised to learn that the testing sites were collecting Social Security numbers and claiming to have FEMAs backing, though the company blamed these snafus on a subcontractor called LP Global that it had hired to collect samples in the area. Though it claimed the tests were valid and that the personal information was secure despite the misrepresentations, the company has since shut down its Philadelphia sites after receiving questions from the city. These guys were kind of running a wild sshow, so they were ordered to shut them down, Lab Elite owner Nikola Nozinic told the Philadelphia Inquirer of LP Global, a New Jersey marketing firm with scant internet presence. Lab Elite experienced another operational snag in late December, when a shipment containing hundreds of COVID-19 test samples arrived at a familys home in Oahu, instead of its intended destination at the companys lab in Chicago. Lab Elite blamed that failure on FedEx, and the shipping company said it was investigating the matter. (Lab Elite did not respond to a request for comment on its problems in Philadelphia.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This isnt the only case of troubled or disreputable parties offering tests. The Federal Trade Commission has been warning about fake testing sites since 2020, reporting that the scammers running such operations often do not adhere to sanitation protocols and ask customers for information like credit card and Social Security numbers. In late 2020, the FBI raided the Infinity Diagnostic Laboratory in Ventnor, New Jersey, which allegedly charged $75 for tests that were not suitable for detecting active infections. Last week, police in Oakland, California, warned that scammers wearing lab coats were approaching people waiting in long lines at testing centers and offering them a quicker procedure. After administering a fake test, the scammers would then move to collect personal information that could be abused later on. And on Monday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during a pandemic briefing that he had asked the state attorney generals office to investigate illegitimate pop-up sites that are charging illegal fees and violating health protocols. All theyre doing is taking the swabs, putting it in the liquid, then they arent taking responsibility for how long it takes to get that test back from a lab that they may not have a strong relationship with, the governor said. That is an enormous problem. Some of them are not even returning results at all. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Part of the reason why these scams have been able to flourish seems to be that federal and local governments have not set up enough sites nor provided enough tests to meet the need during the omicron wave in certain areas, leaving people desperate enough to try sketchy alternatives. The lower demand for tests over the summer combined with the sudden arrival of the omicron variant during the winter holidays caught the Biden administration and many cities off guard, and plans to ramp up distribution of at-home kits did not come to fruition in time to avoid disruptions in winter travel. The Philadelphia Health Department further acknowledged in its statement on pop-up tents that people may have issues finding tests due to overwhelming demand, and advised those who are experiencing symptoms to act as if they are positive even if they havent been able to get access to testing. If the choice youre facing is staying home or jeopardizing your Social Security number, it shouldnt be much of a choice. ARCHIVED - Polar trough brings freezing temperatures to Spain: weather update January 4 The mercury will continue to drop across Spain all week with some rain expected on Three Kings Spain leaped into 2021 with historically high temperatures and decidedly spring-like weather after a cooler start to the month, with communities such as Catalonia registering 30 degrees on New Years Eve. Sadly, this is all about to change, as Aemet has predicted the arrival of a new Polar Vaguada in the coming days which signals plummeting temperatures. In the past, January has brought violent storms such as Filomena in 2021 and Gloria the previous year, and while the experts dont foresee similar widespread devastation this month, the weather is set to change radically across Spain from Tuesday January 4. Vaguada Polar The so-called polar trough is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs when the pressure is low with respect to the neighbouring regions at the same level. It draws a kind of V that directs low pressure to a specific place, resulting in large bands of clouds, heavy rainfall and a very considerable drop in temperatures. Outlook As of Tuesday January 4, the thermometers will begin to register a progressive decline, particularly in the east and north of the peninsula and temperatures could plummet by as much as ten degrees, bringing the weather more in line with what is usual for this time of year. As the week goes on, the change in air mass will also lead to an unusual increase in rainfall in some areas such as the Canary Islands and the Gulf of Valencia . In contrast, the rest of the country will experience the drop in temperatures but will remain almost totally dry. On Tuesday evening the night frosts will return to inland areas, while Wednesday will dawn will strong winds throughout the country that will arrive with intensity on the Mediterranean coast. Rain is expected in the norther third of the peninsula early on but will extend to the western half of Andalucia by evening. The temperatures will continue their decline and could drop between six and 10 degrees compared to Tuesday. The Three Kings Winter weather will herald the arrival of the Three Kings on Thursday, threatening the national parades with a forecast of bitter cold below 0 degrees in many inland areas, including in some areas of the Region of Murcia . It will continue to rain in Andalucia but the wet weather will dry off throughout the day in the northern half of Spain. Image: Aemet Do not go to your doctor or to the hospital. Disinfection gel placed in a corridor of the University of Economics in Bratislava building. (Source: TASR) Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled More cases of the coronavirus infection can be expected in Slovakia after the first persons were diagnosed this and last week. The key to coping with the epidemic will be for people to observe the measures taken by health care authorities and avoid burdening the health care system as well as threatening themselves and their surroundings. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Our paywall policy The Slovak Spectator has decided to leave all the articles about the coronavirus available for 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. The cases of people who threatened health care workers and other patients with their negligence were spotted in the first days after the coronavirus was first diagnosed in Slovakia. If you are worried you might have come into contact with the new coronavirus, do not underestimate the situation. Yet respect the fact that the capacities of doctors, nurses, hospital beds and diagnostic labs are limited. Be patient if your condition is not serious. How should you proceed to make sure you and people in your surroundings are safe? What do I do after I return from abroad? Keep track of your health condition in the 14 days after your return from abroad, regardless whether you have been to the area with confirmed COVID-19 occurrence. Particularly watch out for symptoms like dry cough, fever, or problems with breathing. If you have visited places with a relatively high occurrence of coronavirus infections or you have been in touch with a person who has been diagnosed with the virus, isolate yourself for preventive reasons: work from home and via teleconferences stay in a room separate from other household members wear a protective mask when moving around the household be consistent with hand hygiene, cough and sneeze only into disposable napkins that you trash immediately disinfect surfaces and objects in your households air the room often and generously if the household only has one bathroom and toilet, be the last one to use it do not share dishes, towels and other items of daily use if you have ordered food or goods delivery, pay cashless and ask the courier to leave the package on your doorstep you should avoid coming in contact with pets during isolation. You can end the isolation after 14 days if you have not had coughingfever, and respiratory difficulties. What if I suspect I have contracted the virus? Stay at home. Do not put other people, patients and doctors under threat by taking a trip to the hospital or the doctor's waiting room without a prior phone consultation. It is reasonable to suspect you have been infected if: you have been in touch with a person who tested positive you have visited a country where the coronavirus is spreading in the last 14 days you have been in contact with a person who has visited a country where coronavirus is spreading in the last 14 days. If you do not meet any of these points, it is probable you are suffering from another acute respiratory disease. These illnesses can be dangerous too and you should not underestimate them. It's better to stay at home and inform your doctor about your symptoms. If you do meet one of the three anamnesis examples mentioned above, and symptoms like cough, fever, breathing difficulties, throat, head, joints pain occur within 14 days, stay at home and contact your doctor or the rescue service on the phone. Inform them truthfully about your stay in a risk area and the symptoms you are suffering from. The doctor will decide how to proceed in your case. With the growing number of infections the phone lines can be expected to be jammed and you might not be able to reach the doctor immediately. Most people who contract the virus only feel mild symptoms resembling the flu, only a small part of cases ending with a pneumonia. Based on the development so far of the epidemic it is reasonable to expect most people to recover at home without difficulties. You can apply over-the-counter medicines for the cough and pain. When do I need to call for help? A temperature of 38 degrees Celsius is the decisive factor for the transport of a patient suspected of COVID-19 infection. If your temperature is under 38 degrees, remain isolated at home even if you have a positive travel anamnesis. You should keep in touch with your doctor, who should be checking on you every 8 to 12 hours. Do not go to the emergency room or to offices of doctors. If your condition deteriorates and your fever goes over 38, contact the operator of the rescue service, who will turn to the regional hygienist. If needed, they will organise the taking of your samples and test you for infection. How is the testing done? Patients suspected of COVID-19 infection will be transported to the infectious diseases department under strict preventive measures, and will remain hospitalised until the lab test results are returned. The hospital doctor in charge can also decide differently due to the limited capacities of the hospital. Samples can also be taken at home, and the patient can stay at home if their condition allows it. The next steps then depend on the test results. The laboratory diagnostics is secured by the National Reference Centre for Influenza. Samples should be taken in the first days after you notice the symptoms of a respiratory disease. Earlier testing might not show infection, because the amount of particles in the non-symptomatic stage of the illness is typically not high enough. This could lead to a false negative result. Be patient when waiting for the results and respect the fact that the laboratory staff are facing a huge amount of samples these days. In the meantime, observe the orders of doctors. Sme Our paywall policy: The Slovak Spectator has decided to leave all the articles about the coronavirus available for 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. Cabinet and crisis staff sat well into the night, introduced new set of measures. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Our paywall policy The Slovak Spectator has decided to leave all the articles about the coronavirus available for 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. The newly-appointed crisis staff and Igor Matovic's cabinet came up with a set of measures to add to the already existing ones that have been valid in Slovakia since March 13. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement "The epidemiologic situation is still better than in some western-European states," said the head of the hygienic authority, Jan Mikas. The government is about to purchase 200,000 PCR tests. "We believe that, given the long-term good relations with the supplier, we will be able to carry out the purchase," said Matovic, adding that this would be a "dramatic shift" that will let people sleep well at night. Generally applied measures: - Wearing a protective face mask will be obligatory outside one's home, including in the streets. When queueing, people are required to stand at least 2 metres from each other, both indoor and outdoor. Related article Related article These are the measures currently in place in Slovakia Read more - As of March 30, measuring temperature will be obligatory at the entrance to shops, hospitals, factories,... (using a digital contactless thermometer measuring temperature on the forehead) -All shops will be closed on Sundays, for disinfection and to allow the staff to rest. -The ban on organising mass events that expired on March 24 has been prolonged until further notice. Measures for pupils and students: - Free-of-charge trains for students are cancelled until schools open again. PM Matovic admitted this was against his pre-election promise not to scrap any of the social measures introduced by the previous government. - Schools remain closed until further notice. Written part of the maturita secondary school leaving exams will not be held this year. Measures for the elderly: - Trains remain free of charge for pensioners, but the government called on the elderly not to use public transport unless absolutely necessary. If the appeal does not work, Matovic said the government is ready to scrap free trains for pensioners as well. - The government calls on those older than 65 not to leave home unless absolutely necessary and eliminate social contact, including with their own relatives. If the appeal does not work, the government is ready to issue a ban on leaving home for seniors. - The government calls on municipalities to establish a sufficient number of phone lines for pensioners to allow them to order groceries and secure other needs. -Special opening hours in shops for people older than 65 years have been established between 9:00-12:00 (to avoid pensioners from taking the public transport during rush hour). -a national emergency has been declared for providers of social services, particularly pensioners' homes, to ensure staff is always available to take care of clients. -the ban on visits to these facilities remains in place. -daycare facilities for pensioners must be closed, municipalities are asked to provide services in clients' homes (assist them by shopping, bringing food, etc) - The government will ask the public-service RTVS to broadcast religious services every day at 18:00. -The government will ask RTVS to secure educational slots for primary school pupils. Using data from mobile phones: -The government will pass a law on a short-tracked procedure to allow state authorities to use localisation data from mobile phone operators. GDPR permits the use of this data during crisis times, but "we need a law for the telecom operators to be sure we are able to use this data". -The government will talk to the telecom operators about the possibility of sending targeted messages to people, e.g. pensioners older than 65 years, to remind them about the appeals and measures that apply to them. Measures in health care: -The Health Ministry will re-profile the entire hospital network with the aim to secure effective and safe COVID-19 treatment. There should be one hospital in the east, one in central Slovakia and one in Bratislava for COVID-19 patients only. All other hospitals should have a special pavillion for these patients. - The government will talk to health insurers to introduce a guaranteed income for outpatient doctors equating to at least 75 percent of their monthly average income over the last year. Doctors do not have patients to treat right now and need money to be able to continue their business. -The Foreign Affairs Ministry will analyse measures in 20 selected countries of the world to see how the measures work. The country will then follow the effective practices in fighting the virus from abroad. - Police and soldiers will assist health care professionals to deal with misconduct and resistance of some patients who refuse to follow the measures and rules. -There will be a drive-through testing point in front of every hospital that does the testing. -The Health Ministry is to identify the drugs and protective materials that Slovakia needs and ban their export from the country. Slovak drug producers will still be able to export their products, but Slovakia will keep the identified necessary amounts for its own needs. -The Health Ministry will discuss with its Czech counterpart a proposed exception allowing for the import of two Czech-made drugs to Slovakia, which the Czech government banned from exports. -The Defence Ministry is to identify soldiers who can be trained as health care assistants, to be deployed in case of need. Doing business and legal issues: -All ministries will identify the measures needed to secure postponement of all legal deadlines. Bureaucracy can be postponed, said Matovic. -A short-tracked legislative procedure will be launched to issue an exception for notaries and attorneys to be able to provide their services. -Legal deadlines will be halted at courts, applying to the period from March 12 - April 30 for now. -Companies will be able to take decisions per rollam (without the need to meet in person). - Auctions and distrainment will not be carried out by April 30. - The obligatory preventive health checks required for certain professions will be postponed. Traders will be allowed to sell non-recyclable bottles during the first few months of the year. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled The deposit scheme for PET bottles and cans was launched in Slovakia at the beginning of January. This means that bottles and cans labelled with the letter Z can now be returned directly to shops, either to the special machines or to the counters (particularly in smaller shops). Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement The prices of drinks in PET bottles and cans will be stated without the 15-cent deposit, but customers will pay it upon purchase. However, traders have been given time until June, during which they can still sell bottles not labelled with the letter Z since they may still have these bottles and cans in stock. These bottles cannot be returned to the special machines but can be recycled and thrown into the yellow waste bins. Its hard to say when and where the new bottles will be, said Environment Minister Jan Budaj (OLaNO), as quoted by the TASR newswire. All you need to know about the deposit system for bottles and cans (Q&A) Read more Map to be published in February For now, only undamaged and unsqueezed bottles and cans can be returned to the machines. If it refuses to take them, it is still possible to throw them into the yellow waste bins, according to Lucia Morvai, head of the external affairs and communication department of the administrator of the deposit return system, Spravca Zalohoveho Systemu. She recommends returning the bottles with their plastic lids as well. Currently, more than 2,000 delivery points have joined the deposit return system, but more are expected to take part in the coming months. The administrator will publish the map with delivery points in early February, Morvai added, as reported by TASR. The Environment Ministry will monitor the collection of PET bottles and cans. If the administrator fails to meet the aim of 90-percent sorting by 2025, it will face hefty fines, Budaj said. Schools will follow the traffic light system, while voluntary self-testing of pupils will remain in place. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled In-person education in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools will resume on January 10, as originally planned. 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 official statement sent by the Education Ministry. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Children will return to their classrooms after the Christmas school holidays which started on December 20. In addition, several schools in districts across the country were closed (particularly grades five through nine of primary schools and all grades of secondary schools) following the decision of regional hygienists in early December. The epidemic situation has improved, said Education Minister Branislav Grohling. The data from the Health Ministry shows the lower number of hospitalisations and positive cases, which is why we are following the already announced information and reopening schools on January 10. No nationwide closure After schools reopen next week, they should follow the school Covid traffic light system. This means that schools should not be closed on the national level instead, only individual classrooms will be closed if there is a positive pupil based on the decision of the school principal. If the situation is very bad, the regional hygienist can decide on closing the entire school. How Slovakia failed to vaccinate its population Read more At the same time, there will be voluntary self-testing of schoolchildren for which the Education Ministry distributes more than three million tests. Pupils are also required to wear masks while at school. The exceptions include children in kindergartens, children suffering from autism spectrum disorder, children with serious mental disorders, deaf and hard-of-hearing children, and teachers. Support from politicians Apart from Grohling, the reopening of schools has been supported by PM Eduard Heger (OLaNO). The prime minister is aware of the immense importance of in-person education for pupils and students, said his spokesperson Lubica Janikova, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Registration for vaccination of children launched, first jabs given after New Year's Read more Yet, he stressed the statements of the Health Ministry and the Education Ministry will be crucial. The Health Ministrys spokesperson Zuzana Eliasova said that the experts working for the ministry are currently evaluating the situation. The ministry will provide more information after these talks are over and the outcome is approved by the government, she added for TASR. Read more about the coronavirus developments in Slovakia: Nearly 153,000 foreign nationals are currently living in the country. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled As many as 152,902 foreign nationals have a residence permit in Slovakia, according to the official statistics. This accounts for about 2.8 percent of the countrys population. In addition, altogether 69,172 foreigners were working in Slovakia in October 2021, the statistics of the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (UPSVaR) show. Of them, 39,000 came from non-EU countries. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement These foreigners fill gaps in Slovakias labour market, said Zuzana Vatralova, head of the Bratislava office of the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) on the occasion of International Migrants Day, which falls on December 18. Recruitment of non-EU citizens demanding Most of them worked as machine operators and machine fitters. Furthermore, about one in three foreigners living in Slovakia is doing business here and creates potential jobs, Vatralova said, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Expenses for the education and skills of foreigners are not always financed by Slovakia. Recruiting a person from outside the EU is often administratively demanding, which is why employers look for foreign employees only after a person from Slovakia cant fill the position, Vatralova said, as quoted by TASR. A fiscal analysis from 2018 found that foreigners contributed more to the state budget than they took from it, according to IOM. Pandemic brought problems Restrictions related to the pandemic had a negative impact on mobility. The number of immigrants decreased by about two million in 2020, IOM suggests. On the contrary, the number of victims (either migrants who died or disappeared) around the world reached 4,500 as of December 10, 2021, up by 300 compared to 2020. More people on their journey became victims of human trafficking, faced stigmatisation, inequality, xenophobia, and racism, while female immigrants faced an increased risk of sexual assault, Vatralova said, as quoted by TASR. She added this is why it is necessary that legal paths for migration that respect national sovereignty and human rights are made. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Monday for all the Parthenon's sculptures to be brought back together, as ten marble fragments of sculptures from the 2,500-year-old temple on Acropolis hill were transferred from the National Archaeological Museum of Greece to the Acropolis Museum. "This journey of return transmits a loud message for the reunification of all parts of this unique monument for humanity," Mitsotakis said during a formal ceremony at the Acropolis Museum. The fragments returned on Monday include part of the head of a youth. The rest of the sculpture is currently kept in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Until now, the ten fragments were kept in the storerooms of the National Archaeological Museum. "This is a first, but very important step in the effort to collect here, at the Acropolis Museum, all the smaller and larger parts of the Parthenon's decorative sculptures that are now scattered in various museums around the world," Mitsotakis said. The Greek sculptures have been the subject of a dispute between Athens and London for decades. Large parts of the sculptures are currently exhibited at the British Museum in London. In the early 19th century, while Greece was still under Ottoman Empire rule, half of the sculptures of the Parthenon were removed by the UK diplomat Lord Elgin. For decades, Greeks have repeatedly asked for them to be returned. A six-minute performance featuring Chinese Kung Fu and Chinese folk dances amazed thousands of people at New York City (NYC)'s Times Square Friday night by kicking off one of the most famous New Year's Eve countdowns around the globe. Co-organized by the Sino-American Friendship Association and the Times Square Alliance, the performance brought traditional Chinese culture alive with flowing moves of Taijiquan blending firmness with softness, the magnificence of Shaolin Kung Fu and the charm of the fan dance. "The martial art also looks like a dance, so it's cool," Victoria Christensen, 19, who had traveled from the US state of Nebraska, told Xinhua, after watching the show. "The martial art demonstration was great, and the dancing was my favorite," said Adela Magallanes, a reveler from the U.S. state of California, who had traveled to New York with her husband specifically for the New Year's Eve celebration. Magallanes, a pharmacy technician who works with a lot of Chinese people and also a fan of Chinese desserts, said the cultural elements at the event help her understand more about China. Chinese Consul General in New York Huang Ping, who made brief remarks before the show, wished everyone a happy new year both in English and Chinese. Huang said that he sincerely invites the world to visit China and enjoy the splendid landscapes and rich culture. A video on various LED screens atop the square displayed the scenery of China such as the Songshan Mountain, the archaeological site of Yin Xu, and Longmen Grottoes, in Central China's Henan province, as well as the Yellow River. The hours-long event culminated in the 60-second countdown to the new year. Cheers and confetti filled the square when the traditional midnight drop of a multi-colored crystal ball signaled the start of 2022. The history of New Year's Eve countdown at Times Square goes back more than 100 years. After banning visitors from the event a year ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Big Apple rang in 2022 with a scaled-back bash as COVID-19 infections continue to surge in the city and around the nation. A 15,000-person cap on Friday night's event was well short of the 58,000 people who typically attend. New York City reported a record number of almost 44,000 new confirmed cases on Thursday, according to New York state figures. The current seven-day average daily increase of cases in the United States reached more than 316,000, a 293.4-percent spike from a month ago, fueled by a rapid spread of the Omicron variant, showed latest statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Peace, health and happiness for the world, no more Covid, said Magallanes, sharing with Xinhua her new year's wishes. New York City's new mayor, Eric Adams, took the oath of office in Times Square early Saturday shortly after the ball dropped. He detailed a six-pillar plan for battling COVID-19 to start 2022 on Thursday. Tony Morgan, the second winningest driver in the history of harness racing, has been elected as the 48th member of the Ohio Harness Racing Hall of Fame by a vote of the members of the Ohio Chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association. Morgan, 63, finished the year with 16,932 career wins which is second on the all-time list to Dave Palone and with $138 million in career earnings. He was born in Troy, Ohio and began his career at the tender age of 13 when he drove in an amateur race at his hometown fairgrounds. His first trip to the winners circle came on May 13, 1973, when he piloted Peachakona to victory in a matinee race at Celina, Ohio. Morgan emerged in the early 90s as one of the top drivers on the Chicago racing circuit and for three consecutive campaigns (1995-97), he was the leading dash-winning driver in North America. In 1996, his total of 853 wins broke the all-time single-season record set by Walter Case Jr. Morgan shifted his base of operations to the state of Delaware in the fall of 2006. That year, he became the second driver in the history of the sport to pass the 1,000-win plateau for a single year and captured his fourth North American dash crown. He added a fifth victory title in 2008 when he piloted 961 winners. He was the recipient of the Driver of the Year trophy from Harness Tracks of America four times (1996, 1997, 2002 and 2006). Morgan will be honoured at the Ohio Harness Horsemens Associations annual banquet on Saturday, Jan. 15 at the Polaris Hilton in Columbus. (Little Brown Jug) The Nebraska Legislature will likely once again consider concealed carry issues when it convenes for the 2022 Nebraska Legislative session. Returning among the topics to be discussed will be concealed carry permit laws in the state, as State Sen. Tom Brewer indicates hell bring back a bill proposing permitless carry, commonly referred to constitutional carry. Concealed carry permit laws are set by individual states and vary greatly nationwide. In the history of Nebraska, the concealed carry permit process is relatively new. In Nebraska, anyone legal to carry a firearm can do so openly. However, the state does regulate who can carry a concealed weapon, and where they can carry those weapons. The state of Nebraska first started issuing concealed carry permits in 2007. As of mid-December, there were 85,198 active concealed carry permits statewide, Jeff Avey, director of the criminal identification for the Nebraska State Patrol, told the Star-Herald. There are a number of factors that can result in trending increases among applicants. Political issues or events such as mass shootings have been known to spur increases in applicants, at least anecdotally. We had a huge amount of applicants in 2000, late 2012 and early 2013, Avey said. He said there were times when applicants were so high that people were lining up out the door to submit their applications at some troops. As of mid-December, the Nebraska State Patrol had already exceeded the number of permits to residents with 26,519 permits. Thats a 16% increase in permits among Nebraskans in 2020. In 2020, the NSP issued 22,875 permits, which was a significant increase compared to 2019 when 15,837 permits were issued. Weve seen a significant step up over the past couple of years, Avey said. A person wishing to apply for a concealed carry permit in the state of Nebraska will find a large amount of resources available through the Nebraska State Patrols website. For those interested in getting a concealed carry permit, the website, https://statepatrol.nebraska.gov/services/concealed-handgun-permits, has an extensive FAQ section, as well as information for people to find concealed handgun instructors in their area, a listing of states that recognize Nebraskas concealed carry permit (reciprocity) and even scheduling the application process as part of the permitting process. First-time applicants are required to submit their application for a concealed carry permit in person. The application is available online, and people can print it off and have it ready once they have made an appointment with their local Nebraska State Patrol Troop. At that appointment, applicants will be required to submit their fingerprints, which is now done using a biometric scanner. In Nebraska, citizens are required to complete an approved handgun training and safety course, given by recognized concealed carry instructors throughout the state. Courses vary depending on instructor, though most are just one-day courses. All courses must teach information required by state statute, including a hands-on shooting. One of the biggest things people need to keep in mind is theyll have to find a concealed handgun permit instructor, Avey said. ...We dont recommend anyone. We just have a list of every person who is accredited to provide the coursework they have to go through. They (the applicant) have to pass both a written test as well as ... a markmanship test. In the Panhandle, more than 20 people offer concealed carry courses. Most concealed carry permit instructors will advise that it will take at least six weeks to get your permit and perhaps longer if there is an influx of concealed carry applications in the state. The state patrol advises on its website that increases in applications for initial and renewal of permits may create a delay in the permitting process. However, the actual application process now just takes minutes, when it used to be a 20-30 minute process, Avey said. Instead of having a 20- to 25-minute appointment, (applicants) come in; its usually five or six minutes. We check their ID, roll their fingerprints and theyre out the door. Its just a faster, better process and better customer service for all Nebraskans, he said. The application process does require a background check, which is very similar to the same check done when you apply for a handgun purchase permit or done when you seek to purchase a handgun from a retailer. Its rare that persons who apply for a permit are denied, as generally, they are aware whether they would or wouldnt qualify. Avey said that the patrol began the online renewal process in 2017, which he said has made it simpler and contributed to an increase in renewal rates. You have to renew the permit every five years, Avey said. Typically, we have a 75% to 85% renewal rate. The system is tied into the states Department of Motor Vehicles system, he said, which can make completing forms easy. The website is also accessible 24/7 from your couch or wherever you may be. Statistics show that it has a high adoption rate for usage among permit holders. A permit holders information, such as their photo and other details, will be up-to-date as long as they have done so as part of drivers license requirements. We have had good results and great feedback from the online (website), Avey said. Not only can you renew your permit online. You can make an appointment to come into one of our six troop areas. You can report if your permit is lost or stolen. If you need to update your name, change your address, that all can be done online, free of charge. Though it cant be said for certain that moving processes online has improved renewal rates or other compliance, Avey said its likely. Also, the Nebraska Legislature passed updated notification requirements last year with the Nebraska State Patrol now required to send out a postcard to permit holders reminding them of the need to renew their permit. When I looked at all the renewals for this year, over 96% of permit holders choose to do it online. ... No matter how you cut that number, thats a pretty incredible renewal rate, Avey said. During the 2021 Nebraska Legislative session, senators passed LB244, which also benefits concealed permit holders renewing their permit. Concealed carry permit holders will now be notified via postcard that they need to renew their permit and permit holders now have a four-month window in which they can renew. The Nebraska State Patrol website estimates that the turnaround time is five days, not including the time that it takes for a permit to be mailed to someone. Once granted a permit, concealed carry holders have the responsibility of abiding with laws including where they can and cant carry. Those privileges can even include the states in which concealed carry permit holders are also recognized as being able to carry. The Nebraska State Patrol website also outlines which states that Nebraska does and doesnt recognize. Those persons from states not represented in Nebraskas reciprocity and in which it is legal to carry a firearm can openly carry a handgun, as Nebraska does recognize open carry. However, they are not allowed to conceal their handgun. Those persons must follow laws regarding transportation of a firearm, either openly carrying it or storing it unloaded, stored in a case and kept separate from ammunition. During the upcoming legislative session, Brewer said he will once again introduce a proposal to allow Nebraskans to carry a concealed handgun without having to meet requirements to have a criminal background check, complete a handgun course or pay application fees. Last session, Brewer had proposed a bill that would have allowed Nebraska counties, with the exemption of Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy, to decide whether to allow constitutional carry of handguns. The term constitutional carry refers to permitless carry or unrestricted carry which would mean that people who can legally carry a firearm would not have to go through a process to be licensed to carry a handgun, either openly or concealed. People prohibited by federal law from carrying a handgun, such as convicted felons or persons convicted of domestic violence crimes, would be among those who would not be able to carry or possess a firearm. According to usconcealedcarry.com, 32 states allow permitless carry, with Wyoming being among the most recent in July 1, 2021. Neighboring states of South Dakota, Iowa and Kansas also allow permitless carry. The proposed bill is likely to go to the Judiciary Committee. If it does not come out of committee, Brewer says hell likely have to introduce a pull motion to advance the bill to the floor of the Legislature for debate. A pull motion would require votes from 30 to 49 of the states senators. The 2022 Legislative session is a shortened session of 60 days, with a large amount of bills already set to be considered. Submit Your News We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The first Tuesday of 2022 is jam-packed with premieres, including the openers for the final seasons of This Is Us and black-ishwith Michelle Obama guesting on the latter. New comedies Abbott Elementary, American Auto and Grand Crew, all previewed in December, settle into their regular time periods on ABC and NBC. Steve Harveys latest gig is as a TV judge, cracking us up as he weighs in on wacky real-life cases in a comedic courtroom. Season Premiere 9/8c Like in previous seasons, the hit tearjerker launches its final run with the big three marking another birthdaytheir 41stwith several callbacks to the various turning points during which we first met the Pearson family six years (and countless crying jags) ago, plus an update on an event that sent Randall (Sterling K. Brown) into a more recent emotional tailspin. In present time, we find Kevin (Justin Hartley) maintaining a civil co-parenting relationship with Madison (Caitlin Thompson) and Kate (Chrissy Metz) making the best of Tobys (Chris Sullivan) long-distance employment, while theyre all grappling with the realities of mother Rebeccas (Mandy Moore) worsening condition. No episode would be complete without triggers from the past, when beloved father Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) was still among them, and the premiere episode revisits a doozy of a day of tragic American history that resonates among the family. Season Premiere 9:30/8:30c Guess whos coming to dinner? To kick off the seventh and final season of the groundbreaking family comedy, the Johnsons welcome Michelle Obama into their homethough Dre (Anthony Anderson) and Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross) are trying to keep it a private dinner, banning the rest of the family from intruding on their friendly powwow. Good luck with that. The fun begins when Bow drags Dre to a When We All Vote fundraiser, where they make the former first ladys acquaintance. Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship? Series Premiere 9/8c The terrific new workplace mock-doc comedy set at an underfunded Philadelphia public school settles into its regular time period, showcasing series creator/star Quinta Brunson as well-meaning second-grade teacher Janine. Ignoring advice from the more experienced Barbara (a sublime Sheryl Lee Ralph) that she should just worry about what can be controlled, Janine takes it upon herself to fix the flickering hallway lights that spook her students. Soon everyones in the dark, and another life lesson is learned. Series Premiere 8/7c NBC, which aired no comedies in the fall, adds two new sitcoms to its Tuesday lineupstarting with a workplace satire thats the tonal opposite of Abbott, laced with cynical bite, where no one ever learns from their mistakes. Echoing a similarly disastrous investors event on Succession, this episode is built around an earnings call that quickly goes south, when fatally uninspired new CEO Katherine (Ana Gasteyer) vamps about a big announcement to distract from the latest bad publicity, and her executive team of empty suits scrambles to close a labor negotiation. Series Premiere 8:30/7:30c The least promising of the nights new comedies is a low-concept sitcom about a group of Black friends in L.A.s trendy Silverlake district who bicker and bond over wineusually in bars. But when a local wildfire displaces them, they hang at househusband Wyatts (Justin Cunningham) home, where were introduced to his lawyer wife, Kristen (The Unicorns Maya Lynne Robinson), who initiates a competition with her partner about whos the better host. Complications ensue, and like in the episodes that aired in December, it looks like theyre having more fun than we are. Series Premiere 8/7c Watch out, Judge Judy. The ubiquitous entertainer Steve Harvey applies his brand of humor to the TV courtroom in a comedic twist on a time-honored genre. Hell have the last wordand it will probably be a sarcastic oneas he presides over cases involving sour grapes, unpaid bets and debts and the inevitable family feud. Survey says: His fans will dig this. 10/9c Christmas is over, declares the hospitals new medical director Veronica Fuentes (Michelle Forbes), who in the six weeks since her idealistic predecessor Max (Ryan Eggold) decamped to London to start a new life with Helen (Freema Agyeman) has shown herself to be the Grinch who stole hope. Making one mercenary decision after another, Veronica has alienated all in her employexcept maybe the new chair of holistic medicine (Good Girls Revolts Genevieve Angleson). As a secret insurrection looms in the New York hospital, things arent much rosier for the London transplants, as theyre introduced to the inequities in Britains National Health Service. (Youre free to make wagers on how long it will take before Max heads back to NYC.) Inside Tuesday TV: Economic and trade cooperation between China and Japan is set to grow on the back of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, which took effect in 10 of its 15 member economies on Saturday, experts said on Monday. This, they said, will further strengthen regional economic expansion despite COVID-19. China and Japan, which are the world's second- and third-largest economies, respectively, have forged bilateral free trade relations for the first time, following the RCEP, experts said. They further said the breakthrough will help with the negotiations on the China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Agreement. Signed by 15 Asia-Pacific economies in November 2020, the RCEP agreement took effect on Saturday in 10 member economies, including Singapore, Thailand, China and Japan. They will be followed by South Korea on Feb. 1. The RCEP agreement will come into effect in the rest of the member economies 60 days after they finish verification procedures. Around 25 percent of Japanese exports to China and 57 percent of Chinese exports to Japan have become tariff-free since Saturday. The two figures will eventually rise to 86 percent and 88 percent, respectively. "China and Japan have already enjoyed strong economic and trade relations, thanks to their complementarity in trade, and the prospects are even brighter with the implementation of the RCEP agreement," said Bai Ming, deputy director of international market research at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. "Potentials from the geographic proximity of the two nations will be fully unleashed to tighten economic ties and benefit enterprises and people." During the first half of 2021, the value of China-Japan trade surged by about 24 percent year-on-year to surpass $181 billion. China exported more than $80 billion worth of goods to Japan during the period, up nearly 19 percent. Its imports from Japan grew by nearly 28 percent to around $101 billion, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. Significant tariff reduction and elimination have been scheduled in most of the two nations' major trading sectors. That will result in a win-win situation, said Zhang Jifeng, vice-chairman of the Chinese Association for Japanese Economic Studies. More products traded between China and Japan will become eligible for zero tariffs over time. Combined with the RCEP's accumulative rules of origin, which allow a product to enjoy tariff reduction or abolishment as long as it adds at least 40 percent of its value within the RCEP region, trade between the two nations is expected to expand, Zhang said in a note. Producers of major Chinese export items to Japan like machinery, electronic equipment, textiles and clothing products will benefit from lower or zero tariffs. Japanese producers of electrical and electronic products, machinery, automobile components and some agricultural and food products like sake will also enjoy significant tariff concessions when they export their products to China. Hengyang, Hunan province-based Deyang Shoes Co Ltd said its annual exports are worth $8.1 million, and thanks to the RCEP, it could save $920,000 on tariffs each year. Deyang Shoes imports raw materials from South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia to produce and export finished shoe products to Japan, South Korea and some other countries. Zhang predicted trade in services and investment cooperation between China and Japan will also expand rapidly, thanks to the expanded market entry. Marion residents will soon see two new faces among the towns police force. Officers Jordan Propst and Dalton Pennington were sworn in to their posts as Marion police officers during the town councils Dec. 20 meeting. The pair is slated to begin their training at the Southwest Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy next week. Im really excited to have them both on board at the police department, said Marion Police Lt. Rusty Hamm, who accompanied Propst and Pennington to the meeting. Im looking forward to seeing these guys get through the academy and start their careers in law enforcement. Propst comes to the Marion PD from the Marion Correctional Treatment Center, where he worked as a corrections officer. The 25-year-old said hes been interested in the law enforcement profession since his days at Marion Senior High School. Being part of something that can make a difference in peoples lives, he said, is part of the appeal. Its kind of a dream job for me, he said. I want to give back and serve the community I grew up in. He added, I guess the biggest thing is just being part of something that can make a change and maybe help people in the long-run. Pennington was of similar mind. The 26-year-old father of two was discharged on Dec. 14 from the U.S. Army, where he served as an infantryman and later as a paralegal with the Armys JAG Corps. A 2013 graduate of Chilhowie High School, Pennington spent eight years in the military, during which time he was deployed to Afghanistan from 2014 to 2015. I just felt law enforcement would be a great transition point for me, and its just something that I wanted to do, Pennington said. As Ive grown and matured, Ive realized its probably one of the best positions to help and serve the community that I grew up in and that I want my kids to grow up in as well. Both Lt. Hamm and MPD Chief John Clair said the two new officers distinguished themselves during the hiring process and we have no doubt they will be excellent additions to our team. They both demonstrate good people skills, both show great professionalism and maturity Hamm later added. We are excited to see them starting their career in law enforcement with us at the Marion Police Department. Propst and Pennington are expected to finish up their training in May. Each of the men has taken related college coursesPropst in police science at Wytheville Community College and Pennington in emergency management and homeland security through the University of Arizona. Once they get their police training behind them and settled into new careers, they both say they intend to finish up their respective degrees. I look forward to learning everything I can and being able to help people to the best of my ability, Pennington said. NORTH TAZEWELL, VA Assisting commercial businesses, homeowners and agricultural businesses in growing their use of solar energy in the region is one of the primary goals of Southwest Virginia Energy Consultants, Inc., a new business located in Tazewell County. North Tazewell residents Sharon Thomas, John Thomas, Jack Thompson and Doug Hutchinson formed the new business earlier this year and were recently approved for a $6,500 Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA) seed capital grant. As renewable energy projects gain additional traction in Southwest Virginias e-region, the timing is right for businesses eyeing ways to enhance that energy usage, said VCEDA Executive Director/General Counsel Jonathan Belcher. Southwest Virginia Energy Consultants, Inc., is seeking to do just that and projects to provide three full-time jobs within five years. One goal of the new business is to bring a solar panel manufacturer to Virginia. Thomas said additional goals of the business are to pair solar projects with former abandoned mine property in the region in need of reclamation and to work with farmers to consider the development of solar grow houses to produce organic crops, thereby making the growing season year-round. We sold our first solar panel job in late November, Thomas said, adding, Southwest Virginia Energy Consultants will not only introduce renewables to the area, but will also focus on training and show the benefits, savings and economic growth that can be obtained from renewables. There are so many things that can spin off from this. Thomas said the VCEDA funds have been used for administrative purpose, including working capital and to secure office space for the consulting firm which is located at 192 Shire Lane in North Tazewell. With the support of the VCEDA Matching Seed Capital program, Southwest Virginia Energy Consultants was able to open its office and the new office was the first business in Tazewell County to introduce solar, Thomas said. The matching funds also allowed us to develop an engineering build-out plan. Our first installation, through one of our partners' distribution companies, was completed earlier this month. Without the VCEDA grant, we would not have been able to move as quickly as we did, Thomas added. It has helped us tremendously. Thomas worked with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Southwest Virginia Community College (SWCC) in the development of the application to VCEDA and received a letter of support from the Tazewell County Industrial Development Authority. The Small Business Development Center at Southwest Virginia Community College was happy to provide Sharon with guidance in applying for the VCEDA Seed Capital Matching Fund program, said Margie Douglass, SBDC program manager at SWCC. Sharons innovative and entrepreneurial spirit has provided many jobs for our region. Sharon has proven that networking and partnerships are key components to success. The Seed Capital Matching Fund program not only provides funds for startup businesses in the VCEDA region but also provides access to vital business resources, Douglass continued. By working with the SBDC (a requirement for any applicant), business owners receive guidance from experienced advisors and learn how to utilize available tools to evaluate their business and develop a formal plan of action. As a result, applicants are better prepared to apply for funding and better equipped to make their business a success. NORTH TAZEWELL, VA Assisting commercial businesses, homeowners and agricultural businesses in growing their use of solar energy in the region is one of the primary goals of Southwest Virginia Energy Consultants, Inc., a new business located in Tazewell County. North Tazewell residents Sharon Thomas, John Thomas, Jack Thompson and Doug Hutchinson formed the new business earlier this year and were recently approved for a $6,500 Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA) seed capital grant. As renewable energy projects gain additional traction in Southwest Virginias e-region, the timing is right for businesses eyeing ways to enhance that energy usage, said VCEDA Executive Director/General Counsel Jonathan Belcher. Southwest Virginia Energy Consultants, Inc., is seeking to do just that and projects to provide three full-time jobs within five years. One goal of the new business is to bring a solar panel manufacturer to Virginia. Thomas said additional goals of the business are to pair solar projects with former abandoned mine property in the region in need of reclamation and to work with farmers to consider the development of solar grow houses to produce organic crops, thereby making the growing season year-round. We sold our first solar panel job in late November, Thomas said, adding, Southwest Virginia Energy Consultants will not only introduce renewables to the area, but will also focus on training and show the benefits, savings and economic growth that can be obtained from renewables. There are so many things that can spin off from this. Thomas said the VCEDA funds have been used for administrative purpose, including working capital and to secure office space for the consulting firm which is located at 192 Shire Lane in North Tazewell. With the support of the VCEDA Matching Seed Capital program, Southwest Virginia Energy Consultants was able to open its office and the new office was the first business in Tazewell County to introduce solar, Thomas said. The matching funds also allowed us to develop an engineering build-out plan. Our first installation, through one of our partners' distribution companies, was completed earlier this month. Without the VCEDA grant, we would not have been able to move as quickly as we did, Thomas added. It has helped us tremendously. Thomas worked with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Southwest Virginia Community College (SWCC) in the development of the application to VCEDA and received a letter of support from the Tazewell County Industrial Development Authority. The Small Business Development Center at Southwest Virginia Community College was happy to provide Sharon with guidance in applying for the VCEDA Seed Capital Matching Fund program, said Margie Douglass, SBDC program manager at SWCC. Sharons innovative and entrepreneurial spirit has provided many jobs for our region. Sharon has proven that networking and partnerships are key components to success. The Seed Capital Matching Fund program not only provides funds for startup businesses in the VCEDA region but also provides access to vital business resources, Douglass continued. By working with the SBDC (a requirement for any applicant), business owners receive guidance from experienced advisors and learn how to utilize available tools to evaluate their business and develop a formal plan of action. As a result, applicants are better prepared to apply for funding and better equipped to make their business a success. Southwest Virginia Energy Consultants, Inc., may be reached by calling 276-202-2839. The Lower Columbia College Foundation named the estate of former Castle Rock teacher and fire chief Donald Lansing the Benefactor of the Year for 2021-2022. Donald Lansing was an ordinary man who did an extraordinary thing, said Jenny Isaacson, LCC Foundation Board Chair, in a statement from the college. Benefactor of the Year honorees have a history of providing financial support to the foundation or significant volunteer support. Lansing taught math and science in the Castle Rock School District for 33 years. He did not have children of his own and wanted to pass on the gift of an education to the citizens of Castle Rock, according to an LCC press release. Lansing left 75% of his estate to the foundation to establish scholarships for Castle Rock High School graduates attending LCC. Priority consideration will go to students planning to transfer to Washington State University. The $802,800 scholarship fund is the largest single scholarship endowment held by the LCC Foundation and will provide nearly $20,000 in scholarships each year, according to the college. Lansing died May 31, 2013, at the age of 82. Lansing graduated from high school in Oroville, Washington, in 1949 and received a masters degree from Washington State University in 1957. He served in the Air Force from 1953 to 1955. Lansing volunteered with Castle Rocks Fire District 6 for 42 years, including three as chief. He also served on the Castle Rock City Council for six years and spent time as a city park commissioner, a civil service commissioner, and on the Castle Rock Ambulance Committee. Lansing belonged to the Castle Rock United Methodist Church, where he sang in the choir for many years. He also was a member of the Castle Rock Lions Club. We appreciate this opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate this extraordinary gift from Mr. Lansing, and for his legacy of education that will last for generations to come, said LCC President Chris Bailey. Love 7 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The technology has always had destructive potential, but weaponization has now been honed by burgeoning global commerce. The pandemic has already given the future a distinctly dystopian look. And then theres this: the burgeoning of the second drone age. Thats how experts are describing the international drone market which ranges from tiny startups selling $1,000-to-$2,000 off-the-shelf technology that can be easily weaponized by terrorist groups like the Taliban, to high-tech unmanned vehicles that can carry laser-guided munitions and Hellfire missiles. Its an even more highly autonomized proliferation of the first age of drones, which has been dominated by the U.S. since its first attack using a remotely piloted craft in 2001. Now, its an ungoverned, unregulated space with billions of dollars to be made and thousands of lives at stake. The deadly shortcomings of this high-tech violence were placed squarely in the public eye with the U.S. drone strike in Kabul on Aug. 29 that targeted terrorists but instead killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children. It was a failure of military intelligence and, like so many other civilian fatalities of the U.S. air wars, including those featured in a New York Times investigation published in December, there was no finding of wrongdoing against those involved. Looking for a smartphone? To check mobile finder click here. Also read: The transformation of defense operations has been far-reaching: 102 countries now run active military drone programs. Its replaced thousands of troops on the ground with controllers behind computers located in bases far away from the air strikes they are launching. In the U.S., fewer troop deaths mean less pressure at the ballot box and less congressional oversight. It allows leaders of many countries and the proxies that support them to get away with what amounts to murder, often of their own citizens, as weve seen in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. All of this is happening without any overarching regulatory regime to protect civilian populations and uphold humanitarian laws, or to examine the operational and tactical ramifications of this remote-control warfare. Thats what worries experts like Paul Lushenko, a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and a Ph.D scholar at Cornell University. Drones are not just a form of war but a tool of unregulated intra-state political violence, Lushenko told me, representing a dystopian view of whats developing right now. Lushenko, who co-edited the newly released Drones and Global Order: Implications of Remote Warfare for International Society with Srinjoy Bose, a senior lecturer in international relations at the University of New South Wales, and William Maley, an emeritus professor at the Australian National University, is just one of many advocating for better regulation and more public scrutiny of drone operations. The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August provides an ideal moment for that post-mortem, he notes. There has been some attempt at oversight. The Missile Technology Control Regime, an informal political understanding among 35 members, seeks to limit the proliferation of and trade in missiles and missile technology which arguably covers attack drones. But theres no enforcement mechanism, Lushenko says. Its certainly not equipped to regulate armed and networked drones, which can take as many as 200 people to operate, including those controlling them from the U.S., as well as launching them from bases abroad. Drones are a gateway technology, Agnes Callamard noted in June as she marked the end of her five years as the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Theyve opened the door to weaponized artificial intelligence, algorithmic and robotic warfare, and loosened human control over the deployment of lethal force. Todays armed drones, she wrote, are tomorrows killer robots. She says the absence of a control mechanism for a new generation of weapons of mass destruction represents a significant threat. Callamard, now the secretary general of Amnesty International, has called for a specific Drone Technology Control Regime and says nations should establish a multilateral process to develop standards for the design, export, and use of drones as well as stricter controls on the transfer of military technologies. Sales agreements, she says, should include civilian protection and adherence to international human rights and humanitarian law. This gaping hole in international oversight has allowed major powers like the U.S. to flout global norms (like the U.S. drone strike that killed the commander of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps elite Quds force, Qassem Soleimani, in Iraq in January 2020). Large-scale manufacturers now negotiate sales directly with prospective buyers who have clear military and security uses in mind. Its seen Turkey emerge as a drone superpower in the sector, which market intelligence firm BIS Research estimated was worth $28.5 billion in 2021. The U.S. has already expressed its concerns over Turkeys sale of weaponized drones to Ethiopia, where the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali is suspected of using them against rebel forces in the Tigray region in a civil war thats killed thousands of civilians and forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region saw Azerbaijan emerge as the clear victor using Russian, Turkish, Israeli, and indigenous drones to overpower its neighbors less sophisticated military. All this illustrates the size of the logistical challenges facing the Biden administration and its plans for an over-the-horizon strategy in Afghanistan. The policy depends on other countries agreeing to house U.S. bases to enable Washington to continue its counterterrorism efforts, including the use of armed drones. But without regulation and oversight, the only certainty here is that the technology will continue to advance everywhere. There will be more civilian casualties and no one will be held accountable. China has approved the fourth phase of its lunar exploration program, including a basic model of a research station built on the moon over the coming decade, according to the China National Space Administration. Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the administration, said China would carry out lunar exploration in the future Chang'e-6, Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 missions. As planned, Chang'e-7 probe will be launched to the south pole of the moon first. Since Chang'e-6 is a backup of Chang'e-5 sample-return mission, it will be launched after Chang'e-7 to bring back samples on the lunar south pole. Chang'e-6 mission will be followed by Chang'e-8, a step toward building a model of a lunar scientific research station. "We also prepare to work with Russia to build the basic model of the lunar research station," Wu said in a recent interview. "The construction of the station will lay a solid foundation for us to better explore the lunar environment and resources, including how to use and develop lunar resources peacefully." The Chang'e-5 probe was launched in 2020, having retrieved a total of 1,731 grams of lunar samples. China is currently operating Chang'e-4 lander and the Yutu 2 rover on the far side of the moon. They made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar far side in 2019. Exemplary week of a single user showing the usage of the BEV as well as the energy production by rooftop PV. In this recorded charging pattern (i.e., the baseline scenario, as explained below), it would be beneficial to not immediately recharge the car to the maximum, but instead wait for periods of increased PV energy generation. Credit: DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111969 An electric car that runs on PV power sounds appealing. But is it really possible to enjoy flexibility with a vehicle charged through a home photovoltaic system? An ETH research team has reached some surprising conclusions. The area of photovoltaics (PV) is rapidly increasing in popularity, and in Switzerland it already covers 5 percent of the country's electricity consumption. Electromobility is also seeing strong growthwith currently 70,000 pure electric vehicles on Swiss roads, plus 200,000 hybrids. Martin Raubal, Professor of Geoinformation Engineering at ETH Zurich, welcomes the development: "The mobility sector is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gases in Switzerland. Electromobility is one way to reduce CO 2 emissions from transport." Solar power and e-mobility are a perfect match A research team led by Raubal has now brought the growth of photovoltaics and electromobility together in a hypothetical approach. The scientists wanted to know the extent to which electric car owners are able to charge their vehicles with power from their own photovoltaics system without restricting their car use any more than with conventional mains charging. Many people are skeptical about the concept of charging with PV power: "How can I use my electric car if it has to be charged during the day while the sun is shining?" is a common response. The study by the ETH researchers goes a long way to countering this skepticism: "Our results show that owners of electric vehicles can use their cars with no particular restrictions, charging them to a large extent with their own photovoltaic power, even without intermediate storage," says Henry Martin summarizing the study's main result. Martin is a doctoral student at the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation at ETH Zurich and conducts research at the Institute of Advanced Research in Artificial Intelligence (IARAI) in Vienna. The study by the ETH scientists has just been published in the journal Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews. Real user data, virtual PV generation The study focused on 78 electric mobility users, who generally lived in a single-family home and often used their vehicles during the day. Their user behavior was recorded meticulously for ten months, enabling the ETH researchers to know when the electric cars were driven, when they were stationary and when they were being charged. The user data came from the "SBB Green Class" project, in which private individuals were able to purchase a mobility package consisting of a GA travelcard and an electric car, including a private charging station. The owners mostly charged their electric cars at their home charging station with mains electricity. Would they have been able to use their cars just as flexibly if they had charged them with power from their own PV system? In order to answer this question, Martin's fellow researcher Rene Buffat equipped the homes of the 78 electric vehicle owners with a hypothetical PV system: he identified the houses via their addresses, reconstructed the available roof area using geospatial data and covered it virtually with solar panels. Using historical weather data with a 30-minute resolution, Buffat calculated the potential solar power yield, taking into account factors such as shade from neighboring buildings and trees. High level of private consumption thanks to intelligent control Based on this model calculation, the ETH researchers were able to determine how much PV power was available to each electric car owner at any given time to charge their vehicle. They made the assumption that the power would be used primarily to charge the electric vehicle. The maximum charging power in the model was 11 kilowatts (kW). Depending on the house, the PV systems had a peak power of 5 to 25 kW, which was usually sufficient to charge the car at full power in sunshine. For four different charging strategies, the researchers calculated the proportion of household PV power required to charge the electric cars without any change in user mobility behavior. In the first case, they were charged at the same time as previously with mains electricity, but now with PV power, if available. The result was sobering: on average, only 15 percent of annual electricity requirements was met by PV power (the rest by mains electricity). The second charging strategy, where a simple intelligent control (smart charging) ensured that the battery was charged whenever household PV power was available, had a different result. In this case, more than half (56 percent) of electricity requirements was met with household PV power, without the need for temporary storage. "We were surprised by the high proportion," says Martin. "Smart charging can significantly increase the household consumption of photovoltaic powerand the vehicle can be used just as flexibly as if it were charged with mains electricity." Algorithms for smart charging If the potential of intelligent control is consistently exploited (the third charging strategy), electric vehicles can even be charged with household PV power up to 90 percent of the time. If the PV power is buffered in a storage unit (fourth charging strategy), the vehicles can be driven almost exclusively using solar energy. The ETH researchers are ambivalent about intermediate storage, however. Although household consumption of green PV power can be increased slightly, the sustainability balance of the charging system as a whole is affected by the fact that the production of electricity storage units causes relevant quantities of CO 2 . "Our case study demonstrates the potential of smart charging for a decentralized and grid-friendly supply of renewable energy that has been exploited very little so far," says Raubal. His research group is currently working on developing machine learning strategies with a view to predicting PV yield and user behavior as accurately as possible. These strategies form the basis of the development of smart-charging algorithms, which it is hoped will soon be used as standard in charging stations for electric vehicles. More information: H. Martin et al, Using rooftop photovoltaic generation to cover individual electric vehicle demandA detailed case study, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (2022). H. Martin et al, Using rooftop photovoltaic generation to cover individual electric vehicle demandA detailed case study,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111969 Lina Khan, nominee for Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), speaks during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation confirmation hearing, Wednesday, April 21, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Khan is now the youngest person ever to lead the Federal Trade Commission, an agency now poised to aggressively enforce antitrust law against the tech industry. Credit: Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner via AP, Pool, File Three bright and driven women with ground-breaking ideas made significantif very differentmarks on the embattled tech industry in 2021. Frances Haugen, Lina Khan and Elizabeth Holmesa data scientist turned whistleblower, a legal scholar turned antitrust enforcer and a former Silicon Valley high-flyer turned criminal defendantall figured heavily in a technology world where men have long dominated the spotlight. Think Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk. Haugen, a former product manager at Facebook, went public with internal documents to buttress accusations that the social network giant elevated profits over the safety of users. At 32, Khan is the youngest person ever to lead the Federal Trade Commission, an agency now poised to aggressively enforce antitrust law against the tech industry. Holmes was once worth $4.5 billion on paper. Following a 3 1/2-month federal trial that captivated Silicon Valley, she was convicted Monday on four counts of fraud and conspiracy for misleading investors about the accuracy of a blood-testing technology developed at her startup Theranos. Holmes could now face up to 20 years in prison. The jury found her not guilty of four other felony charges. On the three remaining charges, the jury was deadlocked. Holmes' story has become a Silicon Valley morality talea founder who flew too high, too fastdespite the fact that male tech executives have been accused of similar actions or worse without facing charges. ___ Haugen joined Facebook out of a desire to help it address misinformation and other threats to democracy. But her frustration grew as she learned of online misinformation that stoked violence and abuseand which Facebook wasn't addressing effectively. So in the fall of 2021 the 37-year-old Haugen went public with a trove of Facebook documents that catalogued how her former employer was failing to protect young users from body-image issues and amplifying online hate and extremism. Her work also laid bare the algorithms Big Tech uses to tailor content that will keep users hooked on its services. "Frances Haugen has transformed the conversation about technology reform," Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook who became one of its leading critics, wrote in Time magazine. Facebook the company, which has since renamed itself Meta Platforms, has disputed Haugen's assertions, although it hasn't pointed to any factual errors in her public statements. The company instead emphasizes the vast sums it says it has invested in safety since 2016 and data showing the progress it's made against hate speech, incitement to political violence and other social ills. Haugen was well positioned to unleash her bombshell. As a graduate business student at Harvard, she helped create an online dating platform that eventually turned into the dating app Hinge. At Google, she helped make thousands of books accessible on mobile phones and to create a fledgling social network. Haugen's creative restlessness flipped her through several jobs over 15 years at Google, Yelp and Pinterest and of course Facebook, which recruited her in 2018. Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, arrives at the federal courthouse for jury selection in her trial, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, in San Jose, Calif. Coming into 2022, Holmes, once worth $4.5 billion on paper, is now awaiting a jury's verdict on fraud charges that she misled investors and patients about the accuracy of a blood-testing technology developed at her startup Theranos. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury, File Haugen's revelations energized global lawmakers seeking to rein in Big Tech, although there's been little concrete action in the U.S. Facebook rushed to change the subject by rolling out its new corporate name and playing up its commitment to developing an immersive technology platform known as the "metaverse." Haugen moved last year to Puerto Rico, where she says she can enjoy anonymity that would elude her in northern California. "I don't like being the center of attention," she told a packed arena at a November conference in Europe. ___ A similar dynamic prevailed for Khan, an academic outsider with big new ideas and a far-reaching agenda that ruffled institutional and business feathers. President Joe Biden stunned official Washington in June when he installed Khan, an energetic critic of Big Tech then teaching law, as head of the Federal Trade Commission. That signaled a tough government stance toward giants Meta, Google, Amazon and Apple. Khan is the youngest chair in the 106-year history of the FTC, which polices competition, consumer protection and digital privacy. She was an unorthodox choice, with no administrative experience or knowledge of the agency other than a brief 2018 stint as legal adviser to one of the five commissioners. But she brought intellectual heft that packed a political punch. Khan shook up the antitrust world in 2017 with her scholarly work as a Yale law student, "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox," which helped shape a new way of looking at antitrust law. For decades, antitrust work has defined anticompetitive conduct as market dominance that drives up prices, a concept that doesn't apply to many "free" technology services. Khan instead pushed to examine the broader effects of corporate concentration on industries, employees and communities. That school of thoughtdubbed "hipster antitrust" by its detractorsappears to have had a significant influence on Biden. Khan was born in London; her family moved to the New York City area when she was 11. After graduating from college, she spent three years as a policy analyst at the liberal-leaning think tank New America Foundation before leaving for Yale. Under Khan's six-month tenure, the FTC has sharpened its antitrust attack against Facebook in federal court and pursued a competition investigation into Amazon. The agency sued to block graphics chip maker Nvidia's $40 billion purchase of chip designer Arm, saying a combined company could stifle the growth of new technologies. In Khan's aggressive investigations and enforcement agenda, key priorities include racial bias in algorithms and market-power abuses by dominant tech companies. Internally, some employees have chafed at administrative changes that expanded Khan's authority over policymaking, and one Republican commissioner has assailed Khan in public. "She's shaken things up," said Robin Gaster, a visiting scholar at George Washington University who focuses on economics, politics and technology. "She is going to be a field test for whether an aggressive FTC can expand the envelope for antitrust enforcement." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the leading business lobby, has publicly threatened court fights, asserting that Khan and the FTC are waging war on American businesses. Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in Washington. Haugen made a significant mark on the embattled tech industry in 2021. Credit: Matt McClain/The Washington Post via AP, Pool, File ___ Holmes founded Theranos when she was 19, dropping out of Stanford to pursue a bold, humanitarian idea. Possessed of seemingly boundless networking chutzpah, Holmes touted Theranos blood-testing technology as a breakthrough that could scan for hundreds of medical conditions using just a few drops of blood. By 2015, 11 years after leaving Stanford, Holmes had raised hundreds of millions of dollars for her company, pushing its market value to $9 billion. Half of that belonged to Holmes, earning her the moniker of the world's youngest self-made female billionaire at 30. Just three years later, though, Theranos collapsed in scandal. Now standing convicted of the fraud and conspiracy charges, Holmes, who is 37, could face up to 20 years in prison for each count. When young, Holmes was a competitive prodigy who openly aspired to make a vast fortune. She started studying Mandarin Chinese with a tutor around age 9, and talked her way into summer classes in the language at Stanford after her sophomore year in high school. In her sophomore college year, she took the remainder of her tuition money as a stake and dropped out to run her company. As Theranos ascended, some saw Holmes as the next Steve Jobs. Theranos ultimately raised more than $900 million from investors including media baron Rupert Murdoch and Walmart's Walton family. The company's fairy-tale success started to unravel in 2016, when a series of Wall Street Journal articles and a federal regulatory audit uncovered a pattern of grossly inaccurate blood results in tests run on Theranos devices. The Holmes trial has exposed Silicon Valley's "fake it 'til you make it" culture in painful detail. Tech entrepreneurs often overpromise and exaggerate, so prosecutors faced the challenge of proving that Holmes' boosterism crossed the line into fraud. ___ This story has been corrected to reflect that Haugen moved to Puerto Rico last year, not this year. Explore further Jurors mull whether Theranos founder guilty of fraud 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. The number of active cases of COVID-19 in Brazos County continued to rise over the holiday weekend, from 1,008 to 1,173. Brazos County health officials reported 249 new cases of COVID-19 among county residents Tuesday. Health officials said 1,902 cases of the virus reported by health care systems and testing centers were awaiting confirmation Tuesday. Brazos County officials have confirmed 34,946 cases of COVID-19 in the county since the pandemic began in March 2020. A Texas A&M University website said the number of active, self-reported cases of the virus among students, faculty members and staff was 279 as of Saturday, the last date for which figures were posted. Officials with the Brazos County Health District said 33,405 cases were considered recovered as of Tuesday; health officials classify all cases older than two weeks as recovered. Thirty Brazos County residents were hospitalized Tuesday for treatment of symptoms related to the virus, officials said. The percentage of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in the states Trauma Service Area N Brazos County and six surrounding counties was 12.31% on Monday, the last date for which figures were reported. Other counties in the Brazos Valley region are Burleson, Robertson, Grimes, Madison, Washington and Leon. There were 66 lab-confirmed COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the seven-county Brazos Valley region Tuesday, with 14 new patients admitted in the past 24 hours, according to the Department of State Health Services. Fourteen COVID-19 patients were on ventilators in the region, and there were two intensive care unit beds available in the region. Of the 536 staffed hospital beds in the region, 82 were available Tuesday, according to state figures. Across the state, 7,460 lab-confirmed COVID-19 patients were hospitalized Tuesday. Brazos Countys positivity rate the percent of positive cases to tests was 7.85% on Tuesday. Health officials said 445,117 tests for COVID-19 had been administered by Brazos County health care providers since the pandemic began. There was one new probable COVID-19 case reported in Brazos County on Tuesday. To date, health officials have reported 5,841 total probable cases. To date, 368 Brazos County residents have died after testing positive for COVID-19, according to health department figures. Statewide On Tuesday, 44,431 new cases of COVID-19 and 60 virus-related deaths were reported in Texas. The total number of COVID-19 cases reported in the state was more than 3.9 million, according to state figures. State officials said 74,796 Texans have died of COVID-19 as of Tuesday. The Rio Brazos Audubon Society invites the public to its monthly meeting on Jan. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History, 3232 Briarcrest Drive in Bryan. The program will be on birding in Costa Rica by Michael McCloy. TUESDAY EVENTS Bryan ISD job fair, 3 to 7 p.m. at 801 S. Ennis St. in Bryan. Positions available for bus drivers, teachers aides, custodians, nutrition services and substitute teachers. Applications are available at bryanisd.org/careers. Blood drive, 10 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. at Blue Bell Aquatic Center, 1800 E. Tom Green St. in Brenham. Email tjaster@cityofbrenham.org for more information. Brazos Church Pantry food distribution, 9:30 to 11 a.m. at 304 W. 26th St. in Bryan. brazoschurchpantry.org. Afternoon Book Club, 6 p.m. at Larry J. Ringer Library, 1818 Harvey Mitchell Parkway in College Station. The group will be discussing The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett. Registration is not required. For more information, email handerson@bryantx.gov or call 209-6347. All-day youth program, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Lincoln Recreation Center, 1000 Eleanor St. in College Station. Games, sports, arts and crafts for kids ages 6 to 15. More details about the centers after-school program are available at cstx.gov/lincolncenter. Registration is ongoing. Jeep Night, 6 to 8 p.m. at The Ranch Harley-Davidson, 4101 Texas 6 in College Station. Free drinks, food truck, door prizes and contests. American Business Womens Association monthly meeting, 5 to 8 p.m. at Embassy Suites, 201 University Drive in College Station. Lisette Templin will be the speaker. Dinner will be served. Walk-in tickets are $35. go.theeagle.com/abwa. Brazos County 4-H Equestrian Club monthly meeting, 6 to 7:30 p.m. at A&M United Methodist Church, 417 University Drive in College Station. Members will discuss upcoming activities as well as updates from the horse judging and hippology teams. Pool tournament, 8 p.m. at Wheels Tavern, 2004 Texas 21 in Bryan. $10 entry. FARMERS MARKETS South Brazos County Farmers Market, noon to 5:30 p.m. at the Baylor Scott & White Clinic parking lot off Glenhaven Drive in College Station. COVID-19 TESTING St. Teresa Catholic Church, 201 Hall St. in Bryan, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. curative.com. Lincoln Community Center, 1000 Eleanor St. in College Station, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Walk-ins accepted. curative.com. Kohls parking lot kiosk, 1509 Texas Ave. in College Station, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. curative.com. Blinn College, 651 Blinn Blvd. in Brenham, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Walk-ins accepted. curative.com. Rudder Plaza kiosk, 275 Joe Routt Blvd. on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For Texas A&M students, faculty and staff members. Appointments required. Mays Plaza kiosk, 210 Olsen Blvd. on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For Texas A&M students, faculty and staff members. Appointments required. SUPPORT GROUPS NAMI Brazos Valley Mental Health online family support groups, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Free support group for loved ones of someone with mental health issues. Call 774-4713 for more information. Register at go.theeagle.com/namibv. Al-Anon Family Group, 7 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 506 E. 28th St. in Bryan. The meeting is open to anyone affected by anothers use of alcohol. Celebrate Recovery, 7 p.m. at Grace Bible Churchs Southwood campus, 1901 Harvey Mitchell Parkway in College Station. A 12-step Christian-based program to find freedom from shame, guilt, anger, depression and despair. EXHIBITS Oceans of Plastic at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station. A collection of art made from plastic pollution acquired from beaches along the Texas coast. The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $9 for adults, and tickets must be purchased at bush41.org/visit/admission. How the Other Half Lives, through Friday at The Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History, 3232 Briarcrest Drive in Bryan. The exhibit features the photographs, correspondence and journals of Jacob Riis, a reporter who devoted his life to social reform and led efforts to increase awareness about homelessness, immigration, education, crime, public health and labor. The museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Adult admission is $5. For more information, visit brazosvalleymuseum.org. Collage by Lance Letscher, through Friday in the Wright Gallery in the Langford A Building in the College of Architecture on the Texas A&M University campus. Weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Celebrating 60 Years, through January at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History, 3232 Briarcrest Drive in Bryan. A celebration of 60 years of service to the Brazos Valley through vintage photographs, artifacts and specimens. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults. WASHINGTON (AP) The first time Celeste Norris laid eyes on Ashli Babbitt, the future insurrectionist had just rammed her vehicle three times with an SUV and was pounding on the window, challenging her to a fight. Norris says the bad blood between them began in 2015, when Babbitt engaged in a monthslong extramarital affair with Norris' longtime live-in boyfriend. When she learned of the relationship, Norris called Babbitt's husband and told him she was cheating. "She pulls up yelling and screaming," Norris said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, recounting the July 29, 2016, road-rage incident in Prince Frederick, Maryland. "It took me a good 30 seconds to figure out who she was. Just all sorts of expletives, telling me to get out of the car, that she was going to beat my ass." Terrified and confused, Norris dialed 911 and waited for law enforcement. Babbitt was later charged with numerous misdemeanors. The attack on Norris is an example of erratic and sometimes threatening behavior by Babbitt, who was shot by a police officer while at the vanguard of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have sought to portray her as a righteous martyr who was unjustly killed. Trump has called her "an incredible person" and he even taped a posthumous birthday greeting to her in October. Trump has also demanded the Justice Department reinvestigate Babbitt's death, though the officer who shot her was cleared of any wrongdoing by two prior federal investigations. But the life of the Air Force veteran from California, who died while wearing a Trump campaign flag wrapped around her shoulders like a cape, is far more complicated than the heroic portrait presented by Trump and his allies. In the months before her death, Babbitt had become consumed by pro-Trump conspiracy theories and posted angry screeds on social media. She also had a history of making violent threats. Babbitt, 35, was fatally shot while attempting to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker's Lobby inside the Capitol, where police officers were evacuating members of Congress from the mob supporting Trump's false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. She was one of five people who died during or immediately after the riot, including a Capitol Police officer. On social media, Babbitt identified as a Libertarian and ardent supporter of the Second Amendment. Her posts included videos of profane rants against Democrats, COVID-19 mask mandates and illegal immigration. Her Twitter account, which was taken down after her death, was rife with references to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which centers on the baseless belief that Trump has secretly battled deep-state enemies and a cabal of Satan-worshiping cannibals that includes prominent Democrats who operate a child sex trafficking ring. "Nothing will stop us," Babbitt tweeted Jan. 5. "They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours....dark to light!" Among Q followers, "The Storm" refers to the predicted day Trump would finally unmask the pedophile cabal, arrest and execute those deemed traitors and restore America to greatness. Trump has repeatedly insisted Babbitt was murdered, and she has achieved martyr status among Trump supporters. Her name and likeness now appear on T-shirts and flags at pro-Trump rallies. A Maryland personal injury lawyer representing Babbitt's husband, Aaron Babbitt, has raised $375,000 through a Christian crowdfunding site and has threatened to file a lawsuit against the Capitol Police. Key to that wrongful death claim is the contention that Babbitt, a former military police officer who was 5-foot-2 and weighed 115 pounds, would have peacefully surrendered had Capitol officers attempted to arrest her. Aaron Babbitt declined to comment in October when a reporter knocked on the door of the San Diego apartment he shared with Ashli and another woman. In a June interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News, Babbitt said he has been sickened by some of what he has seen written about his deceased wife. "There's never been a person who Ashli ran across in her daily life that didn't love her," said Babbitt, 40. That is not how Norris felt about her. MORE JAN. 6 COVERAGE ONE YEAR LATER Court records involving the violent 2016 confrontation between Babbitt and Norris have previously been reported by media outlets, including the AP. But Norris, now 39, agreed to speak about it publicly for the first time in an interview with the AP and shared previously unreported details. She also provided documents and photos from the crash scene to support her account. Norris was in a six-year relationship with Aaron Babbitt when she said she learned he was cheating on her with a married co-worker from his job as a security guard at a nuclear power plant near the Chesapeake Bay. She eventually found out the other woman was Ashli McEntee, who at the time went by the last name of her then-husband. "He was telling me about this foulmouthed chick that's on his shift, blah, blah, blah," Norris recounted. "Come to find out a few months later ... they were basically having this relationship while they were at work." When she learned of the affair, she reached out to Babbitt's husband, Timothy McEntee. "You know, I was trying to keep my home life together," she said. Norris said she tried for a few months to salvage her relationship with Aaron Babbitt before finally deciding to move out of their house. Within days, Norris said, Ashli moved in. A few weeks later, Norris was waiting at a stop sign in Prince Frederick, about an hour southeast of Washington, D.C., when she says a white Ford Explorer passed her going the other direction. Norris saw the SUV pulling a U-turn before speeding up behind her. She recounts that the SUV's driver began swerving erratically, laying on the horn and attempting to pass a Chevrolet Suburban that was in between them on the narrow two-lane road. When the driver of the Chevy pulled over, Norris said the white Ford SUV accelerated and rammed into her rear bumper. She said the SUV rammed her a second time and then a third, all while the vehicles continued to roll down the road. After Norris dialed 911, an emergency dispatcher advised her to pull over to the shoulder and stop. As she waited for help, Babbitt got out of her vehicle and came up to Norris' driver's-side window, banging on the glass. Norris said the force of the impact caused her seatbelt to lock tight, preventing her from getting out of her car. Within minutes, deputies arrived. A case report from the Calvert County Sheriff's Office obtained by the AP shows Ashli Babbitt was issued a criminal summons on charges of reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor defined under Maryland law as engaging in conduct "that creates a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to another" and punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. She was also charged with malicious destruction of property for the damage to Norris' vehicle. Court records show those charges were later updated to include traffic offenses reckless driving, negligent driving and failure to control a vehicle's speed to avoid a collision. Photos from the scene provided to the AP by Norris show Babbitt's white Ford Explorer with its front bumper smashed in. The SUV's grill is also pushed in and the hood dented. The rear bumper of Norris' Escape is pushed in on the passenger side, with the detached Maryland license plate from the front bumper of Babbitt's SUV wedged into it. Following the altercation, Norris and a friend went to the courthouse in neighboring St. Mary's County, where she lived at the time, and petitioned for a peace order, a type of restraining order, against Ashli Babbitt. The resulting judicial order barred Ashli Babbitt from attempting to contact Norris, committing further acts of violence against her and going to her home or workplace. A copy of the order, dated the same day as the altercation, contains Norris' contemporaneous account of what occurred, as written down by her friend. Norris' hands were still shaking so badly she couldn't write down what happened for herself, according to a note on the document. In the weeks after the incident, Norris said, Babbitt falsely claimed to authorities that the collisions had occurred when Norris repeatedly backed her vehicle into Babbitt's SUV. But when the case went to trial, Norris said, Babbitt changed her story, admitting under oath that she had collided with Norris' vehicle but portraying it as an accident. No transcript from the hearing was available, but Norris said the lawyer defending Babbitt made repeated references to her employment at the local nuclear power plant and years of military service, which included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Babbitt served on active duty with the U.S. Air Force, and then in the reserves and the Air National Guard until 2016. A judge acquitted Babbitt on the criminal charges. In February 2017, records show Norris asked for and received a second peace order against Ashli Babbitt, citing ongoing harassment and stalking. In a handwritten petition, Norris says that Babbitt had recently followed her home from work and that she had also received repeated calls in the middle of the night from an unlisted number. "I lived in fear because I didn't know what she was capable of," Norris told the AP. "I was constantly looking over my shoulder." In 2019, Norris filed a personal injury lawsuit against Ashli Babbitt, seeking $74,500 in damages, and she said she settled out of court with Babbitt's insurance carrier for an undisclosed sum. By then, Aaron and Ashli had moved to California, where she grew up and still had family. Timothy McEntee was granted a divorce in Maryland in May 2019. McEntee did not respond to voicemails and messages left at his home. Ashli posted on Facebook that she married Aaron Babbitt the following month. Records show the couple owned a pool cleaning service with Ashli's brother. When a reporter visited the business the day after her death, a large sign on the locked door declared the building to be "Mask Free Autonomous Zone Better Known as America." In the year since Babbitt's death, Trump and many Republicans in Congress have sought to recast the Jan. 6 insurrection as nonviolent a contention directly contradicted by hours of video footage and the public testimony of Capitol Police officers, 140 of whom were injured in the melee. In his video on Babbitt's birthday, Trump also said: "Together we grieve her terrible loss. There was no reason Ashli should have lost her life that day. We must all demand justice for Ashli and her family, so on this solemn occasion as we celebrate her life, we renew our call for a fair and nonpartisan investigation into the death of Ashli Babbitt." Aaron Babbitt's lawyer, Terrell Roberts III, did not respond to numerous phone messages and emails seeking comment. But in written statements to the media, he has said her shooting "was tantamount to an execution without trial." "Given her background as a 14-year veteran of the Air Force, it is likely that Ashli would have complied with simple verbal commands, thereby making the use of any force unnecessary," Roberts said. The Capitol Police officer who shot Babbitt, Lt. Michael Byrd, said in a televised interview in August that he fired as a "last resort." When he pulled the trigger, he said, he had no idea whether the person jumping through the window was armed. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia cleared Byrd of wrongdoing in April, concluding that he acted in self-defense and in the defense of members of Congress. The U.S. Capitol Police announced in August that they had also cleared Byrd. "I tried to wait as long as I could," Byrd said. "I hoped and prayed no one tried to enter through those doors. But their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers." *** Associated Press correspondent Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. Follow AP Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck Contact AP's global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org. A little girl who entered the world at CHI St. Francis and a little boy delivered at Grand Island Regional Medical Center were the first babies born in 2022 in Grand Island. The girl, Aaliyah Montanez, arrived at 9:55 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 1, weighing in at 6 pounds, 15 1/2 ounces. The boy, Samuel Camey, showed up at 7:49 a.m. Monday, Jan. 3, weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces. He has a lot of hair, said his mother, Vanessa. Samuels arrival was a great birthday present for Vanessa, who turned 36 on Monday. Dr. Erica Haake handled the cesarean birth. Vanessa and Oliver Camey are now the parents of two little boys. Big brother Alexander will turn 5 on Jan. 28. The hospital staff presented Vanessa with a slice of birthday cake. Samuels arrival means that Vanessa didnt require a birthday present from Oliver, 37. I already gave her one, he said, smiling. Aaliyah Montanez is the third child for Teresa Contreras, 23, and Brayan Montanez. Its such a blessing to have my three little kiddos now, Contreras said. She is their first girl. Having a girl is a whole different experience. Shes our little star now, she said. The boys are Zayden Contreras, 7, and Bryan Montanez, 1. Dr. Sara Graybill handled the natural delivery. For Contreras, the hours leading up to the delivery were hectic. The baby wasnt expected to come as early as she did. So Montanez left Grand Island on Thursday to finish a job in the Southeast. He was in his truck, going back to Florida with the puppy, Contreras said. When she called to tell Montanez that her water had broken, he was in Atlanta. When she told him she was sure the baby was on the way, he headed back to Grand Island. He was with me on the phone, on FaceTime, the whole time while I was in labor and while she was born, Contreras said. He arrived in Grand Island on Sunday to see his new little girl and congratulate the mother. In the meantime, Contreras mothers flight was delayed. Returning from California, she was stuck in Denver. And then my sister got caught in Omaha, Contreras said. So after Aaliyah arrived, Contreras had only the nurses for company. It was crazy, but were blessed to have her here, she said of her daughter. In honor of the years first births, both mothers received gift baskets from the hospitals. At Grand Island Regional, 367 babies were born in 2021, said Karen Mast, the hospitals maternal child nurse manager. CHI St. Francis welcomed 439 babies in 2021. Nurses who help deliver babies have a rewarding occupation. Its a very joyful business, Mast said. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Paris, TX (75460) Today Thunderstorms likely this morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 83F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening. Thunderstorms likely late. Low 64F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%. HARRISBURG A body found in a Harrisburg creek last month has been identified as Patrick J. Rubenstein, 39 of Eldorado. That's according to Illinois State Police District 19. No preliminary or known cause of death has been announced as the results from the autopsy are pending, Saline County Chief Deputy Coroner Sean Watson said. ISP Division of Criminal Investigation Zone 8 was requested to assist in a death investigation at Pankey Branch Creek near East Sloan Street at approximately 3:30 p.m. Dec. 15. Rubenstein was discovered dead by a passerby, ISP said. The death investigation is still ongoing. If anyone has any information regarding the incident, please contact 618-382-4606. The Southern Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Just as the local landscapes like Garden of the Gods have withstood time, Natalie Rotramel's art is a method by which she withstands all hards If its been said once, its been said many times. Theres just something about Chicago you just have to see the number of former/native members of our community making moves in other cities and venues, including those helming some of the countrys notable archives at institutions in Washington, D.C. Native Chicagoan and former executive director of University of Chicagos Black Metropolis Research Consortium Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty was recently appointed director of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. Evangelestia-Dougherty joins Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian, who served as the president of the Chicago Historical Society in the early 2000s. And then theres Carla Hayden, the 14th librarian of Congress, who, since September 2016, has been overseeing the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. Hayden began her career at the Chicago Public Library. What is it about Chicago? queries Hayden. Theres New York, New York, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. I think Chicago epitomizes that in so many ways it gives you so many experiences and that being right down the middle, theres a value to that. You can relate east/west, left/right. You have everything, people from different backgrounds, cultures and when it snows, were all together. We talked with Hayden, (a lover of 57th Street Books) a South Shore High School, Roosevelt University and University of Chicago alumna about her literary moves, aspirations and goals now that shes reached the midway point of her 10-year term. The interview has been condensed and edited. Q: There seems to be a pipeline to Washington D.C. from Chicago (and we havent even mentioned Obama). Is our city the last test before greatness? Hayden: I think that through line is the experiences. For libraries, Chicago Public is one of the major library systems in the country with so many branches and so many neighborhoods, it prepares you. In Chicago, you have very strong ethnic communities. The second largest population of Polish people outside of Poland. My family is from Downstate, Springfield and Champaign. Growing up in the Land of Lincoln ... and then music, my dad was a studio musician and taught at Malcolm X College ... They put me on the South Side in a storefront library in the 70s. Giving storytime to kids in the neighborhood with autism. Thats when I got a chance to see what those branch libraries meant in the communities. In Chicago, branch libraries are integral to the communities, they are opportunity centers. I got a chance to work at the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library when it opened, and I was the childrens librarian at the Whitney Young branch. I got to see firsthand what libraries could be in communities; Chicago Public shaped that for me and then I went on to be the young adult coordinator planning programs for teenagers throughout the city. Chicago Public is where I really understood more about what public libraries could and should be. Q: Given your experience/background in Chicago, whats the major difference working for the Library of Congress versus Chicago Public Library? A: Scale, of course. Its a national library and serves Congress. It also serves the people that Congress serves. Thats everyone in the United States. Its got over 170 million items, the largest collection of human knowledge in the world, it includes not only books but original manuscripts like the papers of 23 presidents from Washington to Coolidge, history makers like Thurgood Marshall and Frederick Douglass, Clara Barton, millions of photographs, films, maps, audio recordings, music, comic books and hair. We have a lock of Beethovens hair, all of these things. Its a reference library so we loan materials to other libraries; we supply unique materials all over. Q: How do you decide what gets an LOC exhibit and what doesnt speak to many populations or communities and gets put on the back burner? A: One of the first things you do is see if there are any significant anniversaries like womens suffrage. If there are any historic commemorations, you look to see what you have in your collections. We received the archives of the AIDS quilt. Theres a variety of ways of how and what you display. Thats why we have rotating exhibits because when you have a collection that covers just about everything, you can be relevant. In terms of reaching out, we just got a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to connect with people in communities all over the country, to make sure that there are stories that might not have been covered or that are being worked on ... its called Of the People: Widening the Path. (The initiative will invest in community-based documentarians who will expand the librarys collections with new perspectives; fund paid internships and fellowships to engage the next generation of diverse librarians, archivists and knowledge workers; and create a range of digital engagements with library collections with underserved communities and institutions.) There are a lot of people doing a lot of good work in communities all over and thats a major focus for us now. Q: Youve done so many firsts: The first woman and the first African American to lead the national library. What does that kind of responsibility feel and look like? A: My colleagues in the library world have been so supportive. Theyre the ones that supported my nomination and recommended it because we are a community that believes in empowering people with what we do in libraries. Being the first woman since 1802 was very significant for the profession because were one of the four feminized professions where about 85% to 90% of the workforce is female and quite a few times the top management of those institutions doesnt reflect that. So professionally, that was significant and then personally, being the first person of color was especially significant for me because people like me were denied the right to learn to read. That meant quite a bit to me personally. Q: Is there anything left to achieve, anything on your vision board that you still have to get to? A: Halfway through, I really want to connect with as many people as possible, to expand the collections so theyre more relevant. Thats the whole part of working with communities of color in particular. Using technology to the fullest, thats going to be where Im really going to spend a lot of time. So people know more about the Library of Congress and that its something that is useful to them, making it more relevant. Were very good with researchers and scholars and things and, of course, informing Congress, but we need to also serve as many people as possible. Q: Is the Ark of the Covenant in the Library of Congress in any shape, form or fashion? A: Well, see were building, for the first time, a Treasures Gallery at the Jefferson Building so we can bring out some of these things so people could see and rotate. Were going to have an orientation center and a welcome area to have fun with all things that have been in those movies like National Treasure. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A 25-year-old man is accused of killing five beagles and trying to kill a rabbit hunter in Neeses, according to Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office warrants. The registered beagles had a total value of $27,000, the warrants say. A.J. Lamar Davis, of Gaston, is charged with five counts each of ill-treatment of animals, torture and malicious injury to animals valued more than $2,000 but less than $10,000 and one count each of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. The S.C. Department of Natural Resources charged him with one count of killing a dog that has entered on private land. The shooting occurred at about 9 a.m. Thursday as five friends were out rabbit hunting, according to a sheriffs office incident report. One of the hunters said the dogs began chasing a rabbit on his land and then went into an adjoining cotton field. Thats when he heard gunshots ring out. The hunter walked to the corner of his property. He alleges a man in a gray shirt began shooting at him and yelling that he needed to get the dogs. The hunter alleges the male, continued firing shots at him and the men he was hunting with while he was walking towards the house, the report states. The dogs made another pass in the woods and got close to the man in the gray shirt, the report said. The hunter alleges he then saw two gunmen firing shots at the dogs. The hunters tried to get the dogs back, but didnt want to get close to the man in the gray shirt, the report said. As the dogs drew nearer, the man in the gray shirt allegedly started to shoot the dogs, killing five of them. A hunter called 911 and the shooting stopped. Deputies arrived and discovered multiple dogs with collars and GPS collars on dead in the yard of a Celebration Drive home, the report states. The officers detained Davis and another man at the scene. The other man hasnt been charged in the incident. Warrants accuse Davis of trying to kill one of the hunters, shooting at him multiple times using a .22-caliber pistol, narrowly missing him. Warrants also accuse him of shooting and killing the following beagles without good cause: a 3-year-old lemon white known as Double Es Big Nose Kate, a 2-year-old black and tan known as Blackstone Mr. Brown, a 3-year-old black and tan known as JRB Dirt Road Diva, a 4-year-old black and tan known as Katdaddys Little Biddy Brown and a 2-year-old black and tan known as Cottonwoods Big Black Bella. Orangeburg County Chief Magistrate Derrick Dash set Davis bond at $5,000 on each charge on Friday. Davis posted the necessary payment toward his $60,000 bond the same day and was released. The incident remains under investigation. If convicted, Davis faces up to 30 years in prison. Contact the writer: mbrown@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5545. Follow on Twitter: @MRBrownTandD Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 2 Sad 3 Angry 37 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. This subscription will allow existing subscribers of The World to access all of our online content, including the E-Editions area. NOTE: To claim your access to the site, you will need to enter the Last Name and First Name that is tied to your subscription in this format: SMITH, JOHN If you need help with exactly how your specific name needs be entered, please email us at admin@countrymedia.net or call us at 1-541 266 6047. Coquille, OR (97420) Today Rain. High 51F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Showers early, then cloudy overnight. Low 44F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. The first Tuesday of 2022 is jam-packed with premieres, including the openers for the final seasons of This Is Us and black-ishwith Michelle Obama guesting on the latter. New comedies Abbott Elementary, American Auto and Grand Crew, all previewed in December, settle into their regular time periods on ABC and NBC. Steve Harveys latest gig is as a TV judge, cracking us up as he weighs in on wacky real-life cases in a comedic courtroom. Season Premiere 9/8c Like in previous seasons, the hit tearjerker launches its final run with the big three marking another birthdaytheir 41stwith several callbacks to the various turning points during which we first met the Pearson family six years (and countless crying jags) ago, plus an update on an event that sent Randall (Sterling K. Brown) into a more recent emotional tailspin. In present time, we find Kevin (Justin Hartley) maintaining a civil co-parenting relationship with Madison (Caitlin Thompson) and Kate (Chrissy Metz) making the best of Tobys (Chris Sullivan) long-distance employment, while theyre all grappling with the realities of mother Rebeccas (Mandy Moore) worsening condition. No episode would be complete without triggers from the past, when beloved father Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) was still among them, and the premiere episode revisits a doozy of a day of tragic American history that resonates among the family. Season Premiere 9:30/8:30c Guess whos coming to dinner? To kick off the seventh and final season of the groundbreaking family comedy, the Johnsons welcome Michelle Obama into their homethough Dre (Anthony Anderson) and Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross) are trying to keep it a private dinner, banning the rest of the family from intruding on their friendly powwow. Good luck with that. The fun begins when Bow drags Dre to a When We All Vote fundraiser, where they make the former first ladys acquaintance. Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship? Series Premiere 9/8c The terrific new workplace mock-doc comedy set at an underfunded Philadelphia public school settles into its regular time period, showcasing series creator/star Quinta Brunson as well-meaning second-grade teacher Janine. Ignoring advice from the more experienced Barbara (a sublime Sheryl Lee Ralph) that she should just worry about what can be controlled, Janine takes it upon herself to fix the flickering hallway lights that spook her students. Soon everyones in the dark, and another life lesson is learned. Series Premiere 8/7c NBC, which aired no comedies in the fall, adds two new sitcoms to its Tuesday lineupstarting with a workplace satire thats the tonal opposite of Abbott, laced with cynical bite, where no one ever learns from their mistakes. Echoing a similarly disastrous investors event on Succession, this episode is built around an earnings call that quickly goes south, when fatally uninspired new CEO Katherine (Ana Gasteyer) vamps about a big announcement to distract from the latest bad publicity, and her executive team of empty suits scrambles to close a labor negotiation. Series Premiere 8:30/7:30c The least promising of the nights new comedies is a low-concept sitcom about a group of Black friends in L.A.s trendy Silverlake district who bicker and bond over wineusually in bars. But when a local wildfire displaces them, they hang at househusband Wyatts (Justin Cunningham) home, where were introduced to his lawyer wife, Kristen (The Unicorns Maya Lynne Robinson), who initiates a competition with her partner about whos the better host. Complications ensue, and like in the episodes that aired in December, it looks like theyre having more fun than we are. Series Premiere 8/7c Watch out, Judge Judy. The ubiquitous entertainer Steve Harvey applies his brand of humor to the TV courtroom in a comedic twist on a time-honored genre. Hell have the last wordand it will probably be a sarcastic oneas he presides over cases involving sour grapes, unpaid bets and debts and the inevitable family feud. Survey says: His fans will dig this. 10/9c Christmas is over, declares the hospitals new medical director Veronica Fuentes (Michelle Forbes), who in the six weeks since her idealistic predecessor Max (Ryan Eggold) decamped to London to start a new life with Helen (Freema Agyeman) has shown herself to be the Grinch who stole hope. Making one mercenary decision after another, Veronica has alienated all in her employexcept maybe the new chair of holistic medicine (Good Girls Revolts Genevieve Angleson). As a secret insurrection looms in the New York hospital, things arent much rosier for the London transplants, as theyre introduced to the inequities in Britains National Health Service. (Youre free to make wagers on how long it will take before Max heads back to NYC.) Inside Tuesday TV: Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A woman incarcerated at the Wyoming Womens Center is suing the facility and a former employee convicted of sexually assaulting her. In 2019, Kyle Broberg was sentenced to three and a half to six years in prison on one count of second-degree sexual assault. He pleaded guilty to the charge in August 2019, dropping a second identical felony count in a deal brokered in Niobrara County. According to court documents, Broberg worked in the warehouse of the facility, directly supervising the victim, who is serving time on burglary and forgery convictions. The victim alleges four instances of assault between February and April 2019 in the complaint, filed in federal court last week. In each, according to the lawsuit, Broberg forced sexual touching with the victim and allegedly told her to perform oral sex on him once. Broberg was prosecuted for two of those instances. The suit states that each reported assault happened in areas of the prison where there were no cameras, including inside a freezer in the warehouse. Once an investigation into his conduct began, the complaint says, the victim was placed in solitary confinement and lost her job at the commissary warehouse, which she felt was in retaliation for reporting the assault. The suit alleges that Broberg had already been under investigation for being inappropriate with female prisoners before the victims reported assaults, and was not reportedly allowed inside the prison. Court documents state Broberg had worked at the Lusk prison for around two years, and had spent roughly six months working at the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution in Torrington before that. During his sentencing in December 2019, Broberg apologized to the victim and several others involved in the case, saying that he suffered from an addiction to lust, according to court filings. At the same hearing, court documents state the victim said she did not agree with the terms of Brobergs plea agreement. When I lost everything and was sentenced due to my actions, I lost my freedom, I lost seeing my family and friends, I became a felon, the victim told the court. But the thing I still had was the control over my own body until Kyle Broberg took this away from me as well. The lawsuit is brought against Broberg, WWC Warden Rick Catron and the Wyoming Department of Corrections, which it alleges did not provide adequate training and supervision to prevent the assaults. The victim alleges in the complaint that the assaults violated her constitutional right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment, and that the warden and other staff did not uphold their duty of ordinary care for her. According to the lawsuit, the victim has suffered severe depression and anxiety, post-traumatic stress and physical pain stemming from the assaults. The incidents also made her unable to be left alone with male supervisors and decreased her performance at work, the complaint says. The suit is seeking punitive, compensatory and other damages for the victim, which would have to be determined at a trial. A letter from the states risk management office included in court filings shows that the office denied the victims claim since Brobergs actions were outside the scope of a public employees duties and dont constitute any negligence by the state. According to the most recent documentation available, Broberg was serving his sentence at the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle as of September 2020. He asked the court to reduce his sentence at that time, but was denied. A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections declined to comment on the case, citing the active litigation. The victims lawyer and Warden Rick Catron did not respond to requests for comment by press time. Follow city and crime reporter Ellen Gerst on Twitter at @ellengerst. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 8 Sad 1 Angry 2 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CHEYENNE Wyoming personal injury lawyer Jason Ochs spent years fighting for accountability for primary pharmaceutical distributors role in the opioid epidemic, and it has finally paid off. As the state Attorney Generals office and individual municipalities entered into the OneWyo Opioid Settlement Agreement before the Jan. 2 deadline, many are set to receive a portion of the $26 billion payout from the global class-action suit. The funds are designed to be used for mitigation, treatment, education and emergency assistance for opioid abatement. The agreed-upon settlements will also impose transformative changes on the way pharmaceutical companies conduct their business. Within the proposed distribution plan of the $52 million included in the OneWyo Opioid Settlement Agreement, the state will receive 35% of the funding, and cities, towns and counties will receive the remaining 65%. This will go into general fund accounts, but must be earmarked for specific uses. Ochs represents the cities of Cheyenne, Casper, Rock Springs, Riverton and Carbon County, with the latter being the first to enter into litigation. He said due to their incorporation of private counsel and lawsuits on the behalf of the local governments, Wyoming received double the amount it could have acquired. I think they deserve a lot of credit, because they stuck their necks out, they engaged in something that was brand new, he said. This had never been done before. The historic case resulted in a settlement agreement with two separate payouts. Major pharmaceutical distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen are responsible for $18 billion over the course of 18 years, and Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, will disburse $8 billion over 10 years. According to Ochs, other local governments will likely receive an additional payment from Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of Oxycontin and the main target of the lawsuit. The company went bankrupt during the litigation process, and now a bankruptcy court will determine the level of compensation it will be responsible for. This is separate from the original case, as the companies did not see their day in the courtroom for the national prescription opiate litigation since a settlement agreement was reached. Nonetheless, Ochs explained the twofold argument brought forward by plaintiffs. They contended opioid manufacturers allegedly created a public nuisance through negligence, because they were well aware of how addictive the drugs were without disclosing the full effects. Distributors are also obligated to file suspicious activity reports if they saw large amounts of opioids going into certain jurisdictions, and allegedly they ignored their responsibilities in order to maximize profits. He said he is conflicted in his feelings toward the out-of-court resolution. Its been a long process to get to this point, and local governments will receive funding as early as next year, but the battle isnt over. He could see it going all the way to the Supreme Court, which would risk the entire litigation disappearing. Anytime we can bring money in to start, hopefully, curtailing this issue is a good thing, he said. But the other side of me is frustrated because I dont know if the defendants are paying enough. Ochs started his journey leading up to this moment nearly four years ago, after a close friend of his lost his son to an opioid overdose. The son had received a 30-day prescription of OxyContin following a shoulder surgery, but medical literature suggests any use of the drug for longer than five or six days can lead to an addiction. He was 19 years old, had the whole world ahead of him, and died in his sleep from an overdose, he said. I just saw the way that impacted the family. I started meeting, through his father, other parents who had the same story. Although this has been a consistent issue across the nation, the latest data available showed Wyoming providers wrote 57.1 opioid prescriptions for every 100 persons, compared to the national average of 51.4 prescriptions, according to the CDC. The Wyoming Department of Health also recorded the deaths of 65 people within the state who died from opioid drug overdose in 2020. Ochs and government officials said the settlement agreement is a step in the right direction to address those impacts. Even the language within the document holds pharmaceutical companies responsible. It states, Whereas, Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Participants have contributed to the opioid epidemic, which has, in turn, harmed the people and communities in the state of Wyoming. Next year, participating local governments will receive their allocated proportions to advance efforts to undo the damage. Laramie County is currently set to receive the largest portion at 15.59%, which was based on population size and the significant established ways they provide abatement assistance. Commissioner Gunnar Malm confirmed the county entered and signed into the agreement on Dec. 21. There is a possibility the county will receive more than allotted if not every community joins in the settlement. I know that addiction is a very real and deadly problem in our community, said Malm. But I do know that recovery is possible. I know that personally. And so, I look forward to being able to hopefully utilize these funds to restore peoples lives and give them a chance at a bonus life. The next largest percentages of localized shares will go to Natrona County at 7.9%, Sweetwater County at 7.6% and the city of Casper at 7.35%. Cities and towns had the opportunity to join in on the settlement outside of their counties, which allocates funds specifically to their local government body. Cheyenne was a city that took on a private lawsuit with Ochs Law Firm P.C. and authorized its representation to enter into the agreement on Dec. 28. The City Council also approved a resolution to allow Mayor Patrick Collins to execute settlement participation forms for the Janssen settlement. The share includes 1.23%, which comes out to be $414,740 over the next 18 years. Its to punish those who did it, said Collins, but also to make sure we use those dollars for good later. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 China leads in five-state joint statement on preventing nuclear war, arms race By Liu Xuanzun (Global Times) 08:31, January 04, 2022 For the first time, the leaders of China, France, Russia, the UK and the US on Monday issued a joint statement on preventing nuclear war and avoiding arms races, in which China played a powerful leading role, and pushed for the reaffirmation of not aiming nuclear devices at each other or at any other state. The joint statement by the five Nuclear-Weapon States - also the five UN Security Council permanent members - will set the mind of the international community at ease at a time when the international strategic security is facing many major challenges, Chinese experts said on Monday. According to the joint statement, the five countries consider the avoidance of war between Nuclear-Weapon States and the reduction of strategic risks as their foremost responsibilities, and they affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday. The five countries' leaders affirm that nuclear weapons - for as long as they continue to exist - should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression and prevent war, the joint statement said, noting that they also believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented, and they remain committed to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations, including pursuing negotiations on measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament. "We reiterate the validity of our previous statements on de-targeting, reaffirming that none of our nuclear weapons are targeted at each other or at any other State," the joint statement reads. Introducing the significance of the joint statement, China's Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu told media on Monday that this is the first time the leaders of the five countries have issued a statement over the nuclear weapon issue. This reflects the five countries' political will of preventing nuclear war and their common voice on safeguarding global strategic stability and reducing risks of a nuclear conflict, at a time when international strategic security is facing many major challenges amid profound changes not seen in a century as well as the pandemic, Ma said. Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Monday that the world today is not peaceful. For example, the current issue over Ukraine could risk a nuclear war between the US and Russia, and that is why US President Joe Biden said nuclear war must not start in his recent phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The US is reportedly developing low-yield nuclear weapons and lowing the threshold of using nuclear weapons in real combat, observers said. The joint statement is good news for the world, and it will set the mind of the international community at ease, Song said. Ma revealed that China played a powerful leading role in the five countries' joint efforts, and in the discussion of the joint statement, China pushed to include key content including the reaffirming of not aiming nuclear devices at each other or at any other state. China always maintains a nuclear strategic self-defensive in nature, upholds a nuclear policy of no-first-use, and keeps its nuclear strength at a minimum level to safeguard national security, Ma stressed. "This in itself is an important contribution to global strategic stability." Song said this displays China's responsibility as a major power and dismissed foreign media's recent hype over China's nuclear development. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Du Mingming) Flash Britain's National Health Service (NHS) will be under "considerable" pressure in the coming weeks amid the wave of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday. "No question Omicron continues to surge through the country," Johnson said at a vaccination center. "I think we've got to recognize that the pressure on our NHS, on our hospitals, is going to be considerable in the course of the next couple of weeks, and maybe more." Johnson said Omicron appears "plainly milder" than previous variants, but it would be "folly" to say the pandemic is over. He urged people to take a test before "meeting someone you don't usually meet" and to get first, second and third vaccine doses where possible. Britain reported another 157,758 coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 13,422,815, according to official figures released Monday. Britain also reported a further 42 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 148,893, with 11,918 COVID-19 patients still in hospital. Cases and deaths data on Monday only included England and Scotland. More than 90 percent of people aged 12 and over in Britain have had their first dose of vaccine and more than 82 percent have received both doses, according to the latest figures. More than 59 percent have received booster jabs, or the third dose of a coronavirus vaccine. To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines. MONROE, La. President Joe Biden cannot require teachers in the Head Start early education program to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a Louisiana federal judge ruled Saturday, handing a victory to 24 states, including Wyoming, that had sued the federal government. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty wrote that the Biden administration unlawfully bypassed Congress when ordering that workers in Head Start programs be vaccinated by Jan. 31 and that students 2 years or older be masked when indoors or when in close contact outdoors. Head Start is a federally funded program that promotes education for children under the age of 6 who are from low-income families. Doughty, an appointee of then-President Donald Trump, wrote that the separation of powers is crucial to the countrys founding and quoted former President Ronald Reagan, who said the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, Im from the government and Im here to help. If the Executive branch is allowed to usurp the power of the Legislative branch to make laws, then this country is no longer a democracy it is a monarchy, Doughty wrote. Republican attorneys general who were among the 24 states involved in the lawsuit praised Doughtys decision. In a press release when Montana joined the lawsuit, that states Attorney General Austin Knudsen called the masking requirements for children in Head Start ridiculous and said the rules will have a detrimental effect on local communities. Head Start organizations in Montana are facing challenges finding staff who can provide the early childhood education services communities need, the attorney general stated in a press release. Firing workers and telling volunteers theyre not wanted is going to make that problem worse. Children in Montana will suffer because of President Bidens policies. It was not immediately clear whether the federal government would appeal the decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Doughtys ruling is similar to a Friday ruling in which a federal judge also blocked the Head Start mandate in Texas. Saturdays ruling affects Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming and West Virginia. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 NIDCO (the National Infrastructure Development Company) says it has not initiated any tender or award of contract process with regard to the Toco Port. In a news release, the company said the issuance of any letters of award or contracts relating to the Toco Port project is fraudulent and not authorised by Nidco. A pregnant mother and her family affected by the Quarry Street New Years Day fire say they felt pressured to accept an Oropune Gardens apartment as a permanent home after their years long efforts to find secure housing. The family, who had previously spent months surrounded by debris and without electricity, told the Express they felt as though they were being pushed to mortgage the apartment as a quick fix to their problem. Flash Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden held a telephone conversation late Sunday discussing regional security issues, according to Zelensky's official Twitter account. Zelensky said he appreciated U.S. support for Ukraine, noting that the phone conversation with Biden illustrated the "special nature" of relations between Kiev and Washington. The Ukrainian government-run news agency Ukrinform, citing the White House, said during their phone call Zelensky and Biden expressed support for diplomatic efforts to resolve tensions with Russia, starting with Russia-U.S. bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue scheduled for January 2022. The phone interaction between Zelensky and Biden, the second the two leaders have held in less than a month, also touched upon the de-escalation of tensions in Ukraine's eastern region of Donbas through the Minsk Agreements and the Normandy Format. Last week, Biden discussed security issues with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The first round of security negotiations between the United States and Russia will take place in Geneva on Jan. 9-10. They will later continue in Brussels within the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-Russia Council on Jan. 12, and within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Jan. 13. The fact that 106 police killings dating from January 2019 to now are under investigation by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is staggering. Whether the number reflects an actual increase in fatal police shootings, or is the result of greater public willingness to file complaints, growing public confidence in the PCA or the PCAs own willingness to initiate investigations, would require more than bald figures. However, it underscores the PCAs importance as an independent authority with the power to hold the police to account. 0005227160-01 TS No. 2022-00060-AZ NOTICE OF TRUSTEE'S SALE The following legally described trust property will be sold, pursuant to the power of sale under that certain Deed of Trust dated 12/21/2009 and recorded on 12/31/2009 as Instrument No. 20092510236, Book 13716 Page 1373 and rerecorded on as in the official records of Pima County, Arizona, NOTICE! IF YOU BELIEVE THERE IS A DEFENSE TO THE TRUSTEE SALE OR IF YOU HAVE AN OBJECTION TO THE TRUSTEE SALE, YOU MUST FILE AN ACTION AND OBTAIN A COURT ORDER PURSUANT TO RULE 65, ARIZONA RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE, STOPPING THE SALE NO LATER THAN 5:00 P.M. MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME OF THE LAST BUSINESS DAY BEFORE THE SCHEDULED DATE OF THE SALE, OR YOU MAY HAVE WAIVED ANY DEFENSES OR OBJECTIONS TO THE SALE. UNLESS YOU OBTAIN AN ORDER, THE SALE WILL BE FINAL AND WILL OCCUR at public auction to the highest bidder Courts Building, On the steps outside the East entrance of the Courts Building, 110 West Congress, Tucson, AZ 85701, in Pima County, on 06/09/2022 at 10:30 AM of said day: Legal Description: The land referred to herein below is situated in the county of Pima, state of Arizona, and is described as follows: Lot 49 of picture rocks west subdivision, Pima county, Arizona, according to the map of record in the office of the county recorder, in book 47 of maps and plats, page 2. Except all coal and other minerals as reserved by the United States of America in deed book 214, page 631. Includes the manufactured housing unit as part of the real property described as: YEAR: 1998 MAKE: PALM HARBOR MANUFACTURER: FREEDOM HOMES INC SIZE: 28 X 68 VIN NUMBER: PH0223901U & PH0223901X Purported Street Address: 11090 W OLD PECOS PL, TUCSON, AZ 85743 Tax Parcel Number 213-03-2990 Original Principal Balance: $137,464.00 NOTICE OF TRUSTEE'S SALE Name and Address of Current Beneficiary: PHH Mortgage Corporation c/o PHH Mortgage Corporation 1 Mortgage Way, Mt. Laurel, NJ 08054 Name and Address of Original Trustor: HARRY BURLESON AND JUANITA J BURLESON, HUSBAND AND WIFE 11090 W OLD PECOS PL, TUCSON, AZ 85743 Name, Address and Telephone Number of Trustee: Western Progressive - Arizona, Inc. Northpark Town Center 1000 Abernathy Rd NE; Bldg 400, Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30328 (866) 960-8299 TERMS OF SALE: The trustee is only able to accept cash or a cash equivalent, like a cashier's check or certified check NOTICE OF TRUSTEE'S SALE SALE INFORMATION: Sales Line: (866) 960-8299 Website: https://www.altisource.com/loginpage.aspx If the sale is set aside for any reason, including if the Trustee is unable to convey title, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the monies paid to the Trustee. This shall be the Purchaser's sole and exclusive remedy. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Trustor, the Trustee, the Beneficiary, the Beneficiary's Agent, or the Beneficiary's Attorney Western Progressive - Arizona, Inc. DATED: April 24, 2022 /s/ Glenda Hamilton Trustee Sale Assistant Pursuant to A.R.S. 33 - 803(A)(6), the trustee herein qualifies as a trustee of the Deed of Trust in the trustee's capacity as a corporation all the stock of which is owned by Premium Title Agency, Inc., an escrow agent in the state of Arizona. The regulators of Premium Title Agency are the Arizona Department of Insurance and the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions. Western Progressive - Arizona, Inc. is registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission. STATE OF Georgia COUNTY OF Fulton On February 24, 2022, before me, Iman Walcott, personally appeared Glenda Hamilton, who proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the person(s) whose name(s) is/are subscribed to the within instrument and acknowledge to me that he/she/they executed the same in his/her/their authorized capacity(ies), and that by his/her/their signature (s) on the instrument the person(s) or the entity upon behalf of which the person(s) acted, executed the instrument. WITNESS my hand and official seal. /s/Iman Walcott Iman Walcott NOTARY PUBLIC Published April 25 & May 2, 9, 16, 2022 Arizona Daily Star In 2022, local nonprofits that impact children in need can look to Angel Charity for Children (angelcharity.org) for financial blessings. The nonprofit plans to gift $1.3 million in the coming year to eligible charities that serve children age 18 and under in Pima County; applications will be accepted online at angelcharity.org/apply-for-funding/ through Monday, Jan. 10. Nonprofits must have held a tax-exempt status for at least three years. We know the need is great so we have increased the amounts of our grants in 2022: Grants will begin at $10,000 and go up to $1 million for the large grant. We have just come off a tremendous two-year campaign during the pandemic and everyone has been so generous and we really want to carry that forward to meet the need in the community, said Kellie Terhune Neely, communications chair for Angel Charity. Angel Charity funneled more than $1.4 million into community nonprofits in 2020-2021, including a funding round of grants totaling more than $254,000 to address pandemic-related challenges for children served by Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson, Interfaith Community Services, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern Arizona, Tu Nidito Children & Family Services, and Tucson Refugee Ministry. In 2020, it also provided more than $195,000 in small grants for Amanda Hope Rainbow Angels, Boys to Men, Jewish Family & Childrens Services, Literacy Connects and Make Way for Books; large grantees were Intermountain Centers and the Reid Park Zoo. The grant support makes a huge difference, particularly for smaller nonprofits, according to Michael Brasher, executive director of Boys To Men Tucson (btmtucson.com), which is working to change young mens ideas about healthy masculinity and gender stereotypes. The nonprofit is comprised of about 120 trained male volunteers who offer mentorship circles for groups of at-risk boys in 20 local middle schools and high schools and through the juvenile justice system. The organization expects to expand to five more schools by the end of the school year and is in the process of launching a cross-sector collaboration called the Healthy Intergenerational Masculinity (HIM) Initiative with school districts, agencies, and nonprofits community-wide. The $10,000 grant from Angel Charity was a game-changer for us. We had a demand for our program that outpaced the supply of trained male volunteers, and we pitched for a grant to actively recruit and train men. Since then, we have doubled our volunteer base and grown tremendously and their investment was a core part of facilitating that growth, said Brasher. Contact freelance writer Loni Nannini at ninch2@comcast.net Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Toast 101, 4699 E. Speedway Blvd., is the place to go for familiar brunch options served in a trendy atmosphere. Fun fact: co-owner Kalvin Jarvis represented Tucson on "The Voice" when the singer competed in the popular NBC show in 2019. They were the object of ridicule in late 2020. Some Arizona Republicans would not accept Donald Trumps defeat in the presidential election. So they held a big public meeting in Phoenix Nov. 30. And the state GOP certified its own slate of electors on Dec. 14, the same day the states official electoral votes were cast for Joe Biden. One Arizona Republic columnist wrote mockingly: On Monday, the state GOPs 11 fake electors met, as required by no one, and cast their nonexistent votes for Trump, as required by their desperate need to continue to live in fantasyland. It felt like a joke at the time to me, too. But what seemed pitiful then seems sinister in retrospect and continues to endanger our democratic system going forward. Its the attempt by an electoral minority, propelled by a profound sense of grievance, to seize power they feel they deserve though they could not win it. State Rep. Mark Finchem, the Oro Valley Republican, embodies that powerful persecution complex, as well as its potential. He hosted the Nov. 30 meeting that featured Rudy Giuliani and other members of the small group that propelled the Big Lie forward in December 2020, consulting with the White House and ultimately helping to foment the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Among that cabals key strategies, we now know, was this: Have the state parties or legislatures propose alternative slates of electors. Congress could then reject the certified election results and consider alternative electors. John Eastman, a lawyer advising the Trump team, laid out the strategy for the Jan. 6, 2021, meeting of Congress in a now-infamous memo: 1. VP Pence, presiding over the joint session (or Senate Pro Tempore Grassley, if Pence recuses himself), begins to open and count the ballots, starting with Alabama (without conceding that the procedure, specified by the Electoral Count Act, of going through the States alphabetically is required). 2. When he gets to Arizona, he announces that he has multiple slates of electors, and so is going to defer decision on that until finishing the other States. This would be the first break with the procedure set out in the Act. 3. At the end, he announces that because of the ongoing disputes in the 7 States, there are no electors that can be deemed validly appointed in those States. That means the total number of electors appointed the language of the 12th Amendment is 454. This reading of the 12th Amendment has also been advanced by Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe. A majority of the electors appointed would therefore be 228. There are at this point 232 votes for Trump, 222 votes for Biden. Pence then gavels President Trump as re-elected. To a significant degree, Arizona brought the country Jan. 6. Finchem promoted and attended events at the Capitol Jan. 5 and 6, though he says he did not break any laws there, and U.S. Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs worked with event organizer Ali Alexander, as Alexander has said. Trump, president at the time, heralded those who attended his Jan. 6 speech before the march to the Capitol as real people as if the tens of millions of Americans who voted against him were fake. They try and demean everybody having to do with us, he said. And youre the real people, youre the people that built this nation. Youre not the people that tore down our nation. But then they did tear things down. On Twitter that afternoon, Finchem celebrated the people entering Capitol grounds as What happens when the People feel they have been ignored, and Congress refuses to acknowledge rampant fraud. In the Capitol, shortly before members of Congress were evacuated, Gosar asked Pence not to accept Arizonas electors. Remand the slate back to the governor with the following instructions, he said. Until a full and complete electoral forensic audit is allowed by the secretary of state, the electors currently certified will not be counted. Soon, hell broke loose. Among the first 377 people arrested for acts at the Capitol that day, most were not members of big right-wing groups like the Oath Keepers, a group that Finchem has belonged to. Nor were they emissaries from Trump strongholds nationwide. Nor were they unemployed or desperate. The University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats analyzed that group of arrestees and found most were white, male, employed and came from counties either won by Biden or closely contested. The most outstanding demographic feature of those counties is that they are places where the white population is declining fastest compared to the nonwhite population. It all might have ended on Jan. 6, ignominiously, as a shameful and failed effort to thwart the will of the American people as a whole. But instead, the action picked back up in Arizona. Motivated by calls from Republican constituents, state Senate President Karen Fann agreed to a review of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County. That subset of Americans that Trump called real people had seized control of the story again. It turned out to be exactly the pointless and polarizing experience that was predicted. The self-proclaimed experts Finchem had called together in Phoenix in November floundered as they attempted something they did not have the expertise to achieve: an election audit. Still, the process did achieve one thing. While polls have found most Americans believe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, most Republicans do not. And they continue to govern Arizona. So now at least we can see that all this is neither comical nor pitiful. Its simply dangerous an effort by a disappointed and aggrieved minority to seize power even if it means destroying our democratic system. Tim Steller is an opinion columnist. A 25-year veteran of reporting and editing, he digs into issues and stories that matter in the Tucson area, reports the results and tells you his conclusions. Contact him at tsteller@tucson.com or 520-807-7789. On Twitter: @senyorreporter Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A new mixed-use development is planned for Brookside. Tulsa-based real estate firms CBC Builds and Ross Group are partnering with Brookside Church to create a residential and retail destination at the churchs location at 3615 S. Peoria Ave. Still in the concept phase, the development will feature apartments, restaurants, retail, parking, church offices and an event venue, planners said. The congregation began meeting at 3105 E. Skelly Drive, Suite 304, in November but plans to move into a modern church facility in the new development once it is completed. The design team is assessing what features of the existing church buildings will be retained, if any, the Ross Groups Kevin Symcox wrote in an email. The church building was constructed in 1952, property records indicate. The developments tenant mix will be weighted toward restaurants, but plans also call for it to include traditional retailers drawn to Brooksides robust commercial profile. We are excited to be a part of something that will serve our congregations needs for the next century, Danny Stockstill, pastor of Brookside Church, said in a statement. We love Brookside and are thrilled this project will contribute to the vibrancy of the neighborhood that has been our home for decades. The congregation dropped the word Baptist from its name, while maintaining its Baptist roots and doctrine, in 2018. With declining attendance, we made a conscious decision to change the way we do church, with a goal of reaching people who dont attend any church, Stockstill said at the time. A partnership of CBC Builds and Ross Group acquired the property (for $3.5 million, according to Tulsa County land records) in early December, Symcox said. Baltimore-based architecture firm Hord Coplan Macht, which also has offices in Washington D.C., Denver and Charlotte, N.C., will assist with concept and yield studies. While Symcox said its too early to provide details on square footage and the amount of the investment, backers said in their announcement that it will amount to one of the largest private investments in Brooksides history. This development represents a significant contribution of resources and capital into Tulsa and Brookside, District 9 City Councilor Jayme Fowler said in a statement. It brings new retail amenities, much needed parking, homes and tax revenue to one of Tulsas most beloved districts. Featured video: Crow Creek Tavern in Brookside is demolished to make way for Mondos Subscribe to Daily Headlines Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Heres a collection curated by The Associated Press entertainment journalists of whats arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. MOVIES Ben Affleck has another winning turn in The Tender Bar, the George Clooney-directed adaptation of J.R. Moehringers memoir about growing up on Long Island that starts streaming on Amazon Prime Video on Friday. Tye Sheridan plays the author, who in the absence of his father, starts to look to his uncle Charlie (Affleck) to fill that void. In his review for The Associated Press, Mark Kennedy wrote that The Tender Bar is a gentle, oddly crafted but loving look at men, fueled by a soundtrack of classics like Paul Simons 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover and Steely Dans Do It Again. Its a valentine to guys who step up. If youve already made it through Season 2 of Emily in Paris and all your romantic comedy mainstays on Netflix, why not change things up a little bit with an Italian spin on the genre, Four to Dinner, coming to the streamer on Wednesday? Four single friends try different pairing combinations in this new flick starring Matteo Martari, Matilde Gioli, Giuseppe Maggio, Ilenia Pastorelli, Luis Filipe Eusebio and Elmano Sancho. Or for something completely different, the Criterion Channel has a series of documentaries from Lee Grant (yes, the actor Lee Grant) available starting on Monday. In 1986s Down and Out in America, which won an Oscar, she focuses on poverty in the 1980s. In What Sex Am I, from 1985, she looks at the transgender experience. And in A Father A Son Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, she focuses in on the lives of Kirk and Michael Douglas. AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr MUSIC RuPaul is an all around entertainer with a flourishing VH1 reality competition series RuPauls Drag Race and a longtime music career that includes the classic song Supermodel (You Better Work). Now, the drag queen titan will take another musical step further with the performers 14th studio album Mamaru, out Friday. Its led by the single Blame It On the Edit, which appears to explore the editing process of the Drag Race series. The Wombats pushed the release of their forthcoming album Fix Yourself, Not the World, but the English rock band will give a sneak peak of the album a week early in an intimate tour. The band will kick off the tour in Kingston Upon Thames in the United Kingdom on Thursday. The band will make seven other stops before ending the tour in Brighton on Jan. 12 two days before the release of their fifth album. Catch them later in America in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New York and Boston. AP Entertainment Writer Jonathan Landrum Jr. TV The stage is set for the sixth and final season of NBCs This Is Us. Pearson family matriarch Rebecca (Mandy Moore) is in the grip of dementia; the wedding of Kevin and Madison (Justin Hartley, Caitlin Thompson) is off; the marriage of Kate and Toby (Chrissy Metz, Chris Sullivan) is toast, and Randall (Sterling K. Brown), the most likely Pearson sibling to succeed, seems poised to fulfill his destiny. There are younger generations to be accounted for, including scene-stealers Asante Blackk and Lyric Ross as Malik and Deja. The series returns Tuesday (9 p.m. EST) for the 18-episode last chapter. A father-daughter relationship is the beating heart of CBS Good Sam, debuting 10 p.m. EST Wednesday. A health crisis takes brilliant but testy heart surgeon Dr. Rob Griff Griffith (Jason Isaacs) out of commission as a hospitals chief of surgery. His equally gifted but overshadowed offspring, Dr. Sam Griffiths (Sophia Bush) steps in and proves a natural, which her recovered dad resents. There are lighter moments between their clashes in the series from producers Katie Wech and Jennie Snyder Urman, who worked together on Jane the Virgin. A wrenching chapter in U.S. civil rights history is the focus of two ABC programs. Women of the Movement dramatizes Mamie Till-Mobleys crusade for justice for her 14-year-old son Emmetts 1955 racially motivated Mississippi killing. The limited series, starring 2021 Tony Award-winner Adrienne Warren as Till-Mobley, will air from 8-10 p.m. EST on three consecutive Thursdays starting this week. Its paired with Let the World See, an ABC News docuseries that includes a detailed account of Till-Mobleys effort to bring her sons body home to Chicago and hold an open-casket funeral to expose the brutality of his death. The three-episode Let the World See will follow Women of the Movement" each Thursday at 10:01 p.m. EST. AP TV Writer Lynn Elber ___ After serving nearly 50,000 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 before Christmas. The megacenters have been a great success, taking care of the backlog DPS and tag agents were experiencing after the pandemic, agency officials said in a statement. DPS is currently working on expanding opportunities at other locations to continue that level of service. Oklahomans will need Real IDs to board commercial flights and enter federal facilities starting May 3, 2023. The Department of Homeland Security extended the previous enforcement deadline, Oct. 1, 2021, due to circumstances resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. An eight-year option is now available through the megacenter, as well as state tag agents, for Oklahoma identification cards, according to DPS. For a list of fees, go to oklahoma.gov/dps. Featured Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SKIATOOK As everyone was looking toward the new year and celebrations were happening all over the world, Skiatook came to a halt. The community had joined together when Josh Frederick needed help, and his dog, Valentine, became Skiatooks sweetheart. But the light they brought to many peoples lives went out on New Years Eve when the two were fatally struck by a vehicle. The pair known to many as Josh and Valentine could often be seen walking the streets of Skiatook. Those who met the two were forever changed. While traveling through Skiatook over the summer, Josh was left behind by his companions at the Tastee Freeze. He had nothing but another mouth to feed in Valentine. People started to see Josh and Valentine at Walmart or Caseys convenience store. He soon found out what a small-town community with a big heart can do. When Sam Thomison stopped to talk with Josh, he learned that the mans parents had died and that he had since been living in a house without running water or heat. Trina Gonzalez started a donation drive for Josh, and the Skiatook community came together to help. But on New Years Eve, Josh and Valentine didnt make it home. They had dinner with friends at Bulldog Pizza and then headed off a little before 8 p.m. A truck crossing the street between the Sonic and Taco Bell struck Josh and Valentine, and both died. It is unclear whether a criminal complaint will result for the driver, who left the scene but reportedly surrendered to authorities within 15 minutes. An online crowdfunding campaign has been set up to help pay funeral expenses for Josh and Valentine. The two will be cremated and buried together. A vigil was held Tuesday evening in Skiatook. Josh was easy to talk to, Stella Brand said. I told him how sorry I was that his ride abandoned him in Skiatook with nothing. He looked at me, and with a little chuckle he said, I feel like they blessed me! And Im so grateful because look, look at the miracle Im living! He meant it! He didnt have a judgmental bone in his body, Brand said. I feel blessed to have met him and to receive one of the most tender and honest hugs ever. Blake Bales said of Josh: Great guy. Had many talks with him. He would give you the shirt off his back if needed. So hard to hear this. Youll be missed, buddy. Josh changed lives, opened minds, helped people not judge the surface of things and instead look deeper for compassion and empathy, Jessica Morgan said. Featured video: Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Kane Tanaka of Japan, the world's oldest living person, turned 119 years old on Sunday, according to a Twitter post published by her great-granddaughter, Junko Tanaka. "Great achievement. (Kane Tanaka) reached 119 years of age," Junko tweeted, with a photograph of her great-grandmother, whom she saw in December. "I hope you'll continue to live life cheerfully and to the fullest." Junko shared a photo on Twitter of two commemorative Coca-Cola bottles that Tanaka was given for her birthday, the labels personalized with her name and age. "Birthday gift 1: Introducing the presents received for Kane's birthday. Really appreciate this gift. Coca-Cola company made a commemorative birthday bottle. It seems (Kane) is still drinking Coca-Cola as usual," Junko tweeted. Junko spoke to CNN in March 2021, when her great-grandmother was preparing to carry the Olympic torch ahead of the postponed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. She started the Twitter account in January 2020 to commemorate Tanaka's life. "I might be biased because I'm related to her but I think it's kind of amazing I wanted to share that with the world and for people to feel inspired and to feel her joy," Junko said. Born in 1903, Tanaka married a rice shop owner at the age of 19 and worked in the family store until she was 103. Tanaka has lived through a multitude of historical events, surviving two world wars and the 1918 Spanish flu. Her life has spanned 49 Summer and Winter Olympic Games. "I don't remember her talking much about the past ... She's very forward thinking she really enjoys living in the present," Tanaka's grandson, Eiji Tanaka, told CNN last year. Tanaka is living in a nursing home in Fukuoka prefecture. Her family said she keeps her mind and body engaged by doing math and remaining curious. The Guinness Book of World Records recognized her as the world's oldest living person in 2019. In September 2021, Spain's Saturnino de la Fuente Garcia became the oldest living man at 112 years old. He was born in 1909 and endured the Spanish Civil War, working as a shoemaker. He said the secret to a long life is "a quiet life... and do not hurt anyone," according to a press release from Guinness World Records. Tanaka received congratulatory messages from Twitter users on her birthday. "It's awesome that at 119 years old she can look straight at the camera and make a peace sign," said Twitter user @TuNatoron. "Congratulations!! Please always stay healthy," said Mee-san, another Twitter user. Much has been made in the news lately regarding Americas shortage of consumer goods. Increased consumer demand in the wake of the COVID pandemic has led to global shortages of many industrial products. And with cargo ships backed up and waiting to enter Americas congested West Coast ports, theres now a bottleneck. Not only are consumers waiting for imported goods, but many domestic producers are also waiting on inputs from overseaswhich has left them unable to assemble final products. It doesnt have to be this way, however. Rather than remain dependent on imports, the U.S. must start manufacturing more goods at home. Significantly, some domestic producers are already proving that this is the smart path forward. In fact, companies that source their materials in the U.S. are enjoying a boom in business. A good example is Kason Industries, which makes equipment for the food service and trucking industries at its two Georgia manufacturing plants. Despite the slowdown affecting many businesses, Kason is continuing to crank out products. Kasons work requires plenty of steel, zinc, and aluminum. And given the current supply chain crisis, the company should be left in the lurch as much as everyone else. But Kason Vice President Burl Finkelstein explains that the company simply doesnt rely on China as heavily as its competitors. And so Kason is currently doing record business instead of waiting on supplies from China. It helps that Kason is vertically integrated. That means the company simply needs to buy the raw metals needed for its metal stamping and die casting operations in order to make productssuch as handles, latches, and hingesthat are in high demand right now. However, other U.S. companies the ones that depend on China and other countries are waiting months at a time just to get manufactured components. Why is delivery from China so slow right now? One problem is that production in China has slowed due to the COVID pandemic. But, also, U.S. consumers have grown more reliant on online retailers such as Amazon. And so factories in China have shifted to cranking out more consumer products rather than manufacture industrial components needed by U.S. assembly plants. Theres also the challenge of higher shipping costs. Cargo delivery from China now costs roughly five times more than it did a year ago, thanks to COVID disruption. As a result, Finkelstein says Kason has seen a number of delays on specialty items. But the company is generally insulated from such shipping concerns. And Kason has also stocked up on American-supplied steel and other inputs. There was a time when Kason contemplated moving its supply chain to China since its competitors were all moving offshore. But Finkelstein says relying on China offers its own problems. Not only did U.S. companies inevitably transfer valuable industrial know-how to their rivals in China, but they subsequently experienced serious quality problems from unreliable Chinese vendors. Those quality problems are often compounded when companies find themselves waiting months just to get corrected parts from China. In contrast, U.S. companies that source from domestic suppliers are often able to get updated versions in mere days. It doesnt have to be this way, however. U.S. producers should follow the example of companies like Kason that are thriving because theyve wisely opted to source materials from domestic U.S. companies. Its past time for Washington to rethink this import dependence. For too long, policymakers have championed cheap imports as a cure-all for the economy. But that needs to change if Americans are to enjoy reliable access to the products they rely on every day. Michael Stumo is CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America. Follow him at @michael_stumo. He wrote this for InsideSources.com. Subscribe to Daily Headlines Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Israel said on Monday it will admit foreigners with presumed COVID-19 immunity from countries deemed medium-risk next week, partially reversing a ban imposed in late November in response to the fast-spreading Omicron variant. The change suggests Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's government sees waning value in sweeping travel curbs - which wrecked winter tourism - as domestic coronavirus cases surge. The Health Ministry said that, as of Jan. 9, foreign travellers from 199 "orange" countries will be admitted if they can prove they are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19. Orange-listed countries include Australia, Italy and Ireland. The ministry recommended that South Africa, Nigeria, Spain, Portugal, France and Canada, among 16 countries listed as "red" or high COVID-19 risk, be changed to "orange". The announcement came even as Bennett predicted that new cases could increase tenfold within days. The rapid pace of infection has led to many Israelis waiting hours in lines for COVID-19 tests, although Omicron has not brought corresponding rises in mortality. Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said Israel would adjust its criteria for compulsory testing and focus primarily on people at high risk. Subsequently, more Israelis "will be required to exercise personal responsibility and perform tests at home", he said in televised remarks on Monday. The government's strategy is focused on vaccinations, with a fourth dose - or second booster - offered to vulnerable cohorts. Within a day of making it available, 100,000 people received or made an appointment to get the second booster. "I closed the skies five weeks ago when everything was good," Bennett said in a televised address on Sunday, referring to Israel's Nov. 25 ban on most travel to and from red-listed countries after Omicron was first detected abroad. "And, over the coming week, it would be reasonable for us to reopen anew." The United States, Britain, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mexico, Switzerland and Turkey remain on Israel's red list, the health ministry said. Visitors from those countries require advance special permission from an Israeli committee to enter. Israel has also scaled down precautionary self-isolation periods for people who have been exposed to COVID-19 carriers, concerned that mass quarantining could paralyse the economy. Marc Knapper has been sworn in as the new United States ambassador to Vietnam, the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs under the U.S. Department of State confirmed on Tuesday morning. Knapper was joined by his spouse and son during the swearing-in ceremony at the headquarters of the U.S. Department of State. Congratulations to Ambassador Marc Knapper on his swearing-in as the new United States Ambassador to Vietnam! the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs tweeted. The United States supports a strong, independent, and prosperous Vietnam. The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi wrote on its Facebook page, We look forward to welcoming Ambassador Knapper to Vietnam soon! Knapper's term will officially begin when he presents his credentials to the Vietnamese state president. The U.S. Senate approved Knapper as the next ambassador to Vietnam on December 17 after he was nominated by President Joe Biden in April. He is the eighth ambassador to Vietnam since the two countries normalized their diplomatic relationship in 1995. The position had been vacant for about eight months prior to Knappers appointment. Knapper is fluent in Vietnamese and led the political section of the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi for three years, according to the U.S. Department of State. He had previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Korea and Japan since August 2018. During a hearing in July, Knapper pledged to make more efforts to elevate the Vietnam-U.S. comprehensive partnership to a strategic partnership. The two nations should focus on four main fields including security, investment and trade, post-war settlement, and people-to-people exchange, the diplomat said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Here are todays leading news stories: Politics -- Vietnams 15th National Assembly opened its first extraordinary session in Hanoi on Tuesday to make several urgent decisions related to socio-economic recovery and pandemic prevention and control. COVID-19 Updates -- The Ministry of Health on Monday documented four more imported Omicron cases in Hai Duong, Hai Phong, and Thanh Hoa, raising the number of Omicron infections in the country to 24. -- Authorities in Hanoi have ordered the suspension of in-person learning along with multiple other restrictions in ten districts that are currently at high risk of COVID-19 transmission. Society -- A downpour accompanied by peaking tidal water submerged multiple streets in Ho Chi Minh City at dusk on Monday. The weather pattern is forecast to repeat on Tuesday. -- Many streets at Hanois entrances were congested on Monday evening as people flooded back to the capital following their three-day holiday to celebrate the 2022 New Year. -- A total of 64 traffic accidents occurred across Vietnam, killing 38 people and injuring 35 others, during the 2022 New Year holiday lasting from January 1 to 3, according to the national traffic safety committee. -- Many people were upset after having to pay for rapid COVID-19 testing before entering Co Chin Temple in the northern city of Hai Phong on Monday. -- Police in the southern province of Binh Duong confirmed on Monday they were investigating a case where a man was found dead inside a truck after it caught fire early on the morning of the same day. Business -- Vietnams rice output topped 43.86 million metric tons in 2021, up 1.1 million metric tons year-on-year, the Vietnam News Agency quoted the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as saying. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Six primates, which had been caught in a residential area in Ho Chi Minh City, and more than 200 other endangered wild animals have been returned to the wild, the municipal forest protection department said on Monday. The six monkeys were among a group of primates that had paid unwelcome visits to a residential area in the citys District 12 in January 2021 before being transferred to the Cu Chi Wildlife Rescue Station in the namesake district for treatment and care. It is said that their parents had escaped the cage of a local man about ten years ago to dense trees near a local canal. A wild monkey sits atop a house roof in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City, January 2021. Photo: Ngoc Khai / Tuoi Tre Some 204 other wild animals belonging to 28 species, including long-tailed monkeys, pig-tailed macaques, red-faced monkeys, little lorises, king cobras, wildcats, great hornbills, small-clawed otters, yellow mountain turtles, and one-eyed cobras, were also rescued by the Cu Chi wildlife station. All of those 210 wild animals, which are classified as endangered and rare, had been voluntarily handed over by organizations and individuals to the wildlife station. At the end of December 2021, 184 of the wild animals, including six primates, were released into Cat Tien National Park in southern Dong Nai Province while the 26 remaining creatures were freed to Bu Gia Map National Park in southern Binh Phuoc Province. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The image of a mysterious object falling from the sky into a field in Phu Tho Province, northern Vietnam went viral on social media in the country earlier this week. Vi Thi Lan, chairwoman of Dong Thanh Commune in Phu Thos Thanh Ba District, confirmed on Monday afternoon that the unidentified object had been discovered in the locality at around 7:00 pm on Sunday. Upon the report of local people on the case, I requested the communes deputy chairman and head of public security to examine the scene, Lan said. At the site of the discovery, there was a plastic bag about 15 meters long and five meters wide, with a one-meter-wide opening formed by bamboo and steel wire. This collage circulated on social media shows a Myanmar kyat note and the outer part of a mysterious object falling down from the sky in Phu Tho Province, Vietnam, January 2, 2022. A Chinese TV series character was printed on the outside of the bag, along with cloth and a Myanmar 10,000 kyat banknote stuck on there. Dong Thanh Commune authorities reported the incident to the Thanh Ba District administration, who then determined that the mysterious object was a sky lantern, according to Lan. It must have been launched somewhere else before falling down to our locality and has nothing to do with spreading toxic content, the chairwoman said, adding that functional forces confiscated the object in question for further investigation after booking the case at around 10:00 pm on Sunday. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! After 20 infections of the coronavirus Omicron variant were detected in Hanoi, Quang Nam Province, and Ho Chi Minh City, four more in three other localities have been recorded, bringing the total in Vietnam to 24, the Ministry of Health reported on Monday. Among the latest Omicron infections, two were documented in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa while the other two appeared in Hai Duong Province and Hai Phong City, both in the northern region. The case in Hai Duong was a female worker who returned from Ukraine, with transit time in Germany, on December 21, having been fully vaccinated and obtained a negative RT-PCR test result before coming back to Vietnam. Ggenome sequencing performed by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology on the 42-year-old woman on December 24 confirmed her to be positive for the Omicron strain, VTC News cited the provincial Center for Disease Control as saying. The patient had a cough but no fever, sore throat or difficulty breathing, and she was discharged from the Hai Duong Province Tropical Disease Hospital on January 2 after 10 days of treatment, the center reported. The health ministry has yet to release detailed information related to the three other Omicron cases in Thanh Hoa and Hai Phong. The first Omicron patient in Vietnam was announced on December 21 in a Vietnamese man who returned to Hanoi from the UK two days earlier. The next 14 cases were officially announced in central Quang Nam Province on December 31, with the patients, all Vietnamese, coming back from the U.S. and South Korea several days prior. Ho Chi Minh City reported five positive cases, including a Turkish woman and four Vietnamese, on the same day but they all retested negative one day later. The Omicron mutant, a.k.a. the B.1.1.529 variant, was designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a variant of concern on November 26, 2021, two days after it was first reported to WHO by South Africa. Omicron has now been found in over 110 countries and territories, with health experts stating it appears to be more contagious but less virulent than previous strains. The health ministry said it has been updating information about the Omicron strain from the WHO in order to cope with any new epidemic developments properly and timely. The agency also asked all localities to comply with relevant rules and instructions to early detect the variant. As of Monday, Vietnam had documented 1,778,976 COVID-19 cases, with 1,397,157 recoveries and 33,021 fatalities, the ministry reported. Health workers have administered more than 153.5 million vaccine doses since vaccination was rolled out nationwide on March 8. By Monday, 90.9 percent of Vietnams adult population, or around 75 million people, had received two shots of COVID-19 vaccine, while 99.6 percent had been given at least one jab, according to the ministrys data. The agency has called on every province and city to make more efforts to complete the coverage of second-vaccine doses for children aged 12 to 17 in January. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The general director of a Vietnamese company in Ho Chi Minh City has been in police custody after swindling an American firm out of more than US$1 million, local police reported. Police of Ho Chi Minh City have arrested Do Van Dung, 45, general director of Southeast Asia Technical Investment Joint Stock Company (Southeast Asian Technical JSC) on charges of fraudulent appropriation of assets, a source told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday. The arrest followed a long criminal investigation that began in March 2021, police officers said. According to the case file, Dung in July 2020 signed a contract with U.S.-based ND Private Capital, represented by Nicholas Dang, to supply medical gloves to its American partner. The U.S. company then paid $1,099,000 as a deposit for the deal to Southeast Asian Technical JSC. When the delivery date came, Dungs firm neither delivered the contractual gloves nor refunded the deposit to the buyer. He then appropriated the amount and spent it on his personal needs. Investigations revealed that Southeast Asian Technical JSC has not been licensed to manufacture medical gloves or act as an agent for any supplier of this commodity. The company had no source of medical gloves to provide to its American partner, either, investigators said. Nonetheless, Dung, as the legal representative of Southeast Asian Technical JSC, had duped the U.S. company into signing the said contract by providing it with false information about his companys ability to supply medical gloves. In November last year, the city police also detained another swindler, Nguyen Khanh Nguyen, who offered to sell medical gloves to a Philippine businessman, Philip Leigh Mckenzie, through a middleman, even though he had no supply sources. In August, Nguyen used fake photos and videos of medical glove production lines, finished products and packaging showing his companys name, Boowoo Co. Ltd., to lure the Filipino to enter into a contract to purchase 10 million boxes of medical gloves. After receiving VND57 billion ($2.5 million) from the foreign businessman as his payment under the contract, Nguyen failed to make delivery. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The Ministry of Health logged 21,728 COVID-19 cases across Vietnam on Tuesday, together with 16,227 recoveries and 224 deaths. The latest infections, including 32 imported and 21,696 domestic transmissions, were documented in 60 provinces and cities, the ministry said. Tra Vinh Province reported 7,063 of the newest local cases, Hanoi 2,499, Tay Ninh 916, Khanh Hoa Province 797, Ho Chi Minh City 664, Binh Dinh Province 608, Hai Phong City 602, Binh Phuoc Province 593, Bac Ninh Province 342, Thua Thien-Hue Province 285, Da Nang 253, Quang Ninh Province 227, Lam Dong Province 202, Can Tho City 196, Quang Nam Province 194, Binh Thuan Province 119, Binh Duong Province 65, Dong Nai Province 51, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province 42, and Quang Binh Province 40. Vietnam had detected 15,916 domestically-acquired infections on Monday. The country has found 1,794,866 community transmissions in all its 63 provinces and cities since the fourth virus wave erupted on April 27, 2021. A combined 1,410,567 of them have recovered from COVID-19. Ho Chi Minh City is on top of the caseload with 505,523 patients, followed by Binh Duong Province with 291,061, Dong Nai Province with 98,183, Tay Ninh Province with 78,837, Hanoi with 54,432, Dong Thap Province with 44,996, Can Tho City with 41,772, Long An Province with 40,553, Khanh Hoa Province with 36,153, Tien Giang Province with 34,173, An Giang Province with 33,361, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with 26,611, Binh Thuan Province with 26,378, and Da Nang with 11,991. Vietnam confirmed merely 1,570 locally-transmitted infections in total in the previous three waves. The health ministry recorded 16,227 recovered patients on Tuesday, lifting the total to 1,413,384. The toll has jumped to 33,245 fatalities after the ministry documented 224 deaths on the same day, including 26 in Ho Chi Minh City, 26 in Dong Nai Province, 18 in An Giang Province, 15 in Dong Thap Province, 15 in Vinh Long Province, 11 in Can Tho City, 10 in Hanoi, and the remainder in 18 other provinces and cities. Vietnam has logged 1,800,704 patients since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the country in early 2020. Health workers have administered more than 154.3 million vaccine doses, including 405,584 shots on Monday, since vaccination was rolled out nationwide on March 8, 2021. Above 77.8 million of the countrys 98 million people have received at least one dose while over 69.6 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 spiked to 6,879,317. Many provinces and cities are immunizing children aged 12-17 against COVID-19, using Pfizer-BioNTech shots. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Tyler, TX (75702) Today Thunderstorms likely this morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High around 85F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early. Thunderstorms developing late. Low near 70F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Cooperation between Washington and Ankara regarding the threat of growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine became one of the subjects of a phone conversation between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday, January 3, the Department of State said in a statement. "Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Cavusoglu discussed the importance of continued coordination regarding the threat of Russian escalation in Ukraine," the Department of State said in the press release. According to the document, the sides also talked about the situation in the Somali peninsula, about the appointment of a special representative of Turkey to normalize relations with Armenia, about the possibilities of deepening relations between Washington and Ankara in a bilateral format or within NATO. McLennan Countys first criminal trial of 2022 took a couple of interesting turns Monday when the first defendant set for trial had a fever and was banned from entering the courthouse, while the next defendant up is represented by an attorney under indictment for solicitation of capital murder. Melvin Vincent, who is charged with injury to a child, was set for trial Monday in Wacos 19th State District Court. But after Vincent was tested multiple times with two different thermometers that showed he had a fever of 100 degrees or more, Judge Thomas West, following courthouse COVID-19 protocols, sent Vincent home and called in Fernando Rey Torres, the number four case on Wests Monday trial docket. Torres, 36, an auto mechanic, is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in alleged incidents in June 2014 and August 2014 involving an 8-year-old female family member. He was indicted in September 2017 and remains free on bond. Prosecutors Sydney Tuggle and Tara Avants and defense attorney Seth Sutton spent most of Monday selecting a jury in Torres case. Testimony is set to begin Tuesday morning. We have looked forward for a long time to finally defending Mr. Torres against these accusations, Sutton said. Sutton and Waco attorney Chelsea Tijerina were indicted in August 2020 in an alleged murder-for-hire plot to kill Tijerinas ex-husband, Marcus Beaudin, who also is an attorney. Tijerina was killed in a motorcycle accident in Hays County last year. Sutton is charged with trying to hire an undercover Waco police officer to kill Beaudin. The officer infiltrated Suttons motorcycle club, the Red Mouse Cult MC, and Sutton and his attorney have claimed the officer took advantage of their friendship and volunteered to kill Beaudin, who Sutton alleges sexually abused two of Suttons family members. Sutton, who remains free on $1 million bond, wears an ankle monitor as a condition of his release. The monitor started buzzing Monday afternoon during Suttons jury selection presentation, however Sutton and court officials said the buzzing was not loud enough for prospective jurors to hear. There was no mention Monday of Suttons legal problems during jury selection in Torres case. This is the second trial in which Sutton has represented a criminal defendant since his arrest on the first-degree felony charge. Sutton won an acquittal for Daniel Machado, a member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, in June 2021 in Abilene on charges that Machado and other Bandidos robbed a rival club member who drove through their turf while wearing the rival clubs vest. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. On Saturday, June 18th, 2022 the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum will hold their biannual Ray Fagen Memorial Airshow at their home field, Lenzen-Roe Memorial Airport in Granite Falls, Minnesota. While the events intended lineup is still in flux, present plans call for a focus on naval aviation. Indeed several of the star players will come from the Fagen Fighters own fleet of former U.S. Navy aircraft. These include their airworthy FM-2 Wildcat BuNo. 86774, Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat BuNo.78645 and North American SNJ-4 Texan BuNo.27234, while Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver BuNo.83393 (progressing well in the museums restoration shop) will also prove a significant draw for show-goers. Alongside visiting warbirds, other crown jewels from the Fagen Fighters collection will also be on hand, such as North American B-25J Mitchell 44-86698 Paper Doll, P-51D Mustangs 44-63864 Twilight Tear and 44-72051 Sweet Revenge, Curtiss Kittyhawk Mk.I AK753 Desert Shark, P-40K Warhawk 42-10083 Aleutian Tiger, and of course, their magnificent Lockheed P-38L Lightning 44-27231 Ruff Stuff! As the airshows official title implies, this event also celebrates the life of the museums late patriarch, Ray Fagen, himself a WWII veteran. Evan Fagen recently spoke with us about his grandfathers military service, noting: Ray Fagen was my grandpa and he was on the first wave at Normandy on Utah beach. He was involved with the liberation of Paris and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. He was shot on Utah beach and in the Battle of the Bulge. He also got shrapnel wounds in the Battle of the Bulge which took him out of the battle. He never talked about the war, but inspired us to start the museum to honor the greatest generation and to remember their sacrifices. While he never flew during the war, he learned to fly when he got home as a civilian in a Stearman under the GI bill. He flew for almost 60 years. This is bound to be a spectacular, warbird-heavy air show! Please be sure to check Fagen Fighters WWII Museum Facebook page for updates as the show-date approaches, as there are bound to be further additions to the lineup! WATERLOO Trial for a Farley man accused of sexually abusing a University of Northern Iowa student has been postponed while a juror clears a coronavirus quarantine. Testimony in the trial of Zachary James Lindauer began last week in Black Hawk County District Court. On Monday, Judge David Odekirk put the proceedings on hold after a juror had tested positive for COVID-19 over the New Years holiday. Testimony is expected to continue following a 10-day quarantine for the juror. Lindauer, 23, is accused of having sex with a UNI student in her dorm room while she was too intoxicated to consent in August 2018. The two had met at a College Hill establishment that night. The defense claims the encounter was consensual. Court officials had seated 14 jurors at that start of trial, allowing for a two-alternate buffer. But the trial lost two jurors before opening statements started Dec. 29. One juror wasnt feeling well following a Christmas gathering with family and had taken an at-home COVID test, the results of which had yet to be received. A second juror was excused after saying he didnt feel he could be fair and impartial because the juror and the victim are African American and Lindauer is white. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CEDAR FALLS A Waterloo teen has been arrested in connection with a September robbery in Cedar Falls in which a man was shot while trying to escape. Authorities arrested Alberto Luis Quinto, 17, on Monday for one count each of first-degree robbery and second-degree burglary. Quinto is charged as an adult, and bond was set at $150,000. Investigators allege Quinto was one of three masked assailants who approached William Clausen as Clausen arrived at his home on Peridot Road around 9:30 p.m. Sept. 10. The robbers told Clausen to hand over his wallet, and he was shot in the thigh when he tried to run. The attackers also took an xBox video game system, TV and other items from his home. During the investigation, police found cell phone data that placed Quinto at the scene as well and messages indicating his involvement and SnapChat photos of Quinto with some of the stolen items, according to court records. About a month following the robbery, on Oct. 14, officers with the Waterloo Police Departments Violent Crime Apprehension Team searched Quintos Grant Avenue home after noticing social media posts advertising marijuana for sale, according to court records. Police found marijuana, a digital scale, $2,675 in cash and a 9 mm Smith and Wesson SD9VE handgun during the search. During the search, Quintos sister, Megan Lee Palmer, 18, threw a chair at officers and was arrested on assault and drug charges. Quinto was arrested for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver while in possession of a firearm, and in December the defense asked the court to transfer the drug case to juvenile court. Love 3 Funny 4 Wow 0 Sad 2 Angry 3 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WATERLOO - A Des Moines area teen who escaped from a juvenile transport vehicle in Waterloo while awaiting the outcome of attempted murder and robbery charges has been captured. Authorities detained Simon Gerson Agar, now 18, around 3 p.m. Monday at a home on Eighth Street in Des Moines, according to Polk County sheriffs deputies. Agar was transported to the Polk County Jail where he will continue to be held until his next court date. Agencies involved in the capture include the Polk County Sheriffs Office, Des Moines Police, 5th Judicial District and the U.S. Marshals Service. Agar had been charged with attempted murder, robbery, gang participation and other charges in a home robbery in Johnston where he was accused of shooting the victim. He was housed at the Northern Iowa Juvenile Detention Center on Airline Highway in Waterloo when he escaped from a transport vehicle on Dec. 20 at Broadway Street and Wagner Road while returning from court appearance in Polk County. He disappeared and remained at large. Details of how he escaped are under investigation. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WATERLOO Ever since middle school, Alonzia Quinn has been interested in attending a prestigious college like Stanford University. The East High School senior was participating in a program at the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education during seventh grade when students were assigned to pick a random career and learn about it. She chose forensic science and did a lot of research on what it means to be a pathologist. Quinn has since nurtured an interest in that field and within a year she had narrowed down a list of great colleges at which to earn a degree, including Stanford. The San Francisco Bay area institution is among the top U.S. universities. They were always at the top of my list, she said, behind only Vanderbilt University. As a result, when a notice from Stanford saying that she had been accepted on a four-year full-ride scholarship showed up on Quinns phone Dec. 1, there was a lot of excitement. I was in art class, specifically, and then I freaked out, she said, upon seeing the news. She ran up to the classroom of Matt Tracy, her International Baccalaureate English and theory of knowledge teacher, to tell him. She then stopped in her other IB teachers classes to share the announcement. So, I was running between the first and fourth floors, said Quinn. Shes an amazing young person, said Ellen Shay, IB Diploma Program coordinator for Waterloo Community Schools East and West highs. I was over the moon when she told me. Shes so deserving. Shay said getting a full-ride scholarship for academic reasons is a feat few students achieve. She only recalls one other Waterloo Schools student earning a similar scholarship to a prestigious university that time on the East Coast more than a decade ago. Thats the case in part because students have to work really hard to get these, she noted. If we could clone Alonzia, we would have an amazing school. She is an outlier. The scholarship was awarded through an organization called QuestBridge, which accepts applications for high-achieving students from low-income families. Quinns tuition, housing, meals and books will be paid for. It covers everything, but then I still have to do work study, she said. Forty-five colleges and universities across the country partner with the organization. Students can apply to as many as 12 schools, writing a common essay and submitting supplemental materials for each. She applied to six and was among 6,312 scholarship finalists this year, including 1,674 who were notified of a college match Dec. 1. According to the letter she received from the organization, more than 9,000 QuestBridge Scholars are attending the partner schools. To qualify, you have to have a higher GPA and need to have taken rigorous courses, said Quinn. They look at volunteering, passions, interests, all the clubs youre in. Its a really wide spectrum that they look at. She will major in human biology and has already updated her Twitter profile on social media to say Stanford 26. But she is still getting used to the idea of being accepted as a student there. Its insane, its so surreal to me, she said. A trio of Quinns teachers listed the qualities and activities that helped make this possible for her. They said she is hardworking and inquisitive. They pointed to her involvement in National Honor Society. Ive had Alonzia for four years, said Tracy. During last school years schedule of alternating hybrid in-person and online classes through the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was one of four students who showed up every day. He added, I think the hard worker thing is across the board, its everything she does. IB math teacher Krista Platte said the subject is Quinns most challenging. However, she doesnt quit. Instead, the teacher said, when facing difficulty she asks, How can I push forward? I think thats one thing that sets her apart. On top of all that, said IB science teacher Erin Hogan, shes affable. She gets along with everybody. I think that when you consider a college like Stanford, said Platte, what she has done sets her apart enough even to apply. She sets the standard for other kids. Nothing is beyond an East High student if they choose to pursue it. Shay said participating in IB, an internationally-recognized advanced diploma program, may have helped polish what is already an amazing young student by improving her writing and critical thinking skills. Quinn said determination was an important ingredient to get her to this point. If Im determined to accomplish something, Im going to go after it, she noted. Ambition is something that drives me, for sure. She said several past experiences have helped prepare her to move halfway across the country for college. One of those was Classic Upward Bounds six-week summer residential program, where students take classes at UNI and stay in the dorms. The other was attending the Global Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C., and New York City during the last two summers. The first year she learned about international leadership strategies with other students from all 50 states and more than 145 countries, visiting embassies and the United Nations headquarters. Last summers focus was law and crime scene investigation, exploring the full range of professions in the legal and forensic science fields. Both years, the Waterloo Schools Foundation awarded her funding to participate through its Young Scholars Program. East High Principal Joseph Parker praised Quinn as a diligent student. We have a lot of students that dont have that intrinsic motivation to get work done, he said. Im really proud of her for being able to stick with it and do that. He wants East students to take notice that someone from your community who looks like you and talks like you was awarded a full-ride scholarship to Stanford. Im hoping it kind of becomes a spark or a beacon for other students, that they can get into any universities they want to, said Parker. Love 10 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CONDITION OF THE STATE: Gov. Kim Reynolds will deliver her annual Condition of the State Address at 6 p.m. Jan. 11 from the Iowa House Chamber at the Capitol. Iowa PBS will provide a livestream online, and it can be watched on the governors Facebook page. DOT OFFICES CLOSED: All Iowa Department of Transportation business locations will be closed Jan. 17 in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. All Iowa DOT drivers license service centers, normally open Tuesdays through Saturdays, will be closed Jan. 15 in observance of the holiday. Normal business hours will resume at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 18. Many people, including commercial drivers license holders, may be able to complete drivers license business online at www.iowadot.gov. The quickest way to get drivers license business done is to schedule an appointment on the website. Walk-in customers will be served as time allows. SPANISH COURT FORMS: The Iowa Judicial Branch has launched its first free interactive court forms for self-represented Spanish speakers, Divorcio sin Hijos (divorce with no children). Iowa Interactive Court Forms use a question-and-answer format to gather information, identify needed forms and complete the approved forms for users. For Divorcio sin Hijos, the interview and instructions for printing, signing and filing the forms with the court are in Spanish. Each interview includes information in plain language and works on any smartphone, tablet or computer. Users can save their answers and complete the interview at a later time. Future goals include translating other interactive forms and other materials on the website. The translated interactive forms are an example of Iowa's Judicial Branch commitment to improving access to justice. The online interviews are available on the Iowa Judicial Branch website. TELEPHONE EXCHANGE MAP: The Iowa Utilities Board and the Office of the Chief Information Officer have made available an interactive map depicting the boundaries of wireline incumbent local telephone exchanges the local telephone companies that provide traditional voice service. The electronic tool offers a statewide geographic information system map with layers that detail Iowas county boundaries, telephone area codes, incumbent local exchange areas, and telephone exchange boundaries. Users can browse the maps layers, with the ability to zoom in or out and to print the sections of interest. The IUB began working with Office of the Chief Information Officer in September 2020 on an online geographic information system mapping tool and design of a GIS data warehouse for the utilities board. The IUB released its first interactive mapping, for statewide electric service providers, in April 2021. The online map replaces existing paper maps on file with the IUB. The map can be accessed on the IUB website under the Quick Links column on the right side of the homepage under View a Utility Service Area Map. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 WATERLOO The citys first majority-Black council and first openly LGBT councilor were sworn in virtually Monday night as coronavirus cases in the county continue to rise. Mayor Quentin Hart wore a mask inside City Council chambers to administer the oaths of office via Zoom to newly elected John Chiles in Ward 1, Nia Wilder in Ward 3, Rob Nichols to an at-large seat, and Ray Feuss, re-elected in Ward 5. It is a pleasure to be serving the city of Waterloo, and I look forward to a wonderful four years working with this council, Nichols said. Its going to be a great ride I think, and Im really looking forward to this positive energy were going to have on this council, Chiles added. Wilder will be the lone woman on the council down from two women in 2021. But four of seven councilors Chiles, Nichols, Wilder and sitting Ward 4 Councilor Jerome Amos are Black, making the council majority-minority for the first time. Wilder is also the councils first out LGBTQ councilor. Im ecstatic to be able to serve my community and to serve the people of Waterloo, and I cannot wait to see what a difference we all can make together when we put our minds to it, Wilder said. Hart, who also took the oath after his re-election to a fourth term, thanked the newly elected members for being willing to step up, as well as the sitting councilors for continuing to serve and the amazing city staff. They say you can accomplish great things if nobody cares who gets the credit, Hart said. I have no doubt that all of you, whether old or new ... that you guys will be able to partner and work together to do some incredible things. Hart noted the meeting was held virtually due to COVID and this flu. A few city staff members and residents still showed up in person. The countys COVID positivity rate in the last two weeks was nearly 24% as of Monday, according to Black Hawk County Public Health. It rose to 26.3% by Tuesday, meaning more than a quarter of all COVID tests came back positive, while 49 county residents were also hospitalized with COVID. County-level influenza numbers were not available. Feuss was appointed mayor pro tem, assuming the role previously held by former Councilor Sharon Juon. Hart also reappointed Pat Treloar as the citys chief of fire services, and Kelley Felchle and LeAnn Even as city clerk and deputy city clerk, respectively. Feuss, along with Amos and Ward 2s Jonathan Grieder, were named the three members of the finance committee, charged with approving expenditures, trips and purchases for the citys departments. The three took over from former councilors Juon, Margaret Klein and Pat Morrissey. Hart said the city will hold some type of formal reception in person for the new council members at a later date. CEDAR FALLS Five days before Christmas, newly elected Cedar Falls city councilors and the mayor took the oath of office in a private setting. Some family members attended, but the event came without public notice or the pomp and circumstance typically associated with the occasion. While not against the law, its not the norm for Iowas largest municipalities. In fact, out of the states 15 largest cities, Cedar Falls is possibly the only exception. Mayor Rob Green noted in a statement to The Courier that hed like to see that changed. Im interested in changing this in January 2024 to a more formal swearing-in ceremony similar to what Waterloo and Cedar Rapids do on the first day of office, Green said. Im envisioning something more like a presidential inauguration, where dignitaries and the previous and current council members and mayor are invited to attend on the morning of the new term. And then the mayor for the next term can give a few remarks to open the term. I think this is important for an additional level of decorum for the office of mayor especially. When I took office two years ago, there was just an empty desk. I looked at the desk phone clock at noon, and said to myself Well, Im the mayor now. I think we can do a lot better than that for the dignity of the office, and I look forward to doing that for the next mayor in 2024. Cedar Falls used to hold such a swearing-in ceremony, but that hasnt taken place since at least December 2017. Administrator Ron Gaines said the change was made because of the awkwardness sometimes experienced between an incumbent and a successor who may have been present at the meeting when the oaths were given. Who exactly ordered the change is not immediately known. This year after the November city election, four newly elected councilors and the mayor were administered the oath of office by City Clerk Jacque Danielsen in the Channel 15 studio about a half hour prior to the well-advertised and well-attended ceremony for outgoing councilors Frank Darrah and Mark Miller on Dec. 20. Waterloo man arrested after allegedly firing a gun WATERLOO A man was arrested after he allegedly fired a gun outside a home Sunday. Dec. 20 also was the date of the last City Council meeting of 2021. The event was not broadcast live but has aired on Channel 15 since, said Jeremy Ott, a video production supervisor. It was posted to its YouTube channel Monday following inquiries from The Courier, which also was not made aware of the oaths being administered Dec. 20. State code requires newly elected councilors and mayors in Iowa to recite the oath prior to noon Monday, Jan 3. That hasnt stopped many cities from holding a ceremonial swearing-in after newly elected officials took the oath privately prior to the state deadline. For Cedar Falls, the agenda for the first meeting of the year Monday did not include such a ceremony. Waterloo held a special meeting for this purpose before its regular meeting Monday. Iowa City, Sioux City, and Ames also have special meetings scheduled prior to the first regular council meetings of the year. Tiffany ODonnell, won a runoff election Nov. 30 to become mayor of Cedar Rapids, was formally sworn in to office Monday afternoon in a ceremony at City Hall. Dubuque, Marion, Des Moines, Davenport, Council Bluffs, Bettendorf and Ottumwa will have swearing-in ceremonies at their first meetings of the year, according to meeting agendas already posted, or spokespeople. West Des Moines and Urbandale held ceremonies at the end of their Dec. 20 and 28 meetings, respectively. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WATERLOO Craig White was approved Monday as chair of the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors in a 3-2 vote, with two members criticizing Whites past comments and his unwillingness to back the boards lone woman for chair in the past. White, Tom Little and previous chair Dan Trelka voted in support, with Linda Laylin and Chris Schwartz opposed. Schwartz, who has missed several board meetings after the untimely death of his husband, Logun Buckley, said he couldnt support White because of multiple harassment complaints from his treatment of our guards at the county courthouse and White belittling department heads and other employees over the past year. But Schwartz said Whites comments during a meeting days after Buckleys death were the final straw. He said he received an apology from White that was just blame-shifting to the newspaper. I dont think, in his heart, he meant to hurt me, Schwartz said. But when you feel like you need to just rattle things off without thinking about those consequences, it just further added to the trauma that I am dealing with right now and the immense, crushing guilt and emotions that I feel. Laylin said she would not support White because he failed to support her for chairperson in 2020, despite what she said was an informal rotation since 2007 in which each board member served as chair for a one-year term. White was chair in 2018, followed by Little in 2019, Schwartz in 2020 and Trelka in 2021, she said, noting that by nominating White again, the rotation seemed to be skipping her. The only time you seem to have a problem with the rotation was with me as chair, Laylin said. She said she believed it was because White wasnt used to a woman on the board. I tried not to take that personally, but its been rather difficult to not take it personally when those things seem to be directed at me more than at anyone else. She noted she served as chair once in her nine years, in 2016. The last woman to hold the title of chair before that was Barbara Leestamper in 2003. Little said only White asked for his support not Laylin. I just assumed that you werent interested in the position, Little said. Theres no set guidelines that theres a rotation. Trelka said he talked with each board member and ultimately what I decided is I support Craig to be the chair, but said he would support Laylin for chair pro tem, a resolution that passed 5-0. White declined to respond to the various allegations during the meeting, but disputed them later in an email. I do not harass the guards; I question them if I see something wrong. I do not belittle department heads; I want (them) to do their job and may question them on certain situations, he said. As for Ms. Laylin, I informed her one-on-one why I could not support her. Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 CEDAR FALLS Beauty is honking and starting to nibble at corn and organic spinach leaves immersed in water just days after her rescue from Big Woods Lake. But the graceful, long-necked trumpeter swan has a long journey ahead if she recovers from what rescuers believe is lead poisoning. It only takes the size of a grain of rice to poison an adult swan or eagle, said Terese Evans of Black Hawk Wildlife Rehabilitation Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing necessary care to impaired, injured or orphaned wildlife. Swans dabble or upend themselves to eat seeds and insects underwater and can consume discarded lead fishing weights and lead shot. Beauty, aka Swan No. 34, was rescued Dec. 30 by Kip Ladage, director at Bremer County Emergency Management in Waverly, and a nature photographer and canoeist. Evans had been contacted through Facebook and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources about the swan. People had noticed it on Big Woods Lake and it was alone. Swans are flocking birds. Any time a swan is alone in the water and the flock leaves, it signals a problem, she said. Discussion centered on whether the swan could be safely captured on the water, and who would do it. My opinion is the longer you wait, the harder the swan will be to treat. Kip is experienced, and I trust him completely to be safe and go out on the water and make a safe capture, Evans said. Ladage, who canoes year-round and is an experienced wildlife rescuer, was aware of the risks. He also became concerned that well-meaning, inexperienced people might attempt the rescue and put their lives at risk. Big Woods Lake is deep. Its cold and icy, and theres always the possibility when youre dealing with ice that you can find yourself in trouble, he said. Swans are beautiful birds and an injured bird has an emotional pull, but you have to use common sense. As hard as it is sometimes to accept, we have to put human life over animal life. Ladage arrived several hours early to access conditions before the rescue. Assistance arrived, including officers from Black Hawk County Conservation, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Camryn Grubic, Hardin County interpretive park ranger at Calkins Nature Area and a licensed wildlife collector. There wasnt enough ice and the ice itself wasnt thick enough to hold Ladages weight. The lake depth drops off not far from shore, and falling through the ice would be life-threatening. Using his canoe was the best choice. Ladage was dressed warmly and wore insulated waders. On the lake shore, Grubic carried ice picks in case they were needed. Ladage counted 34 swans on Big Woods Lake. Thirty-three swans took flight, leaving behind No. 34. That was the bird in need of help. To reach the swan, he had to slide in his canoe on the ice until he reached open water and began to paddle. It was a team effort. It worked like it was supposed to. I was alone in the canoe on the water, but there were conservation people on both sides of the lake to make sure the swan stayed on the water. Ladage caught the swan by slipping a large fishing net over her head and upper torso, then scooped her up into the canoe and onto his lap. I could tell right away she was weak, he said. Swans are quite docile once you have them, not like bald eagles who want to tear you apart, or pelicans or even Canadian geese, he explained. At the lakes edge, Grubic pulled Ladages canoe safely onto semi-frozen ground. The swan was then crated and delivered to Evans and the Black Hawk Wildlife Rehabilitation Project. Dr. Lori Cherney from Den Herder Veterinary Hospital in Waterloo examined and X-rayed the swan and took blood and stool samples to send to the laboratory for testing. Cherney is the volunteer vet for the Black Hawk Wildlife Rehabilitation Project. Evans said, The X-ray lit up along the digestive track, which makes us suspect lead poisoning. Weve already started treatment consisting of a special medication that helps push lead through the system, and her system was flushed by running a tube down her throat to the esophagus to help flush out the lead. Evans and Grubic suggest using alternatives to lead fishing weights and shot, which will alleviate the dangers of lead poisoning for swans and other birds, such as bald eagles that feed on deer carcasses hunters leave behind. Results received Monday showed Beauty was not suffering from parasites, and Evans is still awaiting lead test results. Shes weak and doesnt weigh as much as she should. But shes been honking, which is a beautiful sound to hear. Its just tough to recover from lead poisoning. Donations to help with Beautys care are being accepted at Black Hawk Wildlife Rehabilitation at https://www.blackhawkwildliferehab.com/. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. 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Locally stronger gusts in wind prone locations. Sierra ridge wind gusts near 100 mph. Waves 2 to 4 feet on Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. * WHERE...Greater Lake Tahoe Area, Greater Reno-Carson City- Minden Area and Western Nevada Basin and Range including Pyramid Lake. * WHEN...From 11 AM this morning to 8 PM PDT this evening. * IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Choppy conditions for Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake with waves 2 to 4 feet expected. Travel restrictions for high profile vehicles are possible. Check with CalTrans and NDOT for the latest on road conditions. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Now is the time to secure loose outdoor items such as patio furniture, holiday decorations, and trash cans before winds increase which could blow these items away. The best thing to do is prepare ahead of time by making sure you have extra food and water on hand, flashlights with spare batteries and/or candles in the event of a power outage. && Thinking you may have picked a bad year to attempt Dry January? We get it. Let us help you get through what feels like the 13th month of they year with a batch of refreshing mocktails by Bay Area mixmasters. Dry January Mocktail #1: Fresh Victor's Rad Red Refresher (H. Joseph Ehrmann) If you need an antioxidant-packed antidote to the toxic effects of doomscrolling, mix up a batch of this crisp mocktail, adapted from a recipe by Reza Esmaili for Rise Woodfire in San Mateo, and made with Fresh Victor's local cold-pressed juices. Preparation In a 16-ounce glass of ice, add: 3 ounces Fresh Victor Cactus Pear & Pomegranate 1/2 ounce lime juice sparkling water to fill 3-5 mint leaves (garnish) Stir gently, garnish, and serve! Dry January Mocktail #2: The Dorian's Refresh Since we can't currently grab drinks with friends at The Dorian, their mocktails at home feel like the next best thing. When you order food from the Chestnut Street restaurant, you can pair it with a Refresh, their splashy take on a classic mint lemonade. Or, DIY it at home. Preparation 1 1/2 ounces watermelon juice 3/4 ounce lemon juice 3/4 ounce turbinado syrup 1/2 ounce cucumber juice 6-8 mint leaves (muddle and garnish) In a 12-ounce glass, gently bruise three to four mint leaves in the turbinado syrup. Add the watermelon and lemon juices. Add ice, then the cucumber juice as a float. Garnish with the remaining mint, and serve. // The Dorian, 2001 Chestnut St. (Marina), doriansf.com Dry January Mocktail #3: Wunder's High January (Chris Greenwell) You can give your liver a rest this month but still answer the 911 call for cranial care. Wunder canned beverages feature Delta-8 THC, a cannabinoid designed for a clear-headed, relaxing body high. Cans are available at The Apothecarium and for local delivery via Sava, which is offering 20 percent off all month for Dry January. Preparation In a 16-ounce glass of ice, add: 1 can Wunder Grapefruit Hibiscus 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice Soda water to fill 1 grapefruit wedge or lime (garnish) Stir gently, garnish, and serve. Dry January Mocktail #4: Kamardine Toddy (Courtesy of Kazah) Muslim cultures have celebrated Dry January--and a dry every other month--for centuries. Kamardine syrup is an apricot-based concentrate used to make a cold drink that's typically consumed during the holy month of Ramadan. When added to hot water, it makes a soothing winter warmer perfect for evening sipping. In San Francisco, you can buy kamardine syrup at Samirami's Imports(2990 Mission St.). Preparation In an eight ounce cup, add: 1 ounce kamardine syrup 6 ounces hot water 1 lemon round 1 cinnamon stick (garnish) Stir until the syrup dissolves, then garnish with the cinnamon stick and serve. Warner Brothers/Getty Images Connie Brooks, Our Miss Brooks Played by: Eve Arden Why we love her: Best known to later generations as Principal McGee in Grease, Eve Arden played the sardonic high school English teacher, Connie Brooks, across radio, TV and film from 1948 to 1956 even winning the first best actress Emmy in 1954. A groundbreaking sitcom, Our Miss Brooks was one of the first shows centered around a working woman, and shes depicted as competent, sharp-witted and equal to (if not better than) her male peers. And the job itself is realistic and unglamorous, with Miss Brooks often lodging a complaint that still rings true today: Shes woefully underpaid. Lessons taught: How to excel in the workplace at a time when domesticity was prized above all else; how to handle a buffoonish boss. Watch it: Our Miss Brooks on Tubi You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close New HKSAR lawmakers encouraged to fulfill constitutional obligations, serve motherland Xinhua) 08:44, January 04, 2022 BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese government spokesperson on Monday extended congratulations to the seventh-term of the Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on its oath-taking ceremony, encouraging the lawmakers to shoulder their due responsibilities and serve Hong Kong and the motherland. During the oath-taking ceremony, which began Monday morning, the 90 LegCo members took an oath to uphold the Basic Law of the HKSAR and swore allegiance to the HKSAR in front of the national emblem. All members of the LegCo should love the country and Hong Kong, and fully and faithfully implement the policy of "one country, two systems," said the spokesperson. The spokesperson called on the lawmakers to strive to safeguard Hong Kong's fundamental and overall interests, meet the new requirements for social development and expectations from Hong Kong residents, and address the prominent issues affecting Hong Kong's economic and social development and its long-term peace and stability. LegCo members were also urged to guide different sectors of Hong Kong society to better understand and recognize the motherland and promote cooperation and exchanges between Hong Kong and the mainland. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Du Mingming) Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal Partners in a proposed $4.3 billion merger between PNM Resources and an out-of-state energy company will ask the New Mexico Supreme Court to review a decision last month by a state regulatory agency rejecting the deal. The New Mexico Public Regulation Commissions five elected members voted unanimously Dec. 8 to reject the proposed merger between PNM Resources and Connecticut energy giant Avangrid. The companies responded Monday by filing a two-page notice alerting the states highest court that they plan to appeal the PRC decision. PNM Resources and Avangrid also have renewed their commitment to the merger by extending their merger agreement until April 2023, the companies said in a written statement announcing the appeal. We have demonstrated that this is a huge benefit for our customers, PNM spokesman Raymond Sandoval said of the proposed merger. The estimated economic benefit to this was $300 million to the state. It doesnt make any sense to walk away from this kind of benefit to the state. The merger partners must file a statement of issues within 30 days setting out legal arguments for the appeal, Sandoval said. The Supreme Court has a variety of options for how it may review the PRC decision, he said. In rejecting the proposed merger, PRC commissioners accepted the conclusions of PRC hearing examiner Ashley Schannauer that the risks and potential harm from the merger outweigh the potential benefits. Avangrid had promised the merger would provide New Mexico with more than $300 million in benefits, including rate relief, investments in economic development and new jobs. But commissioners said they were swayed by the poor performance record by Avangrid utilities in the Northeast, including reports of customer dissatisfaction in Maine and other states where Avangrid has faced $63 million in regulatory penalties for electric outages and other management problems. Commissioners also cited questionable corporate practices by Avangrid and its parent firm, Spanish company Iberdrola, S.A. The rejection appeared to doom a regulatory process that began in November 2020 when the merger partners sought PRC approval for Avangrid to acquire PNM Resources and its two subsidiaries, Public Service Company of New Mexico and Texas New Mexico Power, in a $4.3 billion all-cash transaction. In announcing the appeal, the companies said the merger has been approved by five federal agencies and the Public Utility Commission of Texas, leaving the New Mexico PRC as the only agency blocking the deal. If we did not believe this was right for New Mexico, we wouldnt keep pursuing it, PNM Chairman, President and CEO Pat Vincent-Collawn said in the statement. We are merging with a company that is making a commitment to New Mexico beyond just a financial transaction. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE School officials in Albuquerque say they will take a layered, flexible approach to combating the spread of COVID-19 on campus as students return to the classroom after the holiday break. In a plan released Monday, the district said an indoor mask mandate and other baseline requirements will remain in effect for every school. But schools will have a menu of tougher options to choose from if coronavirus cases hit certain thresholds among staff and students. Masks might be required outdoors, for example, or recess times for students could be staggered. The plan comes as New Mexico prepares for a wave of the extremely contagious omicron variant. Cases are exploding across the country, and some school districts outside New Mexico have extended their holiday break or moved to online learning. New Mexico is starting to see some signs of increased infections. The test positivity rate jumped to 17.9% over the last seven days, for example, up from 10% a week ago. Public health leaders in New Mexico are asking people to stick with the basics to limit the surge get vaccinated and a booster shot if youre eligible and wear a mask around other people. As schools return from winter break, we want to reemphasize that it is critical to wear masks and to stay home if youre feeling sick, Dr. Norbert Topf, chief medical quality officer at Presbyterian Healthcare Services, said in a written statement to the Journal. In its letter to families, the Albuquerque school system said its doing everything possible to keep our students and staff safe, limit the spread of the disease, minimize disruptions, and most importantly, continue in-person teaching and learning. Judy Robinson, a spokeswoman for the Public Education Department, said the agency is concerned about omicron but doesnt expect a widespread return to remote learning at this time. At APS, a review of whether enhanced COVID-19 safety requirements are necessary will kick in if 3% of a schools students and staff have been infectious within the last 14 days. At 5%, the extra safety measures will be required. Among the options for enhanced safety are outdoor learning or masking, the suspension of extracurricular events and staggered recess times. The plan also allows a school to shift to remote instruction for 14 days if other plans to limit infections fail. Teachers in Albuquerque returned to school Monday, and students come back Tuesday. High patient volumes New Mexico reported more than 7,300 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, covering the last four days, an average of more than 1,800 cases a day. Thirty-two cases were among federal detainees or state inmates. People who arent fully vaccinated have made up a disproportionate share of the infections 70% of new cases, 84% of hospitalizations and 84% of deaths in the most recent four-week period with data available, according to a state epidemiology report. New Mexico defines a person as fully vaccinated if it has been at least two weeks since they received a shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the second of the two doses required for the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. The Department of Health on Monday also reported: 11 more COVID-19 deaths, including four in Bernalillo County. Nine of the 11 deaths happened more than 30 days ago, but the death certificates werent processed until recently. The statewide death toll is now 5,866 residents. 472 patients hospitalized for the disease, a 4% increase over the total reported a week ago. Dr. Topf said Presbyterian is facing high patient volumes in our hospitals. About 76% of adults in the state have completed their initial vaccine series and 36% have received a booster shot. Monitoring variants New Mexico health officials are watching carefully for the omicron variant. Just four cases had been detected through Dec. 27, but the state expects to release more data this week. To monitor variants, laboratories in New Mexico conduct sequencing on a sample of the specimens collected during testing. They dont do it for every specimen because many dont have enough virus to sequence and sequencing everything is resource intensive, a state spokeswoman said. New Mexico is also preparing to adjust its isolation and quarantine rules for people who test positive or are exposed to the virus. As it stands now, the state generally directs people to stay at home for 10 days since symptoms first appeared or they tested positive, among other requirements before leaving isolation. Visit cv.nmhealth.org to learn more. The DOH expects to change the rules soon to match the new five-day guideline issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the meantime, health officials stress vaccinations as a powerful way to protect yourself and others. The more people that are vaccinated and have received a booster, the more protected our communities will be, Topf said. WASHINGTON Greg Pence watched the Jan. 6 insurrection unfold from an extraordinary perch. As chants of Hang Mike Pence echoed in the Capitol, the Republican congressman from Indiana and his better-known brother were whisked away from the Senate by the Secret Service shortly before a mob of Donald Trump supporters burst in, intent on stopping the vice president from certifying Democrat Joe Bidens win. Their dramatic escape, caught on security cameras, came minutes after Trump excoriated Mike Pence on Twitter for lacking the courage to use his ceremonial post presiding over the certification of the 2020 election to overturn its outcome. My brother was being asked to do what we dont do in this country, Greg Pence recounted at a Republican fundraising dinner in his district last July, one of the rare instances he has spoken publicly about the attack. He later added, I couldnt be prouder. At the beating heart of the insurrection lies Trumps attempt to pressure his vice president to take the unprecedented step of overturning the election. And few had a better vantage point on the day of the attack than Greg Pence, who watched the certification proceedings from the Senate gallery, then joined his younger brother in a private office off the Senate chamber when chaos broke out. They were evacuated, along with other members of the Pence family, to a secure area, where the vice president worked the phone, pleading for help to clear rioters from the building. That makes Greg Pence a tantalizing prospective witness for the House Jan. 6 committee, which is investigating the origins of the insurrection that Trump fomented when he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol and fight like hell. Pence has largely declined to discuss what transpired while he was with his brother that day, other than praising his brother as a hero for standing up to Trump. His silence serves as powerful evidence of the grip that Trump still holds on his party, which has led many Republicans to dispute the seriousness of the attack and instead perpetuate the lie that Trump was wrongly denied a second term. Pence declined last month to speak with The Associated Press at the Capitol. A spokesperson did not respond to multiple inquiries seeking comment. First elected to Congress in 2018, 65-year-old Greg Pence represents a deeply Republican and largely rural district that his brother held for 12 years before he was elected Indiana governor and eventually selected by Trump to become vice president. Unlike his brother, who from a young age was fixated on a career in politics, Greg Pence was always an unlikely congressman. After graduating from Loyola University in Chicago, he joined the Marines and later fell into a series of petroleum industry jobs. He eventually served as president of Kiel Bros., a Midwest gas station empire his father helped build, a post he resigned from in 2004 after the company filed for bankruptcy and saddled the state of Indiana with more than $21 million in unpaid environmental cleanup costs, a 2018 Associated Press investigation found. Pence turned his focus in 2006 to operating antique malls he purchased with his wife, Denise, a business now worth between $5 million and $25 million, according to his congressional financial disclosure. When Mike Pences former congressional seat opened up in 2018, his brother ran a stealthy campaign. Granting few interviews and ducking debates, he coasted to victory. I looked into the mirror and said, If not me, who?' Greg Pence told his hometown newspaper, The Columbus Republic, in a rare interview during the campaign. But he also expressed deep ambivalence about the job, as well as a lack of conviction that would likely have doomed other candidates. What would be my positions, what would be my focus? he said in a September 2017 interview with the Washington Examiner, a conservative publication, before formally launching his campaign. I really havent dug into or formed positions on anything yet. Since then, Pence has had a muted presence in Congress, where he serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Yet during the Trump administration, he enjoyed rarefied privileges, riding with the president on Air Force One for campaign and administration events where the president name-checked him. One area in which he has excelled is fundraising, raising far more money than the average first-term member of Congress. Pence also has enjoyed the trappings of political life, spending over $49,000 at Trump-owned properties, while paying Trumps pollster $137,000 during his 2018 race when there was little doubt he would win, campaign finance disclosures show. Pence and his family also have collected money from his campaign account, including $18,000 in rent paid to the company he runs with his wife, and $35,000 paid to his daughter Nicole, a former TV reporter, who advised his 2018 campaign. He has also collected $57,000 in reimbursements for travel and meals, records show. For months it was unclear whether the committee would even seek interviews with members of Congress connected to the insurrection, which was viewed as a provocative step. But in late December, the committee announced it wanted to interview Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a staunch Trump ally, as well as Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who leads the hard-line House Freedom Caucus. So far, Democrats who serve on the committee have been tight-lipped about whether Greg Pence could be called for an interview or asked to submit documents. Im not going to talk about any individual being called, said Rep. Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat on the committee, when asked whether an interview with Pence would be sought. Pence has repeatedly voted against attempts to shed light on the insurrection, or hold those who urged it on accountable. He voted twice against forming a committee to investigate the origins of the attack, calling it bass-ackwards. He also voted against impeaching Trump. But perhaps the most significant vote was in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Hours after emerging from a secure location, Mike Pence gaveled the joint session of Congress back in and presided over the certification of the election, despite Trumps demands. Greg Pence, meanwhile, joined scores of other Republicans who sided with Trump and cast a vote rejecting the outcome in Pennsylvania, the state that clinched the election for Biden. JOHANNESBURG The man suspected of starting the fire that gutted South Africas parliament buildings appeared in court Tuesday and will remain in custody pending a bail hearing. Zandile Christmas Mafe faces several charges including arson, theft, housebreaking and contravention of the National Key Points Acts, which restricts access to government buildings, according to the local Eye Witness News website. Mafes lawyer said he denies the charges. Mafe was arrested on the premises of the Parliament complex by police after they noticed the fire Sunday morning. The Parliament complex in the center of Cape Town includes some buildings that are 130 years old. National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila told journalists outside court that Mafe was also found with an explosive device, but didnt give further details. Police havent ruled out the possibility of more arrests, said Nomthandazo Mbambo, spokesman for the Hawks special investigative unit of the police. Were going to be conducting a full investigation and we think there may be other people involved but at this stage, the focus is on this one until the investigation can dictate otherwise, Mbabmbo told media outside the courtroom. The fire destroyed South Africas main Parliament chamber, offices and other buildings nearby on Sunday. It flared up again Monday when winds picked up and burned through other offices. Firefighters battled the renewed blaze until midnight, officials said. Parliament was closed for the holidays and no injuries have been reported in the fire. BEIJING American activists are appealing to Tesla Inc. to close a new showroom in Chinas northwestern region of Xinjiang, where officials are accused of abuses against mostly Muslim ethnic minorities. Tesla on Friday announced the opening of its showroom in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital, and said on its Chinese social media account, Lets start Xinjiangs all-electric journey! The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an American organization based in Washington, D.C., on Monday urged Tesla and its chairman, Elon Musk, to close the showroom and cease what amounts to economic support for genocide. Pressure on foreign companies to take positions on Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan and other politically charged issues has been rising. The ruling Communist Party pushes companies to adopt its positions in their advertising and on websites. It has attacked clothing and other brands that express concern about reports of forced labor and other abuses in Xinjiang. No American corporation should be doing business in a region that is the focal point of a campaign of genocide targeting a religious and ethnic minority, the groups communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, said in a statement. A message was left Tuesday seeking comment from Austin, Texas-based Tesla, which has disbanded its media relations department. Activists and foreign governments say some 1 million Uyghurs and members of other mostly Muslim minorities have been confined in detention camps in Xinjiang. Chinese officials reject accusations of abuses and say the camps are for job training and to combat extremism. On Friday, the ruling partys discipline agency threatened Walmart Inc. with a boycott after some shoppers complained online they couldnt find goods from Xinjiang in its Walmart and Sams Club stores in China. In December, Intel Corp., the worlds biggest maker of computer chips, apologized for asking suppliers to avoid sourcing goods from Xinjiang after the state press attacked the company and comments online called for a boycott of its goods. The United States has barred imports of goods from Xinjiang unless they can be shown not to be made by forced labor. Asked about Teslas situation, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she could not comment on a particular company, but that the private sector should oppose human rights abuses and genocide in Xinjiang. The international community, including the public and private sectors cannot look the other way when it comes to what is taking place in Xinjiang, Psaki said. China is one of Teslas biggest markets. The companys first factory outside the United States opened in Shanghai in 2019. Other foreign auto brands including Volkswagen, General Motors and Nissan Motor Co. have showrooms in Xinjiang operated by the automakers Chinese joint-venture partners. VW also operates a factory in Urumqi. If Tesla and Musk are bowing to Chinese government pressure, its in contrast to the U.S., where Musk has repeatedly clashed with government agencies. Last year he moved Teslas headquarters to Austin from California after a spat with Alameda County health officials over reopening a factory at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. He also has fought with the Securities and Exchange Commission over a 2018 tweet claiming that he had financing to take Tesla private, when that funding was not secured. He and the company agreed to pay $20 million each to settle allegations that he misled investors. Musk branded the SEC the shortseller enrichment commission, distorting the meaning of its acronym. Short sellers bet that a stock price will fall. Tesla also faces inquiries by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems. The company has said both are partially automated driver-assist systems despite their names. LAS CRUCES Fancy a flight to the Duke City? Las Crucens may be in luck later this year. At its Dec. 20 meeting, the Las Cruces City Council authorized the city to pursue state grant funding to establish intrastate commercial passenger service out of Las Cruces International Airport. According to city Airport Administrator Andy Hume, the airports current facilities are just about ready to support in-state flights. Improvements that could happen before that would be the addition of televisions, phone-charging outlets and extra seating to the terminal building, he said. Wed want to add some additional amenities, Hume said. But essentially, were ready to go. Hume said the citys aggressively pursuing actions that would allow interstate travel to begin not long after. The approval of the resolution authorizing the application for $3.5 million through the New Mexico Rural Air Service Enhancement Grant Program also authorized the city to provide 10 percent in matching funds to administer commercial service, to bring the total grant request to $3.85 million for a two-year period. The city has already begun a bidding process to select a provider for flights. A request for proposal process accepted bids through Dec. 28, and Hume said several providers expressed interest in potentially submitting proposals. The number of bidders was not immediately available. If the New Mexico Department of Transportation-Aviation Division approves the citys grant request, flights to and from Las Cruces and Albuquerque about 225 miles apart by interstate would be the first established. Hume said the plane ride would be under an hour long. Hume sees that as an easy win, since he said there are a plethora of companies based in Albuquerque that do business in Las Cruces. That alone creates a significant demand, Hume said. Just the business part of it alone. Hume said an estimated 18,000 trips a year already occur just between the two cities by any mode of transportation. With intrastate air service, he said the airport expects to pick up a portion of that existing demand. Based on demand, the city has said flights between Las Cruces and Santa Fe and other New Mexico cities could be established in the future. If all goes to plan, intrastate flights could begin as soon as mid-2022. But Hume is looking beyond intrastate. Hes hopeful for interstate travel out of Las Cruces International Airport by late 2022 or early 2023. Its an ambitious goal. Hume himself said many pieces need to come together over the next 12 months for that to happen, such as the construction of dozens of hangars, the addition of ticket counters, rental car services and Transportation Security Administration infrastructure, which would include the creation of a sterile area beyond security checkpoints. The airports firefighting response also needs to be improved and an airline needs to be selected to provide interstate service, Hume added. Interstates going to require some significant investment, Hume said. But Hume is confident, telling the Sun-News companies are lining up to build those hangars. The city is also expected to ask the state to allocate $37.5 million in funding for airport improvements during the upcoming legislative session. Las Cruces airport hasnt had commercial passenger service since 2005. Between the late 1940s and 2005, 11 airlines provided commercial passenger service there. The airport is currently used for general and corporate aviation and by the U.S. military, private charters, the local Civil Air Patrol squadron and New Mexico State University for unmanned aircraft systems flight tests. PAULDEN, Ariz. One man was fatally shot and two others injured after a shooting stemming from a domestic dispute in Paulden on Tuesday, authorities said. Yavapai County Sheriffs deputies were called to the scene around 10:30 a.m. after a suspect reportedly assaulted his brother with a hammer and then robbed a store and assaulted the manager. Authorities said the man then drove to the Paulden Community Center where he allegedly threatened the occupants with a gun before fleeing. Sheriffs deputies and Chino Valley police officers found the suspect at a train trestle near State Route 89. Despite repeated warnings from law enforcement, authorities said the suspect reportedly raised his gun to the officers and he was fatally shot by police. The name of the man wasnt immediately released. Authorities said the suspects brother was airlifted to a Flagstaff hospital with life-threatening injuries while the store manager was being treated at a medical center for injuries not considered severe. The Arizona Department of Public Safety is investigating the incident along with sheriffs officials. HOUSTON The oldest Texas death row inmate is to be executed in April for killing a Houston police officer more than 30 years ago, prosecutors said Tuesday. A Houston state judge scheduled the execution of Carl Wayne Buntion, 77, for April 21 during a Tuesday court hearing. Buntion had been on parole for just six weeks when he fatally shot Houston officer James Irby, 37, during a June 1990 traffic stop. Buntion, who had an extensive criminal record, was a passenger in the car that Irby pulled over. He shot a policeman in the head more than 30 years ago, and it is time that he be held accountable for his horrific crime, said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. Buntion was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1991, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated his death sentence in 2009. A jury in 2012 returned him to death row following a new sentencing trial. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by Buntions lawyers. But in a statement, Justice Stephen Breyer said that Buntions lengthy confinement, and the confinement of others like him, calls into question the constitutionality of the death penalty. ABC TV In season 26 of the long-running ABC dating show, viewers will see the new leading man embarking on his love journey as he is joined by 31 women who are vying for his heart. Jan 4, 2022 AceShowbiz - "The Bachelor" returned to the franchise's iconic California villa to kick off a new season on Monday, January 3. In season 26, viewers would see new leading man Clayton Echard embarking on his love journey as he was joined by 31 women who were vying for his heart. "I'm sure you're wondering why I'm the Bachelor based off of only getting eight minutes of screen time on 'The Bachelorette'," Clayton shared. "And you know, it's because I truthfully believe in this process more than anybody else. I know that I can find my wife here. I know this works." Among those who were competing to get Clayton's heart were Cassidy Timbrooks, Claire Heilig, Eliza Isichel, Elizabeth Corrigan, Ency Abedin, Gabby Windey, Genevieve Parisi, Hailey Mailles, Hunter Haag, Ivana Noble, Jane Paik, Jill Chin and Kate Gallivan. They were joined by Kira Mengistu, Lindsay Dobbbs, Lindsay Windham, Mara Agrait Marlena Wesh, Melina Nasab, Rachel Recchia, Rianna Hockaday, Sailey Carson, Samantha Jeffries, Sarah Hamrick, Serene Russell, Shanae Ankney, Sierra Jackson, Susie Evams, Teddi Wright and Tesa Tookes. The filming was particularly hard for Salley, who shared that yesterday was supposed to be her wedding day. "That was the most heartbreaking decision of my life," she said in a confessional about calling off her engagement to her fiance. So, before she even got in the limo, she went to Clayton to talk about her struggles. "This weekend has been extremely hard for me," the spine surgery robot operator told Clayton. "I was engaged in the past and I was supposed to get married yesterday. Part of me is being pulled home but I didn't want to fully come to that decision until I met you. And you're really good-looking. I've heard nothing but great things about you. I feel weird being here the weekend of my wedding." "I thought I was ready for something like this and I don't I don't know if my heart is ready," Salley admitted. While Clayton said that he understood her feelings, he told her, "I really think there's potentially something there." He left for a while and returned with a rose. "Truthfully, us talking, there's definitely chemistry," he said to Salley. "It really makes me feel like there could be something special and so I really, really want you here. So much so that I want to prove that. And so Salley, will you accept this rose?" Salley had to step away for a bit to think about it. When she came back, she told Clayton, "I want to accept that rose. My heart is just not in the place where I can. And I feel so bad about that. My heart is just not ready." Feeling heartbroken, Clayton said, "The first rose that I have given out as the Bachelor was rejected. This is not the way that I was hoping to start my journey to find love." Despite that, Clayton still had 30 women waiting for him. Wealth management advisor Sarah arrived first, followed up by industrial sales representative Lyndsey W. Then came bartender Genevieve, sales manager Ency, wedding videographer Susie, spray tanner Claire and elementary school teacher Serene. Surgical unit nurse Teddi, who revealed in her video intro that she's a 24-year-old virgin, then arrived. Daria made an impressive entrace as she wore a rose necklace. "My last name is rose and I'm hoping that tonight ends with a rose," the law student told Clayton. Clayton first spent time with Susie. He also kissed Teddi and she was not the only ones that Clayton kissed that night. Claire, meanwhile, was annoyed that she was interrupted when she was speaking to Clayton. When she went back in the house, she told the other women that she hated him. Clayton eventually caught wind of it and confronted Claire. He decided to send her home. Meanwhile, Clayton presented the first impression rose to Teddi as he noted that there was a clear connection between the two of them. At the Rose Ceremony, Clayton gave the roses to Serene, Susie, Eliza, Rachel, Ency, Sarah, Kate, Cassidy, Elizabeth, Kira, Shanae, Sierra, Mara, Marlena, Genevieve, Melina, Gabby, Jill, Lindsay W., Hunter and Tessa. Daria, Hailey, Ivana, Jane, Lindsay, Samantha and Rianna were eliminated. Instagram Celebrity In the wake of the shocking news of Steve's engagement to Janis Carlson, the 'RHOC' alum's famous friends take to social media to express their support for her. Jan 4, 2022 AceShowbiz - While Steve Lodge is excitement with his engagement to Janis Carlson, it isn't the case for his ex Vicki Gunvalson. It is safe to assume that the reality TV star does not wish the couple all the best after it was revealed on Monday, January 3 that they had been engaged. In a statement to Page Six, Vicki said, "I really don't want to give him any more publicity." The former "The Real Housewives of Orange County" went on to blast her ex, "He's a fame w***e." Steve proposed to Janis, a 37-year-old school teacher, in December, just five days before they became Instagram-official. "I did ask Janis on Dec. 20 if she would become Mrs. Steve Chavez Lodge, and she happily agreed," the once-wannabe California governor told PEOPLE. "We will be married in April 2022." He continued, "We are both very excited, incredibly happy, totally in love and look forward to our life together." In the wake of the engagement news, Vicki's famous friends took to social media to express their support for her. "If @vgunvalson doesn't find a GREAT guy this year, it won't be a good year. She deserves it. #FullLoveTankForVG," Andy Cohen wrote on Twitter. Tamra Judge, meanwhile, retweeted Andy's post. Prior to this, Vicki appeared to shade Steve while commenting on Lala Kent's recent "Not Skinny But Not Fat" podcast interview featuring Lala reflecting on her own relationship with ex-fiance Randall Emmet. "Sounds very similar to the man who stole almost 6 years of my life that I will never get back. So hurtful, so wrong," the Coto Insurance president wrote. Vicki and Steve called off their engagement in September after five years of dating. The reality TV star accused the politician of cheating, lying and using her throughout the duration of their romantic relationship. "He used me, he lied to me, he's been dating a 36 year old and is not what he portrays himself to be," she alleged at the time. "No Christian man would do what he's done." Meanwhile, Steve vehemently denied his ex's claims. "The absolute lies she is now spreading on social media is very disappointing and disingenuous, to say the least," he claimed. "But I cannot say I'm surprised. She should not be dragging Tamra or anyone else into her lies." "Vicki and I ended our engagement and relationship in December of 2020," Steve clarified as Vicki only confirmed their split in September this year. The politician continued, "We had not been in an intimate relationship since September of 2020." COVID-19 testing will still be offered on campus for students and staff. Friends say she was special, funny, and overall a happy person. There were 456 COVID-19 cases in Butte County since Thursday and about 400,000 per day nationally. The recent rain is not only helping us get out of the drought but it's also improving our air quality. A Conman that looted the hearts of the audiences all over the nation in the recently launched Banijay Asia produced, MX Original Series titled Matsya Kaand achieved an unprecedented benchmark in a short span of time. The thriller crossed a 100 Million mark on MX Player within 30 days of its release, making it one of Banijay Asias most viewed shows. The story revolves around that of a charmer, master of disguises, Matsya and his kaand intertwined with a lethal policeman who leaves no stone unturned to catch Matsya in the act. This cutting-edge cat and mouse chase produced for MX Player, Matsya Kaand is the first ever conman thriller series to be streamed in India. Talking about the success of the show, Deepak Dhar, CEO & Founder, Banijay Asia said, We are amidst a content revolution where we are witnessing refreshing, experimental content taking the front seat with the audience all over the world. A show like Matsya Kaand which centers on an atypical conman, charming his way through the heists created such a hype among the metro cities as well as the rural corner of the nation that crossed 100 million views really fuels our belief in investing in such unconventional stories. At Banijay Asia, we thrive on presenting narratives that resonate with the cultural milieu and we look forward to following the same route with accelerated zeal and efforts in our forthcoming presentations. We are thrilled to have witnessed such a fantastic response from audiences for Matsya Kaand. While the show crossed a 100 million views mark within a month, we are still seeing new viewers joining the Matsya Club each day. When authentic story telling meets brilliant performances, the magic is undeniable and thats what Matsya Kaand has achieved for MX Player. We hope to continue entertaining our viewers with such stories and add to our viewer family. said, Gautam Talwar, Chief Content Officer at MX Player. Elaborating on the success of the show, Ravii Dubey said, Matsya Kaand has truly changed the trajectory of my career. It challenged me as an actor and made me physically mentally and spiritually align with this craft like never before . Matsya came with a lot of makeovers, physical transformation and an emotional quotient like no other character that I have played so far. It required a lot of hardwork and throughout the process, my director Ajay Bhuyan, producer Deepak Dhar (Banijay Asia) and team MX asserted that we were on the brink of cracking something big. Receiving positive reviews of the show re-affirmed that all the hard work weve put in as a team has paid off. And, when the show crossed 100 million views on MX player, I was speechless. To be honest, I couldn't have asked for a better end to last year. Sometimes, you must take another path. The January 2022 issue of Vogue India ushers in a new era, a new beginning: a VOGUE RESET. This issue sets out to champion the spirit of creativity in India, spark conversations, highlight excellence in the fashion industry, celebrate the diversity of the subcontinent and set forth a new visual language, one where there is room for everyone Megha Kapoor, Head of Editorial Content, Vogue India on the January 2022 VOGUE RESET issue: My time in this industry began 12 years ago as an intern at Vogue India, an experience that set in motion a chain of events that has now come full circle, allowing me, with immense gratitude and pride, to present Vogue Indias January issue as its editor. To RESET involves change, to begin from the baseline. Its an exciting opportunity to take stock, recalibrate and start again. For our talent, this idea of a RESET was both personal and universal. Whether it be dismantling long held beauty ideals, reprioritising business models towards a more sustainable ethos around the transferral of joy, or a daily ritual of reconnecting with nature, it is a concept that resonates on many levels. A collaboration with British-Indian designer Supriya Lele felt like the obvious choice for christening this new path. In the past five years, her signature fusion of Indian dress codes with a sensual 90s minimalism has set her apart as the darling of a new wave of design talent taking centre stage. I was thrilled when she agreed to come on board as a creative collaborator for our cover story. But even as the cultural landscape continues to spin beneath our feet and we struggle to find our moorings, one thing is undeniable: the urgent need for representation. I thought it was both important and necessary to ensure our cover star was a true role model. Zinnia Kumar fit that vision. Her work as a scientist, ecologist, activist and model sets her apart as someone who lives by her values. This thread of being unapologetically Indian also comes through in my conversation with Sabyasachi Mukherjee, the architect of the blockbuster Indian wedding. Having shaped his empire on the romantic idealisation of Indian culture while building a truly contemporary brand, he credits embracing his identity to be at the core of his success. I hope we can all embrace our collective identities in this new way going forward. I hope you come with us on that journey. Enjoy the issue. Given below is an excerpt from Vogue Indias January 2022 cover story: THIS TIME IS OURS British-Indian designer Supriya Lele inhabits the space between her familial roots in Jabalpur and her life growing up in the UKs West Midlands. And in her clothes, she fashions this push and pull that lives within her. As a result, what is born is not a dissonance but a delicate view of a new India Words by Akanksha Kamath Photographed by by Dan Jackson Styled by Kate Phelan Five years after starting her label in London, what stands out about Supriya Lele, the Royal College of Art alumna and her oeuvre of whisper-thin organza pieces is the focused female gaze she brings to the industry. Case in point: the slinkiest pieces from her spring/summer 2022 collection which she has handpicked for this cover shoot she co-created. Sexy she says, letting the word linger, before continuing, is so subjective. Confidence is sexy. Attitude, vibe and spirit can all be sexy. It is serendipitous then, that the subject for her brave clothing is modern multi-hyphenate and fellow South Asian Zinnia Kumar. I think Zinnia embodies the essence of what I am trying to say with my brand, explains Lele. Far from the maximalist, magpie India we have often seen represented in fashion rhetoric, what the LVMH prize winner serves up is a rethought and remixed version of our country. Celebration is seen in bold strokes of colour. The saris asymmetrical drape is found in the twisted tissue-like wrap of a dress. Its a vision that is curated from a place that is familiar yet far removed. A gesture, not an appropriation, she explains. Whats happening in India right now is so exciting. There are creatives and artists breaking rules and doing incredible things that arent on the global map just yet, she says, having wrapped up a collaboration with Delhi based photographer Sohrab Hura for her spring/summer 2022 campaign. I am hoping that, over time, by making connections and shining a light on those individuals, this will change. While Leles cultural identity is a conversation starter, it is her deliberate work on building a modern wardrobe rooted in luxury that makes her a cultural and design phenomenon. I think individuality is really important. Thats what people want from young designers, a new perspective. Given below is an excerpt from Vogue Indias January 2022 issue: BEATING THE ODDS A scientist, ecologist, activist and writer, Zinnia Kumar successfully subverts every conceivable trope of a fashion model, thanks to a lengthy scroll of accomplishments. In recent years, the iconoclast has harnessed her celebrity to confront colourism, dismantle long-held beauty ideals and encourage conversations around sustainability with a profundity that belies her age Words by Sadaf Shaikh Social entrepreneur, ethnic inclusion advocate, sustainability consultant, South Asian cultural advisor and CIEEM-accredited (the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management) ecologistZinnia Kumar wears many hats and dons each with discernible ease, a trait that has little to do with the fact that she is also a sought-after model appearing in campaigns for Miu Miu, Kiko Kostadinov and Off-White. The Australian-Indian multi-hyphenate uses her social media influence as a launchpad to fire emphatic missives to her 664K followers. In a post from 2018, she lambasted prominent Indian celebrities for promoting skin lightening products while the caption for a shoot out-take posted last year criticised luxury brands that outsourced their embroidery to Indias skilled artisans at below minimum wage. Considering the impressive range of qualifiers Kumar has to her name, her schedule is naturally chock-full of commitmentsand the UK-based model prefers it that way, which is why she gladly allows her advocacy work to claim her weekends as well. In her first-ever cover interview with Vogue India, the polymath offers compelling insights on the politics of colour and representation. How did you develop an interest in conserving the environment and dismantling colourism? Growing up, I was obsessed with birds and David Attenborough; I was all of five when I knew I wanted to work in conservation and ecology. I come from North, East and South Indian lineage and have family members with diverse skin tones who were bullied or treated differently. It made me livid when the South Asian community in Australia would say mean things to my cousin, mum and grandmother because they were dark-skinned while giving me preferential treatment because I had lighter skin. The penny finally dropped when a young woman in the community died by suicide after being rejected by multiple male suitors. When it comes to Indian representation in international media and film, its clear that women with Eurocentric ancestry and features such as light skin and long locks have a higher chance of succeeding in their careers than those with traditional South Asian lineaments. What do you have to say about this phenomenon of skin tone bias within the same ethnic group? Bollywood has always championed mixed-race Indians, like Helen, and continues to do so even today. Just look at the proliferation of biracial actors such as Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif, Dia Mirza, Lisa Haydon and Lara Dutta. While their burgeoning celebrity is a great tool for creating global reach, it has achieved little in terms of Indian representation, social belonging and visibility. Instead, it has further exalted the kind of features that reject and replace the beauty of an entire nation. When we dont use Indian models and talent in India, it leads international brands to believe we dont find Indian talent desirable, thus they feel no need to use Indians globally. Today, mixed-race white Indians receive five international magazine covers for every cover earned by their monoracial counterparts. Despite constituting a fifth of the worlds population, we have a lot more ground to cover in terms of glass ceilings, colourism and inclusivity. Youve been an advocate for widening the lens of representation in fashion beyond the runway, even leading by example through your very first high-fashion gig for Off-White. How important is it for creatives of colour to support each other in an industry that has predominantly been steeped in whiteness? When I was rejected by every agency in Australia for being Indian, I felt like I didnt belong in fashion. However, it was creatives of colour who kept advocating for me even when the mainstream industry did not accept me. Virgil Abloh was one of them. If visionaries like him hadnt taken a chance on me when I was starting out, I would not be where I am today. Now that I have a platform and a growing position of power, its only right that I return the favour and advocate for POCs in every way I can. Im actioning this through the creation of a diverse support network for underrepresented racial minorities that is free of contempt. This not only involves highlighting creatives on Instagram, but actually supporting and creating long-term careers, mentoring them, and fighting for them in the face of racism and other sociocultural barriers. A new study by Accenture found that the $492 billion global social commerce industry is expected to grow three times as fast as traditional ecommerce to $1.2 trillion by 2025. Growth is predicted to be driven primarily by Gen Z and Millennial social media users, accounting for 62% of global social commerce spend by 2025. According to Accentures report, Why Shoppings Set for a Social Revolution, social commerce means a persons entire shopping experience from product discovery to the check-out process takes place on a social media platform. Just under two thirds (64%) of social media users surveyed said they made a social commerce purchase in the last year, which Accenture estimates to reflect nearly 2 billion social buyers globally. Driven by mobile-first consumer preferences and the launch of new hyperlocal social commerce platforms, the emerging success of social commerce in India is a testimony to the power of people and communities, said Anurag Gupta, Managing Director and Lead - Strategy & Consulting, Accenture in India. To take advantage of this growing opportunity, it will be crucial that these social commerce platforms offer consumers the right experience built around trust and satisfaction, and broaden their appeal through the use of local languages and video interfaces. Furthermore, brands need to work with a thriving ecosystem comprising platforms, creators, influencers, resellers that helps users discover and evaluate potential purchases. Accentures report Why Shoppings Set for a Social Revolution estimates social commerce will account for 17% of all ecommerce spend by 2025 While the opportunity is significant for large businesses, individuals and smaller brands also stand to benefit. More than half (59%) of social buyers surveyed said they are more likely to support small and medium-sized businesses through social commerce than when shopping through ecommerce websites, Furthermore, 63% said they are more likely to buy from the same seller again, showing the benefits of social commerce in building loyalty and driving repeat purchases. Accentures report Why Shoppings Set for a Social Revolution estimates Millennials alone will account for nearly $401B (1/3) of social commerce spend by 2025 Half of social media users surveyed, however, indicate they are concerned that social commerce purchases will not be protected or refunded properly, making trust the biggest barrier to adoption, as it was for eCommerce at its beginning. Who is Buying What Accentures report found that by 2025 the highest number of social commerce purchases globally are expected in clothing (18% of all social commerce by 2025), consumer electronics (13%) and home decor (7%). Fresh food and snack items also represent a large product category (13%) although sales are nearly exclusive to China. Beauty and personal care, although smaller in terms of total social commerce sales, is predicted to quickly gain ground on e-commerce and capture over 40% of digital spend on average for this category in key markets by 2025. Among the studys other findings: VMY&R Business Director - New Delhi Amandeep Singh Kochar has been elevated as VP - Client Engagement, CX & Commerce at the agency. In this role, he will be based in Bangkok, Thailand. The announcement was made via a LinkedIn post. "A New Year with new beginning in a new country. Looking forward to work with highly driven and passionate team and leadership while delivering commercial growth to VMLY&R clients with our customer experience and commerce capabilities. This time in Thailand. Starting a new role as VP - Client Engagement, CX & Commerce at VMLY&R!" Kochar wrote in a LinkedIn post. He joined VMY&R in 2017 as Business Director - New Delhi, and was responsible to lead the business for VMLY&R in New Delhi. Before VMLY&R, he was associated with Brandmovers as Director - Brand Strategy & New Business for two years. Kochar started his career with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as a Management Associate getting hands-on experience in Business Development, Pre Sales, Transitions domain and also working on various projects. His previous stints include KRDS India and BrandAppz.com Alton, IL (62002) Today Cloudy with occasional rain during the afternoon. High 69F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Rain and thunderstorms. Low around 60F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Note: We introduced readers to Lina Hjalmarsson Lyons' new publishing platform for the autism community: PoeticJustice.press. Not the Moms and Dads and providers, but the boys and girls, men and women with autism who may prefer to be called autists or autistics or just by their names. Spelling has been a new road to success for many. Not all. But we have to promote and push and praise all progress. All of it. Lina is the daughter of author Helina Hjalmarsson and Skyhorse Publishing's Tony Lyons. Please share her site widely. Thank you. ### Hello, I am Lina. So nice to meet you here. I am a nonspeaking speller. I am really smart and incredibly perceptive. I want to create a really lovely space for people who rarely find the right spoken words. With Universal Enthusiasm, Lina Hjalmarsson Lyons, Editor in Chief Congratulations you have arrived. We are looking forward to co-creating with you a community of rebels, creative minds, changemakers, pathfinders, nonspeakers, communicators, spellers. Visit the Blog page to peruse our online publication, meet us on the Rebellious Editors page, or become a contributor on the Submit Work/Contact Us page. Contributors are teenagers or young adults who use some form of assisted communication. We intend for this site to be a place for spellers to publish their work as well as a forum for real social exchange. Lets make full use of the comments section below each post to enter into a dialogue about our work and ourselves. HELPED are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception, and realize a partnership in the creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible and cheerful. Alice Walker, Helped Are Those BAKER, Mont. Dave Haydens portable cattle watering system invention brought relief to many ranchers who needed to water their cattle during the extensive drought in 2021. We feel like we have been in the target of the drought this summer with hardly any rain, said Dave, who ranches with his wife, Deanna, along with their son, Chase, and his family, in the southeastern corner of Fallon County. Dave and Deanna also have two married daughters, Maria Brown and Anita Graham, and they have eight grandchildren. With little rainfall, there were water shortages to creeks, dugouts, and reservoirs where cattle drink, and producers were looking for something to help them save multiple trips to fill water tanks in pastures. Dave made the final designs to his portable watering system in 2021. It is a 3,400-gallon portable watering system that connects via hoses to a hydrant. The water flows from a 3,000-gallon holding tank into a 400-gallon drinker tank quickly, which is what is needed with large herds. The portable cattle watering system is easily moved with a flatbed, Bobcat, or tractor to wherever the livestock are grazing. I have been working on the design for five years, and I finally have improved the design the way I want it, he said. I designed it to solve my own issues, but a lot of people became interested in it and wanted me to build them one. Dave constructed several and rented or sold systems to other ranchers in 2021. Some of the ranchers I rented a system to had the reservoirs on their pastures go dry, and some of them told me they wouldnt have made it through this drought without the system, he said. Some ranchers are using the system so their cattle can graze crop aftermath after harvest. It works perfect for that, Dave said. The Haydens have been on a soil health journey on their ranch since the late 1980s. They have attended many soil health and holistic grazing workshops, including one with Allen Williams in Baker, Mont., and they have applied the techniques they learned. All along the way, water was their biggest challenge. They started with a twice-over grazing system and moved to rotational grazing and other grazing systems. The Haydens used the NRCS EQUIP program to put in an underground water pipeline from a well system on their ranch. The pipe takes the water out to pastures, but the system is not everywhere cattle are grazed on the ranch. I came back from a holistic management seminar and decided we would use livestock to improve our hay ground instead of breaking it up with machinery, Dave said. They noticed a huge difference in the hay field, and continued improving their grazing techniques. The Haydens began combining herds, and moving them every 3-4 days, which saved time and money. It also used less machinery, less fuel, and put biology back into the soil with the help of livestock. For water, initially Dave rigged up a semi flatbed that carried multiple 3,000-gallon holding tanks. He hauled the tanks from area to area. It was heavy and created problems when moving it to some areas, he said. That was when Dave began designing a more efficient portable cattle watering system. The Haydens also began using poly wire electric fence to facilitate cattle grazing in the fields or pasture areas their herds grazed to make soil health improvements. Dave spoke about his watering system and how he uses electric wire to facilitate grazing at the Soil Health Workshop at NDSUs Dickinson Research Extension Center in the fall of 2021. We use poly wire when grazing and it keeps us flexible that way. Once cattle are trained to it, we can move the cattle just about anywhere using poly wire with step-in posts, he said. Their fences are operated with portable solar panels that charge it, and they have been using solar panels for more than 15 years. Chase designed an electric fence winder to wind the poly wire on and we use it to do all the electric fencing when the cattle are grazing, he said. In 2020, they decided to utilize a high stock density grazing system, following adaptive grazing principles. They grazed a herd of 290 yearlings across an old hay field. They moved the cattle every hour, 12 times a day to a new 1-acre strip. Our goal was to get a more even graze, more hoof action, and try to use just 40 percent of the biomass, he explained. That pasture was rested until 2021, before it was flash grazed because of the severe drought and grasshoppers, allowing it time to recover for 2022s grazing year. The idea is to change the number of head, days grazed, and timing of grazing every year, but continue a significant recovery period, he said. We see the value of long rest periods after higher density grazing, so increasing stock density and changing it up has been a new combination for us. The Haydens have continued to work to find ways to increase grass production by improving soil health. I like to try new things and I am liking the way it is looking around the ranch, he said. Our stock density used to be 25-30 acres per cow. Now it is 16 acres per cow. Dave also likes his portable cattle watering system that he used frequently in 2021 during the drought. He plans to continue using the system, along with continuing along a soil health path on the family ranch. Midwest Messenger Weekly Update Get the latest agriculture news delivered to your inbox from the Midwest Messenger. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. It may not come as a big surprise, but Scottsdale is home to more short-term rentals than th Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin 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Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe By some historical accounts, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig bears the distinction of WWIs worst general. He rose to Commander of British Expeditionary Forces and led Allied armies during the slaughter and futility at the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele. Known for his self-confidence and inflexibility, he repeatedly ordered soldiers over the top to no mans land and into the path of German machine guns. No number of casualties or unachieved objectives could dissuade him from his singular approach to combat. Nigel Davies, historian and educator, points out that General Haig was emblematic of the chateau general - dictating and directing but far removed from the battlefield: They were Chateau Generals in approach and in attitude. They drew lines on maps without adequately considering the terrain, issued impossible instructions without looking at the state of the ground, and ran completely inadequate communications that were far from capable of keeping track of, or controlling, a modern battlefield. In a similar respect, despite his academic and professional accomplishments, Dr. Anthony Fauci has no background or experience in clinical medicine and is ill-equipped to lead the SARS-CoV-2 response. His purview is that of a research scientist and entrenched bureaucrat, who is far removed from patient contact. His career is enmeshed with the pharmaceutical industry, whose financial ties with federal medical regulatory institutions are well described. Throughout his career, he has denied patients easily accessible, inexpensive, and effective treatments in lieu of patented medications with high-risk profiles and of dubious efficacy. In 1987 despite overwhelming clinical evidence, he told AIDS activists that the prophylactic use of the common antibiotic Bactrim to treat pneumocystis carinii pneumonia was ineffective and possibly dangerous. Through private donations, the company Lymphomed circumvented the NIAID and conducted successful clinical trials. The delay cost the lives of nearly 17,000 immunocompromised patients. While Haig appealed to justice of cause and sacrifice as an excuse for his actions, Anthony Fauci brandishes science, for which he alone speaks, to justify mandates and neutralize opposing views and stymie intellectual inquiry. To doubt Anthony Fauci is to be a scientific apostate and an irrelevant contributor to the discussion. Yet Dr. Fauci demonstrates an arbitrary commitment to the standards of science, whether it deals with his advice on masking or his insistence on vaccinating children despite the high risk-to-benefit ratio. In the expose, The Real Anthony Fauci, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. points out from the days of the AIDS epidemic Dr. Fauci employed a trio of tactics that would be resurrected during the COVID crisis - the use of fear to induce panic within the general population, the fixation on vaccines to cure the disease, and a disregard for off label therapeutic interventions. In the 1970s and '80s during my medical school, residency, and early professional career, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease promoted the narrative of the inevitability that large portions of the general population would contract AIDS due to casual contact, the sole solution depended upon the development of a neutralizing vaccine to HIV, and therapeutic options other than those approved by the FDA were unacceptable. These projections all proved false, but the same strategy reemerged during the COVID-19 crisis. From the outset, SARS-CoV-2 was a mass casualty event. Prudent management called for flexibility, emergency treatment with medications, and accessing opinion and experience for all portions of the medical profession to contain and treat the disease until definitive therapy became available. There was no time to wait for results of randomized controlled trials - millions of lives were at risk. It was known from 2002 SARS-CoV-1, a deadly coronavirus with origins in China and genetically similar to SARS-CoV-2, that chloroquine is effective in preventing its spread in vitro. Epidemiologists also noted the paucity of SARS-CoV-2 cases in Africa where malaria is endemic and treated with prophylactic hydroxychloroquine. Dr. Pierre Kory and others developed extensive treatment protocols that demonstrated the success of multi-pronged treatment regimens initiated early in the disease process. Rather than exploit this valuable information, the CDC and NIAID adopted a "wait until get sick" approach to the disease, denied patients out-patient treatment, and relied primarily on the hasty development and distribution of vaccines. As Dr. Peter McCullough pointed out during an interview with Joe Rogan: In a world where medical protocols are the norm, to this day no major U.S. academic medical institution or federal agency has developed a protocol to treat SARS-CoV-2 on an outpatient basis. Dr. McCullough suggests that 85% of deaths attributed to SARS-CoV-2 could have been avoided. In his best-selling book, RFK, Jr. painstakingly describes the incestuous connections among Big Pharma, the medical establishment, federal medical regulatory agencies, international health agencies, and politicians. In no uncertain terms, he describes Fauci as the gray cardinal wielding billions of dollars of grant money for profit and power. He controls all facets of the drug approval process, maintains a group of dependable, private research investigators that can be counted upon to support his agenda, and advocates with a near-religious zeal that vaccines are the preferred treatment of disease to the exclusion of all other options. Field Marshal Haig maintained a lifelong affinity for horses, both for recreation and on the battlefield. His advocacy for the use of horses in WWI proved catastrophic, but near the end of his life, in 1926, his remarks warn of dangers when narrow-minded individuals with great influence and stature are willing to blindly sacrifice others due to pride, ignorance, stubbornness, or material gain. I believe that the value of the horse and the opportunity for the horse in the future are likely to be as great as ever. Aeroplanes and tanks are only accessories to the men and the horse, and I feel sure that as time goes on you will find just as much use for the horsethe well-bred horseas you have ever done in the past. Image: Library of Congress, via Picryl / public domain Thirty years ago, while a student at the Senior U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA, my classmates and I witnessed an incredible phenomenon. The once feared "Bear" of the Soviet Union, which we had trained all of our respective careers to engage and to defeat on the land, sea, and air, imploded in front of our eyes. The once all-powerful and feared "Evil Empire" was no more. As many of you may recall, this did not come about by accident. Rather, it came through the determination and strong resolve of then-president Ronald Reagan. Before President Reagan, no other U.S. president had openly declared a stated policy of victory over the Soviet Union. Upon assuming office, Reagan knew better than to appease the Soviet Union, as many of his predecessors had done. Tyrants respect only power, be it perceived or actual. Reagan set about to break the Soviet Union primarily through his vision of the implementation of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), an antiballistic missile program designed to shoot down Soviet nuclear missiles in space. Otherwise known as "Star Wars," SDI technology sought to create a space-based shield that would render nuclear missiles obsolete. On March 23, 1983, President Reagan announced the SDI program in a television address broadcast nationally. "What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack that we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies?" he said. "I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete." The Strategic Defense Initiative was ultimately most effective not as an antiballistic missile defense system, but rather as a propaganda tool, which put intense military and economic pressure on the Soviet Union to fund its own anti-ballistic missile system. This strategy was proved to be effective because, during the 1980s, the Soviet economy was teetering on the brink of disaster. At the time, American scientists were not even sure if SDI technology could be developed, and an operational system could ever be deployed. But, despite repeated attempts by the Soviets in subsequent arms control negotiations to block the SDI, Reagan stood firm, and despite repeated pressure from even his own advisers, he did not back down. Although this may not have been the sole factor that led to the downfall of the USSR, the message was clear the United States would no longer appease our potential adversaries. More than any other strategy, Reagan's unwavering commitment to the SDI convinced the Soviets that they could never win an arms race and forced Gorbachev to end the Cold War peacefully, at the bargaining table and not on the battlefield. Compare this moment in history thirty years ago to what is taking place today on the international stage. President Vladimir Putin recently called the dissolution of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." It therefore comes as no surprise that he now seems to be on the verge of re-invading Ukraine. Meanwhile, President Xi of China has openly stated he plans to unify China through the seizure of Taiwan as part of the PRC's long plan to achieve hegemony. Rather than appease them or send humanitarian supplies when the invasion ultimately occurs, as did President Obama, let's take a lesson from the playbook of Ronald Reagan thirty years ago. Tyrants respect only raw power either the threat or its swift application. As we saw recently in Syria, once a red line is crossed without consequences, threats are merely idle words. While the Cold War may have ended, the fight for freedom is never over. It is a never-ending battle, not for the faint of heart, that must be waged year after year, generation after generation. President Biden, let us not be forced to relearn the hard lessons of the past. As Thomas Jefferson stated, "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. Up in Chicago, the news about homicides is not good. This is a report from John Boch: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot might not have shouted Were Number One! while pumping her fist as the clock struck midnight last night. However under her leadership, the Windy City easily clinched the top spot for most homicides of any American city. In fact, it wasnt even close. Hey Jackass had the tentative numbers this morning: 842 homicides committed in Chicago city limits. That number reflects a 6% higher body count than 2020. The tally still remains preliminary as additional victims could still surface or wounded parties may succumb to their injuries. Sadly, Hey Jackass writes about how the numbers oftentimes slowly continue to rise even after the clock strikes midnight. We will wait for the final reports but it's a bad number. A Chicago friend told me that the crime is primarily in one part of town. What he meant to say is that most people in Chicago are not impacted by these weekend massacres. No matter what, it raises two questions: When is the mayor going to do something? When is the governor going to get involved? Furthermore, where is President Biden? How can the President of the U.S. allow for a major city to be overrun by crime, especially the weekly murders in the African American community? I guess that these black lives don't matter. P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk). Image: PxHere I had some apprehension when I heard the news. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched a mission to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to "knock it off course." The Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART mission lifted off from California on Nov. 23, 2021 with the intent of smashing a probe into Dimorphos, a mini-moon orbiting Didymos, a sub-kilometer asteroid classified as both a potentially hazardous asteroid and a near-Earth object, in an attempt to change the trajectory of the mini-moon. There are approximately 1.113 million asteroids identified by NASA ranging in size from 329 miles across to 33 feet across. The objective of the DART mission, the U.S. component of a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) called AIDA (Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment), is to determine if the motion of an asteroid on a collision course with Earth could be changed to avoid Earth impact. If DART can change the trajectory of an asteroid millions of miles from Earth, even by a little, it could significantly decrease the chance of a collision with the Earth. What could go wrong? Well, lately the scientific community has a less than stellar track record when conducting experiments for "the good of mankind." What contingencies have been explored to ensure that a course change in the trajectory of Dimorphos, no matter how slight, does not pose a future threat to Earth? What "Butterfly Effect" could result should the trajectory of the mini-moon be altered by just one degree? If a probe were sent on a path from Earth to the sun, just a one-degree deviation from its path while near Earth would result in the probe missing the sun by some 1.6 million miles. While efforts to protect civilization from extinction-level events are laudable, similar projects have resulted in unintended consequences that continue to change the course of human history. Take the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, for example. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that this "Frankenstein" virus was created in a laboratory and that, even with every possible precaution taken, it escaped to kill millions of people around the world. These gain of function research experiments were conducted in a joint undertaking by Chinese and American scientists and resulted in the modification of a virus common to horseshoe bats and not transmissible to humans to one highly virulent and easily transmissible to humans. With the creation of this new virus, scientists planned to concentrate on the development of a vaccine to control the virus should it "naturally" cross over to humans from bats, but, with the escape of the virus into the populace, science was forced to face its limitations and was incapable of judiciously "cleaning up" the mess it created. While the aim of this research was ostensibly laudable, the end result was unexpected and nowhere near optimal. The fact that COVID-19 exists today increases the odds that additional deadly man-made viruses reside in laboratories around the globe, for science rarely stops to consider the consequences of its actions, only the efficacy of its goals. Meanwhile, the world is into its third major variant of COVID-19, governments are using the outbreak to tighten control over its citizens, livelihoods have disappeared, and trillions of dollars have been lost. More unintended consequences? But wait...there's more! Consider the creation of the first living robots, dubbed xenobots, in 2020. Last month, scientists reported the discovery of "an entirely new form of biological reproduction" associated with these supercomputer-designed xenobots. The millimeter-wide xenobots spontaneously replicate over and over, creating multiple generations by moving and compressing dissociated cells in their environment into functional self-copies. Scientists see a future where swarms of these xenobots perform useful functions like removing oil from sea water or attacking cancer within the human body. What could possibly go wrong? In their hubris, scientists are quick to reassure an increasingly fearful public that these xenobots are entirely contained in a lab (just like COVID-19), easily extinguished, biodegradable, and regulated by ethics experts. But what contingencies are in place should xenobots begin to do what life forms inevitably do: evolve? In 1988, scientists took a single Escherichia coli bacterium and used its descendants to found twelve laboratory populations. Over the next twenty years, the twelve populations grew and mutated for over 44,000 generations. At a point around the 31,500th generation, one population of the bacterium developed the ability to metabolize citrate, a second nutrient in their culture medium E. coli normally cannot use. Scientists concluded, "A chance event can sometimes open evolutionary doors for one population that remain forever closed to other populations with different histories." Similarly, a chance event could lead a swarm of xenobots, released into the environment and programmed to accomplish specific tasks, to disregard its programming and engage in new activities more beneficial to the swarm. What if these new activities are detrimental to humanity and science is, once again, incapable of "cleaning up" the mess it created? There is a safety protocol used by many industries called Human Performance Improvement or HPI. Under HPI, before a new, difficult, or infrequently performed task is undertaken, the personnel involved will conduct a pre-job brief during which an important question must be answered: "What is the worst thing that could happen?" Did scientists answer that question before launching the DART mission? What was the answer? What contingencies were developed to address the worst thing that could happen? Is our current understanding of celestial mechanics sufficient to even develop such contingencies? As scientific knowledge expands, the temptation to experiment without fully understanding the consequences of "the worst thing that could happen" will increase. Playing God is intoxicating. Risks today are not limited to a country, region, or specific geographic area; rather, they can jeopardize the existence of humanity. While not averse to scientific exploration, I am averse to nameless, faceless individuals rolling the dice in the name of science while wagering the future of humanity. Because we can do it, doesn't mean we should do it. Meanwhile, scientists around the world are engaged in gene drive research. In 2015, scientists in the United States successfully forced certain genes to be inherited by all of a fruit fly's offspring, overriding natural selection. Future applications of gene drive research could eradicate malaria-carrying mosquitoes or force the extinction of a species deemed a nuisance. The technology is inexpensive and widely accessible. What's the worst thing that could happen? Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License. Here at American Thinker, we haven't had a whole lot to say about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Florida jaunt. Other outlets are covering the matter so comprehensively whether with jokes about her bizarrely sexualizing the story or straightforward articles about her hypocrisy (lockdowns in New York for the poor, freedom in Florida for the rich and famous) that there didn't seem to be too much to add. However, it is a story worth noting when Florida's Governor DeSantis addresses not just Ocasio-Cortez's hypocrisy, but the hypocrisy of myriad leftist politicians who party in Florida while their constituents suffer at home. DeSantis took questions from the press on Monday. He spoke about both the false claims that he disappeared for a while and about Ocasio-Cortez's party trip to Florida while her constituents suffer from New York's stringent mask and mandate rules. When asked about the press's bizarre obsession with his whereabouts when he took his wife for her cancer treatments, DeSantis opened with a low-key jab at Biden, saying, "Yeah, I mean, I guess I should have been at the beach in Delaware, right, and then they [Democrats in and out of the media] would have been really happy with that." Image: Gov. DeSantis takes apart leftist hypocrisy. YouTube screen grab. He pointed out that his official schedule showed that he was working, although, last Wednesday, he had nothing on his schedule and took advantage of the fact to be with his wife. DeSantis added that those who said it was a "vacation" to take care of someone going through the trauma of cancer treatment were offensive. That was mild stuff, though, compared to the way DeSantis came out swinging when the subject turned to Ocasio-Cortez's party-at-the-beach vacay: If you don't have the time or inclination to watch the video, here are a few of the points he made: I think if I had a dollar for every lockdown politician who decided to escape to Florida over the last two years, I'd be a pretty doggone wealthy man. Let me tell you. I mean, Congress people, mayors, governors ... [snip] I think a lot of Floridians say [to these same politicians], "Wait a minute. You're bashing us because we're not doing your draconian policies and yet we're the first place you want to flee to basically to be able to enjoy life." [snip] You know, there are probably about a half-dozen governors who had restrictions on their people and then were spotted at various points in Florida. Some of it's been public; some of it's not been public, but people tell me these things. [snip] I'm happy, though, that Florida's a place where people know they can come and they can live like normal people. They can make their own decisions. [snip] All it [the vaccine passport system in leftist cities] served to do was discriminate against people based on an individual choice, create a two-tiered society. One of the horrible things about 2020 and 2021 was that leftists gained enormous control over large swaths of America thanks to the power the American people ceded to them because of their fear of COVID. However, one of the good things about 2020 and 2021 was that leftists gained that power. As is the case with all immature people (and if there's one thing leftism is, it's a collection of people who never developed beyond toddler and teenage narcissism), success has gone to their heads. For years, conservatives have been telling people what leftism is and who leftists are, and, for years, middle-of-the-roaders and non-political types have been pooh-poohing these statements as the exaggerated ravings of paranoid right-wing lunatics. Now, though, the leftist mask is gone, and all that remains in its place is crazy arrogance. DeSantis, to his great credit, is absolutely willing to use his bully pulpit to call out this arrogance and the resulting tyranny that characterizes leftists as we begin the third decade of the 21st century. If there were a 12-step program for media, the New York Times and much of the rest of the legacy media would benefit from admitting that they are addicted to Donald Trump and powerless to overcome it on their own. But instead, the Washington bureau chief of the New York Times is "thrilled" to announce that the paper has hired away a 21-year veteran reporter named David Fahrenthod from the Washington Post. His assignment: Dredge up scandals about Donald Trump, who, you may recall, formerly served as president of the United States. Politico's Playbook announced the staffing coup Monday morning: BIG MOVE Pulitzer-winning WaPo star David Fahrenthold is leaving the paper after 21 years to join the NYT as an investigative reporter in the Washington bureau, focusing on the Trump Organization and the misuse of nonprofits. Announcement In her announcement asking Times staffers to welcome the outsider to her bureau, Elisabeth Bumiller chronicled many of Fahrenthold's stories about Trump, including such highlights as the Access Hollywood tape leaked by NBC to him. The Times, like many other Democrat media outlets, just can't let go of Donald Trump. His presidency saw their broadcast ratings and digital subscriptions soar. If he chooses not to run for president in 2024, they will be seriously disappointed, and desperate to find another hate object for their viewers and readers to vent against. Of course, any Republican nominee will be compared to Hitler and vilified for behavior that would escape notice if performed by a Democrat. Meanwhile, the Clinton Foundation, of a scale and questionability vastly surpassing anything done by Donald Trump in the nonprofit sector, remains of no concern whatsoever. A powerful Illinois state senator called her husband a "hero" for defending her with a concealed carry firearm during a carjacking. Too bad for her that she voted against allowing private citizens to carry them. The expression "mugged by reality" has already been applied to Illinois state senator Kimberly Lightford, a powerhouse member of the upper chamber in Springfield as majority leader and chair of the black caucus. Senator Lightford and her husband were carjacked on the evening of December 21 last year. At the time, many conservatives noted that she was an advocate not only of defunding the police, but also of "bail reform" meaning letting the accused (even those with long records of offenses) out on low or no bail while awaiting trial for their latest arrests. Monica Showalter wrote at the time: It's pretty amazing when leftists have to live with the results of their own decisions. (snip) Lightford, an Illinois state senator who sponsored police defunding in an official capacity in Chicago. In 2020, Lightford proposed slashing Chicago PD's budget by $80 million but ultimately settled for $59 million. However, things appear to have dramatically changed in just a few short days. She got the sharp end of that legislative act up close this week. In her case, the criminals were unusually violent, firing guns as they stole her car from her and threw her into the street. Early last year, Senator Lightford voted along with a majority of the state senate to eliminate cash bond. All of that was irony enough, but it turns out one more little detail didn't get any mention in the initial police report of the carjacking that took place in suburban Broadview, Illinois: Source. Chicago City Wire reports: New details have emerged from Sen. Kimberly Lightford's (D-Maywood) Dec. 21 carjacking revealing her husband fired a gun at carjackers despite his wife's prior opposition to concealed carry. Lightford's husband, Eric McKinnie, was carrying a concealed weapon at the time and fired on the carjackers, she told WGN-TV. The detail was previously left out of the Broadview Police press release describing the incident. "I think they were shooting at my husband and me, and lucky enough my husband is conceal and carry, and he was able to protect us. He handled us, and he saved us. I call my husband my hero today," Lightford, who is Illinois Senate Majority Leader, told WBBM News. Lightford's comments are notable given her previous opposition to concealed carry legislation. (snip) In 2013 Lightford was one of 17 senators who voted against the sate's concealed carry law, the very law McKinnie used to protect the couple. "I just don't feel that this bill has gone far enough to protect us," Lightford said of the Firearm Concealed Carry Act at the time. In comments over the Christmas holiday, Lightford described to WGN-TV how she begged the carjackers for her life before her husband shot at them. "I begged them not to shoot us, and I begged them not to shoot my husband, not to shoot me. I told them to take whatever they want. They took everything off me that I had of value, and I offered the car, and my husband slid them the keys," she said. She said after she and her husband were separated by the carjackers he yelled at her to run and began firing on them. "I ran reluctantly, because I didn't want to leave him there. And it was a scary run, because now shots are being fired. I thought for sure they were going to shoot me down. So it was difficult," Lightford told WBBM. Her husband was a "hero" and she was "lucky" because she was outvoted in attempting to stop Illinois citizens from carrying concealed weapons. Senator Lightford is probably too powerful and too proud ever to admit that she was wrong. But if she did so and changed her political positions, she would be helping her constituents stay safe. Image: ABC 7 Chicago via YouTube. Over the last twenty months, Americans have learned that Anthony Fauci, the highest-paid federal employee, has a utilitarian approach to the truth. In other words, he'll say whatever is useful to him at the moment and call it the truth. However, eventually, when sufficiently cornered or unguarded, the truth will out. In this case, Fauci blundered into admitting he knew that he, on behalf of the United States, was collaborating with the Chinese communists. I won't bore you with the litany of Fauci's constantly changing narratives about masks, vaccines, lockdowns, mandates, and funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan laboratory, which any fool knows is affiliated with the Chinese military. Just do a search in your favorite search engine (which I hope is not Google), and you'll come up with dozens of articles documenting Fauci's lies. Most of these sites gave up the effort around August because it was just too much work. Moreover, any fool also knows that China is not a friendly nation. It is, unfortunately, our largest trade partner, but Xi Jinping has made no bones about the fact that he seeks to displace America as the world's superpower. He'll do that through economic sabotage, cyber-espionage, bullying, threats, economic blackmail (and probably real blackmail), and bribes abroad while, at home, he engages in typical tyranny, including genocide against the Uighurs. Again, not our friends. Image: Anthony Fauci on Face the Nation (edited in befunky). YouTube screen grab. One of Fauci's biggest lies over time has been his claim that he did not help fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab or any other lab. Even when confronted with evidence of this funding on his watch, he has insisted that the person demanding the truth from him (usually Sen. Rand Paul) is, in fact, the liar. Fauci's are the bravura performances of the true malignant narcissist. The motto of such a person is "It's not a lie if I need it to be the truth." Still, even for a practiced narcissist, keeping track of the lies becomes difficult. So it was that a sharp-eyed viewer caught Fauci's little slip-up when he finally decided to explain why he was, in fact, sending money to the Wuhan lab. It was all for America's own good, of course, that he did a very minor, little, baby collaboration with some "Chinese commu...uh...Chinese scientists." We had a collaboration with some Chinese Commuuh..Chinese Scientists pic.twitter.com/k8e37I7p8k Jamie Dlux (@jamiedlux) December 30, 2021 The Bible tells us that "you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." At a moral level, Fauci is currently deep in a prison of his own lies, but his subconscious, apparently, is struggling to find a way out. When Harry Reid passed away, we heard glowing reports from most of the media and politicians about how great he was. Obama said some very nice things. He forgot to say that he wouldn't have been president without Reid's despicable act of spreading an intentional lie that Romney had not paid taxes for ten years. The lie was like the fictional Russian dossier used to destroy Trump. Reid was not ashamed of the lie. He said, "Romney didn't win, did he?" No one should celebrate a despicable liar who was willing to destroy someone with a lie in order to win. Obama: "I wouldn't have been president" if not for Harry Reid Former President Barack Obama said following the death of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday that he wouldn't be president were it not for the Nevada senator's "encouragement and support." Reid helped Obama reach some of his biggest legislative accomplishments notably the Affordable Care Act. Obama released a letter Tuesday that he sent to Reid before his death in which he said: "I wouldn't have got most of what I got done without your skill and determination." Here is what Biden said: President Joe Biden praised former Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who died on Tuesday at age 82, for being one of the "all-time great Senate Majority Leaders." What he's saying: Biden noted in a statement that "for Harry, it wasn't about power for power's sake. It was about the power to do right for the people." The media, Obama, and Biden also had great things to say about KKK leader Robert Byrd when he died. They forgot to mention that he was a KKK leader who filibustered the Civil Rights Act. I did not hear anyone talk about systemic racism, white privilege, or white supremacists when the former KKK leader died. President Obama on the Loss of Senator Robert Byrd: "A Voice of Principle and Reason" I was saddened to hear this morning that the people of West Virginia have lost a true champion, the United States Senate has lost a venerable institution, and America has lost a voice of principle and reason with the passing of Robert C. Byrd. Senator Byrd's story was uniquely American. He was born into wrenching poverty, but educated himself to become an authoritative scholar, respected leader, and unparalleled champion of our Constitution. He scaled the summit of power, but his mind never strayed from the people of his beloved West Virginia. He had the courage to stand firm in his principles, but also the courage to change over time. We saw stories about how Reid rose from rags to riches, yet somehow, they forgot to mention that the way he enriched himself and his family was through abusing his power as a senator and pure corruption. He did not get rich producing anything, leading a company, or astute investing. He gave political favors for kickbacks. Reid was much worse and more dangerous than a common thief, yet the Justice Department and most Democrats obviously didn't care. He was above the law. Corruption Scandals Led to Harry Reid's Abrupt "Retirement" You'd never know it from the mainstream media puff pieces of Harry Reid's sudden retirement, but it was a long string of corruption scandals including a recent one involving his attorney son that drove the veteran Nevada senator to abruptly leave public office. For nearly a decade Judicial Watch has investigated and exposed Reid's involvement in a multitude of transgressions and JW even warned the Senate Ethics Committee, but not surprisingly, no action was ever taken. On multiple occasions the Senate minority leader appeared on JW's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" list for his role in a number of political scandals that got more serious as his seniority and clout in Congress increased. As far back as 2006 Reid was in hot water for violating Senate rules by concealing a seven-figure payoff on a suspicious land deal orchestrated by a longtime friend known for political bribery and mob ties. The influential senator secretly collected a $1.1 million profit on land he hadn't personally owned for years. To hide the deal, Reid transferred ownership, legal liability and tax consequences to a company owned by a former casino lawyer who has been investigated by federal authorities. It is no wonder that there is so much corruption by powerful politicians throughout the country when most of the media don't care, as long as they support their policies. They have never cared about the pure corruption of the Clintons and Bidens. They buried the stories of how they and their families went from rags to riches because of corruption as they supported them for higher office. We should celebrate people like Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson, and Dolly Parton, as they rose from poverty. We should not respect any politician who rose out of poverty through corruption. These politicians pretend they care about the poor, the middle class, and minorities while they focus a huge amount of effort on enriching themselves. One of the most corrupt of all has been Obama. Google effectively had an office in the White House, and they, along with Netflix, Facebook, and Twitter, were rewarded handsomely with Net Neutrality, which saved those powerful companies huge amounts of money. Those wealthy companies then use their power to destroy others, stifle speech, campaign for the leftist agenda, and bury stories such as the Biden corruption. They are extremely dangerous for our democracy, freedom, and prosperity. Report finds hundreds of meetings between White House and Google Google and its affiliates have had at least 427 meetings at the White House during President Obama's tenure, according data from the Campaign for Accountability and The Intercept. The data, gleaned from White House meeting logs, showed that in all, 169 Google employees have met in the White House with 182 government officials. Not surprisingly, Google's head of public policy, Johanna Shelton, had the most White House meetings of any Google employee, with 128. After Obama left office, he was rewarded by Netflix with tens of millions of dollars despite having no experience or content. The media not only didn't care about this pure greed and questionable contract, but also cheered. Media Thrilled 'Very Talented' Obamas 'Got Paid!' With Netflix Deal The media and other Democrats are always complaining about too much money in elections and campaign donation limits. But somehow, they don't care when Soros, unions, Planned Parenthood, environmentalists, and Facebook's Zuckerberg spend massive amounts of money to influence people to vote for Democrats. Zuckerberg's election spending was 'carefully orchestrated' to influence 2020 vote: ex-FEC member Obama learned corruption early on as a member of the Illinois machine. POLITICS: Obama and the Integrity Gap: The Machine This must have been a coincidence. Michelle Obama was promoted to vice president for external affairs [at the University of Chicago Hospital] in March 2005, two months after her husband took office in the Senate. According to a tax return released by the senator this week, the promotion nearly tripled her income from the hospitals from $121,910 in 2004 to $316,962 in 2005. Once Michelle got her huge raise, the Obamas could afford the mansion and land they coveted. They achieved their goal with the help of a crooked land deal involving criminal political operative Tony Rezko. In 2008, the media didn't care about Obama or Biden's history or corruption as they campaigned for them. They spent their time trying to destroy McCain and Palin. A Curious Land Deal In 2005, at a time Rezko was under federal investigation of influence peddling in former Illinois Gov. Blagojevich's administration, then-Sen. Obama and Rezko's wife Rita bought adjacent pieces of property from a Chicago doctor. Rezko would later be convicted of 16 of 24 counts of influence peddling. The doctor sold one parcel to Obama for $1.65 million, $300,000 below the asking price, while Rezko's wife paid full price, $625.000, for the adjacent vacant lot. Six months later, the Obamas paid Rezko's wife $104,500 for a 10-foot wide strip of her land to create a bigger yard and ensure a greater measure of privacy. For the next three years, as most of the media have a lovefest with the Obamas about how great they are, people should remember how corrupt they truly are. They should also remember that: It was Obama's corrupt IRS that violated the constitutional rights of his political opponents. It was Obama's corrupt NSA that illegally spied on thousands. It was Obama's corrupt EPA, CFPB, and Justice Department that shook down corporations and established slush funds to give kickbacks to leftist groups. Then those groups promoted Democrat policies and campaigned for and donated to Democrats. That is pure corruption. It was the corrupt Obama who dictatorially ordered the corrupt Justice Department to stop investigating drug-running terrorists to appease Iran. Where were the whistleblowers complaining about interference into the "independent" Justice Department? It was the corrupt Obama who shipped $1.8 billion in unmarked bills (taxpayer money) as kickbacks to Iranian tyrants who pledge death to America. It was the corrupt Obama who utilized the corrupt Justice Department and other federal agencies to illegally target Trump with lies while protecting the corrupt, criminal Hillary from prosecution. This criminal activity dwarfed Watergate, yet most of the media not only didn't care, but also participated in spreading the lies. These actions were the greatest threat to our democracy in my lifetime of 68 years. If we had an honest Justice Department, it would put away corrupt politicians and other criminals instead of going after political opponents based on fictitious information. If we had honest media, they would seek to dispose of corrupt politicians instead of campaigning for many of them while intentionally burying stories of the corruption to hide it from the public. The interference by domestic media outlets in our elections is much more dangerous than anything Russia, China, or Iran has done. Photo credit: Senate Democrats, CC BY 2.0 license. India's New Coronavirus Tally On A Toll:- The new cases of coronavirus are increasing at a rapid speed in India. A total number of 37,379 new cases of coronavirus are reported in India in the last 24 hours and most of them are due to the spread of the Omicron variant. In New Delhi, 84 percent of the new cases are due to the new variant. The active cases of coronavirus in the country are said to be 1,71,830 and a total number of 146.70 crore vaccine doses are administered across the country till date. A total number of 11,007 people recovered from coronavirus in the last 24 hours in India and the total number of recoveries climbed to 3,43,06,414. The daily positivity rate climbed to 3.24 percent and the weekly positivity rate stands at 2.05 percent. 124 people passed away in the country in the last 24 hours and the total death toll climbed to 4,82,017. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is tested positive for coronavirus told and he self-isolated himself. As per the reports, more than 75 percent cases in the metros are due to the Omicron variant told the Covid Task Force Boss. The Omicron tally in India stands at 1892 and they are fast rising and spreading. The coronavirus vaccination drive for the children between 15 and 18 years commenced yesterday and more than 40 lakh children took their first dose of Covaxin across the country. Maharasthra has 568 Omicron cases and it is followed by Delhi with 382 cases. The Indian coronavirus tally reported today is the highest in the last 117 days as per the reports from the Union Health Ministry. Maharashtra alone reported 12,160 new cases and West Bengal reported 6078 cases while Delhi has 4099 cases. NVIDIAs GeForce NOW service will be limited to 1080p streaming quality on Samsung and LG TVs, according to a report from The Verge who spoke with GeForce NOW General Manager Phil Eisler on the matter. Basically, if you want the 4K streaming quality, you have one of two options. You can hook up NVIDIAs SHIELD TV Pro to your TV, which goes for about $199 on Amazon, or you can play games on a PC where the 4K option is also available. You do however also need one other component. The subscription to the RTX 3080 tier. Which in addition to 4K streaming also offers 8-hour session lengths, access to the RTX 3080 servers, and RTX ON. Earlier this year LG also announced GeForce NOW would be available through its TVs with the app available to download from the WebOS app store. But 4K streaming wont be available there either. Advertisement In addition to GeForce NOW, Samsung TVs also support Stadia If you arent keen on buying a SHIELD TV Pro, theres another alternative to 4K gaming on your TV direct through the Samsung and LG apps. Stadia. Google has confirmed that the LG and Samsung TV downloads of the Stadia app will support 4K gaming through its cloud service. And while it may not work exactly the same as GeForce NOW since you either need to buy games or claim them through Stadia Pro, its a 4K option without needing any extra equipment. According to NVIDIA, the 4K streaming option will potentially come to Samsung and LG TVs. Just not for a while. The report states that it will be exclusive to the SHIELD TV for the first half of 2022. So it wouldnt be until at least late July or early August before the TV apps offer the same stream quality. Advertisement Another thing to note is that if NVIDIA does eventually open up this option, your TVs processor may still limit you. Thats sort of a long time to wait if youre wanting to jump into things now. But unless youre willing to buy NVIDIAs Android TV device, waiting is your only option at the moment for 4K cloud gaming with GeForce NOW on the TV. PLEASE NOTE: ALL ONLINE PURCHASES ARE AUTOMATIC RENEWALS UNLESS YOU EMAIL JPAYNE@ANNISTONSTAR.COM OR CONTACT CUSTOMER SERVICE @ 256-235-9253.... Purchase an online subscription to our website for $7.99 a month with automatic renewal. Each online subscription gives you full access to all of our newspaper websites and mobile applications. To cancel you may contact Customer Service @ 256-235-9253 or email JPAYNE@ANNISTONSTAR.COM *NEW SUBSCRIBERS ONLY join with a NEW ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION is just $59.99 for the first year. Existing customers do not qualify for the specials! AMEX is not accepted through this site. After the first year, well automatically renew your subscription to continue your access at the regular price of $69.99 per year. Please note *Your Subscription will Automatically Renew unless you contact Customer Service To Cancel* Anniston, AL (36206) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. (ANSA) - ROME, JAN 4 - Organizers have said that Expo 2020 Dubai has registered 8,958,132 visits as the World Fair hits the half-way mark. Almost one in 10 of the visits during the first three months, over 735,000, took in the Italy pavilion, confirming its status as one of the biggest attractions. "The Italy Pavilion has the longest queue. I haven't seen any other like it," a visitor named Michele said as he waiting to get in. "But everyone said it is one of the most beautiful so its worth waiting in this queue". Those comments were echoed by a group of Italians waiting to see the pavilion which, among other things, features a replica of Michelangelo's David. "We decided to spend the (Christmas/New Year) holidays in Dubai," they said. "We have devoted today to Expo. "We have already seen the Russia, Australia and Oman pavilions. "We left ourselves plenty to time to see the Italy one, which has the longest queue but it's our country, so we cannot fail to visit it". Between 1 October and 31 December, almost one third (30%) of all visitors to Expo came from outside the UAE, with the top international visitor countries including India, Germany, France, the UK, the USA, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Expo 2020's virtual visitation crossed the 50 million mark, driven by the fantastic offering of Live@Expo, which enables visitors to take a bespoke live virtual tour through the site, as well as headline acts which have seen millions of viewers tune in from around the globe. (ANSA). ROME - Italy is set to mark the centenary of Pier Paolo Pasolini's birth with a slew of events, books and shows in 2022. The writer, filmmaker and public intellectual was born in the Friuli village of Casarsa della Delizia on March 5, 2022. There will be exhibitions in Rome, Bologna and other cities while a new collection of letters by Dacia Maraini, a great friend of the maverick writer, will be published. Much of the material covers her trips to Africa with her companion, the novelist Alberto Moravia, and Pasolini, an inseparable trio of intellectuals. There will also be a new book by the doyen of Pasolini studies, Walter Siti, as well as collections by poets indebted to Pasolini. Other new publications will seek to shed fresh light on the mystery still hanging over Pasolini's murder at Ostia near Rome on November 2, 1975, at the age of 53. A former Stormont minister is to pursue an anonymous Twitter account over a hurtful tweet referencing the death of her young son. Diane Dodds was targeted on December 31 after posting a new years message to her followers. She is to give a statement to police on Tuesday about the incident. Mrs Dodds said she will be joined by a man whose father was killed by republican terrorists who has been trolled relentlessly by the same account. A happy New Year. Wishing you good health, good friends and being able to enjoy making memories in 2022. pic.twitter.com/xfoIVkPmKN Diane Dodds MLA (@DianeDoddsMLA) December 31, 2021 The former Stormont Economy Minister also blasted the inaction of social media companies. When the tweet on New Years Eve was reported to Twitter, it came back and said that it didnt breach their rules. Its really difficult to understand what kind of rules and format for protecting the public that social media companies have if tweets like this do not breach their rules or standards, she told BBC Radio Ulsters Stephen Nolan Show. She contended that social media companies self-regulating has not worked, and said a new telecommunications Bill being considered at Westminster will not have the teeth to deal with the issue of abuse. Sometimes it seems that people who are in the public sphere are fair game for this kind of thing abuse for doing your job or abuse because of your family circumstances or abuse because youve been the victim of terrorism is simply not right, she said. And I dont see anything in the new Bill that is to come before parliament that will actually deal with this feature of Twitter and Facebook where they can actually hide behind a cloak of anonymity so you dont have to prove you are who you say you are in order to go on Twitter to abuse people, and Twitter may or may not give you information as to the account that is abusing you. Former DUP MP Nigel Dodds with wife Diane (Paul Faith/PA) I think what is being proposed in the Bill is simply not effective, it will have no teeth in regulating these companies, and that we will need to regulate around the issue of online anonymity that allows people to say what they want and slope off into that cloak of anonymity and have no repercussions for their actions. Last year Health Minister Robin Swann was targeted with death threats on social media. The post targeting Mrs Dodds has been widely condemned online. She posted on Twitter to wish her followers a happy new year. An anonymous user replied with an abusive response by making reference to her dead son, Andrew. Andrew was born with spina bifida and died in 1998 just before his ninth birthday. She described him as a fun-loving young boy, with an opinion on everything as well as very significant health problems and many stays in hospital. Mrs Dodds said he died after suffering a cold which developed into pneumonia because he had a weak chest after being ventilated a number of times. I dont think anyone will ever understand the impact that it has as a parent (to lose a child), but you learn to cope because when Andrew died I still had two other children, one was 12 and the other was two, you learn to live and to raise your family, but it is always there, it never goes away, she said. Mrs Dodds also thanked all who have shown her family support, adding what was meant for harm, has actually generated a huge swell of kindness and goodwill and support. She said: Everyone who has a right thought in their head was rightly appalled at that sort of action, its hugely harmful, hugely hurtful and damaging. If there is good to come from this, the reaction to that tweet and indeed subsequent messages that I am told he posted in conversations after the tweet, I think that the reaction to that shows that all right-thinking people were disgusted and disbelieving that someone could do something like that. Make no mistake about it, people who set out to do this kind of thing set out to harm. They are malicious and they are callous in what they do, and they set out to do it in a way that strikes at the very core of your being. I think on this occasion they failed in that sense because the reaction to what happened was so strong, but we should also recognise that this account has a pattern of abuse and that pattern of abuse includes trolling innocent victims of terrorism. The Health Minister has urged people to get their booster vaccine after more than 30,000 cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Northern Ireland in just four days. Robin Swann said the figures were deeply concerning and would put further pressure on the healthcare service. Mr Swann pointed to data showing that unvaccinated individuals aged 50 and over were almost 30 times as likely to need a hospital admission with Covid-19 than those who had received all three doses. He said: As expected, we are now facing into an unprecedented surge, due to the Omicron variant. These figures are deeply concerning and will inevitably mean yet more pressures for health and social care services. The risk of getting infected with Covid is considerably higher than at any previous time in the pandemic. Faced with this very real threat, getting your booster dose right now is the single most important step you can take. This will give you vital protection, particularly from getting seriously ill from the virus. Think about it as loading the odds in your favour. Dont delay and end up lying in a hospital bed regretting the fact you just didnt get round to it. Boosters are available from Health Trust vaccination centres, participating pharmacies and GPs. The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Sir Michael McBride, said: If youre eligible for your booster, please get it now. If you are over 50, you in particular need to get it now. If you havent had your first or second dose, its still not too late some protection is better than none. The latest figures, which cover from midnight on December 30 to midnight on January 3, also notified the deaths of 15 patients who had previously tested positive for the virus. A total of 30,423 new cases were confirmed on Tuesday. In the last seven days, 50,627 new positive cases have been confirmed. NI #COVID19 data has been updated: 30,423 positive cases and sadly, 15 deaths have been reported from midnight 30 December to midnight 3 January 2022. 3,530,777 vaccines administered in total. Vaccines https://t.co/Yfa0hHVmRLDashboardhttps://t.co/WeZCwyPQnJ pic.twitter.com/VXseRa0utz Department of Health (@healthdpt) January 4, 2022 There are 112 Covid-19 outbreaks at care homes, according to the latest update from the Department of Health. The hospital occupancy rate has been put at 105%. On Tuesday morning there were 348 Covid-positive patients in hospital, of whom 31 were in intensive care. The NHS is facing significant pressure as it copes with the latest wave of Covid-19 despite hopes that cases should start to drop in the coming weeks. Boris Johnson will lead a Downing Street press conference as No 10 admitted that the health service is facing a difficult time during a challenging winter. But Health Secretary Sajid Javid said there was nothing in the data that suggested England needed to move beyond the current Plan B restrictions. I think Plan B, implementing that, has been the right approach and also being absolutely focused on the vaccination programme, he told reporters during a visit to a vaccination centre in south London. HEALTH Coronavirus Officials in Whitehall are keeping an extremely close eye on hospital capacity, with admissions and occupancy increasing significantly, Downing Street said. But the Prime Ministers official spokesman said: Were not seeing that same jump in beds requiring ventilation, which is pleasing, and almost certainly a function of both the nature of Omicron and our successful booster programme. He added that the vaccinations and evidence that Omicron may be milder means we are not seeing those huge waves in cases translate into those needing the most serious care that we saw perhaps in previous waves, but that still puts the NHS under significant pressure. A further 218,724 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases had been recorded in England and Scotland as of 9am on Tuesday, the first time the daily recorded figure has been over 200,000 although the number will have been inflated by some delayed reporting from over the holiday period. The latest NHS England figures show 15,044 patients with Covid-19 were in hospital on Tuesday morning, including 797 requiring mechanical ventilation. The Government has stuck with the Plan B measures in place in England including wearing masks in shops and on public transport and working from home where possible despite tougher restrictions in other parts of the UK. That optimism may be helped by comments from Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, whose data was instrumental to the UK going into lockdown in March 2020, who said infection rates may already be plateauing in London and could fall across the country within weeks. Prof Ferguson, a member of the Governments Sage scientific advisory panel, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I would say that, with an epidemic which has been spreading so quickly and reaching such high numbers, it cant sustain those numbers forever, so we would expect to see case numbers start to come down in the next week, maybe already coming down in London, but in other regions a week to three weeks. Whether they then drop precipitously, or we see a pattern a bit like we saw with Delta back in July of an initial drop and then quite a high plateau, remains to be seen. Its just too difficult to interpret current mixing trends and what the effect of opening schools again will be. Prof Ferguson said the Omicron variant had not had much time to infect pupils before schools shut for the Christmas break, and a rise in cases is now expected. People queue outside a vaccination clinic at Glasgow Central Mosque (Jane Barlow/PA) Meanwhile, Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told Sky News it would not be affordable, sustainable or deliverable to give regular jabs every six months to cope with waning immunity and the rise of new variants. Remember that, today, less than 10% of people in low-income countries have even had their first dose, so the whole idea of regular fourth doses globally is just not sensible, he said. Sir Andrew said it may be that future boosters could be targeted at the most vulnerable and it is too early to say whether updated vaccines will be required every year, as with flu. Downing Street said ministers will also be taking clinical advice and keeping a very close eye on the waning efficacy of second doses and the interplay of Omicron on that as well as part of a review on whether to make a booster jab a requirement to access a Covid pass. Elsewhere, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the staffing situation in hospitals is almost impossible as leaders try to manage their resources. He told Times Radio that, for many, the most pressing element of all is the number of staff who are absent due to Covid. He added that hospital admissions seem to have perhaps plateaued in London or there may be a second peak after the new year now, but its rising across the rest of Britain. We have now escalated to the highest level of internal incident. Unfortunately, this means postponing some non-urgent operations & appointments. If you are not contacted directly, please continue to turn up for your appointment. Read more: https://t.co/JUaIhaDxW9 pic.twitter.com/cXUlueWovt MorecambeBayNHSTrust (@UHMBT) January 4, 2022 Meanwhile, Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said at least half a dozen NHS hospitals have declared a critical incident as they try to respond to Covid. Morecambe Bay NHS Trust and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust were among those declaring critical incidents. Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, public health director for Lancashire County Council, told Today: Lancashire is beginning to experience what London did at the beginning of last month and, of course, London is better resourced and the infrastructures are well organised compared to other regions, so we are bracing ourselves for a tsunami of Omicron cases in Lancashire. Mr Javid said it was a fast-moving situation but the NHS was getting a huge amount of support to cope with staff absences caused by the wave of coronavirus cases. As well as volunteers the NHS is also widely using an emergency list of workers that has been able to develop over the pandemic so far, and then call on clinicians and others that may have retired for example, to come back and help, he said. Downing Street has said that removing VAT from domestic fuel bills would not necessarily cut costs for households who are facing major hikes in their energy bills from April. The Prime Ministers official spokesperson said that the Government will consider any proposals, but warned that the reasons for the rise in energy prices is global. The promise to cut VAT from domestic fuel bills had been made during the 2016 Brexit campaign by Vote Leave, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson was a member of. VAT on energy bills is already only set at 5% much lower than the tax on most other goods and services. Obviously we will consider any policy proposals but going further would not guarantee prices fall, given that price rises are driven by a number of factors which we are seeing played out worldwide, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. Number 10 also defended the use of green levies on bills to fund renewable energy. The exposure to volatile global gas prices underscores the importance of our plan to build a strong, homegrown renewable energy sector to further reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, the spokesman said. Its right that we invest in this and ultimately bring down the cost of renewable energy sources while supporting lower-income and vulnerable households with their energy bills. According to some predictions, energy bills could be hiked by more than 50% in April for millions of households that are on a standard tariff. In April the price cap, which limits the amounts that suppliers can charge, will rise. It is currently at an already record-beating 1,277. But analysts at Investec think this could go up to 1,995 in April. The rises are due to a major spike in global gas prices, which have been pushed up by high demand around the world. Trade body Energy UKs chief executive said last month that the Government could cut each household bill by 90 by slashing taxes or VAT. Meanwhile bills could be cut by a further 190 by bringing forward proposals on removing policy costs, Emma Pinchbeck said. In 2016, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and former Labour MP Gisela Stuart, now Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston, said: In 1993, VAT on household energy bills was imposed. This makes gas and electricity much more expensive. EU rules mean we cannot take VAT off those bills. The least wealthy are hit particularly hard. The poorest households spend three times more of their income on household energy bills than the richest households spend. As long as we are in the EU, we are not allowed to cut this tax. When we Vote Leave, we will be able to scrap this unfair and damaging tax. It isnt right that unelected bureaucrats in Brussels impose taxes on the poorest and elected British politicians can do nothing. According to HMRC figures, cutting VAT on fuel bills would have cost the Government around 1.7 billion last year. A child sexual exploitation lawsuit filed by the man who featured as a naked baby on the cover of Nirvanas 1991 Nevermind album has been dismissed by a US judge. Spencer Elden was four months old when he was pictured in a pool at a swimming centre in Pasadena, California. Now 30, he alleges that the picture, used by the group on their world famous album, constitutes child pornography as it shows his genitalia. But legal documents obtained by the PA news agency show that on Monday US district judge Fernando Olguin dismissed the case after Mr Eldens lawyers missed the deadline to oppose a motion to dismiss the case made on December 22 2021. Spencer Elden brought the lawsuit against members including Dave Grohl (Ben Birchall/PA) Mr Elden has now been given until January 13 2022 to pursue his case and file a second amended complaint. On the original album cover he was shown naked underwater while appearing to be following a dollar bill being pulled along on a fish hook. The image has become one of the most famous album covers of all time. Nevermind, powered by singles including Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are and Lithium, was a massive critical and commercial success, propelling the grunge band to global stardom. Mr Elden attempted to sue the group, the photographer who took the picture, their record label and the individual members, including the estate of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, over the picture and its use. In the original claim, filed in August 2021, lawyers alleged the band knowingly produced, possessed, and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer (and) knowingly received value in exchange for doing so. They said Nirvana also failed to take reasonable steps to protect Spencer and prevent his widespread sexual exploitation and image trafficking. As a result, they alleged, Mr Elden has suffered and will continue to suffer lifelong damages. The lawsuit also said Cobain, who took his own life in 1994 aged 27, was instrumental in choosing the album cover. It is claimed Cobain agreed to strategically place a sticker over the babys private parts with the text: If youre offended by this, you must be a closet paedophile, though the cover was ultimately released without any censorship. Joan Collins claims her first husband, Maxwell Reed, drugged and date-raped her. In the BBC documentary This Is Joan Collins, which premiered Saturday in the U.K., the Dynasty star, 88, said that the Irish actor raped her, after spiking her rum and coke with the drug Rohypnol, on their first date at his London apartment. She was 17 and a virgin at the time; Reed was 31. "The next thing I knew I was flat out on the sofa and he was raping me," Collins said. "In those days, my mother would have said I was taken advantage of. Now, we call it date rape." She went on to marry Reed in 1952, saying now she did so "out of shame." Had I not been so innocent about sex and the way things should be I wouldn't have done that," she said. "But I had a strong sense of guilt, so I did it." Joan Collins and actor Maxwell Reed after their wedding at Caxton Hall Register Office in London in 1952. They were divorced in 1956. Collins went on to marry five times total. (Photo: PA Images via Getty Images) Their honeymoon "was a fiasco," Collins said. "We looked outwardly happy but underneath I was miserable." Things didn't get better. Collins recalled how during their brief marriage, which ended in 1956, Reed suggested that she have sex with other men for money. We were in Les Ambassadeurs, a terribly chic nightclub in Mayfair, she recalled. "Max had a habit of gravitating towards rich, elderly men, and I was starting to get a vague idea of what this was all about. Max told me, 'Hell pay you 10,000 for one night and I can even watch.' I looked at my handsome, loathsome husband and began to cry. 'Never in a million years.'" Collins said she decided to go "home to Mummy." They had a messy divorce, in which he attempted to get alimony because he claimed to have discovered her. She said the divorce cost her millions. Reed died in 1974 at age 55. The English actress also said she was sexually harassed by film producer and studio executive Darryl Zanuck. She said the 20th Century Fox honcho, who signed her to a seven-year contract after she appeared in Land of the Pharaohs, "pinned me like a beetle to a board and said, 'You need a real man, honey, a real man.'" She added, "Luckily a make-up man came down the corridor and I was able to escape." Collins called herself a "survivor" in the BBC doc. "I survived being a young actress when practically all the men were predators," she said. "They used to say female stars were finished at 27, but here I am after seven decades in the business to tell you a thing or two about how to survive the perils of the profession." In addition to Reed, Collins married Anthony Newley, Ronald S. Kass, Peter Holm and current husband Percy Gibson. The mom of three also dated Harry Belafonte (while he was married) and was engaged to Warren Beatty. (Adds comment in paragraph 15) By Leah Douglas Jan 3 (Reuters) - The United States will issue new rules and $1 billion in funding this year to support independent meat processors and ranchers as part of a plan to address a lack of meaningful competition in the meat sector, President Joe Biden said on Monday. The initiative comes amid rising concerns that a handful of big beef, pork and poultry companies have too much control over the American meat market, allowing them to dictate wholesale and retail pricing to profit at the expense of their suppliers and customers. Capitalism without competition isnt capitalism. Its exploitation," Biden said. "Thats what were seeing in meat and poultry industries now. A recent White House analysis found that the top four meatpacker companies https://www.reuters.com/business/how-four-big-companies-control-us-beef-industry-2021-06-17 - Cargill, Tyson Foods Inc, JBS SA, and National Beef Packing Co - control between 55% and 85% of the market in the hog, cattle, and chicken sectors. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) will spend the $1 billion from American Rescue Plan funds to expand the independent meat processing sector, including funds for financing grants, guaranteed loans, and worker training, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who was speaking at an event with Biden. USDA will also propose rules this year to strengthen enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act and to clarify the meaning of "Product of USA" meat labels, which domestic ranchers have said unfairly advantage multinational companies that raise cattle abroad and only slaughter in the United States. Attorney General Merrick Garland, also speaking at the event, said too many industries have become too consolidated over time, and that the antitrust division of the Department of Justice has been chronically underfunded. The Biden administration issued an executive order last year that advocated a whole of government approach to antitrust issues. A central concern in agriculture has been meat prices, which have risen at a time when the White House is fighting inflation. An analysis in December by the White House economic council found a 120% jump in the gross profits of four top meatpackers since the pandemic began. The meat industry has said the White House analysis was inaccurate and criticized the new plan. National Chicken Council President Mike Brown called the plan a solution in search of a problem. North American Meat Institute spokesperson Sarah Little said staffing plants remains the biggest issue for meatpackers and that the White House plan would not address it. Our members of all sizes cannot operate at capacity because they struggle to employ a long-term stable workforce, she said. New capacity and expanded capacity created by the government will have the same problem. Eric Deeble, policy director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, cheered the plan, calling it a very positive step to ensure farmers and ranchers receive fair prices. The anticipated rulemaking under the Packers and Stockyards Act could have a significant impact, said Peter Carstensen, emeritus professor of law at University of Wisconsin-Madison and former antitrust attorney at the Department of Justice. But he noted that investment in independent processing itself would not address market concentration. Austin Frerick, deputy director of the Thurman Arnold Project at Yale University, an antitrust research center, said the plan does not go far enough to tackle the power of the top meatpackers. "I do not believe this (plan) will meaningfully change the concentration numbers," he said. (Additional reporting by Diane Bartz and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Marguerita Choy) (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd is pulling the plug on service for its once ubiquitous business smartphones, which were toted by executives, politicians and legions of fans in the early 2000s. The move marks the end of an era as the phones, which sported a tiny QWERTY physical keyboard, pioneered push email and the BBM instant messaging service. Former U.S. President Barack Obama, one of its most celebrated users, made headlines in 2016 when he was asked to give up his BlackBerry and replace it with an unnamed smartphone. Blackberry lost favor with users with the advent of Apple's touchscreen iPhones and rival Android devices. In recent years, the company pivoted to making cybersecurity software and embedded operating systems for cars. Social media was alight with tributes. One Twitter user reminisced it was a "fabulous machine" and hoped the company's phones would be resurrected. In a document published in 2020, the company said it would take steps to decommission legacy services for BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS operating systems and added devices running on them would no longer be supported and may not be able to receive or send data, make phone calls or send messages reliably. A U.S. judge on Monday rejected the company's bid to dismiss a lawsuit claiming it defrauded shareholders by inflating the success and profitability of smartphones using BlackBerry 10 OS, and said the class-action case could go to trial this fall. (Reporting by Akash Sriram and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty) SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Four beekeepers were detained after protesting in front of Chile's presidential palace in Santiago on Monday, according to local officials, with seven police officers stung during the demonstrations. Honey production has been hurt by a long-term drought in Chile that has withered the bees' food sources such as flowers and crops. While drought is not uncommon in Chile, the current megadrought scientists say has persisted since 2010 and climate change is at least partly to blame, scientists say. The beekeepers want government reform to improve honey prices or to provide subsidies to honey producers. They have asked to meet with President Sebastian Pinera. The beekeepers set around 60 beehives, which contained an estimated 10,000 bees, on the avenue in front of the palace. One of the beekeepers, Jose Iturra, told local reporters that the drought in the Colina commune north of Santiago was killing the local bee population. "Bees are dying," Iturra said. "There would be no life if the bees die. That's what we wanted to highlight with this demonstration." A representative for the Ministry of Agriculture in the Santiago region said the agency was also concerned about the effect the drought was having on the bees. The government has been providing aid for months to 20 communities experiencing severe water shortages, Omar Guzman, the regional agricultural secretary, told reporters. Some passers-by were alarmed by the risk the bees posed to the public. "It's dangerous for the people who are allergic (to bees) because they can cause death," one local said. Seven national police officers, called Carabiniers, were stung trying to arrest the beekeepers and move the beehives out of the street, police officials said, and were taken to the hospital. Droughts and rising temperatures from climate change have affected bee populations worldwide. A 2020 study https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax8591 published in the journal Science found that populations fell by around 50% in North America and 17% in Europe in one generation. (Reporting by Reuters TV and Natalia Ramos, writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) FILE - U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., waves to guests in the balcony as he takes his seat on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017, before President Donald Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress. Longtime U.S. Rep. Rush, a onetime Black Panther with a dramatic rise in Illinois politics, won't seek reelection after 15 terms representing his Chicago-area district, according to a prepared video announcement obtained Monday, Jan. 3, 2022, by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) CHICAGO (AP) Longtime U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, a onetime Black Panther with a dramatic rise in Illinois politics, won't seek reelection after 15 terms representing his Chicago-area district, according to a prepared video announcement obtained Monday by The Associated Press. Rush, 75, was expected to discuss his future Tuesday morning at a Chicago church where the video would also be shown. He confirmed his plans to The Chicago Sun-Times, saying Monday he finalized his decision weeks ago. The Democrat, known for anti-violence activism and racial equity work, was first elected to Congress in 1992. He holds the distinction of being the only politician to win a race against Barack Obama, easily defeating the then-state senator in a 2000 congressional primary. Rush, an ordained minister who preaches on Chicago's South Side, said he would remain in the public eye and continue ministry after leaving Congress. I have been reassigned. Actually, Im not retiring, Im returning home. Im returning to my church. Im returning to my family. I have grandchildren. Im returning to my passion, he says in the video. I will be in public life. I will be working hand in hand with someone who will replace me. Throughout his congressional career, Rush hasnt avoided direct action. He was arrested in 2004 for blocking the driveway of Sudans embassy in 2004 during a "protest demanding an end to genocide in that country. He was in the headlines in 2012 for wearing a hooded sweat shirt on the House floor after the death of teenager Trayvon Martin, a move that earned him a reprimand for violating rules of wearing hats in the chamber. He also raised eyebrows with some of his sharper comments, like when he dismissed an anti-violence plan by former Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk as a simplistic white boy solution to a complex problem. He's pushed legislation, named after Emmett Till, designating lynching as a hate crime under federal law. Till was a Black Chicago teen whose lynching in 1955 galvanized the civil rights movement. The trajectory of Rush's political career has been unusual. Born in Georgia, Rush served in the U.S. Army as a teenager, became involved in the civil rights movement and later co-founded the Illinois Black Panther Party. He was arrested in 1969 and convicted on a weapons charge. Years later, he decided he could do more from within the establishment and was elected as a Chicago alderman, serving eight years. He also made one unsuccessful bid for mayor against then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. Rush faced Obama in the 2000 Democratic primary and won by a nearly 2-1 margin. Just before the primary, one of Rushs son died from gunfire when two men attempted a holdup. After the death, Rush focused on gun-control measures. Over the years, Rush has also experienced health problems and underwent surgery in in 2008 to have a cancerous tumor in his salivary gland removed. He returned to Congress after months of chemotherapy, his appearance altered and voice softer. Doctors told him he was cancer-free. He recently disclosed a breakthrough case of COVID-19 but said he did not have any symptoms. In the 16-minute video, Rush said that leaving Congress would give him a chance to share his wisdom with others. Its just going to allow me to be more effective in greater ways, he said in the video. There is not a rocking chair or easy chair thats been created that will be able to contain me. ___ Follow Sophia Tareen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiatareen. NEW YORK (AP) A judge was mostly dismissive Tuesday of oral arguments by a lawyer for Prince Andrew who wants to win a fast dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that the prince sexually assaulted an American woman when she was 17. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan did not immediately rule at the end of a video conference, but he made it clear that he was not leaning Andrews way as he rejected much of the reasoning offered by the prince's attorney, Andrew Brettler, who said the case should absolutely be dismissed. I appreciate the arguments and the passion. Youll have the decision pretty soon, Kaplan told lawyers. The judge directed that the exchange of potential evidence in the case was to proceed as scheduled. The oral arguments followed written submissions made weeks ago in the case brought by Virginia Giuffre, a woman who alleged in her August lawsuit that the prince sexually assaulted her multiple times in 2001 after she was introduced to him by financier Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Attorney David Boies, representing Giuffre, argued against dismissal of the lawsuit. Epstein, 66, killed himself in a Manhattan federal jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial, while Maxwell, 60, was convicted last week of sex trafficking and conspiracy charges in federal court in New York. The prince has strenuously denied the allegations in Giuffre's lawsuit. During much of a hearing that lasted over an hour, Brettler argued that the wording of a 2009 settlement agreement between Epstein and Giuffre that resulted in a $500,000 payment to Giuffre protects the prince from being sued by her. The agreement was unsealed and became publicly available on Monday. The judge repeatedly disagreed with Brettler's argument that wording in the agreement about potential defendants being protected from being sued by Giuffre would prevent her from suing the prince. Kaplan noted that there could be many interpretations of what constituted a potential defendant, and that the only parties who would know exactly what was intended were Giuffre and Epstein. This is an example where the word potential is the use of a word to which you or I cannot find any meaning at all, the judge said. He also noted that the sealing of the terms of the settlement deal for a dozen years meant that anyone the parties might have intended to be protected against future lawsuits by Giuffre would never have known, since they couldn't see it. The judge also appeared dismissive of other claims by Brettler, including that it was unconstitutional for New York's governor to permit the temporary changing of a New York state law to allow lawsuits pertaining to sex abuse from decades ago to be filed. And he also rejected arguments that the claims Giuffre made were too vague. He read a portion of the lawsuit in which Giuffre alleged involuntary sexual intercourse. There isn't any doubt what that means, the judge said. (Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday recommended shortening the interval between Pfizer-BioNTech's second COVID-19 vaccine dose and the booster shot to five months from six. The move follows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision on Monday to reduce the interval for the booster dose and authorize the use of a third dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 years.. The CDC has also recommended that moderately or severely immunocompromised children aged five to 11 years receive an additional dose of vaccine 28 days after their second shot. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in late October last year, is the only vaccine available for children aged five to 11 years in the United States. The CDC has not changed the booster interval recommendation for people who have received the Johnson & Johnson or the Moderna vaccine, which remains at two and six months respectively. A CDC advisory panel is set to meet on Wednesday to discuss the use of a booster dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 years. (Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla and Oishee Majumdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Vinay Dwivedi) NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday formally dismissed the federal government's criminal case against two Manhattan jail guards who admitted to falsifying records on the night that financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself during their shifts. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan dismissed claims against Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, after prosecutors said both complied with the six-month deferred prosecution agreements they had agreed to last May. Epstein killed himself in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Aug. 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Video: Jeffrey Epstein's jail guards avoid prison Noel and Thomas were accused of falling asleep and surfing the internet that night rather than checking on Epstein every 30 minutes, and they acknowledged having falsified records to make it seem they were monitoring Epstein properly. Both cooperated with a federal probe arising from Epstein's death. William Barr, the U.S. attorney general at the time, had been angered that a high-profile inmate like Epstein was able to kill himself while in federal custody. In a statement, Noel's lawyer Jason Foy said the case was "managed differently" by the government because of Epstein's "infamous" status, and said his client cooperated by providing insight into the "toxic culture, subpar training, staffing shortages, and dysfunctional management" of the now-closed jail. Thomas' lawyer said last week that his client was happy the case was being dismissed, and looked forward to putting the matter behind him. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler) While people were celebrating the start of 2022, the officers of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Guangzhou Committee (CCPIT Guangzhou) were still busy at the certification center at midnight. They were working to issue the first batch of certificate of origin under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement (RCEP) which just took effect on January 1. The first company that achieved the certificate of origin in Guangzhou is a Nansha-based chemical manufacturer named Sartomer (Guangzhou) Chemicals Limited. Our company produces acrylate and mainly exports to Japan with an annual value of 12.87 million USD. With the certificate of origin, we are able to pay 2.29 million RMB less on import-export taxes every year, said the representative of Sartomer. IRIS Group (Guangzhou) is a household product manufacturer that obtained certificate of origin. The company representative said they could pay 1.9 million RMB less every year when they export to the Japanese market, and reduce 580 thousand RMB taxes when importing raw materials from RCEP member states. According to the CCPIT, the RCEP will benefit both enterprises and customers. They took China and Japan as an example, saying, this is the first time for the two countries to establish bilateral free-trade relations. 25 percent of Japanese exports to China and 57 percent of Chinese exports to Japan will become tariff-free immediately after the implementation of RCEP. Its expected that 86 percent of Japanese products and 88 percent of Chinese products will eventually enjoy zero tariffs to each other. Based on the CCPIT statistics, the import and export volume between Guangzhou and RCEP member states has taken up one third of the citys total in recent years while ASEAN has become the biggest trading partner with the city. The trade volume between Guangzhou and RCEP members increased 8.5 percent to 334.58 billion RMB from January to November 2021. The CCPIT joins hands with Nansha Free Trade Zone to promote the advantageous policies of the RCEP, help enterprises to formulate strategies and eventually to seize new opportunities amid the challenges brought by growing international shipping fees, said Yang Yong, Director of CCPIT Guangzhou. Being a Free Trade Zone, Nanshas foreign trade business has been rapidly growing. Its foreign trade volume increased 15.9 percent and accounted for one quarter of the citys total by the end of 2021. The districts main commodities for export are mechanical and electronic products, and it saw the export volume of ship & auto parts and containers surged rapidly recently. According to the CCPIT, the online application system (http://qiye.ccpiteco.net) for the certificate of origin and back-to-back certificate of origin under the RCEP was launched on January 1, 2022. The service is free of charge. Companies will enjoy tax preferences with these certificates under the RCEP agreement when they export products to RCEP member countries. The CCPIT Guangzhou also launched a 24-hour hotline for related consultation: 020-87613722/87305324. (GDToday) Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday exchanged congratulations with First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Hailing China-Kazakhstan relations as a good example of neighborly friendship, Xi spoke highly of Nazarbayev's efforts in promoting bilateral relations and deepening cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative. "The First President Nursultan Nazarbayev is an old friend of mine, and I cherish the good working relationship and deep personal friendship established with him," Xi said, adding that he was willing to work with Nazarbayev to promote a permanent comprehensive strategic partnership between the two sides. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two countries have achieved fruitful outcomes in Belt and Road cooperation, bringing tangible benefits to the two peoples, Xi told Tokayev. China will continue to support Kazakhstan in pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions, he said. "I am willing to work with President Tokayev to take the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to consolidate the traditional friendship between the two countries," he said. Noting that China was one of the first countries to recognize Kazakhstan's independence, Nazarbayev said the country was ready to work with China to push for greater development of bilateral cooperation in all areas.Over the past three decades, Kazakhstan and China have set a good example for the international community in developing relations between nations and become an important factor for stability and prosperity in Eurasia, Tokayev said. The two sides have thoroughly resolved an old boundary issue, and the common border has now become a bridge of friendship and unity between Kazakhstan and China, he said. (CGTN) Marysville, CA (95901) Today Partly cloudy. High 74F. S winds shifting to NNW at 15 to 25 mph.. Tonight Clear skies. Low around 50F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Feature Your News Online $25.00 / for 30 days Highlight your business' news for just $25! We'll feature your content on our News From Local Business section & our Marketplace front page to give it maximum exposure for the next 30 days. Online Access for Print Subscribers. Do you have a print subscription with the Argus-Press? If yes, then click here to enjoy complimentary access to our Online Content! YEREVAN, JANUARY 4, ARMENPRESS. A serviceman is under arrest on suspicion of killing his comrade at a military base in Vayots Dzor Province. According to the Ministry of Defense the victim of the alleged crime - Private Movses Tadevosyan a 19-year-old conscripted serviceman, was found with a gunshot wound to the head in his military base in the morning of December 31, 2021. Private Tadevosyan died while being rushed to a hospital. Authorities say they have reasons to believe that another serviceman of the same base is responsible for killing Private Tadevosyan. The suspect was taken into custody amid an investigation. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Katheryn Yvonne Horne was born January 22, 1935 on the family farm just east of Wilmot in Ashley County Arkansas. She left this life for Heavenly Paradise on March 23, 2022, surrounded by her loving family. She went by her middle name Yvonne, though her sister called her Bo. She went to elem Read more The banks of Pangong Tso were the most tense standoff point between the Indian and Chinese armies for nine months before The sector had seen hand-to-hand clashes between the troops from the two sides and had also seen the first incident of firing at the LAC in 45 years in 2020. (Representational Image/ Twitter) New Delhi: China is building a bridge to connect the north and south banks of the Pangong Tso lake in eastern Ladakh for the faster movement of its troops in the sector, the latest satellite images suggest. The banks of Pangong Tso were the most tense standoff point between the Indian and Chinese armies for nine months before the two sides last year agreed to mutually withdraw their forces from there. The sector had seen hand-to-hand clashes between the troops from the two sides and had also seen the first incident of firing at the Line of Actual Control in 45 years in 2020 as tensions had soared between the two countries. Experts believe the Chinese are building the bridge within its territory to prevent India from taking any pre-emptive action as it had taken back in August 2020 by occupying the strategic heights on the south bank of Pangong Tso, which allowed Indian troops to dominate the Chushul-Moldo Chinese garrison. The Chinese were taken by surprise by the Indian move and they made several failed attempts to reoccupy these heights. Indias occupation of the strategic heights at the south bank is believed to have forced the Chinese to agree to disengage from the north and south banks of Pangong Tso. The bridge will now allow the Chinese troops multiple points to access the region. There is no let-up in Chinese activity at the LAC. The Chinese forces are continuously upgrading their infrastructure at the LAC and placing a large number of troops and heavy weapons on the front line with India. This comes as Chinese state-affiliated accounts on the social media are posting propaganda videos of PLA soldiers allegedly unfurling Chinese flags on the New Year in what is claimed to be the Galwan Valley. This is seen as part of Chinas psychological warfare. Sources said that video is from within Chinese territory and not from the site of the June 15, 2020 Galwan Valley clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers. The latest provocation from China comes after it came up with its own names for over a dozen places in Arunachal Pradesh. Incidentally, Indian and Chinese PLA soldiers had exchanged greetings and sweets on New Year at several places at the LAC, including at Hot Springs and DBO, which was seen as a positive development. This is second straight winter when India and China have deployed their troops at the front lines in the Ladakh sector. Change must start in families, churches, mosques, schools and the media. Differences must be preserved and values such as "love, tolerance and forgiveness" must be strengthened. Extremists exploit religion for political and economic ends. The fragmentation and dispersion of society must be fought. Baghdad (AsiaNews) Card Louis Raphael Sako, primate of the Chaldean Church, released his New Year message to Iraqi Christians and Diaspora communities who still maintain strong ties with their homeland. In it he called on the faithful to go beyond the divisions and tensions that affect the country and the Middle East so as to "change reality with confidence". This can be done by working hard to reform education, health and infrastructures. Change begins with education at home, schools, churches and mosques, and the media, he explained. What is more, for the prelate, despite differences, real happiness entails loving and respecting each other as brothers and sisters. Since Christians and Muslims share the same "homeland and history", it is everyone's duty to preserve it and work for its prosperity by maintaining its diversity, starting with essential values like love, tolerance and forgiveness. Card Sako noted that the first day of the new year is always dedicated to peace and hope, especially for renaissance after a troubled period characterised by conflict, tensions, disease (COVID-19), hunger and thirst that are leading people towards a slow death. Peace is achieved when it is part of personal behaviour. This requires the ability to practice tolerance, forgiveness, solidarity and collaboration, as Pope Francis said in his message. Peace, Card Sako points out, is a human, religious and national requirement for everyone. For the cardinal, Iraq has been through very difficult circumstances, not only after the fall of [Saddam Hussein's] regime but throughout our history, with challenges and struggles, but now the time has come to get out of this deadly situation. The Chaldean patriarchs message comes at time of serious concerns over Iraqs fate. On 21 December, the Chaldean Church held a day of fasting and prayer for a country seeking "a new balance" and a future of "development and security". The cardinals message is not addressed only to Christians, but to everyone who holds the Arab country in their heart, Muslims included, at a time of political and institutional uncertainty following last Octobers parliamentary elections. In late December, Card Sako took part in a talk sponsored by Iraqs Ministry of Culture, moderated by Saad Salloum, an academic, during which he said that violence and extremism are not linked to religion" but to its "understanding" and interpretation. The exploitation of religion by extremists for "political or economic ends is the main issue. It is sad to note that killings still continue today under the cloak of God and religion while "Frustration and silence reinforce corruption, extremism and violence". From a perspective of peace and tolerance, the media play a fundamental role since they should carry messages and create a "culture and awareness, and not engage in provocations. In closing, he stressed the importance of "spiritual education in mosques and churches", which represent a point of reference amid fragmentation and dispersion in our society. Religious leaders "must re-read" matters of faith in a positive way, highlighting the richness of the various communities. Such a healthy spiritual relationship will facilitate coexistence in a multi-religious country. Pakistans foreign minister reiterated his countrys border policy yesterday. Recently, Afghan Taliban dismantled part of the fence dividing the two countries. Since the Taliban seized Kabul again, thousands of fanatics have poured into the Islamic Emirate. Attacks by the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic State rose considerably in 2021. Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) Pakistan las undertaken diplomatic steps vis-a-vis Afghanistan to settled an issue that has emerged recently over the Durand line, which marks the border between the two countries but which Kabul has never recognized. At a press conference yesterday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi explained that Pakistan intends to protect its interests by continuing to fence off the border, which runs for over 2,600 kilometres. We have installed the fence and, God willing, this effort will continue, Qureshi said. Afghanistan is our friendly neighbour, he added. We are engaged with them, as some confusions have emerged, and we shall be able to resolve them through diplomatic channels. Last weekend the Taliban dismantled a portion of the fence that Pakistan began to build in 2017 to block smugglers and militants moving across the border. On Sunday, a spokesman for the Taliban Defence Ministry criticised the fence project, saying Pakistan has no right to erect barbed wire along the Durand Line and separate the tribes on both sides of the line. In a recent online video, Afghan Taliban intelligence chief in the Eastern Nangarhar province said, if you violate the boundary line, be ready for war with us. We love fighting you more than the Jews. The Durand Line is named after Sir Mortimer Durand, the British Raj official who in 1893 agreed the border with the then Afghan Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, splitting communities that still live in the divided region and who would like to create an independent Pashtunistan. Pakistan inherited the border after it became independent in 1947 but the dividing line has been the source of tensions between the two countries ever since. The fall of Kabul in August 2021 to the Taliban galvanised not only Afghan Pashtuns, but also Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Pakistans Taliban. Since then, thousands of fanatics have crossed into Afghanistan, answering calls for support from Afghan Taliban. Taliban authorities estimate that between 5,000 and 10,000 fighters have moved to Afghanistan in the past four months, 10 times more than the normal movements that have occurred in the past. This signals the need for the Emirate to obtain reinforcements to maintain security in a huge country that is only partially under Taliban control. In 2021 the local branch of the Islamic State, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), carried out 339 attacks, up from 82 in 2020. Starting with the Doha agreement of February 2020, signed between the Trump administration and the Afghan Taliban, the TTP guerrillas have seen their ranks swell: Since July 2020, at least 10 groups of fighters have joined the Pakistani Taliban in order to fight the Pakistani government and impose Sharia (Islamic law) in the country. In 2020, the TPP carried out 95 attacks, rising to 282 in 2021. by Vladimir Rozanskij Moscow (AsiaNews) - The National Assembly of the (unrecognized) republic of Nagorno-Karabakh has approved a motion declaring its opposition to the positions of the Prime Minister of Yerevan, Nikol Pasinyan, regarding the consequences of the conflict with Azerbaijan last year. Added to this is the very harsh statement of Araik Arutjunyan, president of Karabakh, which sounds like a distancing of the separatist republic from Armenia. The small republic, called "Artsakh" in Armenian language, has about 150 thousand inhabitants and a territory of about 3000 km2. As a matter of fact it is an enclave in the territory of Azerbaijan, at least partially controlled by local Armenians; it can communicate with the homeland through the narrow mountain corridor of Lain, three kilometers long and nine meters wide, protected by the peace forces of the Russian Federation. Pasinyan's participation in the summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States in St. Petersburg on December 28 provoked a reaction from Karabakh Armenians. The day before, during a press conference, the Armenian premier had blamed his predecessors for the defeat in the separatist territory. Pasinyan's position has also been criticized in Yerevan by the opposition, especially by former president Robert Kocaryan, who on December 29 openly accused the prime minister of betrayal of national interests. Another former president, Serz Sargsyan, has also announced a public meeting in January on the issue, which will most likely be equally merciless towards Pasinyan. In all of this, Arutjunyan wanted to reiterate that "only Artsakh authorities have the right to speak on behalf of the local population." Arutjunyan stressed that their main goal is the international recognition of Artsakh's independence, and that no form of autonomy within Azerbaijan will be acceptable, such as those to which the Armenian premier seems to be leaving room for negotiation. The Armenians of Karabakh maintain that there is no possibility of peaceful coexistence with the Azeris, and their territory must be returned to the borders of 1991, when the conflict with Baku over the mountainous area began. For Arutjunyan, Russian troops deployed in the area should facilitate the establishment of a local Artsakh army, staying as long as necessary, and this should be Pasinyan's goal in negotiations with Putin. The Parliament of Stepanakert - the capital of the separatist republic - has reiterated its president's positions, declaring inadmissible the pronouncements of any politician or party that casts doubt on the Armenian future of Artsakh, especially lashing out at Pasinyan's statements, deeming them too ambiguous and dangerous. The premier had assured that the status of Nagorno Karabakh would remain on the negotiating table, and that "the legal and political bases of Armenian independence in the area are not in contradiction with the positions of the mediators and international structures dealing with the matter". Karabakh Armenians fear being victims of diplomatic games, and do not want to give up their sovereignty even at the cost of going against Yerevan. The speaker of Stepanakert's parliament, Asot Gulyan, compared Pasinyan's words to the "style of 1937," when Stalin first annexed Karabakh to Azerbaijan, starting the mountain feud of the two Caucasian peoples, who have always been divided by language, culture and religion. Pakistan-China forum held to improve business environment: Pakistani PM Xinhua) 08:45, January 04, 2022 Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan addresses the inaugural ceremony of the Pakistan-China business and investment forum in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, Jan. 3, 2022.(Pakistani Press Information Department/Handout via Xinhua) ISLAMABAD, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that a Pakistan-China business and investment forum will help improve the business environment in the country. Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the forum, the prime minister said the commencement of the forum will enhance the country's exports through industrialization process. Pakistan is working on facilitating investors by minimizing rules and regulations, he said. Khan said the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) focuses on industrialization and the agricultural sector of Pakistan. On the occasion, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong said the second phase of CPEC stresses on business-to-business cooperation, and the newly-established forum will promote interaction and information sharing among its member enterprises, and create more business opportunities. Addressing the ceremony, Muhammad Azfar Ahsan, chairman of Pakistan's Board of Investment, said the forum, jointly established by the Board of Investment and the All-Pakistan Chinese Enterprises' Association, will explore further avenues of bilateral investment cooperation in the form of joint ventures and other mutually beneficial partnerships. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Du Mingming) Gods mercy embraces both fatherhood and motherhood, writes Pope Francis. Be mindful of the great dignity of your profession, as well as the responsibility that it entails, he tells the Dear healthcare workers. Among them countless missionaries have combined the preaching of the Gospel with the construction of hospitals, dispensaries and care homes. These are precious means whereby Christian charity has taken visible shape and the love of Christ. Vatican City (AsiaNews) Pope Francis today released his message for the 30th World Day of the Sick, which falls on 11 February centred this year on theme Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Lk 6:36). The pontiff writes that caring for the sick is paramount in the mission of the apostles and caregivers are witnesses to Gods charity, starting with health workers and those Christians who open many inns of the Good Samaritan that offer care and the mercy that is Gods name par excellence. Speaking about the latter, Francis writes that Mercy makes us first turn our gaze towards God, who is rich in mercy (Eph 2:4), which is Gods name par excellence; mercy, understood not as an occasional sentimental feeling but as an ever-present and active force, expresses Gods very nature. It combines strength and tenderness. For this reason, we can say with wonder and gratitude that Gods mercy embraces both fatherhood and motherhood (cf. Is 49:15). God cares for us with the strength of a father and the tenderness of a mother; he unceasingly desires to give us new life in the Holy Spirit. Noting that Jesus healed many sick people, Francis goes on to write that many sick people feel isolated and experience frailty and suffering in their own flesh as a result of illness, so that their hearts become heavy with anxiety and fear. This is the case for all those patients who, during this time of pandemic spent the last part of their earthly life in solitude, in an intensive care unit, assisted by generous healthcare workers, yet far from their loved ones and the most important people in their lives. Francis notes that the World Day of the Sick, instituted by John Paul II, will be celebrated in the Vatican Basilica and not in Arequipa in Peru due to the pandemic, providing an opportunity to take stock of the progress made by science and the pastoral care of the sick. Diseases primarily involve health workers. Addressing them directly, Francis says: Dear healthcare workers, your service alongside the sick, carried out with love and competence, transcends the bounds of your profession and becomes a mission. [. . .] Be mindful of the great dignity of your profession, as well as the responsibility that it entails. Patients are always more important than their diseases, and for this reason, no therapeutic approach can prescind from listening to the patient, his or her history, anxieties and fears. Even when healing is not possible, care can always be given. It is always possible to console, it is always possible to make people sense a closeness that is more interested in the person than in his or her pathology. For this reason, I would hope that the training provided to health workers might enable them to develop a capacity for listening and relating to others. This includes the pastoral care for the sick. In fact, we cannot fail to offer them Gods closeness, his blessing and his word, as well as the celebration of the sacraments and the opportunity for a journey of growth and maturation in faith. In fact, everyone is called to be close. How many sick and elderly people are living at home and waiting for a visit! This is the approach of Catholic health facilities, where countless missionaries have combined the preaching of the Gospel with the construction of hospitals, dispensaries and care homes. These are precious means whereby Christian charity has taken visible shape and the love of Christ, witnessed by that of his disciples, has become more credible. I think especially of people in the poorest areas of our planet, where it is sometimes necessary to travel long distances to find treatment centres that, albeit with limited resources, offer what is available. We still have a long way to go; in some countries, access to adequate care remains a luxury. We see this, for example, in the scarcity of available vaccines against Covid-19 in poor countries; but even more in the lack of treatment for illnesses that require much simpler medicines. How many founders of religious families have listened to the cry of their brothers and sisters who lack access to care or are poorly cared for, and have given their utmost in their service! Today too, even in the most developed countries, their presence is a blessing, since in addition to caring for the body with all necessary expertise, they can always offer the gift of charity, which focuses on the sick themselves and their families. At a time in which the culture of waste is widespread and life is not always acknowledged as worthy of being welcomed and lived, these structures, like houses of mercy, can be exemplary in protecting and caring for all life, even the most fragile, from its beginning until its natural end. Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Since the February 1, 2021 coup, Myanmar's military junta has made extensive use of torture against political detainees. The independent website Myanmar Now has collected testimonies from prisoners released in recent months after a general amnesty granted in October by coup general Min Aung Hlaing. The self-proclaimed prime minister had ordered the release of about 2,000 political prisoners in a failed attempt to prevent Myanmar's exclusion from last autumn's ASEAN summit. The violence begins during interrogations, which can last several days or weeks. Testimony has shown that the military was not so much interested in extorting information as in inflicting atrocities for their own sake. A 38-year-old man, who told his story using the pseudonym "P2," said that for 20 days, three hours a night he was tortured by the regime's soldiers in a small room: "To call it a room of hell would be an understatement." P2's body didn't have time to recover between the violence: "While they whipped me, hit me with batons or put out lit cigarettes on me, they were busy preparing electrical cables to electrocute me." His torturers never asked him any questions, but to prevent him from passing out and keep him awake they would shine a light in his eyes. Before his release, P2 spent five months in Insen prison and is now training to fight with anti-coup militias. Instead, when the army failed to find a member of the National League for Democracy - the party of former civilian government leader Aung San Suu Kyi - they detained and tortured his 20-year-old son. The former politician turned himself in, hoping to secure his son's release, but that did not happen: "They stabbed him in the forehead with scissors. They made him put three fingers on a step and smashed them with the butt of a rifle," the father recounted. "They also beat him with his hands tied behind his back. They did it in the room next to mine so I could hear him." Father and son were tortured inside an interrogation center in Meiktila, near Mandalay. "They call it interrogation, but we were not even allowed to talk. It was just one beating after another while I was handcuffed with my hands behind my back," said Saw Han Nway Oo, a 24-year-old trans woman arrested in September. "Mostly they would take turns beating my legs. They also twisted the tips of my nails using pliers." She was later sent to Mandalay police station, where she was tortured by the same officers. "They cut my skin with knives, twice on the back of my head and twice on my stomach. The wounds were not very deep, but deep enough to cut my veins. It was really painful," he explained. According to data collected by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, so far more than 11,000 civilians have been arrested and nearly 1,400 killed by the army. Thousands remain in prison without having faced a trial. by Vladimir Rozanskij The new African Exarchate of the Russian Patriarchate established, divided into the two dioceses of North and South Africa. The Russian-African clergy will be subject to the bishop of Yerevan (Armenia) Leonid. "The Waltz of Chairs" in patriarchal sees. Moscow (AsiaNews) - In its synod at the end of 2021, the Moscow Patriarchate welcomed 102 priests from the Russian Church who until now served in eight African countries on behalf of the Greek Patriarchate of Alexandria; these religious did not accept the recognition of the Ukrainian autocephalous Church, which had led in December 2019 to the break in ecclesiastical relations between Moscow and Alexandria. The synodal communique motivated the decision by "the realization of the impossibility of further refusing the request of these Alexandrian clerics." Thus the new African Exarchate of the Russian patriarchate was created, divided into the two dioceses of North Africa and South Africa. The patriarchal synod had already considered the matter last September. The debate arose from the concelebration of the Patriarch of Alexandria Theodoros II (Choreutakis) with the autocephalous Metropolitan of Kiev Epifanyj (Dumenko), which took place on August 13 on the Turkish island of Imbros and which was harshly condemned by the Russian Church. Russian Orthodoxy has thus extended to Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Libya, Central Africa and the Seychelles. The Russian-African clergy will be hierarchically subject to the Russian bishop of Yerevan in Armenia, Leonid (Gorbacev). He was elevated to the dignity of titular metropolitan of Klinsk in Belarus, uniting in his person all the latitudes of the "Russian world." According to the liturgical diptychs of Orthodoxy, the Patriarchate of Alexandria is the second in dignity in the list of the 14 Churches historically recognized in the universal communion. Patriarch Theodoros II was actually considered one of the closest to his Moscow confrere Kirill (Gundjaev), having studied in his youth at the Soviet University of Odessa in Ukraine, where he presided over the local branch of the Alexandrian Church from 1985 until almost 2000, and seemed to be one of the most staunch supporters of the Ukrainian Exarchate loyal to Moscow. In 2018 he had visited his old church in Odessa and promised to defend the "Muscovites" even in the face of other Orthodox, except that he then aligned himself with the positions of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew (Archontonis). As happened also in the previous years of Kirill's patriarchate, the the end of the year Synod also saw the most traumatic decisions addressed and make many changes made in the patriarchal offices: a "waltz of chairs" typical of the impetuous character of the current head of the Russian Orthodox. Thus, several superiors of monasteries were replaced, displacing those most rebellious and entrenched in positions of contestation to the sanitary norms of these years of pandemic. One of the most prestigious, Bishop Leonid (Tolmacev), igumen of the great monastery of Optina Pustyn, the historical seat of the nineteenth-century startsy (spiritual fathers), has been replaced by the more faithful Iosif (Korolev), until now bishop of Mozajsk in southern Russia. Feofilakt (Moiseev), the bishop of Mytisi on the outskirts of Moscow was also retired. He had caused a scandal for a video showing him beating a concelebrating priest with full force during a liturgy. The Synod also celebrated Patriarch Kirill on his 75th birthday last November 20, for which he had received congratulations from President Putin and the country's entire political leadership. The bishops wanted to emphasize their devotion to the supreme hierarch of Moscow with the gift of a new tiara, the Byzantine "koukolion" which in Russian sounds sympathetically as "patriarch's doll": only in Moscow is it worn in white to emphasize the ancient claims of "pope of Orthodoxy" of Tsarist times. The new headdress, in fact, is very similar to those of the early days of the Moscow Patriarchate in the seventeenth century, when Kirill's predecessor, the reformer Nikon (Minin) had tried to elevate Moscow to the center of world Orthodoxy, thus causing the abolition of the Patriarchate by Peter the Great. by Dario Salvi The woman who was fleeing from the Taliban died after being caught in a storm, but her two children, who are now in the care of Iranian soldiers across the border, are safe. Turkish officials offload responsibility. AsiaNews sources: "Many people" have died in recent weeks while trying to enter the country. Caritas Turkey rushes to aid of 30 migrant families. Istanbul (AsiaNews) - An Afghan mother of two, who was fleeing the Taliban in power in Kabul since last August, has frozen to death while trying to cross the border between Iran and Turkey. SHer two children have been saved (in the photo) after they were spotted by villagers from Ozalp, in the eastern province of Van, who rescued them and then entrusted them to the soldiers of the Islamic Republic across the border. This latest tale of migrant tragedy (and despair) that took place on the first day of the new year was told by the local governor's office: the young mother "was surprised by a snow storm" and died of frostbite, while the children "continued the journey" until they reached the village. The note speaks of a "sad incident" that "did not happen within our [Turkish] borders," but "in the [Iranian] village of Belesur" in an attempt to distance all responsibility or involvement of the authorities in Ankara. However, an institutional AsiaNews source speaking on condition of anonymity stresses that "many people" have died in recent weeks, trying to cross the mountains along the border with the Islamic Republic to enter the country. Recently, news emerged of shootings and targeted attacks by the Turkish army against migrants trying to cross the territory in a desperate attempt to reach the coasts of Europe and start a new life far from the Taliban. The exodus has triggered a new spiral of hatred and intolerance in the Turkish population, affected by the economic crisis and already tried in past years by the entry of millions of Syrians and Iraqis fleeing the war and jihadist violence. In its 2021 report on migrants and refugees, the United Nations explains that even before the rise of Koranic students in Afghanistan, the reality was critical and a quarter of the population had already abandoned their homes, bringing the share of internally displaced persons to 3.5 million. In November, Antonio Vitorino, director general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), raised the alarm when he spoke of a nation on the verge of collapse. The emergency is confirmed by Caritas Turkey, which told AsiaNews: "In December alone, 14 families made up of widows with children turned to us for help". The Christian charity has rented "houses for them" and is now trying "to organize a canteen for 30 families, for a total of 120 people. With two euros a day," Caritas Turkey continues, "we can guarantee two hot meals to people" and for this reason it is more important than ever "to support our work in any way". Meanwhile, in fear of an uncontrolled flow, Turkey has strengthened its defenses along the border with Iran, considered the main hub of migrant traffic. According to Ankara's statistics, there are at least 182 thousand Afghan migrants registered in Turkey, plus another 120 thousand who are not included in the official registers and live in semi-clandestine conditions. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intervened on the issue, stressing that the country has no intention of becoming a "storage center" for migrants heading to Europe. In 2021 the security forces in the eastern province of Van, on the border with Iran, have blocked the entry of more than 120 thousand migrants fleeing war and persecution, while the construction of the wall continues. So far 40 km out of a total of 64 planned have been completed, along which 103 towers will be built, 45 of which for communication and 58 others for surveillance. Patrols have also arrested 15,000 people (without specifying their identity or status) and 1,904 suspected human traffickers, seizing 880 vehicles and five boats. The Pitkin County administrative building in April, after a threatening email sent by Johnston to Pitkin County officials that led two county commissioners to stay in hotels for safety concerns resulted in the buildings closure. The author of the email, Andrew Johnston, was sentenced to six years in prison Monday, not because of the misdemeanor harassment charge that came out of the April incident, but because of felony strangulation and stalking charges against a former partner. Athens, TX (75751) Today Thunderstorms likely this morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 84F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Partly cloudy with late night showers or thunderstorms. Low 69F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Working around the clock on producing the chips their clients need, these companies have already recorded impressive growth in the last couple of years.An analysis recently released by trade credit insurer Euler Hermes estimates the semiconductor market recorded a 26 percent growth last year to reach a record $553 billion. And given the production still hasnt been aligned with the demand, the growth is likely to continue this year.In other words, chip sales are likely to go up another 9 percent, this time exceeding $600 billion, despite the chip shortage But while chipmakers are clearly having the time of their lives, the analysis warns that this whole frenzy could come to an end abruptly this year. And its all because of four different factors.First and foremost, theres a chance the hardware sales will slow down, pretty much because the demand may no longer be as high as in the last couple of years. Most people have already purchased the devices they need to work remotely, and the rate of upgrades is likely to decrease.Then, the demand for chips could be impacted by customers forced to temporarily stop their production due to government restrictions and lockdowns. The tensions between the United States and China could contribute to this sudden change as well, the analysis notes, and so could the advertise climatic events affecting the manufacturing of chips.At the end of the day, it just looks like 2022 may not be a lot different from 2021, at least if nothing unexpected happens overnight. The demand for chips will probably remain strong throughout the year, especially as the world is gearing up for another health crisis wave impacting the production of certain goods. As if the floods, the government restrictions, and the global health issue werent enough, chipmakers across the world are now struggling with another problem: a shortage of qualified workers to fill in key positions in their companies.A recent report from the WSJ highlights a problem that more and more companies involved in the chip-making business are now trying to solve. Unfortunately, college-educated engineers are almost nowhere to be found, and skilled technicians and researchers supposed to support the recovery and develop new tech are becoming a rare breed.Chipmakers are investing big in new facilities and production lines. Intel, for example, plans to spend no less than $100 billion on new production facilities in both the United States and Europe, and several other companies, such as TSMC and Samsung, are already working on massive plans that would allow them to boost their capacity.But building new chip-making plants isnt by any means a guarantee of expanded capacity. This is because all these companies cant find qualified workers to fill in key positions.The cited source estimates the U.S. industry alone would require no less than 90,000 workers by 2025 to make sure all the investments in increased production arent just a waste of time.Taiwanese companies are struggling with the same problem, and more and more companies hope governments would step in and help with bigger investments in education and programs to attract skilled workers.Many choose to leave for software or other industry sectors because of obvious reasons, and this isnt by any means good news for the future of the chip-making business. For now, the challenge just seems to continue, not only for companies across the world but also for the chipmakers themselves. The speck of darkness we have here is the perfect example of that. It was once a stock 2021 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy , but after it crossed the threshold of a Swiss custom garage called Bundnerbike, it got converted into something that now wears the name Navara R1. Or Black Beauty, as the guys who made it like to call it.Untraditionally for a custom Milwaukee motorcycle, this one retains the wheels it came with from the factory, only now theyre not specced in the usual, chrome appearance, but come in one of the darkest shades of black weve seen on such elements.The paint job on this thing is the work of Bundnerbikes usual partner in this field, Carrosserie Ludwig, but its not the only modification made to the Fat Boy. The sculpted fuel tank is the work of Bundnerbike itself, while the long exhaust pipes, chosen to blend in seamlessly with the build, are of KessTech make.With some changes made to the front and rear as well, including the fitting of new fenders, the Navara does seem to present itself to the world with a tad prouder stance than in its stock form.Sadly, we cant tell how expensive it would be to ride away on one of these out of Switzerland, as we are not being told how much it cost to make Bundnerbike does say though that we would be happy to advise you, should you be interested in having one done. Dont get me wrong, the 1982 Ford Mustang police car is by no standards fast, not in times where a Porsche 911 GT3 exists, at least. But theres California and Hollywood, and all the crazy things that went down in the late '80s - those must have been good times, I reckon.In the '80s, America was going through motions, Hollywood was thriving, the crack epidemic was at its highest, the tech industry and Silicon Valley was booming, and fast cars sales were at an all-time high. The California Police Department couldnt keep up with the 944 Turbo or the Countach 5000 QV Hollywood stars and business moguls were driving if they only had Crown Victorias at their disposal. Their solution? The 1982 Ford Mustang.It came with a 4-speed manual transmission, with a two-barrel V8, nothing compared to fast cars at the time, but it gave Police Patrol offers like Rich Sappakowski an edge on the highway.Sappakowski joined the Police department in 1985, three years after the 1982 Ford Mustang came out. He was also lucky enough to be part of the pilot program on the legendary Fox-body Mustang Patrol car.The initiative gained a lot of publicity primarily because of the idea of a Mustang Police car. The department also pushed the This Ford that Chases Porsches For a Living campaign that was also pretty cool.Sappakowski admitted there was a bit of a tussle getting your hands on the Mustang cop car. He also confesses to burying the speedometer a few times at 160 mph on duty.Its very rewarding. Some of your worst days are your most rewarding. But I did it for 30-years, and I tell people that if they had half the crew that I had, they would have a really good career, he disclosed, talking about his career as a Patrol Officer.Leno thinks it feels a little fast for its day, but not as fast. After decades of hard labor, 2021 was finally the year when all three companies owned by the worlds wackiest billionaires, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk, sent their first batches of civilians to space. Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and SpaceX all accomplished their goals of kickstarting what may become a booming space tourism industry. Then the Russians stepped it and took cinematography to the International Space Station (ISS).But all this time NASA was not sitting back, watching the others have all the fun, but was actually preparing the way for what may very well be its most exciting year in ages. And to get us all pumped up, the agency condensed all of the missions planned for 2022 in a two-minute video, a trailer of sorts for whats coming this year in space exploration.And it all starts with the James Webb Space Telescope , launched on Christmas Day and expected to return the first images of the distant Universe sometime by the middle of the year.Also launched last year, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test ( DART ) is expected to impact an asteroid at speeds of 15,000 mph (24,140 kph) in September or October. It will be humanitys first real attempt at changing the trajectory of a celestial body, an essential process if we are to protect ourselves in the future from incoming asteroids.In August, NASA will be launching the Psyche mission, a spacecraft targeting a unique metal asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter called Psyche. That would be one of the first asteroids we humans discovered, all the way back in 1852.The most important mission of the year, though, is Artemis I, the test flight of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule that should put humans back on the Moon by the end of the decade. At the time of writing, the launch is scheduled for the first quarter of the year.Aside from these three major missions, NASA will be sending up there a host of other technologies made to do anything from exploring black holes to studying our own planet from above. It will also continue its partnerships with private companies like SpaceX for orbital launches, but will also expand them with the launch of the first private astronaut mission to the ISS with Axiom.Closer to our planet, NASA is planning test flights with both the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology ( QueSST ) aircraft and the electric X-57 Maxwell A bunch of other projects, including the testing of a new heat shield for atmospheric re-entry, and the (finally) launch of the Boeing Starliner are also planned for this year you can have a look at them all in the very condensed video below. Unfortunately, it looks like Google is very busy dealing with the problems reported by users, as most recently, the company has started looking into new reports indicating constant freezing on Android Auto.Surprisingly, the glitch doesnt seem to be very widespread right now, as only a couple of users reported it on Googles forums . But this doesnt mean the company cant start a more thorough investigation to figure out what happens, as a member of the Android Auto team confirmed the engineers are now looking into the whole thing.Theres not much to say about how this problem occurs.According to the few users who are struggling with the whole thing, Android Auto just freezes totally out of the blue, and unfortunately, nobody seems to know exactly what to do. For some reason, Android Auto is also losing the Bluetooth connection, though its not clear if these problems are related in any way.In the meantime, one user is blaming a recent Android Auto update, and if this is indeed the culprit, the best way to go is to just downgrade the app to an earlier release.Google is projected to ship a new Android Auto update in the coming weeks (before the end of January), but its too early to tell if any fixes for this weird freezing problem are supposed to make their way to users.The other workarounds that are worth trying also include a new cable. A bad connection can cause all kinds of problems when running Android Auto, so make sure you use a high-quality cord that allows for a stable connection between the mobile device and the head unit. EV The Scandinavian nation had a profound response to the growingrevolution. One that would take the word 'revolution' to heart. In numbers that dwarf any North American or European nation, batteries found their way into a scarcely believable two-thirds of all new vehicle sales within Noweign soil. In the forms of hybrids, plug-in electric hybrids, and full-on EVs.176,276 new cars, with 113,715 being electric, found their way into Norweigan driveways in 2021. This figure nearly matches half of that of American EV rates last year. That's with a population barely 1/60th the size of the U.S, impressive indeed. What may seem even more impressive to Tesla shareholders is that Elon Musk's brand now accounts for over ten percent of all publicly registered passenger cars in Norway It's sales data that even makes other EU nations seem behind the curve. However, the EV market is still undoubtedly the largest in China, not Europe. Tax incentives meant to incentivize the purchase of a new EV in Norway have been substantially more successful than elsewhere in the world.This news comes only weeks after U.S Democratic Senator Joe Manchin struck down a sizeable monetary EV tax break for union labor as a part of President Biden's Build Back Better initiative. Even so, green-tech advocates around the world will not be going silent about the virtues of ridding ourselves of the oil addiction.It appears humanity is in a better position than ever before to make that happen finally. Check back for more EV revolution updates right here on autoevolution. Maybe, we'll report that the U.S. is on the same path sometime soon. If they can get their collective you-know-what together, that is. EV As the Norwegian Electric Car Association notes, several months had seen EVs cover over 70 percent market share, while December ended at 67 percent. The country's record month in terms of EVs sales market share was September , with 77.5 percent of all vehicles sold in the country being battery electric vehicles.The same association noted that 83.1 percent of private buyers went for an, while businesses and leasing enterprises had an EV share of 42.6 percent. In other words, more than eight in ten Norwegians who bought a car for themselves last year chose an EV, while four in ten companies went for EVs as well. The figures are impressive, to say the least, and there are several incentives behind them. Tesla is the most popular brand in Norway, beating Volkswagen's 11-year success story. The Model 3 was the number one favorite for Norwegian customers, followed by Toyota's RAV4 EV, and Volkswagen's ID.4. Teslas Model Y achieved fourth place.Volvo's XC40 ranked fifth, followed by the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Audi's e-tron, and the Skoda Enyaq. It is worth noting that Hyundai sold 7,715 EVs in Norway in 2021, while Mercedes sold 5,750, and BMW sold 4,605 units. Out of 10,355 Audis sold in 2021 in Norway, 9,636 were electric vehicles, which is a 93-percent share of sales figures, as the association notes It is the first time that an all-electric vehicle manufacturer gets to be the most popular vehicle brand in Norway. The country has a population of 5.4 million (about twice the population of Arkansas), and it prides itself on having the world's highest proportion of electric vehicles, even though the country extracts, refines, and sells oil.Norway has made plans to stop the sale of diesel and gasoline-engined vehicles by 2025 and will continue to offer tax breaks for owners of electric vehicles in 2022 as well. It is unclear whether the tax break for EVs owners will continue after 2022, but that is a matter for the country's government to decide If you are not familiar with this Vietnamese carmaker, it recently made some headlines after Michael Lohscheller became its CEO and left after less than five months trying to turn it into a global brand. VinFast may not bring the same credibility Volkswagen lent to QuantumScape , but at least it shows the Israeli battery startup really has at least one automotive partner.StoreDot said it is developing XFC (Extreme Fast Charge) cells with silicon-dominant chemistry. It also stated that it is working on solid-state batteries with extreme energy density (XED) for 2028 and on battery packs that present a fixed battery driving range for the duration of its useful service life. Considering nobody has ever promised anything similar, bold claims need irrefutable proof. StoreDot is yet to provide that.If the company can deliver what it is promising with its new cells, StoreDots technology may make electric cars as convenient and easy to replenish as a fuel tank. Thats one of the major advantages solid-state cells would offer over conventional ternary batteries. Just like StoreDot , the first ones to reach the market are promised to some point between 2024 and 2025. Depending on what they offer, they may make StoreDots technology prematurely obsolete.Apart from VinFast, StoreDot also counts with BP Ventures, EVE Energy (the Chinese battery maker that is producing its A-samples), Samsung Ventures, TDK, and Daimler . With the $80 million the Series D funding round will bring, StoreDot plans to complete research and development, ramp up its California-based R&D center and make arrangements for mass-producing its cells in 2024. The quality of Chinese electric cars is also very good, and Tesla is not the only game in town. If Rubio and other Americans want Tesla to lose profits, China is not the one that will hurt most: Global Times Commentator Hu Xijin #HuSays pic.twitter.com/pHmFeAkZyx Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 4, 2022 For the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), that can be seen as an act of allegiance and respect to its policies, regardless of how damaging that can be in foreign countries. Companies that use Xinjiang resources are accused of benefitting from forced labor from the mass-detention camps that the Chinese government has created to indoctrinate Uyghurs.These companies are between a rock and a hard place. If they say that they do not want to buy products from Xinjiang, they can suffer smear campaigns and lose sales or even access to one of the most important markets in the world. The Wall Street Journal remembers that H&M and Nike are the most recent examples of that.At the same time, establishing in the region or being on good terms with the Chinese government with respect to its Uyghur policies raises concerns in other markets that are convinced that China is promoting genocide and crimes against humanity in the region. Those were the very words U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken used to attack what the Chinese government is doing to Muslims and other minorities in its war against terror. Joe Biden recently signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, and the U.S. government has sanctioned Chinese companies that would be involved with the abuses by using forced labor. A diplomatic boycott against the Beijing Winter Olympics is also planned, showing that the American government will not ignore the Uyghur question.By opening its showroom in Urumqi, the regions capital, Tesla may be trying to be in the good graces of the Chinese government. However, doing so may create problems for the company in its home market, where it has one of its only two operating factories and is building another one. Elon Musk constantly clashing with Joe Biden and Democrat politicians also does not help create a reassuring environment for its shareholders. Tesla may not use forced labor in its showroom or benefit from it in any way, but its decision to be in a region where systematic human rights violations happen sends a message. The fact that its cars will not be bought by the people forced to be in the vocational education and training centers makes it even worse. kWh EV To be fair with Mazda, there are battery-electric vehicles with smaller capacities out there. The MINI Cooper SE comes to mind with 32.6, a driving range of 114 miles (183 kilometers), and a starting price of $30k.Only available in California at the moment of reporting, the MX-30 costs $33,470 and offers up to 100 miles (161 kilometers) of driving range because it weighs 512 pounds (232 kilograms) more than the Cooper SE.Doug DeMuro points these downsides in his review of the all-new crossover, which is more expensive than a Chevrolet Boltthat can go twice as far on a full charge. Whats more, only 560 units will be produced for the U.S. market (or, better said, just California) for the 2022 model year.DeMuro also points out how needlessly impractical the rear doors are. More specifically, the front door has to be opened in order to open the rear door, which puts both the driver and rear passenger in a weird situation.The rear windows cant be rolled down, and the size of the rear windows is best described as tiny. Its also worth mentioning theres too little room for the knees out back, which defeats the purpose of having rear seats.Mazda told me the focus wasnt really on driving range, but more on driving experience and pleasure, said DeMuro. But instead, it has 143 horsepower and does zero to 60 in nine-point-something seconds. The steering and handling may be fine, but the drawbacks far outweigh the good points.Alas, the MX-30 earns only 42 points on the Dougscore leaderboard, putting it near the bottom of the list. By comparison, the ever-popular Tesla Model Y is the king of the hill with 68 points for the Performance go-faster variant. The space tourism adventures of 2021 proved that people could someday be transported to space almost as easily as they are on Earth. And if passengers can be flown to space, why not do the same with cargo? Satellite launches with various types of payloads have also expanded dramatically over the last few years. Things seem to be moving towards a world where logistics through space would become routine.This development has an obvious strategic significance for the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), which is responsible for overseeing military logistics around the globe, is exploring ways in which rockets could be used to transport cargo and people through space.The innovative rocket cargo project is about studying the cost and efficiency of carrying goods on commercial rockets and air-dropping payloads, Space Daily reports . In fact, for 2022, the Air Force intends to dedicate almost $50 million to rocket cargo demonstrations.USTRANSCOM signed the first cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) on this matter in March 2020, with SpaceX , then a second one, one month later, with XArc (Exploration Architecture Corporation). The goal was to explore the use of space transportation and spaceports for delivering military materiel and personnel.At the end of last year, Jeff Bezos Blue Origin joined the project. A third CRADA was signed with the rocket company, according to a USTRANSCOM official statement, for further research into military space transportation. According to Vice Admiral Dee Mewbourne, Deputy Commander, logistics through space, compared to conventional transportation, will prove useful in situations where fast response is required or when the military needs access in challenging environments.The ultimate goal is to increase flexibility for defense transportation, which is why other industry partnerships will follow after this recent agreement with Blue Origin. The company has launched its biggest crew yet, on board the New Shepard, at the end of 2021, and the launch of its big New Glenn rocket is scheduled for this year. This time, Toyota is the company that may beat GM at its own game. However, it is worth pointing out that we are just working with estimates here, as both companies have yet to release their sales figures for the last quarter of 2021, which may bring a photo finish to the mix.According to figures that refer to the first nine months of 2021, Toyota had 1.86 million vehicles sold in the U.S., while GM had 1.78 million, which puts the difference at just 80,000 vehicles in the Japanese conglomerate's favor. Of course, there is a chance that the balance could have shifted back in GM's direction, but do not bet anything on it.Back in 2020, GM managed to sell 2.55 million vehicles in the U.S. , while Toyota sold 2.1 million vehicles, and Ford came in third with 2.04 million units.As GM's spokesperson explained for Reuters , the Detroit conglomerate had a "very strong sales year" in the U.S. in full-size SUVs and pickup truck segments, and it focused on profitability instead of sales figures.Industry analysts forecast that Toyota has succeeded in beating GM in sales, but GM's spokesperson, Jim Cain, told journalists that he "would not rush out" and get a "We're No.1 tattoo" (paraphrased for clarity).Meanwhile, Toyota's representatives stated that they are "grateful for its loyal customers, but being No. 1 is never a focus or priority." The statements came from Jack Hollis, Senior Vice President of Toyota USA. Many years ago, Toyota and GM were fighting for the global sales crown.Back in 2015, the Japanese conglomerate beat the Volkswagen Group in worldwide sales, but the Takata airbag recall scandal that followed brought a shift in company perspective. However, in early 2021, Toyota had yet again beat the Volkswagen Group in worldwide sales due to strong results in China.With the global chip shortage still going strong, being a leader in sales on a market does not seem as important as it once was, and the resulting victory may be bittersweet. Anyone with a passion for organized quarter-mile drag racing (the only kind we recommend) knows very well that just like everywhere else, things are moving way too fast (pun intended) today. As such, one has no chance of predicting an eventual outcome when modified vehicles are involved. We have seen bonkers trucks teaching muscle cars some lessons, as well as little icons taking hypercars back to racing school.And everything in between. But when a European supercar takes on a couple of JDMs and another Euro hero, it should be easier to read between the lines, right? Well, the feud between Italys Lamborghini Huracan , Japans Nissan GT-R, and Germanys Porsche 911 give ample food for thought. And, frankly, isnt it better to have little to no knowledge of the outcome beforehand, just to have the pleasure of being surprised?Anyway, the comments for the video embedded below which comes courtesy of the videographer behind the Drag Racing and Car Stuff channel on YouTube might provide a hint or two about what to expect. Just be sure to take them with a grain of salt when it comes to predictions, even if the dragstrip aficionado did have his fingers crossed...The first race sees an orange Lamborghini Huracan proudly ditching its naturally-aspirated V10 legacy in favor of some much-needed twin-turbocharged assistance. It dukes it out with a current Godzilla, but the age of Tohos monster may have set behind Nissans unwillingness to give us an R36 successor . As such, its just like a fan said: that moment when one realizes owning a consistent ten-second car is so yesterday...The first battle, the first win for Lambo (9.09s vs. 10.38s). This was followed by a rinse and repeat situation with a silver GT-R this time around. The outcome was just as decisive: 9.19s for team Italy against a 9.94s pass from the JDM crowd. Last but not least (or so we thought) comes team Germany to flaunt a Porsche 911 Turbo . Alas, it was in vain, and the Italian supercar won big yet again: 8.9s against a rather shameful (in this context) 10.43s pass. SUV Although an entire automotive industry seems to have eyes only for anything crossover,, or truck-related, the reality is a bit different. Both across the real world and the imaginary realm, it seems. Our best real-world example comes in the form of Genesis brand-new G90 flagship.Sure, one can easily bet a house and a couple of mortgages that South Koreas G90 might never have the same outstanding sales popularity as Mercedes-Benz's S-Class (among others, such as the 7 Series or A8). But for anyone looking to stand out in a premium sedan crowd, its 2023 version is now even more luxurious, smarter, and more efficient than ever before.Not to mention that its a looker! We explicitly mentioned the Hyundai Motor Group flagship instead of an affordable Hyundai entry into the traditional four-door world such as the seventh-generation Elantra (also known as Avante/i30 Sedan) because its time to virtually discuss yet another high-ranking member of the companys family.The good folks over at the Gotcha Cars channel on YouTube have continuously imagined the upcoming looks of the premium flagship sedan over the past weeks. As such, we now have a couple of videos (both embedded below, both in Korean but there is also the CC translation option) to highlight the traditional front and rear three-quarter POVs.And, frankly, if the virtual interpretation pans out, theres a reason for sedan fans to rejoice. The segment not only is not dead, but it also might want to punch above its current weight. And at least attempt to show that its not going down without a proper fight. Now, if only the Grandeur ( formerly Azera in the U.S.) would get the chance to prove its next-generation mettle on a truly global scale. HP Things are fast shifting with the electric vehicle revolution, and with it comes the RAESR Tachyon Speed. Not the easiest name to spell, but perhaps the most revolutionary hypercar around. Nolan Sykes of Donut Media finds out if this all-electric hypercar from RAESR delivers its promises.The name might sound like a Japanese brand, but the RAESR Tachyon Speed was born and bred in an industrial park in California, U.S.A.RAESR, the company behind this revolutionary build, claims their hypercar makes more horsepower than a Bugatti Veyron and comes with a top speed of over 240 mph. The craziest figure under this hypercar is that it makes almost 5,423 Nm (4,000 lb-ft) of torque. When the car community first heard about these outrageous claims, most people brushed it off as claptrap.So, is the RAESR Tachyon Speed legit? According to Sykes, the answer to that question is a little bit complicated than you think. Not many people have had the chance to sit in a RAESR Tachyon Speed apart from popular YouTubers like Supercar Blondie. If you are a gamer, you have probably witnessed its virtual capabilities after its addition to Forza Horizon 4 last year.From the very few tours of the RAESR Tachyon Speed, we know it comes with a central seat, zero keys, a steering wheel with built-in controls, ride height adjustability, and active aero. It has a few gimmicks that make it feel like a race car. However, according to Sykes, something might be up with the Tachyon Speed.He feels there is very little footage of the Tachyon Speed. For starters, apart from test drives at the Canyon and a few car show displays, theres almost nothing available online to prove the Tachyons allegedly obliterating speed.Also, Sykes feels theres a lot of discrepancy on the Tachyons power numbers. Most media coverages claim it makes 1,600 HP, but anything non-official claims it makes anything from 1,200 and 1,250 HP. Sykes feels the claims are continents apart and, frankly, quite confusing. And finally, the outlandish claim that it makes 5,423 Nm of torque (5 times more than a Ram 3500 Cummins Turbo Diesel).Despite all the questions and inconsistencies, Sykes believes in the RAESR. Heres why. Compared to the Lykan and Devel Sixteen , the Tachyon Speed is an all-electric hypercar.Electric cars are breaking speed and torque power milestones, with the only limiting factor being range. On RAESRs website, the Tachyon Speed comes with a range of 150+ miles, with a final car offering over 300 miles.As far as the horsepower claims go, the math works out. This hypercar comes with six electric motors, two in the front and four in the rear. According to RAESR, each of these motors can produce 300 HP making 1,250 HP a conservative estimate.Another thing that makes Sykes believe RAESRs claims is the Tachyon Speed is not designed for comfort. It is a street-legal designed for the track. Therefore, infotainment systems, noise vibration, harshness, or cargo space are not a priority during development.What about their outlandish 5,423 Nm of torque claim? Well, according to Sykes, it might not be hard for RAESR to make their claim right. While ICEs need gear ratios, final drive, and wheel size to determine torque, EVs dont. Instead, they have direct drive, meaning the motors dont have to go through the same torque multiplication like an internal combustion engine car.All in all, theres much more to building a track car than power and Alcantara. Sykes concluded by giving the benefit of the doubt to RAESRs delivery. He also mentioned that RAESR need to make good their promises in time since the Tesla Roadster and Lotus Evija's numbers already make it look slow. The mostly rural community has been in turmoil since the December 5 election of a local council empowered to appoint its mayor. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian Civil Contract party garnered most votes but fell short of an overall majority in the 27-member council, winning only 13 seats there. The remaining 14 seats were won by two local opposition blocs. They reached a power-sharing deal and nominated one of their leaders, Aharon Khachatrian, for the post of community head. The 14 opposition members of the new Vartenis council elected Khachatrian as mayor during its inaugural session held on December 30. Civil Contract members led by Aram Melkonian, Varteniss incumbent mayor seeking reelection, tried to disrupt the session before walking out in protest. Melkonian went on to ask Armenias Administrative Court to annul the appointment of the new mayor, saying that it was illegal. The opposition forces dismissed the allegation and scheduled Khachatrians inauguration for Monday. Scores of police officers deployed at the entrance to the local government building did not allow the council majority to enter it to hold the swearing-in ceremony. Local police chiefs told the oppositionists that Khachatrian cannot start performing his duties because of the lawsuit filed by the ruling party. The ban angered Khachatrians supporters who gathered outside the building. One gets the impression that the Civil Contract party has started a civil war against residents of Vartenis, said one of them. A lawyer representing Khachatrian insisted that council members are legally allowed to enter the building regardless of the court case. The police are overstepping their powers, he said. Khachatrian had to take an oath of office in the buildings courtyard. His loyalists admitted that he will not be able to take office before a court verdict. Meanwhile, Melkonian said that the police acted on his orders. I personally made sure that this buffoonery doesnt take place, the incumbent mayor told reporters. Melkonian said that the two opposition forces must not be allowed to run the community comprising Vartenis and two dozen villages because they deceived voters. He did not elaborate. On Monday, the ruling partys candidate called on all newly elected council members to resign and pave the way for a repeat election. The council held a session and elected a community head. What should we annul after that? countered Davit Shahnazarian of the United Vartenis bloc allied to Khachatrians alliance. United Varteniss leader was arrested on corruption charges shortly after the power-sharing deal cut by the two groups. Opposition politicians and human rights campaigners in Yerevan condemned his arrest, saying that it is part of a government crackdown on political figures who defeated Pashinians party in some of the three dozen communities across Armenia that elected their local councils on December 5. Arman Tatoyan, the countrys human rights ombudsman, charged on December 17 that opposition groups that did well there are being illegally pressured not to install their leaders or allies as community heads. These practices are fundamentally at odds with democratic norms, said Tatoyan. Pashinians political allies maintain that neither these nor any other post-election criminal cases are politically motivated. Pashinians party suffered its biggest election setback in Vanadzor, Armenias third largest city. It won only 25 percent of the vote there, compared with 39 percent polled by a local bloc led by former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian. Aslanian was thus well-placed to regain his post lost in October. But he was arrested on December 15 on corruption charges rejected by him as politically motivated. The Administrative Court blocked the first session of the new Vanadzor council slated for December 24. It cited an appeal against the local election results lodged by another party that fared poorly in the ballot. Indonesia is on fast track of digital transformation as new-tech start-ups are sprouting across the country. Meanwhile, local companies are working with their Chinese partners to help the island nation go digital. Produced by Xinhua Global Service Kern County citrus grower John S. Gless doesn't want to jinx himself, and so he hesitated before admitting this Monday, but it seems like the ADEN, Yemen, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Intense battles between Yemen's government forces and the Houthi militia continued on Tuesday, expanding across the country's oil-rich southern province of Shabwa, a military official told Xinhua. Several units of the pro-government forces engaged in intense confrontations with the Houthis over the control of Usaylan and Bayhan districts in Shabwa province within the past 24 hours, the local military source said on condition of anonymity. "Deadly fighting is still taking place in Shabwa as both warring sides brought large reinforcements aiming at expanding the battles to include new surrounding areas," he said. He said that "more than 54 members of the pro-government forces were killed in the ongoing fighting." The Houthis fired a barrage of missiles against the government-held positions and attempted to curb the progress of the southern Giants Brigades troops towards Bayhan, he added. Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition carried out a series of airstrikes and bombed various Houthi-held sites in different areas of Shabwa during the past 24 hours. An official of Shabwa's local authority confirmed to Xinhua that "the precise bombardment conducted by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition largely supported the pro-government forces to advance and capture key areas from Houthis in Shabwa." He said anonymously that "the battles are still taking place and nearly 112 of the Houthi rebels were killed either by airstrikes or during armed confrontations with the pro-government forces within the past 24 hours." He noted that the local government backed by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition is planning to continue the military operations till recapturing all the areas in Shabwa and securing the strategic oil-rich province. Earlier in the day, additional military units of the pro-government forces were dispatched from the country's southern port city of Aden to participate in the ongoing fighting against Houthis in Shabwa. On the other side, the Houthi militia mobilized its fighters to Shabwa's battlefield and deployed scores of others across the areas heading to the neighboring provinces of al-Bayda and Marib. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels made substantial advances on the battlefield in September, capturing Bayhan and other key areas in Shabwa after seizing al-Bayda and most areas of Marib. Yemen has been mired in a civil war since the Houthi militia overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa, in 2014. Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Houthis forced him into exile. Enditem Stay up to date on COVID-19 Get Breaking News Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. HAZEL GREEN, Ala. (AP) A line of severe storms damaged homes, knocked out power and downed trees in parts of the southern United States late Saturday into Sunday morning. Authorities closed roads in Hazel Green, Alabama, after power lines came down and homes suffered damage. The Madison County Sheriff's Office shared photos online including one of a snapped power pole. The weather also caused damage to businesses in Hazel Green, including a Walmart, local news outlets reported. The community is located about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of Huntsville. Huntsville Utilities said service has been restored to parts of Hazel Green, but work continues with multiple downed power poles in the area. The same system brought down trees in the nearby town of Triana, roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Huntsville. Mayor Mary Caudle told WAFF-TV that about 280 residents took cover in a storm shelter Saturday night. Madison, Morgan Cullman, Marshall, Jackson, DeKalb, Limestone, Franklin and Lawrence counties remain under a tornado watch until 2 a.m. The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory for north and parts of north-central Alabama, in effect from 6 p.m. through 3 a.m. Monday. Temperatures are expected to plummet as a cold front moves through. The storms followed a system earlier Saturday which brought flooding to parts of Kentucky. An EF-2 tornado caused significant damage in Hopkinsville on Saturday with estimated peak winds of 115 mph (185 kph), the National Weather Service said. No injuries were reported. Temperatures dipped Sunday after the severe weather rolled through, and winter storm warnings were posted from eastern Tennessee to Maryland with up to 6 inches of snow possible in some areas. Freeze warnings were posted from southern Texas to Mississippi. Bedford, PA (15522) Today Areas of patchy fog early. Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. High 67F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low 46F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. PHNOM PENH, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen held phone talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Tuesday, discussing cooperation under the ASEAN framework and Myanmar's political situation, Cambodia's foreign ministry said. During the call, Widodo warmly congratulated Cambodia for assuming the role as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) chair for 2022, the ministry said in a statement, adding that he reiterated Indonesia's full support for Cambodia's successful chairmanship, which he believed would contribute to Indonesia's successful chairmanship of ASEAN in 2023. In response, Hun Sen expressed his high appreciation to the Indonesian president for supporting Cambodia's ASEAN chairmanship this year, it said. The Cambodian leader also praised Indonesia for its many initiatives contributing to the ASEAN community building process. "The two leaders also exchanged views on the current developments in Myanmar and underscored the importance to forge ASEAN's efforts to assist Myanmar in finding suitable solutions to achieve national reconciliation, durable peace, stability and development," the statement said. Established in 1967, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Enditem Pro-democracy protesters step on photos of Burmese junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ASEAN logo, in Yangon, Dec. 27, 2021. Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET on 2022-01-05 The Myanmar juntas spokesman indicated Tuesday that the Burmese regime would not allow Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to meet with detained pro-democracy leaders during his visit to the country later this week. Analysts, however, said Hun Sen would undermine efforts by the ASEAN bloc to press the Burmese junta into putting Myanmar back on a democratic path, if he failed to meet pro-democracy leaders on his Jan. 7-8 trip the first by a foreign leader since the military coup last February. [O]nly those who represent political parties would be able to meet and discuss, but there are limitations for those who are still facing legal charges, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told Radio Free Asia (RFA), with which BenarNews is affiliated. He was referring to charges, among others, of importing walkie-talkies, inciting dissent and breaking COVID-19 rules against State Counselor and National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as ousted President Win Myint. The junta had similarly not allowed the former ASEAN special envoy to Myanmar to meet with democracy leaders last year. Zaw Min Tun did not elaborate on whether Hun Sen had asked to meet with top NLD leaders, including Win Myint and Aung San Suu Kyi. And when RFA asked him about it, Koy Koung, the spokesman for Cambodias foreign ministry, said he did not have information about whether Hun Sen would meet with Aung San Suu Kyi. He must not endorse what is happening in Myanmar Hun Sens visit comes only two months after ASEAN shut out the Burmese junta from its main summit in 2021 for reneging on a promise to allow access to all parties in the current political impasse. Many pro-democracy Burmese are outraged that Hun Sen is visiting the junta and, according to them, conferring legitimacy on the countrys military chief, whose forces stand accused of committing widespread atrocities since the coup. Khit Thit Media, one of the five major independent news media outlets that were banned by the junta last March, posted photographs of Burmese stomping on pictures of Hun Sen. Other outlets posted photos of protesters with a message on placards for Hun Sen: Dont Support the Killing Fields in Myanmar. They were alluding to the Cambodian genocide when as many as 1.7 million people died under the rule of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, according to researchers at Yale University. Meanwhile, a joint statement issued on Tuesday by close to 200 civil society groups in Myanmar and abroad condemned Hun Sen for his planned visit. ASEAN and the United Nations General Assembly have backed the Five-Point Consensus, and must ensure that Hun Sen does not act alone in 2022 lending legitimacy to the Myanmar military junta and further emboldening them to cause more harm to the people, the groups said. This would be an insult to the people of Myanmar and Cambodia and further jeopardizing ASEANs already-diminishing credibility during the Cambodia tenure as chair of ASEAN in 2022. Engagement with Myanmar should involve making contact with all relevant actors, including the National Unity Government the parallel civilian government body said Muhammad Arif, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Indonesia. What ASEAN is aiming with its policy to isolate the junta diplomatically is to inflict some political cost on the junta, Arif told BenarNews about the bloc headquartered in Jakarta. If Hun Sen engages exclusively with the junta, it would only undo this effort. In Malaysia, a former foreign minister said it was imperative that Hun Sen makes clear that what is happening in Myanmar is not acceptable to ASEAN. He was referring to the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup and the nearly 1,400 people mostly pro-democracy protesters killed by Burmese security forces since then. He must not endorse what is happening in Myanmar as its own internal and domestic affairs, Syed Hamid Albar, also a former envoy to Myanmar from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, told BenarNews. It is important that Hun Sen in his engagement with Myanmar reflect both the ASEAN and international sentiments on what is happening in Myanmar. His visit must not undermine ASEANs collective position vis-a-vis the coup, he said. Hun Sen: under-the-table negotiations are best Hun Sen has said nothing about the post-coup killings in Myanmar so far. Last week, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, the new United Nations special envoy on Myanmar, that Phnom Penh was committed to taking a practical step-by-step approach toward achieving progress on the implementation of the ASEAN five-point consensus. Last April, Burmese junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and leaders of ASEAN member-states reached a five-point consensus that aimed to set Myanmar back on the path to democracy. The consensus called for an end to violence, the appointment of a special ASEAN envoy to Myanmar and access to all sides in the conflict to that envoy. Myanmar has reneged on all these points. In late 2021, the 10-member bloc barred Min Aung Hlaing from attending its annual summit in October for not living up to his promises. Since then, Myanmar has been absent from two other top-level meetings. Hun Sen, at first, said Myanmar was to blame for being excluded from the ASEAN summit. But he changed his rhetoric soon after he received the ceremonial gavel for the revolving chairmanship of ASEAN. It is not up to ASEAN to resolve this issue. ASEAN is here to help, but Myanmar needs to solve its own problems by itself, the Cambodian PM said on Dec. 15. It is important for me to meet Myanmars [military] leaders, but under-the-table negotiations are the best and most fruitful approach for us to take. Dont disturb me, just give me time, he said. News of two bombs exploding near the Cambodian embassy in Naypyidaw on Dec. 31 also has not fazed Hun Sen, with the foreign ministry spokesman saying the visit would go ahead as planned. Some critics had expected no less of the strongman who, they said, had used ASEAN to legitimize his authoritarian government. They noted that the pro-China leader had, as ASEAN chairman in 2012, been accused of siding with Beijing and preventing the bloc from reaching an agreement on the disputed South China Sea. Still, according to Arif of the University of Indonesia, through this upcoming trip to Myanmar, Hun Sen may be trying to erase the memory of Cambodias 2012 chairmanship. Apparently Hun Sen doesnt want to repeat the same mistake and wants to make his mark this time. Cambodias engagement with Myanmar can be seen in this context. But he should not depart too far from ASEANs collective stance, Arif said. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen gestures as he speaks during an event at the Morodok Techo National Stadium, in Phnom Penh, Sept. 12, 2021. [Reuters] According to an ASEAN parliamentarian from Malaysia, many of the blocs member-states would be unhappy with Hun Sens plan to visit Myanmar. If [Hun Sen] is going there representing ASEAN, he should inform all the ASEAN countries and get [their] endorsement but until now all the countries have not been informed or even endorse[d] his visit, Charles Santiago, chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, told BenarNews. Government officials from the Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand all founding members of ASEAN declined to comment for this report. As far as political analyst Dinna Prapto Raharja is concerned, Hun Sen is indeed going to Naypyidaw as an ASEAN representative, because Cambodia is the new holder of the rotating ASEAN chair and Myanmar is a member of the 54-year-old bloc. The key is who will Hun Sen meet? Im almost certain hell meet with the military junta, Dinna, founder of Indonesian think-tank Synergy Policies, told BenarNews. If Hun Sen meets with the military junta and not with the representatives of NUG, hed send the wrong message to the Myanmar junta on ASEANs intent and the five-point consensus agreed on. The ASEAN parliamentarians group is not confident that Hun Sen will represent ASEAN sentiments. Cambodian PM Hun Sen is willing to split ASEAN like he did in 2012. This time over legitimizing accused war criminals [the] Myanmar junta, APHR said in a tweet on Tuesday. Is this the beginning of the end for ASEAN? Radio Free Asias Myanmar and Khmer services contributed to this report. Update: This story has been updated to correct the dates of Hun Sen's visit to Myanmar, which had been incorrectly given as Jan. 8-9 by the Cambodian prime minister. Indonesian security force members and locals watch as authorities remove the body of Ahmad Gazali, a suspected Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen member who was killed in a shootout at Parigi Moutong regency, Central Sulawesi province, Jan. 4, 2022. Indonesian security forces on Tuesday shot dead a suspected member of a pro-Islamic State militant group who was accused of taking part in beheading locals in Central Sulawesi province, officials said. The suspect, identified as Ahmad Gazali, was killed during a shootout at a village in the mountains of Parigi Moutong regency, police said. His death brought the number of suspected members of the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) down to three men, according to officials. He and the handful of other holdovers were the target of a massive manhunt still under way in the area known for its steep and rugged jungle terrain. After checking with the list of most wanted persons, it is confirmed to be Ahmad Gazali, provincial police spokesman Didik Supranoto told reporters in Palu, the provincial capital, referring to Ahmads body. It was taken to a hospital in Palu for an autopsy. If no family claims the body, Gazali will be buried in a public cemetery in Palu, Didik said. A joint military and police task force confiscated a homemade bomb, a bottle containing gunpowder, a machete and other evidence after the shootout, Didik said. Ahmad, 27, (alias Ahmad Panjang) joined MIT in 2016 and was involved in terror attacks, including in May 2021 when MIT militants killed four farmers in Kalemago, a village in Poso regency, according to Didik. One of the victims was beheaded. Ahmad was linked to an attack in November 2020 where a victim was decapitated as well. A resident of Luwu regency, Ahmad was born and raised in Palu, Didik said, adding that the militant was skilled in making bombs and had mastered the terrain of Poso, Parigi Moutong and Sigi regencies where police believe MIT has hideouts. On Monday, police said they had mapped the whereabouts of four remaining MIT members in the mountains between Poso and Parigi Moutong. Police based this information on tips from residents who reported seeing the suspects enter a plantation to steal food. Ahmad Gazali was the first MIT suspect to be killed since Sept. 18, 2021, when police and military members of the Madago Raya task force gunned down Ali Kalora, MITs top commander at the time, and a follower identified as Jaka Ramadhan in the jungles of Parigi Moutong. Their deaths reduced MITs membership to four, with police vowing to capture the remnants dead or alive. In January 2016, the government launched Operation Tinombala, a joint military-police task force, with a mission to capture or kill MIT militants. The name changed to Madago Raya (Kindness), as part of a strategy that focused on humanitarian and social activities, police said. At the time of the killings in September 2021, the task force had more than 1,300 members. With the arrival of the new year, authorities reduced that number to 400 and allowed it to operate for another three months, Inspector General Rudy Sufahriadi, the Central Sulawesi police chief who leads the operation, told BenarNews on Monday. He did not elaborate on how much money was allocated for the extension, saying it came from the National Police budget. Already weak Lukman Tahir, a terrorism analyst at the State Islamic Institute in Palu, said the three remaining MIT fugitives were getting weaker and desperate, adding that patrols should be intensified. They are already weak. This is an opportunity for the task force to raise operational tensions so that they can capture the three fugitives, Lukman told BenarNews. Mohammad Affandi, a terrorism researcher at the Ruang Empat Kali Empat, a think-tank in Central Sulawesi, said the task force should not kill the three. Dont let all MIT members be shot dead. We need them to be arrested alive. We need to bring the remaining members to the court and make them reveal all involved in helping MIT, Affandi told BenarNews. Affandi said authorities should capture sympathizers who supplied food, logistics and weapons. Do not focus only on MIT members in the mountain and forests areas. But also reveal those who support it from below the mountains and outside the forest, he said. There are still a lot of sympathizers hanging around and Im sure the police and the TNI know that. Those sympathizers need to be arrested so that new MITs dont emerge. MIT is one of two pro-IS groups operating in Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim-majority country. The other is Jemaah Ansharut Daulah, which Indonesian authorities blamed for most terror attacks in the archipelago nation during the past six years. An F/A-18F Super Hornet lands on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson during a deployment in the South China Sea, Nov. 20, 2021. Increased military exercises and sharp rhetoric have fueled fears of a superpower conflict in the disputed South China Sea, but at least one scholar is making waves with a different narrative that the fears of war are overblown. John Quiggin, professor of economics at the University of Queensland, Australia, argues that an inflated evaluation of the strategic importance of the disputed waterway may be stoking tensions. He said those tensions are impeding diplomacy and collaboration on more critical international concerns such as climate change. He made his case in a recent article published by the Lowy Institute, an independent think-tank in Australia, highlighting what he described as five myths about the South China Sea. The myths are: The South China Sea is a vital shipping route, potentially threatened by China; the South China Sea is home to immensely valuable resources; China has the military and naval capacity to invade Taiwan; it is crucially important to maintain freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea; and China is willing to fight a nuclear war to defend its claims in the South China Sea. Speaking to Radio Free Asia (RFA) from Brisbane, Quiggin said that globally the most prevalent myth about the South China Sea is that it is a vital shipping lane and China might, in some ways, disrupt it. BenarNews is affiliated with RFA. The whole idea of the South China Sea as a vital shipping lane is economically nonsensical, he said, adding: Its certainly convenient to have the fastest and cheapest route but theres always a long way around. It is commonly believed that up to a third of the world trade is shipped through the South China Sea each year, valued at between $3 trillion and $5 trillion. The Straits of Malacca are the shortest and cheapest route between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. There are alternatives and the economic cost of disruption would just be a small amount, said Quiggin, drawing a parallel with the Suez Canals closure in mid-20th century due to Arab-Israeli wars. Similarly, the professor played down the importance of the oil and gas reserves in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, saying the quantities are smaller than they seem. In his opinion, it is unlikely that substantial volumes of oil and gas will ever be extracted as we approach the end of the carbon fuels era and these resources are of more value as diplomatic bargaining chips rather than commodities. The article provoked interest, but also disagreement, among South China Sea experts and researchers. They include Greg Poling, a maritime expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He disagreed with the premise that the most likely casus belli, or act that provokes war, between the United States and China would be an attempt by China to take control of shipping routes and disputed territory in the South China Sea. The shipping importance and resource disputes are indeed overstated, but neither are the fundamental concern, Poling told RFA in an e-mail. The most likely casus belli is a use of force by China against either U.S. or allied vessels/personnel during operations by the latter to exercise their rights, he said. Western nations, including the U.S., have stepped up military drills in the South China Sea in the past year. Those nations have become more critical of Chinas sweeping sovereignty claims amid concerns that Beijings stance poses a threat to freedom of navigation. Myth about Taiwan Quiggin further dismissed fears about what is widely viewed as the most serious flashpoint for conflict in the region Taiwan. He called the claim that Beijing plans to invade Taiwan soon a laughable idea and a seaborne invasion of Taiwan would be massively more difficult than the D-Day landings as China simply does not have enough capacity including landing craft. D-Day refers to the Allied seaborne landings in Normandy, France, in World War II. Quiggin said while everyone who seriously looks into the prospect recognizes it, no-one wants to admit it. Taiwan doesnt want to say that were safe, we dont need any help. China certainly is not going admit that they cant invade Taiwan. So it suits everybody to go home with this myth, Quiggin said. China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and vows to unite it with the mainland, by force if necessary. Chinese military activity in the Taiwan Strait has intensified in recent months, with hundreds of military aircraft sorties into Taiwans air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in what observers see as an intimidation campaign. The Australian scholar was also critical of what he called the U.S. doctrine of Freedom of Navigation Operations for naval ships in the South China Sea, saying it was more symbolic than substantive. Its again the U.S. unwilling to concede a point which is essentially symbolic, because when you look at the balance of forces, it will be very difficult to sustain the freedom of navigation if China really decided to take military action against it, he said. There are serious sources of conflict between China and the democratic world in important areas like climate change, where co-operation is urgently needed. Focusing on secondary and symbolic issues like disputes over South China Sea reduces the prospect for resolving more important conflicts, Quiggin said. A visitor walks toward the exhibition center of the China International Digital Economy Expo 2021 in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 6, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Xiao) BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- In a year highlighted by increasing uncertainties, China has stayed steadfast in advancing regulations over the digital economy to guide the healthy development of the booming sector. In late December, a leading Chinese livestreamer on e-commerce platform Huang Wei, better known as Viya, was fined 1.34 billion yuan (about 210 million U.S. dollars) by taxation authorities for tax evasion. Such heavy fines imposed on an e-commerce livestreamer have rarely been seen in recent years, and the case revealed in part the disorderly expansion of the platform economy, analysts said. Entering 2021, China initiated multiple anti-trust and anti-unfair competition probes as well as data security checks on major platform firms, from internet and tech giants to e-commerce companies. Rather than a "sharp turn" in its economic governance direction as misunderstood by some Western observers, China's regulatory moves are part of its long-standing efforts to bring economic activities back on the track of healthy and lawful development. ANTI-MONOPOLY, ANTI-UNFAIR COMPETITION In April, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China's top market regulator, imposed an administrative penalty on Alibaba for monopoly conduct of implementing an "exclusive dealing agreement." The internet behemoth is not the first platform firm to come under the scanner against the backdrop of China's anti-monopoly efforts. Earlier in March, the SAMR had imposed penalties on 12 companies, including Tencent, Baidu and Didi, for violating the anti-monopoly law. In October, internet giant Meituan was fined 3.442 billion yuan by the SAMR for abusing its dominant market position in China's online food delivery platform market. The regulatory moves came as the leadership made it one of the policy priorities for 2021 to strengthen anti-monopoly oversight and prevent the disorderly expansion of capital at the Central Economic Work Conference in 2020. A look into the SAMR's statements respectively issued after it declared such penalties may help shed light on that, the common goals of the oversight measures are to ensure the sector's sound development and protect consumers' legitimate rights and interests. Parallel session on Digital Economy Shapes the Future World of the fourth Hongqiao International Economic Forum is held in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 5, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei) INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION Globally speaking, problems are emerging along with the robust growth of the platform economy, including abusing dominant market positions and limiting competition, said Yu Xiaohui, head of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, noting that it has become a challenging issue for regulatory agencies in all countries. While advancing domestic oversight, China has been active in seeking cooperation with the international community to promote digital governance. On Nov. 1, the Ministry of Commerce announced that China had filed an application to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA). Signed in June 2020 by Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, the DEPA is a new type of trade partnership agreement seeking to bolster digital trade by regulating issues related to the digital economy, including digital inclusion, data flows and protection and artificial intelligence. China's application to join DEPA is in line with its direction of further deepening domestic reform and expanding high-level opening-up, and will help the country strengthen digital economy cooperation with other members, the ministry said in a statement. As a leading player in the digital economy, China's participation in the agreement will not only promote its development of digital economy and trade but also boost the recovery of the world economy, said Liu Ying, a researcher with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. A staff member displays a smart mirror at the China International Digital Economy Expo 2021 in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Sept. 7, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Xiao) LAW-BASED REGULATION China has made constant efforts to adapt the rule of law regarding anti-monopoly regulation in the digital era. The Draft Revision of the Anti-Monopoly Law, issued in early 2020, added for the first time the provisions for determining the dominant market position of internet companies. In February, China issued the Guidelines for Anti-Monopoly in the Platform Economy to detail a set of rules that could rein in the monopolistic conduct of the country's top internet firms. China's national anti-monopoly bureau was inaugurated in Beijing in November, marking another major institutional arrangement in this regard. In 2022, the country will further implement policies promoting fair competition and intensify its efforts on anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition, according to the Central Economic Work Conference held in early December. The meeting also underlined setting up "traffic lights" and enhancing supervision of capital in accordance with the law and preventing its unchecked growth. In an interview with Xinhua, Zhang Gong, head of the SAMR, said that China will strengthen oversight and law enforcement in the coming year in key areas, including the platform economy, sci-tech innovation, information security and people's livelihoods. If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. BAGHDAD, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Two drones targeting an Iraqi military airbase in the country's western province of Anbar were shot down without casualties on Tuesday, the Iraqi military said. The drones attacked the Ayn al-Asad Air Base at dawn, but the air defense system shot them down outside the perimeter of the airbase, the Iraqi Joint Operation Command said in a statement. An Iraqi army source anonymously confirmed to Xinhua that two drones attacked the Ayn al-Asad Air Base, which houses some U.S. military experts and agencies, and were shot down. The attack came a day after two drones were reportedly shot down at an Iraqi military base known as Camp Victory near Baghdad International Airport. The attacks came on the second anniversary of a deadly attack by a U.S. drone on a convoy near Baghdad International Airport that killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, former deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces. On Jan. 5, 2020, just two days after the U.S. attack, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country. On Dec. 29, 2021, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi confirmed the end of the U.S.-led coalition forces' combat mission in Iraq after the withdrawal of the forces from the country. Enditem Greg Sukiennik has worked at all three Vermont News & Media newspapers and was their managing editor from 2017-19. He previously worked for ESPN.com, for the AP in Boston, and at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass. Five restaurants in Berkshire County that are owned by women are among 80 eateries statewide that each has received $5,000 grants from the Massachusetts Conference for Women, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing women in the workplace. 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. PITTSFIELD Recent COVID-19 tests in the Berkshires are coming back positive at a higher rate than the pandemic as a whole as cases surge and waits continue for access to tests. Quote It was a perfect storm of high demand. The health care system is being stressed out. State Rep. John Barrett III, D-North Adams In the last seven days, 19.2 percent of the roughly 5,000 tests conducted by Berkshire Medical Center detected the virus. That compares to 16.2 percent in the last 14 days and 11.3 percent for the entire pandemic. Since Dec. 27, 1,165 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Berkshire County, according to the state Department of Public Health, and four people in the county have died since then of the disease. Last Wednesday, a key measure of the diseases spread a 14-day average of daily cases per 100,000 population hit a new high of 84.1 for the city of Pittsfield. It has only risen since. On Saturday, that number rose to 106.1. By comparison, its high point last January, amid a surge of cases in Pittsfield, was 81.9. Meantime, waits for testing persist. We do expect our testing centers will continue to be busy and the wait time for a test is out several days due to the volume we are experiencing, said Michael Leary, the hospitals spokesman. We ask for patience as we try to increase our testing capabilities. One Berkshires resident said she faced a 16-day wait for a test when she called BMC on Dec. 23. The wait time for tests rose before and after the Thanksgiving week, The Eagle reported, and both the arrival of the holiday season and the omicron variant appears to have contributed to backlogs in testing. State Rep. John Barrett III, D-North Adams, said that local testing centers have been stretching to accommodate heavy demand, but have struggled to keep up. Thats been a real problem, and its been that way for better than a month, Barrett said. It was a perfect storm of high demand. The health care system is being stressed out. Leary said that in the weeks before the December holidays, the wait time for a test was a few days much of the time. Quote We ask for patience as we try to increase our testing capabilities. Michael Leary, Berkshire Health Systems The hospital at that time was conducting about 4,500 tests a week, he said, with a positivity rate averaging 10 to 12 percent. BMCs testing centers accept calls from people seeking appointments whether they show symptoms of the coronavirus or not. Two sessions this week that will offer BinaxNOW rapid tests filled up quickly Monday, when posted online by the Southern Berkshire Public Health Collaborative. Community Health Programs continues to operate a mobile health unit van. All this week, by appointment the van will be offering testing in the morning and vaccines in the afternoon from the programs Great Barrington office, at 444 Stockbridge Road. (Visit its website for times and details, or call 413-528-0457 to make an appointment.) CHP plans to send the van back to North County on Jan. 12 and 25, according to Barrett. Gov. Charlie Baker has complained that the federal government has not done enough to make rapid test kits available to Massachusetts. Across the state, pharmacies sold out on their supplies of rapid-test kits over the holidays. Leary, of BMC, said that in the past two weeks, the hospital conducted over 9,000 tests, a higher than normal volume that he linked to both the holiday season and the arrival of the more transmissible omicron variant. Still, the number of people hospitalized at BMC with COVID-19 are down from a year ago, when vaccines were just rolling out. And those who are hospitalized are generally less sick than patients receiving care last January, Leary said. Vaccine clinics The Berkshire Public Health Alliance and its local partners plan additional vaccine clinics early this month. To register, visit getvaccinatedberkshires.org. On Jan. 8, a clinic will be held at the Patterson Field House at Berkshire Community College, 1350 West St. in Pittsfield, for anyone now eligible for vaccines and boosters. That includes adults, children 12 and older and the newest age group to be cleared for inoculation, those aged 5 to 11 years old. The clinic will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The clinic will offer Pfizer and Moderna boosters for adults and first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine for those aged 5-11. On Jan. 14, a clinic will be held from 8 to 10 a.m. at the field house at Williams College, at 82 Latham St. in Williamstown. The clinic is only for those 12 and over, including adults. The hours may be extended depending on registration, according to Leslie Drager, lead public health nurse with the Berkshire Public Health Alliance. HINSDALE A joint venture involving Silver Therapeutics, a cannabis business with operations in Williamstown and Orange, is close to filing an application to grow in a Hinsdale neighborhood. Near the end of 2021, Sunlight Farms LLC sent a $15,000 check to the town, as required under the host community agreement it reached with Hinsdale last year. The money is a required deposit to cover consulting expenses the town incurs when evaluating the companys proposal to build an indoor marijuana farm at 172 Peru Road. The towns agreement with Sunlight Farms LLC was signed by Joshua Silver, who listed his place of business as 238 Main St. in Williamstown, home to the retail store Silver Therapeutics. Mr. Silver is putting it forward, said Bob Graves, the Hinsdale town administrator. Silver said Tuesday engineers are still at work on detailed drawings of the project that will be submitted and soon, he hopes. Everything seems like it takes much longer these days, he said. When we met with the Select Board, we had [only] conceptual drawings. In December 2020, Silver proposed to prepare a roughly 6,000-square-foot greenhouse at 172 Peru Road, home to a former mink farm. He said at the time he planned to use an existing structure on the property and to make use of solar power available on the site. That remains the plan, he said this week. An existing two-story warehouse with roughly 3,000 square feet of space would be repurposed for the greenhouse. The building is located to the rear of a house on the site and had formerly been used as part of the mink farm. The project is a joint venture between Silver Therapeutics and property owner Michael A. Viner, who developed a solar field on the parcel that the greenhouse anticipates using as a power source. Its got the potential to have very low impacts, Silver said, because of its use of solar energy. The host community agreement the town reached with Sunlight Farms calls for a Tier II farm under Cannabis Control Commission rules, which would allow the company to build 6,800 square feet of indoor cultivation space, along with another 2,400 square feet of processing and storage space. Silver said the venture expects to submit its application for the Hinsdale farm to the commission this month. No retail sales would be conducted at the property. All cannabis products would be sold through Silver Therapeutics outlets or on the wholesale market. Quote The property at 172 Peru Road is owned by Global Construction Services LLC, whose principal is Michael A. Viner of Hinsdale. Records on file with the secretary of states office list Joshua Silver and Viner as co-managers of Sunlight Farms LLC. The property is owned by Global Construction Services LLC, whose principal is Viner of Hinsdale. Records on file with the Secretary of States Office list Silver and Viner as co-managers of Sunlight Farms. Graves said the town expects to receive a special permit application for the farm that will be reviewed by the Planning Board. Silver said he did not know when the application would be filed, but said he hoped it would be submitted in the first quarter of the year. Land records show that Viner bought the 172 Peru Road property for $250,000 in July 2017 from the Earl Carmel Trust. If the project receives town approvals, it will pay Hinsdale 3 percent of its gross sales, in quarterly payments, according to the host community agreement. That pact would be up for renegotiation in five years; if parties cannot agree then on changes, it would remain in effect. The business also pledges to donate $2,500 a year for five years as a community benefit, and make a $2,500 yearly donation to a local charity, for the life of the host community agreement. The document required Sunlight Farms to make the $15,000 deposit with the town in advance of possible expenses incurred by Hinsdale as it reviews the cannabis project application. Outdoor cultivation is banned, unless agreed to by the Select Board. Other provisions of the agreement call for the company to consult with local police officials on the propertys security system and policies and to make its best efforts to do business with local vendors and to hire locally. The agreement also says that if five or more reasonable complaints are filed over odors from the farm, the Select Board can call the parties to a meeting to discuss that issue. This isnt the first time a cannabis venture has been pitched for the neighborhood, near Ashmere Lake in the northeast section of Hinsdale. Before it encountered and eventually bowed to neighborhood opposition, FFD Enterprises MA proposed an outdoor cannabis farm at 246 Peru Road. That company opted to shift its location to 120 Bullards Crossing Road, where it brought in its first harvest in 2021. You are the owner of this article. Scott Stafford has been a reporter, photographer, and editor at a variety of publications, including the Dallas Morning News and The Berkshire Eagle. MountainOne's Pittsfield headquarters is at the entrance of the William Stanley Business Park. With its recent purchase of a Cross Insurance office, MountainOne has become one of the the largest insurance agencies in the Berkshires. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks during a formal ceremony for reunification of Parthenon Sculptures at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, on Jan. 3, 2022. Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Monday for all the Parthenon's sculptures to be brought back together, as ten marble fragments of sculptures from the 2,500-year-old temple on Acropolis hill were transferred from the National Archaeological Museum of Greece to the Acropolis Museum. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) ATHENS, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Monday for all the Parthenon's sculptures to be brought back together, as ten marble fragments of sculptures from the 2,500-year-old temple on Acropolis hill were transferred from the National Archaeological Museum of Greece to the Acropolis Museum. "This journey of return transmits a loud message for the reunification of all parts of this unique monument for humanity," Mitsotakis said during a formal ceremony at the Acropolis Museum. The fragments returned on Monday include part of the head of a youth. The rest of the sculpture is currently kept in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Until now, the ten fragments were kept in the storerooms of the National Archaeological Museum. "This is a first, but very important step in the effort to collect here, at the Acropolis Museum, all the smaller and larger parts of the Parthenon's decorative sculptures that are now scattered in various museums around the world," Mitsotakis said. The Greek sculptures have been the subject of a dispute between Athens and London for decades. Large parts of the sculptures are currently exhibited at the British Museum in London. In the early 19th century, while Greece was still under Ottoman Empire rule, half of the sculptures of the Parthenon were removed by the UK diplomat Lord Elgin. For decades, Greeks have repeatedly asked for them to be returned. Enditem Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (C) visits the fragments of Parthenon's sculptures at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, on Jan. 3, 2022. Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Monday for all the Parthenon's sculptures to be brought back together, as ten marble fragments of sculptures from the 2,500-year-old temple on Acropolis hill were transferred from the National Archaeological Museum of Greece to the Acropolis Museum. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) State Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, is an alumnus of Harvard Law School and the Obama White House. Lesser, 36, announced Tuesday that he will run for lieutenant governor, joining a field that includes state Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield. Spearfish, SD (57783) Today Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. High near 55F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Low 36F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. As Michigan feels the effects of a changing climate, agriculture experts say they can adapt to keep farms running. Certain crops will be grown with less consistent yields, but those changes can also represent an opportunity for farmers willing to take advantage of the new conditions, experts say. The three greatest ways that were seeing impacts now are increased temperatures, increased rainfall and more intense rain events when we are having rain events, said Kate Madigan, the director of the Michigan Climate Action Network, based in Traverse City Were already seeing impacts on our agriculture, on our farms. The increased temperatures increase stress on plants, which can bring down the yield, she said. Theres no contest in that respect, said Phil Robertson, a researcher at Michigan State Universitys Kellogg Biological Station in Hickory Corners. The crops that are most vulnerable to climate change are the fruit crops. We havent yet hit the point where the weather makes it unsuitable to grow fruit but one can imagine that in 20 or 30 years we may get to that point, or more quickly than we want, Robertson said. Joseph Rivet, the deputy director of the state Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, also warned of biological threats that could come with climate change. We know that warmer, wetter climates spur plant disease and pest infestations, he said. Thats a concept that is just as relevant as a 2-degree temperature change 30 years from now. Aside from stopping climate change contributors all together, experts say some crops may have a new opportunity to flourish. Michigan is actually in a better place compared to other states because the warming that were seeing would allow farmers to have a little longer season, said Bruno Basso, an MSU professor and researcher at the Kellogg Biological Station. Farmers may be able to plant crops like corn a few weeks earlier in the year, which he says may benefit them. Julie Doll, a former Kellogg researcher and the chief executive officer of Michigan Agriculture Advancement, an advocacy organization supporting alternatives to the commodity agriculture system, agreed: Were seeing a longer growing season, which sounds really great and, in some cases, absolutely can be an advantage. In the agricultural region south of Michigan, the Heartland, certain crops are growing in greater quantities than in Michigan: soybeans in Ohio, melons and mint in Indiana and much greater quantities of corn and pumpkin in Illinois, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.. However, it can also be a longer season of risk, especially for perennial crops such as fruit trees, increasing their exposure to the risk of severe frost or freeze, Doll said. One idea discussed among experts is changing dominant crops in the region as environmental conditions become more favorable. Robertson said, One can look at crops in states a little bit farther south and see what kind of crops those might be. Looking at modern examples of farmers adapting to environmental conditions, Robertson said, When you drive north now up the Lower Peninsula, youll see corn a lot farther north than you would have if you were making the same drive 30 years ago. Robertsons observations reflect those made by the agriculture community in recent years about the so-called corn belt, the latitudinal region in the U.S. where corn grows best. It has been noticeably shifting north as the average temperatures across the nation rises. A 2020 study from Pennsylvania State University found that ideal growing conditions for crops like corn, soybeans and sorghum will likely continue to climb northward, as seen in the unseasonably warm 2012 growing season. In 2020, Michigan was 11th in corn production. It failed to rank in the top 11 in soybean production in 2020, but was 10th in 2000 and 2020, according to CropProphet. As growing conditions become more favorable in the state, it may be able to regain some of the market share it once had. Basso also addressed the idea of shifting crops, cautioning that while it may be seen to some degree, obviously were not talking about growing avocados. Farmers and agricultural communities need support to handle the changes that are coming, Doll said. We need better social networks for them, she said. We need to connect them better with each other to learn innovative ways of doing things. We need to better support rural communities in which they live, so that we can have the strength of a more local or regional food economy where they have options of where to sell their products. And if they need to grow something different because of climate change, well, then theyre going to need a market for that, she said. Doll said shes optimistic. Ever since we as a species started to farm, weve adapted. Farming looks very different, even here in Michigan, in the last 50-100 years than it did before. And so, agriculture can adapt really well to some of these slower changes. Sheldon Krause writes for Great Lakes Echo. It should be abundantly clear to everyone that liberal mayors and prosecutors have made cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco unsafe and, in some areas, downright dangerous. The issue is crime and no punishment. The result is death and suffering, especially in the minority precincts where most crimes happen. The irony is that the reason the progressive left does not respect the law is that they think it is racist. Therefore, the criminals, the predators, are victims to be assuaged, not villains to be held accountable. And who gets hurt the most? Poor black citizens, that's who. This lunatic view of "justice" has taken root in America with the help of the corrupt media and crazy left financiers like George Soros. I've been talking about that guy for years. He has pumped tens of millions of dollars into local District Attorney races, always backing the most radical left candidate. In my opinion, Soros has blood on his hands. The only way to stop the madness is for voters to throw the bums out. And that is beginning to happen. A leftist DA candidate on Long Island was soundly defeated last November. Little consolidation to those in the cemeteries because of no bail laws and other irresponsible nonsense. All Americans should be angry about the progressive philosophy: if you can't do the time, go ahead and commit the crime. We won't prosecute! Enough. These people have to go! See you beginning at six eastern for the No Spin News. Sign up to watch the No Spin News every weeknight beginning at 6:00 pm Eastern.] A fire at the South African parliament caused extensive damage on Sunday, collapsing the roof and gutting an entire floor in one building and a 49-yr-old was arrested in connection with the blaze. Firefighters work among the smoke after a fire broke out in the Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa. Reuters/Sumaya Hisham Partly contained The fire broke out in the early morning and authorities said the sprinkler system appeared to have been tampered with and so did not work. By afternoon, firefighters were still trying to contain the blaze in one of the several buildings that make up the parliament complex in the legislative capital, Cape Town.A person was arrested inside parliament, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia De Lille told reporters, adding that the case had been handed over to an elite police unit called the Hawks."It's the role of the Hawks to investigate any attack on political institutions," De Lille said.There were no reports of any injuries.The cause of the blaze was not yet known but De Lille said that according to a report that she received, a standard maintenance fire drill had been conducted just before parliament closed for the Christmas and New Year holidays and everything including the sprinklers was working."What was discovered this morning is that somebody has closed one of the valves and so then there was no water to trigger that automatic sprinkler system coming on," De Lille said, adding that CCTV footage confirmed that somebody was in the building from the early hours of the morning.President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters after visiting the site that parliament's work would continue despite the blaze. He also praised firefighters for saving a "very important national asset of our government".The parliamentary complex, some of which dates back to 1884, consists of a cluster of buildings. The National Assembly, or lower House of Parliament, is situated in what is known as the New Wing.The upper house, or National Council of Provinces (NCOP), is located in what is called the Old Wing or Old Assembly, which is also used for committee meetings."The fire has been contained in the Old Wing. Firefighters are currently trying to control the fire in the New Wing, where the fire has affected the National Assembly Chamber," parliament said in a statement.Jean-Pierre Smith, a Cape Town mayoral committee member responsible for safety and security, said the roof of the old building had collapsed, and added the fire had gutted the third floor of the building, including office space and the gymnasium.He also told reporters that the parliament's fire alarm only rang when firefighters were already on site.By afternoon smoke had partially subsided after billowing for hours from the roof and entrance of the National Assembly. But City of Cape Town fire services chief Jermaine Carelse said the fire was still active, and was now concentrated on the first and third floor.The fire, which started just before 6am, was the second at the parliament in less than a year. In March there was a blaze caused by an electrical fault."It is egregious that such a thing happened in the first place, there must be no question about it. Whether it was a result of security breaches, which may be apparent to some people, we don't know," Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Lechesa Tsenoli said.National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told reporters that Ramaphosa's state of the nation address to a joint session of parliament would go ahead as planned on 10 February but an alternative venue would have to be used. At the end of 2020, it seemed hard to imagine a worse year for misinformation on social media, given the intensity of the presidential election and the trauma of the Covid-19 pandemic. But 2021 proved up to the task, starting with the 6 January insurrection and continuing with copious amounts of falsehoods and distortions about Covid-19 vaccines. Absent regulation, misinformation will get worse Growing divisions and cynicism Propaganda by another name To get a sense of what 2022 could hold, we asked three researchers about the evolution of misinformation on social media.Anjana Susarla, professor of Information Systems, Michigan State UniversityWhile misinformation has always existed in media think of the Great Moon Hoax of 1835 that claimed life was discovered on the moon the advent of social media has significantly increased the scope, spread and reach of misinformation. Social media platforms have morphed into public information utilities that control how most people view the world, which makes misinformation facilitate a fundamental problem for society.There are two primary challenges in addressing misinformation. The first is the dearth of regulatory mechanisms that address it. Mandating transparency and giving users greater access to and control over their data might go a long way in addressing the challenges of misinformation. But theres also a need for independent audits, including tools that assess social media algorithms. These can establish how the social media platforms choices in curating news feeds and presenting content affect how people see the information.The second challenge is that racial and gender biases in algorithms used by social media platforms exacerbate the misinformation problem. While social media companies have introduced mechanisms to highlight authoritative sources of information, solutions such as labelling posts as misinformation dont solve racial and gender biases in accessing information. Highlighting relevant sources of, for example, health information may only help users with greater health literacy and not people with low health literacy, who tend to be disproportionately minorities.Another problem is the need to look systematically at where users are finding misinformation. TikTok, for example, has largely escaped government scrutiny. Whats more, misinformation targeting minorities, particularly Spanish-language content, may be far worse than misinformation targeting majority communities.I believe the lack of independent audits, lack of transparency in fact-checking and the racial and gender biases underlying algorithms used by social media platforms suggest that the need for regulatory action in 2022 is urgent and immediate.Dam Hee Kim, Assistant Professor of Communication, University of Arizona'Fake news' is hardly a new phenomenon, yet its costs have reached another level in recent years. Misinformation concerning Covid-19 has cost countless lives all over the world. False and misleading information about elections can shake the foundation of democracy, for instance, by making citizens lose confidence in the political system. Research I conducted with S Mo Jones-Jang and Kate Kenski on misinformation during elections, some published and some in progress, has turned up three key findings.The first is that the use of social media, originally designed to connect people, can facilitate social disconnection. Social media has become rife with misinformation. This leads citizens who consume news on social media to become cynical not only toward established institutions such as politicians and the media but also toward fellow voters.Second, politicians, the media and voters have become scapegoats for the harms of 'fake news'. Few of them actually produce misinformation. Most misinformation is produced by foreign entities and political fringe groups who create 'fake news' for financial or ideological purposes. Yet citizens who consume misinformation on social media tend to blame politicians, the media and other voters.The third finding is that people who care about being properly informed are not immune to misinformation. People who prefer to process, structure and understand the information in a coherent and meaningful way become more politically cynical after being exposed to perceived 'fake news' than people who are less politically sophisticated. These critical thinkers become frustrated by having to process so much false and misleading information. This is troubling because democracy depends on the participation of engaged and thoughtful citizens.Looking ahead to 2022, its important to address this cynicism. There has been much talk about media literacy interventions, primarily to help the less politically sophisticated. In addition, its important to find ways to explain the status of 'fake news' on social media, specifically who produces 'fake news', why some entities and groups produce it, and which Americans fall for it. This could help keep people from growing more politically cynical.Rather than blaming each other for the harms of 'fake news' produced by foreign entities and fringe groups, people need to find a way to restore confidence in each other. Blunting the effects of misinformation will help with the larger goal of overcoming societal divisions.Ethan Zuckerman, associate professor of Public Policy, Communication, and Information, UMass AmherstI expect the idea of misinformation will shift into an idea of propaganda in 2022, as suggested by sociologist and media scholar Francesca Tripodi in her forthcoming book, The Propagandists Playbook. Most misinformation is not the result of innocent misunderstanding. Its the product of specific campaigns to advance a political or ideological agenda.Once you understand that Facebook and other platforms are the battlegrounds on which contemporary political campaigns are fought, you can let go of the idea that all you need are facts to correct peoples misapprehensions. Whats going on is a more complex mix of persuasion, tribal affiliation and signalling, which plays out in venues from social media to search results.As the 2022 elections heat up, I expect platforms like Facebook will reach a breaking point on misinformation because certain lies have become political speech central to party affiliation. How do social media platforms manage when false speech is also political speech?This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article here China's Hainan sees soaring duty-free sales in 2021 Xinhua) 09:02, January 04, 2022 Customers smell perfumes in a duty-free shop in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, Jan. 3, 2022. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng) HAIKOU, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Offshore duty-free sales in south China's island province of Hainan reached 60.2 billion yuan (about 9.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021, an increase of 84 percent year on year, said the provincial department of commerce. According to the department, the number of shoppers totaled nearly 9.7 million in 2021, with about 53.5 million items purchased, up 73 percent and 71 percent year on year, respectively. Three more duty-free shops opened last year in Hainan, raising the total number to 10. The duty-free shops host more than 720 brands in a total shopping area of 220,000 square meters. Since July 1, 2020, Hainan has raised its annual tax-free shopping quota from 30,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan per person. The duty-free purchase limit for cosmetics has been raised from 12 items to 30. The province has also rolled out a range of policies such as flexible pick-up services to provide a better experience for customers. China released a master plan in June 2020 to build the island province into a globally influential and high-level free trade port by the middle of the century. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Hainan has grown into an attractive shopping destination for domestic consumers. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Hongyu) NAIROBI, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Located in Kenya's central highlands, Martin Gitau believes that his mid-sized farm has an ideal location for cultivation of summer flowers. The 39-year-old father of two has been growing arabicum flowers since 2019 on his half acre piece of land that is situated in Nyandarua, about 130 kilometers northwest of Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Gitau told Xinhua on Monday that he was introduced to cultivation of the crop by a colleague at his former work place where he was a clerk. "Growing of arabicum is a profitable venture because it takes three months to mature and has a ready market," said Gitau. He revealed that in order to maintain soil fertility he grows the crop twice a year and receives an average profit of about 100,000 shillings (about 880 U.S. dollars) from every harvest. Summer flowers are typically grown only in summer in northern European countries, but can be cultivated throughout the year in Kenya due to abundant sunshine. The most common summer flowers in Kenya include arabicum, craspedia and eryngium and are used to blend other flowers in order to make a bouquet. Gitau said that he was convinced to begin his flower enterprise because of the contract he signed with a flower exporter who guarantees to buy all the produce so long as it meets international standards. He said that by becoming an outgrower for an established large scale export firm, he receives high quality seeds and training that enables him to succeed in business. Gitau is a part of a group of 100 small-scale farmers who sell their harvests to an export oriented company for onward sales. Benjamin Tito, Head of the Directorate of Horticulture, said that the volume of Kenya flower exports between January and November 2021 was about 191.8 million kilograms compared to 132.9 million kilograms for a similar period in 2020. Tito said that revenues for Kenya's flower exports for the first 11 months of 2021 was about 101 billion shillings. He noted that flowers are one of Kenya's leading foreign exchange earners with key destinations including Netherlands, Britain, Germany and Norway. Tito said that the country's floriculture industry is dominated by large-scale farmers but small-scale farmers are now an integral part of the sector. Rachael Kariuki began growing ammi flowers last year after she was retrenched from her job as a legal officer in 2020. The 34-year-old mother of three said that she took up cultivation of the summer flowers on her one acre piece of land in Kirinyaga, which is located about 110 kilometers northeast of Nairobi. Kariuki chose ammi flowers because they are a short season crop that requires little application of pesticides to realize sufficient harvests. "The flowers are harvested within 90 days of planting," said Kariuki, who is also a contract farmer who sells her produce to a large exporter of flowers which guarantees a secure market. Sospeter Muriuki began craspedia farming on his half acre piece of land, located in Naivasha which is about 90 kilometers northwest of Nairobi. The 30-year-old's farm which he inherited from his father is nestled in Kenya's Rift Valley which contains ideal soils for flower farming. He told Xinhua that he ventured into the summer flower cultivation because they can be grown in the open fields as compared to roses which are nurtured in greenhouses. Muriuki had signed a contract with a flower exporter who has committed to buy his produce. Enditem Brand South Africa's flagship programme, Play Your Part, turns 10 this year and to celebrate a decade of active citizenship, the organisation has launched the inaugural 2021 Play Your Part Awards 2021 that recognise individuals and organisations that have used creativity and innovation to positively impact the economy of South Africa. Supplied Monthly categories Youth empowerment. Poverty alleviation. Women empowerment. Nation pride. Job creation. Innovation. Social cohesion. Education and the environment. Creativity and innovation The awards will recognise a winner each month in a different category. The monthly winner will win R5,000. All the monthly winners will be entred into the draw for the grand prize of R25,000. The awards are open to individuals, corporates, NGOs and NPOs.Play Your Part is a nationwide programme created by Brand South Africa to lift the spirit of the nation by inspiring all South Africans to contribute to positive change, become involved and start doing. Aimed at all South Africans, from corporates and individuals, NGOs and government, churches and schools, from the young to the not-so-young, it encourages South Africans to use some of their time, money, skills or goods to contribute to a better future for all.The monthly categories run over nine months:Winners will be exceptional thinkers who have helped the country improve its service to its citizens through innovative programmes, partnerships, policies, and strategies, reflect significant achievements and provide quality examples of sustainable application.Creativity and innovation are very important in trying to change perspectives and trying to change the social circumstances of people," says writer, producer and Play Your Part Awards judge, Firdoze Bulbulia."We know that people who are innovative find solutions because they are creative, and creative thinking leads to lateral thinking. Lateral thinking is multi- layered, complex, and enjoyable. This kind of thinking increases the chance for creatives to find solutions for challenges in the community. says Bulbulia. Innovation has been dubbed the "engine of growth and development" globally and for many countries that are working to remain competitive, improving innovation and technology is viewed as a way to positively assess their progress and impact. To achieve sustainable economic growth, however, technological innovation needs to progress at a reasonable and recognisable pace.Brand South Africa is the official marketing agency of South Africa, with a mandate to build the countrys brand reputation, in order to improve its global competitiveness.Nominations are open. Enter the awards here Applications for MultiChoice South Africa's R20m bursary scheme have opened for the 2022 academic year and will aim to help approximately 200 students. Image source: Brian Jackson 123RF.com Actuarial Science Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Information Technology (AI and Robotics) Data and Information Science Digital Media Technologies Be a South African citizen. Be registered at a South African Institute of Higher Learning. Meet the eligibility and qualifying requirements as indicated on the application form. Since its inception in 2020, a total of 188 students have received funding for their studies with a spend of R11.2m going towards bursaries.For the 2022 bursary scheme, 10 of these students will be funded via the Nomzamo Lighthouse Foundation an organisation that invests in the future of South African youth of which MultiChoice is a partner. The bursaries extends beyond tuition fees and include registration fees, accommodation costs, and an annual living allowance.The MultiChoice Bursary Scheme is open to students in all years of study, including students who have enrolled for their first post-graduate degree that is focused on the STEM discipline (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), particularly:As technological developments continue to advance at a rapid pace, there is a critical need for a dynamic workforce in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in order for our country to keep up with the rest of the world, said Nyiko Shiburi, CEO of MultiChoice South Africa. We see the value in opening doors for youth to build the skills within our industry, shaping the professionals who will lead us into the future.In order to apply applicants must:An external bursary management entity (Skills 123) has been procured to support with facilitation of the bursary administration. This bursary management provider has partnered with youth marketing specialists, Student Village, who have a wide reach across different campuses countrywide.Applications are now open and close on 15 February 2022. To register and apply, click here CAIRO, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit urged all sides in Sudan to reach a consensus through dialogue after Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's resignation in the wake of the political crisis in the country. Aboul-Gheit in a statement called on all sides in Sudan "to start a dialogue and to immediately work on reaching a consensus that will preserve all the important gains that have been achieved in the past two years." Aboul-Gheit expressed his understanding of Hamdok's resignation, hailing the accomplishments Hamdok had achieved during his tenure. Hamdok on Sunday announced his resignation from his post, saying despite his efforts "to achieve the desired and necessary consensus to give citizens security, peace, justice and to stop the bloodshed, that did not happen." The statement said the pan-Arab body chief "follows closely the different initiatives presented lately by Sudanese political parties over tackling the challenges of the transitional period." "Intensive and constructive dialogue among different sides is the only way and the cornerstone of settling the current crisis for meeting the Sudanese people's aspirations of stability, development and democratic transition," it added. It is not immediately clear who will succeed Hamdok and there seemed to be no promising candidates as the country has been experiencing a political crisis after Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, general commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, declared a state of emergency on Oct. 25, 2021 and dissolved the Sovereign Council and government. The street protests were also fuelled by popular discontent with the rising prices of food, gases and household essentials in the country. Enditem LAMU, Kenya, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan police said Tuesday they are holding five suspects who have been arrested in connection with the killing of seven civilians in the coastal region on Monday. National Police Service Spokesperson Bruno Shioso said the suspects were nabbed on Tuesday over the attack at Widhu Majembeni and Bobo-Sunkia - both in Lamu - that saw seven people killed in separate incidents on Monday. Shioso said the suspects are being interrogated over the terror attack which is linked to land disputes. He added that the investigating team is following leads in a bid to establish whether the attack has any connections with the outlawed al-Shabab or their sympathizers operating in the area. "All the suspects are locals and we are talking to them to establish more about the attack," he said in a brief statement. Lamu County has been in the spotlight for some years now owing to increased scathing attacks by the militants that have left hordes of security officers and civilians dead. Enditem LUSAKA, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Zambia has rescheduled the reopening of schools due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, its education ministry said on Monday. Schools were scheduled for reopening on Jan. 10, but this has since been moved to Jan. 24. "The reason is that although we were prepared as a ministry for the reopening of schools, the upswing is a danger," Douglas Syakalima, Minister of Education, told reporters during a press briefing. The minister said the decision was made after thorough consultations with the Ministry of Health. He said the ministry will use the period to assess the situation and put in place measures such as fumigation of schools before reopening. The government, he said, also wanted to utilize the period to encourage learners from 12 years and above to get vaccinated. Zambia is currently experiencing the fourth wave of the pandemic, which has seen a surge in cases, with the majority of the cases being the new Omicron variant. The country's cumulative cases stand at 261,211 following 1,544 new confirmed cases reported in the past 24 hours, according to Ministry of Health figures. The new cases were picked from 5,754 tests done during the period while 2,725 people were discharged, bringing the total recoveries to 229,006. At least 10 people died during the same period, bringing the total deaths to 3,753. Enditem Rebels in France have declared war on the infrastructure of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. An ever-expanding resistance movement has been sabotaging the widely-hated 5G network. Says a three-part report on the Reporterre website: Relay antennae are being torched, fibre-optic cables cut, pylons unbolted. During the night, people burn construction machinery, attack masts with disc cutters or destroy electrical equipment with sledgehammers. Vehicles belonging to telecommunications businesses have also been set on fire in at least 140 attacks since the start of the Covid repression, with the cost to the industry running into tens of millions of euros. sab mapSays the report: This is a movement which is advancing underground, out of the spotlight, a deep revolt spreading across France. Pascaline, a resistance fighter interviewed by Reporterre, says she has been forced into action by a sense of urgency: We are living in a crossroads period. If we do nothing now, this industry will have permanently taken hold. Pascaline says her fellow saboteurs have a wide range of backgrounds, with Gilets Jaunes and anarchists fighting alongside Christians who are equally opposed to the fascistic New Normal grid being built with 5G. With protests against the Great Reset ignored, smeared and repressed by the French state, dissidents have been forced to express themselves more directly. Texts have been circulating calling for the creation of a new movement of concrete, and not just symbolic, resistance. Resistance fighter Leon told Reporterre: We have been pushed towards sabotage by very practical reasons. Since the Gilets Jaunes, the state has tightened the screws and it is harder and harder to push back against power on the streets. Given the Covid restrictions, it was also impossible to build a mass mobilisation against 5G, he said, even though the majority of the population are opposed. As the report notes, the sabotage movement amounts to a refusal to live in a hyperconnected society and full-on resistance to the digitalisation of the world. Another saboteur, Margot, says that a web-like prison of cables and masts is being constructed. We are told about all the joys of a digital society which in reality only worsens exploitation, surveillance and environmental disaster. The telecommunications business is, of course, alarmed by the biggest wave of sabotage in France since the massive struggle against GM crops 20 years ago. Orange boss Stephane Richard has even spoken of the need to avoid an Afghanistan of mobile phone networks, where we will have to fight mast by mast, community by community, to try and install 5G. As the saboteurs point out, masts are the nerve centres for the economic flow of the new technocapitalism. Rebel websites talk variously of umbilical cords and Achilles heels. The revolution is never televised and the mainstream media have been largely avoiding any mention of what is happening, for fear that it will spread even further. When the saboteurs existence is recognised, they are depicted as cranks and conspiracy theorists. Notes Leon: Conspiracy theory has always been a rhetorical tool to delegitimise a movement. We saw that with the Gilet Jaunes. After they have played the homophobia, anti-semitism and racism cards, conspiracy theory has become the new catchword of power. The authorities are trying pass the saboteurs off as lone wolves, as isolated individuals. In fact we are part of a collective initiative across France and Europe. sab artNeedless to say, the panicked system is also ramping up its traditional rhetoric of repression, using the term terrorist to smear all resistance to its technofascist coup. But can it really do anything to stop what has now become a powerful wave of revolt? Pascaline explains: We are targeting this infrastructure because it belongs to the digital industry but also because it is vulnerable. There are tens of thousands of masts in the country within an ever-denser network and the authorities are struggling to monitor them. Admits Vincent Cuvillier, boss of Ofitem (the body representing the operators of mobile phone infrastructure in France): It isnt realistic today to say that we are going to install 66,000 video-surveillance cameras on all the masts. And lets be clear: anyone who wants to enter and destroy an isolated site could do so. Source: winteroak.org KHARTOUM, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- New demonstrations demanding civilian rule started on Tuesday in Sudan's capital Khartoum and other cities. Protesters gathered in Khartoum's busiest bus station Sharwani, prior to the march to the Republican Palace, eyewitnesses said. Khartoum State Police earlier announced the closure of the bridges linking the three major cities of Khartoum, Omdurman, and Bahri as of Monday evening, where military units have been deployed at the entrances of these bridges. But Al-Halfaya and Suba bridges have not been closed and are open to traffic. Sudanese security forces also erected concrete barricades and barbed wire around the army's general command headquarters, as well as the routes leading to the presidential palace in Khartoum. On Jan. 2, Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation in the wake of a political crisis in the country. Sudan has been suffering a political crisis after the general commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan declared a state of emergency on Oct. 25, 2021 and dissolved the Sovereign Council and the government. On Nov. 21, Al-Burhan and then removed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok signed a political declaration, which included reinstating the latter as prime minister, but the deal has failed to calm the streets. Enditem Unlimited website access 24/7 Unlimited e-Edition access 24/7 The best local, regional and national news in sports, politics, business and more! With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. The province announced in December that the post-holiday return to classes for K-12 students would be pushed back by four days to Jan. 10. Advertisement Advertise With Us FILE Remote learning is a possibility for K-12 students in Manitoba, but many parents who responded to a Brandon Sun poll on Facebook said they prefer children stay in the classroom. The province announced in December that the post-holiday return to classes for K-12 students would be pushed back by four days to Jan. 10. Education Minister Cliff Cullen said the delay is designed to give public health officials more time to assess the impact of the COVID-19 omicron variant and determine if any further changes need to be instituted for the upcoming winter term. In the wake of the announcement, some education groups have already questioned the wisdom of sending teachers and students back to an in-person learning environment given the massive spike in coronavirus cases the province is experiencing. Last week, both the Manitoba Teachers Society and the Winnipeg School Division the largest school division in Manitoba openly called for a return to full remote learning at the beginning of the winter semester to protect students and staff from contracting the virus. This would follow in the footsteps of the Ontario government, which announced yesterday that students in that province will learn from home until at least Jan. 17. On Monday afternoon, the Sun asked local parents on Facebook if they are comfortable sending their children back to in-person classes under these circumstances. The post saw more than 115 comments within four hours. Some parents said they would prefer to keep their kids at home for at least the time being. One Facebook user, Jennifer Pinard, stated there would need to be a huge drop in daily COVID cases before her mind changes on this subject. "The best case scenario for our family would be to have [a] virtual class option implemented and have this option openly available to all who want to make [that] choice, therefore allowing less crowding in schools," Pinard wrote. Penelope Garcia was similarly hesitant to let their child resume in-person learning. "Im not comfortable as there were five reported cases in my childs school the last week prior to vacation and five the week before," Garcia wrote. "I dont think any kids need this." However, the vast majority of the parents who responded to Mondays Facebook post were in favour of their children returning to in-person instruction on Jan. 10. Many of these respondents echoed the opinion that the benefits of in-person education far outweigh the risks of COVID transmission. Karen Giles noted that her son is a tactile learner whose program cant be replicated in a remote-learning environment. "He is [losing] out on his technical work with his autobody and welding classes," Giles wrote. "How are we the parents supposed to help our kids learn this at home? This is putting them behind when it comes to graduating with their level 1 in these programs." Other parents in support of a return to in-person learning on Jan. 10 said they believe their children are in good hands, stating local schools have taken all the necessary safety precautions. "They have been doing what they need to when it comes to distancing and masks," Ashley Nicole Winstone wrote. "My daughter thrives at [an] in-school experience, so if something happens we will deal [with it] when [the] time comes." Here are some other responses from parents who are in favour of the current Jan. 10 return plan: "I am very confident in sending my daughter to school. She needs to be there. And the teachers have done an amazing job so far." Mandy King "My kid hates school and she struggles in school. But when I said they might go remote she even said No. Not again, I need to go to school. And I completely agree with her and have no problem with her going back." Jessica Ludwig "Their mental health is so important right now and the last thing they need is to be stuck at home even longer. If people are worried, they can keep their kids home that is their choice!" Candice Amanda Armitage "Im definitely comfortable sending my children back. The remote learning of last year didnt go well. My son learns better in the classroom." Alycia Chuckrey "Our school and daycare next door has only had one case this entire time. Im fairly confident that my school, its teachers, leader and parents have done everything they can to keep everyone safe, and will continue to do so." Rana Wilkinson Manitoba has recorded at least 2,937 COVID cases in K-12 schools since the 2021-22 academic year began on Sept. 7. More than 80 per cent of these cases (2,361) involved students. kdarbyson@brandonsun.com Twitter:@KyleDarbyson A business-led approach will not rescue us from the COVID-19 pandemic, despite what the Manitoba government seems to think. A business-led approach will not rescue us from the COVID-19 pandemic, despite what the Manitoba government seems to think. The province announced last Friday new rules around self-isolation, which came into effect on Saturday. All individuals who receive a positive rapid antigen test must go into quarantine. The isolation period from the date of the test has been reduced from 10 to five days for asymptomatic, fully immunized people. If their symptoms are improving and they do not have a fever, they may stop quarantine after five days from either the date their symptoms started appearing or the date of their test, whichever is later. Manitobans who quit quarantine after five days will then be required to wear medical-grade masks in public settings for five days thereafter. They are asked to avoid non-essential visits to high-risk settings and non-essential contact with individuals who are high-risk for disease during that time. However, individuals who are not fully vaccinated will be required to isolate for 10 days after the date of their test, as long as their symptoms are improving and they do not have a fever. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defended its own reasoning for shortening the recommended COVID-19 isolation periods for the public last week, stating that transmissibility occurs "generally in the [one to two] days prior to onset of symptoms and the [two to three] days after." In a matter of weeks, omicron has become the dominant variant of COVID-19 in Manitoba. Early evidence suggests omicron may not cause as severe effects as COVIDs previous iterations, but it is spreading like wildfire in bodies. We have surpassed more than 1,000 daily case counts in Manitoba alone. Public health officials and Premier Heather Stefanson continue to say the restrictions in Manitoba are in line with those in other jurisdictions across Canada. But if you pay close attention to our apparent role models, you will see that Quebec is battling not only the omicron variant but delta, too. And in Ontario, which reported a record 18,445 cases on Saturday, testing and data are so far behind that a death that occurred more than a month ago was only reported this past weekend, according to a Global News report on Sunday. This backlog obscures the reality of omicrons impact. While COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing in both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, it is the number of hospitalizations and deaths we must pay attention to, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. governments top infectious disease expert. The doctor said many new infections, especially in people who are vaccinated and boosted, result in no or mild symptoms. "The real bottom line that you want to be concerned about is are we getting protected by the vaccines from severe disease leading to hospitalization?" Fauci said Sunday on ABCs "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." FILE Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. governments top infectious disease expert, contends that "[t]he real bottom line that you want to be concerned about is are we getting protected by the vaccines from severe disease leading to hospitalization? While this could be an optimistic revelation in our pandemic story, unless fully vaccinated Manitobans get their third shot and the unvaccinated get their first two, we could very easily find our health-care system and intensive care units inundated with COVID-19 patients once again. More than 324,000 (22 per cent) of Manitobans have yet to receive a single vaccine dose. Regarding the new isolation rules, Dr. Brent Roussin, our chief provincial public health officer, said in a Friday news release: "We have looked at data from Manitoba and other jurisdictions, and feel these changes will balance reducing the spread of COVID-19 while ensuring critical services can continue to operate." The key phrase in Roussins quote is "ensuring critical services can continue to operate" in other words, ensuring people can continue to work, even if they are potentially infected with the virus. "Pleased to see [Manitoba] follow several other provinces and reduce self-isolation requirements for asymptomatic vaccinated individuals. This will provide some much-needed clarity and will help small employers scrambling to keep their businesses open," the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business tweeted in response to the announcement. Of course, businesses are essential to our economy. Manitobans need to bring home a paycheque but that will not be possible if they are fighting for their lives in hospital. Our hospitals are not overrun with COVID patients yet. There were 192 patients in hospital for COVID and 30 in ICU on Friday, according to the provinces online information dashboard. But if the province continues to put the interests of businesses ahead of Manitobans and their health, it could be only a matter of time before our hospitals are completely overburdened. A business-led approach has not helped us before, and it will not help us now. It also sounds like many of the new quarantine rules are based on the honour system. Who will monitor the people who are supposed to be isolating for the required period and wearing medical-grade masks after the fact? We would like to think the majority of Manitobans will follow these somewhat arbitrary rules; however, we have also seen throughout this pandemic where the honour system gets us. Just take a look at the Southern Health region, for example, where shoppers have been photographed maskless in stores, and people are gathering in shops and machine sheds for clandestine church services, as reported by the Winnipeg Free Press. Another issue is access to medical-grade masks, which will be a problem for Manitobans who lack access to necessities like transportation, funds and child care all potential barriers to making a trip to the store to buy these masks. The province has made some KN95 masks available at specific locations, like Liquor Marts and constituency offices. But do not expect the government to be too generous, as it does not want to steal potential revenue from businesses, according to the minister responsible for this effort. "They are readily available for sale at many commercial operations, so we dont really want to compete with them too much," Central Services Minister and Brandon West MLA Reg Helwer said Thursday. In this moment, once the words left Helwers lips, Manitobans should have realized the governments true intentions. It is evident the Tories seem to care more about keeping the economy running than protecting Manitobans and the already aching health-care system. Helwer also said Thursday the province had distributed more than a million masks within a day and a half. But considering mask-use guidelines from the CDC that recommend washing reusable masks every day and throwing out disposable masks after one use, the provinces mask supply dries up pretty quick. We are entering our third pandemic year. Probably, the one thing Manitobans can agree on is that we are all tired and we want this to end, preferably in 2022. However, that is unlikely if our government continues to put the economy ahead of Manitobans. BANGKOK, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Ministry of Public Health said on Tuesday that a total of 2,062 Omicron cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the country. Supakit Sirilak, medical sciences director-general from the Ministry of Public Health, noted that omicron cases in the country had spiked up quickly from around 700 before the Christmas and New Year holidays to over 2,000 cases currently. According to the official, out of the Omicron infections, 1,105 were among foreign arrivals and the remainders are local transmissions. Nevertheless, the Delta variant is still the prevailing variant in Thailand, accounting for 70 to 80 percent of the new infections. Supakit warned that Omicron cases will continue to rise rapidly, as more testing and close monitoring of the situation are required to control the potential spread. Six provinces - Bangkok, Kalasin, Roi Et, Phuket, Chonburi and Samut Prakan - have reported around 70 percent of these Omicron cases detected in the country. As of Monday, Thailand has vaccinated 64 percent of its population with two doses, while around 10 percent had already received a booster shot, government data showed. Enditem The idea behind buying Afterpay - with the support of its co-founders Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen - is that the Australian fintech will act as a bridge between Blocks Cash app and its Seller app. Loading Afterpay will gain access to Blocks extensive merchant and consumer customers in the critical US market, and Block will get Afterpays buy now, pay later and online shopping platforms. Supporters think the companys long-term potential is to be a super app on par with Chinas WeChat. The merger is all-scrip, meaning existing Afterpay shareholders can choose to be paid in US-listed Block shares, or they can hold the stock through a dual-listing on the ASX. The final hurdle the deal still needs to clear is approval from the Bank of Spain, which is expected in early 2022. Among institutional investors canvassed by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, there was widespread support for bringing the two firms together. Yet few investors had yet made up their minds about investing in Block, suggesting the stock may be just as divisive as Afterpay has been. Ophir Asset Management portfolio manager Steven Ng, a long-time Afterpay shareholder, says the fund is open to retaining its stake in Block, assuming the takeover goes ahead. He says the merger should ramp up the growth of both Block and Afterpays businesses. From a Block perspective, it looks like Afterpay could act as the glue that brings together the Cash and Seller ecosystems, Ng says. I think it accelerates both Block and Afterpays strategy. Investment analyst at Holon Global Investments, Todd ODea, says the merger should support Afterpays growth at a time of fierce competition in BNPL, but the fund has not determined whether it will invest in Block. We will probably see a lot of consolidation in the next couple of years in that BNPL market. Being able to pair up with Block and get access to 70 million cash-app users will be very value accretive, ODea says. Payments is the part of banking that is experiencing the most disruption from fintechs, and some see this as another attractive trait of Block. Jun Bei Lui, who manages about $1 billion at Tribeca Investment Partners, likes the payments business owned by Block, and believes the merger can fuel Afterpays access to capital and scale that it needs. Even so, she has been selling down her position in Afterpay so that it is in line with the companys weighting. Its mainly just because its a very different business now, Liu says. Blocks exposure to cryptocurrencies is a concern for some investors. Credit:Moe Zoyari/Bloomberg Crypto volatility A key concern for Liu - and many others - is Blocks cryptocurrency exposure. At its latest quarterly results, revenue from bitcoin trading was $US1.8 billion ($2.5 billion), a third lower than the June quarter, largely in response to volatility in the digital assets price. For some investors, such wild swings are a turn-off. While Liu says cryptocurrency trading will eventually find its place, she says its difficult to put a valuation on a cryptocurrency trading business, and at the moment she is not convinced the risk-reward trade-off makes sense for her investors. The challenge is that cryptocurrencies is such a volatile space. The volatility of cryptocurrencies is five times that of the sharemarket, Liu says. Managing director of White Funds Management Angus Gluskie says crypto risks will be a key issue for an ASX investor to consider if they are looking at Block shares, alongside its international exposure. We havent made up our mind, however its clearly got exposure in areas which carry great risk, he says. My personal feeling is cryptocurrencies have endless supply and ultimately no value. So its a pretty dangerous space to be in. Yet as crypto assets become more mainstream, with Commonwealth Bank set to offer bitcoin trading, there are plenty in the market who are comfortable with some crypto exposure. Nick Healy, portfolio manager of Wilson Asset Managements global equities fund, says Blocks exposure to the volatile bitcoin market is something for potential investors to be aware of - but it wouldnt necessarily hold back the markets interest in the stock. I wouldnt say volatility would be a reason to rule it out, but it would certainly be something you would want to be aware of going in, he says. Jack Dorsey has made his interests in cryptocurrencies clear. Holons ODea does not see Blocks bitcoin exposure as a problem either, saying it is a way to gain exposure to cryptocurrency assets. If anything, it might be good to have a bit more innovation on the ASX, and a bit more diversification away from banks and miners, ODea says. Ophirs Ng also says he is not worried about the companys bitcoin revenue. It just makes the revenue look more volatile - but for us its the gross margin thats important, he says. My personal feeling is cryptocurrencies have endless supply and ultimately no value. So its a pretty dangerous space to be in. Angus Gluskie, White Funds Management Moreover, Ng says Blocks move to offer bitcoin trading to customers is an example of the companys willingness to innovate. Like all growth stocks including Afterpay, Blocks shares have also been on a rollercoaster ride, surging more than six-fold from their COVID-19 lows to $US247.26 when the deal with Afterpay was announced in August. Since then, however, they have dropped more than 30 per cent. Also like Afterpay, the company has never paid a dividend and it does not expect to pay one in the forseeable future, as it focuses on growth. US centre of gravity A final issue confronting potential Block investors is geography. While it will be dual-listed, the company is US-focused, and local investors will have far less access to management than they had with Afterpay. Block has a market capitalisation of more than $US80 billion, but the weighting of the ASX-listed Block shares on the local market is uncertain. Opal Capital Management portfolio manager, Omkar Joshi, predicts local interest in ASX-listed Block shares will fade away over time, as has occurred with Unibail-Rodamco, the owner of Westfield, which has a dual listing in Australia. At the end of the day, Block is a US business. Investors in Australia are not really going to spend much time on it, says Joshi, who does not currently hold Afterpay shares. Teslas New Years Eve announcement that it opened a showroom in Xinjiang has provoked criticism from US rights and trade groups, making it the latest foreign firm caught up in tensions related to the far-western Chinese region. Xinjiang has become a significant point of conflict between Western governments and China in recent years. UN experts and rights groups estimate more than a million people, mainly Uighurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been detained in camps there. Tesla chief Elon Musk has been urged to abandon plans to open a showroom in Chinas Xinjiang region. Credit:AP On Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest US Muslim advocacy organisation, said Tesla was supporting genocide. Similar criticism came from a US trade group, the Alliance for American Manufacturing and US senator Marco Rubio. Elon Musk must close Teslas Xinjiang showroom, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said on its official Twitter account, referring to Teslas founder. Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty of criminal fraud after she built her blood-testing startup Theranos into a $US9 billion ($12.5 billion) company only to see it collapse in scandal. A jury in San Jose, California returned the verdict after hearing three months of testimony that was often technical, heavily contested and, from Holmes herself, shocking. Unless the decision is overturned on appeal, the 37-year-old new mother faces as long as 20 years in prison, though shes likely to be sentenced to far less than that. Holmes, wearing a mask in the courtroom as everyone else did, stayed perfectly still and upright while the verdict was read. She looked directly at the jury as they were polled by the judge to determine if the verdict matched their conclusions. Holmess fall from her status as celebrity chief executive to convicted felon marks one of the most dramatic descents in Silicon Valley history. After deliberating for seven days, jurors agreed on Monday with prosecutors that Holmes lied to patients and investors over several years about the accuracy and capabilities of Theranos blood analysers. Holmes was convicted of four out of 11 counts of conspiracy and wire fraud. The jury didnt reach a verdict on three of the counts. Almost 270 early childhood centres in NSW were shut due to COVID-19 on Tuesday, as the sector braced for further closures due to staff illness, causing more headaches for parents at the start of the working year. The sector is also preparing for stress over fees and concerns about sick babies and toddlers waiting in long, hot queues for PCR tests. Hundreds of NSW childcare centres are shut due to COVID-19 Credit:Ryan Stuart As Omicron cases surge in NSW, the federal authority overseeing the childcare sector, the Australian Childrens Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), listed 268 centres across the state as closed due to a public health emergency on Tuesday, compared with 21 in Victoria and 15 in Queensland. It comes amid warnings that childrens return to school classrooms early next month is also likely to be significantly disrupted by illness among teachers and students, with the NSW Teachers Federation warning of serious challenges ahead. Cases of COVID-19 are rising in vulnerable Indigenous and aged-care communities across Queensland, with the head of the states peak professional body for doctors saying COVID conspiracy theorists have blood on their hands. Queensland recorded 5699 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the states total number of active cases to 25,924. Joe Rosta, the director of pharmacy for the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service, stands near a freezer containing COVID-19 vaccinations in an area where vaccine hesitancy is rife. Credit:Kate Geraghty In north Queenslands Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service region, the number of new cases more than doubled overnight to 58 on Tuesday, including 17 in Weipa. These will be added to the states total on Wednesday. Severe weather warnings are in place across parts of Queensland and New South Wales as ex-Cyclone Seth lingers off the east coast. The Bureau of Meteorology has issued several warnings for the stretch of coast from Queenslands Fraser Coast down to NSWs northern coast, with dangerous surf, damaging winds, and abnormally high tides. While Seth, which formed on Friday off the coast of Mackay as a category 2 cyclone before being downgraded by Monday, was weakening, meteorologist Helen Reid said impacts would still be felt along the coast. On Monday, large swells damaged parts of the Gold Coast, including washing away a shipping container full of kegs of beer at the Currumbin Surf Club, while Bribie Island was split in two. In 1975, he commenced work with actor and film distributor Edmund (Eddie) Allison who had been a member of the cast of Indonesia Calling. Eddies company, Quality Films, distributed dozens of foreign cinematic masterpieces, mostly from socialist countries, which Australias Hollywood-oriented cinema chains refused to show. They included many Soviet films, including Eisensteins ground-breaking film-noir masterpieces Battleship Potemkin and Ivan the Terrible, the exquisite (albeit badly damaged) Bezhin Meadow, a filmed performance of Borodins opera Prince Igor, much of it filmed in spectacular outdoor locations, and Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonsos ballet Carmen, based on Rodion Shchedrins Carmen Suite, adapted from George Bizets opera Carmen. The films also included Japanese director Akira Kurosawas Dersu Uzula, filmed in Siberia, and the Cuban historical dramas Memories of Underdevelopment and Lucia, the latter with amazing scenes depicting Cubas war of independence, during which naked Cuban horsemen fought and soundly defeated a company of fully-armoured Spanish soldiers. Films with a direct link to Australias literary history included the Czechoslovakian version of Allan Marshalls novel I Can Jump Puddles and almost certainly (although the records are unclear) the early-1960s Soviet interpretation of Henry Lawsons comedy The Loaded Dog. Rob Gowland attends a Moscow film festival with his son Evan, aged 12 months, in 1975. The company showed many films at the old Mandolin cinema in Elizabeth Street, Sydney. It was formerly known as the Mandarin cinema and is now the Australian Hall. Eventually, it outclassed the Valhalla cinema at Glebe as Sydneys primary arthouse cinema, a feat largely attributable to Gowlands marketing skills. By 1990, Gowland had joined the SPA, and the old CPA had been dissolved. In 1996, the SPA reclaimed the name Communist Party of Australia. Gowland became a member of the partys Central Committee, a position he held until he died. As secretary of the partys Sydney Central branch, he organised participation in marches, demonstrations and annual celebrations including May Day, International Womens Day, Hiroshima Day, Palm Sunday and even Bastille Day. He organised branch classes and meetings in which discussion ranged over political economy, dialectical and historical materialism, politically significant events, (including the 9/11 attacks) and political aspects of architecture and art. He also organised walking tours regarding the history and political significance of Sydney landmarks, including the Rocks and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Gowland failed his first-year exams after vigorously disputing the facultys interpretation of history. Gowland emphasised the need for compassion in party activity. In 1994 he wrote: The human animal developed communications skills beyond compare and a capacity for imagination and compassion. The capacity to feel compassion is surely one meaning of the word humanity. Are not the communists totally concerned with humanity? With ending inhumanity? With freeing humanity to develop to the full physically, intellectually and culturally? He also stressed the importance of imagination and culture in political work, declaring: the revolution we want has a cultural dimension. Art does not exist in isolation from society or in isolation from reality. Art reflects, interprets and comments on reality it is part of the struggle of ideas. Gowland was quiet by nature but could give a rousing political speech, and as one of his comrades noted he was clear and unwavering about the necessity for revolutionary change. He also detested hypocrisy and political opportunism, as demonstrated in his biting 1994 review of the film We of the Never Never, based on Mrs Aeneas Gunns novel of the same name. The first edition of the novel referred quite candidly to the horrific hunts during which Aboriginal people accused of crimes against outback graziers were hunted down and slaughtered, but the film and later editions of the book eliminated any reference to the massacres. Gowland observed caustically: This tidying up of a true story may keep the shine on Mrs Gunns image, but the film portrays a false picture of both the author and her times beautiful scenery, safe period atmosphere, bland relationships and to satisfy modern attitudes a heroine whose perception of Aboriginal culture was suddenly very ahead of its time. Gowland wrote articles for the party press until 2020, and communist parties in other countries often reprinted his articles. Morning Star, the Communist Party of Britains newspaper, and The Peoples Voice, the paper of the Communist Party USA, published his work regularly. In later life, absent-mindedness caused Gowland difficulties, and illness prevented him from attending marches or meetings. But the flame of commitment still burnt brightly, and until a few months before he died, he was still writing articles on his laptop, propped up in his hospital bed having treatment three days a week. He holds a special place in the CPAs history, particularly because of his insightful articles and his analysis of the critical role of culture in political activity. He was a life-long activist and his party membership was continuous for more than thirty years until his death. New coronavirus cases published in Victoria daily, including a new all-time high of 14,020 cases recorded on Tuesday, are undoubtedly under-reported, state health authorities have warned. The states COVID-19 response commander, Jeroen Weimar, said while authorities could not determine the hidden number of virus cases in the community, the rapidly increasing positivity rate suggested the daily figures were higher than what is reported by the Health Department. Victorians are seeing significant exposure to the virus in their everyday lives, Mr Weimar said. About one in four Victorians getting a PCR test for coronavirus are returning positive results. So we would expect there to be far more positive cases out in the community, either people who have not yet [come] forward to get tested, or those who just cant get into the testing system in a way that they think is acceptable, Mr Weimar said. Police say a New Years Eve event with about 300 patrons that allegedly broke COVID-19 restrictions was a ticketed event organised by a third party. Officers jumped a wall to access the event about 11.30pm on Friday night at The George, in Perths CBD, after finding windows blacked out and doors locked, where some partygoers were allegedly dancing without masks in contravention of restrictions in place at the time. No charges have been laid, but police are not ruling out penalties for people who attended the event and the venues licensee. Police Commissioner Chris Dawson told Radio 6PR there were several elements to the ongoing investigation under both liquor licensing rules and restrictions under the state of emergency laws. FAIZABAD, Afghanistan, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least five villagers were killed and two others wounded after an avalanche struck a far-flung area in Afghanistan's northern province of Badakhshan on Monday, a local source confirmed on Tuesday. "The incident happened in Tajjel village of Raghistan district Monday evening. The villagers, who were workers at a gold mine, were returning from the site to the village when they fell victim to the incident," Hajji Sharifullah, a local elder and member of the district council, told Xinhua. According to him, local villagers rescued the wounded and transferred them to a district hospital. The mountainous province has seen snowfalls in recent weeks. Enditem The former chief executive of a regional West Australian council has appeared in court after allegedly spending $55,000 of ratepayer funds on a sex worker he claimed he needed for emotional support. Gavin Charles Pollock was charged in December with seven separate offences after he allegedly used government money to pay for the sex worker over the course of about a year while he was chief executive of Ravensthorpe Shire, in WAs Goldfields-Esperance region. Ravensthorpe Shire chief executive Gavin Charles Pollock outside court on Tuesday. Credit:Holly Thompson Mr Pollock represented himself when he appeared briefly in Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday where the magistrate confirmed his charges. He was given an adjournment until February 1 for legal advice. The sex worker hired by Mr Pollock also faced court on Tuesday for charges relating to the same incidents. Australians would be forgiven for thinking that their nations relationship with Europe is in tatters after the cancellation of the $90 billion French submarine contract. French President Emmanuel Macron still isnt over what his government labelled a stab in the back, while negotiations over a free trade deal with the European Union were halted amid the submarine announcement fallout. Personal animosity between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and French President Emmanuel Macron set back the Australia-EU relationship in 2021. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Rightly or wrongly, Australias decision to cancel the French contract and build nuclear submarines with the United States and Britain sent a signal that it preferred to partner with its traditional Anglo-Saxon allies. Adding to these tensions, Europe last year racheted up its pressure on Australia to do more on climate change. But there are signs that the relationship between the EU and Canberra could blossom more than ever in 2022. And the biggest driver is China. Brussels: The German government has condemned nuclear energy as dangerous, slamming European Union proposals that would let the technology remain part of the blocs plans for a climate-friendly future. Germany is on course to switch off its remaining three nuclear power plants at the end of this year and phase out coal by 2030, whereas its neighbour France aims to modernise existing nuclear reactors and build new ones to meet its future energy needs. Berlin plans to rely heavily on natural gas until it can be replaced by non-polluting sources for energy. Germany plans to close the last of its nuclear power plants by the end of 2022. Credit:dpa The opposing paths taken by two of the EUs biggest economies have resulted in an awkward situation for the blocs Executive Commission. We consider nuclear technology to be dangerous, German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters in Berlin, noting that the question of what to do with radioactive waste that will last for thousands of generations remains unresolved. The US has arrested one of the main suspects in the killing of Haitian president Jovenel Moise an charged him with conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States. Mario Antonio Palacios, a 43-year-old former Colombian soldier, also was charged with providing material support resulting in death, knowing or intending that such material support would be used to prepare for or carry out the conspiracy to kill or kidnap. He appeared at a federal court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon (Wednesday AEDT) but did not enter a plea. He was granted counsel based on limited income and is scheduled to appear in court again on January 31. Suspects in the assassination of Haitis President Jovenel Moise are tossed on the floor after being detained, at the General Direction of the police in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, July 8, 2021. Credit:AP Court-appointed attorney Alfredo Izaguirre told US Magistrate Judge Alicia Otazo-Reyes that he recommended Palacios stay in detention because he has no immigration status, relatives or ties to the United States. Washington: US President Joe Biden has told schools they should remain open after thousands of classrooms shut down just as students were due to return and the nation recorded more than 1 million COVID cases in one day. Tensions between teachers, parents and governments erupted after some districts temporarily switched to remote learning, reigniting anger over one of the most polarising debates in the US since the pandemic began: whether children should be in classrooms as coronavirus cases soar. Thousand of classes across the US have been shut down again as coronavirus cases reach record highs. Credit:AP In Chicago, the Chicago Teachers Union voted to switch to remote learning until cases substantially subside or union leaders approve an agreement for safety protocols with the district, the AP reported. Earlier, union members accused the citys high-profile mayor, Lori Lightfoot, of failing to have an adequate COVID-19 plan for schools. Indias second largest mobile service provider has shelved plans to amalgamate its digital businesses into the listed entity and demerge its core telecom business into a separate subsidiary. This was announced by the company on Tuesday. The company cited improved investment outlook and simplified licence framework as reasons behind its decision of not pursuing corporate restructuring. The board is of the view that the existing corporate structure of the company is therefore optimal for leveraging emerging opportunities and unlocking value while continuing to scale up Airtels digital businesses. Therefore, the scheme of arrangement for the new corporate structure announced on April 14, 2021, stands withdrawn, the company said in a stock exchange filing. With a strong balance sheet and 5G-ready network, is well positioned to invest aggressively in the emerging growth opportunities offered by Indias digital economy, it added. Industry sources said regulatory headwinds have eased for telecom after the reforms package announced last October. It changed the definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR), rationalised bank guarantees and provided additional moratorium for dues. According to its original plan, Airtel Digital was supposed to fold into the listed entity. Thus, all its digital assets, including musical streaming app Wynk, content platform Xstream and cloud-based communication platform Airtel IQ, among others, would have been a part of the listed firm. The company had then said the move will help sharpen its focus in unfolding digital opportunity in India and unlock value. The telecom business was supposed to be shifted to a new subsidiary. Under a modified scheme, the company will only merge its wholly-owned subsidiary Telesonic Networks, resulting in consolidation of its fibre assets into the listed entity. In addition, Nettle Infrastructure Investments, which is engaged in promoting and funding telecom services, would also be merged with the listed entity. The company will pursue its plan to eventually fold the DTH business (Bharti Telemedia) into the listed entity. This is in order to move towards the national digital communications policy vision of converged services to customers. The on Tuesday dismissed the pleas moved by seeking a direction to the arbitration tribunal, which is adjudicating on Amazon's objections against their deal with Reliance, to take a decision on their application for the termination of the arbitration proceedings before moving any further. "Both the petitions are dismissed," said Justice Amit Bansal, who had reserved the order on the petitions filed by Future Coupons Private Limited (FCPL) and Future Retail Limited (FRL) on January 3. The judge said the orders would be uploaded on the website of the high court shortly. and Future have been locked in a bitter legal tussle after the US e-commerce giant dragged to arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) in October 2020, arguing that FRL had violated their contract by entering into a deal for the sale of its assets to billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail on a slump sale basis for Rs 24,500 crore. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for FCPL, had argued before the high court that the three-member arbitration tribunal was acting perversely by not deciding the issue of termination of the ongoing arbitration on a priority basis in view of the anti-trust regulator holding that the approval granted to for its agreement with FCPL, which formed the basis of the arbitration, was facilitated by fraud. In December, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) suspended its over-two-year-old approval for Amazon's deal to acquire a 49-per cent stake in FCPL, FRL's promoter, and also slapped a penalty of Rs 202 crore on the e-commerce major. Appearing for FRL, senior advocate Harish Salve had submitted that the tribunal, which is scheduled to hear issues concerning damages from January 5 to January 7, should first take up the termination application and defer the proceedings on other issues. Senior advocates Gopal Subramanium and Amit Sibal, appearing for Amazon, had argued that there was no denial of equal treatment by the tribunal, which has scheduled the termination application for hearing on January 8, and contended that the tribunal has the discretion to conduct its own proceedings. is objecting to the sell-off plans, accusing of breaching its 2019 investment pact. Future Coupons was founded in 2008 and is engaged in the business of marketing and distribution of gift cards, loyalty cards and other reward programmes to corporate customers. In October last year, the high court had declined to stay the arbitration tribunal order refusing to interfere with the Emergency Award (EA), which restrained Future Group from going ahead with the deal with Reliance. Several issues arising from the Amazon-Future legal battle are pending before the Supreme Court. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ISLAMABAD, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed and 15 others injured after a passenger bus overturned near Khairpur city in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, local media reported on Tuesday. According to the reports, the accident took place due to overspeeding and the injured include women and children. The ill-fated bus was reportedly heading from Pakistan's northwestern Peshawar city towards the southern port city of Karachi. Enditem Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Distributors in have decided to call off their agitation against (HUL) for the next three months. This comes after the company assured them that it will correct the price disparity between traditional trade and the organised distribution channel. The apex body of distributors had met with the consumer goods maker on Monday to discuss the issue of price disparity between traditional and organised trade of distribution. Organised trade includes the likes of Jiomart, Booker and ecommerce distributors like Elastic Run and Udaan. The apex body said in a note, It (HUL) considers distributors as an important component of the distribution system. It will take a serious decision / corrective action on the issue and will protect their distribution channel interests. Distributors have also been asked to communicate any issue of price disparity if it persists with proof. If the situation does not change on ground over the next three months, then the apex body of distributors may take fresh action. Distributors in the state have agreed to supply HUL products, which they had planned to stop in phases. On Monday, in an email response to Business Standards query, the maker of Lux soaps said, In response to the request we had received from AICPDF (The All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation), company representatives met them (members) to understand their concerns and take feedback about the evolving route-to-market (RTM) models. HUL reiterated, General trade continues to be our largest channel and our distributors (redistribution stockists) will remain our valued partners in our quest to serve the needs of our consumers across India. However, distributors are not selling Colgate-Palmolive Indias (Colgate Indias) MaxFresh range of products in as the company has not yet come forward to discuss the issue. In a stock exchange filing, Colgate India said, We would like to clarify that the company has not, so far, engaged with the AICPDF. It also said that it is directly engaging with its distributors to resolve their challenges. Colgate added, The company is not aware of any information in this regard (distributors decision to stall supply of Colgate MaxFresh range of products) which requires disclosure to exchanges. Further, there is no material impact of the article (Business Standard reported on Saturday that distributors in will stop supplying Colgate Indias products in phases) on the company. The company will ensure that supply of its products remains uninterrupted in the state. The trade body said, The movement against Colgate is still going on and the intensity will be increased. The company still sticks to its obstinate attitude. The traditional supply chain in the state had earlier decided it would stop the sale of Colgate Vedshakti products eight days later after it stopped MaxFresh. From mid-January, it plans to stop the sale of toothbrushes followed by complete halting of all Colgate products. The IL&FS Group has sold its 26 per cent stake in Tripura Power Company (OTPC) to GAIL (India) for Rs 319 crore. According to officials in the know, this amount will be credited to IL&FSs cash balance and disbursed according to the resolution plan approved by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). The 26 per cent stake that IL&FS held in OTPC was valued at Rs 1,227 crore for this transaction. According to an IL&FS statement, around Rs 3,656-crore debt, estimated to be part of the overall debt around Rs 99,000 crore (as on October 2018) of the group, has been resolved through this transaction. IL&FS Group held the 26 per cent stake in OTPC through two subsidiaries. IL&FS Energy Development Company (IEDCL) held a 12 per cent stake and IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) held the rest. According to the initial shareholding, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) held 50 per cent stake in OTPC, India Infrastructure Fund II had 23.5 per cent, and the government of Tripura held 0.5 per cent. Following this transaction, GAIL will hold 26 per cent in OTPC, with ONGC, Indian Infrastructure Fund II and the Tripura government holding their respective stakes. OTPC has been categorised as a green company, and has an aggregate debt of around Rs 3,000 crore, which will continue to be serviced under the new shareholding, the IL&FS statement said, adding that the Group had received approvals from the Committee of Creditors, retired Supreme Court Judge D K Jain, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the stake sale. OTPC is a special purpose vehicle, formed by ONGC, the Tripura government, and IL&FS to set up and operate a 726.6 Mw combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) thermal power plant at Palatana, Tripura. The company has environmental approval to set up two more units of 363 Mw each, which would take the total capacity to 1,453 Mw. A year after Apple Inc. supplier . faced an uprising in India, its larger rival Technology Group is encountering a similar rebuke. This time, their key client is getting drawn into what ought to serve as a wake up call for Taiwanese manufacturers in the South Asian nation. Concerns about food safety and accommodation standards spurred Apple to take the unusual step of placing the factory near the southern Indian city of Chennai on probation. More than 17,000 people work at the facility, and in mid-December hundreds of workers contracted food poisoning. More than 150 were hospitalized. That outbreak spurred workers to strike, once again shining a spotlight on conditions for the tens of thousands of factory staff hired across India to churn out devices that include smartphones and computers. When Apple investigated, it found that not only did food sanitation fail to meet expectations, but employee dormitories were also below par. ALSO READ: Foxconn's iPhone manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu is in silent mode Apple and its Taiwanese partners have been here before. A year earlier, workers at a Wistron plant near the tech hub of Bengaluru ransacked that factory after being fed up with delayed and underpaid wages. Baton-equipped police were called in to quell the protest, but not before staff destroyed equipment and torched vehicles. last week apologized for the recent problems and said its restructuring the local management team. But thats not good enough. Despite Wistrons failure a year earlier, it would seem that executives back in Taipei still dont get it. After decades of developing their business models, Taiwanese including Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron Corp. and Quanta Computer Inc. have come to dominate global electronics manufacturing from facilities dotted throughout China. They have done well in the worlds most populous nation over the past 50 years, thanks in part to a common language and successive leaders pro-business policies that made it easy to set up factories and hire workers from near and far. Now, faced with labor shortages and a recognition that theyre too reliant on China, Taiwan firms making the savvy move of shifting operations to the next-largest country. But theyre learning that India isnt as easy. Be it language barriers, cultural differences or the raucous democracy, Taiwanese executives are struggling to adapt. Its yet another sign that India is not the next China, but a nation with its own traits and nuances. Part of the challenge is that India lacks the infrastructure Taiwanese are accustomed to relying upon when setting up local facilities. When founder Terry Gou went on tours of China, playing local governments off against each other in the battle to land the next iPhone factory, he was able to extract commitments to provide workers accommodation and the numerous other support services needed for a massive manufacturing operation. In the Wistron case, local contractors appear at least partly to blame for the wage payment problems that escalated to the point of explosion. Yet management itself failed to adequately monitor its own suppliers to ensure compliance. Foxconn appears to be facing similar problems, exacerbated by the fact that international travel has been curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic. ALSO READ: Apple's $3 trillion market value follows 5,800% gain since iPhone debut It would be incorrect to conclude that Chinese workers are simply more compliant than their Indian counterparts, as evidenced by the 2012 riots at a Foxconn plant in China. But when push comes to shove, Taiwanese management has generally found that local governments in China will side with over workers. Thats less likely in India, where leaders need voter support at election time. Perhaps the biggest challenge, though, is management style. Taiwanese businesses--which generally used their own executives in China--will increasingly rely on local leaders to set up and run operations in India. That means offering adequate training and support so that they can mesh the rigid Taiwanese approach to operations with a more relaxed worker culture found on local turf. Their experiences in China, where such a divide also existed, proves that the challenge is not insurmountable. But technology manufacturers had decades to adapt to the local landscape there as they slowly expanded operations in line with the growing needs of their largely-Western clients. In India, though, Taiwan firms must acclimate faster. Customers need these new factories to ramp up quickly in order to ease their reliance on China, while both New Delhi and Taipei are in a hurry to forge a strong trading relationship that can blunt Beijings economic power. In the rush to reorient the global center of production, manufacturers dont have the luxury of time. The on Tuesday dismissed Future Groups petitions seeking a direction to the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) -- adjudicating Amazon's objections against Future's deal with Reliance -- to decide on its application for terminating the arbitration proceedings. The arbitral tribunal is not bound by the procedure of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, or the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. This flexibility would also vest the discretion in the arbitral tribunal to decide the manner in which the proceedings are to be conducted, including the order in which the applications filed by the parties are to be considered, the high court stated in its order. For this court to interfere in the aforesaid issues would be violative of the autonomy vested in the arbitral tribunal, it added. According to legal sources, in dismissing Futures petitions so promptly, the high court has given paramount importance to the arbitration process and faster remedy. It also indicates that Amazon's case for seeking remedy for the default of contractual obligations is genuine, they said. The cash-strapped is likely to approach a higher forum to seek remedy, sources said. An email sent to did not elicit any response. Ashish Kumar Singh, managing partner at Capstone Legal, told Business Standard that the high court had clearly stated that procedural matters related to the working of an arbitral tribunal were not amenable to the jurisdiction of the court under Article 227 of the Constitution of India. The window to interfere with an arbitration proceeding is very limited and the court cannot dictate the proceedings to an independently constituted tribunal, Singh said. In December 2021, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) suspended Amazons 2019 deal with Future Coupons for its alleged deliberate design to suppress information about the scope and purpose of the deal. In its 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 antitrust regulator also imposed a penalty of Rs 200 crore on to be paid within 60 days of receipt of the order. approached the SIAC in October 2020 after Future Groups deal with Reliance Retail as it cited a non-compete agreement with the Kishore Biyani-led chain. The deal specified any disputes would be arbitrated under the SIAC rules. The same month, Amazon got a favourable ruling for its plea in the SIAC against the deal. In November 2020, moved the against Amazon, alleging interference by the US firm in the deal. Since then, Amazon has been fighting a legal battle with FRL to stop Future's $3.4-billion deal with Reliance. In August 2021, the Supreme Court (SC) had ruled in favour of Amazon, upholding the Singapore emergency arbitrator award against the Future-Reliance deal as enforceable in India. But in a major relief to Future Group, the SC stayed proceedings before the Delhi HC in September, ordering no coercive action. The court also directed the National Company Law Tribunal, CCI, and the Securities and Exchange Board of India to not pass any final order in relation to the dispute for four weeks. A total of 80 people, including doctors, students and support staff, of the Government Rajindra Hospital and Medical College in Punjab's Patiala have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said on Tuesday. This comes as Patiala is turning out to be the worst-hit district in Punjab in terms of a rising number of cases. Patiala reported 143 fresh cases, accounting for 34 per cent of the 419 cases in Punjab, with a positivity rate of 23.95 per cent, on Monday. District Epidemiologist Dr Sumeet Singh on Tuesday said 22 resident doctors, 34 medical students, nine faculty members and 15 support and paramedical staff at the Government Rajindra Hospital and Medical College have tested positive for COVID-19. The officials said directions have been issued to evacuate nearly 1,000 medical students from the hostel after conducting their Covid tests. Those who test positive for the viral disease will be isolated, they added. A few days ago, 93 students at the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology in Patiala had tested positive for Covid, the officials said. Punjab has been witnessing a rise in the number of cases for the last few days. The state reported 46 fresh cases of the infection on December 27, 51 cases on December 28, 100 cases on December 29, 167 cases on December 30, 221 cases on December 31, 332 cases on January 1, 417 cases on January 2 and 419 cases on January 3. The positivity rate climbed to 4.47 per cent on January 3 from 0.63 per cent on December 27, according to a medical bulletin. Similarly, the number of active cases jumped from 392 on December 27 to 1,741 on January 3. Punjab has so far recorded 6,05,922 Covid cases and 16,651 deaths due to the disease. (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.) Following the outbreak of Avian influenza in neighbouring Kerala, all preventive measures are being undertaken to avoid its spread in Tamil Nadu, the state government said on Wednesday. As many as 1,061 rapid response teams, each led by a veterinary assistant surgeon, have been formed in all districts and a multi-departmental panel is also working to prevent the transmission of the virus that causes . In six districts of that border Kerala, monitoring teams comprising the staff of animal husbandry department have been deployed at 26 temporary inter-state border check posts, the government said. These teams have been tasked with round the clock monitoring to prevent entry of vehicles, trucks carrying live chicken, ducks, turkeys, quail, eggs, hatching eggs, poultry feed and manure from Kerala into and as many as 364 vehicles have been denied entry. All other vehicles from Kerala are being disinfected and poultry farms in are strictly monitored and sale of chicks and poultry originating from Kerala is prevented, an official release here said. In the event of virus outbreak or death of migrating birds at wildlife sanctuaries and zoological parks, it should be immediately reported to the nearest veterinary institutions, the environment and forest department has been advised. The Egg Coordination Committee (NEEC-Namakkal), the Tamil Nadu Poultry Farmers Association (TNPFA), and Broiler Coordination Committee (BCC-Palladam) have been directed to not purchase or bring birds, chicks, eggs, egg products, poultry related items including feed from Kerala. Poultry farms have been asked to implement strict bio security measures. TN public health department, southern railway, environment and forest department, NEEC, TNPFA and BCC are part of the inter-departmental committee, that works in co-ordination with district collectors. The Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Theni, Tenkasi and Kanyakumari are the 6 districts of Tamil Nadu that share borders with Kerala. In Dec 2021, the union government notified Avian influenza outbreak in ducks in Allapuzha district of Kerala. (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.) Around 10,000 security personnel have been deployed in Punjab's Ferozepur district ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit, which is being opposed by some farmer unions. Modi is visiting after a gap of two years and set to lay foundation stones of projects worth Rs 42,750 crore. Some farmer unions are demanding from the government to bring a law to guarantee the minimum support price (MSP) and withdraw police cases against farmers, who protested the Centre's farm laws. Adequate security arrangements have been made ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Punjab's Ferozepur on Wednesday, Additional Director General of Police G Nageswara Rao said. Around 10,000 security personnel will be deployed in the border district in the wake of the PM's visit, officials said. The Police is working in coordination with the NSG, Army and the BSF for ensuring fool-proof security arrangements, said the officials. A team of anti-drone has also been deployed, they said. Modi will lay foundation stones of development projects worth over Rs 42,750 crore, including the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway and a PGIMER satellite centre in Ferozepur. The projects also include four-laning of the Amritsar-Una section, Mukerian-Talwara broad gauge railway line and two new medical colleges at Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur. Modi's visit has come after his government repealed its contentious three farm laws, which had led to a year-long farmers' stir at Delhi borders. (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 Commission for Women (NCW) has written to Commissioner regarding the Bulli Bai app case to immediately register FIR in the matter. NCW in the letter dated January 2 said that after the Sulli deal outrage this is another incident reported of the same portal GitHub which is "condemnable in the strongest possible words". "The Commission is extremely anguished and distressed with the abovementioned crime against a woman on cyber space. You are, therefore, required considering the gravity of the matter to immediately register FIR in the matter," reads NCW's letter to Commissioner Rakesh Asthana. "The process must be expedited so that the alleged crime is not again repeated by the same portal 'GitHub'. It is disappointing that even after the lapse of so many months since the "Sulli Deals" outrage, there has been no concrete action taken in the matter which is utterly unfortunate and concerning. The action taken in the matter in both the cases must be apprised to the Commission at the earliest." Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police Cyber Cell detained a 21-year-old engineering student from Bengaluru, in connection with the 'Bulli Bai' application case on Monday. Mumbai Police has not revealed the identity of the suspect detained from Bengaluru yet, except for his age. Police have registered a case against unknown culprits under relevant sections of IPC and the IT Act. Earlier on Monday, Mumbai Police had also filed a first information report (FIR) against unknown persons based on complaints that doctored photographs of women were uploaded for auction on 'Bulli Bai' application hosted by GitHub platform. On Sunday, West Mumbai Cyber Police station registered a case against the 'Bulli Bai' app developers and Twitter handles that promoted the app. The case has been registered against the unknown culprits under sections 153(A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion etc), 153(B) (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to integration), 295(A) (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), 354D (stalking), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 500 (criminal defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act. After both the Delhi and Mumbai police lodged FIR in the matter under relevant sections, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a tweet on Sunday said, "Government of India is working with police organizations in Delhi and Mumbai on this matter." As the matter escalated, GitHub spokesperson said that the company has longstanding policies against content and conduct involving harassment, discrimination, and inciting violence. "We suspended a user account following the investigation of reports of such activity, all of which violate our policies. GitHub responds to law enforcement requests that comply with established legal procedures. We informed India police of our policy in this case, and will assist upon receiving valid legal process from them," said GitHub spokesperson. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The on Tuesday slammed the Narendra Modi-led Union government over a purported video of Chinese troops hoisting a flag allegedly in Galwan Valley, saying by remaining silent the Centre is harming the morale of the Army. A purported video of Chinese soldiers celebrating the New Year at a location near Galwan Valley region was released by the Chinese state-affiliated media recently. People familiar with the developments claimed that the video is from an area on the Chinese side of the LAC near the Galwan valley region. The party also sought a clarification from the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Home Affairs over a statement of Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Malik at a function in Haryana had allegedly said that Modi was arrogant when he went to meet him over the farmers' issues. Targeting the PM, spokesperson Supriya Shrinet said, "In the same valley where our soldiers were martyred, hoisted its flag and sang its anthem on January 1. So, why are you silent? Why are you breaking the morale of our Army? Why are you not giving any reply to " "Your silence on what is happening in and on our borders is not only condemnable but also a matter of concern. China is sitting on the border and Pakistan also dances on the strength of China," she said. "All BJP leaders should apologise to the families of the soldiers who were martyred in Galwan with folded hands," she said. Shrinet also sought an explanation from the government on the statement made by the Meghalaya Governor about the PM and Union home minister. "Satyapal Malik is saying that he went to the prime minister and said that during the agitation against the new agricultural laws, more than 500 farmers were martyred and the prime minister asked whether they martyred because of him," she said. "After that, when Malik went to Home Minister Amit Shah, he called the prime minister mad," she said. "If Malik is lying then an explanation should come from the Prime Minister's Office and the Home Ministry and if he is not lying then it is extremely worrying that there is such mistrust between our Prime Minister's Office and the Home Ministry," Shrinet added. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) KABUL, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least seven Afghans died and 26 were wounded in multiple traffic accidents on Monday amid turbulent traffic conditions after heavy snowfall in the Asian country, local officials said on Tuesday. In northern Jawzjan province, one commuter was killed and 11 were wounded after two vehicles collided head-on along Jawzjan-Andkhoy highway, Abdul Ghani Musamim, chairman of provincial public health directorate, told Xinhua. "Three of the wounded received life-threatening wounds and were shifted ... to a regional hospital in neighboring Balkh province," he said. Besides, six people lost their lives and eight others were wounded in three separate traffic mishaps along a mountainous provincial highway in eastern Nangarhar province, the provincial health officials confirmed. In western Herat province, seven wounded people were admitted at a regional hospital in provincial capital Herat city, following a traffic incident in Qamar Qalagh area in the province, 640 km in the west of Afghanistan's Kabul, Harif Jalali, a physician-in-chief of the hospital, told Xinhua. Enditem Almost two weeks of lockdown is wearing on the residents of Xian, the western Chinese city thats the nexus of the longest outbreak of Covid-19 in the country since the virus was first detected there. Shortages of food and medical care have worsened over the past 12 days since officials sealed off the city of 13 million people in an effort to stymie a flareup that has already led to more than 1,600 infections. More posts are starting to emerge on Chinese social media criticizing the governments poor management of the lockdown and complaining that access to food is extremely limited. Scenes like this havent been seen in China since the first days of the pandemic, when officials shut down Wuhan and introduced the Covid Zero policy its maintained ever since. The more infectious delta variant has made the stringent approach increasingly difficult, at a time when much of the world has transitioned to living with the virus as it continues to mutate into even more transmissible strains. China is yet to report cases of omicron in the community. Fanning Out The outbreak appears to have spread from the epicenter of Xian, which reported 95 new cases on Tuesday, with a growing number of infections emerging elsewhere. The eastern province of Zhejiang and central province of Henan reported eight and five cases respectively, while another 21 asymptomatic infections were detected country-wide and counted separately. More than 100 people have been diagnosed daily for the past 10 days, a stark departure in China where the zero-tolerance Covid policy led to few locally transmitted infections throughout much of 2021. The deteriorating situation is putting officials under increased pressure as Lunar New Year, the countrys most important holiday and its busiest travel season, is looming, and Beijing is set to host the winter Olympics starting in February. Some residents in Xian have started bartering food and cigarettes amid the shortages, according to social media posts. Residents have been asked to remain inside their homes during the lockdown, with one family member allowed to leave every other day in a sometimes fruitless effort to find supplies. Others criticized the authorities for prioritizing residential compounds where government officials live. The deputy mayor of Xian, and another official in the hardest-hit district, were fired as the city vowed to strengthen epidemic prevention. SOSNerves are fraying as the rising number of cases and chaos in hospitals squeeze medical resources, leading to patients suffering from other conditions being denied care. The father of one Xian resident couldnt find medical care after a sudden heart attack, despite having a negative Covid test, according to a widely-circulated article on social media. They were also unable to get help via a medical hotline. Xian SOS, the resident wrote, in a plea for outside help. The tangled situation triggered online rumors about supply shortages that confused and upset residents. One video showed people in Fengyang, a smaller city in Shaanxi province, using a horse to bring in supplies. Officials later denied that traffic restrictions led locals to rely on alternate methods of transportation. Local leaders in Xian have discouraged people from returning to their rural hometowns during the New Year holiday. There is heightened concern about the increased risk of spreading the virus and seeding spillover events in other areas, according to officials speaking at a press conference on Monday. Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan, was put under partial lockdown overnight after two Covid cases were reported in the city on Monday. Yuzhou, a smaller city in the same province, was shut earlier. After the COVID-19 vaccination drive for the children in the age bracket of 15-18 years began on Monday, Lieutenant Governor encouraged 'young friends' to get vaccinated. The Lieutenant Governor said that vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the pandemic. Taking to Twitter on Monday evening, Sinha said, "COVID-19 vaccination starts for children aged 15-18 years in . My humble request to the young friends to get vaccinated. Vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the pandemic." Meanwhile, on the first day of the vaccination drive for beneficiaries in the 15 to 18 years age group, more than 40 lakh children received their first jab of the COVID-19 vaccine till 8.30 pm on Monday, as per the Co-WIN portal. Terming the achievement as another "feather in the cap" in India's ongoing nationwide vaccination drive in which the country earlier crossed the milestone of administering over 100 crore vaccine doses, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted, "Well done Young India! Over 40 Lakhs between 15-18 age group received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on the first day of vaccination drive for children, till 8 pm. This is another feather in the cap of India's vaccination drive." Notably, the vaccination registration for children in this age group began on January 1 while the drive commenced on January 3. The vaccination is being carried out in consultation with hospitals, health centres and schools. (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.) vaccinated more than 10 lakh beneficiaries in the age group 15-18 on the first day of drive for them on Monday, placing it on top among states in terms of jabs, state medical education minister Vishvas Sarang said as the nation rolled out its inoculation programme for children against amid a surge in new cases. The vaccine option for this age group is only Covaxin, according to guidelines issued by the Union health ministry on December 27. Till now (up to Monday evening) 10,02,000 children in the age group of 15-18 were vaccinated (with first dose) in the state and is leading in the country in inoculating kids in this group, Sarang told PTI. We are still compiling the final figures as data from four to five districts was yet to arrive and the final count will certainly go up further, he said. Earlier in the day, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched the vaccination programme in the state at the Government Subhash Higher Secondary School in Bhopal for the 15-18 age group with an aim to cover 48 lakh beneficiaries in the new category till January 20. Chouhan said on the occasion that a third wave of COVID-19 looks imminent, but instead of getting scared people should fight the pandemic bravely. At present, more than 95 per cent of the eligible population (over 18 years) in is vaccinated with the first dose, while 92 per cent has received the second shot as well, he said. The CM said economic and educational activities cannot be stopped in the state and they will continue in a normal manner, but at the same time it is absolutely necessary that people wear face masks and follow all protocols in the backdrop of rising cases and growing threat of the Omicron variant. Sarang informed that inoculation of the 15-18 age group has been undertaken at 8,923 centres in the state and at present children are being administered Covaxin, a two-dose vaccine developed in the country. The minister said the government has set a target to vaccinate all eligible 48 lakh children in the age group of 15-18 in the state with the first dose by January 20. Meanwhile, a Class 10 student, Asmit Bhargava, expressed happiness over receiving the vaccine. I am happy with the vaccination. Because of a lockdown last year our classes and examination were not held in offline mode which disappointed me. After inoculation, will be under control and our offline classes as well as exams will be held in a normal manner," he said. Another beneficiary, Kartik Singh Thakur, a student of Class 11, said, I am feeling happy after getting vaccinated. All of us should get inoculated against coronavirus at the earliest." A girl student of Grade 11, Rachna Rajput, hoped the vaccination will help in stemming the spread of coronavirus. After vaccination coronavirus will not spread and our studies, too, will not get affected. Even examinations can be held in an offline mode," she said. Other students who were vaccinated on the first day were elated as they felt it will give them an opportunity to attend regular classes and praised the Centre for its decision to inoculate children in the 15-18 age group. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) More evidence is emerging that the variant is affecting the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms than previous variants and resulting in a "decoupling" in some places between soaring case numbers and low death rates, a World Health Organization official said on Tuesday. "We are seeing more and more studies pointing out that is infecting the upper part of the body. Unlike other ones, the lungs who would be causing severe pneumonia," WHO Incident Manager Abdi Mahamud told Geneva-based journalists. "It can be a good news, but we really require more studies to prove that." Since the heavily mutated variant was first detected in November, WHO data shows it has spread quickly and emerged in at least 128 countries, presenting dilemmas for many nations and people seeking to reboot their economies and lives after nearly two years of COVID-related disruptions. However, while case numbers have surged to all-time records, the hospitalisation and death rates are often lower than at other phases in the pandemic. "What we are seeing now is....the decoupling between the cases and the deaths," he said. His remarks on the reduced risks of severe disease chime with other data, including a study from South Africa, which was one of the first countries where was detected. However, Mahamud also sounded a note of caution, calling South Africa an "outlier" since it has a young population, among other factors. And he warned that Omicron's high transmissibility meant it would become dominant within weeks in many places, posing a threat to medical systems in countries where a high proportion of the population remains unvaccinated. VACCINATION, NOT VACCINES, ARE THE CHALLENGE While Omicron seemed to be slipping past antibodies, evidence was emerging that COVID-19 vaccines still provided some protection, by eliciting a second pillar of the immune response from T-cells, Mahamud said. "Our prediction is protection against severe hospitalization and death (from Omicron) will be maintained," he said, saying this also applied to vaccines developed by Sinopharm and Sinovac that are used in China, where Omicron cases remain very low. "The challenge has not been the vaccine but the vaccination and reaching those vulnerable populations." Asked about whether an Omicron-specific vaccine was needed, Mahamud said it was too early to say but voiced doubts and stressed that the decision required global coordination and should not be left to manufacturers to decide alone. "You may go ahead with Omicron and put all your eggs in that basket and a new variant that is more transmissible or more immune-evasive may appear," he said, adding that a WHO technical group had held recent meetings on vaccine composition. The best way to reduce the impact of the variant would be to meet the WHO's goal of vaccinating 70% of the population in each country by July, rather than offer third and fourth doses in some countries, he said. As case numbers due to Omicron have soared, some countries, including the United States, have cut down isolation or quarantine periods in a bid to allow asymptomatic people to return to work or school. Mahamud said that leaders should decide based on the strength of the local epidemic, saying Western countries with very high case numbers might consider trimming isolation periods to keep basic services functioning. However, places that have largely shut it out would do better to maintain the full 14-day quarantine period. "If your numbers are very small, you better be invested in keeping that number very, very low." (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.) Delhi Chief Minister said on Tuesday he had tested positive for COVID-19, a day after speaking at an election rally where none of the people on the dais could be seen wearing a mask despite rising infections in the country. Kejriwal, the most senior elected official in the territory of Delhi, was one of the 37,379 new COVID-19 cases reported in in the past 24 hours. The daily case load was the highest since early September as the Omicron variant starts to overtake Delta in places like the capital, though authorities say hospitalisations have not spiked yet. Kejriwal, who addressed the rally in the poll-bound state of Uttarakhand, said in a Twitter post he had isolated at home with mild symptoms and urged those who came in touch with him in recent days to do similar and be tested for COVID-19. I have tested positive for Covid. Mild symptoms. Have isolated myself at home. Those who came in touch wid me in last few days, kindly isolate urself and get urself tested (@ArvindKejriwal) January 4, 2022 Mega-rallies early last year helped Delta wreak havoc in the country, and several states head to elections again in a few months, worrying health experts and the public alike. Local media have reported that even a court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous, has urged authorities to consider delaying the election there. "Try spending some time in isolation to watch your own videos/advertisements on how to be careful, wear masks, and not overcrowd public places," Facebook user Abhishekh Singh wrote on Kejriwal's official page. Delhi reported more than 4,000 new infections late on Monday, with over 6% of all tests turning positive. Federal government guidance has been for local authorities to impose movement curbs as necessary when the rate breaches 5%. India's overall positive case rate has nearly tripled since early November to 3.24% on Tuesday, and some cities have already closed schools and colleges. The country has so far confirmed 1,892 Omicron cases, the most being in Mumbai's home state of Maharashtra, followed by Delhi, according to the federal home ministry. The country's death toll rose by 124 to reach a total of 482,017. Total infections stand at 34.96 million. (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.) As many as one lakh over-aged diesel vehicles have been de-registered in Delhi, said Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot on Monday. Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot informed today that so far about one lakh such diesel vehicles have been de-registered, which are more than 10-year-old. Apart from this, petrol vehicles older than 15 years are also being de-registered. "Public transport in is running at one-third of its capacity, increasing the number of special environment buses", said Kailash Gehlot. While addressing the Media, Gehlot said the is serious about curbing pollution. "As the life of vehicles increases, they also start generating pollution. Till now, it was a rule that NOC was not given to diesel vehicles more than 10 years old and petrol vehicles more than 15 years old. But recently we changed the order, now we are giving NOC to all the vehicles which have completed their life." The Transport Minister said that the vehicles which are de-registered in Delhi can be registered again in those states where diesel vehicles more than 10-years-old are allowed to operate. "Overaged vehicles can also be converted into electric vehicles. For that, we have invited those who want to convert the vehicles into electric vehicles. Four-five companies have been empanelled for this. Although this process of getting the electric machine is between the vehicle owner and the company, there is no role of the Transport Department and in this", said Kailash Gehlot. When asked about the process of getting NOC for the vehicles, Kailash Gehlot said that one can apply for NOC through the website of the Transport Department. Kailash Gehlot said, "Out of the special environmental buses that were already running, we have renewed the permits of 550 buses. In the next two-three days, more buses will start running. Some of the eco-buses that were being run due to the increase in pollution level, some of them have to get the pollution certificate renewed. After that those buses will also hit the road." On the question of the problems being faced by the passengers due to the Delhi Yellow alert, Kailash Gehlot said, "Right now public transport in Delhi is running at only one-third of its capacity. Earlier, about 50 people used to travel in a 35-seat bus, which has now decreased to 17-18. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian drugmaker Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd will launch its generic version of Merck's antiviral COVID-19 pill, molnupiravir, and price it at Rs 35 ($0.4693) per capsule, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday. The overall cost for a patient treated with a 5-day course of 40 capsules of the generic drug, to be sold under brand name 'Molflu', will come up to Rs 1,400 ($18.77). In comparison, the treatment with Merck's pill in the United States costs $700. "Molflu is expected to be available from early next week in pharmacies throughout (India) with particular focus on states with high caseload of COVID-19," the company spokesperson said. India last week gave emergency use approval to molnupiravir along with two vaccines, as the country braces for a possible spike in cases due to the rapidly spreading variant. The South Asian nation reported 37,379 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, its highest since early September. With a view to turn India into a manufacturing hub, Merck has entered into licensing agreements with eight domestic drugmakers, including Dr Reddy's, to make and supply generic versions of molnupiravir to over 100 low- and middle- income countries. A total of 13 companies in India will make molnupiravir, the country's health minister said last week. Governments around the world have been scrambling to buy a similar but more effective antiviral treatment from Pfizer , while Merck's pill has faced some setbacks after disappointing trial data. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An encounter broke out between militants and security forces in district of on Tuesday, police said. Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Okay village of district which turned into an encounter, a police official said. He said there were no reports of any casualties so far on either side. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The has sentenced a police officer to jail for a day for contempt of court after he arrested a person in breach of the directions of the Supreme Court. Justice Najmi Waziri refused to accept the apology tendered by the officer in the contempt proceedings and stated that personal liberty can be curtailed only by a procedure established by law The High Court also fined the police officer Rs 2,000 and imposed a nominal cost of Rs 15,000 for these proceedings on him, to be paid to the petitioner who suffered incarceration for 11 days. "Keeping in mind that R-3 is a serving police officer with the Delhi Police, that he has served for seven years and may have a long career ahead of him, he is sentenced to simple imprisonment for one day along with a fine of Rs 2,000 as well as nominal costs of Rs 15,000 for these proceedings, to be paid by him to the petitioner within four weeks," the court said in its order passed in December. Justice Waziri clarified that the order would be kept in abeyance for two months from its receipt in order to accord sufficient opportunity to the officer assail it if he so desired. The High Court noted the petitioner was arrested on allegations of criminal breach of trust, entailing a maximum sentence of three years, without the mandatory issuance of a notice of appearance under section 41A of Criminal Procedure Code in terms of the Supreme Court's directions in Arnesh Kumar case. Justice Waziri said the "highhandedness of the police officer" in specific breach of apex court's directions was "evident" and the arrest of the petitioner was not warranted in the manner in which it was done. The police officer was deemed to have due knowledge of the rights of a citizen and the procedure prescribed in law, the court stated. It observed that the petitioner and his family suffered humiliation and the indignity of being arrested and "no amount of explanation to the neighbours or those who may have seen the arrest would undo the embarrassment". It added that arrest destroys a person and any subsequent release or acquittal of an innocent is of no solace to the loss of reputation or for the temporary loss of precious personal liberty. (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.) Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Tuesday said if the daily COVID-19 cases here cross the 20,000-mark, a lockdown will be imposed in the city as per the Union government's rules. Talking to reporters at her office in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarters, Pednekar suggested that citizens wear triple-layer masks while travelling in public buses and local trains. She also appealed to them to get vaccinated at the earliest and follow all COVID-19-related standard operating procedures (SOPs). Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray might address the citizens in a couple of days, she said. To a query, Pednekar said the BMC will carry out RT-PCR tests of people returning from Goa by a cruise ship and quarantine them at civic centres, or in hotels if they are ready to pay for it. Notably, the cruise ship, where 66 of the over 2,000 people on board tested positive for coronavirus, was sent back to Mumbai from Goa late Monday night with all the passengers after some of the infected persons refused to get admitted to a medical facility there, an official from a shipping agency said. The mayor said BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal has been keeping a close watch on the situation, and he has already hinted about the lockdown, if the COVID-19 cases in the city rise over 20,000. "Today, no one wants a lockdown and it certainly shouldn't be imposed, as just now everyone is recovering from it. If the lockdown is enforced again, it will badly affect everyone. But, if the daily COVID-19 cases cross the 20,000 mark, a lockdown will be implemented by the civic body and the state government as per the Union government's rules," Pednekar said. She appealed to citizens to follow COVID-19-appropriate behaviour, avoid overcrowding in markets, malls and marriage functions, and wear masks properly. The mayor also appealed to people to hold marriage functions as per the rules, and ensure such events do not prove to be COVID-19 super-spreaders. She said currently, only six Omicron patients are admitted in Mumbai hospitals and all other persons infected by the new COVID-19 variant have been discharged. Mumbai is witnessing a huge surge in COVID-19 cases since the last week. On Monday, the country's financial capital reported 8,082 COVID-19 cases, the highest daily count since April 18, 2021, taking the caseload beyond the eight lakh-mark, while two more patients succumbed to the infection, the BMC earlier said. Mumbai also reported 40 new cases of the Omicron variant, pushing the number of such infections to 368 in the metropolis, according to the Maharashtra government's health department. With fresh additions, the city's tally rose to 8,07,602, while the death toll increased to 16,379 on Monday, as per official data. (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 Lawsuit Alleges Horrific Treatment of Woman Who Barely Survived Her Tuscaloosa Abortion Citizens and National Pro-Life Organizations Call on the Alabama Department of Public Health to Shut Down Tuscaloosa Abortion Clinic Immediately NEWS PROVIDED BY CEC For Life Jan. 4, 2022 TUSCALOOSA, Ala., Jan. 4, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- On Saturday, January 8th at 10:00 AM, the Alabama-based organization CEC For Life, along with other national pro-life groups Life Legal Defense Foundation and Operation Rescue, will hold a press conference in front of Tuscaloosa's West Alabama Women's Center, located at 535 Jack Warner Parkway. The same abortion clinic recently sued for letting a patient nearly bleed to death after a botched abortion. Last month, under the pseudonym of Jane Stone, a woman filed suit against WAWC for an abortion that took place on December 28, 2020. The lawsuit alleges that Dr. Tamer Middleton's medical mistakes resulted in a lacerated cervix, perforated uterus, and other life-threatening injuries that caused Stone to hemorrhage internally. In the hours that followed, Stone alleges she was left to bleed in a recovery chair, despite loss of consciousness and pleas to call an ambulance. According to the complaint, an ambulance was only called when staff could no longer detect Stone's pulse. Once at the ER, an emergency hysterectomy was the only way to save her. These harrowing events took place just seven months after another patient, April Lowery, died of similar injuries from a botched abortion. At that time, pro-life citizens repeatedly implored the Alabama Department of Public Health to investigate the death and revoke the clinic's license, especially as it had just come under a new owner with no prior experience running a medical clinic. ADPH largely ignored these requests, taking little to no action. Though the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners did launch an investigation into the abortionist Louis Payne who suddenly surrendered his license thereafter the clinic itself escaped any blame or consequences. Now, a second woman has sustained similar injuries, despite hiring a different abortionist, which should raise concerns regarding how the clinic itself operates. In fact, just a few months before Jane Stone's injuries, the newly hired medical director was suspended by the Board due to fraud and unprofessional conduct. At the time of Stone's abortion, the director's medical license was invalid. Fr. Terry Gensemer of CEC For Life states, "Once again, our coalition has helped organize complaints with ADPH and the Board of Medical Examiners and are awaiting their responses. We wonder how many women WAWC has to maim or kill before ADPH acknowledges the danger to Alabama citizens. ADPH has the ability, the authority and obligation to hold this clinic accountable for its detrimental actions today." Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue adds, "The WAWC staff has displayed a shocking disregard for the law and for the lives of women. Their willingness to lie to regulators and engage in conduct that has killed and maimed women should be ample reason to shut this dangerous abortion facility down." "It is absolutely deplorable that the ADPH has turned a blind eye to the illegal business practices of the West Alabama Women's Center," states Allison K. Aranda, Sr. Staff Counsel for the Life Legal Defense Foundation. "The ADPH must shut down the WAWC now!" SOURCE CEC For Life CONTACT: Fr. Terry Gensemer, 205-253-0159 Related Links https://www.cecforlife.com/ Share Tweet Multi-core loan default accused and promoter of Group 73-year-old Vikram Kothari died in a freak accident at his Kanpur residence on Tuesday morning. According to reports, the erstwhile stationery czar sustained grievous head injuries after slipping in his bathroom and later succumbed to his injuries. He was reportedly alone at his Tilak Nagar residence at the time of the incident. Vikram, also known as India's Pen King, was accused in a bank loan scam worth thousands of crores pertaining to Global, which exported writing instruments overseas. He shot to fame in the 1990s with the launch of brand of writing instruments and quickly cornered a major share of the domestic market, while spreading operations to nearly 38 offshore destinations as well. In 1973, Vikrams father, the late Mansukhbhai Kothari, had started the famous Pan Parag company, which soon became a household name in India owing to its aggressive marketing and publicity blitz. Leading Bollywood actors Shammi Kapoor and Ashok Kumar featured in the ubiquitous Pan Parag ad on TV and the brand's tagline - 'Baraatiyon ka swaagat Pan Parag se kijiye' - became wildly popular. So much so that Kanpur itself came to be called 'Pan Masala city' then. At that time, Vikram and his brother Deepak assisted their father Mansukhbhai in managing the ever-burgeoning pan masala empire. As business prospered, the group diversified and in 1992, the Rotomac Pens was formed. However, in 1999, the two brothers decided to go separate ways after the death of the patriarch. Elder brother Vikram took charge of the stationery enterprise, while younger brother Deepak took reins of the pan masala empire. Vikram managed to turn around the pen company. Rotomac had its glorious run and emerged a top player in the writing instruments market. Its promotional tagline 'likhtey, likhtey, love ho jaaye', struck a chord with many. Bollywood actors Salman Khan and Raveena Tandon were then its brand ambassadors. As time went by, Rotomac Pens was rechristened Rotomac Global, while Vikram also moved into other sectors, including real estate, steel, and infrastructure, hoping to replicate his success. However, what seemed like an uninterrupted success story soon gave way to a contrary reality as he found himself accused of a bank loan default. The Central Bureau of Investigation had arrested him on February 23, 2018. The case pertained to bank loans worth Rs 2,919 crore from 2008 onwards to Rotomac Global by a consortium of seven nationalised banks. The amount later swelled to Rs 3,695 crore, including accrued interest, because of repeated defaults on payment. He had to spend nearly two years in jail. The court granted him bail on health grounds. With inputs from agencies The has agreed to hear a plea related to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota in connection with the NEET-PG admissions on Wednesday, after the Centre sought an urgent hearing in the matter. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana and justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared in the court on behalf of the Centre, that the matter pertains to admissions to post-graduate medical courses and that students have been facing difficulties. "If it is a three-judge bench matter, then it will be listed before a three-judge bench tomorrow," the CJI said. A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud told the Centre on Monday that a bench of requisite strength can be set up by the CJI as the matter is being heard by a three-judge bench. Large-scale protests have been held by resident doctors of various hospitals under the banner of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) in Delhi and other parts of the country over a delay in the NEET-PG counselling, which has been postponed due to the Centre deciding to revisit the criteria for the determination of the . (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) on Tuesday stepped up its COVID-19 testing and vaccination campaign across the regions bordering India following the highest number of fresh cases reported in New Delhi since May 16. Delhi reported 5,481 fresh COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the highest number of such cases since May 16, with a positivity rate of 8.37 per cent, and three more fatalities due to the viral disease, according to data shared by the city health department. The national capital recorded 6,456 fresh COVID-19 cases and 262 fatalities on May 16, while the case positivity rate stood at 10.4 per cent. Tuesday's positivity rate is the highest since May 17, when it stood at 8.42 per cent. With the increasing number of new infections detected in the neighboring India, initiatives have been taken at the Gaddachauki checkpoint in Kanchanpur district to prevent the entry of the infected people, a senior health official said. New Delhi is 352 kilometres away from the Gaddachauki checkpoint in Kanchanpur. "Kanchanpur is at a high risk of Omicron virus infections. We are at high risk as compared to others due to increasing cases of Omicron cases in Delhi," Chief Health Officer Kanchanpur Shivaraj Sunar told reporters. He said testing and vaccine arrangements have been made for those returning from India at the Gaddachauki checkpoint itself. The official said tests of tuberculosis and malaria were also being conducted along with the test at the checkpoint. Antigen test of people returning home from India via Gaddachauki checkpoint is being conducted on a regular basis and vaccination against coronavirus has also been ramped up in the border area, according to officials. The number of Nepalis returning home has been increasing following a spike in Omicron cases across India, including in Delhi, Karnataka and Gujarat. A total of 1,892 cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus have been detected across 23 states and Union Territories in India, out of which 766 have recovered or migrated, according to the Union health ministry's data updated on Tuesday. Maharashtra has recorded the maximum number of 568 cases, followed by Delhi (382), Kerala (185), Rajasthan (174), Gujarat (152), and Tamil Nadu (121). India's COVID tally rose to 3,49,60,261 with 37,379 new cases, while the active cases increased to 1,71,830. The death toll climbed to 4,82,017 with 124 more fatalities, the data showed. detected 326 new cases of COVID-19 along with two deaths, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Population. There are currently 5,115 COVID-19 active cases across the country. So far, 11,598 people have died due to viral infection across the country. Meanwhile, more than 664,000 syringes required for the Pfizer vaccination campaign arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday. Senior Pharmacy Officer at the Supply Management Branch of Department of Health Services Bade Babu Thapa informed that 664,650 syringes were received on Tuesday. The Pfizer vaccine campaign requires a 0.33 mm syringe made by Pfizer Company. The vaccination campaign for the age group of 12 to 17 years in various districts was postponed on December 28 due to the lack of solvents and syringes required for it. The government earlier said that the Pfizer vaccine will be given in eight districts including Kathmandu Valley as soon as the syringes arrive. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the wake of increasing COVID-19 cases and the rising threat from the variant of coronavirus, the Kerala government on Tuesday restricted the number of attendees to 75 in weddings, funerals, social, political and cultural programmes in closed spaces while allowing 150 persons in open spaces. The decision was taken in a high-level meeting convened by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today. Kerala reported 3,640 new cases, 30 deaths, 2363 recoveries in the last 24 hours, informed the state government. Active cases in the state stand at 20,180. After 423 deaths were added to the death tally as per the new guidelines of the Central government, the total number of deaths in Kerala from COVID-19 infection went up to 48,637 said Kerala govt in an official statement. Kerala has reported a total of 185 cases so far, according to the Union Health Ministry data. As far as the COVID-19 vaccination in the state is concerned, a total of 15.43 lakh children are eligible in the age group of 15 to 18 years for the COVID-19 vaccination, out of which, two per cent of beneficiaries have been given vaccination. (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.) Over 54,000 teenagers in belonging to the 15-17 age group have received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose so far, the Directorate of Education said on Tuesday. The drive was started at 169 centres in the national capital on Monday. "Till Jan 4, 5.30 pm, a total of 54,204 children in age bracket of 15-17 have been vaccinated across . North East district with 9,923 inoculation is leading the districts, followed by South West at 7,079," the Directorate of Education of the government said in a tweet. The department urged all students to get the jabs. According to the data of cumulative coverage of teenagers till January 4, the lowest number of 2,769 jabs was administered in the central district. On Tuesday only, 33,179 teenagers were inoculated till 5.30 pm across 11 districts in Delhi, the data showed. The Northeast district scored the highest single-day inoculations till 5.30 pm on Tuesday with 6,237 jabs, followed by the Southwest district with 4,402. North Delhi district administered the lowest number of 1,886 vaccine doses to teenagers till 5.30 pm on Tuesday, the data showed. According to the Health Ministry guidelines, those aged 15 and above will be able to register for vaccination on the CoWIN portal. Nearly 5,500 fresh cases of Covid were reported in Delhi on Tuesday with a positivity rate of about 8.5 per cent. (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.) Following the reports of Chinese infrastructure development across the Line of Actual Control (LAC), AIMIM chief on Monday slammed the Central government over the India-China border issue and demanded a special session of to discuss the matter. Attacking the Centre over the India-China border issue, Owaisi in a series of tweets said, "Chinese infrastructure development in border areas is ominous for the future. It indicates major Chinese military preparations in the area when seen with extensive deployment of weapons and troops along the LAC. This is a serious issue that calls for a special session of . We again demand a special session of to discuss the China border crisis and the government's response to it." "China is making new villages in border areas. It is sending letters to our MPs. It is putting videos up of its forces and flag-waving in Galwan. It is trending provocative stuff on its social media. Our response is to exchange sweets in areas Chinese have come and occupied in Ladakh. This challenge needs a whole of India response which this clueless, divisive and weak government is incapable of providing," added the AIMIM chief. More than 20 months into the military standoff, China has deployed around 60,000 troops opposite the Indian territory in Ladakh and continues building its infrastructure to help the faster movement of its forces to LAC. "The Chinese numbers had surged significantly during the summer season as they brought in a large number of troops for summer training. They have now gone back to their rear locations.However, they are still maintaining around 60,000 troops in the areas opposite Ladakh," government sources told ANI. The threat perception is there from the Chinese side as they continue to build infrastructure across the LAC. New roads are being built opposite the Daulat Beg Oldie area and near the Pangong lake area, they said. Sources said the Indian side has also taken very strong steps to ensure that any possible misadventure from the Chinese side. The Indian Army has brought in the forces of the counter-terrorism Rashtriya Rifles' Uniform Force into the Ladakh theatre on the Eastern front even as the infrastructure build-up is continuing from the Indian side too. Sources said that the Indian Army is keeping all the mountain passes open to rush in troops if they are required at any of the friction points there. Both sides are also deploying a large number of surveillance drones over the buffer zones to keep an eye on the movement of each others' troops. On the Chinese aggression which started in April-May last year, the Defence Ministry in its Year-End review had stated that unilateral and provocative actions by the Chinese to change the status quo by force, in more than one area on the LAC, has been responded to as an adequate measure. To resolve the issue, the militaries of the two countries have been engaged in dialogue at various levels. After sustained joint efforts, disengagement was carried out at many locations. Force levels in areas where disengagement has yet to take place have been adequately enhanced. Threat assessment and internal deliberations have resulted in reorganization and realignment of forces in keeping with the Army's mandate of ensuring territorial integrity and to cater for the major augmentation of PLA forces and military infrastructure. Troops continue to deal with Chinese troops in a firm, resolute and peaceful manner while ensuring the sanctity of India's claims. Upgradation and development of infrastructure along the Northern Borders are being carried out in a holistic and comprehensive manner, including roads, tunnels for all-weather connectivity, four Strategic railway lines, additional bridges across the Brahmaputra, up-gradation of bridges on critical Indo-China border roads, and storage for supplies, fuel, and ammunition. Major efforts have also been undertaken to identify dual-use infrastructure. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chief Minister on Tuesday said he is hopeful for "some resolution" of the longstanding border disputes with and this year. However, it will take more time to settle the border row with Nagaland and Mizoram, he said while addressing a press conference here in Dibrugarh district at the end of a two-day conference of superintendents of police. The disputes with are very small, except for in a couple of areas. The disputes are mostly on paper and there is no question of anyone influencing the border residents to choose sides without their own will, Sarma said. He also dismissed allegations that miscreants from are trying to coerce the residents of to opt for the neighbouring state. Sarma said three ministers who were in charge of the regional committees formed to look into the six areas of disputes taken up for resolution in the first phase have assured him that the matter will be settled expeditiously. Four rounds of chief ministerial-level talks between Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Sangma have taken place over the border issue since Sarma assumed office in May 2021. Three committees each were formed by the two state governments in August last year to resolve the vexed border disputes in a phased manner. Out of a total 12 points of disputes between and Meghalaya, six areas with relatively less critical differences have been taken up in the first phase. Meghalaya was carved out of Assam as a separate state in 1972 and it had challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act, 1971, leading to the disputes. The two states share an 884.9 km long border. Regarding the disputes with Arunachal Pradesh, Sarma said it will be pursued once the settlement with Meghalaya is done. He said the disputes with were "almost resolved" in 1987, but some technical issues kept the final settlement pending. We are hopeful of resolving the disputes with Meghalaya and by this year, he added. Assam and Arunachal Pradesh share an 804.1-km border and there are 1,200 points of dispute. Regarding the problems with Nagaland, the chief minister said the matter is pending before the Supreme Court, while in case of Mizoram, the process for settlement has just been initiated and it would take some time. Assam Barak Valley districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi share a 164.6 km long border with Mizoram's three districts of Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit and the long-standing dispute has its origin in a notification of 1875 that differentiated Lushai Hills from the plains of Cachar, and another of 1933 that demarcates a boundary between Lushai Hills and Manipur. Mizoram insists the inter-state boundary should be demarcated on the basis of the 1875 notification, a corollary to the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) Act, 1873. However, Assam wants enforcement of the 1933 notification. Assam's border dispute with Nagaland began since the creation of the state in 1963. The Nagaland State Act of 1962 had defined its borders according to the 1925 notification when Naga Hills and Tuensang Area were integrated into a new administrative unit and made an autonomous area. Nagaland, however, did not accept the boundary delineation and demanded that the new state include Naga Hills and all Naga-majority areas in North Cachar and Nagaon districts, which were part of Naga territory, created by the British according to an 1866 notification. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister on Tuesday said road projects underway in will boost tourism in the state and generate employment opportunities for local people. Addressing the concluding rally of the BJP's Vijay Sankalp Yatra for Kumaon in Khatima, Gadkari said after he became the minister of road transport and highways, he decided to change the face of with projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore for the state, several of which have been completed as work is underway on others. "Work on 568 km of the Chardham all-weather road has already been done, and work on the remaining stretches will also start soon following the recent clearance given by the Supreme Court," the Union minister said. A 210-km-long six-lane access control expressway will be built at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore connecting Akshardham in Delhi and Dehradun, via Uttar Pradesh, in two years, he said, adding this will reduce the travel time between the two cities to just two hours. Gadkari said this road will make travelling between the two cities so convenient that Dehradun-Delhi flight operations will become redundant. "These and many others, on which work is in progress, will open Uttarakhand's doors to prosperity by giving an unprecedented boost to tourism and generating employment opportunities for local people," he said. "What you have seen so far is just a trailer, the film is yet to come," the minister said. He said there will be a direct road connecting to Mansarovar in the coming years. "The credit for it does not go to me or Pushkar Singh Dhami or Narendra Modi. It goes to you because you decided to vote for a double-engine government," Gadkari said. Accompanied by Chief Minister Dhami, Union Minister of State for Defence and Tourism Ajay Bhatt and state BJP president Madan Kaushik also participated in the Vijay Sankalp Yatra through the streets of Khatima. The yatra ended in Kumaon region with the rally. It will end for Garhwal region in Gangotri with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressing a rally there on January 6. (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], January 4 (ANI): The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is expected to meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss Bharat Biotech's application for clinical trials of its intranasal Covid vaccine as a booster or a third dose. The Hyderabad-based manufacturer has proposed the booster dose for those who have been already been innoculated against COVID with Covishield and Covaxin vaccines. aims to conduct clinical trials on 5,000 subjects (50 per cent vaccinated with Covishield and 50 per cent vaccinated with Covaxin). The interval between the second dose and booster dose will be six months, sources have told ANI. According to the sources, India is expected to get an Intranasal booster vaccine in March, after timely conduction of trials. Earlier in mid-December, the company sought permission to conduct clinical trials for its intranasal booster dose. The SEC will also hold a meeting to provide emergency use authorization to Russia's Sputnik Light vaccine, which is a one shot vaccine. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India is bracing itself for a surge in cases amid an increase in the test positivity rate, more than 37,000 cases on Tuesday (the highest in 118 days), and an uptick in hospitalisation. The number of cases in the country detected till Tuesday morning reached 1,892. Experts have warned in a country with a huge population such as India, a small proportion of severe cases could put the health infrastructure to the test. More restrictions such as weekend curfews, halved capacity in private offices, and work from home in government offices were imposed in Delhi while the Mumbai authorities warned of lockdown measures if the number of daily cases crossed 20,000. There was an almost 11 per cent increase in cases in the country on Tuesday against Monday, with the weekly positivity rate increasing to 2.05 per cent. There was a rise of 18 per cent in active cases, which reached 171,830 on Tuesday. India administered 8.7 million doses of Covid vaccines on Tuesday. Delhi will undergo weekend lockdown from January 8 till further orders in view of the rising Covid cases. Leave home only in the case of an emergency or in need of essential services, said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. As the daily cases in Delhi increased 33 per cent to 5,400, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who tested positive on Tuesday, the number of patients on the ventilator doubled to 14 in a day. Patients on oxygen support also increased from 124 to 168 in a day. Mumbai recorded 10,860 fresh cases on Tuesday, up from Mondays 8,082 cases. Amid reports of infections among more than 50 staff members at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi and some other hospitals, there was a pickup in the pace of teen vaccination on day two. More than 8 million people in the 15-17 age group got their first jab till Tuesday evening, according to the provisional data. Of these 4 million received their first dose on day one. Doctors, however, are beginning to feel the pinch of the third wave. AIIMS, New Delhi, for instance, cancelled the winter vacation from January 5 to 10, asking all the faculty members to join work immediately. In view of the situation, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority has decided all government offices will be closed and people will work from home except in essential services like hospitals. Metro and buses will run with full capacity in Delhi to prevent crowding. While Delhi for the second consecutive day has seen a high positivity rate, crossing 8 per cent on Tuesday, and has been in the red alert category, the state government has ruled out a complete lockdown. Hospitalisation in Mumbai increased as cases kept climbing. A total of 834 patients were hospitalised on Tuesday, and the hospital bed occupancy rate increased to 14.7 per cent, up from 12.2 per cent the day before. Around 89 per cent of Mumbais fresh cases are asymptomatic, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Of the 834 cases of hospitalisation, around 50 needed oxygen support. What is worrisome is that the citys case doubling rate has reduced to 110 days now from 138 days on Monday. Mumbai is taking no chances. Its tertiary care hospitals with dedicated beds for Covid are seeing an increase in occupancy after several days. The P D Hinduja Hospital, for instance, now has 50 Covid patients in its Covid ward -- over 60 per cent of the ward capacity. This is up from 10-11 patients about 10 days back. Joy Chakraborty, chief operating officer of the P D Hinduja Hospital, said oxygen requirements are small in comparison to what it was before and the government has indicated that admission is to be given only to patients with symptoms. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has issued fresh guidelines on sealing buildings if more than 20 per cent of the occupied flats in a building or wing have Covid patients. The BMC schools have been shut till January 31. Most of Mumbais beds are in the public sector, and they are getting filled. The Richardson and Cruddas Jumbo Hospital in Mulund, in the eastern suburbs of the city, has seen its patient count swell by three times in one week. Patients in the Mulund Jumbo Facility have tripled within a week from around 100 cases a week ago to 332 patients on Tuesday. In order to avoid a repeat of the second wave, the is installing telemetry devices in the oxygen tanks of 53 big government and private hospitals. Live monitoring of oxygen levels will be done through the Covid war room, a press statement said. Tamil Nadu too is considering a two-day curfew, closing places of worship during weekends and time restrictions at shopping places, with cases rising by 11 per cent in a day on January 3. Kerala, which has reported 181 Omicron cases so far, came up with regulations on Tuesday, limiting the number of people who could attend public functions, including marriage functions and funerals, to 75. At one time, only 150 people will be allowed in any public place. West Bengal recorded 9,073 cases on January 4, significantly up from 6,078 cases the day before. The positivity rate, however, is at 18.96 per cent against 19.59 per cent on January 3. The West Bengal government too wrote to the civil aviation ministry, saying that despite the inconvenience caused to travellers due to restrictions on flight arrivals, the state would continue with the restrictions as they are absolutely essential. Incoming domestic flights from Delhi and Mumbai will be allowed only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of every week with effect from January 5. Inputs from Shine Jacob & Ishita Ayan Dutt International reactions to President Xi Jinping's New Year Speech CGTN) 09:05, January 04, 2022 Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered his annual message to the nation on the last day of 2021, which reviewed the country's achievements in 2021 and extended his New Year wishes for 2022. "To ensure that everyone leads a better life, we must never rest on what we have achieved, and there is still a long way to go," said Xi. His words were warmly received by the world. Here is a collection of responses from across the world. Robert Lawrence Kuhn, recipient of the China Reform Friendship Medal told CGTN that President Xi used a nice phase "dream chaser", which indicated very positive, energetic, hopeful approach for chasing the future. "I feel the love and care that President Xi shows the Chinese people," Sergio Ley Lopez, the former Mexican ambassador to China said. "China has eradicated absolute poverty that is a historical achievement. It should bring a lot of celebration." Zambia's Party for National Unity President Higvie Hamududu believes that China's chosen model of developing socialism is working. "We respect it, admire it and we can learn a lot from it." (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Hongyu) India's largest bank SBI to invest $20 mn in fintech firm Pine Labs Pine Labs, a leading merchant commerce platform, announced a new investment of $20 million from Indias largest commercial bank, the State Bank of India (SBI). Earlier in 2021, Pine Labs had raised a total round size of $600 million from a marquee set of new investors and followed it up with a $100 million fundraise from US-based Invesco Developing Markets Fund. Read more Dr Reddy's to launch Molflu at Rs 35 per capsule for Covid treatment Indian drugmaker Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd will launch its generic version of Merck's antiviral COVID-19 pill, molnupiravir, and price it at Rs 35 ($0.4693) per capsule, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday. The overall cost for a patient treated with a 5-day course of 40 capsules of the generic drug, to be sold under brand name 'Molflu', will come up to Rs 1,400 ($18.77). In comparison, the treatment with Merck's pill in the United States costs $700. Read more Delhi HC rejects Future's plea for termination of Amazon arbitration The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed the pleas moved by companies seeking a direction to the arbitration tribunal, which is adjudicating on Amazon's objections against their deal with Reliance, to take a decision on their application for the termination of the arbitration proceedings before moving any further. "Both the petitions are dismissed," said Justice Amit Bansal, who had reserved the order on the petitions filed by Future Coupons Private Limited (FCPL) and Future Retail Limited (FRL) on January 3. Read more Delhi logs 5,481 new Covid cases, most since May 16; positivity rate 8.37% Delhi reported 5,481 fresh COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the highest number of such cases since May 16, with a positivity rate of 8.37 per cent, and three more fatalities due to the viral disease, according to data shared by the city health department. The capital had recorded 6,456 fresh COVID-19 cases and 262 fatalities on May 16, while the case positivity rate stood at 10.4 per cent. Read more Third Covid-19 wave is here; 75% cases in metros Omicron: NTAGI's N K Arora A large chunk of cases in India have been reported from big cities, the head of the country's vaccine task force told a television (TV) channel on Monday, adding the third (Covid-19) wave is upon us. Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata have a combined 75 per cent share of infections of Omicron, said NITI Aayod chairman N K Arora. Read more gets approval to buy gear from 'trusted' vendors Telecom major has received approval enabling it to use equipment from various vendors, including Ericsson, Nokia Networks, Cisco, and Dell, which have been endorsed as a trusted source by the Security Council Secretariat. Read more Munjals move court to claim Hero brand for electric vehicle business Two scions of the Munjal family are entangled in a legal battle for the right to use the Hero brand for their electric vehicle (EV) businesses. Vijay Munjal, who, along with his son Naveen Munjal, owns Hero Electric, the largest electric two-wheeler company, has moved the Delhi High Court against his cousin Pawan Munjal, promoter and chairman of Hero MotoCorp. Read more to HCL Tech, IT firms to see strong Q3 despite seasonal quirks The October-December (Q3) quarter is generally a low season for the Indian IT services industry due to furloughs in its majority markets the US and Europe. But the third quarter of FY22 will be an exception owing to broad-based secular demand for high digital transformation expenditure and a greater discretionary spend. Read more Foxconn's manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu is in silent mode Nearly a fortnight after a food poisoning incident halted operations at the manufacturing unit at Sipcot Industrial Park in Sriperumbudur, an uneasy calm prevails outside the plant. The security staff at the gate greet this correspondent cordially enough until they realise he is from the media. Read more Stalemate continues even as Hindustan Unilever, distributors meet Hindustan Unilever (HUL) executives met distributors on Monday to discuss the issue of price parity between traditional and organised distributors. According to a distributor, the fast-moving consumer goods major has proposed changes in stock-keeping units between traditional trade and organised distributors. Read more The city's industry has urged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to ease covid protocols imposed on wedding-gatherings in view of rising COVID cases. Amid the peak season of weddings, the industry body called for a meeting with the government suggesting measures it could follow during gatherings. The industry body wrote the government a letter saying 99 per cent weddings are getting postponed or cancelled due to capping of guests to 20 people. Citing other industries which are allowed to function with 50 per cent capacity, such as hotels, it said no such provisions have been made for the industry. The abrupt shutdown without any fall back plan in place for them have made the industry suffer major losses, it said. In its letter, the body suggested a few measures it could follow as COVID protocol. It said all guests at the time of entry could be made to submit double vaccine certificate and go through temperature check before entering the venue. It said entry will not be permitted without mask. For those part of the team, the industry said it will be subjected to same rules and a few more. It recommended submitting an RTPCR test report (48 hours) by the organisers of their entire team to the respective District Collector office. It also recommended sanitising of the venue twice a day. The wedding industry in its letter urged the Government to allow them to host events with space of four square feet/person or with capacity of 200 people. reported three Covid fatalities on Tuesday, its most in one day after over four months, while logging 5,481 fresh cases, the highest since May 16. The city government has announced weekend curfew to curb the contagion driven by the fast-spreading Omicron variant. According to official data, as on Tuesday, the case positivity rate moved up to 8.37 per cent -- the highest since May 17 when it was 8.42 per cent. With the cases mounting, deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced a return of the weekend curfew as the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) decided to reimpose some more restrictions. (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 regulator has proposed to cap the tenure of managing directors (MDs) and chief executive officers (CEOs) of firms at 15 years, aligning it with what the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has mandated for the top honchos of banks. It has also proposed changes to the compensation structure of the top management at companies, so as to ensure sound compensation practices and avoid situations resulting from excessive risk-taking behaviour due to inappropriate compensation structures or incentive plans. In an exposure draft, the regulator has said that the post of MD and CEO or whole-time directors (WTDs) cannot be held by an incumbent for more than 15 years. After 15 years, the incumbent will only be eligible to be appointed CEO of the company after a gap of three years, but in those three years, the individual cannot be associated with the company or its group entities, either directly or indirectly. Further, the regulator has said, no individual can continue as MD and CEO or WTD of an insurance company beyond the age of 70 years. Also, if the MD and CEO or WTD is a promoter or a major shareholder (holding more than 5 per cent) of the insurance company, he/she cannot hold those posts beyond 12 years, unless the regulator permits the individual to continue up to 15 years. The cap on tenure proposed by the regulator is aimed at bringing in benefits of change over the long term with sufficient opportunity for leadership to make a difference. A forced change after 15 years is good for any organisation. Importantly, there is directional alignment with the practice in the banking space, said Rushabh Gandhi, deputy CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance. According to Nilesh Sathe, former Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irdai) member, The intent behind the exposure draft is to nudge insurance companies to have a succession plan in place. The regulator is giving sufficient time to insurers to do so. The intent of the regulator is not to be disruptive. In that sense, 15 years time should be enough for an MD and CEO to raise the insurance company to a higher platform, said Sathe. Irdais efforts to emulate the banking model looks somewhat far-fetched. In case of banks, the loan assets are created and some of the bad examples in the banking system should not be the basis for the regulator to bring out similar guidelines. In any case, I dont think the regulator will not contemplate the application of the new regulations on a retrospective basis, said Ashvin Parekh, managing partner, Ashvin Parekh Advisory Services. As far as remuneration is concerned, the regulator said it would be divided between fixed pay, perquisites, and variable pay. The fixed pay part of the remuneration will comprise all the fixed items, including perquisites. The variable pay will be at least 50 per cent of the remuneration structure or a maximum of 300 per cent of the fixed pay. Further, the regulator has proposed that the variable pay paid to MD and CEO or WTDs can be reduced if there is deterioration in the financial performance of the insurer, so much so that it can be even reduced to zero. The regulator has proposed a variable pay formula, wherein 70 per cent weighting has been prescribed to quantitative parameters, such as premium growth, rise in market share, profitability, and persistency ratio, while 30 per cent weighting has been prescribed to qualitative parameters. "In case the annual remuneration of the MD/ CEO/WTD individually exceeds Rs 1.5 crore (including all perquisites plus bonuses), such excess shall be borne by the shareholders account," said the regulator. For non-executive directors (NEDs), apart from sitting fees and other expenses, the exposure draft proposes for payment of remuneration commensurate with an individual directors responsibilities and demands on time. Having said that, such remuneration should not exceed Rs 20 lakh per annum for each such director, excluding the chairman. For the chairman of the board, the remuneration may be decided by the board of directors of the respective company. Further, the regulator has said the upper age limit for NEDs, including the chairman of the board, will be 75 years. After attaining the age of 75, no person can continue in the said position. The total tenure of an NED, continuously or otherwise, on the board of an insurer, will not exceed eight years. The apex body for insurers in India has asked all stakeholders to offer their comments and suggestions on the exposure draft by January 19. Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala on Tuesday denied farm leader Rakesh Tikait's allegation that there is a proposal to import milk from Australia. "There are some organisations that are working only on the basis of protest-based politics and spreading misinformation. Their only aim is to distract farmers. There is no proposal for any kind of concessions on import duty for dairy products under consideration at the Animal Husbandry and Dairy Department," Rupala tweeted in response to Tikait's allegations. Two days ago, Tikait had tweeted: "Government is going to sign an agreement next month with Australia allowing it to sell milk at Rs 20-22 per litre. This decision of the government to import milk will put a question mark on the very survival of the livestock holders of the country. Farmers will protest this move." Rupala had also supplemented his counter with an additional tweet that said: "You would be happy to know India is the world's largest milk producer." An official from the Ministry of Animal Husbandry and Dairying said: "Forget import. We are milk surplus, we don't need to import milk, not from Australia, not from anywhere. Instead, what we are looking at aggressively is to export to milk deficit countries." The government also provides working capital interest subvention to cooperatives so that they can make and store milk powder when they need to as there is a cyclic market, and winter sees excess production, which gets traded in summer, the official said. According to government statistics, as mentioned in the Annual Report 2020-21 of the Ministry, the total annual production is 198.40 tonnes (2019-2020). The per person per day availability of milk in India is 406 gms. Tikait has emerged as a prominent farm leader during the more than a year-long agitation protesting the contentious farm laws compelling the government to repeal those. When asked about the Minister's public denial, Tikait told IANS: "This is a pending proposal for at least one year. The Minister himself is not aware of what happens in his ministry because these are things decided directly by the PMO. This proposal went on the backburner due to the corona pandemic. But now, the government is going ahead with this agreement in February." "Rupala may have tweeted whatever, but we know for sure this is happening in February. This company will sell milk for Rs 22 per litre in villages. The landless farmers, the small land holding farmers in villages will die. These people are dependent on milk from their livestock. The company will not buy from here, they will bring milk powder from outside. The consumers may benefit but the farmers will die," Tikait said. --IANS niv/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.) Chief Minister on Monday directed all departments to work in coordination to implement the investment proposals received ahead of the Invest summit proposed to be held here on January 24-25. Gehlot chaired a review meeting in which it was informed that Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)/ Letter of Intent (LoI) worth Rs 6.16 lakh crore have been signed so far, an official release said. The chief minister said that in the last three years, the state government has taken several important policy decisions, which has created a positive environment for investment in . The Chief Minister said that the MoUs and LOIs that have been done so far should be implemented in a time-bound manner with adequate monitoring and investors should not face any problem in getting various approvals. Secretary- Industries department Ashutosh AT Pednekar informed that so far, a total of 1,454 MoUs/LOIs worth Rs 6,16, 462 crore have been done, through which more than four lakh people will get employment. He said that Rajasthan Petro Zone (PCPIR), RIDCO, Fintech Park, new industrial zones and areas will be launched in the inaugural session of the summit. Along with this, about 13 new policies of the state government will be launched to promote investment. Pednekar informed that as part of the preparations for the summit, potential investors have been contacted in the country and outside in the last two months. In addition to the Investor Connect event in Dubai during the Dubai Expo in November, events were also organised in Chennai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata to invite new investors. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a veiled attack, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on Tuesday accused Samajwadi Party president of not doing anything for Mathura and other religious places associated with Lord Krishna, and termed the previous SP government as "the worshipper of Kans". He accused the previous government of creating a Kans that resulted in the Jawahar Bagh incident in which 29 people were killed in June 2016 when police forcibly tried to evict squatters who were backed by Ram Vriksh Yadav. Adityanath's comment came a day after claimed that Lord Krishna comes to his dreams every night to tell him that he would form the government in the upcoming assembly polls and establish "Ram Rajya" in UP. Addressing a public gathering here after inaugurating 660 MW Harduaganj Thermal Power plant costing Rs 7,000 crore, he said, "While I am inaugurating the power project here, some people are dreaming in Lucknow. Lord Krishna would be coming in their dreams, and tell them to shed tears over their failures. The work that they have not been able to do, the BJP government is doing it." Adityanath said in the dreams, Lord Krishna must have told them that when they were in power, they "failed" to do anything for Mathura, Barsana, Vrindavan, Gokul and Baldev. led the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh from 2012 to 17 and in the last assembly polls, the BJP came to power in the state and Adityanath was made the chief minister. "Nobody bothered about Lord Krishna during that time. They were worshippers of Kans and used to create Kans. And when Kans was created, the incident of Jawahar Bagh took place in which SP (city) Mukul Dwivdei attained martyrdom," Adityanath alleged. In the violence at Mathura's Jawahar Bagh park, 29 people, including two police officials, were killed during a drive to evict squatters. Members of the Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi cult, led by Ram Vriksh Yadav, had encroached on the 270-acre Jawahar Bagh, which was government land, for two years and clashed with police when they tried to evict them. Ram Vriksh Yadav too was killed in the encounter. The BJP government has given Covid vaccines and food grains at no cost to the poor, but had the SP, BSP or Congress been in power, they would have eaten the foodgrains meant for them and swallowed the money for free vaccination, Adityanath claimed. After doing so, these parties would have left like former Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani, who fled his country after the Taliban took over, he alleged. "During the Covid pandemic, they did not step out of their homes. Babua was not seen for 20 months. Now, the third wave of coronavirus is also coming," the chief minister said in an apparent reference to Akhilesh Yadav. (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.) If the SAD comes to power after the polls, a criminal case will be registered against for "fraudulent misuse of public funds" as chief minister by placing "false advertisements", the party's chief said on Monday. Interacting with reporters after canvassing for Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BSP alliance candidate in the upcoming Assembly elections Hardev Singh Megh, he said it is a crime to misuse public funds. The chief minister has "committed a crime" by placing advertisements stating that 36,000 contractual employees had been regularised, the SAD chief said. "Channi has also cheated contractual employees by claiming that the state's governor is sitting over the file recommending their regularization when the fact is that the relevant file is in the chief minister's office," he claimed. Badal said it was shocking that the chief minister was trying to "befool employees with such cheap tricks". Now the governor had "exposed" the chief minister by detailing that the file was in the chief minister's office and was awaiting clarifications since December 31, the SAD chief said, adding, "Channi does not have any moral right to continue in office. He should resign immediately." He promised that once the SAD-BSP alliance forms the government after the Assembly polls, it would regularize all 36,000 contractual employees at the earliest. In its last term, the SAD-led government had passed a Bill in this context, Badal said. "However the Congress mischievously filed a petition to stall this move. After the Congress government was formed it told the High Court that it would take back the Bill. However, this was not done and another Bill regularizing the services of employees was passed. "This is why the governor has asked for a clarification as to why another Bill has been passed on the same subject when a case regarding the earlier Bill is still pending in court," he said. On Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu's promise of giving Rs 2,000 per month to women, Badal said, "Previously, he used to call benefits given to the poor as lollipops." "Now he is competing with this chief minister to make even bigger promises knowing fully well that none of the promises will be implemented," the SAD chief 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.) By Swati Bhat MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's has started offering structured derivative products to leading companies including Reliance Industries after a ban on these deals was lifted by the Reserve Bank of India effective Monday. Axis Bank, India's third-largest private sector bank said the first of these transactions was executed with Reliance Industries which involved the use of Barrier FX options for their currency risk management, it said in a statement. The bank also concluded another transaction with Supreme Petrochem Ltd. Hundreds of Indian corporates who had entered into such tailor-made, OTC contracts with prior to 2008, cried foul when their bets went sour. After the derivative losses - where also took a hit due to customers not honouring deals - the central bank banned exotic products, allowing only plain-vanilla currency options before lifting the bank with stricter guidelines last year. "We expect the usage of these products to grow over time as the market matures and clients get more accustomed," said Neeraj Gambhir, Group Executive and Head - Treasury at . "What has changed is the focus on risk management and customer education. Customers need to fully understand the risk reward of the transactions they are entering into. It may see a tapered pick up and growth, but the market should develop," he told Reuters. Gambhir said the structured deals offered in India are still basic compared with those in global markets and there would need to be more customer education before smaller corporates get on board. plans to focus on larger companies for the time being but is keen to be a frontrunner in structured derivatives and has put in place the necessary staff and infrastructure, he added. (Reporting by Swati Bhat, Editing by Louise Heavens) (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.) Countrys largest private lender HDFC Banks loan book grew by 16.4 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to Rs 12.6 trillion as of December 31, 2021 (Q3FY22) over Rs 10.82 trillion a year ago. Sequentially, its advances rose by 5.1 per cent from Rs 11.98 billion in September 2020 (Q2FY22). Commercial in India, as a group, have posted 7.3 per cent (yoy) growth till the middle of December 2021, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. HDFC Banks retail loans grew by around 13.5 per cent yoy and 4.5 per cent over September 2021 based on its internal business classification. The traction for growth was stronger in the commercial & rural banking segment which grew by around 29.5 per cent over December 2020 and around 6 per cent over September 2021, the bank said in filing with BSE. The lender's corporate and other wholesale loans grew by around 7.5 per cent yoy and sequentially around 4.5 per cent over September 2021. Housing Development Corporation (HDFC) assigned (sold) loans amounting Rs 7,468 crore to in Q3FY22, slightly higher than Rs 7,132 crore in the September quarter (Q2FY22). The banks deposits expanded by 13.8 per cent to Rs 14.46 trillion as of December 31, 2021 from 12.71 trillion a year ago and sequentially 2.8 per cent over Rs 14.06 trillion September 2021. The retail deposits grew by around 17 per cent yoy and around 4 per cent over September 2021. The wholesale deposits grew by around 1 per cent yoy. The share of low cost deposits current account and savings account - stood at around 47 per cent in December 2021 up from 43 per cent in December 2020. Sequentially, growth was marginal from 46.8 per cent in September 2021. The RBI on Tuesday said state-owned SBI, along with private sector lenders Bank and Bank continue to be Domestic Systemically Important (D-SIBs) or institutions which are 'too big to fail'. SIBs are perceived as that are 'too big to fail (TBTF)'. This perception of TBTF creates an expectation of government support for these in times of distress. Due to this perception, these lenders enjoy certain advantages in the funding markets. "SBI, Bank and Bank continue to be identified as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs), under the same bucketing structure as in the 2020 list of D-SIBs," the Reserve Bank said in a statement. The additional Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) requirement for D-SIBs was phased-in from April 1, 2016 and became fully effective from April 1, 2019. The additional CET1 requirement will be in addition to the capital conservation buffer. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had announced and Bank as D-SIBs in 2015 and 2016. Based on data collected from banks as on March 31, 2017, Bank was also classified as a D-SIB. The current update is based on data collected from banks as on March 31, 2021. The framework for dealing with D-SIBs was issued in July 2014. The framework requires the RBI to disclose the names of banks designated as D-SIBs starting from 2015 and place these lenders in appropriate buckets depending upon their Systemic Importance Scores (SISs). Based on the bucket in which a D-SIB is placed, an additional common equity requirement has to be applied to it. The Additional Common Equity Tier 1 requirement as a percentage of Risk Weighted Assets (RWAs) in case of is 0.6 per cent, and 0.2 per cent for ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. (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.) Activists are appealing to Inc. to close a new showroom in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, where officials are accused of abuses against mostly Muslim ethnic minorities. The appeals add to pressure on foreign companies to take positions on Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan and other politically charged issues. The ruling Communist Party pressures companies to adopt its positions in their advertising and on websites. It has attacked clothing and other brands that express concern about reports of forced labour and other abuses in Xinjiang. on Friday announced the opening of its showroom in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital, and said on its Chinese social media account, Let's start Xinjiang's all-electric journey! The Council on American-Islamic Relations on Monday called on and its chairman, Elon Musk, to close the showroom and cease what amounts to economic support for genocide. No American corporation should be doing business in a region that is the focal point of a campaign of genocide targeting a religious and ethnic minority, said the group's communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, in a statement. The Communist Party has pressured foreign hotel, airline and other companies to adopt its positions on the status of Taiwan, the island democracy claimed by Beijing as part of its territory, and other issues in advertising and on their websites. Activists and foreign governments say some 1 million Uyghurs and members of other mostly Muslim minorities have been confined in detention camps in Xinjiang. Chinese officials reject accusations of abuses and say the camps are for job training and to combat extremis. In December, Intel Corp., the world's biggest maker of computer chips, apologised for asking suppliers to avoid sourcing goods from Xinjiang after the state press attacked the company and comments online called for a boycott of its goods. The United States has barred imports of goods from Xinjiang unless they can be shown not to be made by forced labor. is one of Tesla's biggest markets. The company's first factory outside the United States opened in Shanghai in 2019. Other foreign auto brands including Volkswagen, General Motors and Nissan Motor Co. have showrooms in Xinjiang operated by the automakers' Chinese joint-venture partners. VW also operates a factory in Urumqi. (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.) At least 23 people were killed in this weekend and 20 had to flee their homes as fighting between rebel groups intensified in the eastern state of Arauca, Colombia's Defense Minister said Monday. The killings mark a setback for Colombia's government, which was able to bring down homicide rates in much of the country following a 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of . But it is now struggling to control violence in rural pockets of the country where smaller rebel groups and drug trafficking organisations are fighting over smuggling routes, coca fields, illegal mines and other assets. Arauca is home to some of Colombia's largest oil wells and is also crossed by a pipeline that is regularly attacked by rebel groups that steal its oil. The state borders Venezuela and drug trafficking groups have been fighting over its smuggling routes for decades. In a statement Monday, Colombia's army said the latest outbreak of violence was caused by fighting between the National Liberation Army, or ELN, guerrilla group and former members of the FARC who refused to join the peace deal. The army said that both groups are currently fighting for dominance over the area's drug trade. Juan Carlos Villate, a human rights officer in the town of Tame, told Colombia's Blu Radio that he received reports of civilians who were dragged out of their homes and executed on Sunday by members of armed groups. Villate said that he had reports of 50 people who went missing and 27 who were killed over the weekend. Human Rights Watch said it has received reports of 24 deaths, as well as forced displacements and abductions. It appears that the alliance between the ELN and dissidents with the 10th Front of the FARC in the zone has broken," said the group's expert, Juan Pappier. Arauca last year received hundreds of refugees who fled from neighbouring Venezuela following fighting between the Venezuelan army and FARC splinter groups that also operate on the Venezuelan side of the border. President Ivan Duque said on Monday that he would send more troops to the area and increase surveillance flights to intercept armed groups and monitor their activity along the border with Venezuela. Duque accused Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro of providing shelter to some of these rebel groups and said Colombia would fight them with all its might". While Colombia's overall murder rate has gone down since the peace deal was signed, homicides and forced displacement have also gone up in some rural pockets of the country that were previously dominated by the FARC and where smaller groups, including the ELN, are now fighting for territorial control. The ELN guerrillas initiated peace talks with the Colombian government in 2017, but those broke down following an attack on a police academy that killed 23 people. (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 virus cases in surged to record levels on Tuesday, increasing the strain on hospitals and testing centres across the country. In New South Wales, Australia's most-populous state, 23,131 new cases were reported, an increase on the record of 22,577 cases on New Year's Day. There were 1,344 people in hospitals, up 140 on the previous day and 78 more than the record previously set in late September. The new cases were detected from 83,376 tests, a positivity rate of 28%. Victoria state reported 14,020 cases on Tuesday, eclipsing the record of 8,577 set on Monday. There were 516 people in hospitals, including 108 in intensive care. The new numbers mean has passed the grim milestone of 500,000 COVID-19 cases. New South Wales Chief Medical Officer Kerry Chant on Monday urged people not to seek hospital treatment unless absolutely necessary. It is important that we all play our part in not placing unnecessary burden on the health system, she said. Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday rejected calls for the federal government to make rapid antigen tests free, in part to relieve pressure on PCR testing centres. Australian Medical Association Vice President Chris Moy said large numbers of healthcare workers have been furloughed after contracting the virus, making it difficult for remaining workers to provide adequate patient care. You have this double-whammy of lots of patients and also staff being furloughed at the same time, Moy told ABC Radio. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A senior Chinese arms control official denied Tuesday that his government is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, though he said it is taking steps to modernise its nuclear forces. Fu Cong, the director general of the Foreign Ministry's arms control department, said that is working to ensure its nuclear deterrent meets the minimum level necessary for national defence. On the assertions made by US officials that is expanding dramatically its nuclear capabilities, first, let me say that this is untrue, he said at a briefing in Beijing. The news conference was held a day after China, the US, Russia, Great Britain and France issued a joint statement on preventing nuclear war or an arms race. The US Defence Department said in a report in November that is expanding its nuclear force faster than previously predicted and could have more than 1,000 warheads by 2030. The US has 3,750 . (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.) Xian, a Chinese city almost two weeks into a lockdown, is demanding officials "strictly and properly" implement COVID-19 curbs, as new local cases among its 13 million residents have started to grow at a slower pace. Xian, which on Dec. 23 imposed strict curbs on travel within the city and leaving town, reported 95 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed clinical symptoms for Monday, up slightly from 95 a day earlier, official data showed on Tuesday. Monday also marked the second consecutive day for which Xian reported less than 100 local cases since Dec. 24. "The various work that needs to be done must only be strengthened," said Liu Guozhong, provincial head of the Communist Party in Shaanxi, of which Xian is its capital. The epidemic control effort is at a pivotal moment, Liu said. The latest infections brings the tally of local cases to over 1,700 since Dec. 9 in Xian's latest outbreak. "We'd rather widen our identification of groups at risk than to overlook a single person," Liu was quoted as saying in an article published by the Xian government on Tuesday. No one should be overlooked during mass testing in key Xian areas and "household doors" should be closely watched in rural parts of the city to make sure people are complying with travel curbs, Liu said. Many people have been banned from leaving their residential compounds unless for urgent matters approved by their community-based authority. All residents need to have proof of a negative test result checked by community staffers before they can seek medical services at hospitals. The restrictions have also curtailed access to daily necessities, with many people unable to go out to shop, leaving them dependent on deliveries. Xian has said curbs can be loosened when the time is proper to gradually resume normality within certain compounds when their virus risk becomes lower. Xian's case count is tiny compared to many outbreaks elsewhere in the world. But Beijing is keen to keep a lid on outbreaks ahead of the Winter Olympics in February, and the Communist Party's once-every-five-years congress expected later in the year. Xian is stepping up efforts to achieve "zero cases in communities", a situation where all new infections are found among people already in quarantine, state television quoted Chen Zhijun, an official at Xian's disease control authority, as saying. That will create good conditions for the city's next downgrade in virus curbs, Chen said. In areas where infections are concentrated, people who have been in contact with the close contacts of cases should be moved to centralised facilities for quarantine, Xian said on Sunday, citing an unidentified virus control expert. The city will rectify "weaknesses in the services" for people at certain quarantined facilities, a city official told reporters in a press conference on Monday. Aside from the 95 cases in Xian, Zhejiang province and Henan province also reported a handful of local symptomatic infections for Monday. There were no new fatalities, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636. Mainland had 102,841 confirmed symptomatic cases as of the end of Jan 3, including both local and imported ones. (Reporting by Ryan Woo, Roxanne Liu, Gabriel Crossley and Ella Cao; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Michael Perry) (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Is Inc really worth $3 trillion 16 months after becoming the first company valued at $2 trillion? The answer depends on how one views the iPhone maker's ability to keep up the unprecedented growth of the past 15 years. In its last fiscal year ended Sept. 25, delivered 33% revenue growth to $365.8 billion thanks to strong demand for 5G iPhone upgrades. But that growth spurt came after a year of single-digit sales growth and a fiscal 2019 when Apple's sales declined. The bull case for is that it has built an ecosystem of 1 billion iPhone owners who spend money on services and that it is well-positioned for future categories like self-driving cars and augmented reality. The deep discount investors once ascribed to Apple's stock because of its dependence on the iPhone for sales growth has disappeared as Apple has proved that the device sits at the center of an expanding solar system that adds new gadgets like the Apple Watch and Apple AirTags and new, paid services like television and fitness classes. "Apple has been and still is an incredible growth story anchored by must-have products and a growing portfolio of services. While years ago the stock price was a value investor's dream, I don't think the current near-record high price should be a sell signal for long-term focused investors," said Trip Miller, managing partner at Gullane Capital Partners. Moreover, Apple is trading at about 30 times its expected 12-month earnings, down a bit from a multiple of 32 in early 2021 but still at highs not seen since 2008, according to Refinitiv data. Hal Eddins, chief economist at Apple shareholder Capital Investment Counsel, said Apple has been a "safety stock" through the pandemic and that investors are likely expecting solid holiday sales. Apple "seems to be vaccinated against anything that Omicron can throw at it," Eddins said. "I'm not complacent at this level, but there would have to be some nasty unforeseen events to rock the boat." Some analysts believe Apple has plenty of room to grow in coming years, with future products such as the Apple Car. "We see the prospects of Apple Car - representing the clearest path to doubling Apple's revenue and market cap - catalyzing a shift in investor narrative back toward the attractiveness of the platform (1 billion loyal customers) and long-term, sustainable growth," Morgan Stanley analyst Katy L. Huberty wrote in a November note. NO GUARANTEES The bear case, however, is that Apple is hitting the limits of how much it can grow its user base and how much cash it can squeeze from each user, with no guarantees that future product categories will prove as lucrative as the iPhone. In a December note to investors, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi warned that Apple's prospects in the augmented and virtual reality category are bright but likely to account for only 4% of its revenue by 2030. Moreover, the entire market for those devices is not likely to near the billion-unit mark until 2040, he wrote. Sacconaghi also saw "no obvious catalysts for multiple expansion" in Apple's stock "given slower expected growth" in the next fiscal year. He has a market-perform rating on the stock. Another concern is uncertainty over Apple's ability to lock in the same profits for paid services on its future hardware. Its App Store business model, which takes commissions on in-app purchases of digital goods, has been targeted by proposed legislation in the United States and Europe. To be sure, one of the primary drivers of Apple's ballooning valuation is the goal it set in 2018 to get what at the time was nearly $100 billion in net cash off its balance sheet and become net-cash neutral. That goal, for which Apple never specified a deadline, has been tough to meet because it simply keeps making money. Apple generated $104 billion in cash from operations in fiscal 2021 and returned $106.5 billion to shareholders. But its net cash remained at $66 billion at the fiscal year's end. With big acquisitions largely out of the question under current U.S. antitrust regulators, Apple has had few options but to shovel cash back to shareholders, said Tom Plumb, founder of Wisconsin Capital Management and an Apple shareholder. "They're fighting the fact they've got $100 billion of cash flow a year," Plumb said. "You can't bet against a company that has this type of cash flow." (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Dan Grebler) (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.) Germany's seven-day COVID-19 incidence rose for the fifth consecutive day, up from 222.7 on the previous day to 232.4, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases said on Monday. Daily COVID-19 infections in the country increased to 18,518 cases, around 4,600 more than last week, according to the RKI. It warned that the figures still showed an "incomplete picture of the epidemiological situation" due to less testing and delayed reports over the holiday season. Infections with the variant in increased by 3,524 within one day to a total of 30,325, according to the RKI. More than a third of all laboratory-confirmed cases in the country were recorded in the 15-34 age group. Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach told newspaper Bild am Sonntag that he was "very, very concerned about the unvaccinated who are now walking into the wave." Lauterbach stressed that the first vaccination would "drastically reduce the risk of death after just 14 days," adding that by increasing first-time vaccinations, "we can effectively reduce COVID-19 deaths in the Omicron wave." With a vaccination rate of 71.2 percent, around 21.5 million people in are still not vaccinated, according to official figures. The federal and state governments are to discuss later this week how to further proceed in the fight against the Omicron variant, after restrictions were tightened for the vaccinated and recovered over the turn of the year. (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.) Inc's ability to design components in-house gave the automaker agility in making tweaks to parts and coping with supply chain issues that hit other much harder, sources and experts said. boosted its deliveries by 87% to a record high in 2021, pushing up its shares up over 13% on Monday. Here are some of the ways navigated supply chain challenges. HOW TESLA COPED WITH THE GLOBAL CHIP SHORTAGE Tesla told some customers they could take vehicle delivery with some missing parts, such as Bluetooth chips and USB ports. Tesla also removed some features such as radar sensors and lumbar support for front passenger seats, which made the car less complicated to build. Tesla did not respond to Reuters' request for comments. Tesla also increased vehicle prices to address higher costs, including "expedite costs" for parts. American consumers have to wait for seven months if they order a Model Y version, whose prices went up 18% last year. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said Tesla was also able to substitute alternative chips for some that were in short supply. Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess said Tesla's ability to rewrite software to support the new chips in 2-3 weeks was impressive. HOW TESLA IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER Tesla designs more hardware and writes more software than many rivals, who rely on auto suppliers' efforts. Musk has called the company "absurdly vertically integrated compared to other auto ." "We design circuit boards by ourselves, which allow us to modify their design quickly to accommodate alternative chips like powerchips," a Tesla insider said. In-house engineers design the bulk of the complex software that runs the Tesla vehicles, which Musk has described as a "computer on wheels". Tesla also designs the chips used in its driver assistant systems and makes parts ranging from seats to battery cells in-house. It also owns its own direct sales, service and charging networks. "We're designing and building so much more of the car than other OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) who will largely go to the traditional supply base and like I call it, catalog engineering. So it is not very adventurous," Musk said. Ambrose Conroy, CEO of Seraph Consulting, said: "They control what's going on in that vehicle at a level that no other automaker wants to do it. It is much more aligned to the integration that Henry Ford had originally with the Model T." HOW TESLA SECURED CHIP ORDERS In 2020, many cut chip orders as the pandemic and lockdown measures hit demand. But Tesla never reduced its production forecast with suppliers, since it expected rapid growth, which helped it weather the chip shortage, Tesla chief financial officer Zach Kirkhorn has said. "They've just been smarter about it than other in terms of making sure there's buffer stock," a Tesla supplier executive said. Tesla's direct ties with chip suppliers allowed it to move faster than traditional automakers, which rely on first-tier suppliers who have relationships with chipmakers, Kevin Anderson, Principal Consultant at Write-Tek, said. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Peter Henderson and Richard Pullin) (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) has warned that its coal supply situation remains critical, ahead of Wednesday's review of its export ban, unnerving global markets for the fuel used to generate most of the electricity that drives Asia's biggest economies. Coal futures in China, the world's biggest consumer of the fuel, surged on Tuesday after Indonesia, the top exporter of the coal used in power plants and China's largest overseas supplier, on Saturday banned exports for January to avoid outages at the generators run by state-owned utility Perusahan Listrik Negara (PLN). The price rise is among the first signs of the impact of Indonesia's coal export ban, which threatens the energy security of some of the world's biggest economies such as China, India, Japan and South Korea. China's benchmark thermal coal futures rose by as much as 7.8% in the first day of trading since the policy was announced and were at 712.40 yuan ($111.81) a tonne. That is the highest since Dec. 20 and futures are set for their biggest gain since Oct. 19. Late on Monday, PLN said it has secured 3.2 million tonnes of coal out of the 5.1 million tonnes of additional supply for January it needs to avoid widespread outages. But, it warned that "this critical period is not yet over", adding that it continued to coordinate with the government and other coal suppliers. At the same time, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that coal miners, as well as liquefied natural gas producers, must prioritise domestic supply and ensure energy security in before exporting. He threatened to revoke the business permits of miners which failed to meet a so-called domestic market obligation (DMO) that requires them to sell 25% of their coal output to the domestic market at a maximum price of $70 per tonne. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the ban was enacted to avoid disrupting the recovery of Indonesia's economy, Southeast Asia's biggest, from the COVID-19 pandemic. But the decision endangers Asia's economic powerhouses China, India, Japan, and South Korea, which together received 73% of Indonesian coal exports in 2021, shiptracking data from Kpler showed. Indonesian authorities are set to reexamine the export ban on Wednesday. The logistics of re-routing coal cargoes to PLN's power stations will be challenging because it will require smaller barges rather than large carriers, said a Singapore-based coal analyst. Pandu Sjahrir, chairman of the Indonesian Coal Miners Association, said as a "very short-term solution" the group's ten biggest members will help PLN close the supply gap. On Tuesday, Indonesian State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Erick Thohir said in a statement the ministry is working to improve PLN's coal supply management and infrastructure. "We at the SOE Ministry will improve the long-term supply contracts," Erick said, adding that the logistics system and infrastructure would also be upgraded to ensure domestic coal needs are met. Analysts on Monday warned that India, which consumed over 15% of Indonesia's 2021 coal exports, might re-route shipments from other suppliers if the ban persists. That could mean higher demand for coal from Australia, also a major supplier to Asia. Shares of Whitehaven Coal jumped as much as 9.2% on Tuesday, the most since July 16. ($1 = 6.3717 Chinese yuan renminbi) (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) On Monday, India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had a broad-ranging telephonic conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The conversation was on bilateral and global issues, including the current state of affairs in the Indo-Pacific region. Both sides also exchanged New Year greetings. "A broad-ranging conversation yesterday night with @SecBlinken. Covered current bilateral issues, Indo-Pacific and pressing global matters. Also exchanged New Year greetings," Jaishankar said in a tweet. The conversation between India and the United States comes at a time when the countries are preparing for the next edition of the "two-plus-two" foreign and defence ministerial talks. The "two-plus-two" dialogue is likely to take place later this month or in February in Washington, US. The previous 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between the two countries was held in October 2020. On September 1, this year, India and the United States held a bilateral 2+2 Inter-sessional meeting at the official level in Washington and exchanged assessments on developments in South Asia, the Indo-Pacific region and the Western Indian Ocean. Both sides took stock of the progress and developments in the bilateral agenda under the India-US strategic partnership, including defence, global public health, economic and commercial cooperation, science and technology, clean energy and climate finance, and people to people ties, the MEA had informed in a statement earlier. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) will gear up efforts to deal with a possible surge in cases and aim to deliver oral treatment using Pfizer Inc's drugs nationwide next month, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday. Kishida also said the government will decide next week whether to extend border controls, which he described as having successfully prevented infection numbers from spiking. "We'll prepare to shift the focus of Japan's response to domestic measures to guard against the worst-case scenario of a possible spike in community transmissions," Kishida told a news conference. Aside from antiviral pills developed by Merck & Co Inc already delivered nationwide, the government will aim to roll out "at the earliest date possible in February" Pfizer's oral treatment drugs in Japan, he said. As more oral drugs become available, will allow more patients to receive treatment at home to avoid a resurgence in infections from triggering a shortage of hospital beds, he said. is betting heavily on oral treatments to keep serious infections and deaths at bay should a feared sixth wave of the pandemic emerge. The government agreed in November to pay Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics about $1.2 billion for 1.6 million courses of their drug molnupiravir. "If a spike in infections lead to a shortage of hospital beds, we must flexibly consider ramping up curbs on activity," Kishida said. Kishida also said he will forgo overseas visits before the start of Japan's parliament session on Jan. 17 to focus on laying out anti-pandemic measures. Domestic media have reported that Kishida was aiming to visit Australia and the United States to meet his counterparts before parliament convenes. Japan last month confirmed the first known case of infections that could not be traced back to overseas travellers. Community transmissions of the variant have now been found in Tokyo as well as western Japan cities of Osaka and Kyoto. (Reporting by Leika Kihara and Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Michael Perry) (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Elon Musk-run Tesla has opened a showroom in China's Xinjiang region, criticised globally for serious human rights violations of the Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic and religious minority groups. On New Year's Eve, Tesla opened a new showroom in Xinjiang, the remote region where "Chinese authorities are carrying out a campaign of forcible assimilation against religious minorities that has become a public-relations quagmire for Western brands", The Wall Street Journal reported late on Monday. Tesla revealed the details on its official account on Chinese social media platform Weibo which is a Twitter-like platform. The move by Tesla comes at a time when US President Joe Biden in December 2021 signed into law a bill that aims to punish for human rights abuses against ethnic and religious minorities, including the Uyghurs, in the Xinjiang region. The bipartisan legislation, which passed the Senate by unanimous consent last week, bans imports of goods from the Xinjiang region unless individuals or companies demonstrate that the materials were made without forced labour, according to reports. The bill, called the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, is the latest effort by the US to punish for alleged abuse of millions of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The US has repeatedly accused of committing genocide against Uyghurs. Several Chinese tech companies have also been linked with domestic spying in the Xinjiang region. Chinese tech conglomerate Huawei has reportedly been linked to domestic spying in Xinjiang region, while building technology for labour and re-education camps as well as surveillance systems in the western Chinese region largely populated by Uyghur Muslims. ccording to PowerPoint presentations obtained by The Washington Post, the tech giant's work may have been involved in the "persecution against ethnic minorities in the region". However, the presentations for Huawei's work on surveillance systems do not mention Uyghurs, and the company has denied directly supplying tech to Xinjiang. In Xinjiang, up to two million people from Uyghur and other ethnic Muslim minorities have allegedly been put into internment camps, according to the US State Department. The Chinese government has been accused of carrying out several human rights violations against the Uyghurs, putting them in detention and re-education camps and using them for forced labour. The US Treasury said that Chinese AI company SenseTime has been sanctioned because of the role its technology plays in enabling human rights abuses against the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang -- accusations that SenseTime has strongly denied. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has mounted multifaceted and multiplatform information campaigns to deny accusations of forced labour, mass detention, surveillance, sterilisation, cultural erasure and alleged genocide in the Xinjiang region. --IANS na/ksk/ (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Oil prices were flat on Tuesday ahead of a meeting where major producers are expected to stick to plans to add supply in February, as soaring Covid-19 cases have yet to spark lockdowns in the biggest fuel-consuming countries. Brent crude futures gained 1 cent to $78.99 a barrel at 0239 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slipped 2 cents to $76.06 a barrel. The two benchmark contracts both climbed more than 1% on Monday. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and allies - together called OPEC+ - are due to meet on Tuesday. The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee is due to meet at 1200 GMT, followed by a ministerial meeting at 1300 GMT, both by videoconference. Three OPEC+ sources told Reuters the group is likely to stick to its plan to increase output by 400,000 barrels per day in February, as it has done each month since August. RBC Capital analysts said OPEC+ was unlikely to change course given the current price outlook, pressure from the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to boost supply, and no major new Covid-19 mobility curbs. "Though (Covid-19 variant) cases continue to climb in key geographies, the absence of widespread lockdown restrictions will likely keep near-term demand concerns in check," RBC analysts said in a note. However they said OPEC+ may have to change tack if tension between the West and Russia over Ukraine flares up and hits fuel supplies, or Iran's nuclear talks with major powers make progress, which would lead to an end to oil sanctions on Iran. "We think these two events represent major wildcards that could quickly alter the price trajectory and test OPEC's rapid response mechanism," RBC analysts said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Laura Sanicola (Reuters) - Oil settled higher on Monday on hopes of further demand recovery in 2022, despite OPEC+ looking set to agree to another output increase and persistent concerns about how rising COVID infections might affect demand. and its allies, or OPEC+, are expected on Tuesday to agree to the output hike. The Omicron coronavirus variant has brought record case counts and dampened New Year festivities worldwide, with more than 4,000 flights cancelled on Sunday. "The monthly + meeting that will be developing during the next couple of days is more likely to prove bullish than bearish since several of the members are having difficulty achieving assigned quotas," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Illinois. Brent crude settled up $1.20, or 1.5%, at $78.98 a barrel at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT), having earlier risen as high as $79.05. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled up 87 cents at $76.08 a barrel. "Infection rates are on the rise globally, restrictions are being introduced in several countries, the air travel sector, amongst others, is suffering, yet investors' optimism is tangible," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. Many U.S. schools that would normally welcome students back to classrooms on Monday are delaying their start dates, scrambling to test pupils and teachers and preparing, as a last resort, to return to remote learning as record numbers of COVID-19 cases from the Omicron variant sweep the country. Oil gained some support from an outage in Libya. Oil output will be cut by 200,000 barrels per day for a week due to pipeline maintenance. Last year, Brent rose 50%, spurred by the global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and OPEC+ supply cuts, even as infections reached record highs worldwide. Some see more gains in 2022. "Crude and oil product prices should benefit from oil demand moving above 2019 levels," said a report from UBS analysts including Giovanni Staunovo. "We expect Brent to rise into a $80-90 range in 2022." (Reporting by Laura Sanicola in Washington; Additional reporting by Alex Lawler, Mohi Narayan and Naveen Thukral; Editing by Mark Potter, Matthew Lewis and Jonathan Oatis) (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A string of new studies has confirmed the silver lining of the Omicron variant: Even as case numbers soar to records, the numbers of severe cases and hospitalisations have not. The data, some scientists say, signal a new, less worrying chapter of the pandemic. The development comes as more than 1 million people in the US were diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday as a tsunami of Omicron swamps every aspect of daily American life. Mondays number is almost double the previous record of about 590,000 set just four days ago in the US, which itself was a doubling from the prior week. But scientists are hopeful. Were now in a totally different phase, said Monica Gandhi, an immunologist at the University of California, San Francisco. The virus is always going to be with us, but my hope is this variant causes so much immunity that it will quell the pandemic. Data from the past week suggest that a combination of widespread immunity and numerous mutations have resulted in a virus that causes far less severe disease than previous iterations. One study out of South Africa found that patients admitted to the hospital there during the Omicron-dominated fourth wave of the virus were 73 per cent less likely to have severe disease than patients admitted during the delta-dominated third wave. Several factors appear to have made the Omicron variant less virulent than previous waves of Covid-19. One factor is the virus ability to infect the lungs. Five separate studies in the past week suggested that the variant does not infect the lungs as easily as previous variants. However, Britain on Tuesday faced warnings of an impending hospital crisis due to staff shortages caused by a wave of Omicron infections, as the country returned to work after Christmas. Central China saw more than one million people in Yuzhou city confined to their homes on Tuesday after three asymptomatic cases were recorded in the countrys latest mass lockdown. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Gulzar Ahmed has warned that the Supreme Court will not hesitate to summon rime Minister if Arif Gull, detained at an internment centre in Kohat since 2019, was not produced before it on Tuesday, Dawn new reported. "Should we seal the courts if Arif Gull cannot be produced?" the CJP queried during Monday's hearing. Justice Gulzar headed a three-judge Supreme Court bench that had taken up a habeas corpus petition moved by a relative of Gull seeking information about his whereabouts. Last week, the Supreme Court had ordered production of the detainee on Monday. But the court accepted a statement by Shumail Butt, the advocate general for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Additional Attorney General Sajid Ilyas that it was impossible to produce Gull on Monday due to the distance between Islamabad and Kohat. The Supreme Court put off further hearing with a directive to produce the accused by Tuesday, the Dawn news report said. Gull is facing an allegation of attacking the checkpost of a security force at Kandau, near the border with Afghanistan, in 2019 and since then he has been under detention at the Kohat internment centre. "Would the edifice of the Supreme Court crumble if Arif Gull is produced before the court? We should lock the court if the person cannot be produced before it," the CJP said. Justice Ahmed told the advocate general the judiciary had the powers to summon the "entire defence machinery" if Gull was not brought to the court. --IANS san/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.) Chinese President on Tuesday issued a new mobilisation order for the training of armed forces with a focus on developing an elite force capable of fighting and winning wars. Xi, 68, heading the ruling Communist Party of (CPC) since 2012 followed by the Presidency and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) - the overall high command of the country's two million-strong military - has prioritised real-time training with constant up-gradation of technology besides in-depth of reforms since he took over power. Unlike his predecessors, Xi is widely expected to continue in power at the end of the 2nd five-year tenure this year and start a record third term after the once in a five-year CPC Congress scheduled to be held in the middle of this year. Since 2018, he has been issuing mobilisation orders every year, setting operational priorities for the military which now enjoys over USD 200 billion annual defence budget. In this year's order, Xi said the armed forces must closely follow the evolution of technology, warfare and rivals, redouble their efforts to better combine training with combat operations, and strengthen systematic training and the use of technologies to develop an elite force that is capable of fighting and winning wars, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. All officers and soldiers should uphold the spirit of fearing neither death nor hardship, and conduct training in a vigorous, well-designed and safe manner to boost their commanding and fighting capability and foster excellent conduct, the order said. The entire rank and file of the armed forces must resolutely implement the plans and instructions of the Party leadership and the CMC, it said, adding that the changing landscape of national security and combat circumstances must be accurately understood. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Secretary of State and the representatives of the Bucharest Nine group on Monday (local time) highlighted their solidarity with Lithuania amid escalating political pressure and economic coercion by . "They (Secretary Blinken and Foreign Ministers of various countries included in Bucharest 9 group) also highlighted their solidarity with Lithuania in the face of escalating political pressure and economic coercion by the People's Republic of China," said State Department spokesperson Ned Price in a statement on Monday (local time). The tensions have erupted between and the Baltic nation when in November Lithuania angered by allowing Taiwan to open a representative office in Vilnius, equivalent to an embassy. It escalated in recent times after Lithuania took steps to strengthen ties with Taiwan. China considers Taiwan as its integral part. According to a report, Lithuania needs the support of the West and other foreign powers to counter Chinese aggression as it seems to be struggling almost alone against one of the world's economic and political superpowers. According to the Hong Kong Post, Lithuania finds itself at the forefront of countries that identify China as the greatest threat as it dared to openly oppose Chinese President Xi Jinping's autocracy and Beijing's aggressive behaviour. The representative office opened with the name "Taiwan Representative Office in Lithuania", thereby implicitly implying recognition of a legal entity separate from the mainland. Beijing attacked Lithuania by lowering its diplomatic relations with Lithuania. In addition, this month Beijing also demanded that Lithuanian officials surrender their identity documents in order to downgrade their diplomatic status. The demand was such a serious concern for Lithuania that Vilnius withdrew its remaining diplomats from China in mid-December, fearing for their safety. Further, China has suspended the movement of freight trains connecting Vilnius as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It stopped processing Lithuanian food export license applications, according to Hong Kong Post. (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.) AT&T and Verizon Communications have agreed to a two-week delay in rolling out a new service that airlines said might interfere with aircraft electronics and pose a safety hazard. The issued separate statements on Monday night, two days before their planned January 5 launch, and one day after rebuffing a request for delay from US transportation officials. The action came after a flurry of calls directed at the industry and the White House from aviation groups seeking a delay, and as airlines were threatening legal action. The US Federal Aviation Administration had been planning to issue hundreds of notices with specific restrictions for airport runways, heliports and other flight routes, which it said could cause significant disruptions to the aviation system. The issue involves a new band of faster wireless service that is located near frequencies used by aircraft equipment to compute altitude. Aviation groups and the FAA fear it could compromise safety, especially in low visibility conditions. The wireless and the Federal Communications Commission, which approved the service, have said there isnt a risk. Its clear that this irresponsible rollout of wasnt ready for takeoff, Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association. Now the real work begins. The agreements lift the prospect of litigation that would seek to force the FCC to halt the wireless providers airwaves use, according to an airline official who asked not to be identified. Litigation could still go forward if the two-week pause doesnt result in agreements on methods to protect planes at airports, the official added. The wireless providers committed to not deploy towers near certain airports for six months if the aviation industry agrees not to escalate its campaign against the new service. The offer is modelled after exclusion zones at airports in France, where 5G service is working on similar frequencies and US airliners have landed. Ajmera Realty & Infra India rose 3.29% to Rs 309 after the company said it will build high-end residences at Juhu in Mumbai, focusing on urban rejuvenation. Ajmera Realty & Infra India has recently executed development agreement to undertake redevelopment project of Fairyland Co-operative Housing Society, located in Juhu, Mumbal. Funded through a mix of debt and equity, this project is estimated to accrue sales value of Rs 150 crore. The 10,520 sq ft plot will comprise 15 flats in a single tower with a total saleable area of approximately 30,000 sq ft. This real estate project will primarily focus on residential apartments of 3 & 4 BHK flats. Dhaval Ajmera, director, Ajmera Realty & Infra India said: "A large number of the old buildings in Mumbai are beginning to see deterioration in their structures. There is an opportunity to re-purpose the old residential projects into new real estate assets with amenities and weilness quotient in accordance to the contemporary relevance. The redevelopment of Fairyland Co operative Housing Society will be conducted with an objective to upscale the value and provide a residential asset class that caters to the urban lifestyle requirements of existing residents and future home buyers." The company said it is poised to launch 1.3 million square feet in FY 2022. On a consolidated basis, net profit of Ajmera Realty & Infra India rose 48.44% to Rs 11.43 crore on 8.56% decline in net sales to Rs 98.48 crore in Q2 September 2021 over Q2 September 2020. Ajmera Realty & Infra India is one of India's leading real estate company, having a PAN India presence along with international presence in Bahrain and London. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Megasoft was locked locked in an upper circuit of 5% at Rs 83.60 on signing a lease agreement for the third and final block (Block 3) for its share and part rental payments, expected to be received from Q1 2022 (adjusting for the rent-free period). Megasoft is in the process of negotiation and finalization of accounts with its JDA partner Darshita Infrastructure (Salarpuria Sattva group) to conclude on its final share and payments to be settled, details of which will be published in the financial year end accounts (2021-22). The company on 7 August 2016 had announced that it is in the process of setting up a large IT facility in its property at Nanakramguda, Hyderabad (registered in the company's favour in May 2015 by Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) through a conditional sale deed) with a developer (shareholders' approval through a postal ballot was obtained as on 22 March 2076). On 9 November 2018, the firm had announced that it has received approval for this JDA from the government of Telangana/ TSIIC and will receive & retain approxirnately 5 lakh square feet as its net share (to accrue in three phases). Megasoft had also announced that for the first phase (Block 1), it had entered into a lease rental agreement. As per its uploaded press release (on 14 February 2019), the company stated that the rentals receipts for Block 1 have started. On 6 February 2020, the firm announced that second phase (Block 2) is nearing completion and that it entered into a lease rental agreement for the same. The lease rental revenues has been accruing from Q1 2021 and reported in its published quarterly results. Subsequently, the company had published details of further progress on the property in the Directors Report and other relevant section (s) in the Annual Report 2020-21, uploaded it to the stock exchanges and sent to all shareholders and approved by shareholders vide online/ video AGM conducted on 28 June 2021. Megasoft's consolidated net profit tanked 63% to Rs 0.27 crore on a 17.6% decline in net sales to Rs 12.68 crore in Q2 FY22 over Q2 FY21. Megasoft is engaged in the business of providing information technology services to customers. The firm operates through telecom segment. The scrip hit 52-week high at Rs 83.60 during intraday trade. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Monte Carlo Fashions hit an upper circuit of 10% at Rs 665.95 after the company said that it had recorded its highest ever (year-to-date) YTD sales on the back of bone-chilling winters, revenge shopping and an encouraging festive & wedding season. The company said that the rising trend in sales that was quite visible since the Q2 FY22 continued to gain further momentum in Q3 FY22. This year due to climatic change the winters are very chilly especially in the northern part of India and due to the revival of the economy post the second wave of COVID-19, people are stepping out of their houses and spending money on lifestyle products. Moreover, the festive and weddings season in India has been very encouraging this year on the back of a massive vaccination drive. The company said that it has surpassed its earlier guidance of 25% growth in sales. There is an increase in YTD sales by approximately 35% and 15% as compared to YTD FY20 and FY19, respectively. The growth in sales is contributed by both volume growth and calibrated price increase. The company has strategically enhanced its retail presence in India with the opening of 13 new EBO's during Q3FY22. With this the total no. of EBO's reach approx. 318 across 20 states and 4 union territories. Apart from this the company also has a presence through MBO's, NCS and overall the major online platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong and Kapsons. The company continues to witness encouraging trends through its online channels as well. Monte Carlo is a branded apparel company with a comprehensive range of woollens, cotton, cotton blended, knitted and woven apparel for men, women and kids under the umbrella brand Monte Carlo. The company's net profit surged to Rs 33.91 crore in the quarter ended September 2021 as against Rs 4.43 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2020. Sales rose to Rs 238.29 crore in Q2 FY22 from Rs 98.25 crore in Q2 FY21. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Power stocks were trading with gains, with the S&P BSE Power index rising 49.06 points or 1.4% at 3552.43 at 09:50 IST. Among the components of the S&P BSE Power index, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (up 2.93%), NTPC Ltd (up 2.78%),Adani Green Energy Ltd (up 1.53%),Torrent Power Ltd (up 1.07%),Tata Power Company Ltd (up 0.74%), were the top gainers. Among the other gainers were NHPC Ltd (up 0.48%), Siemens Ltd (up 0.19%), ABB India Ltd (up 0.08%), and Adani Transmission Ltd (up 0.01%). On the other hand, JSW Energy Ltd (down 0.82%), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (down 0.33%), and Adani Power Ltd (down 0.2%) moved lower. At 09:50 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 185.26 or 0.31% at 59368.48. The Nifty 50 index was up 49.85 points or 0.28% at 17675.55. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 76.73 points or 0.26% at 29884.68. The S&P BSE 150 Midcap Index index was up 8.67 points or 0.1% at 8903.47. On BSE,1830 shares were trading in green, 1122 were trading in red and 88 were unchanged. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Reliance Industries Ltd is quoting at Rs 2436.4, up 1.35% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 23.92% in last one year as compared to a 24.86% spurt in NIFTY and a 35.59% spurt in the Nifty Energy index. Reliance Industries Ltd is up for a third straight session in a row. The stock is quoting at Rs 2436.4, up 1.35% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.59% on the day, quoting at 17730.05. The Sensex is at 59598.96, up 0.7%. Reliance Industries Ltd has risen around 3.12% in last one month. Meanwhile, Nifty Energy index of which Reliance Industries Ltd is a constituent, has risen around 1.07% in last one month and is currently quoting at 22849.25, up 1.3% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 25.5 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 54.89 lakh shares in last one month. The benchmark January futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 2444.6, up 1.35% on the day. Reliance Industries Ltd is up 23.92% in last one year as compared to a 24.86% spurt in NIFTY and a 35.59% spurt in the Nifty Energy index. The PE of the stock is 47.57 based on TTM earnings ending September 21. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As we went through one Covid-19 wave after another, the need to know more about a similar infection that ravaged the world 100 years ago grew stronger. One of the well-known libraries in New Delhi tried to look for newspapers dating back to the summer of 1918, when the flu had surfaced in India, but found the relevant bunch missing. After some more disappointing searching, it was at the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library that a window opened up into the past. The projector screen lit up with faded headlines and reports from newspapers restored as microfilm. The microfilm reading machines, ... Hyderabad police on Tuesday denied permission to a rally by BJP president J.P. Nadda to protest against the arrest of party's Telangana unit president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar. The saffron party had planned to organise the candle light rally from Mahatma Gandhi Statue, Ranigunj to Paradise X Roads in Secunderabad on Tuesday evening. The rally was to be led by Nadda and several BJP leaders including union minister for tourism and culture G. Kishan Reddy were to participate in this. However, citing the orders banning public meetings and rallies in view of Covid-19 situation, the city police refused to give permission. Sanjay was arrested in Karimnagar town on Sunday night when he was staging a night-long protest demanding the government to amend orders relating to transfers of government employees and teachers. The Karimnagar MP was booked for violating Disaster Management Act and for attacking police personnel. A magistrate on Monday sent him and four others to judicial custody for 14 days. The BJP has called for a state-wide protest for 14 days against the arrest and alleged that Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is using undemocratic means to suppress the peaceful protests. Condemning the arrests, Nadda said that the BJP will take all democratic recourse to fight against the autocratic measures of the TRS government. Meanwhile, union minister Kishan Reddy visited Karimnagar jail and called on Bandi Sanjay. He later visited Sanjay's office and alleged that the police attacked the MP and his supporters when they were holding a peaceful protest in the premises. Talking to reporters, Kishan Reddy wondered if Covid rules apply only to BJP. He asked why the rallies and meetings of ministers and TRS leaders were allowed. He alleged that the state government was implicating BJP leaders in false cases but made it clear that they will not be afraid of such tactics. --IANS ms/skp/ (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 country needs to accelerate economic growth to above eight per cent to achieve its target of becoming a USD 5-trillion economy by 2025, State Bank of India former chairman said. "If India wants to become a USD 5-trillion economy then obviously we can't be happy with a 5-6 per cent economic growth. We need to grow above eight per cent," Kumar said at a virtual event organised by the IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry. For a growth of eight per cent and above, he said, the country needs a huge investment in the economy, lower tax rates that can ensure surplus in the hands of the people as well as of corporates, ease of doing business at the lower level and availability of land. "We need private sector investment in a big way in the manufacturing, agriculture and infrastructure sectors. We cannot be totally dependent on the government to provide all the capital," he said. Kumar added that the corporate tax rates in the country have been made reasonable by the government and one should not complain about it. He said despite a number of reforms undertaken by the government, the investment-to-GDP ratio has not improved. According to him, there is a willingness to take tough decisions and initiate tough reforms at the central government level but when it comes to execution, there are issues due to bureaucracy. Kumar said although the country's ranking in ease of doing business has significantly improved; but at the district level, there are still challenges in getting permissions for setting up a new unit. "If today, you or I want to set up a new unit in any district of our country, I am telling you that it will be a harrowing experience. All this ease of doing business will disappear when you go to the district level bureaucracy and want to start an enterprise," he said. Kumar further said there have been issues around risk management and pricing of risks as far as the banking sector is concerned. He said the environment and the ecosystem around infrastructure is such that if a bank prices the risk of financing the infrastructure, it will not be able to lend over 16-17 per cent. Due to the unpredictable policy environment in the country, where a policy can be changed overnight either by the government or state governments or local or judicial authorities, banks find it difficult to price the risks of financing the projects, Kumar added. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi [India], January 4 (ANI/SRV): Ekta Contech, a distinguished contender of the real estate world, has combined innovation and sustainability to bring Green Buildings to Ranchi. The project is expected to uplift the quality of life without exploiting the natural resources, along with increased involvement of civilians in real-estate investments in the coming years. Apart from the green revolution, Ekta Contech is spearheading the social initiative - A Roof for All, by building homes for deserving individuals at free of cost. As per the World Green Building Trends 2018 report, the percentage of respondents doing the majority of their projects green in India is expected to nearly double by 2022, from 28% to 55%. Managing Director of Ekta Contech Private Limited, Prince Shrivastava outlined his idea of providing Ranchi, his hometown, with the gift of green buildings. He said, "Green buildings will bring the new real-estate revolution and Ranchi holds the potential to anchor that change." The construction of green buildings is a step towards sustainability. Ekta Contech will incorporate environmental considerations in every phase of their development. The benefits will not only be for nature but also for the people investing in real estate, as it promotes lower development and operating costs with increased comfort and healthier quality of life. After studying the market for the last 4-5 years, Prince Shrivastava observed how one section of the society is making a profit from the loss of the other. Several families have lived for generations in rented houses because they cannot afford the land and construction cost of new homes even after saving enough money. A Roof for All initiative promises to bring the necessary balance required, as the company plans to provide 10% of the profit towards building homes for deserving individuals free of cost. The company created by Satish Shrivastava and Reena Shrivastava has served the people of Ranchi for the last forty years. They sowed the seeds of apartment culture in Ranchi. Ekta Contech's vision is to cause a transition from what people see as a money-driven business to an asset-building chain for civilians. The fact that people are paying so much for so little worries Prince deeply. He said, "The well-being of the people and the environment is the objective of my new projects. The goal is to provide the best product at an affordable rate. I do not want to earn a profit. I want people to ask for transparency from their builders. I want people to be a part of the revolution and as soon as this happens, people will have money for other investments. The taxes paid by them will contribute to the collective growth of the capital. We can have better educational institutes, hospitals, and every necessary public service." Ekta Contech plans to use knowledge and technology as the tools to bring the change. "Our environment has been exploited a lot because of over-construction and deforestation. We no more enjoy the brilliant climate of Ranchi as we used to ten years ago. Climate change is real and sustainable buildings tend to solve a part of this problem. I want a balance and that will be revolutionary" added Prince. The Shrivastava family has been into charity work for many years. Mrs. Reena Shrivastava has been running a school for underprivileged kids for the last 15 years. The nursery school admits 4-5 students every year to ensure their necessary education. Dr. Astha Baul Shrivastava, Prince's wife, helps out students with education funds or people lacking resources to build something vital for their life. During the covid outbreak, the family helped more than 2000 people with food, medicines, masks, sanitisers etc. All the charity work takes place under the roof of Kaushalya Devi Memorial Foundation, established by Prince and named after his beloved grandmother. To know more visit: (https://ektacontech.com/?utm_source=SRV-PR & utm_medium=ANI & utm_campaign=Ekta%20Contech) (https://www.linkedin.com/company/ekta-contech-private-limited?utm_source=SRV-PR & utm_medium=ANI & utm_campaign=Ekta+Contech) This story is provided by SRV. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], January 4 (ANI/PR Newswire): The US-based enterprise application development company Utah Tech Labs has announced about 50-plus open positions for the first 2 quarters of 2022. The company is headquartered in the United States with a presence in Germany, the UK, Canada, Lithuania, and India. About the company "We help automate businesses" - Utah Tech Labs Utah Tech Labs is a consistently growing international enterprise application development company with more than 200 per cent year-on-year growth. It offers world-class custom digital solutions for small-to-midsize and enterprise-size businesses. The company is known for its deep industry expertise and the latest IT advancements, with a focus on quality, innovation, and speed through agile product development practices. In the last years, it has expanded to having 150-plus employees with branches in 5 countries and reached $1.8B in customer revenue generation. The team has experience in working with diverse industry verticals and streamlining their processes with robust tech solutions for various business needs. Such competencies surely set the company apart from the competitors. Company services highlights *Smart hardware prototyping Utah Tech Labs is one of the few companies focusing on hardware product development in Eastern India. One of the latest projects gaining much international interest is their smart doorbell with motion sensor, person/object/obstacle detector, 5MP camera, 1GB memory, and 32GB storage, loud buzzer, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/NFC connectivity, zone mapping, digital video recorder, and live video streamer. It can be confidently said that the doorbell is way smarter than most of the existing doorbells available in the marketplace. *Enterprise application development Utah Tech Labs experts deal with a full set of services around the development and maintenance of web, mobile, and cross-platform complex cloud server-based applications. They build, test, deploy, protect, customize, and optimize their solutions while ensuring the optimal TCO. The team is highly efficient in setting up and managing AWS and Google cloud servers. *Game development User-focussed unity game development & design approach combined with rich experience in unity mobile app development enables the company to create business products with gamified experiences and ground-breaking user engagement. Among the latest games launched by the company: Cure Commando, DOTBOT, Makeover plus, and MAANDEEQ. *IoT As a full-stack IoT developer, Utah Tech Labs builds smart IoT solutions and converts analog products into digital ones using various IoT platforms, firmware, and sensors. The company has expertise in USP, IoT hardware, prototyping, firmware development, and more advanced IoT services. Among the latest IoT projects launched by Utah Tech Labs: Smart Emergency Alarm with built-in connectivity and GPS, School child safety system, Guard patrol monitoring, Touchscreen parking kiosk, and Keyless smart locks. *Data science Businesses across all industries are starting to leverage AI and machine learning techniques offered by Utah Tech Labs to segment customers, reach the right audience, predict events in the future and automate their processes. The company's experts are currently working on USP, retail, sales, and subscription cancellation prediction (so that the customer churn can be reduced by the company) and expanding their current list of data science services. The company is hiring Utah Tech Labs is currently looking for experts in Eastern India who have in-depth knowledge in full stack & mean stack development, firmware development, mobile application development, DevOps, and machine learning. It offers an international working environment with highly flexible working terms and valuable employee benefits. The company is aimed at delivering impactful and seamless results, so the selection process includes pre-screening (the candidate's CV review), English language level assessment (since the company operates globally, a sufficient level of English language is a must for effective communication with clients), tech and personal interviews which help to evaluate tech knowledge, problem-solving skills, and one's motivation to work in the international environment. The company believes that every idea has the potential of disrupting the market. Utah Tech Labs has completed hundreds of successful projects for clients from all around the globe. Now there is a chance for more than 50 tech experts from Eastern India to start their international careers and gain world recognition. We offer solutions to help businesses grow and provide autonomous digital experiences. We are an enterprise application development company with strong footprints in smart hardware prototyping, game development, IoT, data science, and many more. We help automate businesses with result-driven digital solutions. Company's contacts: Soumya Dhar (soumya@utahtechlabs.com) +91 9903 888 916 (www.utahtechlabs.com/) This story is provided by PR Newswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PR Newswire) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dubai [UAE], January 4 (ANI/NewsVoir): The Government of India is coming out with a new tourism policy to strengthen and build capacity of tourism sector in order to provide better services and facilities to the tourists visiting the country said, Rakesh Kumar Verma, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India at the inaugural session of the 'Tourism Week' yesterday at the India Pavilion in EXPO2020 Dubai. Elaborating on the tourism policy, Verma added, "The policy will create five missions including National Green Tourism Mission, to mainstream sustainability in tourism sector; National Digital Tourism Mission, to digitalize the sector; Sectoral Mission on skill development, to ensure that the country has the best trained and qualified manpower to maintain high standards of service; National Mission on Destination Management, to focus on ensuring synergy and coordination amongst public and private stakeholders and National Mission on Tourism MSMEs to support and facilitate the start-ups, micro, small and medium enterprises." He further said, "In order to kickstart inbound travel, India has offered 5 lakh free e-tourist visas and India is now opening up international travel in a calibrated manner. All our airports, railways and road transport have taken adequate measures for public safety and so have our tour operators and hospitality operators. As a result, India saw a significant spurt in domestic tourism in past few months." "India is celebrating and commemorating 75 years of Independence as 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' showcasing progressive India and the glorious history of its people, culture and achievements. Ministry of Tourism in partnership with Tourism stakeholders will launch various incentives and initiatives to encourage and facilitate your visit to India. India will host G-20 summit next year and many meetings across various tracks will be held in India in various cities," Verma added. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Aman Puri, Consul General of India in Dubai and Deputy Commissioner-General for India at EXPO2020 Dubai said, "Travel & Tourism is a crucial sector to Indian economy, contributor to employment and GDP. By 2030, we are expecting this sector to contribute upwards of USD 500 Billion to our GDP. India-UAE tourism is one of the busiest sectors in the world fuelled by the 3.3 million strong and vibrant Indian diasporas in the UAE. While UAE to India sees 50,000 tourists a year, UAE received over 6 million Indian tourists. EXPO2020 Dubai is the first Expo in the MEASA (Middle East, Africa and South Asia) region, and we are proud to announce that Indian visitors are largest in terms of visitors by nationality at the Expo." Dr Puri added, "We would like to see this global platform enabling and catalysing the institutional linkages so that the two nations can grow together and support each other's socio-economic transformation. We would like to urge the Dubai Tourism Board to continue sharing India's story and continue marketing various aspects of India's tourism sector such as Sustainable, Spiritual, MICE to name a few." Hoor Al Khaja, Associate Vice President, International Operations - Department of Economy and Tourism of Dubai said, "Dubai is home to over 200 different nationalities and Indian nationals form a very important part of the cities multinational fabric accounting for the largest proportion of the expatriate population in the UAE. We are pleased to see that India's iconic pavilion continues to be one of the most visited pavilions and a major attraction amongst visitors." The inaugural session was also attended virtually by leading voices in the tourism and hospitality sector like Rajeev Kohli, Joint Managing Director, Creative Travel, Mr Rajiv Aggarwal, Director & Head of Public Policy, Meta - India, Mr Rohit Kapoor, CEO, India & Southeast Asia, OYO Hotels & Rooms and Dhruv Shringi, Co-Founder & CEO, Yatra Inc. The 'Tourism Week' (3-15 January) being organised by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, will comprise of various sessions which will be presided over by representatives from the Ministry of Tourism and States including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, among others. To know more about India Pavilion at EXPO2020 Dubai, please visit: Website -(https://indiaexpo2020.com) Facebook - (https://www.facebook.com/indiaatexpo2020) Instagram - (https://www.instagram.com/indiaatexpo2020) Twitter - (https://twitter.com/IndiaExpo2020?s=09) LinkedIn - (https://www.linkedin.com/company/india-expo-2020/?viewAsMember=true) YouTube -(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6uOcYsc4g_JWMfS_Dz4Fhg/featured) Koo - (https://www.kooapp.com/profile/IndiaExpo2020) To know more about EXPO2020 Dubai, please visit - (https://www.expo2020dubai.com/en). 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.) In the making since 2015, the Model Tenancy Act (MTA) was approved by the Union Cabinet last year in June. Almost all the states have now adopted this Act, which proposes to streamline the process of renting property. According to the new norms, the landlord and tenant will have to sign a written agreement specifying the rent, period of tenancy and other related terms. So, all the tenancy agreements will now be in writing. It proposes a three-tier quasi-judicial dispute adjudication mechanism. And no civil court will have jurisdiction over the matters. The Act also says that all the rent agreements will have to be registered with the Rent Authority. According to an estimate by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, around 11 million houses are lying vacant in urban areas as landlords are unwilling to let these properties due to the lack of protective measures in the current tenancy and rent control laws. The Economic Survey 2018 had blamed unclear property rights, weak contract enforcement and low rental yields for this structural problem. Owners of residential properties are reluctant to rent out their houses because they fear tenants would refuse to vacate their property when the time comes, and may not agree to changes in the rent amount as well. In the event that a tenant refuses to vacate the house, the landlord can claim double the monthly rent for two months, and four times the monthly rent thereafter. On the other hand, the Act safeguards tenants by mandating that the landlord must give three months notice before increasing the rent, unless otherwise specified in the rent agreement. Security deposit for residential properties will be capped at two months rent. States will have to set up a grievance redressal mechanism comprising Rent Authority, Rent Court and Rent Tribunal to provide fast-track resolution of disputes. Disposal of a complaint/appeal by the Rent Court and the Rent Tribunal will be mandatory within 60 days. All rent agreements have to be submitted to the Rent Authority. A digital platform will be set up in the local vernacular language or the language of the State/Union Territory for submitting tenancy agreement and other documents. And No civil court will have jurisdiction over matters pertaining to provisions under the Act. The Model Tenancy Act also states that the security deposit must be handed back to the rentee on the day the possession of the property is handed back to them. In case of disputes, the landlord is forbidden from cutting off essential supplies (like water and electricity). He is also restricted from entering the property during the active rental period without giving prior notice. The Model Tenancy Act may sound good in letter. However, a lot will depend on the Acts implementation by various states and Union territories. Since land and tenancy are state subjects, and since the Act suggests all states to set up dedicated courts and resolution authorities, the experience in each state could differ vastly. In December 2021, the dispatches to auto dealers continued to remain a mixed bag. While wholesale volumes for passenger vehicle, two-wheelers, and tractor segments declined on a yearly basis, commercial vehicle segment continued its clock a gradual recovery. As per the latest monthly sales figures, Maruti Suzukis total volumes declined by 4% YoY last month, led by a 13% decline in domestic passenger vehicle volumes. M&Ms domestic PV volumes increased by 10% YoY while Tata Motors domestic volumes rose 51%. Among the non-listed players, Hyundai Motors reported a 32% yearly decline in domestic volumes; MG Motors reported a 36% fall whereas Kia Motors reported a 34% volume decline. Renault-Nissan and Honda, too, reported 8-17% YoY decline in volumes. As regards two-wheelers, Hero Motos total volumes declined by 12% YoY; TVS Motors total sales fell by around 8%; and Bajaj Autos total two-wheeler sales dipped by 6%. Royal Enfields total volumes, however, increased by 7%. On the bourses, shares of auto and auto-ancillary companies entered fast-lane yesterday with individual stocks rallying up to 8% intra-day. So, should you add these stocks in your portfolio? On dips, suggest analysts. The sector, especially two-wheeler makers, is not entirely out of the woods yet. Apart from consistent price hikes and rising fuel costs, potential third wave due to the Omicron variant, could limit consumer spending, cautions Ashwin Patil, Senior Research Analyst, LKP Securities. As per tech charts, the Nifty Auto index can rise around 4% from current levels while select individual stocks may see up to 9% upside. Clearly, fundamental and technical parameters show limited upside for auto stocks as scarcity of semiconductor chips, price hikes, expensive entry-level two-wheelers and firm resistance zones on tech charts cloud short-term sentiment. Now, coming to Tuesdays trade set-up, stock-specific flow, global economic data points and FII activity will guide the market trajectory. Yesterday, the BSE Sensex index zoomed over 1,000 points intra-day during the first trading session of CY2022. It, eventually, settled 929 points higher at 59,183. The Nifty50, on the other hand, ended at 17,626 level, up 272 points, amid broad-based buying. Filipino families love SUVs. Given the choice between owning an MPV or an SUV, they would immediately gravitate towards the latter. Thats a... Glen, NH (03838) Today A mix of clouds and sun this morning followed by increasing clouds with showers developing this afternoon. High 58F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Cloudy with showers. Low 43F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and consider subscribing for only $7 per month to get access to more articles and news as it happens. Photo: Contributed Do you ever wonder why some aspect of the highway you are driving on has been designed that way? It starts with the Transportation Association of Canada's Geometric Design Guide for Canadian Roads, is supplemented by the Geometric Design Guidelines for B.C. Roads, may require compromise due to local conditions and ends up being what you see through your windshield. I received this: Some time ago, I wrote to the engineer in charge about the speed limit of 90 km/h at intersections with traffic signals on the Inland Island Highway. I requested an explanation of the limit at these intersections and also why the 90 km/h limit was placed so far away from the intersection. Not only do most motorists ignore the limit at the intersection, I would guess that (all) ignore the limit where the signs are posted. I never received an answer. The police have advised me it is necessary to slow to 90 km/h at the sign, although there seems to be no logical reason to do so. I have often thought that it must be a real challenge to be responsible for highway design here in B.C. Not only do you have mountains and rivers to spanhopefully within budgetyou also have to contend with the behaviour of the people who drive on them. In examining my own perceptions, I often think some things are not logical too. Most often, if I try hard enough, I can find out the answers but sometimes not. However, it can be dangerous to disregard something that has been carefully planned by professionals based only on your own assessment of logic. The short answer I have received in the past is something along the lines of "design practices call for it to be done that way." I imagine that is the polite way of saying they probably couldn't distill a university degree and years of experience into a 10 minute conversation in a way I would understand enough to see the point. Unless research shows a better way, this is probably the safest approach because we know the outcome. One example from my collision analysis training might be a vertical view obstruction. The highway looks nice and straight, but a dip in the road can hide a small car entering or exiting at a side road or driveway completely. The posted speed might be 70 km/h even though 90 k/h looks fine. But 70 km/h is needed in order to perceive and come to a stop in time if something should be hidden in that dip. That might not seem logical until you understand what is involved. I can't provide a definitive answer to the question, but I would encourage you to learn more on your own. The Internet can be a wealth of information, both in web publications and the ability to communicate with knowledgeable people who will take the time to answer. Don't be discouraged because some engineer failed to answer, rather, consider it a challenge. This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet. Photo: CTV News The Ontario government's announcement of new, tougher COVID-19 restrictions has left some British Columbians wondering if B.C will follow a similar path. CTV News Vancouver is reporting that an independent group of health-care workers and researchers, called Protect our Province B.C. has already called for a three-week circuit breaker to fight the new COVID-19 Omicron variant. But at least one doctor believes new restrictions may not be necessary. Dr. Brian Conway of the Vancouver Infectious Disease Centre tells CTV News Vancouver that current measures may be enough. "The main problem we would have with stricter measures is: Would people follow them, or try to find ways around them?" Conway suggested that access to rapid tests and better policing of current restrictions could help as well. Conway also points to the COVID-19 hospitalization numbers, indicating they are still well off the province's all-time high of 515 recorded back in April. "If hospital bed capacity, ICU bed capacity is threatened, that's what really triggers circuit breakers," Conway said. "We're not there yet in B.C." Dr. Lyne Filiatrault with Protect our Province B.C. said Friday that if steps aren't taken soon COVID-19 could cause staffing shortages, with as many as 20 to 30 per cent of employees forced to stay at home due to infection or exposure. "The only way we're going to stem the tide in terms of Omicron is going to be with a circuit breaker," Filiatrault said. "That's with the goal of decreasing transmission in the community, which will also decrease the impact on health care." Ontario announced new measures that will go into effect Wednesday, including a ban on indoor restaurant dining new limits on social gatherings, and gyms have been ordered to close. -with files from CTV News Vancouver Photo: The Canadian Press Police in India have detained a man and a woman alleged to be involved in the offering for sale of prominent Muslim women on a fake online auction website, according to government officials, in a case that has sparked outrage across the country. The cyber unit of the Mumbai Police detained the two suspects following a complaint from one of the targeted women. It wasnt clear whether the two created the website. Police brought charges against the man, a 21-year-old engineering student, and said they were investigating the woman further. Photographs of more than 100 prominent Indian Muslim women, including journalists, activists, film stars and artists, were displayed last weekend without their permission on a website and put up for fake auction. The women listed on the website also included the 65-year-old mother of a disappeared Indian student and Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai. The website, which was taken down within 24 hours, was called Bulli Bai, a derogatory slang term for Indian Muslims. Though there was no real sale involved, the Muslim women listed on the website said the auction was intended to humiliate them, many of whom have been vocal about rising Hindu nationalism in India and some of the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The website was hosted on GitHub, a San Francisco-based coding platform. A company spokesperson said GitHub had taken down the user account that had hosted the website on its platform, and that it would cooperate with investigating authorities. The fake auction unleashed outrage on Twitter after complaints from the victims, with several women posting screenshots after finding their photos listed on the website. Women rights groups and politicians from opposition parties urged the governing Bharatiya Janata Party to take action against online harassment of Muslim women, prompting Indian technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to promise strict measures. Police in at least three states said they have opened investigations into the incident and filed criminal complaints against developers of the website, based on the complaints of the targeted women. This is not the first time Muslim women were listed on a fake auction website. Last June, a similar website called Sulli Deals, also a derogatory term for Muslim women, was created for the same purpose. That website remained online for weeks and was only taken down by authorities after complaints from victims. Police opened an investigation into that case, but no one was arrested. Indian women, particularly Muslims, have often found themselves the target of hate and abuse on social media platforms, including Twitter. Outspoken Muslim women, including journalists and activists and those critical of Modi and his Hindu nationalist party, have received threats of rape and violence. Many of the victims say the fake auction website is the latest attempt to intimidate them. Khadija Khan, a lawyer and journalist with Bar & Bench website, said she received a Twitter notification on New Years Eve that informed her she was tagged in a tweet that displayed her picture as part of the fake auction. The account has since been suspended. Khans initial reaction was to report the tweet and block the user, dismissing it as spam. But she soon received messages from her friends and colleagues who confirmed to her that she was also on the list. My initial reaction was indifference and dismissal because we are used to daily trolling but by the next day, it had turned into shock and horror. Realizing what it actually was gave me nightmares, Khan said. Khan found support from her family and colleagues, but the incident left her shaken. Its a message that Look! We can brazenly humiliate and sell Muslim women online and still go scot free while they are still vying for some modicum of justice, Khan said. Photo: The Canadian Press Nutrien Ltd. says Mayo Schmidt has stepped down as president and chief executive of the company and resigned from its board of directors. The fertilizer company says Ken Seitz, executive vice-president and CEO of Nutrien's potash business, has been named interim CEO. Seitz, a former president of CEO of Canpotex, joined Nutrien in 2019. Nutrien chair Russ Girling thanked Schmidt for his service and wished him the best in his next endeavours. Schmidt was named CEO at Nutrien in April 2021. He joined the company's board in 2012 and served as chair from May 2019 until he was appointed CEO. Girling says the board will begin a global search for a new CEO that will consider internal and external candidates. In a horrifying and gut-wrenching case, a newborn baby was found abandoned in the rubbish compartment of an airplane. The incident took place on January 1 and came to light when airport officers were searching the plane during a routine customs check. The newborn baby was covered in blood-soaked toilet paper and was found in the bin of an Air Mauritius Airbus A330-900. A 20-year-old woman from Madagascar, who was suspected to have given birth on the flight, was arrested. She was the passenger of the same flight where the baby was found. She was travelling from her home country to Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport in Mauritius on January 1, 2022. According to a BBC report, the baby was rushed to the hospital for treatment. Reportedly, the child is said to be healthy. The suspected mother, who initially denied that she gave birth to a baby boy, but later confirmed that she had given birth after her medical examination. She was placed under police surveillance at the hospital. Reportedly, both the mother and the baby are said to be doing well. According to local newspaper Le Mauricien, the Malagasy woman had arrived in Mauritius on a two-year work permit. She will be questioned after her discharge from the hospital and charged with abandoning a newborn. Quarantine and Isolation: Learn the latest recommendations after COVID-19 exposure or if you are sick. Why CDC Shortened Isolation and Quarantine for the General Population COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant have increased along with seasonal increases in influenza and other respiratory virus infections. The potential for a large number of cases raises serious concerns about societal impact due to illness, as well as isolation and quarantine requirements [1]. CDC has been monitoring the emerging science on when and for how long a person is maximally infectious with Omicron, as well as the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and booster doses against Omicron infection. Data related to the mental health effects of the pandemic and adherence to prevention interventions have also been considered. Data, including a review of 113 studies from 17 countries, show that most SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of infection [2,3]. Infectiousness peaks around one day before symptom onset and declines within a week of symptom onset, with an average period of infectiousness and risk of transmission between 2-3 days before and 8 days after symptom onset [2,3]. These data are from studies of prior SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Delta. The science is evolving, particularly for the Omicron variant, and some reports suggest that compared with previous variants, Omicron has a shorter incubation period (2-4 days), defined as the time between becoming infected and symptom onset [4-6]. Hospitalization and death rates are much lower for vaccinated people for all SARS-CoV-2 variants; preliminary data from South Africa suggest that hospitalization and death rates are lower for people infected with Omicron compared with other variants[7-9]. Early estimates of lower vaccine effectiveness (VE) against symptomatic infection and disease due to Omicron after the Pfizer-BioNTech primary series and improved VE after booster doses suggest that booster doses are important to improve protection from hospitalization and death due to infection with the Omicron variant [10-14]. Spread of the Omicron variant has the potential to worsen staffing shortages and increase supply chain challenges, which jeopardize industry, education, and other systems that are essential to maintain a functioning society and economy. The pandemic has also had a negative impact on the mental health of adults in the United States [15], largely due to economic and social concerns [16]. Although many people have intentions to self-isolate, both isolation and quarantine are challenging; especially in the context that many infections are asymptomatic [17]. Studies suggest that only a small percentage of people (25-30%) isolate for a full 10 days [18,19]. On January 4, CDC updated COVID-19 isolation and quarantine recommendations with shorter isolation (for asymptomatic and mildly ill people) and quarantine periods of 5 days to focus on the period when a person is most infectious, followed by continued masking for an additional 5 days. These updated recommendations also facilitate individual social and well-being needs, return to work, and maintenance of critical infrastructure. Preliminary data suggest that the Omicron variant is up to three times more infectious than the Delta variant [20]. With the recommended shorter isolation and quarantine periods, it is critical that people continue to wear well-fitting masks and take additional precautions for 5 days after leaving isolation or quarantine [21]. In addition, isolation should only end if a person has been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and other symptoms have resolved. Modeling data from the United Kingdom reinforce the importance of mask use; after the 5th day after a positive test, an estimated 31% of persons remain infectious [22]. Mask use and layered prevention strategies, such as receiving all recommended vaccination and booster doses, physical distancing, screening testing, and improved ventilation, are key to preventing COVID-19 and decreasing transmission. A Note from the Acting DHDD Director: Dear DHDD Partners, Its hard to believe December is here already. I hope you all have had a wonderful month so far and enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday for those who celebrate. At DHDD, these past few weeks have been very busy with wrapping up projects, releasing new data summaries and publications, and continued COVID-19 deployments for many DHDD staff. I am looking forward to some down time this holiday season and hope you all are planning to do the same. I wanted to share a letter to the editor that was recently published in Autism honoring the life and work of Dr. Li-Ching Lee, a long-time colleague, grantee, and friend of DHDD. Many of you are very familiar with Dr. Lees countless contributions as the principal investigator of the Maryland Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (MD-ADDM) Program, a long-standing investigator in the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED), and a collaborator with NCBDDD colleagues on a folic acid follow-up study in China. Sadly, Dr. Lee passed away in May 2021 and is greatly missed. The letter to the editor is a very nice tribute to Dr. Lee as a person, teacher, researcher, and public health professional. Dr. Georgina Peacock has been asked to extend her detail to CDCs Immunization Services Division through April 2022. While we miss her at DHDD, we know she is working hard to ensure that people with disabilities and their families remain top-of-mind for vaccination efforts. Thank you in advance for your continued support as I continue to serve in an acting Division Director capacity during Dr. Peacocks deployment. Finally, I hope you have a safe and healthy December and are able to spend time with family and friends. I wish you the happiest of holidays and a peaceful and restful New Year! Best, Blythe Fauji Group receives largest syndicated cement financing project 04 January 2022 Pakistan's Fauji Group, parent company of Fauji Cement Co Ltd (FCCL) and Askari Cement Ltd (ACL), has announced the signing of PKR37.4bn (US$212.2m) syndicated term loan facilities for an expansion programme from a local banking consortium, led by Habib Bank Ltd (HBL). The facilities, which have a combined project cost of PKR60bn (including a debt component of PKR37.4bn), will be used to enhance the company's total production capacity to 10Mta, making it the second-largest cement producer in the region. The expansion projects of FCCL and ACL are situated at DG Khan (Punjab) and Nizampur (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), respectively. The signing ceremony for the credit facilities was held on 27 December 2021. Other consortium members include Faysal Bank Ltd, Bank Alfalah Ltd, National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Punjab, Bank Al-Habib, Askari Bank, MCB Bank Ltd, Habib Metropolitan Bank of Khyber and First Women Bank Ltd. The initiative is one of the most significant syndicated financing projects in the cement sector by a banking consortium in Pakistan achieved in a record time. The expansion projects and the potential merger of both the companies will see FCCL as one of the most prominent cement players in Pakistan. Published under Minister urges reopening of the Adilabad cement plant 04 January 2022 Industries and IT Minister, KT Rama Rao, has requested the central government to reopen the Cement Corp of India (CCI)s plant in Adilabad. In letters to Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Union Heavy Industries Minister, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Mr Rama Rao said that the unit had the necessary infrastructure and limestone reserves to produce 48Mta of cement. In addition, it had an assured 2kVA power supply system and water availability to meet its production needs. In terms of reopening the Adilabad unit, India's central government should consider the site's geographic advantage as it could cater to the cement needs of not just Telangana but also neighbouring states such as Maharashtra, he said. The minister said that demand for cement was expected to be high in the coming days and the state government had resolved to take up strengthening of roads and highways under Gati Shakti National Master Plan scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October. Published under This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions Cleveland State Community College encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to pursue their educational goals by receiving higher education. Nehemias Perez Santiago shows that no matter what age you are, going back to school to pursue your career can be life changing. Mr. Santiago decided to go back to school in his thirties. He says he chose Cleveland State because of the welcoming environment and the flexible class schedules that worked well with his daily lifestyle. He started in the fall of 2018 majoring in Criminal Justice at the school of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Santiago graduated in May 2020 as the Distinguished Graduate. The Distinguished Graduate award is given each year to the graduating student who, in the opinion of the college faculty and staff, has contributed the most to the advancement and betterment of the college. Mr. Santiago recalls not being much of a social person before attending Cleveland State. His brother died a few years before he decided to attend college. Losing his brother to gun violence took him years to cope with and made it harder for him to get socially involved. That all changed his first semester at Cleveland State. Before CSCC, I didnt have purpose, I did not know my true potential, and I was not confident in myself, said Mr. Santiago. The professors found ways to have us break the ice and engage in the various topics without having us feel like we were going to be judged. The club programs on campus gave me the chance to create new friendships. And later, the opportunity of becoming club president also helped me gain leadership skills. With the help of faculty and staff encouraging Mr. Santiago and offering job opportunities, he started to excel in his academics, being named for the Student Marshal Award his first semester at Cleveland State. He was also hired as a member of the CSCC campus security. Mr. Santiago expressed how grateful he is to the college for supporting him through his time in school. He appreciated that faculty and staff at Cleveland State listen to the students and advocate whats best for them. Mr. Santiago witnessed that first hand. Now, Mr. Santiago works as part of the security team for Tennova Healthcare. He continues to show pride in his school and encourages anyone to attend. Be engaged," said Mr. Santiago. "Dont be silent. Ask questions and make sure your professors know that you're interested, and theyll guide you along the way." Looking back on all his accomplishments and memories made at Cleveland State, Mr. Santiago believes the college made a deep impact on his life. I will never forget when we put together a group to feed the homeless around Thanksgiving, said Mr. Santiago. It felt great to give back to the community. It was an honor to be one of the first students to take part in the first I have a dream march in memory of the great Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. right here in Cleveland. I could go on and on, but these were some of the key moments at CSCC that helped shape my life. The County School Board on Monday reversed courses on a plan by the state to bring a pilot program to Orchard Knob Middle School, with board member Joe Smith saying he had not been advised earlier that the board really had no choice in the matter. However, several board members still had harsh words for the state Department of Education. Mr. Smith said it had since been made clear that there was no discretion on the part of the school board under a new state law passed last May. The board on Dec. 9 voted 6-2 against the plan, saying that Orchard Knob Middle School already has another intervention program going on and is enjoying a successful turnaround. At the special meeting on Monday, the vote was 5-2 to approve an agreement to hire the educational consultant firm Ed Direction to carry out the program. In favor were Mr. Smith, Marco Perez, Rhonda Thurman, Tiffanie Robinson and Joe Wingate. Opposed were Karitsa Mosley Jones and Chairman Tucker McClendon. School officials earlier said they had urged the state Department of Education to focus instead on Howard School. However, the state insisted on implementing the new program at Orchard Knob Middle, it was stated. Board members said the state would be "taking the credit" when Orchard Knob Middle likely goes off the Priority School List of low-performing schools this fall, though the bulk of the improvement work has already taken place. School Board Attorney Scott Bennett said the state was under certain restrictions under the new school improvement law. He said Howard would not have qualified for the program because it had not been on the Priority List long enough. He said the state had to find low-performing schools at various grade levels and in different Grand Divisions of the state, leading them to Orchard Knob Middle. Officials earlier said the state had agreed to include $750,000 in funding for Howard as well. However, two board members said they were told by state legislators that the Howard funding may be in jeopardy. New Supt. Justin Robertson said he still believes the Howard funds will still come through. He said the county schools will work to keep Orchard Knob "on focus" and not let the new program "be a distraction." Mr. Smith said, "I'm angry about this." He said attorney Bennett had not made it clear that state law allowed the state action with the school board having no say-so" He said he had listened to a tape of the prior meeting three times. Attorney Bennett said, "I'm pretty sure I said we had no choice, but I apologize if I did not make it clear." Mr. Smith also said, "I am told that the Howard money is off the table now. This whole thing makes us look like a bunch of fools." Ms. Robinson said she had been told the same thing. Ms. Jones said her vote was "a community stance." She said school officials "have worked a lot of years and they are so close to coming off the list. Now the students will become part of another experiment at the cost of their academic achievement." She said, "The school's going off the list and the state is going to say, 'Yay, we did it.' " Mr. McClendon said the venture "is not a partnership," saying the state was completely running the show. He said, "The way this went down was really, really wrong." In January and February, Senator Bo Watson will host a series of town hall meetings so Tennesseans can participate in a full review of the states education funding formula and share what matters most to them. The discussions will help create a more student-centered funding approach that incentivizes positive outcomes, ensures all students are served at a high level, empowers parents to engage in their childs education and reflects the values of our community, said officials. Senator Watson has organized four sessions across Hamilton County and encourages people to participate in one that works for them. The series will be held on Thursday evenings from Jan. 13 through Feb. 3 at the following locations: Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, from 6-7:30 p.m. Red Bank/Signal Mountain Red Bank Community Center 3653 Tom Weathers Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37415 Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, from 6-7:30 p.m. Soddy Daisy/Hixson Abbas House 5208 Hixson Pike, Hixson, TN 37343 Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022, from 6-7:30 p.m. Ooltewah/Collegedale The Commons Entry Pavilion Swinyar Drive, Collegedale, TN 37363 Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, from 6-7:30 p.m. Harrison/Tyner Highway 58 Volunteer Fire Department 5402 HWY 58 Harrison, TN 37341 Senator Watson said feedback is crucial in his role on the Funding Review Steering Committee. The funding formula hasnt been updated in about 30 years. The town halls are open to the public, and advance RSVP is requested for space considerations. Guests can RSVP at this link: BoWatson.Info/Education. A resident on Peerless Avenue told police there was a homeless man living behind his residence. He said the man was loud, and he was concerned about him being so close to his house. The officer talked to the homeless man and he agreed to leave in the morning. * * * A man on Rossville Boulevard said someone got into his vehicle and stole his Glock 43. He said there were no signs of forced entry. The firearm was entered into NCIC. * * * A man at 2200 Hamilton Place Blvd. discovered damage to the rear driver's side door of his vehicle. He is unsure where or how the damage occurred, only that the damage was not there the day before. Police observed a dent and a crease to the door. * * * A woman on Bailey Avenue said sometime within the past two days the residence had been vandalized. She said a side window was busted out. * * * A man called police and said someone got into his vehicle while at work at M.C. Tank Transport at 2919 8th Ave. He said the rear window of his pickup was already damaged so they found a way to "jimmy" it and get a few items in the bed of the truck. * * * A woman on Centennial Drive called police and said she was going through a gate arm and after she had passed through a bit, the gate arm fell on the rear portion of her vehicle. She said the gate arm scratched the rear window and taillight. * * * A woman told police someone stole her purse while she was at McKays at 7734 Lee Hwy. She said her purse had two key fobs, a Tennessee ID, a cell phone, and $100 in it. All items stolen totaled $1,870. * * * An officer was waved down by a Northgate Mall security officer who was in the process of trespassing someone. The officer saw that the security officer had the man sign a trespass/ban form which expires after one year. The ban form states that the man is not to set foot on any CBL-owned property. * * * Police responded to an improperly parked vehicle on Oak Street. The officer found a white Volkswagen sedan parked on the side of the road. The car was causing a road hazard as the homeowners would be unable to exit their home if they had an emergency. The car was towed by Doug Yates Towing. * * * An officer responded to a broken-down truck on I-24 eastbound. Police spoke with the driver who said the engine in his truck blew. Police transported the man to the Circle K on Cummings Highway. The man arranged a private tow for the truck. * * * Police were flagged down by a woman on Broad Street who had locked her keys in her 2005 Ford Focus. While police were attempting to get the keys, the woman walked to Motel 6 at 2440 Williams St. to tell her sister what was going on. Police were able to get the keys out of the car. The woman was not back so they met her at a later time and gave her the keys. * * * An EPB employee said that at 4:19 a call came in to respond to 1548 Riverside Dr. on a downed power line. The employee said that upon his crew arrival, he noticed an EPB light pole on the ground. During his investigation, the employee said someone had cut off the guide wires that hold the pole. He also said when he arrived he found a man trapped in the COS (closed business) parking lot where the pole was located. The trapped mans story was that he was traveling on Amnicola Highway and, when the light pole fell on the ground, everything happened too fast. He said that there was a truck in front of him that stopped suddenly to avoid any contact with the pole and, in order to avoid an accident, he drove through the wires and pulled into the parking lot of COS. He said he got trapped in the parking lot by the wires on the ground and was there waiting for EPB for almost four hours. Police found a blue bolt cutter next to where the mans vehicle was parked. There was also a white iPhone charger found next to where the wires were cut off. Police collected the evidence and submitted it to Chattanooga Property division and it will be released to crime scene for DNA/finger print evidence. In addition to this, police were granted consent to search the mans vehicle, but did not find anything suspicious. The man has a history of theft and vandalism. Police attempted to contact the business, but were unable to locate anyone responsible. The man was driving a rental Enterprise 2020 Hyundai bearing a Mississippi tag. The EPB employee said the total damage was about $20,000. Northwell Health is a huge healthcare network that is New York State's largest healthcare provider and private employer, with more than 74,000 employees in 2020. The flagship hospitals of Northwell are North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center. So maybe the last guy you would expect to write an impassioned plea for civility and decency would be a New York City CEO. But, no, Michael Dowling is offering us a chance to embrace a wonderful New Years Eve resolution. Born in Ireland and an accomplished author, Dowlings article appeared on the Beckers Hospital Review website last Thursday and, while Im the last guy you would suspect to regularly include Beckers in my Morning Readings, Michaels resolution is far bigger than only the health care industry. I believe it is one all of America should try to keep in 2022. * * * A CALL FOR CIVILITY & DECENCY By Michael J. Dowling, writing in Beckers Hospital Review on Dec. 30, 2021 Surveys show that about 1 out of every 4 Americans make New Year's resolutions. Most focus on self-improvement goals such as living healthier, losing weight, pursuing career or job goals, saving money and improving personal relationships. All worthwhile commitments, no doubt, but considering the political, racial and ethnic divides we're experiencing as a nation, what's most needed now is a New Year's pledge by all of us to treat each other with civility and decency. Even before COVID-19 upended our society in early 2020, the decline of civility and decency was taking its toll on the public psyche, with our elected leaders relentlessly sniping at each other and rudeness, arrogance and rage on display in all facets of daily life on our highways, on TV, in the workplace and, of course, on the internet. The pandemic only added fuel to the fire, with "in your face" conflicts over mask-wearing and vaccine mandates playing out in the nation's capital, statehouses, city halls and school board meetings, on airplanes, subways, restaurants and in other places of business across America. OUR ACCEPTANCE OF INCIVILITY IS TROUBLING America's sense of decency has certainly been tested before, most notably in the late 1960s and early 1970s when race riots and protests over the Vietnam War polarized our society. But what's particularly troubling today is the commonality and acceptance of incivility. Many of our nation's elected leaders, including members of Congress, are setting the tone for bad behavior, making it more acceptable for others in society to follow suit, creating a noxious environment lacking any boundaries of decency. During the course of this pandemic, the internet has become a toxic stew of political hostility, not only among those opposing vaccination mandates and spreading misinformation about the vaccines, but those taking pleasure in the deaths of unvaccinated individuals who were vocal in their opposition to the vaccines on Facebook and other social media platforms. In shocking displays of schadenfreude (a German term defined as the joy derived from the misfortune of others), social media sites such as Sorry Antivaxxer chronicle the deaths of unvaccinated COVID-19 victims, post their photos and ridicule the online comments they made prior to their deaths. "Compassion fatigue" is one of the buzzwords that took hold as the pandemic has dragged on. With 821,000 COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S., far too many seem to have become numb to the human suffering that has devastated families, including an estimated more than 200,000 children younger than 18 who have lost a parent or grandparent to the virus. NO NATIONS PUBLIC IS MORE DIVIDED When it comes to questions of social unity, a Pew Research Center survey of 17 advanced economies published in October showed that no nation's public is more divided than that of the U.S. Ninety percent of Americans surveyed say there are conflicts between people who support different political parties (compared with a median of 50 percent across all advanced economies), and 71 percent believe there are conflicts between people from different ethnic and racial groups, more than all of the other countries surveyed. Even when it comes to divisions between people who practice different religions, and residents living in urban and rural areas, the survey showed Americans are among the most deeply divided. The acrimony has risen to such a high level that people think their fellow citizens no longer disagree simply over policies, but also over basic facts. All this discord on so many fronts is a challenge to our democracy and sadly, ours is becoming more fragile. As Abraham Lincoln said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Unity is key to preserving democracy. Given the deep divide, it's going to take time to heal and unify our nation, but here are a few thoughts on steps we can take to start the healing process: RESPECT OTHERS POINT OF VIEW At their core, civility and decency are about respecting other people's opinions, regardless of how extreme they may be or how strongly we disagree with them. Rather than criticizing them or launching into a debate, listen to what others have to say and ask questions. Explain your own point of view and perspective in a reasonable, thoughtful way, without insisting you are right. And rather than taking to social media to express your opinions or challenge the sentiments of others, how about having an actual conversation? Face-to-face dialogues in nonconfrontational settings tend to be far less acrimonious than anonymous, unrestrained social media posts. CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY Recognizing the divide between Republicans and Democrats, between advocates for racial justice and those who believe law enforcement officers have been unfairly criticized, or between proponents of COVID-19 vaccines and those who are anti-vaccine, be aware of what you say and how you say it. Again, don't ridicule. Recognize that tensions run high on these hot-button topics and people might hold strong views that differ from your own. Certainly feel free to share your opinions, but do so in a respectful manner. SHOW EMPATHY In healthcare, nothing is more important than expressing compassion and understanding of the needs and concerns of patients. We need to carry that into our day-to-day interactions with people in all walks of life. All of us will deal with personal or professional difficulties at some point in our lives, which could contribute to the strong viewpoints people hold. Always be willing to lend a sympathetic ear when speaking to those who may be struggling. Show that you care, offer reassurances and perhaps suggestions you think may help address their problems. RESPECT DIVERSITY At the foundation of civility and decency is respecting diversity whether it pertains to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or religion. All of us need to be accepting of our differences, take the time to understand what's important to others and identify shared values and mutual interests. BE WILLING TO COMPROMISE Whether it's personal or business, negotiation is an art. All of us want different things for different reasons, and rarely will we share the same priorities as others. Resolving conflicts starts with adopting a positive, solution-driven approach that looks for common ground and embraces a give-and-take with those who don't necessarily share our opinions. As we turn the calendar to 2022, let's use it as an opportunity to tone down the rhetoric, reopen dialogue with each other and mend wounds caused by the worst pandemic of our lifetime and years of racial, ethnic and political divide that have worn away at the fabric of our society. It all starts with civility and decency. If we all embrace that behavior, we'll enjoy a much happier new year. * * * COVID FACTOID -- As of Jan. 2, 2002, total COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States stood at 93,322 representing a 35 percent increase over the previous 14 days, according to The New York Times. In comparison, daily average cases in the nation were 405,470 on Jan. 2, a 204 percent increase over the past two weeks. * * * COVID FACTOID: At 4 p.m. yesterday, Tennessee ranked 12th in the nation for active COVID cases with 1,412,302 being reported. That is 20,680 per 100K people and a 48 percent increase over the last two weeks. Tennessees death rate from COVID is believed to be 20,842, which is 305 per 100K Tennesseans. Tennessees population is about 6.9 million. royexum@aol.com The continuing proliferation of COVID variants and associated rising infections has resulted in a unique opportunity for elementary school, middle school, high school and higher education students to receive a free course in otherwise-pretty-boring math department statistics instruction, all sponsored by the Tennessee Department of Health. The Tennessee Department of Health has elected to normalize COVID reporting by publishing infection data once-per-week, instead of daily. This will be an 86 percent reduction in reporting frequency. This will be an 86 percent reduction in reporting frequency. This statistical technique, referred to as normalizing, is a unique opportunity for students to experience a real-life example of the watering-down of relevant and important daily data related to our health and safety. As my college probability and statistics professor said, in his heavy French accent, There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics. Math, used well, is not boring. Michael Mallen, health, safety and environmental attorney Tennessee counties have an opportunity to improve safety for crime victims when they appear in court to support charges against perpetrators. The Office of Criminal Justice Programs is working to help community leaders access grants to create or renovate courtroom safe spaces. The funds are available through the federal Victims of Crime Act, which is funded through fines imposed in federal courts. Tennessee judicial officials have been eager to provide safe spaces for victims to make sure theres a secure place away from those who are charged with crimes, OCJP Director Jennifer Brinkman said. We want to avoid putting victims in vulnerable situations where they could be victimized again or in fear of moving forward with prosecution. OCJP worked with the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference to access VOCA funds for this purpose. Because so many courthouses throughout Tennessee still lack safe spaces, our most vulnerable victims, like children and domestic violence survivors, are in danger of being re-victimized by their abusers, TNDAGC Executive Director Guy R. Jones said. Every Tennessee courthouse needs a safe space and these grants can help make that happen. The TNDAGC was created by the General Assembly in 1961 to provide for a more prompt and efficient administration of justice in the courts of this state. A total of $300,000 is available and could be accessed by counties to create or update safe, trauma informed spaces or waiting rooms for victims of crime to wait for court processes or meet with the prosecutor, victim witness coordinator and other individuals assisting the victim of crime with his/her case. Since the grants became available earlier this year, nine courthouses have received funding: Campbell, Claiborne, Madison, Morgan, Sevier, Shelby, Sullivan, Union and White Counties. Counties can access the grant application here: https://Bit.ly/TNcourthouse. CJP functions as a strategic planning agency that secures, distributes and manages federal and state grant funds for Tennessee. While collaborating with other public and non-profit agencies, OCJP utilizes these grant monies to support innovative projects statewide in efforts to reduce criminal activity, provide services for victims of crime and promote overall enhancement of the criminal justice system in Tennessee. Senators, school board members, commissioners and more were all present and vocal during Tuesday mornings legislative breakfast at the County's Paul McDaniel Building. The future of funding schools took up a sizable portion of the discussion, with the current Basic Education Program possibly being replaced in the future as the state discusses student-based funding models. While Senator Bo Watson said nothing is close to being decided at this time, Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson expressed excitement about reworking the 30-year-old BEP program. Im excited the state is looking at the model and having conversations about what it takes to educate students in Tennessee, and that theyre looking at it from a student-based model, Dr. Robertson said. Well engage with state officials and the department, and we encourage citizens in the county to give input too. County Commissioner Warren Mackey asked Senator Watson if any of the proposed plans would take taxpayer dollars away from public schools and into private schools. Senator Watson said in one hypothetical model, the school system would receive funding based on individual students, and if that student were to leave the system via voucher or scholarship, then the county would lose that funding. We havent made that decision yet, so its still speculative, Senator Watson said. County Mayor Jim Coppinger told the audience that he wished the various school boards and the state would come to an agreement on what is necessary for a functioning school system. He said the state requires and funds certain things, and that Hamilton County deems other positions to be necessary and that they receive no state funding for those positions. Id like to see people agree to what it takes to run a school system of this size, County Mayor Coppinger said. School board members Jenny Hill and Tiffanie Robinson also spoke at the breakfast and said it would be advantageous for the school system if a representative such as Greg Vital was on a committee in Nashville that affects education. Aside from education-based topics, various members of the county government made statements. Chancellor Jeff Atherton said electronic filing will be approved by the county soon and he hoped the state will follow suit shortly thereafter. Juvenile Court Judge Rob Philyaw said that school threats are currently a misdemeanor and that has an impact on what courts can do. That means were very limited in how we can deal with the children who make those threats, and what kinds of services we can get assigned to those children, Judge Philyaw said, and so theres a real need to look at that this year. Juvenile Court Clerk Gary Behler and Criminal Court Clerk Vince Dean both said a legislative priority for their respective offices is to change the way bonding is handled by the clerks offices. The clerks are nervous and have an extreme amount of heartburn about any bail bonding bills that are out there, Mr. Behler said. Court clerk offices are minimally staffed, and much of bail bonding happens after hours. That is not the role of the court clerk, and wed like our legislative delegation to take that into consideration. We dont need to be bail bondsmen, Mr. Dean said. Does the bail bonding industry need changes? Absolutely. But dont throw the baby out with the bathwater, and listen to the people who are doing the work. He said the clerks offices try to collect for several different programs, and that the clerks offices do not have the staff to complete those tasks. Also in attendance were state legislators Esther Helton, Robin Smith, Yusuf Hakeem and Greg Vital. A former BlueCross BlueShield employee has sued the Chattanooga-based insurance firm, saying she was fired for sending emails to state legislators who were considering a bill dealing with companies requiring employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Heather M. Smith said in the Chancery Court complaint that she has a religious objection to vaccination. She is asking $250,000 in compensatory damages and triple that amount in punitive damages. Her attorney, Stephen Duggins, said the case was about a company "terminating one of its employees for exercising her constitutional right to communicate with state legislators." He said, "A citizen's right and ability to contact government officials, particularly legislators, is fundamental to the existence of a free and democratic society." The suit says on Aug. 11, 2021, Ms. Smith was notified that BlueCross had instituted a policy that required all of its "public-facing" employees to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine. It says she worked from home and was not in a public-facing position, but still was told she would need the vaccine. She said she was told on Sept. 27 that BlueCross was declining her request for a vaccine waiver and would give her 30 days to comply. On Oct. 29, she said she was told that she was given a new position that was not subject to the vaccination requirement. It says two days earlier Ms. Smith had emailed state legislators "with her concerns and grievances regarding vaccine mandates." She said on Oct. 28 her letter was read to a committee by Rep. John Ragan. Ms. Smith said a member of the Legislature apparently forwarded her letter to BlueCross officials. She said she was notified on Nov. 3 that her emails to the lawmakers violated the company's social media policy. Ms. Smith said the next day she again emailed General Assembly members "to seek legislative protection for her individual liberties and rights relating to vaccine mandates." She said apparently a legislator also sent that email to BlueCross officials. On Nov. 5, she was terminated by BlueCross "because of her email to General Assembly members." Dear Neighbor, My name is Brian Bush, and Im running to become your next Judge serving Chattanooga City Court. Im a husband to an incredible wife, Im a Naval officer whos proud to serve my country, a former prosecutor, and, importantly, Im someone who cares deeply about Chattanooga, the city I call home. I offer the above not only to tell you a bit about who I am, but to also let you know what shapes me, and inspired me to seek a life of service. Raised in a family of Vietnam War-era Marine Corps veterans, I was taught that service is at its core an act of love. Thats why I raised my right hand and swore an oath to support the Constitution of the State of Tennessee and protect its people as an assistant district attorney prosecuting violent crimes and felonies. Its why, like the great men and women before me, I swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and my fellow Americans, wearing the uniform of our countrys Navy. Service, I learned, meant having the willingness to work to improve the world around you. For me, applying this lesson meant committing myself to serving both my country and my local community. That philosophy, now, leads me to seek the seat of Chattanooga City Court Judge. The Chattanooga City Councils decision to suspend Division II of City Court in October of 2021 offers our city the perfect opportunity to create a City Court that is more valuable to our city, and impactful in its efforts to improve public safety and support the well-being of Chattanoogans. Ive spent my life watching my city grow and change in ways that seemed unimaginable just a few short years ago. Im proud of the place I call home. Still, however, there is room for improvement. Chattanoogas continued journey into the future requires fresh ideas and new visions, including in our municipal court. Over the next several weeks and months, Ill continue writing pieces like this, discussing the ways in which City Court could be better used to improve our city. Ill also work to earn your vote, meeting you at your door and in your community, connecting with the people of Chattanooga to create a court that works. This campaign will remain community focused, as we strive to craft a City Court that upholds both the Tennessee and United States Constitutions Ive sworn to support and defend, while also doing more to meet the needs of the city I love, Chattanooga. Brian Bush Candidate, Chattanooga City Court Judge Division I City Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod has asked for a study by UTC of inequities between inner city schools and outlying schools, saying it might show the need for the city to take back over the schools. Several other council members said they did not oppose the study, but said the city getting back into the school business might not be the answer. However, at the close of the discussion Councilwoman Coonrod said, "My end result would be for the city to regain control of our city schools, which continue to be on the failing list." She said students in former city schools "aren't ready for college and they aren't ready for the workforce." She said due to inadequate math skills that many could not even take advantage of a new local trade school. Councilwoman Coonrod said, "Since 1995 these schools have remained on the Priority List." She also said she had concerns about the County School Board becoming partisan. She said, "The city is non-partisan." Councilwoman Jenny Hill, who also serves on the County School Board, said when the merger was approved by voters in 1995 "the city schools were failing and they were very much segregated." She said, "They are still very segregated and struggling." However, she said she did not believe there would be "a magic wand" for improving the schools under a city takeover. Councilwoman Carol Berz called it "a question of equity." She said a UTC study might be especially helpful in pointing out such matters as whether lunches are of better quality in some schools than others or if certain schools had more resources and better facilities and equipment. She said, "It's a perfect topic for UTC to look at." Councilman Darrin Ledford said the city had a moral obligation to seek equity for students in the former city schools. However, he said, "There are reasons the city got out of the school business in 1995. Replacing management is not necessarily the answer." J-Hope (real name Jung Hoseok) is known as the Golden Hyung for a reason. Heres what this BTS member said about challenging himself by learning a second (or technically a third) language. BTS Dynamite and Butter are performed entirely in English K-pop boy band BTS member, J-Hope, poses for a photo session during a press conference on BTS new album BE (Deluxe Edition) | JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images Theyre the biggest boy band in the world, enjoying their residency at Los Angeles SoFi Stadium and receiving several Grammy nominations. BTS also releases and records music entirely in English, the first song being the 2020 hit Dynamite. The BTS member most fluent in English is RM, who often discusses his unique process for learning the second language. After his mother purchased copies of the sitcom Friends, RM watched the series in Korean with English subtitles, then in English with Korean subtitles, and finally all in English. (The rapper is also an actual genius with a reported IQ of 148.) BTS J-Hope is practicing English to challenge himself Some BTS members take time to practice English between writing, recording, rehearsing, and performing music. That includes one of BTS rappers, named J-Hope, who shared that hes always looking to take things one step further. Imwhat should I saynot the kind of person to settle for their life as it is, J-Hope said during an interview with Kenya BTS ARMY. I could just keep living like I am and do whatever I want with my life, but I dont know, honestly. Ive already had so many amazing things happen, but I want to take things one step further, as an individual and as a member of BTS. A thought came to me one day: Have I been challenging myself at all lately? Outside of making songs or dancing? But the answer was no, he continued. So I decided I would challenge myself and give some things a try, one of which was studying English. Its still hard, and I have a long way to go, but Im trying my best given our current schedule. Even while enjoying a period of rest and relaxation for the holidays, these K-pop idols kept busy, even posting some of their adventures on social media. For J-Hope, that meant traveling to Hawaii. Several BTS members speak English fluently J-Hope wouldnt be the only BTS member practicing English. During an interview with WIRED, RM confirmed that Jungkook, Suga, and J-Hope were all taking English lessons. Jimin mentioned that he watches content on Netflix to understand the second language better. Of course, BTS members all understand English well, answering questions during interviews overseas. They also sing some of their best-known songs entirely in the foreign language. That includes the 2021 Grammy-nominated release, Butter. BTS also re-releases some of its best-known songs in Japanese. That includes Idol, MIC Drop, and Boy With Luv. Additionally, Jin and J-Hope of BTS can speak Chinese and understand the language fairly well. RELATED: This BTS Member Is the Mastermind Behind the Spine Breaker Choreography (And Its Not J-Hope or Jimin) On Jan. 3, Big Hit Music announced that Suga of BTS made a full recovery following his diagnosis of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The label previously revealed that Suga tested positive for the coronavirus on Dec. 24, 2021. Suga of BTS | Steve Ferdman/Getty Images for Elvis Duran Suga of BTS recovered from the coronavirus On Jan. 3, Big Hit Music shared a post on Weverse for fans. The Weverse announcement revealed that Suga recovered from the coronavirus after receiving treatment from home. In the Weverse post, Big Hit Music wrote: We would like to inform you that BTS member SUGA has made a full recovery from COVID-19 and his quarantine has concluded as of today at noon, January 3. SUGA who had been receiving treatment from home for the past ten days from Friday, December 24 is now able to return to his daily activities. SUGA did not exhibit any particular symptoms during his quarantine and is currently recuperating while resting at home. We would like to thank all fans who have shown concerns for the artists health as well as those in the medical field who are doing their best to overcome COVID-19. RELATED: Why BTS Will Never Attend an After-Party Following an Award Show in the US Suga tested positive for the coronavirus after BTS trip to LA On Nov. 27, Nov. 28, Dec. 1, and Dec. 2, 2021, BTS put on concerts at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles called Permission to Dance On Stage LA. Following the concerts, Big Hit Music announced that Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook would be taking a vacation for the holidays. While some members of BTS returned to South Korea shortly after Permission to Dance On Stage LA concluded, other members stayed in the U.S. for the start of their vacation. On Dec. 24, 2021, Big Hit Music posted an announcement on Weverse to let fans know that Suga tested positive for the coronavirus after he returned to South Korea on Dec. 23, 2021. SUGA completed his second round of the COVID-19 vaccination in late August and is not presenting any symptoms as of today. He is currently administering self-care at home per the guidelines of the healthcare authorities, Big Hit Music wrote. The announcement continued, SUGA, who has had a number of personal engagements in the U.S. during BTS official time off, had tested negative for the PCR test taken before leaving the U.S., and began his self-quarantine after taking the PCR test upon his return to Korea. He received positive results during quarantine, and there was no contact with the other members. RELATED: BTS: Jimin Wants to Attend the 2022 Grammy Awards in Person We Want to Be There The members of BTS are currently on vacation The members of BTS previously took a short vacation from band activities in 2019. On Dec. 5, 2021, Big Hit Music announced BTS vacation in an official statement on Twitter. In the statement, Big Hit Music wrote: This period of rest will provide the members of BTS who have tirelessly committed themselves to their activities, a chance to get re-inspired and recharge with creative energy. It will also be the first time for them since their debut to spend the holiday season with their families. We kindly ask once again that you show consideration for their need to enjoy ordinary and free, everyday lives while solely concentrating on themselves, albeit for a short while, during their period of rest. .RELATED: BTS Will Go on an Extended Period of Rest Before Releasing a New Album In 2018, actor Jeremy Strong began portraying Kendall Roy on the HBO television series Succession. In 2020, he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. But before he found success on the small screen, he worked on major motion pictures alongside Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Jessica Chastain, and Chris Pratt. He also appeared in five movies that have been contenders for a Best Picture Oscar. Despite his impressive list of credits, an acclaimed director who thought he wasnt right for the part fired Strong. This happened at the same time as he prepared to tie the knot. The Mollys Game actor says, It was a devastating experience. Jeremy Strong identified with Succession character Roman Roy Jeremy Strong on Succession | Graeme Hunter/HBO In 2016, director Kathryn Bigelow of Hurt Locker fame cast Strong to play the role of a National Guardsman in the film Detroit. The 43-year-old actor married Emma Wall, a Danish psychiatrist, that year. According to The New Yorker, the couple, who met in 2012, married at Dragsholm Slot castle in Denmark. Together, they share three children. When Strong was preparing for Detroit, director Adam McKay, who he worked with on The Big Short, approached him. The Anchorman screenwriter told Short about his new gig as executive producer for a new HBO series titled Succession. McKay asked the Selma actor to read the script to see if he resonated with any characters. When Strong first read the script for Succession, he immediately connected with Roman, the youngest son of Logan Roy, the family patriarch. In the interview with the New Yorker, Strong explained, I thought, Oh, wow, Roman is such a cool part. Hes, like, this bon-vivant prick. I could do something that I hadnt done before. Why was Strong fired from Detroit? .@MJSchulman profiles Jeremy Strong, who plays Kendall Roy in Succession. Strong does not find the character funny, which is probably why hes so funny in the role, Schulman writes. https://t.co/AlSPVnpvPS The New Yorker (@NewYorker) December 5, 2021 Meanwhile, Strongs deep-dive character study for Detroit was underway. He practiced his shooting skills at a local range and binge-watched military documentaries to learn as much as he could about his upcoming role. The Lincoln actor even missed part of his wedding-week festivities to focus on filming. One day into shooting, Bigelow fired him, saying he was just not the character that she had in her mind. Devastated, he pleaded with the director to keep him involved in the project. Eventually, Bigelow agreed to create the character of an attorney so he could remain working on the film. Kieran Culkin landed the role of Roman Congratulations to Kieran Culkin of #SuccessionHBO on his Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. pic.twitter.com/wkADhcsRu1 HBO (@HBO) July 28, 2020 After Strong straightened things out on the set of Detroit, he flew to Denmark for his marriage ceremony. While there, he received word that Kieran Culkin, who originally auditioned for the part of cousin Greg, got the lead role of Roman in Succession. Apparently, the role hadnt been McKays to give. Show creator Jesse Armstrong agreed to let Strong audition for Kendall Roy, the second-oldest son, and heir apparent to Waystar Royco. Once again, The Good Wife actor researched the character and learned as much as he could about corporate greed and power. He read a biography about Rupert Murdoch, saying, The disappointment and the feeling of being thwarted it only sharpened my need and hunger. I went in with a vengeance. At the audition, Armstrong appeared skeptical and asked Strong to loosen the language. He worked through the scene as he toned down his Beastie Boys-ing it up dialect. He eventually won the part. Strong told The New Yorker, To me, the stakes are life and death. Talking about his role as Kendall Roy, he says, I take him as seriously as I take my own life. RELATED: Succession: Why is Jeremy Strong Called the Concierge of the Show? Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are public figures who occasionally share statements to let people know their thoughts on various events. However, after the couple recently shared a statement about the death of a human rights activist, a royal expert called the move baffling. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry | Roy Rochlin/Getty Images What statement did Prince Harry and Meghan Markle recently release? On Dec. 26, Desmond Tutu, a South African Archbishop who fought against apartheid, died. The Sussexes had met Tutu during their visit to his home country in 2019, and they decided to release a statement to pay tribute to Tutu upon his death. Archbishop Tutu will be remembered for his optimism, his moral clarity, and his joyful spirit, the statement read, according to Harpers Bazaar. He was an icon for racial justice and beloved across the world. The Sussexes added, It was only two years ago that he held our son, Archie, while we were in South Africa Arch and The Arch he had joked, his infectious laughter ringing through the room, relaxing anyone in his presence. He remained a friend and will be sorely missed by all. The Sussexes statement is labeled baffling by a royal commentator Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have shared a statement on the passing of Archbishop Desmond Tutu: pic.twitter.com/Lz20AjRsNE Omid Scobie (@scobie) December 26, 2021 RELATED: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Are Very Reclusive and Not Making Friends With Neighbors in California, Royal Expert Claims Royal commentator Neil Sean recently weighed in on Harry and Meghans statement. According to Sean, the couples public words about Tutu went against their alleged desire for a private life away from the royal family. As we know, way back when Harry and Meghan fled to Canada and then, of course, they shot over to the United States, the reason given was that they wanted to live a quieter, out-of-the-medias-spotlight life, Sean said in a YouTube video. The royal expert added, What I find baffling about this is if you are someone of importance and you have something to say on the matter, fine, release a statement to the pressthats exactly what youd want to do. But are Harry and Meghan truly important? Who cares what they think about meeting Desmond Tutu? Sean also pointed out that the couples meeting with Tutu was during their trip to South Africa, which, on the sidelines, they were making a documentary all about how difficult it was with the media intrusion. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly entering an era of visibility Meghan and Harry's 'Thrive Chapter': Why the Sussexes Are Excited to Enter a New 'Era of Visibility' https://t.co/xKZOOmZWWX pic.twitter.com/H1ziWBv0zZ People (@people) August 18, 2021 RELATED: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Are Loving Life as a Foursome With Their Children, Friend Says Back in August 2021, the couples biographer Omid Scobie shared with People that Harry and Meghan are entering the era of visibility. The couple has reportedly been working on projects that they are really excited about. Theyre a couple who do very well in those moments of human interaction. They need to be on the ground, Scobie said. They say that the proof is in the pudding, and what we are about to see is that pudding. Since then, Harry and Meghan have made many public appearances, including a tour of New York City in September and a visit to a gala to honor veterans in November. On Sister Wives, Kody Brown asks his wife, Janelle Brown, to get their older sons to abide by the strict coronavirus (COVID-19) rules. However, its impossible due to their sons, Garrison and Gabriel, both going to school and having jobs outside the home. When Janelle tries to explain this to Kody, he demands that she kick the boys out. Sister Wives fans are shocked that Kody would suggest doing something like that, especially during a pandemic. Kody Brown Sister Wives | TLC Kody tells Janelle to evict his sons, Garrison and Gabriel During the Jan 2nd episode of Sister Wives, Kody and Janelle discuss the coronavirus rules again. Janelle says she doesnt want to kick out her sons because theyre using this time to save money. Kody interrupts her and says, Theyre adults. Bye-bye. Kody tells the cameras, Listen, Ive been sympathetic to this situation with Janelle and her kids this entire time. And I tolerated a lot for a very long time until I realized that I was being lied to or deceived. And at that point was when I sort of lost my patience with it. Im like, You need to just make the boys move out.' Kody reiterated, Im gonna have Gabriel and Garrison move out of the house. Im sorry, heres the problem. Janelles name is on the lease, so I cant evict them. Sister Wives fans are shocked Kody wants to evict his sons during the pandemic One fan wrote about how they felt about Kody wanting to kick out Gabriel and Garrison. The posted on Reddit, Janelle and her kids are you kidding me Kody? You want Janelle to kick her kids out in the middle of a pandemic?! You are literally the worst most evil father. Imagine how hurt his kids are watching these episodes back where he doesnt give a crap about his kids. He is really throwing all his relationships away for Robyn and her children. This man is sick!!! Another fan commented, I cant believe he would be so callous to his own children! I cant imagine how hurt his children would be watching this back. Hes always been a jerk but this is just a level of evil I have not seen before. Where are his barely adult children supposed to even go to in the middle of a pandemic anyway? He called them Janelles kids not their kids or his kids, very telling. Janelle is choosing her kids over Kody In the episode, Kody told Janelle, You know my dad sent me out with a car that I earned and $50. Janelle mocks him in the confessional, Hes like, My dad kicked me out at 18 and sent me. with a crappy car to go live in Utah, whatever. Look, you know what? I am not just that parent. This is a different day and age. You dont just kick your kids out of the house at 18 and say, Hope you do good.' Kody and the sister wives get together to discuss where the family would be staying for Thanksgiving. Because her sons will be leaving the house for school and work, Janelle wont be able to quarantine for two weeks so that Kody can feel comfortable staying there. After storming off and telling Kody to fk off, Janelle tells the cameras how shes feeling. She says, You know, I guess, I am just frustrated because I am between a rock and a hard place here. She continues, Im having to make sure that my kids are safe. My kids are mentally well. I am giving them the best chance, and then I am having to choose these rules that the family has, which arent very different from my rules. That I am stuck. I am stuck here. I dont wanna spend Thanksgiving alone. Many Sister Wives fans think its unfair for Kody even to suggest that his sons be kicked out. It appears that Janelle has chosen her kids needs over Kodys, and while it might make him mad, it shows what an incredible mother she is. RELATED: Sister Wives: Gabes Comment About Pregnancy Fuels Rumors That Robyn and Kody Had Another Baby On Sister Wives, back in 2014, Christine Brown and Kody Browns three-year-old daughter, Truely, nearly died due to kidney failure. Kody believes that Christine hates him all of these years later because of that. Was Kody negligent during Truelys hospitalization? Heres what we know. Christine Brown and Kody Brown on Sister Wives | TLC Kody thinks Christine hates him because he was negligent during Truleys kidney failure After an intense discussion with Christine about the rules he made for the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Kody talked about how hes putting these rules in place to protect his family. In the Jan 2nd episode, he told the cameras, Heres the thing. This is what I know about myself. I know that if somebody in this family dies, its gonna be a bunch of other people I hate because of it. He continued, I think Christine hates me partly because Truely almost died. And she thought that I had been negligent. He said that it changes relationships. Kody says, The reason I have never brought this up before is because I didnt feel like I had to make the argument so forcefully in the past. He said, I dont want to have one of my children die. And then me hate the people who werent doing the rules. And then end up in a divorce with whoever. Whoevers child died, cause thats pretty much a given anymore in our culture. What happened to Truely? In 2014, the family lived in the cul-de-sac in Las Vegas, Nevada, when Truely got sick from the flu that led to kidney failure. During the flashback of Sister Wives Season 6, Christine explains that then-3-year-old Truely was lethargic five days after catching the common flu. In the episode, Kody and the wives were planning the eldest daughter, Mariah Browns going away party for college. During this time, Christines older daughters helped care for a sick Truely. Over the five days, Truelys continued worsened instead of getting better. Christine noticed that her daughters eyes were crossing and decided to take her to the doctor. The doctor informed her that the symptoms pointed to kidney failure. Christine described the first seven days that Truely was in the hospital as the hardest in her life. After that, Truelys kidneys finally started responding to medications and dialysis. By the 10th day, Truely was released from the hospital. Sister Wives fans think Kody was being negligent The Sister Wives fans discussed Truelys kidney failure and who is to blame (via Reddit). One fan wrote, You were the adult in charge, and at the time she was 2nd youngest child. You should have prioritized your time around your little baby. I think you Kody were the sole reason she almost died. The way you said, I think Christine holds me responsible. You should hold you responsible. Another fan theorized that Kody felt negligent because the children didnt have health insurance at the time. The fan commented on the Reddit thread, I think Kody was referring to the fact that they didnt have insurance. Regardless of who was responsible for Truelys medical emergency, it was a traumatic experience for the entire family. Many Sister Wives fans believe that it was poor taste for Kody to compare neglecting to take his daughter to the hospital when sick to possibly getting coronavirus. Fans will have to keep watching to see how the rest of season 16 plays out. Sister Wives airs Sundays on TLC and discovery+. RELATED: Sister Wives: Are Kody and His Wives Related? How the Brown Family Lines Are Connected Instead of Station 19 and Greys Anatomy, ABC tells the story of Mamie and Emmett Till with Women of the Movement on Jan. 6, 2022. While many viewers are upset that the crossover event does not return until Feb. 23, the series in its place is worth the watch. The six-episode historical drama features Adrienne Warren as Mamie Till-Mobley and Cedric Joe as Emmett Till. Tonya Pinkins also joins the Women of the Movement cast as Emmetts grandmother, Alma Carthan. Jay-Z and Will Smith serve as executive producers on the ABC series. Women of the Movement cast: Glynn Turman, Tonya Pinkins, Cedric Joe, Adrienne Warren, and Ray Fisher | ABC/Matthew Sayles What is Women of the Movement about? ABCs Women of the Movement is based on the true story of Emmett Tills murder in 1955. It is based on the book Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement by Devery S. Anderson. The ABC series details his mothers fight for justice, which helped begin the civil rights movement. Although the story begins with Emmett, it centers around Mamies life, which she devoted to seeking justice for her sons death. The Women of the Movement trailer gives background information about how the 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago ended up in Mississippi. While there, he innocently flirted with a white woman in a country store, which led to his lynching by a group of white men. Remember that place is not like Chicago, Mamie told her son in the trailer before he left for Winona, Mississippi. White folks are going to treat you different now. After Emmett Tills murder, Mamie insisted on an open casket so that the world could see what his killers did to him. She continued her fight for a trial; however, the killers were acquitted by an all-white jury. That verdict set in motion a movement for social change throughout the world. How and when to watch Women of the Movement on ABC According to ABC, viewers can watch Women of the Movement Episode 1 on ABC on Jan. 6, 2022, at 8 p.m. EST. The series airs in place of Station 19 and Greys Anatomy. Episode 2 airs immediately after the first episode on Thursday. Below is the complete Women of the Movement ABC schedule. All episodes are available on Hulu the day after they air on ABC. .@adriennelwarren stars in #WomenOfTheMovement as Mamie Till-Mobley, an inspiring woman and catalyst of the civil rights movement. Get to know her and join us for the premiere Thursday at 8/7c on ABC. Stream on Hulu. pic.twitter.com/96lZp2tyAS Women of the Movement (@WomenOfMovement) January 3, 2022 Women of the Movement Episode 1, Mother and Son Jan. 6, 2022 Women of the Movement Episode 2, Only Skin Jan. 6, 2022 Women of the Movement Episode 3, Let the People See Jan. 13, 2022 Women of the Movement Episode 4, Manhunt Jan. 13, 2022 Women of the Movement Episode 5, Mothers and Sons Jan. 20, 2022 Women of the Movement Episode 6, The Last Word Jan. 20, 2022 Women of the Movement cast In addition to Warren, Joe, and Pinkins, the Women of the Movement ABC cast includes Glynn Turman as Emmett Tills great uncle, Mose Wright. Viewers might recognize Turman from various film and television roles, including How to Get Away with Murder, portraying Nate Lahey, Sr. @GlynnTurman #In 1955 I remember hiding from momma on the street, just playing around. Boy did she let me have it when I reappeared. That was no time for playing around. WOTM tells why. https://t.co/V3Vn32zd2k Glynn Turman (@GlynnTurman) December 31, 2021 Justice Leagues Ray Fisher portrays Mamies husband, Gene Mobley. Chris Coy from HBOs Treme and True Blood plays J. W. Milam. Julia McDermott and Carter Jenkins portray Carolyn and Roy Bryant, respectively. Notable recurring roles include Alex Desert as Dr. Howard, Leslie Silva as Ruby Hurley, and Tongayi Chirisa as Medgar Evers. Desert appeared in one episode each of Greys Anatomy, Station 19, Shameless, and How to Get Away with Murder. Women of the Movement airs on ABC on Jan. 6, Jan. 13, and Jan. 20. The 6-episode historical limited series is also available the next day on Hulu. RELATED: 8 Period Dramas We Cant Wait to See on TV in 2022 Chickasha, OK (73018) Today Windy with scattered strong thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High near 85F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Thunderstorms, some strong during the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies after midnight. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. Low near 45F. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%. South Africa: Probe into Parliamentary precinct fire No stone will be left unturned in determining the cause of a fire at Parliament. The multi-pronged investigations are underway and will be in full swing once the entire building has been declared safe and handed over to the investigation team. We wish to assure all the people of SA that will leave no stone unturned to enable appropriate action to be taken, National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Chairperson Amos Masondo. This as the fire destroyed parts of the Parliamentary building. In a statement on Sunday, Parliament said the fire affected both the Old Assembly Wing and the National Assembly Wing of the buildings of Parliament, which house the chambers of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. At a media briefing of Parliaments Presiding Officers on Monday, Masondo said they are saddened and pained by the incident which has caused damage to the national keypoint and legislative seat of the country. We can confirm that one of the biggest losses that the people of South Africa have suffered in the fire is the complete burning down of the National Assembly Chamber, said Masondo, adding that 2000 pieces of legislation have been passed in the house since the dawn of democracy. He added that additions were made to the parliamentary building in 2008 with new offices being built for the President, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of parliament. However, the additions were not affected by the fire. We appreciate the fact that some important sections were saved including the NCOP chamber and offices [including the] parliamentary library [among others], he said. Service delivery He also expressed gratitude for the freighting and rescue efforts adding that Parliament will demonstrate resilience to deliver on its mandate of law making, executive oversight and public participation. We wish to assure you that the State of the Nation Address (SONA), the Budget Speech and other programmes will proceed as planned. This as the fire came at a critical time when preparations for hosting the 2022 State of the Nation Address and Budget speech were at an advanced stage. President Cyril Ramaphosa had requested the Speaker to convene a Joint Sitting of Parliament for the State of the Nation Address on 10 February 2022. Speculation In addition, Masondo noted speculative reports with regards to the cause of the incident including those circulating on the social media space. He added that the precinct of Parliament will continue to be guarded by the South African Police Service (SAPS). Assessing the damage Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille said the department has brought on board a team engineers including electrical and mechanical engineers. For today, they couldnt get access to fire scene, the temperature inside the building is still plus minus a 100 degrees Celsius down from what it was yesterday at over 400 degrees. What theyve done in the meantime is to use a drone that they are putting inside the building to assess the structure of the building until temperatures can cool down. Preliminary report and assistance The engineers will focus on repairs that need to be done, on the cost of repairs and timeframes of the repairs. The department has also brought in a fire expert who will determine exactly where the fire started together with a fire forensic team. Their work also started today. We can expect a preliminary report by Friday morning. The report will be shared with National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and the presiding officers. We will then decide together what to do and once weve seen the full extent of the costs and what needs to be repaired, said the Minister. Mapisa-Nqakula said the presiding officers had received offers of assistance from the Cape Town Convention Centre where the work of Palriament can carry on at their facilities. Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has also offered the use of the City Hall. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-01-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Guise of press freedom cant conceal Western politicians evil intention of destabilizing Hong Kong 09:10, January 04, 2022 By Zhong Sheng ( People's Daily There is no escape from the long arm of the law. On Dec. 29, the Hong Kong Police Force arrested senior staff members of Stand News, an online news platform based in Hong Kong, for conspiracy to publish seditious publications, while the Security Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government froze relevant assets of the platform according to the law. However, the necessary actions of justice taken by the Hong Kong Police Force against Stand News, which were aimed at safeguarding national security and Hong Kongs prosperity and stability, have been maliciously discredited by some politicians in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Britain, as well as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Ignoring right and wrong, these people have willfully misrepresented the lawful actions taken by the Hong Kong Police Force, vainly attempting to use press freedom as a shield for criminal acts and hamper the rule of law in Hong Kong through the straw-man trick. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes such acts of brazen interference in Chinas internal affairs. Hong Kong is a society under the rule of law where it enforces laws and regulations and prosecutes any illegal acts. The Crimes Ordinance in Hong Kong clearly stipulates that any person who without lawful excuse has in his possession any seditious publication shall be guilty of an offense. Stand News, though in the guise of media outlet, is by nature a political organization. It fueled violent activities of the black-clad rioters and instigated acts of undermining the rule of law in Hong Kong during the social turbulence over the extradition bill. After the national security law in Hong Kong came into force, the organization still obstinately opposed China and created chaos in Hong Kong and constantly published articles inciting people to use violence and even split the country. Relevant activities of the organization constitute gross violations of the law. As a Chinese saying goes, He who is unjust is doomed to destruction. By arresting individuals suspected of conspiring to publish seditious publications and freezing relevant assets according to the law, the Hong Kong government has safeguarded national security of China, the rule of law and public order in Hong Kong. Relevant lawful actions have gained firm support from various sectors of the Hong Kong society. Distorting facts and discrediting the law enforcement actions taken by the Hong Kong Police Force under the guise of upholding press freedom, certain politicians in some Western countries, including the U.S., have already exposed their true intentions of disturbing the stability and order in Hong Kong. According to reports, at least 117 reporters were arrested or detained in the U.S. in 2020, a surge of 12 times from 2019. While touting the so-called free and independent media, using press freedom as a political tool to get their way, and wantonly smearing and attacking other countries in the name of press freedom, these politicians have turned a blind eye to the worsening press freedom situation in their own countries, which represents typical hegemonic acts and double standards. By trying to use press freedom to help anti-China rioters in Hong Kong escape legal punishment and seek extra-legal privileges for them, certain Western politicians vainly attempt to make sure anti-China forces continue to disrupt Hong Kongs prosperity and stability. Such evil political manipulation is doomed to failure. Its universal truth that freedom has its limits and anyone who violates the law must be punished. No country or region in the world allows news and speech to go unregulated by law. Anyone who engages in activities endangering national security and undermining the rule of law and social order under the guise of journalism will be punished according to the law. The Basic Law of the HKSAR and the national security law in the region protect rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong residents in accordance with the law, including freedom of speech and press. Anyone without prejudice cannot deny the fact that since the national security law took effect, the development of Hong Kong has returned to the right track and press freedom has enjoyed stronger guarantee in a safe, stable, and law-based environment. As of April this year, 628 foreign employees working for overseas media held work visas in Hong Kong, 98, or 18.5 percent more than that of the same period last year. Many media outlets in the U.S. and Britain have sent more foreign staff to Hong Kong. These facts serve as convincing evidence that press freedom is fully guaranteed in Hong Kong. Facts brook no distortion, and the prevailing trend of the times is irresistible. The irresponsible remarks made by Western politicians about press freedom in Hong Kong will never change the objective reality of Hong Kongs flourishing media industry and freedom of the press, obstruct Hong Kongs transition from chaos to stability and prosperity on its new historical journey, or Chinas determined steps toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. External forces that attempt to stir up trouble for Hong Kong by confounding black and white and defaming the rule of law in the region had better immediately stop disrupting the HKSAR governments exercising law-based governance on the pretext of press freedom and stop meddling in Chinas internal affairs, including Hong Kong affairs. (Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by Peoples Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs.) (Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming) Ukraine celebrates Christmas twice, honoring both the Eastern and Western church calendars. Yet this season, Pentecostals spent the week leading up to December 25 in prayer and fasting while Baptists did the same from Christmas Day to New Years Day. The reason: tens of thousands of Russian troops amassed on the border, threatening a full invasion. Prayer is our spiritual weapon, said Igor Bandura, vice president of the Baptist Union of Ukraine, of the group petitions to the Prince of Peace. God can undo what the politicians are planning. Russian-backed separatists have held control of the Donbas region of southeastern Ukraine since 2014. This past November, the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA) declared Donbas the area of Europe where the church suffers the most. In total the conflict has killed over 14,000 people and displaced 2 million of the regions 5 million people. This past Friday, US President Joe Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that any further invasion of Ukraine would result in a heavy price to pay; Putin replied that any new sanctions would trigger a complete breakdown in relations. On Monday, Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the US and its allies would respond decisively to Russian aggression; Zelensky signaled appreciation for the unwavering support. Trying to help years ago from the Russian side, Vitaly Vlasenko was labeled a spy. Traveling 650 miles south from Moscow to Luhansk, Ukraine, at his own expense, the nowgeneral secretary of the Russian Evangelical Alliance (REA) waded into a war zone. By 2018, separtist leaders in Donbas had crafted laws to re-register churches, ostensibly under the principle of freedom of conscience and assembly. But two years prior, authorities in Luhansk declared Baptists and Pentecostals a security threat. Pastors had been murdered; churches were seized. Our brothers in Christ in Ukraine are crying out: Why dont you pressure Russia to stop this aggression? said Vlasenko. We tell them we are a small minority with no standing and no clear information, and officially Russia is not a part of this conflict. It does not go over well, he admits. Relations between evangelicals in the neighboring nations have become strained, and some assumed the worst of his December 2018 trip to speak with rebel authorities about the registration process. Only the KGB-connected could get access, Vlasenko heard. In reality, Vlasenko said the visit was arranged through prior connections with the Russian Orthodox Church metropolitan in Luhansk. Your church received registration, the REA leader told his Orthodox counterpart; where is our Christian solidarity? Without registration, churches were disconnected from the gas and electricity grid. All remaining evangelical churches were operating illegally, but some still had use of their facilities. But now it was winter, and cold. The metropolitan agreed the situation was wrong and facilitated contact with the religious affairs official. Vlasenko was told registration would be given to all who completed procedures. He passed on the information to Ukrainian colleagues. But today, he said, relations are at a standstill. I understand they are in a difficult situation, Vlasenko said. Most churches have their headquarters in Kyiv, so how can they accept registration and explain this to their brothers in the [Ukrainian] capital? But Donbas churches face a choice: Continue to suffer, or continue in ministry. Vlasenko stays neutral, as he cannot advise them as a Russian. Religious freedom problems in Donbas listed by the EEA include: Many churches are illegal and cannot meet, especially evangelical and Ukrainian Orthodox ones. Whole denominations are classed as extremist with no justification. Much Christian literature is banned, including the Russian Synodal translation of the Bible. Church buildings have been seized by force; the Christian University of Donetsk is occupied by soldiers. The registration system for faith communities is totally unfair. Churches have found their applications rejected or have been liquidated later for supposedly being extremist. To date, only a few evangelical churches have been legalized in Luhansk. Bandura said the registration process is designed to be impossible. But in occupied Donetsk, the other half of the Donbas region and also operating under its own rebel laws and leadership, there has been more flexibility. Luhansk officially designated the Baptist Union as a terrorist group, Bandura said, so the church there is underground. Overall in Donbas, only half of about 100 churches are still functional. Procedures are underway with the rebel authorities in Donetsk to unite three separate Baptist groups under one umbrella, in order to secure registration. If this is how you can preserve your churches and ministries, we are not against it, Bandura said. We do not encourage or recommend anythingand assume any arrangement is temporary. Other groups in Donetsk still find the requirements to be cumbersome. But Yuriy Kulakevych, foreign affairs director of the Ukrainian Pentecostal Church, thinks things may be moving forward. Russia likes to show it keeps to international standards of freedom of religion, he said. But for now, we are illegal, told to sit down and keep quiet. The situation is different in Crimea, he said, which in 2014 was also seized by Russian-backed separatists. Russia conducted a referendum on annexation soon after and formallythough illegally under international lawincorporated the Black Sea peninsula into its territory. Pentecostals acquiesced to the new reality. We saw it as then the best possible means to survive, said Kulakevych. And Russian Pentecostal leadership are all Ukrainian missionaries from 30 years ago; we know them. But not all relations are good. What he called the second-largest Pentecostal group in Russia is headed by a leader 100 percent committed to the Kremlin agenda in Ukraine. Even within his own network, relations were difficult. Kulakevych spoke of Ukrainian Pentecostal frustration in 2014 and onward, when Russian counterparts failed to protest against their suffering. But later, they learned that as citizens, Russian evangelicals suffer even more. In August, Russia declared Ukraines New Generation Pentecostal groups undesirable, effectively banning them from the country. And in October, regulations took effect to demand all foreign-trained clergy and missionaries take an official course on church-state relations and recertify their ministry. The outrage has been felt in Ukraine, and Kulakevych has pleaded on behalf of his Russian brethren. I have to calm down our hotheads [in Ukraine], who demand [Russian evangelicals] speak out against Putin, he said. We are not in their shoes, and do not understand the risks they take for the gospel. Bandura reached a similar understanding two years ago, when the Baptist Union of Russia came to Ukraine. Disturbed by years of quiet acquiescence, coupled with prominent examples of public anti-Ukrainian sentiment, the Russian and Ukrainian Baptist leaders held face-to-face meetings that helped heal relationships, Bandura said. After two days of closed-door sessions with no public statements, the issues between them were solved. We understand the religious freedom situation in Russia is terrible and dont expect them to speak out bravely for us, Bandura said. It is enough if they keep silent. Vlasenko, however, wants to speakcarefully. He believes in the independence of Ukraine. He wants evangelicals in both countries to communicate to their national leaders that war is not the answer to political problems. And as a pastor he believes he must pursue peaceand reconciliation. But Russia is unnerved also. If Ukraine joins NATO, ballistic missiles could be minutes from Moscow. It is good for peace, said Vlasenko, that Russia can build natural gas pipelines to Europe. And he has spoken to Crimeansthey wanted annexation, he says, and Ukraine would never have permitted a referendum. As for the aggression in Donbas, the popular understanding among locals was that Ukraines 2014 revolution installed a nationalistic government that wanted to kick outeven killRussian-speakers in their historic region. Maybe it was true, or maybe it was propaganda, Vlasenko said. But Russia denies they are fighting, and I cannot prove otherwise without official evidence. But still: Obviously the weapons come from somewhere; you cannot buy a tank at a store. The situation, however, is straightforward for Ukrainians. Ukraine has always irritated Russia, said Oleksandr Turchynov, former interim president of Ukraine and a lay preacher in his Baptist church in Kyiv [full interview below]. Democracy, and even our very existence, is a threat to Putins regime. Kyiv was the ancient heart of medieval Rus, long before the modern Russian nation. Putin has written a 5,000-word essay on the historical unity of the two nations, which he often combines with Belarus under the concept of one Russia. Turchynov, currently coordinator of Ukraines Conservative Movement (known as Sobor) uniting faith-based nonprofit organizations, is not pleased with the negotiation style of European nations that are trying to reconcile Russia and Ukraine as if they are equally at fault in this conflict. He sees Putin as using natural gas to win leverage and divide the continent. Yet the key ally of former president Petro Poroshenko said he is eager for Ukraine to join NATO and strengthen conservative values within the liberal European Union. But Turchynovs ultimate hope is elsewhere. The Lord will ruin all the wrongdoings of the evil one, he said. Truth is with us, and thus God is with us. And where God is, the victory is also. Even Christmas gets mixed up in the politics. Evangelicals largely celebrate both December 25made an official Ukrainian holiday two years agoand the Orthodox date of January 7. But while the metropolitan of the recently autocephalous (independent) Ukrainian Orthodox Church has announced his hope to unite all Christians under the Western calendar within 10 years, he is playing it slow to recruit parishes still loyal to the Moscow patriarch. Cyril Hovorun, a Ukrainian priest in the Russian Orthodox Church, faults his patriarch in Moscow for aligning religion to the interests of the state. But he warns Ukrainian Christians also of the danger of nationalism. A third way is necessary, he said, for the church to support civil society and civic values: transparency, justice, and solidarity. Can his evangelical brethren find at least the latter? We all say we are part of the kingdom of God together, Vlasenko said. But when it comes to politics, we immediately divide again. Pastor raises over $160K for 5 children orphaned after dad dies in crash, mom in childbirth Thanks to a public appeal from their pastor, more than $150,000 in donations have already poured in to help five children in Des Moine, Iowa, who were made orphans after their Christian refugee father was killed in a car accident Friday, just four months after their mother died in childbirth. Pastor Eugene Kiruhura of Shalom Covenant Church in Urbandale, revealed the tragedy in a GoFundMe campaign he launched on Sunday to help the orphans. It is with heavy hearts we are asking for your donations and prayers for the family of Bazirake Kayira. Bazirake was one of the African refugee/immigrant community members living in Des Moines, he died Friday afternoon after crashing his vehicle into a creek during the ice storm, Kiruhura wrote. Four months ago Bazirake lost his wife during childbirth. He leaves behind five children. We are raising funds to help assist with his funeral expenses and any extra funds will go into an account reserved for the children. Keep these children in your prayers this is very sudden and extremely shocking for them to lose both parents like this in a short period of time, he added. Kayira, 30, moved to Des Moines with his family two years ago as refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo. On Friday, according to the Marshall County Sheriffs Office, he was driving on Iowa Highway 330 in Marshall County at about 2:05 p.m. when his car veered off the road into a creek. The Des Moines Register said he was on his way to work at the JBS pork processing plant in Marshalltown. Pastor Kiruhura told the Des Moines Register that when he launched the fundraising campaign to help the orphans, he set a goal of $60,000 to help with funeral expenses and start a fund to help support the children. After an overwhelming response from the public, the fundraising goal was increased to $200,000. Kayira was the only breadwinner for his family, according to a KCCI report. His sickly older adult parents are now caring for his children and they do not work. Grandma and grandpa, they can live together but they dont work, the pastor told KCCI during an earlier appeal. How are they going to pay the rent? Where are they going to live? What are they going to do? They dont drive, whos going to take them to appointments? They dont speak English, he said. Even the rent for this month, I dont know how theyre going to get it. Against Build Back Better: History shows government spending is not stimulus As the United States debates the Build Back Better Bill, its worth looking at the actual economic history of the United States. COVID-19 crisis, shutdowns, and massive government spending programs have functioned something like a war economy, and the argument for continued spending is based on the premise that government spending is stimulative. Throughout the history of the United States, whenever the choice and action was taken to follow the Original Intent of America; that is, to rely on American Exceptionalism, America prospered, even in light of dire times and situations. The Depressions of 1920 and 1946 are real examples of this (see Harding and Coolidge Believe in Americans and Swords into plowshares: why the Truman economy was surprisingly successful). The years 1920 and 1946 certainly do not portray perfection, but neither are they intended to. They are examples of economic and Constitutional behavior which reflect closer to, rather than further from, the Original Intent of the United States. And as we see: "the real economic lesson to come out of World War II era was not that the conscription of nearly a fifth of the labor force into grueling and dangerous working conditions abroad and the imposition of a command economy at home complete with rationing, price controls, and government allocation of many aspects of life could bring unemployment down. Instead, the true lesson from the period can be ascertained from the events of 1945-1947 when the largest economic stimulus in American history was dramatically and quickly unwound, months before most people anticipated it (because the atomic bomb brought a sudden unexpected end to the war.) No other episode more clearly supports the notion that the best economic stimulus is for the government to get out of the way. Government canceled war contracts, and its spending fell from $84 billion in 1945 to under $30 billion in 1946. By 1947, the government was paying back its massive wartime debts by running a budget surplus of close to 6 percent of GDP. The military released around 10 million Americans back into civilian life. Most economic controls were lifted, and all were gone less than a year after V-J Day. In short, the economy underwent what the historian Jack Stokes Ballard refers to as the 'shock of peace.' From the economys perspective, it was the 'shock of de-stimulus.' But, more importantly to the purpose here, many who lost government-supported jobs in the military or in munitions plants found employment as civilian industries expanded production in fact civilian employment grew, on net, by over 4 million between 1945 and 1947 when so many pundits were predicting economic Armageddon. Household consumption, business investment, and net export all boomed as government spending receded. The postwar era provides a classic illustration of how government spending 'crowds out' private sector spending and how the economy can thrive when the governments shadow is dramatically reduced. American Exceptionalism shined despite the ominous prophecy of the Keynesians about the government pulling out of the economy. The Great Experiment, America, did not need governments help. And despite some adjustment issues, the economy under the reins of the citizenry soared out of the war period to a period of prosperity. Perhaps Vedder and Gallaway said it best when they declared that: "within a year of the wars end, it was clear that the pessimistic predictions were spectacularly wrong." American Exceptionalism was spectacularly displayed to the prosperity of the nation as American businesses adjusted and brought prosperity to the nation. Mark Thornton of the Mises Institute successfully summarizes the contrast between the Keynesian expectation of the ensuing economy of 1946 and the Austrian and actual expectation of 1946. Dr. Thornton writes: "The proof for real austerity, however, came after World War II ended. All the Keynesian economists warned of a return of the Great Depression. In sharp contrast, the American Austrian School economist Benjamin Anderson predicted that the economy would recover, in a very short period, despite multi-billion dollar budget cuts and millions of government jobs being slashed. What was the verdict on this debate? There was no real Depression of 1946, as the economy recovered very quickly despite the fact that the government was running large budget surpluses. The Austrian austerity solution works, and the Keynesian stimulus solution fails." The Biblical view of human nature is inconsistent with permanently large government. Fallen human nature cannot be trusted with power, and humans are made with inherent dignity, and when permitted to be free, can lead to recovery. Just like after WWI, it is time for a return to normalcy," the program of the Christian statesmanship of Warren Harding after WWI and the Spanish Flu. John MacArthur urges pastors to preach on sexual morality to protest conversion therapy ban Pastor and theologian John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles is calling on pastors to preach about the biblical view of sexual morality on Jan. 16 in opposition to a Canadian law banning therapy for unwanted sexual attractions and gender confusion what is often derisively referred to as conversion therapy set to take effect next month. MacArthur, known for his syndicated broadcast program Grace to You, published an open letter on the Grace Community Church website Tuesday calling on ministers of the Gospel to join him on the third Sunday of the new year in preaching about a biblical view of sexual morality. MacArthur stated that he received a letter from Pastor James Coates of GraceLife Church in Edmonton, Alberta, a graduate of the MacArthur-led The Masters Seminary who made headlines when he was imprisoned for hosting in-person services in defiance of government lockdown orders. Coates alleged that Bill C-4, which passed by the Canadian House and Senate earlier this month, directly comes against parents and counselors who would seek to offer biblical counsel with respect to sexual immorality and gender. The law amends the criminal code to make illegal so-called conversion therapy, removing a child from Canada to undergo conversion therapy, advertising or promoting conversion therapy and receiving a material benefit for providing conversion therapy. Specifically, the law slated to go into effect on Jan. 8 describes the belief that heterosexuality, cisgender gender identity, and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth are to be preferred over other sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions as a myth. Critics describe conversion therapy as counseling or efforts to change a persons sexual orientation or gender identity through religious-based counseling or more controversial treatments like electric shock therapy. However, some counselors and Christian ministries have warned that their counseling for people experiencing unwanted same-sex attraction is misunderstood and that conversion therapy is a politically charged term designed to mislead the public about the work they do. Critics of such bills contend that the propagation of the narrative of conversion therapy being similar to electric shock therapy has become a straw man to promote one-sided and biased counseling methods, considering those types of treatments are already considered in the medical world to be barbaric and unethical. C-4s opponents claim that the language is too broad and could essentially ban religious leaders from preaching the teachings on sexual ethics and marriage found in the Bible or counseling a person with unwanted attractions or saying that homosexuality is sinful. Andrew DeBartolo, the teaching elder at Encounter Church in Kingston, Ontario, told MacArthur in a letter that the belief in Gods design for marriage and sexuality will now be seen as a myth beginning on Jan. 8. Since this law takes effect on January 8, 2022, faithful Canadian pastors are going to preach on the issue, calling for a biblical understanding of sexual sin, the eternal judgment that falls on the unrepentant and gospel-rejecting sinners, and the grace of God in the gospel which offers forgiveness to those who repent and believe in Christ, MacArthur wrote. In 1 Corinthians 6:911, Paul clearly articulates why we must speak the truth. Our calling as gospel ministers is to preach the truth, confront sin, and call all men to repentance and obedience to the gospelthe good news that achieves soul conversion and saves sinners from eternal wrath, he added. Several states in the U.S. have passed bans on conversion therapy, including MacArthurs home state of California. MacArthur claims the California government sought to prohibit any correction of an unbiblical view of sexual identity. A Christian therapist filed a lawsuit earlier this year in Washington state, alleging that the states 2018 ban on conversion therapy was a political attempt to silence dissent and impose its own new orthodoxy concerning sexual morality. However, his claim was rejected by a federal judge in September. In 2019, a federal judge dismissed an ex-gay psychotherapists lawsuit against Marylands ban on mental health professionals providing conversion therapy. As the United Kingdom Parliament has renewed efforts to pass a conversion therapy ban, concern was raised by the Evangelical Alliance that clergy might potentially face criminal prosecution. However, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson assured religious leaders that pastors wouldnt be criminally charged for counseling people with unwanted same-sex attraction. The Chosen debuts in France on major TV network, on mission to reach billion people worldwide It's been three years since the series "The Chosen" first premiered and it's been watched over 334 million times worldwide, including more recently in France, where it's now being shown on one of the country's top TV networks. Actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the series, told CBN News during an interview in Paris that the experience of playing Him has made me want to be more like Him. When asked by CBN if he ever pinches himself, realizing the magnitude of the role that he has played as Jesus and how well the show has done, Roumie responded that he strives to remain humble amid the show's massive viewership. "I don't know if I pinch myself. I'm more bow my head to the ground because I never feel that I'm worthy of the things that are happening as a result," he said. Roumie also described what it's like to be part of a show that's working to help fulfill the Great Commission by spreading the Gospel worldwide in multiple languages, leading to a revival. I think its already happening, and I think were an additional element of that story. Im just honored to be a part of it, he added. Roumie and cast members recently joined 500 Parisians to watch a screening of "The Chosen" at a Paris movie theater. For many in attendance, it was their first time watching the series, CBN reported. "The intimacy between the disciples and Jesus, I like that very much," one female viewer said. Another woman who screened the film added: "It was different from other films about Jesus. It was just fantastic, I can say." As the first-ever multi-season show about the life of Jesus, The Chosen, is available to watch on its free app and is now also being shown on Canal+ in France. "To be on a major network is a first," said Katherine Warnock, one of the show's producers. "We love our platform. We love having a free app that's available to the whole world, but to be embraced by Canal Plus has been such an honor." As The Christian Post previously reported in 2019, "The Chosen" became the No. 1 crowdfunded media project in history, initially reaching $20 million crowdfunding and then surpassed that number by raising over $40 million in funding. The Chosen has 16 episodes that have been translated into 50 different languages. Eventually, the company that manages the distribution of the series, Angel Studios, hopes to reach a billion people worldwide and plans to dub the series in the top 25 most spoken languages worldwide. "We can't reach a billion just in English. So to reach a billion, we have to unlock more languages," Jared Geesey of Angel Studios, told CBN. Derral Eves, the executive producer of The Chosen, told CP in an interview earlier this year that he hopes the series will inspire many more people to have the values that Jesus Christ taught. I truly do believe this show has impact, and it has power, Eves said. The world needs The Chosen. If theres ever a time that the world needs Jesus, its now and not just Jesus, an authentic Jesus that people can literally connect with. In a separate interview with CP, the creator and co-writer of The Chosen, Dallas Jenkins, said that while hes not surprised by the shows success, he wouldn't have been surprised if it never took off at all. I genuinely was in a posture of, one day at a time, just doing what God wants for me, Jenkins told CP. In the beginning, when the show first premiered, Jenkins said, the primary audience was Christians because that's who was more attracted to a Jesus show. But as the buzz has been building, we're hearing all the time from atheists, agnostics, people in the industry even the friends and family of our casting crews, many of whom are not believers themselves, who just loved the show as a regular show, Jenkins said. It's making them think more about who Jesus was and wanting to look more into it. Ex-gay married father of 3 shares his covenant with God, how he overcomes temptation New Jersey father of three Brian Wheelock will never forget the day he wrote his covenant with God. After 10 years of living a gay lifestyle, Wheelock put pen to paper, expressing his vow to put his love for Jesus before his earthly desires and temptations. After he wrote down his promise nearly two decades ago to honor God and abstain from engaging in same-sex relations, Wheelock said he has not since acted on his same-sex attractions. He has been married to his wife for nearly 17 years and has three daughters. Wheelock has shared his covenant for others to use as an example as they seek to break free from whatever addictions and habits keep them from God. In the most recent episode of the Politely Rude Edifi podcast spearheaded by Abby Johnson, Wheelock was joined by his wife, Pam, to share his faith journey and how his written promise to God has helped him refrain from acting on his same-sex attractions. My wife Pam and I have been married 16.5 years, but this is not the path Ive been on for a lot of my life, he said in the podcast that aired just before Christmas weekend. I actually lived a homosexual lifestyle for many years and was pursuing that for at least 10 years of my life. Wheelock said the gay lifestyle wasnt just a little bit of a phase for him but rather who he thought he was and where my life was going to go. I couldnt get enough Wheelock grew up in a loving home in New Jersey, and his parents would occasionally attend church with him. He said he started to participate in sleepovers with other boys from a young age. At the sleepovers, he experienced his first same-sex encounters, as the boys around ages 12, 13 and 14 would explore and experiment on one another. Soon enough, the playdates that involved staying the night at other boys houses and engaging in same-sex encounters became a typical practice for Wheelock in his early teenage years. When Wheelock entered high school, the practice continued. It began to be kind of like a way of life. It was like, Oh wow, this is happening with a lot of people, and it fulfilled a void. And also at the ages of experimentation, ... you know theres a lot of hormones going on. And I think it really began to be a way of life for me, he detailed. And it started to become a way that I just felt like this is who I am, this is what feels natural to me. I kind of kept it quiet. I didnt really tell my family about that. I was embarrassed. And it was something that I would kind of pursue on the side, but really didnt tell anybody. In college, Wheelock said he did not have a strong personal relationship with Jesus Christ even though he did believe in God. Because he lived on campus away from his family, he said he fully embraced his gay identity and no longer had to worry about what his family or high school friends thought. I went away to college [and] it really opened up this door, and I began to meet other people that also identified as gay or homosexual, and it was this crazy thing of all of a sudden. They were kind of like supporting you and there for you and going out together, and I just suddenly felt free in a way to be who I thought I was, Wheelock said. And it was a really eye-opening experience for me. The gay community is really good at having each others backs and really supporting each other, and really, its better than some of the Christian communities. Ill be honest. And we have to all speak to that sometimes. He said getting embraced by the gay community was a really welcome feeling. While in College, Wheelock continued to pursue men in romantic relationships and eventually dated his first boyfriend. As he continued to date, he found himself wondering if this was how he wanted to move forward with his life because he had a desire ingrained in him to have children of his own one day. Every once in a while, during his college career, Wheelock said he would date females, but 90% of the time, he would date men because he was more physically attracted to them. Of course, I felt like it would be easier in my life if I could just date a girl and go this path, but no, it was like I felt like this must be who I am, this must be the way God made me because these feelings are really real and really strong and I pursued that. Following college graduation, Wheelock moved to England and Ireland to participate in a work abroad program for a year. He said he dove into that life to the point he was going out to bars and going home with different people each night. The experience he said was causing this depression. Like I couldnt get enough, Wheelock said, adding that he was also addicted to pornography. It was creating this insatiable desire, and I started worrying about getting sick, some kind of infectious disease, he added. I would actually go get tested for HIV and I [would] have to wait three days for my results. Now, the three days was when I was most like a Christian. Those three days was when I suddenly believed in God again. Ready to just listen to OK, God Im going to be good. Im not going to do that again. And then Id get the negative test result. And guess what? I was back out that night hooking up with somebody else. Our flesh is so ridiculous, you know. A vision from God Wheelock said he felt something inside of him lingering. He believed it was God saying: Brian, this is not the path I have for you. One day, when he was in Ireland, Wheelock said he had a vision in which God showed him that he would be married to a woman. In the vision, he said he could see that he would have at least three children. He said the vision described his wife and daughters specifically. God took that and captured my heart and showed me Brian, this is what I have for you. This is the vision Im giving you. This is the future. This is the path I have set before you. Im the right path. The life youre living is not the best for you. And God began to open my eyes suddenly to a bigger picture, Wheelock recounted. When he arrived back home in New Jersey, Wheelock remembers feeling a desire to attend church. After searching in the phone books for churches, he found a nondenominational church to attend. After attending the church for a while, he participated in an altar call public profession, declaring and accepting Jesus as His Lord and Savior. It was amazing, and I began to really follow Him, read the Bible on my own and all this stuff, Wheelock said. After some time, Wheelock returned to London to audition for an acting part, falling back into a pattern of hooking up with men. I was around all these celebrities and pop stars. I ended up even falling back and hooking up with them. And yet now, it was so empty. Now, I had the Spirit of God inside me that I had let into my life. And I couldnt enjoy it. I was like, Oh, this is terrible, he said. Finding a new dedication After two months in London, Wheelock returned to New Jersey because he said by the grace of God he did not get the part for which he auditioned. He returned to his church and rededicated his life to Jesus. It was January of 2000. That was the last time that I would have been with a guy or slept with somebody. And God show[ed] me that was not the path that He had for me, Wheelock said. And following Christ began a journey inside of me. And it was an amazing, beautiful thing. He said it was an exciting experience as he attended church and its programs for people in their 20s and 30s. As a result of the programs, he met God-centered male friends from the church, something he said he had always desired. I think that part of me going down the path of homosexuality was that I didnt have a lot of good solid male figures in my life that were solid in keeping me on the right path, he said. Even after Wheelock accepted Christ again, his same-sex attractions remained even though he dated females. I even dated a girl for a little bit ... but there was a problem. The problem was I still had these homosexual feelings and desires, Wheelock detailed. And even though I was following Christ, these feelings were strong. And they were less because I wasnt pursuing it. But, I really felt like: God, if Im going to be serious about following you Jesus I need to leave these feelings behind. Like what do I need to do? On Jan. 14, 2003, Wheelock said God led him to write out a covenant of purity, giving him something specific to pray over every day, twice a day. The prayers ask God to take away his same-sex feelings and desires and replace them with thoughts and wishes for God. It was not a covenant to become straight. That wasnt the point of it. It was a covenant to follow Christ wholeheartedly, to die to myself of all the desires that I had that were not godly whatever they were, including and specifically this, he said, referring to his same-sex attractions and thoughts. A covenant with God: Covenant of Purity by Brian Wheelock: On this the 14th day of the month of January in the year of our Lord 2003. Here I confirm a covenant between I Brian Wheelock and the Lord Jesus Christ. From this moment forward I will not entertain evil thoughts any longer and promise to obey the commandments the Lord has given me. For evil thoughts lead to temptation, temptation to sin and sin to death. I herby affirm that I will not masterbate, or engage in self-purity nor will I consider seeing homosexual partners or friends or engage in homosexual activities. I will not engage in any acts that can cause these feelings to arise and I promise to seek the Lord in any and all these tempting situations. I promise to get rid of (all) stumbling blocks and I will do the following when and if a temptation comes my way. 1) Focus on the Lord and what He has done 2) Take two deep breaths 3) Pray and cry out to God for strength 4) Read some verses in Scripture 5) Take communion with the Lord (John 6:25-59) 6) Pray for obedience 7) Leave the room [or] situation and rejoice 8) Run to the Lord 9) Confess to your friends and develop an accountability partner 10) Pray to be a light and to spread the Word of God to the ends of the earth. I hereby promise to adhere to this covenant that I Brian Weelock will no longer give into physical temptation and sin and hereby dedicate my mind, body and soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord strengthen and keep me all the days of my life. In Jesus Name I commit these and all things. Signed with Love, Brian Weelock Impact of the written promise I literally wrote out a few steps to do when I knew the temptation was going to come, and I had like a battle plan, like a plan for when I was tempted. I knew that would help me, Wheelock said, referring to his written covenant. Occasionally, Wheelock said when he shares his covenant with other people who have same-sex attractions, they will tell him that they prayed over the covenant, but their same-sex attractions remained the same. Wheelock advises those struggling with their own desires and addictions, whatever they may be, to keep praying and die to self. Try to develop a plan and figure out a way to really make this serious about whatever the thing is, he said. It doesnt have to be homosexuality or whatever. Because I died to myself. I crucified the flesh every single stinking day. Wheelock said he still experiences same-sex thoughts and desires at times but doesnt act on them. He also confesses those desires to his wife and accountability partners. I was so serious about this. Talk about taking away the fuel source. So you have this raging fire, and every time that I looked at pornography, every time that I lusted after men, I was pouring gasoline on that fire, Wheelock described. All of a sudden, I was cutting off the fuel source. And taking away all of the stuff that was feeding it. Now, maybe its just this little pilot light that I dont want to pour gas on. But I took away all the fuel sources, so it became like almost a nonexistent part of my life. Today, Wheelock is a Christian speaker who has spoken at churches and various events, including the Freedom March in Washington, D.C. in May 2019. The Wheelocks also host a podcast called "The Pam & Brian Show." 5 churches burned down in a village in Kenya An association of churches and Christian clergy has demanded an investigation after unidentified arsonists destroyed five churches and threw human feces onto the buildings in one village in western Kenya, according to reports. St. Monica Church in Otamba village in Nyaribari Chache area of Kisii County was burned on Jan. 20, followed by similar attacks on three other churches 100-member Worldwide Church, Seventh Day Adventist and Legio Maria the following day, Morning Star News reported. The fifth church, 250-member Kenya Assemblies of God, was burned down on Jan. 24, the U.S.-based Christian persecution news website said. Apart from setting the churches ablaze, the arsonists also committed the heinous acts of scooping human feces onto the buildings to discourage the faithful from attending their ruined churches, a source was quoted as saying. A majority of the church members were afraid to attend services [in or near the ruins] in the aftermath of the burning of the churches, fearing that the arsonists might follow them right into their homes, risking the lives of their families. The Church and Clergy Association of Kenya has demanded an investigation. We demand the investigating authorities to get to the bottom of the matter and expose the agents of such heinous acts. What is the motive behind this and who are these mercenaries acting for? it said in a statement, according to The Standard. The churches will need to spend millions of Kenyan shillings to rebuild. Kenya was ranked 49th on Christian support organization Open Doors 2021 World Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. While its a Christian-majority country, persecution has spread in Kenya, Open Doors says. Particularly, Christians with a Muslim background in the northeast and coastal regions live under constant threat of attackeven from their closest relatives. Our research revealed that Christians were attacked and forced to flee their villages, and Islamic extremist group al-Shabab has infiltrated the local population to monitor the activities of Christians in those areas. Organized crime is also a serious problem in the country, Open Doors adds. Corrupt officials often fail to take measures against persecutorsincreasing the potential for further incidents against Christians. In the countrys northeast, the al-Shabab terrorist group is a constant threat. Al-Shabaab has fought for years to overthrow the Somali government. The group has been responsible for attacks on both sides of the Somalia and Kenya border as it has long vowed to retaliate against Kenya for sending in troops to Somalia to fight the group. In April 2015, al-Shabaab carried out one of its deadliest attacks when it stormed the campus of Garissa University. On that occasion, militants were said to have separated Muslims from non-Muslims and proceeded to execute all non-Muslim students. At least 148 people were killed in the attack. 'Bodies burned beyond recognition': Al-Shabaab militants torture, behead Christians in Kenya; at least 6 killed Suspected al-Shabaab militants tortured and killed at least six Christians, five of whom were reportedly beheaded, in a terror attack on a village in Kenyas coastal Lamu region that borders Somalia, according to reports. It is an ugly sight of peoples bodies lying dead and houses smoking with fire. This is undeniably an awful terrorist attack, said Pastor Stephen Sila, who was at the site of the attack in Widhu village in Lamu West on Monday morning, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported. I counted seven houses that were torched down, four bodies of people burned beyond recognition inside the houses, he was quoted as saying. A body shot dead right outside a burned house and another beheaded body next to it. Other villagers escaped into the dark and the police are still looking for them. The attack took place at about 4 a.m. local time while people were still sleeping, Lamu County Commissioner Samson Macharia told local media. Five of the six killed had their hands tied from behind before they were beheaded, reported Kenyas The Standard newspaper. All the deceased persons had their hands tied from behind. Also several houses were torched within the locality and property of unknown value burned, it said, citing a police report. The pastor who spoke to ICC added: The residents have gathered and are asking why the security officers were not doing enough to protect the Christians from being attacked by the Somali militants. There is a standoff now, but more police officers are arriving to pick the bodies and also evacuate those who need emergency medical attention. Commissioner Macharia also called it a terror attack and said security forces were hunting for the militants in a nearby forest, where they might have disappeared after the attack. In the countrys northeast, the al-Shabaab terrorist group has been a constant threat. Al-Shabaab has fought for years to overthrow the Somali government. The group has been responsible for attacks on both sides of the Somalia and Kenya border as it has long vowed to retaliate against Kenya for sending in troops to Somalia to fight the group. In April 2015, al-Shabaab carried out one of its deadliest attacks when it stormed the campus of Garissa University. On that occasion, militants were said to have separated Muslims from non-Muslims and proceeded to execute all non-Muslim students. At least 148 people were killed in the attack. Kenya was ranked 49th on Christian support organization Open Doors USA's 2021 World Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. While its a Christian-majority country, persecution has spread in Kenya, Open Doors says. Particularly, Christians with a Muslim background in the northeast and coastal regions live under constant threat of attack even from their closest relatives. Our research revealed that Christians were attacked and forced to flee their villages, and Islamic extremist group al-Shabaab has infiltrated the local population to monitor the activities of Christians in those areas. Organized crime is also a serious problem in the country, Open Doors adds. Corrupt officials often fail to take measures against persecutors increasing the potential for further incidents against Christians. A church leader overseeing the Lamu West Africa Inland Churches told ICC that believers are still at risk in the country. The enemy is still roaming free within our region, he said. We are saddened that six Christians have lost their lives and left their families, and the entire body of Christ is hurting. We call upon the government to heighten its commitment to protecting the people of this great nation of Kenya. Al-Shabaab warns all Christians to leave northeastern Kenya The Somalia-based al-Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab has ordered Christians to leave three counties in northeastern Kenya to allow local Muslims to get all local jobs, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern. Muslim teachers, doctors, engineers, and young graduates from the northeastern province are unemployed. Isnt it better to give them a chance? There is no need for the presence of disbelievers, al-Shabaabs spokesman, Sheikh Ali Dhere, said in an audio clip posted online, referring to the counties of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera. In the 20-minute clip, the spokesman urged Somali-Kenyans to drive all non-Muslims out if they do not leave on their own. The majority of the people living in the three counties are Somalis, who fled to Kenya due to war and violence in Somalia. This is not news at all because the conduct of the local people here has always suggested that they want us to leave, the Rev. Cosmas Mwinzi of the Assemblies of God in Garissa was quoted as saying. This region has been unstable for years due to war in Somalia and hatred against non-locals who are mostly Christians. The levels of education and infrastructure in the three counties are low and it is only through the expertise and hard work of the non-locals that the living standard of the Somali people in Kenya can improve. We have non-locals in all sectors, from health to education. In January, three Christian teachers were murdered in the town of Kamuthe in Garissa County during an attack on a primary school believed to have been carried out by al-Shabaab. As a result, many non-local teachers were already being transferred to other schools outside northeastern Kenya, or teachers themselves were requesting transfers. This release is terrible news for Christians living and working in eastern Kenya, Nathan Johnson, ICCs regional manager for Africa, said. They already live with increased fear and anxiety, as many have had to travel to find work. Now with this threat, it is clear that al-Shabaab will be increasing attacks on Christians who are simply trying to provide for their families. Last Wednesday, two Christians were reported to be among three people killed after suspected al-Shabaab militants attacked a bus carrying passengers to the capital of Nairobi from a market town near the Ethiopian and Somalian borders. Haji Abass, the owner of the Kenya-based Moyale Raha bus company, told The Associated Press that the militants were in police uniform and tried to flag down the bus. However, the bus driver kept on going because he knew there were no police stops along the route. At that point, the militants shot at the bus, flattened the back tires and injured the driver. After the bus went into a ditch, militants allegedly pulled the passengers out and killed two non-Muslims and one Muslim. Two others were injured. Kenya ranks as the 44th worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List. Al-Shabaab has fought for years to overthrow the Somali government. The group has been responsible for attacks on both sides of the Somalia and Kenya border as it has long vowed to retaliate against Kenya for sending in troops to Somalia to fight the group. In April 2015, al-Shabaab carried out one of its deadliest attacks when it stormed the campus of Garissa University. On that occasion, militants were said to have separated Muslims from non-Muslims and proceeded to execute all non-Muslim students. At least 148 people were killed in the attack. Andrew Cuomo won't face charges over COVID-19 nursing home deaths: attorney Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo will not face prosecution over his temporary policy of placing COVID-19 patients in nursing homes, according to a statement from an attorney. Elkan Abramowitz, an attorney who formerly represented the office of the governor while Cuomo was in power, released a statement saying that no charges were going to be filed. I was contacted today by the head of the Elder Care Unit from the Manhattan District Attorneys Office who informed me they have closed its investigation involving the Executive Chamber and nursing homes, stated Abramowitz, as reported by the New York Post. I was told that after a thorough investigation as we have said all along there was no evidence to suggest that any laws were broken. Janice Dean, a Fox News meteorologist whose in-laws were among the thousands who died due to Cuomo's directive to move COVID-19 positive patients into nursing homes, took to Twitter to denounce Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. We wont forget how you conveniently dropped charges against Andrew Cuomo just hours after being sworn into office. There are thousands of families still fighting for answers despite your negligence, she told Bragg. In March 2020, as the pandemic was beginning to hit New York, Cuomo had around 9,000 recovering COVID-19 patients transported to hundreds of nursing homes in the state. Cuomo was widely criticized for the move, as many argued that the directive resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly residents who were especially vulnerable to the virus. In February of last year, The Associated Press reported that as many as 15,000 nursing home residents died from COVID-19 during the time that Cuomo's directive was in effect. Cuomo gained further negative attention for his past actions when reports surfaced that his administration was covering up the number of documented COVID-19 related deaths in nursing homes. When the New York Post reported that Cuomos top aide Melissa DeRosa had admitted that the administration was covering up the actual death toll due to the directive, many called for Cuomo to be prosecuted. Governor Cuomo, the secretary to the governor, and his senior team must be prosecuted immediately both by the attorney general of New York state and the U.S. Department of Justice, said Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., last year, in a statement quoted by the NY Post. This bombshell admission of a coverup and the remarks by the secretary to the governor indicating intent to obstruct any federal investigation is a stunning and criminal abuse of power. Big Daddy Weaves Jay Weaver dies from COVID-19: My heart's broke for my family' Big Daddy Weaves Jason Weaver, better known as Jay, has died from complications due to COVID-19 after many years of battling other health conditions. Big Daddy Weave frontman Mike Weaver took to Facebook on Sunday to announce that his younger brother and bandmate went to be with Jesus on Jan. 2. He was 42. The late artist was a founding member of the band. He played bass guitar and sang with the Christian group. Even though COVID may have taken his last breath, Jesus was right there to catch him, Weaver shared in the video announcement. While noticeably broken up about his loss, Weaver said he is celebrating the fact that his brother is in Heaven. Hes seeing things now that I long to see. My hearts broke for my family but we all just really wanted to thank you for walking with us through so much for so long, he continued. The Lord used Jay in mighty ways, Weaver testified. The musician is survived by his wife, Emily, and their three children. According to a previous message posted by Big Daddy Weave, Jay Weaver was in the hospital for at least five days fighting a tough battle against COVID. Emily Weaver also released a statement at the time that said, I just want my best friend/everything to get better. Her husband died the following day. Jay Weaver had diabetes for 20 years, and the illness severely weakened his bodys immune system and ability to stave off infection, which resulted in the amputation of both of his feet. He remained in the band for five years following the amputations. However, shortly before his death, the bassist announced hed made the difficult decision to come off the road with Big Daddy Weave for a time to focus on his health. In August 2021, Big Daddy Weave said that the younger Weaver had suffered side effects from his dialysis treatments that led to him being admitted into the intensive care unit. However, God answered their prayers and he recovered. Prayers for healing can now turn into prayers of thanksgiving that Jay is with the Lord! Mike Weaver concluded in his video message on Sunday. Elon Musk says he agrees with the teachings of Jesus: 'There is great wisdom' Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is not a religiously inclined person. But in a recent interview with the popular Christian satire site The Babylon Bee, the Tesla CEO shared his thoughts about Jesus. The famous billionaire who founded SpaceX in 2002 made an appearance on The Babylon Bees podcast last month. He sat down with the organizations CEO Seth Dillon and Editor-in-Chief Kyle Mann and Creative Director Ethan Nicolle for an in-depth interview. The four discussed wokeness, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., taxing the rich and more. The Babylon Bee is a popular Christian satire site that focuses on Christian and political issues as well as everyday life. For the final question of the podcast, Nicolle asked Musk if he would accept Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. Final question to pull some time out here, Babylon Bee is a Christian organization and were a ministry, said the host. Musk then interjected: How come were doing the show on a Sunday? Why arent you heathens in church? God said dont work on Sundays, OK. You guys are going straight to Hell for this one. Nicolle continued: To make this Church, were wondering if you could do us a quick solid and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Musk said that he respects and agrees with the principles that Jesus advocated, such as forgiveness and treating people as you wish to be treated. Things like turn the other cheek are very important, as opposed to an eye for an eye. An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind, Musk maintained. As Einstein would say, I believe in the God of Spinoza, said Musk, seemingly referencing deist beliefs. Musk was referring to the quote believed to have been spoken by Albert Einstein in 1921 at the Institutional Synagogue in New York. Einstein was quoted as saying: I believe in Spinozas God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings. The Babylon Bee hosts celebrated Musks response as the entrepreneur ended his comment by saying hell be saved. But hey, if Jesus is saving people, I mean, I wont stand in His way. Sure, Ill be saved. Why not? Musk stated. I think he just said yes, Nicolle declared. We got him. Musk, who was born in South Africa, also said he was baptized as a child and partook in communion. In past remarks about his Space X project after the Dragon Capsule completed a splash landing in the Gulf of Mexico in 2020, the chief engineer and CEO of SpaceX revealed that he prayed. Im not very religious, but I prayed for this one, Musk said at one point during his speech. Musk has often been described as atheist or agnostic. In 2013, Musk was asked during an interview with actor Rainn Wilson if he worships anything. He said he doesn't "really worship anything" but devotes himself to the "advancement of humanity using technology." When asked if he prayed, Musk said that he didn't even pray when he almost died of Malaria. Its unclear if his beliefs have evolved. Judge sides with Navy SEALs seeking religious exemption to Biden admin. COVID-19 vaccine mandate A federal judge has ruled in favor of Navy personnel suing the Biden administration over the Department of Defenses COVID-19 vaccine mandate, concluding that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in their claim that the requirement violates their religious freedom. Judge Reed OConnor of the U.S. District Court Northern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction Monday, arguing that the Navy has failed to respect the religious objections of service members. The Navy provides a religious accommodation process, but by all accounts, it is theater. The Navy has not granted a religious exemption to any vaccine in recent memory. It merely rubber stamps each denial, wrote OConnor, a George W. Bush appointee. The Navy servicemembers in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect. The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution. The lawsuit was filed in November on behalf of 35 U.S. Navy personnel, including 26 Navy SEALs. They are represented by the First Liberty Institute, a Texas-based conservative legal nonprofit that specializes in religious liberty cases. First Liberty General Counsel Mike Berry, who served for seven years as an attorney in the Marine Corps, said he was pleased with the injunction. He contends that the mandate forces military personnel to choose between their faith and serving their country. [Its] abhorrent to the Constitution and Americas values, he said in a statement. Punishing SEALs for simply asking for a religious accommodation is purely vindictive and punitive. Were pleased that the court has acted to protect our brave warriors before more damage is done to our national security. The lawsuit stated that multiple plaintiffs hold the sincere religious belief that all life is sacred, from conception to natural death, and that abortion is the impermissible taking of an innocent life in the womb. As a result of their sincerely held religious beliefs regarding life and abortion, multiple Plaintiffs are unable to receive any of the COVID-19 vaccines due to what they believe and understand is a connection between these vaccines and their testing, development, or production using aborted fetal cell lines," the complaint states. The Pentagon announced in August that it would require U.S. military personnel to receive a COVID-19 vaccine by mid-September, citing combat readiness as a justification. Now that the Pfizer vaccine has been approved, the department is prepared to issue updated guidance, requiring all service members to be vaccinated, stated Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby at the time. These efforts ensure the safety of our service members and promote the readiness of our force, not to mention the health and safety of the communities around the country in which we live. According to a report by the U.S. Naval Institute published last week, approximately 8,000 active duty and reserve Navy personnel are unvaccinated, with around 3,000 requests for religious exemptions being sent to the Navy. Multiple plaintiffs received a formal COVID-19 Vaccination Administrative Counseling/Warning, stating that those who refuse to get vaccinated based on personal or religious beliefs will be disqualified from special operations duty unless their disqualification is waived, the court filing shows The provision doesnt pertain to medical contraindications or allergies to vaccine administration. Plaintiffs also have been informed that any religious accommodation that will be offered will preclude them from deploying, the lawsuit reads. There has been debate in some religious circles about the ethics of taking a vaccine that has utilized aborted fetal cell lines in their testing or development. Dallas megachurch Pastor Robert Jeffress argued in September that there is no credible religious argument against COVID-19 vaccines. He suggested that those troubled by the use of a fetal cell line for testing of the vaccines would also have to abstain from the use of Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Ibuprofen, and other products that used the same cell line if they are sincere in their objection. Roman Catholic Archbishop for the Military Services Timothy P. Broglio released a statement in October stressing that no one should be forced to receive a COVID-19 vaccine if it would violate the sanctity of his or her conscience. The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were tested using an abortion-derived cell line. That type of a link has been for centuries considered remote material cooperation with evil and is never sinful, Broglio wrote. A poll released last month from the Washington, D.C.-based Public Religion Research Institute found that most Americans support some level of religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccines, though their views on when religious exemptions should be granted differ. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they either completely or mostly agree that anyone who simply says that receiving a COVID-19 vaccination goes against their religious beliefs should be granted a religious exemption. Fifty-five percent said anyone who has a record of refusing to receive other vaccinations due to their religious beliefs should be able to claim a religious exemption. Additionally, 57% agreed that anyone who belongs to a religious group that has a record of refusing to receive other vaccinations should be able to claim a religious exemption. 'One of the toughest assignments God could ask': SafeHouse Outreach director on helping the homeless Hundreds of thousands of Americans suffer homelessness, enduring a hard life on cold and dangerous streets. Witnessing this daily hardship is what inspires many Christians to take action by being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ by caring for the least of these (Matthew 25:40). The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said in its 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress that 580,466 people experienced homelessness on a single night in 2020. Other organizations have estimated that the displaced population is much higher than HUDs figures. The National Homelessness Law Center, based in Washington, D.C., estimates that up to 3.5 million Americans are likely to experience homelessness each year. Among the Christian organizations that serve those who are displaced is SafeHouse Outreach, located in Atlanta, Georgia. In a Christian Post exclusive, the organization gave a rare behind-the-scenes look into what the life of displacement looks like for the men and women who find themselves on the streets in one of the countrys largest cities. Joe McCutchen, whos known as the organizations problem-solving director, is among those whose daily job is to serve the long line of men and women seeking assistance. Philip Bray founded this organization in 1982, and he was a preachers kid of a megachurch, McCutchen told CP. I always say he took a left turn out of the parsonage and became a drug dealer and a drug user. When he got free, he just started coming to the streets to help people. Phillip passed away a little over a year ago. Now his son, Josh, is the CEO. My role at the organization is, if you have a problem, come on in, lets see if we can solve it. For McCutchen, solving problems is something he feels called to do and counts it a joy to help those who SafeHouse was created to serve. Three of those whove benefited from SafeHouse include Jennifer Mohan, Allan Moban and Randhall Thompson. They look at McCuthen as someone who has blessed their lives. From the moment this reporter entered the center, it became apparent that everyone has a story to share. For many, an additional challenge theyve had to grapple with has been COVID-19. Walking through the pandemic was unexpected and has brought great suffering and trials to the displaced community. Thompson has seen the effects of COVID-19 firsthand in the lives of his friends who live on the streets. I have all of the vaccinations, and Ive been tested and know of people who have passed away from the virus, he said. Its one of the hard realities and among the many challenges faced by people who live on the streets. Along with Thompson, Moban shared details of the abuse and violence on the streets, as both have been victims of it themselves. People often attempt to steal possessions, such as blankets, and threaten to cause bodily harm, Moban explained. Sleeping on the streets was something they never thought theyd have to endure. Having lived on the streets for less than a year, both men have also experienced the loss of familial connections. Moban, whos from Rome, Georgia, which is northwest of Atlanta, shared more about his plight and inability to contact his family: I lost my phone and dont have a way to get in contact with them. Not being able to re-connect with family members and repair strained relationships is a daily concern for many people who seek assistance at SafeHouse. For some, McCutchen becomes a surrogate relative. A place like SafeHouse shares love with people and theyre like a family, said Mohan, who went from being homeless and a victim of prostitution to now having her own apartment. She also advised those who know of someone whos struggling on the streets to find an organization like SafeHouse that helps bring people out of homelessness and addiction. McCutchen agreed with Mohans assessment, adding that if people want to get involved in the homeless community and help, they should come alongside organizations that already have effective programs and not try to do it on their own. As Christians, one of the worst things that Christians do is we keep people in their addictions and we do that by rescuing people, by not letting them ever feel the weight of the problems theyre going through, he said. Its one of the toughest assignments that God could ask someone to do, but you keep showing up every day. Marjorie Taylor Greene lashes out after suspensions from Twitter and Facebook Firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., called Twitter an enemy to America after her personal account on the social media platform was permanently suspended on Sunday for allegedly violating the companys COVID-19 misleading information policy. She revealed Monday that shes also been suspended by Facebook for 24 hours due to a similar violation. Facebook has joined Twitter in censoring me. This is beyond censorship of speech. Im an elected Member of Congress representing over 700,000 US tax paying citizens and I represent their voices, values, defend their freedoms, and protect the Constitution. But apparently they too think the CDC managed #VAERS system on our own government websites are misinformation, Greene noted on the social platform GETTR Monday. To date there has been ZERO investigation into reported Covid deaths from government mandated #covid vaccines. Who appointed Twitter and Facebook to be the authorities of information and misinformation? When Big Tech decides what political speech of elected members is accepted and whats not then they are working against our government and against the interest of our people. Twitter permanently suspended Greene after she shared information on Saturday alleging extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths. In her tweet, she included a chart from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, a government database that keeps track of claims of complications from vaccines submitted by members of the American public. Many have pointed to the VAERS database to voice concerns about the potential effects of the coronavirus vaccines. The project is jointly managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to serve as an "early warning system to detect possible safety problems in U.S.-licensed vaccines." Anyone can report to the database and healthcare professionals are required to report certain adverse events. Manufacturers are required to report adverse events that come to their attention. A disclosure on the website says that the database is not "designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem, but is especially useful for detecting unusual or unexpected patterns of adverse event reporting that might indicate a possible safety problem with a vaccine." A Twitter spokesperson told The New York Times that the tweet marked Greenes fifth time violating its COVID-19 misinformation policies, thereby earning her the permanent suspension. Weve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy, Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough told the publication. The ruling can be appealed if the post in question is later determined to be true. The CDC maintains that COVID-19 vaccines "are safe and effective" and recommended for anyone ages 5 or older. Critics contend that opponents of vaccines misinterpret the VAERS data to make false claims about vaccines. Greene pushed back on the assertion that she had used all five strikes in a GETTR post Monday: Twitter forgot about the two times they accidentally suspended my account this past year. That means Ive only had 3 strikes in their 5 strike system. Twitter has to reinstate my account immediately. In a Facebook post published Sunday after her suspension, Greene called the company an enemy to America that cant handle the truth. Additionally, Greene alleged a double standard in the enforcement of the Twitter rules: Maxine Waters can go to the streets and threaten violence on Twitter, Kamala and Ilhan can bail out Black Lives Matter terrorists on Twitter, CNN and the rest of the Democrat Propaganda Media can spread Russian collusion lies, and just yesterday, the Chief spokesman for terrorist IRGC can tweet mourning Soleimani, but I get suspended for tweeting VAERS statistics. She also claimed on GETTR that Twitter will be irrelevant by the end of 2022. By the end of this year, Twitter will be irrelevant and will lose its grip on American politics. The arrogant puppet masters should have learned over this last year that silly punishments like kicking me off committees and permanent Twitter bans dont work on me, they only make me more determined, stronger, & effective, she wrote. Im not here for the club, Im only here for the People, which the elites in our government and all powerful media/big tech, and their Communist Global partners just want to abuse and control. They will fail and the People will win, she continued. When Im pushed out, Im able to see very clearly the problems, how to fix the broken system, and more importantly who are the ones to blame. Yesterday started very big things. The sun is setting on Twitter. Greene, who presents herself as a strong Christian in Congress, does not shy away from confrontational politics. In September, she got into a heated exchange with Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., over what it means to be a good Christian shortly after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would codify the right to abortion into federal law. Nearly 12,000 non-US citizens may have registered to vote in Texas: audit An audit conducted by the Secretary of States office in Texas has revealed that while more than 11,000 non-citizens were possibly registered to vote at the time of the 2020 presidential election, votes cast by non-citizens did not affect the outcome of the election. The Phase 1 progress report of the audit, released Friday, detailed the results of an analysis and investigation of the presidential election results in four of the states most populous counties that cast 35% of the total votes: Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant. According to CNN, then-President Donald Trump won the state by a margin of more than 500,000 votes over Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election out of 11.3 million votes cast. However, concerns about voter irregularities prompted the Secretary of States office to announce a full forensic audit of the results in those counties on Sept. 23. What were trying to do is make sure that theres a little more confidence in the system, in the election integrity," Secretary of State John Scott told NBC's Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate last month. "And I think this is one of the hopes of the audit is to show folks that it is very safe, it is secure, your vote does count when you cast it. And where we find issues, were going to address those issues. Specifically, during the first phase of the audit, the Secretary of States office worked to review available data and documents concerning the security and accuracy of voting systems used in each of the four counties, as well as the counties work to maintain the accuracy of their respective lists of registered voters. Regarding the accuracy of the counties respective list of registered voters, the progress report detailed their efforts to remove dead and non-citizen voters from the voter rolls. Texas law requires a quarterly comparison of the statewide voter registration list to identify all potential deceased voters. The Secretary of States office implemented a comparative analysis of the statewide system to records provided by the Local Registrars of Death, Clerks of the Court, the Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), and the Social Security Administration. Any strong matches, where the last name, date of birth and Social Security number of a person gathered from one of the aforementioned sources matches exactly with the data of someone on the states voter registration list, are canceled by the state system. Weak matches require an additional review process to be conducted by each individual county voter registrar. In the four counties at the center of the audit, a total of 47,521 strong matches have been canceled by the state since November 2020, while an additional 57,684 weak matches were canceled by the individual counties. More than 100,000 voter registrations altogether have been canceled in the four counties in that time period. While the report primarily focuses on the four large counties, it also contains data about efforts to remove deceased and non-citizen voters from the voter rolls throughout the state as a whole. Statewide, 190,227 strong matches have been canceled by the state. The number of strong match cancellations, combined with the number of weak matches canceled at the county level adds up to a total of 224,585 voter registrations of deceased voters canceled. While more than 30,000 additional weak matches were identified, their registrations were not canceled. A statewide comparison of citizenship data compiled by the Texas Department of Public Services to the Texas voter registration list found 11,737 possible non-U.S. citizen voter records since September 2021. A total of 2,737 of those voter registrations have been canceled due to either confirmation of non-U.S. citizenship by the county or an individuals failure to respond to a notice from the county voter registrar requesting documentation of proof of citizenship. A total of 3,063 possible non-citizen voter registrations have been identified in Harris County, along with 1,385 in Dallas County, 708 in Tarrant County and 327 in Collin County. None of the potential non-U.S. citizen voter records in Collin County and Harris County resulted in a cancellation due to confirmed non-citizenship, while five such cancellations took place in Dallas County along with one in Tarrant County. The report revealed that the SOS, in coordination with county voter registrars, continues to verify the number of non-U.S. citizens registered to vote statewide to identify those that may have voted in the November 2020 election. Additionally, the report indicated that all records with voting history suggesting the potential of an illegal vote cast will be referred to the Office of Attorney General (OAG) for further investigation. The ability of the Texas Attorney General to investigate and prosecute electoral fraud has become the subject of litigation. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals recent decision to strip the Legislature of its power to assign the Office of Attorney General (OAG) authority to prosecute criminal election law violations was met with condemnation from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican. The Courts decision to suddenly remove our authority to prosecute election fraud can only empower dishonest campaigns to silence voters across the state, Paxton said in a statement shared with The Christian Post. This decision is not only wrong on legal grounds, but it has the effect of giving district and county attorneys virtually unlimited discretion not to bring election law prosecutions. Paxton also pushed back on the courts conclusion that allowing the Office of the Attorney General to investigate and prosecute election fraud runs afoul of the state constitutions provision for separation of powers. Last years election cycle shows us that officials in our most problematic counties will simply let election fraud run rampant. I will continue to oppose this decision that diminishes our democracy and misconstrues the Texas Constitution, he added. Join Edith Salas of Salas Properties & host Jenn Barlow as they visit the Coronado Shores community. The towers have amazing views including the world famous Hotel del Coronado, downtown San Diego, San Diego Bay, the City of Coronado, Point Loma, and the Pacific Ocean. Parents petition Va. Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin to protect parental rights in response to COVID-19 vaccine mandates A coalition of parents is urging Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin to keep his campaign promise to protect parental rights amid growing concern over vaccine policies, particularly as COVID-19 shots are now being advised for children. In a recently-launched petition, the parents ask the incoming governor to heed the warning of more than 16,000 medical scientists and doctors from around the world that healthy children shouldn't be mandated to get the COVID-19 vaccines. The petition also asks Youngkin to safeguard the rights of parents to make medical decisions on behalf of their children. The petition calls on Youngkin to immediately issue an executive order upon taking office that affirms his stated commitment to parental rights. It asks Youngkin to bar the State Health Commissioner from mandating COVID-19 vaccines for children; prohibit local and state government officials from using coercive language and bribery in order to incentivize compliance with vaccine mandates; forbid all state health officers, including the Health Commissioner, from describing the vaccine as "safe;" and require the Virginia Health Commissioner to provide parents with written information listing all known potential health risks and unknown long-term repercussions prior to giving consent to their childs vaccination. Kathy Blum, the president of the Virginia chapter of Childrens Health Defense, told The Christian Post in an interview that over the past few years, parental rights have been challenged on multiple fronts. Making informed and uncoerced medical decisions for their children is of utmost concern, she said. CHD-Virginia is petitioning Youngkin to ensure he restores this most important and fundamental right, Blum said. She asserted that if the general public knew about the corruption behind the hasty development of these COVID-19 vaccines, they would be shocked. Blum pointed to a whistleblower's report to the FDA describing how Pfizer falsified data, unblinded patients, inadequately trained vaccinators, and was slow to follow-up on adverse events. Her report has been ignored by the FDA, as well as almost all news outlets, Blum told CP. Similarly, she added, Brianne Dressen, who was a participant in the AstraZeneca trial, suffered a severe adverse event after her first injection, became disabled, and was hospitalized. The trial investigators withdrew her from the trial but did not document her experiences in the trial's publication in the New England Journal of Medicine. Ms. Dressen wrote to the journal demanding a correction and complete reporting of the trial results. The editor-in-chief, Dr. Eric Rubin, refused to correct the inaccurate data, Blum explained. Most egregious is Pfizer's pediatric trial where 12-year-old volunteer Maddie de Garay experienced crippling pain immediately upon receiving her second injection. Despite suffering life-altering vaccine injuries, Pfizer falsely described them in their application to the FDA as functional abdominal pain, she continued. De Garays story is described in the text of the petition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states on its website that COVID-19 vaccines are "safe and effective," that millions have received them under the "most intense safety monitoring in history," and the agency recommends everyone receive the shot as soon as possible. In late December, the CDC released new data revealing that a total of 965,843 reports of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccines were submitted between Dec. 14, 2020, and Dec. 10, 2021, to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which is the government's database for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the United States. Those figures included a total of 20,244 reports of deaths an increase of 358 over the week before and 155,506 reports of serious injuries, including deaths, during the same time period up 4,560 compared to the previous week. The U.S. VAERS data for children ages 5 to 11 during that same time span showed 4,181 adverse events, including 80 rated as serious. Two deaths were reported. One death occurred in an 11-year-old girl from Georgia who was vaccinated on Sept. 14, prior to the authorization of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine in the 5 to 11 age cohort. VAERS is jointly managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The database serves as an "early warning system to detect possible safety problems in U.S.-licensed vaccines." A disclosure on the website says that the database is not "designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem, but is especially useful for detecting unusual or unexpected patterns of adverse event reporting that might indicate a possible safety problem with a vaccine." Anyone can report to the database. Certain adverse events are required to be reported by healthcare professionals. Vaccine manufacturers are also required to report adverse events that come to their attention. When asked about how the "anti-vaxxer" label is used to frame and often weaponize discussion about concerns around this subject and the cavalier disregard some exhibit with respect to vaccine-injured people and their medical complications, CDH-Virginia Vice President Teresa Champion said that the label has become a pejorative term that is spat out of mouths like a curse. Many of us with vaccine-injured children have for many years been seeking medical care for the multiple life-changing medical issues our children and adults now live with and as such, we live with too as long as we are able to care for them, Champion said in the emailed statement to CP. To call someone anti-vax is not completely accurate. We did vaccinate, and then our child was injured without recourse. We did what we were told without question and, at the time, without meaningful informed consent. We have now researched and understand what happened, but the moment of discovery, our epiphany, is well beyond any statute of limitations, she added. Champion said their injured children serve as cautionary warnings for the benefit of others. She implores people to not use such individuals as "'cannon fodder' for the greater good." That certainly should not be the case here when the vaccine really only supposedly protects the person receiving the shot and doesnt protect from further transmission or even further infection. Over the years, I have learned the complete lack of fiduciary care demonstrated by corporations and, in particular, pharmaceutical corporations, she said. Champions son was injured by the Hep B vaccine at birth. Before that, she had no idea that vaccine injuries were an issue to be concerned about, and didn't know what to look for until 20 years later, following genetic tests and reading extensively about such injuries. Also of concern to parents backing the petition are the ways in which children are being allowed to make medical decisions outside the purview of their parents, particularly regarding the COVID-19 shot. One such mom from Washington, D.C., who is supporting the Virginia effort, shared with CP how her 17-year-old daughter was caught between her parents, who are divorced, and had different ideas about whether she should get vaccinated. Because her daughter attends school in the District, where children as young as 11 can get themselves vaccinated without parental notification or consent, she was able to make the choice herself. Without telling me, she scheduled herself an appointment. After the fact, she let me know she got the COVID vaccine. She got vaccinated at Target where they gave her a $10 coupon to the store, which she used right then and there. Another perk-for-the-poke she and her friends enjoy is a free donut every time they show their vaccine cards at Krispy Kreme, the mother shared with CP. In an October interview with Newsmax, then-candidate Youngkin said that he would not mandate the COVID-19 shot for children and that he did not think schools should either, especially for young children. "I think thats a parents decision. I believe in parents rights, fundamental rights to make decisions with regards to their children and as governor, Im going to make sure Im standing up for parents rights," Youngkin said at the time. Champion went on to say that there should be no noble lies to try to steer the action of the public. All information should be open access and easily retrieved so that an individual can judge risk versus benefit knowing their own situations and conditions, she asserted. The petition comes amid growing Big Tech censorship of vaccine critics, particularly Dr. Robert Malone, who was permanently suspended from Twitter Wednesday. Malone, who is the co-inventor of mRNA vaccine technology and had over half a million Twitter followers, said in a statement on his Substack that the social media platforms move means that he must have been on the mark and [o]ver the target. It also means we lost a critical component in our fight to stop these vaccines being mandated for children and to stop the corruption in our governments, as well as the medical-industrial complex and pharmaceutical industries, Malone said. Malone was interviewed by famous podcaster Joe Rogan on Dec. 31. The three-hour interview was released on Spotify. Franklin Graham doesn't believe vaccine COVID-19 passport microchips are the 'mark of the beast' Evangelist Franklin Graham doesnt believe that the vaccine passport chip implant developed by a Swedish company is the mark of the beast described in the Bible but warns of what such technology could lead to in the future. The 69-year-old son of the late evangelist Billy Graham posted a statement on Facebook Tuesday, commenting on the recent news that many Swedes are having microchips the size of a grain of rice implanted under their skin, storing COVID-19 vaccine passport information and other personal data. Some have speculated online whether such microchips could be the mark of the beast described in the book of Revelation. The Bible tells us that in the end times there will be a one world system, Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, wrote. Revelation 13:16-17 says, Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark Right now, a Swedish company has developed a vaccine passport chip that is implanted under the skin and can be scanned. It could be required to enter restaurants or businesses, fly commercially, etc, he continued. I personally do not think this particular chip is the mark the Bible talks about, but it does make you think how close we may be. Graham is not opposed to vaccinations and believes getting vaccinated is important and helps save lives. But he believes political leaders have used the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to exert more and more control since many world leaders are still using COVID ... to lock down their countries. Christians around the world are wondering if COVID-19 is being used as a way to condition the world population to accept a mark like this, whatever form it may take, Graham added. If a scannable chip under the skin can contain vaccine information, adding other personal information and financial data could be a short step away. This may sound frightening; but people who have put their faith in God and His Son, Jesus Christ, dont need to be afraid. We should not live in fear. God told us what was coming in His Word. Make sure that your name is written in the Lambs Book of Life by repenting of your sins and putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The microchip, created by tech firm Dsruptive Subdermals, can store various data accessible through smartphones and other devices. Thousands of people in Sweden have had chips implanted into their hands. The chips are usually installed just above the thumb through a procedure that costs as low as about 100 euros (roughly $113). However, concerns have been raised about privacy and what kind of personal health data will be stored on the chips. Hannes Sjoblad, managing director of Dsruptive Subdermals, told AFP that chips allow people to communicate effortlessly with their devices. He contends that people should see chips as a form of identification rather than a surveillance technology. This is not the first time that some have speculated if microchip implants could be related to the beasts mark. After similar speculation was raised in 2017 after a Wisconsin-based company let employees get microchips implanted in their hands, Jerry Newcombe from D. James Kennedy Ministries warned about such conclusions. World leaders from Mikhail Gorbachev to Ronald Reagan have been falsely accused of being the Antichrist, he wrote in an op-ed for The Christian Post. And microchip fears have stoked prophetic speculations for years but many biblical scholars note that Revelation is not pointing to some inadvertently-adopted technology, but is speaking symbolically of those who cast their lot with the opponents of Christ for societal approval. Sheriff refuses to remove Bible verse from office: 'We need more Jesus' A North Carolina sheriff who's garnered national attention for refusing to remove a Bible verse from a wall at his office cited a need for more Jesus as the reason for his decision not to comply with the demands of a leading atheist legal organization to take it down. Jody Greene, the sheriff of Columbus County, North Carolina, addressed the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundations concerns about the Bible verse Philippians 4:13 being displayed on a wall at the Sheriffs Office in a Facebook post last week. The Facebook post came two weeks after FFRF Staff Attorney Christopher Line sent a letter to Greene asking him to remove the exclusionary and unconstitutional religious display, which proclaims, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Greene pushed back on the claim that the display constituted a government sponsorship of religious messages. The sheriff added: The Bible verse was placed on the wall after I took office. It was paid for with private funds, not with county funding. The verse is one of my favorite Bible verses, and it seemed fitting for all the adversity I have had to endure. After describing the scripture as being very motivational to me and my staff, Greene contended that there was a political motive behind the sudden outcry over its presence at the sheriff's office: I have taken many pictures with that Bible verse in the backdrop with not a single issue, but now that we are going into an election year, it is an issue. How absurd! This is a political ploy. Some want a person that they can control. Companies spend thousands of dollars on motivational classes, to come up with motivational slogans. My motivation comes from the greatest motivational speaker of all time, Jesus Christ, he added. Greene lamented that drugs and violence are killing our youth before concluding that We need more Jesus and less politics. He also expressed gratitude for all the phone calls and messages of support for the Bible verse. I am not scared of much, but I am afraid of burning in Hell, he said. The post included an image from FFRF announcing an Unabashed Atheist/Nonbeliever of the week featuring a headshot of the unabashed freethinker in a silhouette of the devil and flames. Greene pointed to the image as a warning of where our society is headed, as well as an example of the need to stand up. He further declared that I will not waiver on my stance and Christian beliefs. FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor elaborated on the organizations concerns in a statement. The Columbus County Sheriffs Office must serve all citizens equally, whether Christian or non-Christian, she asserted. A blatantly Christian message in a law enforcement division sends a message of exclusion. In his Dec. 6 letter to Greene, Line noted that FFRF first became aware of the display as the result of a complaint from a concerned Columbus County resident. He asked the sheriffs office to respond in writing detailing the actions the Sheriffs Office has taken to rectify the concerns of the complainant. Line listed several U.S. Supreme Court cases that found the First Amendment mandates government neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion. He also argued that The Establishment Clause, at the very least, prohibits government from appearing to take a position on questions of religious belief in an effort to back up his claim that the Bible verse display is unconstitutional. Line indicated that the presence of Philippians 4:13 on a wall at the Columbus County Sheriffs Office was not the only example of the government agency making an unconstitutional endorsement of Christianity. The FFRF attorney began the letter by noting that we are still awaiting a response to our January 26, 2021 letter regarding the Sheriffs Office regularly promoting Christianity on its official Facebook page. On Christmas Day 2020, the sheriffs office posted a Christmas message on its Facebook account that said, Merry Christmas to all and Happy Birthday to our lord and savior. To all that are working today, we thank you and hope you all have a very merry Christmas. #InGodWeTrust. The sheriffs office posted a similar message on its Facebook page this year. In his response to FFRF, Greene detailed how Christianity plays a role in the day-to-day operations of the sheriffs office as well as in his own life: Before we execute a search warrant, or any service that puts our people in immediate harm's way, we ALWAYS go to the Lord with a group prayer. ALWAYS! I was raised in the church. I have been in law enforcement for over thirty years. My training taught me to value God, family, and my country. North Carolina resident Franklin Graham, the CEO of Samaritans Purse and the son of legendary televangelist Billy Graham, encouraged his followers to pray for Sheriff Greene and his staff in a Facebook post on Monday. Im thankful this Sheriff knows where the true solution to lifes challenges and problems comes from, and he is standing his ground, Graham wrote. Vasectomies as an 'act of love'? Scholar fears population control agenda at play Amid heightened debates over abortion jurisprudence, an increase in men undergoing vasectomies is manifesting with the urological surgeries being promoted as acts of love. However, one scholar contends that promoting vasectomies in response to abortion restrictions reveals an ideological underbelly. The Washington Post reported Monday that in light of an abortion case that was recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that has the potential to change abortion legal precedent in the country, there has been an uptick in social activity suggesting that vasectomies are a way men can show solidarity. The case Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which was argued in early December and centered on the legality of Mississippis 15-week abortion ban, will likely determine whether Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark ruling that found abortion is a constitutional right guaranteed under the 14th Amendment, will continue to stand. In addition to the Dobbs case, there has been much scrutiny of a new Texas heartbeat law passed this year that restricts abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Since the passing of the Texas law, doctors in Texas say they have seen an uptick in men seeking vasectomies. Koushik Shaw, a doctor at the Austin Urology Institute in Texas, told the newspaper that his practice saw an approximately 15% increase in scheduled vasectomies since Texas Senate Bill 8 went into effect on Sept. 1. Shaw said it was the first time he had seen patients citing a state statute as the reason for their appointments. In response to the Texas ban, lawmakers in a few states Alabama, Illinois and Pennsylvania put forward bills that have no chance of passing but emphasize a similar point. Among such legislators is Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, a Democrat, who introduced parody legislation in response to the Texas law. Rabbs proposal would require men to have vasectomies when they turn 40 or after the birth of their third child, whichever comes first. The legislation provided for enforcement by allowing Pennsylvanians to report men who failed to comply and those who report them obtain a monetary award of $10,000. In an email to The Christian Post Tuesday, Jennifer Roback Morse, founder of the Louisiana-based Christian coalition Ruth Institute and the author of The Sexual State: How Elite Ideologies are Destroying Lives, noted that Rabbs parody bill was revealing. By declaring this as a parody bill, he inadvertently disclosed that limiting population is the real goal of so-called reproductive rights, Morse, a socially conservative Catholic who also serves as a senior fellow in economics at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, said. How are mandatory limitations on births a parody of protecting innocent life in the womb? The parody only makes sense if the point of abortion is not choice or rights but reducing population. Also revealing, she argues, is Rabbs comment in a memo about that bill that as long as states restrict abortions, there should be concurrent laws that address men who impregnate them. Rabbs bill would have codified wrongful conception to include when a person has demonstrated negligence toward preventing conception during sex, according to the memo. He is revealing his assumption that everyone is entitled to presume that their sexual activity will be sterile. The default setting is that sex does not have anything to do with making babies, Morse contends. This Contraceptive Ideology makes war on the healthy normal connection between sex and babies. Rabb recounted in an interview with The Washington Post published Sunday that he received death threats and hate mail full of vitriol. The notion a man would have to endure or even think about losing bodily autonomy was met with outrage when every single day women face this and its somehow OK for the government to invade the uteruses of women and girls, but it should be off-limits if you propose vasectomies or limit the reproductive rights of men, he said. Morse pushed back on his line of thinking, stating that the population control aspect is evident in the proposal. The government of Texas is not invading the uteruses of women and girls. Pro-life laws are trying to outlaw private killings, she maintains. In 1976, the Supreme Court held in Planned Parenthood v. Danforth that the fathers consent was not needed for a pregnant woman to obtain an abortion, primarily based on the risk of violence and coercion in a relationship. The coercion, however, also happens on the abortion side, Morse stresses, noting that many men want to keep having sex without considering the responsibility of being a father. Undercover pro-life journalists have documented Planned Parenthoods willingness to look the other way when presented with evidence of coercion, she said. Doctors have promoted vasectomies as an act of love that benefits yourself, your partner, your family and our future. Dr. Doug Stein, a Florida urologist known as the Vasectomy King, co-founded the annual World Vasectomy Day in 2013 along with filmmaker Jonathan Stack. Stack told The Washington Post that the men should be fighting just as hard for legalized abortion as women. The quality of life for millions of men will be adversely affected if this right is taken from women, he argued. Biden wants to, in his words, eviscerate the Senate Then-Senator Joe Biden, D-Del., condemned weakening the Senates tradition of extended debate as an example of the arrogance of power, a power grab by the majority party that would eviscerate the Senate. It was 2005, and Republicans held the White House and Congress. Today, with Biden himself in the White House and Democrats the majority in Congress, he is calling for the same power grab in order to pass an unconstitutional federal takeover of elections. The evisceration of the Senate, however, will not stop there. Senate rules empower the minority party by requiring a supermajority to end debate before a simple majority can pass bills or confirm nominations. The Congressional Research Service describes extended debate as one of the Senates most distinctive procedural features that pushes the majority to work with the minority. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., himself has explained how, by making the Senate the preserve of minority rights, the hallowed process of extended debate often makes better legislation. Speaking of Schumer, he joined Biden in 2005 to defend extended debate, which he called the hallmark of the Senate, as the guard rail of our democracy. He denounced any attempt to undermine extended debate as a power grab that would destroy the checks and balances that are at the core of our Constitution and our Republic. Schumer went even further, arguing that extended debate is especially important when the Senate and the Presidency are in the hands of the same party and when the Senate considers controversial matters. In other words, extended debate is not about a particular bill or nomination, but about the Senate itself and its unique role in our system of government. Biden asserted that [a]ltering Senate rules to help in one political fight or another would be disastrous. Schumer also warned that weakening extended debate would be a recipe for more conflict and bad blood between the parties and that it would turn the U.S. Senate into a legislative wasteland and turn the Constitution inside out. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., echoed this point, saying that if the majority choose[s] to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate, then the fighting, the bitterness, and the gridlock will only get worse. The Senate, Schumer reminded his colleagues, has had this very important function in this Republic for more than 200 years. The Senate, in fact, has changed the vote threshold for ending debate on legislation only through the established, formal process for amending Senate rules and only by wide bipartisan consensus: 76-3 in 1917, 63-23 in 1949, 72-22 in 1959. You get the point. Each time, the Rules Committee held hearings on a resolution to change the debate rule before the full Senate debated and voted on it. The current 60-vote threshold for ending debate today is the lowest since the turn of the 19th century, and the Senate has several times rejected weakening it further. In 1995, for example, Biden joined 75 bipartisan colleagues in rejecting such a proposal. In 2011, the Senate rejected a similar plan by an even more lopsided 12-84; the opposition included 20 current Senate Democrats, including Schumer and President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. When the Senate turned down the same proposal two years later by a simple voice vote, none of the 36 current Democrat senators serving at the time objected. Just four years ago, 26 current Democrats joined 25 Republicans on a letter opposing any effort to curtail the existing rights and prerogatives of Senators to engage in extended as we consider legislation. The signers also included then-Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. Just a few years ago, Schumer reminded his colleagues that the Senate was intended as a forge for bipartisan consensus a cooling saucer, as the Founding Fathers said. This analogy, which Schumer has used dozens of times over the years, refers to George Washingtons explanation of the Senate to Thomas Jefferson as cooling the political passions of the House in the same way that hot tea cools when poured into the saucer. In February 2018, for example, Schumer said that the Senate what President Washington famously called the cooling saucer for our politics that can show the Nation what bipartisanship looks like, what compromise looks like. Bipartisanship is great until it isnt. Democrats today have the narrowest combined House and Senate majority in American history, and the partys left wing is defining its agenda. From LGBTQ issues to the current attempt to seize control of state and local elections, Democrats are pushing a radical and, in some cases, unconstitutional agenda. For Biden and Schumer, consensus and compromise have become obstructions rather than objectives. This is exactly the situation narrow one-party control, extreme ideological agenda in which the Senates unique role and its tradition of extended debate should be embraced. Instead, Democrats appear determined to do what Biden once said would emasculate the Senate. Attempting to eliminate extended debate to help in one political fight or another is bad enough. Democrats, however, can do so only by using the nuclear option, which would leave the three-fifths language in Senate Rule 22 intact but reinterpreting it to mean simple majority. Putting power ahead of principle is not inevitable. In May 2017, President Donald Trump demanded that Senate Republicans abandon extended debate in order to enact his legislative priorities. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., majority leader at the time, rejected fundamentally changing how the Senate has worked for a very long time. Condemning the power grab by the majority party in May 2005, Biden observed that there had been attempts to undermine extended debate in the heat of majority excess. But never, he said, has any party been so bold as to fundamentally attempt to change the structure of this body What shortsightedness, and what a price history will exact on those who support this radical move. Originally published at The Daily Signal. Supreme Court to hear cases challenging Bidens vaccine mandate Can you be forced to receive a vaccine even if it violates your religious beliefs and your conscience? This is one of the most pressing legal and constitutional questions today, especially for people of faith in the workplace. In recent weeks, weve witnessed religious employees facing violations of their legal rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which protects against employment discrimination on the basis of religion and provides for religious accommodation in the workplace. Perhaps one of the most visible examples is United Airlines. CEO Scott Kirby boasted about his companys vaccine mandate and threatened employees to be very careful about requesting religious accommodations. He said those requesting an accommodation would be putting their job on the line. United employees went to court, after hundreds were either formally terminated or accommodated by being sent home without pay. But even while there have been clear violations of Americans liberties and rights on the issue of vaccinations, there are reasons to remain hopeful and optimistic. The debate about the constitutionality or legality of vaccine mandates is not yet settled but so far, these mandates have not fared well in court. In the United Airlines case, for example, Judge James C. Ho of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit wrote a poignant dissent defending the religious liberty and the freedom of conscience: to the person of faith who is forced to confront this challenge of conscience, what matters is not who imposed the mandate, but that the mandate conflicts with religious conviction To hypothesize that the earthly reward of monetary damages could compensate for these profound challenges of faith is to misunderstand the entire nature of religious conviction at its most foundational level. And that is so whether the mandate comes from D.C. or the C-Suite. Judge Hos dissent affirms that regardless of whether its the government or a private employer, neither can put a price tag on an individuals religious convictions. But in addition to Judge Hos dissent, theres another promising sign religious employees could be fully vindicated Upcoming oral argument: Critical to the liberty of millions of Americans Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will hear oral argument on January 7th in several cases challenging the Occupational Health and Safety Administrations (OSHA) vaccine mandate on companies with more than 100 employees. These cases are about how much power the federal government can amass, over both individuals and businesses, including all religious organizations. The Courts decision could help deliver a major win for liberty, one that is desperately needed during this time when government and corporate elites are either ignoring or willfully trampling on the Constitution and federal religious liberty protections. Youll recall that First Liberty represents three national religious organizations Daystar Television Network, Answers in Genesis, and the American Family Association who are challenging OSHAs mandate. Initially, our clients received a favorable decision after the Fifth Circuit issued an order temporarily halting the mandate. This was a temporary victory, as another appellate court recently reinstated the vaccine mandate, once again endangering not only our clients but also millions employed by religious organizations across the country. Thats why the upcoming oral argument at the Supreme Court is so critical. If the Court strikes down the Biden administrations mandate, it could help vindicate the religious liberty of our clients and protect all religious organizations and people of faith from unconstitutional government overreach. Although vaccinations have become a politicized and divisive issue today, one thing is abundantly clear: The Constitution and federal law prevent the federal government from coercing a religious organization into violating the deeply held beliefs of its employees. Its incredibly dangerous for the government to effectively stage a takeover of companies with more than 100 employees, including religious organizations. While theres disagreement over vaccines, we can all agree on freedom and the fact that the government cannot force Americans to violate their faith and conscience. Originally published at First Liberty. Sudanese forces kill 4 civilians during protests against military coup, doctor group says Four protesters were reportedly killed Thursday by security forces in Sudan as thousands nationwide took to the streets in opposition to an October military coup that overturned a civilian-led transitional government that ousted longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. According to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, four civilians were killed in Omdurman by the live ammunition of security forces while participating in anti-coup protests. Thursday marked another round of civilian demonstrations since the Oct. 25, 2019, coup that led to the initial removal of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok and the arrest of key officials. Hamdok was reinstated as part of an agreement with Sudans top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in November. The deal calls for Hamdok to lead an independent technocratic cabinet until elections are held. However, the military would maintain oversight of the cabinet. According to Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the agreement was not made between military and civilian actors but between al-Burhan and Hamdok. In opposition to the deal, the pro-democracy movement wants a fully civilian government to oversee the transition. The agreement did not give the civilian coalition that shared power with the military, Forces for Freedom and Change, a role in the transitional government. The U.S. Embassy of Khartoum condemned Thursdays killings. The U.S. Embassy condemns the killing of at least four protesters and injury of dozens during demonstrations today, a statement posted to Twitter reads. We also deplore the violent attacks by Sudans security services on media outlets and journalists, and urge authorities to protect the freedom of the press. The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors reports that the death toll among civilians has risen to 52 since the Oct. 25 coup, including 10 civilians who were killed after the deal agreed between the Junta & the prime minister. Hundreds have been injured by security responses to the demonstrations. According to The Associated Press, the medical committee is affiliated with the Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella group of Sudanese trade unions that took a prominent role in the protests leading to Bashirs ouster in 2019. The association accused state-backed militias of intercepting ambulances so they could not reach those who were wounded. The protests Thursday were preceded by an internet blackout. Protesters demonstrated in the capital, Khartoum, as well as neighboring cities like Omdurman and Bahri, as they tried to march toward the presidential palace. A witness told Reuters that security forces confronted protesters about a mile away from the palace and used tear gas and stun grenades. Bridges leading into the capital were also blocked. At least three of the protesters killed Thursday were in Omdurman. Witnesses also reported protests in Kassala and Port Sudan, cities in the east, AFP reports. For many years, Sudan was labeled one of the worst countries globally when it comes to human rights and religious freedom violations. Sudan was often listed as a country of concern for religious freedom by the U.S. State Department until 2019, when it was removed from the list amid promising signs under the transitional government. Before Bashirs ousting, Sudan was ranked as the sixth-worst country in the world for Christian persecution by the watchdog group Open Doors USA, which said Bashir ruled the country as an Islamic state with limited rights for religious minorities. Following the October coup, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom voiced concern that the Sudanese military take over could very well threaten all the gains made by the ousted civilian-led transitional government. The coup leader General Burhan and his deputy General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemity, were both key figures in the former regime of Omer al-Bashir, which committed grave human rights violations, including of religious freedom, USCIRF warned in a November policy update. More churches burned down by Myanmar military amid massacres in predominantly Christian state Two Christian churches were among over 50 buildings burned down by Myanmar military troops on Thursday in the Thantlang township of the Chin state as the junta has razed several villages in recent months in the predominantly Christian province. The Chin Human Rights Organization reported that the Assembly of God Church and a church belonging to the Thantlang Association of Baptist Churches were burned down by military forces. The watchdog further claimed that Light Infantry Battalions 222 and 269, as well as Light Infantry Division 66, were responsible for the arson fires. Drone image taken today of the arson fire on Dec 30 confirms the destruction of the Assembly of God Church and one of the office buildings of Thantlang Association of Baptist Churches (TABC), the largest religious organization in the Township, a tweet from the human rights group reads. Over 50 buildings were destroyed. The Assembly of God Church & one of the Thantlang Association of Baptist Churches' buildings are among over 50 structures burned down by junta troops on Dec 30. LIB 222, 269 & LID 66 are blamed for the arson fires, which started from 4 different blocks & lasted for nearly 9 hrs. pic.twitter.com/5NcpWM0rGv ChinHumanRightsOrg (@ChinHumanRights) December 30, 2021 Since the military coup of February 2020 that saw the overthrow of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, security forces have re-embraced scorched-earth tactics to combat opposition militias in various regions of the country, killing civilians along the way. The Buddhist nationalist military had used similar tactics in the past to target ethnic minority groups, such as its genocide of the predominantly Muslim Rohingya people that began in 2016 and attacks against predominantly Christian Kachin and Karenni ethnic minorities. This year, the Myanmar military known as the Tatmadaw has stepped up operations in the northwest Chin state and neighboring Sagaing. This month alone, several villages have been razed and civilians killed or abducted. According to Salai Za Uk Ling of the Chin Human Rights Organization, post-coup violence has led to more than 20% of the states population (about 500,000 people) becoming displaced. In the Sagaing region, more than 80 have died in killings of three or more since August, according to data compiled by the Myanmar conflict watchdog group Assistance Association for Political Prisoner. The group estimates that at least 1,384 people have been killed since the military coup as of Thursday. An Associated Press investigation based on interviews with 40 witnesses and satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies suggests that at least 580 buildings have been burned down in Thantlang since September. An attack on Dec. 7 saw over 50 soldiers chasing civilians on foot in the Chin town of Done Taw. While many fled, 10 were captured and killed, including five teenagers, according to a 19-year-old farmhand who spoke with AP. A witness interviewed by AP said the victims of the Done Taw attack were just normal workers on the betel-leaf plantation. Witnesses told AP that nine people, including one child, were reportedly killed during an attack in the Magway region on Dec. 17. On Christmas Eve, the Karenni Human Rights Group reported that as many as 35 displaced people, including elders and children, were killed and their bodies burned near Mo So village of Hpruso town of the Kayah state, an eastern region home to the ethnic minority. Thursdays attack was not the first time churches were burned in Thantlang township. On Dec. 4, a United Pentecostal church and its clergy quarters were among 19 buildings set on fire in an arson attack carried out by the military, according to Chin Human Rights Organization. Former regional minister Salai Isaac Khin reported on Facebook that ousted Vice President Henry Van Thio used to attend the Pentecostal church, according to the United States-based watchdog group International Christian Concern. St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Thantlang was burned down on Nov. 27. According to the Chin Human Rights Organization, at least 22 churches were burned down or destroyed between August and November in the Chin state, the Union of Catholic Asia News reports. Myanmar is recognized by the U.S. State Department as a country of particular concern for engaging in egregious violations of religious freedom. Open Doors USA, which monitors Christian persecution in over 60 countries, ranks Myanmar as the 18th-worst country globally when it comes to Christian persecution. ICC Regional Manager Gina Goh previously stated that the Myanmar military is notorious for its relations with the ultranationalist ultra-Buddhist group the Ma Ba Tha and targets religious minority groups like Muslims and Christians. She warned earlier this year if the military regained power, it would resort to things they were doing before they passed the power to the civilian government. In November, the U.S. State Department condemned the Myanmar military after setting over 100 homes and two churches on fire in the Chin state. We condemn such brutal actions by the Burmese regime against people, their homes, and places of worship, which lays bare the regimes complete disregard for the lives and welfare of the people of Burma, the State Department stressed. We are also deeply concerned over the Burmese security forces intensification of military operations in various parts of the country, including in Chin State and the Sagaing Region. We call on the regime to immediately cease the violence, release all those unjustly detained, and restore Burmas path to inclusive democracy. Amgen (AMGN) closed the most recent trading day at $226.69, moving +0.76% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.64%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.68%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.46%. Coming into today, shares of the world's largest biotech drugmaker had gained 11.13% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector gained 5.28%, while the S&P 500 gained 4.56%. Amgen will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Amgen is projected to report earnings of $4.22 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 10.76%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $6.9 billion, up 4% from the year-ago period. It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Amgen. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook. Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system. The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.08% higher. Amgen is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Amgen has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.36 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 23.07. It is also worth noting that AMGN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.6. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. AMGN's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.65 as of yesterday's close. The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 161, putting it in the bottom 37% of all 250+ industries. The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1. Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com. Infrastructure Stock Boom to Sweep America A massive push to rebuild the crumbling U.S. infrastructure will soon be underway. Its bipartisan, urgent, and inevitable. Trillions will be spent. Fortunes will be made. The only question is Will you get into the right stocks early when their growth potential is greatest? Zacks has released a Special Report to help you do just that, and today its free. Discover 7 special companies that look to gain the most from construction and repair to roads, bridges, and buildings, plus cargo hauling and energy transformation on an almost unimaginable scale. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Amgen Inc. (AMGN): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved While the diversification benefits of investing in fixed income securities are substantial over time, its difficult to justify investing in bonds in the current environment with yields set to rise and inflation eating away at any nominal return. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the opportunity still exists for investors to create a reliable stream of income from the equity markets. There are several dividend strategies that the best investors incorporate into their investment mix including blue chip dividend-paying stocks, real estate investment trusts (REITs), and Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). Investing in companies that have a history of raising dividends can be a very reliable indicator of future earnings growth. Corporate directors know far better than anyone else the details and financial condition of their companies, including the outlook for future earnings growth. Management will only raise dividends if they have every reason to believe that future earnings growth will be able to sustain higher dividend payouts. A steady trend of rising dividends can alert investors to healthy, growing businesses. Were going to focus on 3 MLPs that have consistently raised dividends. Due to their favorable tax treatment, this type of high-yield, high-quality investment vehicle has been providing investors with favorable returns for many years. There are countless and relatively unknown MLPs that have consistently raised their dividends over a long timeframe, providing investors with high returns. MLPs do not pay income taxes and trade on major stock exchanges. MLPs are different than other traditional investment structures they are partnerships. A general partner is responsible for running the MLP, and individual investors serve as the limited partners. MLPs must pay their profits directly to shareholders and pay much bigger dividends because they pay no tax. The income generated from the MLP is allocated amongst all partners in proportion to their ownership interest. Relative to dividend-paying stocks, MLPs are relatively unknown and are largely ignored by the financial media. MLPs are able to sidestep the IRS and pass their earnings directly to shareholders making them the ideal investment for individual investors. Investing in MLPs also comes with a special tax benefit for MLP dividends which are referred to as distributions. The IRS considers 80-90% of MLP distributions as a return of capital, which means investors can defer taxes on their gains for many years until they sell their shares. MLPs have attracted a diverse set of companies in many industries due to their favorable tax treatment. Below we will analyze three MLPs within the Zacks Oil & Gas Refining and Marketing Master Limited Partnerships industry group. This industry group is ranked within the top 7% of all Zacks Ranked Industries. Energy is also leading the charge in the first few trading days this year and was the #1 S&P sector last year. Sunoco LP ( SUN ) Sunoco is a Master Limited Partnership that distributes motor fuel to approximately 10,000 convenience stores, independent dealers, commercial customers, and distributors in more than 30 U.S. states. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Dallas, TX, Sunoco also leases real estate properties and operates terminal facilities on the Hawaiian Islands. A Zacks #2 Buy stock, SUN has not decreased its dividend since its founding; the companys current dividend yield is 8.03%. Trading at a relatively undervalued 8.35 forward P/E, SUN has exceeded earnings estimates in four of the past six quarters. SUN is averaging a positive earnings surprise of 47.31% over the past four quarters, supporting its climb of nearly 60% in the past year. Sunoco LP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise SUNs distribution networks reflect a strong business and sustainable cash flows which will continue to drive the share price. Sunoco is among the largest motor fuel distributors in the United States. SUN expects fuel volumes for 2021 to have totaled approximately 7.75 billion gallons, rising from the 7.09 billion in 2020. Analysts covering SUN have increased their full-year earnings estimates by 1.1% in the past 60 days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2021 EPS now stands at $6.41, an astounding 743.42% growth rate relative to last year. SUN is scheduled to report earnings on February 16th. Global Partners LP ( GLP ) Global Partners is engaged in the purchasing, selling, storing, and logistics of transporting gasoline, distillates, oil, renewable fuels, and propane to a wide array of customers in the New England region and New York. Founded in 2005 and based in Waltham, MA, Global Partners has a portfolio of over 1,548 owned, leased, or supplied gasoline stations. GLP has surpassed earnings estimates in 15 out of the last 19 quarters. A Zacks #2 (Buy) stock, this MLP trades at a reasonable 13.79 forward P/E and has a current dividend yield of 9.53%. GLP has posted a trailing four-quarter average earnings beat of +13.4%, most recently beating by +38.71% when the company delivered EPS of $0.86 back in September. GLP has climbed by over 60% in the past year. Global Partners LP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Looking into 2022, GLP revenues are anticipated to grow by 25.53% compared to 2021. In the past 60 days, earnings estimates for next year have increased by 28.68%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 EPS sits at $1.75, which would represent 56.25% growth relative to last year. GLP is slated to announce quarterly earnings on March 4th. Phillips 66 Partners LP ( PSXP ) Phillips 66 Partners is an energy company that owns, operates, develops and acquires midstream assets. The company offers transportation, processing, storage, and fractionation of crude oil, petroleum products, and natural gas liquids. PSXP was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Houston, TX. PSXP has never decreased its dividend since its founding; the MLPs current yield is 9.22%. The company is relatively undervalued, trading at a 9.24 forward P/E. PSXP most recently reported EPS of $1.00 in October of last year, a 1% positive surprise over consensus. The stock is up nearly 67% in the past year. Phillips 66 Partners LP Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise With a Zacks #2 ranking, Phillips 66 Partners is least exposed to price fluctuations in commodities as it generates stable fee-based revenues under long-term contracts from its diverse base of midstream energy assets across the United States. The partnerships cash flows are highly stable and predictable which should further support its share price. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 EPS sits at $4.11, which would translate to growth of 51.1% versus last year. PSXP is scheduled for its next earnings report on February 4th. Its clear that MLP investing is something that every individual investor should consider. The steady stream of income along with the potential for price appreciation warrant a closer look into adding these MLPs to your portfolio mix. Zacks Top Picks to Cash in on Artificial Intelligence This world-changing technology is projected to generate $100s of billions by 2025. From self-driving cars to consumer data analysis, people are relying on machines more than we ever have before. Now is the time to capitalize on the 4th Industrial Revolution. Zacks urgent special report reveals 6 AI picks investors need to know about today. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Sunoco LP (SUN): Free Stock Analysis Report Global Partners LP (GLP): Free Stock Analysis Report Phillips 66 Partners LP (PSXP): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) has appointed three Laredo College professors to serve in prestigious statewide educational committees that will ease the transfer process for community college students. Laredo College Natural Sciences Department Chair Selinda Martinez said she was shocked yet elated to be selected as a Texas Transfer Advisory Committee (TTAC) member. This new governance committee will assist with establishing a new framework for transfer curricula for students attending community colleges who plan to transfer to public four-year universities. Martinez was chosen from a large and distinguished pool of candidates. More than 50 community colleges and universities submitted 140 nominations, ultimately selecting 22 members. She is excited to make a difference in helping students by being a part of this committee. As an instructor and now as department chair, my mission has always been to help students succeed not only here at Laredo College but as they continue following their dreams when they transfer to four-year institutions, she said. Martinez said students have often expressed their frustration with figuring out which courses to take and which will allow them to complete their degree in a short period of time. She hopes that being on this committee and voicing these concerns will help create a transfer framework that will facilitate this process. Similarly, LC Criminal Justice Professor Briana Underbakke was appointed to the Texas Transfer Advisory Committees (TTAC) Discipline-Specific Subcommittee on Criminal Justice. The committees overall goal is to bring together community colleges and universities to collaborate with the best interests of the students in mind. Members of this committee were tasked with focusing on the field of study curriculum to make the transfer process smoother for students transferring from a two-year college to a four-year university. Through two days of meetings via Zoom, they agreed about the classes they would recommend for the core curriculum, the discipline foundation courses and the directed electives. The discipline foundation courses will be transferrable to any four-year institution in Texas. It was an honor to be appointed to this committee, and I look forward to working with them again in the future, Underbakke said. Moreover, Business Management Department Chair George E. Macdonald Jr. will also be aiding students in their transition from a college to a university setting through his appointment to the new Texas Transfer Framework Field of Study Discipline-Specific Subcommittee for Business Administration. This subcommittee, composed of faculty from public two-year and four-year institutions, will consider which courses to recommend for inclusion in the new Texas Transfer Framework for Business Administration. The charge of the subcommittee is to use a data-informed approach to support transfer students from community colleges and specifically to maximize the applicability of courses to a major when they transfer to a university. U.S. Customs and Border Protection On Dec. 30, a 20-year-old female U.S. citizen driver arrived at the Progreso International Bridge in Progreso, Texas and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer referred her for further inspection, according to a CBD press release. Upon said further inspection, Office of Field Operations officers and agricultural specialists at the bridge discovered four undeclared spider monkeys concealed in a duffle bag. Newly released body-camera footage shows the high-speed moments before a Houston cop drove his police cruiser onto a sidewalk Dec. 4 and killed 62-year-old Michael Wayne Jackson, who was walking to his barber. Prosecutors have yet to present the case to a grand jury, Harris County district attorney's office spokesperson Dane Schiller said Monday. On Dec. 30, the Houston Police Department released two video clips from bodycams worn by driving officer Orlando Hernandez and his partner officer Anthony Aranda. Both officers are 25 years old with fewer than five years on the force and currently are listed as active duty, according to an HPD spokesperson. Hernandez at times drove the 6,300-pound Ford Police Intercepter between 80 and 100 mph down Reed Road, according to the cruiser's speedometer shown in a five-minute clip from his bodycam. Traffic on Reed Road is limited to 40 mph. The cops were driving with lights and siren activated to help another officer apprehend five individuals allegedly involved in a carjacking who reportedly fled on foot after a short pursuit. Reed Road was wet from a recent rain shower that Saturday afternoon, according to a crash report filed by HPD. Video shows the cruiser's windshield wipers were activated as Hernandez maneuvered the police SUV through traffic, appearing on multiple occasions to be using only one hand to steer the speeding vehicle over slick residential roads. As Hernandez approached a red light at Cullen Boulevard, he slowed down to check for cross traffic before continuing west toward Scott Street. Houston Police Department Jackson was walking west on the sidewalk in the 4100 block of Reed Road near Scott Street as Hernandez's cruiser approached from the east around 5:40 p.m. Several cars were stopped at a red light at the Reed Road and Scott Street intersection, police said. As Hernandez sped toward the intersection, video shows the officer turn the steering wheel nearly 180 degrees to avoid colliding with other cars. Hernandez's cruiser slid slightly right, jumping the sidewalk and hitting Jackson before slamming into a Dumpster bin in a nearby parking lot. Body-cam video indicates that Hernandez hit Jackson about 34 seconds after passing through the intersection at Cullen Boulevard, a distance of 3,755 feet, according to information compiled from Google Maps and a diagram from HPD's crash report. This distance would suggest Hernandez traveled at an average speed of 75 mph before he drove onto the sidewalk. In a frame before Hernandez attempted to turn the wheel, the cruiser's speedometer showed 60 mph. Houston police have not released any other findings from their investigation, including any telemetry data from the cruiser's computer regarding the cruiser's actual speed and if/when Hernandez applied the brakes. Crash investigators with HPD's vehicular crimes division noted in a crash report that Hernandez was "traveling at an unsafe speed" and "performed a faulty evasive action." In the moments after the crash, video shows Hernandez and Aranda ran to Jackson as witnesses screamed and music played from a nearby restaurant. The video also captured sirens from nearby HPD officers who also rushing to assist in the manhunt. "I need HFD here," Hernandez radioed to dispatch. "I just got wrecked out, uh, Scott and Reed. One male patient is going to be knocked unconscious, not breathing, uh, bleeding from the head." "Sir, sir, sir," Hernandez said as he shook Jackson's lifeless body. "Wake up, sir." Another officer who arrived seconds after the collision ordered Hernandez to start chest compressions, at which point the released video ends. Paramedics with the Houston Fire Department arrived minutes later and pronounced Jackson dead. In the days after the crash, the victim's brother speculated that the officer behind the wheel was ill-trained. "It looks like to me, maybe the guys couldn't drive that well," Timothy Jackson said. "They just weren't ready. Their skill level in pursuits maybe wasn't that good, because they came out of the street onto the sidewalk. They put anybody that's on the sidewalk in danger." Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, called the collision a "tragic accident." "Officers were responding to an assist while chasing robbery suspects," Griffith said in a text message. "It's my belief that the officers left the road to avoid a collision and never saw the citizen. Truly sad for all involved." Houston police have yet to close the case, and it is unclear if prosecutors will pursue charges against Hernandez. For both officers, a preliminary 3-day placement on administrative duties has already tolled. An internal review has been launched into the actions of a special Customs and Border Protection unit that used sensitive government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 U.S.-based journalists, including one from The Associated Press. The review is focused on activities of the Counter Network Division, which under the administration of former President Donald Trump used the databases to investigate leaks to the media and to screen journalists as potential sources of information, as was detailed in a report by Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General. The purpose of the internal probe is to ensure that the activities in question during the prior administration remain an isolated incident and that proper safeguards are in place to prevent an incident like this from taking place in the future, CBP spokesperson Luis Miranda said Monday. The review was initially reported by Yahoo News, which last month was also first to report on the OIG investigation. The AP obtained a redacted copy of the inspector general report, which referred possible criminal charges for misusing government databases and lying to investigators to the Justice Department for a Border Patrol agent on temporary assignment with the Counter Network Division and two other Homeland Security employees. Prosecutors declined to prosecute. It's not publicly known whether the agent, Jeffrey Rambo, or the other employees were subjected to any internal discipline. Customs did not provide details on the investigation, characterizing it as part of a broader effort by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus, who took up the position in December after serving as police chief in Tucson, Arizona, to ensure protection of First Amendment rights. We do not condone the investigation of reporters for exercising those rights, Miranda said. CBP is committed to conducting its law enforcement and national security mission with adherence to the highest standards." The inspector general report was sparked after The Washington Post exposed Rambo and a leak investigation involving reporter Ali Watkins, who was with Politico at the time and now writes for The New York Times. In the course of its investigation, the inspector general found that the Customs unit was using its vast databases to investigate others as well, including Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and AP investigative reporter Martha Mendoza. Rambo said he conducted CBP record checks on 15 to 20 national security reporters, according to a FBI summary of the questioning that was contained in the inspector generals report. He said he had investigated Mendoza as part of an effort to vet her before trying to establish a relationship with her because of her expertise in writing about forced labor, an area of interest to Customs because it enforces trade laws. The revelation prompted a letter of protest in December from AP Executive Editor Julie Pace. This is a flagrant example of a federal agency using its power to examine the contacts of journalists, she wrote. While the actions detailed in the inspector generals report occurred under a previous administration, the practices were described as routine. A surveillance camera captured pictures of two teens as they ran from a stolen Audi after a deadly crash in New Britain on June 29. Police say the 17-year-old driving the car that killed jogger Henryk Gudelski had a long criminal record. (Provided by the City of New Britain) A young, chronic car thief who led a police chase across two states, injuring at least one other driver in multiple crashes, was sentenced to four years in prison Monday in federal court. Christopher Mulkern, 22, of Stratford had been stealing high-end cars since he was 18. With the exception of the stiff sentences he has been given, the account by prosecutors of Mulkerns thefts and police pursuits is typical of a wave of thefts that has provoked debate in the courts and the legislature about youth crime and juvenile justice reform in Connecticut and elsewhere. Advertisement The U.S. Attorneys office said Mulkern, his friends and associates, have engaged for years in what they call car-checking, jigging, and jugging prowling affluent beach communities, usually, after midnight, for luxury cars in which the owners have left, keys, fobs and valuables. In some cases, according to information presented in court, Mulkern and other thieves find more cars in a single night than they are able to drive away, so they take the key fobs and plot locations on cellphone map applications in order to return. Once they have the cars, prosecutors said the thieves sell, trade or pawn anything of value found in the cars, and then rent or sell the cars to others for use in new crimes. Advertisement The recent explosion of car thefts dominates Connecticut news, federal prosecutors wrote in a memo describing the phenomenon of youth car theft. While property theft, in and of itself, is concerning, it is what frequently accompanies the thefts that is truly disturbing: hit-and-run injuries and deaths; homeowners being shot at; high-speed pursuits with police; and gang-related violence using stolen vehicles. These are serious crimes with dangerous and potential deadly outcomes. Mulkern was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley for interstate transportation of a stolen car and a succession of police pursuits that began in Westport on Dec. 1, 2020 and went east to Westerly, R.I., before returning to Bridgeport, where it ended in another theft and two collisions, one of which flipped a passing automobile and injured the driver. When he was charged with federal crimes for the Dec. 1 offenses, Mulkern was on state probation for an earlier car theft and had five similar or related cases pending against him in Stratford, Westport and Darien. Evidence seized during his arrest with an associate linked him to thefts from Mystic to Wappingers Falls, N.Y. According to the prosecution and Mulkerns lawyer, Cody Guarnieri, he has spent much of the time since turning 18 in jail. Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. > In a memo to the court asking for leniency, Guarnieri said Mulkern began stealing cars and abusing drugs as the result of an horrific childhood; his mother is drug dependent, he was abandoned by his father and watched his stepfather abuse others in his family. According to court filings, some time during the afternoon of Dec. 1, 2020, Mulkern and associate Edwin Cordero stole a 2018 Porsche Panamera from a driveway in Westport. The owner had left her keys, credit cards, a diamond bracelet and remote control garage door opener in the car. The owner notified the local police department, which broadcast the missing Porsche over a police computer network. Later in the day, authorities said the two decided to take a ride in the Porsche to the Rhode Island beaches. Shortly after midnight the next morning, a Westerly police officer spotted the Porsche speeding through town but couldnt catch it. A second officer saw it blowing through stoplights and tried and failed to stop it. The same thing happened across the border in Stonington, where an officer clocked the Porsche at 86 mph on Route 1 before speeding onto a highway on-ramp. The Porsche showed up in Milford at about 4 a.m., when a police officer said he saw the occupants trying to steal a 2018 Dodge Challenger on Sea Flower Road. The Porsche struck a parked Volkswagen while fleeing. At 7 p.m., the police in Stratford tried to box in and stop the Porsche after a traffic camera spotted it on Stratford Avenue. Police said Mulkern, who was driving, escaped by ramming the car in front of him and driving down a sidewalk. They said Mulkern raced through a red light into an intersection, where he struck and rolled over another car, sending the driver to the hospital. Advertisement The collision caused the hood of the Porsche to pop up, obscuring Mulkerns view. The police and prosecutors said Mulkern managed to drive onto I-95, in spite of the damage, and exit in Bridgeport. Federal authorities said Mulkern stopped on Gregory Street, where he and Cordero tried, but failed, to take off in a stolen Audi they had stashed nearby. Mr. Mulkern and Mr. Cordero opened the Audi doors with Mr. Mulkern attempting to get into the drivers seat and Mr. Cordero getting in the front passenger seat, prosecutors wrote in a memo filed with the court. Mr. Mulkern grabbed onto the steering wheel and attempted to press the ignition button, however a Stratford officer deployed his department-issued Taser on Mr. Mulkern. Mr. Mulkern was then arrested. Some school systems around the U.S. extended their holiday break Monday or switched back to online instruction because of the explosion in COVID-19 cases, while others pressed ahead with in-person classes amid a seemingly growing sense that Americans will have to learn to co-exist with the virus. Caught between pleas from teachers fearful of infection and parents who want their children in class, school districts in cities such as Milwaukee, New York, Detroit and beyond found themselves in a difficult position at the start of the second half of the academic year because of the super-contagious omicron variant. New York City, home of the nations largest public school system, reopened classrooms to roughly 1 million students with a stock of take-home COVID-19 test kits and plans to double the number of random tests done in schools. We are going to be safe, and we will be open to educate our children, newly sworn-in Mayor Eric Adams said on MSNBC. New Yorker Trisha White said that she feels the risk is the same for her 9-year-old son in or out of school and that being with classmates is far better for him than remote learning. He could get the virus outside of school, she said as she dropped the boy off. So what can you do? You know, I wouldnt blame the school system. Theyre trying their best. While the teachers union had asked the mayor to postpone in-person learning for a week, city officials have long said that mask requirements, testing and other safety measures mean that children are safe in school. The city also has a vaccination mandate for employees. New cases of COVID-19 in the city shot up from a daily average of about 17,000 in the week before the holidays to nearly 37,000 last week. New COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have tripled in the past two weeks to over 400,000 a day, the highest level on record, amid a rush by many Americans to get tested. The outbreak is putting a heavy burden on vital sectors of the economy, including hospitals and the airline industry, which are seeing large numbers of employees infected. Public heath experts have said that eradicating the virus is unlikely and that the world will instead have to find a way to keep COVID-19 down to an acceptable level, in much the same way it does with the flu. Policymakers and health authorities have been mindful of the toll on the economy and the education system. Last week, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut the recommended COVID-19 isolation period from 10 days to five, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said: We want to make sure there is a mechanism by which we can safely continue to keep society functioning while following the science. In another development Monday that could have a bearing on the ability of schools to stay open, the Food and Drug Administration gave the OK for Pfizer booster shots for children as young as 12. Boosters already are recommended for everyone 16 and older. Elsewhere around the country, Syracuse, New York, canceled school Monday because of the increasing number of infections and a lack of substitute teachers to cover absences. In Wisconsin, the 75,000-student Milwaukee school system is going back to virtual instruction Tuesday because of rising cases among staff members. The district said it is aiming to return to in-person classes Jan. 10. The Madison, Wisconsin, district also announced a shift to virtual learning, beginning Thursday. Detroit School Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told parents there will be no in-person or online learning through Wednesday because of a high rate of infection among employees that could lead to extensive spread of COVID-19 and excessive staff shortages. The Peoria, Illinois, district extended winter break by a week. Schools in Davenport, Iowa, surprised parents early Monday by announcing the cancellation of all classes for the day because of a shortage of school bus drivers that was blamed at least in part on COVID-19. Minnesotas educators braced for a spike in coronavirus cases as classrooms reopened as scheduled. What Ive heard from superintendents is that they are nervous about omicron, said Bob Indihar, executive director of the Minnesota Rural Education Association. It seems to be the new normal that changes are going to happen and quarantines and people being out are just part of the process now. Districts are kind of taking it in stride. The president of the National Parents Union, a network of parent organizations, called the sudden switch back to virtual learning an abomination. Once again, parents are left scrambling at the last minute and, worse, far too many children are being deprived of an in-person learning experience, which is critical for their academic and social-emotional development, Keri Rodrigues said in a statement. Many businesses have likewise shelved or postponed return-to-work plans because of the surge. Thousands of airline flights have been canceled in recent days in a mess attributed in part to staff shortages. Dawn Crawley, CEO of House Cleaning Heroes, a cleaning service based in Herndon, Virginia, said she had to cancel four of 20 cleaning jobs for Tuesday because four employees are sick three with COVID-19. The fear is it will run through the team" as well as customers, she said. ___ Peltz reported from New York. Ehlke reported from Milwaukee. Tang reported from San Jose, California. Associated Press writers Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Anne DInnocenzio in New York; Michael Hill in Albany, New York, Rick Callahan in Indianapolis; and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form An unknown Connecticut family provided solace to snowbound travelers stranded Tuesday night by offering oranges to motorists stopped for hours on I-95. (Sen. Tim Kaine) An unknown Connecticut family provided solace to snowbound travelers stranded Tuesday night by offering oranges to motorists stopped for hours on I-95. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia and one time presidential candidate, was one of the grateful beneficiaries. Advertisement A CT family returning in a packed car from Florida walked by in the middle of the night handing out oranges as we were stopped for hours on I-95. Bless them,' Kaine tweeted Tuesday morning. Kaine had set out for the two-hour drive from Richmond to Washington, D.C. on Monday, only to spend the next 21 hours gridlocked by a snowstorm. Advertisement I started my normal 2 hour drive to DC at 1 p.m. yesterday. 19 hours later, Im still not near the Capitol. My office is in touch with @VaDOT to see how we can help other Virginians in this situation. Please stay safe everyone,' Kaine tweeted Tuesday. Motorists sit stranded on Interstate 95 in Northern, Va., on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. Hundreds of motorists were stranded all night in snow and freezing temperatures along a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 95 after a crash involving six tractor-trailers in Virginia, where authorities were struggling Tuesday to reach them. (WJLA via AP) (AP) The storm pounded the mid-Atlantic region on Monday, closing government offices and leaving some parts of Virginia with more than 10 inches or more of snow. Five Things You Need To Know Daily We're providing the latest coronavirus coverage in Connecticut each weekday morning. > Hundreds of motorists waited desperately for help Tuesday after being stranded all night in freezing temperatures along a 50-mile stretch of highway south of the nations capital that became impassable when tractor-trailers jackknifed in a winter storm, state police said. The disabled trucks triggered a chain reaction Monday as other vehicles lost control and blocked lanes in both directions of Interstate 95, the main north-south highway along the East Coast. As hours passed and night fell, motorists posted messages on social media about running out of fuel, food and water. Gov. Ralph Northam said his team responded through the night, sending out emergency messages to connect stranded drivers with help and working with local officials to set up warming shelters as needed. He could not say when the situation would be resolve. Update: I've been on the road for 27 hours. https://t.co/waGSrARUEe Tim Kaine (@timkaine) January 4, 2022 State and local emergency personnel are continuing to clear downed trees, assist disabled vehicles, and reroute drivers,' Northam tweeted Tuesday. An emergency message is going to all stranded drivers connecting them to support, and the state is working with localities to open warming shelters as needed. While sunlight is expected to help. There was no indication Tuesday of who it was handing out oranges, but Kaine said they told him they were heading home to Connecticut from Florida. This has been a miserable experience, Kaine told WTOP. Traffic was so tightly packed that emergency vehicles struggled to remove disabled cars and trucks, he said. Advertisement A report from the Associated Press is included in this story. Canadian immigration in 2022: A preview of the year ahead A look at what we can expect over the next 12 months. Canadian immigration in 2022: A preview of the year ahead A look at what we can expect over the next 12 months. Canadian immigration in 2022: A preview of the year ahead A look at what we can expect over the next 12 months. Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A The coronavirus pandemic is set to continue to loom large over Canadian immigration in 2022. The pandemic is causing Canada to constantly update its travel restrictions. It has also created greater application backlogs, and a shift in Canadas policies to prioritize applicants within Canada. Despite the pandemic, however, the Canadian government has remained committed to its three-fold immigration policy objectives of strengthening the economy, reuniting families, and assisting those with a humanitarian need. Immigration levels targets have increased during the pandemic and application processing continues. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that COVID will remain the main issue influencing Canadian immigration as the pandemic enters its third calendar year. With that being said, the following is an overview of key Canadian immigration developments to look out for over the next 12 months. Discover if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024 and 2023-2025 Canada will very likely get two immigration levels plan announcements in 2022. The plans will outline Canadas targets for new permanent resident arrivals and what programs the new immigrants will arrive under. Under the current plan, Canada is looking to welcome 411,000 new immigrants in 2022 and 421,000 in 2023, however these figures may be revised when the federal government unveils their new levels plans. The first will come by February 14 when minister Fraser is set to table Canadas Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024. This will be the announcement that usually takes place each autumn, but has been delayed due to the September 2021 Canadian election. The second announcement will be the normal one and barring the very unlikely scenario Canada holds another election, will occur by November 1st. There is the possibility of even higher levels due to various factors such as growing labour shortages in Canada, application backlogs, and the federal governments commitment to resettle 40,000 Afghan refugees. Minister Fraser has said the government is open to higher levels assuming that Canadian employers and communities are receptive to the idea. Express Entry Following perhaps the most exceptional year for Express Entry since it was launched in 2015, the coming year is poised to see even more major Express Entry developments. Express Entry draws only invited Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates in 2021. This is exceptional since Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) candidates were the main source of Express Entry immigrants prior to the pandemic but have been excluded altogether from Express Entry invitations over the last year. They currently comprise some 85 per cent of candidates in the Express Entry pool. IRCCs rationale has been that inviting more CEC candidates will better allow it to achieve its goal of landing 401,000 new immigrants in 2021 since CEC candidates are overwhelmingly based in Canada, and hence less likely to face COVID-related disruptions during the permanent residence landing process. Since FSWP candidates tend to be located abroad, IRCC has excluded them from invitations due to concerns they will be less likely to land within 2021 which would undermine the immigration departments ability to achieve its 401,000 newcomer target. IRCCs rationale for continuing to invite PNP candidates has been to help provinces address their labour market goals through immigration. When will Canada resume Express Entry FSWP draws? No one can predict when IRCC will resume invitations to FSWP candidates as IRCC has not provided any indication on its Express Entry plans. The best guidance at this point is a September 2021 IRCC memo suggesting the department wants to cut its Express Entry backlogs by more than half to return to its service standard of processing Express Entry permanent residence applications within six months before considering inviting FSWP candidates again. If IRCC is able to continue its current pace of processing applications, Express Entry backlogs will likely be cut in half in early 2022. Express Entry reforms The federal government has made several statements indicating they plan to introduce Express Entry reforms. In Budget 2021, they announced a proposal to give the minister more flexibility to invite Express Entry candidates that meet Canadas labour market needs, but no details have been given. In Minister Frasers new mandate letter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asks him to expand permanent residence pathways for international students and temporary foreign workers via Express Entry. What else can we expect? Backlogs: The pandemic has caused IRCCs inventory to grow to 1.8 million immigration applications. Trudeau asks Fraser to improve processing times including among applications affected by the pandemic. The pandemic has caused IRCCs inventory to grow to 1.8 million immigration applications. Trudeau asks Fraser to improve processing times including among applications affected by the pandemic. TEER System to Replace NOC Skill Levels: By fall 2022, IRCC and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) will use the new Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibilities (TEER) system to classify occupations. All immigration applicants will need to pay attention to this change since it will affect the immigration and foreign worker eligibility of some individuals. IRCC and ESDC will provide guidance to stakeholders in advance of the changes taking effect. By fall 2022, IRCC and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) will use the new Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibilities (TEER) system to classify occupations. All immigration applicants will need to pay attention to this change since it will affect the immigration and foreign worker eligibility of some individuals. IRCC and ESDC will provide guidance to stakeholders in advance of the changes taking effect. Citizenship applications: The mandate letter reiterates the governments commitment to make Canadian citizenship applications free, a promise that was made in 2019 before the pandemic forced Canada to shift its immigration priorities. In addition, IRCC has committed to allowing all citizenship candidates including families to be able to submit their applications online. The mandate letter reiterates the governments commitment to make Canadian citizenship applications free, a promise that was made in 2019 before the pandemic forced Canada to shift its immigration priorities. In addition, IRCC has committed to allowing all citizenship candidates including families to be able to submit their applications online. Trusted employer system: For several years the Canadian government has discussed launching a Trusted Employer system for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). This would allow trusted employers to fill job vacancies more quickly through the TFWP. Launching this system is listed as a priority in Frasers mandate letter. For several years the Canadian government has discussed launching a Trusted Employer system for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). This would allow trusted employers to fill job vacancies more quickly through the TFWP. Launching this system is listed as a priority in Frasers mandate letter. Afghan refugees: Canada has committed to resettling 40,000 Afghan refugees and this has been one of IRCCs top priorities since August. Canada has committed to resettling 40,000 Afghan refugees and this has been one of IRCCs top priorities since August. PGP 2022: IRCC has yet to provide information on the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) 2022. The main piece of information we have at this point is Canada will continue to look to admit 23,500 immigrants under the PGP in the coming year. IRCC has yet to provide information on the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) 2022. The main piece of information we have at this point is Canada will continue to look to admit 23,500 immigrants under the PGP in the coming year. Travel rules: Canadas travel rules continue to evolve in response to the pandemic. A notable development to be aware of is that beginning on January 15, 2022, more travellers seeking entry to Canada will need to be fully vaccinated on arrival, including family members, international students above the age of 18, and temporary foreign workers. Discover if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options. Ultimately, the effort to achieve zero-carbon emissions is about resources and humans. But its also about human resources. Climate change is the most important issue we face, but even from a selfish business standpoint, sustainability makes sense and will increasingly be a differentiator not only for customers, but also for employees who will demand that employers do the right thing. Andrew Tobin, CEO of Stryve Secure Based in Carlow, Ireland, Stryve Secure serves as a dedicated private cloud infrastructure provider and cyber security partner for companies in 20 countries. The companys highly bespoke private cloud addresses the most stringent security needs. Stryve also offers disaster recovery, immutable backups, and a wide range of security-related services that are relied on by enterprises with sensitive data that cant be compromised. Some of these services include cyber security consulting and penetration testing. The company also offers CISO-as-a-Service, which gives customers direct access to some of the worlds most knowledgeable chief information security officers. We recently checked in with Andrew Tobin, CEO of Stryve, to learn what motivates the companys efforts and why he sees the aim to reduce emissions as a business, personal, and human resources endeavor. But first we asked Tobin what prompted the company, now carbon neutral, to start its sustainability journey. I think it really hit us for the first time when we found out what our carbon emissions were, he says. We all know that data centers use a lot of energy, but it struck us as a really scary number, especially when you consider that many much larger organizations operate facilities that arent nearly as efficient. From that point on, our team was motivated to make a difference. I see their resolve to ensure the security of our clients every day, so it doesnt surprise me that the company is already carbon neutral, but we have a lot more work to do to achieve our sustainability goals. Stryve powers its data centers with renewable, green power. These include its state-of-the art facilities in Cork and Warsaw, Poland, as well as a new data center being built in the U.K. The company measures the greenhouse gases it directly and indirectly creates addressing scope one, two and three. Carbon minimization targets were also set not only for the company as a whole, but also for each employee. Were really in this together and are very vigilant when it comes to carbon reduction, adds Tobin. Every employee has a carbon budget to monitor their own footprint based on things like their travel habits and use of paper. Weve also set up a community engagement program that enables employees to trade carbon allowances. In addition, the company is involved in four carbon-offset projects in its efforts to become carbon neutral and ultimately achieve a zero-carbon footprint. These include a forestation project in Rio Kama, Nicaragua; a clean oceans project in collaboration with Plastic Bank; a clean cook stoves project in Nyungwe, Rwanda; and a hydropower project in Virunga, Democratic Republic of Congo. Tobin notes, however, that while offsets are valuable, companies should not be able to buy their way into being sustainable. Offsetting of course plays a very important role, but its a transitionary one in a holistic, long-term approach and commitment to take action on climate change, he says. Its imperative that offsets only be used in this transitionary stage while efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels and emissions are being rolled out and perfected. That of course does not mean that we suddenly wont support noble and important projects that offer carbon credits, but it does mean that we will do that in conjunction with ones that truly reduce our direct impact on the environment through the company or its supply chain. Tobin also says the team at Stryve is thrilled to be part of VMware Zero Carbon Committed. Its an effort he hopes more companies will join. At Stryve we use the VMware Cloud Foundation as the base of our dedicated private cloud and IaaS, so it is fitting that were united in the effort to combat climate change as well, he says. Ultimately, the effort to achieve zero-carbon emissions is about resources and humans. But its also about human resources. Climate change is the most important issue we face, but even from a selfish business standpoint sustainability makes sense and will increasingly be a differentiator not only for customers, but also employees who will demand that employers do the right thing. Learn more about Stryve Secure and its partnership with VMware here. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sorry, no valid subscriptions were found for this Publication. Please select from an option below to start a subscription. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 24 Hour Access Gov. Ned Lamont gestures after announcing the arrival of 426,000 home COVID-19 tests to Connecticut. (Cloe Poisson / Special to the Courant) With COVID-19 cases and hospitalization hitting record levels, some Democratic state lawmakers and local officials are pressing Gov. Ned Lamont to reinstate a statewide indoor mask mandate regardless of vaccination status. State Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw, who is a Democrat like Lamont, said she has been contacted by dozens of constituents over the past few days. Advertisement I started getting requests for masking indoors as early as Dec. 20,' said Kavros DeGraw, whose district includes Avon and Canton. People were starting to get nervous. She said she conveyed those concerns to Lamonts office. Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat and president pro tempore of the Connecticut Senate, said he, too, would welcome a statewide mask mandate. Advertisement since fridy 3,197,606 mask The more that can be done on a statewide level, the less conflicting standards there will be,' Looney said. This is something where we need as much uniformity as possible and where the state needs to take the lead. You cant have 169 different standards.' Everyone, Looney added, should wear a mask everywhere indoors, except inside your own home. Hartford, Ct. - 06/09/2021 - Senate President Martin Looney meets with the press outside the Senate chamber on the last day of Connecticut's 2021 legislative session. Photograph by Mark Mirko | mmirko@courant.com (Mark Mirko/Mark Mirko) Lamont has steadfastly resisted calls for a masking mandate for all, even as Connecticuts daily COVID-19 test positivity rate climbed to 21.5% and several municipalities, including Stamford and Hartford, brought back the requirement. Public health officials say N95 masks--along with vaccines and booster shots--are one of the best ways to stop the spread of the virus, even the highly contagious omicron variant thats driving the current spike in cases in Connecticut. Since last Friday the Lamont administration has distributed 3.2 million masks to municipalities, schools and first responders. Indoor masking rules were quickly put in place in the early days of the pandemic. But over the past two years, face-coverings, like vaccines, have become a political flash point; mask requirements are viewed by some as a symbol of government encroachment into the lives of citizens and some Connecticut Republicans have rebelled against mask rules. Asked about masking at a press conference in Stamford on Monday, Lamont suggested he is wary of instituting another edict requiring unvaccinated people wear face coverings indoors because of the potential pushback. Advertisement I dont want to put a lot of counter-pressures on and rebellion and people fighting back against it,' Lamont said. I prefer that everybody wear the mask when youre indoors. Were getting N95 masks available to anybody, no questions asked. I think were on the right track right now. Both Lamont and Public Health Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani have emphasized the importance of masking. Lamont said he believed Connecticut residents were overwhelmingly wearing masks. Kavros DeGraw, who serves on the legislatures public health committee, said some of her constituents are frustrated by the lack of statewide guidance on masking at a time when test kits remain in short supply and anxiety about a lack of remote options for school is rising. At this point, we are tired of this pandemic, she said. We are tired of testing, we are tired of wearing masks but we cant let our guard down just yet. To me this is not political, this is a public health situation that has to be mitigated. Eight states California, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico require masks in indoor public places, regardless of vaccination status. Connecticut requires the unvaccinated to wear masks indoors, though the order does not specify whether they need a booster shot. Municipalities have the authority to set their own masking rules and several have instituted their own mandates, including the city of Hartford, which on Monday began requiring masks in all indoor public places for at least the month of January. Advertisement But some local leaders say that approach leads to confusion and hurts the vulnerable. At present we have a patchwork of regulations, leaving Connecticuts mayors, local public health departments and individual school districts to grapple with this unprecedented global health crisis,' said Michelle Parente, a Democratic member of the Milford Board of Aldermen. Epidemiologists have indicated that the virus is spreading in public environments such as grocery stores, shopping malls and other retail establishments, due to asymptomatic folks not having on masks. Public health experts in our state are clearly and urgently appealing to the governor that an indoor mask mandate will curb the spread of omicron. I hope that Governor Lamont, who I support, will listen to these experts and reinstate a temporary, common sense and enforceable statewide mask mandate, empowering all of us to be guardians of Connecticuts most susceptible citizens, Parente said. A series of executive orders has given the governor broad authority to set pandemic policies without legislative approval. Those orders expire on Feb.15, one week into the legislative session. House Speaker Matt Ritter, a Democrat from Hartford, said he expects the legislature to debate issues such as masking requirements when lawmakers reconvene. Lamont, he said, is unlikely to request another extension of his executive authority. House Speaker Matt Ritter, wearing mask, threatened to end all debate Monday if Republicans refused to wear masks during the 2021 special session on extending Gov. Ned Lamont's powers. (Christopher Keating) Ritter said he has no problem with a statewide masking mandate. Advertisement Theres a growing body of people saying its something we should do, at least for a few weeks to get through this bump,' he said. Its up to the executive branch [now] but it will fall on the legislatures lap after Feb. 15. Oklahoma City, OK (73106) Today Windy with thunderstorms, possibly strong this afternoon. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High 82F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Thunderstorms, some strong early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. Low 44F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Oxfam will be barred from applying for public funding while the latest abuse allegations against the charity are investigated, the government has announced. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said that the allegations had called into question Oxfams ability to meet safeguarding standards required to receive government funds. Last week the charity said it had suspended two members of staff working in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after complaints of corruption and intimidation. Oxfam said it was seeking further information from the FCDO about its announcement. The decision came just weeks after the charity was cleared to receive FCDO funding again, following an earlier ban related to abuse claims which emerged in 2018. No funding until the issues have been resolved An FCDO spokesperson said: All organisations bidding for UK aid must meet the high standards of safeguarding required to keep the people they work with safe. Given the most recent reports which call into question Oxfams ability to meet those standards, we will not consider any new funding to Oxfam until the issues have been resolved. No date has been given for when the ban may be lifted. Oxfam lost around 7,000 regular donors in the aftermath of the Haiti scandal. An Oxfam spokesperson said: The steps we are taking in the Democratic Republic of Congo reflect our commitment to tackle abuses of power. We are aware of the FCDO statement and are seeking further information. The Charity Commission and FCDO have been notified appropriately and we will continue to keep them informed as the investigation concludes its work. Regulation Oxfam staff told The Times newspaper last week that they fear there is a culture of bullying and impunity in the charitys work in DRC. The charity started an investigation into the allegations in November, amid claims that managers had first been warned about problems in the country five years ago. The Times also reported that inspectors from the Humanitarian Quality Assurance Initiative (HQAI) had been working with Oxfam to address safeguarding concerns in the DRC since May 2019. HQAI concluded at the time that Oxfam had taken appropriate steps to establish a robust safeguarding system to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in the DRC Oxfam offices and programmes. The Charity Commission lifted strict monitoring of Oxfam last month after a three-year investigation into the charitys safeguarding work, and said it had made significant strides improving policy and practice. The Commission also told parliament last year : If charities cannot keep people safe then they should not be in receipt of overseas aid. sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector, A pileup of tractor trailers in Virginia shut down Interstate 95, the U.S. East Coasts major north-south artery, during a snowstorm, stranding hundreds of motorists overnight in freezing temperatures and disrupting private and commercial traffic.The Virginia Department of Transportation said its crews were still working Tuesday morning to unblock the highway south of the U.S. capital, but it remained unclear when traffic could resume. After several hours, the agency is now trying to move cars off the highway via interchanges and asking anyone experiencing a medical emergency stuck in the chain of cars to call 911. Between 7 and 11 inches (18 to 28 centimeters) of snow accumulated in the area during Mondays blizzard, and the National Weather Service is warning of more ice for Tuesday, punctuating the end of a difficult holiday travel season that saw supply chains disrupted and flights canceled due to weather and Covid-19-related absences. A dearth of snowplow drivers is endemic of the larger worker shortage nationally across industries from the service sector to truck drivers due to Covid and the number of people unable to work due to illness or who have just decided to retire, said Tim Kraft, a supply chain management professor with North Carolina State University. That can cause supply chain disruptions. Now youve got a major corridor with no trucks moving through it, Kraft said in a phone interview. I think its definitely just becoming part of our reality. Four states were blanketed with snowfall of more than a foot (30.5 centimeters). Maryland saw its highest snowfall total in Huntingtown at 15.5 inches. Delaware had 14.5 inches in Ellendale. New Jerseys top accumulation was 14 inches fall in Ocean City and Virginia saw 14.6 inches in Glendie, according to the National Weather Service. The storm reached a wide swath of the East Coast. In the Southeast, it left snow as deep as 11.5 inches in Swiss, North Carolina, and 9 inches in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. There were lesser totals up north in Nantucket, Massachusetts, which saw about 2.2 inches, and further south, where North Corinth, Mississippi, was dusted with 1.8 inches. More than 275,000 homes and businesses in Virginia were without power Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages from local utilities. North Carolina and Maryland each had at least 25,000 customers in the dark. Planes, Trains, Automobiles Some 21% of flights at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport were grounded Tuesday morning, according to FlightAware.com. At Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, 18% of flights were scrubbed. About 1,200 flights were dropped nationwide, continuing a string of cancellations that began before the Christmas holiday, many of them as coronavirus infections caused staffing shortages. Service on Amtraks Northeast corridor was disrupted, with numerous trains canceled, delayed or halted overnight. At least one was listed as running more than 19 hours behind schedule. Scott Silverman, a 53-year-old Boyds, Maryland, resident spent 11 hours at a complete standstill on I-95 after getting stuck in the logjam Monday south of Stafford, Virginia. Like Siberia Its like being in Siberia, said Silverman, who was driving home with his 17-year-old son, Parker. They spent the night with their minivan in park, listening to the radio, playing on their mobile phones and taking turns sleeping. Unable to get any food, they ate Doritos and Oreos. At shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday they began to move around 4 miles per hour, Silverman said. Im trying to understand how it is that the major interstate artery for the East Coast of the United States looks like it was never plowed at all, Silverman said in a phone interview. Its covered with ice. It doesnt look like it was treated. I dont know what they were doing yesterday, but clearly they werent treating the roads. The Virginia State Police had responded to over 1,000 crashes and assisted 1,000 more motorists since early Monday morning, said Alena Yarmosky, a spokeswoman for Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. While sunlight is helping VDOT treat and clear roads, all Virginians must continue to avoid the interstate and follow directions of emergency personnel, Yarmosky said in an email. An emergency message is going to all stranded drivers connecting them to support, and the state is working with localities to open a warming shelter for passengers, as needed, Yarmosky said. We know many travelers have been stuck on Interstate 95 in our region for extraordinary periods of time over the past 24 hours, in some cases since Monday morning, Marcie Parker, the Virginia Department of Transportations Fredericksburg District engineer told the Associated Press. This is unprecedented, and we continue to steadily move stopped trucks to make progress toward restoring lanes. Senators 19-Hour Trip Virginia Senator Tim Kaine tweeted that he had still not reached the U.S. Capitol 19 hours after he began his normally two-hour journey there Monday, adding that his office was in touch with the states transportation officials. Please stay safe everyone, he said. NBC Correspondent Josh Lederman tweeted he was stuck on the I-95 for more than 11 hours with little word from officials. He later tweeted that traffic was finally moving toward Washington, but the southbound lanes of the interstate were still blocked for miles. Images taken from news helicopters aired on NBC showed emergency personnel walking across the median to bring blankets and supplies to stranded motorists once dawn broke.While the eastern snow storm also affected parts of New Jersey, other kinds of extreme weather are hitting elsewhere too. Heavy coastal rain and widespread mountain snow will continue for the Northwest U.S. much of this week, the National Weather Service said. High winds and fire weather will impact the central and southern High Plains Tuesday. With assistance from Derek Wallbank, Will Wade, Mary Schlangenstein and Josh Saul. About the photo: Snow falls outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. A winter storm sweeping across the U.S. Mid-Atlantic is poised to dump heavy snow on the nations capital with between 3 and 7 inches expected. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP)The fire that has already destroyed South Africas main Parliament chamber flared up again Monday about 36 hours after it started in the 130-year-old complex of historic buildings, authorities said. Firefighters have been sent back to the Parliament precinct in the center of Cape Town after flames re-appeared on the roof of the main Parliament building in the late afternoon. More than 30 firefighters were battling the fire again, Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Jermaine Carelse told the News 24 website. Before the blaze reignited, authorities had said it had been contained and had begun to assess the damage. The fire had started around 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. Still a mystery is the role of a man who has been arrested and is being questioned by police in connection with the fire. The man is due to appear in court on Tuesday and authorities werent commenting further on his involvement or any possible motives, other than to say he would likely be charged with breaking and entering, theft and arson. The man is also facing charges under South Africas National Key Points Act, a security law that restricts access to government buildings and other places of national importance. The man, who has not been named, was arrested Sunday at the scene, authorities said. South African media reported he had to be rescued from the fire, while questions have been raised over if there was a deliberate attack on the seat of South Africas democracy. Parliament was closed for the holidays and no injuries have been reported in the fire. Extensive damage has been done to the stately white and red brick buildings in the Parliament precinct. The fire had already burned down the chamber in the National Assembly building where South African legislators meet to pass laws, Parliament said in a statement. We are indeed devastated, Parliament said. We stand in front of a broken Parliament, a burnt down Parliament, lawmaker Natasha Mazzone said at the gates of the complex before the fire reignited. Look at our roof, our beautiful roof, burnt, collapsed. The National Assembly chamber is completely destroyed. Ive seen it for myself. Everything is destroyed. This will take an operation second to none to rebuild, she said. Two other buildings had also been badly damaged in the inferno, Parliament said, including the original Parliament building that had been built in the 1880s and had weathered much of South Africas tumultuous history, including British colonialism and the apartheid regime. The South African Parliament moved to the New Assembly building, built in the style of the old building, in the 1980s and it had been the seat of the national legislature for the momentous end of apartheid and the countrys transition to democracy under the presidency of Nelson Mandela. Firefighters had been working on hotspots in the National Assembly building on Monday morning, Carelse said, but it was largely contained at that stage and the fire crews had been scaled back. As the fire was originally brought under control, what was left was blackened, unrecognizable ruins inside some of the rooms. This is an incredibly sad day if you are a normal human being, to stand in front of this building and realize what weve lost, lawmaker Mazzone said. Patricia de Lille, the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, said that someone had turned off a valve which prevented a fire sprinkler system from functioning. She said the investigation into the cause of the fire has been taken over by the Hawks, a South African police unit that deals with serious and high-profile crimes. An initial report on the fire from a special fire investigating team would be completed by Friday, she said. About the photo: Smoke rises from the Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, Monday, Jan 3, 2022 after the fire re-ignited late afternoon. Firefighters are again on the scene after a major blaze tore through the precinct a day earlier. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. A woman suing Prince Andrew for sexual assault agreed in a confidential 2009 settlement with Jeffrey Epstein to release any other person involved in the case from litigation in exchange for $500,000. Virginia Giuffres lawsuit against Queen Elizabeths second son is barred by that language, newly revealed in documents unsealed on Monday, Andrew claims. But her lawyer, David Boies, says its a red herring. The release is irrelevant to Ms. Giuffres claim against Prince Andrew, said Boies. The release does not mention Prince Andrew. The issue will be aired in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, when U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan hears arguments on Andrews motion to dismiss the suit. Giuffre claims the British royal was one of several powerful men to whom Epstein lent her for sexual abuse when she was a teenager. Andrew has denied her allegations. A litigation release in the November 2009 deal says it applies to Epstein and any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant in the suit Giuffre filed against Epstein in federal court in Florida earlier that year. Potential Defendant Boies said Andrew could not have been a potential defendant covered by the settlement, because he wasnt subject to jurisdiction in Florida and that case involved federal claims of which the British royal wasnt a part. Andrew was also unaware of the release at the time it was signed, Boies said. The settlement was also raised in a suit by Giuffre against Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, with whom she also claims she had underage sex. She sued him for defamation in 2019 after he repeatedly denied her claims and called her a liar. Dershowitz, who counter-sued Giuffre for defamation and infliction of emotional distress, also said the 2009 deal barred her claims. The nine-page agreement includes a requirement that the amount of the settlement remain confidential. The parties also agreed that the deal should not in any way be construed as an admission by Jeffrey Epstein that he violated any federal or state laws. Epsteins former longtime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty last week of sex trafficking. While Giuffre didnt testify in that trial, prosecutors told jurors she was a victim of the couples abuse, and she was mentioned by name by two witnesses. Secret Settlements Federal prosecutors put Epsteins net worth at more than $500 million and said he had an income of more than $10 million a year when he was arrested in 2019. Epstein, who was found dead in his jail cell before he could go on trial for sex-trafficking, left an estate that included about $194 million in hedge fund and private equity investments, $113 million held in equities and $57 million in cash, according to a court filing. Before he died, Epstein used high-pressure litigation tactics and secret settlements to keep details of his sexual behavior out of the public eye. Some settlements exceeded $1 million, with three women agreeing to drop their suits for a total of $5.5 million. After Epstein died, his estate set up a compensation fund that distributed about $125 million to 135 victims. Maxwells lawyers aggressively questioned the women who testified against her about amounts they received in lawsuits and the fund. Jane said on the stand that she received $5 million. Prosecutors pointed out that Maxwell received some $30 million from Epstein. Andrews lawyers said in his motion to dismiss Giuffres suit that she was looking for another payday by accusing a member of the worlds best known royal family of serious misconduct. The case is Giuffre v. Prince Andrew, 21-cv-06702, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. The Florida Supreme Courts call for an additional appellate court and six now seven new judges in the state has met with mixed reviews, with some attorneys welcoming the idea, while others, including a few judges, have said the caseload does not warrant the expense. One insurance attorney said that in at least some parts of the state, the redrawing of appeal court district lines could have an impact on the types of decisions that have resulted in large plaintiffs attorneys fees and large judgments against insurers The fifth district has been very plaintiff-friendly in the last few years, said Katie Koener, an insurance defense attorney with the Kelley Kronenberg firm in Tampa. And the second has been more favorable to insurance companies. The addition of a sixth appeals court district court would mean redrawing most district lines in the state. If approved by the Florida Legislature, which meets next week, the plan would move two heavily populated counties surrounding Orlando from the fifth district to the more-rural second district, based in Lakeland. The Supreme Courts recommendation would also fold four Tampa-area counties into the new sixth district. Three northeast counties would move from the first district to the fifth, with court offices in Daytona Beach. And four of the seven proposed new judgeship positions would go to the fifth district, which could significantly alter the demeanor of the bench there. Koener cited a number of appeals court decisions handed down by the 5th District Court of Appeals in recent years, which have driven insurers crazy. In one of those, Hugh Hicks vs. American Integrity Insurance Co., the court agreed with the plaintiff that a policy that excluded damage from water leaks over a period of 14 or more days provided coverage for the first 13 days of the leak. Insurance attorneys found that line of reasoning to be very difficult to swallow, partly because its impossible to know exactly when the leak occurred. By contrast, the Lakeland-based 2nd District Court of Appeals has made some significant rulings in insurers favor, Koener said. In other districts, insurers also appear to be on something of a winning streak in recent months. An informal count of appeals decisions shows that insurance companies have prevailed in at least seven cases handed down since September. The Supreme Court said an additional court is needed, not only for an expected increase in overall caseload, but also to re-balance the number of judges in districts. One district now has 10 judges while another has 16, the court explained in its opinion. In the 1st DCA, covering the northern part of the state, about a third of the appeals filings come from the Jacksonville area, but only 13% of the appeal courts judges hail from that part of the state, the court said. The configuration proposed in the committees plurality plan would help address this geographical anomaly existing in the current district court system, Chief Justice Charles Canady wrote in the courts opinion. Some lawyers were not sure of the need or what the impact of a new court might be. I was surprised when I read the opinion. Im not sure what to think about it, frankly, said Elaine Walter, a Miami attorney and a director of the Florida Defense Lawyers Association. The court is required by the Florida Constitution to annually certify if theres a need for more or fewer courts and judges in the state. In its opinion posted in November, the court for the first time in more than four decades called for an additional appeals court and a total of 70 appellate judges, statewide. In December, the court revised its opinion and said that due to recent changes in the residency of some judges, the state now needs an additional spot, for a total of 71 judges. Justice Canady also noted in the November opinion that the court expects a significant increase in cases and appeals as the COVID-19 pandemic winds down and businesses and courtrooms fully reopen. Those operational impacts at the trial court level have a direct bearing on the number of appeals filed in the district courts, Canady wrote. An increase in district court workload is anticipated as the trial courts fully return to normal operations. Its now up to the Florida Legislature to decide if it will approve and fund the plan. An additional court could cost at least $1 million per year, just to cover six new judges salaries. Judges are paid almost $170,000 per year. And a new courthouse could prove expensive with the increase in the cost of building materials and labor. Do they need another building, with clerks and security and all that? asked David Langham, the chief workers compensation judge for Florida. He noted that one court building could cost $40 million to construct and furnish. Its uncertain if a new court and more judges will help solve one of Floridas biggest problems the flood of litigation that has arisen from property insurance claims disputes. Insurance industry advocates have repeatedly pointed out that litigated insurance claims in the state have exploded in recent years, leading to huge financial losses in the industry and higher premiums for policyholders, along with a chilling effect on the number of carriers in the state. But its not obvious that those types of cases are driving the need for another appeals court. Data compiled by CaseGlide, a litigation management software maker that tracks insurance litigation, show that litigated insurance claims have increased dramatically at the trial court level, from 16,300 in 2014 to 52,209 in 2020. Assignment-of-benefits cases make up 22% of those, up from 17% in 2014. The firm does not collect data on insurance claims appeals. But the Supreme Courts committee that recommended the additional court district reported that the overall number of appeals of all types has dropped significantly in that time. Appeals court filings in Florida have gone from 23,730 in 2016 to 17,785 in 2020 a 21% decrease. On one hand, more judges could mean faster resolution of cases, which could have the effect of encouraging more litigation, some have said. Others said that faster resolutions would help insurers as much as plaintiffs. It could help remove a bottleneck and move cases through faster, said Julie Nevins, who handles insurance coverage and bad faith cases in Miami. Justice Ricky Polston dissented from the courts certification of the need for more judges. As I explained in my dissent to the majoritys November 24, 2021 opinion, no additional district court of appeal judges are needed. None. Not six. Not seven, Polston wrote. This revised certification makes my point. It is based on where current judges live, not any objective basis of a need for more judges to do the work. The court recommended no more circuit judges and only one additional county court judges in the state. One idea thats been discussed is to set up one appeals court to handle insurance claims cases, much like Floridas 1st District Court of Appeals handles all workers compensation case appeals. I think theres merit in that thought process, said Langham, the comp judge. We ask an awful lot of judges who must hear a wide variety of cases, he added. But having one court that specializes in insurance matters might make things move more expeditiously. Others said such a plan may prove to be impractical and may not help that much. The litigation overload is found more at the trial court level, particularly in South Florida, not at the appeal courts, said David Henry, an insurance defense and third-party litigation lawyer in Fort Lauderdale. Appeals court decisions are often considered to be quite important, because some cases are not appealed to the state Supreme Court, and the high court declines to hear others, leaving the appellate court ruling as the law of the land. One of the most significant Florida workers compensation cases, the Miles vs. City of Edgewater decision by the 1st District Court of Appeals in 2016 allowed claimants to contract with their lawyers to set attorney fees. The case was not reviewed by the high court and continues to have an impact on fees. Florida appears to have more appellate courts and judges than some large states, less than others. Texas, with a similar population, for example, has 14 appeals courts and 80 judges. New York has some 60 judges. California has more than 100 appellate judges. LOUISVILLE, Colo. (AP)Search teams looked for two missing people in the smoldering debris from a massive Colorado wildfire while people who escaped the flames sorted through the charred remnants of their homes to find what was left. Investigators were still trying to determine what caused flames to tear through at least 9.4 square miles (24 square kilometers), leaving nearly 1,000 houses and other buildings torched in suburbs between Denver and Boulder. The inferno broke out last Thursday, unusually late in the year following an extremely dry fall and amid with hardly any snow. Experts say those conditions, along with high winds, helped the fire spread. Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said authorities are pursuing a number of tips and had executed a search warrant at one particular location. The sheriff refused to provide further details on Sunday and didnt comment on whether he thought the fire was arson. Its complicated and its all covered with a foot of snow, Pelle said of the scene where the fire started. The outcome of that investigation is vitalthere is so much at stake. We are going to be professional. We are going to be careful. Rex and Barba Hickman sifted through the ashes of their Louisville home with their son and his wife. Their son Austin cut a safe open with a grinding tool to reveal gold and silver coins, melted credit cards, keys and the charred remains of the couples passports. They had evacuated with their dog, their iPads and the clothes on their back and Rex Hickman said he was heartbroken to discover that there was nothing left of their home of 23 years. Theres a numbness that hits you first. You know, kind of like you go into crisis mode. You think about what you can do, what you cant do, he said. The real pain is going to sink in over time. The couple have to find a rental property and clothes in the short-term and their insurance company told them Sunday it would take at least two years to rebuild their home. We know how fortunate we are, Rex Hickman said. We have each other. We have great friends, wonderful family. So many people have got to be suffering much more than we are, and we feel for them. While homes that burned to the foundations were still smoldering in some places, the blaze was no longer considered an immediate threat _ especially with frigid temperatures and a snowstorm on Saturday. Authorities initially said everyone was accounted for after the fire, but Boulder County spokesperson Jennifer Churchill said the reports of three people missing were later discovered amid the scramble to manage the emergency. One of the missing people was found alive, officials said Sunday. Crews were still looking for a woman with a home in the town of Superior and a man from the nearby community of Marshall. Pelle said their homes were deep in hot debris and covered with snow. It is a difficult task. Other investigators were trying to determine if the missing people might have made it out but did not contact their families or friends, Pelle said. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and federal emergency officials visited some of the damaged neighborhoods Sunday morning. I know this is a hard time in your life if youve lost everything or you dont even know what you lost, Polis said after the tour. A few days ago you were celebrating Christmas at home and hanging your stockings and now home and hearth have been destroyed. Most of the 991 buildings destroyed by the fire were homes. But the blaze also burned through eight businesses at a shopping center in Louisville, including a nail salon and a Subway restaurant. In neighboring Superior, 12 businesses were damaged, including a Target, Chuck E. Cheese, Tesla dealership, a hotel and the town hall. The two towns are about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of Denver and have a combined population of 34,000. The flames stopped about 100 yards (90 meters) from Susan Hills property in Louisville. She slept Saturday night in her home using a space heater and hot water bottles to keep warm because her natural gas service had not been turned back on. She choked up as she remembered seeing the sky change color and recalled nervously fleeing with her college-age son and the dog, cat and a fire box with birth certificates and other documents. I dont even know how to describe it, she said. Its so sad. Its so awful. Its just devastating. About the photo: Snow covers the burned remains of a car after wildfires ravaged the area Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022, in Superior, Colo. Investigators are still trying to determine what sparked a massive fire in a suburban area near Denver that burned neighborhoods to the ground and destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and other buildings. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey) When it comes to leaving their parents for extended periods of time, being homesick is inevitable for some kids. Summer camp staff members may encounter this from time to time and it is good for them to be prepared to comfort children when those types of situations present themselves. International governance of export controls should return to true multilateralism 09:13, January 04, 2022 By Wu Jinhuai ( People's Daily For a long time, export controls, as an important practice for maintaining international security and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, have played a crucial role in safeguarding world peace, stability and development. In recent years, however, certain Western countries have misused export controls as a political tool for their own ends, and even engaged in unilateral export controls under the guise of multilateralism, seriously infringing on the rights of other countries to the peaceful use of controlled items, and to the participation in normal international science and technology exchanges and cooperation. A recently-released white paper titled Chinas Export Controls expounded on the countrys position on export controls as well as its system and practice in improving export control governance, calling on countries to actively promote the implementation of fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory international export controls and make international coordination on export controls better reflect the wishes and interests of the majority of countries in the world in a more balanced manner. It is of great significance for enhancing the role of international export controls as an international tool serving world peace and development and benefiting all mankind. As the COVID-19 epidemic runs riot across the globe, profound changes unseen in a century quicken their pace, and the world has entered a period of turbulence and transformation. At the same time, international export controls have run into severe challenges. The unilateral export control measures adopted by a handful of countries are gradually eroding the current international order based on the international law and increasingly deviating from the original intention of international export controls to serve common security and development. For certain countries represented by the U.S., abusing export control measures has become their tool for achieving political goals in recent years. The U.S. has generalized the concept of national security, and employed its military strength, financial hegemony and advantages in high technology to exert extreme pressure on its so-called enemies and adversaries, and even impose long-arm jurisdiction on third parties, seriously blocking the sustainable development of other countries. By creating a wide variety of export control blacklists, the U.S. has arbitrarily suppressed high-tech companies in other countries, undermining the security and stability of global industrial chain, supply chain, and value chain. It has tried to propagate unilateralism in the name of multilateralism by seeking allies to form cliques and alliances, obstructing normal international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation. The country has even imposed unilateral controls and sanctions on other countries and blatantly interfered in the internal affairs of others on the pretexts of human rights and democracy. International governance of export controls has always been oriented toward promoting common security and development in the world, and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery remains a major issue concerning mankinds survival. Fulfilling international nonproliferation obligations is the bottom line of the international governance of export controls. Countries should continuously assume their international responsibilities strictly and stay true to their relevant commitments in sensitive areas such as nuclear, biological, chemical weapons, and missiles, and jointly crack down on illegal activities. International governance of export controls also needs to keep a balance between global security and development. It should be noted that development is the right of all countries in the world, not a privilege of certain countries and cliques. While fulfilling international nonproliferation obligations, developed countries should fully respect the rights and interests of developing countries as well as their needs to push ahead with national development and improve peoples well-being through the peaceful use of controlled items and scientific and technological advances. Countries, especially developing countries, should enjoy the legitimate and legal rights to the peaceful use of controlled items free from discrimination. Some Western countries should abide by international economic and trade rules, and not link complete civilian objects to fictitious military uses and set up obstacles to normal international scientific and technological exchanges and economic and trade cooperation. They should ensure the safe and smooth operation of the global industrial chain and supply chain, carry out international economic and trade cooperation on the basis of mutual respect and win-win results, and make positive contributions to global sustainable development. The recent white paper on Chinas export controls has demonstrated to the world the countrys firm determination to commit itself to world peace and development and to practice true multilateralism. As it advances wider, broader and deeper opening-up, China, driven by the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, will actively promote the implementation of fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory international export controls together with the international community. (Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming) Sen. Will Haskell, a close ally of Gov. Ned Lamont, stunned colleagues by announcing he will not seek re-election. Haskell, Lamont, and Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz stand together as a ribbon cutting is held to celebrate the new exit 29 off-ramp to the Charter Oak Bridge and I-84 East in May in Hartford. (Kassi Jackson/Kassi Jackson) HARTFORD State Sen. Will Haskell, a rising star in the Connecticut Democratic Party, stunned colleagues Monday by saying he will not seek reelection in order to attend law school full time. Haskell is stepping down because he plans to attend Fordham or New York University, which would require him to spend long hours in Manhattan in pursuit of his law career. Advertisement Haskell, 25, said he is not ruling out a return to politics in Connecticut. When asked if he would run for Congress if Greenwich Democrat Jim Himes retires, Haskell said, Im not closing any doors for the future.' With one more year left in his state Senate term, Haskell said he will be working hard during the upcoming legislative session that begins on Feb. 9 and then will campaign vigorously for his successor in the important 2022 political cycle. Advertisement Haskell burst onto the state political scene at the age of 22 in November 2018 with a major upset of Republican Sen. Toni Boucher of Wilton in a once-heavily Republican district in lower Fairfield County. The district includes the affluent towns of Westport, Weston, Wilton, New Canaan, and Ridgefield. Republicans had held the seat since the 1970s, but the region has gradually changed to the point that Democrat Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump in the district in 2016 by 22 percentage points. In a political year when Republicans already believe they have national momentum going into the mid-term elections, Haskells departure represents a chance for Republicans to regain a long-held seat that has been held briefly four years by a Democrat. The scenario is similar to the Republicans recapture of the 36th Senate district seat that had been held by Greenwich Republicans for decades by L. Scott Frantz, William Nickerson, Mike Morano, Bennie Benvenuto and others. The seat was captured briefly by Senator Alex Kasser, but then Republicans won it back after Kasser stepped down for personal reasons. Greenwich Republican Ryan Fazio won a special election in August and is serving out the remainder of Kassers term. State Republican chairman Ben Proto said he believed the Republicans had a good chance in the district, but the chances have now improved. Much like Alex Kasser did a favor for the folks in the 36th district, Will Haskell did a favor for the folks in the 26th district,' Proto said Monday. Even with full-time hours, state legislators are technically part-time employees with a salary of $28,000 per year. Haskell will now be entering a profession that he has contemplated even before running for office. Finances are definitely part of the decision,' he said in an interview. If Im ever going to go to law school, now feels like the time to do it.' A Westport resident, Haskell became a close political ally of Gov. Ned Lamont, a fellow Fairfield County Democrat. Advertisement My constituents took a chance on me when I was just 22, having freshly graduated from college, Haskell said. And since then, Ive worked tirelessly in Hartford and at home to live up to their trust.' He admits it was a major, bittersweet decision that was not easy. I really love this job,' Haskell said in an interview. When I ran for office, I didnt do it because I thought I was the only or the best person to represent this community. I thought it was time for a change. ... Hopefully, one day, Id love to return to politics.' Haskell is also leaving to be closer to his fiancee, Katie Cion, a recent Harvard Law School graduate and civil rights attorney who will be moving to New York City. Cion and Haskell were laboratory partners in their physics class in high school in 2014 and have maintained a long-distance relationship. I hope my constituents dont see this as goodbye, but more, see you later,' he said. Advertisement Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com Police said Monday that the other victim in that shooting was a teenage girl. Her wounds were not considered life-threatening. (Mike Caudill/The Virginian-Pilot) Police on Monday identified the man who was shot and killed in Newport News on New Years Eve the citys last homicide of 2021. Occoneechee N. Meechee Jr., 24, was taken to the hospital after the Dec. 31 shooting on 32nd Street. He died about an hour later. Advertisement Police said Monday that the other victim in that shooting was a teenage girl. Her wounds were not considered life-threatening. Dispatchers received a call around 8:30 p.m. about gunshots fired in the 1200 block of 32nd Street, off Chestnut Avenue, according to a news release from the Newport News Police. Advertisement The investigation is still underway, and no one has been arrested in the double shooting. Anyone with information call the anonymous Crime Line at 1888-LOCK-U-UP, or submit a tip online at P3Tips.com. Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 4) The petition filed by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi seeking to reopen the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) will unlikely receive a favorable response from the Commission on Elections (Comelec). "Medyo unlikely na mapagbigyan 'yan," Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez told CNN Philippines' Politics as Usual. [Translation: It is unlikely that it will be approved.] Cusi, who heads one of the warring factions of PDP-Laban, asked the Comelec last week to accommodate new COCs so they can field new standard bearers. The ruling party initially fielded Senators Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa and Bong Go as its top aspirants - but both eventually withdrew. The PDP-Laban wing also asked the poll body to delay the printing of the May 2022 ballots due to unresolved cases against aspirants. However, Jimenez stressed many parties will "take advantage" of the reopening. "Magkakaron ka ng panibagong filing, maraming epekto 'yan down the road," he said. [Translation: We will have a new filing, that will have effects down the road.] Jimenez said the request to reopen the COC filing was "unprecedented" and its prospects are unclear. "That will be referred to the commission en banc, and the commission en banc will make the determination whether or not that is something that they would like to allow," he told reporters on Tuesday. "This is a little tricky because there are a lot of issues involved in it. There's a lot of consequences to opening up the COC filing once again," he added. The Comelec en banc will tackle the petition on Jan. 5, Wednesday. In a statement, Lutgardo Barbo, vice chairman of the rival PDP-Laban faction headed by Sen. Manny Pacquiao, claimed Cusi's request is an attempt for a "No-El" or no-election scenario to keep incumbents in power. The filing of candidacies ended on Oct. 8 while substitutions closed on Nov. 15 last year. Poll postponement unlikely Jimenez also shot down a fresh plea from the group National Coalition for Life and Democracy (NCLD) to postpone the May 9 polls to 2025, citing rising COVID-19 cases and the threat of the more contagious Omicron variant. The Comelec sees no reason to postpone the elections, he said. "There will be quarters who will say that they have to postpone the elections. They will come up with all sorts of excuses to make that happen but it's not going to happen," he added. "If you want to postpone the elections, then what you really want to do is to ignore the Constitution." NCLD members filed an urgent request before the Comelec on Tuesday to hear and decide on their proposal, which was first filed in December. Meanwhile, Jimenez said the poll body will stick to its latest campaign rules despite rising infections. The protocols, which would be enforced by Feb. 9 during the official start of the campaign period, limit what candidates can and cannot do depending on the alert level classification in a specific area. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 6) - Transportation Chief Arthur Tugade has been added to the list of government executives now under quarantine after exposure to individuals who tested positive for COVID-19. He joined Tourism Secretary Bernadette Puyat, Health Secretary Francisco Duque, Defense chief Delfin Lorenzana, and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. who have all been under quarantine after being exposed to their infected staff and household members. "Sec. Tugade is currently under isolation po," Transportation Usec. Giovanni Lopez said during a recorded meeting aired Thursday night. Lopez did not mention if the DOTr chief was just exposed or had contracted the virus. Earlier on Thursday, Puyat said she recently was exposed to a COVID-19 positive individual. She added she is already vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19. "I will continue to work from home for the meantime until I get my medical clearance on the 10th day from first exposure," she said in an Instagram post. The other three Cabinet members did not physically attend the weekly meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, but they joined via Zoom. Duque said he's not experiencing any symptoms. In the same meeting, Lorenzana said four of his household members have tested positive for COVID-19. Galvez, on the other hand, said he was exposed to two patients after his office recorded 15 cases. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 4) The Commission on Human Rights stands firm that its provision in the 5.024-trillion budget for 2022 for the establishment of its Human Rights Institutevetoed by President Rodrigo Duterteis in line with its mandate. CHR respectfully maintains that this item appropriation is for the discharge of its constitutional mandate, read CHR Focal Commissioner on Human Rights Promotion Karen Gomez-Dumpits statement on Tuesday, where she also expressed sadness over the development. Dumpit stressed that the institute is a flagship program that allows the CHR to better push forward its mandate under the 1987 Constitution to establish a continuing program of human rights, research, education and information. The Commission, which has been critical of Duterte's deadly war on drugs, launched the institute during Human Rights Day last month. The Institute will not cause additional burden to the government as this will be undertaken with existing resources of the Commission while harnessing its potential for collaboration and partnerships with other institutions and organizations to further support it, said the official, adding the HRI program went through a comprehensive study and review. The Commission will keep pursuing the institutes establishment through further talks with the Department of Budget and Management and with Congress for proposed legislation, she added. While the Presidents veto is disheartening, we view this as an opportunity to press on. We shall continue to pound the walls of impunity to convey the message of human rights straight and across to our people, read the statement. In his veto message published Monday, Duterte said no specific appropriation is provided for the purpose. The creation of an Institute, just like other offices, should be subject to a comprehensive review of the mandate, mission, objectives and functions, systems and procedures, and programs, activities and projects, as well as the corresponding structural, functional, and operational adjustments in an organization, including the necessary staffing and funding requirements, the chief executives message further read. The institute will offer online general and special classes which people in government and the general public alike can partake in. The courses were developed in partnership with academic institutions and with the support of the Asia Foundation, Embassies of New Zealand, Netherlands, and Canada in the Philippines. Also among vetoed items in this years spending program are the exclusion of lands owned by state universities and colleges from the Agrarian Reform Law, the Department of Transportation's gender responsive restroom programs, and the usage of commercial and thrift banks for the Department of Agriculture Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 4) The House of Representatives is currently under lockdown due to the threat of Omicron variant, House Secretary General Mark Llandro Mendoza said on Tuesday. We are currently under lockdown to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant to ensure the safety of our members and House secretariat and employees, he said in a message. We will resume operations next week. Meanwhile, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said there is no need for now to place the Senate on lockdown, but a scheduled hearing tomorrow was suspended. Very few personnel in the Senate since Christmas. No reports (of infection among personnel) so far, Sotto said in a message. Both chambers of Congress are currently on break. Sessions will resume on January 17. Metro Manila is currently under a stricter Alert Level 3 due to the spike in COVID-19 cases and the threat of Omicron variant. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 4) The Health Department is "assuming" there is already a community transmission brought by the Omicron COVID-19 variant as another surge is seen at the end of the month. The potential spike is projected to surpass last year's Delta-driven peak. "We are now assuming that Omicron is in our communities and we are having this transmission within our communities already," Health Usec. Rosario Vergeire told CNN Philippines' The Source on Tuesday. "According to experts in other countries, cases double every two days. That is what we are seeing right now and the assumption is there, Omicron is in our communities already," Vergeire added. The DOH said it still needs definitive evidence before formally declaring an Omicron-driven community transmission in the country. The Health Undersecretary noted that Omicron is eight times more transmissible than the Delta variant. There are 14 Omicron cases already detected in the country, 11 of which are from returning overseas Filipinos, while three are local cases. "For now, we have initial projections which states that at the end of January, cases will peak," Vergeire added, without disclosing figures. Vergeire said the country has a positive two-week growth rate of COVID-19 cases at 222%, with an average daily attack rate or the number of confirmed cases in a certain area or population of 1.07 per 100,000 individuals. In August to September 2021, the country logged as high as over 20,000 new COVID-19 infections mostly driven by the Delta variant. RELATED: Filipinos finally see a glimmer of hope in COVID-19 situation in 2021 OCTA Research Fellow Guido David recently said in Metro Manila alone, COVID-19 is infecting people faster than it did during the Delta variant-driven surge last year. Daily cases could even reach as high as 15,000 soon. The Philippines is currently labeled "high-risk" for COVID-19 due to rising COVID-19 cases. Metro Manila was placed under a stricter Alert Level 3 from January 3 to 15 amid the uptick in COVID-19 cases and the detection of local Omicron variant cases. READ: PH, NCR at high risk again due to rising COVID-19 cases DOH Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 4) The onset of symptoms caused by the Omicron COVID-19 variant may appear earlier than the prescribed five-day incubation period for Delta transmission, the Department of Health said on Tuesday. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told CNN Philippines' The Source that COVID-19 symptoms caused by Omicron may be seen in as early as two to three days. "Based on experience, based on existing evidence, the Omicron variant has a shorter incubation period compared to the other variants of concern," Vergeire pointed out. "If for example with the Delta variant, the average incubation where the symptoms start once you are exposed is about five days, for the Omicron variant, it is shorter or about three days," she explained. "You get exposed today, you might have your symptoms in about two days already." Vergeire added: "The implication would be a lot of cases will be going around without the test and without getting isolated." When should you get tested? The health spokesperson stressed that those who have been exposed to COVID-19 positive patients must usually count at least up to five days before getting tested. However, there is no need to wait any longer if symptoms appear before then. She added that antigen testing is still allowed but it must be taken during the onset of COVID-19 symptom. Using antigen test for screening purposes will only likely produce inaccurate results, she noted. "If you develop symptoms, you can immediately get your test already," Vergeire said. "You do not need to wait for the fifth day because this is when the virus load in your body is very high so that you get accurate results." Vergeire added that if a symptomatic individual gets a negative antigen result, he or she can wait for 48 hours before retesting with antigen or an RT-PCR test. But if one gets a positive antigen result, taking another antigen or a confirmatory RT-PCR test would not be necessary, she also said. "For those using antigen tests, you are symptomatic, use it properly," Vergeire said. "Once your test reveals you are positive, it's positive already. You need to inform your local government so they can properly guide you and manage you because you are sick." Those who yield a positive COVID-19 test result are encouraged to complete their quarantine to reduce transmissions. The Philippines is currently classified as "high-risk" for COVID-19 due to rising cases. Metro Manila was placed under a stricter Alert Level 3 from Jan. 3 to 15 amid the uptick in COVID-19 cases and the detection of local Omicron variant cases. READ: PH, NCR at high risk again due to rising COVID-19 cases DOH Vergeire said she is already assuming a community transmission brought by the Omicron variant due to the exponential increase in cases nationwide. Peak infections are seen to surpass last year's Delta surge by the end of the month, she added. Hampton Police officers investigate a shooting that involved a police officer in the 1000 block of West Mercury Boulevard in Hampton Tuesday January 4, 2022. (Jonathon Gruenke/Daily Press) Hampton A man wielding a baseball bat was shot and seriously wounded by Hampton police Tuesday morning outside a Coliseum-area car dealership after he struck a police sergeant in the head with the bat, police said. Officers responded at 11:04 a.m. to a call about a disorderly subject armed with a bat at Wynne Ford, a dealership in the 1000 block of West Mercury Blvd., said Sgt. Reggie Williams. Advertisement The complainant said that there was a man on the parking lot who had a baseball bat, Hampton Police Chief Mark Talbot said at an afternoon press conference livestreamed by the department. The man was known to the people at the business. Based on their prior interactions, Talbot said, the employees locked the doors of the business, and they retreated to the back of the business where they were out of sight. The female who called us said that she needed us to arrive quickly. She was clearly very afraid. Advertisement The arriving officers spoke with the 30-year-old man, and he refused to put the baseball bat down. After a few minutes, Talbot said, they called for a supervisor, a sergeant with 20 years with the Hampton police. The sergeant began to try to de-escalate, said Talbot, who had reviewed body camera footage from the incident. She spoke to the male in a very calm voice. Trying to encourage him to put down the baseball bat. Over and over again. She made no threats. The man wasnt saying anything in response, Talbot said, but at one point moved the bat in what appeared to be a threatening manner, and then swung the bat and struck the sergeant in the head with the baseball bat. Another Hampton police officer, whos been with the force since 2019, then shot the man. Talbot declined to say how many rounds he fired. Both were injured, severely, Talbot said. Officers performed CPR on the man before Hampton Fire Department medics arrived, Williams said. He was taken to a hospital and was listed in critical condition Tuesday afternoon. The sergeant was being treated at the hospital for injuries that were serious but not considered life-threatening. The female sergeant did her job, Talbot said. And she did it very well and made all of us here proud. Its a tragedy for all involved. Advertisement The chief said he visited the sergeant in the hospital Tuesday afternoon. She said to me, I just wanted everybody to get home safely, including the man with the baseball bat, the chief said. Talbot said the police didnt know if the man was suffering from a mental health crisis, with nothing to indicate he was. The man and the officer who shot him are both Black, and the female sergeant is white, Talbot said. The shooting took place just outside Wynne Fords front entrance, on a six-lane section of Mercury Boulevard that ranks as one of the citys busiest thoroughfares. Shortly after noon on Tuesday, police investigators marked evidence as early afternoon traffic passed about 50 feet away. Other cars pulled through a Wendys restaurant next door. The officers were wearing activated body cameras at the time of the shooting. It was not immediately clear if the Ford dealership had surveillance footage of the incident. Advertisement Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > This is the second time in the past 10 years in which Hampton police shot a man who officers said was threatening them with a bat. In July 2012, police got numerous calls that a man was hitting cars with a bat near Pembroke Avenue and King Street. The man, Bryant Weiford, 26, also struck an unmarked police car at a traffic light. Two officers shot and killed Weiford after they said he charged at them with the bat. Hampton Commonwealths Attorney Anton Bell ruled the shooting justified in 2013, citing Virginia case law that a baseball bat is a deadly weapon, and saying that Weiford was an immediate threat. At the time, Rudy Langford, the now-late leader of the Coalition for Justice for Civil Rights, questioned why deadly force was used, and fought unsuccessfully for a special grand jury to be empaneled. A psychiatric report for Weiford 2009 sentending in a malicious wounding case said had a nine-year history of mental illness. In Mondays shooting, Talbot said the case would be thoroughly reviewed for policies and procedures, and that Bell would rule on whether the shooting was legally justified. The officers are on administrative leave with pay while the investigation proceeds. Reporter Lyndon German contributed to this report. Advertisement Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 4) Philippine National Police chief PGEN Dionardo Carlos has tested positive for COVID-19, he announced Tuesday. Last Sunday evening, I subjected my close-in security, staff, and myself to RT-PCR tests due to reports of fever and chills experienced by my White House personnel, the nations top cop told reporters. Unfortunately, I too, tested positive including my duty driver and aide who were with me in the van Sunday morning, he added. Carlos further explained that he experienced fever, chills, and sweating on Sunday evening. By Monday, only his lower back pains remained. The PNP on Tuesday reported 107 new COVID-19 cases, pushing their total infections to date to 42,370. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 4) The Philippine National Police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has filed a complaint against the so-called "Poblacion girl" and eight others for allegedly violating the government's quarantine protocols. The CIDG lodged the complaint before the Makati City Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday. Social media went abuzz in the past couple of days after reports of a coronavirus-positive woman skipping quarantine surfaced. According to officials, the person identified as Gwyneth Anne Chua was supposed to undergo isolation at a Makati hotel, but instead managed to visit the city's Poblacion area where she attended gatherings. Several of her contacts have also caught COVID-19, authorities said. RELATED: 7 close contacts, 1 secondary contact of 'Poblacion girl' positive for COVID-19 DILG Chua's parents, boyfriend, and some hotel staff were also named in the complaint. The CIDG said there was accountability on the part of Chua's loved ones for "tolerating" and not reporting the action. The CIDG cited violations of sections of Republic Act No. 11332, or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act. In an earlier statement, it said that the respondents failed to comply with the following: quarantine/isolation order or directive duly issued by a public health authority, and terms and conditions of the quarantine or isolation order issued by such. Bribery, other angles Asked about possible bribery, the CIDG said these reports would still have to be investigated. "Sa ngayon, 'yun ay mga impormasyon na nais naming i-patuloy ang masusing pag-iimbestiga. Para [kung] may mga perang dumaan sa kamay ng mga taong involved dito sa ating pagi-imbestiga, ay mapatawan din ng kaukulang kaso," PNP CIDG Director MGen. Albert Ferro said in a press conference. [Translation: For now, those are information that we would still like to thoroughly investigate. If money was involved in the incident, then those involved would face the appropriate cases.] Ferro added they would still have to look into the angle of the parties having an accomplice. He said based on initial evidence, authorities did not see whether Chua spoke to other employees, except for those at the front desk. The CIDG reminded the public to continue following COVID-19 measures or face the consequences of their actions. "We are in a nation of laws, and we will allow the process of law to run its course," Ferro stressed. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 4) Those experiencing mild symptoms of COVID-19 should consider availing of telemedicine services instead of rushing to hospitals to prevent another congestion, the Health Department advised on Tuesday. Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire told CNN Philippines' The Source that anyone can avail of the government's telemedicine services in coordination with accredited providers so patients can manage their cases at home. "What we have observed for these past days, people are flocking to emergency rooms. Kaya sinasabi ng mga ospital napupuno, dahil ang daming tao nagpapanic sila, nasa ER sila (That's why hospitals are saying that they are filling up, because so many people are panicking in the ER)," she said. "If you are just feeling mild symptoms, we can do telemedicine," Vergeire said. "May mga doktor tayo dyan at ito ay may (We have doctors and this comes with a) Philhealth benefit package na ibibigay so it can be readily accessible to everybody." Treatment czar Leopoldo Vega also told New Day that home isolation "is a very important intervention in terms of lowering or decreasing the transmission." Both Vega and Vergeire said the government is helping hospitals stockpile medicines as well as increase beds and other equipment amid the exponential rise in COVID-19 cases. Vergeire said that the country's hospital utilization rate is still below 50%, but a potential peak in COVID-19 cases is expected by the end of the month. "What we would like to pursue further is to intensify our prevention, detection, and isolation for these positive patients and definitely also for the compliance of the minimum health standards for this is the only way that we can lessen the transmission, and we hope that the assumptions of three to four weeks from now won't be materialized," Vega also noted. As stated in its website, the Department of Health has listed eight vetted third-party telemedicine service providers such as TelAventusMD, SeeYouDoc, MedCheck, TeliMed, and KonsultaMD, among others as of December 2021. Details are available here. The Office of the Vice President's Bayanihan e-Konsulta program, its free teleconsultation initiative for outpatient cases, is also available via Messenger. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 5) President Rodrigo Duterte made an appeal to the Philippine Catholic Church to cancel all physical gatherings related to this years celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene. Duterte made the statement amid rising COVID-19 cases and the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the country. I am now appealing to you to forego and cancel all physical gatherings including the procession and the celebration of mass... There are millions of devotees there and you cannot just be complacent about the transmission of the disease, he said in his weekly address aired Tuesday night. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also made the same appeal, noting that devotees may consider commemorating the occasion at home to prevent further transmission of the COVID-19 virus. The President apologized, saying he has to make the appeal upon the advice of government officials and health experts. The annual grand procession called Traslacion usually gathers millions of Filipino devotees who want to participate in the transfer of the venerated image of the Black Nazarene from the Quirino Grandstand to Quiapo Church. However, the COVID-19 pandemic is necessitating a different way to celebrate this revered tradition. In November 2021, the Manila local government announced the procession will again be postponed in 2022. Instead, other activities like a motorcade in select areas in the city may be conducted. Selbyville artist Angela Pierce is featured in the Spotlight Gallery at the Ocean City Center for the Arts in January. The Art League of Ocean City and a local writers' group are also partnering for a collaborative exhibit, which debuts on First Friday, Jan. 7. at the OCCA. The Coastal Point is a local newspaper published each Friday and distributed in the Bethany Beach, South Bethany, Fenwick Island, Ocean View, Millville, Dagsboro, Frankford, Selbyville, Millsboro, Long Neck and Georgetown, Delaware areas. Penn State freshman Grant McDermott unexpectedly died on Dec. 28 at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, according to his obituary in the Bucks County Courier Times. McDermott (freshman-mechanical engineering) was 19 years old and grew up in Holland, Pennsylvania before attending Penn State's main campus. Our university family is deeply saddened to learn about the death of Grant McDermott," a university spokesperson said. "Our thoughts are with his family and friends as we offer our heartfelt condolences on this unexpected and painful loss." At Penn State, McDermott was a member of the University Park Undergraduate Association's First-Year Council. "Grant lit up every room he was in, always bringing a genuine, caring presence. From his first day on this campus, he looked to support and uplift those around him," UPUA said in a statement. "We are deeply saddened by this news, and we send our love to his family and friends. We love and miss him dearly." On Thursday, McDermotts family will receive condolences beginning at 10 a.m. at St. Bede the Venerable Church in Holland, according to his obituary, and the funeral mass will follow at noon. Masks will be required for attendees. His family said contributions in his memory can be made to PALS Programs here. PALS Programs is a nonprofit in Bucks County that seeks to create "immersive experiences" for young adults with Down syndrome, according to its website. As a PALS volunteer, McDermott participated in over seven programs and was known for his welcoming personality and supportive nature, according to the Give Lively donation website. MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE Penn State continues weekly testing for unvaccinated students during spring semester Penn State announced the university will continue to require weekly testing for students who Are you a current print subscriber to Columbia Gorge News? If so, you qualify for free access to all content on columbiagorgenews.com. Simply verify with your subscriber id to receive free access. Your subscriber id may be found on your bill or mailing label. Tree limb crashes through Hampton Police search and rescue truck In Hampton, a falling tree struck a police search and rescue truck on Beach Road as officers drove down the street to check for flooding. The officers sustained only minor injuries from the broken glass. During Mondays storm in Hampton, a falling tree hit a police search and rescue truck as two officers drove along Beach Road to check for flooding. The Hampton Police Division posted a photo on Facebook showing a large tree limb stuck in the shattered windshield, inches from where one officer was seated. Advertisement The tree fell into the vehicle at about 11 a.m., just south of the Grandview Nature Preserve. It stopped before it hit them, quipped Hampton Police spokesman Cpl. Ernest Williams. Two of our officers had a close call with a falling tree during todays storm, the departments Facebook post said. Were thankful they walked away with only minor injuries from glass. Use extra caution when traveling today! Advertisement Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 319-334-2557 or email legals@bulletinjournal.com. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 319-352-3334 or email legals@waverlynewspapers.com. Snow plows push snow to the side of northbound Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. Hundreds of motorists were stranded on Monday, after a winter storm snarled traffic in Virginia and left some drivers stuck in place for nearly 24 hours in freezing temperatures along an impassable stretch of Interstate 80 south of the nation's capital. (TRISTAN LOREI/AP) Keith Ebert spent his 75th birthday Tuesday morning in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Interstate 95 surrounded by ice, snow and flashing taillights. Ebert was among the hundreds of drivers stuck for more than 15 hours others 24-plus along a 50-mile stretch of highway after Mondays winter storm brought heavy snowfall that contributed to a series of vehicle crashes that left the busy corridor impassible. Advertisement Although its been a birthday to remember for Ebert, being stuck on a highway for 15 hours without moving is totally inexcusable. As a rule, we dont like traveling on 95 because of the bad reputation, he said. But they were not very prepared for this at all. Advertisement Clearing portions of interstates 64 and 95 of snow and debris will be a multiday effort, according to Virginia Department of Transportation officials. Several tractor-trailers jackknifed along I-95, bringing traffic in both directions to halt Monday and VDOT officials said Tuesday they are actively detouring motorists who are now on I-95 between Caroline County and Prince William County. We are actively detouring motorists who are now on I-95 between Caroline County & Prince William County. https://t.co/nhfu7HWpC3 VDOT (@VaDOT) January 4, 2022 Ebert and his wife, Joanne, were traveling back to York County from her mothers funeral two weeks ago. After spending time with their extended family over Christmas and New Years, the two left around 8:50 a.m. Monday. The first hairy part was right around Washington, D.C. on I-95 because the roads werent even plowed, Keith Ebert told The Pilot. There were really large piles of snow in each lane about 5 to 6 inches tall. Growing up in New England, Joanne Ebert said the two of them knew snow, and judged the weather wasnt bad enough to stop their 2022 Honda CRV from making it home. But the couple got off I-95 and headed toward Route 1 to avoid the upcoming traffic. We were going pretty well, then all of a sudden, it started getting backed up again, said Joanne Ebert, 70. I told my husband I bet you money were not the only ones that were on I-95 that got off it. So we ended up in Route 1 south in gridlock again. For two hours, the couple traveled along Route 1 and back roads before they decided to look for a place to stay around 11 p.m., Joanne Ebert said. We stopped at a Hampton Inn but in the area that we were in they had no power. They were nice enough to let us use the bathroom, she said. But we just had to get back in our car and figure out what were gonna do. So long story short, we ended up getting gas and back on I-95. Back on the interstate the two traveled at a snails pace. Luckily, they had enough snacks and water to last the 12- to 15-hour delay. Although the two tried not to drink anything to avoid another off-road detour. Advertisement While the Eberts traveled south, 27-year-old Keith Teague was headed from North Carolina toward his home in Fairfax in his 2010 Mazda when traffic came to a standstill. The normally 8-hour trip turned into a 13-hour ordeal. Teague was travelling alone but said he got to know his neighbors since they were all stuck together. This morning and late last night once we all realized were not going anywhere people started to share, Teague said. I got to know my neighbors, in the cars around me and see if they need anything because I did have food and some water. We were just shooting the breeze. Teague, who previously lived in Hampton Roads, had finished a hunting trip in North Carolina and had plenty of of supplies to spare and ways to keep warm. Before Virginia State Police and emergency crews were on scene, he even helped the driver of an 18-wheeler dig the snow out from around the truck so the driver could get on his way. Advertisement Other than that a few snow plows that passed by during the day, Teague said there wasnt a heavy presence of police officers or VDOT officials in either direction. Although he was frustrated that he was still stuck Tuesday morning, he said he doesnt blame emergency crews for the severe delay. Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > People are going to blame VDOT, but I can only imagine how many tractor trailers were stuck and how many cars ran out of gas, Teague said. Slow but steady progress at the I-95 109 mm emergency crossover in #Caroline Co. being made with getting traffic moving again. #VSP & @VaDOTFRED crews continue our nonstop efforts to safely free stranded motorists & clear abandoned vehicles thru the 40-mile stretch of I-95. @VDEM pic.twitter.com/AmqcWCmLfV VA State Police (@VSPPIO) January 4, 2022 Virginia State Police responded to more than 2,000 calls for service across the state during Mondays storm, excluding those stuck on I-95. . People are going to blame who they want to blame but its freaking weather, Teague said. Theres a lot of stuff that we just cant control about it so dont rail on them too hard. Although they were traveling in opposite directions, the two motorists managed to weather the storm. Both Teague and the Eberts reached their destinations around noon Tuesday. I guess the only thing you can say is that you can be upset, but nothing can you do about it, Joanne Ebert said. You just have to have patience and go with it and pray. Advertisement Weve been doing a lot of praying, her husband echoed. Lyndon German, frederick.german@virginamedia.com Corsicana, TX (75110) Today Windy this morning with a few isolated thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 86F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 30%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early followed by scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 72F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Submit Community News Bhats data compilation - The Chronicle of Communal incidents in the Coastal Districts of Karnataka - based on the communal incidents reported on media, observes that of the 120 incidents, 33 were moral policing by Hindu vigilante groups and 4 by Muslim vigilante groups. (Representational Image/PTI) Mangaluru: Latest data shows that the number of communal incidents, particularly moral policing, has increased in Coastal Karnataka. According to Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum, Coastal Karnataka (Udupi and DK districts), witnessed over 120 communal incidents in 2021. This is the highest in the last four years. "This year cases of moral policing have increased notably. I feel this is a move by the saffron outfits to put pressure on the government to bring the Anti-Conversion Law in the state," said Suresh Bhat, member of Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum and PUCL Mangaluru. Bhats data compilation - The Chronicle of Communal incidents in the Coastal Districts of Karnataka - based on the communal incidents reported on media, observes that of the 120 incidents, 33 were moral policing by Hindu vigilante groups and 4 by Muslim vigilante groups. Interestingly, the number of cattle vigilantisms has decreased from 25 in 2020 to 11 in 2021. Bhat has compiled some of the major incidents reported by the media under heads like moral policing, incidents related to allegations of religious conversion, cattle vigilantism, hate speech, desecration of places of worship and other communal incidents. "Members of the Muslim community are being attacked alleging that they are involved in Love Jehad. Christians are targeted alleging they are involved in conversion. Saffron outfits want to make their point that there is a need for anti-conversion law through such incidents. This could be the reason for the increase (in such crimes)," he added. One of the first moral policing incidents of 2021 was in Puttur, on January 14, where saffron outfit activists disrupted a birthday party at a cafe that was attended by boys and girls of different communities. Within a month, a similar incident was reported at Mudipu near Mangaluru on February 3, wherein Hindu vigilantes questioned and attacked a Muslim boy for accompanying a Hindu girl. Of the more controversial cases reported over the last year, Mangaluru city police arrested six persons in connection to another moral policing incident at Surathkal on November 16. A female student had requested her collegemate to drop her at her house in an apartment near the college. When the boy and girl had reached the apartment, a group of about 5-6 youths waylaid them and started questioning. Moral policing by the Muslim vigilante too has been recorded by the Forum. Bhats compilation mentions an incident where a group of five Muslim youths attacked two boys for allegedly talking to a woman of their faith. Although most of the moral policing incidents happened on the lines of religion, the data also mentions that religious vigilantism, in general, has also seen a rise in the state. One of the important incidents was reported at Karkala in September, where activists of Hindu Jagarana Vedike barged into a Christian prayer centre, alleging that religious conversion was happening at an event. In another incident, a person allegedly distributing Christian religious literature to the public was stopped by saffron outfit members and handed over to police in Mangaluru in October. In this context, the annual 'Trishul Deeksha' program organised by Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts had drawn flak from the public after photos of youth with saffron shawls holding trishul and taking the oath to protect the society from love jihad, terrorism made rounds on social media. I've already been to some live sporting events. Yes, I plan on attending several events. I may go to one or two. I like sports but I doubt it. I'm not into sports. Vote View Results Humans are simultaneously the biggest source of strength and the perennial weak point in any security program. The leadership of security includes things like awareness campaigns, advising and training in the wake of incidents, and doing user experience reviews on things like phishing tools to reduce the threat to the company. For all of that, sometimes the tools and processes that we surround our teams and our organization with can be difficult to operate. The same security engineers and architects who often drive fantastic threat reduction may struggle to effectively adopt the end-user perspective as the products and technical flows or integrations are realized. Often, it is not until something triggers a security review in the business that these fracturing points surface. Vet processes for human execution Completing a security review for a business can have a lot of drivers. A technology or operations review could be driven by an internal or external audit. A supplier review could drive a fresh look for whether a new burden or commitment from the business or from the security team is created. At Avanade, I had the chance to lead a multi-level team across multiple continents to serve customers around the globe. During a season where the team was handling multiple audits for one of our customer-facing commitments, we came to an abrupt realization: For some reason, my team was only capturing formally some of those reviews we were involved in at the company. For some reviews, documentation was airtight and could be easily referenced. The feedback emails were in the hands of upstream teams, and the risk readiness was excellent and part of the next scheduled business discussion. In other cases, stakeholders were languishing, and the clock was ticking on business related deliverables that needed security insight to determine whether to agree to a contract or add new controls in the business to compensate for new risk. When we surveyed business partners involved in these reviews, we often found a common thread: The people involved didnt know either how to execute the process or how to complete the outcome documents/communications involved with their part of security reviews. We realized as a team that even as our businesss next generation of alignment and support for global teams, and our customers lie in machine learning or artificial intelligence, the business is still operated by people. We had missed the human communication/experience audit to ensure that the humans could reliably participate in review. Six Sigma to the rescue? The security team must vet processes for human execution. Does the team know which conditions trigger the process? Are there processes that have a different start and can fall back to or get escalated to this process? What goes in? What comes out? Originating in the manufacturing space, the Six Sigma methodology provides tools to improve the capability of business processes. Early applications of process defects in the 1920s by Walter Shewhart demonstrated that processes can function within a certain amount of variation but on average there was only about three standard deviations from the ideal state to the upper and lower bounds of what could be acceptable at that point the process requires correction. Later refinements by Bill Smith at Motorola in the 1980s gave rise to the methods that we are more familiar with today to create high-reliability processes and remove defects. In real-world day-to-day business, we must balance methods to manage quality with the real-world impact of doing checks, documenting outcomes, using that documentation, etc. Not to mention its often difficult to document in a dynamic fast-paced environment the specific statistics for how our security processes are operating, to define what the bounds of acceptable become. As a result, Six Sigma tools are often perceived as overbuilt for security teams operating in a lean oriented environment, yet the lessons and specific tools from six sigma disciplines can offer a guide to improving broken processes. In our case, we realized that a building a review tool -- like a SIPOC diagram -- could be adapted to help look at individual processes. The benefit is that building such a diagram not only validates that the process is likely to work, the documentation created also provides a common reference for how to run parts of the security team that interact with outside organizations. What is SIPOC? SIPOC is an acronym that represents the key elements to help analyze the security process. IDG As a security design tool, helping teams think through the rigor of incident response processes, and sub processes using SIPOC ensured we had planned for how different processes interact. We knew what we needed from incident teams, we could ask the business to bring certain things to the table for an architecture review, or an incident report, or whatever other kind of process we needed to build. As we built more experience with the tool, we realized that we needed to capture the inventory of communications that we expect during the process or at the processs start and end. We might also need a list of assets that had to be built or exist to make repeatably delivering the security process possible. We also needed to build that into a common way of depicting this information on a single slide. In our simplistic example below, we used the making of tea, but with a little imagination, any security leader can see the clarity this kind of tool has the potential to generate. What needs to be ready for a crisis response call? What gets generated? What are the triggers? Who consumes the data that comes out of it? Who needs to be a part of it? With really low effort, the team can check the process viability and have a shared view of what such key security processes require to be completed reliably in the business. IDG Building consistency doesnt have to be hard Frameworks abound in information security and the larger IT disciplines. Attempting to implement them completely, tools like Six Sigma can become overwhelming and drive just as much distraction as they build value. As a key maturity accelerator, security leaders can borrow individual assets such as SIPOC to enhance communication, speed reliability, and support the humans in the business, without committing to adopting every possible element of the discipline. Building consistency and quality does not have to be hard or expensive. However, todays leader has to ensure that the security interlock with the people executing the business is as clear as possible. Sometimes that means reaching outside the security discipline to tools which will enhance the risk management outcomes. Michelle Troconis Attorney Jon Schoenhorn speaks to the media after representing Michelle Troconis, right, in Stamford Superior Court Stamford in connection to charges in the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos. Friday, August 28, 2020, in Stamford, Conn. Michelle Troconis, the former girlfriend of Fotis Dulos, faces conspiracy to commit murder and evidence tampering charges in connection with the disappearance and presumed death of Jennifer Dulos. This case predates the start of the pandemic with Troconis first charged in June 2019 one week after the New Canaan mother of five vanished with evidence tampering and hindering prosecution. Troconis was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in early January 2020, weeks before the pandemic hit in Connecticut. Fotis Dulos was charged at the same time with murder and kidnapping, but died by suicide several weeks afterward. State police investigators accused Troconis of being with Fotis Dulos when he threw out bags in trash bins in Hartfords North End the night of the disappearance, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Some of those bags were later recovered and state police investigators said they found evidence linked to Jennifer Dulos, records show. In video excerpts of a state police interview, released as part of court filing by her attorney, Troconis told investigators she had nothing to do with the disappearance. Troconis has remained free on more than $2 million bail, but her movements have been monitored by a GPS device. Troconis attorney, Jon Schoenhorn, and the state are arguing a litany of pre-trial motions that range from requests for certain material to the truthfulness of state police investigators in arresting documents, records show. Troconis is scheduled to appear in Stamford Superior Court next on Feb. 15. 99 cent introductory offer Includes everything we offer online for 24-7 news. This option allows you to read unlimited stories at ctnewsonline.com, and access our e-Edition (digital replicate of the daily newspaper). $7.99 per month after the introductory offer. This service comes with a complimentary CT Select Card allowing for local discounts. Rates are subject to change. New state Comptroller Natalie Braswell and the leaders of the General Assemblys Labor Committee launched a $34 million relief program Monday for essential workers affected by the coronavirus. The program, which is accepting applications through July 20, covers lost wages, out-of-pocket medical expenses and burial costs tied to COVID-19 and incurred between March 10, 2020 and July 20, 2021. Frontline workers made immense sacrifices to keep our state functioning during the pandemic, said Braswell, who became the states chief fiscal guardian last week when Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo retired due to illness. This relief program represents an opportunity to return the favor, offering critical financial assistance to workers who contracted COVID-19. The program is open to hospital workers, first-responders, grocery store workers, bus drivers, corrections employees and others who could not work remotely and maintained vital services during the pandemic. Full details are available online at www.ctessentialworkerrelief.org The relief effort was sparked by surging caseloads in the states Workers Compensation program, which hovered around 200,000 during the worst of the pandemic, according to Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, and Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, co-chairwomen of the Labor and Public Employees Committee. Lawmakers agreed to use $34 million from last fiscal years budget surplus to launch the relief program. And while both Porter and Kushner said theyre confident it will help thousands of households, they also said it cant alleviate all of the fiscal distress the coronavirus placed on these households. Is it enough? Absolutely not, Porter said. But a little bit goes a long way. We posted signs of thanks, called essential workers heroes - Im sure it was appreciated, but it simply wasnt enough, Kushner said. Essential workers can apply to recover a portion of the wages they lost. Benefits also can cover medical or burial expenses for an essential worker or another from that workers household who contracted COVID-19. Benefits will be provided on a first-come-first-served basis, and both Porter and Kushner conceded the program funds might be exhausted before all eligible applicants receive some relief. The benefit for replacing lost wages is capped at $1,446, which Braswell said reflects the average weekly earnings in Connecticut. Replacement of burial expenses is capped at $3,000 per applicant. There are no income eligibility requirements. But lawmakers said they hope that highly paid essential workers such as a hospital surgeon would not seek assistance unless they are in financial distress. I would hope that the people who really dont need it wont apply, Porter said. The program was envisioned to assist households that are struggling to pay their medical expenses or provide basic household needs because of exposure to the coronavirus, Kushner said. Were really looking at the folks who did not have these protections, she added. Senior counsel MRK Chowdary, representing the petitioner, on Monday argued that the CBI had arrayed his client as accused without having any evidence. The counsel refuted the contention of CBI that the officer had rejected the renewal application of Ambuja Cements Ltd, only to sanction the same to Raghuram Cements. DC Image Hyderabad: Justice Ujjal Bhuyan of Telangana High Court on Monday reserved orders in the quash petition filed by B. Kripanandam, who was a secretary for industries in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. He sought deletion of his name from the CBI case related to YS Jagan Mohan Reddys quid pro quo cases. He was one of the accused in the matter related to allotment of mining lease to Raghuram Cements. The CBI alleged that he had acted in a partisan manner in allotting the limestone mining lease to the Raghuram Cements ( Jagan's company). Senior counsel MRK Chowdary, representing the petitioner, on Monday argued that the CBI had arrayed his client as accused without having any evidence. The counsel refuted the contention of CBI that the officer had rejected the renewal application of Ambuja Cements Ltd, only to sanction the same to Raghuram Cements. A Stratford man who prosecutors say was part of a Connecticut auto theft ring and once used a stolen Porsche to ram another vehicle during a pursuit was sentenced Monday to four years in prison on a federal charge of transporting a stolen vehicle. Christopher Chucky Mulkern will also face three years of supervised release at the conclusion of his prison sentence, the U.S. attorneys office said in a statement. Mulkern pleaded guilty on April 30 to a single count of transportation of a stolen vehicle. The office said investigations into Connecticut car theft rings by the FBI and state and local police revealed that Mulkern and others have stolen numerous motor vehicles, a news release said. Those vehicles were then used to travel throughout the state and region to steal other vehicles and valuables inside including credit cards, cellular telephones, and firearms. Mulkern and others would go to upper middle class neighborhoods where they would go car-checking or jigging checking car doors to see if they were unlocked to steal the car or anything inside. Once the thieves take the cars, they sell, trade or pawn any items of value found in the cars and sell or rent the stolen cars to other criminals, the release said. Mulkern was arrested in Bridgeport on Dec. 2, the day after federal state and local authorities claim he stole a Porsche Panamera from a home in Westport with another man, Edwin Cordero, who has since also pleaded guilty to the same charge. The U.S. attorneys office said the car was located by police in Westerly, R.I., around midnight, but evaded law enforcement by driving at speeds of at least 86 mph between Connecticut and Rhode Island, forcing police to call off the pursuit. Hours later, the car was used to steal a Dodge Challenger from a home in Milford, officials said. Later in the evening of Dec. 2, 2020, Stratford police attempted to stop the car with Mulkern behind the wheel and Cordero as a passenger. During the pursuit, Mulkern rammed a car stopped at a red light at an intersection, drove up on the sidewalk and through the red light, and then struck a second vehicle, causing the second vehicle to flip onto its roof, the release said. Authorities claim Mulkern then drove the damaged Porsche into Bridgeport on Interstate 95, and he and Cordero were taken into custody trying to enter a stolen Audi A4 parked on Gregory Street. Inside the Audi police found multiple cell phones as well as key fobs to other stolen vehicles including the Dodge Challenger, which was later recovered. Cordero has not yet been sentenced. The U.S. Attorneys office said both have agreed to pay restitution to the owners of at least seven vehicles they stole and/or damaged. Mulkern has been in custody since his arrest, the office said. Cullman, AL (35055) Today Some sunshine with a thunderstorm or two possible this afternoon. High 86F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party National President JP Nadda will visit Hyderbad Tuesday to attend a candlelight rally to protest against the arrest of BJP Telangana state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar. "BJP President JP Nadda will participate in Candlelight Rally in Hyderabad on January 4 at 5 PM in the protest of the illegal arrest of BJP Telangana President Bandi Sanjay Kumar. Rally is organised from Mahatma Gandhi statue, Secunderabad, to Paradise X Roads," tweeted BJP Telangana. Kumar was arrested by Karimnagar police on Sunday evening during a protest. He was then sent to 14-day judicial remand by the Karimnagar court on Monday. The arrest came after Kumar was taken into custody by police while he was holding a protest in Karimnagar. Earlier, Nadda had called the arrest of Kumar as the "murder of Democracy." "The arrest of Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay is highly condemnable and amounts to the murder of democracy. He was peacefully staging a protest following all COVID protocols in his office. Police forcibly entered his office & manhandled him," said Nadda. "K Chandrashekar Rao government has gone mad seeing BJP's victory in recent bypolls and the support that our party is receiving in the state. We will take all legal and democratic recourse against the police action," he added. As the new year begins, its the perfect season to pick up a new book or revisit an old favorite. With the cold weather, theres no better time to wrap yourself in your best blanket and immerse yourself in a good story. Some of the best places to find these stories are right here in Eugene. Inside each of these bookstores are staff with friendly faces and shelves full of just about any book you could possibly imagine. What better way to kick off 2022 than by supporting a local business and treating yourself to a new book? Although every bookstore in Eugene deserves a superlative, these five make up the best classic, grassroots, used, comics and underrated bookstores in the city. Best classic store: J. Michaels Books J. Michaels Books has been an independently owned staple of the Eugene community since 1975. In 2017, it earned a spot on Huffington Post's list of the top 50 indie bookstores in the United States. Its easy to spot from the outside, with its green canopy promising fine books. The best thing about the store is the curated stock. You wont find any junk here. I have larger sections of architecture, photography and literature, Jeremy Nissel, the store owner, said. Condition is really important to what we buy. Used books are fairly close to new condition for the most part and we also sell collectable books and we have a great selection of new books as well. In J. Michaels, you can always find the most beautiful display of both new and used, classic and contemporary books. This is accompanied by a peacefully quiet atmosphere, surrounded by a warm and welcoming environment to stroll about the store, which seems to have the magical ability to grow larger the further back you go. Im not super huge on bookstores, but I do really like this one, Sofia Cruz, a UO sophomore, said. Its super classy and makes me feel like I could read all of the books they have for sale here. J. Michaels is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and sells through an online store as well. It also buys books Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment. J. Michaels is located at 160 East Broadway Street. Best grassroots store: Tsunami Books A gem of south Eugene, Tsunami Books is instantly recognizable by its beautiful mural of Hokusais The Great Wave and a painted arrangement of different notable books representing each season of the year, which was done by local artist Emily Poole, displayed outside of the store. Oftentimes, there may be a small stage in the corner of the store, complemented by the rows of books. They host a number of in-person and virtual community events, including book signings, concerts and other events. The store is always full of vibrant life, and you never know if youll run into your favorite author or stumble into a poetry slam on your way to pick up a new used book. The Sunday before UO started its winter term the store was bustling with students perusing the stores unique selection. We had a building full of returning students yesterday. Ive never seen so many, Scott Landfield, an owner of the store, said. The stock just reflects who we are in relation to a good community. It is small and select. For the next event on Jan. 6, Paul Safar will be performing on the stores baby grand piano something every great bookstore has at least one of from 6 to 6:30 p.m., as the second installment of First Thursdays with Paul (and friends). While the event is free, all tips will be given to the Burrito Brigade, a nonprofit that serves free vegan meals to the hungry around Eugene, Springfield and Portland. Tsunami Books is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays through Saturdays and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. You can also shop from them online. The store is located at 2585 Willamette street. Best used books store: Smith Family Bookstore One of the oldest independent bookstores in Oregon, Smith Family Bookstore is truly a palace of wonders for any literature fan. With two floors, six rooms and an aisle for just about any genre, its easy to spend hours getting lost between the pages there. Whether youre looking for poetry or dissertations, horror or romance, novels or screenplays, chances are that Smith Family Bookstore has it. Im really glad that I discovered this store. Its super cool, and they have a great selection of anarchist literature, customer Orion White said. White, who recently moved to Eugene, also added that the Smith Family made the city more homely. Having been around since 1974, Smith Family Bookstore can be found in one of the oldest buildings in Eugenes Market District, making it a perfect stop on an afternoon shopping trip. Its also an excellent and affordable place for UO students to search for used textbooks. We are one of the largest bookstores in the Pacific Northwest with a lot of varied stock. We are, I think, an undiscovered treasure, Joe Pettit, manager of internet book sales, said. Weve been here for 30 to 40 years, and we have stock from all time periods with comprehensive selections in history and psychology among others. We just have a great selection. Smith Family Bookstore is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Book buying hours are by appointment only, and there is an extensive online collection. The store is located across from the Post Office at 525 Willamette street. Best comic store: Books with Pictures Comics and graphic novels are still emerging as a serious form of literature for all ages and demographics, and theres no better place to find them than Books with Pictures. Books with Pictures sells brand new comics ranging from the superheroes of Marvel and DC to manga and local indie works. On the outside, its a quirky store that sits on the corner of West Broadway and on the inside, a well lit and well organized wonderland of graphics. They surely live up to their slogan, Comics for everyone. The sister to a Portland store by the same name, Books with Pictures works to create an inclusive environment for groups of people who have often been left out of comic book spaces, such as women, People of Color and members of the LBGTQ+ community. The store is a safe space for anyone with an interest in comics and graphic novels to be met with a friendly face and the ability to browse the shelves in peace. It's really neat that we have a comic shop in Eugene, especially one that doesnt try to gatekeep comics, long time comics fan Riley Watkins said. Books with Pictures is open from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Theyre located at 99 W Broadway Suite C (conveniently down the street and around the corner from Voodoo Doughnut). Best underrated store: Second Hand Prose Second Hand Prose is run by the nonprofit volunteer organization Friends of the Eugene Public Library. The Friends mission is to raise money for the librarys projects and programs through selling second hand books hence the name of the store and fosters a love of reading in the community. Not only do they provide an affordable resource for literature, but all of their profits go directly to the Eugene Public Library. The cozy library store has table rows full of expertly organized books, featuring a wonderful display to peruse through. Truly a bookstore with a heart of gold, here you can find yourself an excellent book and support an excellent cause. Second Hand Prose is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. Since they keep their browsing capacity small, they also have an online selection. The store is located at the Eugene Public Library, 100 W 10th avenue. Whether you are a student, community member or just passing through Eugene, all of these bookstores are worth checking out and supporting. If youre COVID-19-conscious or quarantining and want to avoid in-person interactions, these stores also have online options, ensuring that no one is left out of reading. Each and every one of these establishments brings something special to Eugene and helps to build a culture for our city. Its always important to support local businesses, but especially after a year-and-a-half of COVID and quarantine, when we need their stores and their stories the most. Supporting these stores isnt just about buying books. Its also about supporting our community. Before the pandemic, food insecurity affected around 36% of the UO student population. Its safe to assume the number has risen over the past year-and-a-half: statistics from Feed America say that around 19% of Americans struggled with obtaining food in 2019, and that number rose to around 23% in 2021. Yet food insecurity is rarely talked about in social circles. Theres stigma and shame surrounding not having access to food, but there shouldnt be. Being able to eat and having access to healthy options is crucial for ones mental health. Although the cliche of the college student that survives off of ramen is funny, the reality is students need more nutritious meals to get through their day. Mental health is such a holistic experience, Maddie Alms, a third-year student who runs the cooking class program at the Duck Nest, said. Having access to food that makes you feel good and fuels you properly is really important. Alms also explained that having access to food affects a students concentration, as well as the way students socialize in class. Going out to coffee or lunch is a common hangout for friends after class, but for students struggling with food security, it can be difficult to navigate the college social realm. Alms also believes, if you feed your body well, its easier to handle your mental health. I know for a lot of students, especially if theyre struggling with their mental health, making food is hard, she said. The Duck Nest works to make little things accessible, like meal prep or grocery shopping, so cooking doesnt feel so overwhelming. It provides classes and instructional videos, as well as instructions on how and where students should grocery shop. Providing options for easy meals, especially for those struggling with their mental health, is so important, Alms said. The Duck Nest offers cooking classes for students who are struggling with the transition to cooking for themselves. Ingredients are provided by Food for Lane County, a nonprofit in Eugene that also acts as a food bank, so all students need is access to a kitchen and a pot or pan. We offer three types of classes: cooking for one or two, meal prep and vegan or vegetarian meals, Alms said. The Duck Nest also talks about food insecurity, smart grocery shopping and cooking on a budget during their classes. We just want to make it so every student feels like they at least have one night where they made a meal they can be proud of, Alms said. Never be afraid to ask for help, Alms said. Be honest with yourself and set varied goals when it comes to cooking. No one is going to be perfect when they start to cook, so being honest and gentle with yourself is an important part of the process. The University of Oregon offers several programs related to food security. The Duck Nest offers SNAP drop-in hours where students can get help filing for monetary food assistance, which provides around $250 a month for groceries. We have at least seven people on staff who are trained to help with SNAP, Alms said. One of the biggest barriers is people not knowing if theyre eligible, and were here to help with that and the confusing applications. The Duck Nest offers a SNAP drop-in hour every day, with times posted on their Instagram. The Student Sustainability Center also offers programs for folks struggling with food security. We have the produce drop from 3 to 5 p.m. every Tuesday at the EMU amphitheater, Tanner Gill, a UO sophomore and food security program assistant at the SSC, said. The produce drop features free, fresh fruits and vegetables weekly, along with some grains and kitchen staples. We also have the pantry on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m., Gill said. The pantry, which is located at Grace Lutheran Church, offers hygiene products and proteins as well as other selections. The SSC collaborates with Food for Lane County for their programs. The SSC is also working with SNAP enrollment and plans to set up a period for students to come in and get help filling out their forms this year. The biggest way a student volunteer can help is to learn the knowledge and tools of navigating the really difficult process of applying to SNAP so they can help others get food benefits, Ella Melroy, a UO junior and food security program assistant at the SSC, said. Another problem the Duck Nest and the SSC face when it comes to SNAP are students thinking theyre taking food or money away from other students. Thats just not true, Alms said. Money is always being put into the program, so theres more than enough for everyone. The people [who] are looking for SNAP programs are people [who] are working or are in class full-time, Gill said. He lamented the long wait times students experience when trying to enroll over the phone and explained that enrolling in SNAP can be a frustrating process in general. Theres a lot of documents you have to submit, and you have to continue to resubmit after youre enrolled to keep getting benefits, Melroy said. Students often run into red tape when trying to enroll for food benefits, which can easily deter them from finishing their process. SSC and Duck Nest staff acknowledge the process is tedious but are willing to work with students every step of the way toward food security. The intersection between the food one eats and their mental health is imperative to the way they function at school. The Duck Nest and SSC are working to provide for students and take care of their mental well-being. The high court, however, granted bail to his parents saying that the allegations against them were vague and confined to demand of dowry. (PTI Photo) Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday refused to grant bail to the husband of a 21-year-old law student who committed suicide and left behind a note blaming him, his parents and a police officer for taking the extreme step. Justice Gopinath P declined to grant the relief to the victim's husband saying the allegations against him were very serious. The high court, however, granted bail to his parents saying that the allegations against them were vague and confined to demand of dowry. Additional Public Prosecutor P Narayanan had opposed the grant of any relief to the husband and the parents-in-law of the victim, saying there were serious allegations against them. The victim's husband and in-laws were arrested on November 24 last year and a case registered against them under Sections 304B (dowry death), 498A (dowry harassment), 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. While the maximum punishment for dowry death is life imprisonment, it is three years' jail term for dowry harassment and 10 years for abetment of suicide. In her suicide note, Mofia Parveen, the third year law student, had alleged that the then SHO of Aluva East Police Station had misbehaved with her when she went there with her father to give her statement regarding her complaint of dowry harassment and domestic violence against her husband and in-laws. The incident had created an uproar in the state and the officer was relieved of his charge and later suspended. According to Mofia's father, he went to the station with his daughter to give her statement and she had made it clear before going there that she did not want her submission to be recorded in her husband's presence. However, the officer spoke to them in her husband's presence and also spoke inappropriately and rudely to him and his daughter, the father told the media and added that it was the officer's conduct which demoralised her. After returning home, she was worried whether police would take any action in view of the officer's conduct at the station, the father of the student had claimed and said that she hanged herself in her room later that day. Lisette Harris reaches into her freezer for a handful of ice cubes. The cool air that rushes out provides momentary relief from the stifling heat of her apartment, but she shuts the door quickly, concerned about an already high electricity bill. Causing further worry is the heats effect on her beloved cat, Calcifer, who has retreated under the bed in search of shade. Reaching her hand out, Harris rubs his dark fur with an ice cube, hoping to offset the sweltering discomfort. The rest of the ice is dropped in his nearby water bowl, where it melts rapidly, gone in an instant. Eugenes recent summer heat waves were a scorching wake-up call after years of increasingly hot summer temperatures in the Pacific Northwest. The city of Eugene surpassed its all-time heat record on June 27 with a blistering 111 degrees, and lower-income residents, especially University of Oregon students and alumni, found themselves individually unprepared for the extreme temperatures and systemically unsupported by local infrastructure and institutions. The suffocating heat sent many into a panic as they desperately attempted to keep themselves and their loved ones cool to avoid any heat-related illnesses. According to the Energy Information Association, about 87% of U.S. homes nationwide have air conditioning installed. But according to Oregons largest medical research group, Kaiser Permanente Foundation Northwest, fewer than two-thirds of households in Oregon are equipped with air conditioning. Without the help of often costly cooling resources and technologies, people in the region are not prepared to withstand the extreme temperatures coming their way. The weather a few weeks ago was absolutely insane compared to what I thought it would be like, Harris says of the June 27 heat wave. As an out-of-state student at UO, she expected typical Oregon rain and clouds paired with only a few days of high temperatures. I genuinely had no idea it would ever be like that in Eugene. Harris says that all the buildings have air conditioning in her home state of Texas, so people dont worry about overheating as much. During the recent heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, she says, it was actually about 30-35 degrees cooler in Houston. Harris had never been in 111-degree weather that early in the summer. The World Weather Attribution Group reported that the occurrence of such intense heat waves was virtually impossible without climate change, citing that greenhouse gas emissions made the event at least 150 times more likely to occur. Though the exact mechanisms that led to 2021s record-breaking heat waves are unknown, present theories point to a link between heat waves and climate change. Scientists stress that these environmental extremes arent going away and that soon they may not even qualify as anomalies anymore. UO alum Ezra Samuels, who graduated in 2021, quickly set out to find an air conditioning unit as the heat wave arrived. After searching multiple stores, they had no such luck. Samuels says local stores were unequipped to handle the sudden surge in demand for air conditioning units and that devices sold out rapidly. They also checked online and saw that units available online were so sought after that prices skyrocketed past $600 and into the thousands. Folks tend to not care about those of us who dont have a lot of money, Samuels says. People always assume that Samuels parents help them pay for their housing because of their age, but theyve been paying their own rent since they turned 18. Samuels says that they cannot afford the $800 a month student housing that has amenities like a dishwasher and air conditioning and, as a result, has lived in really sketchy houses that were kind of falling apart. Primary air conditioning is uncommon in local apartment buildings as well, with only the most expensive options, like major apartments near campus, advertising it as an amenity. American Community Campuses owns three student apartment complexes located on Franklin Boulevard, all of which have air conditioning. Units start at $600 for shared bedrooms, and the price steadily increases, averaging $1,078 per unit and topping at $1,629 for a private apartment. Alongside an array of other amenities, the apartments advertise air conditioning and rooftop swimming pools a stark contrast to less expensive unfurnished housing like the properties offered by local rental company Chinook Properties, which averages $562 per unit. Students and alumni who cannot afford the steep prices of luxury apartments face dangerous health hazards. Poor air circulation can also cause heat-related health issues, and public planners and construction workers didnt anticipate the intense heat that the Pacific Northwest would face. UO alum Abigail Hall, who graduated in 2020, says her apartment in Eugene had zero AC and zero circulation. As a result, she says she suffered low-grade heat exhaustion most days during the summer, which manifested as increased body temperature, brain fog and constant fatigue. Hall took up the issue with her leasing center, who brushed off her concerns. They were like, Oh, well you face east, so you get sunlight all morning, and Youre on the fourth floor and heat rises, so yeah, its going to be hot. Maybe get a fan? But even with a fan and numerous damp washcloths, Hall was unable to escape the heat and the hazards it posed to her health. Buri McDonald, the communications specialist at local medical network PeaceHealth Oregon, expressed concerns about the impact of the heat waves on the publics health. Between June 25 and June 27, 2021, Emergency Departments at PeaceHealth hospitals in Springfield and Eugene saw about 15 cases of heat-related illness, she says. Thats much higher than normal. The online PeaceHealth information library says that hyperthermia (a high body temperature) can develop quickly in extremely hot environments and small spaces with poor ventilation and circulation. Additionally, people who live in cities are especially vulnerable to illness during a heat wave because heat is trapped by tall buildings and air pollutants, PeaceHealth reports. The Lane County Climate Advisory Committee reports that average summer temperatures will increase 10-12 degrees by 2100. These hotter temperatures will disproportionately affect the health of vulnerable populations, including the very young, elderly and families in poverty. The projected increase in temperature has prompted a need to reassess infrastructure and cooling resources by the local government. Eugene-based climate strategist Mark Nystrom reports that the local Board of Commissioners is currently drafting the Lane County Climate Action Plan. Housing is definitely an issue throughout the county, Nystrom says. Our next plan will be focused on building climate resilience, which will include the built environment and many other things. In this context, climate resilience refers to identifying and implementing strategies that will help the community adapt to a changing climate. A large aspect of the climate resilience plan zeroes in on local buildings and energy, reviewing energy used in Eugenes residential, commercial and industrial buildings. The intent is to reduce energy use in existing buildings and new construction, expand the use of renewable energy and prepare buildings for climate change. I just think its something that shouldve been focused on a lot during last fall so we could figure most of it out before winter and summer, Harris says, adding that she hopes the city will genuinely make residential temperature regulation a priority so people wont have to suffer through another heat-soaked summer. This summers climate-change-induced heat waves pushed some UO students and alumni to identify the necessary actions to stay safe at home in the coming years. And young Eugene residents are not without ideas for solutions. Harris wants required air conditioning in apartment buildings and leased homes. Samuels would like UO to provide cooling centers and to fundraise for students to get portable air conditioning. Samuels also wants legal parameters for public safety set, specifically regarding how much local retailers can raise prices of fans and air conditioning units during a surge in demand. As summer temperatures become more and more dangerous due to climate change, the need for accommodation and public policy change is increasingly necessary. It would be really wise of Eugene to make some decisions on helping residents here in the future, Harris says. Because if things keep going the way they have been, the next few summers will probably be worse. In Utah, parents campaigned to ban The Hate U Give and This One Summer and several other books for their content addressing race, gender and sexuality. In Kansas, parents successfully appealed to the school board to remove over two dozen books for content deemed inappropriate and offensive. Even worse, in Virgina, two school board members wanted not only to remove the books from libraries, but to burn them. This isnt the first time books have been challenged for their content. To Kill A Mockingbird, for example, is regularly one of the top 10 most challenged books because of its offensive language and depictions of race. However, while the Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that books cannot be banned simply because of their content, the American Library Association reported in September 2021 a 60% increase in book challenges than that of the year previously. In response to these movements, the ALA published a statement on Nov. 30 addressing the value of intellectual freedom and the First Amendment's importance regarding the publication of all works of literature. Falsely claiming that these works are subversive, immoral, or worse, these groups induce elected and non-elected officials to abandon constitutional principles, ignore the rule of law, and disregard individual rights to promote government censorship of library collections, the ALA stated. Similarly, in December, the National Coalition Against Censorship released a joint statement with organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, GLAAD, the National Black Justice Coalition and over 600 additional groups. These ongoing attempts to purge schools of books represent a partisan political battle fought in school board meetings and state legislatures, the statement read. The undersigned organizations and individuals are deeply concerned about this sudden rise in censorship and its impact on education, the rights of students, and freedom of expression. This certainly isnt the first time librarians and organizations have had to fight against censorship movements across the country. But these defenders of knowledge persist because they understand the fundamental dangers of echo chambers. In the age of ever-changing and developing technology, it would be assumed that there would be no room for echo chambers to exist. That the internet and the vast amount of readily available information would serve to eliminate these chambers. However, quite the opposite has proven to be true. Individuals empowered to screen out material that does not conform to their existing preferences may form virtual cliques, insulate themselves from opposing points of view, and reinforce their biases. Internet users can seek out interactions with like-minded individuals who have similar values, and thus become less likely to trust important decisions to people whose values differ from their own, MIT researchers Marshall Van Alstyne and Erik Brynjolfsson wrote. Echo chambers are fundamentally dangerous because they remove original thoughts and the challenging of ideas. This then limits debates, which are necessary in a society. When these debates do not occur, we do not solve the problems and issues surrounding division and polarization. Conservatives have historically used book banning as a way to voice their opinions around what should and should not be taught to their children. Often these are beliefs which silence the voices of the underrepresented and marginalized. For children growing up in these conservative areas, if there are no pieces of work which represent the struggles of race or gender and sexuality, then these children are trapped in the echo chambers their parents construct for them, which deprives them of the stimulation of unfamiliar and uncomfortable ideas. We should have a complete collection, something that challenges all of our viewpoints, presents lots of different ideas from different people, perspectives and allows us to consider the great body of human knowledge thats out there, Will OHearn, library services director for the Eugene Public Library, said. OHearn said the library has not received any formal reconsideration requests recently. This is a sign Eugene may be free from the raging book banning movement. I think sometimes people forget that literature is art. And art makes people feel things. Sometimes its happiness, wonderment, sadness, humor and then also frustration and anger, OHearn said. Theyre meant to evoke emotion. Advertisement Canadian Dollar Outlook: Yields, Oil Continuing to Fuel Loonie Strength A common phrase heard on trading desks this time of year is just because the year ends, doesnt mean the trend bends. In this case, the strong, positive relationship between the Canadian Dollar and crude oil prices that persisted at the end of 2021 has continued into 2022. The 20-day correlation between crude oil prices and USD/CAD is -0.51, while the 20-day correlation between crude oil prices and CAD/JPY is +0.86. The continued push higher by oil prices only serves to benefit the Canadian Dollar, while rising long-end bond yields around the globe have duly sapped demand for safe haven currencies. CAD/JPY Rate Technical Analysis: Daily Chart (January 2021 to January 2022) (Chart 1) CAD/JPY rates are continuing to show signs of gathering bullish momentum, with the pair extending further above their daily 5-, 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA envelope, achieving the initial upside target outlined last week when it was noted that further gains are anticipated into the early-December high at 90.37 in the near-term. The brief drop on the first trading day of 2021 saw rates rebound at the 50% Fibonacci retracement of the 2015 high/2020 low range at 90.16 before rebounding. It remains the case that a near-term bottom has finally been established. CAD/JPY rates are still on course to return to their 2021 high at 93.02 in the coming weeks. USD/CAD Rate Technical Analysis: Daily Chart (January 2021 to January 2022) (Chart 2) In the prior update it was noted that USD/CAD rates have yet to emerge on the other side of their daily 21-EMA, which has as support over the past few trading days. Doing so would be a strong indication that the tide has finally turned. Indeed, USD/CAD rates have dropped below their daily 21-EMA, treating the one-month moving average as resistance upon the first retest. With the pair back in the multi-month symmetrical triangle that governed price action for most of 2021, the near-term technical outlook has turned increasingly bearish. Momentum continues to accelerate to the downside, with USD/CAD rates below their daily 5-, 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA envelope, which is in bearish sequential order. Daily MACD continues to trend lower, nearing a cross below its signal line, while daily Slow Stochastics are hovering just above overbought territory. A deeper setback below 1.2600 may soon transpire. IG Client Sentiment Index: USD/CAD Rate Forecast (January 4, 2022) (Chart 3) USD/CAD: Retail trader data shows 53.50% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders long to short at 1.15 to 1. The number of traders net-long is 11.89% lower than yesterday and 11.89% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 35.60% higher than yesterday and 1.13% lower from last week. We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-long suggests USD/CAD prices may continue to fall. Yet traders are less net-long than yesterday and compared with last week. Recent changes in sentiment warn that the current USD/CAD price trend may soon reverse higher despite the fact traders remain net-long. --- Written by Christopher Vecchio, CFA, Senior Strategist Carolyn Caudill Tipton, age 83, of Corbin, KY, passed away on Saturday April 30, 2022, in Corbin She was born in Ashland, KY, a daughter of the late Rexford & Mollie DeBord Caudill. Carolyn was a retired nursing home LPN. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her child Ten years ago, baby-faced men were passed over in Hollywood for rugged looking stars with more traditionally masculine looks. But today more feminine-looking actors with delicate features, shorter stature and symmetrical faces are more in demand because they appear to younger viewers, experts claim. Gen Z audiences are drawn to celebrities like Tom Holland, Timothee Chalamet and Harry Styles who embody a 'brand of enlightened non-toxic masculinity', according to beauty expert Laura Kay. Their symmetrical, heart-shaped faces also make them more photogenic and therefore more popular on Instagram, which has become a key part in the Hollywood marketing machine. These non-traditional leading men also benefit because younger generations are more tolerant of things which would have seen as 'abnormal' in the past, such as height differences or attitudes to gender, says dating and relationship expert Alex Mellor-Brook. Tom Holland, 25, who is dating his co-star Zendaya, also 25, for example, is 5ft 8in, shorter than one might expect for a Hollywood A-lister, while Harry Styles, 27, proudly steps out in feminine clothing and has released a range of nail polishes. Gen Z audiences are drawn to celebrities like Tom Holland, Timothee Chalamet and Harry Styles who embody a 'brand of enlightened non-toxic masculinity', according to beauty expert Laura Kay. Pictured, Timothee Chalamet (left) and Cole Sprouse, who possess these qualities Highly Instagramable Laura said: 'The likes of Timothee Chalamet and Tom Holland have a perfect facial symmetry, it is almost heart shaped, which makes them naturally very photogenic. Studies have shown that heart shaped faces are deemed the most attractive facial shape around. 'They are not macho and sculpted in a different kind of way. Instead, they have a smouldering, brooding look about them that is both attractive to male and females. 'It is the perfect balance and, in my opinion, they look ageless which further adds to their wider appeal. To the untrained eye it is hard to tell their age.' She also said that celebs with these features appear more relatable and trustworthy than their more masculine counter-part. 'They also have a charismatic vibe about them, a cheeky smile and glimmer in their eyes,' Laura said. 'It is refreshing to see them embracing their individuality through fashion and style, for example.' Tom Holland, 25, who is dating his co-star Zendaya, pictured, for example, is 5ft 8in, shorter than one might expect for a Hollywood A-lister. But he is a heartthrob in the eyes of Gen Z fans WOMEN TURN TO MUSCULAR MEN FOR FLINGS, NOT MARRIAGE Meanwhile, Alex Mellor-Brook, dating and relationship expert at Select Services, said that while people finding slender features attractive is nothing new, the pandemic had changed women's attitudes as to what they are looking for in partners. 'Another factor is down to the younger generation being a lot more tolerant to what has been seen as out of the norm by other generations,' Alex said. 'So the issue of height differences with a couple will not be questioned as much, similar to a more European attitude. However, it still remains a dominant choice for a lot of women when choosing a partner.' The relationship between Spider-Man costars Tom Holland and Zendaya has brought the topic of height difference between partners back into the spotlight recently. Alex said muscly men are deemed attractive because on a primal level, they look healthy and likely to produce good offspring. But in our modern world, Alex said that women turn to muscular men for flings rather than for marriage. 'If the woman finds herself attracted to both men and other women, then this will also influence those options,' he continued. 'The slender appearance will present a less "macho, tough guy, non-committal" impression and a more caring, committed, sensitive side which is currently a trend in women searching for a life-long partner after their experiences over lockdown,' he went on.' Dr Ross, Perry, Medical Director of Cosmedics skin clinics said that trends on what is attractive in men keep changing. 'Over the decades this has constantly changed from pumped up bodybuilders in the 90s such as the Gladiators or the Chippendales through to the days of heroin chic of Kurt Cobain- think ultra slim, small muscle mass and rugged yet attractive features,' he said. 'Culturally today were more open in what is seen as attractive, the rise of the drag queen is a perfect example, were seeing beauty and attractiveness in a completely different light.' Former One Direction Star Harry Styles, 27, has been playing with gender constructs and appeals to Gen Z fans because of his 'enlightened' views. Above, at the Met Gala in 2019 A DIFFERENT ATTITUDE TO FITNESS Our attitude to fitness has changed, and Dr Ross said that people are now looking for their partner to be lean and physically strong rather than muscular. 'Someone who is lean, goes to yoga classes and chooses to express themselves and indeed their bodies in untraditional ways,' he explained. 'We dont necessarily need someone to be over 6ft to appreciate their attractiveness, small and slender is whats "trendy" on social media, its attractive, edgy, cool and sexy as is someone who doesnt conform to what to masculinity traditionally looks like.' And the fact that men are more open about their mental health nowadays and showing their sensitive side more easily also influences how they appear to potential mates. The Korean pop band BTS, pictured with James Corden on his Late Late Show on December 8, have such dedicated fans they call themselves 'BTS Army'. They are a perfect example of the more androgynous look coveted by today's younger fans 'Today men openly talking about mental health, arent afraid to wear make-up, play around with fashion and this shows confidence and makes them appear more personable and in turn makes them seen as more attractive not just to the younger generation but also the older generation too,' Dr Ross said. A FLUID IDEA OF BEAUTY And these celebrities often cater to a 'woke' audience, because the idea of beauty has become more 'open and fluid.' 'Theres a huge proportion of male "celebrity" who fit into a category of being "woke" in their outlook and thought process not feeling they have to conform to what society deems as classically handsome,' Dr Ross said. Chris Hemsworth trim physique as the god of thunder in Thor: Ragnarok was still a hit with fans Hyper masculine-looking men like Dwayne Johnson, pictured in Santa Monica in December, are deemed attractive because on a primal level, they look healthy and likely to produce good offspring, an expert said 'But they are having more fun with their appearance, sexuality and were finding this hugely attractive. 'Someone who isnt afraid to express themselves with make-up, highlighting a strong cheek bone, waring eye make-up to accentuate the eye shape, not being afraid to show off flawless looking skin or sport full lips or washboard stomach is creating a much more attractive male.' And this also manifests itself in the number of men who ae turning to cosmetic surgery for 'tweakments.' 'Whereas before they were embarrassed to have fillers, or Botox, men are now wanting to look as good as women and take care of their appearance including their bodies,' he added. It is the Queen's favourite chocolatier, so it is perhaps of little surprise Charbonnel et Walker was declared among the UK's poshest chocolate brands by Mumsnet users. A British woman sparked a debate over which chocolates are working, middle and upper class after her mother-in-law said a Ferrero Rocher tower is 'aspirational' for lower income families. Admitting she found the idea that particular chocolate could be viewed as working class 'baffling', she wrote: 'Therefore - lightheartedly - tell me which chocolates you view as typically middle class? We discussed it as a family and we couldn't come up with a single one!' A woman took to Mumsnet anonymously to ask about the class rankings of chocolates after her mother-in-law called Ferrero Rocher's 'working class' Most people agreed on the chocolates for each class category and many regular supermarket options made the list Posh choc... or not? How does YOUR favourite sweet treat fair? Here's what Mumsnet users think about the UK's biggest chocolate brands... Lower Class Roses Thornton's Heroes Celebrations After Eights Guylian Quality Street Cadbury's Ferrero Rocher Middle class Hotel Chocolat Rococo Tony's Chocolonely Green & Black's Lindt Monty Bojangles Godiva Montezuma Upper class Debauve & Gallais Charbonnel Et Walker Prestat Lauden Leonidas Artisan chocolatiers Advertisement Mumsnet users were quick to respond with their ideas, with Quality Street listed among the 'working class' chocolates and Hotel Chocolat being labelled 'common'. One person wrote: 'Deffo Green & Black [is middle class]. I'd say they were one of the first middle class chocolates that seem to have paved the way for all the current ones? 'I remember when they were fairly new (maybe 20 years ago!) and loving the Maya Gold one, thinking it was vair poshe.' Another commenter posted: 'I got some Guylian seahorse things for Christmas - I know at one point I considered them pretty classy, but they're in all the cheapy shops now (so I've heard...) I tried them and they were way too sweet, and I've got a pretty sweet tooth.' The woman explained that she was confused by the class system as her family had come from all different backgrounds A commenter who described themselves as working class said: 'I'm WC [working class] with WC tastes, love Galaxy Caramel, Fry's Turkish Delight or a Cadbury's Creme Egg. I like Green & Blacks, Thorntons and Lindt, so they may well fit in the WC bracket too.' Another user suggested: 'Ferrero Rocher do look fabulous but they are disappointing they taste awful, the nuts are like little bits of chopped wood. 'I have suggested we no longer have them in the house. Monty Bojangles & Prestat are lovely Green & Black's everyday chocolate and cooking. But no more Ferrero Rocher here.' A third person thought they had the chocolate classing system sussed: 'WC [working class] - Roses, Quality Street, Thorntons, Black Magic, Heroes, Celebrations, Ferrero Rocher, After Eights. Guylian.' 'MC [Middle Class] - Lindt, Monty Bojangles, Hotel Chocolat, Green & Black's, Tony's Chocolonely, Godiva, Montezuma, Charbonnel et Walker.' 'UC [Upper class] - Prestat, Neuhaus, Leonidas, stuff made by niche chocolatiers plus anything they happen to like regardless of naff quotient as they dont give a flying fart what anyone thinks.' While someone else wrote about the 'upper class' treats they enjoy: 'Prestat is a popular chocolate for flower companies to include in deliveries. They are nice enough and I have enjoyed them. But I have had better from LIDL.' Commenters had no trouble in sorting out the chocolates at the top from the ones they deemed to be the least classy 'All chocolates will be eaten by me. I dont discriminate,' one joked. 'Charbonnel Et Walker And prestat are my posh indulgence rather costly but totally yummy,' one said. 'I'm partial to House of Dorchester Rose Creams myself... see also the own brand ones from Lidl that don't have Violet Creams in the same box to palm off on Mum,' one wrote. 'Actually posh people eat whatever they fancy because they don't care what anyone else thinks,' one said. 'I'll eat whatever's going. But because I have no filter when it comes to chocolate, not because I'm posh,' they added. ' 'Maltesers are classless,' one said. KAKINADA: People of the Porza community who have settled in the state from Odisha are facing a strange problem. The community is listed as a Scheduled Tribe in Odisha and in Visakhapatnam district in AP but, strangely, not in East Godavari district. The situation could change from Tuesday, when East Godavari officials will start accepting their ST certificates. The Porza community people migrated to the state to work on the governments projects like the Seleru reservoir and hydel plants and settled in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts. The places where they stay are called Odia camps. Community representatives say they get ST certificates from the revenue department in Visakhapatnam and enjoy reservations in education and employment. Not so in East Godavari district. They hope that the YSRC government, in particular Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will get the issue rectified. The Porza community people are living in nearly eight mandals in Rampachodavaram and Chinturu divisions. The people especially the youth are facing hardships in getting admission in education institutions and employment opportunities, said Ratnam, secretary of Hope Organisation which works with the community. They have submitted representations to the state government seeking ST status in East Godavari district. At last, the government wrote letters to the local revenue officials to consider their appeals. Now the community people will submit their documents to the officials from January 4, Ratnam said. He said that recently superintendent of police M. Ravindranath Babu had learnt of the problems of the community and promised to recommend their case. Sd. Subhani, organisation secretary of the Association for Social and Humanise Action (ASHA), said that many of the community people were studying Class X, but were facing hardships to submit ST certificates. This had resulted in the students stopping their studies half-way. A. Venkata Ramana, Integrated Tribal Development Agency project officer of Chinturu, said that officials had made an inquiry on their status, but the community people could not submit proper documents to prove they belong to STs. He said if they submit proper documents, officials would provide them ST certificates. Rampachodavaram sub-collector Katta Simhachalam said that the revenue department officials could give ST certificates in some categories which are gazetteed by the state government. A baby murderer sobbed on camera after being told he wasn't the biological father of his girlfriend's 12-week-old son, whom he was arrested for killing. Kane Mitchell, 31, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, was jailed for a minimum of 18 years for murdering baby Teddie, who died in hospital on November 11, 2019, after ten days on a life support machine. A four-week trial at Cambridge Crown Court heard that Teddie had suffered injuries consistent with being 'gripped hard', 'shaken vigorously', and 'having his head struck against a hard surface'. Baby Teddie died with 17 broken ribs, fractures to his skull and collarbone, a bleed on the brain and brain, spinal and eye damage. Mitchell had been in a relationship with Teddie's mother, Lucci Smith, 30, for about eight months, and he told police he believed he was the baby's father. Footage from the Channel 4 series 24 Hours in Police Custody, which airs tonight at 9pm, has revealed the moment he learned he was not the biological father Kane Mitchell, 31, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, sobbed on camera after being told he wasn't the biological father to his girlfriend's 12-week-old son whom he was arrested for killing A four-week trial at Cambridge Crown Court heard that Teddie had suffered injuries consistent with being 'gripped hard', 'shaken vigorously', and 'having his head struck against a hard surface' During the documentary, police footage showed the couple being visited by officers in January 2020 after a neighbour reported seeing Kane strangling Lucci. But when officers arrived at the house, Lucci could be heard exclaiming: 'Is this a joke? I'm sick of you coming round here now.' Meanwhile Kane said: 'My kids just f***** died, I've got a bail hearing tomorrow and I've got you two f****** at my door. I'm sick of this s***.' Meanwhile a teary Lucci separately told another officer that nothing had happened, adding: 'It's taking the p*** now!' Mitchell had been in a relationship with Teddie's mother, Lucci Smith, 30, for about eight months and the pair lived together He told her he could see 'marks around her neck' and asked if that might be why they had been called to the flat, but she said: 'It's probably my tan. He hasn't even touched me. There hasn't been no arguing here.' Meanwhile the officers went on to visit some of the neighbours, many of whom said they'd been left 'scared' of Kane after hearing arguin from the flat. Police returned to the flat, where they arrested Kane for domestic violence and common assault, but Lucci defended her partner. She said: 'You are not arresting him. I'm not saying here tonight on my own before bail. No - he hasn't done anything. You're not taking him anywhere.' Meanwhile Kane exclaimed and began screaming at the police officers: 'You ain't go no proof. I ain't done f*** all. There's nothing on her, if anything I've got marks on me. This is f****** ridiculous.' DI Lucy Thompson, of the Major Crime Unit, told the camera that the police had 'good evidence' Lucci was a victim of abuse from Kane DI Lucy Thompson, of the Major Crime Unit, told the camera: 'Lucci, we have good strong evidence to show she is a victim of abuse from Kane. 'But she is not taking any of the opportunities to acknowledge she is a victim of abuse. It would be quite unusual for us to say, you are a victim and we know you are a victim. 'We can suggest that but if someone is in denial, they won't see it or accept that.' Kane was brought in for a police interview, with officers questioning the state of his relationship with Lucci, but he insisted: 'It's very verbal. I don't like having a row or an argument and then sitting down. 'I need 10 minutes to reflect and to get out and defuse the situation so it doesn't escalate by her either lunging for me and me having to lunge back. Kane was brought in for a police interview, with officers questioning the state of his relationship with Lucci, but he insisted: 'It's very verbal' 'I just defuse it there and then, which means taking me out of the equation.' However the officer responded: 'The reason we're going over this, is it is slightly worse than you're portrayed. Other people are saying violence. 'This isn't an environment for children to be growing up in, especially if you do flip.' Another said: 'it was a violent and volatile relationship. Something has triggered and either you and Lucie have flipped, and that's what has led to Teddie's head injury.' The officers said they had been through his phone, questioning aggressive messages sent between the pair. Meanwhile after repeatedly being questioned by police, Lucci confessed that Kane had been violent towards her They recited one message exchange in which Kane had questioned why Lucci should be visiting the park with one of their children's friend's parents. One of the texts read: 'Answer me , you don't understand you s*****. I've swore on my mother's ashes that unless you tell me Ross' second name before you are home, I'm beating you you simple. 'Unless you tell me, I promise you, I'm going to have to take you in the bedroom and do you in. Please listen to me, I'm actually going to have to do it.' However Kane insisted it was 'just a threat' and he said: 'I've never ever touched her.' And during the interview, the officer said she wanted to discuss Teddie's biological father. During one harrowing moment in the documentary, Lucci's surviving children could be heard describing how he abused them She said: 'We have had some DNA profiling back and the profiling has come back that you are not Teddie's father.' He could be seen putting his hand to his face as he appeared to cry after the revelation, before saying: 'I feel sick.' Later police said they had had to be 'very careful' with how they had interviewed him because he was 'on a knife edge' of 'exploding.' Meanwhile DI Thompson said she wanted to give Lucci an opportunity to acknowledge she was a victim of domestic violence. However when they sat down for an interview together, Lucci insisted she had 'no explanation' as to how Teddie died. Meanwhile she defended the text messages exchanged with Kane, saying: 'Every couple argues.' She went on to say there had been 'a few slaps' from her boyfriend over the years, saying: 'I don't really see why this matters. Just because he's going to do something like that doesn't mean he is going to do something to Teddie.' During one interview, Lucci promised she would have told police if there had been any violence toward Teddie because, 'hes my son at the end of the day and he means more to me than anybody' The officer then went on: 'I'm going to ask you a question and look you straight in the eye. Kane has assaulted you on a number of occasions.' Finally, Lucci could be seen acknolwedging his violence, saying: 'With me maybe, but he wouldn't do that to a child. 'It doesn't mean he would do anything to my children. i know he wouldn't do that because he loved that baby, he honestly loved that baby. 'I don't see why it mattered.' And when officers said Kane wasn't Teddie's biological father, she burst into tears. Meanwhile police went on to conduct an interview with the eldest of Lucci's children who lived with her and Kane. While the child was not identified on camera, their voice could be heard saying: 'Ugly Kane. I call him ugly because he hits me, he punches me in the arm. 'He basically got hold of my leg and dragged me in the there and my head was on the floor. He was holding my foot and clenching it really hard.' 'And Kane also punched Mummy's mirror and his hand was bleeding, so Mummy ran into our room and shut the door so he couldn't hurt us. 'He was trying to punch us all. [It made me feel sad] because the glass was on the floor and Mummy stepped on it.' After the interview, DI Thompson told the camera that Kane had 'tried to kill himself' by walking into traffic on a motorway, saying: 'God knows how but he actually survived. He's got a fractured pelvis, fractured elbow, fractured ribs and a head injury. 'The main point is he made a concerted effort to kill himself. This wasn't half hearted.' She later said she was stunned to learn Kane was set to be charged with murder, revealing: 'Given what he's done, they have changed their mind and he will be charged on threshold and they will charge him with murder.' Police then entered the hospital to alert Kane to the change in charges, finding him on a ward. He could be heard saying, 'this is absurd' as he was arrested and removed from the hospital in a wheelchair. Kane Mitchell, 32, was jailed for a minimum of 18 years for murdering baby Teddie. Pictured: Mitchell reacts to being arrested in hospital During the first part of the documentary, Mitchell was arrested while pretending to be a caring father in hospital with baby Teddie. He said: 'I don't f***** think so. Oh my god, I would never hurt a baby. I'm not leaving my son' DI Thompson said: 'When I first met him, he presented as you would expect a grieving father. He has changed and showed the ability to change that persona at will, depending on the circumstance he is in. 'He has been completely devoid of any remorse or real empathy for Teddie. That's the thing I find really hard, it's all about Kane and not about what Teddie has been through.' During the first-part of the documentary series, which aired yesterday, the heartless killer started spouting crocodile tears as he was arrested. Meanwhile footage also showed Smith being asked by detectives how her son suffered such horrific injuries and she simply replies 'no idea'. During an interview Smith was asked by detectives how her son suffered such horrific injuries and she simply replies 'no idea' She then went on to say she would tell police if there had been any violence toward Teddie because, 'hes my son at the end of the day and he means more to me than anybody'. Social workers are 'spat at' in the street in Birmingham amid backlash over Arthur Labinjo-Hughes' murder Social workers are being 'spat at' in the street amid fury over the tragic death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, a children's trust boss has revealed. Six-year-old Arthur was beaten and tortured before his murder at the hands of stepmother Emma Tustin at her home in Solihull. The case prompted a national outpouring of grief and ministers vowed to take action after Tustin was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 29 years and Arthur's father, Thomas Hughes, was jailed for 21 years for manslaughter. Six-year-old Arthur was beaten and tortured before his murder at the hands of stepmother Emma Tustin at her home in Solihull The Government announced an inquiry into how social services and local authorities liaise, and Boris Johnson spoke of introducing 'Arthur's Law' preventing the release of child killers from prison. The leader of Solihull Council also ordered an 'independent verification' of the local authority's involvement in Arthur's life. Now Jenny Turnross, director of practice at Birmingham Children's Trust, has confirmed reports that social workers have been physically and verbally abused as a direct result of the case. During one encounter, a social worker was spat at in the street. Ms Turnross, who oversees 800 social workers in the trust, said: 'People see these beautiful pictures of Arthur and think ''how can professionals and organisations allow something like to happen to this child''. The case prompted a national outpouring of grief and ministers vowed to take action after Tustin was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 29 years and Arthur's father, Thomas Hughes, was jailed for 21 years for manslaughter Advertisement And it was revealed that social services and Cambridgeshire Police had been alerted to concerns from worried neighbours weeks before Teddie died. Footage from just before Mitchell's arrest showed him holding his victim in hospital while he sobbed and said: 'Come on baby, Daddy's here.' At 3pm on November 1, 2019, the ambulance service was called to Pattison Court, St Neots, where Teddie was found to be unresponsive and in cardiac arrest. Smith had left Teddie in the care of Mitchell that day while she did the morning school run. Detective Inspector Lucy Thompson said of Mitchell, 'He is completely devoid of any remorse or empathy, that's the thing I find really hard. 'It's all about Kane and not what Teddie's been through.' The clip showed the moment Mitchell was arrested while pretending to be a caring father in hospital with baby Teddie. He said: 'I don't f***** think so. Oh my god, I would never hurt a baby. I'm not leaving my son.' However officers were able to prove Mitchell had killed Teddie because of the types of injuries how they were inflicted. Teddie died as a result of his fractured skull and lack of oxygen to the brain. Medical staff were concerned about how Teddie received his serious injuries and Mitchell and Smith were both arrested. During the trial at Cambridge Crown Court, the jury heard how Teddie had suffered weeks of neglect and rough handling during his short life at the hands of Kane Mitchell, who isn't his biological father. Channel 4's documentary, 24 Hours in Police Custody: Cold to the Touch, probed the council as to what they did in response to concerns from worried neighbours about the safety of the children living in the home Mitchell and Smith lived in. A council spokesperson told The Express: 'A serious case review is underway and the findings should be published later this year. We cannot comment further until it is published.' Ms Thompson, who led the investigation into Teddie's death, added: 'This was a tragic and terrible case in which an 11-week-old baby lost his life at the hands of a person who should have been there to protect him. 'Our year-long investigation found that Teddie had suffered multiple horrific injuries during his short life, which neither Mitchell or Smith could account for. 'Viewers will see the complexities and intricacies of such an emotive and tragic case. 'The show highlights that we will work tirelessly to bring those responsible for such heinous crimes to justice, no matter what it takes. 'We hope it will encourage anyone with any concerns for a child's welfare to come forward and report it to us without delay.' During the trial, the jury were read statements from neighbours who said they had heard arguments coming from the address on a regular basis and that the household had been unsettled since Mitchell moved in. During police interview, Mitchell said he believed he was Teddie's biological father. However, DNA results following the death revealed he was not. More footage from the TV programme showed how police officers were constantly monitoring the couple while they were in hospital with Teddie before making their arrests. Mitchell was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in jail at Cambridge Crown Court in February. Smith was found guilty of neglect after she didn't dial 999 for more than half an hour after her GP urged her to do so. His death is reminiscent of the injuries which killed 16-month-old Star Hobson who was murdered by Savannah Brockhill, 28, the girlfriend of her mother Frankie Smith. Mrs Justice Lambert said the 'fatal punch or kick' to Star caused the toddler to lose half the blood in her body and damaged her internal organs. Brockhill was jailed for 25 years for murdering Star and Smith was jailed for eight for doing nothing to stop her. Mrs Justice Lambert added: 'Frankie Smith, it was your role to protect Star from harm, you failed to protect her, allowing her death.' 'The level of force required to inflict these injuries must have been massive - similar to those forces associated with a road traffic accident.' Police released a picture of Star smiling happily before the torment from her mother and her murdering girlfriend began Sometimes capturing the perfect photo isn't a case of getting the ideal frame, pose and lighting, it's all about things going wrong and creating something unexpected. These photos all capture something that tricks the eye or needs a second look - from a catalogue model with three hands to a tarantula that blends into a woman's hair. DrivePedia rounded up a selection of the funniest optical illusion images from around the world that have been shared on social media because they deceive the eyes on first glance. One picture of a woman can be seen to wear a tarantula on top of her head, and with her brunette hair mixing in with the furry legs of the spider, it's not easy to spot straight away. Meanwhile one groom attempted a romantic gesture by putting his and his wife's initials on the sole of their feet - without realising it spelled out 'HELP.' DrivePedia rounded up a selection of the funniest optical illusion images from around the world that have been shared on social media because they deceive the eyes on first glance. Pictured, a woman standing behind a mannequin, making it look like the jeans are her's Didn't see you there! Another woman, with her brunette locks, had a massive tarantula sat on her head - but with a matching brown coat, the spider was very well blended into the woman's hair The three-armed father! Another person, from the US, was surprised to see one of the models posing appeared to have multiple hands in an advertisement Hang on... bare foot? One snapper, from the UK, spotted a bizarre shape of footprint in the snow as they walked in it themselves One groom attempted a romantic gesture by putting his and his wife's initials on the sole of their feet - without realising it spelled out 'HELP' Not exactly a children's toy! One person, from the US, was stunned to notice a button for 'beer' on a kid's play cash register In a sneaky DIY job, one builder from the UK had put a block of wood into the brickwork (pictured) Teacher's pet! One class in the US were surprised when a student brought their dog into the lecture hall - though the huge animal wasn't immediately clear to the eye Another woman, whose location is unknown, was left chuckling after realising her leggings were almost perfectly matched the flooring of the apartment building Nearly invisible from the snow surrounding it, this white bunny rabbit was totally camouflaged as it sat on the cold ground outside Are these really appropriate? Another person couldn't help but notice the shapes of naked figures in a collection of vases Another Reddit user shared several snaps of his thumb, which is lacking in the creases that most humans do because he is unable to bend it Those t-shirts are a bit in your face! One person, in an unknown location, shared a snap which perfectly captured how red sleeves appear to crease to show a human's expression This cute elephant is just going about its business, eating some greenery, when the photographer spotted the shape of it's ear: it looks like the side profile of a human face People who work on Wall Street are anonymously sharing stories of suicide, verbal abuse, racism, sexism, and sexual harassment while lifting the lid on what it's really like to have a career in finance. Wall Street Confessions an Instagram account that has been dubbed 'Wall Street's Gossip Girl' has become a safe haven for whistleblowers looking to expose the wrongdoings at big banks and investment firms. Riya Sharma, a 22-year-old content strategist, launched the account in 2019 while double majoring in finance and international studies at Marymount Manhattan College. She has since dropped out of college, and Wall Street Confessions now has more than 128,000 followers, including Jefferies CEO Rich Handler. Professionals who work on Wall Street are anonymously lifting the lid on what it's really like to have a career in finance, from abusive bosses and burnout to issues of racism and sexism They are sharing their stories on the Instagram account Wall Street Confessions, which has become a safe haven for whistleblowers looking to expose wrongdoings in the financial world Posts are submitted through an online portal, and while there are some positive stories, the account is mostly used as an outlet to air grievances without retribution. Burnout, verbal abuse, and suicidal ideation as a result of being overworked are hot-button issues that are brought up time and time again in the posts. One person detailed how a seemingly happy co-worker had died by suicide after a year of secretly struggling following a relocation. 'There was a guy in the team who was always energetic, cheerful, and positive and came to work every day ready to help others who needed it. Until he didn't,' the anonymous finance employee wrote. 'Later we were informed he had committed suicide after logging off for the day. Some of us commented privately that he had been quiet during the week and looked exhausted but we never even reached out to say hi. The guy had just completed one year in the country after relocating, and was lonely and compensating this with overwork. 'Please, please, do not overlook this mental health is important!' the person added. 'Take care of each other. Rest in peace, Tom.' Posts are submitted through an online portal, and while there are some positive stories, the account is mostly used as an outlet to air grievances Someone else admitted to turning to alcohol, writing: 'The burnout is real. I've thought about going to a shrink, but my insurance won't cover it, so I just drink, cause my firm pays for that.' Another insisted that the managers at banks and investment firms don't really care about their employees' well-being and would punish them if they knew they were struggling. 'It's so frustrating to see all this stuff about taking care of your mental health and preventing burnout because it's just an HR stunt,' the Instagram user griped. 'We know damn well if we told any of our managers we were at our breaking point, we'd be pushed until we snapped and then let go for "staffing reductions" within the year.' Someone else claimed that a managing director told an employee who was battling a drug addiction that he couldn't go to rehab. 'A trader on my desk recently came out as being addicted to prescription pills,' the person explained. 'When he said he'd be taking a month off for intensive rehab, our MD said, "We need you on the desk, rehab can wait until the end of the summer." Trader quit the next day.' However, there were some people who wrote posts that praised their bosses for helping them manage burnout when they were struggling with work-life balance. Burnout, verbal abuse, and suicidal ideation as a result of being overworked are hot-button issues that are brought up time and time again 'I was in a dark place. I was depressed and suicidal due to the lack of balance and control in my life,' one professional recalled. 'My MD noticed something was off and took me aside to talk, and he couldn't have been more supportive. He made me take time off, found me resources, and checked in regularly with me. He saw me as a person, rather than an employee, and him giving a s**t is why I'm here today.' Drug use is another topic that comes up frequently on the account, with a number of people saying that cocaine is a part of the culture. 'My first day at work, the VP got me to do coke with him and the other analysts,' one analyst wrote in. 'I've never done it before, and now I think it was the wrong move because I want more...' Another person alleged that a nurse who works at the CityMD near Wall Street 'said that most of the people who come in are there because of nosebleeds from coke...' Wall Street Confessions also serves as an outlet for women and minorities who have experienced blatant sexism and racism in the finance sector, which is overwhelmingly white and male. 'My MD has asked me to call into our Zoom meetings by phone/turn the camera off during the past few weeks. I found out today it is because our client has gone on rants about the "f**king C****s and their kung flu" have done to their supply chain and rationalized the street violence towards Chinese Americans as fair retribution for the pandemic,' one Chinese American shared. Wall Street Confessions also serves as an outlet for women and minorities who have experienced blatant sexism and racism in the field of finance 'Instead of standing up for me, my MD has chosen instead to obscure my identity in the fear that my heritage could cause the first to lose business. This is the same man who inspired me by his words of allyship during the death of George Floyd last year. What hurts the most isn't what some racist stranger said it's what the person I considered a mentor failed to do.' Someone else encouraged people in finance to report racism to their companies' human resources departments. 'After years and years of listening to the awful, racist rants of the trading floor, I finally made an HR complain,' the Instagram user shared. 'I honestly expected them to just be like, whatever, trading floors are just lockers rooms, but they're taking it seriously and people are getting fired. You don't have to put up with it. Say something.' One woman recalled being touched 'inappropriately' by an analyst at an open bar social event during her junior year internship. 'When I backed away in horror and told him that this was sexual assault, he became defensive and told me I was asking for it by dressing provocatively at the office. He called me a tease,' she wrote. 'When I brought this up with the associate overseeing his work, whom I had come to trust, he turned on me instead and said that give my body shape, I should pay more attention to dressing conservatively because it invited the male gaze,' she continued. Riya Sharma, a 22-year-old content strategist, launched the Instagram account in 2019 while she was a student at Marymount Manhattan College 'No one had ever said anything about how I dressed before. They made me feel like I was the problem, and I felt humiliated and defeated into submission and silence.' She went on to say that the analyst must have found out that she reported him because he made her life 'miserable' that summer. 'I'm a minority woman, and he made comments that "some people are just there to make the firm look good and make us feel good," implying that I was a diversity prop and eye candy,' she recounted. She also claimed he took photos and videos of her and excluded her from social interactions, though she can't prove it. 'I lost a lot of weight that summer in the hopes that it would minimize my curves and had several mental breakdowns,' she shared. 'When I returned to school, I knew I couldn't go back but still wanted to work in IB at a different company. 'Many people asked me why I would give up an opportunity at that group at that bank, which only further reinforced my sense that I had f**ked up and I was the issue. Sharma has since dropped out of college, and Wall Street Confessions now has more than 128,000 followers, including Jefferies CEO Rich Handler 'The experience deeply traumatized me and made me develop an unhealthy relationship with my body. I have been in therapy and feel much better, but I will never forget the way I was introduced to the challenges of being a woman in the workplace,' she concluded. One professional claimed to know a partner who continuously insinuates that the only reason women are promoted in the firm is because of 'gender quotas.' 'Every time we get organizational announcement emails about women moving to new roles in the firm, one of the partners on my team asks if anyone else saw the announcement and then describes it as them getting ahead because of gender quotas,' the person wrote. Others shared how they got revenge on their horrible bosses. 'On the last day of work I went into my MD's office and poured milk behind the shelves in his office,' one Instagram user confessed. 'I heard from coworkers the smell drove him nuts for months. That'll teach him to send a "pls fix" email at 4 a.m. on Christmas Day. ' Advertisement Sandra Lee packed on the PDA with her fiance Ben Youcef while enjoying some shopping in Malibu, California, on New Year's Day. The Food Network star, 55, was spotted passionately kissing the Algerian-born actor, 42, with both of her arms wrapped around his neck at the Malibu Country Mart on Saturday. Lee was dressed casually in a $52 Venti 6 gray sweatshirt with the phrase 'Rock & Love' splashed across the front, which she paired with some black pants. She topped off the look with a pair of aviators and plenty of jewelry, including hoop earrings, a layered necklace, and a new diamond ring. Sandra Lee and her fiance Ben Youcef were spotted sharing a smooch in Malibu, California, on New Year's Day Lee, 55, had her arm around Youcef, 42, as they strolled through Malibu Country Mart together Instead of the large engagement ring her fiance gave her in Paris over the summer, she wore a delicate filigree band lined with diamonds. The new bling is believed to be a Christmas gift from Youcef, a source told Page Six. Lee's blond hair was pulled back with a barrette holding back her long bangs, but a few strands fell onto her face she smooched her partner of 11 months. Meanwhile, Youcef sported a white long-sleeve shirt and jeans, with his face mask tucked into his back pocket. Like his wife-to-be, he also had on aviators. When she wasn't cuddled up with her fiance, she was seen scrolling through her cellphone while sitting at a picnic table at the outdoor shopping center. The Food Network star had her arms wrapped around the Algerian-born actor's neck as they kissed Youcef appeared to have his hand on Lee's lower back as they packed on the PDA on Saturday Instead of her engagement ring, Lee was wearing delicate filigree band lined with diamonds that is believed to be a Christmas gift from Youcef, Page Six reported Resting on the bench were shopping bags from the clothing stores Madison Malibu and M.Fredric. Lee appeared to have changed her outfit at some point because she was also photographed wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and gray sweatpants on New Year's Day. Just hours before the shopping trip, the couple rang in the new year together at Nobu Malibu, People reported. 'They are very much looking forward to the new year,' a source told the outlet. 'They are happier than ever.' The television chef moved to Malibu after she and her ex, disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, split in September 2019. Just hours before the shopping trip, the couple rang in the new year together at Nobu Malibu, People reported Lee was dressed casually in a gray sweatshirt with the phrase 'Rock & Love' splashed across the front and black pants The television chef wore plenty of jewelry, including hoop earrings, a layered necklace, and the diamond bands on her manicured fingers Lee's blonde hair was messily pulled back, and while her long bangs were clipped off her face, a few strands came loose Lee and Cuomo were introduced at a party in the Hamptons in 2005 by political adviser Alexandra Stanton, one of Lee's best friends and Cuomo's former aide. At the time Cuomo, son of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, was fresh off a failed run for governor and a very public and bitter divorce from Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy. Lee was also recently single after divorcing her husband of four years, KB Home CEO Bruce Karatz, earlier that year. With Lee in his corner, Cuomo rebounded and was elected New York Attorney General in 2006. Four years later, he went on to be elected governor in 2010. They dated for 14 years and lived together, but they never got engaged in their decade and a half as a couple. While at the Malibu Country Mart, Lee was seen sitting at a picnic table and scrolling through her cellphone Lee wore aviator sunglasses to shield her eyes from the California sun as she looked at her phone Resting on the bench were shopping bags from the clothing stores Madison Malibu and M.Fredric Lee and Youcef are believed to have met at a charity event in Santa Monica back in March, with him making the first move. He is a father to five-year-old twins with his soon-to-be ex-wife, California-based realtor Apryl Stephenson. Though the pair are still legally married, they separated in 2019 and they filed for divorce in January 2020. Youcef proposed to Lee in August during their whirlwind trip to France that coincided with the sexual harassment scandal surrounding Cuomo. 'Ben really wanted to distract Sandra from all the news, so he whisked her away to Paris,' an unnamed source close to Youcef told the New York Post. 'He knows how hard this has been on her and he wants to make sure she feels loved and supported.' The source added: 'Ben is incredibly protective of Sandra. They're soulmates and head-over-heels in love.' Lee appeared to have changed her outfit at some point because she was also photographed wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and gray sweatpants on New Year's Day Lee and Youcef got engaged in Paris in August during a whirlwind trip to France Lee and Youcef are believed to have met at a charity event in Santa Monica back in March, with him making the first move Cuomo, 64, resigned from office in August after investigators working for New York Attorney General Letitia James authored a report concluding he had sexually harassed 11 women. Cuomo has denied the allegations. The ex-governor has been hit with a charge of forcible touching relating to the allegation of Brittany Commisso, a former aide who claimed Cuomo groped her breast in the office of the Executive Mansion in Albany in December 2020. The complaint, which was signed by an investigator from the Albany County Sheriff's Office, alleges that the former governor 'intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly place his hand under the blouse shirt of the victim and onto her intimate body part.' Commisso's claim was the most serious of all of the allegations listed in James' report, which Cuomo has maintained was a hit-job by James to get him out of her way. Lee had dated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for 14 years until they broke up in September 2019 Cuomo, 64, resigned from office in August after investigators working for New York Attorney General Letitia James authored a report concluding he had sexually harassed 11 women 'From the moment my office received the referral to investigate allegations that former Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, we proceeded without fear or favor,' James' office said in a statement. 'The criminal charges brought today against Mr. Cuomo for forcible touching further validate the findings in our report.' If convicted, Cuomo could face up to one year in prison. Despite the charges filed against him, Cuomo is considering running for political rival James' attorney general post, sources said. He held the position from 2007 to 2010 before becoming governor and now sources close to the politician told the New York Post he could run for the position in 2022. 'People in Cuomos orbit are tossing it out there,' a person close to Cuomo told the New York Post. 'Theyre floating [the idea].' Australians have come together to make a list of 2021's most overused words, with some calling for them to be banned for good in 2022. And it's bad news for the state leaders and medical experts who rose to fame with the help of daily televised press conferences, as most of the language they use to describe the pandemic makes the list. From hopeful phrases like 'moving forward' to calling current times 'unprecedented', the public appeared to agree with the ban on Covid-related terms. Buzz-words and phrases enjoyed by state leaders like Victoria's Dan Andrews, including 'new normal' and 'moving forward' should be banned according to Australians One man slammed 'may have' - claiming it is well overused, especially since the beginning of the pandemic. 'For example he may have died with Covid,' he explained. On the ground, moving forward and we are seeing this globally were three more phrases detested by the public. 'Moving forward triggers me, I never want to have to hear anyone say that again,' one person said. Others said terminology like social distancing, let's be Covid safe and wear a mask indoors should be banned. Some words included in the list aren't pandemic related, with many declaring 'like' worthy of banishing. What words and phrases to Aussies want banned? Moving forward Unprecedented times May have On the ground Seeing this globally Like Let's be Covid safe Wear a mask indoors Wait, what New normal Advertisement 'They should ban the word like because just about all teens seem to use it every 2nd word while talking. It is so annoying,' one woman complained, earning dozens of likes. The list was made by Australians of Facebook - in response to a selection of words and phrases a US university believes should be banned going forward. The university's banished phrase list includes 'wait, what', 'asking for a friend' and 'new normal'. Other words like 'unprecedneted' often used by health officers including Dr Kerry Chant were also voted as particularly loathsome by the commentators Some people simply reacted to the lists in anger and said they would 'use whatever words they wanted' even if they were 'banned'. The university said they wanted to banish the words in order to 'protect the English language'. 'The Americans attempting to protect the language is hilarious,' one woman laughed. The American list also attempted to rule out 'no worries' which most of the Australians agreed would be 'impossible' to do down under. Viewers were left outraged over how police failed to connect the first two victims of 'Grindr killer' Stephen Port, following the first episode of a new drama about the serial killer. Four Lives, which premiered last night on BBC1, tells the tragic stories of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor, and how their families and friends fought for justice for their loved ones after their deaths at the hands of Port. Port, played by Stephen Merchant, met his four victims online and on dating apps, enticing them to his home in Barking, east London, before drugging, raping and killing them, and dumping their bodies nearby. In the opening minutes of last night's episode, Mr Walgate, a 23-year-old fashion student from Hull, was found outside his flat and Port made the 999 phone call reporting the body, yet police still failed to take him seriously as a suspect. He was eventually charged with perverting the course of justice after he claimed that Mr Walgate died of an accidental overdose after consensual sex. While on police bail, Port raped and killed Gabriel Kovari, 22, a Slovakian man who was staying at his flat. The episode showed Mr Walgate's mother Sarah Sak (played by Sheridan Smith) pressuring police to take her son's death seriously, certain from the start that it was not an accident. By the end of the episode she learned of Mr Kovari's death and suggested both men had been murdered. 'There is nothing whatsoever to connect what happened to your son to any other deaths Mrs Saks,' her police liaison officer says, defiantly, in the final moments of the episode. It comes weeks after an inquest into all of Port's four victims said 'fundamental' mistakes looking at Anthony Walgate's death 'probably' contributed to Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor being subsequently killed. Viewers were left outraged over how police failed to connect the first two victims of 'Grindr killer' Stephen Port, following the first episode of a new drama about the serial killer. Sheridan Smith (pictured) plays Sarah Sak, the mother of first victim Anthony Walgate, who was certain from the start that her son's death was not accidental Officers DC Slaymaker (a real officer played by Michael Jibson, above) and Det. Sqt. O'Donnell (Ben Cartwright) are shown apparently latching onto the fact that Anthony had met a man named Joe Dean (an alias used by Port) for sex, after finding him on an escort service In the opening minutes of last night's episode, Anthony Walgate (left), a 23-year-old fashion student from Hull, was found outside his flat and Port made the 999 phone call reporting the body, yet police still failed to take him seriously as a suspect. Right, Tim Preston plays Anthony Viewers were struck by how the failings of the police in the episode appeared to be driven by homophobia, a view echoed by the victims' families in real life Viewers were struck by how the failings of the police in the episode appeared to be driven by homophobia, a view echoed by the victims' families in real life. Officers DC Slaymaker (a real officer played by Michael Jibson) and Det. Sqt. O'Donnell (Ben Cartwright) are shown apparently latching onto the fact that Anthony had met a man named Joe Dean (an alias used by Port) for sex, after finding him on an escort service. They repeatedly point to the fact that the victim had poppers in his flat and appeared to link this to his death. The officers also failed to take one of Anthony's friends up on her offer of passing on valuable details like his phone number, and information on the man he had arranged to meet. One viewer tweeted: 'It's frightening how the police choose which victims are worth their time by their own prejudice #FourLives.' Another posted: 'The police could have stopped this after one innocent boy lost his life but their incompetency resulted in the death of 3 more. #FourLives.' A third wrote: 'Watching the prejudiced, casual and dismissive way the police handled this case makes it feel like these must be events from decades ago, rather than just a few short years.' The first episode opens with Anthony's death and how his mother, Mrs Sak, struggled to get information out of DC Slaymaker, who served as her police liaison officer. She took it upon herself to find Anthony on an escort site, phoned his friends for information and went to her local MP in Hull, who was able to lobby some support in London. Yet there were still delays in Anthony's body being released and she complained about a lack of transparency in the police investigation. Police eventually brought Port in for questioning and learned he had in fact been with Mr Walgate before his death. Officers realised that Port was lying and charged him with perverting the course of justice after he claimed that Mr Walgate died of an accidental overdose after consensual sex. Mr Walgate's body was found slumped outside Port's flat in last night's episode, as in real life. Port (left), played by Stephen Merchant (right), met his four victims online and on dating apps, enticing them to his home in Barking, east London, before drugging, raping and killing them, and dumping their bodies nearby Mrs Sak (played by Sheridan Smith, above) took it upon herself to find Anthony on an escort site (above), phoned his friends for information and went to her local MP in Hull, who was able to lobby some support in London Mrs Sak and the rest of Anthony's family were left having to come to terms with his death Police eventually brought Port in for questioning and learned he had in fact been with Mr Walgate before his death. Pictured, the police questioning scene The Metropolitan Police spent 25,000 and 980 man-hours on the investigation - but crucially never opened a murder investigation. While on police bail, Port raped and killed Gabriel Kovari. Gabriel, whose character was also introduced last night, was shown moving into Port's Barking flat after finding the listing on a couch surfing website. Both his former flatmate and a neighbour of Port's tried to contact him after growing concerned about his whereabouts. His body was discovered by a dogwalker in a graveyard, just 400 yards from Port's flat. While on police bail, Port raped and killed Gabriel Kovari. Gabriel, whose character was also introduced last night, was shown moving into Port's Barking flat after finding the listing on a couch surfing website. Right, Jakub Svec plays Gabriel in Four Lives Both Gabriel's former flatmate and a neighbour of Port's (above in the show) are shown trying to contact him after growing concerned about his whereabouts Gabriel's body was discovered by a dogwalker in a graveyard, just 400 yards from Port's flat. Above, the scene from Four Lives in which Gabriel's body is discovered Mrs Sak's made the connection and suggested a link to her liaison officer but was roundly dismissed. The three-part series continues tonight and will show how, within a month of Mr Kovari's death, Mr Whitworth's body was found in the same graveyard by the same dog walker. Port had left a fake suicide note in Mr Whitworth's left hand which said Mr Whitworth had accidentally killed Mr Kovari by giving him an overdose of GHB during a sex session. The note went on to say: 'Please do not blame the guy I was with last night, we only had sex then I left. He knows nothing of what I have done.' Police accepted the note at face value and did not check if it matched Mr Whitworth's handwriting. They also failed to look into Mr Whitworth's last movements and made no attempt to trace 'the guy I was with last night'. Port's first three victims were all found in a seated position with their clothes pulled up to expose their stomachs which was caused by the bodies being dragged. Port was finally caught in October 2015 after the family of his fourth victim Jack Taylor carried out their own research and showed police the striking similarities between Mr Taylor's death and the previous three murders. Port was jailed for life without parole at the Old Bailey in November 2016. An inquest into all four deaths, which concluded last month, found 'fundamental' mistakes looking at Anthony Walgate's death 'probably' contributed to the other three men being killed. The jury was told they could not consider prejudice on legal grounds amid accusations of police homophobia. Relatives of the murdered men said they were 'incensed' by how the police had quashed this complaint and called for officers to be sacked. 'Our firmly held belief is that the Metropolitan Polices actions were, in part, driven by homophobia. Had four, white, heterosexual girls been found dead in the same manner as Anthony, Gabriel, Daniel and Jack, then the polices actions, and the likely outcomes, would have been different,' they said in a statement. The Met Police said the nine officers who were identified as having performance failings were properly dealt with by their managers. Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball apologised on behalf of the Met but denied the force was homophobic. She said: 'We don't see institutional homophobia. We don't see homophobia on the part of our officers. We do see all sorts of errors in the investigation, which came together in a truly dreadful way.' Advertisement Parents should give their children extra lessons after school 'daily' because they cannot 'assume they are being taught well' in the nation's classrooms, the Government's own social mobility tsar declared today. Katharine Birbalsingh, 49, a successful headteacher of an inner London secondary, has set herself on a collision course with colleagues and unions by telling mothers and fathers they can't trust schools to properly educate their child because they will be 'lucky' to get a brilliant teacher. Ms Birbalsingh, the anti-woke founder of the notoriously uncompromising Michaela Community School in Wembley, north London, told her near 100,000 Twitter followers that because of the pandemic and successive lockdowns there 'has never been a better time to teach your children at home'. She wrote: 'Parents! Don't assume they are being taught well at school. You might get lucky. Great! But don't assume it. Teach them after school. Daily. Always. Other parents do. They just aren't telling you. 'Schools, even the BEST schools, can only do so much Parents can do 1-1 instruction and can revisit before bedtime or provide different 'instructors' for the same thing. The power of the family is HUGE. Yet all we do is say, 'schools should teach that!',' she added. Despite her comments infuriating teachers, many parents tweeted their support, saying they 'agree 100%' with her views and advice. Some educators also admitted they agreed. The straight-talking headteacher was made chairwoman of the Government's Social Mobility Commission in October after repeatedly using her platform as Britain's most high profile school leader to attack 'woke culture' damaging Britain and its education system. She won a CBE in 2020. She has also talked repeatedly about the importance of family in education, and the need for traditional values such as eating with your children each night. And the super headteacher has said schools have been crippled by league tables, exams were dumbed down and that 'well meaning liberal' teachers refused to discipline black children for fear of being called racist. MailOnline has contacted NASUWT, the Teachers' Union, and the National Education Union (NEU) for comment. Scroll down for video Katharine Birbalsingh, who founded the Michaela Community School in Wembley in 2014, which Ofsted has rated 'Outstanding', is known for her tough stance on discipline. This week, she told her followers on Twitter that parents should teach their children lessons 'daily' and 'always' at home after the school day ends Katharine Birbalsingh, 49, a headteacher herself, has set herself on a collision course with colleagues and unions with this tweet The headteacher also said schools can't do it all, and families must put in the effor including eating together each night Parents and even a teacher admit that the super headteacher is right and that lessons and activities out of school are required How Britain's 'tiger headmistress' was sacked for an attack on Britain's failing education system before taking on her own school where students must 'dress smartly' and phones are BANNED Katharine Birbalsingh won a standing ovation at the Conservative Party conference after she delivered a damning indictment of 'utterly chaotic' state schools in 2010. But soon afterwards she was sent home from her school in Camberwell, South London, after her speech, and lost her job as a deputy head teacher at the inner city academy. The former Marxist turned conservative was the surprise star of the Tory conference when she laid bare an education system in which children were 'lost in a sea of bureaucracy'. She said schools were crippled by league tables, exams were dumbed down and 'well meaning liberal' teachers refused to discipline black children for fear of being called racist. The Oxford University graduate also admitted that she had voted Conservative for the first time after a decade working in state schools having supported Labour. She was born in New Zealand, the elder of two daughters of Frank Birbalsingh, an academic, and his wife, Norma, a nurse. After leaving Oxford she began working in inner city schools in South London. After her sacking in 2010 she wrote several books before becoming head of Michaela Community School in Wembley, having founded the school in 2014 with Suella Braverman, who is now a Tory MP. She was voted in the top 20 most influential people in British education in 2017 and given a CBE for services to education in 2020. In October 2021, she was appointed Chair of the Social Mobility Commission. She has has never spoken publicly about her private life, other than about her parents, and is understood not to have any children saying previously she is 'completely dedicated' to her work. Advertisement Last year she hit out at people 'mercilessly attacking' black British conservatives who 'dare to think for themselves'. She also slammed teachers who keep telling students about 'white privilege', urging them to avoid talking about race to students and stick to 'teaching them maths and English'. She said; 'Talking about white privilege all the time actually undermines black children because it tells them that the establishment is against them. We need to move away from these things because they're divisive and unhelpful and be talking about what matters: How do we make all our schools excellent so that all children, whatever colour they are, can succeed in the classroom'. The headteacher of Michaela Community School in Wembley, which Ofsted has rated 'Outstanding', told her 91,500 followers: 'Parents! Never has there been a better time for you to teach your kids at home. 'Don't assume they are being taught well at school. You might get lucky. Great! But don't assume it.' She continued: 'Teach them after school. Daily. Always. Other parents do. They just aren't telling you.' The head later added: 'Schools, even the BEST schools, can only do so much Parents can do 1-1 instruction and can revisit before bedtime or provide different 'instructors' for the same thing. The power of the family is HUGE. Yet all we do is say, 'schools should teach that!'' 'Follow instructions and listen in silence': Tough rules demanded by Britain's hardest head Michaela Community School was established in September 2014 by Katharine Birbalsingh and Suella Braverman. It is described as the 'strictest school in Britain' and achieved among the best GCSE results in the country. Children are told to 'Work hard' and be kind' but also have a strict set of rules they are punished for breaking. These include: Keep to correct uniform and wear it smartly, leaving electronic items, food, drink, gum, and anything else not needed for school, at home Speak at an appropriate volume Sit listening silently in the correct place, unless given permission otherwise School shoes should be black, flat and logo free. Trainers, boots, suede and logos are not allowed at school. Similarly, shoes that are considered to be trainer-like in appearance are not allowed. This ruling also applies to branded shoes. Hair will be in a conventional style. Hair styles that grow out instead of down, and therefore do not touch the collar, must look professional If a pupil attends school with a pattern shaved into their eyebrow, they will be banned from attending school until it grows back fully or the school will insist the entire eyebrow is shaved off Pupils in Year 7 to 11 must not wear any make-up whatsoever Nail varnish of any description, nail extensions and henna decorations are also forbidden No jewellery whatsoever except a plain and functional watch Advertisement While many agreed with Ms Birbalsingh's comments, others questioned when children 'can be children' if they're expected to continue studying at home. Teacher @jennie_priest responded, saying: 'What?! No they don't! I am a teacher and I don't teach my children at home. We don't have time...we have piano lessons, rugby training etc. We talk together, we have fun, we watch TV, we eat together....but I certainly don't formally teach them.' Others were alarmed by Ms Birbalsingh's apparent low opinion of the UK education system. @Alienwife99 wrote: 'You might get lucky'. Is that your opinion of the teaching profession? That children are 'lucky' if they get a good teacher. Who is that going to help?' Many parents admitted they did teach their children when they'd got home from school. @AlexShrop wrote: 'Couldn't agree more. My kids never stop learning because my wife and I have brought them up by reflecting on our own childhood, not repeating mistakes observed and learning new things as we go. 'Trick is to instil clear morals, boundaries and structure and be consistent.' Another teacher, @MrsHRCrowther, said her own young daughter would be 'lost' without a timetable of work set at home. She wrote: 'I'm a teacher and I have a homework timetable for my Y3 little girl she needs consolidation in Reading, maths etc. We also do Brownies, swimming, piano, telly etc. I really feel like if I didn't do what I do, she'd feel even more lost at school. Feel like I owe it her.' Ms Birbalsingh also said eating dinner together was vital to a child's development, saying: 'Too many families don't do this. Just eating dinner together and parents talking to their children makes such a difference to the development of a child. 'Schools can try to make up for it (we do family lunch), but there is only so much a school can do.' The head has earned a reputation for her no-nonsense approach to discipline at the Wembley school she co-founded nearly eight years ago. Children at the Michaela Community School in Brent, North London, are taught in Year 7 pupils how to sit properly on a chair. New students at the school, which Birbalsingh set up in 2014, are also shown how to walk to lessons quickly in single file and how to concentrate on the teacher - to instil good behaviour as soon as they arrive. Ms Birbalsingh has been praised by Minister for Women & Equalities Liz Truss for maintaining 'high standards'. When the head was made chairwoman of the Government's Social Mobility Commission, she said she would use her new position to develop a society that 'provides an equal chance for all'. She told GB News at the time of her appointment in October: 'The chair of the Social Mobility Commission is meant to help the Government to enable it so that everyone has an opportunity to be able to do whatever they want to do with their lives. 'I'm particularly interested in family, school and roots into the workplace, although obviously I'll be interested in building a body of evidence and listening to other people's ideas in terms of what we ought to concentrate on. 'But those three for me - family, school and roots into the workplace I think are key when trying to enable social mobility 'Doing that means making it so that the accident of your birth does not mean that you are unable to pursue whatever it is you want to do with your life.' In 2010, Ms Birbalsingh told delegates at a Tory party conference that educational standards have been 'so dumbed down that even the teachers know it' and that schools are bound by too many targets that prevent them from teaching properly. She credits her father, who received an 'old-fashioned British education in British Guyana', with her success. She has since spoken out against schools teaching about 'white privilege', saying it gives black British children the impression that the education system and society is pitted against them. In June, she said teachers should avoid talking about race to students and stick to 'teaching them maths and English'. Ms Birbalsingh said the secret to success for a child of 'any colour' is to have a family that supports their education, makes them do their homework and will force them 'off their phones'. Earlier this year, Ms Birbalsingh also took a swipe at at 'woke culture' for 'mercilessly attacking' black conservatives who 'dare to think for themselves'. Taking aim at those behind the abuse of race report chairman Tony Sewell, Ms Birbalsingh accused 'leftists' of driving their own 'cultural racism' by attempting to shut down opposing views. A woman who found a tampon under her boyfriend's wardrobe and sent its serial number to Tampax to find out when it was made and if he was cheating on her has divided opinion online Lois Saunders, 23, from Liverpool, shared a video to TikTok showing her discovery of the tampon and subsequent email exchange with its manufacturer Tampax. She explained how she had been sitting on her boyfriend Finn Denny's lap when she playfully leaned back and spotted a Benefit mascara and the bright yellow Tampax wedged underneath his wardrobe at his university house. Laughing, she said that her boyfriend denied ever having another girl in his room and that it must have belonged to the room's previous occupant. Lois Saunders, 23, from Liverpool, shared a video to TikTok showing her discovery of the tampon and subsequent email exchange with its manufacturer Tampax. She explained how she had been sitting on her boyfriend Finn Denny's lap when she playfully leaned back and spotted a Benefit mascara and the bright yellow Tampax wedged underneath his wardrobe at his university house Lois, pictured on New Year's Eve, found a tampon under her boyfriend's wardrobe and sent its serial number to Tampax to find out when it was made and if he was cheating on her 'There's a tampon and a mascara under Finn's wardrobe and he's in denial that he's had a girl here,' she explains. 'I'm not even joking it's right there. There's not enough dust on it to be old,' she adds as she sticks her head under the wardrobe to reach for it. She then shared a screenshot of her email to Tampax giving them the code and explaining: 'I found it in my boyfriend's draw so I'm doing some investigation'. A member of Tampax customer service team called Grace wrote back explaining it was manufactured on 11th December, 2019. This was before Finn moved in, with Lois then clearing his name, with the couple theorising it belonged to one of a group of girls that lived there before him. The video, which has been viewed nearly four million times drew a mixed reaction, with some branding Lois a 'genius' and saying they would do the same thing, while others branded her 'psycho'. Lois emailed Tampax (left) and a member of Tampax customer service team called Grace wrote back explaining it was manufactured on 11th December, 2019 (right) In a video explaining the situation Lois said: ' It was my first time in Finn's house. 'I was sat on his lap, he was facing the wardrobe and I leaned backwards so I was upside down. I could see under the wardrobe and was like "what the hell is that!" 'So I look and was like "what the f***" He said he's never had a girl in that room'. She added that it was then she decided to 'take things into her own hands' and googled what the serial number on the side of the tampon meant. 'I was sitting there googling what code on the side of the tampon means, Finn was sitting there going "what the f***, you're nuts" 'We are together to this day, so happy ending'. The video, which has been viewed nearly four million times drew a mixed reaction, with some branding Lois a 'genius' and saying they would do the same thing, while others branded her 'psycho'. The post racked up hundreds of comments, with one person writing: 'Tampax customer service deserves an 10/10. Another joked: 'Men really dont realise how smart we are tho. A third added: 'Im not sure if this is genius or borderline psycho' While a fourth said: 'I love women'. However some said that it was a 'red flag' and that she should 'trust her boyfriend'. 'Finn.. run! Red flag,' said one. The post racked up hundreds of comments, with one person writing: 'Tampax customer service deserves an 10/10. 'Finn if you are reading this mate RUN,' joked a second. 'Dna fibres from the mascara is the only possible next step,' added another. 'So funny how its all men pointing out she's a red flag, when women just get it,' said one. Another commented: 'Why is everyone taking this so seriously its actually very very funny' 'How is it a red flag that you looked out for yourself and your feelings, imagine if it wasnt from 2019,' wrote another. 'Hahaha ignore these comments gal Id have genuinely done the same thing, clearly your boyf wasnt bothered and had a laugh with it,' added one. Kate Middleton is 'very much a future queen in the making' but 'still struggles to mix with world leaders such as the Bidens' because she's a 'natural introvert', a close friend has claimed ahead of her 40th birthday. The Duchess of Cambridge, who will celebrate turning the milestone age on Sunday, grew on the world stage in 2021 taking on solo projects such as Hold Still and the Westminster Abbey Christmas Carol service. And her job involves mixing with high profile figures on the world stage, such as visiting a school with Dr Jill Biden during the G7 summit in June last year. But her presence is still 'understated' her friend told Hello! adding that she is 'quietly growing in confidence' 10 years after marrying into the royal family. 'She still finds it quite challenging to mix with those sorts of players [the Bidens], because she's a natural introvert. But she's really growing into the role,' her friend said. Kate Middleton is 'very much a future queen in the making' but 'still struggles to mix with world leaders such as the Bidens' because she's a 'natural introvert', a close friend has claimed ahead of her 40th birthday. She is pictured with Jill Biden in June in Cornwall In November Kate chatted to Justin Trudeau (pictured together), Angela Merkel and other world leaders during the COP26 summit and Earthshot awards. '[Public speaking] is not something that she relishes doing, at all. She's not a put yourself out there, extroverted type of person, it's just not who she is. But she knows it's an important way for her to make a positive contribution and there are some times that you need to get out there and speak for things you believe in." The future Queen, who lives at Kensington Palace in London, mingled with many world leaders as she attended COP26 in Glasgow and the G7 summit in Cornwall in 2021. In June, she met with First Lady Jill Biden, 70, at the Connor Downs Academy near Camborne to meet with school children before hosting a round table discussion with UK education experts. While in November she chatted to Justin Trudeau, Angela Merkel and other world leaders during the COP26 summit and Earthshot awards. It comes amid reports the Duchess of Cambridge's 40th birthday celebrations will be muted much like her Christmas was due to the growing Covid risk. Instead of a big party, the Duchess is expected to have a much smaller affair with just family and close friends. Describing how December 25th went for the royal family-of-five (pictured), an insider told the magazine that Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, six, and Prince Louis, three, woke up at 5am to check whether Father Christmas had visited their Norfolk home of Anmer Hall overnight Kate and William who on Friday unveiled a photograph of themselves on the way to last years James Bond premiere to coincide with New Years Eve missed out on the traditional Royal Family Christmas celebrations after the Queen was forced to cancel her plans to host the festivities at Sandringham. Due to fears of the Omicron Covid variant, a smaller lunch was held at Windsor Castle while the Cambridges hosted Kates family at Anmer Hall, their country retreat on the Sandringham estate A source told Mail on Sunday: There are likely to be low-key celebrations for the Duchess. She didnt want anything flashy anyway thats not exactly her thing but particularly given the current climate anything is likely to be scaled down. Describing how Christmas day was for the family-of-five, an insider told US Weekly that Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, six, and Prince Louis, three, woke up at 5am to check whether Santa Claus had visited overnight. 'While Kate and William avoid overly spoiling the children, they let the rule slide at Christmas,' the source claimed. George reportedly received a camping kit - including a tent, walkie-talkies and a flashlight - while Louis was given a climbing frame and Charlotte was treated to a childrens video camera. They also opened several games and books. The Duke of Cambridge, 39, treated his wife to a beautiful bracelet because he wanted to make this Christmas extra special, said the source. A devastated mother correctly diagnosed her two-year-old daughter's rare liver cancer six months before doctors who told her it was just constipation. Louise Millward, 34, from Inkberrow, Worcestershire, noticed Grace had lost her appetite and was more tired than normal in May last year. The mum-of-two took the little girl to their GP who referred her to Worcestershire Royal Hospital, where doctors suspected she had constipation or appendicitis. She was treated at Birmingham Children's Hospital before being sent home - but Grace's health continued to deteriorate, and mum Louise noticed she was losing her balance and being sick. In October last year - five months after doctors gave her the all clear - Louise noticed Grace's stomach was swollen and rushed her back to hospital. Further tests revealed her liver was inflamed, and she was sadly diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a rare cancer which affects just one in one million children. Louise Millward, 34, from Inkberrow, Worcestershire, correctly diagnosed daughter Grace, two, pictured, with a rare liver cancer by Googling her symptoms (pictured receiving treatment at Birmingham Children's Waterfall House) Grace before the diagnosis of her liver cancer. In May last year, Grace's mother Louise noticed the toddler had lost her appetite and was more tired than normal Louise, blasted the doctors saying her little girl's cancer went untreated for six months. She said: 'The doctors reassured us that it was constipation and we just thought that it was all sorted. 'Because what she has in children is so rare, to some degree I am angry it was missed. 'The size of the tumour when she was diagnosed was 14cm in length. 'For a 23-month-old child to have a 14cm length in her liver is huge - that is why it was protruding out of her stomach. 'Had it have been picked up properly in May, then maybe it wouldn't have been as big and could have been resolved on a slightly different avenue.' Louise Millward, 34, pictured with her two-year-old Grace, who was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a rare liver cancer, after scans discovered a 14cm tumor Don, 34, Grace's father, an agriculture contractor, and partner Louise were worried doctors had misdiagnosed their daughter, who said she was most likely constipated or suffering with appendicitis Louise and partner Don, 34, an agriculture contractor, became concerned doctors had misdiagnosed their daughter after she kept falling over. She said: 'After we were sent home we had incidents of her falling over, vomiting, sickness, lack of interest. 'These incidents were happening from May until October. She was really poorly for all that time. 'We thought it may be a virus or something. 'Then one night while I was giving her a bath I then noticed she had a vein mapping across her stomach, I had never seen this before. Grace receiving treatment for her liver cancer. The heart-breaking news came six months after symptoms initially began and her health continued to deteriorate Grace had incidents of her falling over, vomiting, sickness, lack of interest after doctors sent her home from hospital treated for constipation. Pictured before treatment Grace continuing her stay at Birmingham Children's Waterfall House. On 25 October 2020, Louise took Grace to hospital for further tests and they were referred to Worcestershire Royal Hospital pending an investigation Grace's liver was extremely enlarged and was protruding out of her chest after investigations at Worcestershire Royal Hospital (pictured at Birmingham Children's Waterfall House) 'Her veins and arteries had to come to surface because of the pressure.' On 25 October 2020, Louise took Grace to hospital for further tests and they were referred to Worcestershire Royal Hospital pending an investigation. Louise said: 'The doctors had told me that her liver was extremely enlarged and that was what I could protruding out of her chest. 'The vein mapping was the pressure of her tumour on the arteries. We were then admitted for investigations. 'I Googled Grace's symptoms and it suggested it was probably cancer. 'The doctors couldn't give a diagnosis, they were still doing investigations and said probable hepatoblastoma. Grace, before her diagnosis. The toddler is now undergoing aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy in a bid to shrink the tumour Grace, pictured spending Christmas at home after having a break from the aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment 'It was a tumour but they couldn't tell me what and if it had spread. Everything after that happened so quickly. 'They then carried out CAT scan, MRIs and biopsies.' One November 2 last year her parents, who also have son Jack, 13, were dealt the devastating news that she had cancer. Louise said: 'We were devastated but not surprised. 'Her right lung had collapsed; she had a bleed in her liver and her haemoglobin levels had dropped right down.' Grace is now undergoing aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy in a bid to shrink the tumour. One November 2 last year, Grace's parents, who also have son Jack, 13, were dealt the devastating news that she had cancer (pictured in hospital during treatment) Grace has been signed up to a clinical trial which looks at the toxicity levels of chemotherapy drugs to treat her rare liver cancer. Pictured receiving treatment WHAT IS HEPATOBLASTOMA? Hepatoblastoma is a very rare cancer - about 10 to 15 children develop hepatoblastoma in the UK each year Average age of diagnosis is one, and most cases occur before two years of age The tumor starts in the liver Babies born at a very low birth weight also seem to be at higher risk Symptoms can include: A lump in the belly, pain in the abdomen, a swollen abdomen, weight loss, nausea and vomiting, yellow color to the skin or whites of the eyes, fever, and more Depending on the severity, it can be treated with surgery, chemotherapy, live transplant, or radiation therapy Source: Stanford Children's Hospital and The Royal Marsden Advertisement Louise added: 'We signed up to a clinical trial which looks at the toxicity levels of the chemotherapy drugs to treat this cancer. 'Grace also the characteristics of a tumour of a hepatocellular carcinoma - which is a mass on the outside of her liver, but it's not the really bad malignant tumour. 'At the end of December, we had a 13 per cent reduction in tumour size. The surgeons will now decide what happens next. 'As for the future, we don't know, but the chemotherapy is shrinking the tumour. 'Grace's cure is having it removed by a resection or transplant. The surgeons have told us she can survive with a third of her liver.' After setting up a GoFundme Page with a 750 target, the family have received 5,815 in donations from well-wishers. The family plan to use the donations to give Grace a bedroom makeover, a trip to the zoo and a family holiday. Incoming migratory birds reach record high in Poyang Lake CGTN) 09:40, January 04, 2022 Poyang Lake in east China's Jiangxi Province has welcomed a new record of over 680,000 migratory birds from the north so far. The lake, the largest fresh water lake in China, also serves as an important stop for migratory birds along the East AsianAustralasian Flyway to rest in winter. The variety of the wintering birds accounts for one third of all bird species in China. Every year, the water ebbs from October revealing grasses at the lake bottom and fish are more concentrated in the shrunken lake, providing sufficient food for the birds. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Hongyu) Telangana government has completed the purchase of paddy from the farmers to produce 46 lakh tonnes (LT) of rice. (Representational Photo: AFP) Hyderabad: The Telangana government has completed the purchase of paddy from the farmers to produce 46 lakh tonnes (LT) of rice, which the Centre had agreed to purchase from the state in the Kharif season. The Centre had initially set the target at 40 LT rice through the Food Corporation of India (FCI), and increased it to 46 LT upon a request from the state government. The government needed to procure 68.65 lakh tonnes of paddy which when milled produces 46 LT of rice, civil supplies minister Gangula Kamalakar said. We completed this target on January 3 by setting up 6,868 centres. Of these, 4,808 centres were closed after the paddy was procured. He said the government will continue to purchase paddy grown in the Kharif season from farmers, irrespective of whether or not the Centre buys some more rice from the state "Chief Minister KCR wants us to continue Kharif procurement until the last grain is procured. We expect a few lakhs of tonnes of paddy to come to the market yards in the next few days as paddy harvesting is being done in a few districts," the minister said at a review meeting. The minister said the government has purchased paddy from 11.9 lakh farmers for Rs 12,761 crore in the Kharif season. Payments worth Rs 10,394 crore were made online to eight lakh farmers. The balance will be paid within a week. He said the milling of paddy was going on at a brisk pace and 4 lakh tonnes had been completed. He requested the Centre to cooperate with the state during the handing over of rice stocks to the FCI by arranging for transportation and storage space in godowns. Although the Central stipulations posed some problems during procurement, the government continued paddy procurement keeping in view the interests of farmers, the minister stated. Former King of Spain Juan Carlos wants to return home and does not care about possibly damaging the Royal Family's reputation by doing so, an expert has claimed. Juan Carlos, 83, who abdicated in 2014 in favour of his son Felipe VI, 53, has been living in Abu Dhabi since summer 2020 after becoming the target of several probes in Spain over his financial dealings. However, the elderly royal is reportedly hoping to see out his final years home, despite a majority of the Spanish public opposing his return. Speaking to The Times, Pablo Simon, a professor of political science at Carlos III University in Madrid, explained Juan Carlos 'does not care' whether his actions damage his son and his family. Former King of Spain Juan Carlos does not care about possibly damaging the Royal Family's reputation by returning to the country after leaving amid a financial scandal, an expert has claimed. Pictured, Juan Carlos in 2018 Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014 in favour of his son King Felipe VI, pictured with Queen Letizia, 49, during a recent state visit to Sweden He added the monarch believes he has 'done his part' for Spain by playing an instrumental role in re-establishing democracy after the death of General Franco in 1975. 'He's indifferent to the possible damage he's doing to the monarchy because he believes he's done his part,' Professor Simon said. 'Knowing that he's only got a few years of life left, he simply doesn't care.' In December, it was reported Juan Carlos had demanded to move back to Zarzuela Palace, the Spanish royal family's residence in Madrid. However a readers' poll conduction by the Spanish publication 20 Minutos showed 42 per cent of people did not believe he should come back to Spain. Some 35 per cent were in favour of the royal's return. In spite of this, the former king still plans to make his move to Spain in the coming year. Professor Simon said he believed the monarch's only chance of rebuilding his reputation was to explain his behaviour on a televised programme, however, he added this could leave him liable for other legal proceedings. Felipe VI and Letizia with Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia in 2006 following the birth of Crown Princess Leonor, ho is now 16 Juan Carlos is facing three separate criminal probes in Spain. One is related to the use of credit cards linked to foreign accounts after his June 2014 abdication when he lost his constitutional protection against prosecution as a serving monarch. Prosecutors are trying to establish if the scandal-hit former king accessed funds deposited in accounts held by a Mexican businessman and a Spanish Air Force official. Spain has also launched its own investigation based in part on information shared by Switzerland about cash Juan Carlos allegedly received as part of his involvement in a high-speed Saudi Arabia rail contract. Last month the ex-monarch's lawyer announced he had paid more than POUNDS 600,000 in back taxes with interest and surcharges for the years since his abdication. Spanish authorities responded by saying they were analysing the tax payments to see if they were 'spontaneous, truthful and complete.' Juan Carlos' shock departure from Spain at the start of August led to an intense questioning of the country's monarchy led by its left-wing vice-president Pablo Iglesias. Several interviews by the former king's ex-mistress Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, now living in the UK, have not helped. She was implicated in the scandal surrounding Juan Carlos' rule after it emerged he had given her a gift of EUROS 65 million. Juan Carlos, who is married to Queen Sofia, 81, left Spain in August after it was claimed he allegedly received millions of euros from Saudi Arabia 's late King Abdullah. Pictured, Juan Carlos and Sofia in 2004 The 56-year-old blonde has claimed he gave her the cash gift because he was 'adamant about taking care of her.' She also insisted in a TV interview last year Juan Carlos was the 'architect of his own problems' and described his Middle East exile as the 'ultimate defeat.' Spain's current king, Juan Carlos' son Felipe VI, made a veiled dig at his exiled father and the scandals surrounding his family in his Christmas speech. He said in a televised address 'ethics are above family ties.' Juan Carlos, in his letter to Spain's current king Felipe VI announcing his decision to leave his homeland, wrote 'Guided by my conviction I can offer the best service to Spaniards, its institutions and to you as King, I am communicating my decision to move away from Spain. 'It's a decision I am taking with deep feeling but with great serenity. I have been King of Spain for almost 40 years and during that whole time, I've always wanted the best for Spain and for the Crown.' He signed off the letter: 'With affection as always, your father.' It later emerged he had already left Spain by the time the letter was released by the Royal Household. His departure sparked mixed reactions, with monarchists and right-wing politicians accusing the government of forcing him into exile and critics of the former king accusing him of an amateur attempt to protect himself and his son from the corruption scandals threatening the future of Spain's dwindling royal family. Melania Trump is set to auction off the 'iconic' white hat she wore for her husband's first official state visit from a foreign head of state as part of an 'important' and 'one-of-a-kind' $250,000 sale commemorating the former President's milestone. The 51-year-old former First Lady announced the launch of her 'Head of State' auction on Tuesday - just weeks after selling her first-ever non-fungible token (NFT) - revealing three different items that will be sold off together, including a second NFT created by Marc-Antoine Coulon, the same man behind her first digital portrait. In addition to the wide-brimmed white hat worn by Melania to welcome French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte to the White House in April 2018, the auction also features a watercolor painting by Coulon of the former First Lady wearing the bold accessory, as well as a moving digital NFT version of the artwork. All three items included in the auction - which opens on January 11 with a starting bid of $250,000, or 1415.86 Solana (SOL), a form of cryptocurrency - are signed by Melania, while both versions of her portrait also featuring the artist's autograph. Melania Trump is auctioning off the 'one-of-a-kind' wide-brimmed white hat she wore when her husband hosted his first state visit at the White House in April 2018 The 51-year-old is also selling a portrait of herself wearing the hat, as well as a digital non-fungible token (NFT) version of the painting as part of the auction, which starts at $250,000 Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are unique and non-interchangeable units of data stored on a digital ledger or blockchain, the same technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. They have been gaining popularity as of late, especially with the rise of cryptocurrency hits like Dogecoin and Bitcoin. Melania's watercolor portrait (pictured) and digital artwork were painted by French artist Marc-Antoine Coulon - the same man who created her first NFT last month Announcing the auction via her official office, Melania recalled the significance of the Macrons' visit to the White House, while detailing the 'great consideration' that went into the planning of her ensemble for the occasion, which saw her pairing the wide-brimmed hat with a white skirt suit designed by Michael Kors. 'Mrs. Trump recognized this important moment for the country, and accordingly, a great deal of consideration went into the planning,' a statement on her website explains. 'With a nod to French culture, Mrs. Trump commissioned French-American designer, Herve Pierre, to create the one-of-a-kind, white hat. 'Mr. Pierre used the same fabric as Mrs. Trumps white Michael Kors suit, and constructed the piece in New York City. Mrs. Trump wore a pair of Christian Louboutin stilettos in blue denim, white trim and a red sole, symbolic of her countrys flag. 'Mrs. Trump envisioned a very strong, modern hat with a large brim that matched the Michael Kors suit perfectly. The hat was designed by milliner Herve Pierre with input from Melania, who 'envisioned a very strong, modern' piece with a 'large brim' to match the Michael Kors suit she wore for the visit Melania announced the launch of the auction on her Twitter account on Tuesday, directing her followers to preview the collection on her website, where the auction will be hosted While announcing the auction on her website, Melania detailed the 'great consideration' that went into the planning of her ensemble for Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron's state visit in 2018 'The elegant hat, without ornate decoration, spoke loudly to Mrs. Trumps admiration for millinery design and superior craftsmanship. This one-of-a-kind hat was constructed from the same white crepe textile as the suit, and fabricated in New York City.' Melania's latest auction launch comes less than a month after she announced the sale of her first-ever NFT: a digital watercolor painting of her eyes, which came complete with an audio message detailing her 'vision'. 'My vision is: Look forward with inspiration, strength and courage,' she stated in the brief recording. Entitled 'Melania's Vision', the digital painting - which was signed by Melania and Coulon - was initially valued at around $185, however the former First Lady has not yet disclosed how much it was eventually auctioned off for. As with her first NFT auction, some of the funds from this latest sale will be donated to children living in the foster care system, in order to provide them with 'access to computer science and technology education'. At the time of the first NFT launch, Melania announced her plans to auction off more items in the future, with her office stating that further sales would include a trio of elements: a digital artwork, a physical artwork, and a physical accessory of historic note. In the year since her husband's exit from the White House, Melania has maintained a relatively low public profile, however she was seen with Trump at a New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago The latest auction launch comes just weeks after Melania put her first NFT artwork up for sale - a digital watercolor portrait of her eyes, which came complete with an audio message In the year since former President Trump's exit from the White House, Melania has maintained a relatively low profile, preferring to shy away from the public eye, while her husband has continued to make regular appearances at events and rallies. However, in recent months, the former First Lady has taken several steps back into the spotlight, both through the launch of her NFT gallery and appearances at a handful of public events, including a New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago. Speaking to conservative outlet Breitbart News about the launch of her NFT endeavor last month, Melania explained that the project had been a part of her 'vision' ever since the end of Trump's presidency, explaining: 'Since leaving the White House, I have envisioned creating a new platform where Freedom of Speech can flourish. 'My new NFT gallery, MelaniaTrump.com, uses the decentralized nature of Blockchain Technology, and gives a direct connection to people worldwide,' she added. 'My love of the arts is showing in my first NFT, Melania's Vision, which I created with artist, Marc-Antoine Coulon. A portion of the sales from NFT will be donated to children in the foster community. 'My Be Best initiative, Fostering the Future, will provide students a range of technology skills to prepare them for the workforce. I am excited to inspire America's next generation of entrepreneurs.' A Holocaust survivor who spent part of his childhood imprisoned in a concentration camp had a biting message for a woman who compared vaccine mandates to the Nazis' treatment of Jews and other persecuted groups: 'Shame on you.' Carollynn (Martin) Xavier, a comedian who goes by @carollynn_thechristian on TikTok, recently showed off her new buzz cut and quipped that it was her 'first day at an unvaccinated camp.' Nazis famously shaved the heads of concentration camp prisoners before killing them or putting them to work. Gidon Lev, 86, who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia from 1941 to 1945, did not think Carollynn's 'joke' was funny in the slightest, and has taken her to task in his own viral TikTok video. The backlash against Carollynn grew so swiftly that she soon deleted the video before setting her entire TikTok page to private. A Holocaust survivor had a biting message for a woman who compared vaccine mandates to the Nazis' treatment of Jews and other persecuted groups: 'Shame on you' Carollynn (Martin) Xavier recently showed off her new buzz cut and quipped that it was her 'first day at an unvaccinated camp' Carollynn's video began with her wearing a knit cap on her head and smiling at her camera on January 2. 'I'm really excited to jump on this new trend,' she said. 'I'm calling it "first day at an unvaccinated camp,"' she continued as she took off her cap to reveal a buzz cut. Carollynn tilted her head and offered a smug smile to the camera. The 'joke,' as she called it, did not appear to go over well with many viewers, and she had soon commented to say she would be blocking critics. 'This is probably the edgiest joke I've posted in a while,' she wrote, adding a string of crying-laughing emojis. 'I'll have to say bye to some followers.' Gidon Lev, 86, who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia from 1941 to 1945 has taken her to task in his own viral TikTok video 'Are you trying to look like a Holocaust survivor because you dont want to be vaccinated? I was four years in a concentration camp,' he said, showing off the star he had to wear 'This is probably the edgiest joke I've posted in a while,' Carollynn wrote, adding a string of crying-laughing emojis. 'I'll have to say bye to some followers' But Gidon Lev made his own video pointing out just how offensive Carollynn's comparison was. 'Shame on you,' he said emphatically. 'Are you trying to look like a Holocaust survivor because you dont want to be vaccinated? I was four years in a concentration camp. 'Here, I wore the star. Do you want me to help you?' he asked, holding a yellow felt star with the word 'Jude' on it. 'Have the day you deserve,' he concluded. The Nazis killed an estimated 11 million people during the Holocaust, including six million Jews. Their victims were systematically rounded up and transported to camps around Europe, where they were stripped of their belongings and shaved. At death camps, millions were killed in gas champers immediately upon arriving. The backlash against Carollynn grew so swiftly that she soon deleted the video before setting her entire TikTok page to private The Nazis killed an estimated 11 million people during the Holocaust, including six million Jews In other camps where all prisoners were not immediately killed, millions were ultimately murdered through other means including gunshots, medical experiments, forced labor, starvation, and exposure. Gidon was one of the fortunate survivors. Born in Czechoslovakia in 1935, he was imprisoned with his mother and father in Theresienstadt (or Terezin) in 1941. According to his website, he remained there from ages six to ten, from 1941 to 1945, and survived along with his mother. However, his father was transferred to Auschwitz and died during a death march led by the Nazis as the Allied forces approached. His grandparents were also at Terezin but were transferred as well. Both died at other camps. While at the Terezin, Gidon says he witnessed public executions, beatings, and torture, while he himself was severely malnourished. When the camp was liberated, he eventually moved to Canada and then Israel in 1959. He has since authored a book, The True Adventures of Gidon Lev. Though Gidon used TikTok to stress the inappropriateness of the comparison, his partner Julie Gray told DailyMail.com that he does not 'condone the vigilante mentality of people doxxing and chasing after people who have made stupid mistakes.' Fox Nation presenter Lara Logan sparked a firestorm late last year when she compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele 'This is what people say to me, that he doesn't represent science to them. He represents Joseph Mengele,' Logan said of Dr. Fauci. Mengele, dubbed the 'Angel of Death,' was a doctor at the Auschwitz death camp in occupied Poland who performed hideous experiments on prisoners Since last year, there have been numerous examples of anti-vaccine and anti-mask promoters comparing mask and vaccine mandates to the Holocaust with each instance being vehemently condemned by Jews, Jewish organizations, and Holocaust museums. Earlier this year, when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made the comparison on Twitter, even her fellow conservative Ben Shapiro called her out. She had written: 'Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a gold star. Vaccine passports & mask mandates create discrimination against unvaxxed people who trust their immune systems to a virus that is 99% survivable.' Shapiro soon responded, calling her words 'demented nonsense.' 'It is nothing like the Holocaust, and any comparison thereto is both insulting and insane,' he wrote. Rep. Dan Crenshaw also responded: 'Remember when we all criticized AOC for comparing detention centers to concentration camps? Because it was so stupid and insulting to Holocaust survivors? Youre doing the same thing. Just stop. Members of Congress should think before they speak.' Fox Business anchor Liz Claman was among those to call out Logan for the comparison Most recently, Fox Nation host Lara Logan was criticized by her own Fox colleague for a similar comparison. JOSEF MENGELE, THE 'ANGEL OF DEATH' Josef Mengele Josef Mengele had a doctorate in medicine from Frankfurt University, but used his knowledge in a sickening manner at the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he performed experiments as an SS physician from 1943 to 1945. Although prisoners transferred to his wing to be studied escaped the gas chambers and were well fed, they often ultimately met an even more painful death. Mengele regularly performed surgery without anaesthetic and would obtain bodies to work on simply by injecting chloroform into inmates hearts while they slept, which would kill them in seconds. He was most interested in heredity and once tried to change the colour of childrens eyes by injecting chemicals directly into them. Twins held a particular fascination for him and it's estimated that he examined around 3,000 - but only 100 pairs survived. Pregnant women were also singled out. He was known to have performed vivisections on them before consigning them to the death chambers. The so-called Angel of Death was on the Allied commanders most-wanted list from 1944, but he escaped to South America and was never found, despite the best efforts of private investigators and the Israeli secret service, Mossad. Advertisement Logan was taking part in a discussion on Fox News Primetime of the Biden administration's response to the new super-mutated Omicron variant of COVID-19 when she launched into a tirade against the president's chief medical adviser. 'This is what people say to me, that he doesn't represent science to them. He represents Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who did experiments on Jews during the Second World War and in the concentration camps,' Logan opined. 'And I am talking about people all across the world are saying this because the response from COVID, what it has done to countries everywhere, what it has done to civil liberties, the suicide rates, the poverty it has obliterated economies the level of suffering that has been created because of this disease is now being seen in the cold light of day, i.e. the truth, and people see that there is no justification for what is being done.' Logan's rant drawing parallels between the long-serving director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Nazi doctor dubbed the 'Angel of Death' coincided with the second night of Hanukkah, a major Jewish festival. Days later, Fox Business anchor Liz Claman slammed her on Twitter. 'Let's stop [with] ANY comparison to Mengele,' Claman, who is Jewish, wrote. 'Facts need to be stated. Nazi Josef Mengele performed experiments on Jewish twins; personally killed 14 twins in one night by injecting their hearts [with] chloroform.' Jewish organizations around the world were also quick to condemn Logan, with the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland accusing the TV presenter of 'exploiting the tragedy of people who became victims of criminal pseudo-medical experiments in Auschwitz in a debate about vaccines, pandemic and people who fight for saving human lives is shameful.' The museum, which maintains the site of the death camp where 1.1 million people were systemically murdered, said in a tweet in reference to Logan's diatribe: 'It is disrespectful to victims & a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline.' Likewise, Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center also slammed Logan's comments. Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan said in a statement that his organization 'strongly condemns the use - by both organizations and individuals - of the Holocaust, its images and characters associated with it, to further agendas and causes of any kind that are totally unrelated to the Holocaust. 'Manipulating the Holocaust in this trivializes the horrific atrocities that were perpetrated, and denigrates the memory of the victims and the survivors.' Mengele joined Heinrich Himmler's S.S. in 1938 and after serving on the Eastern Front, was transferred to Auschwitz in 1943. He initially gained notoriety for being one of the physicians who supervised the selection of arriving transports of prisoners, determining who would be gassed and who would live to be worked to death. However, he became far more infamous for performing grisly human experiments on camp inmates, including children and twins, in his quest to find a scientific proof of the superiority of the Aryan race. At the end of the war, Mengele fled to South America, where he lived until his accidental death by drowning in Brazil in 1979. Viewers of Channel 4's 24 Hours in Police Custody were left horrified after hearing a child describe abuse at the hands of a baby murderer. Kane Mitchell, 31, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, was jailed for a minimum of 18 years for murdering baby Teddie, who died in hospital on November 11, 2019, after ten days on a life support machine. A four-week trial at Cambridge Crown Court heard that the 11-week-old had suffered injuries consistent with being 'gripped hard', 'shaken vigorously', and 'having his head struck against a hard surface'. Baby Teddie died with 17 broken ribs, fractures to his skull and collarbone, a bleed on the brain and brain, spinal and eye damage. Mitchell had been in a relationship with Teddie's mother, Lucci Smith, 30, for about eight months, and he told police he believed he was the baby's father. Footage from the Channel 4 series 24 Hours in Police Custody, which aired tonight at 9pm, featured a recording of one of Lucci's older children describing Kane's abuse. In the clip, he could be heard calling Kane 'ugly', saying: 'Mummy ran into our room and shut the door so he couldn't hurt us. He was trying to punch us all.' Many of those watching were left shocked by the footage, with one writing: 'Hearing this child breaks my heart.' Another wrote: 'I am in absolute bits at #24HoursinPoliceCustody - this is harrowing...absolutely harrowing.' Kane Mitchell, 31, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, was jailed for a minimum of 18 years for murdering baby Teddie, who died in hospital on November 11, 2019, after ten days on a life support machine A four-week trial at Cambridge Crown Court heard that Teddie had suffered injuries consistent with being 'gripped hard', 'shaken vigorously', and 'having his head struck against a hard surface' One of Lucci's children described his abuse during the documentary, which viewers described as 'harrowing' During the documentary, police footage showed the couple being visited by officers in January 2020 after a neighbour reported seeing Kane strangling Lucci. But when officers arrived at the house, Lucci could be heard exclaiming: 'Is this a joke? I'm sick of you coming round here now.' Meanwhile Kane said: 'My kids just f***** died, I've got a bail hearing tomorrow and I've got you two f****** at my door. I'm sick of this s***.' Meanwhile a teary Lucci separately told another officer that nothing had happened, adding: 'It's taking the p*** now!' He told her he could see 'marks around her neck' and asked if that might be why they had been called to the flat, but she said: 'It's probably my tan. He hasn't even touched me. There hasn't been no arguing here.' Meanwhile the officers went on to visit some of the neighbours, many of whom said they'd been left 'scared' of Kane after hearing arguin from the flat. Police returned to the flat, where they arrested Kane for domestic violence and common assault, but Lucci defended her partner. She said: 'You are not arresting him. I'm not saying here tonight on my own before bail. No - he hasn't done anything. You're not taking him anywhere.' Meanwhile Kane exclaimed and began screaming at the police officers: 'You ain't go no proof. I ain't done f*** all. There's nothing on her, if anything I've got marks on me. This is f****** ridiculous.' Mitchell had been in a relationship with Teddie's mother, Lucci Smith, 30, for about eight months and the pair lived together DI Lucy Thompson, of the Major Crime Unit, told the camera: 'Lucci, we have good strong evidence to show she is a victim of abuse from Kane. 'But she is not taking any of the opportunities to acknowledge she is a victim of abuse. It would be quite unusual for us to say, you are a victim and we know you are a victim. 'We can suggest that but if someone is in denial, they won't see it or accept that.' Kane was brought in for a police interview, with officers questioning the state of his relationship with Lucci, but he insisted: 'It's very verbal. I don't like having a row or an argument and then sitting down. 'I need 10 minutes to reflect and to get out and defuse the situation so it doesn't escalate by her either lunging for me and me having to lunge back. DI Lucy Thompson, of the Major Crime Unit, told the camera that the police had 'good evidence' Lucci was a victim of abuse from Kane Kane was brought in for a police interview, with officers questioning the state of his relationship with Lucci, but he insisted: 'It's very verbal' 'I just defuse it there and then, which means taking me out of the equation.' However the officer responded: 'The reason we're going over this, is it is slightly worse than you're portrayed. Other people are saying violence. 'This isn't an environment for children to be growing up in, especially if you do flip.' Another said: 'it was a violent and volatile relationship. Something has triggered and either you and Lucie have flipped, and that's what has led to Teddie's head injury.' The officers said they had been through his phone, questioning aggressive messages sent between the pair. Meanwhile after repeatedly being questioned by police, Lucci confessed that Kane had been violent towards her They recited one message exchange in which Kane had questioned why Lucci should be visiting the park with one of their children's friend's parents. One of the texts read: 'Answer me , you don't understand you s*****. I've swore on my mother's ashes that unless you tell me Ross' second name before you are home, I'm beating you you simple. 'Unless you tell me, I promise you, I'm going to have to take you in the bedroom and do you in. Please listen to me, I'm actually going to have to do it.' However Kane insisted it was 'just a threat' and he said: 'I've never ever touched her.' And during the interview, the officer said she wanted to discuss Teddie's biological father. During one harrowing moment in the documentary, Lucci's surviving children could be heard describing how he abused them She said: 'We have had some DNA profiling back and the profiling has come back that you are not Teddie's father.' He could be seen putting his hand to his face as he appeared to cry after the revelation, before saying: 'I feel sick.' Later police said they had had to be 'very careful' with how they had interviewed him because he was 'on a knife edge' of 'exploding.' Meanwhile DI Thompson said she wanted to give Lucci an opportunity to acknowledge she was a victim of domestic violence. However when they sat down for an interview together, Lucci insisted she had 'no explanation' as to how Teddie died. Meanwhile she defended the text messages exchanged with Kane, saying: 'Every couple argues.' She went on to say there had been 'a few slaps' from her boyfriend over the years, saying: 'I don't really see why this matters. Just because he's going to do something like that doesn't mean he is going to do something to Teddie.' During one interview, Lucci promised she would have told police if there had been any violence toward Teddie because, 'hes my son at the end of the day and he means more to me than anybody' The officer then went on: 'I'm going to ask you a question and look you straight in the eye. Kane has assaulted you on a number of occasions.' Finally, Lucci could be seen acknowledging his violence, saying: 'With me maybe, but he wouldn't do that to a child. 'It doesn't mean he would do anything to my children. i know he wouldn't do that because he loved that baby, he honestly loved that baby. 'I don't see why it mattered.' And when officers said Kane wasn't Teddie's biological father, she burst into tears. Meanwhile police went on to conduct an interview with the eldest of Lucci's children who lived with her and Kane. While the child was not identified on camera, their voice could be heard saying: 'Ugly Kane. I call him ugly because he hits me, he punches me in the arm. 'He basically got hold of my leg and dragged me in the there and my head was on the floor. He was holding my foot and clenching it really hard.' 'And Kane also punched Mummy's mirror and his hand was bleeding, so Mummy ran into our room and shut the door so he couldn't hurt us. 'He was trying to punch us all. [It made me feel sad] because the glass was on the floor and Mummy stepped on it.' After the interview, DI Thompson told the camera that Kane had 'tried to kill himself' by walking into traffic on a motorway, saying: 'God knows how but he actually survived. He's got a fractured pelvis, fractured elbow, fractured ribs and a head injury. 'The main point is he made a concerted effort to kill himself. This wasn't half hearted.' She later said she was stunned to learn Kane was set to be charged with murder, revealing: 'Given what he's done, they have changed their mind and he will be charged on threshold and they will charge him with murder.' Police then entered the hospital to alert Kane to the change in charges, finding him on a ward. He could be heard saying, 'this is absurd' as he was arrested and removed from the hospital in a wheelchair. Kane Mitchell, 32, was jailed for a minimum of 18 years for murdering baby Teddie. Pictured: Mitchell reacts to being arrested in hospital During the first part of the documentary, Mitchell was arrested while pretending to be a caring father in hospital with baby Teddie. He said: 'I don't f***** think so. Oh my god, I would never hurt a baby. I'm not leaving my son' DI Thompson said: 'When I first met him, he presented as you would expect a grieving father. He has changed and showed the ability to change that persona at will, depending on the circumstance he is in. 'He has been completely devoid of any remorse or real empathy for Teddie. That's the thing I find really hard, it's all about Kane and not about what Teddie has been through.' Many of those watching the programme were left shocked and horrified by the documentary, with one writing: 'Oh my god, is this not heartbreaking to hear?' Another wrote: 'Omg those poor poor kids, I'm in bits listening to that poor little kid.' During the first-part of the documentary series, which aired yesterday, the heartless killer started spouting crocodile tears as he was arrested. Meanwhile footage also showed Smith being asked by detectives how her son suffered such horrific injuries and she simply replies 'no idea'. During an interview Smith was asked by detectives how her son suffered such horrific injuries and she simply replies 'no idea' She then went on to say she would tell police if there had been any violence toward Teddie because, 'hes my son at the end of the day and he means more to me than anybody'. Social workers are 'spat at' in the street in Birmingham amid backlash over Arthur Labinjo-Hughes' murder Social workers are being 'spat at' in the street amid fury over the tragic death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, a children's trust boss has revealed. Six-year-old Arthur was beaten and tortured before his murder at the hands of stepmother Emma Tustin at her home in Solihull. The case prompted a national outpouring of grief and ministers vowed to take action after Tustin was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 29 years and Arthur's father, Thomas Hughes, was jailed for 21 years for manslaughter. Six-year-old Arthur was beaten and tortured before his murder at the hands of stepmother Emma Tustin at her home in Solihull The Government announced an inquiry into how social services and local authorities liaise, and Boris Johnson spoke of introducing 'Arthur's Law' preventing the release of child killers from prison. The leader of Solihull Council also ordered an 'independent verification' of the local authority's involvement in Arthur's life. Now Jenny Turnross, director of practice at Birmingham Children's Trust, has confirmed reports that social workers have been physically and verbally abused as a direct result of the case. During one encounter, a social worker was spat at in the street. Ms Turnross, who oversees 800 social workers in the trust, said: 'People see these beautiful pictures of Arthur and think ''how can professionals and organisations allow something like to happen to this child''. The case prompted a national outpouring of grief and ministers vowed to take action after Tustin was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 29 years and Arthur's father, Thomas Hughes, was jailed for 21 years for manslaughter Advertisement And it was revealed that social services and Cambridgeshire Police had been alerted to concerns from worried neighbours weeks before Teddie died. Footage from just before Mitchell's arrest showed him holding his victim in hospital while he sobbed and said: 'Come on baby, Daddy's here.' At 3pm on November 1, 2019, the ambulance service was called to Pattison Court, St Neots, where Teddie was found to be unresponsive and in cardiac arrest. Smith had left Teddie in the care of Mitchell that day while she did the morning school run. Detective Inspector Lucy Thompson said of Mitchell, 'He is completely devoid of any remorse or empathy, that's the thing I find really hard. 'It's all about Kane and not what Teddie's been through.' The clip showed the moment Mitchell was arrested while pretending to be a caring father in hospital with baby Teddie. He said: 'I don't f***** think so. Oh my god, I would never hurt a baby. I'm not leaving my son.' However officers were able to prove Mitchell had killed Teddie because of the types of injuries how they were inflicted. Teddie died as a result of his fractured skull and lack of oxygen to the brain. Medical staff were concerned about how Teddie received his serious injuries and Mitchell and Smith were both arrested. During the trial at Cambridge Crown Court, the jury heard how Teddie had suffered weeks of neglect and rough handling during his short life at the hands of Kane Mitchell, who isn't his biological father. Channel 4's documentary, 24 Hours in Police Custody: Cold to the Touch, probed the council as to what they did in response to concerns from worried neighbours about the safety of the children living in the home Mitchell and Smith lived in. A council spokesperson told The Express: 'A serious case review is underway and the findings should be published later this year. We cannot comment further until it is published.' Ms Thompson, who led the investigation into Teddie's death, added: 'This was a tragic and terrible case in which an 11-week-old baby lost his life at the hands of a person who should have been there to protect him. 'Our year-long investigation found that Teddie had suffered multiple horrific injuries during his short life, which neither Mitchell or Smith could account for. 'Viewers will see the complexities and intricacies of such an emotive and tragic case. 'The show highlights that we will work tirelessly to bring those responsible for such heinous crimes to justice, no matter what it takes. 'We hope it will encourage anyone with any concerns for a child's welfare to come forward and report it to us without delay.' During the trial, the jury were read statements from neighbours who said they had heard arguments coming from the address on a regular basis and that the household had been unsettled since Mitchell moved in. During police interview, Mitchell said he believed he was Teddie's biological father. However, DNA results following the death revealed he was not. More footage from the TV programme showed how police officers were constantly monitoring the couple while they were in hospital with Teddie before making their arrests. Mitchell was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in jail at Cambridge Crown Court in February. Smith was found guilty of neglect after she didn't dial 999 for more than half an hour after her GP urged her to do so. His death is reminiscent of the injuries which killed 16-month-old Star Hobson who was murdered by Savannah Brockhill, 28, the girlfriend of her mother Frankie Smith. Mrs Justice Lambert said the 'fatal punch or kick' to Star caused the toddler to lose half the blood in her body and damaged her internal organs. Brockhill was jailed for 25 years for murdering Star and Smith was jailed for eight for doing nothing to stop her. Mrs Justice Lambert added: 'Frankie Smith, it was your role to protect Star from harm, you failed to protect her, allowing her death.' 'The level of force required to inflict these injuries must have been massive - similar to those forces associated with a road traffic accident.' Police released a picture of Star smiling happily before the torment from her mother and her murdering girlfriend began Tiffany Trump and her fiance Michael Boulos are enjoying a luxurious ski vacation in the French Alps with their families after ringing in the new year together. The former first daughter skipped her father Donald Trump's annual New Year's Eve bash at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, to be with her mother, Marla Maples, and her future in-laws in France. Michael, the heir to the multi-billion dollar Nigerian conglomerate Boulos Enterprises, was joined by his parents, Massad and Sarah Boulos, and his older brother, Fares Boulos, on the joint family trip to Courchevel, the world-famous French Alps ski resort. Scroll down for video Tiffany Trump and her fiance Michael Boulos are enjoying a luxurious ski trip in the French Alps with their families Tiffany, 28, took to Instagram Stories on Tuesday to post a short video of herself posing with her mother, Marla Maples, 58, in front of the snow-covered mountains Tiffany, 28, took to Instagram Stories on Tuesday to share a short video of herself posing with her mother, Marla, 58, in front of the snow-covered mountains. 'Mommy and me,' she captioned the clip, which shows them bundled up outside during a ski break. The Georgetown Law graduate was wearing a baby blue puffer jacket with a fur-trimmed hood and covered her long blonde locks with a navy fur hat. Her look-alike mother had on a white ski jacket and oversized black sunglasses as she leaned in to strike a pose with her. Her look-alike mother had on a white ski jacket and oversized black sunglasses as she leaned in to strike a pose with her The Georgetown Law graduate was wearing a baby blue puffer jacket with a fur-trimmed hood and covered her long blonde locks with a navy fur hat Tiffany also reposted a photo of herself with Michael, which he shared on his own Instagram account on Tuesday. The snapshot shows them seated outside with a view of a snow-covered mountaintop and a Giorgio Armani store behind them. Tiffany had on the same light blue coat and fur hat that she wore in her video, though she added dark shades to her look. Michael, meanwhile, was sporting a navy blue ski jacket, a matching scarf, and a pair of mirrored aviator sunglasses. Marla shared her own Instagram Stories posts from their ski trip, including footage of her on top of a mountain in Courchevel 'With France and Switzerland and Italy all together high on the mountain top, Courchevel,' she said while panning her camera Marla captured her soon-to-be son-in-law Michael in the background, but Tiffany didn't appear to be with them on the ski run Marla also posted footage of herself on a ski lift at the French ski resort 'Happy new year!' he captioned the image, and Tiffany responded to the post with two hearts emoji before sharing it on her Instagram Stories. Courchevel is located in southeastern France close to the borders of Switzerland and Italy, and Marla relished the scenery in her Instagram post. 'With France and Switzerland and Italy all together high on the mountain top, Courchevel,' she said while panning her camera to give her followers a 360-degree view. Marla captured Michael looking at his cellphone in the background, but Tiffany didn't appear to be with them during the ski run. Marla enjoyed skiing and drinking mulled wine with Michael, his father Massad, and his brother Fares, lovingly referring to them as the 'Boulos boys' The proud mom shared a photo of herself with her daughter on New Year's Eve. It's unclear if they were in Courchevel when the clock struck midnight Prior to the new year, the two families were vacationing in Paris, and Marla shared a photo of herself in front of the Eiffel Tower The mother of one also posted videos on her Instagram Stories, including footage of her on a ski lift and eating with Michael, his father, and his brother. Fares, whose stage name is Oyibo Rebel, was joined by his wife, Alisa, on the trip, but she and Tiffany didn't appear to be with them. Tiffany has kept relatively quiet on social media since she and Michael moved to Miami, Florida, last year after her father, former President Trump, left office. She only shared a total of eight Instagram posts in 2021, including one of her posing with Michael at the White House to announce their engagement. Her sister, Ivanka Trump, lives in Miami as well, and they are just an hour and a half car ride away from their father in Mar-a-Lago and their brother Don Jr. in Jupiter. Tiffany and Michael wore matching penguin sweaters on Christmas Day while spending the holiday with her mother and his parents, Massad and Sarah Boulos The two families were presumably in Europe for the holiday, and Marla shared photos of them posing together at what appeared to be an elaborately decorated hotel on Christmas Eve One snapshot featured Michael and his parents posing with them in front of a Christmas tree Another was taken from below while they were huddled close together on the second floor The couple was also joined by Michael's older brother, Fares Boulos, and his wife, Alisa, on the holiday trip Tiffany's move also inspired her mother to relocate to the Sunshine State from New York to be closer to her. Marla has become fast friends with the Boulos family, and after a number of visits, they spent Christmas together. Michael's mother even included Marla and Tiffany in her family's online holiday card celebrating the new year. The two families were presumably in Europe for the holiday, and Marla shared photos of them posing together at what appeared to be an elaborately decorated hotel on Christmas Eve. The next day, she posted a Christmas Day snapshot of her and Tiffany with Michael and his parents. The engaged couple was particularly festive in their matching penguin Christmas sweaters 'Sending sweetness, joy and love your way! May the Light of Christmas keep your heart warm always,' Marla wrote. 'Merry Christmas.' The families appear to have spent New Year's Eve in Paris, and Marla marked the occasion with a mother-daughter photo. Michael's mother, Sarah, included Marla and Tiffany in her family's online holiday card celebrating the new year Tiffany missed out on her father Donald Trump's annual New Year's Eve bash at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida (pictured) The former president was dressed in a tuxedo while his wife, Melania, wore a shimmering ivory gown Tiffany's older brother Eric Trump was also at the party with his wife, Lara 'Shine Shine Shine It's our time all of us, to reach higher than we can imagine to bring the most light and joy into our world! We have the choice, all of us,' she captioned the image. 'Each and every one of us is created with starlight and purpose and together we shine even brighter.' It's unclear when exactly they headed to Courchevel, but they celebrated Fares' 31st birthday there on January 2. While they were in France, former President Trump and his wife Melania attended the New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago after skipping last year's lavish gala in the wake of his election defeat. Several other Trumpworld favorites were in attendance, including former New York City Mayor and attorney for Trump Rudy Giuliani and Eric Trump, who was with his wife, Lara. Congressman Matt Gaetz was also at the bash with his new wife, Ginger Luckey, despite his ongoing sex trafficking investigation. Worn-out knees and ankle joints could soon be treated with an injection of a patients own belly fat. A trial involving 120 patients is looking at whether a single jab of cells extracted from abdominal fat can ease the pain and stiffness of osteoarthritis. While it might seem an unlikely option, body fat (known as adipose tissue) is rich in stem cells, master cells capable of turning into different types of tissue. The hope is that they will turn into the cells that make up cartilage and repair damaged joints. A trial involving 120 patients is looking at whether a single jab of cells extracted from abdominal fat can ease the pain and stiffness of osteoarthritis This approach has been subject to previous research but is controversial, with some private clinics already offering the therapy, despite little evidence it is effective. Doctors say more clinical studies, such as this new trial, are needed to show it works before it is more widely used. Osteoarthritis occurs when cartilage, the tough, elastic material that helps our joints take the strain of movement, wears away over time. It affects more than ten million Britons and, while the exact cause isnt known, age, injuries and obesity (which puts extra pressure on joints) increase the risk. Symptoms, such as pain and stiffness, can make it difficult to carry out everyday activities and can fuel other conditions, including depression and sleep problems. Treatments range from painkillers to steroid injections. But while these ease the pain and stiffness, most remedies dont treat the underlying damage. More than 90 per cent of the 100,000 knee replacements carried out on the NHS each year are because of osteoarthritis. This approach has been subject to previous research but is controversial, with some private clinics already offering the therapy, despite little evidence it is effective. A file image is used above However, over the past decade scientists have been exploring ways to repair the damage that causes those symptoms using injections of stem cells, called mesenchymal cells. Adipose tissue, or body fat, found under the skin, is a particularly rich source of these. The procedure involves sucking fat from the abdomen via liposuction under local anaesthetic. This is cleaned and processed to remove any impurities, such as blood. The remaining cells, including stem cells, are then injected into the arthritic joint. The entire procedure takes just 60 minutes. It is claimed the stem cells then turn into cells called chondroblasts which mature into chondrocytes. Chondroblasts and chondrocytes are the major components of cartilage tissue. As well as knee arthritis, studies have suggested the belly fat jab also improves the symptoms of ankle arthritis and researchers say it could be used on other joints such as the shoulder and wrist. In a new trial at Hvidovre University Hospital, in Denmark, 120 patients with knee arthritis are being given the jab or a dummy injection, and levels of pain and stiffness will be compared over one year. Mike McNicholas, a consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon and knee specialist at Liverpool University Hospitals, says: I have no doubt that there may be merit in the use of some form of stem cells in the treatment of this debilitating condition. But unfortunately, some private units in the UK are already offering the treatment under investigation in this trial, with some very serious consequences for patients suffering risks without proven benefit from the treatment for which they are paying very high prices. It is my firm belief that any such treatments being offered should be done as part of a robust research trial such as this. Innovation is great, but it needs to be introduced responsibly. Drinking coffee may increase the risk of osteoarthritis in men, reports the journal Clinical Rheumatology. For those drinking two cups or fewer a day, the risk increased by 13 per cent, but men having seven or more cups were 3.8 times more likely to develop arthritis. There was no increased risk in women. What is behind the link is unclear, but a 2020 study at the University of Santiago de Compostela, in Spain, concluded there was evidence the caffeine affected joint cartilage. History case notes Old medical practices still relevant today. This week: Taking your pulse The ancient Egyptians knew the heart and veins were linked, but they did not realise the heart pumped blood around the whole body. Writing found on nine medical papyri suggests that, while they didnt know what the pulse was, they knew it signified the state of someones health. We now know that the pulse is caused by the expanding of your arteries owing to the force of the blood pumping through them, says Regina Giblin, a senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation. It tells us how often your heart is beating. Most adults have a pulse of between 60 and 100 beats per minute, but that can go up when you are sick. This is because your body widens the blood vessels to get white blood cells to the site of infection more quickly. MooGoo Baby & Child Soothing Moisturiser Nut Oil-Free Try this Made without nut oils, this contains evening primrose oil and olive squalane, which the maker says are high in fatty acids the skin needs (MooGoo Baby & Child Soothing Moisturiser Nut Oil-Free, 120g, 12, moogooskincare.co.uk). Food for your mood This week: Green and orange produce for optimism People who eat lots of fruit and vegetables, particularly dark green and orange varieties, are more optimistic, suggests a study by the Harvard School of Public Health, in the U.S. There is a number of potential explanations, says Andrew Oswald, a professor of economics and behavioural science at Warwick University. There is a negative effect on well-being from folate deficiency. Folate, a B vitamin, is contained in leafy vegetables, so the more you eat, the better you might feel. The micro-organisms of the gut might also be involved in mood and these feed on plant materials. And some vegetables, particularly peas, contain lithium, a substance used to treat mood disorders. In a study by Professor Oswald in 2016, people who went from eating almost no fruit and veg to eight portions a day had, within 24 months, a boost in mood equivalent to someone unemployed securing a job. Could Viagra be a Swiss Army knife of drugs, helping to cure lethal diseases such as Covid, Alzheimers and cancer, as well as bringing its more famous sexual benefit? The medications manifold potential was highlighted this week when a respiratory nurse who had spent 28 days in a Covid coma came round after doctors gave her a large dose of the drug as part of an experimental treatment regimen. Monica Almeida, 37, a double-jabbed asthmatic mother-of-two from Lincolnshire, says the drug boosted the blood flow around her body by relaxing the walls of blood vessels, which helped open up the air sacs in her lungs. She said shed been just three days away from having her ventilator turned off when her condition started to improve and she woke up on December 14. Last month researchers suggested it may help treat Alzheimers, reported the journal Nature Aging. U.S. investigators analysed data from seven million patients and found men taking the drug had a lower risk of Alzheimers over a six-year period Its the first time the drug has been used on a Covid patient in the UK. Viagra (or sildenafil, its generic name) was developed to treat angina, which causes painful chest pain due to restricted blood flow to the heart. In trials, sildenafil showed little benefit for angina pain, but male volunteers reported an unusual side-effect erections. And in 1998, sildenafil won approval as the first-proven drug for erectile dysfunction. But it appears to have other actions, too. Last month researchers suggested it may help treat Alzheimers, reported the journal Nature Aging. U.S. investigators analysed data from seven million patients and found men taking the drug had a lower risk of Alzheimers over a six-year period. In laboratory tests, researchers found that sildenafil appears to target a form of protein, called tau, found in the brains of people with Alzheimers. The tests also found that high doses of the drug increased brain-cell growth. Previously, scientists had been exploring whether sildenafil might help people at risk of vascular dementia, which occurs when reduced blood flow damages the brain. Such a benefit is more easily explained, as it comes down to the drugs basic blood flow-boosting abilities. Sildenafil is a vasodilator: it widens blood vessels to allow for the free flow of blood. Monica Almeida, 37, a double-jabbed asthmatic mother-of-two from Lincolnshire, says the drug boosted the blood flow around her body by relaxing the walls of blood vessels. She is pictured with with her husband Arthur This is why sildenafil is also used to increase blood flow to damaged limbs, to avoid amputation, and to treat pulmonary hypertension high blood pressure in the vessels that carry blood from the heart to the lungs. This can cause a severe shortage of breath and chest pain. Sildenafil-related compounds may reverse the signs of heart failure, according to 2019 research in the journal Scientific Reports, which showed the blood-boosting benefits improved contraction in heart failure and reversed the adverse structural damage. And in 2020, researchers in India announced that a gel made from sildenafil can heal damaged skin suffered by cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. Scientists said the drug triggers the release of nitric oxide, a chemical that helps wound healing, by stimulating the flow of oxygen-rich blood. Sildenafil may even help kill tumours of the lung, prostate, stomach and ovaries. According to researchers in New Zealand, the drug encourages rogue cancer cells to kill themselves off, a process called apoptosis. They reported in the journal Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry in 2018 how in tests, sildenafil, used with chemotherapy drugs, shrinks tumours more effectively than when chemotherapy is used alone. Another strange effect is in its potential for treating jet lag. Studies in rodents published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2007 showed sildenafil can shift the body clock to wake and sleep earlier by altering the action of the hormone cyclic guanosine monophosphate. Professor Gino Martini, former chief scientist for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, told Good Health sildenafils versatility stems from the fact many of our bodies and brains biological pathways are inter-related, and what affects one pathway can affect many others. He adds: In the case of sildenafil, these additional effects are very fortuitous, particularly as it is a drug that has been widely used and tested for safety. But like any drug, it is not without risks. In people who have had heart attacks, strokes or low blood pressure, sildenafil can exacerbate symptoms or cross-react with other medication. Meanwhile, Professor Martini says that the case of Monica Almeida does not prove sildenafil is an effective remedy for severe Covid infection. The problem with the pandemic has been lots of people have been trying lots of drugs on lots of patients, and there can be random results that dont tell us whether something truly works, he says. Nestling in the hilly outskirts of the city of Wuhan is the Institute of Virology, one of the 60 or so labs around the world that handle the most lethal pathogens known to man. The other labs are spread over 23 countries, with seven in the UK alone. The best known of these is the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, run by the Ministry of Defence at its base in Porton Down, Wiltshire where two labs research the threat from biological weapons. Another high-security lab, run by the National Institute of Medical Research, is based in Camden, North London, and studies flu viruses capable of causing pandemics. The laboratories involved in researching harmful pathogens have graded safety standards, with the strength of the grading determined by the danger from the organisms that the staff handle [File photo] These top-level labs, classed as Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4), house the really dangerous pathogens, such as Covid-19, Ebola and the deadly Marburg viruses (fatal in around 88 per cent of cases). These are often organisms for which there is no vaccine or treatment. Thats exactly why they are being studied. Nearly two-thirds of BSL4 labs are government-run centres and the rest are operated either by universities or biodefence agencies. But experts are becoming increasingly concerned about the control and management of the dangerous organisms in these labs, with some warning that the safety measures are nowhere near sufficient to prevent a global pandemic caused by escaped viruses. Indeed, as Good Health has discovered, even at UK labs handling less risky pathogens, over the past three years alone there have been 18 low-level errors. So how safe are these labs? Urban locations increase the risk The laboratories involved in researching harmful pathogens have graded safety standards, with the strength of the grading determined by the danger from the organisms that the staff handle. For example, a BSL1 lab needs only basic levels of control as its likely to be handling largely non-hazardous agents, including yeasts, or bacteria such as E.coli (which can cause food poisoning). Biosecurity measures at this level include daily decontamination of work surfaces, frequent handwashing and wearing eye protection. BSL2 and BSL3 labs work with more contagious diseases, such as tuberculosis. They have added safety measures, including the use of biosafety cabinets, where viruses are handled only in sealed units using built-in gloves. BSL4 is the highest grade possible. These labs handle the most dangerous pathogens: if they were to escape, whether through the air, faulty ventilation systems, on clothing, hair or equipment, or even by infecting a lab worker, the consequences could be catastrophic. As a result, these labs must have their own dedicated air supply, staff must wear pressurised suits with their own oxygen supply and they use only the most secure biosafety cabinets. In addition, a BSL4 lab should be located in a separate building in a zone with restricted access from other research departments. With such stringent security measures and only 60 or so BSL4 labs in the whole world, what could possibly go wrong? The best known of these is the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, run by the Ministry of Defence at its base in Porton Down, Wiltshire where two labs research the threat from biological weapons In 2020, the Global Health Security Index, a project which monitors standards of safety in centres handling dangerous pathogens, reported that only around one in four BSL4 centres scores highly on safety measures. The index assesses whether countries running these labs have legislation and regulations that minimise the risks, as well as providing the best possible training for staff working with lethal organisms. But it has no powers to punish labs that dont comply. Other research also suggests some labs set up in a hurry to cope with the volume of Covid-19 testing may be major biosecurity risks. A study, published in the journal Environment International in October 2020 scrutinised standards at 90 BSL2 and BSL3 labs in China authorised to test Covid-19 samples and found just four complied with all recommended safety requirements. The biggest danger, researchers said, was the lack of automatic doors to limit the risk of virus particles escaping. There is plenty of room for improvement, says Filippa Lentzos, a senior lecturer in science and international security at Kings College London. More countries are expected to seek BSL4 labs for research in the wake of the pandemic. But we need to keep in mind that such research can carry risks of its own. She points out that 75 per cent of high-security labs around the world are sited in urban areas increasing the likelihood of rapid transmission in the event of a virus escaping. Mishaps happen 'all the time' In the UK, for example, the National Institute for Medical Research which handles, among other things, highly infectious strains of flu was based in Mill Hill, North London, for more than 80 years before it relocated to Camden in 2016. Most of these labs are in built-up areas, says Filippa Lentzos. Working with high-risk pathogens carries substantial safety risks to workers, but also to wider society. Extremely high levels of safety and security must be applied. In October 2020, she and fellow biosecurity researchers provided written evidence to an inquiry on lab safety by the UK Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. In it they warned: These labs carry out some of the most dangerous manipulations of pathogens with pandemic potential. While they are built to protect researchers, the public and the environment from harm, lab design cannot overcome human error or poor training. Accidents happen all the time. Between 1963 and 1978, before the BSL4 guidelines came in, 80 people in the UK were infected and three died when the smallpox virus leaked from two labs. In one case, a medical photographer at Birmingham Medical School died after faulty ventilation from the lab on the floor below exposed her to the virus. Internationally, there have been at least six documented escapes of SARS1 the virus which threatened to spread round the world in the early 2000s from virology labs in China, Singapore and Taiwan. In the Singapore case, it was found that the virus probably became attached to a workers hair follicle, says Angus Dalgleish, a professor of oncology at St Georges Hospital Medical School in London, who co-authored a controversial paper alleging the Covid virus was man-made. That was in spite of the protective gear they were wearing. Thats how dangerous this work is. There are also serious misgivings about scientists developing super-infectious viruses. Called gain-of-function research, this controversial practice involves genetically tinkering with viruses to increase their infectiousness. The justification is it helps scientists discover more about how viruses mutate, so science can get a headstart on developing vaccines or drugs to combat them. Its already known that scientists at Wuhan had carried out gain-of-function research on coronaviruses by grafting proteins from eight types of naturally occurring coronaviruses onto a ninth to see if it would infect human cells. It did, but the Chinese authorities insist this was not the source of the pandemic. Professor Dalgleish says: Why would anyone be doing this type of research? It should be illegal. It was banned in the U.S. under President Obama but reinstated under President Trump. Filippa Lentzos says that in the UK, research grants are scrutinised closely to make sure gain-of-function research is appropriate and scientifically necessary. For example, in 2020, a worker at Porton Down was bitten by a ferret infected with coronavirus. In 2013, tears were found in protective suits used at a facility handling animals infected with Ebola, also at Porton Down. A stock image is used above But she warns: The vast majority of other countries with maximum containment labs do not regulate this kind of research. This is particularly concerning as gain-of-function research with coronaviruses is likely to increase as scientists seek to better understand them. The UK is ranked as one of the safest countries in the world for biosecurity, according to the Global Health Security Index. Yet while major viral leaks have been avoided, there have been slip-ups. For example, in 2020, a worker at Porton Down was bitten by a ferret infected with coronavirus. In 2013, tears were found in protective suits used at a facility handling animals infected with Ebola, also at Porton Down. But there are many more low-level errors. Figures collated by Good Health from Health and Safety Executive data covering incidents in BSL1, BSL2 and BSL3 labs show at least 18 errors have been investigated in the past three years. Several involved NHS trusts failing to provide protective equipment to shield staff against harmful biological agents, or allowing lab staff to test blood samples out in the open, rather than in biosafety cabinets. Separate data, released under a Freedom of Information request to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), showed there have been more than 20 safety incidents in the past decade at a main BSL4 centre, the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, in Potters Bar. In 2010, a lab handling H5N1 a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu was shut down when cabinets housing the organism suffered a fault that threatened to release virus particles into the air. However, the MHRA insists there was no danger to the public. And Heather Sheeley, a biorisk consultant who spent ten years working at Public Health England, told Good Health: The UK has had strong legislation to protect against exposure to pathogens handled in the laboratory since 1970s. And the HSE is vigilant in its review of measures. Filippa Lentzos is calling on all countries operating high-security labs to sign up to ISO35001, an internationally agreed standard of lab management drawn up to minimise the risk to the public. To date, she says, no BSL4 lab has implemented it. Heather Sheeley insists the UKs safety standards already exceed those in ISO35001. But in a recent report, Filippa Lentzos said it would be a big step towards reducing the risk of future accidents. Covid has been a wake-up call, she says. Even if you dont believe the pandemic was the result of a gain-of-function experiment gone wrong, that doesnt mean it couldnt be the source of the next one. As the U.S. reports record COVID-19 cases nationwide, public health experts are concerned that Southeastern states could see some of the worst impacts of the surge due to their low vaccination rates. Current hospitalization and death figures are lower than past surges in many parts of the country, but states with lower vaccination rates are particularly likely to see more Covid patients in the coming weeks. This includes Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi - three states where about half or fewer residents are fully vaccinated, and cases are rising rapidly. In Florida, cases increased by 991 percent in the last two weeks of December. The state's vaccination rate is closer to the national average, but many seniors who live there are highly vulnerable to Covid. On Tuesday, the state reported 51,644 cases, but no new deaths. In the past week, there have been 22 covid-related deaths. This is still far lower than the state's record daily death count, which hit 1,554 on September 16, 2021 when the Delta variant caused a surge in cases across the US. Similarly to last summer's Delta surge, local leaders in the South have failed to institute new public health policies that would help control the virus' spread. As Florida sees more rapid case increase than any other state in the nation, Governor Ron DeSantis has failed to institute new Covid safety measures. Pictured: DeSantis speaks at a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida, January 2022 States like Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi have faced massive case surges in the past two weeks - and their undervaccinated populations are highly vulnerable to severe Covid As the Omicron variant drives the biggest Covid surge yet in the U.S., some experts are particularly concerned about Southeastern states with lower vaccination rates. The U.S. broke Covid records on Monday, reporting over one million new cases in a single day. The total case number - 1,082,549 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data - was likely inflated by reporting delays over the holiday weekend. On a rolling-average basis, daily cases are at 494,732 over the past seven days, up more than 110 percent from a week ago, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of JHU data. The Omicron variant is now causing more than 90 percent of new cases across the country, according to newly released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates. Covid hospitalizations have also risen rapidly in recent weeks. As of January 4, the country had almost 113,000 hospital beds in use for Covid patients, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This is higher than the number of Covid patients during the Delta surge this summer, which peaked at just over 100,000, according to CNN. During the winter 2021 surge, national hospitalizations peaked at 140,000 - and the current wave is likely to surge past this number. Some experts have pointed out that, out of the 113,000 Covid patients hospitalized in U.S. hospitals, there is a distinction between hospitalized 'with' and 'for' the disease. Hospitals typically test all patients for Covid when they enter the facility, even when they have unrelated conditions. As a result, some patients may come to the hospital after an injury, then test positive for Covid - yet have a mild or asymptomatic case. Since Omicron is both more transmissible and more likely to cause mild symptoms than past variants, these mild cases hospitalized 'with' Covid may be more likely in this surge compared to past waves. Still, all Covid patients put strain on the healthcare system, as Brown University expert Dr Ashish Jha explained in a recent Twitter thread. 'Every time you enter a room for patient WITH COVID, its gowning, gloves, face shield, making sure N95 is snug,' Jha wrote. 'Slows everyone down from seeing other patients.' All Covid patients put strain on the healthcare system, even when their cases are mild, experts say. Pictured: Waiting in line for Covid testing in New Orleans, Louisiana, January 2022 So far in the Omicron surge, national death numbers have remained relatively low. The seven-day average for new deaths is 1,340 as of Monday, according to JHU data - a 12 percent decline from the previous week. However, increases in Covid deaths typically lag case increases by several weeks, and death data do not recover from holiday reporting disruptions as quickly as case data. When it comes to hospitals filling with Covid patients, states with low vaccination rates are more likely to become overwhelmed, the Washington Post reports. The Southeast in particular could be 'a major driver of the nation's cases,' according to David Rubin, Covid data expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. 'The [South's] bigger test is probably going to be in the summertime, when they usually have their big surges,' Rubin told the Post. Still, when the majority of residents are not vaccinated, any surge has the capacity to send a lot of people to the hospital. In Mississippi, where under half of residents are fully vaccinated, cases have increased sevenfold in the last two weeks - to 4,381 daily new cases on January 3 Louisiana reported 12,500 new Covid cases in a single day last week, almost twice the state's previous daily record, set during the summer Delta surge In Mississippi, just 48 percent of residents are fully vaccinated as of January 3, according to CDC data. The state's case rate has increased sevenfold in the last two weeks, from 565 daily new cases on December 20 to 4,381 on January 3, according to JHU data. Just over half of Louisiana residents are fully vaccinated. In this state, cases have increased fivefold, from 1,544 daily new cases on December 20 to 7,790 on January 3. Louisiana reported 12,500 cases in a single day last week - almost twice the state's previous record, set in August, according to the Post. In Georgia - where about 51 percent of the population is fully vaccinated - cases shot up from 1,847 a day on December 16 to 15,183 on December 30. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said last week that he 'will absolutely not be implementing any measures that shutter businesses or divide the vaccinated from the unvaccinated, or the masked from the unmasked.' In Georgia, cases shot up more than eightfold in the last two weeks of December. Case reports in January have been impacted by holiday delays Florida cases increased almost tenfold in the last two weeks of December. The state is reporting more than 40,000 new cases a day, as of early January This policy could lead to more hospitalizations and deaths, Harry Heiman, public health expert at Georgia State University, told the Post. 'We will see more people hospitalized and more people dying, especially as it moves into the more rural parts of our state, where there's a higher number of people who are unvaccinated and less health-care infrastructure to take care of people when they are sick,' he said. Florida has seen a particularly sharp rise in cases in recent weeks. In the last two weeks of December, cases increased by 991 percent, according to analysis by local epidemiologist Jason Salemi. 'The absolute increase is astonishing - we are now averaging nearly 27,000 more cases EACH DAY compared to 2 weeks ago,' Salemi wrote on Twitter on December 29. 'If you have enough cases, you'll end up with more hospitalizations,' he said. Florida's vaccination rate - 63 percent of residents fully vaccinated - is higher than other Southern states, but the state's large population of seniors makes it more vulnerable to surges. The state's surgeon general recently said that Florida will focus on testing 'high-value' patients rather than making tests broadly available for all residents. The Go-Ahead Group has revealed it expects to publish its results for the past year 'before the end of January 2022', which will enable the end of the ongoing suspension of the embattled firm's shares. The transport group previously postponed publishing its financial results, thereby forcing the suspension of trading in its shares, amid ongoing negotiations regarding a 25million breach of Southeasterns railway franchise agreement. The rail and bus operator was stripped of the contract to operate the commuter rail network in September after the Government uncovered discrepancies running over several years since 2014. At last: The Go-Ahead group has revealed it expects to publish its results for the past year 'before the end of January 2022' The firm's annual results for the year ending 3 July will not be ready until the end of January as its auditor, Deloitte, works through the company's accounts. The delay means that the group will miss the six-month deadline to file annual results and has to apply to suspend share trading under regulatory rules. The companys 2.5 per cent guaranteed bond due in 2024 is also temporarily suspended with effect from 7.30am today. In a statement today, Go-Ahead, said: 'The Company intends to request a restoration of the listing of its Ordinary Shares and its Bond on publication of the FY21 Results. 'The Group continues to work closely with Deloitte to ensure that the FY21 Results are published as soon as possible. This is expected to be before the end of January 2022.' The firm failed to declare more than 25million of historic taxpayer funding which should have been returned. The company will be making provision for a large fine for the Southeastern breach of contract, as well as the 25million of taxpayers money. Go-Ahead said in December that it expected the Department for Transport to impose a penalty on the group, although it said the full amount was unclear at the time. The franchise was owned by Govia a joint venture between Go-Ahead Group (65 per cent) and Keolis (35 per cent), since 2006. Southeasterns network is one of the busiest in Britain, stretching across south-east England, including London, Kent, East Sussex and the High Speed 1 line. Go-Ahead Groups chief financial officer, Elodie Brian, resigned after the Governments decision to take over the franchise was announced. Temporary measure: Go-Ahead's 2.5% guaranteed bond due in 2024 is also temporarily suspended with effect from 7.30am today Elsewhere across the firms operations, late last month Go-Ahead said it had hired 1,030 apprentices across its bus and rail operations over the past year. The company hired more than 600 bus driver apprentices in London, equating to 50 new recruits each month. Susanna Dillon, head of apprenticeships at Go-Ahead said: 'Im incredibly proud of what weve achieved this year at Go-Ahead weve adapted to the pandemic and are stronger than ever. 'Were committed to recruiting apprentices and bringing in people with fresh ideas and viewpoints to shake up the transport sector.' Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit president and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar dashed off a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker seeking action against the Karimnagar commissioner of police for breach of his rights and privileges as a Member of Parliament. Sanjay Kumar is currently undergoing a 14-day judicial custody following a police case against him for holding Jagaran Deeksha flouting the norms of Disaster Management Act on Monday. Sanjay said his rights and privileges as a Member of Parliament had been infringed and urged the Speaker to take action against Satyanarayana, commissioner of police, Karimnagar, Srinivasa Rao, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Karimnagar, Prakash, ACP Jagityal and Lakshmi Babu and inspector of Karimnagar police station. He complained about these police officials who lifted him forcefully and threw him inside the police vehicle and took him to Manakondur police station, where he was illegally confined. In his letter, he narrated the ordeal when Satyanarayana came to his office along with a large number of police personnel at about 7:30 pm on Monday. The commissioner of police along with an inspector and a few more officials tried to forcefully enter my office as the office was locked from inside. They bought gas cutters to cut the iron grills and the police made forced entry and barged upon me, pulled me by grabbing my shirt while I was resisting the police commissioner who personally caught hold of my collar and tried to pull me. Meanwhile some of my party workers tried to release me from the clutches of the police, Sanjay Kumar said. He said he was also abused and threatened by the police commissioner personally and the police misbehaved with him. Airlines stocks soared to double-digit gains on Tuesday morning as Europe's travel and leisure sector added 2.5 per cent, amid a buoyant first day of trading for 2022. The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 were up more than 1 per cent each in morning trading, tracking gains in Europe and Asia, as investors cautiously cheered positive signs about the outlook for the Omicron Covid-19 variant. Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi raised hopes that Omicron is unlikely to derail the economic recovery yesterday by suggesting cases in hardest-hit London have hit a plateau, while hospitals were coping well with current caseloads. Airlines stocks are among the biggest winners of today's FTSE rally Vaccines minister Maggie Throup has also indicated the UK Government will not move forward with further Covid restrictions, pointing to encouraging data on hospitalisations. British Airways owner IAG was the top performer on the FTSE 100, up 10.4 per cent, and airline supplier Rolls-Royce was up 3.5 per cent. Wizz Air and EasyJet led FTSE 250 gains by mid-morning, gaining 11.2 per cent and 10.1 per cent respectively, followed by travel and tourism firm TUI which added 9.5 per cent. Meanwhile, cruise company Carnival added. 7.5 per cent. Following a volatile 2021, IAG's performance on Tuesday has driven its one-year performance to 5.5 per cent, while Wizz Air is up 4.1 per cent and EasyJet is down 4.6 per cent over the same period. The first day of trading of 2022 will bring fresh hope to investors in the airline sector, which has been rocked by uncertainty and restrictions on trade since the emergence of Covid-19 in early 2020. Wizz Air demonstrated the improved health of the airline sector on Tuesday by posting a 296.3 per cent increase in passenger numbers in December compared to the same time in 2020. Elsewhere, the FTSE 100's financial sector has started the year well, with banking and life insurance stocks adding 1.9 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively. British retailers gained 2 per cent, tracking global sentiment, even though footfall in shops in the days after Christmas was 24.5 per cent lower than the same week in 2019, Springboard analysts said. The pan-European STOXX 600 index is also up 0.7 per cent to an all-time-high of 493.55. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire added to cautious optimism, having said there was no risk of Covid 'paralysing' the economy, despite disruption in some sectors. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'There is no sign of an extended New Year hangover for the UK markets. 'The best performing stocks in London were in the travel, leisure and energy sectors. Rolls-Royce, also taking off thanks to its heavy footprint in aircraft engines and spares and repairs, announced some corporate housekeeping with the completion of the sale of its Bergen Engines business. 'The gains for oil firms, airlines and hotel, pub and restaurant operators reflect diminished investor concern about the Omicron variant of Covid-19 amid hopes it is milder, if more transmissible, and therefore may have a limited impact on the economy and won't require onerous or long-lasting restrictions. 'This is not a certainty, and there is the possibility the market might change its mind on Omicron again if there are signs the sheer volume of cases threatens to overwhelm countries' health systems.' Among the thousands of documents that were presented at Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes fraud trial were the lovesick text messages she and Sunny Balwani, her alleged abuser, exchanged before their Silicon Valley empire crumbled around them. Holmes sought to blame Balwani for her crimes, but was convicted of four charges - one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and three counts of wire fraud. She was cleared of four other charges. Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on the remaining three, which prosecutors may decide to retry at a later date. The texts between Holmes and her ex show how - before she reported to authorities that Balwani abused her into committing fraud - she considered him her 'king', her 'tiger' and the man she would build a future with. They go from optimistic declarations of love in 2014 - 'This is our year. We can never forget it tiger... for our kids never forget who we are' - to panicked discussions in 2015 about internal staff complaints, FDA clearances and the 'challenges' ahead. An interview with a Theranos assistant was also included and detailed how both Balwani and Holmes ordered each other flowers for Valentine's Day in 2016. In July 2015, the pair discussed Balwani leaving the company. Their romance had started to fizzle but he continued working at Theranos for a year. In the texts, he complained to her: 'I worked for 6 years day and night to help you. I'm sad at where you and I are. I thought it would be better. 'I know u r angry in ur way. And upset with me for not doing everything you wanted me to do.' He then warned her about 'challenges' ahead and said 'U need me'. Elizabeth Holmes, left in court last month, is on trial for fraud. Prosecutors have submitted texts she exchanged with Theranos co-founder Sunny Balwani, her former secret lover, in 2014 and 2015 Holmes and Balwani are pictured in 2015 speaking to Theranos staff. At the time, she was 31 and he was 50 In December 2014, Holmes texted Balwani calling him 'tiger' and telling him it was 'their year' In July 2015, Balwani discussed leaving the company but not until it broke even. The romance had soured by then and the pair were focused on saving the company. He warned her about 'challenges' ahead which he said she was underestimating July 28 2015: Balwani tells Holmes they need to 'commit' to each other and 'get out of this hell so we can live in paradise we both have' In another message from July 2015, Balwani tells Holmes to 'be strong' and that he loves her She said she understood and was ready for them but he replied: 'Unfortunately you don't and it brakes [sic] my heart.' 'U are underestimated the challenges ahead and being childish,' he said in one of the messages. The company was operating on a loss and Balwani didn't want to leave until they recouped some money. 'I am not leaving until we break even. We will do this together and I will be by yourself [sic] until then. 'Can't leave like this,' he went on, warning Holmes that he 'didn't like' the 'PR direction' she was heading in. November 2013: The pair discuss winning investment of $15million which Balwani describes as 'free cash' November 2014: The pair discuss investments from 'Greg' and Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton who is the 12th richest person in America with a net worth of $67billion November 2014: Holmes and Balwani were in a secret romance and building Theranos despite mounting staff problems. They frantically texted throughout the day, often sending one-word messages to each other about their strategy In January 2015, an internal negative review was left by employee in the company's Newark lab. Balwani said he was going to 'nail down this mother f****er'. In subsequent texts, he tried to narrow down a list of employees who might have left the anonymous review April 2015: The pair continue discussing work and the media. Balwani told Holmes they still needed FDA clearance. Holmes said those on the outside 'are just jealous' of what the pair were building April 2015: The pair worry about a Wall Street Journal reporter who planned to visit the Theranos HQ and sample the technology. They worried about whether it was going to work. Balwani said 'seems like this guy is looking to write something negative'. The Journal published a story in October which said Holmes had declined interviews for five months. The article also raised questions about the technology being used September 2015: Holmes tells Balwani that she is 'sitting here trying to stay focused on every detail'. Cracks in the management of the company had started to show In October 2015, the pair discussed business over text. The romance fizzled around this time but they carried on working together as problems started to arise October 2015: One of the last texts submitted in the court records is Balwani telling Holmes that he is worried about a comment she made regarding the technology In other, previous exchanges, before the romance soured, Balwani complained about a negative internal review that was written anonymously by an employee. 'CC'd you on terrible negative review from someone from Newark lab probably lugs lab. 'Working on getting that removed. 'I am narrowing this down on CUA. Down to 5 people. Will nail this motherf****r' . Holmes replied: 'I saw it. We'll get them'. In November 2014, Balwani told Holmes he'd secured an investment of $50,000 from Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton who is the 12th richest person in America with a net worth of $67billion In another, they worried about a Wall Street Journal reporter visiting their lab to try out Theranos blood test technology. They discussed the result he would get and how he wanted to write 'something negative'. They also talked about how Balwani thought they were 'lazy' and 'disorganized'. 'We are lazy and disorganized and not focused, in work but also in the context of u and me,' he said. Holmes replied: 'What makes you say lazy.' In later texts, the pair fretted over FDA regulations and discussed making the company less about healthcare and '100 percent tech'. Balwani left Theranos abruptly in 2016. Both he and Holmes have denied fraud. Part of her defense was to claim that he abused and manipulated her into any possible crime or fraud. Now 37, Holmes was 18 when she met Balwani on a Chinese-language immersion trip in 2002. He was 37 at the time and the pair started dating. She dropped out of Stanford in 2003 to work on Theranos full-time. Holmes is now married to hotel heir Billy Evans and the pair have a baby son. Balwani's trial has been scheduled for next year. The judge did not want their trials to run at the same time. A mayor from the west African country of Niger has been arrested after police found 440lbs of cocaine stashed in his official truck. The mayor, who has not been named, was stopped on Sunday at a police checkpoint while being driven north from the city of Agadez. Officers say 199 bricks of cocaine were found in the truck - weighing 440lbs and worth around $9million - and that the mayor and his driver were arrested. A mayor and his driver were arrested Sunday by police who found 440lbs of cocaine in his official vehicle as it was driving north out of the city of Agadez Two anonymous police sources confirmed the arrests to Reuters, but without naming either of the arrested men. Niger's Central Office for the Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking also confirmed that a record amount of cocaine had been seized in Agadez, but without mentioning where it was found or any arrests in connection with it. A vast desert state on the western edge of the Sahara, Niger is ranked as one of the world's least-developed countries by the UN and is beset by entrenched poverty, corruption, political instability and violence. With few natural resources it has become a magnet for black market trading in smuggled goods, drugs, and people. A major route for migrants hoping to reach Europe from southern African states runs through the country, as does a major drug smuggling route from South America. Terrorist groups including the likes of Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and ISIS all operate in the country, hoping to take advantage of the weak government to claim a slice of the black market trade. America has a significant military presence in the country in order to combat the terrorists, as do France, Germany, Canada and Italy. The presence of foreign troops has helped bring about some stability, and in April last year Mohamed Bazoum was appointed interim president - marking Niger's first democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960. Along with political stability has come better policing, and in the last year a number of record drug seizures have taken place in the country and surrounding states. In May last year, Niger police seized 17 tonnes of cannabis resin worth $40million headed through the country to Libya. Senegal seized more than two tonnes of pure cocaine from a ship off its Atlantic coast in October, and Gambian authorities seized nearly 3 tonnes last January from a shipment originating in Ecuador. Migrant crossings across the Channel trebled last year as more than 28,300 risked their lives to reach the UK. While a record 28,395 migrants reached the UK illegally last year, 2021 also saw the record for the most migrants coming in a single day as 1,185 journeyed across in 33 boats on November 11. An average of 28 people were crammed onto each dinghy that made the perilous crossing last year. Last year saw the record number of migrant crossings as more than 28,000 people made the journey British shores saw an increase of around 20,000 on 2020's tally of migrants travelling illegally A view of one of two areas being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats intercepted in the Channel by the UK Border Force A group of people thought to be migrants being escorted to shore in Kingsdown, Kent, after being intercepted by an RNLI crew following a small boat incident in the Channel in September A group of migrants huddle up in a line at Dungeness Lifeboat Station in Kent after making a crossing Home Office minister Tom Pursglove MP said the Government was 'reforming' its approach by 'making the tough decisions to end the overt exploitation of our laws and UK taxpayers'. He said: 'Seeking asylum for protection should not involve people asylum shopping country to country, or risking their lives by lining the pockets of criminal gangs to cross the Channel. 'The public has been crying out for reform for two decades and that's what this Government is delivering through our New Plan for Immigration. A record 28,395 migrants reached the UK illegally last year by taking small boats across the Channel, a 200 per cent increase on 2020's tally While many migrants took their first steps on British soil, some seemed more excited than others An average of 28 people were crammed onto each dinghy that made the perilous crossing last year Many migrants have been intercepted and saved by the RNLI, although some have perished on the journey across 'The Nationality and Borders Bill will make it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introduce life sentences for those who facilitate illegal entry into the country. 'It will also strengthen the powers of Border Force to stop and redirect vessels, while introducing new powers to remove asylum seekers to have their claims processed outside the UK. 'MPs have already voted to reform this broken and abusive system and the sooner the House of Lords approves the Borders Bill, the sooner these reforms can be delivered.' A group of migrants in masks were escorted to shore in Kingsdown, Kent, after they were found in a small boat in the Channel People traffickers charge thousands of pounds for a seat on one of the dinghies bound for the UK How many migrants reached Britain in 2021, by month? January 223 February 308 March 831 April 751 May 1,619 June 2,179 July 3,510 August 3,012 September 4,652 October 2,671 November 6,869 December 1,770 Total 28,395 Despite international efforts to crack down on people smugglers, gangs have continued to ply the Dover Strait with their deadly trade, charging thousands of pounds for a berth in flimsy inflatable boats. The dinghies seen leaving French shores and being towed into Dover have noticeably increased in size over the past year with some carrying as many as 50 people. This is supported by data that showed an average of about 28 people travelling aboard each small boat that arrived in the UK in 2021, up from just over 13 in 2020. The numbers of migrants arriving in the UK from across the Channel tripled from last year's numbers It has become common this year to see a steady stream of migrants traipsing up Britain's southern shores after illegal crossings of the Channel A young girl being helped by a Border Force officer after a group of people thought to be migrants were brought in to Dover, Kent Home Office minister Tom Pursglove MP said the Government was 'reforming' its approach by 'making the tough decisions to end the overt exploitation of our laws and UK taxpayers' Migrants peer through the misted-up windows of a bus after arriving in Dover, Kent, after a gruelling journey across the Channel The dangers of the English Channel were laid bare on November 24 when at least 27 people died as their boat sank. That dinghy was likened to a blow-up pool by French interior minister Gerald Darmanin. Ministers were warned arrivals will continue and more people will drown in the narrow stretch of water between Britain and France if the Government pursues its 'dangerous and callous policy'. What is the New Plan for Immigration? The New Plan for Immigration, also known as The Nationality and Borders Bill, will: Make it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally Introduce life sentences for those who facilitate illegal entry into the country Increase Border Force powers to stop and redirect vessels Create powers to remove asylum seekers and have their claims processed outside of Britain Advertisement Last year's record number was an increase of about 20,000 on 2020 and came despite millions of pounds promised to French authorities to tackle the issue. The last 12 months have seen smugglers packing more and more people aboard larger and larger dinghies, sometimes with deadly consequences. The number of arrivals peaked in November when, despite dropping temperatures, at least 6,869 people reached the UK. Between November 10 and 16 more than 3,100 people made the perilous crossing, the most in any seven-day stretch in the current crisis. The same month also saw a new record for a single day, with 1,185 people reaching Britain on November 11. Going into 2021 the most arrivals on a single day had been 416, set in September 2020. Clare Moseley, founder of Care4Calais, a charity that supports refugees living in northern France, said rising numbers of small boat arrivals in Britain reflect a shift away from attempts to cross by lorry. She said: 'They are some of the most vulnerable people in the world, having lost family members in bloody conflicts, suffered horrific torture and inhumane persecution. 'The Government tells us that people should travel by legal means but if this were truly possible why would so many be risking their lives in flimsy boats? 'If the Government were serious about stopping people smugglers, it would create a safe way for people to claim asylum and put people smugglers out of business once and for all.' The Nationality and Borders Bill will make it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally Despite the increasing numbers, the UK's small boat arrivals are a fraction of the number of people arriving in Europe. At least 120,441 people arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean by land and sea in 2021, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. An additional 1,839 people were thought to be dead or missing. Refugee Action head Tim Naor Hilton said the UK Government's migrant policy will lead to more deaths in the Dover Strait. Boats were stored after being intercepted in the Channel by Border Force, as attempts to make the crossing continued to spiral last year He said: 'People will continue to cross the Channel in flimsy boats and smugglers will continue to profit unless ministers open up more routes for refugees to claim asylum. '[In November] we saw the deadly result of their strategy of keeping people out rather than keeping people safe when at least 27 people died near our coast. 'Yet the Government wants to legalise this dangerous and callous policy in its Anti-Refugee Bill, which will only lead to more people drowning. It must wake up and scrap this bill now.' Meanwhile, Refugee Council boss Enver Solomon said: 'This Government must change its approach and instead of seeking to punish or push away people seeking safety because of the type of journey they have made to the UK, they must create and commit to safe routes. 'As a country, we can save lives and empower people, who have already been through so much, to give back to the communities that welcome them.' The Haitian prime minister was forced to scramble to safety to avoid a string of gunfire during an assassination attempt on Saturday, video footage shows. Ariel Henry was leaving a church after taking part in an event commemorating the Caribbean country's independence when a gang of 'bandits and terrorists' tried to gun him down. The failed shooting comes just five months after Haiti's President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in a predawn attack at his home. The Haitian prime minister was forced to scramble to safety to avoid a string of gunfire during an assassination attempt on Saturday, video footage shows Ariel Henry was leaving a church after taking part in an event commemorating the Caribbean country's independence when gunfire erupted Haitian media pointed to possible gang involvement in the latest shooting, which they said killed one person and injured two more. Henry's office said he was targeted after the ceremony marking the 218th anniversary of the country's independence by an armed group in Gonavies. Video footage broadcast on social media showed Henry and his entourage scrambling toward their vehicles. Gangs' hold on parts of Haiti has strengthened since the assassination of Moise in July. Video footage broadcast on social media showed Henry and his entourage scrambling toward their vehicles Henry's office said he was targeted after the ceremony marking the 218th anniversary of the country's independence by an armed group in Gonavies Police, who called Saturday's attack the work of 'armed groups,' were unable to immediately confirm casualties. Prior to the incident, a local gang boss had made threats against Henry in local media. The prime minister's office said arrest warrants had been issued for the suspects who fired on Henry's convoy. The attack has renewed concerns about the safety of officials in Haiti since Moise's assassination. Henry, whose administration is facing mounting challenges to its legitimacy, was sworn in as prime minister barely two weeks after Moise's killing at the hands of suspected mercenaries. His wife was also hospitalised after the attack. Haitian President Jovenel Moise, pictured, was assassinated at his official residence in Port-au-Prince on July 7 Members of the military are seen near the hospital where Haitian First Lady Martine Moise was held after the attack Security forces inspect at the site after an attack at the residence of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on July 7 The country has yet to set a date to elect Moise's successor. Moise was shot dead at his home in Port-au-Prince on July 7 after a team of mercenaries stormed the leader's residence without encountering his team of bodyguards. Immediately, authorities suspected an inside job as none of the slain president's security team were injured or killed by the assassination squad. Haitian police arrested Moise's chief bodyguard and three other members of the team. The attack was allegedly carried out by a group that included 26 Colombian former soldiers, at least six of whom had previously received U.S. military training. Haitian-Americans were also among the accused. Footage circulating online purportedly taken by a neighbour of the president shows men with rifles arriving outside the property Martine Moise was treated in hospital following the July 7 assassination of her husband The attack's plotters disguised the mercenaries as U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, a ruse that helped them enter Moise's home with no resistance from his security detail, authorities have said. Yesterday, Panama authorities arrested a former member of the Colombian military wanted for questioning in connection with the assassination. Mario Antonio Palacios, 43, was detained during a stopover of a flight on which he was being deported from Jamaica to Colombia, the sources said. Palacios was detained during a stopover in Panama and asked to 'voluntarily' board a flight to the United States, a Colombian immigration source said. In case he resisted, Panamanian officials said they would enforce an Interpol red notice issued by the United States, which is in addition to one that Haiti had already issued, the source said. Haiti has also issued an Interpol red notice for Palacios. It was not clear if he had gone to the United States. Panama authorities have issued no public comment on the affair but a person familiar with the matter in Panama confirmed that Palacios had been detained. Random House has reportedly cancelled the publication of a collection of Norman Mailer essays, which would correspond to the 100-year anniversary of his birth next year, because a 'junior staffer' objected to the title of his 1957 essay entitled 'White Negro.' The project had an editor assigned and the agreement from the Mailer estate, according a best-selling author Michael Wolff. 'With slow-mo hammer-dropping predictability, Norman Mailer's long-time publisher has recently informed the Mailer family that it has canceled plans to publish a collection of his political writings to mark the centennial of his birth in 2023, confirms the film producer Michael Mailer, the author's oldest son,' best-selling author Michael Wolff, who penned the piece, writes. Mailer biographer J. Michael Lennon was tapped to chose the Mailer works for the collection and editor David Ebershoff had been picked to edit it, Wolff wrote in The Ankler, a new online publication by celebrity editor Janice Min. Neither Lennon nor Ebershoff responded to requests for comment. Penguin Random House, as the publisher is now called after a consolidation, did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment. According to Wolff, though, the publisher said that no final contract had been signed for the book and therefore it was not cancelled. 'You hardly have to look hard in Mailer's work to find offenses against contemporary doctrine and respectability,' Wolff writes, calling the author's work 'a psycho-sexual-druggie precursor and model for much of the psycho-sexual-druggie literature that became popular in the 1960s.' Random House reportedly decided to scrap a new collection of Norman Mailer essays over objections to the 1957 essay 'White Negro'. Mailer, who fought in World War II, would be 100 years old next January. Many of his viewpoints, though influential at the time, would be considered controversial today EXCLUSIVE: Random House not moving forward with 2023 Norman Mailer book after staffer objects to his "White Negro" essay, from @MichaelWolffNYC @TheAnkler and confirmed by the authors son Michael Mailer https://t.co/X261dOuB1Z pic.twitter.com/5WsnGHbB14 Janice Min (@janicemin) January 3, 2022 Mailer's essay, written on the cusp of the beatnik era in the U.S., calls for a rejection of conformity and calls for the 'rebellious imperatives of the self' The 'white negro' of the essay's title is a 1950s era hipster who lives for immediate gratification, or as he calls it the 'burning consciousness of the present.' Mailer likens his new philosophy what he sees as the the lifestyle of Black Americans. He beckons a 'a time of violence, new hysteria, confusion and rebellion will then be likely to replace the time of conformity.' Writer James Baldwin objected to the essay because he said it traded on stereotypes of black people as overly sexual and violent The essay drew controversy even at the time from thinkers like writer James Baldwin for trading on stereotypes of black people as operating on base impulses of sex and violence. Mailer, who was born Jan. 31, 1923 would have been 100 years old next year. He is considered an important literary and left-leaning political voice of post World War II, but he often flirted with controversy and his opinions of masculinity and sexuality are at odds with current thinking. He served in the Pacific in World War II, but saw little combat. His first book, 'The Naked and the Dead' about his time in the army ranked number 51 on the Modern Library's Top 100 English-language Novels of the 20th Century. He went on to publish 11 best-selling books, including non-fiction like his account of the anti-war movement 'Armies of the Night,' which one him a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book award. He considered himself a cultural critic and public intellectual and wrote political essays published in mainstream publications like Esquire. In 1955, he co-founded the left-leaning Village Voice, a weekly paper which still exists online today. He also dabbled in filmmaking without much success. Mailer was known to court controversy and was prone to violence. He once stabbed his wife Adele Morales, pictured here in happier times, with a penknife. She survived. Mailer was known for getting in fistfights and once headbutted Gore Vidal in the green room on Dick Cavett's talk show. He also stabbed his wife Adele Morales with a penknife after she questioned his masculinity. The wound was nearly fatal, but she survived and he served three years probation for the crime. In 1969 he ran for mayor of New York City with the slogan, 'No more bullsh**' Mailer told reporters at the time: 'The difference between me and the other candidates is that I'm no good and I can prove it.' Random House continues to publish Mailer's work, including 'Why are we in Vietnam, 'Miami and the Siege of Chicago and 'Deer Park.' Best-selling author Michael Wolff, who broke the story, wrote that the essay was the 'model for much of the psycho-sexual-druggie literature of the 1960s' In 2013, Random House embarked on a project to republish his works for a younger generation, beginning a collection of selected essays called 'Mind of an Outlaw.' 'Norman was an American original both on the page and in life,' the president of the publishing house Gina Centrello said at the time. 'It's a wonderful opportunity to relaunch these books for a new generation.' The squashing of the Mailer collection comes after a series of high-profile publishing cancelations over the years, most notably the biography of novelist Philip Roth, but Blake Bailey. WW Norton decided not to continue publication of the book after Bailey was accused of sexual assault. The book was picked up by Skyhorse Publishing, but is also available in the UK under Penguin Random House. The cancelation of the Mailer project should be worrisome, Wolff argues, because Penguin Random House has such a huge piece of the publishing pie. 'A lack of competition among gatekeepers leads to less choice and more limits and a narrowing of risk, taste, and sensibility, and, when the winds are harsh, greater shelter for the cowardly,' he writes. 'A world without Norman Mailerthis new intellectual nanny-statesurely harms the literary consumer.' Penguin Random House was sued by the Justice Department in November to block its purchase of Simon & Schuster, a rival publishing house. 'If the world's largest book publisher is permitted to acquire one of its biggest rivals, it will have unprecedented control over this important industry,' Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. 'American authors and consumers will pay the price of this anticompetitive merger lower advances for authors and ultimately fewer books and less variety for consumers.' A leading Australian doctor has warned of a Covid 'double whammy' set to strike hospitals across the nation over the next few weeks as cases continue to climb. Australian Medical Association Vice President Dr Chris Moy told Sunrise on Tuesday there is currently 'pressure right across the system' with shortages adding to the evolving situation as staff are also forced to stay at home and isolate after being infected. 'It has had an effect on hospitals, GPs and aged care,' Dr Moy said. 'It is due to everybody getting sick at the same time... staff are also getting sick which has been significant. 'There are some growing concerns... this new Covid wave has created a potential for us to be in strife. Australian Medical Association Vice President Dr Chris Moy told Sunrise on Tuesday there is currently 'pressure right across the system' as Covid patients continue to flood to hospitals in record numbers (pictured, staff at the Prince of Wales Hospital in NSW) Hospital patient numbers with Covid continue to rise across the nation, especially in NSW and Victoria the past 48 hours Every Sydney local government area except four has more than 1,000 active Covid cases (shaded in black) This map from NSW Health shows how far Omicron has spread across the state and which areas have been worst hit (in black) and regions least affected (in yellow) 'Covid patients also require more care than say someone who has had a heart attack. 'The (current) ability to provide health care is stretched.' Dr Moy has developed a reputation as a 'doomsday doctor' after previously questioning how other states have handled different aspects of the pandemic and urging the need for restrictions to be reimposed. In October, the vice-president of the Australian Medical Association publicly hit out at NSW, accusing the state's authorities of having relegated health advice to 'second place'. He went onto question the speed with which the state was reopening at the time. Dr Moy's ominous view is in stark contrast to University of NSW epidemiologist James Wood, who predicts the Omicron wave will rise and taper off rapidly, based on the outbreaks experienced in South Africa, New York and London. He believes cities were likely to see a peak before the regions, and that different states will be hit worst at different times. 'In general, I expect the case peak to be within the next one to three weeks in NSW (delayed a week or two in other states), with hospital occupancy peaking about a week later,' Professor Wood told The Australian. Hospital patient numbers have increased dramatically in Victoria and NSW the past 48 hours, with the number of patients in ICU rising 15 per cent. Some hospitals are even warning people to stay at home unless treatment is 'absolutely necessary.' On Tuesday, NSW recorded 23,131 new Covid cases and two deaths on Tuesday - while Victoria's cases have doubled to 14,020 new infections. Hospital admissions jumped from 1,204 to 1,344 in NSW while a further 10 patients were admitted to ICU overnight bringing the total to 105. Victoria's cases have doubled from the 8,577 infections detected on Monday. Earlier on Monday, Australia tallied its highest number of daily Covid-19 infections since the pandemic began with 36,742 cases, as hospitalisations continue to climb. Victoria's cases are also mostly spread across the centre of Melbourne (pictured in dark blue) NSW recorded 23,131 new Covid cases and two deaths on Tuesday while Victoria leapt to 14,020 infections as the states continues to battle the Omicron outbreak Despite the rising case numbers, health officials are quietly hopeful the worst of Australia's horror Omicron wave will be over within weeks (pictured, Sydneysiders at Bondi on Monday) Tuesday's numbers come after scientists revealed the peak of the country's Omicron outbreak could be in sight, just weeks after the first transmission was recorded. Almost 60 per cent - 20,794 infections - were in NSW as the state recorded its third biggest daily total while Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and South Australia all reported their highest ever numbers of cases. Fears remain that NSW and Victoria could record up to 100,000 cases a day by the the end of January as horror maps of both states break down the worst-hit regions. But federal health officials are quietly hopeful the worst of the Omicron wave could be over within weeks, with international modelling showing promising signs that the variant peaks quickly before petering out just eight weeks later. AUSTRALIA'S NEW COVID RULES Who should get a PCR test? Anyone who has symptoms or who has got a positive rapid antigen test New definition of close contact: Someone who has spent at least four hours in a household or a care facility with a positive case. Workplaces do not count. New isolation period: Positive people and close contacts must isolate for seven days or 10 in SA. This is regardless of whether the close contacts test negative or not Timing: NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT implemented the new rules on New Year's Eve. Tasmania followed on January 1 while the Northern Territory and Western Australia will not adopt the scheme until they get more Covid cases in the weeks ahead. Advertisement The AUKUS pact has set off a 'very big alarm' in China, according to a senior Taiwanese politician. The security alliance between Australia, the US and UK, announced in September, includes plans to give Australia technology to build eight nuclear-powered submarines before 2040. Taiwanese MP Wang Ting-yu - who serves on his parliament's foreign affairs and national defence committee - has told The Australian that Beijing fears the allies aim to block China's navy in shallow seas and prevent it from projecting power into the blue waters of the Pacific. HMAS Rankin submarine conducts helicopter transfers in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia last month as part of Rankin's training assessments to ensure the boat is ready to deploy Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the New Year gathering on December 31 He said the Chinese government believes the AUKUS pact is more of a threat than the Quad alliance between the US, Australia, Japan and India. 'We have information from inside China. They regard AUKUS more seriously than the Quad, especially the submarine [agreement],' Mr Wang told the newspaper. 'That's a very big alarm to Beijing. They're facing historical challenges, or historical co-operation, to choke them inside of their near seas.' In November Defence Minister Peter Dutton signed a formal agreement alongside the US and UK to allow the countries to share information on the nuclear-powered vessels. The agreement was signed in a ceremony alongside US Charge d'Affaires Michael Goldman and UK High Commissioner Victoria Treadell. China's foreign ministry said the AUKUS deal 'escalates regional tensions'. 'It stimulates [an] arms race, threatens regional peace and stability, and undermines international nuclear non-proliferation efforts,' Chinese foreign affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said. China's acting ambassador to Australia, Wang Xining, recently called Australia 'a naughty guy' over the AUKUS submarine deal, arguing it was helping the proliferation of nuclear weapons in south-east Asia. He urged Australia to 'refrain from doing anything that's destructive to our relationship', after Mr Dutton had indicated Australia would support the US in any potential conflict over Taiwan. Australia insists it has no plans to build or use nuclear weapons. A new arms race is developing in the Pacific between the US and China, which could also drag in Russia - which borders the ocean - and the UK, after it signed a new defence pact with America and Australia. This graphic compares the relative sizes of each country's current nuclear arsenals China is expanding its military as its economy balloons to rival that of the US, having lagged behind for decades. In addition to building new nuclear missiles and silos, it has constructed new aircraft carriers, tanks, fighter jets, spy and attack drones, along with new rifles for its troops. Beijing has used the new hardware to take a more aggressive stance in the Pacific: Imposing its rule on Hong Kong, menacing Taiwan, and laying claim to a number of uninhabited islands in the South China Sea which it has constructed military bases on top of. It has also been pressing its claim to a number of other islands whose ownership is disputed, creating tensions with other regional powers such the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and others. Similar disputes are underway in the East China Sea, around islands claimed by Japan. China claims rights over the South China Sea in its entirety, which would hand Beijing control over hugely valuable international shipping lanes, fishing grounds which neighbouring countries rely on for food, and deposits of coal and oil which dot the seabed. The US and its allies have been pushing back on these claims, and frequently conduct what they call 'freedom of navigation' operations through waters that China claims as its own in defiance of Beijing. A recent and high-profile mission was led by the UK's newest aircraft carrier - HMS Queen Elizabeth - and its strike group, which included American destroyers. It provoked and angry response from the Communist Party (CCP). China is using its new military hardware and economic might to throw its weight around in the Pacific, most notably in the South China Sea which has caused disputes with neighbours including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia With the end of the war in Afghanistan and the signing of the new AUKUS pact, attention has shifted away from the Middle East and towards the Pacific as the threat of direct conflict between the US and China looming large. The flashpoint is likely to be Taiwan - and island off the Chinese coast that houses the remnants of the People's Republic of China, which once ruled the country and was deposed by the CCP when it came to power. Historically, the US has recognised the ROC as the legitimate government of China and the two have a long-standing alliance. Taiwan views itself as an independent state, while Beijing considers it a breakaway province. Tensions have mounted in recent years after a 2019 speech by Xi Jinping in which he committed himself to 'reunifying' Taiwan with the mainland, saying he is willing to use force if necessary. The US has a policy of 'strategic ambiguity' towards Taiwan, refusing to say how far it would go in defence of the island - though Joe Biden recently suggested any attack would prompt a war. Officials later said he had misspoke. With the signing of the AUKUS pact, Australia and Britain could also find themselves on the frontlines of the conflict - with Australia defence minister Peter Dutton admitting as much last week. The Chinese.. are very clear of their intent with regard to Taiwan [and] the United States has been very clear of their intention toward Taiwan,' he said. 'Nobody wants to see conflict but that really is a question for the Chinese.' Disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been controversially cleared of causing 15,500 COVID deaths in nursing homes by a prosecutor who insists no crime was committed, his lawyer said. Elkan Abramowitz, Cuomo's lawyer, said Monday that the probe by Manhattan District Attorney's Office had been dropped. The office, currently headed by DA Alvin Bragg, declined to comment. Its probe into Cuomo was launched by Bragg's predecessor Cyrus Vance, although it is unclear which of the two men apparently chose not to pursue charges against Cuomo. 'I was contacted today by the head of the Elder Care Unit from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office who informed me they have closed its investigation involving the Executive Chamber and nursing homes,' said Abramowitz. 'I was told that after a thorough investigation as we have said all along there was no evidence to suggest that any laws were broken.' Cuomo still faces separate state and federal inquiries into the nursing home scandal, which saw the facilities forced to accept COVID patients from hospitals in March 2020, causing the virus to spread like wildfire among elderly and medically-vulnerable residents. Andrew Cuomo is seen on the day of his resignation, August 10. He was forced to resign due to allegations of sexual harassment, and was also being investigated for his handling of the COVID pandemic - in particular how he dealt with nursing homes. On Monday his lawyer said that the Manhattan district attorney had dropped their investigation A nursing home resident is seen being taken to hospital in April 2020 in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. The Cobble Hill Health Center had reported 55 COVID deaths by April 18, 2020 Alvin Bragg, the new Manhattan district attorney, has dropped the investigation into Cuomo The investigation was begun by the former Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, who stepped down on New Year's Eve. It is unclear whether the decision to shelve the investigation was made by Vance or by his successor, Alvin Bragg. Cuomo hired Abramowitz in March 2021 to represent him in both the state and federal investigations. Vivian Zayas, who co-founded Voices for Seniors after her mother Ana died from COVID in a nursing home, said she was disappointed by the decision. 'Letting Cuomo off the hook is a bad way to start 2022,' she said. 'Fifteen thousand people lost their lives in nursing homes. It doesn't look like prosecutors are taking this seriously. They're basically protecting Cuomo. 'We are disappointed in our judicial system.' Vivian Zayas said she was disappointed by the Manhattan DA's decision to shelve the case Ron Kim, seen at a March 20, 2021 protest demanding Cuomo resign, said he was hopeful that other COVID investigations into Cuomo's actions would bring results Ron Kim, a state assemblyman who is chair of the Assembly Aging Committee, said he was confident the two remaining inquiries - federal and from the attorney general - would deliver justice. Kim, whose uncle died of COVID in a nursing home, accused Cuomo of being more focused on writing his book about leadership during the pandemic than actually serving his constituents. 'Cuomo used his executive power to suppress nursing home deaths while chasing a $5.1 million book deal,' said Kim. 'Sooner or later the truth will come out.' Janice Dean, the Fox News meteorologist whose father-in-law and mother-in-law died of COVID in nursing homes, echoed Kim and said she was putting her faith in the remaining investigations. 'There are still ongoing investigations into the nursing home matters by the FBI, DOJ Eastern District and AG,' she said. 'This sounds like a little favor from an outgoing Manhattan DA. 'Just my humble opinion covering one of the most corrupt governors in New York history.' Claudia Tenney, a Republican congresswoman representing New York, said Cuomo 'has blood on his hands'. 'Today's news that the Manhattan DA won't press charges against disgraced former Governor Cuomo over his COVID nursing home scandal is yet another politically-motivated decision by left-wing prosecutors,' she tweeted. 'Cuomo has blood on his hands. His victims and their families deserve justice.' Radio host and Fox News contributor Leo Terrell called the decision 'shameful', while others on social media speculated that Cuomo was being let off the hook as a political favor. 'Politicians protecting politicians?!?! The new DA should be investigated,' said one. 'Corruption- to the core typical NYC,' said another. A third added: 'I hate my state sometimes.' Cuomo insisted that he was simply following federal guidelines at the time, and changed his policy as the guidance changed. The first COVID case was confirmed in New York on March 1, 2020, and on March 25 Cuomo ordered nursing homes to readmit patients who were positive for COVID due to concerns about hospital capacity. He reversed the ruling on May 10, 2020, barring nursing homes from accepting patients without a negative test first. Critics say that by then the damage had been done. In January 2021, a shocking report from James' office detailed how the state had undercounted the number of nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent. It forced New York State's Department of Health to reveal the true death toll among nursing home residents was 12,743, rather than the previously acknowledged figure of 8,711. The report further notes that at least 4,000 residents died after the state issued the mandate for nursing homes to admit 'medically stable' coronavirus patients which James said 'may have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities.' 'As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate,' James said. 'While we cannot bring back the individuals we lost to this crisis, this report seeks to offer transparency that the public deserves and to spur increased action to protect our most vulnerable residents.' Cuomo is seen on August 23 giving a farewell speech before departing the governor's mansion Cuomo's handling of the COVID crisis are not the only legal challenges he is confronting. He was forced to step down after James found allegations by 11 women of sexual harassment were credible. Three other district attorneys in Albany, Manhattan and Oswego counties also launched investigations after James' report. In October, Cuomo, 64, was charged with forcible touching - a misdemeanor - for allegedly groping the left breast of then-aide Brittany Commisso, 33, inside Albanys Executive Mansion. Cuomo, who said the December 2020 incident never happened, was scheduled to be arraigned in Albany City Court on Friday, but the charges have since been dropped. Advertisement Heartwarming photos show the moment a Missouri mom who was badly injured in a tornado that killed her nine year-old daughter was reunited with her injured daughters for the first time after 24 days. Meghan Rackley, 32, was snapped smiling in an ambulance and raising her hand to high five her girls Avalinn, 7, and three year-old Alanna, during the emotional New Year's Eve reunion. She was left in a coma after last month's twister, and only emerged into consciousness last week. Tragically, Rackley's eldest daughter Annistyn, nine, was killed by the twister. The two surviving siblings suffered injuries, with Avalinn breaking vertebrae in her back that requires her to wear a support brace. Photographs show the mother waving to, embracing and kissing her children as she lays on a hospital gurney. Pamela Moore, the girls' grandmother, said they weren't able to go into the hospital but they did get to see their mother. She shared the hospital was planning to bend the rules the next day to let them go in for a 'long visit,' adding: 'Just this little bit of time was good for everyones hearts.' Meghan Rackley was reunited with her daughters Avalinn, 7, and Alanna, 3, for the first time a New Year's Eve after being severely injured in a tornado 24 days before Photographs show Meghan waving to, embracing and kissing her children (Avalinn is wearing a bow in her hair. Alanna has a ponytail) as she lays on a hospital gurney. Trey Rackley is seen walking towards the hospital where Meghan is receiving treatment with his daughter, Avalinn Meghan and her husband, Trey Rackley, 37, were sheltering in the bathtub with their three daughters when the twister swept away their family home, flinging them into a nearby field. A haunting photo taken moments before the twister struck shows the three young girls sitting in the bathtub and smiling, apparently believing that they were safe from the incoming extreme weather. Emergency responders located the family and took them to a nearby hospital where Avalinn told doctors: 'I was flying around in the tornado and I prayed to Jesus to take care of me, and he spit me out - and the tornado spit me out into the mud.' Trey and Alanna suffered less severe injuries and have been released from the hospital shortly after being admitted. The plight of the Rackley family captured the nation's attention when a photo of the three sisters taking shelter in their bathroom went viral after more than 30 tornadoes rampaged through Kentucky, Missouri and three other states in early December, killing at least 90 people. Avalinn, left, was with her older sister Annistyn, 9, holding a doll in the bathtub, and little sister Alanna, 3, taking shelter in their bathroom when one of more than 30 tornadoes destroyed their Caruthersville home. Annistyn was killed in the tornado The family home was among the hundreds leveled after a series of tornadoes struck five states last week Their loved ones have documented the family's journey on social media as they navigate this tragedy and work towards recovery. A week after her surgery and a few days before the Christmas holiday, Avalinn was filmed walking down a wearing a neck brace and using a walker to cruise down the hallway at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. The eldest daughter, Annistyn, 9, was killed when the twister struck their family home 'The floor's kinda slick,' the brave girl was heard saying as she continued her brisk walk through the Memphis hospital. Avalinn was smiling - and even giggling - as her grandmother Pamela Moore cooed: 'Look at you go! Look at you go!' The same day, Moore captured Avalinn drawing a heart around a picture of her and her sister Annistyn. 'There we go,' the little girl said as she finished the drawing. Off camera, Moore was heard saying through tears: 'That's beautiful, baby. Sisters forever.' The grandmother shared the two clips to Facebook with the caption: 'So I'm gonna fill your heart with joy and then break it at the same time (welcome to my world). 'Physically, Ava is doing amazing. If this last drain comes out, we may get to come home tomorrow. Emotionally, she misses Annistyn.' Avalinn Rackley, 7, was filmed wearing a neck brace and using a walker to cruise down the hallway at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital less than a week after surgery in a video posted by her grandmother on Dec. 20 Avalinn drew a heart around a picture of her and her sister Annistyn, who was killed by one of the deadly tornadoes that swept through five Missouri Valley states on December 10 The family has received an outpour of support, including from former President Donald Trump, as they navigate this difficult time. The former Republican president and his wife, Melania Trump, sent boxes of Christmas gifts to the family. 'These boxes came in the mail, and they are from...President Trump! Both of these boxes. Can you believe it?' Moore said in a video filmed on Christmas day as Avalinn grins with expectation. 'Oh my God!' Avalinn screamed happily while wearing a back brace and matching Christmas onesies with her dad and younger sister. 'Donald and Melania Trump sent a package! They got hats signed by Donald Trump, Presidential blankets, American Girl Dolls, books signed by President Trump and Melania, pens, bracelets and so much more!' Moore posted on Facebook on Christmas Day along with the video of Avalinn finding out about the presents. The family has received an outpour of support, including from former President Donald Trump, as they navigate this difficult time. 'Donald and Melania Trump sent a package! They got hats signed by Donald Trump, Presidential blankets, American Girl Dolls, books signed by President Trump and Melania, pens, bracelets and so much more!' Moore shared on Christmas Day Moore also posted the touching letter the former president and his wife sent to lift the little girl's spirit during this hard moment in her life Moore also posted the touching letter the former president and his wife sent to lift the little girl's spirit during this hard moment in her life. 'We are so encouraged by the strength and determination you have shown during this very difficult time. You will remain in our hearts for complete care and comfort as you continue to recover,' the letter read. 'With your steadfast spirit, and the unwavering strength and support of your wonderful family and many friends, your future potential is limitless.' The Missouri community also continues to rally behind the family and has created a crowdfunding page to help cover funeral, medical and other expenses. Hyderabad: The historic 120-year-old Sardar Mahal is likely to be converted to a luxurious seven-star hotel. The Quli Qutub Shah Urban Development Authority (QQUDA), which is funded by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), is also planning to convert the same heritage structure into a museum. Officials said no bid or expression of interest was invited for both the proposals. However, they did not rule out both proposals and said either of them would be taken after following the due process. According to sources, the GHMC office housed in Sardar Mahal is being shifted to a new building in Phoolbagh. A vacate order has already been given to the GHMC. Presently, the limited staff catering to ward number 17 of Yakutpura will soon be shifted to GHMC zonal office at Phoolbagh. This apart, renovation and road widening works from Pathergatti to Machli Kaman have already started. Renovation of Machli Kaman is in its final stages. Sardar Mahal was built in European style by Nizam VI Mir Mahboob Ali Khan in 1900 for one of his consorts Sardar Begum. As Sardar Begum did not like the construction, she never stayed there. However, the building was named after her. The Hyderabad municipal corporation took over Sardar Mahal in 1965 due to outstanding property taxes. It was declared as a heritage building by the heritage conservation committee and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). The Old City has a history of converting heritage structures into seven star hotels, which has been taken over by popular hotel chains. A popular hotel chain has already taken over Chowmahalla Palace and another historic marvel Falaknuma Palace was handed over to Taj group of hotels. It may be mentioned here that both the palaces were private properties belonging to descendants of the Nizam. However, Since Sardar Mahal is owned by the GHMC, it could be handed over to private management only after passing a resolution in the general body meeting or directly through a government order. A senior official requesting anonymity said that the proposals were on and it was a high level decision. He said that conversion of Sardar Mahal into a museum was at the QQUDA level while the decision on converting it into a hotel/food court had to be taken by the state government. "We are bound by the order of the government. We can either convert it into a museum or hand it over to a popular hotel chain on the decision taken by the government," he added. The moment a Long Island biology teacher jabbed her son's 17-year-old friend with a Covid-19 vaccine without his parents' permission was caught on video. Footage made public Monday shows Laura Parker Russo, 54, cleaning the unidentified teen's skin as she prepared to administer a dose of the J&J vaccine into his right arm. As Russo smiles, the teen can be heard saying: 'There you go, at-home vaccine,' in the video obtained by NBC New York. The outlet reported the vaccine being the Johnson and Johnson brand, which is only recommended for adults. She stuck the needle into the boy's arm on New Year's Eve, police said. The vaccine was authentic, but it is unclear how Parker Russo - who has no medical qualifications - obtained it, and cops are now investigating the matter. Russo, a Herricks High School biology teacher according to an online bio, was arrested and charged after the teen returned home and told his mother about the shot, according to the Nassau County Police Department. 'The mother had not given permission or authority to have her son injected with a Covid vaccine and called police,' a department press release said. Footage made public Monday shows New York teacher Laura Parker Russo, 54, cleaning an unidentified teen's skin with gauze as she prepared to administer a dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine There you go, at home vaccine. Police have arrested a Long Island mother for illegally giving a 17 year old boy a shot of Covid vaccine in her home. And theres video.Only on @NBCNewYork #nbc4ny pic.twitter.com/KpG5vAQaDT Pei-Sze Cheng (@PeiSzeCheng4NY) January 3, 2022 'After an investigation was conducted, it was discovered that Laura Parker Russo is not a medical professional or authorized to administer vaccines and was placed under arrest without incident.' The married mother-of-six was charged under state education law with unauthorized practice of a profession. She's set to appear in court later this month. Herricks Public Schools superintendent Fino Celano said in a statement that Russo has been removed from the classroom and reassigned as the case is investigated. Russo is married to John Russo, a Sea Cliffs, New York realtor who in an online bio said the couple was raising a 'Brady Bunch' family. She described in her own online blurb being a lifelong Long Island resident who 'loves her profession as an educator.' She's a member of the Sea Cliff Civic Association, which organizes community events in the village 25 miles east of Manhattan. Russo, pictured with husband John, is a married mother of six and high school biology teacher Russo's realtor husband John described the couple in an online bio as a 'Brady Bunch' family raising six children in Sea Cliffs, New York Russo identified herself online as a biology teacher at Herricks High School in New York Russo could not be reached for comment. Mount Sinai South Nassau's chair of medicine Dr. Aaron Glatt said the amateur injection could have had more serious consequences. 'Besides being illegal, it's just not a smart thing to do,' he told NBC. 'An authorized, licensed professional should be providing vaccines to know how to give them properly to make sure if there's a complication that can be dealt with immediately and very efficiently.' Nassau County police said they're not sure how Russo obtained a vial of the vaccine, but that they're investigating the source. Herricks Public Schools superintendent Fino Celano said in a statement that Russo has been removed from the classroom and reassigned as the case is investigated There have been several reported incidents across the country in which minors have been vaccinated without their parents' consent. In early December, a Los Angeles mother claimed that her 13-year-old son, who has asthma, received the vaccine shot without her knowledge, NBC reported. Maribel Duarte said that her son returned home from the Barack Obama Global Prep Academy in South Los Angeles with a vaccination card after he accepted the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in exchange for pizza. 'I should have been involved,' Duarte told NBC Los Angeles.' The lady that gave him the shot and signed the paper told my son, 'Please don't say anything. I don't want to get in trouble.'' Maribel Duarte (pictured) claimed last month that her son returned home from the Barack Obama Global Prep Academy with a vaccination card without her consent Duarte claims her son got two shots of the Pfizer vaccine without her consent (vaccination card pictured) The card showed that the unidentified boy had two doses of his Pfizer vaccine, on October 28 and November 18. It is unclear when he told his mother about what had happened after the first or second shot. 'It hurt to know he got a shot without my permission, without knowing and without signing any papers for him to get the shot,' Duarte added. Duarte is herself vaccinated against COVID, but said she did not want her son to receive the shot because he is asthmatic and suffers from allergies, which she fears puts him at greater risk of rare but potentially-serious side effects. Ariana Fraser, a Florida mother, also said in December that her 5-year-old daughter was given a flu vaccination at her Lake Worth Beach school without her permission. 'We took the band-aid off and she had an injection mark, and on the paper it says she received a vaccination for a flu shot that we didn't approve of and the paper is not her name,' Fraser told CBS news. 'I was really upset and frustrated because if something bad would have happened to her, if she would have got sick,' Fraser added. Ariana Fraser, a Florida mother, also said in December that her 5-year-old daughter was given a flu vaccination at her Lake Worth Beach school without her permission Fraser's daughter, a kindergartner at North Grade Elementary, had reacted badly to inoculations before, despite having all of her required vaccinations. Health Hero, the private company that administered the vaccine at North Grade, had been accused before of giving the shot to a wrong kindergartner in Jacksonville, because his name was similar to another boy whose parents consented to the vaccine. Australians looking to break into the housing market can look forward to an 'inevitable' slowdown in prices, driven by easing buyer demand and an increase in homes for sale. Australians looking to break into the property market this year can look forward to a drop in house prices as the country experiences an impending slowdown (pictured, a Sydney bidder) Property values are estimated to climb at a much slower rate after a strong year of record growth (pictured, a Sydney property) Gareth Aird, head of Australian economics at Commonwealth Bank told the Sydney Morning Herald it was 'inevitable' that house prices would eventually flatline. 'It can't keep growing at this sort of rate. It was inevitable that we were going to see a moderation in price growth and that's what is happening right now,' he said. Mr Aird predicted prices would rise by seven per cent this year. However he warns the Reserve Bank (RBA) could start lifting rates by November - which could lead to downward pressure on prices. This could spark a market correction of 10 per cent in 2023, he warned. In the year to November, Sydney's median house price climbed by 30.4 per cent to a ridiculously unaffordable $1,360,543, CoreLogic data showed. The estimated value of Australia's residential real estate skyrocketed from $7.2trillion to $9.4trillion in the last year (pictured, homes in Sydney's Neutral Bay) The estimated value of Australia's residential real estate skyrocketed from $7.2trillion to $9.4trillion in a year with one economist urging aspiring buyers to invest now. CreditorWatch chief economist Harley Dale, who previously worked at the Housing Industry Association, said buyers who had passed stricter lending tests would be in a stronger position to find better value in 2022. 'If you're a buyer who feels as though you've got your financial plan in order, then I think most certainly it's a better time to buy over the next six, 12, maybe 18 months,' he previously told Daily Mail Australia. The Commonwealth Bank is forecasting Sydney's property price growth slowing from 27 per cent in 2021 to 6 per cent in 2022 before falling by 12 per cent in 2023. The Commonwealth Bank is forecasting Sydney's property price growth slowing from 27 per cent in 2021 to 6 per cent in 2022 before falling by 12 per cent in 2023 (pictured, homes in Sydney's northwest) Economist Harley Dale said there was no guarantee house prices would fall in 2023, as Australia dusted itself off after the Covid-19 lockdowns (pictured, an auction in Sydney) It predicts Melbourne real estate values will go from a high of 17 per cent this year to 8 per cent next year, and fall by 10 per cent in 2023. Westpac saw Sydney property prices rising by 27 per cent in 2021 before dramatically slowing to 6 per cent in 2022, followed by a 6 per cent drop in 2023. It forecast Melbourne real estate values increasing by 18 per cent in 2021 before slowing to 8 per cent in 2022 and falling by 6 per cent in 2023. However Dr Dale said there was no guarantee house prices would fall in 2023, as Australia dusted itself off after the Covid-19 lockdowns. 'Lots of people have predicted double-digit falls in home prices in Australia for decades now and I think at the moment, it's too early to tell if that will happen in 2023,' the economist said. Wild winds continue to whip through south east Queensland with a handful of locals on the Gold Coast getting an early morning shock when a towering gum was pulled from its roots and crashed just metres from homes. One resident on Robina's Manly Drive described the 'giant crack' heard just after 8am on Tuesday followed by a 'massive thump' as the tree - which pre-dates the suburb where it stood - was uprooted by gale force winds. Amazingly no one was injured by the falling tree which was located in a leafy park just off Manly Drive heavily frequented by locals and dog walkers. The fallen gum tree at a park in Robina on the Gold Coast early Tuesday Giant tree roots measuring almost four metres are seen pulled from the ground The Gold Coast and surrounding areas continue to be battered by winds of up to 100 m/hr and heavy rain as a result of ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth which has sat just off the coast since New Years Eve. 'It was a pretty decent crack,' said local Robina resident Craig Bartram who lives in the home directly adjacent to where the giant tree was pulled from the ground. 'It was all over and done with in about three seconds. It's lucky no one was walking through there at the time.' Heavy rain in the past week has significantly dampened soil in parts of the Gold Coast with tree falls not uncommon. Winds across the Gold Coast have also reached up to 100 kilometres per hour according to the Bureau of Meteorology with similar conditions expected for at least two more days. 'We have had about six inches of rain over two days,' Mr Bartram told Daily Mail Australia. 'So the soil around here is pretty sodden and the types of winds we have had is going to put any tree under a serious amount of stress.' The uprooted gum tree stood almost 40 metres high and was estimated to be around 100 years old by locals Locals Debbie Heiner (L) and Zan Bond came to inspect the enormous tree which crashed early Tuesday morning Other locals mourned the demise of the tree which, according to longtime resident Debbie Heiner, was one of the biggest and oldest in the area. 'It would be at least 100 years old. We moved here in 1989 and it was standing tall back then,' she said. Meanwhile, huge seas have led to the closure of all Gold Coast beaches with lifeguards at Currumbin sent scrambling on Monday as waves swept through the local surf life saving club, washing away a shipping container and equipment. BOM forecaster Helen Reid said its impact had coincided with king tides in south-east Queensland, making the surf conditions even more treacherous. Currumbin Surf Life Saving Club was thrown into chaos amid huge swells on Monday Beer kegs and equipment was washed away by powerful waves at Currumbin on Monday 'It has transitioned to a subtropical system which has slightly different characteristics, but the intensity hasn't decreased,' Ms Reid told AAP. Ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth is currently located around 300 kilometres off the coast of Coolangatta and is slowly moving closer to land. Beaches remain closed on Tuesday with police urging everyone, including experienced surfers, to stay out of the water. Despite this many have lined the coastline to watch celebrity big wave riders - including former world champions Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson and Mark Occhilupo - tackle the monstrous swell which has been measured at up to six metres. Very high tides are again set to plague the south-east today, with warnings in place for the Wide Bay region to northern New South Wales, including the seaward sides of Fraser, Moreton, North Stradbroke and South Stradbroke islands A little boy is clinging to life in hospital after he was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash his parents say he will need a 'miracle' to survive. Four-year-old Riot was riding with a 32-year-old man in Margate, Brisbane, about 7.15pm on Saturday when they collided with a 4WD. The driver of the 4WD was not injured but Riot and the man were rushed to Royal Brisbane Hospital and the Queensland Children's Hospital in critical condition. His aunt said the crash was so serious the young boy had part of his skull removed and is still in a coma days after the accident. A Queensland family's worst nightmare came true on Saturday when their four-year-old son, Riot (above), was severely injured in a motorcycle accident in Margate, Brisbane 'Riot is four years old and fighting for his life, they have had to remove half of his skull and he is currently in an induced coma,' she said. 'It will be an absolute miracle if he makes it out of his coma alive and if he does we have been advised he will be severely disabled.' Riot's mother is also about to give birth to her sixth child and could bring the new baby into the world just as one of them leaves it. '(She) is heavily pregnant and about to be induced to give birth due to severe medical reasons and has five kids at home,' Riot's aunt wrote. She said she set up a fundraiser to help cover the family's impending medical costs and Riot's funeral costs if his condition worsens. The aunty asked for the public's help to cover medical costs as she revealed Riot is in an induced coma and had half his skull removed while his mother is heavily pregnant and due to be induced 'We have started this go fund me page to help take some of the financial burden off for any ongoing medical costs for riot,' she said. 'If he does not make it through these funds will be used for his funeral expenses. 'Anything helps, we thank you in advance for your donations, prayers and support.' So far the appeal has raised $1,600 from 39 donors. A Melbourne woman who is fully vaccinated has revealed she recently contracted Covid for a second time within the space of four months. Influencer Alexandra Duffin, who has 67,000 followers on TikTok, confirmed on Monday she has tested positive again and is now isolating. 'As you will remember I tested positive for Covid back in October,' she said in the clip, which has been viewed almost 190,000 times. 'I was really sick and posted my whole journey on TikTok. 'I then got vaxxed and it kept coming back as negative. I then knew Covid wasn't in my system anymore.' Melbourne influencer Alexandra Duffin, who has 67,000 followers on TikTok, confirmed on Monday she has tested positive again for Covid Ms Duffin went onto share how during a trip interstate post Christmas saw her situation change dramatically. 'On December 27 I tested negative before flying to Sydney. I then started to develop symptoms and tested positive on Monday (January 3),' she said. 'I am now isolating in Sydney.. what's next, Perth? 'Covid two, Alexandra nil. I am doing OK, let's start this (new journey).' One person commented online that Ms Duffin was likely to have contracted the Delta strain of Covid-19 last year - and this time round Omicron - a statement she agreed with. She also called out the popular belief people can only contract the virus once. According to Healthline, immunity to Covid-19 can last between three months and five years. After a person acquires any virus, the body's immune system retains a memory of it. Antibodies then recognise foreign substances, before using T cells help to also recognise pathogens. In turn, Killer T cells kill pathogens and B cells then create new antibodies when the body needs them. On its website, NSW Health says that if someone who has previously tested positive to Covid comes into contact with someone with the virus within one month following their infection will generally not need to self-isolate or get a test - unless they have symptoms. Ms Duffin confirmed to her TikTok followers she tested positive for Covid on January 3 - and is now isolating in Sydney Soon after arriving in Sydney from Melbourne on December 27, Ms Duffin developed symptoms for Covid And according to a world renowned scientist, every person will likely catch Covid more than once during their lifetime. Professor Francois Balloux, a geneticist from University College in London, warned although vaccines tend to perform well against severe disease, hospitalisation and death, the jabs weren't always effective against stopping infections. 'This is not an easy message to convey...essentially everyone will eventually get infected by Covid in the near future, and likely more than once in their lifetime,' he said, according to Yahoo News. He also believes measures such as wearing face masks would prolong the pandemic by delaying some people getting infected. How Andrew will attempt to have sex assault case thrown out TODAY Prince Andrew's lawyers will appear at a New York court today to try and get his sex assault case dismissed. Virginia Roberts, 38, claims she was 17 when she slept with Andrew three times in 2001 under orders from Epstein, a friend of the duke. She is suing for claims of battery and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Andrew has called her accusations 'baseless' and repeatedly denied them, claiming that she is seeking a 'payday at his expense'. His lawyers will today use details of a $500,000 settlement reached in 2009 between Miss Roberts and Epstein to block the case against the Duke. They will argue that Andrew was essentially identified as a defendant in that settlement and so Miss Roberts signed away the right to sue him. The unsealed court papers revealed that she agreed to 'release, acquit, satisfy and for ever discharge' Epstein and 'any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant'. Prince Andrew is not named in the settlement but his lawyers believe he is covered as a 'potential defendant'. The document also references the term 'royalty', something the duke's lawyers also suggest gives them 'strong legal ground' to dismiss the case. It says: 'In addition to being continually exploited to satisfy the defendant's every sexual whim, (she) was also required to be sexually exploited by (Epstein's) adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen, and/or other professional and personal acquaintances.' His lawyers believe the document gives him a strong case to have the claims against him dismissed, though experts say its wording is 'vague'. If unsuccessful, Andrew faces the prospect of a lengthy discovery and deposition process that could involve close members of family and his police protection officers, ahead of a trial in the autumn. Advertisement Prince Andrew will today watch his lawyers attempt to have his sex assault case thrown out - after details were revealed of a secret $500,000 deal that his accuser Virginia Roberts signed with Jeffrey Epstein agreeing not to take legal action against some of his associates. The Duke of York's legal team will today argue in a New York court that the secret compensation deal, made public last night, bars Virginia Roberts from suing him. The prince's lawyers will assert that Miss Roberts, now known by her married name of Giuffre, signed away her right to take him to court when, 13 years ago, she accepted the payment from sex offender Epstein. They are expected to focus on a particular passage from the court papers of her original claim, which reads: 'In addition to being continually exploited to satisfy the defendant's every sexual whim, (she) was also required to be sexually exploited by (Epstein's) adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen, and/or other professional and personal acquaintances.' They will argue the court papers now give them 'strong legal grounds' to have the case dismissed. But experts doubted if the 'vague' wording really helps Andrew in today's bid to have the damages case brought by Miss Roberts, who says she was forced to have sex with the duke, thrown out. Miss Roberts, 38, claims she was 17 when she slept with Andrew three times in 2001 under orders from Epstein, a friend of the duke. She is suing for claims of battery and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Andrew has called her accusations 'baseless' and repeatedly denied them, claiming that she is seeking a 'payday at his expense'. The Epstein settlement, which has long been subject to speculation over its contents, was last night laid bare for the world to see. It does not mention Andrew by name but his legal team will use it in court today as a reason why Miss Roberts's claim for unspecified compensation should be dismissed. They are set to focus on a clause in which Miss Roberts agreed not to pursue anyone connected to Epstein who could be described as a 'potential defendant'. The text of the 12-page deal shows she signed to release Epstein's 'agent(s), attorney(s), predecessor(s), successor(s), heir(s), administrator(s), assign(s) and/or employee(s)'. She also agreed not to go after 'any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant ('Other Potential Defendants') from all, and all manner of, action and actions of Virginia Roberts, including State or Federal, cause and causes of action (common law or statutory), suits ... and demands whatsoever in law or inequity for compensatory or punitive damages'. The Duke of York was photographed with his arm around the bare waist of then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts. In the background, Ghislaine Maxwell. Roberts claims she was forced to have sex with the royal three times Prince Andrew will face D-Day today as his lawyers try to throw out his sex assault case after it emerged his accuser signed a $500,000 (370,000) deal with Jeffrey Epstein agreeing not to take legal action against some of his associates Miss Roberts, 38, claims she was 17 when she slept with Andrew three times in 2001 under orders from Epstein Amber Melville-Brown, a reputation specialist at London law firm Withersworldwide, said if the duke characterised himself as a 'potential defendant', it carried risks of its own. She said: 'While a court might accept the release releases Prince Andrew from legal liability, no release could hope to release him from the likely lasting damage done to his reputation by his very association with it.' Nick Goldstone, head of dispute resolution at international law firm Ince, said the settlement would not help Andrew because of the section in which Miss Roberts agreed to release any claims she 'ever had or now have'. Mr Goldstone said: 'Any future claim that may arise is not caught by this settlement agreement. It ... doesn't give the prince a get out of jail free card.' However, media lawyer Mark Stephens last night told Sky News the deal had 'real merit' for the duke, saying: 'On the face of it, it looks like there is a release here for Prince Andrew. 'I think this is one of Prince Andrew's better days in court. I think Virginia's lawyers will be quite worried by what the terms of the agreement say. This is probably his best chance of getting out [of this case] but I suspect not before an appeal.' A source close to the duke and his legal team told the Daily Mail: 'The document forms a central plank of the motion to dismiss. 'It's not the only one, as we also believe the lawsuit falls short in many other ways: It is devoid of specifics, there are no dates, no times or locations. 'But we do believe the Epstein agreement is a very significant and persuasive argument as to why the case should be dismissed.' Andrew's attorney Andrew B Brettler, who will represent him in court today, declined to comment. The developments come at a hellish time for the Duke: last week his former close friend Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein. She now faces up to 65 years in jail at her sentencing at a later date. The agreement between Giuffre and Epstein reveals that she accepted $500,000 in order to settle all claims against him. The settlement between Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre has been released. The document makes no mention of Andrew by name In the 12-page agreement Giuffre agreed to release Epstein's 'agent(s), attorney(s), predecessor(s), successor(s), heir(s), administrator(s), assign(s) and/or employee(s)'. Giuffre also agreed to release 'any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant ('Other Potential Defendants') from all, and all manner of, action and actions of Virginia Roberts, including State or Federal, cause and causes of action (common law or statutory), suitsand demands whatsoever in law or inequity for compensatory or punitive damages'. In his response to Giuffre's allegations, the Duke's lawyer Andrew Brettler argued that since Andrew was identified as 'royalty' in her complaint against Epstein, it meant he qualified as somebody covered in the settlement. Brettler was referring to the fact that Giuffre claimed she was 'required to be sexually exploited by (Epstein's) adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen, and/or other professional and personal acquaintances'. Brettler argued that Giuffre dismissed a claim of battery against the lawyer Alan Dershowitz after he raised the same agreement, so she should do the same for the case against Andrew. Last week the Duke suffered a setback when Judge Kaplan rejected his request to halt the case on the grounds that Giuffre doesn't live in the US. Andrew has tried other technical arguments to halt the case and claims that the law that the case was brought under is unconstitutional. The Duke refused to accept service for weeks until Judge Kaplan asked the British legal authorities to intervene and serve him. If the lawsuit moves ahead it will go into the discovery phase and Giuffre's lawyers have already asked for documents that prove Andrew's bizarre claim in an interview that he doesn't sweat. The Duke said this was evidence he didn't have a sweaty night out dancing at a club in London with Giuffre in 2001 before they had sex as she claims. Giuffre is seeking unspecified damages, but there is speculation the sum could be in the millions of dollars. She claims she was trafficked by disgraced financier Epstein to have sex with Andrew when she was aged 17 and a minor under US law. Giuffre's lawyer David Boies said: 'Our view, as expressed in our briefs to the Court, is that (1 ) Prince Andrew was not a party to, and did not even know about, the Release; (2) Andrew could not be a 'potential defendant' as that term is used in the Release both for the reason he was not subject to jurisdiction in Florida because the abuse happened elsewhere, and for the reason that the claims in Florida were federal claims against people who did the trafficking, not the state law claims made now against Andrew as a person to whom the girls were trafficked; and (3) the actual parties to the Release have made clear Andrew is not covered. 'But what will matter is what the Court's view is'. Brettler declined to comment. Buckingham Palace 'sleepwalked' into the Prince Andrew crisis and has been paralyzed with indecision over how to handle things, it was claimed. Senior royal insiders said the duke operated with 'impunity' as a member of the Royal Family because staff were 'too scared' to stand up to him. And they say the idea he could still return to public life, despite the swirling controversy around his friendship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, must be quashed. The prince was seen in public Friday for the first time since Maxwell was convicted of multiple counts of child sex trafficking for her boyfriend Epstein, driving himself to Windsor Castle. In his Newsnight interview he also told interviewer Emily Maitlis that on the date Roberts says they slept together in London, he was at a Pizza Express in Woking. He has been told to prove this too. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior former royal adviser stressed that while there was no knowledge of the extent of the duke's friendship with Epstein and Maxwell to anyone outside of the prince's private office, the 'Andrew problem' was a long-running issue for the royal household in general. The developments come at a hellish time for the Duke: last week his former close friend Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein Prince Andrew came under fire after he was spotted taking a stroll through New York's Central Park with Epstein following his prison term in 2011 'Anyone who even dared to offer their professional advice that maybe his way wasn't the right one was met with a decisive 'f*** off out of my office',' the source said. The account is backed up by other former royal staff, all of whom claim the prince acted as if he 'didn't have to answer to anyone' and was allowed to 'go rogue'. Particularly troublesome, it was said, was Andrew's role as a roving trade 'ambassador', which saw him repeatedly criticized for cozying up to highly controversial world leaders and businessmen. A former Buckingham Palace staff member recalled how it was an 'impossible job' to persuade the prince or his advisers to take any instruction. 'The duke made clear that the only person he answered to was the Queen,' they said. 'He wouldn't take advice from anyone. [He] acted with total impunity and staff were just too scared to stand up to him as a member of the Royal Family. Her Majesty almost always backed him and he fully exploited that. 'There's an element of Buckingham Palace sleepwalking into this whole crisis. Andrew would tell his family that it was all untrue and it would all go away.' Andrew stepped back from official duties following the Newsnight interview. But the insiders said it was 'unsatisfactory' the option of his return to public life remained open. 'It would be better for all concerned to lance that boil now, once and for all,' they said. On Tuesday, Andrew will try again to have the case brought by Miss Roberts thrown out. But in court papers filed on Friday, her legal team made it clear they would test his Newsnight alibi, when he disputed her claim he was sweating while they danced together in a London nightclub by saying he had a 'peculiar medical condition' which made it 'impossible' for him to perspire. Lawyers want the court to order him to hand over proof about his 'alleged medical condition of anhidrosis'. And they could ask for his former police bodyguards to testify about the duke's whereabouts at the time Miss Roberts says they were having sex. Buckingham Palace declined to comment last night. A prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for two people charged with shooting dead a veteran Illinois police officer with her own weapon as she pleaded for her life on the ground and critically wounding her partner, who is now fighting for his life. Although Illinois isn't a death penalty state, the U.S. Attorney General can authorize the filing of a petition to seek out the punishment in certain federal murder cases. In court on Monday, Kankakee County State's Attorney Jim Rowe painted the picture of a cold-blooded killing that deserved that designation during a bond hearing for Xandria Harris, 26, of Bradley in the county's Circuit Court. She and Darius Sullivan of Bourbonnais 25, are charged with fatally shooting Bradley police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic, 49, and critically wounding her partner, Officer Tyler Bailey, 27, late Wednesday. Bailey is hospitalized at a Chicago-area hospital. Sullivan was wanted on a bench warrant, according to court documents, and he had previously run from Bradley police officers trying to arrest him. 'At the time Sullivan fired the fatal shots into Sgt. Rittmanic, Sgt. Rittmanic was pleading with them to just leave, "you don't have to do this, please just go, please don't please don't." She was desperately pleading for her life,' Rowe said, according to court documents. 'I will be submitting an official request to the U.S. Attorney General for the Central District of Illinois and to the U.S. Attorney General to review the first degree murder case pending against Darius Sullivan and Xandria Harris for federal murder charges, and pursue a federal sentence of death against both defendants,' Rowe said. Darius Sullivan, 25 (left) and Xandria Harris, 26 (right) are charged with fatally shooting Bradley police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic, 49, and critically wounding her partner, Officer Tyler Bailey, 27, late Wednesday Police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic, a 14-year veteran of the Bradley Police Department, was shot dead after responding to a call about a barking dog The States Attorney will also seek life sentences for both Sullivan and Harris as the existing state-level charges proceed, Rowe said. Judge Kathy Bradshaw Elliott granted a request to deny Harris bail. 'You are a real threat to the community,' Elliott told Harris. Rittmanic and Bailey were responding to a report of dogs barking in an unattended vehicle at the motel on Wednesday when they were shot. When the officers ran the car's license plates, they discovered that it belonged to Sullivan. Bailey knew that Sullivan was wanted on a bench warrant, according to court documents, and that he had previously run from Bradley police officers trying to arrest him. The two officers knocked on the door of room 308, where Sullivan and Harris were staying, for about 15 minutes. Harris repeatedly told them through the door that she was getting dressed. Finally, she opened the door and tried to wedge her way outside and close the door behind her, hiding Sullivan from officers. They asked her multiple times to move out of the way before Sullivan emerged, wielding a 9mm handgun equipped with a drum clip. He pointed the barrel and Bailey and shot him point-blank in the head. He shot Rittmanic as she tried to run away, according to court documents. Then, his gun jammed - he tried to unjam the weapon with his right hand and mouth while he used his left hand to try to disarm Rittmanic. Harris ran down the hallway towards the struggle, and Sullivan allegedly told her to 'cock the gun, cock the gun.' With her help, Sullivan took Rittmanic's service weapon from her, which he used to shoot her in the head, officials said. Sullivan was arrested after a 36-hour manhunt by U.S. Marshals and a SWAT team on Friday near Fort Wayne at a home in North Manchester, Indiana, police said. Sullivan, 25, of Bourbonnais was arrested after a 36-hour manhunt by U.S. Marshals and a SWAT team on Friday near Fort Wayne at a home in North Manchester, Indiana Bradley Police Officer Tyler Bailey, 27 remains in critical condition after being shot in the head 'Also at the house, several weapons and narcotics were also recovered,' Sgt. Glen Fifield with Indiana State Police said. Cellphone video showed Sullivan and 19-year-old Daniel Acros, who was also arrested, walking out with their hands in the air after police cleared the home. Several weapons and narcotics were recovered at the home in North Manchester, Indiana where Darius Sullivan (pictured) was apprehended by police on Friday Hours later, Xandria A. Harris, 26, turned herself in to the Bradley Police Department. Her attorney, Phil Haddad, said she turned herself in voluntarily. 'She maintains her innocence. She's a mother of three children and she's pregnant,' Haddad said. The case will go before a Kankakee County grand jury on Jan. 22. The next court date for Harris is Jan. 27 when she will be arraigned. In Wabash, Indiana, meanwhile, Sullivan is fighting extradition to Illinois. Rowe said he will start the process of asking Indianas governor to sign a warrant to have Sullivan extradited to Kankakee County. Rittmanic, who lived in Kankakee, joined department in 2007 and was promoted to sergeant in 2014, said Lieutenant Philip Trudeau, a department spokesman. She previously spent seven years as a deputy with the Iroquois County Sheriffs Department, he said. People stand with hands on their hearts during the ceremonial procession for fallen Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic, Thursday, December 30 Bradey Police Lt. Philip Trudeau, left, comforts Bourbonnais Police officer Andy Cox following a ceremonial procession for fallen Bradley Police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic on Thursday, December 30 Members of the Bradley Police Department stand by as fallen Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic is taken into the Clancy-Gernon Funeral Home in Bourbonnais, Illinois on Thursday, December 30 Bradley Police officer Sam Palaggi hugs a fellow officer following a ceremonial procession for fallen Bradley Police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic on Thursday, December 30 Bailey underwent surgery for head injuries and remained in very critical condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, officials said. Police also arrested two other suspects in Indiana connected to the case. Bryce Baker, 20, and Joshua Adams, 26, both from Kankakee, Illinois, were taken into custody when police spotted them driving the wrong-way during the manhunt for Sullivan. Their possible connection to Sullivan was being investigated, FOX 32 reported. 'Any time an officer is killed in the line of duty, no matter where it happens in the country, it affects all of us,' Fifield said. The man in charge of Australia's vaccine rollout has revealed why some people are finding it hard to book in their booster shots. Covid-19 Taskforce Commander Lieutenant General John Frewen said the issue is not overall supply but patchy distribution around the nation. So far more than 2.5million out of 4.25million eligible Australians have had their boosters. Many have simply walked into their nearest pharmacy, GP or state hub and got a jab on the spot. But others have found access difficult, including The Project host Hamish McDonald who had to take an elderly relative out of his aged care home because it ran out of doses. General Frewen said there is no shortage of jabs but some providers have more in stock than others. 'We've got more than enough vaccines for everybody who is eligible,' he told Sky News on Tuesday. 'The real challenge in this now is distribution and just making sure that we're getting the vaccines to where the demand is so that people can get them.' So far more than 2.5million out of 4.25million eligible Australians have had their boosters. Pictured: A drive-though vaccination in Sydney in October General Frewen urged Australians to try other providers if their first choice doesn't have availability. 'I do ask people to have, perhaps a little bit of patience if they can't get an immediate booking, but I'm sure if people try a few different avenues that they'll be able to get their boosters pretty quickly,' he said. 'There are more vaccines being delivered this week and more vaccines being delivered next week and there are over four million doses already sitting on shelves around the country in GPs and pharmacists.' McDonald revealed how he helped his relative get a booster shot on Monday night's edition of The Project. 'Everybody in our lives, I think it's fair to say, has had some challenge in trying to get their booster or get their appointment,' he said. 'We've got a close relative in residential aged care. Last week we took him out for the day because they'd run out of doses. 'They didn't have a date as to when they could deliver it, they found a walk in place that could deliver it. 'I don't really under stand how this point in the pandemic aged care settings haven't had the boosters rolled through them.' Covid-19 Taskforce Commander Lieutenant General John Frewen (pictured) said the issue is not overall supply but patchy distribution around the nation On Tuesday an extra 3.75million Australians became eligible for boosters after the government cut the gap between second and third doses from five to four months. The gap will be cut to three months on 31 January. Labor leader Anthony Albanese has blasted the government for not cutting the gap to three months immediately. He said the staggered approach was 'not because there's a change in advice, but because of the capacity constraints mean that they couldn't just shift it through to three months. 'So, we have no boosters being available and booster shots being cancelled.' Health Minister Greg Hunt on Monday said the booster rollout was 'more than half a million ahead of schedule, ahead of expectation as to where we would have been at this time.' More than a decade after a 13-year-old West Texas girl was killed, her mother's live-in boyfriend has been indicted with the teen's murder. Shawn Casey Adkins, 36, was charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection to the death of Hailey Dunn, the daughter of his ex-girlfriend Billie Dunn. Hailey went missing in Colorado City, Texas, on December 27, 2010. Her body was found on March 16, 2013, near Lake JB Thomas, about 30 miles from her home. Adkins quickly became a person of interest after child pornography and documents about serial killers and sexual sadists were found in the home he shared with Hailey and her mom. Hailey's mother called these papers a 'hobby', according to police. However, the case remained unsolved for a decade despite both Dunn and Adkins failing polygraph tests. Dunn was given one year probation after admitting to police she had lied about Adkins' whereabouts on the night Hailey disappeared. Shawn Casey Adkins, 36, was charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection to the death of Hailey Dunn Adkins (right) quickly became a person of interest after child pornography and documents about serial killers were found in the home he shared with Dunn (center) and Hailey (left) Hailey went missing in Colorado City, Texas, on December 27, 2010. Her body was found on March 16, 2013, near Lake JB Thomas, about 30 miles from her home Adkins remained free for a decade until DNA evidence finally landed him in jail last June. On Dec. 30, a grand jury indicted him for murder and tampering with evidence. He remains at Mitchell County Detention Center on $1.25 million bail. The indictment alleges that Adkins killed the girl by hitting her in the head with an unknown object. Dunn, who moved to Austin with Adkins in the aftermath of Hailey's death before eventually ending the relationship, said she was 'elated' when she found out he had been arrested. 'I'm so relieved that it's finally happened,' she told local news station KTAB in 2021. 'I'm not really shocked that it was Shawn. Of course you would've hoped it wasn't him because I stayed with him after she left, after Hailey went missing. But I'm not surprised, and I thank God that that person has been apprehended and is going to pay for what he did here on Earth.' Hailey went missing from her mother's home in Colorado City, Texas, on December 27, 2010. Hailey's body was found on March 16, 2013, near Lake JB Thomas, southwest of Snyder, more than two years after she was reported missing Hailey, a student and cheerleader at Colorado City Middle School, was believed to be spending the night at a friend's home but was reported missing the next day on December 27, 2010, when she did not return home. Authorities have said Adkins was the last to see her before she disappeared. Adkins told The Associated Press shortly after the girl vanished that he was not involved and that he was praying for her safe return. Hailey Dunn went missing on December 27, 2010 in Colorado City, Texas Bille Jean Dunn is escorted to jail after being arrested for lying to police She was given a year of probation after admitting to lying about Adkins whereabout the night Hailey disappeared A 2010 affidavit revealed Adkins and Dunn were fixated on slasher movies and serial killers. One of Hailey's uncles told police after the girl disappeared that he asked Adkins how anyone could hurt a teenager. Adkins reportedly responded: 'It's like killing a deer.' Since the beginning of the investigation, authorities noted several inconsistencies in Adkins' and Dunn's stories. Dunn took two polygraph tests. The first was invalidated because she was believed to be under the influence of drugs. She walked out of the room after failing the second test, police said. Adkins volunteered for three tests. He walked out of the first two, and is claimed to have failed part of a third. He also said the girl could be found in Scurry County, Texas, the same location where the couple withdrew money from an ATM on the night Hailey disappeared, police said in 2011. Hailey Dunn, 13, vanished from Colorado City, Texas, home where Adkins lived with her and her mom Dunn told investigators that the money was intended for drugs, according to the affidavit. In March 2011, Dunn reportedly admitted to police she had lied to them about Adkins' whereabout on the night that Hailey disappeared. District Attorney Richard Thompson said in a statement after Adkins' arrest in June, that it was the result of a 'multi-county and multi-agency effort.' Adkins' arrest was met with shock by some in Colorado City, a 4,500-resident town 40 miles west of Big Spring where he was taken into custody. 'The shock of him being arrested was my shock too because I wasn't aware of any of it,' said Police Chief Charles Rice. Rice said that by the time he came to the department the case had been handed off to the Texas Rangers and the FBI. Instagram is still allowing drug dealers to push potent cannabis to children despite promising a crackdown after a Daily Mail expose. No 10 had also called for the social media giant to take action after our investigation revealed how violent criminals make millions peddling drugs through the site. But three months on, the two biggest dealers we highlighted are still selling a range of high-strength cannabis products via Instagram to tens of thousands of followers. Last night the mother of a 23-year-old woman who killed herself in 2019 while suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis condemned the tech company owned by billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbergs firm Meta. Kerry Head, whose daughter Emily Rowling had become increasingly paranoid after she started taking the drug as a teenager, said: My message to the people who run Instagram is, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Emily Rowling killed herself in 2019 after suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis She added that as a result of their inaction since the Mails investigation it was entirely possible that someone could have died after buying powerful cannabis from a dealer on the site. For a drug dealer to be on Instagram for even five minutes before the profile is shut down is five minutes too long, said Mrs Head, 51, from Ockbrook, Derbyshire. The fact that Instagram now knows about these profiles and has failed to act is unforgivable and shameful. They are putting their users at risk. A user called Spaceshakehq advertises cannabis drinks and edibles such as fruit-flavoured gummies on Instagram to more than 27,000 followers. Customers who contact it via the site are directed to a Telegram messaging page, where it offers its wares. It was happy to sell a high-strength cannabis strain to a reporter posing as a 16-year-old boy. Since the original Mail expose it continues to operate the same way and has also started using images of a scantily clad model to promote its brand. Another Instagram drug dealer still pushing potent cannabis is Manchester-based Stonechester, which has been promoted by rapper and mental health campaigner Professor Green. In our first expose, Stonechester offered an undercover reporter the ultra-potent Californian cannabis strain known as Cali and tried to sell packs of potent nerd ropes cannabis-laced childrens sweets that hospitalised 13 pupils at a London girls school last year. A user called Spaceshakehq advertises cannabis drinks and edibles such as fruit-flavoured gummies on Instagram to more than 27,000 followers A second reporter, posing as a 16-year-old, was offered products with names such as Loaded Cannons and Jet Fuel, for next-day delivery after Bitcoin payment. Hours after the Mail contacted Professor Greens publicist for comment about a video of him promoting the site, Stonechester removed the footage, up since December 2018. It also changed its name on Instagram twice, eventually to stoneyymontanaa, in an apparent bid to evade deletion while retaining its huge following. The tactic worked and it continues to advertise high-strength cannabis products to more than 18,000 followers. It urges customers on Instagram to message its account for a link to its Telegram service, where it is happy to take orders from school children. Meta said: Buying and selling drugs is strictly against our rules and weve removed these accounts. We work closely with law enforcement to help keep up with evolving trends and are constantly improving our technology. Between July and September we removed 1.8million pieces of drug sales content from Instagram, over 97 per cent, before it was reported to us. Meta added those searching for drug-related terms on Instagram were now shown a warning message that links to the drug advice website Frank. HYDERABAD: Condemning the arrest and the judicial custody of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, BJP state leaders staged a silent protest (Mouna Deeksha) on Tuesday at the party state headquarters at Nampally in Hyderabad. Speaking on the occasion, OBC National Morcha president K. Laxman said the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government was behaving like a dictator and citizens had no right to protest against the anti-people activities of the government. He said people of Telangana were watching these developments and would teach the TRS government an unforgettable lesson. He said the way the police behaved while arresting Sanjay was highly objectionable. The arrest of Sanjay was unnecessary and against democracy. He demanded that cases be withdrawn against Sanjay Kumar. The BJP cadres will not be afraid of the use of full police force against them and will fight till the state government is brought down, Laxman said. Goshamahal MLA Raja Singh said the arrest of Sanjay Kumar was without any provocation. Booking cases under the Disaster Management Act was an attempt to settle political scores. He said the police had become pawns in the hands of the TRS government. He said problems faced by teachers and government employees due to unscientific transfers should have been addressed by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. The Jagaran Deeksha was a party programme and the way it was foiled was totally unacceptable, the senior party leader said and questioned why no action was taken against the TRS leaders and ministers who participated in rallies and meetings violating the norms of the Covid-19 pandemic. BJP leader and former film actress Vijayashanti accused the Chief Minister of partisanship and said he was implementing one rule for opposition parties and another for his own party leaders. She said every BJP activist would bounce back with vigour and sure to teach a lesson to Chandrashekar Rao. Australians will finally be able to get hold of a rapid antigen test by the end of the week at Chemist Warehouse, as a supply shortage grips the country. Chemist Warehouse chief operating officer Mario Tascone told Sunrise that relief was finally in sight, predicting 'by week's end and early next week we'll have lots of good supplies'. 'There are planes arriving each day, we've got stock due to our Sydney stores this afternoon, and we hope to replenish our Victorian, Queensland, Tasmanian and South Australian stores later tomorrow,' he said. Chemist Warehouse boss Mario Tascone says the federal government should cut GST on rapid antigen tests to help make the kits more affordable to sick Australians Mr Tascone said part of the reason for the delay was 'back-to-back public holidays'. 'It is a challenging one, how much to order with these rapid antigen tests, because it's not as if there is a magic warehouse setting with stockpiles of this,' he said. 'From order to supply is usually a three-week lag, which is the issue we got here. 'When everyone realises this is going out of control, everyone's got the orders in but they have to be manufactured first, so by the time they get to Australia there is a delay. 'But there is no use looking backwards, it's about going forward and getting the stock into everyone's hands.' On Monday Mr Tascone urged Scott Morrison to cut VAT on rapid tests to reduce the price by 10 per cent. 'I'm sure they can get on Zoom and run an emergency session of parliament because the thought the government is making 10 per cent off millions and millions of packets off sales of rapid antigen tests really doesn't sit right,' he told 2GB. The demand for tests around Australia has seen single kits sell for as much as $100 - with many chemists unable to re-order stock Poll Should rapid tests be free for everyone? Yes No Should rapid tests be free for everyone? Yes 2009 votes No 528 votes Now share your opinion There have been reports of rapid tests costing as much as $100 per unit as Covid cases skyrocket throughout Australia due to the emergence of the highly-infectious Omicron variant. A BP station in Edgecliff, eastern Sydney was caught selling one test - which normally costs $10 - for $30. On Monday NSW recorded 20,794 new Covid cases and four deaths, Victoria's tally hit 8,577 infections and Queensland saw 4,249 as the strain rips through the east coast. Mr Tascone said the federal government needs to ensure sick Australians have easy and affordable access to rapid tests. 'They really need to be as affordable as possible,' he told 2GB. The Chemist Warehouse director said the demand for RATs was 'unprecedented', similar to that of the toilet paper hoarding at the start of the pandemic, and said dropping GST would see immediate results. 'They'll be 10 per cent cheaper overnight we'll drop the price, its not much but that $50 pack of five becomes $45 overnight,' he said. 'So that's one thing they can do immediately, apparently it needs parliament sitting. Mr Tascone said the federal government need to be doing significantly more to ensure sick Australians have easy and affordable access to rapid tests The UK Government has mailed free rapid tests to people's homes since April but the PM has refused to adopt a similar model in Australia over cost fears Chemist Warehouse customers can only buy two rapid antigen test packs at one time to ensure they were available for everyone. 'When you've got 25 million people who want a rapid antigen test within the space of a week, that's impossible,' he said. The UK Government has mailed free rapid tests to people's homes since April but the PM has refused to adopt a similar model in Australia over cost fears. Instead, rapid tests are free at testing centres but cost at least $10 per swab at pharmacies and supermarkets, which are low on stock due to a lack of supply. Members of the public queue in their cars for a COVID-19 PCR test at the Mascot Laverty Pathology Drive-through Clinic in Sydney on Monday Several medical experts called for rapid tests to be free for everyone, including University of Sydney infectious disease specialist Robert Booy who said free tests 'could make a real difference to controlling disease'. But in an interview on Sunrise on Monday morning, the prime minister said this was a bad idea. 'We're at another stage of this pandemic now where we just can't go round and make everything free. We have to live with this virus. This isn't a medicine, it's a test. And so there's a difference between those two things,' he said. Australia's gross debt is expected to reach a record $1.2 trillion by 2024-25 after huge pandemic spending including $100 billion on the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme. The prime minister is keen to avoid further cost blowouts, saying on Monday he wants to 'take that pressure off the budget'. But Mr Morrison said he was working with states and territories to reduce the price for vulnerable groups with 'concessional access to pensioners and others'. The cost of subsidising the tests will be shared 50/50 with states and territories. Mr Morrison also said he would not make tests free because he didn't want to deter private companies from ordering them so they could make money. A Brisbane resident lines up for a test on Sunday 'The private market, whether it's in the big warehouse pharmacies or the other pharmacies or the supermarkets, they can now go and stock their shelves with confidence that they won't be undercut by the government,' he told the Today show. Groups representing manufacturers and suppliers of rapid antigen tests said the industry supported tests being free for everyone. 'The industry doesn't have a position because we sell to the government for market price and we don't care if they are free or not,' Dean Whiting, the chief executive of Pathology Technology Australia told Guardian Australia. Woolworths has denied lobbying against free tests while Coles declined to comment. University of NSW Professor of epidemiology Mary-Louise McLaws warned in a series of tweets that rapid tests are becoming reserved for the 'privileged and wealthy', saying governments need to rethink their current stance. 'To reduce cost, test hubs could use PCR on those with symptoms & rapid antigen test (RATs) on all others. Cheaper but still effective,' Professor McLaws tweeted on Sunday. 'Without providing free RATs to households, only privileged & wealthy will be able to protect themselves & reduce wider risk of spread. Mr Morrison's comments also sparked outrage from political opponents who demanded free tests. Independent Senator Rex Patrick wrote on Twitter: 'The case for widespread free RATs is clear, but Scott Morrison says ''you can't just make everything free''. He didn't say that to big business as they took $billions in JobKeeper money they didn't need.' The boss of Australia's biggest trade union, Sally McManus, also slammed the PM, writing: 'What's the price of people's health?' The parents of a 14-year-old girl killed by a suspected drug-driver on New Year's Eve have told of their devastation, saying they are 'no longer a family' without their 'brightest star'. Olivia Kolek had not long wished her mother happy New Year before being hit by a grey Mercedes outside a train station as she headed off to see in 2022 with friends. Paramedics tried to save the schoolgirl but she was pronounced dead at the scene outside Rowley Regis station in Sandwell, West Midlands. Olivia Kolek, 14, (pictured) had not long wished her mother happy New Year before being hit by a grey Mercedes outside a train station as she headed off to see in 2022 with friends Paramedics tried to save the schoolgirl but she was pronounced dead at the scene outside Rowley Regis station in Sandwell, West Midlands Olivia died just days after enjoying a 'perfect Christmas' with her Polish-born family, having decorated the tree and baked festive biscuits The driver, a 39-year-old man, stopped and was arrested on suspicion of causing death by driving while under the influence of drugs. He has since been released under investigation after the collision at around 4.45pm on Friday. Olivia died just days after enjoying a 'perfect Christmas' with her Polish-born family, having decorated the tree and baked festive biscuits. In a statement, her parents, from Tipton, West Midlands, said: 'Our love, our heart, our life. We will love you forever and longer. 'She had a lot of plans for so many things to do. She was the brightest star in our life.' The teenager, who enjoyed modelling and attended Ormiston Academy in Wolverhampton, was heading into Birmingham city centre to welcome the New Year when she died. She had been speaking on her mobile to a friend who heard a 'big bang' and people calling for an ambulance, according to the victim's family. Olivia's father Lukasz Kolek, 40, a mechanic, managed to trace his daughter to the police cordon, but initially did not realise she was involved. A paramedic who fought to save her later messaged her family to say: 'I did all I could in that moment to keep your baby alive.' Heartbroken mother Izabela Maziakowska, 41, said her daughter visited her at work shortly before she died. 'She came into the Post Office where I was working to wish me a happy New Year and I gave her some money and told her to enjoy herself and have fun,' she told The Sun. Police are pictured at the scene. The driver of the grey Mercedes, a 39-year-old man, stopped at the scene and was arrested on suspicion of causing death by driving while under the influence of drugs. He remains in police custody 'That was the last time I saw her, that was her last New Year. I can't believe I'll never see her again. I hope she didn't suffer, I hope she went quickly. I can't bear to think of her in pain.' She said: 'I feel nothing for him [the driver] but whatever has happened, his life has been ruined too.' She added: 'We had so many happy memories, we were so happy as a family, but we're not a family anymore without Olivia.' Ms Maziakowska said that Olivia had been on her way to a house party with friends and was not sure if she had pressed the light at the pedestrian crossing before crossing the road. (Above, police in Sandwell) Sergeant Julie Lyman, from West Midlands Police, said: 'This is a truly awful way to start the New Year and my heart goes out to the girl's family and friends. 'We've started an investigation and the driver has been arrested as we believe he was driving while unfit through drugs. 'The investigation is clearly in the early stages and I would urge people not to speculate online about what happened. It's really not helpful and can be very upsetting for the family.' Adverts selling illegal drugs and fake Covid vaccine certificates are being hosted on Facebook - despite being banned from the platform, an investigation has found. Criminals appear able to evade the social media giant's algorithm designed to filter out such content and promote their wares to millions of users. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which uncovered dozens of illegal adverts over just a few days, has accused Facebook's vetting process of being 'unfit for purpose'. Most of those found redirected users to Telegram, a heavily-encrypted messaging app with virtually no oversight from moderators, where they could carry out the transaction. Several of the adverts which also included counterfeit ID cards and computer hackers for hire were removed within 24 hours of being posted. It is believed the advertisers are leaving them up long enough to divert users to Telegram and pulling them off before they are spotted by Facebook moderators. Criminals appear to be able to evade Facebook's algorithm designed to filter out such content and promote their wares to millions of users (file image) Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the CCDH, said: 'It is obscene and immoral for Mark Zuckerberg and Meta's shareholders to profit from crime. '98% of Facebook's revenue comes from advertising. This explains why they prioritise giving advertisers such free rein at the expense of law and order.' It comes after MPs and peers called on the government to add paid-for adverts to the forthcoming internet laws after they were left out of the draft legislation. The Online Safety Bill will impose a duty of care on tech giants to protect users from harmful content, with Ofcom given the power to hand out multimillion-pound fines for any breaches. Facebook, which explicitly bans any ads promoting illegal products or services, claims all ads posted are automatically reviewed by its algorithm as soon as they are up and running. During this process which begins before the ad is put up and 'typically' takes a day to complete the adverts are supposed to labelled as 'in review'. However, none of those found were tagged as such. Between December 19 and 23, researchers found 36 adverts offering illegal products and services on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. These included drugs, such as cannabis, LSD and magic mushrooms, plus counterfeit 20 banknotes and the services of hackers to help spy on partners. There were also several adverts offering Covid vaccine passes. One, warning that vaccines were 'dangerous', claimed to be selling 'NHS covid passes with QR Code'. Another offered users 'legit vaccination cards without taking the jab'. Adverts for guns, ammunition, and illegal drugs were also found targeted at Russian audiences. Mr Ahmed said: 'These adverts direct users towards the Telegram messaging app, where there is virtually zero oversight or control over illegal activity. 'But this research proves that Facebook is a vital part of criminals' marketing strategy, because it gives them access to millions of people with a single click.' Adverts for guns, ammunition, and illegal drugs were also found targeted at Russian audiences (stock image) One of the main recommendations made by the Draft Online Safety Bill Committee earlier this month was for adverts to be brought into the scope of the bill. The Government has two months to respond to the committee's recommendations, with the Bill due to be put to Parliament next year. Last night, Damian Collins, chair of the committee, told the Daily Mail: 'These revelations show why it's essential that the Government adopts our recommendation to bring ads on social media platforms in scope of the Online Safety Bill. 'The fact these ads keep appearing show there's clearly a problem. Platforms need to be legally responsible for ensuring they don't carry ads that promote criminal offences.' Mr Ahmed said: 'The Online Safety Bill is a vital tool for government and law enforcement to deal with online harms. 'But it doesn't cover the broken online advertising market, where ads for drugs and weapons can be targeted with ruthless efficiency to users with data those users have provided, often not realising it will be used for criminal purposes. 'The Government must urgently widen their legislation to deal with harmful online advertising practices.' A Meta spokesman said: 'Our strict advertising policies prohibit the promotion of these items and we remove ads that violate our rules. We use a combination of cutting-edge technology, review by our expert team and reports from users to uphold our policies. Our enforcement is never perfect, but we're always making improvements and adjusting for new tactics used by those seeking to misuse our platforms.' Britain returns to work today... with a blast of icy weather. But there are signs of brighter things to come with spring flowers bringing an early splash of colour in parts of the country. Conditions have been so springlike that daffodils were in full bloom by the roadside in Somerton, Somerset, yesterday. Their arrival comes thanks to the balmy New Year weather which is now being overtaken by bitterly cold conditions. The daffodils have sprung due to warm New Year's Eve weather which broke records Sub-zero overnight temperatures and wintry showers are expected to dominate for most of the week. A cold weather alert is in place for northern England until Thursday lunchtime, with rain, hill snow and ice set to cross the country. Temperatures in the North could reach -5C (23F) in the coldest spots tomorrow night and -4C (25F) in the South. In northern Scotland there is a more serious weather warning for snow and ice today and tomorrow. In the Highlands winds reaching 60mph and up to 6in (15cm) of snow could cause blizzard conditions. It is a world away from the record-breaking temperatures of around 16C (60.8F) seen in some areas around the New Year. By this morning the ice and cold will turn the weather positively wintry again. Met Office chief meteorologist Neil Armstrong said the drop in temperatures would spread south from northern England today. He added: This change is being brought on by a cold northerly flow, which brings the risk of some wintry showers in northern England, especially over high ground. Minimum temperatures over the next few days are expected to drop below freezing, heightening the risk of some ice. The Met Office expects brisk winds to make conditions feel colder today before frosts in many places tomorrow morning followed by another cold day. Forecasters expect tomorrow night to be the coldest, with a frost across much of the country and temperatures dropping to -2C (28F) in the North East. Southern England is also likely to see sub-zero temperatures before rain, sleet and some hill snow sweeps across the country on Thursday. The UK Health Security Agency urged people to check on the vulnerable in the coming days, including the elderly and those with serious illnesses. More people in New York State are in hospital with COVID-19 than last winter's January surge, with over 9,500 now receiving medical treatment. The latest numbers show more than 9,000 New Yorkers are currently in hospital with the coronavirus at level that surpass those of January 2021's peak. Such is Omicron's infectiousness, the levels are also close to those that were seen during the early days of the pandemic in May 2020. Currently, there are 9,563 people in hospital across the state which is 290 more than the previous highest peak, on January 18, 2021. On Monday, daily deaths hit 103 - the first time they've reached triple figures since vaccines became widely available last year. The numbers are 199% higher than those of last month and five times higher since figures recorded in November. More than 9.500 people are being treated for COVID in hospital. Hospitalizations started to rise even more steeply than cases with a rise of 130 percent between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve There has been an an enormous surge in new cases in New York State, from less than 2,500 per day to nearly 50,000 per day on New Year's Eve On Sunday, more than 4,500 people were hospitalized in the city, with 500 of them in intensive care units. The number of daily new cases fell to around 51,700 although the figures over a holiday weekend are never as accurate tend to lag. 'We're not in a good place, I'm going to be really honest with you,' Governor Hochul said. 'Those numbers are going to be much higher tomorrow. They didn't go from, really, 90,000 to 51,000. That is simply a function of people not getting tested over the weekend,' New York's Governor Kathy Hochul said on Monday. 'This is not the wave we saw last year, where it kept just going up and up. It's just going straight up.' People wait in line to get a Covid 19 test at a Pop Up site at West 72nd Street in New York City The sheer numbers of hospitalizations are pushing healthcare staff to their limit. At least 20 hospitals across the state have been ordered to stop elective surgeries because they lack the capacity to perform them. From Tuesday, hospitals will record just how many people are being admitted for Covid-19 symptoms in order to assess how severe the wave might be. 'I just want to always want to be honest with New Yorkers about how bad this is,' Hochul said. 'Yes, the sheer numbers of people infected are high, but I want to see if hospitalizations are correlated to that.' Current data details how more than 335 New Yorkers per 100,000 tested positive over the latest seven-day average. New York City has the highest numbers in the state with 457.75 new cases per 100,000 residents, followed by Long Island (398.82) and the Mid-Hudson region (304.18). The same three regions have the highest levels of vaccination among their populations but their density means people living there are more susceptible to viral spread from the omicron variant. 'Let's celebrate the first day of school in 2022 by ensuring we are taking the proper precautions to keep them open through the rest of the year,' the governor said. 'We know how to overcome this winter surge: Get the vaccine, get the booster, mask up, get tested and stay home if you're feeling sick. If we don't use these tools, many more in our communities will get sick.' New York City, home of the nations largest school system, reopened classrooms to roughly 1 million students on Monday with a stockpile of take-home COVID-19 test kits and plans to double the number of random tests done in schools. 'We are going to keep our schools open and ensure that our children are in a safe environment,' newly sworn-in Mayor Eric Adams said. Across the U.S., new COVID-19 cases have tripled in the past two weeks to over 400,000 a day, the highest level on record, amid a rush by many Americans to get tested. The high infection rates and resulting worker shortages are putting a heavy burden on employers large and small. Thousands of airline flights have been canceled in recent days, and many businesses have shelved return-to-work plans. Weekend garbage collection was delayed in New Orleans, and jury trials in several Colorado counties were suspended. Some libraries on New Yorks Long Island and a ski resort in New Hampshire had to close. A restaurant owner in Atlanta has spent $700 on rapid test kits and resorted to testing workers in the parking lot to make sure he had enough help to staff a recent dinner shift. Policymakers and health authorities have been mindful of the toll on the economy and the education system. Public heath experts have said that eradicating the virus is unlikely and that the world will instead have to find a way to keep COVID-19 down to an acceptable level, the way it does with the flu. Last week, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut the recommended COVID-19 isolation period from 10 days to five, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said: 'We want to make sure there is a mechanism by which we can safely continue to keep society functioning while following the science.' In another development Monday that could have a bearing on the ability of schools to stay open, the Food and Drug Administration gave its OK for Pfizer booster shots for children as young as 12. Boosters already are recommended for everyone 16 and older. Keir Starmer clashed with London mayor Sadiq Khan's drugs policy today as he distanced himself from a scheme to decriminalise cannabis use in parts of the capital. The Labour leader insisted he was against softening the law after it was revealed a proposed pilot programme would see young adults caught with the Class B drug offered speeding course-style classes or counselling instead of arrest. The trial, if approved by City Hall, would run in the boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley and apply to those aged 18 to 24, the Telegraph reported. A spokesman for Mr Khan said similar schemes were already being used in other parts of the UK, adding that it would 'divert young people who are found with a small amount of cannabis away from the criminal justice system and instead provide help and support' to cut reoffending. But asked about the plan after delivering a speech in Birmingham today, Sir Keir said: 'On the drugs legislation, I've said a number of times and I will say again: I'm not in favour of us changing the law or decriminalisation. I'm very clear about that. The Labour leader insisted he was against softening the law after it was revealed a proposed pilot programme would see young adults caught with the Class B drug offered speeding course-style classes or counselling instead of arrest. Sadiq Khan is reportedly set to decriminalise drugs in London and wants to end the prosecution of young people caught with cannabis A proposed pilot programme would see young adults caught with the Class B drug offered speeding course-style classes or counselling instead of arrest. . Pictured: In April, thousands of marijuana fans flocked to Hyde Park to openly smoke cannabis as they celebrated '420 day' 'I haven't seen the detail of the proposals that you've reported on. As I understand it they are early measures, they are some sort of pilot. 'Obviously we'll look at those, but I'm very clear that we're not in favour of changing the drugs laws.' Mr Khan's move comes less than a month after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a major crackdown on recreational drug use. He warned middle class users he will not sit 'idly by' and let them fund crime and said they faced being stripped of their passports and driving licences under new curbs. Sir Keir, who was the director of public prosecutions before he entered Parliament, has previously said he does not think decriminalisation should be pursued in England. Mr Khan's scheme will reportedly be announced this month and will be spearheaded by Lewisham mayor Damien Egan. The new policy is based on research suggesting police time would be better spent on serious and violent crime, instead of punishing those caught with cannabis. Mr Khan's scheme will reportedly be announced this month and will be spearheaded by Lewisham mayor Damien Egan Similar schemes have previously been tested by police and crime commissioners in Somerset, Durham and the West Midlands. A spokesman for the mayor said: 'This limited trial, which is still in development and has yet to be approved by City Hall, would involve three of London's 32 boroughs and would only apply to 18-24 year olds found in possession of a small amount of cannabis. It would not apply to any other drug... 'Reducing crime is the Mayor's top priority and he will continue to explore and implement the most effective solutions to help to divert young people away from drug use and crime for good.' In April, thousands of marijuana fans flocked to Hyde Park to openly smoke cannabis as they celebrated '420 day'. But Mr Khan's plans could clash with the PM's desire to get 'very tough' on drug users. He said last month: 'What we're also saying is we're not going to sit idly by when you have lifestyle users also using Class A drugs, and we're going to be coming down tougher on them,' he said. 'We are looking at doing things to tackle those so-called lifestyle drug users who don't think they are part of the problem. In the end, all the demand is helping to create the problem. 'The 300,000 problem drugs users, you've got to deal with what is going on there, you've got to make sure they are given rehab, you've got to come down tough on the county lines gangs, but you've also got to think about what is happening with the demand, the economic advantage that is given to the gangs by the lifestyle users as well.' A senior NHS boss yesterday expressed 'growing optimism' that London hospitals will be able to manage the wave of Omicron sweeping the capital as the growth rate of new hospitalisations slows. Head of NHS Providers Chris Hopson said that although daily hospitalisations last week were growing at a 'very concerning rate', a much lower growth rate in recent days suggests that hospitals will be able to manage new patients with no need for further measures. His comments, published in a long Twitter thread, came a week after he declared that further restrictions would not need to be implemented despite soaring cases the number of severe hospitalisations had remained stable. Department of Health bosses reported a further 157,758 cases in the UK yesterday, a rise from the 109,077 cases which were reported last Monday. The number of people dying with the virus saw a 70.6 per cent decrease, with 42 deaths reported in the UK yesterday compared to 143 on December 27. Meanwhile the number of people being admitted to hospital in London has fallen, with 314 patients admitted to hospital on January 1, a 28 per cent decrease from the 437 admitted last Monday. A man passes a temporary 'Nightingale' field hospital constructed in a car park of St. Georges Hospital in south London, Britain, 03 January 2022. A number of new Nightgale hubs are being prepared in existing hospitals to prepare for Omicron variant admissions. Hopson took to Twitter yesterday to share London covid hospitalisation data and argued that the capital's hospitals will emerge from the Omicron peak first to provide insight for hospitals across the country. 'Last two days data more encouraging. Daily hospitalisations last week were growing at a very concerning rate 9%, 15% and 9% 27, 28, 29 Dec, but growth rate over last few days dropped significantly,' he said. 'Number of patients with covid in London hospitals grew by 5% on both 30 and 31 Dec and then 1% on 1 Jan and 2% on 2 Jan. IF (a very big if) this much lower growth rate continues over next few days, growing optimism that London should be able to cope this week.' Hopson did however declare that the government should remain ready to implement restrictions quickly if needed, and highlighted the increased pressure on NHS hospitals and staff amid the spread of Omicron. 'We need to recognise that 'coping' under-plays degree of pressure trusts and their frontline staff are under. And the fact that, in many cases, trusts are having to delay planned care cases again, with impact on patients,' he wrote. Professor in Medicine Paul Hunter yesterday said the latest data from the ZOE Covid study app suggested that infections in London peaked just before Christmas. He wrote on Twitter: 'Latest Zoe app data suggests that infections in London did peak a day or so before Christmas and are probably peaking nationally about now, though still region to region variation.' And scientist Tim Spector, who works for the PREDICT studies and the ZOE Covid study app, tweeted: 'Covid cases in London now decreasing + UK slowing - it is great to see no real change in Covid deaths over last month. 'The health crisis is in danger of being driven by staff problems due to over- cautious isolation rules. Lets reduce this to 5 days!' Hopson took to Twitter yesterday to share London covid hospitalisation data and argued that the capital's hospitals will emerge from the Omicron peak first to provide insight for hospitals across the country. It comes as the PM today revealed that the government is looking at redeploying personnel after the public sector was warned to brace for a worst-case scenario of a quarter of staff - around 1.4million people - being off work. One in ten NHS employees were not in on New Year's Eve, according to official figures - although just 50,000 of the 110,000 total was related to coronavirus. Ministers will review the restrictions in England on Wednesday, with mounting confidence that there will not be an additional tightening. On a visit to a vaccination centre in Stoke Mandeville today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people to 'stick to Plan B' and said that Omicron is 'plainly milder'. He cautioned that it would be 'folly' to assume the pandemic is over and that the health service will be under 'considerable pressure' for weeks to come, but did not suggest that further restrictions would be needed. 'I think the way forward for the country as a whole is to continue with the path that we're on. We'll will keep everything under review,' the PM said. 'The mixture of things that we're doing at the moment is, I think, the right one. Meanwhile, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told BBC Breakfast 'there's nothing in the data that gives me any concern that we need to go beyond where we are at. 'There's some really good data from London that it looks like the infection rates are plateauing, if not yet coming down. But we are seeing leakage into the over-50s in terms of infections, and it's generally the over-50s who end up with severe infection and hospitalisation.' The minister said on Sky News: 'The number of people in hospital with coronavirus has begun to rise in the over 50s, which we are concerned about. But on the whole actually the number of people in ICU has come down, which is good news.' Prince Charles offered an olive branch to Prince Harry last night, praising his son's 'passionate' work to highlight and tackle climate change. The heir to the throne said he was 'proud' that both his sons had recognised the threat facing the planet, and commended their commitment to green causes. His specific praise for Harry will be seen as an attempt to heal a rift, after sources said the pair had barely spoken for months. Charles, 73, made his comments in an essay about climate change for US magazine Newsweek. He wrote: 'As a father, I am proud that my sons have recognised this threat. Most recently, my elder son, William, launched the prestigious Earthshot Prize to incentivise change and help repair our planet over the next ten years.' On Harry, he added: 'My younger son, Harry, has passionately highlighted the impact of climate change, especially in relation to Africa, and committed his charity to being net zero.' His comments come amid reports that relations between him and his son are at an all-time low after Harry, 37, and his wife Meghan quit the royal family and moved to the US. Charles was left 'deeply shocked and hurt' following the couple's controversial Oprah interview - where they made a series of claims against the royals - and the father and son have 'barely spoken' in months following the Duke of Sussex' repeated jibes at the Royal family. The heir to the throne is also yet to meet his seven-month-old granddaughter Lilibet, it is believed. Prince Charles, 73, offered an olive branch to Prince Harry, 37, last night, praising his son's 'passionate' work to highlight climate change Harry told a podcast in the US last year that he left Britain with wife Meghan to 'break the cycle' of 'genetic pain and suffering' for the sake of his own children Harry also told a podcast in the US last year that he left Britain with wife Meghan to 'break the cycle' of 'genetic pain and suffering' for the sake of his own children. Of his relationship with his father he said: 'He treated me the way he was treated.' Sources said Harry and Charles had barely spoken since the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral last April, and did not meet when Harry was in London for the unveiling of a statue of Princess Diana during the summer. The duke previously said his father had cut him off financially when he and Meghan announced plans to move to America and there was 'a lot of hurt'. Friends are also braced for potentially damaging revelations in Harry's upcoming autobiography, due to be released later this year. Last month Harry also claimed he had raised 'concerns' about Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, the Saudi tycoon at the centre of a probe into donations to his father's charity. Harry said he cut ties with Mr Mahfouz because he had concerns over the businessman's 'motives'. He made the comments after it was revealed that he had held a private meeting with Mr Mahfouz, who has given tens of thousands of pounds to charities associated with the duke. A friend of the Prince of Wales said: 'Charles is deeply shocked and disappointed by Harry's latest statement which effectively threw his father under the bus. 'This attack was more damaging than the swipe at Charles's parenting skills because this was a challenge to the way he conducts his business which is far more damaging to the future King. 'Attempts have been made to clear the air but they have barely spoken since the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral.' The friend said Prince Charles loves his son and will not be retaliating. Prince Harry has made repeated jibes at his father, telling a podcast he moved to the US to 'break the cycle' of 'pain' from his childhood. Pictured, the Royals at the annual Commonwealth Service in March 2020 Prince Harry was in London in July to unveil the Diana statue but the father and son did not meet - and the future king has not yet met his six-month-old granddaughter Lilibet. Pictured, in May 2018 One source who worked for the Royal Family when William and Harry were children told the Daily Telegraph: 'William and Diana had a particularly close connection. 'Harry was very young for his age. Charles was largely absent and undemonstrative but unmistakably affectionate.' The source added that the 'dynamics changed quite a lot' after Diana's Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995 in which she said: 'There were three of us in this marriage.' The newspaper reported that the Prince of Wales in fact had a more challenging relationship with William than Harry until recent years. The Telegraph also claimed that Charles played peacemaker between the brothers amid tension between them around the time of Harry and Meghan's wedding in 2018. And Harry is then said to have become annoyed that Charles was increasingly turning to William for help in decision-making surrounding Megxit at the start of last year. However, a source also told the Telegraph that Charles would be sad rather than angry at the breakdown in his relationship with Harry. A former aide said: 'The prince absolutely adores Harry. He will feel absolutely devastated by this - distraught. He'll be beside himself if this means he also becomes more ostracised from his grandchildren.' The Duke of Sussex (left) said he had 'severed ties' with Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz (right) a year before Prince Charles presented the controversial Saudi billionaire with a CBE In an extraordinary statement which could spark a family rift, Harry said he had no involvement in what he described as the 'CBE scandal', insisted he had concerns about the Saudi businessman's 'motives' Prince Charles (left) has been engulfed by criticism in recent months owing to his relationship with Mr Mahfouz (right) Mr Mahfouz is embroiled in claims that he showered money on charitable causes close to the Prince of Wales in the hope of obtaining an honour and British citizenship. Harry is said to have become concerned about Mr Mahfouz in 2014 and wound down their relationship the following year, having met him twice. But in an extraordinary statement which could spark a family rift, Harry said he had no involvement in what he described as the 'CBE scandal', insisted he had concerns about the Saudi businessman's 'motives' and claimed he 'expressed his concerns' about him. Charles has been engulfed by criticism in recent months owing to his relationship with Mr Mahfouz and the hundreds of thousands of pounds the billionaire donated to the royal's pet projects via his charitable trust. The prince's senior aide Michael Fawcett was forced to resign as head of The Prince's Foundation last month over his role in the scandal. An independent investigation last week found Mr Fawcett had colluded with 'fixers' representing Mr Mahfouz who were trying to secure an honour in exchange for donations. Mr Mahfouz is thought to have donated at least 1.5 million to royal charities. The Duke of Sussex said that when he cut ties with Mr Mahfouz in 2015, he 'expressed his concerns about the donor'. But his statement did not make clear to whom he voiced these qualms. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have finally shown the first photo of their daughter Lilibet Diana, six months after she was born, in their family Christmas card (pictured) Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are loving family life with Archie, 2, and six-month-old Lilibet, but are experiencing the 'challenge' of finding the best work-life balance (pregnant Meghan is seen earlier this year) The following year, Charles presented the Saudi billionaire with an 'honorary' CBE in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace. The Prince of Wales and Mr Mahfouz also held private meetings in Scotland and Saudi Arabia. The Duke, 37, and Duchess of Sussex, 40, who live in a $14million mansion in Montecito, California, sensationally quit the royal family in January 2020. Since then, they have made repeated statements against the royal family, while also signing deals worth millions with several companies. In December, questions were raised about the couple's 18million Spotify deal, after giving the streaming giant just 35 minutes of content so far. The net worth of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's deals Spotify - 18million Netflix - up to $100 million Better Up - reported $1.7billion Four-book deal - worth at least 18 million Advertisement The pair also have a Netflix deal which industry insiders say could be worth as much as $100 million, while Prince Harry has a reported $1.7billion position at Silicon Valley start-up Better Up and a four-book deal said to be worth at least 18 million. In March Prince Harry took on his first job in the corporate world by revealing he had taken an executive position at the Silicon Valley start-up as a 'chief impact officer'. The company's chief executive Alexi Robichaux has declined to say how much the royal will be paid, although similar roles at other California firms would command six or seven-figure salaries. PR guru Mark Bukowski told MailOnline it is yet another step for the Sussexes towards the building of their dream of a billion dollar brand in the US, after big money deals with Netflix and Spotify. Then, in July sources told the Mail the Duke of Sussex secured a lucrative four-book deal - said to be worth as much as 29million. In October Meghan wrote a letter to US congressmen Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer asking for paid parental leave, which said: 'I'm not an elected official, and I'm not a politician. I'm writing to you at this deeply important time - as a mom - to advocate for paid leave.' The 1,030-word letter asked the two Democratic leaders to consider her plea 'on behalf of my family, Archie and Lili and Harry'. The Duchess then caused controversy by cold-calling US senators on their private phones and using her royal title to urge them to vote in favor of the legislation. Also in December, the couple finally shared the first photo of their daughter Lilibet Diana, six months after she was born, for their Christmas card. The family image showed Meghan, 40, holding up their giggling daughter, while smiling Harry, 37, looked on with his arm around their two-year-old son Archie. Cats are starting house fires by turning on touch-sensitive electric cookers when their owners are away, safety chiefs in South Korea have warned. The cookers then catch fire if they become overheated or set light to nearby cloths or paper. New figures show a house fire is caused by a cat once every ten days in South Korea, with 107 between January 2019 and November 2021. Four people were injured and some pets died. Over 100 fires in South Korea are reported to have been caused by cats inadvertently brushing up against touch-sensitive cookers A fire service spokesman said blazes can spread widely when no one is at home. Although some hobs are only activated when a certain type of saucepan is on top, others have electric coils which heat up regardless. It is thought cats have also sparked blazes by interfering with other electrical appliances. Safety experts have suggested using a stove with an automatic lock function to prevent future fires or just unplugging appliances at the wall. Last year, a cat and a dog started house fires in Kent in less than a week. A border collie in Sittingbourne jumped up to reach leftovers and turned on three gas rings, while a cat stepped on a stove ignition button near Maidstone setting fire to a tea towel. Boris Johnson was facing questions last night after allegations emerged that he failed to self-isolate last year after coming into contact with a positive Covid-19 case. The Prime Minister is alleged to have stood 'close' to a videographer, who later tested positive for the virus, in Downing Street during his official New Year's message on December 31, 2020, sources told The Mirror. The Downing Street aide, who was not wearing a mask, later informed officials and staff members who were present in the room and they were all asked to self-isolate for ten days - under the official guidance at the time. However sources have claimed the Prime Minister was not asked to self-isolate. Boris Johnson is facing questions after allegations emerged that he failed to self-isolate last year after coming into contact with a positive Covid-19 case During the recording last year, the videographer is alleged to have stood 'face-to-face' with the PM for around 15 minutes, sources told The Mirror. It has also been claimed that the pair were less than two metres away from each other. The contact came just days before the UK entered a third national lockdown as the NHS tried to cope with a rising number of coronavirus cases. A No10 spokesperson told MailOnline: 'The Prime Minister was socially distanced from the individual who subsequently tested positive and the duration of the filming was shorter than 15 minutes. This has been reaffirmed by those present. 'He was not advised to isolate as the rules did not require him to do so. 'The Prime Minister has self-isolated on a number of previous occasions as per the regulations.' The latest claims come as the UK's Covid-19 infections increased by 44.6 per cent in a week as Boris Johnson yesterday suggested NHS staff could be moved to plug shortages amid fears about the Omicron wave triggering a lockdown by default. Department of Health bosses reported a further 157,758 cases today, a rise from the 109,077 cases which were reported in the country last Monday. The number of people dying with the virus saw a 70.6 per cent decrease, with 42 deaths reported in the UK today compared to 143 on December 27. This is the thirteenth day in a row that cases have been above the 100,000 mark as the country moves out of the festive season and comes just days after the week-on-week increase was as high as 72.5 per cent on December 29. Meanwhile the number of people being admitted to hospital in London has fallen, with 314 patients admitted to hospital on January 1, a 28 per cent decrease from the 437 admitted last Monday. It comes as the PM revealed that the government is looking at redeploying personnel after the public sector was warned to brace for a worst-case scenario of a quarter of staff - around 1.4million people - being off work. One in ten NHS employees were not in on New Year's Eve, according to official figures - although just 50,000 of the 110,000 total was related to coronavirus. United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust has declared a 'critical incident' linked to 'extreme and unprecedented' staff shortages. Nearly a third of rail services have been axed at some stations in recent days, after as many as one in ten staff called in sick with illnesses including Covid - while major engineering works on key commuter routes are scheduled to continue until midway through next week. Councils across the UK are having to redistribute staff between essential services to keep everything running. Schools are also being urged to make contingency plans to deal with staff absences when they return from the Christmas holidays this week. On a visit to a vaccination centre in Stoke Mandeville yesterday, Mr Johnson urged people to 'stick to Plan B' and Omicron is 'plainly milder'. He cautioned that it would be 'folly' to assume the pandemic is over the health service will be under 'considerable pressure' for weeks to come, saying the government is 'looking at what we can do to move people into those areas that are particularly badly affected'. But he batted away calls for the self-isolation period to be cut to five days - saying that could make staff shortages worse by fuelling spread. 'I think the way forward for the country as a whole is to continue with the path that we're on. We'll will keep everything under review,' the PM said. 'The mixture of things that we're doing at the moment is, I think, the right one. 'So, number one, continue with Plan B, make sure that people take it seriously, do what we can to stop the spread, use the Plan B measures, work from home if you can, wear a mask on public transport take a test before going out to meet people you don't normally meet, think about the the requirements under Plan B, but also get the boost.' Jagan Mohan Reddy met the Prime Minister for more than an hour in New Delhi and held discussions on several issues of the state and submitted a representation containing several key and pending issues. (Photo: Twitter) Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and requested him to allow the state to borrow Rs 42,472 crore. He also asked the PM to ask the Centre to release the pending revenue deficit cover of Rs 18,830 crore to help the state overcome its financial crisis. Jagan Mohan Reddy met the Prime Minister for more than an hour in New Delhi and held discussions on several issues of the state and submitted a representation containing several key and pending issues. The CM told the PM that the sum of Rs 42,472 crore was fixed as the net borrowing ceiling for AP under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act by the Centre for 2021-22, as against the revised net borrowing ceiling of Rs 17,923.24 crore set by the Union ministry of finance. The CM said that the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had assured AP that the Centre would help it overcome its revenue deficit and bridge the resource gap from the date of bifurcation as well as implement the XIV Finance Commission recommendations through Union Budget 2014-15 allocation. However, the resource gap estimated from June 2014 to March 31, 2015, by the Comptroller and Auditor General was Rs 16,078.76 crore. In the subsequent period, the Centre by initiating standardised expenditure brought down the revenue deficit to Rs 4,117.89 crore. The CM stated that the then government failed to clear its bills and Pay Revision Commission arrears in 2014-15 due to shortage of funds. If the pending bills and arrears are taken into account in 2014-15, APs revenue deficit shot up to Rs 22,948.76 crore. The Centre had released only Rs 4,117.89 crore so far, the CM said and asked Modi for the release of the remaining amount Rs 18,830.87 crore to cover the revenue deficit. The CM stated that AP had received the lowest income in the form of tax devolution from the Centre, which was down by 3.38 per cent as economic growth was sluggish in 2019-20 and the Coronavirus pandemic impacted the economy in 2020-21. The state had received only Rs 28,242 crore in the form of taxes against the expected Rs 34,833 crore. Jagan Mohan Reddy told the PM that apart from the shortfall in taxes from the Centre, the state itself had spent Rs 8,000 crore to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite facing such financial hardships, and having its economy buffeted by the pandemic, the YSRC government had implemented several welfare schemes with commitment in a transparent manner. The CM asked for Modis intervention to get the Centre to accept the revised cost estimates of Polavaram irrigation project at Rs 55,657 crore at 2017-16 price level, and issue direction to the Union ministry of finance to release the pending bills amount of Rs 2,100 crore. Jagan Mohan Reddy asked Modi to issue directions to the Telangana state government to release the power dues to Andhra Pradesh to the tune of Rs 6,284 crore for supply of power from June 2, 2014, to June 10, 2017, by APGenco. The CM asked for renewal of night clearance approval pertaining to construction of Bhogapuram international airport and also help to execute integrated steel plant in Kadapa district. Jagan meets Nirmala to discuss on SCS, others The CM met Union minister for finance Nirmala Sitharaman and discussed several issues including special category status and other issues in New Delhi. Jagan submitted a representation to Sitharaman seeking her intervention to resolve issues like accepting revised cost estimates of Polavaram irrigation project, the release of revenue deficit amount from the Centre, release of power arrears from Telangana and several other issues. Jagan seeks support for developing Bhogapuram greenfield airport Reddy sought the support of Union minister for civil aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia for development of a greenfield international airport in three years at Bhogapuram, during his visit to New Delhi. Submitting a representation to the Union minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the Centre had assured support to the state as per the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 to develop several sectors including civil aviation. The government felt the need for financial support for the airport as well as requisite permissions for developing it. The CM said that as there was no chance to develop the existing airport in Visakhapatnam due to the presence of Eastern Naval Command. South Australia has reported 3246 new COVID-19 cases, another record daily result. Premier Steven Marshall said 102 people are in hospital, up from 94 on Monday, with 12 of those in intensive care. One person is on a ventilator. Mr Marshall said the current hospital numbers are "well within our capacity" while the increase in case numbers is thought to be the flow-on from new year celebrations. 'We put some pretty harsh restrictions in place to make sure we didn't have a super spreader event on New Year's Eve,' the premier said. 'It was a very subdued New Year's Eve, it was a very safe New Year's Eve. But we're going to continue to see our numbers track up.' Mr Marshall also revealed the arrival of 250,000 rapid antigen tests in SA, the first of 10 million the government has on order. They will be used in hospitals and aged care settings but will not be made available to the general public. The delivery follows a decision by a private pathology service to close four PCR testing sites in South Australia. Mr Marshall said SA Pathology had the capacity to fill the shortfall as it concentrates its resources on people with virus symptoms. A pair of Arizona State University students have unleashed a nine minute diatribe after they were disciplined for taunting two white male students who entered the college's multicultural space. On Monday, Mastaani Qureshi, an undergraduate and Sarra Tekola a graduate student posted a video on social media alleging ASU had carried out an investigation into their actions and called for them to write a three-page paper over the September 2021 incident. In the video posted in response to the University's punishment Qureshi and Tekola claim the investigation into their actions was 'racially biased' adding they were 'forced to confront these men', because, in their view, the ASU faculty allegedly refused to answer their cries for help. 'Dear White People, A.K.A. ASU You openly discriminated against us on November 16 when you handed down your decision from your racially biased investigation,' Qureshi said. 'We're being persecuted for defending our multicultural center from racism and sexism ASU is a violent place.' Activists Mastaani Qureshi, an undergraduate and Sarra Tekola a graduate student at Arizona State University have been found 'guilty' of 'interfering with university activities' after they harassed two white students In September 2021, the women filmed themselves rounding on the two white men who they claim were taunting them by wearing an anti-Biden shirt, toting a Chick-Fil-A cup, and using a laptop with a pro-police sticker. Qureshi and Tekola have now lashed out after they were punished for taking it upon themselves to ask the white students to leave for what they claim was 'racist' and 'offensive' stickers and a t-shirt. In their latest video, they condemned being ordered to write up how 'next time, when they talk with white people about race and society they will be civil' and to reflect on how they might deal with a similar situation in the future and 'facilitate a civil dialogue' about the purposes of a multicultural space. At one point the white students were defended by an Asian peer (pictured), but they had to leave Undergraduate student Mastaani Qureshi and graduate student Sarra Tekola are pictured last year as they demand Arizona State University drop the charges against them In its ruling the university wrote that to the pair that it 'expects that such dialogues will be both respectful toward other parties and mindful of the setting in which they occur. 'In this instance, the confrontation captured on video was not respectful dialogue, and its heated nature in an enclosed space where numerous other students were studying caused disruption to their activities as well as to the previously quiet study activities of the students who you confronted.' Despite their penalty it was clear from their response on Instagram the pair did not agree with the university's findings and are unlikely to write a paper on how they might respond in the future. 'ASU does not recognize the difference between equity and equality and refuses to center the most marginalized,' Tekola ranted. Equality means offering everyone the same opportunity, while equity - which has been co-opted by woke campaigners in recent years - means ensuring everyone achieves the same outcome. Tekola then spoke up arguing asking 'students of color' to be more civil in the face of alleged 'white supremacy and neo-Nazism' is 'actually violent.' The pair also claim to have been on the receiving end of 'rape, death and lynching threats' on social media and are now suffering from 'emotional and psychological violence' since their first video went viral. Qureshi and Tekola concluded their video by asserting ASU to be number one at 'ignoring marginalized students.' 'ASU refuses to protect students of color, and the world needs to know how they treat us here on this campus when we push to make it a better place for all,' Tekola said in a statement. Tekola and Qureshi are ASU students and organizers of the Multicultural Solidarity Coalition, a student-run organization not affiliated with the University that had been advocating for the development of a multicultural space since 2015. A September video showed two white students at Arizona State University being forced out of a 'multicultural learning space' after activists took issue with Police Lives Matter stickers emblazoned on their laptops In a video they posted online last September Qureshi and Tekola took issue with two white students who entered the center displaying 'hateful and racist symbology'. One of the male students was wearing an anti-Biden shirt that read 'Didn't vote for Biden', while a second had a Chick-fil-A cup and a 'police lives matter' sticker on his laptop. The pair were seated close to black students which they took as a slight. The incident was recorded by one of the woke activists before it was shared to their Twitter account where it racked up more than 3.6 million views. The footage begins with the white students sitting at a table studying before they are approached by two activists who state: 'You're offensive. Police Lives Matter? This is our space. You're making this space uncomfortable.' The two black activists, tell the white students they must leave, saying: 'You're white. Do you understand what a multicultural space means? It means you're not being centered.' The two activists (pictured) were seen yelling at the white students in the 'multicultural learning space' in their own video which was viewed 3.6 million times online 'White's not a culture?' one of the white students subsequently asks. 'White is NOT a culture! You think whiteness is a culture? This is the violence that ASU [Arizona State University] does and this is the type of people that they protect!' one of the activists responds. 'This white man thinks he can take up our space ... they think they can get away with this s**t!' she continues yelling. In their video, the pair could be heard harassing the white students screaming at them , describing their choice of study location in the multicultural center as 'peak white cis male bulls**t.' 'This is the only place on campus that does not center you, and you are still trying to center yourself which is peak white cis male bulls**t,' the pair declared. 'I'm not racist, I'm just studying,' one of the students replies. 'I pay the same f**king tuition as you. I'm working 60 hours a week while going to school because my parents don't just give me money!' The white pair eventually left the 'multicultural learning space' to complain to the dean The activists continue to protest the Police Lives Matter sticker on one of their laptops, saying it is 'affiliated with white nationalists'. 'These people kill people like me and like us, so you're promoting our murderers,' the pair state. The white students are then defended by an Asian peer, but the clash continues. The pair eventually left the 'multicultural learning space' noting that they were going to complain to the dean. The harassing couple were charged with 'interfering with or disrupting university or university-sponsored activities,' according to Campus Reform. On Monday the pair ranted against ASU asserting the school to be number one at 'ignoring marginalized students' An online petition was even set up which garnered 4,000 signatures in an attempt to persuade ASU to drop their charges against the two activists I Judge Reed O'Connor, the U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Texas, ruled against the Biden administration's vaccine requirement for active-duty members to vaccinate themselves against COVID in a lawsuit filed by 35 SEALS on Monday A federal judge has granted a temporary injunction to 35 Navy SEALs who said they should be allowed a religious exemption to the US military's COVID vaccine mandate. Judge Reed O'Connor, the U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Texas, granted a temporary injunction on Monday in response to a lawsuit filed by First Liberty Institute in November on behalf of 35 active-duty SEALs who are Christian and three reservists who are seeking exemption from the vaccine requirement for religious reasons. The order prevents the Navy from setting new policies that would allow those who would object for religious reasons to be considered 'non-deployable' or 'disqualified' from Special Operations. It effectively means the Pentagon can't fire those SEALs for refusing the shot. 'The Navy servicemembers in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect,' O'Connor wrote in his order. 'The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution.' DailyMail.com has contacted the US Navy for comment. More than 99 percent of active-duty Navy service members are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to court documents related to the case. Pictured: A Navy commander receiving his second COVID-19 vaccine dose at Branch Health Clinic in Washington Navy Yard in D.C. in February. Last year, the group of Navy Seals filed a lawsuit accusing the Navy of having 'disdain for religious vaccine accommodations,' in contrast to 'certain secular vaccine exemptions' like privileges for medical reasons that had been approved. Those who challenged for religious reasons alleged, upon expressing their concerns to other officers, that they were warned that they could suffer serious repercussions for their refusal to follow the mandate, including being snubbed from consideration for Special Operations and deployment missions. Some Christians have sought vaccine mandates because vaccines have been made with cells derived from aborted fetuses, although religious groups - including the staunchly pro-life Catholic Church, have insisted it is not sinful to receive a COVID vaccine, and has encouraged followers to have one. More than 99 percent of active-duty Navy service members are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to court documents related to the case. The lawsuit also cited that the Navy violated the group's religious rights including the Free Exercise of Religion Clause of the Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The first law ensures protects citizens' right to practice their religion as they please, so long as the practice does not run afoul of a 'public morals' or a compelling' governmental interest, while the second is 'ensures that interests in religious freedom are protected.' In December, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and other Republican members of Congress signed an amicus brief, backing the lawsuit. 'Forcing a service member to choose between their faith and serving their country is abhorrent to the Constitution and America's values,' said Mike Berry, General Counsel for First Liberty Institute. 'Punishing SEALs for simply asking for a religious accommodation is purely vindictive and punitive. We're pleased that the court has acted to protect our brave warriors before more damage is done to our national security.' In December, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (pictured) and other Republican members of Congress signed a legal brief in support of the lawsuit O'Connor said that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their constitutional and RFRA claims. Other vaccination rules set in place by the Department of Defense have also been earmarked by other lawsuits before Monday's ruling. However, none of those cases had been granted preliminary orders, loosening the requirements. The Biden administration's vaccine policies for federal employees, and workers in health care and large companies are also being closely followed by the Supreme Court, which is considering to challenge them, but religious freedom is not considered as a central issue in either of those cases. O'Connor's order also comes as other U.S Marines face potential discharge or disqualifications for not being vaccinated after the Department of Defenses mandate on Nov. 28 ordered all active-duty service members to seek vaccination. As of December, the US has approximately 35,000 troops who remain unvaccinated, with 3,864 soldier refusals coming from the Army. . The head of the consumer watchdog has lashed out at businesses actively price gouging COVID-19 rapid antigen tests, calling the actions of retailers unconscionable. The chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Rod Sims said the authority had the powers to crack down on businesses carrying out price gouging and urged people to report offenders. He said the commission had received 100 reports from the public about gouging. The UK Government has mailed free rapid tests (pictured) to people's homes since April but the PM has refused to adopt a similar model in Australia over cost fears It comes following widespread shortages of the RATs across the country, which have been in demand in the wake of exploding virus cases. '(Businesses) shouldn't be engaging in cartel conduct,' Mr Sims told reporters in Sydney. 'We have the ability to name and shame people if they are doing the wrong thing.' Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has spoken with the commission about price gouging. Mr Sims said the commission had enough powers in place to crack down on offending businesses. 'We're monitoring closely and we are aware of the concerns around the pricing of rapid tests. Among some of the worst offenders were rapid tests advertised for sale online on eBay and Kogan, where the tests have been sold well above normal prices. There have been growing calls for the rapid tests to be made freely available to everyone following the spike in cases. ACCC full statement on rapid tests The ACCC is aware of the significant public concern about the pricing of rapid antigen tests and is contacting suppliers and monitoring the situation very closely. The ACCC will be examining claims that the current pricing levels of rapid antigen tests are due to challenges in obtaining supply of those tests. 'We are seeking information from suppliers about their costs and the current pricing of rapid antigen tests. We are also asking them about their current stock levels, and the amounts on order, and about their expectations about when additional tests may become readily available to consumers,' ACCC Chair Rod Sims said. 'We are also contacting major retailers and pharmacies seeking similar information and reminding them that they need to be able to substantiate any claims they make to consumers about the reason for higher prices.' 'The ACCC has established a team to work on the issues,' Mr Sims said. While suppliers are generally able to set their own prices, businesses must not make false or misleading statements about the reason for high prices. 'We won't be shy to name and shame suppliers and retailers we consider to be doing the wrong thing,' Mr Sims said. In certain circumstances, excessive pricing of essential goods or services may also be unconscionable. Businesses must also set their prices independently of their competitors and not collude about pricing. The ACCC will review the information received from suppliers, retailers and the public. 'We've also had over 100 consumer contacts to our Infocentre or through the online form. We will review the information received and investigate the evidence to determine if there is conduct that raises concerns,' Mr Sims said. 'The ACCC is monitoring the situation and will take appropriate action under its existing powers. The ACCC has not sought, and does not need, more powers to deal with the current situation. ' Consumers can contact the ACCC to report concerning conduct online. Further, anyone who has evidence of price fixing cartels can contact the ACCC anonymously(link is external) or via our webform. Advertisement It comes after Chemist Warehouse chief operating officer Mario Tascone told Sunrise that relief was finally in sight, predicting 'by week's end and early next week we'll have lots of good supplies'. 'There are planes arriving each day, we've got stock due to our Sydney stores this afternoon, and we hope to replenish our Victorian, Queensland, Tasmanian and South Australian stores later tomorrow,' he said. Mr Tascone said part of the reason for the delay was 'back-to-back public holidays'. Chemist Warehouse boss Mario Tascone says the federal government should cut GST on rapid antigen tests to help make the kits more affordable to sick Australians 'It is a challenging one, how much to order with these rapid antigen tests, because it's not as if there is a magic warehouse setting with stockpiles of this,' he said. 'From order to supply is usually a three-week lag, which is the issue we got here. 'When everyone realises this is going out of control, everyone's got the orders in but they have to be manufactured first, so by the time they get to Australia there is a delay. 'But there is no use looking backwards, it's about going forward and getting the stock into everyone's hands.' On Monday Mr Tascone urged Scott Morrison to cut VAT on rapid tests to reduce the price by 10 per cent. 'I'm sure they can get on Zoom and run an emergency session of parliament because the thought the government is making 10 per cent off millions and millions of packets off sales of rapid antigen tests really doesn't sit right,' he told 2GB. The demand for tests around Australia has seen single kits sell for as much as $100 - with many chemists unable to re-order stock Poll Should rapid tests be free for everyone? Yes No Should rapid tests be free for everyone? Yes 2009 votes No 528 votes Now share your opinion There have been reports of rapid tests costing as much as $100 per unit as Covid cases skyrocket throughout Australia due to the emergence of the highly-infectious Omicron variant. A BP station in Edgecliff, eastern Sydney was caught selling one test - which normally costs $10 - for $30. On Monday NSW recorded 20,794 new Covid cases and four deaths, Victoria's tally hit 8,577 infections and Queensland saw 4,249 as the strain rips through the east coast. Mr Tascone said the federal government needs to ensure sick Australians have easy and affordable access to rapid tests. 'They really need to be as affordable as possible,' he told 2GB. The Chemist Warehouse director said the demand for RATs was 'unprecedented', similar to that of the toilet paper hoarding at the start of the pandemic, and said dropping GST would see immediate results. 'They'll be 10 per cent cheaper overnight we'll drop the price, its not much but that $50 pack of five becomes $45 overnight,' he said. 'So that's one thing they can do immediately, apparently it needs parliament sitting. Mr Tascone said the federal government need to be doing significantly more to ensure sick Australians have easy and affordable access to rapid tests Chemist Warehouse customers can only buy two rapid antigen test packs at one time to ensure they were available for everyone. 'When you've got 25 million people who want a rapid antigen test within the space of a week, that's impossible,' he said. The UK Government has mailed free rapid tests to people's homes since April but the PM has refused to adopt a similar model in Australia over cost fears. Instead, rapid tests are free at testing centres but cost at least $10 per swab at pharmacies and supermarkets, which are low on stock due to a lack of supply. Members of the public queue in their cars for a COVID-19 PCR test at the Mascot Laverty Pathology Drive-through Clinic in Sydney on Monday Several medical experts called for rapid tests to be free for everyone, including University of Sydney infectious disease specialist Robert Booy who said free tests 'could make a real difference to controlling disease'. But in an interview on Sunrise on Monday morning, the prime minister said this was a bad idea. 'We're at another stage of this pandemic now where we just can't go round and make everything free. We have to live with this virus. This isn't a medicine, it's a test. And so there's a difference between those two things,' he said. Australia's gross debt is expected to reach a record $1.2 trillion by 2024-25 after huge pandemic spending including $100 billion on the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme. The prime minister is keen to avoid further cost blowouts, saying on Monday he wants to 'take that pressure off the budget'. But Mr Morrison said he was working with states and territories to reduce the price for vulnerable groups with 'concessional access to pensioners and others'. The cost of subsidising the tests will be shared 50/50 with states and territories. A Brisbane resident lines up for a test on Sunday Mr Morrison also said he would not make tests free because he didn't want to deter private companies from ordering them so they could make money. 'The private market, whether it's in the big warehouse pharmacies or the other pharmacies or the supermarkets, they can now go and stock their shelves with confidence that they won't be undercut by the government,' he told the Today show. Groups representing manufacturers and suppliers of rapid antigen tests said the industry supported tests being free for everyone. 'The industry doesn't have a position because we sell to the government for market price and we don't care if they are free or not,' Dean Whiting, the chief executive of Pathology Technology Australia told Guardian Australia. Woolworths has denied lobbying against free tests while Coles declined to comment. University of NSW Professor of epidemiology Mary-Louise McLaws warned in a series of tweets that rapid tests are becoming reserved for the 'privileged and wealthy', saying governments need to rethink their current stance. 'To reduce cost, test hubs could use PCR on those with symptoms & rapid antigen test (RATs) on all others. Cheaper but still effective,' Professor McLaws tweeted on Sunday. 'Without providing free RATs to households, only privileged & wealthy will be able to protect themselves & reduce wider risk of spread. Mr Morrison's comments also sparked outrage from political opponents who demanded free tests. Independent Senator Rex Patrick wrote on Twitter: 'The case for widespread free RATs is clear, but Scott Morrison says ''you can't just make everything free''. He didn't say that to big business as they took $billions in JobKeeper money they didn't need.' Australians have been warned to enjoy the eagerly-anticipated sunshine while they can as weeks of heavy rain are forecast. Hordes of Sydneysiders were seen soaking up the rays at the popular Bondi Beach on Tuesday, making the most of what could be the last sunny day for a week. Temperatures are expected to plummet with the arrival of thunderstorms and heavy rain in the next few days. Sydneysiders flocked to Bondi Beach (pictured) on Tuesday to enjoy the warm weather Victoria and NSW can expect rain over the next week as the burst of warm summer weather is set to end (pictured: Sydney in December) After weeks of rain surfers and sunseekers have been heading to the beach in droves (pictured: Bondi on Tuesday) Weatherzone meteorologist Joel Pippard told Daily Mail Australia the ex-tropical cyclone Seth causing chaos in Queensland will be to blame for the wet conditions. Mr Pippard said the weather system was 'feeding moisture' into a large trough heading towards Victoria and the middle of NSW. He predicted the deluge in both of the eastern states would begin to deepen on Wednesday and would linger until next Monday. 'We'll start to see heavy rain and scattered thunderstorms across a fairly broad region which includes Melbourne,' the meteorologist said. Bondi Beach was packed with sunseekers desperate to make the most out of the good weather before the rain moved in While Victoria will be hit with rain and thunderstorms on Wednesday and Thursday, NSW will only receive the 'peripherals' of the wild conditions until Friday. Mr Pippard explained that this is when the trough will start to track across the Sydney region bringing with it sticky temperatures and humidity. He said while it was forecast to be 22C for four consecutive days from Thursday to Sunday, the temperatures would feel three to five degrees warmer. Sydney is expected to receive anywhere from 5mm to 25mm of rain on Wednesday, with about 10mm to 15mm forecast for the following day. In Queensland, the lasting effects of ex-tropical cyclone Seth continue to be felt as the weather system edges closer to the coast. The cyclone has seen the closure of 40 beaches along the Gold Coast with Surf Life Saving Queensland deeming the conditions too dangerous for swimmers. Beach-goers were advised to stay out of the water as hazardous surf conditions lashed large parts of the coast and giant waves were measured at 9m. Mr Pippard said the region between Byron Bay and Bundaberg would receive moderate to heavy rainfall on Thursday and Friday. Rain is set to develop for NSW and Victoria over the next week as a cyclone moves over Queensland A cyclone in the Queensland will 'feed moisture' into the southern states over the next week leading to wet and humid conditions Hordes of Sydneysiders were seen soaking up the rays at the popular Bondi Beach during the first days of 2022 on what could be the last sunny day for a week Another tropical low forming in the far north of the Sunshine State near Cooktown could see wet conditions in Cairns and heavy rain in the northern tropics. As for the rest of the country, the meteorologist said the interior of the country would remain dry with most of the deluge hitting the eastern states. Some thunderstorms are forecast around the interior of Western Australia stretching from the Kimberley to the central areas with storms moving north to south. The Bureau of Meteorology has warned water levels could reach or go over the highest tide of the year by at least 0.1metres in northern NSW on Wednesday. Sydney really turned up the heat on Tuesday with thousands of punters flocking to the sand to soak up some rays It wasn't easy work for the life guards with a sea of people swarming the sand and the water at Bondi on Tuesday Areas that could be affected include Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Tweed Heads, Byron Bay, Ballina, Evans Head, Yamba, Woolgoolga, Settlement Point, Southwest Rocks, Forster and Sawtell. On Monday, a 47-year-old woman tragically drowned at Park Beach in Coffs Harbour, on the NSW Mid-North Coast during a trip with her family. NSW Ambulance Inspector Joel Casey said just before 1pm there were reports of a woman unconscious in the water. Surf Life Saving volunteers found the swimmer struggled in the 'very severe water conditions' and gave her CPR until emergency crews arrived. 'Unfortunately, even with all the resources down here at the beach the 47-year-old has passed away, she was unable to be revived,' Inspector Casey said. Many were in need of the water to cool down as temperatures soared but sadly, the beach plans will have to be put on hold next week Beachgoers braved the sizzling temperatures on Tuesday to work on their tans and take a quick dip Kevin Rudd has blasted Scott Morrison in a foul-mouthed tweet supporting free rapid antigen tests for everyone. The UK Government has mailed free rapid tests to people's homes since April but the PM has refused to adopt a similar model in Australia, fearing it would be too expensive and 'undercut' retailers who want to make money on the swabs. Amid a nationwide shortage, some retailers have hiked prices on the rapid tests - also known as RATs - making them unaffordable for many Aussies. Kevin Rudd (pictured) has blasted Scott Morrison in a foul-mouthed tweet supporting free rapid antigen tests for everyone Mr Rudd posted his tweet on Monday after Mr Morrison refused to make tests free A BP station in Edgecliff, eastern Sydney was caught selling one test for $30 even though it would normally cost $10. Mr Rudd, who was Labor Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010 and again in 2013, said: 'Morrison is RATf****ng Australians. 'This is American-style health policy, putting private profits ahead of public safety. 'It's a recipe for massive undetected spread among those least able to pay. Mass-testing saves money by taking pressure off hospitals.' Rapid tests are free at testing centres but cost at least $10 per swab at pharmacies and supermarkets, which are low on stock due to a lack of supply. Several medical experts called for rapid tests to be free for everyone, including University of Sydney infectious disease specialist Robert Booy who said free tests 'could make a real difference to controlling disease'. Scott Morrison (right) is pictured with Longman MP Terry Young (centre) in Brisbane last month But in an interview on Sunrise on Monday morning, the prime minister said this was a bad idea. 'We're at another stage of this pandemic now where we just can't go round and make everything free. 'We have to live with this virus. This isn't a medicine, it's a test. And so there's a difference between those two things,' he said. Australia's gross debt is expected to reach a record $1.2 trillion by 2024-25 after huge pandemic spending including $90 billion on the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme. The prime minister is keen to avoid further cost blowouts, saying on Monday he wants to 'take that pressure off the budget'. But Mr Morrison said he was working with states and territories to reduce the price for vulnerable groups with 'concessional access to pensioners and others' which he will discuss with state premiers at a national cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Mr Morrison also said he would not make tests free because he didn't want to deter private companies from ordering them so they could make money. 'The private market, whether it's in the big warehouse pharmacies or the other pharmacies or the supermarkets, they can now go and stock their shelves with confidence that they won't be undercut by the government,' he told the Today show. Groups representing manufacturers and suppliers of rapid antigen tests said the industry did not object to tests being free for everyone. 'The industry doesn't have a position because we sell to the government for market price and we don't care if they are free or not,' Dean Whiting, the chief executive of Pathology Technology Australia told Guardian Australia. Woolworths has denied lobbying against free tests while Coles declined to comment. University of NSW Professor of epidemiology Mary-Louise McLaws warned in a series of tweets that rapid tests are becoming reserved for the 'privileged and wealthy', saying governments need to rethink their current stance. AT&T and Verizon have agreed to delay the planned rollout of 5G by two weeks, a day after initially rejecting a request from the White House to postpone the scheme over fears the wireless technology could cause widespread disruption to air travel. The carriers had faced pressure from the White House, airlines and aviation unions to delay the deployment of their ultra-fast networks, and faced a potential legal battle. Concerns have been raised about potential interference of 5G with sensitive aircraft electronics like radio altimeters that could disrupt flights across the country. The agreement pushes back the deployment date to January 19. AT&T and Verizon had planned to launch the new 5G service on Wednesday in many U.S. cities. The delay by the telecom giants represents a stunning U-turn, with the CEOs of both companies pledging in a joint letter to regulators as recently as Sunday to continue with the scheduled 5G rollout, with service modifications around airports. Verizon and AT&T said late on Monday they had agreed to a two-week delay in deploying C-Band wireless spectrum, averting an aviation safety standoff that threatened to disrupt flights starting this week. Pictured: Planes on the tarmac at Miami airport (file photo) Verizon said the delay 'promises the certainty of bringing this nation our game-changing 5G network in January.' AT&T said it agreed to the delay at the request of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. 'At Secretary [of Transportation Pete] Buttigieg's request, we have voluntarily agreed to one additional two-week delay of our deployment of C-Band 5G services,' a spokesperson for AT&T said in a statement. 'We also remain committed to the six-month protection zone mitigations we outlined in our letter. We know aviation safety and 5G can co-exist and we are confident further collaboration and technical assessment will allay any issues.' Over the next two weeks, regulators, airlines and wireless carriers will look at ways of minimizing the potential impact of interference on flight operations. Earlier on Monday, groups representing U.S. airlines, aircraft manufacturers and airports had urged the White House to intervene to delay the use by wireless carriers of C-Band spectrum for 5G, which the carriers won in an $80 billion government auction. The delay came after the chief executives of AT&T and Verizon on Sunday had rejected a request to delay the January 5 introduction of new 5G wireless service over aviation safety concerns but offered to temporarily adopt new safeguards. Buttigieg and Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson had asked AT&T CEO John Stankey and Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg for a delay of up to two weeks. They warned that without a delay, there would be 'unacceptable disruption' to aviation because flights would be canceled or diverted to other cities to avoid potential risks to air safety. The officials' warning followed a request by a major airline trade group to delay the 5G rollout. The carriers had faced pressure from the White House, airlines and aviation unions to delay the deployment amid concerns about potential interference of 5G with sensitive aircraft electronics like radio altimeters that could disrupt flights. Pictured: A contract crew from Verizon installs 5G telecommunications equipment on a tower in Orem, Utah, U.S. December 3, 2019 (file photo) Verizon said the delay 'promises the certainty of bringing this nation our game-changing 5G network in January.' AT&T said it agreed to the delay at the request of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (pictured speaking on December 17 in Georgia) In December, the FAA warned that interference from the planned use of 5G wireless spectrum posed an air safety risk and could result in flight diversions. But it had not yet issued formal notices that would further outline the potential scale of impact. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents 50,000 flight attendants at 17 airlines, had said on Twitter that 'if medicine delivered to hospitals and homes is delayed' Verizon would be responsible. 'If passengers are stranded, thank @Verizon,' Nelson said. 'Their incentive is money. Our incentive is safety. Itas the purest form of profits over people.' Airlines for America told the Federal Communications Commission that using C-band 5G near dozens of airports could interfere with devices that measure an airplane's height above the ground. The group said it had raised the issue before but was given little attention by the FCC. Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said Monday night, 'Its clear that this irresponsible rollout of 5G wasnt ready for takeoff.' The conflict between telecommunications companies and airlines - and between the FCC and the FAA - involves a type of 5G service that relies on chunks of radio spectrum called C-Band, which wireless carriers spent billions of dollars to buy up last year. The wireless companies Sunday said they would not deploy 5G around airports for six months but rejected any broader limitation on using C-Band spectrum. That exclusion zone around airports is not as large as the FAA wants. Australians desperate to get their hands on a rapid antigen tests as wait times to Covid testing clinics explode have a new weapon. The website Find a RAT was launched on Monday to help Australians locate a testing kit as stocks dwindle with so many people catching Omicron. Created by software developer Matt Hayward, the website uses crowdsourced data, to allow shoppers to update whether a store has rapid testing kits in stock. The website Find a RAT (pictured) launched on Monday to help Australians locate Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) amid nationwide shortages Dots marked green on the map indicate tests are 'in stock', 'low stock' in orange and 'no stock' in red. Mr Hayward said the idea for the website came to him when he saw how frustrated his girlfriend became while trying to acquire a test kit. 'I started the website after my partner was looking for a test and had no luck,' he told Seven News. 'I thought I'd put my tech skills to use and build out the site today.' Software developer Matt Hayward created the site after witnessing his partner become frustrated when trying to locate stock (pictured, a person undertakes a Covid-19 Rapid Antigen Test) Mr Hayward built the site in a matter of hours, allowing users to search for test kits using their postcode. He is working through teething issues and trying to improve the code to combat illegitimate reports made to the site. Instagram page Bondi_lines also provides updates on RAT kit locations and approximate wait times for Covid-19 PCR test clinics in Sydney. The page shares regular updates to Instagram reporting three hour wait times for some testing clinics in Sydney as cases surge to 23,131 on Tuesday. It also reports on rapid test kit stock levels including price updates, which it shares with the Find a Rat website. One post shared on Tuesday morning reported a pack of five rapid antigen tests repackaged and sold for a grossly inflated $90 at a pharmacy in Bondi Junction. Pharmacy and supermarket shelves have been stripped bare of rapid antigen tests as queues for PCR tests still remain up to a three-hour wait (pictured, a motorist receives a PCR test at a Melbourne Drive-thru Covid-19 test clinic) Pharmacy and supermarket shelves have been stripped bare of rapid antigen tests in recent weeks with some stores now charging up to $20 for a single test. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is under pressure for not making them free, as many people are unable to afford even the standard $10-$15 price tag. 'We're at another stage of this pandemic now where we just can't go round and make everything free,' Mr Morrison told Sunrise on Monday. 'We have to live with this virus. This isn't a medicine, it's a test. And so there's a difference between those two things.' NSW and Victoria have each secured millions of free rapid tests, which will be distributed to the public by the end of January. The Prime Minister said he was working with states and territories to reduce the price for vulnerable groups with 'concessional access to pensioners and others'. The cost of subsidising the tests will be shared 50/50 with states and territories. Shops and pharmacies have been warned to stop profiteering off desperate Australians by selling rapid antigen tests at inflated prices. Extreme shortages have most outlets out of stock, and some unscrupulous shops are taking advantage by selling individual tests for as much as $100. Tests usually cost $25 for two or $50 for a pack of five and are cheaper in other countries where Australians are ordering online for about $4 each. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it would investigate whether the reasons retailers gave for inflated prices were legitimate. People shared their frustration online over businesses selling RATs for profit and blaming shortages for increased pricing Shops insist their prices are solely down to demand and supply shortages around the country as rapid tests are used for travel and leaving isolation. ACCC Chair Rod Sims said the commission would investigate the evidence behind these claims and whether they justify the price of the tests. 'We are seeking information from suppliers about their costs and the current pricing of rapid antigen tests,' he said. 'We are also asking them about their current stock levels, and the amounts on order, and about their expectations about when additional tests may become readily available to consumers.' Mr Sims said the ACCC would not hold back in 'naming and shaming' businesses that are found guilty of misconduct Mr Sims also reminded businesses they need to be able to prove the reasoning they give to customers for their pricing. 'We are also contacting major retailers and pharmacies seeking similar information and reminding them that they need to be able to substantiate any claims they make to consumers about the reason for higher prices,' he said. Several big retailers including Chemist Warehouse and Harvey Norman have been selling the RAT tests for anywhere between $15-$45. Mr Sims warned the ACCC would not hold back in shaming businesses that are found guilty of misconduct. 'We won't be shy to name and shame suppliers and retailers we consider to be doing the wrong thing,' he said. Billionaire New Zealander Nick Mowbray, who made his fortune founding toy company Zuru, has announced he and his longtime partner are expecting their first child. Jaimee Lupton, an entrepreneur in her own right with her Monday haircare business, posted a photograph to Instagram on Monday proudly displaying her baby bump. Just three weeks earlier the super-fit publicist - who has previously worked with some of the biggest luxury brands in the world including Range Rover and Bottega Veneta - posted a photo showing her washboard abs. Jaimee Lupton and Nick Mowbray who run two successful companies have announced they are expecting their first child in July 2022 (pictured) Both photos were snapped on the water - with Mr Mowbray purchasing a $21million 40-metre yacht in late 2020. 'Who knew meeting 9 years ago would lead us to this moment... Nick's little sidekick arriving July 2022,' she caption the picture. His toy company Zuru is estimated to have an annual turnover of more than $1billion and has pumped out some of the world's most popular toys including Robo Fish and Bunch O Balloons. The toy tycoon dropped out of a university law degree in 2003 at 18 and with his brother started the toy company in China - with admittedly little business knowledge and even less of the local language and culture. Ms Lupton previously told the New Zealand Herald the couple would be sailing over summer but would stick mostly close to home. 'We are staying local for the most part, visiting my partner Nick's family in the Waikato, Mt Maunganui and Bay of Islands,' she said. 'I'll hopefully be getting over to Sydney in early 2022 to see some of my team and friends.' Ms Lupton successfully launched her Monday brand range of shampoos in 2020. Aimed at a millennial demographic, the products are environmentally friendly and cruelty free and have a distinctly social media snap-worthy bottle design. Just three weeks earlier the super fit Ms Lupton posted a photograph showing her washboard abs (pictured) She revealed 7million bottles had already been sold - placing the product at the top of the Australian and New Zealand markets. The couple live in Auckland - with Mr Mowbray having relocated back from China after being diagnosed with Crohn's disease at age 26 - a disease in which the body's immune system attacks the bowel. After at first ignoring the condition, Mr Mowbray continued on with his work but grew so sick doctors told him he could die unless he changed his life and got surgery. 'Probably doesn't matter how unwell I was going to get; I wasn't going to stop. I was doing all my meetings from my bed. I had inflammation, my joints were so bad I couldn't walk. I was 67kgs, lost all my hair on my body, had no eyebrows, no hair.' Mr Mowbray founded Zuru Edge after relocating back to New Zealand with the new arm of the company is directed towards Gen Z and millennial consumers who are more concerned with ethical ways companies operate. He is pushing into the space traditionally occupied by some of the biggest consumer goods companies in the world who deal with products in the pet care, laundry and hygiene markets. AP CM YS Jaganmohan Reddy meeting with Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari at Ministers residence in New Delhi on Tuesday, 4 Jan 2022. (Photo: D. Kamraj) VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has sought from centre a six-lane highway to ease traffic congestion, and reiterated state governments previous appeal for a bypass road on eastern side of Vijayawada. These are among works the CM sought from union highways minister Nitin Gadkari, as he continued to meet union ministers during his visit of New Delhi on Tuesday. During his hour-long meeting with Gadkari, the Chief Minister discussed preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) for the six-lane national highway from Visakhapatnam Port to Bhogapuram via Rushikonda and Bheemili. He pointed out that this highway will be very useful as it will be a short distance from Odisha and Chhattisgarh. It will be closer to beach corridor projects coming along the coast. In addition, the highway will help develop tourism in the region and within easy reach of Bhogapuram International Airport. The six lanes will ease traffic congestion in Visakhapatnam. Jagan Mohan Reddy requested the union minister for early consideration of state governments previous appeal for a bypass road on eastern side of Vijayawada. He assured that land acquisition for the bypass will be completed as soon as possible. To reduce cost of the project, the state government will provide exemption from SGST and royalty. The CM requested Gadkari to consider four-lane road in Bapatla as part of NH-16s Kathipudi-Ongole corridor. This will avoid traffic jams in the area due to educational institutions, tourists and the air base. Later, the Chief Minister met union information minister Anurag Singh Thakur and union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. He explained to Pradhan initiatives taken up by state government for development of education in the state. Charges of forcible touching against the disgraced former Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, are to be dropped by Albany County District Attorney David Soares. Cuomo was due to be arraigned on Friday for allegedly groping former staffer and current state worker Brittany Commisso, 33, in November 2020. Although Commisso is said to have wanted to move forward with the case, she was told by prosecutors on Monday that the charges will be dropped because of the matter in which the criminal complaint was filed. Further details on the blunder made by prosecutors have not been shared. Commisso, a former aide, alleged how Cuomo pulled her in close to give her a hug, reached under her blouse and then fondled one of her breasts while in the Executive Mansion. Cuomo was due to be arraigned on Friday for allegedly groping former staffer and current state worker Brittany Commisso, 33, left, in November 2020, but charges are to be dropped Two New York State prosecutors are to clear Andrew Cuomo of criminal charges. In Manhattan the district attorney is also not filing any charges against Cuomo in the nursing home scandal Charges of forcible touching against former Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, are to be dropped by Albany County District Attorney David Soares, pictured The allegations were detailed in Attorney General's Letitia James' report on sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo. The report chronicled accusations from 11 women and led to Cuomo's resignation from office, though he has attacked the findings as biased and inaccurate. Commisso's allegations were included in the report after the complaint was filed by Albany Sheriff Craig Apple's office in August 2021. Her claim was the most serious of all of the allegations listed in the report, which Cuomo has always maintained was a hit-job by James to get him out of her way so she could make a run for the governorship. Brittany Commisso's claim was the most serious of all of the allegations listed in James' report This is part of Cuomo's 500 page deposition. He strongly denied ever cupping Commisso's breasts or touching her buttocks Commisso doubled down on her claims, going to Albany police in August 2021 and appearing on CBS in September. She still works for the state The complaint, which was signed by an investigator from the Albany County Sheriff's Office, alleges that the former governor 'intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly place his hand under the blouse shirt of the victim and onto her intimate body part.' Cuomo's attorney Rita Glavin has said that Commisso's 'story changed over time.' The complaint filed by the sheriff's department investigator said evidence in the case included police BlackBerry messages, cell phone records, building security records and a text message from Cuomo's mobile phone. In October, the Albany County sheriff's office filed a misdemeanor groping complaint against Cuomo, but a week later the district attorney asked a judge for more time to evaluate the evidence. The D.A. said that the sheriff's one-page criminal complaint, based on Commisso's allegations were 'potentially defective.' Brittany Commisso, one of Andrew Cuomo accusers gives sexual harassment testimony Last week, Cuomo was told that he won't face criminal charges stemming from allegations from two women, including a state trooper, that he planted unwanted kisses on their cheeks. The female state trooper said she felt 'completely violated' by his unwanted touching at an event at Belmont Park racetrack in September 2019. According to the report, the trooper said Cuomo ran the palm of his left hand across her abdomen, to her belly button and then to her right hip, where she kept her gun, while she held a door open for him as he left an event at Belmont Park on September 23, 2019. The trooper, a member of Cuomo's security detail, told James' investigators that Cuomo's conduct at the event made her feel 'completely violated because to me, like that's between my chest and my privates.' Cuomo resigned a little over four months ago when New York Attorney General Letitia James' reports accused him of sexual harassment and other transgressions James' report said that although the trooper was upset by Cuomo's unwanted touching, she did not feel she could do anything about it. An investigation found the allegations against Cuomo 'credible, deeply troubling but not criminal under New York law.' In the other incident that was examined by Westchester prosecutors, Cuomo allegedly greeted a woman by grabbing her arm, pulling her toward him and kissing her on the cheek without asking whether that was OK. She was attending a press conference he gave at White Plains High School in June 2018. 'I smiled nervously afterward. I had to endure comments from people in attendance,' the woman, Susan Iannucci, told reporters at a virtual news conference in August. Iannucci, a school office manager, said she came forward because she was appalled to see Cuomo use a photo of the encounter in a compilation video that he released to argue that he commonly greeted people with kisses, touches and hugs 'to convey warmth.' Alvin Bragg, the new Manhattan district attorney, has dropped the investigation into Cuomo A nursing home resident is seen being taken to hospital in April 2020 in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. The Cobble Hill Health Center had reported 55 COVID deaths by April 18, 2020 Also on Monday, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced it will not file criminal charges in connection with Cuomo's handling of coronavirus deaths in New York. 'I was contacted today by the head of the Elder Care Unit from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office who informed me they have closed its investigation involving the Executive Chamber and nursing homes,' attorney Elkan Abramowitz said in a statement. 'I was told that after a thorough investigation - as we have said all along - there was no evidence to suggest that any laws were broken.' Cuomo was 'not fully transparent' on the number of COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes, state lawmakers said in November while summarizing the results of an investigation. The Manhattan DA's office has yet to comment on their decision, but Cuomo still faces probes from federal and New York state prosecutors over the 15,500 elderly care home residents killed by COVID during his watch. Nursing homes across the United States took in COVID-19 patients in the early weeks of the outbreak, a move critics say spread the sometimes fatal respiratory virus among some of the country's most vulnerable at a time when there was no vaccine. The issue dogged Cuomo in particular and helped spark a reassessment of his legacy. In the early stages of the pandemic, Cuomo's daily televised news briefings made him a national figure in the fight against COVID-19. But he eventually battled allegations, including from New York state's attorney general, that his office had significantly undercounted nursing home fatalities and implemented policies that may have boosted the death toll. In July, the U.S. Justice Department decided not to open a civil rights investigation into nursing homes in New York and two other states regarding their COVID-19 response. Cuomo resigned a little over four months ago when Attorney General Letitia James' reports accused him of sexual harassment and other transgressions. Rapper J $tash killed his girlfriend at their LA home, then turned the gun on himself while his victim's three young children were in another room, it is claimed. Police rushed to the home on the 9200 block of Pentland Street in Temple City, a suburb of Los Angeles, after responding to a domestic violence call at around 7a.m. on New Year's Day. They found the bodies of Jeanette Gallegos, 28, and J Stash, 28, whose legal name is Justin Joseph, inside the residence. J $tash and Gallegos, who was a recent graduate of California State University, were thought to have been in a relationship for the past year when the suspected murder suicide took place. Police said that the pair were having an argument before the rapper from Florida took his girlfriend into the master bedroom of their California home, before locking the door behind them. Lieutenant Derrick Alfred of LA PD added that Jeanette's three children, aged seven, nine, and 11, were in front of the room's door and kept on knocking on it as they were worried about their mother's safety. They then called their grandmother, who told them to dial 911. 'It's a very tragic situation,' he said. J $tash, 28, allegedly shot his one-year girlfriend Jeannette Gallegos, 28, in their Temple City home at around 7a.m. on January 1 before taking his own life Jeannette Gallegos with her three children aged seven, nine and 11, was a recent graduate from California State University One of Gallegos' three boys called 911 after being highly concerned for his mother's safety after she was caught in an argument with the rapper in their Temple City home The three children fled the home after one of them called 911. It's unclear if the call was made before or after she was shot. Deputies found the three boys running at them upon arrival at the scene. They did not suffer any physical injuries. Prior to her death, Gallegos and her kids were believed to live in the residence. J $tash, who previously lived in New York, had been staying at the Temple City home for a couple of months. The lieutenant added that the rapper is not the father of the children and that they are now staying with other family members. Autopsies for J $tash and Gallegos are schedules as investigators continue to work on what exactly led up to the gunfire. The murder-suicide took place at the 9200 block of Pentland Street in Temple City, where Gallegos and her children were living In a 2017 interview with Crack Magazine, the rapper detailed his musical style and that his experiences in Asia and meeting celebrities like Lil Wayne and Young Money at age 16 helped him create a name for himself in the industry. 'At the time Lil Wayne's number one assistant was like my mentor, he brought me into that world and let me experience it all. His name is Troy Bless and because of Troy I was able to be around Young Money and establish myself within that scene,' he said. 'At that time everyone was actually living at mine so it was a cool experience. I learned a lot from being around that crowd, the most important thing being to always be professional and always have a lawyer. That's all I can say.' He further told the magazine that he wanted to focus on 'building companies and opening up stores in different countries' aside from music. 'Of which I've been doing on the low secretly,' he added. 'Rapping was just platform to get myself out there and grow.' Political commentator Candace Owens slammed New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as 'bratty, immature and disgusting' after the Democratic socialist took to Twitter accusing critics of being sexually frustrated conservatives who want to sleep with her. 'I saw this and I actually couldnt believe my eyes,' Owens told Fox News host Tucker Carlson during an interview Monday. 'Its so bratty and so immature and its so disgusting to even think about.' She added: 'And let me just say in case theres any confusions. No, Sandy, I do not want to sleep with you.' Ocasio-Cortez was blasted on social media this weekend after she was spotted partying maskless in Miami Beach and enjoying cocktails and sushi with her boyfriend, Riley Roberts. Roberts wore a pair of Birkenstocks with bare feet, prompting jokes from Republicans, and subsequent backlash from AOC who accused conservative tweeter Steve Cortes of being sexually frustrated. She made a similar allegation in another tweet sent separately. The congresswoman hit back on New Year's Day claiming that the backlash came purely because her critics 'want to date her' and are 'ignoring the very obvious, strange, and deranged sexual frustrations' that have them fixated on her. However, her comments did not resound well with conservatives, especially Owens who believes the representative was likely intoxicated when she sent her tweets. Candace Owens (right) slammed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as 'bratty, immature and disgusting' on Tucker Carlson's show (left) Monday night after the congresswoman took to Twitter accusing her critics of being sexually frustrated and wanting to sleep with her 'I think alcohol loosens your inhibitions and I think that she was about ten margaritas deep in Miami enjoying the free state of Florida and she wrote something that was honestly just filth,' Owens said. 'I tried to create a sober analysis of what made her tweet that, and by the way, it got worse.' 'She had a tweet that said there are sexual frustrations that underpin Republicans critiques of me, their fixation on me, so shes really actually creating a sexual narrative,' the political commentator added. Owens called the social media posts 'bizarre and immature,' questioning how anyone that 'wants to be taken seriously as an adult' could respond to criticism that way. 'How bizarre and immature is it for any person...to look at a fair critique of them as an elected official who has been barking about how Florida is doing every thing wrong, how bad Ron DeSantis is, to see this critique and to offer back well, you know what, you just want to sleep with me.' Owens called Ocasio-Cortez's social media posts (pictured above) 'bizarre and immature,' questioning how anyone that ' wants to be taken seriously as an adult' could respond to criticism that way She also compared Ocasio-Cortez's behavior to that of a 'teenage boy who derives sexual innuendoes from everything' and alleged she has the 'mind of a middle-schooler'. 'This is a 32-year-old woman. It's unacceptable quite frankly,' Owens said. 'And, it is hilarious, but it's actually unacceptable that she is an elected official that sits in Congress.' The Democratic socialist representative sent her controversial tweets on Sunday after she was first accused by many of 'frolicking in free Florida' while her home state enforced mask mandates, after her Miami lunch date with her boyfriend on December 30. 'AOC is STILL lounging it up in Florida, in large crowds and maskless. This time at a Drag Queen bar in Miami. Rules for thee but not for me,' wrote right wing journalist Brendon Leslie. Owens (left) said although has routinely criticized Ocasio-Cortez (right), she was not interested in dating her. Owens said: 'And let me just say in case theres any confusions. No, Sandy, I do not want to sleep with you' 'For those of you with zero sense of humor: the whole point of this post is to expose hypocrisy. We dont actually care shes maskless. We care she fear mongers about Florida but then has the audacity to vacation here,' he added. 'AOC was spotted partying in a bar maskless in the great free state of Florida. Absolute hypocrite,' tweeted Twitter account Libs of TikTok. Hitting back, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: 'If Republicans are mad they can't date me they can just say that instead of projecting their sexual frustrations onto my boyfriend's feet. Ya creepy weirdos.' 'It's starting to get old ignoring the very obvious, strange, and deranged sexual frustrations that underpin the Republican fixation on me, women,& LGBT+ people in general.' She added: 'These people clearly need therapy, won't do it, and use politics as their outlet instead. It's really weird.' Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was spotted partying in Miami on Sunday without a face mask. Actor, Billy Porter, can be seen in drag, in a red jacket and dress as he hosted the brunch AOC became the focus of the brunch after being spotted at by the presenter The New York congresswoman appeared to be continuing her new year's vacation in the Sunshine State at a packed drag bar. She and Porter put their arms around one another to take a selfie together Days earlier, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was pictured raising a class over sushi with her boyfriend, Riley Roberts while vacationing in Miami In addition to her lunch outing with Roberts, the congresswoman - who has long been an advocate for mask-wearing during the pandemic - faced criticisms after was spotted partying in Miami on Sunday without a face covering as she socialized with actor Billy Porter. Video posted to social media showed her waving to other bargoers to cheers and applause while being introduced on stage by the MC of the 'drag brunch' event. The compere could be heard lauding the politician, eliciting wild cheers from gathered diners. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis indirectly blasted the congresswoman Monday, telling reporters many of the so-called 'lockdown politicians' have been vacationing in restriction-free Florida during the pandemic despite pushing for mask and vaccine mandates in their own states. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (pictured Monday) indirectly blasted the congresswoman Monday, telling reporters many of the so-called 'lockdown politicians' have been vacationing in restriction-free Florida during the pandemic despite pushing for mask and vaccine mandates in their own states 'If I had a dollar for every lockdown politician that decided to escape to Florida over the last two years, I'd be a pretty doggone wealthy man,' Gov. DeSantis. 'Congresspeople, mayors, governors, you name it. Some of its been public, some of it has not been public.' The governor suggested the politicians were hypocrites, saying: 'I think a lot of Floridians will say "wait a minute, you're bashing us because we're not doing your draconian policies and yet we're the first place you want to flee to...to be able to enjoy life."' 'I am happy though that Florida is a place where people know they can come, they can live like normal people and they can make their own decisions.' Most of Australia's sickest Covid-19 patients have the Delta variant and not the rapidly spreading Omicron strain, data from inside the nation's hospitals shows. Australia reported 47,738 new Covid cases on Tuesday, smashing the previous day's national record of 38,000. While most of these recent cases are of the Omicron variant, evidence shows the majority of Covid patients in ICU have the Delta variant. In New South Wales, 74 per cent of patients admitted to ICU since December 16 and where the variant is known, have the Delta strain. Australia-wide there are 185 people in ICU with Covid out of 254,189 active cases - or 0.07 percent. Of those ICU patients with Delta, 62 per cent are either no vaccinated or only had one dose. The majority of Australia's 184 Covid patients in ICU have the Delta variant, Australian deputy chief medical officer Sonya Bennett told reporters on Tuesday (pictured ICU staff at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital Hospitalisations across the country have 'almost doubled' in the last week to 2362 admissions, including 184 in ICU, up from 135 seven days ago. 'There's some early evidence that the majority of people in critical care have the Delta variant, particularly in jurisdictions such as Victoria,' ,Australian deputy chief medical officer Sonya Bennett said on Tuesday. 'There still remains a significant proportion [of people in ICU] that aren't fully vaccinated and/or they have other serious illnesses or comorbidities.' 'There's also interesting evidence that in a lot of people have gone to hospital for another reason and tested positive for Covid. That's not surprising, given the sheer number of cases we're seeing in the community.' Of the 184 patients in ICU, 51 are on a ventilator, a rate Dr Bennett declared as 'steady'. She acknowledged Omicron is rapidly spreading at a level not seen in Australia during the pandemic until now. Australia has reported 47,738 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours with almost half of them in NSW (pictured, the Bondi testing clinic on Tuesday) 'We do know the Omicron variant is inherently, in itself, a less severe virus,' Dr Bennett said. 'But it's also part of the outcome of our excellent vaccination coverage ... that we're really seeing limited severe disease despite those significant case numbers.' 'But talking about those significant case numbers, they do continue to rise. 'They are large numbers that we have never before seen in Australia. 'I think at this point we all know somebody who has either got COVID or we have got co-workers off work because they are quarantining or isolating or had events cancelled. Dr Bennett's comments come after a detailed analysis of NSW patients admitted to ICU since December 16, which revealed almost three quarters had the previous dominant Delta variant. 'Among patients in NSW ICUs where the variant is known, since December 16 around 74 per cent of patients are known to have the Delta variant,' a NSW Health spokesman said. 'Importantly, more than 62 per cent of those patients with the Delta variant were not vaccinated or had one dose of vaccine.' With genomic sequencing impossible to undertake for all new cases, NSW Health is prioritising sequencing for patients in ICU to understand the impact of both the Delta and Omicron variants, the spokesperson added. Dr Sonya Bennett (pictured speaking to reporters) acknowledged Omicron is rapidly spreading at a level not seen in Australia during the pandemic until now NSW health minister Brad Hazzard hopes the figures are a sobering wake-up call for the five per cent of the state's population who aren't vaccinated. 'The big message which should be very clear to the unvaccinated is that three-quarters of people suffering Delta in our ICUs are unvaccinated,' he said. 'The fact that we still have three-quarters of people in ICU who are very sick with Delta shows us that Delta is still around. He also warned Omicron may start showing up in more ICU admissions. 'In the next few weeks as Omicron moves through the community like the tsunami that has gone through the rest of the world, it may be that we see more Omicron-positive people in ICU as well,' Mr Hazzard said. Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Victorian health department for a breakdown of the state's ICU figures. Victoria saw its daily record almost double in just one day with 14,020 new infections on Tuesday (pictured, a testing site at Albert Park) But experts claim Delta remains the dominant variant in ICU admissions across Victoria, too. 'The story of Omicron is playing in what we see as case numbers (but) we have Delta which is still most visible in hospital numbers,' Deakin University chair in epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett said earlier this week. 'We had 83 people in ICU by mid-December before we had any Omicron. 'Hospitalisations are probably telling us that Delta is still circulating in the community.' She said it remains unclear if the surge in Omicron cases would overwhelm the health system. 'It still looks likely it will be manageable,' she added. The NSW health minister has warned Omicron may start showing up in more ICU admissions (pictured, Sydneysiders queuing for a PCR test on Tuesday) NSW recorded 23,131 new Covid cases and two deaths on Tuesday while Victoria's cases exploded by almost double to a record high of 14,020 new infections. Hospital admissions jumped from 1,204 to 1,344 in NSW while a further 10 patients were admitted to ICU overnight bringing the total to 105. There are currently 516 people in Victorian hospitals - up from 491 on Monday - with the number of active ICU admissions at 56 patients. The ACT and Tasmania also smashed daily infection records, registering 926 and 702 cases respectively. Queensland recorded 5669 new cases, while South Australia had 3246 and 75 were detected in the Northern Territory. Australia has now recorded more than half a million Covid cases, almost two years after reporting its first case in January 2020. Prime Minister Scott Morrison will call for nationwide definition of Covid hospitalisations at Wednesday's national cabinet. The TikToker who pretended to predict New South Wales' lockdown case numbers and led an anti-lockdown rally before himself contracting the virus has travelled to America to ask what locals think of Australia's Covid policies. Jon-Bernard Kairouz, a self-described comedian from Sydney's west, headed to the USA following the dropping of international borders and posted a series of videos to social media asking Texans about Australia's handling of the pandemic. 'In and out of lockdown, no one's free there. I wouldn't go there and I think everyone that can should get the hell out,' one American said to Kairouz. Jon-Bernard Kairouz headed to the USA and posted a series of videos to social media asking Texans about Australia's handling of the pandemic - including this man sporting a 'Guns, Whiskey, Steak and Freedom' T-shirt The TikToker shot to fame during Sydney's three-month lockdown, correctly 'guessing' the number of new cases each day. It turned out he had been getting the figures from a source within NSW Health, who was then set-up by people within the department following repeated leaks of information. Kairouz then infamously was seen at the 3,000-strong rally against lockdowns that marched through Sydney's CBD on July 24, speaking to those in attendance through a microphone and encouraging they continue to fight the government mandates. The self-appointed 'people's Premier' is charged with two counts of not complying with noticed direction (Covid-19) and encouraging commission of a crime. He will face court this year. He ended up being infected with Covid himself following the protest, fighting for his life with the virus in hospital while he dad was admitted to intensive care. Kairouz then infamously was seen at the 3,000-strong rally against lockdowns that marched through Sydney's CBD on July 24 The 'comedian' took particular issue with the daily reporting of Covid cases, asking Texans on the street if they knew how many infections had been recorded in their state that day. 'We count our cases every day in Australia, do you know how many cases were today in Texas? he probed a local. After he said no, Kairouz said: 'I didn't think many would know, it seems like no one cares around here.' Kairouz asks a Texan if he thinks Australia has appropriately handled the pandemic and if he was aware of case numbers within his own state AMERICA VS AUSTRALIA: COVID IN NUMBERS Cases: Australia: 547,162 USA: 56,131,187 Texas: 4,767,804 Deaths: Australia: 2,202 USA: 826,885 Texas: 76,201 Advertisement Other Americans, including some wearing shirts covered in guns, repeated the idea Australia is currently living under an 'oppressive leadership' and said they needed to take their country back. 'It's not right, people need to be able to choose,' one Texan replied. 'It's not good, not good at all man. They need to take it back,' said another. Commenters were less receptive to the comments from Kairouz and his American allies, saying they preferred to live with lockdowns than legal gun ownership. ''No one's free' = literally wearing a guns shirt. I'd rather be in lockdown then fear a shooting when I go shopping or to school,' a TikTok user savaged. 'Take their effing gun riddled country and tell them to p*ss off,' another wrote. Texas alone recorded 164,902 new Covid infections on Monday, with the state currently seeing 22 per cent of tests return a positive result. Australia saw a record 47,799 total on Tuesday. Texas has a population of 29 million, while Australia is just under 26million, meaning the American state has recorded 115,000 more cases than Australia with a slightly higher number of residents. Some off the nation's most loved barbecue classics could be off the Australia Day menu due to the latest Covid-19 crisis, as meat companies warn of crippling shortages within weeks. Australia could experience a nationwide shortage of meat favourites such as lamb in the next two weeks with supermarket shelves already being stripped bare. Hundreds of meat workers have been plunged into isolation as the Omicron variant sweeps across the nation, smashing daily infection records, with as many as 70 per cent of workers not being able to go to some factories and farms. The peak industry body is calling for meat workers to get rapid antigen testing priority to keep them working or face a nationwide meat shortage in the next two weeks. An Aussie barbecue could be off the menu on Australia Day due to a national meat shortage caused by Covid (stock image) 'This is an emergency as of now,' Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson told Seven News. 'We're now seeing a large amount of meat workers who actually can't get to work. 'There's hundreds and hundreds of staff up and down the eastern seaboard, certainly Queensland, NSW and VIC who aren't able to get to work at this stage.' He admitted there may be no lamb by Australia Day. 'That's a real possibility unless we get the settings right,' he replied. 'I'm actually concerned we will have a shortage because we just won't have the people on site over the next month to six weeks to be able to process anything.' AMIC also called for urgent guarantees are put in place to shore up meat production and supply capacity. Shortages of meat on supermarket shelves haven't gone unnoticed by disappointed customers (pictured, a Coles on Queensland's Sunshine Coast 'In what is already a hugely challenging meat supply landscape, with record high livestock prices and labour shortages due to Covid border closures, we are hearing that multiple meat processing establishments are now having to temporarily shut their doors or operate at very low capacities due to the Omicron surge', Mr Hutchinson said in a statement. 'We are experiencing an unprecedented wave of staffing unpredictability. 'As COVID spreads in the community, our industry workers are unable to present for work for at least seven days should someone in their family or household test positive, under the current national COVID protocol.' 'In some instances, we are hearing that under 30 percent of rostered workers have presented for work.' Major supermarkets Woolworths and Coles say the stock is often there but have also been hampered by high absentee rates among retail staff and distribution workers due to to Covid. The surge of Covid-19 cases continues to cause widespread chaos, despite the national cabinet amending the definition of close contacts to ease isolation rules. The rules have also been overhauled for positive Covid cases, who only have to isolate for a week if they have no symptoms on day seven. Bare meat shelves have become the new norm at this Coles store on the Sunshine Coast, according to shopper Jett Woolworths says its shortage of produce such as meat is due to a logistical issue rather than a supply issue. 'The pandemic has delivered many challenges over the past two years and will continue to do so as we move into this next phase,' a spokesman told Daily Mail Australia. 'We're currently experiencing delays with some of our stock deliveries to stores due to Covid-related impacts on our supply chain operations. 'We have stock available within our network and our teams and suppliers are doing all they can to replenish stores as quickly as possible.' 'We thank our customers for their patience and apologise for the inconvenience.' Daily Mail Australia also contacted Coles for comment. Retailers Association' spokesperson Fleur Brown expects the supply chain issues will continue for at least 12 months. 'However, they are critical at the moment,' she said. 'They will ease a little as we get over the Omicron curve.' This Woolworths on Sydney's north shore had limited fresh produce and meat in stock earlier this week Meat shortages have already been noticed across the country by disappointed shoppers, who have uploaded photos of bare shelves to social media. 'Same Coles on different days during the last 2 to 3 weeks, Sunshine Coast. Anyone else noticing that this is becoming a normal thing? Empty shelves in some parts also,' one Queenslander tweeted. Many stores have also been stripped bare of fresh produce. 'Hey, Woolworths, pretty disappointing shop yesterday at Gordon #nofreshfood,' a customer on Sydney's north shore captioned his pics. A Coles shopper added: 'Was in Coles in regional Queensland and shelves are starting to empty, fresh produce is minimal. There is something happening.' One of the largest festivals in Australia is in severe doubt after dozens of top artists pulled out due to a hefty donation from the Israeli government. The Sydney Festival, which attracts some of the country's biggest names in art, comedy and music, has seen more than 20 personalities drop out after receiving a $20,000 donation from the Israeli embassy in Canberra. Many artists, including Tom Ballard and Yumi Stynes, have withdrawn from the event to show their support for the Palestinian people after campaigners accused the festival of 'art wash'. 'I love the Festival and I love telling jokes, but standing up for human rights and standing against a system of apartheid is more important,' Ballard posted to Twitter. The Sydney Festival, which attracts some of the country's biggest names in art, comedy and music, has seen more than 20 personalities drop out The personalities quit after the event took a $20,000 donation from the Israeli embassy in Canberra Sydney Festival said they have been forced to drop 10 events due to the boycotts, but 118 are still set to go ahead as normal. They say they have only received a 'very small' number of refund requests over the sponsorship with Israel. Several comedians and bands quickly withdrew their support after the donation was made public, with Nazeem Hussain joining Ballard and Stynes in stepping down. Good Morning, a musical group from Melbourne, revealed in a statement they were also quitting the festival. 'We stand with the Palestinian people and with the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement,' they said. Karate Boogaloo said they would not participate in Sydney Fest because of the 'human rights abusing regime that is the Israeli government'. Several comedians and bands quickly withdrew their support after the donation was made public, with Nazeem Hussain (pictured right) joining Ballard (left) and Stynes in stepping down Yumi Stynes (pictured) was supposed to attend a talk on misogyny but has also withdrawn BDS Australia wrote to the director of the Sydney Festival last month, calling on them to distance themselves from the 'apartheid' committed by Israel on Palestine until the nation is 'free'. 'Israel funds cultural events and ambassadors to 'art-wash' the human rights violations it perpetrates against the Palestinians by presenting itself as a normal 'democracy' and one which can be accepted internationally, despite its ongoing grave violations of human rights and international law,' the group wrote to festival organisers. They met with senior members of Sydney Fest following the writing of the letter. The chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission, Dr Dvir Abramovich, dismissed the calls from BDS Australia, saying the their response was a sign of anti-Semitism. 'I call on the Sydney Festival to push back against this act which is a thinly-veiled anti-Semitic slow-acting poison and to declare that they will stand strong against the BDS,' said. 'The Sydney Festival is an event that celebrates the principles of open conversation, equality of participation and freedom of expression, and must never succumb to the aggressive pressure tactics of intimidation.' Sydney Festival (pictured in 2010) is one of the biggest events in Australia and celebrates all sectors of the arts The festival's chairman David Kirk responded to the controversy around the sponsorship in a statement on Tuesday, saying they 'welcomed the opportunity' to discuss the issue with the artists boycotting. 'We see it as the core role of the Sydney Festival to present art and to provide an inclusive platform for all artists,' he said. 'We respect the right of any artist to withdraw from the Festival and hope that they will feel able to participate in future festivals. 'All funding agreements for the current Festival including for Decadance will be honoured, and the performances will proceed. 'At the same time, the board has also determined it will review its practices in relation to funding from foreign governments or related parties.' Advertisement Up to 60 per cent of people in England have still never had Covid, suggest estimates made by top scientists who have advised ministers throughout the pandemic. Cambridge University researchers believe 23.3million infections had truly occurred by December 17, out of a total population of roughly 56million. Yet the academics behind the projections admit their work had yet to reflect Omicron, meaning the actual figure will be much higher given how quickly the ultra-infectious variant was spreading over the Christmas and New Year period. Experts today insisted the figure was a 'good' estimate but said they wouldn't be surprised if the real toll was in the region of 30million. Official testing statistics show only 11.3million 'cases' have been recorded across the country since the pandemic began, including roughly 2million over the past fortnight. The figure is just a fraction of the actual toll, however, because the Government's official toll only includes people who have swabbed positive. Millions who have caught the virus will have never been tested. The Government daily Covid case data does not reflect the actual spread of the virus, but it does lay bare just how badly some areas of the country have been hit, with a quarter of people living in Knowsley in Merseyside and Blackburn with Darwen having tested positive since January 2020. Similarly-high rates have been seen across swathes of the north, in places such as Salford and Burnley as well as the other Merseyside boroughs of St Helens and Halton. Only two of the 10 worst-hit areas are outside of Lancashire and Merseyside: Thurrock and Harlow, both in Essex The number of daily positive Covid tests recorded in England has exceeded 100,000 for nearly two weeks. However, the number of patients in hospital with the virus is a fraction of the level seen last winter, while deaths remain flat More than 11million people in England have tested positive since the pandemic began, but experts believe the number of individuals who have been infected with the virus is more than double that figure. UKHSA bosses say between a third and half of all infections are recorded because a significant number of people won't ever display any symptoms that warrant a swab. Others suffer cold-like complaints that they disregard or purposely avoid being tested Even Prof 'Lockdown' admits Omicron may be plateauing One of the Government's gloomiest advisers today became the latest expert to admit that London's Omicron outbreak may have already peaked as pressure grew on Boris Johnson to stop the 'farcical' self-isolation crisis that threatens to paralyse the nation. At least half a dozen NHS trusts across England have said they may be unable to deliver vital care to patients in the coming weeks while train operators and bin collection services around the country are having to cancel services because so many staff are off isolating. There is growing anger among backbench Tory MPs and business leaders that the nation is being ground to a halt by a Covid variant that a mountain of evidence has shown is much milder than previous strains and causes little or no symptoms for the overwhelming majority. And the normally-pessimistic Professor Lockdown Neil Ferguson - a key No10 adviser whose modelling has bounced the country into previous lockdowns - claimed infections were plateauing in Omicron hotspot London and could start to fall nationally in just a week. No10 has so far resisted calls from a growing number of experts and politicians to slash the current self-isolation period to just five days and bring the nation in line with the US and France. Ministers have also been told to draw up plans to use the Army to stop the New Year return to work descending into chaos. Tory MP Craig Mackinlay told MailOnline that slashing the isolation period from a week could be 'the answer' to England's self-isolation misery. 'We're almost facing a semi-lockdown because of people being off work who are perfectly well. You couldn't make that up,' he said. 'The US must have done a lot of work on it... and they have come up with five days as the answer. Perhaps it is.' Advertisement Cambridge academics offer regular estimates on the state of England's coronavirus crisis, detailing the levels of infections and deaths to the R rate. The team's mathematical calculations known as a 'nowcast' is all based on modelling, using an array of official data to reflect constantly changing trends. It originally estimated that Covid's overall infection-fatality ratio (IFR) was roughly 1.5 per cent towards the start of the pandemic, before the advent of vaccines and build-up of immunity. The projection was in line with other major analyses and also concluded the mortality risk to over-75s was around 20 per cent, illustrating clearly how the virus poses the greatest threat to the elderly. Vaccines have, however, drastically changed the course of the pandemic. Just one in 400 people (0.25 per cent) infected with Covid will now die, according to the nowcast team's most up-to-date estimate published days before Christmas. The IFR has stayed around this level since July, by which time nearly 30million people were already fully vaccinated. It means approximately 7million people across England were infected during the second half of 2021, if the team's modelling is correct. And the Cambridge University group's modelling would suggest that around 5million caught the virus during the first wave in spring 2020 and a similar amount in the devastating second surge that peaked last January. The other 6million-or-so infections occurred inbetween the waves, including in the summer and autumn of 2020 before the Alpha variant triggered a third national lockdown. But the team, headed up by statistician Dr Paul Birrell, admit their own calculations don't offer a clear picture of just how rapidly Omicron has taken off in England. This is because they only offer a situation report as of December 17, and more than 1.7million confirmed cases of Covid have been detected since then. The Cambridge calculations also suggest approximately 900,000 total infections occurred between December 1 and 17. For comparison, 800,000 were logged by the UK Health Security Agency. But the daily cases number, published every day on the Government's dashboard, is a huge underestimate of the actual figure. UKHSA bosses say between a third and half of all infections are recorded because a significant number of people won't ever display any symptoms that warrant a swab. Others suffer cold-like complaints that they disregard or purposely avoid being tested. For this reason, the total number of positive tests around 11.4million in England alone doesn't reflect the actual spread of the virus. The figures do, however, lay bare just how badly some areas of the country have been hit, with a quarter of people living in Knowsley in Merseyside and Blackburn with Darwen having tested positive since January 2020. Similarly-high rates have been seen across swathes of the north, in places such as Salford and Burnley as well as the other Merseyside boroughs of St Helens and Halton. Only two of the 10 worst-hit areas are outside of Lancashire and Merseyside: Thurrock and Harlow, both in Essex. Leading Oxford vaccine expert warns giving regular boosters is 'not sustainable' Britain shouldn't start rolling out fourth Covid vaccines until there is more evidence they are even needed, one of the country's top experts claimed today. Sir Andrew Pollard, chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which advises No10, said administering booster vaccines to everyone every six months was 'not sustainable'. He said future immunisation drives should target the most vulnerable, rather than all adults. Israel has already approved fourth doses for over-60s, while German health officials have warned a second booster will be required to manage Omicron. The UK last month ordered 114million more Pfizer and Moderna doses over the next two years to 'future-proof' the vaccination drive, but it is not yet clear how these will be used. Sir Andrew, who previously insisted boosters might not be needed, said: 'The future must be focusing on the vulnerable and making boosters or treatments available to them to protect them.' Advertisement Professor Paul Hunter, an an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, said England definitely 'missed a lot of infections in the first wave because of a failure to ramp up testing quickly enough'. Subsequent antibody tests underestimated just how many people were previously infected because not everyone produces the virus-fighting proteins after catching the virus, he added. Professor Hunter said the weekly Office for National Statistics infection survey based on random testing of tens of thousands of Britons 'is probably the best source' of data for Covid incidence rates, and that these are slightly more than double the number of daily confirmed positive tests. So even the 23.3million estimate is likely on the low side, Professor Hunter cautioned. He said he would guess the real number to be 'closer to 30million'. Professor Kevin McConway, a statistician at the Open University, said the Cambridge University work was 'probably a good estimate' of the true scale of Britain's Covid epidemic. He told MailOnline modelling always 'depends on assumptions that are unlikely to be exactly correct', adding that the team's figure will have inevitably gone up since December 17. The official tally does, however, only count people once whereas estimates made by the Cambridge academics are thought to include potential reinfections. It is near-impossible to work out the true spread of the virus using daily case numbers because of how testing has changed throughout the pandemic. During the first wave of the pandemic, ministers were criticised for the lacklustre testing drive which saw health chiefs ration tests to just patients and key workers. Levels then started to ramp up to paint a more accurate picture on the true state of the crisis, but still missed millions of infections. Two explosive-laden drones heading for a base housing US troops in Iraq have been shot down - a day after similar devices with 'Soleimani's revenge' written on their wings were intercepted over Baghdad. The drones were shot down on Tuesday by Iraq's air defenses as they approached the Ain al-Asad air base, which hosts U.S. forces, west of Baghdad. It is the second such attempted attack coinciding with the anniversary of the 2020 Trump-ordered US air strike that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad airport. On Monday, two armed drones were shot down as they headed toward a facility housing US advisers at the same airport. Pictured: Parts of the wreckage of a drone are laid out on the ground near the Ain al-Asad airbase, in the western Anbar province of Iraq, Tuesday, January 4, 2022 Officials said two explosives-laden drones targeting an Iraqi military base housing US troops in western Anbar province have been destroyed According to the official, the fixed-wing drones rigged with explosives were engaged and destroyed by defensive capabilities at the Ain al-Asad airbase. An Iraqi military statement confirmed the attempted attack, saying the drones were shot down outside the parameters of the base. The facility houses troops with the US-led international coalition fighting the so-called Islamic State group (IS) in Iraq. In Monday's attack, the drones were shot down by the C-RAM defence system that protects American installations in Iraq, and there were no reports of damage or injuries from the incident. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, although one of the wings of the drones had the words 'Soleimani's revenge' painted on it, according to the coalition and Iraqi officials. 'These are attacks against Iraqi installations and an attack against the Iraqi people and the military that protects them,' a coalition official said. 'We maintain a minimal footprint on Iraqi bases. The coalition no longer has its own bases in Iraq.' Hackers also hijacked media in Iran's sworn enemy country, Israel, with an ominous image of a missile being fired from a finger with a ring like Soleimani used to wear appearing on the homepage of the Jerusalem Post. The 2020 US drone strike at Baghdad's airport killed Gen Qassim Soleimani, who was the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces. Pro-Iran Shia factions in Iraq have vowed revenge over the killing and have conditioned the end of attacks against the US presence in Iraq on the full exit of American troops from the country. People cheer as they attend in a hall in a school in Lebanon's capital Beirut on January 3, 2022 a televised speech by the head of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah during a memorial service marking the second anniversary of a US drone strike that killed the top commander of the Iranian revolutionary guard corps (IRGC) Qasem Soleimani A woman holds up an illustration of a portrait of Qasem Soleimani, the slain top commander of the Iranian revolutionary guard corps (IRGC), during a memorial service marking the second anniversary of his death alongside Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US raid, at a hall in a school in the southern suburb of Lebanon's capital Beirut on January 3, 2022 Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi delivers a speech during a ceremony in the capital Tehran, on January 3 commemorating the second anniversary of the killing in Iraq of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani The US-led coalition formally ended its combat mission supporting Iraqi forces in the ongoing fight against IS last month. Some 2,500 troops will remain as the coalition shifts to an advisory mission to continue supporting Iraqi forces. 'While we have ended our combat mission, we maintain the inherent right of self-defence,' the coalition official said. Soleimani was killed on January 3 2021, in a drone strike near Baghdad airport ordered by then-U.S. president Donald Trump. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday that Trump must face trial for the killing or Tehran would take revenge. Raisi issued the vengeful diatribe on the second anniversary of Soleimani's death as thousands gathered for memorial services at mosques in Iran and allied countries across the Middle East. Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the shadowy operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, with links to jihadists in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Syria and Yemen. The commander was blown up in his motorcade by a Reaper drone missile outside Baghdad airport in 2020 in a strike ordered by Trump after intelligence revealed Soleimani was planning attacks on American soldiers in Iraq. Addressing Tehran's largest mosque, Raisi said: 'The aggressor and the main assassin, the then president of the United States, must face justice and retribution' alongside former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo 'and other criminals'. 'Otherwise, I will tell all US leaders that without a doubt the hand of revenge will emerge from the sleeve of the Muslim nation.' A soldier inspects the wreckage after the drone targeting US forces at Baghdad airport was shot down this morning Scrawled in Arabic across one of the wings of the drones shot down this morning was the message 'Soleimani's revenge' Soleimani (pictured in 2013) headed the Quds Force, the shadowy operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, with links to jihadists in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Syria and Yemen The commander was blown up in his motorcade by a Reaper drone missile outside Baghdad airport in 2020 in a strike ordered by Trump (pictured in July) after intelligence revealed Soleimani was planning attacks on American soldiers in Iraq Iranians take part in a ceremony marking the the second death anniversary of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Lieutenant general and commander of the Quds Force Qasem Soleimani at the Mosallah Mosque in Tehran The wreckage of a drone is seen at Baghdad airport, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. Two armed drones were shot down at the Baghdad airport on Monday, a U.S.-led coalition official said, Terrorist general with the blood of THOUSANDS on his hands Qassem Soleimani was one of the most popular figures in Iran and seen as a deadly adversary by America and its allies. The 62-year-old head of the Quds, or Jerusalem, Force of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Soleimani shaped Tehran's foreign policy throughout the Middle East. US officials say the Guard under Soleimani taught Iraqi militants how to manufacture and use especially deadly roadside bombs against US troops after the invasion of Iraq. Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution swept the shah from power and Soleimani joined the Revolutionary Guard in its wake. He deployed to Iran's northwest with forces that put down Kurdish unrest following the revolution. In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran and began the two countries long, bloody eight-year war. Soleimani became known for his opposition to 'meaningless deaths' on the battlefield, while still weeping at times with fervor when exhorting his men into combat, embracing each individually. Soleimani's charisma propelled him to the senior officer ranks. In 1998, he was named commander of the Quds Force. His profile rose suddenly when he was pushed forward as the public face of Iran's intervention in the Syrian conflict from 2013, appearing in battlefield photos, documentaries - and even being featured in a music video and animated film. Western leaders saw him as central to Iran's ties with militia groups including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas. Advertisement Trump - under whom tensions over Iran's nuclear programme escalated, leading to a new and painful sanctions regime - ordered the assassination which brought the enemies to the brink of a direct military confrontation. Washington said at the time that Soleimani was planning imminent action against US personnel in Iraq, a war-battered country long torn between principal allies Washington and Tehran. The January 3, 2020 US strike killed Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy leader of the Iran-backed Hashed al-Shaabi coalition of armed groups. The night-time strike ordered by Trump struck a convoy in which Soleimani and Muhandis were travelling on the edge of the airport. Soleimani, commonly known as the second-most powerful man in Iran and tipped as a future president, was so badly maimed in the strike that he had to be identified by a large ring he wore on his finger. He had just landed in Baghdad airport on a plane from either Syria or Lebanon around 12.30am when he was met on the tarmac by Muhandis, deputy commander of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq. Muhandis pulled up to the aircraft steps in two cars before Soleimani and Mohammed Ridha Jabri, public relations chief for the PMF who had been traveling with him, climbed inside and were driven away. Moments later, as the cars passed through a cargo area headed for an access road leading out of the airport, the convoy was struck by missiles fired by an MQ-9 Reaper drone - a deadly unmanned aircraft that is designed primarily for offensive strikes. Both vehicles were instantly reduced to smoldering wrecks - killing Soleimani, Muhandis and three others. Iran responded days later by firing missiles at bases hosting US troops in Iraq. No one was killed but Washington said dozens suffered traumatic brain injuries. Amid the heightened tensions Iran also accidentally downed a Ukrainian passenger jet on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 people aboard. Soleimani's funeral drew millions, and his martyr's portrait can now be seen on streets, in squares and on buildings from Tehran to southern Lebanon and Gaza. Mourners, including members of Iraq's al-Hashed al-Shaabi ex-paramilitary alliance, take part in a symbolic funeral procession towards the tomb of slain Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in the central holy shrine city of Najaf, on Monday, with photos of Al-Muhandis (right) and Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani (left) held aloft Yemeni Huthis supporters attend a vigil commemorating the second anniversary of the killing in Iraq of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani (potrait) and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US raid, in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on January 3 Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Lieutenant general and commander of the Quds Force Qassem Soleimani Instead of displaying a main news page, the website showed an illustration that appeared to recall top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani who was assassinated Commemorations were held this year across Iran as well as at Baghdad airport, in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Najaf, in Gaza City and elsewhere. Before dawn on Monday, two armed drones targeted a Baghdad airport site used by the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group. 'Two fixed-wing suicide drones, or improvised cruise missiles, attempted to attack Baghdad Airport this morning at approximately 4:30 am' (0130 GMT), a coalition official told AFP in the Iraqi capital. A counter-rocket, artillery and mortar, or C-RAM, system 'engaged them and they were shot down without incident,' added the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Photos obtained by AFP from the coalition official show remains of one of the drones, with the message 'commanders' revenge operations' written on it. The drone after being shot down following an attempted attack on a compound at Baghdad airport in the early hours of Monday The aftermath of the deadly Reaper drone strike on Soleimani's convoy outside Baghdad airport The death of Soleimani (left), a figure deeply ingrained in the Iranian regime who many had assumed would be the country's next leader, brought Iran and America to the brink of all-out war. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis had been instrumental in leading attacks on the US embassy (pictured right, outside the building) A massive funeral with thousands all dressed in black lined the streets of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani's hometown of Kerman in Iran in January 2020 Hackers also attacked media in Iran's other sworn enemy country, Israel, with a threatening message that appeared linked to the Soleimani killing. The website of the English-language Jerusalem Post and the Twitter account of Hebrew-language Maariv were taken over with a picture of a fist firing a shell out of a ring with a red stone, like one Soleimani used to wear. The Jerusalem Post said its website was hacked to feature an image of a model of Israel's Dimona nuclear facility being blown up, along with the message 'we are close to you where you do not think about it' in English and Hebrew. Israel fears Iran's nuclear programme aims to acquire weapons to harm the Jewish state, and the two countries regularly issue hints threatening strikes against one another. In the Palestinian coastal enclave of Gaza, a ceremony was also held Monday to commemorate the second anniversary of the killings. Later Monday the leader of Lebanon's Iranian backed Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah, was also due to speak. Britons were today urged to come forward to get their Covid booster vaccines amid fears uptake has stalled over the festive period. Official data shows the number of people getting boosted fell to just over 100,000 on Sunday, the latest day for which vaccine information is available, This is compared to highs of over 900,000 before Christmas which saw desperate adults struggle to get appointments. Whitehall insiders claim up to 2million jab appointments are still available this week. Asked about the current situation today, vaccine minister Maggie Throup blamed the low take-up on the public holidays. 'We can't vaccinate the planet every six months': Oxford vaccine expert warns Britons shouldn't be offered a fourth Covid jab until there is more evidence, the head of the country's vaccine body has claimed. Sir Andrew Pollard, chairperson of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said giving boosters to people every six months was 'not sustainable'. He said future vaccination drives should target the most vulnerable rather than offering top-up doses to all over-12s. Germany and Israel have already approved a second booster jab for all over-60s. But the top scientist said: 'The future must be focusing on the vulnerable and making boosters or treatments available to them to protect them. 'We know that people have strong antibodies for a few months after their third vaccination, but more data are needed to assess whether, when and how often those who are vulnerable will need additional doses. 'We can't vaccinate the planet every four to six months. It's not sustainable or affordable. In the future, we need to target the vulnerable.' The professor, who was chief investigator of the Oxford Covid- 19 vaccine trials and director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, helped develop the AstraZeneca jab in 2020. Advertisement 'Weve just been through two weekends of bank holiday and I think thats quite clear that numbers will change as we move forward,' she told Times Radio. She also urged people to come forward for their booster, adding 'its never too late' to get the vaccine. No10 has repeatedly urged Britons to get their booster jabs with Boris Johnson and senior ministers making public appeals. The Prime Minister said boosters were critical for the country to stick to its current plan in dealing with Covid. The Government has already bragged that it it hit its target of offering third jabs to all eligible over-18s by New Year's Day,. But still only 59.5 per cent of adults have had all three doses. But the actual number of booster vaccines being dished out has drastically slowed, according to official figures. Just 240,000 top-up jabs are being dished out every day across the UK at present compared to highs of 875,000 in the week running up to Christmas. Daily figures dropped to as low as 10,000 on December 25 itself, however, because only a handful of vaccination centres were open. The slowing uptake comes as the latest figures show that 157,758 Covid cases were recorded yesterday, up 44.6 per cent on the week before. Rising case numbers could also be playing a role in the sluggish roll-out, as people need to wait 28 days after testing positive to be eligible for a jab. The importance of getting a booster was highlighted by a UK Health Security Agency Covid surveillance update last week. It revealed 608 out of 815 hospitalised patients struck down with the ultra-infectious variant were not triple-jabbed. A quarter were unvaccinated. On the current Covid situation, Ms Throup said the Government was keeping a close eye on data, particularly in regard to hospitalisations. 'We are looking at the data all the time with regards to hospitalisations people who have actually tested positive and also the number of people in the high dependency units as well. 'I think, at the moment, if you look at people whove been hospitalised then they are going in with less severe conditions than before. There has been huge reduction in the number of Britons coming forward for a Covid booster in since Christmas official figures show 'And the numbers that are in hospital beds is about half what it was a year ago, and that just shows the power of the vaccine.' But NHS bosses have warned the biggest challenge for many hospitals is 'rising staff absences', rather than the number of patients with Covid. One in 10 NHS employees were off sick on New Year's Eve due to illness, according to official figures but less than half had Covid, amounting to fewer than 50,000 of the 110,000 not in work. Chris Hopson, chairman of NHS Providers, said staff absences were having a greater impact than during last January's Covid wave. He tweeted: 'Staff flat out, especially given level of staff absences. We will need to ask them to perform flexible heroics again if hospital Covid numbers continue to rise. We can't keep doing this.' Other sectors, such as rail and waste collection are also facing disruption due to the number of workers having to quarantine. As the new year 2022 dawns, the far more transmissive Covid-19 strain christened Omicron is lurking in India and ravaging several nations in the West. Alongside this persisting challenge, with global economic consequences, a number of geopolitical friction points are also looming. What then does the new year really augur? The geopolitical friction points are -- the Russian threat to Ukraine, the Iranian nuclear programme and Israeli red lines and Chinese jingoism over Taiwan and its territorial claims. But the more immediate danger is from the new Covid variant Omicron. The medical consensus is building around a few points. Data from nations already hit by it constitutes the initial evidence. For one, it is highly transmissible. Also, so far it appears to be less lethal than the Delta variant. Further, according to several experts, being exposed to Omicron builds up antibodies that counter the Delta or other past strains. Finally, the storm of infection, as distinct from the waves in the past, comes quickly, runs through a community community and drops off equally fast. In India, we are at the beginning of this possible steep up and down infection curve. The effect of this new tsunami will vary from one nation to another. China presents an interesting example. In Xian, 13 million people have been forced indoors and restricted to their homes. This kind of draconian methodology China has so far used to very effectively contain Covid breakouts. But this time the foe is different. Many experts feel that Omicron will escape any quarantine as it is highly transmissible. If that happens, China will face a very serious problem as its vaccines are not very effective and the population has not been exposed to any wide surge. Thus, community level immunity may not have developed. China faces two additional problems. At the beginning of February its annual spring vacation begins, when normally there is a huge movement of people internally. Also, the 2022 Winter Olympics is due to kick off on February 4. Already the United States and a number of Western nations have announced a boycott due to the gross breach of human rights in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. Quarantining athletes for a fortnight on arrival would not work as it hampers their fitness. Other nations like Australia and New Zealand also face similar challenges as they used quarantine to stymie the pandemic, and not vaccines and community exposure. India is better prepared this time and a combination of increased testing, home quarantine of asymptotic or non-seriously symptomatic infected should help get over the surge. But the dislocation of normal life and a recovering economy is inevitable. The other major issue will be the fate of liberal democracies in 2022. The Summit for Democracy called by US President Joe Biden on December 9-10 last year received mixed reviews. First was the controversy over the list of invitees. With Poland in and Hungary out, the question asked was -- how do you grade regressing democracies? Moreover, after the damage done to Americas global image by former President Donald Trump and the ongoing tinkering with electoral rules and gerrymandering in Republican-controlled states casts further aspersions on US democracy. That is why it was easier for China and Russia to debunk the summit and even question the quality of US democracy. The ambassadors of both nations penned a joint op-ed in a major US publication to decry the Cold War thinking. The Chinese foreign ministry even alleged that the US was turning democracy into a weapon of mass destruction to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. China convened a rival gathering of 120 nations, that it named the International Forum on Democracy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended Mr Bidens virtual summit and described it as a timely platform for furthering cooperation among democracies. Pakistan, which was invited but Sri Lanka was not, decided to skip it to make common cause with China. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman instantly described Pakistan as a real iron brother. But the issue before India will be the growing gap between the actions of the BJP at home and the governments liberal posturing abroad. This may not continue to be ignored by the United States as President Biden is planning an in-person summit to follow up on the cause of democracy later this year. Even if one discounts the BJPs electoral need to polarise when facing extremely vital state elections in Uttar Pradesh and four other states, the attack on churches and the fulminations by religious leaders to eliminate Islam at Haridwar, including by the use of violence, are condemnable. This twin attack on Islam and Christianity can alienate opinion in a wide swathe of nations, even if the governments largely ignore it for political and diplomatic reasons. This bid by the BJP to systematically implement its Hindutva agenda will face resistance at home as the Opposition consolidates around issues of poor governance. Supplanting a constitutional model on which the nation has been governed for 75 years will not be easy. It is a reminder of Rome in AD 384 when supporters of surging Christianity removed the pagan Altar of Victory from the Roman Senate, after four centuries of it being there. The New York Times, in a piece on Christianitys decline as an organising principle for Western civilisation, notes the views of pagan Roman philosopher Symmachus. He rejected the dogmatic claims of the new religion to truth with the injunction that there cannot be only one path toward such great mystery. This is the question before proponents of Hindutva as they try to constrict the Ganga-like openness and flow of traditional Hinduism. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who provided the moral moorings for his nation during and after the apartheid era, has just passed away. He argued that anger at apartheid was natural, but it must not be allowed to turn into hatred. He correctly noted that Whites, in being those who oppress others, dehumanised themselves. This is a lesson that Mahatma Gandhi also espoused. Can the BJP also abide by it and neutralise elements, aligned to it, that feed on real and imagined historical hurts and religious prejudices. Hopefully, the people of the five states would vote sensibly and endorse the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi and Archbishop Tutu. A new Covid variant detected in France is not worth worrying about, experts have insisted. Virologists say the strain predates Omicron but has yet to cause chaos, bolstering hopes that it may fade into the background. At least 12 cases of B.1.640.2 have been spotted so far near Marseille, with the first linked to travel to the African country Cameroon. But it is not outcompeting the dominant Omicron variant, which now makes up 60 per cent of all infections in France. Dr Thomas Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, said the variant has had 'a decent chance to cause trouble but never really materialised'. Some 12 cases have been spotted so far near Marseille, with the first linked to travel to the African country Cameroon France recorded an average of 2,477 cases per million people each day over the last week, compared to the UK figure of 2,548 per million, according to Our World in Data Some 12 cases have been spotted so far near Marseille, with the first linked to travel to the African country Cameroon. Pictured: Saint Jean Castle and Cathedral de la Major and the in Marseille, France What is B.1.640.2? How many cases? Some 12 genomically-confirmed cases have been identified in France so far. The earliest case was linked to travel to Cameroon. Is it more vaccine resistant? Its catalogue of mutations suggest it is better at dodging Covid immunity than older versions of the virus. It has the E484K mutation, which was first recorded on the Beta variant. It is thought to make vaccines less potent. Should I be concerned? It does not appear that there is any reason to be concerned about the variant yet. There is no evidence at present that it is outcompeting the Omicron variant but it was only detected on December 10. Advertisement The strain was first uploaded to variant-tracking database GISAID on November 4, more than two weeks before Omicron was sequenced. More than 120,000 cases of Omicron have been detected since officials first raised the alarm about the ultra-infectious variant. For comparison, only 12 cases of B.1.640.2 have been spotted. But the true toll may be closer to 20, data suggests. 'This virus has had a decent chance to cause trouble but never really materialised as far as we can tell', Dr Peacock said. So it is definitely 'not one worth worrying about too much' at the moment, he added. The variant is yet to be formally spotted in other countries or labelled a variant under investigation by the World Health Organization. Professor Francis Balloux, a geneticist at University College London, said the variant is not linked with a spike in cases or hospitalisations in France and called for people to 'relax'. The country recorded an average of 2,477 cases per million people each day over the last week, compared to the UK's figure of 2,548, according to Our World in Data. And 175 people per million were hospitalised with the virus yesterday, compared to 146 per million in the UK on December 27. The variant's discovery was announced in a pre-print posted on medRxiv by experts based at the IHU Mediterranee Infection. Their work has not yet been published in an academic journal. Professor Philippe Colson, one of the authors, said: 'We indeed have several cases of this new variant in the Marseille geographical area.' Scientists say the lineage is genetically different to B.1.640, which is thought to have emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo in September. Laboratory tests show the strain carries the E484K mutation that is thought to make it more resistant to vaccines. It also has the N501Y mutation first seen on the Alpha variant that some experts believe can make it more transmissible. The new Covid variant was detected by academics based at the IHU Mediterranee Infection on December 10 Advertisement Britain is back in the icy grip of winter today after overnight temperatures fell to -6C and the Met Office warned of up to half a foot of snow, 80mph winds and frozen roads for parts of the country. Sub-zero conditions and wintry showers are expected to dominate for most of the week, with a cold weather alert in place for northern England until Thursday lunchtime, with rain, hill snow and ice set to cross the UK. The record-breaking balmy New Year weather observed in recent days that saw the mercury hit 16.3C (61.3F) is now being overtaken by bitterly cold conditions, with Shap in Cumbria falling to -6C (20F) early this morning. Temperatures in northern England could fall to similar levels in tomorrow night and it could be -4C (25F) in the South - while in northern Scotland there is a warning for snow, strong winds and ice today and tomorrow. In the Highlands winds reaching 80mph and up to 6in (15cm) of snow could cause blizzard conditions, while there is also a threat to motorists from ice which will also affect parts of northern England. And a flooding risk remains for many areas of Britain with 73 flood alerts or warnings in place today - including 46 alerts and eight warnings in England; eight alerts and ten warnings in Scotland; and one alert in Wales. A further weather warning is then in place for Friday covering Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland which warns of ice and up to 4in (10cm) of snow on higher ground as wintry showers arrive from the West. Tomorrow night in Scotland, the mercury could drop to -8C (17F) or even lower - and Met Office chief meteorologist Neil Armstrong said the plunge in temperatures would spread south from northern England today. A beautiful scene as freshly-fallen snow covers Beaufront Castle near Hexham in Northumberland this morning Snow on the ground at Killhope in County Durham this morning as the icy grip of winter returns to Britain today Freshly-fallen snow covers houses in Corbridge, near Hexham in Northumberland this morning People walk their dogs through the snow in Corbridge, near Hexham in Northumberland this morning Freshly-fallen snow covers a roundabout in Corbridge, near Hexham in Northumberland this morning Freshly-fallen snow covers Beaufront Castle near Hexham in Northumberland this morning Cars make their way along the A1101 in Welney on the Cambridgeshire Norfolk border today following flooding He added: 'This change is being brought on by a cold northerly flow, which brings the risk of some wintry showers in northern England, especially over high ground. 'Minimum temperatures over the next few days are expected to drop below freezing, heightening the risk of some ice.' The Met Office expects 'brisk winds' to make conditions feel colder today before frosts in many places tomorrow morning followed by another cold day. Forecasters expect tomorrow night to be the coldest, with a frost across much of the country and temperatures dropping to -2C (28F) in the North East. Southern England is also likely to see sub-zero temperatures before rain, sleet and some hill snow sweeps across the country on Thursday. The UK Health Security Agency urged people to check on the vulnerable in the coming days, including the elderly and those with serious illnesses. The Met Office said today will be 'noticeably colder across the whole of the country', with temperatures peaking at 8C (46F) or 9C (48F) in the South and about 4C (39F) or 5C (41F) in Scotland. In England, this might bring snow over the Pennines and North York moors, but it will be 'pretty wet stuff', forecaster Simon Partridge said. A series of Met Office weather warnings have been issued for Britain today (left) and on Friday (right) A man walks his dogs along a snowy path near Consett in County Durham this morning The New Year warm spell comes to an end as temperatures drop amid heavy snowfall today near Consett, County Durham Cars make their way along the A1101 in Welney on the Cambridgeshire Norfolk border, as the River Delph and New Bedford River have flooded the surrounding area known as the Ouse Washes today A woman walks along a snowy path near Consett in County Durham this morning Freshly-fallen snow covers houses in Corbridge, near Hexham in Northumberland this morning A man talks on his phone as he walks along a snowy footpath near Consett in County Durham this morning But in Aberdeenshire and northern and eastern Scotland, winds of up to 80mph could create 'localised blizzard conditions', with the Met Office issuing warnings of snow and ice for travellers. Aviemore, in Scotland, saw 2in (5cm) of snow yesterday, which would be added to overnight, Mr Partridge said, suggesting that this might be 'good news' for the Cairngorms town's ski resorts. 'But I'm not sure they'll be overly happy about the strength of the wind,' he added. Elsewhere, in Lincolnshire or the Pennines, any snow is likely to be 'slushy stuff' over the next few days. Mr Partridge said that those in the South will also feel the chill today, as the winds could make the 8C (46F temperature mark feel much harsher. Freshly-fallen snow covers a roundabout on the A69 Corbridge bypass, near Hexham in Northumberland today A car is driven along a road near Consett in County Durham this morning as snow lines the pavements Freshly-fallen snow covers houses in Corbridge, near Hexham in Northumberland this morning A woman scrapes snow off a car near Consett in County Durham this morning as temperature plummet across England Freshly-fallen snow covers a roundabout on the A69 Corbridge bypass, near Hexham in Northumberland today 'It will definitely be colder, so if you're going out, think about an extra layer [today] ... you might need anything to keep the wind out because it's not going to be pretty,' he added. Tomorrow in the West is likely to be a 'dry, bright day' as the winds drop, with few showers, but Thursday will see a 'band of rain' move in, with icy temperatures overnight. Towns in the South could face temperatures of -4C (25F) on Thursday morning. Mr Partridge said: 'It's basically what we should have for this time in January; it's just that we've been so mild for so long that it's suddenly a bit of a shock to the system.' But there are signs of brighter things to come with spring flowers bringing an early splash of colour in parts of the country. A flooding risk remains for many areas of England with 46 flood alerts (in amber) and eight warnings (in red) in place today There are eight alerts and ten warnings in place for Scotland today, imposed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency Conditions have been so springlike that daffodils were in full bloom by the roadside in Somerton, Somerset, yesterday Conditions have been so springlike that daffodils were in full bloom by the roadside in Somerton, Somerset, yesterday. Their arrival comes thanks to the balmy conditions in recent days that saw Britons flock to beaches and enjoy walks outdoors as the Christmas and New Year holiday period came to an end. This included the warmest ever New Year's Day on Saturday when St James's Park in London registered 16.3C (61.3F), beating the previous record of 15.6C (60.1F) set in Bude, Cornwall, set more than a century ago in 1916. And that came after the country's mildest New Year's Eve on record last Friday when Merryfield in Somerset reached 15.8C (60.4F), beating the previous high of 14.8C (58.6F) set in 2011 at Colwyn Bay in North Wales. Victims said they felt 'disgusted' and 'embarrassed' after a disgraced police officer took photos of them while they were detained under the Mental Health Act. Investigators found a catalogue of offensive images on the personal phone of Merseyside Police Officer PC Ryan Connolly during a misconduct probe which concluded in November. The investigation uncovered more than 30 images, videos and emails which included references to the Ku Klux Klan and obscene references to black, Muslim and disabled people. Connolly had also photographed people who had been detained and were being observed in hospital under the Mental Health Act, and had taken a selfie at the scene where teenager Daniel Gee-Jamieson was killed in 2018. The probe also led to the discovery of extreme pornographic content over which Connolly faces criminal charges as the content included 'an act which threatened a person's life' and sex with animals. Connolly pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing the 'grossly offensive' pornography at Manchester Crown Court in November. He could be jailed for up to three years when he is sentenced on January 10. Speaking out ahead of the hearing, Daniel's mother described Connolly as 'vile and warped'. Pc Ryan Connolly took photographs of himself lying down at the scene where Daniel Gee-Jamieson (pictured above) was mortally wounded in a stabbing in Liverpool back in 2018 Mandy Jamieson, pictured left, said she held her son Daniel in her arms as he lay dying at the spot where Connolly later took a selfie while he was supposed to be securing the scene Daniel Gee Jamieson's mother, Mandy Jamieson, has since slammed Connolly's behaviour, telling the Liverpool Echo: 'I just feel like Connolly has made a mockery of my son's death - like it was all a big joke. 'I would love to meet him to tell him what a vile man he is. He is vile and warped. How did he get into the police in the first place?' There were distressing scenes in 2018 as Mrs Jamieson arrived at the park and found her son on the floor covered in blood. As she lay holding her son in her arms, Daniel said: 'Mum, I just want to go to sleep.' He was pronounced dead in hospital a short time later. Daniel was knifed by Owen Cousins, 17, during a supposed pre-arranged fight, watched by up to 30 youths. Cousins was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter, after Liverpool Crown Court heard Danny had been bullied by him and his associates. He was jailed for 11 years. Anti-corruption officers found the selfie at the scene, pictured above, on a personal mobile phone which was confiscated during an investigation over several allegations of misconduct Demanding an apology from Merseyside Police, Mrs Jamieson previously told MailOnline: 'He took a selfie of himself lying down in the field where my son had died. He had been sent to the scene to help make it secure. 'He took the photograph on a personal phone which was later confiscated by the force.' Documents detailing the allegations against Connolly refer to more than 30 photographs, video and email trails. They included multiple images of people in vulnerable states both after arrest and in hospital, including one subject who was topless at the time the picture of them was taken. Two of those photographed were later told about PC Connolly's actions, with their reactions provided to the misconduct panel. The tribunal documents included statements from them which said they felt 'embarrassed', with one adding: 'It is as if the officer is laughing at me and my misfortune. 'I am shocked that the officer has taken this image of me on his personal phone. 'I...feel silly, the officer should not have taken pictures without my permission but also I have no top on. PC Ryan Connolly, who worked for Merseyside Police, took selfies at a murder scene where teenager Daniel Gee-Jamieson had been stabbed to death (pictured: Police Headquarters) 'I am offended by this and let down by Merseyside Police but mainly that officer personally.' One image taken by Connolly was said to be 'degrading and upsetting' and that the woman pictured was 'disgusted and let down' as well as 'shocked'. The misconduct panel found 'it was apparent from their statements that, notwithstanding that these incidents occurred five and two years respectively before giving their statements, both appeared to be emotionally affected by being told about the incidents, so arguably it could be said that they had some adverse long term effect upon them'. After hearing the case against Connolly the panel came to the conclusion overall that the allegations and findings against PC Connolly were not only serious enough to amount to gross misconduct, but also were particularly serious when looked at in the wider spectrum of seriousness. 'PC Connolly's actions were deliberate and planned, they caused significant distress to members of the public, but more than that, these actions [...] clearly have caused, and would cause, members of the public to lose confidence in the police as a whole.' Following the findings against him Connolly will not be allowed to work for the police again. Connolly pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing the 'grossly offensive' pornography at Manchester Crown Court (pictured) in November and will be sentenced on January 10 Deputy Chief Constable Ian Critchley branded Connolly's actions as an 'insult to the uniform' and said: 'An investigation by our Anti-Corruption Unit uncovered the fact that Connolly had been using his own phone to take photographs of vulnerable people whilst on duty and that the phone also contained appalling homophobic, racist and offensive images. 'It also revealed that Connolly was an associate of a known criminal and had not declared this association. 'His actions are an insult to the uniform and the police service, which consistently strives to protect our communities and provide a professional and inclusive service to the people of Merseyside. 'The behaviour of this officer is deplorable and serves to undermine the public's confidence and trust in the police. 'We are quite clear, if any officer is found to be behaving in a way that does not meet our high standards we will take swift and robust action.' Connolly pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing the 'grossly offensive' pornography at Manchester Crown Court in November. He could be jailed for up to three years when he is sentenced on January 10. In 2016, Weiner sent a sexting photo while lying next to their four-year-old son Comes after Abedin revealed in interview how she reached 'breaking point' The couple were spotted wrapped up warm in the East Village on Monday Hilary Clinton's former aide Huma Abedin and her disgraced politician ex-husband Anthony Weiner have been spotted out for a stroll together in New York for the first time since she revealed how their marriage reached 'breaking point.' Abedin, 45, finally filed for divorce in 2017 after weathering years of her husband's sex scandals, with the 'final straw' a sexting photo he sent while lying next to their sleeping four-year-old son. The 2016 photo - the third sex scandal for Weiner - prompted an investigation from child services during a time when Abedin was traveling extensively as part of Clinton's presidential campaign team. Weiner, 57, a former Democrat Representative, was then engulfed in further controversy after reports emerged that he had sexted a 15-year-old girl. In 2017, he pleaded guilty and served three months in prison before being released. He is required to sign on as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The couple were bundled up in warm clothes as they stepped out in the East Village on Monday. Abedin revealed last month that she had to push aside any animosity she felt towards Weiner because they were co-parenting their son, now ten. They both wore face masks, beanies and coats as temperatures plunged below freezing. Abedin was later seen grabbing some supplies from a Target store near her home. Abedin and Weiner The couple were bundled up in warm clothes as they stepped out in the East Village on Monday. They both wore face masks, beanies and coats as temperatures plunged below freezing Abedin was later seen grabbing some supplies from a Target store near her home Hilary Clinton's former aide Huma Abedin says she stood by her sex pest husband, former congressman Anthony Weiner, despite mounting sex scandals Abedin told CNN's Dana Bash that she reached her breaking point in 2016 after discovering Weiner was sexting in bed next to their sleeping then-four-year-old son In an interview with CNN's Dana Bash two weeks ago, Abedin revealed she weathered years of her sex pest husband's scandals before filing for divorce in 2017. Her perspective on the doomed marriage changed after a photo emerged in 2016 of Weiner lying next to his then-four year-old son. In the snap, Weiner is lying shirtless on his back, showing off a bulge in his white boxers. 'I did kind of reach my breaking point,' Abedin said. 'For so long I was saying, I don't understand why can't you just knock it off. This was my final straw.' The photo - the third sex scandal for Weiner - prompted an investigation from child services during a time when Abedin was traveling extensively as part of Clinton's presidential campaign team. She said she was questioned by social services workers about whether the situation might have been avoided if she was a more 'present parent.' 'I was one of those working mothers who constantly felt torn between leaving for a campaign trip and taking care of my child and I think a lot of working mothers can relate to what that feels like that,' she told Bash. 'It was one of the hardest things I've had to endure in those closing days of the campaign.' Although they're now divorced, Abedin said she's had to push her animosity toward Weiner aside to best co-parent their son Jordan, now 10. 'I tell my son I love him so many times a day, I want him to feel that he is loved, that he is cherished, that he is supported,' she said. 'I do believe a lot of anger we don't understand in adults, so much of it goes back to the experience they had as children. For me, my single most important job is parenting this little boy.' She said although he's likely not yet aware of the magnitude of the scandals, the boy was previously taunted after Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in November 2017 for sexting a 15-year-old North Carolina girl. 'When Anthony was sent away, [our son] was teased a little bit about that but he's really handled it well,' she said. 'We do know that, we've shared things with him and we will continue to do that, as you know, he ages in an appropriate way. 'We believe we should always be sources of truth for him.' The photo of Weiner in bed with his son prompted an investigation from child services during a time when Abedin was traveling extensively as part of Hilary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign Although they're now divorced, Abedin said she's had to push her animosity toward Weiner aside to best co-parent their son Jordan, now 10 Before filing for divorce, Abedin stood by her man - who she married in 2010 - through two previous sexting scandals that she said forced the family into hiding. 'The first few years of Anthony and I living in this together, I felt as though we were in a bit of a bunker,' she said. 'There was the outside world [but] I wasn't sure who I could trust or who I could talk to. 'It gave you a a sense of insecurity; I would read about things I had supposedly told friends in confidence.' Weiner, then a New York congressman, was a rising political star until May 2011, when a photo of a man's crotch was sent from his Twitter account to a young student. The Democrat at the time claimed his account was hacked, but in June of that year tearfully admitted that he took and sent the crude image. Weiner destroyed his political career through a series of sexting scandals, but Abedin stood by his side until the third strike More intimate Weiner selfies emerged later that year as Abedin was pregnant with their son, who was born in December 2011. The scandal died down and in 2013 Weiner made a run for New York City mayor, claiming he was a changed man. He led the polls until a second scandal broke after his ex-partner Sydney Leathers sent compromising pictures of him to thedirty.com. The misconduct didn't just ostracize Weiner; it also hurt the reputation of his wife, she said Sunday. 'We were both shunned from certain society events,' she said. 'We were both asked to not show up at charity and food bank. It increasingly led us to be in this isolation together.' Although they're now divorced, Abedin said she's had to push her animosity toward Weiner aside to best co-parent their son Jordan, now 10. 'I tell my son I love him so many times a day, I want him to feel that he is loved, that he is cherished, that he is supported,' she said. We were both shunned from certain society events Huma Abedin 'I do believe a lot of anger we don't understand in adults, so much of it goes back to the experience they had as children. For me, my single most important job is parenting this little boy.' She said although he's likely not yet aware of the magnitude of the scandals, Jordan was previously taunted after Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in November 2017 for sexting a 15-year-old North Carolina girl. 'When Anthony was sent away, [our son] was teased a little bit about that but he's really handled it well,' she said. 'We do know that, we've shared things with him and we will continue to do that, as you know, he ages in an appropriate way. 'We believe we should always be sources of truth for him.' Before filing for divorce, Abedin stood by her man through two previous sexting scandals that she said forced the family into hiding. 'The first few years of Anthony and I living in this together, I felt as though we were in a bit of a bunker,' she said. 'There was the outside world [but] I wasn't sure who I could trust or who I could talk to. 'It gave you a a sense of insecurity; I would read about things I had supposedly told friends in confidence.' Abedin is reflecting on the scandals as she promotes her new book, 'Both/And: A life in Many Worlds' Weiner, then a New York congressman, was a rising political star until May 2011, when a photo of a man's crotch was sent from his Twitter account to a young student. The Democrat at the time claimed his account was hacked, but in June of that year tearfully admitted that he took and sent the crude image. More intimate Weiner selfies emerged later that year as Abedin was pregnant with their son, who was born in December 2011. The scandal died down and in 2013 Weiner made a run for New York City mayor, claiming he was a changed man. He led the polls until a second scandal broke after his ex-partner Sydney Leathers sent compromising pictures of him to thedirty.com. The misconduct didn't just ostracize Weiner; it also hurt the reputation of his wife, she said Sunday. 'We were both shunned from certain society events,' she said. 'We were both asked to not show up at charity and food bank. It increasingly led us to be in this isolation together.' Members of the oldest order of chivalry are chosen by the Queen The Order of the Garter was founded by Edward III nearly 700 years ago, inspired by tales of King Arthur and the Round Table. The Order is the oldest and most senior Order of Chivalry in Britain. It includes the Queen, who is Sovereign of the Garter, several senior royals, and twenty-four knights chosen 'in recognition of their work'. Buckingham Palace says the members are 'chosen personally' by the Queen. From the 18th Century the monarch selected members on the advice of the government - but this arrangement was scrapped in 1946 when Clement Attlee, with agreement from Winston Churchill - again made it the sole gift of the Queen. As a result there is no requirement for the PM to be consulted or offer advice - although they have regular audiences with the Queen and can discuss issues informally. Those picked have included Marshal of the RAF, Lord Stirrup, and former Prime Ministers Sir John Major and Sir Winston Churchill. Advertisement Downing Street insisted Tony Blair's knighthood was a 'matter for the Queen' today after more than 600,000 people signed a petition calling for it to be revoked over his role in the Iraq War. No10 denied that Boris Johnson had 'any input' on the decision to elevate the former PM to the Order of the Garter - one of the highest honours that can be bestowed. But the spokesman appeared to endorse the move by pointing out every other ex-premier before Sir Tony had been offered the Order of the Garter or the Scottish equivalent Order of the Thistle. The announcement in the New Year honours has caused a storm, with experts saying the 14-year delay between his leaving office and getting the distinction showed the monarch was aware how much backlash there would be. In contrast, John Major received the same honour less than eight years after departing Downing Street. Ministers suggested that the move unblocks the route for Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May to join the exclusive Garter club. There is also speculation that the Queen might have wanted to spare Prince Charles from making the controversial choice. A Change.org petition, set up three days ago, aims to strip Sir Tony of the title, accusing him of causing 'irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation's society'. The petition criticises the ex-PM for his role in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and claims he is the 'least deserving person of any public honour'. It urges Mr Johnson to 'petition Her Majesty to have this honour removed'. However, only petitions launched on the Parliament website can trigger a debate in the Commons - and the official platform has rejected efforts to start similar petitions. Experts also believe there would be serious difficulties in staging a debate on the award of the honour, as it would amount to criticising the decision of the Queen. The Queen has made Sir Tony a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter - the oldest and most senior British Order of Chivalry. Appointments to the Garter are in the Queen's gift and are made without prime ministerial advice, and are usually announced on St George's Day on April 23. However, the monarch can make the appointments at any time, and chose for Sir Tony's to coincide with the New Year Honours list. The PM's spokesman said: 'Appointments to the Order of the Garter are a matter for her majesty the Queen, there is no involvement from the Prime Minister or the Government. 'There is no input from the Prime Minister.' The spokesman added: 'Every prime minister before Tony Blair has received either the Order of the Garter or the Order of the Thistle.' That is not quite true as Harold Macmillan turned down the honour when it was offered in 1964. Sir Keir Starmer - who opposed the Iraq War in 2003 - said the former Labour leader was a 'very successful prime minister' and 'made a huge difference to the lives of millions of people in this country'. The current Labour premier also argued the appointment is not 'thorny at all' amid a growing backlash. But he swiped that Mr Johnson himself should not get an honour when he leaves office - because he has not 'earned the right'. Labour MP Graham Stringer, who voted against the Iraq War in 2003, said he agreed with Speaker Lindsay Hoyle that former PMs should be honoured for their service. 'I think when you have been PM you should probably get your reward unless you are actually convicted of some criminality,' he told MailOnline. 'I voted against the iraq War. I think Blair was a good PM for the first six years, and the Iraq War ruined him. But he was PM for 10 years and if the Queen wants to give him the Garter then I think he should have it.' No10 denied that Boris Johnson (right) had 'any input' on the decision to elevate Tony Blair (left) to the Order of the Garter - one of the highest honours that can be bestowed Sir Keir Starmer today insisted Tony Blair 'deserves' his new knighthood after more than 500,000 people signed a petition calling for it to be 'rescinded' Previous attempts to start an official petition on the Parliament website have been rejected because they are not allowed to deal with 'honours or appointments' The human cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars Tony Blair has long faced criticism for sending troops into Afghanistan and Iraq. The backlash culminated in a devastating report by Sir John Chilcot in 2016 which found the former PM overplayed evidence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. A total of 179 British Armed Forces personnel and Ministry of Defence civilians died serving during the Iraq campaign, which began in March 2003. A further 457 were killed during deployment to Afghanistan. UK service personnel withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years in August, but the Taliban retook control of the country within a matter of days. The astonishing collapse of the Afghan regime prompted the families of British soldiers who died fighting in the country to say they felt like their loved ones had laid down their lives for nothing. Advertisement Sir Keir today defended the appointment, telling ITV's Good Morning Britain programme: 'I think Tony Blair deserves the honour. He won three elections. He was a very successful prime minister. 'I haven't got time this morning to list all of his many achievements which I think vastly improved our country, whether it's minimum wage, Sure Start for young families. 'But the one I would pick out in particular is the work he did in Northern Ireland and the peace process and the huge change that has made. 'I worked myself in Northern Ireland for six years with the police service over there and I saw for myself the profound impact it had on peace, on both communities in Northern Ireland. 'So, I don't think it is thorny at all, I think he deserves the honour. Obviously I respect the fact that people have different views.' He added: 'I understand there are strong views on the Iraq war, there were back at the time and there still are, but that does not detract from the fact that Tony Blair was a very successful prime minister of this country and made a huge difference to the lives of millions of people in this country.' Vaccines minister Maggie Throup also supported the knighthood. 'I think he did lots of good things and I think it's only right that we do honour our previous Prime Ministers,' she told LBC radio. Suggesting that Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May should now be in line for honours, she said: 'I think obviously it now opens the doors for others to be recognised in the same way.' A Change.org petition is urging Boris Johnson to 'petition Her Majesty to have this honour removed' from Sir Tony What are the different ranks of honours awarded by the Queen? Order of the Garter Founded in 1348, it is the most senior order of knighthood, outranked only by the Victoria Cross and the George Cross. Membership, granted for public service or service to the sovereign, is limited to 24 living people plus the Queen and the Prince of Wales. Companions of Honour (CH) The Order of the Companions of Honour was founded on June 4 1917 by George V and it limited to just 65 members at any one time. Appointments go to those who have made a long-standing contribution to arts, science, medicine or government. Two have been named in the latest list - former Labour MP and peer Frank Field, for public and political service, and Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute. Order of the Bath (DCB/KCB/CB) This recognises the work of senior military officials and civil servants. England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty (KCB) and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance (KCB) were honoured in the New Year Honours list. - Order of St Michael and St George (Knight/GCMG/KCMG/DCMG/CMG) This recognises service in a foreign country, or in relation to foreign and Commonwealth affairs, such as the work of diplomats overseas. James Bond star Daniel Craig, was made a Companion of the Order, which is equivalent to a CBE and means he can use the post-nominals CMG, following his final outing as 007 in No Time To Die. Knighthood and damehood (Knight/DBE) These are usually bestowed on people who have made a major contribution at national level, who can use the titles Dame and Sir. England's deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam, Wales' chief medical officer Frank Atherton and Scotland's chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith were made knights. There were also damehoods for UK Health Security Agency chief Dr Jenny Harries and Dr June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) People are recognised under this honour if they have have a prominent but lesser role at national level, or a leading role at regional level. It also goes to those who make a distinguished, innovative contribution to any area. James Bond franchise producer Barbara Broccoli was among those made a CBE. Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) People are made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire if they have a major local role in any activity, including people whose work has made them known nationally. Among the 253 who were honoured in this way were Olympians Adam Peaty and Tom Daley. Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) This rank recognises outstanding achievements or service to the community which have had a long-term significant impact. A total of 508 people were made Members of the Order of the British Empire in the latest list, including tennis star Emma Raducanu, Diversity member Ashley Banjo and former Spice Girl Mel B. British Empire Medal (BEM) The BEM was reintroduced in 2012 by then prime minister David Cameron as part of his bid to make the honours system 'classless', saying too few people making a difference in their areas were made MBEs. The medal went to 361 people in the New Year Honours. Advertisement Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has suggested that all former prime ministers should be offered a knighthood because 'it is one of the toughest jobs in the world'. Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told MailOnline he could 'understand the controversy' and the 14-year delay in the honour 'speaks for itself'. 'In all other respects he has been the most successful Labour PM since Clement Attlee and responsible for some major achievements which even as a Conservative I acknowledge,' Sir Malcolm said. 'It is now 14 years since he has been PM. That is obviously why there has been this very long delay. 'If the decision has been reached now I would not myself see it as very controversial.' Sir Malcolm said there was 'absolutely no role' for the PM in elevating people to the Order of the Garter. However, others have voiced fury at the move. The twin brother of a soldier who died in Iraq said his 'blood ran cold' on hearing the news. Lance Corporal David Wilson, who was 27 and from Spennymoor, County Durham, died from a gunshot wound at Basra airbase in 2008 where he served with 9 Regiment Army Air Corps. His twin, Mike Wilson, now 40, said he was 'disgusted' that the former premier was awarded a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter in the New Year Honours list, adding it is 'an insult to David's memory'. SNP MP Angus MacNeil told MailOnline that the announcement of the knighthood for Sir Tony had been helpful for Mr Johnson. 'I think if I was Boris given the trouble and the hassle he's got, there's only one other guy he can put into focus that would create as much controversy and that is Tony Blair,' he said. 'Giving Tony Blair his honour has probably been an inspired blinder for Boris. 'If you want people to remember a controversial former PM hand Tony Blair a knighthood fast.' Royal biographer Angela Levin said the Queen had been put in a difficult position but may have taken the unpopular step to spare her the Prince of Wales having to do so later. She told MailOnline: 'I think it is a very difficult situation for the Queen and should have been anticipated in advance. 'Surely it would have been discussed with the Prime Minister and also Prince Charles in case he gets involved on behalf of the Queen. 'Perhaps the Queen insisted he was knighted because she felt indebted to Blair when Diana died and convinced her to return to Buckingham Palace and change her stiff upper lip approach.' Sir Tony, 68, led the Labour Party to a landslide general election victory in 1997. He then went on to win two further general elections before quitting Westminster a decade later, as he handed the keys to Number 10 to his chancellor Gordon Brown. He was prime minister during the Allied military invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. After leaving politics the former barrister became a Middle East envoy and set up his own non-for-profit group, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Each year, Royal Knights and Ladies of the Order of the Garter gather at St George's Chapel in Windsor for a colourful procession and ceremony. Crowds watch as they walk down the hill to the chapel from the state apartments, dressed in blue velvet mantles, red velvet hoods, black velvet hats and white ostrich plumes. Sir Tony, who left Downing Street more than 14 years ago, was one of three new appointments announced by Buckingham Palace. Sir Tony has faced years of criticism over the Iraq War, culminating in the devastating report by Sir John Chilcot in 2016, which found that the former prime minister overplayed evidence about Saddam Hussein's weaponry and ignored peaceful means to send troops into the country. In a devastating set of conclusions, Sir John found Blair presented the case for war with 'a certainty which was not justified' based on 'flawed' intelligence about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Blair then said he would 'take the same decision' to invade Iraq again if he was presented with the same intelligence as he set out a defiant defence after being savaged by the Chilcot report. The former prime minister put on a bullish performance as he responded to the long-awaited report and although he made a grovelling apology for the bloody consequences of the Iraq War, he attempted to shift the blame by saying the intelligence was not his responsibility. In a remarkable performance of self-defence at a special press conference that lasted for nearly two hours, the visibly humbled former prime minister described the decision to take military action to remove Hussein in 2003 as the 'hardest, most momentous, most agonising' of his 10 years in office. At several points during his speech at Admiralty House in Whitehall he appeared to be close to tears as he accepted the 'serious criticisms' made of him and his government in the run up and aftermath of the Iraq War and said he accepted 'full responsibility, without exception, without excuse'. Responding to the publication of the Iraq War report, his voice cracked as he said: 'For all of this I express more sorrow, regret and apology than you may ever know or can believe.' He added later: 'The decisions I made I have carried with me for 13 years and will do so for the rest of my days. 'There will not be a day of my life where I do not relive and rethink what happened. But he claimed the Iraq Inquiry proved 'there were no lies' from him over the justification for invading Iraq in March 2003 and showed neither Parliament nor Cabinet were misled. And in the most extraordinary moment of his lengthy speech, Mr Blair insisted: 'If I was back in the same place, with the same information I would take the same decision because obviously that was the decision I believe was right. A motorist has been forced to desperately retrieve his ute from rugged surf after huge swells hit the Queensland coast. The man had been driving his Ford Ranger ute with a jet ski in tow along Rainbow Beach in Queensland's Gympie Region when a large wave hit the vehicle. Footage captures the moment the ute is swept away into the rugged surf as bystanders rush to help the driver and his passenger. A Ford Ranger ute has been swept away by wild surf at Rainbow Beach in Queensland on Monday (pictured, bystanders attempt to retrieve the vehicle from rough surf on Monday) Bruce Howe, from Brisbane, filmed as the drama unfolded with residents banding together to rescue the $80,000 vehicle from being thrashed by rough surf. 'Most of the locals went down and tried to help,' Mr Howe told 9NEWS. 'There's not much they can do in that situation but people were trying to help unload the truck, belongings, surf boards and stuff like that.' Witness Bruce Howe said the vehicle (pictured) wasn't able to be retrieved until low tides hit at about 3am Tuesday He added the ute was submerged in the water at 5pm on Monday with attempts to retrieve the vehicle continuing until nightfall. It was only until low tide at about 3am on Tuesday when the ute was able to be salvaged from the water. High tides and gale force winds caused by Cyclone Seth wreaked havoc across the Queensland coast line forcing beach closures and campsites to become flooded. At Teewah Beach, near Noosa, camper Kath D Wino quickly found herself packing up her belonging after being caught out in the middle of wild weather. 'One minute we are enjoying a coffee on the dunes, and the next minute madly starting to pack up as the water came right up into our camp in zone two,' she posted on Facebook. Further south, eight metre waves were recorded at Stradbroke Island on the Gold Coast prompting warnings from life guard to steer clear of the water. High tides caused flooding at Teewah Beach near Noosa causing campers to quickly pack up their belongings (pictured) Dozens of volunteers on Stradbroke Island were spotted with shovels in tow to help clean up the aftermath of the high tides. 'Everyone just turned up with a smile and a shovel and sandwiches. We think we filled 12 to 1300 sandbags,' volunteer Katherine Wall told the news outlet. The Bureau of Meteorology issued another severe weather alert for 'abnormally high tides' along south east Queensland on Tuesday. The Fraser Coast and Gympie region were among the hardest hit areas as water levels have exceeded the highest astronomical tide (HAT) of 2022 by more than half a metre. Hazardous surf warnings also remain in place for KGari (Fraser Island) as well as the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. Beaches will remained closed on the Sunshine Coast and North Stradbroke and Moreton islands while hazardous surf conditions persist. Clifton Beach, Cylinder Beach (Stradbroke Island), Dicky Beach, Kewarra Beach, Marcoola, Mission Beach, Mudjimba, Palm Cove, Trinity Beach and Yaroomba are forced to shut until conditions are reassessed on Wednesday morning. A five-year-old British boy is fighting for his life in an Italian hospital after a horror car crash while visiting his family over Christmas. Dominic Boschetti, from Bromsgrove, was in the car with his father Giuseppe when they were hit by a lorry in Montichiari, Lombardy. Giuseppe had to give his son CPR at the scene despite shattering his own legs in the crash, with Dominic losing consciousness. Dominic Boschetti (pictured in hospital) is fighting for his life after a horror car crash while visiting his family over Christmas The five-year-old from Bromsgrove was in the car with his father Giuseppe when they were hit by a lorry in Montichiari, Lombardy He is now hooked up to a life support machine, cuddling his teddy, with his mother Jordan at his bedside. Dominic is now off the ventilator but he is still in a critical condition and the family say they are living a 'terrible nightmare'. A GoFundMe appeal set up to help the family has raised 15,392. Speaking to WorcestershireLive, his uncle and Jordan's brother, Corin Hetherington, said: 'Unfortunately there is no improvement yet. 'Dominic's eyes are open, but he doesn't seem there. 'It's like a terrible nightmare.' Corin, from Redditch, who is also out in Italy supporting Jordan, said his sister was now with Dominic all the time. Dominic is now off the ventilator but he is still in a critical condition and the family say they are living a 'terrible nightmare' 'Jordan is with Dominic and like a rock. She is being extremely strong and never cries in front of her son. She is amazing,' he said. 'He is off the ventilator but he is still in a coma and Guiseppe will be sent to a specialist hospital next week to begin rehabilitation on his shattered legs.' He praised Guiseppe for his bravery and quick-thinking which saved Dominic's life at the crash scene after the boy suffered a cardiac arrest. 'They don't know yet if Guiseppe can walk. I still physically can't believe how he managed to get Dominic from the car with how his legs are,' he said. 'Maybe it was adrenaline or the love for his son to protect him, I don't know.' He is now hooked up to a life support machine with his mother Jordan at his bedside (pictured together) The GoFundMe appeal has a target of 25,000 to help Jordan as she spends months in Italy caring for her son. It has had donations from across the world - with amounts ranging from 5 to an anonymous one of 1,000. The family has sent thanks for support and donations from the public at their hour of need. 'There is a wave of support behind us willing Dominic to get better,' Corin said. 'We want everyone to know how much we appreciate the love and support.' 'The amount of love, support and amazing generosity we have received is nothing short of amazing.' China has vowed to continue 'modernising' its nuclear arsenal while urging the US and Russia to reduce theirs, just a day after all three nations signed a pledge to stop the spread of nukes. Fu Cong, director of arms control at China's foreign ministry, defended Beijing's nuclear ambitions in the wake of the statement - insisting China will only build nukes 'to maintain capabilities at the minimum level required for national security'. That is despite satellite images showing China is in the midst of the largest expansion of its nuclear forces in history, with Washington suggesting its stockpile of warheads could more than triple to 1,000 within the next decade. 'The US and Russia still possess 90 percent of the nuclear warheads on Earth,' Fu said, calling on both countries to 'reduce their nuclear arsenals in an irreversible and legally binding manner.' China, Russia, the US, UK and France have signed a joint statement committing to reduce the spread of nukes - forcing Beijing to defend plans to expand its stockpile Fu also pointed to China's no-first-use policy, which commits the government to never using nuclear weapons unless it is struck first, as evidence that China is maintaining its nukes only for defence. The US has a similar policy of never using or threatening to use nukes against states which do not threaten it, but has exempted Russia, China and North Korea. Russia maintained a 'no first strike' policy from 1983 to 1992, but scrapped it after the break-up of the Soviet Union - fearing the country's apparent weakness could tempt America into a conventional attack that would need to be repelled with nukes. Vladimir Putin then signed off new policy in 2020 which allows nukes to be used in a wide range of scenarios, including pre-emptive strikes if Moscow gets 'reliable information' that the country or its allies are about to be hit - including with conventional weapons. The US currently has a nuclear stockpile of around 3,800 warheads that can be launched using hundreds of long-range missiles, dozens of long-range bombers, or from 12 nuclear-capable submarines. Russia has a stockpile of around 4,500 warheads, along with similar numbers of missiles, bombers and submarines. China, by contrast, is estimated to possess around 300 warheads, 100 missiles and four nuclear-armed submarines, along with hundreds of bombers. It is thought to be building silos for up to 230 more missiles, which would bring it on par with Russia and the US. But even if it expands its arsenal of warheads in line with Washington's worst predictions, its stockpile would only be around a quarter as big as its rivals. France and the UK, who are also signatories to the new pledge, possess around the same number of warheads as China - though neither have long-range missiles. Beijing insists it is building only as many nukes as it needs to guarantee its safety, and says Russia and the US should move first to reduce their stockpiles (file image) Britain does not have bombers either, preferring to mount its weapons on four nuclear subs whose locations are a closely guarded secret as part of a policy of 'minimum credible deterrent'. France also has four nuclear-armed subs, along with 40 bombers. In a rare joint statement setting aside rising West-East tensions, the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France on Monday reaffirmed their goal of creating a world free of atomic weapons and avoiding a nuclear conflict. The five nuclear powers also committed to full future disarmament from atomic weapons, which have only been used in conflict in the US bombings of Japan at the end of World War II. But squaring that rhetoric with reality will not be easy at a time of spiralling tensions between those same global powers not seen since the Cold War. There are growing global concerns about China's rapid military modernisation especially after its armed forces last year announced they had developed a hypersonic missile that can fly at five times the spread of sound. Ties between Beijing and Washington have been strained over a series of issues including China's intentions to take Taiwan, which it claims as part of its territory, by force if necessary. Beijing's sabre-rattling towards Taiwan has reached new heights under President Xi Jinping, China's most authoritarian leader in a generation. Fu dismissed speculation over the possibility of deploying nuclear weapons near the Taiwan Strait. 'Nuclear weapons are the ultimate deterrent, they are not for war or fighting,' he said. China, Russia and the US are currently locked into a global arms race amid calls for the trio to negotiate treaties to limit the amount of weapons they can possess While the United States and Russia have had a formal strategic stability dialogue since the days of the Cold War, producing several disarmament agreements, that is not the case between Washington and Beijing. In Europe, tensions with Moscow have deteriorated over a Russian troop build-up close to the Ukrainian border. That has raised fears that the Kremlin, worried by the possibility of further eastward expansion of NATO, is planning a new attack on its pro-Western neighbour. Crunch talks between Russia and the US on European security are expected in Geneva on January 10. Against this backdrop, Monday's joint statement on nuclear weapons was a rare moment of consensus between the UN's five permanent Security Council members. 'A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,' the statement said, adding that 'further spread of such weapons must be prevented'. The statement was issued after the latest review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) - which first came into force in 1970 - was postponed from its scheduled date of January 4 to later in the year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The statement also pledged to abide by a key article in the NPT under which states committed to full future disarmament from nuclear weapons. The joint statement also came as the world powers seek to reach an agreement with Iran on reviving the 2015 deal over its controversial nuclear drive, which was rendered moribund by the US walking out of the accord in 2018. Advertisement Britain appeared to be in a self-imposed lockdown this morning with roads barely busier than the same day last year - when the third national lockdown came into force - despite today being the first working day of 2022. Road congestion in London was at 22 per cent between 8am and 9am this morning according to TomTom, which was only slightly higher than January 4, 2021 when the figure for the same time period was 19 per cent. Major railway stations in the capital including Victoria, Waterloo and London Bridge looked very quiet today while there were also few commuters to be seen on many Underground trains during the morning rush hour. Transport for London told MailOnline it recorded around 710,000 entry and exits across the Underground network and 770,000 taps on buses up to 10am this morning - with the Tube figure down 290,000 on mid-December. This figure was significantly down on Monday, December 13, when working from home guidance came in and the figure was 1million on the Tube and 1.15million on the buses. But today's figure was up on Monday, December 20 - when there were around 660,000 entries and exits on the Tube and around 720,000 on the buses. The low ridership today is thought to have also been affected by some schools having not returned, people choosing to take additional annual leave following the bank holiday, as well as those working from home. On January 4, 2021, there were around 410,000 entries and exits on the Tube, and 480,000 taps on buses up to 10am that day. This means Tube ridership is 73 per cent higher today than it was on the same day last year. It comes as pressure mounted on the Government to allow the millions of people who have caught the milder but more contagious Omicron variant to get back to work more quickly and so keep essential services going. A move requiring people to stay indoors for five days has now been adopted by the US, Greece and France - and an expert from King's College London has now said this could be mirrored in Britain too, because the data is suggesting cases were now falling in London while there had been no recent surge in deaths as predicted. Also today Professor Neil Ferguson said he believes that cases could be starting to plateau in London - the first part of Britain to fall victim to the variant, which a plethora of studies have shown is milder than previous strains. Many employees are following Government guidance to work from home if possible, and the low number of commuters has been exacerbated by nearly 1.2million people testing positive for Covid-19 over the past week. It comes one year to the day that Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered people to 'stay at home' as he officially put England into its third lockdown after weeks of tough Tier 4 restrictions for many areas including the capital. Meanwhile rail passengers were hit by disruption on the first working day of the year in England and Wales today due to a combination of faults and Covid-related staff shortages as people returned to the office. And children returning to school risked being turned away at the gates if their teachers test positive for the virus, with headteachers fearing up to a quarter of their staff could be struck down in the coming weeks. Employees returning to the office have also been warned of last-minute rail cancellations, and businesses said they may have to shut their doors or operate shorter hours due to so many staff being in quarantine. NHS bosses said for many hospitals the biggest challenge was rising staff absences, rather than the number of patients with Covid. Latest data showed 1,189,985 people tested positive for Covid in the seven days to yesterday. LONDON WATERLOO (TODAY) -- Commuters at Waterloo at about 9am on the first day back to work after the Christmas break LONDON WATERLOO (JANUARY 12, 2021) -- A quiet London Waterloo during the morning rush hour on January 12 last year LONDON VICTORIA (TODAY) -- The empty concourse at London Victoria at about 9am with no Southern trains calling today LONDON VICTORIA (TODAY) -- A nearly-empty pavement outside London Victoria station at around noon this afternoon LONDON VICTORIA (JANUARY 12, 2021) -- A handful of passengers on a platform at London Victoria on January 12 last year LONDON OVERGROUND (TODAY) - Passengers take the Overground to work at about 7am on a service via South East London LONDON OVERGROUND (JANUARY 5, 2021) - Passengers take the Overground to work in North London on January 5 last year CANADA WATER (TODAY) -- An empty escalator at Canada Water station in South East London at about 7am this morning BANK OF ENGLAND (TODAY): Hardly anyone is to be seen at Bank junction in the City of London at about 12pm today BANK OF ENGLAND (JANUARY 4, 2021): An almost-deserted Bank junction in the City of London on January 4 last year Also today, no London Overground trains could run between Clapham Junction and Surrey Quays due to a train fault, while Merseyrail services were suspended between Kirkdale and Kirkby following a power supply problem. And a 'problem under investigation' between Darlington and York was causing disruption between the two stations, which was affecting CrossCountry, London North Eastern Railway and TransPennine Express services. Elsewhere urgent repairs were carried out to replace part of the signalling system at Slade Green in South East London after an electrical fault, meaning the line towards Dartford was blocked, affecting Southeastern trains. Network Rail sent technicians to Lewisham to fix a new set of points which 'worked fine all night in testing and of course has gone wrong now'. It caused disruption to Southeastern on one of the main lines into the capital. Meanwhile road congestion levels in London were at 22 per cent in the 8am to 9am slot this morning according to TomTom, which was the highest figure for that time period since Friday, December 17 when it was at 41 per cent. LONDON WATERLOO (JANUARY 4, 2021) -- An empty ticket barrier area at London Waterloo on the Underground last year JUBILEE LINE (JANUARY 4, 2021) -- A quiet Jubilee line on the London Underground network on the same day last year WATERLOO ROAD (JANUARY 4, 2021) -- Waterloo Road outside Waterloo train station is very quiet on the same day last year EDINBURGH (JANUARY 4, 2021) Members of the public walk through a deserted Edinburgh city centre on January 4 last year However, the level is significantly down from Monday, December 13 - the first day when working from home guidance was reintroduced - which saw a level of 60 per cent, almost three times higher than today. As of 9am today, there were 96 jams covering a total of 25 miles. The congestion level today was also less than a third of the 2019 average (67 per cent) and less than half of the 2020 average (53 per cent) for the time of day. Rail journeys across Britain were also being hit by many operators using reduced timetables in a bid to improve reliability after weeks of short-notice cancellations due to staff shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic. ScotRail implemented a temporary weekday timetable yesterday as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has resulted in a 'large number of absences'. More than 150 daily services have been cut, including on routes such as Glasgow to Edinburgh via Airdrie/Bathgate; Glasgow Central to Lanark; Edinburgh to North Berwick; and Edinburgh to Tweedbank. LONDON EUSTON (TODAY): Rail passengers at London Euston station at about 9.15am this morning as people return to work NORTHERN LINE (TODAY): Commuters sit on a Northern line train heading into Central London at about 8am this morning LONDON BRIDGE (TODAY): A small number of commuters walk through London Bridge station at about 7am this morning LONDON BRIDGE (JANUARY 15, 2021): Police officers speak to a rail passenger at London Bridge on January 15 last year FINCHLEY CENTRAL (TODAY): Empty platforms at Finchley Central Tube station on the Northern line at about 8am today Other examples include Southern not serving London Victoria until January 10, while CrossCountry has removed around 50 daily trains from its timetables until next week. Demand for rail travel is at around 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, which is partly due to the guidance for people to work from home. The first working day of the year in Scotland is tomorrow. It comes as Boris Johnson claimed yesterday that cutting isolation times further for people with Covid would worsen the staffing crisis gripping Britain. The Prime Minister resisted mounting pressure to allow the huge numbers of people who have caught the mild Omicron variant to get back to work more quickly and so keep essential services going. He said only requiring people to stay indoors for five days - a move now adopted by the US, Greece and France - would in fact mean more employees going off sick, as they risked catching Covid from someone who had rushed back to the office while still infectious. EUSTON ROAD -- A very quiet Euston Road outside King's Cross railway station in London at about 9.15am this morning A4200 -- A very quiet A4200 leading to Euston Road in Central London at about 9.15am this morning, near Euston station A1(M) -- A quiet-looking A1(M) motorway in North London at about 7am this morning as some people head back into the office BARNET -- The Barnet High Road in North London also looks quiet this morning shortly before 8am today Road congestion levels in London were at 22 per cent in the 8am to 9am slot this morning (far right) according to TomTom Mr Johnson said yesterday: 'We'll continue to look at the infectivity periods. But the key thing is we don't want to be releasing people back into the workplace when they're still infectious. 'And the risk is you increase the numbers of people going back into the workplace are infectious by a factor of three. So you might perversely have a negative effect on the workforce.' He also claimed that the current seven-day isolation period in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 'very close' to five days in any case because people can leave their homes 'just one minute past midnight on the day that you test negative'. Professor Tim Spector, who leads King's College London's Zoe Covid symptoms study, said last night that the quarantine limit could safely be reduced as the data suggested cases were now falling in London while there had been no recent surge in deaths as predicted. 'The health crisis is in danger of being driven by staff problems due to over-cautious isolation rules. Let's reduce this to five days,' he said. Today is exactly one year since Prime Minister Boris Johnson officially put England into a third lockdown on January 4, 2021 Experts claimed that cutting the isolation period to five days would save the UK economy 300million this month. The Centre for Economics and Business Research estimated that the current rules will cost the country 1billion, equal to 0.5 per cent of monthly GDP. As well as helping major public sector employers such as the NHS, which had almost one in ten employees off sick on New Year's Eve, the change to five days would also boost hospitality firms who have lost out on sales over Christmas and in some cases have had to shut their doors because they are so short-staffed. The effects of the 'isolation nation' continued to be felt yesterday with rubbish going uncollected, huge disruption to train services and a dire warning of the looming impact on elderly care. James Jamieson, chairman of the Local Government Association, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'There are existing pressures that were already there before Christmas - bins, due to a shortage of HGV drivers, that's certainly been an area of pressure. 'But our biggest concern is social care, because not only will we potentially see plenty more staff absences, we're actually going to see more demand as the NHS seeks to discharge more people to hospital.' A North Korean government mouthpiece has claimed Kim Jong-il created burritos in 2011. The Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the father of current leader Kim Jong-un invented the 'wheat wrap' and claimed their sales are booming despite a food shortage. The street food also made an appearance in a recent propaganda broadcast, saying Kim Jong-un has a 'meticulous interest' in the Mexican dish. A North Korean government mouthpiece has claimed Kim Jong-il created burritos in 2011 and their sales are now booming. Pictured: a woman buying the 'wheat wraps' in Pyongyang In newsreel footage, North Koreans can be seen devouring the burritos at a stand outside the Kumsong Food Factory in Pyongyang. The broadcast also showed a mural of Kim Jong-il grinning in a kitchen where burritos were being prepared. But North Koreans who have escaped the secretive state insist such dishes are virtually non-existent there. The food shortage has left people 'at risk of starvation' according to a UN human rights expert, with Kim warning it could last until 2025. Hyun-seung Lee, who was born into an elite North Korean family but fled the country in 2014, said most of his countrymen couldn't even dream of eating a burrito. State broadcast showed a mural of Kim Jong-il grinning in a kitchen where burritos were being prepared (pictured) The street food made an appearance in a recent propaganda broadcast, saying Kim Jong-un has a 'meticulous interest' in the Mexican dish 'This is because they are not even given an opportunity to encounter it,' he said. 'The majority of citizens do not have money to buy the foreign food. Even if they have money, there is no place to eat it. 'In the 1990s, bread and butter lovers were satirised and criticised as socialist traitors.' In many cases, he added, there simply weren't the ingredients to recreate foreign foods. 'I have never seen any burritos or wraps on sale in North Korea,' he said. 'Perhaps there were no restaurants where you can eat burritos and wraps until now. 'The penetration rate of Western food in North Korea is extremely low, because there are very few restaurants where you can eat it and the food ingredients are not diverse In newsreel footage, North Koreans can be seen devouring the burritos at a stand outside the Kumsong Food Factory in Pyongyang North Koreans who have escaped the secretive state insist such dishes are virtually non-existent there A food shortage has left people 'at risk of starvation' according to a UN human rights expert, with Kim warning it could last until 2025 'Various cooking ingredients such as milk, cheese, and spices are absolutely lacking.' The North Korean version appears different to its Western version, using doner meat with cabbage and carrot. Origins of the burrito Burrito, meaning little donkey in Spanish, is a popular dish in Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine. Its name is believed to be derived from its multiple fillings, the same way a donkey could carry lots of items. The Mayans used corn tortillas to wrap foods from as early as 1500BC, while the Pueblo people in the south-west of the US also made tortillas filled with meat and beans. While the precise origin is not known, the burrito was included in an 1895 Mexican dictionary. It was described as 'a rolled tortilla with meat or other ingredients inside'. According to urban legend, a taco-seller named Juan Mendez who used a donkey to transport his food, kept his food warm by wrapping it in tortillas. The dish first appeared in American restaurants in the 1930s. Advertisement Kim Jong-il advised that the 'wheat wraps' are best accompanied by mineral water in the summer and hot tea in the winter, the Rodong Sinmun added. Rowan Beard, a guide with Young Pioneer Tours which specialises in organising North Korea trips said he had not encountered the dish in Pyongyang. North Korea's borders have been shut to foreign visitors since January 2020 to protect against coronavirus. 'It's the first time for me to see doner meat and those particular grilling machines in North Korea,' said Mr Beard. 'I've never had a burrito or a wrap there before. It looks pretty good! I will certainly give that a chance once North Korea reopens for tourists.' He said he had found western food 'fairly common' within Pyongyang, but agreed it was uncommon elsewhere. 'Spaghetti, french fries or a hamburger can be found on certain menus at restaurants sprawled around the capital,' he said. 'However, not so much outside of Pyongyang.' Mr Lee now lives in the US and recounts his 29 years in North Korea on the Pyonghattan YouTube channel, alongside his sister and fellow defector, Seohyun. He said hamburgers and pizza had only emerged in 'fancy restaurants' in Pyongyang in the past 10 years. Before then, he said, the only foreign foods he had tasted were Japanese: sushi and sashimi. 'North Korea has long been refusing to accept foreign goods and culture,' he said. 'Foreign food is no exception.' The exact provenance of the modern burrito is unclear, however the word burrito appears in an 1895 Mexican dictionary, where it is described as a foodstuff. Away from propaganda, food shortages remain a big problem for North Korea, with Kim Jong-un himself acknowledging last June that the situation was 'tense'. Kim in October told his citizens that they must expect to eat less food until the country re-opens its border with China in 2025. The government has blamed external factors for their food shortages, citing sanctions imposed on them, natural disasters and the global coronavirus pandemic. Addressing the Assam Assembly recently, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said: Democracy is based on debates and dialogue. But continuous disruption of debates in the House and lack of decorum is a matter of concern. While it is natural for the treasury and opposition benches to disagree, dissidence should not lead to an impasse. After flagging the issue, he might as well introspect about the role of the Speakers in our system. Legislatures and Parliaments, while meant to be self-governing, still are in need of governing. In India and elsewhere, these elected institutions zealously guard their independence against the other branches of the government. However, since the Speaker too is a directly elected member of the House, he or she is a creature of our politics and political system. How the office conducts itself depends on the individual, but sadly in our system the political chief executives tend to overawe this office and more often the Speaker ends up more as a mere servitor of the political grandees. Of course, a Speaker can be assertive and choose to do the right thing, even if it incurs the disapproval of the political masters. But that has seldom happened in India. Increasingly, the presiding officers are the instrumentality by which governments control elected legislatures and even subvert mandates and majorities, by suspending members to reduce the Oppositions numbers. Many feel that allowing and disallowing discussions is often in the expectation that it will provoke disturbed conditions on the floor that will provide a veneer of legitimacy to suspensions or trigger walkouts. The Speaker of Britains House of Commons presides over its debates, determining which members may speak, for maintaining order during the debate, and may punish members who break the rules of the House. We recently saw how the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, brought a disruptive Prime Minister Boris Johnson to order by telling him: You might be the Prime Minister of Great Britain, but I am the master of this House and I order you to sit down! Unlike the presiding officers of legislatures in many other countries, the British Speaker remains strictly non-partisan, and renounces all affiliation with his or her former political party when taking office as well as when leaving office. Customarily, the House of Commons re-elects Speakers who desire to continue in office for more than one term. On the other hand, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives is an active and partisan leadership position, and the incumbent actively works to set the majority partys legislative agenda. Thus, in India, what was meant to be a replication of the British system actually ended up like the American system? But there is one big difference. In the US, the whip does not control the legislatures. We have recently witnessed Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia from President Joe Bidens own party stalling his administrations legislative centerpiece. Democracy isnt just about an elected Parliament and periodic elections. Democracy is pointless without debate and discussion. Democracy is a system of government by compromises and accommodation. That is why its called a reconciliatory system, where the myriad aspirations of individuals, groups, regions and nations are sought to be reconciled towards the common good. It is hence a government by discussion and debate, for the method of making choices is by common consent and acceptance. A prime prerequisite for democratic functioning is institutional order and coherence. Nothing much needs be said as to how dysfunctional our Parliament and legislatures have now become. The blight has been a long time in the making and they have now become forums more for political vaudeville than thoughtful consideration of the nations many problems. The first Lok Sabha worked for almost 4,000 hours while the 16th Lok Sabha functioned for just 1,615 hours. Dr Jessica Seddon, a senior fellow at IIT Madras Centre for Technology and Policy, recently wrote a perceptive paper titled The Limits of Control in Parliament, in which she examined the institutional arrangements that preclude intelligent and patient discussion of vital matters in either House of Parliament. Dr Seddon writes: Parliamentary process is currently stacked against constructive debate. It awards the government substantial control over what comes up for discussion, limits the avenues for alternatives to be articulated and seriously considered, and more or less precludes coalitions that cut across government and Opposition lines. In doing so, it also effectively absolves the Opposition from any responsibility to highlight specific problems, propose new solutions and build issue-based coalitions around common interests. If delay, disruption and shouts of no are the only feasible forms of public dissent, its hard to ask people to hold their representatives accountable for more. The evolution of our politics into a non-ideological political competition has seen the demise of discussion and debate within Parliament. The expansion of 24x7 television news channels and their vacuous talk shows aimed at garnering TRPs rather than spreading light has only accelerated this process. Parliament still meets and passes bills and enacts laws, but most of this is done without the debate and discussion that they require and which we expect. Even the Union Budget is barely discussed. Many a time Parliament even functions without a quorum. This convention of having a Speaker from within must be re-examined. We might be better served by having legislatures presided over by an eminent and commonly trusted individual, perhaps like a retired Chief Justice, who might bring a more enlightened view of right and wrong to the office? Then there is the Anti-Defection Act that seriously limits free discussion by muzzling inner-party discussion and expression of dissent. This law disrespects the essential reality that Members of Parliament or the state legislatures are the representatives of the people. That they are members of a political party is only incidental. The elected members are intended to represent and protect the interests of the people who elect them, and not that of a handful of leaders. It makes them subservient to the whip on the pain of expulsion. This tyranny of the whip has turned our MPs virtually into marionettes that are forced to act according to the wishes of their partys leadership. Most party leaderships are now vested within families and clans, and leadership is usually hereditary or extra-institutional. So where do we go from here? And where will we discuss and debate just that? Advertisement Gleaming uniforms, soaring Red Arrow jets, the Queen's Balmoral Honour Guard and Prince Philip being laid to rest have been selected among the Ministry of Defence's best images of 2021 taken by military photographers. From the Afghanistan evacuation to counter-terrorism operations over the mountains of Mali, the UK Armed Forces have chosen photos that show the reality of life for UK servicemen and women. Those who capture these images are all soldiers, sailors and aviators first and photographers second, says the Ministry of Defence (MoD), deploying with their rifle as well as their camera. Army cameraman Dave Jenkins' powerful image of the military Guard of Honour outside St George's Chapel as the Duke of Edinburgh was interred in the Royal Vault last April is featured. An image of an RAF C-130J, flying in support of Operation FORTIS, conducting a nose-up, breaking into the flying circuit over the runway at RAF Akrotiri after returning from Jordan is among the Ministry of Defence's best images of 2021 An RAF Flight Sergeant (from 27 Sqn, RAF Odiham) operates as the rear crewman as the Chinook transits through the Hombori mountains in Mali at sunset. The Royal Air Force Chinooks currently deployed in Mali in support of French Military Operations there have passed a significant milestone after recording 3000 hours of operational flight time A Royal Marine from 45 Commando prepares to plunge into icy water during ice breaking drills as part of the Cold Weather Warfare Course in Norway. As the UK's Cold Weather Warfare Specialists, 45 Commando have returned to the arctic to hone their warfighting skills in one of the most inhospitable environments The British Army conduct patrols as part of Exercise Lion Star 5 at RAF Akrotiri with a staged medevac from 84 Squadron (search and Rescue) and RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. RAF Akrotiri hosted 53 Enabling and Headquarters Squadron while they conducted Exercise Lion Star HMS Queen Elizabeth conducts a night replenishment at sea with RFA Tidespring on June 21 last year. Those who capture these images are all soldiers, sailors and aviators first and photographers second, says the MoD RAF chief photographer Cpl 'Matty' Matthews made the cut with a striking image of C-130J Super Hercules conducting a nose-up, break into the flying circuit over the runway at RAF Akrotiri after returning from Jordan. The Royal Navy also honoured CPO Owen Cooban's emotional image of a sailor hugging a family member after returning to Portsmouth Naval Base. Ministry of Defence chief photographic officer Harland Quarrington said: 'This year and every year, Armed Forces photographers have captured the vital work of the Armed Forces in the UK and around the world. 'The work of military photographers was crucial to telling the heartbreaking story of Afghanistan and the remarkable evacuation of 15,000 vulnerable civilians this summer. 'I'm so grateful to our photographers for bringing amazing stories from around the world - from the Middle East to the Arctic Circle - back to their supporters in the UK.' The MoD tweeted last Wednesday: 'This year the UK Armed Forces worked night and day around the globe to keep us safe. The Queen arriving in Balmoral and being met by an Honour Guard formed of soldiers from 5th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland, as she made her formal arrival at the Balmoral Estate in Scotland last year As Prince Philip's coffin arrives at the West steps of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle from Horseshoe Cloister by a Royal Marines Bearer Party, The Band and Bugles of The Rifles receive the coffin with the National Anthem Red Arrows practice images taken from the back seat of Red 10's jet during a photo chase. Flying in Greek sunshine, the kets can be seen perfecting and polishing manoeuvres ahead of the display season Warships Defender and Diamond received a warm welcome from families at Portsmouth Naval Base after a landmark deployment. The two ships sailed into the base a few hours ahead of aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth The Queen's Life Guard on Parade at the Cenotaph. Members of the Armed Forces came together on Remembrance Sunday to commemorate servicemen and women killed in all conflicts since the First World War One of two newly qualified pilots landing an F35B Lightning Jet on board HMS Queen Elizabeth for their first time on August 14 last year, as 617 Squadron welcomed two more pilots Members of the UK Armed Forces are seen taking part in the evacuation of entitled personnel from Kabul airport in Afghanistan as they identify and fly entitled personnel to the UK An image showing Army Air Corps AH64 Apache conductinh dust landings while deployed to RAFO Musannah in Oman is featured in the MoD's best images of 2021 'They paid their respects to those they lost and supported our allies and our NHS. 'Wishing a Happy New Year to all those who serve and those who support them!' The Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force protect the UK and its allies and promote our interests around the world 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. More than 7,500 personnel are currently on standby in the UK to be called upon to support winter resilience operations at home. A formation flight of specially painted Chinook and Puma helicopter took place on November 25 last year, to mark over 90 years of combined service. The occasion saw the aircraft take a commemorative flight over several locations in the South of England displaying their bespoke anniversary tail art One of the ship's company of HMS Queen Elizabeth looking out to the group formation of ships (left to right: HMS Defender, RFA Tidespring, RFA Fort Victoria, HNLMS Evertsen, JS Kirishima, HMNZS Te Kaha and USS Shiloh) HMS Prince of Wales Ship's Company make final preparations as the Ship leaves Portsmouth Dockyard for operational taskings for the first time in 2021 Members of the British Army Pathfinders take part in an urban training environment. Pathfinders (PF) is the advance force for 16 Air Assault Brigade, the British Army's airborne rapid reaction force Paratroopers show the firepower that they could bring to bear during combat missions as the British Army's global response force during a demonstration on Salisbury Plain .King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery fired a 41-gun salute from six guns in Green Park to mark the birthday of Prince Wales on November 15 last year Advertisement Charlie Elphicke's cliffside house has sold for 700,000 profit after the disgraced former MP lost his job and was forced to claim Universal Credit in the wake of his prison sentence. Elphicke, 50, lived at the property in Dover, Kent, with his estranged wife Natalie, 51, before he was given a two-year jail sentence for sexual assault - half of which he served behind bars. The house in St Margaret's Bay, which boasts an office, veranda, cellar, and stunning views over the bay, was bought for 825,000 in August 2012, but the property sold for 1,525,000 in March 2021. Uxbridge Magistrates Court had heard that Elphicke received 51,000 from the sale of his marital home, but most of that money went towards 'legal fees and rent'. Elphicke's barrister Ian Winter QC had told the court his client had 'a fair bit of debt', and that his estranged wife, Natalie Elphicke, now the MP for Dover, loaned him 100,000 to pay for legal bills. Elphicke, who was released from prison in September after serving half of his sentence, had been brought before the court for allegedly failing to pay 35,000 in prosecution costs following his sentence for sexually assaulting two women. Elphicke and Natalie - who were married for 25 years but are divorcing - lived at the property together before his career was ruined by revelations of his sex attack shame. His wife Natalie took over from him as MP for Dover in 2019. But the home, with breathtaking views across the English Channel near the port of Dover, re are plans for the property to be knocked down by the new owners. Charlie Elphicke's cliffside house has sold for a whopping 700,000 profit after the disgraced former MP lost his job and claimed Universal Credit in the wake of his prison sentence for sexual assault His stunning former marital home in St Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent sold for almost double what he and estranged wife Natalie paid for it It can now be revealed that the plush pad - with stunning views over the bay - has sold for 1,525,000 Elphicke and Natalie, 51 - who were married for 25 years but are now divorcing - lived there together before his sex attack shame and she took over from him as MP for Dover In the wake of Elphicke's case, the Commons Standards Committee found five Conservatives, including his wife Natalie, had breached the code of conduct over an 'egregious' attempt to influence his legal proceedings. As a result Mrs Elphicke, Sir Roger Gale and Theresa Villiers were suspended from the House of Commons for a day. They, along with Bob Stewart and Adam Holloway, had written to senior members of the judiciary raising concerns that a more junior judge was considering publishing character references provided for Mr Elphicke. Elphicke became a Government whip during David Cameron's premiership in 2015 but returned to the backbenches when Theresa May came to power the following year. He had the party whip suspended in 2017 when allegations of sexual assault first emerged but it was controversially reinstated a year later for a crucial confidence vote in then-prime minister Mrs May. The whip was withdrawn again the following summer when the Crown Prosecution Service announced its decision to charge Elphicke. The former MP, who was first elected in 2010, said in December last year that he paid six months rent upfront for a flat in Fulham, south-west London, that was valued online at nearly 475,000. At another hearing last month Elphicke said he had claimed for Universal Credit and said: 'I have no job, I have no career, I am long-term unemployed. 'I am working with the job centre and my probation officer to find a new career. It can now be revealed that the plush pad - with stunning views over the bay - has sold for 1,525,000 Elphicke - who served half his custodial sentence behind bars - was a former Government whip (pictured: The house's bathroom) Uxbridge magistrates court heard in November that Elphicke only got 51,000 from the sale of the marital home - and the money went in legal fees and to pay rent on his new, 475,000 one-bed flat, in Fulham, west London But his stunning former marital home in St Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent sold for almost double what he and estranged wife Natalie paid for it Elphicke - who served half his custodial sentence behind bars - was a former Government whip. He was was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault against two women (pictured: The view from inside the house) Elphicke and Natalie - who were married for 25 years but are divorcing - lived there together before his career was ruined amid revelations of his sex attack shame, and Natalie took over from him as MP for Dover 'I am separated from my wife who has filed for divorce.' Elphicke - who served half his custodial sentence behind bars - was a former Government whip. He was was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault against two women. The former MP forced himself on both victims before kissing and groping them. During one attack in 2007, he chased his victim and said 'I'm a naughty Tory'. An unvaccinated father-of-three who spent Christmas on an intensive care unit with Covid has pleaded with others to get their jabs following his close call with death. Andrew Pugh, 52, spent three weeks at Worcestershire Royal Hospital after catching the virus at the start of December. His girlfriend was warned by doctors that it was a 'fifty-fifty' chance the refuse collector would survive, as the ward began to fill up and he could overhear nearby ventilators being switched off. At one point during the ordeal, Mr Pugh could barely eat, sleep or walk and received the majority of his oxygen through a full faced mask as friends and family feared the worst. But now the former anti-vaxxer has now begged fellow jab-sceptics to get their shots after his brush with death. 'I didn't get the vaccine, I thought I was being the hero. If it wasn't for the nurses and the fact I'm a non-smoker I wouldn't be alive - they saved my life,' he told Worcester News. 'When you're dead and all your family are heartbroken you can't turn around and say "I wish I had the vaccine". 'This is very real and people need to get their jabs.' Andrew Pugh, 52, spent three weeks at Worcestershire Royal Hospital after catching the virus at the start of December Mr Pugh - who works as a binman for Wychavon District Council - has now been moved from the hospital's intensive care ward, but remains on daily oxygen as he recovers from his bout of Covid. As others tragically passed away around him, Mr Pugh admitted he was ignorant in ignoring the threat of Covid and now believes he is 'lucky to be alive'. In one chilling video, a wheezing and barely audible Mr Pugh can be heard thanking the support of his doctors and nurses and remaining hopeful of seeing his family soon. He has only been allowed one visitor since being admitted to hospital on December 5, but regularly shares updates in hospital with close friends and family on Facebook. At one point during the ordeal, Mr Pugh could barely eat, sleep or walk and received the majority of his oxygen through a full faced mask as friends and family feared the worst. Mr Pugh's girlfriend was warned by doctors that it was a 'fifty-fifty' chance the refuse collector would survive, as he the ward began to fill up and he could overhear nearby ventilators being switched off But now the former anti-vaxxer has now begged fellow jab-sceptics to get their shots after his brush with death Taking to social media, Mr Pugh admits he still can't fully breathe on his own accord and at times during his hospital stay he feared his 'pig-headed' decision to not get vaccinated could have meant the end for him. He explained: 'Please people get your vaccinations, you don't want to end up like me.' Mr Pugh's most recent updates provide a more optimistic picture as he is now able to stand by himself - albeit while he is still using oxygen to assist his breathing. Britain's vaccine rollout has continued to forge ahead in the New Year. In the 12 months since AstraZeneca was injected into Brian Pinker, 82, a dialysis patient in Oxford, nine billion Covid doses, including AstraZeneca, have been given worldwide. In Britain alone, 90 per cent of over-12s have had their first vaccine and more than 80 per cent have had two doses, while 33 million boosters have been given. The UK Health Security Agency has announced more than 150,000 cases for six days in a row, while there have been more than 100,000 infections registered per day for nearly two weeks. But the latest figures suggest growth in Covid hospitalisations in London - seen as a leading indicator of what may happen in the rest of the country - slowed in the run-up to New Year, although holiday reporting glitches could be affecting the total. There were 319 patients admitted to hospital in London on December 31, a 14 per cent rise on the same day a week before, and 450 on 30 December which is a 15 per cent rise week-on-week. While a holiday effect may be artificially keeping those numbers low, the rate of increase is well behind the days before that saw a 32 per cent increase on December 29 to 511 admissions. Advertisement A Navy helicopter pilot has become the first woman to command a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier on deployment. Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, commanding officer of the USS Abraham Lincoln, set sail for the western Pacific from San Diego on Monday after nine months of training exercises. 'This is an amazing day,' she said. 'They are going to do exceptional work out there, and I just can't wait to watch them succeed.' The deployment comes after five sailors were killed during training in September when their helicopter crashed into the carrier's flight deck and tumbled into the sea. Bauernschmidt, who came through the ranks flying helicopters, had only been in command 12 days when the tragedy struck. 'It is always a tough experience and no one is prepared for something like that - everyone deals with it in their own way,' she said. 'It was a tough day that none of us will ever forget.' Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt (addressing sailors on Monday), commanding officer of the USS Abraham Lincoln, set sail for the western Pacific from San Diego on Monday after nine months of training and work-ups The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Lincoln sets sail from San Diego on Monday The USS Abraham Lincoln makes history as thousands of service members deploy from San Diego Naval Air Station North Island under Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, the first woman to lead a nuclear carrier in U.S. Navy history, in San Diego, California, U.S., January 3, 2022 Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery can be seen in the distance as USS Abraham Lincoln makes history deploying from San Diego Naval Air Station North Island under Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, the first woman to lead a nuclear carrier in U.S. Navy history, in San Diego, California, U.S., January 3, 2022 Captain Amy Bauernschmidt, commanding officer of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln The warship sets sail amid soaring tensions between China and Taiwan, as well as other US-backed nations throughout the South China Sea and Pacific which are facing increasingly hostile action by Beijing. Rear Adm. Jeffrey Anderson, the Lincoln carrier strike group commander, did not address those ongoing foreign policy matters during a press conference on Monday. He did, however, comment on the surging coronavirus infections across the nation which have been spurred by the highly-infectious Omicron variant. 'We do have some positive cases within the strike group,' Anderson said. 'But ... we're extremely confident that we can safely and effectively execute our mission.' All US sailors were required to be fully vaccinated by November 28 as per President Joe Biden's federal mandate. Anderson said 100 percent of the strikeforce crew were vaccinated. Marines who refused the jab are being booted from the Corps and the Navy is preparing to do the same with sailors who refuse. The deployment is the latest achievement in a meteoric rise for Bauernschmidt who made history in 2016 when she became the first female executive officer (second in command) of a nuclear aircraft carrier, the Lincoln. 'These sailors are incredible professionals who have trained exceptionally hard to ensure they are ready for any operational obligations required of us on deployment,' Bauernschmidt said in a Navy news release. 'They are absolutely prepared for today's deployment, and I have no doubt they will represent our nation proudly as we defend our national interests.' Bauernschmidt, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, graduated from the Naval Academy in 1994, the same year women were allowed to serve on combat ships and planes. A man rows past the Lincoln as she sets sail on Monday under its first ever woman captain A tug boat is seen beside the Lincoln on Monday 'That law absolutely changed my life,' Bauernschmidt told CBS News in 2018. 'We were the first class that graduated knowing and feeling honored with the privilege to be able to go serve along the rest of our comrades in combat. 'There are a lot of times in life that you're a little nervous or afraid to do something, 'cause you think you're gonna fail. Well, so what? I mean what's the worst that's gonna happen if I fail?' Bauernschmidt said. 'You know, If you fail you get up and you may realize in that failure that what you're really meant to do is something else.' She received her wings as a naval aviator in 1996 and flew with the Helicopter Ant-submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 45 'Wolfpack' in San Diego. She also deployed with the destroyer USS John Young as part of maritime operations in the Northern Arabian Gulf. Later, she was chosen to command Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 70, supporting Operation Enduring Freedom aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt was selected for the position by the fiscal year 2022 aviation major command screen board. She is pictured here in 2016 'I hope that I'm a good leader and a mentor to both men and women in the service. But I've still a little uncomfortable with it, but I'm growing to appreciate the role and the fact that if you can see it, you know, you can believe it,' Bauernschmidt said during a 2016 interview Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt during a cake-cutting ceremony in November The USS Abraham Lincoln makes history as thousands of service members man the rails as they deploy from San Diego Naval Air Station North Island under Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, the first woman to lead a nuclear carrier in U.S. Navy history, in San Diego, California, U.S., January 3, 2022 Bauernschmidt has accumulated more than 3,000 flight hours in naval helicopters aboard various aircraft carriers throughout her career and has served in areas from Alaska to Southwest Asia according to her Navy biography. Bauernschmidt is currently the commanding officer of the amphibious transport dock ship USS San Diego. 'I hope that I'm a good leader and a mentor to both men and women in the service,' Bauernschmidt said. Service is about 'contributing to something greater than yourself,' Bauernschmidt told CBS News. 'For me, it is about supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States. But it's also about these young men and women that I lead every day,' she said. 'They're pretty awesome.' An anorexic woman was found dead at home after doctors failed to monitor her condition during lockdown, an inquest heard. Louise Cooper, 44, died from severe malnutrition after suffering from an eating disorder 'for many years' and had an 'extremely low' body mass index (BMI), the hearing was told. A friend forced entry to her home while trying to deliver some shopping after failing to make contact and discovered she had died on her bed. The inquest held last month found that an administrative error meant Louise did not receive the monitoring she was expected to receive during the 2020 lockdown which had also impacted her treatment. The court found that had she received that monitoring as envisaged, there was a good chance she would not have died when she did. A Prevention of Future Deaths report which has now been filed by Senior Coroner Alan Wilson, noted that before her death, Louise told friends 'all of the mechanisms that she had for coping with her condition' were removed during lockdown. The report has been sent to the Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, the Blackpool Clinical Commission Group and the Fylde & Wyre Clinical Commissioning Group. The coroner heard Louise, described as 'thoughtful, caring and intelligent', had been admitted to hospital on a number of occasions as part of her treatment for anorexia. Pictured: Louise Cooper, 44, was found dead at home after doctors failed to monitor her anorexia during lockdown, a coroner heard as he filed a prevention of future deaths report She was last discharged in July 2019 after which time she received care from an eating disorder service until January 2020. The coroner stated: 'Louise knew that the clinical psychologist with whom she had worked over a number of years was due to go on maternity leave. 'She did not wish to work with any other members of the Eating Disorder Service team.' She was then discharged from the eating disorder service on the understanding she would be monitored by her GP. At the time, her body mass index (BMI) was at 12.5. Anything below 15 is considered extreme anorexia and adults are considered underweight if they are below 18.5. Charity: 'This tragic case highlights need for urgent support' Around 1.25 million people in the UK suffer from an eating disorder, according to Beat, the national charity which offers a support helpline and aims to raise awareness and campaign for better services. Tom Quinn, Director of External Affairs at Beat, said: 'The pandemic has had a devastating impact on people with eating disorders with increased isolation leading to more people developing eating disorders; and for many who were already struggling Covid-19 and the resulting lockdown has led to their illness becoming even more severe. 'This tragic case highlights the urgent need to ensure there is enough support in the community for people with eating disorders, and that GP surgeries are effective in carrying out medical monitoring of individuals at risk.' If you are worried about yourself or a loved one, the Beat helpline 0808 801 0677 is open 365 days a year. Advertisement While the GP surgery in Blackpool was notified, an administrative issue meant 'the need for Louise to be monitored was not appreciated', the coroner found. The report added: 'During the weeks preceding Louise's death, her health went into further decline. This was in part contributed to by the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 which left her more isolated. 'Having last exchanged text messages with Louise on May 15, 2020, a friend attended her home address at approximately 12.30pm on May 16, 2020 to deliver some shopping as previously arranged. 'Unable to obtain a reply he forced entry and he found Louise to be deceased on her bed in the rear bedroom.' Recording a narrative conclusion at an inquest on December 17, the coroner said: 'Louise Cooper's condition had not been monitored by medical professionals by the time she died on May 16, 2020 as a result of complications of her previously diagnosed anorexia nervosa.' In his subsequent report, Mr Wilson noted a number of concerns regarding the care Louise received. He said: 'It is reported that she stated to friends that the nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic had removed all of the mechanisms that she had for coping with her condition. 'A trust review would later find that as Louise was self-isolating due to Covid, this may have impacted upon her mental and physical wellbeing due to reduced social contacts. 'Louise did not receive the monitoring she was expected to receive during 2020. 'The court found that had she received that monitoring as envisaged, there was a good chance she would not have died when she did, but was unable to say that she would have survived.' The report noted that as part of her care Louise received one-to-one support whereby a health professional would visit her once a week and sit with her while she ate a meal. Louise's father told the coroner that had this support continued then the outcome might have been different. The coroner added: 'There will be many patients such as Louise who appear to make minimal if any improvement in a hospital setting but who may benefit - according to the clinicians treating them - from sustained supported eating. 'If that option is not available, these patients may be left with no realistic chance of any meaningful improvement.' Pictured: Louise, who worked for Impact Computing, was described by colleagues as a 'very thoughtful, caring, intelligent and determined individual who always put others before herself Both the Department of Health and Social Care and Gillian Keegan MP have also been sent a copy of the report. A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said the department would respond to the report in due course. The coroner requires a response, including details of proposed changes or improvements within 56 days. A spokesperson for Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust said: 'We would like to offer our condolences to Louise Cooper's family at this difficult time. 'We have received a copy of the Regulation 28 report and will work to implement any recommendations that have been outlined.' Bosses at Impact Computing, where Louise worked in the finance and admin department, paid tribute to her following her death back in May 2020. 'Today our company mourns the loss of Louise Cooper, who sadly passed away this Saturday the 16th of May 2020,' the company posted on Facebook. 'Louise worked in our finance and admin department and was instrumental in the company's growth during the long period that she worked with us. 'Louise was a very thoughtful, caring, intelligent and determined individual who always put others before herself. 'She fought hard to address the injustices she saw in this world in an effort to help as many people as she could throughout her life. She will be sorely missed by us all.' A premature baby declared stillborn by Brazilian doctors has been found to be alive as it was prepared for burial. The child, who was named Augustus, was born to an 18-year-old mother in the municipality of Ariquemes in the Brazilian state Rondonia last week after she sought medical attention for severe pain and bleeding. She was turned away by doctors who did not notice she was pregnant and later gave birth to the baby, weighing 2lbs 3oz, without medical help. Doctors declared the child, born at seven months, a stillborn and called a funeral director to take the body away to prepare it for burial. But during preparations, he noticed the baby had a heartbeat and immediately returned the newborn to the hospital where he was placed in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. He is understood to be in a stable condition and responding well to treatment. The mother was discharged. A premature baby declared stillborn by doctors has been found to be alive as it was prepared for burial and has been placed in intensive care (pictured) in Ariquemes, Brazil Doctors declared the child, born at seven months, a stillborn (pictured, the death certificate) and called a funeral director to take the body away to prepare it for burial The baby's grandmother said he was 'moving a lot' yesterday. 'He moved his legs and arms a lot and his heart rate is great'. The funeral director picked up the baby around 3am on Tuesday morning and noticed it was still alive a few hours later as he was preparing for the burial. He noticed Augustus was still alive when he sighed and later checked the newborn's heart, which was beating, G1 reported. The grandmother said she was 'outraged' because she 'didn't see that effort of "let's try to save this child's life anyway".' During burial preparations, the funeral director noticed the baby had a heartbeat and immediately returned the newborn to the hospital where he was placed in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit The baby, named Augustus, is understood to be in a stable condition and responding well to treatment The Civil Police and the Public Ministry of Rondonia said they had opened an investigation into the bizarre incident. But the Ariquemes health department has insisted the baby was dead when it arrived at the hospital. A spokesperson for the department said: 'For me, it's a miracle. I saw the doctor talking and she was very clearly telling me that this baby was dead. 'The funeral home came to get him and he was dead. Somehow that heartbeat came back.' Omicron can be thwarted by another part of the immune system, research today confirmed. Dozens of studies have shown the extremely-infectious variant is better at evading antibodies, which sparked fears that the protection offered by vaccines and prior infection would evaporate. However, virologists have repeatedly insisted that T cells a key secondary part of the body's natural defence can prevent people becoming from severely ill with Omicron, even if people still get infected. Now lab tests have verified the claims, bolstering claims that Omicron tends to only result in a very mild illness. Professor Matthew McKay, a researcher at the University of Melbourne who carried out the research, described it as 'positive news'. He said: 'Even if Omicron or some other variant for that matter can potentially escape antibodies, a robust T-cell response can still be expected to offer protection and help to prevent significant illness. This chart shows how many spike proteins epitopes a type of T-cell called CD8 might be unable to target due to mutations, by Covid strain. While this is higher for Omicron (far right bar) 86 per cent were unaffected meaning a significant and robust T-cell response was likely Similar findings were found for the spike proteins epitopes another type of T-cell called CD4 might be unable to target due to mutations, by Covid strain. While this is higher for Omicron (far right bar) 72 per cent were unaffected and therefore, a significant and robust T-cell response was likely There are hopes that the Omicron outbreak in London, the epicentre of the UK's outbreak has started to peak as hosplisations in the capital have begun to fall 'Based on our data, we anticipate T-cell responses elicited by vaccines and boosters will continue to help protect against Omicron, as observed for other variants. 'We believe this presents some positive news in the global fight against Omicron.' The findings add to a growing plethora of research supporting how jabs are helping prevent the majority of people becoming severely ill. T cells, which are more difficult to measure than antibodies, are thought to provide longer-lasting protection. The cells, which are a type of white blood cell grown in bone marrow, work to stop an infection from replicating to cause severe disease within the body. They can spell the difference between someone suffering cold-like symptoms and requiring hospital treatment. In comparison to T cells, antibodies work to stop a virus from taking hold in the first place. But if this initial protection fails, other parts of the body's immune system can come into play. This is particularly important as antibody levels are known to wane over time, be that from getting a vaccine or a prior infection, leading to reinfection or what is known as a breakthrough case. Covid vaccines have been designed to generate antibodies in order to stop people getting the virus and passing it on to others, breaking the chains of transmission. But studies have shown the antibodies made by the currently available jabs, and those created by non-Omicron Covid are less effective the new variant. This is because the strain has an abundance of mutations it its spike protein, the primary target of the vaccines. This spike is what enables the virus to attach and enter cells in humans. The research, from the University of Melbourne and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, analysed 1,500 fragments of Covid viral proteins called epitopes. Only 20 per cent of the epitopes targeted by T cells showed mutations associated with Omicron. This, they argue, indicates the T cells should still provide a strong response against Omicron, or any other variant. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's Professor Ahmed Abdul Quadeer, study co-author, said: 'Among T-cell epitopes with Omicron mutations, our analysis revealed more than half are predicted to still be visible to T-cells. 'This further diminishes the chance that Omicron may escape T-cells defenses.' Results were published in the peer-reviewed journal Viruses. Experts have slammed the federal government for 'painting a rosy picture' of the new Omicron variant because it is less severe than Delta - as hospitals continue to fill around the country due to the sheer number of people infected. Australia saw a record 47,738 new infections on Tuesday, the largest combined figure the country has seen so far during the pandemic. Dr Stephen Parnis, an emergency physician from Melbourne, said although the new strain was less severe, the surging number of cases means a significant number of people will still be hospitalised. 'I am concerned about the government response if it paints too rosy a picture,' he told The Project. 'I don't think the New South Wales health system is strong and going strong. I think it is facing challenges that have never been seen in my lifetime. We need to be honest to keep people's confidence and trust in place.' Experts have slammed the government for 'painting a rosy picture' over the new Omicron variant because it is less severe than Delta - as hospitals and ICUs fill around the country (pictured, a man in St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney in ICU) A nurse shared her horror story working through Australia's latest Covid wave as the Omicron variant tears through the country NSW alone has already seen hospitalisations surpass any previous point during the pandemic, however ICU cases remain well below the wave of the more severe Delta variant. But Dr Parnis said because Omicron 'spreads like wildfire' there has been increased strain on testing clinics and community-based healthcare, rather than mounting cases in intensive care. Many staff members are also being forced to isolate after either catching Covid or being deemed a close contact, putting a strain on already exhausted workers. 'Things like ambulance call-outs, times to be seen in emergency. Inevitably the longer that those times blow out, the more likely an adverse outcome something like an avoidable death,' Dr Parnis said. 'You can't redefine a problem out of existence or minimise its impact. We've got some hard weeks in front of us, but I take comfort in the fact that as a nation we've got through some nasty waves over the last two years. 'We will get through this if we follow some careful, sensible instructions and not look at who to blame.' Dr Stephen Parnis (pictured), an emergency physician, said although the new strain was less severe, the sheer number of cases mean a significant number of people will still be hospitalised Other frontline workers responded to the nurse's post, saying they too were experiencing similar circumstances More than 2,000 healthcare workers in NSW are either positive or isolating as a result of being close contacted, forcing those still able to work into arduous shifts. Many have taken to social media to share their stories of working 18 hour stints without a break to even drink water. 'Words from an ED nurse. 6am. COVID cardiac arrest. I'm broken. I haven't had a mouthful of water for 18 hours. I cant do this anymore,' a woman named Rachel posted to Twitter. 'Now there's not enough staff for day shift. We can't cover the department. 'I am beyond angry at what is happening to critical care nursing staff. Furious. Livid. That government policy settings are crushing them, leaving them in tears, making them leave. Breaking them.' Other frontline workers responded to the nurse's post, saying they too were experiencing similar circumstances. 'I'm in a rehab ward and we are working short-handed, too. We've resorted to calling in staff who worked last night to 7am this morning to come to work from 3pm this afternoon. Now we have to try to cover their night shift tonight,' a woman replied. 'I work in a birthing unit, so many women Covid positive over the weekend, midwives off with Covid, worried phone calls from pregnant women with positive RATs. So much more I can't talk about,' another woman shared. Australia saw a record 47,738 new infections on Tuesday, the largest combined figure the country has seen so far during the pandemic (pictured, staff at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney) Poll Should rapid tests be free for everyone? Yes No Should rapid tests be free for everyone? Yes 2009 votes No 528 votes Now share your opinion Dr Parnis said a lot of strain could be immediately taken off the healthcare system if rapid antigen tests were subsidised by the federal government. 'Let's stop playing games with the issue over cost for rapid antigen testing,' he said. 'If we continue with this nonsense that people need to pay to get access to these RAT tests then we're going to see a disproportionate number of people get sick in the suburbs that have low socio economic status and that's the last thing we want in Australia. 'We've not run the pandemic in that way at any time in the last two years and we shouldn't be starting on it now.' The UK Government has mailed free rapid tests to people's homes since April but the PM has refused to adopt a similar model in Australia over cost fears (pictured, a testing working in Sydney's Randwick) Chemist Warehouse boss Mario Tascone told 2GB Radio on Monday morning the government should at least look to removing GST on the tests if they won't immediately pay for them. 'I'm sure they can get on Zoom and run an emergency session of parliament because the thought the government is making 10 per cent off millions and millions of packets off sales of rapid antigen tests really doesn't sit right,' he said. There have been reports of rapid tests costing as much as $100 per unit as Covid cases skyrocket throughout Australia due to the emergence of the highly-infectious Omicron variant. The Chemist Warehouse director said the demand for RATs was 'unprecedented', similar to that of the toilet paper hoarding at the start of the pandemic, and said dropping GST would see immediate results. 'They'll be 10 per cent cheaper overnight we'll drop the price, its not much but that $50 pack of five becomes $45 overnight,' he said. 'So that's one thing they can do immediately, apparently it needs parliament sitting.' Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is 'improving' after being rushed to hospital for an intestinal blockage and will not need to undergo surgery, his doctors have said. The 66-year-old was admitted to Vila Nova Star Hospital in Sao Paulo around 3am Monday after being flown there from a beach holiday in Santa Catarina province when he began suffering abdominal pain and vomiting on Sunday. Antonio Luiz de Macedo, Bolsonaro's top doctor, said he had suffered a blockage caused by stab wounds he suffered during the 2018 election, but that the obstruction has now cleared itself. Bolsonaro is not suffering fever and has no more pains and will have a feeding tube removed today so he can start on a liquid diet, the hospital said. No date has been set for his release. President Jair Bolsonaro, 66, is 'improving' in hospital after suffering a blocked intestine and will not need to undergo surgery, his doctors have said (pictured) Macedo added that Bolsonaro has a 'very sensitive and delicate' digestive tract that can cause food to get stuck and cause a blockage. He said Bolsonaro suffered a similar issue over the summer, when he stayed in hospital for two or three days before the blockage cleared itself. A post on Bolsonaro's social media accounts revealed the pain began after lunch on Sunday, prompting an overnight evacuation flight from the beach resort of Santa Catarina - where he spent the New Year - to Sao Paulo, a journey of 300 miles. The post, which was accompanied by a photo of Bolsonaro in bed giving a thumbs up, said he arrived in hospital around 3am Monday and was placed on a ward. Dr Macedo was then summoned, and arrived around 5am on Tuesday. Bolsonaro was stabbed during a campaign rally three years ago, causing intestinal damage and serious internal bleeding, which has required at least four surgeries. In July, he was admitted to hospital for further treatment after suffering from hiccups for ten days straight as a result of his gastrointestinal trouble. 'I started feeling unwell after lunch Sunday. I arrived at the hospital at 3:00 am today,' he tweeted after being admitted to Vila Nova Star hospital in Sao Paulo. 'They gave me a nasogastric tube,' a device to carry food and medicine to the stomach through the nose. Bolsonaro's condition is related to wounds he suffered during the 2018 election campaign when he was stabbed in the stomach during a rally (pictured at the time) 'They'll be doing more exams to decide if I need surgery,' he added. Bolsonaro's office said he was 'doing well.' Brazilian channel TV Globo carried images of him walking unassisted as he disembarked from his plane with his entourage. Bolsonaro's medical team said he was suffering from an 'intestinal subocclusion,' a partial blockage of the intestinal tract. 'He is stable, undergoing treatment and will be reevaluated throughout the morning,' his doctors said in a statement. 'At the moment, there is no forecast for his release.' The surgeon who has operated on Bolsonaro in the past, Dr. Antonio Luiz Macedo - who was himself on vacation in the Bahamas - will arrive at 3.00pm local time, the president said. Macedo told news site UOL the president would undergo a battery of tests. About a month before he was elected president, Bolsonaro was stabbed at a campaign rally by a man who was found to be psychologically unfit for trial. The horrifying moment was caught on several cameras as the assailant struck Bolsonaro in the stomach. The politician was being carried on the shoulders of a supporter while shaking hands with his fans when the assailant rushed up to him and plunged the blade into his torso. Bolsonaro was seen collapsing and clutching his stomach in agony. The then-candidate would normally have been wearing a bullet-proof vest provided by the federal police but on this occasion had decided to forego protection. The DUP has warned there is an 'inevitability' to the collapse of powersharing arrangements in Northern Ireland if post-Brexit border problems are not resolved. First Minister Paul Givan said he wants Northern Ireland's institutions 'to be able to keep running' but trade checks are undermining Stormont's foundations. The DUP's Mr Givan said institutions are 'a lot harder to put back together again' after they have been collapsed. However, he said that there is an 'inevitability about these institutions not being able to work if we don't address the protocol issues'. First Minister Paul Givan said he wants Northern Ireland's institutions 'to be able to keep running' but trade checks are undermining Stormont's foundations Unionists have been pressuring for the Northern Ireland Protocol to be scrapped because of the trade barriers it has created on products crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain The protocol was negotiated as part of the Brexit deal to avoid a hard border with Ireland, by effectively keeping Northern Ireland in the EUs single market for goods. But unionists have been pressuring for it to be scrapped because of the trade barriers it has created on products crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain. The UK and EU remain locked in talks as they try to agree solutions to smooth the operation of the protocol but a breakthrough remains elusive. The DUP wants Boris Johnson and the UK Government to set a formal deadline for talks with Brussels to conclude. It wants either a deal to be done to fix the border issues or, if an agreement cannot be struck, for the UK to trigger Article 16 of the protocol to unilaterally suspend border checks. The last time powersharing at Stormont collapsed, in 2017, it was not restored for three years, in 2020. The terms of powersharing in Northern Ireland mean that the devolved government must have representatives from both the nationalist and unionist communities. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has repeatedly threatened to bring down Stormont unless the so-called Irish Sea border is removed. Mr Givan told the BBC: 'I do want the institutions to be able to keep running, to focus on those issues that matter to everybody. 'But I also accept that for any institution to operate effectively, its foundations need to be right, and at the moment, they're not.' The DUP wants Boris Johnson and the UK Government to set a formal deadline for talks with Brussels to conclude Mr Givan said that 'at the moment broad swathes of unionism' feel unable to buy into the powersharing process because of the protocol and 'that's not a tenable position'. The First Minister said the protocol has 'upset' the balance in Northern Ireland and must be changed. He said: 'I know that in collapsing institutions, they're a lot harder to put back together again. We've been there before. 'These are conversations we have had, that whenever things go down, they're very difficult to get back up again. 'But they're not sustainable in their current form either. I think there is an inevitability about these institutions not being able to work if we don't address the protocol issues.' We are the 74 held a rally held in Hernando in August to show local support for medical marijuana. An uninsured driver who had been driving without a licence for more than 10 years ploughed into a patient and killed him just moments after he had been discharged from hospital. Dalsooz Hussain, 49, was driving with his wife and six-year-old son in a rented minivan when he struck Colin Penman, 44, outside St James' Hospital in Leeds. Mr Penman had only just been discharged from the hospital when he stumbled and fell into the road at around 12.30am on May 28. A passing motorist and police van stopped at the scene to assist him, with an officer turning the van's headlights to full beam and illuminating its sirens to warn Hussain as he approached. However, he missed the warnings and struck Mr Penman moments later. The Kurdish national, who has numerous previous convictions for driving offences, did not apply the brakes of the silver Tourneo until after the collision, by which time the victim had been 'dragged underneath the vehicle'. He claimed he was blinded by the full beam headlights and, as a result, could not see Mr Penman in the road. Hussain, though, pleaded guilty to causing death while driving uninsured and has been jailed for 14 months at Leeds Crown Court. He was also banned from driving for two years. David McGonigal, prosecuting, told the court that Hussain hired the Ford Tourneo from a rental company in London at around 1pm on the day of the fatal collision. Although Hussain was in possession of a foreign driving licence, he was not insured to drive the vehicle, the court heard. Colin Penman, 44, from Sunderland, died after he was hit by a silver Ford Tourneo minibus in Beckett Street, Leeds Police at the scene of the fatal collision near St James' Hospital in Leeds. Mr Penman was using a crutch when he stumbled and fell into the road shortly after being discharged from the hospital He was joined by his wife and six-year-old son in the minivan when he set off from London to drive back home to Leeds. The prosecutor said Hussain did not have a valid UK driving licence and was 'therefore not insured to drive'. He added that Mr Penman, who suffered from mental health problems, had been discharged from hospital and was walking towards a nearby bus stop using a crutch. The driver of a passing Toyota Yaris then spotted him appear to stumble into the road. The Yaris driver subsequently made a U-turn to check if Mr Penman was okay, before a police van arrived at the scene. Mr McGonigal told the court that Hussain was driving within the 30mph speed limit in Beckett Street towards the police van. When he was around 25 metres away from Mr Penman, the police officer put the van's headlights to full beam and turned on its sirens, while the Yaris driver also sounded his horn. Mr McGonigal added: 'The defendant was to tell police he became blinded by the full beam and distracted by the horn so didnt see Mr Penman lying in the carriageway. 'The car hit Mr Penman. The defendant then braked. Mr Penman was dragged under the Tourneo for a short distance.' Mr Penman suffered multiple head and neck injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene at 1.20am. The court heard Hussain had a number of previous driving convictions, including being banned for 12 months in November 2010 after being caught behind the wheel with no insurance. Hussain, who had numerous previous convictions for driving offences, has been jailed for 14 months In May 2018, he was given six penalty points for driving without insurance, a licence and while under the influence of alcohol. In November 2019, he was convicted of two counts of driving without a licence and a single count of no insurance. Most recently, he was convicted of driving without a licence in April last year and handed five points and a fine in September. Hussain had been charged with causing death by careless driving, but the prosecution later offered no evidence on the charge and a not guilty verdict was recorded. Imran Khan, mitigating, told the court that Hussain has a licence abroad, adding that 'he is very sorry for the death that has occurred'. Passing sentence, Judge Tom Bayliss QC told the court Hussain was 'flagrantly in disregard' to UK driving laws. He added: 'You did not hold and have never held a valid UK driving licence. The consequence of that is you were not insured to drive the vehicle. 'You had been driving in the UK without a licence for many years. 'Despite all the previous appearances alerting you to the illegality of your driving you continued to drive, flagrantly in disregard to the laws of the UK.' He added that the maximum sentence for causing death by driving without a licence is two years' imprisonment. Hussain, of Seaforth Place, Harehills, was jailed for 14 months and banned from driving for two years. The first migrants of 2022 arrived in Dover shouting 'we love you UK' as the RNLI brought 66 people including a baby and five children ashore on Tuesday. The first group was escorted up the Port's gangway by Border Force officials before being taken away at around 10.45am, according to an eyewitness. Among those to arrive included a man and woman leading a child wrapped in a blanket, alongside a man carrying a girl wearing a pink onesie. A second group was taken to the Port during the afternoon, including one man who was seen creating a dove gesture with his hands, which is commonly used to signify freedom and peace. In total, 66 migrants arrived in Dover, while French authorities intercepted and prevented at least 38 people from reaching the UK, said the Home Office. Tuesday marked the first Channel crossing this year due to a brief weather window which brought calmer conditions at sea. The last to make the treacherous 21-mile journey came on December 27 when 36 people in one boat were detained. It is expected weather conditions will soon deteriorate, making crossings difficult for the next two weeks. The crossing follows a record-breaking 28,381 people making the journey last year - dwarfing the 8,410 who made the same treacherous trip in 2020. A group of people thought to be migrants are brought ashore in Dover, Kent, by the RNLI following a small boat incident in the Channel this morning A man makes a symbol of a dove with his hands as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought into Dover Marina by Border Force Hurricane after being picked up in the Channel The group were seen being escorted up the gangway by immigration officials before being taken off to be processed A man carries a small child as they are brought into Dover, Kent, this morning. The group are the first to make the treacherous 21-mile journey this year People wearing life jackets are seen being escorted by UK Border Force officials as they arrive at the Port of Dover in the first Channel crossing of 2022 The first migrants of 2022 arrived in Dover shouting 'we love you UK' as the RNLI (lifeboat pictured) brought around 40 people ashore Priti Patel's Nationality and Borders Bill passes its final reading in the Commons Priti Patel's Nationality and Borders Bill passed its third and final reading in the Commons last month, with 298 MPs voting for it while 231 voted against. The Bill is now awaiting its second reading in the House of Lords, which is due to take place tomorrow. The Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee had previously written to the Home Secretary, expressing 'concerns' over the legal basis for plans to turn back migrant boats at sea, which form part of the Bill. Peers said at the time that the letter added to 'growing concern both in and outside Parliament' over the so-called 'pushback' policy, designed to deter would-be migrants and refugees from crossing the Channel. Among other measures, it will crack down on illegal migration by handing fewer privileges to asylum seekers who arrive illegally while increasing prison penalties for traffickers. But it was the proposal of new powers to turn around migrant boats which caused the most concern. Ms Patel insisted the plan has a 'legal basis' when questioned by the committee in October, despite concerns being repeatedly raised over its legality and effectiveness which prompted campaigners to threaten her with legal action. However, the Home Office's permanent secretary, Matthew Rycroft, previously conceded that only a 'small proportion' of boats could be turned back. Advertisement Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP, said: 'People fleeing persecution should seek safety in the first safe country they reach and not risk their lives paying criminal gangs to cross the Channel. 'This Government is reforming our approach to illegal entry to the UK and asylum by making the tough decisions to end the overt exploitation of our laws and its impact on UK taxpayers. The public have rightly had enough of the blatant disregard of our immigration laws and we are bringing in necessary long-term changes. 'The Nationality and Borders Bill will make it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introduce life sentences for those who facilitate illegal entry into the country. 'It will also strengthen the powers of Border Force to stop and redirect vessels, while introducing new powers to remove asylum seekers to have their claims processed outside the UK.' At least 1,020 boats were intercepted by UK authorities over the past 12 months - with an average of around 78 migrants arriving in three boats every day. Last month alone saw 1,770 people arrive by small boat, compared to just 211 in December 2020. But the busiest month for migrant arrivals was November, when a staggering 6,869 people reached the UK across 201 vessels- the highest number since the crisis in the Channel began. The figures reached an all time high on November 11 when 1,131 migrants arrived by small boat in one day. November 24 also brought the gravest tragedy in the Channel when 27 men, women and children all died after their dinghy sank in the freezing cold waters. Only two people are known to have survived the largest loss of life since the current crisis began. Despite the year starting off relatively quietly for Channel crossings, figures topped 1,000 for the first time in May when 1,619 arrived in 80 boats. Warm weather in the summer saw more record-breaking months. A total of 2,179 arrived in 92 boats in June, 3,509 came in 117 boats in July, 3,012 made the treacherous trip on 110 boats in August and a whopping 4,646 made the same journey in 159 boats in September. October also saw 2,669 migrants arrive in 92 boats as calm conditions at sea continued. Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP, said: 'For nearly two decades the public have been crying out for the broken asylum system to be reformed and that's what this Government is delivering. A group of people are brought into Dover Marina by a lifeboat at around 10.45am this morning A group of around 40 people were escorted up the Port's gangway by Border Force officials before being taken away at around 10.45am, according to an eyewitness The group are the first to make the treacherous 21-mile journey this year due to a brief weather window which brought calmer conditions at sea Around 40 people including a baby and five children are brought ashore by the RNLI as the first migrants of 2022 arrive in Dover today The last to make the Channel crossing came on December 27 when 36 people in one boat were detained (pictured: people arriving at the Port of Dover today) 'The Nationality and Borders Bill, which was backed by a majority of MPs this month, will make it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and introduce life sentences for those who facilitate illegal entry into the country. 'The sooner the House of Lords passes the Bill in the New Year, the sooner we can break the business model of the people smugglers, protect those in genuine need of asylum and ensure the swift removal of those with no right to be here.' A second reading of Priti Patel's Nationality and Borders Bill, which includes plans to turn back migrant boats at sea, is due to take place in the House of Lords tomorrow. Speaking about the record numbers last year Dover and Deal MP Natalie Elphicke believes taxpayers 'deserve a better deal'. She said: 'Over 28,000 migrants arrived across the English Channel in 2021. This is a simply shocking situation. This morning's group was the first to make the treacherous 21-mile journey this year due to a brief weather window which brought calmer conditions at sea A group of people thought to be migrants are seen waving towards the camera as they are brought into Dover, Kent, by the RNLI following a small boat incident in the Channel The crossing follows a record-breaking 28,381 people making the journey last year - dwarfing the 8,410 who made the same treacherous trip in 2020. A group of people thought to be migrants are escorted by Border Force officers after they were brought in to Dover, Kent, after crossing the Channel this morning A man carrying a small child is helped by a Border Force officer after they were brought in to Dover, Kent, following a small boat incident in the Channel today 'It is a massive increase from previous years. This is not only unacceptable, it is incredibly expensive. 'It's not right that taxpayers will be footing the bill this year, and for years to come in assessing claims, emergency housing and more besides. 'Hardworking taxpayers deserve a better deal. Money would be better spent strengthening our borders. 'It's high time to stop the small boat crossings - by stopping the boats leaving in the first place, turning boats back to France and making swift returns. 'People are already safe in France, there is no reason to be making this dangerous journey in the hands of people smugglers.' Advertisement What testing measures are in place for the return of secondary schools? All secondary schools have been asked to provide one on-site test for pupils ahead of their return to the classroom this term to help reduce the transmission of Covid-19. Schools and colleges ordered tests before Christmas and have received these in advance of pupils returning. Government education chiefs say they will continue to be able to order additional tests through a separate supply route. Meanwhile, students returning to university have also been advised to test before they travel back to campus. Secondary, college and university students and education staff and early years staff are advised to continue to test themselves twice a week. They will be asked to test more frequently in the event of an outbreak. Source: Gov.uk Advertisement The big return to schools in England has today been plunged into chaos with students being sent home 'with Covid' less than an hour after arriving, dozens of teachers unable to come in due to Covid and education chiefs warning that specialist subjects may have to be axed to deal with staff shortages. As secondary school students today returned to the classroom after Christmas break, head teachers and union chiefs have told of their worries that staff shortages could worsen in the new term and cause further disruption to children's education. Education union leaders warned of a 'stressful time' ahead as existing teacher absences on the first day of term could become even more 'challenging' in the weeks ahead. Some schools are reporting that around one in five staff members could be missing at the start of term. One headteacher said dozens of his staff are off sick with Covid. Meanwhile parents revealed how students are being sent home within an hour of arriving due to a positive lateral flow test. It comes as, in the most stark warning yet, the head of Ofqual has suggested schools may have to suspend specialist subjects and focus on core lessons as a way of coping with staff absence. Ian Bauckham, chairman of the exams regulator, said emergency timetables may need to be adopted as schools struggle with teachers testing positive for Covid-19. He said lessons such as Music, Physical Education (PE) and Relationships Health and Sex Education (RHSE) may have to be scrapped to allow teachers to focus on core subjects such as maths, science and English. Other practical subjects such as design and technology may have to take place in larger classes, he also warned. School students were swabbed on their return to school on Tuesday as part of a nationwide programme to catch cases - including asymptomatic ones - at the start of the new term. Every secondary school student in England was given a lateral flow test when they arrived at their classroom on Tuesday. The Government-backed testing scheme is expected to root out cases before the virus spreads through schools and back to the home - potentially sparking a sudden wave of self-isolation among parents. Students and staff will be encouraged to test twice a week and to wear face masks in lessons. Despite the measures, school heads fear up to a quarter of their staff could be struck down with the virus this month, with unions warning a return to online teaching is inevitable for some this term. One education leader reportedly said the situation could lead to something 'like a scene out of Mad Max'. Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi however insists face-to-face classes will stay the norm and the Department for Education (DfE) has reportedly advised heads to deal with staff absence by teaching larger groups. It comes as experts including epidemiologist Neil Ferguson - dubbed 'Professor Lockdown' after producing research in March 2020 that convinced the Government to shutdown the country - said the 'good news' about Omicron is that 'it is certainly less severe' than previous variants of Covid. He said this has helped keep hospital numbers down compared with previous peaks. However. Boris Johnson stood firm on calls for England's self-isolation period to be cut to five days. The Prime Minister insisted that the move - which would bring the UK in line with the US - would lead to more staff absences and not less. In other developments today: Boris Johnson is meeting ministers to take stock after declaring that the government will stick to existing restrictions, while warning it is 'folly' to think the pandemic is over; The PM has rejected calls to cut the Covid isolation period again to five days, saying doing so could make the staffing crisis even worse; Vaccines minister Maggie Throup has played down concerns about a fall in the numbers getting booster jabs suggesting it will rise again after the festive period; Hospital admissions for Covid in London fell for the first time since before Omicron took off, spurring hopes that the worst of the wave may have peaked; Britons shouldn't be offered a fourth Covid jab until there is more evidence, according to the head of the country's vaccine body, who warned dishing out vaccines every six months was 'not sustainable'; Pre-return Covid international travel tests are expected to be scrapped tomorrow. Alongside testing on their arrival, students and staff will be encouraged to test twice a week and to wear face masks in lesson. Pictured: Year 10 students wear face masks in lessons at Park Lane Academy in Halifax Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi however insists face-to-face classes will stay the norm. The Department for Education (DfE) meanwhile has reportedly advised heads to deal with staff absence by teaching larger groups. Pictured: Year 10 students at Park Lane Academy in Halifax wear masks in lessons The Government-backed testing scheme is aimed at rooting out cases before the virus spreads through schools and back to the home - potentially sparking a sudden wave of self-isolation among parents. Students and staff will be encouraged to test twice a week and to wear face masks in lessons Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi however insists face-to-face classes will stay the norm. The Department for Education (DfE) meanwhile has reportedly advised heads to deal with staff absence by teaching larger groups. Pictured: Covid tests at Park Lane Academy in Halifax Boris bats away calls for Covid isolation to be slashed to FIVE days Boris Johnson today batted away pleas for Covid self-isolation to be slashed to five days, warning it could make staff shortages even worse. Calls have been mounting for the UK to emulate the US by trimming the period again to stop the economy and key services being crippled by absences. However, the PM insisted that going below the current seven days could have the 'perverse' effect of speeding the spread, as three times more people would still be infectious when they return to workplaces. On a visit to a vaccination centre in Stoke Mandeville today, Mr Johnson urged people to 'stick to Plan B' stressing that that Omicron is 'plainly milder'. But he cautioned that the health service will be under 'considerable pressure' for weeks to come, suggesting staff will be moved to plug gaps. Asked about the idea of easing isolation rules - already reduced from 10 days as long as people are negative on lateral flow tests on day six and seven - Mr Johnson said: 'We'll continue to look at the infectivity periods, but the key thing is we don't want to be releasing people back into the workplace when they're still infectious. 'And the risk is you'd increase the numbers of people going back into the workplace who are infectious by a factor of three. So you might perversely have a negative effect on the workforce if you see what I mean, so that's the argument we're looking at.' Advertisement It comes as school leaders in England today warned of weeks of disruption due to high levels of Covid absences among staff. Some pupils could end up wearing coats in lessons in the weeks ahead as heads and academy leaders increase ventilation to help keep classrooms safe. Steve Chalke, founder of Oasis Charitable Trust, which has 52 schools across England, said it is too early to say how high staff absences will be when pupils fully return to class. Based on two primary schools in the trust, he suggested around 20 per cent of staff could be absent. One school had six staff out of 32 off for an inset day and another had seven missing out of about 35. The academy trust has purchased iPads for all students in the event of a return to online learning. 'If and when schools do need to go home, and I think it's more of a when than an if, we are prepared for that,' Mr Chalke said. Mr Zahawi has called on former and retired teachers to return to the classroom as part of the Government's efforts to tackle staff shortages. But Mr Chalke said even if as many as 30,000 were recruited, it may only be a 'drop in the bucket'. He added that schools had already been 'hammered' over the last six terms with supply teacher costs. He said: 'Schools are desperate for support and it's great that there's this call for retired teachers, but a commitment to fund supply teachers would be hugely beneficial.' Evelyn Forde, head of Copthall School in Mill Hill, north London, and vice president of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said 13 members of staff were absent on an inset day on Tuesday. Senior members of staff, including Ms Forde herself, will cover lessons at the secondary school and she will try to get supply teachers in, but if the shortages are too great, classes will have to be merged, she said. Ms Forde said: 'We've got an assembly hall which is large and we've got a sports hall which is really large, but if you take out either of those spaces you're actually taking out teaching space because we teach in those spaces. So we're going to have to be very creative in terms of what that looks like.' She added she was 'deeply concerned' that staff shortages and pupil absences could get worse. Four children had already tested positive for Covid-19 on site on Tuesday, and a number of parents had also sent evidence to the school that their children had caught the virus over the holidays. Ms Forde said: 'If you couple that with the staffing - which is looking pretty horrendous actually - I think the term ahead is going to be really, really challenging for school leaders and the young people. 'We're ever mindful of trying to socially distance as much as we can, but it's just not really feasible. We'll have the windows open and so forth, but everything will present its challenges.' She said it was a 'possibility' that pupils may have to wear coats in class due to windows being open. Ian Bauckham (pictured left), chairman of Ofqual, today said schools may be forced to drop specialist lessons in order to help alleviate pressure in the event of staff shortages. Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi (pictured right) however insists face-to-face classes will stay the norm Tom Quinn, chief executive of the Frank Field Education Trust, which runs two secondary schools and one primary school, said they will also make sure windows are open to increase air circulation and reduce transmission, which he acknowledged could mean more students layering up. He said: 'We've done this in the past. It's not ideal. It's not perfect. But we are still in a pandemic situation and we have to react accordingly.' Mr Quinn said it is likely there will be further teacher shortages and pupil absences as the term progresses, but he added: 'We really want to do everything we can possibly do to make sure children are educated in the classroom with proper teachers.' Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: 'We are hearing from our members that they are finding some pupils are absent and some staff are off sick or isolating. The biggest concern for school leaders is staffing. It only takes a small increase in staff absence to begin to cause real problems. 'School leaders are understandably anxious about how the term might progress if staffing levels fall as some have predicted, and are concerned about maintaining quality of education in the face of shortages. 'School leaders will be doing everything possible to ensure a smooth return and a successful term for their students, but depending on how infection rates progress, it could be another stressful time.' Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said: 'That concern, that anxiety about insufficient teacher numbers, is raising its head amongst our members. 'Frankly if schools don't have safe staffing levels then it may also be the case that pupils regrettably may have to be sent home. 'The indicators we had just prior to the Christmas break was that in some schools as many as a third of teaching staff were absent. We don't think that picture is going to have gotten any better for the start of this term. 'We're already hearing of staff absences now on the first day back which are higher than would normally be expected at this time of the year. As we often do see during these winter months, we will see the normal seasonal issues that are impacting on our workforce supply. 'But you add on to that the impact of Omicron in relation to staff who are not able to be in school, or who may have contracted Covid-19, that could make a very challenging situation much worse.' A Department for Education spokeswoman said: 'We know children and young people want to be in the classroom and it is the very best place for their education and wellbeing, which is why face-to-face teaching continues to be an absolute priority. 'The safety measures we have put in place strike a balance between managing transmission risk with regular testing and enhanced ventilation and hygiene, and reducing disruption to in-person learning.' Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said schools 'desperately' wanted to teach face-to-face again. But he warned that staff shortages could spark disruption. He said: 'Schools and colleges desperately want to be able to maintain face-to-face teaching on a consistent basis, but the reality is that if large numbers of staff are absent this will cause disruption, which may include having to send home classes or year groups for short periods of time to learn remotely.' Boris Johnson (pictured being driven back to Downing Street this morning) will hold a press conference at 5pm as he faces growing pressure to end the Omicron self-isolation crisis that threatens to paralyse the economy and wreak havoc on vital services Caroline Derbyshire, executive head at Saffron Walden County High School in Essex, and leader of Saffron Academy Trust, added: 'We know that (staff shortages) will be a factor and there will be schools in particular parts of the country where rates have been extremely high where staffing will be difficult. 'But this sort of mass of supply teachers that are supposed to be there - that's not happened, has it, so if we have got shortages it'll be colleagues who are in school who'll be doing most of the covering. She said the idea of merging classes, as suggested by Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi in the event of shortages, had already been carried out by schools 'all term last term', but it was 'not a long-term solution'. She said staff shortages would 'absolutely' make remote learning more likely, adding: 'If you hit a certain point with staff absences in a big school you're talking about maybe 10 members of staff being off. 'You've suddenly got the inability to run a year group - that's when you start having either year groups or whole parts of schools having to go online, so that's when you're going to have that mixed economy of some students being in school and some at home.' One secondary headteacher, speaking ahead of today's return of secondary schools in England, said he and 26 of his staff had tested positive for the virus. Glyn Potts, the head of Blessed John Henry Newman RC College in Oldham, told the Guardian that other staff were having to stay at home to look after their own children as nurseries were closed due to their own Covid absences. Meanwhile, Ian Bauckham, chairman of Ofqual, today said schools may be forced to drop specialist lessons in order to help alleviate pressure in the event of staff shortages. Writing in the education news outlet TES - formerly the Times Education Supplement - he said: 'In cases where a specialist teacher rotates between classes to teach subjects that sometimes include for example PE, RHSE or Music, it may be possible and use that teacher to teach classes whose normal teacher is absent and unable to teach remotely.' Mr Bauckham said practical subjects, such as design and technology, which are normally taught in smaller groups for health and safety reasons, may need to be taught in bigger classes with a more theoretical focus. This would allow schools to prioritise GCSE and A-level pupils, he said. However Mr Bauckham added that 'different school and trust leaders will have different approaches'. The seemingly less severe Omicron variant has led for calls on the Government to slash the self-isolation period for positive Covid cases from 7 days to 5 - to bring it in line with the US. The period was cut from 10 to 7 last month after pressure from business chiefs who raised concerns about a new staffing crisis, following last year's crippling 'pingdemic', due to the number of people having to self-isolate But Boris Johnson today batted away pleas for Covid self-isolation to be slashed to five days, warning it could make staff shortages even worse. On a visit to a vaccination centre in Stoke Mandeville today, Mr Johnson urged people to 'stick to Plan B' stressing that that Omicron is 'plainly milder'. But he cautioned that the health service will be under 'considerable pressure' for weeks to come, suggesting staff will be moved to plug gaps. Asked about the idea of easing isolation rules - already reduced from 10 days as long as people are negative on lateral flow tests on day six and seven - Mr Johnson said: 'We'll continue to look at the infectivity periods, but the key thing is we don't want to be releasing people back into the workplace when they're still infectious. 'And the risk is you'd increase the numbers of people going back into the workplace who are infectious by a factor of three. So you might perversely have a negative effect on the workforce if you see what I mean, so that's the argument we're looking at.' It comes as parents today revealed how they have been forced to pick up their children from school - less than an hour after their return - because of a positive lateral flow test. Parents said their children had tested positive despite having 'no symptoms'. One social media user, who said they worked in a school, said students were completely unaware they had the virus, despite testing positive. They also claimed their school had been hit worse by a winter vomiting bug and chicken pox last term. The Government currently advises those who test positive of lateral flow tests to isolate while they await results from a confirmatory PCR test. One parent, taking to Twitter to express their anger, wrote: 'Son goes in for test at 8.30am. At 9.10am phone call its positive so he needs a PCR. 'Its likely because he had Covid in October, but the Government decided they should ignore that. So he misses more school in Year 11.' Six NHS trusts in England declare critical incidents amid Covid staffing crisis... as health chief claims there's a 'politicised attempt' to downplay situation The above graph shows the proportion of Covid patients needing ventilators while Delta was dominant (November) and after Omicron took hold (late December). It shows the proportion has halved, in yet another sign the disease is milder At least half a dozen NHS trusts across England have declared 'critical incidents' amid a staff absence crisis and rising Covid hospital admissions caused by the rapid spread of Omicron. Morecambe Bay and United Lincolnshire Hospitals are among the hospital trusts that have signalled they may be unable to deliver vital care to patients in the coming weeks because so many medics are off isolating. Declaring an incident allows hospitals to get help from other nearby NHS trusts and means services can be reprioritised at speed, for example to focus on emergency care. One in 10 NHS staff nationally were off sick on New Year's Eve, with Covid to blame for around half of the 110,000 absences despite the quarantine period being cut from 10 to seven days. Daily Covid cases have hovered above 100,000 for nearly two weeks straight amid fears the staffing crisis will only get worse, and there are growing calls for England to follow the US and France and cut self-isolation to five days. Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, claimed there was a 'politicised attempt' to downplay the pressure the health service is facing. Mr Taylor, a chief adviser to Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister, told Times Radio: 'We've got to recognise that in the next few weeks... things are going to be very, very difficult.' Boris Johnson yesterday ruled out imposing more restrictions 'for now', claiming that Omicron was 'plainly milder', but said he recognised that the NHS was under 'considerable' strain. The PM is under massive pressure from his backbench MPs who have slammed calls for more Covid restrictions to protect the NHS from a staffing crisis. Daily Covid hospitalisations have doubled in the past fortnight to 1,915 but there is a growing acceptance that they will remain much lower than in previous peaks. Admission rates in Omicron-epicentre London also appear to have peaked already. Doctors on the frontline have seen a rise in people testing positive after being admitted for a different reason, and say patients primarily sick with Covid are being discharged quicker compared to earlier waves. Fewer are needing to be hooked up to ventilators. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts, told Sky News that approximately half a dozen hospitals across the country have declared critical incidents in the last five days. He said: 'It is a sensible, planned thing to do to ensure that trust can carry on providing the services that it needs to provide, particularly the critical and essential services.' Despite this, Mr Hopson also stressed while there are some staff shortages within the NHS, they are localised. Advertisement Another wrote: 'Well, sent Leo to school an hour ago and now have to pick him back up as he's tested positive for Covid. PCR test next.' One Twitter user, who claims to work in a primary school, and who was responding to a comment on an Irish news article, wrote: 'I work in a primary school. We have had 0 children sick from it. 'Even have children who have CF test positive they didn't even know they were sick. Had more children sick last term with vomiting bug and chicken pox.' It comes as it was revealed that pupils at up to 100 schools will take English and maths exams online this year as part of a 'radical' trial which could see GCSEs and A-levels go digital by 2025. Between 60 and 100 schools are taking part in the pilot scheme, organised by the examination board AQA, which provides three fifths of all GCSEs and A-levels in England. The trials will also see pupils take interactive tests, which allow the questions to become harder or easier, depending on how well they are performing in real time, reported The Times. The 'significant' trial, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds, comes after two years of severe disruptions due to Covid-19. Exams were cancelled and replaced with teacher-led assessments, leading to wide-spread grade inflation, with 45 per cent of A-levels graded A* or A last summer. The trialling of online papers will not lead to actual grades or clash with exams this summer, with the tests taking place between spring and autumn. However they will be used as a litmus test on the viability of online assessment. Secretary of state for education Nadhim Zahawi said: 'After the disruption to exams and qualifications over the past two years my focus now is on the exams that will take place in person this summer, with adaptations in place to maximise fairness. 'Technology can be a force for good in education, as it can be in all sectors, and I want to keep pushing at those doors to see where we can go further.' Colin Hughes, the chief executive of AQA, told The Times that if online exams were adopted on a large scale, some written tests would be kept to protect handwriting from dying out among young people. However he argued that putting the majority of exams online would be cheaper and better for the environment. AQA, one of three exam boards, handles more than 12 million papers every summer alone, which creates 600 tonnes of CO2. This does not include emissions from the lorries which deliver them to and from examination halls across the country. The papers also create 30 tonnes of plastic packaging. The pilots, which will feature straight forward GCSE and A-level questions, will be closely watched by the government and OCR and Edexcel, the other two exam boards - with a view to bringing in online testing as early as 2025. Sophisticated software which allows for real-time adaptive assessment will also be trialled on younger pupils - with a view to them being introduced at the GCSE level if proved successful. During an adaptive assessment test, pupils will all start on the same level, but the questions will get harder for those performing better. It could remove the need for basic and higher papers at GCSE, which block those in the former from achieving top grades, while some of those in the latter can run the risk of failing. Mr Hughes told the Times: 'If you were to design an exam system from scratch, would you start by thinking by far the best idea is to is to print millions of examination papers, staple, wrap in plastic, send them around the country under secure conditions, drive them all to Milton Keynes, chop, scan and digitise them as opposed to what we're going to experiment with next year: pupils view the questions on screen, key in their answers, save them and in principle two seconds later they can appear in front of somebody ready to mark. That's a rather radical shift.' Of adaptive assessment, Mr Hughes added: 'It's not highfalutin technology; it's available today. 'The anxiety that people have about it is that pupils will sit different exams from each other. 'But you work out how to measure one against the other. It has this enormous virtue that pupils can move through their own test in their own way and genuinely demonstrate what they can achieve in the time available.' The pilots, which will feature straight forward GCSE and A-level questions, will be closely watched by not only the government but also OCR and Edexcel, the other two exam boards - with a view to bringing in online testing as early as 2025 (file photo) In Wales, adaptive assessments are being brought in for seven to 14 year olds, while in Scotland standardised adaptive assessments have already been adopted for pupils ages five, eight, 11 and 14. Mr Hughes said concerns of students using the internet to cheat will be addressed in the trials, with some schools potentially using a small laptop or smart pad device which is not connected to the internet but runs for the time allotted for the exam. He said that if online testing was adopted, pupils would begin their GCSE or A-levels knowing they would be taking exams online from the start. Even Prof 'Lockdown' admits Omicron may be plateauing: Ministers bid for ARMY help amid back-to-work chaos as pupils face being turned away from schools, trains stop and bins overflow with 1m self-isolating from mildest Covid variant yet By James Tapsfield, Martin Robinson and Stephen Matthews for MailOnline One of the Government's gloomiest advisers today became the latest expert to admit that London's Omicron outbreak may have already peaked as pressure grew on Boris Johnson to stop the 'farcical' self-isolation crisis that threatens to paralyse the nation. At least half a dozen NHS trusts across England have said they may be unable to deliver vital care to patients in the coming weeks while train operators and bin collection services around the country are having to cancel services because so many staff are off isolating. There is growing anger among backbench Tory MPs and business leaders that the nation is being ground to a halt by a Covid variant that a mountain of evidence has shown is much milder than previous strains and causes little or no symptoms for the overwhelming majority. And the normally-pessimistic Professor Lockdown Neil Ferguson - a key No10 adviser whose modelling has bounced the country into previous lockdowns - claimed infections were plateauing in Omicron hotspot London and could start to fall nationally in just a week. No10 has so far resisted calls from a growing number of experts and politicians to slash the current self-isolation period to just five days and bring the nation in line with the US and France. Ministers have also been told to draw up plans to use the Army to stop the New Year return to work descending into chaos. Tory MP Craig Mackinlay told MailOnline that slashing the isolation period from a week could be 'the answer' to England's self-isolation misery. 'We're almost facing a semi-lockdown because of people being off work who are perfectly well. You couldn't make that up,' he said. 'The US must have done a lot of work on it... and they have come up with five days as the answer. Perhaps it is.' Richard Walker, managing director of the Iceland Foods Group, said 1,700 employees of the supermarket chain were now isolating after absences nearly doubled in the past week. He tweeted it 'would be very helpful to business if the isolation period was cut.' After the latest statistics showed almost 1.2million people have tested positive for Covid over the past week, NHS bosses have been sounding the alarm about spiralling staff absences, warning the crisis poses more of a problem than any uptick in hospitalisations. School heads fear up to a quarter of their staff could be struck down this month, with unions warning a return to online teaching is inevitable for some this term despite Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi insisting face-to-face classes will stay the norm. Meanwhile, employees trying to return to the office today faced skeleton rail timetables and last-minute cancellations. And businesses say they may have to shut their doors or operate shorter hours due to so many workers being in quarantine. Rubbish bins, recycling containers and bottle banks across the country are also overflowing as councils scale back collections in response to absence levels. Commuters head back to work today in London for the first time after the Christmas holidays with children also returning to school this morning Canada Water station in south-east London during the morning rush hour with around half of people still not wearing masks despite Sadiq Khan's threat of a 200 fine London Bridge was relatively quiet today as many people are still working from home due to the Government's guidance The West Park recycling centre in Long Eaton has seen dozens of fly tippers litter the floor with waste as people desperately tried to empty their homes of leftover materials following the festive period over New Year's weekend Boris Johnson, left, visited a vaccination hub in the at Stoke Mandeville Stadium in Aylesbury yesterday Road congestion levels in London were at 22 per cent in the 8am to 9am slot this morning (far right) according to TomTom Chaos on the trains at the start of 2022 Disruption this morning, not related to staffing issues Southeastern: Disruption to services through Slade Green station after a blown rail joint was discovered, with no trains running on the Woolwich line away from London London Overground: Trains unable to run between Clapham Junction and Surrey Quays due to a fault on a service CrossCountry / LNER / TransPennine Express: Problem under investigation between Darlington and York resulting in disruption to trains Merseyrail: Power supply problem at Kirkby is disrupting services between Liverpool Central and Kirkby Covid-related staff shortages affecting train services Avanti West Coast: Says it is 'doing everything we can to run our full timetable but there may be some short notice cancellations'. All peak restrictions removed until January 4. c2c: Normal service. Caledonian Sleeper: Normal service. Chiltern Railways: Operator warns it 'may have to make some short notice changes to our timetable' because of the 'impact of Covid-19 on our train crews' CrossCountry: Removed around 50 trains from its timetables until January 8, and warns of disruption 'until further notice'. Tells passengers to avoid travelling on New Year's Eve due to RMT strike. East Midlands Railway: Revised timetable due to a 'high level of staff sickness including drivers and train crew'. Some services being replaced by buses. Eurostar: Normal service. Gatwick Express: No services 'until further notice' because of the 'ongoing effect of coronavirus isolation and sickness'. Grand Central: Normal service. Great Northern: Reduced service on all routes 'until further notice' because of the 'significant ongoing impact of coronavirus, particularly in terms of staff sickness'. Great Western Railway: Cancellations because of 'rising numbers of staff unavailable to work due to self-isolation requirements' . Greater Anglia: Some services removed from timetable 'due to falling passenger numbers and 'to plan for our staff being affected by the Omicron variant'. Heathrow Express: Normal service. Hull Trains: A temporary timetable will operate until February 12 to 'minimise disruption'. LNER: Reduced timetable up until at least January 7 'due to a shortage of train crew as a result of an increase in the number of staff self-isolating with Covid-19'. London Northwestern Railway: Services are 'subject to cancellation or alteration' due to a shortage of train drivers. Lumo: Normal service. Merseyrail: Some trains will be cancelled on certain lines from 'today until further notice' because of the 'impact of Covid-19 and other sickness affecting staff availability'. Northern: Operating 'several amended timetables' because of 'Covid and its impact on the availability of our train crew'. ScotRail: It is 'being forced to bring in a temporary timetable' until January 28 'as we continue to see colleagues off sick because of Covid-19'. South Western Railway: Services subject to 'short-term alterations' due to the 'impact of the Omicron variant on staff numbers' with new timetable coming in January 17. Southeastern: Warns that services may change at short notice if there 'may be occasions when our staff are sick or self-isolating due to Covid-19'. Southern: Cancels a raft of services and its hub at London Victoria station will stay closed until January 10 'owing to the significant ongoing impact of coronavirus'. Stansted Express: Half-hourly service running. Thameslink: Reduced service on all routes 'until further notice' because of the 'significant ongoing impact of coronavirus, particularly in terms of staff sickness'. TransPennine Express: Services may be cancelled at short notice 'due to lack of available staff'. Transport for London: Mostly normal service, but delays in recent days on Bakerloo and Metropolitan lines due to cancellations. Transport for Greater Manchester: Reduced Metrolink services 'due to the increasing impact of Covid-19 on tram driver staffing levels'. Transport for Wales: 'Emergency timetable' to 'prepare for an expected rise in staff shortages due to the emergence of the Omicron variant'. West Midlands Railway: Some trains 'may be cancelled at short notice' because 'many colleagues are currently unable to attend work'. Advertisement Professor Ferguson, an epidemiologist who sits on SAGE, said: 'I think I'm cautiously optimistic that infection rates in London in that key 18-50 age group, which has been driving the Omicron epidemic, may possibly have plateaued, it's too early to say whether they're going down yet.' He added: 'I would say that with an epidemic which has been spreading so quickly and reaching such high numbers, it can't sustain those numbers forever, so we would expect to see case numbers start to come down in the next week, maybe already coming down in London, but in other regions a week to three weeks. 'Whether they then drop precipitously or we see a pattern a bit like we saw with Delta back in July of an initial drop and then quite a high plateau remains to be seen, it's just too difficult to interpret current mixing trends and what the effect of open schools again will be.' Discussing the current Omicron outbreak, Professor Ferguson nicknamed 'Prof Lockdown' for his grim modelling that spooked ministers into introducing draconian curbs last spring said the variant had not had much time to infect pupils before schools shut for the Christmas break, and a rise in cases is now expected. 'We expect to now see quite high infection levels of mild infection I should emphasise in school-aged children.' He added that the 'good news' about Omicron is that 'it is certainly less severe' than previous variants of Covid and that has helped keep hospital numbers down compared with previous peaks. 'And then the vaccines as we always expected they would are holding up against severe disease and against severe outcomes well. 'That doesn't mean it's not going to be as, as the Prime Minister said, a difficult few weeks for the NHS.' Ministers have vowed to keep schools open this term, saying children's education has already suffered enough to protect others. Schools can stagger starting days but all pupils should be back by Monday next week. Students have been told to be tested between two to three times per week either at on-site facilities at their school or by testing themselves at home. Secondary school students must also wear masks in the classroom. Parents are on edge after their children suffered extraordinary disruption to their education since the pandemic began in March 2020, spending months at home learning online. Experts have said that for this generation of British children, their academic progress has gone backward in almost all cases due to schools being shut. And it has also caused a growing inequality between state and private school pupils, who received a higher standard of online learning. School leaders are unsure how many teachers will turn up for work this week while they wait for staff to email in Covid test results. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of heads' union ASCL, told The Guardian: 'Schools and colleges desperately want to be able to maintain face-to-face teaching on a consistent basis. 'But the reality is that if large numbers of staff are absent this will cause disruption, which may include having to send home classes or year groups for short periods of time to learn remotely.' Mr Zahawi told BBC Breakfast yesterday that teacher shortages were likely to be worse than before Christmas. He admitted that some pupils might have to learn remotely. The Department for Education suggested combining classes and said infected teachers could deliver lessons from home via streaming to supervised classrooms. Its dedicated remote learning resource, Oak National Academy, said it was 'ready for increased demand'. Caroline Derbyshire, head of Saffron Walden County High School in Essex, said: 'Staff shortages will be a factor and there will be schools in particular parts of the country where rates have been extremely high. 'You've suddenly got the inability to run a year group that's when you start having either year groups or whole parts of schools having to go online.' Mr Johnson said yesterday he was not happy about the return of masks and the precaution would be axed as soon as possible, but it was necessary for the moment. The Government is still asking people to work from home if they can. The Cabinet Office said that, so far, disruption caused by Omicron had been controlled in 'most parts of the public sector'. But it said leaders had been asked to test plans against 10, 20 and 25 per cent workforce absence rates. Councils across the UK are already having to redistribute staff between essential services to keep everything running, however. Ministers in departments that oversee critical infrastructure and supply chains have been told to prepare plans in case staff shortages require the help of the armed forces. Help is requested through a process known as Military Aid to the Civil Authorities MACA and officials are keen that efforts are focused as efficiently as possible. 'We didn't want different departments relying on the same MACA support,' a Whitehall insider told the Times, pointing to the possibility that soldiers could be asked to drive ambulances as well as assist Border Force. A senior government source told MailOnline that the MACA applications were still 'at the planning stage'. Rail bosses have warned passengers returning to the office this week to expect last-minute cancellations, more crowded trains and delays caused by engineering works. Nearly a third of rail services at some stations were axed over Christmas after as many as one in ten staff called in sick. Operators who have already announced reduced timetables include Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, Greater Anglia, London North Eastern Railway, Northern, TransPennine Express and Transport for Wales. Operator Southern has announced that no trains will run into or from London Victoria, Britain's second busiest station, until January 10. This is due to high levels of 'coronavirus isolation and sickness' among staff. It comes after analysis by ontimetrains.co.uk yesterday found passengers at Manchester Airport have been among the worst hit, where 30 per cent of scheduled services were axed on New Year's Day. On New Year's Eve 30 per cent were also cancelled and 26 per cent on December 30. Further disruption will be caused while Network Rail finishes the last of 370 engineering works projects scheduled over the Christmas and New Year period. Passengers on the West Coast Mainline face disruption between tomorrow and 12 January while flood protection upgrades are carried out between Milton Keynes and Rugby. Trains will be diverted via Northampton, adding at least 25 minutes to journeys. It means London Northwestern Railway will run fewer services between Crewe and London Euston, with passengers needing to change trains at Rugby. Rubbish bins, recycling containers and bottle banks across the country are overflowing as severe staff shortages brought about by rising Covid cases have decimated council services. (A view of an overflowing recycling point in Ashford, Kent. Picture date: Monday January 3, 2022) A person walks past Christmas trees discarded on the pavement, in west London, Britain, January 3, 2022. Many people are simply throwing their Christmas trees outside to rot Recycling bins and bottle banks are overflowing with councils unable to arrange collection services due to staff shortages (glass bins pictured in Kent, today, Jan 3) Overflowing bins at a recycling point in Ashford, Kent, after Christmas are pictured this afternoon The Christmas tree recycling point on Hove Lawns in Brighton is busy as the festive season comes to an end on Bank Holiday Monday in England (pictured today, Jan 3) Christmas trees begin to pile up ready for the council to collect them and mulch them down, people discard their trees before twelfth night. Christmas tree recycling, Clayfield Copse, Berkshire, UK - 03 Jan 2022 Dozens of unwanted Christmas trees are pictured discarded on the lawn along Brighton's seafront today, Bank Holiday Monday David Josephs, of All Greens, which supplies fruit and vegetables to restaurants, said around 15 per cent of staff had been absent and some of the firm's outlets might need to close if this worsened. Meanwhile, councillors in London, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Buckinghamshire have said bin collection services have been scaled back as workers continue to fall sick with the virus, just as families aim to get rid of an abundance of material following the festive season. Several London boroughs have announced there may be future delays to services, with Manchester and Birmingham City Councils apologising for disrupted collections over the Christmas period. How other countries compare to UK's isolation requirements The UK is being urged to follow the lead of others and cut Covid isolation requirements down to five days from the current seven. Here are the requirements in the other countries with five day limits: America Americans who test positive for Covid only have to isolate for five days, as long as they have no symptoms. Those who leave isolation must still wear a mask everywhere - even at home around others - for at least five more days, according to official guidance. People who have been in close contact with someone who tested positive can also leave isolation after five days of being alerted. Greece Greece followed the US lead in halving quarantine for people who test positive. According to new guidance by Greece's public health agency, people infected with Covid can return to work after five days if they have no or mild symptoms, and must wear high protection masks. France Yesterday, France announced that fully vaccinated people who test positive will only have to isolate for seven days, and can leave quarantine after five days if they show a negative test. People who test positive for the virus, but who are not fully vaccinated, can leave quarantine after seven days if they have a negative test. UK Self-isolate for ten days after a positive test or when your symptoms start, although negative tests on days six and seven mean you can leave the house early. Advertisement Chelmsford City Council confirmed 23 members of staff were absent and cancelled three days' worth of food waste collections, while North Somerset Council said they had been unable to pick up 1,000 recycling bins on New Year's Eve as crews remain 'stretched due to staff sickness'. Stephanos Ioannou, a Conservative councillor in Enfield, said the number of complaints about missed bin collections was roughly double the average for this time of year. 'I've been driving round my ward and seeing bins overflowing and Christmas trees are left outside,' he said. 'Over the Christmas period, usually I get on average 30 emails a week on waste services. I checked my inbox yesterday and had about 50 or 60.' Gloucester meanwhile has been hit with 'terrible problems' as bin collectors work in close-knit teams and quickly pass the virus onto one another, multiplying the number of staff off sick at one time, Liberal Democrat councillor Declan Wilson said. Mr Wilson said recycling collections were stopped altogether over Christmas, caused by a combination of Covid-related absences and driver shortages. Several London boroughs have announced there may be future delays to services, with Haringey Council warning the 'uniquely challenging times' had impacted their workforce. Newham Council has temporarily suspended the collection of bulky waste items due to 'higher than normal levels of staff absence'. Green food and garden recycling bin collections have been cancelled 'until further notice' by Manchester City Council due to the number of staff in isolation. Residents are being told to put food waste into 'grey general waste bins' and store garden waste until normal collections resume. Meanwhile Birmingham City Council apologised for missed collections over the festive period, saying crews had been affected by Covid in the week leading up to December 30. Covid-related staff shortages have also had a considerable impact on healthcare, with one in 10 medics off sick on New Year's Eve. In recent days the number of NHS workers staying at home for Covid reasons has doubled. NHS figures show that on December 12, NHS England recorded 12,240 staff absent due to Covid sickness or self-isolation. Two weeks later, on December 26, this had doubled to 24,632, and by New Year's Eve it had doubled again to almost 50,000 accounting for nearly half of all staff absences, The Sunday Times reported. Chris Hopson, chairman of NHS Providers, said staff absences were having a greater impact than during last January's Covid wave. He tweeted: 'Staff flat out, especially given level of staff absences. We will need to ask them to perform flexible heroics again if hospital Covid numbers continue to rise. We can't keep doing this.' Despite rising staff absences, there are hopes that the Omicron crisis is plateauing. Figures are thought to be less reliable due to the festive period, but a further 157,758 cases were reported yesterday up by 44.6 per cent on the same day last week. But the number of people dying with the virus saw a 70.6 per cent decrease, with 42 deaths reported compared to 143 on December 27. And cases in London appear to be heading downwards. Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said hospital admissions seem to have 'perhaps plateaued in London or there may be a second peak after the new year now, but it's rising across the rest of Britain'. He told Times Radio that, often, for many hospitals 'the most pressing element of all' was the number of staff who are absent due to Covid. He said the issues were compounding 'long-term failure in terms of workforce planning and resourcing'. Festive rubbish begins to accumulate at waste points in the town. Some rubbish collection days over Christmas and New Year have been affected due to coronavirus cases (Reading, Berkshire, UK) Glasgow-based Joe McCauley, culture spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said there had been an 'increase in reports of bins overflowing' in recent weeks An overflowing recycling point in Ashford, Kent, is pictured this afternoon, with plenty of cardboard packaging Clothes and other materials have been left outside Oxfam bins at an overflowing recycling point in Ashford, Kent, today This dog bin off in Canford Heath near Poole in Dorset has been 'overflowing for days' according to one social media user Leading Oxford vaccine expert warns giving regular boosters is 'not sustainable' Britons shouldn't be offered a fourth Covid jab until there is more evidence, the head of the country's vaccine body has claimed. Sir Andrew Pollard, chairperson of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said giving boosters to people every six months was 'not sustainable'. He said future vaccination drives should target the most vulnerable rather than offering top-up doses to all adults. Germany's health minister warned a second booster will be required to manage Omicron, while Israel has approved a fourth dose for all over-60s. The UK last month ordered 114million more Pfizer and Moderna doses which will arrive over the next two years to 'future-proof' the vaccination drive, but it is not yet clear how these will be used. Professor Pollard, who previously insisted booster jabs may not be needed, said: 'The future must be focusing on the vulnerable and making boosters or treatments available to them to protect them. Advertisement In a round of interviews this morning, vaccines minister Maggie Throup admitted she did not know exactly how many hospitals had severe problems with staffing. Asked about the number of NHS trusts with critical incidents, she told Sky News: 'I think the critical incidents are announced and then they can be very short-term ones and it's saying to the other trusts around 'can we have some extra help, can we have some mutual aid'. 'Sometimes it's just a matter of hours that the critical incident is in place for, other times it's longer, but it's actually reaching out to the wider NHS to say we have got a problem in this particular area and it's sometimes quite geographical as well and for different reasons, it can be staff shortages, it could be other reasons.' She added: 'To be honest, I haven't had an update this morning, as we know the (United) Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust declared one yesterday.' America was the first country to shorten the isolation period, followed by Greece and France. Professor Tim Spector, who leads the Zoe Covid Study at King's College London, has described the five-day period as 'sensible' as long as the individual has had two negative lateral flow tests. 'A reduction in isolation days would help many frontline services by allowing low-risk staff to go into work and avoid people staying home unnecessarily,' Professor Spector said. But allowing people to stop isolating five days after they experience Covid symptoms could actually spread the virus and worsen NHS staff shortages, the UK Health Security Agency said. It said that between 10 and 30 per cent of people would still be infectious after five days, compared with 5 per cent under the seven-day rule. Health minister Ed Argar said the Government had not yet received scientific advice on cutting the isolation period. A judge has thrown out a lawsuit against Nirvana made by the man who appeared as a naked baby on the cover of the band's classic 1991 album Nevermind. Judge Fernando Olguin dismissed the case in California District Court on Monday after lawyers for Spencer Elden missed the deadline to file an opposition to the Nirvana estate's request to dismiss last month. Elden, 30, who claims he was the victim of child exploitation and the cover amounted to child porn, has until January 13 to refile. The image was snapped in 1990 at the Pasadena aquatic center when Elden was four months old. His father Rick was an artist who also rigged special effects for Hollywood, and let his son appear as a model for the band's new album. At the time, Rick shared a studio in old town Pasadena with other artists to help pay the rent. Among them was photographer Kirk Weddle, who had the contract to photograph a baby underwater. Rick told EchoPark: 'Babies have a gag reflex. If you blow in their face, they hold their breath. I blew in Spencer's face and put him in the water. Kirk was shooting 18 frames a second, so Spencer was in the water for about two seconds.' The former baby model claims that appearing on the album cover caused 'extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations', as well as loss of education, wages and 'enjoyment of life'. Lawyers for the band's estate surviving members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic; Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain's widow and executor; and Kirk Weddle, the photographer of the cover image said Elden had 'spent three decades profiting from his celebrity as the self-anointed 'Nirvana Baby.'' Elden re-enacted the photo for money 'many times,' the lawyers said, even had the album title tattooed across his chest, appeared on a talk show wearing a self-parodying nude-colored onesie and had 'used the connection to try to pick up women.' The legal team said that the statute of limitations had expired and that Elden's claims were too 'absurd' to even consider. 'A brief examination of the photograph, or Elden's own conduct (not to mention the photograph's presence in the homes of millions of Americans who, on Elden's theory, are guilty of felony possession of child pornography) makes that clear,' they said. The latest: Nirvana and estate of Kurt Cobain are being sued by Spencer Elden, a man, now 30, who was the baby seen on the group's Nevermind album cover in 1991 (pictured) In the motion, attorney Bert Deixler argues that Elden has gotten the album's name tattooed on his chest and used his celebrity to try to pick up women Legendary: Nirvana became one of the synonymous bands of the 'grunge movement,' and was formed of Dave Grohl, the late Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic (pictured in 1993) Since appearing on the cover, Elden has repeatedly recreated the image as both a teenager and an adult - on the 10th, 17th, 20th and 25th anniversaries of the album's release - but in many interviews has shared his mixed feelings about it. It is generally believed that the album cover is a commentary on capitalism - with the addition of a dollar bill on the end of a fishing hook the focus of the baby's attention. The band's attorney Bert H. Deixler used the term 'absurd' in describing the Elden lawsuit's contention that 'the creation of the photograph for the album cover art entailed the sex trafficking of Elden when he was a baby.' 'Elden's claim that the photograph on the 'Nevermind' album cover is 'child pornography' is, on its face, not serious,' the motion argues. 'A brief examination of the photograph, or Elden's own conduct (not to mention the photograph's presence in the homes of millions of Americans who, on Elden's theory, are guilty of felony possession of child pornography) makes that clear.' Deixler asked that Judge Olguin dismiss the case by January 20, 2022. The motion was filed on behalf of defendants Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Courtney Love (executor of Kirk Cobain's estate), Kirk Weddle (the cover photographer), UMG Recordings and Nirvana LLC. Deixler argued that the aforementioned merits of the case, or lack of them, shouldn't even be at issue, and that the late date at which the lawsuit was filed is all that needs to be considered for a dismissal. There is a 10-year statute of limitations on filing a lawsuit involving the child pornography alleged, starting with the date the plaintiff could reasonably have been aware of the pornographic use, or that they turned 18, according to Nirvana's attorneys. 'Elden's claims fail, at the outset, because they are time-barred,' he writes. Shocking: In court documents, Elden said that 'defendants failed to take reasonable steps to protect [him] and prevent his widespread sexual exploitation and image trafficking.' Kurt Cobain is pictured above Courtney Love, left,who was married to Kurt Cobain between 1992 and 1994, is among the 17 defendants which have been named in the suit; Dave Grohl, right, (pictured performing in Chicago last month) went onto form The Foo Fighters after Cobain's death in 1994 'Elden asserts two causes of action, one under the federal statute that permits victims of certain federal child pornography criminal offenses to sue for civil damages ... and another under the federal statute that permits victims of certain trafficking crimes to sue for civil damages ... Neither cause of action is timely.' Elden's lawyers at Marsh Law issued a response to Variety, writing in part: 'In 1991, Nirvana exploited Spencer's inability to consent as an infant, and today, the band and Universal Music Group (UMG) continue to prioritize profits over our client Spencer Elden's right to consent, to have privacy, and to feel dignity.' 'Nirvana and UMG's motion to dismiss focuses on their past conduct and ignores their ongoing distribution, especially with the 30-year 'Nevermind' anniversary and profit margins.' The motion cites occasions on which Elden or his father seemed to revel in media attention for the cover, as recently as a 2015 Guardian interview. 'It is a weird thing ... being part of such a culturally iconic image. But it's always been a positive thing and opened doors for me,' said Elden of the photograph. Vast sum: Elden is asking for $150,000 from each of 17 defendants named in the suit, which could total around $2.5 million (Nirvana are pictured performing) 'I might have one of the most famous penises in the music industry, but no one would ever know that to look at me. Sooner or later, I want to create a print of a real-deal re-enactment shot, completely naked. Why not? I think it would be fun.' The filing then goes on to cite other interviews in which Elden had complained about not being properly compensated for the iconic image while everyone else 'involved in the album has tons and tons of money.' While the extremely low compensation for the original shoot has been raised as an issue, it was not the basis of Elden's lawsuit. As part of its response, Marsh Law said in its statement: 'What we cannot continue to ignore is that the image of Elden, at four months old, is actively distributed and constitutes the legal definition of child pornography according to the Dost factors.' 'Child pornography is a 'forever crime' - any distribution of or profits earned from any sexually explicit image of a child not only creates longstanding liability but it also breeds lifelong trauma. This is common for all of our clients who are victims of actively traded child pornography, regardless of how long ago the image was created.' Marsh Law went on to say that the statute of limitations cited by Nirvana's lawyers is irrelevant as long as the image in question continues to be disseminated. In their view, federal law 'makes it clear that the statute of limitations restarts claims each time UMG reproduces, distributes, or possesses Spencer's Nirvana cover image.' 'Similarly, the statute of limitations ... claims restart each time any defendant receives any 'thing of value' for the image. For the argument on the statute of limitations to hold water, Nirvana and UMG would have had to cease distribution of, and forfeit profits from, the image in August of 2011. They are welcomed to do so today forward.' In interviews with Variety and other publications this year, Elden's lawyers have said that victims of child pornography or other kinds of abuse often take decades to come to terms with the fact that they were abused, and that their client is no different in this regard and should not be held to earlier statements in which he expressed positive or ambivalent feelings about the 'Nevermind' cover. 'I think when something like this happens, the only person who can understand what it's like to be in Spencer's shoes is Spencer,' one of his attorneys, Maggie Mabie, told Variety in August. 'That being said, these are not new feelings. He has always felt invaded. Even as a child, Spencer expressed that this was uncomfortable, and he doesn't like the way that this puts him in a place where he really can't (protest) that it's an invasion of his own privacy, because people come to defend the band, as opposed to protect Spencer.' 'So the reason it comes now, as opposed to times before, is really because, while Spencer's had this cause of action all the while, it takes a very long time when you are a victim of these kinds of image abuse crimes to really understand how you've been damaged. And it takes a quite a long time for a lawsuit like this to develop when you have sophisticated defendants.' 'This juncture in his life has probably come about because he's become an adult, and he's understanding the way that this has affected him. When you're a kid, your brain isn't developed enough to fully understand your trauma.' An attorney for Nirvana's surviving members argue that, among other perks, Elden has recreated the iconic cover 'multiple times' for money In his claim, Eldon said Nirvana and the estate of Kurt Cobain trafficked his image as a naked baby and was claiming $2.5million in damages for being 'exploited as a minor'. In the suit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, Elden said his parents never gave their release in writing for the photos, and were not paid. This is despite 2008 reports that photographer Kirk Weddle paid Elden's father Rich $200 for 15 seconds of work to appear in the snap, according to NPR. Elden, from Los Angeles, said that his 'identity and legal name are forever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor which has been distributed and sold worldwide from the time he was a baby to the present day.' He alleged that band members, record companies and creative personnel had 'trafficked' his image for profit, according to court documents reviewed by CBSLA. In law, non-sexualized naked pictures of infants are not considered to be child pornography. Elden was asking for $150,000 from each of 17 defendants named in the suit, which include Cobain's bandmates Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, Cobain's former wife Courtney Love, the executor of Cobains estate, and the estate's managers Guy Oseary and Heather Parry. Others include photographer Kirk Weddle; art director Robert Fisher and a number of record companies that released of distributed Nevermind in the past three decades. He said that 'defendants failed to take reasonable steps to protect [him] and prevent his widespread sexual exploitation and image trafficking.' Elden's legal team said in the suit that 'to ensure the album cover would trigger a visceral sexual response from the viewer, (photographer Kirk) Weddle activated Spencers "gag reflex" before throwing him underwater in poses highlighting and emphasizing Spencers exposed genitals.' They added that 'as an essential element of a record promotion scheme commonly utilized in the music industry to get attention, wherein album covers posed children in a sexually provocative manner to gain notoriety, drive sales, and garner media attention, and critical reviews.' According to court docs reviewed by TMZ, the band had promised that a sticker would be placed on the area of the baby's genitals, but didn't place it on the cover. In 2008, Spencer's father Rick, who was friends with Weddle, spoke to NPR and claimed that the photographer didn't let on that he was taking pictures for the Nirvana album. And Rick said that after the shoot, his family forgot all about it until two months later when Geffen Records sent Spencer a platinum album and a teddy bear. In a 2016 interview with TIME to mark the album's 25th Anniversary, Spencer said: 'Its hard not to get upset when you hear how much money was involved. '[When] I go to a baseball game and think about it: ''Man, everybody at this baseball game has probably seen my little baby penis,'' I feel like I got part of my human rights revoked.' Elden added at the time that he attempted to reach out to the band, but never received a response. Nevermind famous ushered in the grunge era and sold more than 30 million albums for Geffen Records. The album was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance, and it's title single Smells Like Teen Spirit earned nods for Best Rock Song and Best Hard Rock Performance. Nirvana went onto release their third album, In Utero, in 1993, and the following year they found success once again with their acclaimed album based on their MTV Unplugged set in New York. The band performed their final concert as a trio in Munich in Germany on March 1, 1994, and just three days later Cobain's wife Courtney Love found the musician unconscious in their hotel room, forcing the rest of the tour to be cancelled. In the latter weeks Cobain's struggles with heroin addiction began to resurface, and a week after leaving rehab, on April 8, 1994, he was found dead of a self-inflicted shotgun wound at his home in Seattle. Soon after Cobain's death Nirvana disbanded, and Grohl has gone onto form the band Foo Fighters. A husband has denied killing his wife when she asked for a divorce 20 years ago. Zafar Iqbal, 61, allegedly strangled Naziat Khan, 38, with a scarf at their home in Norbury, southwest London, in August 2001. Wearing a prison-issued grey tracksuit, Iqbal appeared at the Old Bailey via video-link from HMP Wormwood Scrubs to deny murdering his wife. After the alleged murder Iqbal flew to Pakistan where he would remain for 20 years before he was extradited to the UK in September last year. Iqbal is one of the first defendants to be extradited from Pakistan to the UK in the wake of improved relations between the two countries. Zafar Iqbal, 61, allegedly strangled Naziat Khan, 38, with a scarf at their home in Norbury Iqbal denies murdering Naziat in their home in Norbury, southwest London, in 2001 Anthony Orchard, prosecuting, earlier told the court: On Monday, 20 August 2001, shortly after 1pm in the afternoon, the defendant killed his wife. He strangled her to death. The killing took place at an address in Norbury, southwest London. After killing his wife he...fled the UK to Pakistan. The police were made aware the following day and the deceased was found at the address. Iqbal will stand trial at the Old Bailey on December 5 later this year accused of murder A post-mortem examination confirmed strangulation. In relation to bail, the defendant fled to Pakistan and a first incident warrant was issued for his arrest in 2005. After that, enquiries were made with the Pakistani authorities, because there was no formal extradition treaty with them, and an extradition warrant was issued which was executed in Pakistan finally in December 2017. The defendant was remanded in custody in Pakistan and our understanding is that since that time he has fought against his extradition. He was extradited to the UK on 14th September this year and arrested on his arrival. Iqbal will stand trial at the Old Bailey on December 5 this year. Less well-off Australians could soon receive cash payments to buy rapid antigen tests as authorities ramp up their crackdown on price gouging of the Covid testing kits. Low-income earners, welfare recipients, pensioners, the unemployed and veterans are among those who would benefit from Scott Morrison's proposed incentive as Australia's Omicron wave surges towards 50,000 daily infections. The Prime Minister is under mounting pressure to make rapid antigen tests free as widespread shortages of the critical Covid testing kits hit crisis point. Retailers, including burger restaurants, convenience stores and service stations, are now taking advantage of their scarce supply to sell the tests five times the RRP to up to $50 each on delivery platforms such as UberEats, which sparked furious outrage. Disadvantaged Australians will be able to apply for a cash payment on rapid antigen tests if the Prime Minister's proposal gets the green light from national cabinet (pictured Sydneysiders in Bondi on Tuesday after the state recorded more than 23,000 new cases) Poll Should rapid tests be free for everyone? Yes No Should rapid tests be free for everyone? Yes 2009 votes No 528 votes Now share your opinion Recipients will receive cash payments for up to five rapid antigen tests under Mr Morrison's proposal, which could even be doubled if states agree to the incentive at Wednesday's national cabinet. The government handouts will be distributed through the same system used for Covid disaster payments earlier on in the pandemic, where recipients will meet an eligibility test in order to receive the cash boost, The Australian reported. Mr Morrison will also ask the state and territory governments to contribute 50 per cent of the cost of the scheme after the national cabinet previously agreed last week on free testing for the disadvantaged. The federal government is also expected to announce on Wednesday that millions of 'click and collect' free take-home tests will be distributed at testing sites to ease the enormous strain on pathology labs which are taking up to five days to process results due to overwhelming demand. Opposition leader Anthony Albanese reiterated calls for free RAT tests for everyone after Mr Morrison rejected the move earlier this week. The Big Grill in Adelaide's north was charging up to $50 for a RAT test on the UberEats app. The restaurant has since taken it down The federal government is expected to announce that millions of 'click and collect' free take-home tests will be available at testing sites (pictured, queues at a Sydney testing clinic) 'I think that anyone who needs a rapid antigen test shouldn't be excluded from it because of their income,' Mr Albanese told the ABC on Tuesday night. 'Our health system is based upon the principle of Medicare that people get the healthcare they need when they require it.' 'I would have no problem with that whatsoever. At the moment, people can't get access to supply and, if they can, for so many people it's simply unaffordable.' Meanwhile, a popular burger restaurant in Adelaide has been forced to defend the price its charges for RAT tests after being named and shamed online. The Big Grill was inundated with public backlash and negative online reviews after a potential customer spotted the restaurant's Boliver outlet in Adelaide's north selling a rapid test for $50 on UberEats. Ready To Go Convenience in Hurlstone Park in Sydney's inner-west was charging $65 for a pack of two RAT tests on UberEats 'Not even a joke. RESTAURANTS buying up RATs and selling them on UBER for x5 of the RRP. You should be able to buy a five pack for roughly $50, not a single test. Still don't want to undercut businesses Scott Morrison when they are putting lives at risk by this practice?' the man tweeted. He later stated The Big Grill has since deleted the offering on the UberEats but called on Aussies to name and shame other businesses employing similar tactics. 'For those getting outraged at this, can you spend 10 minutes of your time today going onto Uber Eats, finding places selling them for ridiculous amounts, and report them to UberEats @ACCCProdSafety,' he wrote. The roadside restaurant has responded the outrage and clarified its prices while slamming UberEats for its 'exorbitant' fees. 'There has been much confusion in regards to the pricing of our COVID RAPID ANTIGEN TESTS. These are priced in accordance to the current market prices,' The Big Grill posted on Tuesday night. There are calls for rapid antigen tests to be free for everyone, not just the disadvantaged as their scarce supply worsens (pictured, an out of stock sign at a Sydney pharmacy) 'We sell a two pack of Rapid Antigen Tests for $40 in store and we sell a 2 Pack of Rapid Antigen Tests for $50 through our delivery partners, the price increase is due to their exorbitant fees. 'We are aware of multiple posts being shared with misinformation and in regards to our pricing and requesting people leave poor reviews on our social media and Google. 'We would like to apologise for the confusion caused and hope this resolves any issues and concerns.' The man's tweet was met with other Australians naming and shaming businesses gouging the price of rapid tests. Crystal Mart Waterloo convenience store in inner-Sydney was charging $60 for a pack of two tests on UberEats, while Ready To Go Convenience in Hurlstone Park slugged customers $65. Australia's Omicron wave surges towards 50,000 daily infections as the debate about raid antigen test rages on (pictured shoppers in Melbourne on Tuesday, when Victoria recorded more than 14,000 cases) Further north, the Ultra Convenience service station in Edgeworth near Newcastle charged $42.95 for two tests. Australia's consumer watchdog has promised to crack down on 'appalling' price gouging of rapid tests amid a nation-wide shortage. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced on Tuesday it has set up a team to investigate issues with supply, costs and pricing. '(Businesses) shouldn't be engaging in cartel conduct,' ACCC chair Rod Sims said. 'We have the ability to name and shame people if they are doing the wrong thing... (and that) is extremely powerful.' WHEN SHOULD YOU GET A PCR TEST FOR COVID? With immense pressure on Australia's healthcare system from record Covid cases, testing clinics are overwhelmed along with the labs that process the results. Health authorities have urged that only the follow groups get a PCR test. *Anyone who has Covid-19 symptoms like a sore throat *Anyone who has been deemed a close contact *Anyone who has received a positive rapid-antigen test *Anyone who has been in a superspreader venue which health authorities have advised there is a high-risk of transmission Advertisement Australia reported 47,738 new Covid cases on Tuesday, smashing the previous day's national record of 38,000. NSW recorded 23,131 new Covid cases and two deaths on Tuesday while Victoria's cases exploded by almost double to a record high of 14,020 new infections. Queensland recorded 5669 new cases, while South Australia had 3246 and 75 were detected in the Northern Territory. Australia has now recorded more than half a million Covid cases, almost two years after reporting its first case in January 2020. Victorians could be slugged with a raft of hated Covid restrictions as officials desperately try to slow its surging Covid outbreak, including a return to working from home. Acting Premier Jacinta Allan revealed some 'common sense measures' were being considered on Tuesday as the state recorded 14,020 new cases. Rules expected to be reintroduced include working from home orders, density limits for pubs, restaurants and cafes as well as a ban on elective surgery. Amid discussions, the state government has refused to comment on crowd limits ahead of the Australian Open on January 17. Rules expected to be reintroduced include working from home orders, density limits for pubs, restaurants and cafes as well as a ban on elective surgery (pictured, residents don masks as the stand by St Kilda Beach in Melbourne) The state recorded 14,020 new cases on Tuesday with infections almost doubling from Monday's 8,577 infections (pictured, Victorians flock to get tested a PCR testing clinics amid the Omicron outbreak) WHAT RESTRICTIONS MAY BE REINTRODUCED IN VICTORIA? - Work-from-home orders - Density limits in pubs, restaurants and cafes - Elective surgery slowdown Advertisement This comes as cases in Victoria doubled from the 8,577 infections detected on Monday - with the state reporting two deaths among the 14,020 cases on Tuesday. There are currently 516 people in Victorian hospitals - up from 491 on Monday - with the number of active ICU admissions at 56 patients. A further 52 patients who are no longer infectious with the virus remain in ICU. While case numbers soar massive queues stretched across Melbourne for rapid antigen tests, PCR swabs and booster shots. Four private pathology companies were forced to temporarily shut PCR tests at 54 sites in a bid to ease a backlog of results. The state's Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar urged residents to 'please be patient' as only three out of 10 PCR results were processed the next day. However Mr Weimar also revealed one in four people returned positive PCR results - indicating undetected case numbers could be much higher. Soaring Covid cases could mean a return to some restrictions in Victoria, as long wait times for testing continue (pictured, a queue at the testing centre at Albert Park, Melbourne) When asked if more restrictions could be on the table, Ms Allan said: 'We'll continue to look at if there are any other common sense measures that can be taken.' 'Those are obviously matters (for the Health Minister) to consider as we monitor very closely what's going on in the Victorian community at the moment,' she said. Chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton is expected to provide updated health advice as the week unfolds. The state government is facing renewed calls for a reintroduction of restrictions as it's estimated around 70 per cent of Victoria's daily infections are of the Omicron variant while the state also battles the more severe Delta strain. Melbourne University head of population and global health Nancy Baxter believes the southern state could see 100,000 cases by the end of January if current trends persist. Acting Premier Jacinta Allan has revealed some 'common sense measures' were being considered amid talks of reintroducing Covid-19 restrictions to combat Victoria's Omicron crisis (pictured, a Bourke Street clinic shuts as people queue outside for PCR testing) 'We are likely to get to the point and are already starting to get to the point where there are tents in front of emergency departments,' she told the Herald Sun. Mr Weimar reminded residents there could be a far higher infection rate in the community as the health system struggles to keep up with a demand in testing. 'We all need to be aware that Omicron is sweeping through our community now in a way that we have not seen in the past two years,' Mr Weimar said. 'This is not moving like Delta, this is not moving like Alpha let alone the original variants we were dealing with 18 months ago. 'This is a very different beast,' Mr Weimar said. Advertisement Key pledges made by Sir Keir Starmer Crime and security - Provide crime prevention teams in every neighbourhood, new Police Hubs in every community. - Tougher approach to closing down drug dens through new powers for police and councils. NHS - Set out a 'long-term plan' to show how the NHS can move from emergency care to preventative measures. Worker's rights and business - Introduce new protections for workers, including 'decent' sick pay. - New industrial strategy to boost productivity and make sure 'we Buy, Make and Sell more in Britain'. - Create 100,000 new start-up businesses and new 'hubs of excellence' to build on areas' existing strengths. Climate change - Extra 28billion a year in capital investment to combat climate change and promote green jobs. Advertisement Sir Keir Starmer today issued a desperate plea to Red Wall voters who deserted Labour at the 2019 general election as he urged them to give the party another chance. Sir Keir said Labour has 'changed' since its brutal defeat under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and voters in crucial seats should 'take another look' at the party. The Labour leader made the comments after he used a major New Year speech in Birmingham to set out his vision for the UK as he vowed to 'make Brexit work' and insisted he and his party are 'patriotic'. He looked to take advantage of Boris Johnson's difficult last few months as he unveiled a new 'Contract With The British People'. Sir Keir, who backed Remain at the 2016 EU referendum, criticised the PM's handling of Brexit and said he would ensure the UK can 'profit from our strong global relationships'. He defended his credentials as a patriot and said 'I don't think you cease to be a patriot because you notice your country has flaws'. He also spoke of his 'pride' in the Queen and described the UK as a 'remarkable nation' which is a 'great place to live'. The Labour premier fired a broadside at Mr Johnson over the cost of living crisis as he claimed the Government's 'incompetence is becoming plain'. Sir Keir started 2022 with his party ahead of the Tories in a series of recent opinion polls, after Mr Johnson suffered a bruising December with 100 of his MPs rebelling over coronavirus restrictions, a row over Downing Street parties and the North Shropshire by-election loss. A new poll by Redfield and Wilton Strategies published today showed the Conservatives have rebounded slightly and are now three points behind Labour. Setting out his new 'Contract With The British People', Sir Keir said: 'I think that as we begin this new year, Britain has entered a new phase. 'Because just as the Government has revealed itself to be unworthy of your trust, its incompetence is becoming plain. Sir Keir Starmer today vowed to 'make Brexit work' and insisted he and the Labour Party are 'patriotic' as he set out his vision for running the country The Labour leader took repeated aim at Boris Johnson in a major New Year speech as he looked to take advantage of the Prime Minister's difficult last few months A new year poll by Redfield and Wilton Strategies shows the Conservatives have rebounded and are now just three points behind Labour What is in Keir Starmer's new 'Contract With The British People? Sir Keir Starmer today unveiled a new 'Contract With The British People' which sets out 'how a good government should conduct itself'. The 'contract' is comprised of three clauses, based on the three principles of security, prosperity and respect. Security - Everyone has the basic right to feel safe in their own community. - We all need to know that the NHS is there for us when we need it. - And if we work hard we should also have a right to job security. Prosperity - Everyone should have the opportunity to thrive. - To realise our ambitions and make a good life for ourselves. - To have the skills we need to prosper. Respect - Respect is a less obvious political virtue than Security and Prosperity. - But it is every bit as important. - Everyone has the right to live in places we care for and to have our lives and ambitions taken seriously to be valued for who we are and what we do. Advertisement 'The cost of living is increasing. Energy bills are going up; wages are stagnant. Tax rises are coming in April. Too many people do not feel safe in their streets. And good luck to anyone trying to get a quick GP appointment. 'I want to start the new year by making a pledge of straight leadership. Today I want to introduce my Contract With The British People. 'This will be a solemn agreement about what this country needs and how a good government should conduct itself.' The Labour premier said that 'just because the Tories lose the public's trust it doesn't mean Labour simply inherits it' because 'trust has to be earned'. Sir Keir said the 'first clause' in his new contract with the nation is 'a binding commitment about decency and standards in public life'. Pointing to the so-called Nolan principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, leadership, he said: 'My solemn promise to you will always be to run a government that honours these principles. 'I have a very clear idea of what a Labour government would look like. And in 2022 I want to take my plans to the British people.' Sir Keir said the contract will be based on the three principles of security, prosperity and respect, and he will hold a series of events in the coming months to 'persuade people to sign up to this new Britain that we can create together'. On the first issue of security, Sir Keir said Labour would deliver everyone the 'basic right to feel safe in their own community', ensure the NHS is 'there for us when we need it, and that 'if we work hard we should also have a right to job security'. On prosperity, he said that 'everyone should have the opportunity to thrive', to 'realise our ambitions' and to 'have the skills we need to prosper'. And on the issue of respect, he said that is 'every bit as important' as security and prosperity, and 'everyone has the right to live in places we care for and to have our lives and ambitions taken seriously, to be valued for who we are and what we do'. Meanwhile, on Brexit, Sir Keir said he is 'determined that Britain should profit from our strong global relationships' as he criticised Mr Johnson's approach. 'That means not just getting Brexit done but making Brexit work,' he said. Sir Keir vowed to 'repair' critical strategic alliances as he said: 'Making Brexit work is painstaking work, and slogans won't cut it. 'My goals will be to repair the alliances that this government has damaged while also ensuring that our borders remain safe and secure.' Sir Keir delivered the speech in front of a large Union flag and he used the address to try to cement his 'patriotic' credentials. Sir Keir, who backed Remain at the 2016 EU referendum , criticised the PM's handling of Brexit as he said he would ensure the UK can 'profit from our strong global relationships'. The Labour leader, pictured at the Tyseley Energy Park in Birmingham after his speech, defended his credentials as a patriot as he said 'I don't think you cease to be a patriot because you notice your country has flaws' He said Britain has a lot to be 'proud of', including 'Her Majesty the Queen' and the 'rule of law' as well as universal public services. He said he wanted to use the address to 'celebrate the country we live in' as he joked that criticising and opposing the Government 'can make us sound pretty miserable'. Sir Keir said the 'Labour Party is a deeply patriotic party', adding: 'This country has presented me with great opportunities. It's a great place to live. But I don't think you cease to be a patriot because you notice your country has flaws. 'On the contrary, the reason we in this party want to correct those flaws is precisely because we are patriotic.' The Labour leader also suggested he believes Mr Johnson views politics as a 'branch of the entertainment industry'. He said: 'I came into politics to make things happen not just to talk about them. I don't think politics is a branch of the entertainment industry. I think it's the serious business of getting things done. 'But I'm afraid at the moment we are going backwards. We have a Prime Minister who thinks the rules apply to anyone but him. 'Just when trust in government has become a matter of life and death, for the Prime Minister it has become a matter of what he can get away with.' Following the speech, Sir Keir visited a green energy research centre in Birmingham where he answered reporters' questions. In a message directly to former Labour voters in so-called Red Wall seats which the party lost to the Tories in 2019, Sir Keir said: 'Take another look at Labour. We've changed. 'This Government is clearly not up to the job and we are offering solutions for the future that we want to discuss with you, to make sure that we can all buy in to the idea of a new and better Britain as we come out of the pandemic and I look forward to those discussions across the region wherever I go.' The Labour leader suggested he believes Mr Johnson views politics as a 'branch of the entertainment industry' The Labour premier fired a broadside at Mr Johnson over the cost of living crisis as he claimed the Government's 'incompetence is becoming plain' Sir Keir's speech came as a new poll suggested that Mr Johnson's decision not to hammer England with fresh Covid curbs over Christmas had paid off with voters as Labour's poll lead was cut by five points. The Tories had slumped to as many as eight points behind Sir Keir's party in December as the PM was battered by a range of political storm fronts. But a new year poll by Redfield and Wilton Strategies showed the Conservatives are now three points behind. In a further sign of a Covid-related rebound, Mr Johnson is now seen as a better candidate to be prime minister than Sir Keir (37 per cent to 35 per cent) having fallen behind in December. A judge today ordered a man to undergo a brain scan to test for seizures as he appeared in court charged with the murders of a mother and three children. Damien Bendall, 31, is accused of the rape and murder of 11-year-old Lacey Bennett. He is also accused of killing her brother John Paul Bennett, 13, their mother Terri Harris, 35, and Lacey's friend Connie Gent, 11. The four bodies were discovered at a house in Killamarsh, near Sheffield, South Yorkshire, on September 19. Bendall had been due to appear at a plea hearing in November but the case was adjourned because he was too unwell to attend. Today, Bendall appeared at Derby Crown Court where he was not required to enter any pleas to the charges. The hearing was adjourned after it emerged the court was still awaiting the results of an MRI scan which took place on December 6. Judge Nirmal Shant QC also ordered Bendall to undergo an electroencephalogram (EEG) to test for seizures. Bendal, of Killamarsh, spoke only to confirm his name during the ten-minute hearing. Judge Shant said: 'I am very disappointed in the lack of progress in this case. I will direct the prison the results of MRI scan by 4pm tomorrow.' Pictured: Terri Harris with her children Lacey Bennett with John Paul Bennett Pictured: Damien Bendall - the boyfriend of Terri Harris - has been charged with the rape of Lacey and all four murders and he has been remanded in custody ahead of a trial in March Pictured: Damien Bendall has been remanded and is due to stand trial in March this year Appearing at Derby Crown Court this morning, Bendal, of Killamarsh, spoke only to confirm his name during the ten-minute hearing. Wearing a grey sweatshirt, blue jeans and a white face mask, the defendant was surrounded by five dock officers during the short hearing. The murder charges allege he killed all four on a day between Friday September 17 and Monday September 20. He was not asked to enter pleas to the charges and was remanded back into custody by Judge Nirmal Shant QC until his next appearance on January 18. The defendant is due to stand trial on March 1 this year. In the wake of their deaths, Jason Bennett - the father of Lacey and John Paul - said he had been left 'devastated' by the loss. Pictured: Floral tributes left near to the scene in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh, last year Pictured: Connie Gent, 11, (left) was at a sleepover at the home in Killamarsh where she was found dead alongside friend Lacey (right), John and their mother Terri Harris last September In a statement, he added: 'I've been left broken. I'm devastated. John and Lacey came into our lives and brought so much love and happiness and were adored by myself and their big sisters, forever loved and remembered. 'We would also like to thank everyone for their loving support and our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the tragic loss of four precious lives.' Ms Harris's parents, Angela Smith and Lawrence Harris, described Terri as 'an amazing mum' who 'put herself out not just for her family and friends but anyone who needed her help'. They added: 'She absolutely loved her work as a care worker and would go above and beyond for the people she cared for. Lacey Bennett (right), 11, and her 13-year-old brother John Paul (left) were both found dead alongside the bodies of their mother Terri Harris and their best friend 11-year-old Connie Gent Pictured: Jason Bennett with his children John Paul and Lacey who have both been killed 'She will be missed more than any words can ever express, not only by her family but by anyone who had the privilege to have been in her life.' Connie's father Charles Gent said: 'The pain is indescribable. I wake up every morning hoping this has all been a terrible nightmare, but it's not. It's the unbearable reality that my little girl has gone. 'Connie was an absolute superstar in every way. She had a gift - if someone was down she could instantly make them feel okay. 'She lit up every room she went in and meant something to everyone she came across, even in hard times. Connie had the ability to keep everyone smiling. 'Fly safe my angel. They came for you and left me behind. I could never say goodbye, so I'll see you soon. I love you more than you can possibly imagine forever and always.' Tenured law professor Amy Wax has come under fire for making racist comments during an online interview with a fellow academic A tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania has come under fire for saying that 'the US is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.' The controversial comment from law professor Amy Wax came in the form of a written statement after the veteran educator faced backlash for similarly xenophobic remarks in an online interview with fellow academic Glenn Loury. Wax, 68, drew criticism for the December interview, in which the pair engaged in a conversation concerning US immigration, for comments regarding Asian-Americans and Native Americans that many deemed racist. During her tirade, Wax appeared to be referring to Chinese immigrants in particular, citing beliefs that are at odds with American values such as democracy and liberty. 'Its just harder to assimilate those people or to have confidence that our way of life will continue if we bring a lot of people in who are not familiar with it. These are not original ideas on the [political] right,' Wax told Loury, an African-American, in the December interview on the latter's YouTube-base program, The Glenn show, which covers scholarly topics ranging from academia, journalism, and various social issues. 'This might result in a shift in the racial profile of people who come in,' Wax went on. 'Obviously, we'll have fewer people from Africa. Well have fewer people of some parts of Asia, and itll be more white - not that many white people want to come to the United States.' Scroll for video 'The US is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration,' Wax, at right, said following a December interview with Brown University's Glenn Loury on the latter's YouTube program, The Glenn Show During her strongly worded anti-immigration tirade, Wax honed in on the topic of South Asian elites migrating to the US - an occurrence she viewed as concerning. '[We] have to distinguish mass-immigration, which were getting from the Hispanics, south of the border, which I think poses different questions and challenges from the Asian elites that were getting,' she said. 'It doesnt mean that the influx of Asian elites is unproblematic. I actually think its problematic... I think its because theres this danger of the dominance of an Asian elite in this country. She then posited: 'What does that mean? What is that going to mean to change the culture? 'Does the spirit of liberty beat in their breast?' After facing backlash for her xenophobic comments in the Glenn Show interview, Wax penned a response where she made the brazen declaration. 'As long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less immigration' Wax went on to say that she herself considered the spirit of liberty to be 'people who are mistrustful of centralized concentrations of authority who have a kind of "don't tread on me' attitude, who are focused on our freedoms, on our liberties, on sort of small scale personal responsibility who are non-conformist in good ways.' The tenured teach, who has been employed by the Pennsylvania university for more than two decades, added that the idea of 'wokeness' is an elite ideology, and asserted that 'Asians tend to be more conformist to whatever the dominant ethos is.' Throughout the diatribe, Loury, an esteemed professor and economist who has had Wax as a guest on his eponymously named program, The Glenn Show, on multiple other occasions, sat patiently and respected his peer, continuing the conversation in a civil and professional matter. Wax then continued her chauvinist charge by disparaging Native Americans as well, whom she referred to as Indians. 'If you know anything about American Indians,' she began, 'you know these people were constantly at war with each other.' 'They didn't have guns. they had arrows, right? They had hatchets. So there was a limit to how much damage they could do.' She continued: 'But when they conquered other tribes and they were constantly doing that, right, they tortured them, I think, they were awful to them. They they were merciless to them. She then controversially claimed, 'If they had our guns in our technology, they just would have done it on a grander scale.' Following the interview's publishing on December 21, Loury's listeners quickly clapped back against the conservative teach for her contentious comments. Following the flood of criticism, Loury posted an email he received from listener George Lee, who conceded that he generally opposes undocumented immigration and typically agrees with Wax's anti-immigration viewpoints. With that said, Lee asserted in the strongly worded letter that Wax's latest rant left him 'disturbed.' 'It is a bad thing for America to bring in immigrants who oppose America's basic values,' Lee wrote. 'But race and national origin are very poor proxies for cultural values that should be kept out of America.' Lee then detailed how Asian immigrants have made racial strides in the US, writing that they 'pounded the pavement and hit the airwaves to help stem the tides of racial essentialism and collective judgment in proposed legislation, ballot initiatives, and elections. 'By many accounts, Asians were key marginal contributors to some of these successes,' he went on. 'Asians do contribute to America's scholarly, technological, and economic competitiveness, whose benefits we all share.' Lee's letter, along with numerous other online criticisms, spurred Wax to pen a public response to clarify her comments - in which she made the brazen declaration that the US would be better off without Asians. 'In the case of Asians in the US, Wax began, 'the overwhelming majority vote Democratic,' Wax wrote. She went on: 'I find Asian support for these policies mystifying, as I fail to see how they are in Asians interest. We can speculate (and, yes, generalize) about Asians' desire to please the elite. 'As long as most Asians support Democrats and help to advance their positions, I think the United States is better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration,' she then declared, spawning more online backlash in the process. Following the law professor's posting, Penn Law School Dean Theodore Ruger addressed the controversy in a statement to DailyMail.com Tuesday, slamming Wax's comments 'anti-intellectual' and 'racist' in an official bulletin published by his university. In the strongly worded statement, Ruger asserted that while 'Waxs speech may be protected,' it does not 'permit this Law School to ignore the real harms such speech causes.' 'Waxs views are diametrically opposed to the policies and ethos of this institution, Ruger went on. 'They serve as a persistent and tangible reminder that racism, sexism, and xenophobia are not theoretical abstractions but are real and insidious beliefs in this country and in our building. 'This reality sharpens and deepens our commitment to support our community as we continue to work to advance equity and inclusion.' Following the law professor's posting, Penn Law School Dean Theodore Ruger addressed the controversy in a statement Monday, slamming Wax's comments 'anti-intellectual' and 'racist' in an official statement from the university. He did not, however, reveal if any disciplinary action was eing taken against Wax, who has been employed by the school since 2001 With hard-hitting, the law school chief's written affirmation did not reveal whether or not Wax would be dismissed from her post as Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the Philadelphia school. Wax's comments similarly drew backlash from a slew of social media users and fellow academics left outraged by her xenophobic remarks. Current Affairs Editor Nathan Robinson tweeted, 'University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax, who insisted she was not a racist despite praising the superiority of "European" culture, now argues that the US needs "fewer Asians" and we need to be asking "how many Asians are too many,"' in a sardonic post to the the social media site. Another user wrote: 'The most ironic part of this is that Wax complains about the decline of "bourgeois values," but then is opposed to the immigrant group (Asians) that are knocking it out of the park when it comes to those values (academic achievement, entrepreneurship, family focus, etc).' Writer and scholar of race relations Brando Simeo Starkey also weighed in on the controversy with his opinion on Wax, revealing that he's 'had the misfortune of having dinner with her in a group setting,' and declaring that 'shes absolutely racist.' Former President Donald Trump's niece Mary Trump, 56, even chimed in, calling Wax a 'morally and intellectually bankrupt racist.' 'It helps explain the situation this country finds itself in that an Ivy League university allows the morally and intellectually bankrupt racist #AmyWax teach the next generation of American lawyers. There should be consequences for this kind of hateful rhetoric @pennlaw,' the psychologist wrote. Former President Donald Trump's niece Mary Trump, 56, called Wax a 'morally and intellectually bankrupt racist' following the law professor's comments Writer and scholar of race relations Brando Simeo Starkey weighed in on the controversy with his opinion on Wax, revealing that he's 'had the misfortune of having dinner with her in a group setting.' He went on to declare that 'shes absolutely racist' Current Affairs Editor Nathan Robinson also took to Twitter to comment on Wax's remarks 'The most ironic part of this is that Wax complains about the decline of "bourgeois values," but then is opposed to the immigrant group (Asians) that are knocking it out of the park when it comes to those values,' another user wrote following the airing of the contentious interview With that said, this is not the first time Wax has faced backlash for her racist remarks. In 2019, she came under fire for suggesting that America is better off with 'fewer nonwhites,' during a panel discussion at the Edmund Burke Foundation's National Conservatism conference in Washington D.C. Wax, a conservative whose work commonly addresses social welfare issues, asserted at the conference that 'conservatives need a realistic approach to immigration that... preserves the United States as a Western and First World nation.' 'We are better off if we are dominated numerically... by people from the First World, from the West,' she went on, 'than by people who are from less advanced countries.' 'Europe and the first world to which the United States belongs remain mostly white for now, and the third world, although mixed, contains a lot of nonwhite people,' Wax also stated. 'Embracing cultural distance, cultural distance nationalism means in effect taking the position that our country will be better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites. Well, that is the result, anyway. 'So even if our immigration philosophy is grounded firmly in cultural concerns doesn't rely on race at all, and no matter how many times we repeat the mantra that correlation is not causation, these racial dimensions are enough to spook conservatives. As a result today we have an immigration policy driven by fear.' The tenured professor's comments quickly inspired a firestorm on social media and the university's student body, who clamored to have the conservative educator axed - to no avail. Following the flood of criticism against the university for employing such a contentious, school officials asserted at the time that the professor was free to express her opinion. 'As a member of the faculty Professor Wax is free to express her opinions as provided in Penn's policies protecting academic freedom and open expression,' they said in the statement. 'It is also the case that views of individual faculty members do not represent the views of the institution, but rather their own personal beliefs.' The year prior, in another racially charged interview with Loury - who became the first tenured African-American professor of economics at Harvard University four decades ago in 1982 - Wax faced fallout for disparaging her black students. Wax made similar comments during an earlier interview with Loury, an African-American in 2018, disparaging her own students because of the color of their skin. After her comments, UPenn announced that Wax would no longer be teaching required first-year law courses 'I don't think I've ever seen a black student graduate in the top quarter of the class, and rarely, rarely in the top half,' Wax told Loury during their conversation. After her comments, Dean Ruger announced that Wax would no longer be teaching required first-year law courses. In an email to students and faculty published by Philadelphia Magazine, Ruger asserted that Wax spoke 'disparagingly and inaccurately' about the performance of black students during the interview, which was centered on her view that there is a 'downside of affirmative action.' As of Tuesday, Wax is still employed by the school, where's she's worked since 2001. A Mississippi police officer responding to a report of a fatal shooting over the weekend was shocked to find her own son lying in the middle of the street with a gunshot wound to the head. Officer Laquandia Cooley, 42, with the Hazlehurst Police Department, was working the night shift on Sunday when she got a call about a body on Larkin Street at around 2am, leading to the horrific discovery. 'We initially responded to the call, not knowing when I made it over there, the person was going to be my son that was laying there,' Cooley told the station WLBT. Scroll down for video Officer Laquandia Cooley, with the Hazlehurst Police Department in Mississippi (left), was responding to a call about a body when she found her son, Charles Stewart Jr, 20, dead Victim was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head on Larkin Street in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, early Sunday Cooley said when she got the call about a dead body, she had no idea it was her own child By the time Cooley arrived on the scene, her son, Charles Stewart Jr, 20, had already died of his injuries. 'As we get out, I look and I was like, "This is my son, this is my son,"' Cooley recounted. 'So, I literally just go into a breakdown...Like, why? Who would do this to my son?' She added: 'I couldnt even believe what I was seeing. I was seeing my own son laying there on the ground dead. It was pretty much a panic. It was just, it was too much.' Cooley then called her son's father, Charles Stewart, telling him: 'someone killed our baby.' Cooley, pictured with Charles Jr's father, left, and her two surviving children, right, said the family are struggling to cope with her son's death Charles Jr's father said the 20-year-old was well-liked by everyone. He graduated from high school in 2019 The elder Stewart said his son was liked by everyone, and the family do not know who would do that to him. 'Its traumatizing for the whole family,' Cooley said. 'Were just trying to cope day to day.' Charles Stewart Jr is survived by his parents, an older sister, who had just turned 22 last week, and a 17-year-old brother. 'Im lost,' wrote the man's sister, Destinequa Hilliard, in a Facebook post. 'How can anybody live after losing a sibling. 'Im trying to be the strong one but Im getting weak Ill never be able to see my brother again who ever did this is wrong why lord why. Hazlehurst Police Chief Darian Murray said because the homicide involves an officers family member, the case will be handed over to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. As of Tuesday morning, no arrests have been made in connection with the killing. A World Health Organization official today hailed the growing body of evidence showing Omicron is milder than earlier strains. Dr Abdi Mahamud, the WHO's Covid incident manager, said the agency was seeing 'more and more studies' hinting the new strain struggles to penetrate the lungs. He described it as 'good news'. Despite being ultra-infectious, Omicron has so far caused far fewer hospitalisations and deaths than previous waves. Doctors believe rising levels of protection from vaccines and natural immunity has played the biggest role but an increasing number of studies suggest the variant is also intrinsically weaker. Dr Mahamud told reporters in Geneva: 'We are seeing more and more studies pointing out that Omicron is infecting the upper part of the body. Unlike the other ones, that could cause severe pneumonia.' Increasingly, studies are suggesting that Omicron's ability to spread so quickly might also be the reason it causes milder illness. A study by researchers in Hong Kong found it multiplies 70 times faster in the airways compared to Delta, which could make people more infectious more quickly. But it is 10 times slower than Delta at replicating in the lungs, where damage from the virus can lead to pneumonia and patients requiring ventilators. The number of daily positive Covid tests recorded in England has exceeded 100,000 for nearly two weeks. However, the number of patients in hospital with the virus is a fraction of the level seen last winter, while deaths remain flat The graphs show the amount of the coronavirus detected in human bronchial cells (left) and lung cells (right) 24 and 48 hours after coming into contact with the original strain of the virus (pink), Delta (orange) and Omicron (red). There was 70 times more Omicron recorded in the bronchus the main pipe connecting the airways and lungs compared to previous strains, but 10 times less virus in the lungs when compared to the original version and Delta. Experts from the University of Hong Kong said this suggests the virus is more transmissible but may cause less severe illness People with severe Covid can suffer from pneumonia swelling of the lung tissue which leads to shortness of breath and a cough, with breathing difficulties becoming so severe for some that they require a ventilator. UK hospitalisation levels are trending upwards, but the numbers in mechanical ventilation beds have remained static and doctors on the ground are reporting that Omicron infections appear to be less severe for many. MailOnline analysis on Monday showed the proportion of Covid patients needing to be hooked up to ventilators in London has halved since Omicron took off. NHS England statistics show 16 per cent of hospitalised patients required mechanical ventilation in late November when the Delta variant was still dominant. But a month later, after it was replaced by Omicron, this had dropped to six per cent. Dr Mahamud said Omicron data could be 'good news', but warned that, despite being linked with cold-like symptoms, it could cause chaos over the coming weeks in countries with low vaccination rates. And promising studies from South Africa may be because the country is an 'outlier' due to its young population, he said. Speaking to journalists in Geneva today, Dr Mahamud said Omicron's high transmissibility means it will become dominant within weeks in many places, posing a threat in countries where a high portion of the population remains unvaccinated. His remarks on the reduced risks of severe disease chime with other data including a study from South Africa which was one of the first countries where Omicron was detected. And a study by South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases found people were 80 per cent less likely to be hospitalised and 70 per cent less likely to be admitted to ICU or be put on a ventilator. The researchers found that 2.5 per cent of people who caught Omicron were admitted to hospital, compared to 12.8 per cent of those infected with Delta, equating to the 80 per cent drop. Similar analysis by the UK Health Security Agency based on 132 people hospitalised with Omicron or Delta found those who caught the newer strain were 50 to 70 per cent less likely to be admitted to hospital. And researchers in Hong Kong this month found Omicron multiplies 70 times faster than Delta in the airways and 10 times slower in the lungs, which could explain why it spreads faster but causes milder symptoms. Higher viral loads nearer the throat means people are more likely to breathe out viral particles. Delta was found to duplicate much quicker in the lungs, where more of the virus can lead to the most severe illness. The finding may be the biological clue behind why doctors insist people infected with the strain only suffer cold-like symptoms. However, Dr Mahamud also sounded a note of caution, calling South Africa an 'outlier' since it has a young population among other factors. Up to 70 per cent of South Africans are believed to have had Covid before and only around a quarter are double vaccinated, with boosters not widely available yet. Meanwhile, 82.5 per cent of over-12s are double-jabbed in the UK and 60 per cent are boosted, which studies have found to provide an extra layer of defence against Omicron. Asked about whether an Omicron-specific vaccine was needed, Mahamud said it was too early to say but stressed that the decision required global coordination and should not be left to the commercial sector to decide alone. Vaccine makers are already working on tweaking the current crop of jabs in case they are needed against Omicron. But these won't be ready for months and so far the current vaccines are holding up against severe Covid outcomes. A Jewish BBC broadcaster has resigned after the corporation's coverage of an anti-Semitic attack wrongly accused the victims of making offensive Muslim slurs. Rabbi YY Rubinstein, a contributor to BBC programmes including Good Morning Sunday and the Thought For The Day, quit via a letter. He released it on Facebook, addresses to a member of staff, only known as Gabby. The letter said: 'The current crisis over anti-Semitism at the Corporation and its attempts to turn the victims of the recent anti-Semitic attack on Jewish children in London and claim that the victims were actually the perpetrators, was and is inexcusable. The obfuscation, denial that followed, was and is utterly damning. 'The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles actually includes the BBC in its annual global anti-Semitism, 'Top Ten'. 'This does not in any way reflect on your own production company whose own record in this regard is exemplary. It also does not apply to many of the individuals I have worked with at the BBC over three decades. Rabbi YY Rubinstein, a contributor to BBC programmes including Good Morning Sunday quit The men were seen shouting abuse and gesturing at the bus after the teenagers got on board 'They were among some of the most courteous, kind and talented people I ever met or worked with. The same applies to you and your colleagues. 'I simply don't see how I or in fact any Jew who has any pride in that name can be associated with the Corporation anymore.' It comes less than a week after it was reported Jewish leaders will confront BBC chief Tim Davie to demand a public apology. The proposed action comes after an investigation revealed a 'colossal error' in its reporting of an anti-Semitic attack on Oxford Street. Earlier this month, a video emerged of a group of men hurling abuse and spitting at a group of Jewish teenagers sitting inside a bus, before banging on the windows as it pulled away. The incident was treated as a hate crime by police and was condemned by the Prime Minister and by the Mayor of London. Part of Rabbi YY Rubinstein's resignation later, which he posted onto Facebook Footage showed the group of Jewish teenagers dancing as they celebrated Hanukkah moments before the attack The incident on Oxford Street earlier this month was treated as a hate crime by police and was condemned by the Prime Minister and by the Mayor of London Rabbi's resignation letter in full Dear Gabby, I hope you are doing more than well. I am afraid I am writing with bad news. I will not be able to do the BBC Radio 2 recordings we discussed in February and March 2020. This is a very sad moment for me as I have been a BBC Broadcaster for some thirty years. I was a regular on Thought for the Day, Wake up to Wogan and countless other BBC Radio and TV programs. I was the co-writer and presenter of BBC World Service's, 'Sunrise Sunset' which the Times cited as their pick of the week and which was rebroadcast twice in the same week to 300 million people. I was a regular on BBC One's, Heaven and Earth Show. I have been with the Beeb for a very long time. The current crisis over anti-Semitism at the Corporation and its attempts to turn the victims of the recent anti-Semitic attack on Jewish children in London and claim that the victims were actually the perpetrators, was and is inexcusable. The obfuscation, denial that followed, was and is utterly damning. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles actually includes the BBC in its annual global anti-Semitism, 'Top Ten'. This does not in any way reflect on your own production company whose own record in this regard is exemplary. It also does not apply to many of the individuals I have worked with at the BBC over three decades. They were among some of the most courteous, kind and talented people I ever met or worked with. The same applies to you and your colleagues. I simply don't see how I or in fact any Jew who has any pride in that name can be associated with the Corporation anymore. Wishing you only huge success, Rabbi YY Advertisement But in its original report, BBC News said 'racial slurs about Muslims could be heard inside the bus', a claim criticised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism. And the board has now commissioned its own independent report by forensic audio experts and a linguist which concluded there were no anti-Muslim insults. It found the phrase thought to be a slur was actually a Hebrew phrase, 'Tikrah lemishu,ze dachuf' meaning: 'Call someone, it is urgent.' Writing in the Jewish Chronicle, Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl described the BBC's 'misreporting' as 'a colossal error', which 'has added insult to injury in accusing victims of antisemitism of being guilty of bigotry themselves'. She continued: 'What takes this from an egregious failure to something far more sinister is the BBC's behaviour when confronted with its mistake. Instead of admitting it was wrong, it has doubled and tripled down.' Ms Van der Zyl demanded the corporation to publicly apologise, and said the Board of Deputies would be holding a meeting with Director General Tim Davie this month, which will include 'a full and frank discussion of this issue'. She said the corporation's behaviour 'raises serious questions about deep-seated biases within the BBC towards Israelis, and indeed towards Jews in general'. The BBC is standing by its report of the incident, and a spokesman said: 'Antisemitism is abhorrent. We strive to serve the Jewish community, and all communities across our country, fairly. 'Our story was a factual report that overwhelmingly focused on the individuals the police want to identify; those who directed abuse at the bus. 'There was a brief reference to a slur, captured in a video recording, that appeared to come from the bus. We consulted a number of Hebrew speakers in determining that the slur was spoken in English. 'The brief reference to this was included so the fullest account of the incident was reported.' It came as the BBC was ranked third - behind Iran and the Palestinian terror group Hamas - in a 'Global Antisemitism' list compiled by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in the US. Rabbi Marvin Hier, the head of the centre, said the BBC was 'guilty of several incidences of antisemitism during the past year'. He told the Mail on Sunday: 'People might assume we would put neo-Nazi groups on our list but the BBC is there because when a globally recognised organisation allows antisemitism to creep into its reporting, it makes it all the more insidious and dangerous. 'People around the world trust the BBC and rely on it for truthful reporting of world events.' Rabbi Hier said the decision to include the BBC on the annual list had come 'after months of intense debate and discussion'. He singled out the broadcaster's reporting of the attack on a bus carrying Jewish teenagers by a group of men who chanted anti-Israel slogans. Republican lawmakers will be under 'enormous pressure' to impeach President Joe Biden if they take back the House of Representatives in this year's midterm elections, Texas Senator Ted Cruz said on the latest episode of his podcast. On The Verdict With Ted Cruz, the southern Republican accused Democrats of 'weaponizing' impeachment against twice-impeached former President Donald Trump. Asked about whether his colleagues in the House will respond in kind, Cruz said: 'I do think theres a chance of that. Whether it's justified or not, Democrats weaponized impeachment.' 'They used it for partisan purposes to go after Trump because they disagreed with him,' Cruz claimed. He said there are 'multiple grounds' on which to impeach Biden, singling out the southern border crisis and record number of migrants crossing into the US and straining American immigration infrastructure. 'The most compelling [reason] is the utter lawlessness of President Bidens refusal to enforce the border, his decision to just defy federal immigration laws,' the senator said. He added that the president's rollback of Trump-era border restrictions amounted to a dereliction of duty under Article II of the Constitution, which puts it on the commander-in-chief to enforce federal laws. Republican lawmakers have floated the idea that the president's son Hunter Biden, and his murky foreign business dealings, could also be grounds for impeachment. Cruz predicted that Republicans' odds of taking back the House in this year's midterm elections are as high as 90 percent He said of the extraordinary political process, 'The more you weaponize it and turn it into a partisan cudgel -- you know, whats good for the goose is good for the gander -- I've said it at the time, when we have a Democratic president and a Republican house, you can expect an impeachment proceeding.' 'That's not how impeachment is meant to work but I think the Democrats crossed that line. I think therell be enormous pressure on a Republican House to begin impeachment proceedings.' House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has already gotten to work preparing for multiple investigations into the Biden administration should his party win back the majority after the November elections, Axios reported last month. He's sent several 'preservation notices' across Biden's Cabinet to retain documents that may be useful for future GOP-held committees. Cruz said those probes are 'extremely likely to happen,' estimating that Republicans are 90 percent likely to take back the House and 'it may be even higher than that.' 'What's interesting is in Washington, everybody assumes Republicans are gonna win. I think all the Democrats assume were gonna take the House, its almost baked into the cake of how everyone handles decision-making,' he said. He said his party will be under 'enormous pressure' to impeach Biden after Democrats twice voted to impeach Trump As to the chances of taking back the Senate, which is split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote for Democrats, Cruz was less optimistic. 'I put the odds of our taking the Senate at about 50-50, I think its gonna be a really good year, but it's a bad map,' he said. In this year's midterms, 14 Democrat senators will be up for re-election compared to 20 Republican-held seats. 'We have more vulnerable Republican seats up in the Senate than Democrat seats so weve got to have a few things bounce right, but if we take the House -- which as I said is overwhelmingly likely -- then I think we will see serious investigations of the Biden administration,' Cruz predicted. 'If we take the Senate, I hope we see the Senate engaging similarly in real oversight with teeth.' Pelosi is growing increasingly likely to lose her position as House Speaker at the end of this term Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi looks increasingly likely to lose her powerful position in November as more members of her caucus either retire or choose to run for a different office. As recently as Monday night, Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush told the Chicago Sun Times that he's ending his three-decade tenure in the House at the end of this term. The former Black Panther has comfortably beat back numerous primary and general election challengers to keep hold of his state's 1st Congressional District, including a bid from a young state senator named Barack Obama in 2000. There are currently 221 Democrats and 213 Republicans in the House. But at the end of 2022, 24 Democrats are leaving the lower chamber compared to just 12 Republicans. It's also not the first time lawmakers have floated the idea of impeaching Biden. A group of Republican lawmakers led by Ohio Rep. Bob Gibbs filed articles of impeachment against the president in September. Gibbs claimed the president violated his oath of office on three points, according to text obtained by DailyMail.com: the southern border crisis, the evictions moratorium and Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Brian Babin of Texas and Randy Weber of Texas are co-sponsors on the effort. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed articles of impeachment against Biden on his first full day in office. Greene argued he is 'unfit' for office and 'will do whatever it takes to bail out Hunter'. Nicola Sturgeon faced demands from across the political spectrum today to announce a cut to the Covid quarantine time for Scots to help beleaguered public service. The SNP First Minister was urged by the Tories and Labour to cut the current 10 day isolation period to seven days in line with the rest of the UK, when she updates Holyrood tomorrow. Both Northern Ireland and Wales have taken the step in recent week, bringing them into line with the isolation period for England. Depute First Minister John Swinney said on Tuesday the government was still 'actively considering' the move, but gave no indication of any specific changes. Ahead of Wednesday's announcement, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said isolation should be cut to seven days, if two negative tests are returned in the final two days. He also suggested household contacts be allowed to leave isolation if they test negative. 'Scotland has the strictest self-isolation rules anywhere in the United Kingdom,' Mr Ross said. 'We understand the need for caution, but Nicola Sturgeon's dithering and delaying is continuing to have a major impact on frontline services and the wider economy, due to the sheer numbers having to isolate. The SNP First Minister was urged by the Tories and Labour to cut the current 10 day isolation period to seven days in line with the rest of the UK, when she updates Holyrood tomorrow. Ahead of Wednesday's announcement, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said isolation should be cut to seven days, if two negative tests are returned in the final two days. Mr Ross said: 'We understand the need for caution, but Nicola Sturgeon's dithering and delaying is continuing to have a major impact on frontline services and the wider economy, due to the sheer numbers having to isolate' 'She must finally confirm in her latest update that the period of isolation will be cut to seven days, for those who have tested negative twice. 'Her indecision, coupled with new restrictions, has harmed many businesses at what should have been their busiest time of the year.' He added: 'We've been calling for weeks for these changes to self-isolation rules to be done safely and since then we've seen more evidence that the Omicron variant is proving to be less severe in terms of the impact it is having on those who get the virus. 'Nicola Sturgeon must listen to the warnings from many crucial sectors and finally implement a cut in the length of time people have to isolate for. 'We've seen Wales and Northern Ireland now do this, so people have rightly been asking why has the First Minister continued to wait to do likewise in Scotland?' 'Her current approach is unsustainable and tomorrow's update must finally bring in the necessary changes to protect essential services.' Daily coronavirus cases in Scotland reached a record new high of 20,217 on Monday, with a daily test positivity rate of 34.9 per cent. ScotRail introduced a reduced train timetable today as the rail operator seeks to cope with Covid-related staff absences. Services on several routes will be less frequent between Tuesday and January 28, with the changes mainly affecting the central belt. Passengers have been asked to check the status of their journey before they head to the station. Alex Hynes, managing director of ScotRail, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland radio programme on Tuesday that the reductions affected around 160 of the 2,000 services the company normally runs each day. The Scottish Government has also urged secondary school pupils to take a lateral flow test before returning to school this week to limit the spread of Omicron, while those aged 12-15 are being encouraged to come forward for their second coronavirus jab for which they are now eligible. Mr Ross' comments were echoed by Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie. Ms Baillie, who is also the party's health spokeswoman, said: 'The SNP must use this update to confirm whether they will change self-isolation requirements in line with the latest evidence, to stop staff absences piling yet more pressure on businesses and services this winter.' She went on to also push for an increase in testing capacity after Scots faced trouble booking a PCR test over the festive period. 'Scotland's testing system is showing signs of considerable strain, leaving people across the country facing impossible decisions. 'Before any new restrictions can be justified the government must act to ensure our testing system is working properly and demonstrate the evidence that new rules would meet the unique challenges of Omicron.' A burning shed on a property owned by a Christian fundamentalist cult could be the source of the massive Colorado wildfire that destroyed nearly 1,000 homes in the suburbs around Boulder. Authorities in Colorado have turned their focus on The Twelve Tribes, a cult that sprung out of an early 1970s youth Bible study group in Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. A passerby captured a video Thursday of the burning shed on Colorado State Highway 93 and Marshall Road as the fire began ravaging the Denver suburbs, writing, 'There is no fire beyond this point towards the west side.' Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle warned Monday that investigators will be 'careful' before reaching any conclusions. Sheriff's officials previously confirmed that they carried out a search warrant in connection to the fire. 'We will sort it out. It's an active, open deal and the outcome of that investigation is vital, there is so much at stake,' Pelle said in a press conference Monday. 'We're going to take our time and be methodical because the stakes are huge,' he added. The origins of the Marshall Fire have been tracked to a burning shed on Colorado State Highway 93 and Marshall Road near Boulder The shed sits in property owned by the fundamentalist Christian group The Twelve Tribes Authorities have served a search warrant regarding the Marshall Fire, though the exact location is unknown. Above, a Twelve Tribes home in Boulder Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle warned Monday that investigators will be 'careful' before reaching any conclusions. Above, Pelle on Sunday That barn is the initial source of the Marshall Fire, I'm at the stop light between S Foothill Highway (H 93), Marshall road and Eldorado Springs road. There is no fire beyond this point towards the west side. (11:30AM)#Boulder #Marshall #fire #ClimateEmergency #BreakingNews pic.twitter.com/OFB8hnkAGC Anjan Sapkota (@asp321) December 31, 2021 The Twelve Tribes was founded in the 1970s in Tennessee by Elbert Eugene Spriggs and his wife Marsha The Twelve Tribes counts 3,000 people among its members, according to a New York Times review of the group's website, which is now down. The group has offshoots in other countries and has been associated with extremist teachings on race and homosexuality, as well as child labor violations. They believe in Jesus, who they call Yahshua, and strictly follow the Old and New Testaments. 'Our men have beards because men were created with facial hair,' a Google search index of the group's website reads. 'Our women wear the clothes they do because of their desire to be modest.' The Marshall Fire ravaged through 6,000 acres and destroyed 1,000 homes and businesses in Boulder County, according to Denver station KMGH. Two people are still missing and presumed dead. The wildfire erupted in and around Louisville and Superior, neighboring towns about 20 miles northwest of Denver with a combined population of 34,000. Evacuations were ordered in both towns. The Marshall Fire burned through more than 6,000 acres and destroyed about 1,000 homes and businesses. Above, a firefighter walks near a home north of Boulder on Thursday Two people are still missing and presumed dead after the devastating flames 'We're going to take our time and be methodical because the stakes are huge,' Sheriff Joe Pelle said Monday. Above, a firefighter walks through smoke in Louisville, Colorado on Thursday A home in the Centennial Heights neighborhood of Louisville, Colorado burns on Thursday Mike Zoltowski, who lives near The Twelve Tribes property told station KMGH that he saw a fire truck near his home on Thursday. 'This is going to be... this is going to be ugly,' he recalled thinking. He went outside and saw the shed fire yards away from his front door, the station reported. Who are the Twelve Tribes? The Twelve Tribes are a fundamentalist Christian group. They grew out of an early 1970s youth Bible study group led by Elbert Eugene Spriggs and his wife Marsha in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They count 3,000 people among its members and believe in Jesus, who they call Yahshua. They also strictly follow the Old and New Testaments. The group operates the Yellow Deli in Boulder and Mate Factor Cafe in Manitou Springs. 'Our men have beards because men were created with facial hair,' a Google search index of the group's website reads. 'Our women wear the clothes they do because of their desire to be modest.' The group has been accused of holding racist and homophobic beliefs and of child labor exploitations. In 2001, the New York State Department of Labor found two violations involving children at its factories, which make shampoo and other products. Sources: Southern Poverty Law Center, New York Times Advertisement 'For about 45 minutes, this went on. Then, all of a sudden, another fire started at this corner,' he said. 'That's when I got a little bit nervous about my situation.' Zoltowski told station KDVR that he saw a fire truck try to put out the fire in the shed. 'As soon as I turned around and came back, they were gone,' Zoltowski said. 'And that's when I realized something is seriously wrong here because the shed was still burning.' Anne Michaels, a kindergarten teacher driving through the area on Thursday, recalled seeing the fire clearly coming from The Twelve Tribes property while she was on the pone with her mother. 'I said, "Mom, I see smoke,"' she said. On Saturday, Boulder County Sheriffs officials confirmed they served a search warrant on a property regarding the Marshall Fire, according to the Denver Post. The exact location of the search has not been made public. The SPLC calls The Twelve Tribes a 'cult' and says that 'on first impression its communes and hippie-vibed restaurants and cafes can seem quaint and bucolic. 'But beneath the surface lies a tangle of doctrine that teaches its followers that slavery was "a marvelous opportunity" for black people, who are deemed by the Bible to be servants of whites, and that homosexuals deserve no less than death.' The group grew out of a Bible study taught by by Elbert Eugene Spriggs and his wife Marsha in Tennessee, the SPLC says. 'Followers who belong to "The Community," as members refer to the Twelve Tribes, surrender their earthly possessions to the group and live communally, often working at the Tribes' restaurants or tea shops - called The Yellow Deli and Mate Factor, respectively - or simply laboring on the communes or for one of the other cult-owned businesses,' the center says. The Twelve Tribes was founded in Tennessee in the 1970s out of a Bible study group. They operate the Yellow Deli in Boulder, above 'The internet is highly restricted, and secular music, books and other "worldly" influences are verboten.' The group allegedly shuns gay people but boasts about members who are 'formerly' gay. They have been accused of using child labor in its factories and beating children. They have denied the allegations. In 2001, the New York State Department of Labor found two violations involving children at its factories, which make shampoo and other products, according to the New York Times. 'One was a 15-year-old changing a light bulb, another was a 15-year-old pushing a wheelbarrow; they're both under appeal,' said Ed Wiseman, a Tribes administrator in Vermont. Crews are still looking for 91-year-old Nadine Turnbull, from the town of Superior Gonzalo 'Chalo' Quesada, 58, died from a combination of his illness, smoke inhalation and the sheer physical trauma he experienced by the evacuation The Marshall Fire in Colorado ran through New Year's Day. Two people are missing and presumed dead. 'We are still missing a woman from the town of Superior and a man from out by Marshall. The search for those folks is still underway,' Sheriff Pelle said Sunday, according to CNN. One of them is 91-year-old woman Nadine Turnbull from the town of Superior, who has been missing since evacuations began on Sunday. Her family say that she was in a home with one of her nieces as the fire draw closer. Somehow, the pair became separated as firefighters set about evacuating the area. Nadine's family hope that rescuers may have taken her to an evacuation center. She was reported missing to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office. Gonzalo 'Chalo' Quesada, 58, died on Friday morning after he was saved from his burning home in Superior. A former software engineer for IBM, Quesada was housebound and had no verbal or motor for ten years. Suffering from Alzheimer's and aphasia, doctors believe he would not have lived for much longer. Almost a foot of snow was dumped on Colorado on New Year's Day, hampering recovery and rescue efforts in the wake of the wildfire Mike Jones of Boulder, Colorado shovels debris and snow out of his girlfriend's home which was destroyed by the Marshall Fire in the Rock Creek neighborhood in the town of Superior, Boulder County, Colorado on January 1, 2022 His family was told that smoke inhalation and stress contributed to his death, according to Denver station KCNC. A GoFundMe page has been set up by the family who also lost their home in the fires. Almost a foot of snow fell on Colorado on New Year's Day, hampering recovery and rescue efforts in the wake of the wildfire. Snow and temperatures in the single digits cast an eerie scene amid still-smoldering remains of homes - with an estimated six feet of snow still forecast for certain parts of the state. Despite the shocking change in weather, the smell of smoke still permeated empty streets blocked off by National Guard troops in Humvees on January 1. Prosecutors argued in opening statements on Tuesday that a 23-year-old Wisconsin man murdered both his parents, dismembered their bodies and burned their heads in a fireplace to cover up his 'web of lies' about college and work. Chandler Halderson faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide and mutilating and hiding a corpse in connection with the brutal killings of his father, Bart Halderson, 50, and his mother, Krista Halderson, 53, in July 2021. The criminal complaint in the case has not identified a motive, but in his opening statement, Dane County Assistant District Attorney William Brown suggested that Halderson killed his parents after his father found out that his son had been lying about attending Madison College. Chandler Halderson enters Dane County Circuit Court in Madison, Wisconsin, during the opening of his murder trial on Tuesday Halderson, 23, faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide and mutilating and hiding a corpse related to the death of his parents, Bart and Krista Halderson last July Bart and Krista Halderson (pictured) were killed and dismembered before their son reported them missing Halderson also was telling his parents that he was working at an insurance company and was on the verge of getting a job at SpaceX in Florida, all of which were lies, Brown told the jury, according to Channel3000. Halderson allegedly killed his father with a gunshot blast to the back on July 1, just hours before the two were scheduled to meet with Madison College officials to talk about the son's status at the school, after Bart found out that Chandler had not attended classes for more than a semester. The first hours of the murder trial on Tuesday were marked by several grisly revelations, including allegations that Halderson used a saw and scissors to cut up his parents' bodies, and then disposed of the remains by dumping some of them in the woods and burning others, reported Law & Crime. Nearly a week later, Halderson reported his parents missing, claiming they had failed to return from a weekend trip to their cabin. Prosecutors show a photo of the alleged murder weapon used to kill Bart Halderson on July 1 Prosecutors say those are some of the tools, including a saw blade and scissors, that were used to cut up the bodies. Both items tested positive for human flesh A prosecutor told the jury that white fragment circled in yellow is a piece of a human skull, which was found in the Halderson couple's fireplace Brown told jurors that ashes collected from the fireplace at the couple's home in Dane County were found to contain human remains, including facial and knee bones, as well as fragments of human skulls. 'He had burned his parents' heads in the fireplace,' Brown said. The prosecution's detailed hour-long opening statement, which included photos and slides, was followed by the defense's 10-minute presentation, the main thrust of which was that the prosecution would not be able to prove Halderson's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, which would be necessary to convict him. Halderson was arrested on July 8 and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in September 'Chandler Halderson did not murder his parents,' said attorney Catherine Dorl. She described the 23-year-old college dropout as a 'normal kid' who liked to play video games and spend time with his girlfriend, and who 'lived peacefully' at his parents' home until their deaths. Dorl said while prosecutors will present during the course of the trial a lot of information concerning what happened before and after the couple's deaths, they will not be able to prove that her client was the one who killed them. 'The evidence will show you that there is a gap of evidence when it comes to that time frame,' Dorl said. 'Your job is to listen to this evidence as jurors, listen to the evidence from the perspective of a juror, not from the perspective of a story corroborator.' Halderson reported his parents missing on July 7. He was arrested the next day, just hours after police found his father's dismembered body. The Dane County Medical Examiner listed the cause of Bart's death as 'homicidal violence including firearm injury' from being shot in the back with a shotgun. Dane County Assistant District Attorney William Brown argued that Halderson killed his parents to cover up his lies about his college and work Defense attorney Catherine Dorl said the prosecution would not be able to prove Halderson killed his parents Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland responds to a question from a prosecuting attorney during the trial of Chandler Halderson Six days later, investigators found a part of Krista's body along the Wisconsin River near Sauk City. Halderson was initially charged with lying to the authorities, after police found discrepancies in his story, including a claim that his parents had planned to attend a parade in White Lake when no parade had been scheduled. Detectives reviewed Chandler Halderson's Google queries from June 30 through July 8 and found that he had searched for multiple phrases, including 'Wisconsin dismembered body found,' 'Woman's body found in Wisconsin,' and 'Body found Wisconsin,' the complaint states. At that point, authorities hadn't yet found either of his parents' remains. Halderson's charges were later upgraded to counts of murder and mutilation of a corpse. He pleaded not guilty to all charges in September. Bart's dismembered remains were found on July 8, in rural Dane County. Krista's remains were found six days later along the Wisconsin River Halderson has been in the Dane County Jail since his arrest and is being held on $1 million bond. Eighteen jurors were selected to hear the case, but only 12 will be tasked with reaching a verdict after six alternates are chosen at random and dismissed once closing arguments are over. The trial is expected to last three to four weeks, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. President Joe Biden will address the Omicron crisis on Tuesday as nearly 1 in 100 Americans have tested positive for COVID in the last week. Testing for COVID was up during the holiday season as Americans sought reassurance they were safe to celebrate with loved ones but the spike also indicates the country is facing another wave of the virus, likely due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant. The United States recorded a million cases of COVID on Monday. That morning, the U.S. reported 55,114,057 confirmed cases. By midnight, the tally had risen to 56,190,946 - an increase of well over a million in under 24 hours. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with members of his COVID-19 response team - which includes coordinate Jeff Zients, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky - at the White House complex. The briefing will focus on the Omicron variant and the administration's response to it, according to a White House official. The president will discuss 'the importance of continuing to use the tools we know protect the American people vaccines, boosters, and masking' in his remarks, the official said. Biden also is expected to address his pledge to deliver 500 million at-home testing kits to Americans. His administration has yet to offer comprehensive details on how the delivery system will work. President Joe Biden will address the Omicron crisis on Tuesday as nearly 1 in 100 Americans have tested positive for COVID in the last week President Biden is expected to address his pledge to deliver 500 million at-home testing kits to Americans Additionally, his remarks come amid a report the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will update its guidance on the recommended isolation period imminently. The CDC has been under pressure from medical experts to include a testing component in its new, shortened five-day isolation period. CNN reported that updated guidance is coming amid deep frustration inside the Biden administration that no testing component was included when the agency shorted the isolation period for those who test positive for COVID from 10 days to five. Biden was asked about the issue on Monday and told reporters: 'I'll be talking to you about that later.' The United States recorded a million new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, shattering the global record it previously set, and making the U.S. by far the hardest-hit nation of the pandemic. There have now been 827,753 deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19. There were 826,065 deaths during the same time frame analysis performed by DailyMail.com, meaning fatalities increased by 1,688 over the same timespan that infections surged by one million. Monday's number is almost double the previous record of about 590,000 set just four days ago in the U.S., which itself was a doubling from the prior week. Outside the U.S., the highest number of cases recorded in a single day was in India, when more than 414,000 people were diagnosed on May 7, 2021. Biden's speech comes as the administration rushes to fill its promise to deliver 500 million at-home COVID testing kits to Americans. The contract for those kits is supposed to be signed late this week, Zients told reporters during a briefing last week when long lines of Americans formed to get tested around the holiday season. The administration has said there will be a website for Americans to sign up for the kids but it has yet to answer questions on how it will determine how many kits each household gets, how long it will take households to get the kits and how those kits will be delivered. Zients simply said the White House is 'actively working to finalize' the distribution mechanism. 'Companies are already submitting information, and we expect the contract to be completed late next week,' Zients said at the COVID press briefing last week. 'That means that the first deliveries for manufacturers will start January. We'll set up a free and easy system, including a new website to get these tests out to Americans. Were actively working to finalize that distribution mechanism, which includes a website where people will be able to order tests for free. And well share more details in the weeks ahead days and weeks ahead,' he added. COVID response coordinator Jeff Zients is seen with President Joe Biden at last week's virtual meeting with governors on the Omicron crisis Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky also make up Biden's COVID team President Biden and his staff have pushed back against criticism of the lack of testings kits available during the holiday rush. With demand high and shelves emptying out of stock, some retailers have placed limits on how many at-home testing kits can be purchased at a time. CVS has a limit of six test kits per purchase both in stores and online while Walgreens limits it to four kits. The administration bragged last Wednesday it has brought two more at-home tests on the market. 'The Biden-Harris Administration has brought two new over-the-counter, at-home COVID-19 tests to the U.S. market. The tests, one manufactured by SD Biosensor and distributed by Roche and the other manufactured by Siemens, have received emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),' the Department of Health and Human Services noted in a release. 'Combined, it is estimated the companies can produce tens of millions of tests per month for use in the U.S.,' the agency noted. Again, it remains unclear when these tests will be in the hands of Americans. The White House has emphasized officials are working on the problem over the holidays and pushed out the numbers behind their work. 'There are now 20,000 free testing sites across the U.S., four times as many at-home tests available to Americans than were available this summer, and free at-home tests are already being made available at key community sites, such as community health centers and rural clinics,' HHS said. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Jen Psaki downplayed questions about the unsigned contracts to deliver the promised testing kits, calling it a 'part of the process.' 'We have no concern about the contract being finalized. Were just working to finalize the contracts. We just announced this two days ago. But theres no we dont see any issue or any halt to getting that done and to finalizing that. Thats a natural part of the process,' she said at her press briefing on Thursday. She also argued that the president has boosted testing capacity and pointed out it wasn't until October that five versions of at-home tests were available. 'The president knew that we needed to increase testing capacity. Thats why he used the Defense Production Act to expand the supply of at-home tests. Without that, we wouldnt have the supply in the market,' she said. But when drilled on details - how long it would take to get a test after one was ordered, how would they be delivered - Psaki had no answers. 'Again, really good questions. And we, of course, want people to be able to rapidly receive the tests and people have certainty to know they can get a test, they can feel safe, go into their workplace, seeing their family members, sending their kids to school. Thats our objective. The details of how it will be distributed and the mechanisms will all be coming soon,' she said. Inquests have opened into the deaths of two new mothers who died from herpes and 'could have been infected by the same locum surgeon who performed their C-sections'. Kim Sampson, 29, and Samantha Mulcahy, 32, gave birth weeks apart at different hospitals within the East Kent NHS Trust in 2018. The two women had been operated on by the same surgeon, who may have been the source of the infection, a BBC investigation revealed in November. Inquests into their deaths were opened by Central and South East Kent Area Coroner Katrina Hepburn at Archbishop's Palace in Maidstone on Tuesday. The court heard that Ms Sampson, a barber from Whitstable, gave birth by emergency C-section due to obstructed labour at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate on May 3, 2018. She was discharged two days later, but was then readmitted on May 10 following a referral from her GP. Subsequent laparotomies found Ms Sampson had suffered acute kidney injury and failure before she died from a cardiac arrest at King's College Hospital in London on May 22, 2018. A post mortem returned a cause of death as 1A multi-organ failure, 1B disseminate herpes simplex infection and pelvic candidiasis, 1C recent third trimester C-section and 2 multiple laparotomies. Samantha Mulcahy underwent a Caesarean at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford on June 26, 2018. The nursery nurse died after suffering cardiac arrest when she sustained obstetric cholestasis, as well as an acute kidney injury and increased blood pressure Kim Sampson, a barber from Whitstable, gave birth by emergency C-section due to obstructed labour at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate on May 3, 2018. She died 19 days later after being readmitted to hospital with acute kidney injury Mrs Mulcahy, meanwhile, underwent a Caesarean at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford on June 26, 2018 - little over a month after Ms Sampson's death. The nursery nurse, from Hawkinge, was 34 weeks' pregnant when she went into labour. Mrs Mulcahy was found to have suffered obstetric cholestasis, as well as an acute kidney injury and increased blood pressure. She also developed respiratory issues after giving birth. An abdominal CT scan revealed an enlarged liver and blood clotting and, as a result, she underwent an ECMO life support procedure. While in theatre, though, she suffered a cardiac arrest and died. Ms Hepburn told the court her cause of death was established as 1A multi organ failure, 1B disseminate herpes simplex infection and 1C recent third trimester C-section delivery. The coroner said: 'The cases were investigated in 2018 and 2019 but discontinued. 'It has since come to light that there may have been an infection as a result of the Caesarean sections. 'At the time of the discontinuation, it wasnt known when the herpes infection developed and new evidence now shows it may have been at the time of the procedure. 'This requires further investigation and an inquest being opened.' The linked hearings were adjourned to February 21 at the same court for a pre-inquest review. The BBC investigation discovered documents showing the virus which infected both women was genetically identical. Archbishop's in Maidstone, Kent, where the inquests into the death of the two new mothers were opened on Tuesday Peter Greenhouse, a sexual health consultant for more than 30 years, said the virus was likely to have entered the womens abdomens during the C-sections. Speaking at the time of the investigation, the families welcomed the inquests. Yvette Sampson, Kim's mother, said: 'Weve wanted this since Kim died in 2018 - its been a long time coming. 'We hope we are finally going to get answers to the questions weve always had - both for ourselves and for Kims children.' Ryan Mulcahy, Samantha's husband, added that 'not knowing what happened has worsened the pain and the suffering'. Her mother, Nicky said she hoped the inquests would help bring closure to the families and greater understanding of how the deaths took place. She added: ' How did Sam and Kim get the virus, and from where? You feel like you are stuck and you cant move forward because you havent got the answers you should have had.' Dr Rebecca Martin, chief medical officer for East Kent Hospitals, said in November: 'Our deepest sympathies are with the families and friends of Kimberley and Samantha. 'We will do everything possible to support these inquests and our thoughts are with Kimberley and Samanthas families at this time.' A woman in her twenties and a one-year-old child have been found dead at a house in Cumbria, police have said. Officers were called to an address in Wellington Row, Whitehaven at 2.52pm on December 30 after concerns were raised for the welfare of a woman. Upon arrival, they found the bodies of the baby and young woman. A spokesman for Cumbria Constabulary said police were not treating the deaths as suspicious. Police outside the property. Officers were called to an address in Wellington Row, Whitehaven at 2.52pm on December 30 to concerns for the welfare of a woman The force said in a statement: 'Police attended an address in Wellington Row, Whitehaven, after being made aware at 2.52pm on December 30 of a concern for the welfare of a woman. 'Sadly, two people were found deceased in the address - a woman in her twenties and a one-year-old child. 'There are no suspicious circumstances at this time. The coroner has been contacted.' Mountainous county in E China's Jiangxi thrives thanks to smart logistics People's Daily Online) 09:47, January 04, 2022 Anyuan county of Ganzhou city, east China's Jiangxi Province, once deficient in transport infrastructure, now has a better transport network and a smart logistics system, embracing a robust economy. Located in a mountainous area, Anyuan county used to be the only county in the province that had no access to railway and expressway services. Since China's Ministry of Transport (MOT) started to offer paired assistance in 2013, the county has built an expressway network that stretches north to Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi, southwards to Guangdong Province, eastwards to Fujian Province and westwards to Hunan Province. Eighteen towns in the county are connected by expressways, and the roads of 152 villages have been upgraded. Photo shows goods transported by the cableway. (Photo/youth.cn) It took at least three days for me to deliver a box of oranges, a local specialty, to neighboring provinces in the past. Now, the delivery time has been reduced to less than 24 hours, said Cai Yongqin from Youcai village, Anyuan county. Cai, who runs a successful online business for agricultural products, including honey, sweet potatoes and oranges, added that the cost of delivery has dropped dramatically. In addition, the county fostered a modern logistics system supported by 5G, the Internet, and AI in rural areas. One of the key projects includes a smart transportation program that features a cableway and intelligent cable cars, allowing for the 24-hour transportation of goods among different stations distributed in a rural logistics network at the county, township and village levels. When villagers want to send some items, they just need to put them into the intelligent cable cars, which will then travel along the cables to deliver the items to a final destination. Small as it is, it has a capacity for loading nearly 100 kilograms of goods, making delivery much more convenient, remarked Guo Aijin, a local villager in Hezi town as he put some homemade honey into a cable car and closed its door. At once, the cable car began to ascend slowly and traveled onwards to the next station. The smart transportation program has a town-level branch warehouse, four village-level stations, and a 10-kilometer low-altitude cableway within the county, benefiting 17,000 people living in the town. Thanks to the new logistics network, the cost for transporting 100-kilogram goods to destinations 100 kilometers away was reduced to as much as 5 yuan (about $0.78), more than half the amount compared to conventional ways of transporting goods, according to Guo Jianming, a worker at a station in Hezi town. Moreover, the county established a digital platform, which enables villagers to share information on the production, supply and sale of their agricultural products, as well as providing a means to sell and purchase farm produce, said Guo. Statistics show that an average of over 300 orders are placed on the platform every day. In less than five months since the inception of the platform, the transaction volume exceeded 1 million yuan. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) Elk Grove, CA (95624) Today Sun and clouds mixed. High 74F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low 52F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. A Covid vaccine booster designed to take on multiple variants has shown promising results, early data suggests. Results of a phase one trial showed the jab, made by California-based biotechnology firm Gritstone, triggered high levels of neutralising antibodies. The proteins help the body to fight off the virus, stopping it from infecting cells and taking hold. The immune response was similar to already-approved mRNA vaccines, created by Pfizer and Moderna. But the team did, however, find antibody levels were up to 10 times lower among its volunteers. Data also showed the vaccine, scientifically called GRT-R910, was also generally safe and well-tolerated. The jab was initially trialled on 10 individuals but the researchers want to expand the study to include 120 over-60s, who are in good health and have previously received two doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab. A universal Covid vaccine is a highly-coveted 'Holy Grail' among the pharmaceutical industry, with several candidates already in development. Andrew Clarke, 63-years-old, from Bolton was the first person to receive the GRT-R910 vaccine back in September 2021 Currently available vaccines target the spike protein of the the Covid virus which makes them potentially vulnerable if that part of the virus were to change significantly as was the case with Omicron (stock graphical image of Omicron Covid variant) What is GRT-R910? GRT-R910 is a multivariant Covid booster vaccine which its creators hope will provide broad protection against both current and potential future variants of the virus. How does it differ from the currently available jabs? All the jabs currently approved for use in the UK are based on a single part of the original Wuhan virus, the spike protein. When the jabs were originally being designed, this was the area that scientists thought would produce the best results. However as Omicron has shown, if any mutations to this area of the virus occur there is a risk that jabs could offer less protection from Covid. GRT-R910 aims to provide broader protection from Covid by not just focusing on the spike protein but instead multiple parts of the Covid virus. This would therefore make it potentially less viable to its effectiveness being impacted by mutations to any one part. Who makes GRT-R910? The jab is being made by US-based biotechnology company Gritstone in collaboration with the University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. What stage is it at? It is still in the very early stage of clinical trials which started in September 2021. Results published are based off the first 10 people who got the jab but this has now been expanded to a 120 people, based of these early results. What have the trials shown? The data, released by the company and not yet peer reviewed, said the jab generated strong neutralising antibodies, the part of the immune system responsible for preventing infection. It also offered a boost in levels of T cells, the part of the immune system responsible for identifying and killing infected cells if the virus does manage to infect a person. Is it safe? No adverse events occurred in the trial but only a very small number of people have been analysed. Will it be approved in the UK? Impossible to say at this point, more clinical data would be needed on the jab's effectiveness and safety. Advertisement Gritstone's jab is a self-amplifying mRNA Covid vaccine or samRNA for short which targets both spike and non-spike proteins of the virus. The experimental vaccine also produced broad T-cell responses, which virologists say offers longer-lasting protection than antibodies, which can wane over time. While antibodies bind to the body's foreign invaders and tell the immune system it needs to take action, T-cells are a type of white blood cell which hunts down and destroy infected cells in the body. Currently available Covid vaccines are designed to specifically target the spike protein of the virus, meaning variants which have mutations to this area may be able to escape the protection offered by the jabs. This was the fear surrounding the heavily-mutated nature Omicron variant's spike protein compared to the original Wuhan strain. Although, it has since emerged that the current crop of vaccines still offer good protection against severe illness. In the trial researchers tested a single 10 microgram dose of the samRNA vaccine dose administered at least 22 weeks after two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Data suggests it induced new T cell responses and demonstrated the potential for variant-proof immunity. According to the researchers, it also induced a boost to pre-existing T cell responses. Professor Andrew Ustianowski, from the University of Manchester and chief investigator for the study, said: 'It is increasingly apparent that a focus on T cell immunity is an important way to generate the robust and durable immunity that may prevent future Sars-CoV-2 variants from causing severe disease, hospitalisation, and death.' He added: 'We know the immune response to first generation vaccines can wane, particularly in older people. 'Coupled with the prevalence of emerging variants, there is a clear need for continued vigilance to keep Covid at bay. 'We believe this vaccine, as a booster, will elicit strong, durable, and broad immune responses, which may well be likely to be critical in maintaining protection of this vulnerable elderly population who are particularly at risk of hospitalisation and death.' Andrew Allen, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Gritstone, said a vaccine that focused on broad epitopes, fragments of Covid viral proteins, not just those related to the virus's spike protein would hopefully offer broader protection. 'This innovation enables inclusion of a wide array of highly conserved viral epitopes, potentially creating an immune state that may offer more robust clinical protection against current and future Sars-CoV-2 variants and be a first step toward developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine,' he said. Professor of Immunology Charles Bangham, from Imperial College London, said the early data was promising, especially considering the lower dosage could mean more people could be protected with smaller amounts. 'The new vaccine is based on self-amplifying RNA. This amplifies itself to make large amounts of mRNA, reproducing the mRNA found in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines,' he said. 'Because it amplifies itself, only a small dose is necessary this should make it possible to vaccinate many more people with the same amount of the vaccine.' Dr Peter English a retired consultant in communicable disease control also called the results encouraging, but added there was a long way to go. 'This is, of course, a very small, preliminary trial. It used only samples from people who had been vaccinated to look at the antibody and cellular immune responses to the vaccine: it does not use real-world data on the likelihood that they would be infected and infectious, or ill, following exposure to the virus. 'The results have not been peer-reviewed. 'There are many hurdles before such a vaccine could be introduced for widespread use. However, this is very encouraging.' A gambler has won 2.2million on a slot machine in a French casino. The frenchman in his thirties, who has not been identified, made a dream start to 2022 bagging the sum after playing a two-euro coin. The man from Aisne, described as an 'occasional player' by the operator of the Saint-Amand-les-Eaux casino in northern France, hit the jackpot while playing on Sunday night. A so-called Megapot of prize money is available on 175 slot machines linked up in 38 French casinos run by the Partouche group, with 31 people winning more than a million euros each in the last 10 years. A Frenchman, who has not been identified, won 2.2million on a slot machine in a Saint-Amand-les-Eaux casino in northern France on Sunday night after playing with a two-euro coin (pictured, the casino announces the win) The last big win was more than 1.75million at the Lyon Le Vert Casino in September 2020. The 2.2million jackpot was a record for the Saint-Amand-les-Eaux casino across all of the house's games since it was established in 1973. The casino announced the news on Facebook. 'It's madness! The #Megapot fell this evening at Pasino de Saint-Amand on machine 297! 'Yes, 2022 promises to be truly incredible at Pasino!' The 2.2million jackpot was a record for the Saint-Amand-les-Eaux casino across all of the house's games since it was established in 1973 A day earlier a woman won 167,000 after she played 67p in a slot machine at the Barriere casino in Saint-Malo. Gambling is tightly regulated in France because of the dangers of addiction and financial losses. Advertisers are also required to warn consumers about the risks and banned from targeting children. An Argentinian judge has been caught on prison CCTV kissing a convicted cop-killer who she tried to save from a life sentence. Mariel Suarez, a judge in southern Chubut province, was filmed kissing Cristian 'Mai' Bustos in jail near the city of Trelew on the afternoon of December 29. Just a week earlier, Suarez had sat on a panel of judges deciding whether Bustos should be given life in jail for killing officer Leandro 'Tito' Roberts back in 2009. Mariel Suarez, a female judge from Argentina, is under investigation after she was filmed kissing cop killer Cristian 'Mai' Bustos while visiting him in prison (pictured) Suarez was the only judge on the panel to vote against the life sentence, despite being told that Bustos was a 'highly dangerous prisoner'. Her dissent was not enough to save Bustos, who was sentenced to a whole-life term which he began last week. Now Suarez is also under investigation by the Superior Court of Chubut for 'inadequate behaviour', and is facing possible sanctions. Bustos was jailed over the 2009 killing in nearby Corcovado of police officer Leandro Roberts, who was fatally shot while going to arrest Bustos for an earlier prison break. A brother of the convicted man also died in the gunfight, and a second police officer was wounded. Just a week before the footage was taken, Suarez (left) had voted against jailing Bustos (right) for life while sitting on a panel deciding his sentence Bustos was convicted of homicide and given a life sentence after admitting his guilt during a trial. The Superior Court of Chubut said in a statement: 'The judge allegedly incurred in inadequate behaviour. 'The investigation will seek to determine the circumstances of the meeting between that judge and an inmate who is regarded as highly dangerous and was recently convicted following a trial in the city of Esquel. 'It will also look at how long the meeting lasted and its characteristics, with a view to confirming whether there have been violations of the Law of Public Ethics and internal judicial authority regulations.' There has so far been no comment from the judge at the centre of the scandal. Advertisement The US has smashed records for new daily cases of COVID-19, recording more than one million infections in a single day, but deaths and hospitalizations remain relatively low in a sign that the Omicron variant could bring the pandemic crisis to an end. Across the country, there were 1,082,549 new cases recorded Monday, a number likely inflated by reporting delays over the holiday weekend. On a rolling-average basis, daily cases are at 494,732 over the past seven days, up more than 110 percent from a week ago, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. However, deaths and hospitalizations remain relatively low, leading some experts to predict that Omicron will effectively end the pandemic by creating widespread immunity with limited loss of life. 'We're now in a totally different phase,' Monica Gandhi, an immunologist at the University of California, San Francisco, told Bloomberg. 'The virus is always going to be with us, but my hope is this variant causes so much immunity that it will quell the pandemic.' Another 1,688 deaths were recorded across the country on Monday, and the seven-day rolling average of deaths stood at 1,340, marking a 12 percent decline from week-ago levels. Hospitalizations have risen by about a third in the past week, at around 100,000, but remain nearly 30 percent below the peak levels recorded last January, when case numbers were much lower than they stand today. In the UK, which is a few weeks ahead of the US in the Omicron surge, even 'Professor Lockdown' Neil Ferguson, a scientist who works on the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, admitted that he is 'cautiously optimistic' that cases in London will plateau within the week. Daily COVID cases in the UK hit a record 218,000 on Tuesday - the first time that figure has surpassed 200,000 - but Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he sees no need for further restrictions to curb the spread of Omicron as hospitalizations remain manageable. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was reportedly preparing an imminent revision to its updated quarantine rules, requiring a negative test to end isolation after five days. The agency on Tuesday also said that it now estimates that the highly contagious Omicron variant accounts for 95.4 percent of the strains circulating in the US as of January 1. The new estimate comes six days after the CDC significantly revised the estimate of the variant's prevalence in the US, saying that in mid-December, it accounted for 23 percent of all new cases. It initially said the prevalance was responsible for 77 percent of cases. A chart released by the CDC also showed that the Omicron variant accounted for 59 percent of all new cases for the week ending on December 25, meaning the Delta variant had accounted for far more infections than the agency initially thought. In his address to the nation on Tuesday afternoon, President Joe Biden said that cases will continue to rise, but there are enough booster shots for the 'whole nation'. 'Omicron is very transmissible, transmissible variant, but much different than anything we've seen before. But you can protect yourself. And you should protect yourself, quite frankly. Get vaccinated. Get boosted. There's plenty of booster shots. Wear a mask while you're in public,' Biden said. He added that this continues to be the pandemic of the unvaccinated, and that there was no excuse for people not to be vaccinated by this point. The CDC on Tuesday said that it now estimates that the highly contagious Omicron variant accounts for 95.4 percent of covid strains in the US as of January 1 It came on a day of fast-moving pandemic developments, among which: Disruption spread with 1,100 flights cancelled Tuesday and Walmart temporarily closing 60 stores U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said the CDC will soon revise its testing requirement for quarantine Dr Fauci said the experience of South Africa, where cases peaked rapidly, offered hope for the US Schools in Atlanta, Newark, Cleveland and Milwaukee have all returned to remote learning Test positivity rate hit 33.49% in New York city, but Mayor Eric Adams vows to keep schools open CDC estimates Omicron variant now makes up 95.4% of all Covid strains circulating in the US as of January 1 The Omicron variant caused an estimated 95 percent of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. during the week ending January 1, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In about a month, Omicron has gone from causing under one percent of cases to over 90 percent of cases - outcompeting the previously-dominant Delta variant. The CDC's variant data come from a modeling system that estimates current variant prevalence from weeks-old sequencing data. Last week, the CDC revised down its estimate for the share of cases caused by Omicron in mid-December, from 73 percent to 22 percent. The revision, followed by this week's higher number, shows how the U.S.'s patchy genetic surveillance system is falling behind in tracking this highly contagious variant. The Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa, Botswana, and Hong Kong in late November. This variant caught scientists' attention for its high number of mutations and ability to spread more rapidly than any other strain of the coronavirus. In the weeks since it was identified, Omicron has driven record case numbers in the U.S. and around the world. Omicron has a 'substantial growth advantage over Delta,' according to the World Health Organization. The variant was first identified in the U.S. shortly after Thanksgiving, though CDC data now show that it was already spreading during the holiday. Advertisement Following a huge surge in cases in the Northeast and New England, the Southeast appeared poised to lead the next wave of infections. Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi are among the states experiencing the sharpest increases in COVID hospitalizations since Christmas, as Omicron spreads in areas with lower vaccination rates, increasing the risk of severe illness. Current hospitalization and death figures are lower than past surges in many parts of the country, but states with lower vaccination rates are particularly likely to see more Covid patients in the coming weeks. In Florida, cases increased by 991 percent in the last two weeks of December. The state's vaccination rate is closer to the national average, but many seniors who live there are highly vulnerable to Covid. On Tuesday, the state reported 51,644 cases, but no new deaths. In the past week, there have been 22 covid-related deaths. This is still far lower than the state's record daily death count, which hit 1,554 on September 16, 2021 when the Delta variant caused a surge in cases across the US. Researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington expect the virus to peak at 2.8 million new cases a day nationwide by January 28. Despite the apparently milder nature of Omicron, the wildly transmissible strain was still causing massive disruptions to the normal functioning of the country. Across the country, another 1,194 commercial airline flights were cancelled on Tuesday morning, according to data from FlightAware. It follows more than a week of widespread flight disruptions due to dire staffing shortages, as flight crews are forced to isolate after testing positive for the virus. As well, a South Florida hospital has temporarily closed its maternity ward due to staff shortages related to recent outbreaks of COVID-19. Mothers-to-be who had planned on giving birth at Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale will have to find another option. Holy Cross spokeswoman Christine Walker says in a statement: 'In the best interest of patient safety, the Labor and Delivery unit is on diversion until further notice.' She says the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Post-Partum units at the hospital remain open. Nearby hospitals including Memorial Healthcare System and Broward Health are taking on patients from Holy Cross in the meantime. Walmart also temporarily shut almost 60 U.S. stores in COVID-19 hotspots in December to sanitize them against the virus, in another sign the Omicron variant is disrupting the retail industry. The Walmart stores - in locations including Texas and New Jersey - were closed for cleaning 'to present a safe and clean in-store environment for our associates and customers,' a company spokesperson told Reuters in a statement. Walmart has more than 4,700 U.S. locations in total. It adopted a policy two years ago at the start of the coronavirus pandemic of closing stores for fewer than two days to 'get ahead' of potential outbreaks. Walmart temporarily shut almost 60 U.S. stores in COVID-19 hotspots in December to sanitize them against the virus, in another sign the Omicron variant is disrupting the retail industry (file photo) Researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington expect the virus to peak at 2.8 million new cases a day nationwide by January 28 Crucial T cells DO still hold up against Omicron, study shows Omicron can be thwarted by another crucial part of the immune system even if it evades antibodies, research on Tuesday suggested. Dozens of studies have shown the extremely-infectious variant is better at evading antibodies, which sparked fears that the protection offered by vaccines and prior infection would evaporate. However, virologists have repeatedly insisted that T cells a key secondary part of the body's natural defense can prevent people becoming from severely ill with Omicron, even they still get infected. Now lab tests have verified the claims, bolstering claims that Omicron tends to only result in a very mild illness. Professor Matthew McKay, a researcher at the University of Melbourne who carried out the research, described it as 'positive news'. He said: 'Even if Omicron or some other variant for that matter can potentially escape antibodies, a robust T-cell response can still be expected to offer protection and help to prevent significant illness. Advertisement Students across the nation were supposed to be returning to school on Monday after the Christmas break, but many classrooms were closed. School districts in Newark, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Cleveland resorted to remote learning, despite trying their hardest to maintain in-person lessons. But in an unusual alignment, the new mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vowed to keep schools in their districts open. 'It's chaos,' said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, which has polled families throughout the pandemic. 'The No. 1 thing that parents and families are crying out for is stability.' In New York City, the seven day average for positive tests was 33.49 percent, the highest level since the early days of the pandemic, when tests were scarce and mostly used in hospital settings. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said on Tuesday that the CDC will issue a clarification on the role of COVID-19 testing related to its controversial shortened five-day quarantine period for those testing positive for the virus but displaying no symptoms. Murthy told CNN he expected the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue the clarification in the next couple of days but did not elaborate. As the super-spreading Omicron variant raged across the country, the CDC last week shortened the recommended isolation time for Americans with asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 to five days from the previous guidance of 10 days. The quarantine period should be followed by strict mask use for an additional five days, the CDC said, but it did not recommend testing at that point in its guidelines. 'They have certainly received feedback and questions about the role of testing in shortening that quarantine period and they're actually working right now on issuing a clarification on that,' Murthy told CNN. 'They're going to speak to the role that testing can play in a situation like reducing isolation,' Murthy said. US @Surgeon_General Dr. Vivek Murthy says the CDC will issue a clarification "any day now" on the shortened isolation period recommendation. "They have certainly received feedback and questions about the role of testing in shortening that quarantine period," he adds. pic.twitter.com/4iweU8n19a New Day (@NewDay) January 4, 2022 U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said on Tuesday that the CDC will issue a clarification on the role of COVID-19 testing related to its controversial shortened five-day quarantine period for those testing positive for the virus but displaying no symptom U.S. government infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that health officials were considering asking people to get tested after a five-day quarantine period. Meanwhile, evidence continued to mount that the Omicron strain, while wildly transmissible, is less likely to cause severe symptoms and death. A World Health Organization official said on Tuesday that Omicron is affecting the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms than previous variants and resulting in a 'decoupling' in some places between soaring case numbers and low death rates. 'We are seeing more and more studies pointing out that Omicron is infecting the upper part of the body. Unlike other ones, the lungs who would be causing severe pneumonia,' WHO Incident Manager Abdi Mahamud told Geneva-based journalists. 'It can be a good news, but we really require more studies to prove that.' Since the heavily mutated variant was first detected in November, WHO data shows it has spread quickly and emerged in at least 128 countries, presenting dilemmas for many nations and people seeking to reboot their economies and lives after nearly two years of COVID-related disruptions. However, while case numbers have surged to all-time records, the hospitalization and death rates are often lower than at other phases in the pandemic. 'What we are seeing now is....the decoupling between the cases and the deaths,' he said. His remarks on the reduced risks of severe disease chime with other data, including a study from South Africa, which was one of the first countries where Omicron was detected. However, Mahamud also sounded a note of caution, calling South Africa an 'outlier' since it has a young population, among other factors. And he warned that Omicron's high transmissibility meant it would become dominant within weeks in many places, posing a threat to medical systems in countries where a high proportion of the population remains unvaccinated. While Omicron seemed to be slipping past antibodies, evidence was emerging that COVID-19 vaccines still provided some protection, by eliciting a second pillar of the immune response from T-cells, Mahamud said. 'Our prediction is protection against severe hospitalization and death (from Omicron) will be maintained,' he said, saying this also applied to vaccines developed by Sinopharm and Sinovac that are used in China, where Omicron cases remain very low. 'The challenge has not been the vaccine but the vaccination and reaching those vulnerable populations.' Asked about whether an Omicron-specific vaccine was needed, Mahamud said it was too early to say but voiced doubts and stressed that the decision required global coordination and should not be left to manufacturers to decide alone. 'You may go ahead with Omicron and put all your eggs in that basket and a new variant that is more transmissible or more immune-evasive may appear,' he said, adding that a WHO technical group had held recent meetings on vaccine composition. The best way to reduce the impact of the variant would be to meet the WHO's goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the population in each country by July, rather than offer third and fourth doses in some countries, he said. As case numbers due to Omicron have soared, some countries, including the United States, have cut down isolation or quarantine periods in a bid to allow asymptomatic people to return to work or school. Mahamud said that leaders should decide based on the strength of the local epidemic, saying Western countries with very high case numbers might consider trimming isolation periods to keep basic services functioning. However, places that have largely shut it out would do better to maintain the full 14-day quarantine period. 'If your numbers are very small, you better be invested in keeping that number very, very low.' Southeast US states with low vaccination rates are set to see 'explosion' of Omicron cases: Florida records 991% rise in cases as infections also surge in Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi - but deaths still remain low As the U.S. reports record COVID-19 cases nationwide, public health experts are concerned that Southeastern states could see some of the worst impacts of the surge due to their low vaccination rates. Current hospitalization and death figures are lower than past surges in many parts of the country, but states with lower vaccination rates are particularly likely to see more Covid patients in the coming weeks. This includes Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi - three states where about half or fewer residents are fully vaccinated, and cases are rising rapidly. In Florida, cases increased by 991 percent in the last two weeks of December. The state's vaccination rate is closer to the national average, but many seniors who live there are highly vulnerable to Covid. On Tuesday, the state reported 51,644 cases, but no new deaths. In the past week, there have been 22 covid-related deaths. This is still far lower than the state's record daily death count, which hit 1,554 on September 16, 2021 when the Delta variant caused a surge in cases across the US. Similarly to last summer's Delta surge, local leaders in the South have failed to institute new public health policies that would help control the virus' spread. As Florida sees more rapid case increase than any other state in the nation, Governor Ron DeSantis has failed to institute new Covid safety measures. Pictured: DeSantis speaks at a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida, January 2022 As the Omicron variant drives the biggest Covid surge yet in the U.S., some experts are particularly concerned about Southeastern states with lower vaccination rates. The U.S. broke Covid records on Monday, reporting over one million new cases in a single day. The total case number - 1,082,549 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data - was likely inflated by reporting delays over the holiday weekend. On a rolling-average basis, daily cases are at 494,732 over the past seven days, up more than 110 percent from a week ago, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of JHU data. The Omicron variant is now causing more than 90 percent of new cases across the country, according to newly released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates. Covid hospitalizations have also risen rapidly in recent weeks. As of January 4, the country had almost 113,000 hospital beds in use for Covid patients, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This is higher than the number of Covid patients during the Delta surge this summer, which peaked at just over 100,000, according to CNN. During the winter 2021 surge, national hospitalizations peaked at 140,000 - and the current wave is likely to surge past this number. Some experts have pointed out that, out of the 113,000 Covid patients hospitalized in U.S. hospitals, there is a distinction between hospitalized 'with' and 'for' the disease. Hospitals typically test all patients for Covid when they enter the facility, even when they have unrelated conditions. As a result, some patients may come to the hospital after an injury, then test positive for Covid - yet have a mild or asymptomatic case. Since Omicron is both more transmissible and more likely to cause mild symptoms than past variants, these mild cases hospitalized 'with' Covid may be more likely in this surge compared to past waves. Still, all Covid patients put strain on the healthcare system, as Brown University expert Dr Ashish Jha explained in a recent Twitter thread. 'Every time you enter a room for patient WITH COVID, its gowning, gloves, face shield, making sure N95 is snug,' Jha wrote. 'Slows everyone down from seeing other patients.' All Covid patients put strain on the healthcare system, even when their cases are mild, experts say. Pictured: Waiting in line for Covid testing in New Orleans, Louisiana, January 2022 So far in the Omicron surge, national death numbers have remained relatively low. The seven-day average for new deaths is 1,340 as of Monday, according to JHU data - a 12 percent decline from the previous week. However, increases in Covid deaths typically lag case increases by several weeks, and death data do not recover from holiday reporting disruptions as quickly as case data. When it comes to hospitals filling with Covid patients, states with low vaccination rates are more likely to become overwhelmed, the Washington Post reports. The Southeast in particular could be 'a major driver of the nation's cases,' according to David Rubin, Covid data expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. 'The [South's] bigger test is probably going to be in the summertime, when they usually have their big surges,' Rubin told the Post. Still, when the majority of residents are not vaccinated, any surge has the capacity to send a lot of people to the hospital. In Mississippi, where under half of residents are fully vaccinated, cases have increased sevenfold in the last two weeks - to 4,381 daily new cases on January 3 Louisiana reported 12,500 new Covid cases in a single day last week, almost twice the state's previous daily record, set during the summer Delta surge In Mississippi, just 48 percent of residents are fully vaccinated as of January 3, according to CDC data. The state's case rate has increased sevenfold in the last two weeks, from 565 daily new cases on December 20 to 4,381 on January 3, according to JHU data. Just over half of Louisiana residents are fully vaccinated. In this state, cases have increased fivefold, from 1,544 daily new cases on December 20 to 7,790 on January 3. Louisiana reported 12,500 cases in a single day last week - almost twice the state's previous record, set in August, according to the Post. In Georgia - where about 51 percent of the population is fully vaccinated - cases shot up from 1,847 a day on December 16 to 15,183 on December 30. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said last week that he 'will absolutely not be implementing any measures that shutter businesses or divide the vaccinated from the unvaccinated, or the masked from the unmasked.' In Georgia, cases shot up more than eightfold in the last two weeks of December. Case reports in January have been impacted by holiday delays Florida cases increased almost tenfold in the last two weeks of December. The state is reporting more than 40,000 new cases a day, as of early January This policy could lead to more hospitalizations and deaths, Harry Heiman, public health expert at Georgia State University, told the Post. 'We will see more people hospitalized and more people dying, especially as it moves into the more rural parts of our state, where there's a higher number of people who are unvaccinated and less health-care infrastructure to take care of people when they are sick,' he said. Florida has seen a particularly sharp rise in cases in recent weeks. In the last two weeks of December, cases increased by 991 percent, according to analysis by local epidemiologist Jason Salemi. 'The absolute increase is astonishing - we are now averaging nearly 27,000 more cases EACH DAY compared to 2 weeks ago,' Salemi wrote on Twitter on December 29. 'If you have enough cases, you'll end up with more hospitalizations,' he said. Florida's vaccination rate - 63 percent of residents fully vaccinated - is higher than other Southern states, but the state's large population of seniors makes it more vulnerable to surges. The state's surgeon general recently said that Florida will focus on testing 'high-value' patients rather than making tests broadly available for all residents. Symone Sanders hit back at people who briefed against her during her turbulent time as Vice President Kamala Harris's spokeswoman, calling out the stories of dysfunction as 'salacious gossip' in an interview published Monday. Sanders, 32, left the administration during the holidays. When she announced her departure last year it was taken as further evidence that Harris's office was in disarray, amid headlines of a toxic work environment and an exodus of key personnel. Some stories pointed the finger at Sanders herself. Two unidentified sources told The Hill that the spokeswoman was seen as a rival to Harris's communications director, and that she was the 'voice in numerous blind quotes about friction in the office.' Sanders blasted those reports using an expletive during an interview with her hometown newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald. She declined to talk about that story in particular, saying she was not going to comment on 'salacious gossip.' But responding to questions about reports of dysfunction in general, she said her thoughts on 'people who like to complain to the papers' were well documented. Instead she said it was the 'honor of her life' to serve the vice president. Symone Sanders defended the vice president after leaving Kamala Harris's office during the holidays, and slammed what she called 'salacious gossip' that blamed her for damaging leaks Sanders, 32, was the vice president's spokeswoman during a turbulent first 11 months in office Harris has struggled with negative approval ratings and an exodus of key staff from her office 'She is someone who I watch every single day bring her full self to work,' Sanders said. 'I watch her challenge her teams, I watch her push us all to be better. 'I watch her raise issues and perspectives and topics and policy that other people other folks just weren't thinking about.' Her endorsement of Harris comes after weeks of damaging headlines and plunging poll numbers. Last month, Harris was branded a 'bully' who inflicted 'constant soul destroying criticism' on her staff by insiders quoted in the Washington Post. Former staffers said the vice president was exhibiting the same management style that had dogged much of her political career. 'It's clear that you're not working with somebody who is willing to do the prep and the work,' a former colleague said. 'With Kamala you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. 'So you're constantly sort of propping up a bully and it's not really clear why.' As well as Sanders, communications chief Ashley Etienne and two other staffers who helped shape the vice presidents public image departed the office at the end of the year. Harris has not been helped by constant criticism of her role trying to tackle the root causes of migration to the U.S. from Central America, which so far appear not to have stemmed the numbers arriving at the southern border. A rolling average of the vice president's approval rating, maintained by the analytics website FiveThirtyEight, shows her numbers are underwater. Some 40 percent of voters approve of her performance, while 47.5 percent disapprove. Last month she reportedly met with Black leaders to learn how she could do better in connecting with ordinary Americans. They told her to be more open about her work and offered to serve as ambassadors for her. 'She was asking for clarity on how to best touch the everyday American rank and file who may or may not be living Beltway life like we do,' Shavon Arline-Bradley, president of D4 in Action, told Politico. 'She said "I want the message to resonate with the Beltway and beyond, outside of Washington, D.C. How do I get that message out?"' Sanders was Bernie Sanders press secretary during his 2016 presidential campaign and a senior adviser to President Joe Bidens 2020 run before joining the vice president's team Sanders said the Biden and Harris would be doing more to trumpet their successes. 'This administration has a positive story to tell, and I think those are the kinds of things you will hear from the president and vice president as they head into quarter two of their administration at the top of next year,' she said. Sanders pointed to the first maternal health summit at the White House, which was hosted by Harris, and the vice president's trips abroad and calls with foreign leaders. 'World leaders know that when Vice President Kamala Harris speaks, she speaks for the president,' Sanders said. 'This has just been such a powerful and transformative experience.' Before joining the Harris team, Sanders was Bernie Sanders press secretary during his 2016 presidential campaign and a senior adviser to President Joe Bidens 2020 run. She added that she did not yet have a new job to announce and wanted time to focus on her wedding in August. 'At this moment in time, I feel so honored to have served President Biden and Vice President Harris, and Im going to continue to be a reliable voice for this White House on the outside, regardless of whatever I do next,' she said. 'But, at this time, you know, I just think its my time.' American voters are alarmingly likely to view people with opposing views as having hostile intentions rather than merely disagreeing with them, a recent poll suggests. CBS/YouGov released a survey over the weekend looking at how the Capitol riot shaped political discourse in the country nearly a year after the events of January 6 occurred. Among the findings is that more than four in 10 Democrats see Republicans as 'enemies' and 'if they win, your life or your entire way of life may be threatened.' But more than half of those who identify as 'liberal' Democrats feel the same. Forty-three percent of left-wing voters surveyed are inclined to think GOP supporters are the enemy. The number is slightly higher for Republicans. Nearly half of respondents -- 48 percent -- believe Democrats threaten their way of life. However, a positive aspect is that the majority of both groups said they view each other as merely political opponents, and that 'if they win, you just wont get the policies you want.' Democrats were slightly more likely than Republicans to take that view, with 57 percent stating that GOP opponents were not enemies compared to 52 percent of Republicans sharing similar sentiments about the opposite party. The poll also found that political animosity grew the more respondents skewed to the left or right. More than one in four Democrats believe Republicans will destroy their way of life, CBS found The number of Republicans who feel the same about Democrats is slightly higher Among Democrats who identify as 'liberals,' 51 percent are inclined to think Republicans are the enemy. The split was dead even among Republican 'conservatives,' 50 percent of whom believe Democrats are enemies while the remaining 50 just see them as opponents. Political polarization is at an all-time high in the US, even among federal lawmakers. GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was criticized last week for calling for a 'national divorce' between political parties on her now-deleted Twitter account. But according to CBS' polling that sentiment isn't shared by most Americans -- 56 percent of whom 'strongly oppose' the idea of dividing the country by red and blue. Overall, however, a majority of voters think democracy is under threat. Sixty-six percent of respondents said US democracy is somewhat or very threatened. People who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 are most inclined to say democracy is 'somewhat threatened,' with a 37-percent majority saying so. A majority of those who cast their ballots for Donald Trump, 48 percent, think democracy is under severe threat. The CBS survey and other new polls released over New Years' weekend show the extent to which Americans' confidence in their own democratic institutions and government has deteriorated since Donald Trump's supporters stormed the United States Capitol. Roughly one-third of American voters believe that violence against the government could be justified, according to the Washington Post- University of Maryland's survey. Greene called for a national divorce along party lines in an inflammatory late December tweet The lawmaker was responding to the editor of a conservative magazine's post calling for transplants from those states to not immediately get the right to vote there And according to CBS/YouGov polling, a majority of people think the violence seen on January 6th was just the beginning. WaPo's poll, taken between December 19 and December 19, asks US adults: 'Do you think it is ever justified for citizens to take violent action against the government, or is it never justified?' Thirty-four percent of respondents said it could be, while 62 percent believe it's never justified. Among Republicans, the inclination toward violence is slightly higher with 40 percent -- or four in 10 GOP voters -- believing violent action against the government could be within reason. But the notion was strongest among Independent voters, 41 percent of whom said it was justified. Slightly more Republicans than Independents said violence against the government is never okay, while 74 percent of Democrats answered the same. There was also a significant racial gap in responses, with 40 percent of white Americans compared to just 18 percent of black Americans believing aggressive tactics could be justified. Among those who agree, some of the situations that could call for violence is government takeover of rights and freedoms, turning into a dictatorship or a military coup. The Washington Post surveyed 1,101 American adults between December 17 and December 19 CBS also released a poll reflecting on the Capitol riot, finding that a majority of Americans think there is more to come Another survey released today shows that two-thirds of Americans think the Capitol riot is a harbinger of future politically-charged violence. A whopping sixty-eight percent of respondents to the CBS/YouGov poll taken December 27 through December 30 said the insurrection was a sign of 'increasing' hyper-partisan aggression. Just 32 percent believe it's an 'isolated incident.' Many of those same Americans now associate such eruptions with elections, yet another devastating blow to the US's image as President Joe Biden attempts to project the US as a leading global force for democracy in an increasingly autocratic world. It also casts a bleak shadow over the 2022 midterm elections, now less than a year away. Sixty-two percent of CBS poll respondents said they expect violence from the losing side in the next presidential election, compared to 38 percent who believe the losers will 'concede peacefully.' Sixty-two percent of Americans now appear to associate presidential elections with political violence While overall perception of those who stormed the Capitol is negative, Republican voters were found to have a softer view compared to Democrats' near-universal condemnation Similarly, 66 percent of voters surveyed said they believe US democracy is under threat. Fallout from the Capitol riot has driven a wedge within the Republican Party. Those who have dismissed the insurrectionists as 'tourists' or otherwise downplayed the day's events are more often allied with Trump while those seeking to hold him accountable for it are increasingly isolated from their peers. The two GOP lawmakers on the House January 6 committee, Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, have been under constant attack by the president and his supporters in Congress. Kinzinger announced this year that he won't seek re-election, and last month the Wyoming State GOP formally gave Cheney the boot. Those partisan views are prevalent among voters as well, though a majority of Americans still view the riot in a negative light. Asked about their perceptions of those who forced their way into the Capitol a year later, a majority of Republican respondents -- 42 percent -- only 'somewhat disapprove.' Eighty-one percent of Democrat voters 'strongly disapprove.' In addition, just nine percent of Democrats 'somewhat approve' of the rioters while 18 percent, or double, the number of GOP voters feel the same. Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas tore into Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for 'playing the victim' after she repeatedly railed against Twitter over its suspension of her account for posting 'covid misinformation.' And the lawmaker said she was either a Democrat or an 'idiot' after she went after him for saying the FEMA should set up COVID testing sites to help counter the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, which saw a stunning daily 1 million coronavirus infections Monday. The Biden administration has been setting up such sites amid the spike in infections. The former Navy SEAL, who has tangled with Greene in the past, blasted Greene on Instagram after the Georgia Republican called Twitter an 'enemy to America' following her suspension. 'Thats fine, Ill show America we dont need them and its time to defeat our enemies,' she wrote Sunday. GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw (Texas) has been in a prolonged online spat with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had her account suspended from Twitter That prompted a scolding from Crenshaw. 'And @realmarjoriegreene, instead of playing the victim about censorship maybe use your position as a LEGISLATOR to help pass LEGISLATION against censorship,' he wrote. 'Luckily Ive already done all the hard work for you and drafted a bill that would change Section 230 to prohibit political censorship. Want to co-sponsor before I introduce it? Or prefer to keep up with petty and childish attacks? Your call.' Section 230 is the provision of communications law that protects tech companies from being legally responsible for claims made by third parties on their sites. Greene in turn accused Crenshaw of 'posting creepy stalking pictures of me' and 'harassing me' to cosponsor his bill. Greene had gone after Crenwhaw when he appeared on Fox News and called for federal interventions to deal with the rapid spread of the omicron virus variant. 'So what the federal government should be doing, again, is using their FEMA resources to bolster a lot of these testing sites, open up new testing sites,' Crenshaw said. Crenshaw tore into Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for 'playing the victim' and said she was either a Democrat or an 'idiot' following a comment about FEMA testing sites 'You might be a Democrat - or just an idiot,' Crenshaw wrote He encouraged Greene to cosponsor his communications legislation Greene attacked his bill as giving 'protection to online Porn companies' Crenshaw went after 'petty and childish attacks' amid the spat Greene, who got suspended from Twitter on Jan. 2, slammed his remarks on Instagram. She said the feds shouldn't be setting up testing for 'sneezes, coughs, and runny noses' describing the most mild form of a virus that can also land people int he hospital with severe breathing problems or result in death. Crenshaw wrote in response: 'Hey, Marjorie, if suggesting we should follow Trump policy instead of Biden mandates makes you mad, then you might be a Democrat or just an idiot.' He kept after her in his 'victim' attack and accused her of playing up such incidents to boost her own fundraising and notoriety. The voted to strip her of committee assignments for some of her prior statements. Former President Donald Trump issued a statement from his Save America PAC defending Greene on Tuesday, calling Twitter a 'disgrace to democracy.' 'They shouldnt be allowed to do business in this Country. Marjorie Taylor Greene has a huge constituency of honest, patriotic, hard-working people. ... Keep fighting, Marjorie!' Wrote Crenshaw: 'That Marjorie scoffed at the notion of supporting anti-censorship legislation is indicative of her true intent: to remain a victim. She doesnt want solutions and she doesnt [sic] care if you get censored. She just wants to be a victim so she can keep asking you for campaign donations. Its a scam.' Greene hit back on conservative media platform Gettr: 'Dan Crenshaw, who spends more time attacking America First Republicans because he (not so secretly) hates Trump, is talking about a bill to 'hold Big Tech accountable!; but is the same type of toothless bill the Paul Ryan types try to sell to make it look like they're doing something,' she wrote. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy on Monday slammed Twitter for trying to 'silence' diversity after the platform banned Greene for what it described as 'Covid misinformation.' 'Diversity of opinion is the lifeblood of our democracy. And yet that fundamental American value is under assault by Big Techentities that have amassed more power and more control over more speech than any other institution in history,' McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a statement. 'Their recent decisions to silence Americans including a sitting member of Congress and renowned physicians who share views different from the political and media elite have real world costs.' 'In fact, as we get more information on the virus it is clear many of the views once demonized by technology companies and the political elite are turning out to be true. The doctrines of lockdowns, school closures, and the threat of covid-19 illness according to age groups and previous infection are currently being reversed,' said McCarthy. 'Americans on the political left, including popular cable news hosts, members of Congress, and even the Vice President have themselves made public comments that are now universally understood to be false. Yet, they face no repercussions from the gatekeepers of America's town square.' The Georgia GOP rep's account - @mtgreenee - was axed Sunday. Her final tweets show her railing at what she blasted as government overreach about COVID and discussing how life had changed since the virus hit US shores. While Greene's personal account has been banned her congressional account remains active. This is the fifth strike for Greene, who was last suspended in August for saying that vaccines were 'failing' to reduce the spread of COVID and that the FDA shouldn't have approved them. She got her third strike in July after tweeting that COVID wasn't dangerous. She was also suspended in January, days after the Capitol riot, for tweets echoing conspiracy theories about voter fraud in her home state of Georgia. 'Their recent decisions to silence Americans including a sitting member of Congress and renowned physicians who share views different from the political and media elite have real world costs,' McCarthy said Marjorie Taylor Greene, pictured center, has had her personal Twitter account suspended for repeatedly sharing COVID misinformation Greene's personal account was suspended on Sunday, as seen in this grab, after Twitter previously said Two or three strikes earn a 12-hour account lock; four strikes prompt a weeklong suspension, and five or more strikes can get someone permanently removed from Twitter. A Twitter spokesperson said: 'We permanently suspended @mtrgreene for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We've been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy.' In a statement released by her office, Greene said she was suspended for sharing a tweet citing numbers from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a self-reporting tool for vaccine side effects managed by the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration. Greene's suspension comes almost a year after Donald Trump was permanently suspended days after the January 6 riot. In a lengthy Twitter thread on Saturday, Greene posted a graph showing a reported 18,000 deaths from the COVID-19 vaccines, according to VAERS data. 'Before Covid, Reported deaths from vaccines were taken seriously and dangerous vaccines were stopped. After Covid, Extremely high amounts of covid vaccine deaths are ignored and government forced vaccine mandates increase,' she said. VAERS allows anyone to report side effects after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Government health official have warned that the data is being misused and misinterpreted, given that anyone is able to submit a report. Reports of side effects or deaths caused by the COVID-19 vaccine on VAERS do not prove that negative outcomes were related to the vaccine itself. Last month, Greene, 47, compared COVID to cancer in a four tweet thread calling for Americans to take a more laid back attitude to the virus. 'Every single year more than 600,000 people in the US die from cancer. In 2021, an estimated 608,570 people will die of cancer in the United States. The country has never once shut down. Not a single school has closed. 'And every year, over 600,000 people, of all ages and all races, will continue to die from cancer. 'Since #COVID19 tracking has started, 780,000+ people have died in 22 mo in the US, but more than 1 million still died of cancer. 'More have died in 2021 from covid than 2020 in spite of Gov mandated widespread vaccines, mass public masking, & trillions spent. 'Covid predominately targets obese & older people,' Greene added, insisting that 'it's time to take a different approach based on the facts' and 'stop the politically driven mass hysteria.' Greene has also taken repeated aim at White House COVID tsar Dr Anthony Fauci, and even shared snaps of herself wearing a face mask emblazoned with the words 'Fire Fauci.' Greene tweeted in August that the FDA should not approve the COVID vaccines because there were 'too many reports' of breakthrough cases. Twitter marked the tweet misleading and blocked users from interacting with it Twitter has a five-strike policy for users who spread COVID-19 misinformation. The latest strike appears to have been her last When her account was suspended in August 2021, a Twitter spokesperson said: 'The account will be in read-only mode for a week due to repeated violations of the Twitter rules.' Other House Republicans went after Twitter for banning Greene. 'Welcome to the Woketopia. Where information is controlled by the few,' Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., tweeted. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said Republicans 'WILL be holding' tech companies 'accountable' if the party takes back the House majority in the fall. In 2017, she called the internet-born conspiracy theory QAnon, whose believers follow the words of an alleged government insider nicknamed Q, a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out,' according to the Tampa Bay Times. Twitter permanently suspended a sitting US President. Theyve now permanently suspended a sitting member of US Congress. Of course, both from the same party. They forget that in 2022 we are taking back the House and we WILL be holding them accountable! Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 2, 2022 Welcome to the Woketopia. Where information is controlled by the few. https://t.co/wAPAKw5aDf Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) January 2, 2022 In February 2021, she said in a speech on the House floor that she stopped believing in the conspiracy theory once she found 'misinformation, lies, things that were not true' in QAnon posts. On Sunday, the first-term congresswoman pointed the finger at her colleagues, suggesting Twitter has a double standard. 'Maxine Waters can go to the streets and threaten violence on Twitter, Kamala and Ilhan can bail out Black Lives Matter terrorists on Twitter, CNN and the rest of the Democrat Propaganda Media can spread Russia collusion lies, and just yesterday the Chief spokesman for terrorist IRGC can tweet mourning Soleimani, but I get suspended for tweeting VAERS statistics,' she said. Statistics from the self-reporting vaccine side effect database are often cited by conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson to downplay the effectiveness of vaccines. Last week, Greene criticized the national College Republicans group for tweeting out a message wishing people a Happy Kwanzaa. The secular festival of African American culture is celebrated each year from December 26 to January 1. 'Stop. It's a fake religion created by a psychopath,' Greene wrote back on Twitter. 'You aren't bringing in new voters, you are turning them away. People are tired of pandering and BS.' Police in Indonesia are probing a 'vaccine jockey' who claims he was jabbed 17 times in exchange for cash from anti-vaxxers so they could get Covid passes. Abdul Rahim, of Pinrang, South Sulawesi province, appeared in a video boasting that he was a 'jockey' for those wanting a vaccine certificate, which is required for restaurants, cafes and shopping centres. He said he was paid up to 40, roughly a day's wages, to get shots of the Chinese-made Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines, receiving three shots in a single day. Fifteen people hired Rahim who received a second dose for two of the vaccine dodgers. Abdul Rahim (pictured), of Pinrang, South Sulawesi province, posted a video on social media boasting that he was a 'jockey' for those wanting a vaccine certificate, which is required for restaurants, cafes and shopping centres Indonesians are supposed to provide ID when they get vaccinated but the alleged fraud exposes how clinics in some areas are flouting the rules. Police have rounded up the people suspected of paying Rahim. They are also considering charges against Rahim under Indonesia's Infectious Diseases Law, which mandates a one-year prison sentence for anyone who 'hinders the implementation of pandemic control.' The fraud emerged as the country recorded its first community case of the highly-infectious Omicron variant on Tuesday. Indonesia recorded a total of 265 new cases on Tuesday, with an average of 222 infections over the last seven days. Just five deaths were reported in the country of 274 million people. The case of the vaccine jockey in Indonesia is not the first which has emerged. Last month, it was revealed that a New Zealander had received ten vaccines in a single day after being paid to get jabs by anti-vaxxers. The man, who has not been identified, pretended to be a different person each time he visited the doctor. An Indonesian health worker administers a Covid jab to a pupil in Jakarta on Tuesday Authorities believe anti-vaxxers paid the man so they could enjoy the same freedoms as the vaccinated without having to get the jab. New Zealanders must show a vaccine pass in order to visit some businesses and attend events in the country. University of Auckland vaccinologist and associate professor Helen Petousis-Harris described it as a 'really dumb thing to do'. 'I think the chances of them feeling extra awful are higher than someone who had a regular dose,' she said. While there is limited data on the effects of multiple Covid vaccines on the body, Ms Petousis-Harris guessed the man would be feeling pretty rough the next day. The body of a 57-year-old woman has been identified using a DNA sample from her son nearly three decades after it was found buried in a shallow grave in the Southern California desert. Patricia Cavallaro, of Bellflower, was found wrapped in plastic and tied with a brown cord in Thousand Palms on October 24, 1994, before officials identified the woman on Monday. Cavallaro's death had been the result of 'homicidal violence,' according to the coroner, but her body was so decomposed it was not possible to determine who she was or how she was killed. Cavallaro was only reported missing by her husband in 2001 - seven years after her remains were found. The husband, who was not identified by officials, died in 2017. It remains unclear why he waited seven years from her disappearance to report her missing. The victim remained unknown to police until the Riverside County DA's Regional Cold Case Homicide Team picked up the investigation last year. A DNA sample from Cavallaro's son helped crack the mystery. The DA's office said on Monday that an investigation has been opened into the circumstances surrounding Cavallaro's death, but her husband is not a suspect at this time. DailyMail.com has reached out to the Riverside County DA's office for comment. Her adult son said that he believed 'something had happened' to his mother because he hadn't heard from her in 30 years. He is not a suspect in the investigation either. Remains now confirmed to be those of Patricia Cavallaro (pictured) were found wrapped in plastic and tied with a brown cord in a shallow grave in eastern Riverside County, California, on October 24, 1994 A sketch released by the Riverside County Sheriff's Office before the remains were finally identified Cavallaro moved to California from her hometown of Oneida, New York, following her marriage in 1956. Seven years after her death, she was reported missing by her husband, who told police at the time that his wife vanished after 'walking away' 'We believe we had her identified, which led us to do the additional investigation that we never would've been able to do had we not done a genealogical tree,' DA Supervising Investigator Ryan Bodmer told the New York Post. 'It's not just identifying the victims who would have remained unknown but obviously to arrest the perpetrator of the crime and bring them to justice. But identifying the victims is also a very big deal for the families,' he added. Cavallaro moved to California from her hometown of Oneida, New York, following her marriage in 1956. She had two children and settled in Bellflower, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles, where she lived until 1994. Seven years after her death, she was reported missing by her husband, who told police at the time that his wife vanished after 'walking away.' 'You follow the evidence and you see she was there, and then she just stopped existing in 1994,' Senior Investigator Mike Thompson told The Desert Sun. 'After that, there's no evidence she's alive or dead, no marriage or divorce records, no death certificate,' he added. The DA's office said on Monday that an investigation has been opened into the circumstances surrounding Cavallaro's death, but her husband is not a suspect at this time According to a 1994 report, Cavallaro's body was found 'partially buried in the sand and wrapped in a white plastic sheet tied with a brown cord and partially exposed to the elements.' Blue shorts, a red blouse and underwear were found with the body, which was discovered about 200 miles east of where she lived. Lack of evidence in the area suggested that she had been killed elsewhere. Investigators estimated at the time that her remains had been buried in the desert for one to four months before it was discovered. 'The Coroner's Office used all available resources at the time to identify the woman, including having her DNA entered into the California Department of Justice Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Unfortunately, no identification was made,' a statement by the District Attorney's office read. In 2021, the Riverside County DA's Regional Cold Case Homicide Team reopened the case and sent DNA samples of Cavallaro's body to a Texas-based private lab and private DNA service company GEDmatch.com. Through matches from GEDmatch, investigators were able to find one of Cavallaro's biological children and a DNA sample was submitted to the state Missing and Unidentified Persons System. In December, authorities were notified by the Department of Justice that the victim in the 1994 death was Cavallaro. 'After so many years had gone by, her biological son doesn't want to make any statements, but he simply said he assumed that something had happened because he hasn't heard from his mom in over 30 years,' Bodmer said. 'At least with this confirmation he was able to know where she is. How she should be honored is what he's battling with right now,' he told the Post. The DA's office urged anybody who knew Cavallaro or had details about her death to contact investigators. The County's Regional Cold Case Homicide Team, which was formed in 2020, is currently investigating about 700 unsolved murders. 'With a cold case, genetics are really the only way to move the investigation forward,' Bodmer said. 'This tool creates an environment to do real detective work in a case where there are no leads.' A California deputy district attorney and rising Republican star who slammed vaccine mandates a month ago at a Turning Point USA rally has died from COVID-19 complications. Kelly Ernby, 46, died this week after contracting the virus. 'She was NOT vaccinated. That's the problem,' her husband Axel Mattias Ernby wrote on Facebook after her death was announced. She spoke at a rally against COVID vaccine mandates at the Irvine City Hall on December 4. The event was hosted by the Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine chapters of the conservative group Turning Point USA. She had been an outspoken critic of vaccine mandates since before the pandemic. In 2019 she railed against a state law proposing new vaccine requirements for schoolchildren. California deputy district attorney and rising Republican stare Kelly Ernby, 46, died from complications of COVID this week Kelly Ernby is survived by her husband Axel who is self-employed as a management consultant in Huntington Beach 'There's nothing that matters more than our freedoms right now,' she said in opposition of vaccine mandates, according to the Daily Titan. Ernby urged the crowd to unite and fight for their beliefs. She compared the current political division to the 1960s fight against socialism. 'Our government for the people and by the people is not going to exist without action of the people,' Ernby said. Ernby is survived by her husband, Axel who is self-employed as a management consultant in Huntington Beach. Axel did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com for a comment. The Huntington Beach resident worked as an Orange County deputy district attorney for 10 years specializing on in environmental and consumer law. She first joined local politics in 2020 when she ran for state Assembly in the 74th District challenging Newport Beach Mayor Diane Dixon, a fellow Republican, to replace Cottie Petrie-Norris, the freshman Democratic incumbent. The self-proclaimed political outsider earned endorsements from several local politicians but lost in a close race. She continued to search for her spot in politics getting involved in the county Republican Party as the precinct chairman. Ernby became an elected Orange County GOP central committee member later in 2020. She was midway into the four-year term at the time of her passing. The 46-year-old fought against vaccine mandates even before the COVID pandemic dragged the issue into the national spotlight. In 2019, Ernby appeared in an online town hall to discuss her stance on medical freedom. She firmly opposed a new state law that proposed tightening immunization rules for California schoolchildren. 'My fundamental belief is that government should be very small and I don't believe in mandates,' she said on November 3, 2019. 'I don't think that the government should be involved in mandating what vaccines people are taking,' she explained. 'I think that's a decision between doctors and their patients. If the government is going to mandate vaccines, what else are they going to mandate?' Ernby's death was confirmed as friends and colleagues began sharing social media posts expressing their grief. Ernby was a strong vocal opponent of vaccine mandates. Her vaccination status is unclear Ernby's last Facebook post (pictured) shows her celebrating the Christmas holiday with Axel and Nixon while honoring her mother who passed away 'She was very passionate about her love for politics, for America and the Republican Party,' said Jon Fleischman, former executive director of the California Republican Party and a longtime Orange County GOP activist, according to the Los Angeles Times. He was shocked by her 'sudden' passing and explained that the two planned to meet later this week to discuss another state Assembly run. 'I found her to be funny and generous,' he said. 'She quickly became part of the fabric of our party. We're really going to miss her. It's very sad.' Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer expressed his sorrow in a statement: 'The Orange County district attorney's office is utterly heartbroken by the sudden and unexpected passing of Deputy Dist. Atty. Kelly Ernby.' 'Kelly was an incredibly vibrant and passionate attorney who cared deeply about the work that we do as prosecutors and deeply about the community we all fight so hard to protect.' He also remembered his 'incredibly vibrant and passionate' colleague in a touching Twitter thread. Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner also memorialized his colleague online. 'Kelly was an outstanding public servant and an even better person,' he said on Twitter. Ernby was also strong voice the in Governor Gavin Newsom's recall election, which he won with 60 percent of the vote. She openly opposed him and strongly backed Larry Elder. Much of her dislike of Newsom came from his strong stance on COVID vaccine mandates and closures. 'I dont like the fact that he is shutting down our churches, our schools, our businesses, and that people have rights and liberties that he is not protecting,' she told the Costa Mesa Breif ahead of the recall election. Thousands of starfish killed by extreme weather have washed up on a beach in Wales following storms at sea. Beach-walkers were left horrified at the sight of large piles of the stranded sea creatures after they were tossed ashore onto rocks and sand. The Marine Conservation Society has said extreme weather is the likely cause of the starfish washing up on Coppet Hall Beach in Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire, on Tuesday. And despite concerns of witnesses that something had 'seriously gone wrong', a spokesperson for the Natural History Museum added that the incident was 'not a cause for huge concern' as the starfish population 'regenerates itself quickly'. The mass stranding of thousands of common starfish is not uncommon in the UK, while other species have been reported to become stranded on the east coast of North America. Thousands of sea creatures blanketed a beach in Ramsgate, Kent, in March 2018, shortly after hundreds more were washed ashore in East Yorkshire. Andrew Cabrinovic, the Natural History Museum's curator of echinoderms, has previously said the cause of the starfish washing ashore is water currents becoming stronger due to stormy weather. Starfish live on the soft and sandy parts of the sea floor or on rocky reefs, and so can be easily picked up by strong currents and waves. Thousands of dead starfish which have washed up on Coppet Hall beach in Saundersfoot, west Wales Stormy weather has been cited as the reason why starfish are washed ashore onto beaches in the UK Campaigners have previously blamed seismic surveys of the sea floor for the deaths of whales and other marine life as these noises can harm the animals either by causing temporary and permanent hearing loss, abandonment of habitat or disruption of mating What causes starfish to be washed ashore? The mass stranding of thousands of common starfish are not uncommon in England and Wales, while other species have been reported to become stranded on the east coast of North America. Andrew Cabrinovic, the Natural History Museum's curator of echinoderms, has previously said the cause of the starfish deaths is water currents becoming stronger due to stormy weather. Starfish live on the soft and sandy parts of the sea floor, but can be easily picked up by strong currents and waves. He said heavy storms cause deep water to move and affect offshore starfish populations, while changing tides, high winds and sea swell can also affect how many become stranded. Starfish are also sensitive to cold temperatures and any changes to water salinity, which can be caused by periods of heavy rain. Advertisement He said heavy storms cause deep water to move and affect offshore starfish populations, while changing tides, high winds and sea swell can also affect how many become stranded. Starfish are also sensitive to cold temperatures and any changes to water salinity, which can be caused by periods of heavy rain. Storm Arwen, for example, caused thousands of starfish to wash up on a beach in Culbin Sands, Inverness, in November last year. The strong winds and large waves caused by Storm Emma in 2018 also led to hundreds of starfish and shellfish being left dead on miles of beaches. However, the sight of thousands of dead starfish was still a stark sight for local residents. Passer-by Giles Davies said: 'I have never seen something like this before. 'Its really sad to just see that in nature, because youre looking at deaths in the thousands of one species. Its the sheer volume - youre always going to get winter tides where stuff will come ashore. 'For that volume to come ashore, no, something seriously has gone wrong with nature.' A spokesperson for the Natural History Museum, though, added: 'We regularly see mass strandings of seabed-dwelling animals after storms, usually in winter, sometimes several times in a year.' Dr Chris Mah, a starfish researcher from the Smithsonian Institution in the USA, said: 'In almost every instance that this has been reported, there have been reports of either storms or high winds. 'Bear in mind that storms dont just mean high winds and rough water current. It also means fresh water input.' Investigations were launched in October after the continual washing ashore of thousands of crabs and lobsters on beaches along the North East of England - in scenes which local residents are calling the 'worst' they have ever seen. The Environment Agency confirmed samples had been taken from the sea creatures, water and sediment for laboratory analysis after the dead and alive animals began appearing on the sand along the Teesside coast between Marske and Saltburn, North Yorkshire, in Seaton Carew, Hartlepool, and further north at Seaham. It is understood that lab analysis will test the water for pollution while also analysing the dead marine life for parasites and disease. Scientists have previously blamed seismic surveys, which involve blasting the sea floor with airguns and measuring the echoes in an effort to search for offshore oil and gas reserves, for the deaths of whales and other marine life. The blasts, which are loud enough to penetrate through the ocean for miles, can affect sea creatures, such as whales, turtles and dolphins, and can lead to the abandonment of habitat, disruption of mating and feeding, beach strandings, and even death. Republican Senator Rob Portman announced on Tuesday he tested positive for COVID, becoming the 16th lawmaker to catch the virus since mid-December. Portman, who is vaccinated and boosted, said he feels fine and will work remotely from his home in Ohio this week instead of coming to Washington D.C. for votes in the Senate. ''In preparation for returning to Washington, DC, I took an at-home COVID test last night and it was positive. I am asymptomatic and feel fine. I have been in contact with the Attending Physician and my personal doctor. I am following their medical advice and following CDC guidelines and isolating for the recommended five days. I will work remotely from home this week, but will not be able to be in Washington, DC for votes,' he said in a statement. The Omicron variant of COVID has hit Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike. It's also struck congressional staff on both sides of the aisle, causing a 13% spike in positive COVID cases on Capitol Hill. In a lengthy memo to Capitol Hill staff sent on Monday and obtained by DailyMail.com, attending physician of the Capitol Dr. Brian Monahan said that both the Omicron and Delta variants of COVID 'have caused an unprecedented number of cases in the Capitol community affecting hundreds of individuals.' He said the testing center's positivity rate in the Capitol complex has risen from less than 1% to greater than 13%. 'The daily case rates will increase even more substantially in the coming weeks,' Monahan warned citing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data and nationwide stasticts. Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio tested positive on Jan. 4 and Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts tested positive Dec. 31 The Omicron variant of COVID has hit Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike; it's also struck congressional staff on both sides of the aisle, causing a 13% spike in positive COVID cases on Capitol Hill - above a line of staffers wait to get tested in the Capitol Washington D.C. has become a hot spot for the disease with one of the highest case rates and hospitalization rates in the nation. In Virginia and Maryland, the highest case spikes are in the DC suburbs. The United States recorded a million cases of COVID on Monday as the Omicron wave of the virus sweeps the country. That morning, the U.S. reported 55,114,057 confirmed cases. By midnight, the tally had risen to 56,190,946 - an increase of well over a million in under 24 hours. There have now been 827,753 deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19. There were 826,065 deaths during the same time frame analysis performed by DailyMail.com, meaning fatalities increased by 1,688 over the same timespan that infections surged by one million. Monday's number is almost double the previous record of about 590,000 set just four days ago in the U.S., which itself was a doubling from the prior week. The number of cases from lawmakers is growing larger and most of them are breakthrough cases, coming after vaccination. Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts announced late last week she had tested positive for COVID. She is also vaccinated and boosted. 'Today, I received a positive, breakthrough COVID-19 test result,' she wrote on Twitter on Friday. 'Thankfully, my symptoms are mild & I'm grateful to be fully vaccinated & boosted. I'm currently isolating & following all health protocols.' Dr. Monahan said the cases in the Capitol represent 'breakthrough infections' among mostly previously vaccinated individuals. He said the Omicron variant counts for 61% of them and the Delta variant counts for 38%. 'Dozens of individuals with coronavirus infection are identified at the Capitol daily, with the majority of these occurring in vaccinated individuals,' the doctor warned Capitol Hill staff. He said none of the cases in the Capitol have led to hospitalization or death. Dr. Monahan also advised offices to immediately begin teleworking where possible. The House is not in session this week. The Senate delayed the start of their work week until Tuesday after Washington D.C. was hit with a snowstorm that caused massive flight delays and cancelations. Offices 'should immediately review their operations to adopt a maximal telework posture to reduce in-person meetings and in-office activities to the maximum extent possible,' he wrote. He also advised staff and lawmakers to wear KN95 masks when in the complex. 'Blue surgical masks, cloth face masks and gaiter masks must be replaced by the more protective KN95 or N95 masks. Wearing a mask is a very effective personal protective measure to reduce the risk of infection,' Monahan wrote. Mask wearing has become a political issue on Capitol Hill. Several lawmakers have refused to wear them. They are mandatory in the House where Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has racked up thousands in fines for refusing to don one. More than a dozen lawmakers have announced positive diagnoses since Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren announced her breakthrough case on December 19. Reps. Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey, Doris Matsui of California, Bobby Rush of Illinois and Kaialii Kahele of Hawaii have all tested positive for COVID-19 since Christma LAWMAKERS WHO'VE TESTED POSITIVE SINCE OMICRON OUTBREAK Sen. Elizabeth Warren Sen. Cory Booker Rep. Jason Crow Rep. Matt Cartwright Rep. Antonio Delgado Rep. Nicole Malliotakis Rep. Barbara Lee Rep. Jim Clyburn Rep. Jan Schakowsky Sen. Chris Coons Rep. Kaiali'i Kahele Rep. Bobby Rush Rep. Doris Matsui Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. Rep. Ayanna Pressley Sen. Rob Portman Advertisement Last week, Democrat Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. of New Jersey announced he tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. He warned on Twitter that the new Omicron variant, which has infected people across the globe at a record-shattering pace, is 'spreading like wildfire.' Pascrell joins three other fully-vaccinated and boosted members of his caucus in who have all contracted COVID since Christmas: Reps. Kaialii Kahele of Hawaii, Bobby Rush of Illinois and Doris Matsui of California. 'Today I tested positive for covid. I am fully vaccinated and boosted. Blessedly my symptoms are mild. I'm working from home,' Pascrell wrote just after noon on Thursday. 'Omicron spreads like wildfire. Get vaxxed and boosted -- these shots are the *only* reason my case is mild. Don't worry about me: get your shots!' Each of the other three lawmakers who recently tested positive posted similar messages, hoping the examples of their mild infections due to getting the jab would push people to have it done for themselves. Kahele, the first of the bunch, tested positive the day after Christmas. 'I am vaxxd, boosted & regularly test, yet unfortunately after 2 Rapid & 1 PCR, all tests show I am + with a breakthrough case. I have mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaxxd & boosted. Stay safe everyone,' the Hawaii Democrat wrote on Twitter. Rush was tested after a contact came down with COVID, though he said on December 27 that his case was asymptomatic. 'Today, after being notified of a recent exposure, I tested positive with a breakthrough case of COVID-19. Fortunately, I am fully vaccinated and recently received my booster shot. I am feeling fine and currently have no symptoms,' Rush said. 'I will be quarantining and following the latest guidance from the @CDCgov and @ChiPublicHealth. As cases rise and the Omicron variant spreads throughout the nation, I encourage everyone who has not yet done so to get vaccinated and get boosted as soon as possible.' All four Democrats posted similar messages crediting their vaccine doses for their light infections and urging Americans to get the jab California Democrat Matsui just announced testing positive last Wednesday, the day before Pascrell. 'Today, I tested positive with a breakthrough COVID-19 case. I'm fully vaccinated & received my booster shot in September. I'm only experiencing mild cold-like symptoms & I'm thankful for the protection provided by the vaccine,' she posted on Twitter. 'I encourage everyone to get vaccinated & boosted.' Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons also tested positive around the holidays. 'In recent weeks I have been tested for COVID-19 regularly, both with rapid tests and PCR tests, and last night I got bad news I tested positive,' he tweeted last Thursday. 'I have minimal symptoms so far and am optimistic I will recover well after isolating and following CDC guidelines.' Coons, who represents Delaware, is one of the president's top allies on Capitol Hill. He follows Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Jim Clyburn in announcing a positive COVID-19 test. Schakowsky tweeted the night before Coons that her husband tested positive on Friday and after several negative tests the congresswoman tested positive Tuesday night. The couple is vaccinated and boosted. 'We got tested when we felt something was off, and now we can prevent exposure to our family and loved ones. I implore you to do the same before holiday gatherings this week and next,' she wrote. 'Get tested if you feel sick or have been around someone who tests positive.' Schakowsky's tweets came shortly after Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat and chair of the coronavirus select committee, said he tested positive for COVID - forcing him to miss his granddaughter's wedding. 'Tonight, I received a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. This is a breakthrough case, and I am asymptomatic,' the 81-year-old House Majority Whip said. The South Carolina Democrat said it took more than 56 hours to receive his positive PCR result. Clyburn said he took an at-home COVID test on Sunday in preparation for a family gathering. 'On Sunday, my entire family took at-home tests as a precaution prior to my granddaughter's wedding, which took place today,' he said. The rapid test was inconclusive and, 'out of an abundance of caution,' Clyburn quarantined and took a PCR test on Monday. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (pictured left in November 2021) tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 22 and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (right) tweeted that she tested positive for COVID on Dec. 22 As he remains quarantined, Clyburn is issuing a warning to Americans as more citizens are reporting breakthrough cases amid the surge of the now-dominant Omicron variant He claims it took more than two days to get his positive result. Earlier in the week, seven additional lawmakers said they had contracted COVID. They include Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, as well as Reps. Jason Crow, Matt Cartwright, Antonio Delgado, Barbara Lee and Nicole Malliotakis, the lone Republican. Delgado, 44, announced Tuesday he tested positive for COVID. He's also fully vaccinated and boosted. 'Yesterday, I tested positive for COVID-19 and am currently experiencing mild symptoms,' he said in a statement. 'I'm grateful for the protection of a safe and effective vaccine and booster and encourage all who are able to get both.' Prior to that, Lee and Malliotakis announced their positive COVID tests, as Washington, D.C. surpassed all other states in the nation in its coronavirus infection rate. 'This week, I received a breakthrough positive COVID-19 test result. Fortunately, I have only mild cold-like symptoms. I know it could have been much worse had I not been vaccinated and boosted,' Lee said in a statement. 'After experiencing mild symptoms and a slight fever, Congresswoman Malliotakis, who is vaccinated, tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday. She is quarantining at home and is feeling well,' her office announced. Democratic Rep. Antonio Delgado of New York announced a breakthrough COVID case on Dec. 22 (left); Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California (center) and Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (right) of New York both tested positive on Dec. 21 Senator Elizabeth Warren tested positive Dec. 19 and Senator Cory Booker announced his positive test the same day Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright (left) tested positive Dec. 19 as did Democratic Rep. Jason Crow (right) That same week, Cartwright of Pennsylvania, announced that he, too, tested positive for COVID. 'He tested positive on Saturday,' his Communications Director Colleen Eagen Gerrity told Times News Online. She said Cartwright, who represents an area that includes Scranton, had received two vaccine shots. It was not known if he had received a booster shot. He is quarantining at home after experiencing flu-like symptoms. Crow of Colorado announced he tested positive for COVID-19 hours after Warren and Booker tweeted news of their own diagnoses. A Scottish politician has claimed a furious mob told her she would be 'put through a woodchipper' as police say they have launched a probe into the alleged death threats made against her. Karen Adam, 46, a Member of Scottish Parliament, claims she was told to kill herself and had her personal details shared online. Police Scotland has said it will investigate the MSP's allegations. Speaking after the ordeal, she revealed her growing anxiety and said she was 'worried for mine and my family's safety'. The Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP - who said she is a survivor of child sexual exploitation - faced a backlash after tweeting about paedophiles last week. Ms Adam had said that abusers were often not 'Mac-wearing flashers in the street', but more commonly were 'our family, friends and colleagues'. She added: 'It's uncomfortable to humanise them because we then have to face the horrors in plain sight.' Her words were interpreted by some, including Alba Party general secretary Chris McEleny, as an attempt to humanise those who abuse children - something the MSP firmly rejected. Karen Adam, 46, a Member of Scottish Parliament claimed a furious mob told her she would be 'put through a woodchipper' after tweeting about paedophiles The Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP - who said she is a survivor of child sexual exploitation - faced a backlash after saying abusers were often not 'Mac-wearing flashers in the street', but more commonly were 'our family, friends and colleagues' On Monday, in a tweet posted just after 3am, Ms Adam said she had received death threats as a result of her original tweet and signalled she could pursue legal action. 'Can't sleep, not eaten. I'm worried for mine and my families safety after I was just told my personal details are now being shared,' she wrote. 'Death threats, vile abuse, told to kill myself. Told I'd be put through a wood chipper. 'Grateful for litigation advice. I'm off for a wee bit.' Ms Adam later added that her life has been 'put in danger' and said she was determined to continue raising awareness on paedophilia for 'our kids' Ms Adam later added that her life has been 'put in danger' and said she was determined to continue raising awareness on paedophilia for 'our kids'. A tweet shared on Tuesday afternoon read: 'Gaslighting is to purposely cause confusion. Sometimes to deflect, or for power. Some do it on mass scale for political motivations. 'You all certainly saw through it. You know it, I know it. 'My life has been put in danger. The tweet causing it is still up. No apology has been given. 'Keep on raising awareness on this for our kids. Never let predators hide in plain sight or allow others to throw scent.' Police Scotland said it has received reports of threats made against Ms Adam, and was currently investigating. A spokesperson for the force said: 'We can confirm that a complaint has been made regarding online threats and police inquiries are ongoing.' A Belgian plastic surgeon has been jailed after telling students that women 'don't want to open their legs any more' in a university lecture. Jeff Hoeyberghs, 60, was given a ten-month prison sentence, half of which is suspended, after the extraordinary 2019 rant in which he said women exist to 'satisfy men sexually and perform household chores'. The TV surgeon, who is qualified in the UK, had been invited to speak by the University of Ghent and the Catholic Flemish Students' Union, with his comments prompting a barrage of complaints. Plastic surgeon Jeff Hoeyberghs has been jailed after telling students that women 'don't want to open their legs anymore' in a university lecture Judges said the sentence plus an 8,000 fine were merited because he incited discrimination, hatred and violence against women and refused to back down. He has maintained he was speaking the 'truth' and claimed his freedom of speech is being denied. In the two-hour lecture to the postgraduate students, Hoeyberghs said: 'Women want the privileges of male protection and money, but they do not want to open their legs anymore. 'We have given women dishwashing machines and cleaning ladies, until they themselves became superfluous. 'You cannot treat a woman like an equal without becoming her slave.' The surgeon added that women are 'hysterical, lazy, weak, stupid' and 'dirty creatures, who seek money and protection from men to whom they owe sex', comparing them to 'animals with udders'. He has maintained he was speaking the 'truth' and claimed his freedom of speech is being denied He even targeted specific female students in the auditorium with insults, as well as teenage activist Greta Thunberg, saying women were 'worthless' in high profile jobs such as doctors, judges, teachers and scientists. The surgeon told one PhD student she was just 'blue eyes and t*ts', while another was 'a fine example of how things go wrong'. He added women 'always let emotions get in their way' and said prisons, psychiatric wards and rehab centres are 'filled with children of single mothers'. The speech was broadcast live on Facebook and led to 1,500 complaints to the Institute for Equality of Women and Men, the same amount they receive in a year. Hoeyberghs' lawyer said none of the women targeted have sued for defamation, and the surgeon claimed the accusations were part of a 'well-oiled international machine of communist signature and with Western state subversion as the ultimate goal'. But judges disagreed, saying the comments were 'long-winded, well-aimed, repeated, particularly vulgar, women-unfriendly and hateful'. They added his remarks 'encourage psychological and physical violence against women. The defendant has no sense of guilt.' Hoeyberghs has said he intends to appeal the sentence, saying he has done nothing criminal, and some MPs have criticised the ruling. Bart de Wever, the mayor of Antwerp and leader of the New Flemish Alliance Party, said: 'Hoeyberghs' statements were stupid and outrageous. But reprehensible is different from punishable. Freedom cannot be protected by restricting it.' Advertisement A New York judge is weighing up whether to throw out a sex assault lawsuit against Prince Andrew, with a decision set to be made 'pretty soon'. Earlier today, the lawyer for Andrew's accuser Virginia Giuffre described the royal as 'somebody to whom the girls were trafficked' as a hearing in the bombshell case took place in New York. Andrew's lawyers are arguing that a $500,000 (370,000) deal between Ms Giuffre and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein shields the Duke from liability, as she sues him for alleged sexual assault when she was a teenager. Ms Giuffre's legal team claim that the agreement is irrelevant to her complaint against the Queen's second son and that the case must proceed - but the Duke's legal team have now made their argument to dismiss the case. Judge Lewis Kaplan is holding the case by video call a day after a document was made public revealing the terms of the payout from Epstein. The document detailed Ms Giuffre had in 2009 agreed to 'release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge' Epstein and 'any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant'. David Boies, the lawyer acting on behalf of Ms Giuffre, who used to be known as Virginia Roberts, said Andrew would not be a 'potential defendant' as referred to in the civil case documents released yesterday for two reasons. He told the judge: 'The only claim that is asserted that was made in Florida in the 2009 action that covered Prince Andrew was the third count which was to transport somebody for the purpose of illegal sexual activity. There is no allegation that Prince Andrew was the person transporting. There is no allegation that Prince Andrew fell into the category of people who were doing the trafficking. He was somebody to whom the girls were trafficked.' The case took place as Andrew's children - Princess Beatrice, with her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, and Princess Eugenie, with her husband Jack Brooksbank - were pictured in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier today. They appeared in good spirits, with Beatrice and Mr Mozzi strolling the streets of the exclusive resort, where the Duke of York owns a luxury chalet. Eugenie and Mr Brooksbank spent the day skiing on the slopes overlooking the home. The Duchess of York remained at the traditional-style 17million chalet with views of the Bagnes Valley. Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, now known as Virginia Giuffre, at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London in 2001 Virginia Giuffre with her lawyer David Boies outside a court in New York at the time of a previous hearing in August 2019 Prince Andrew has hired Hollywood attorney Andrew Brettler (right) to represent him in the sexual assault case brought against him by his accuser and Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre Judge Lewis Kaplan is holding the case by video call a day after a document was made public revealing the terms of the payout from Epstein Today's hearing was held between the parties' representatives via video conference with press and public able to listen in by telephone. Ms Giuffre alleges that Epstein lent her out for sex with his wealthy and powerful associates, including Andrew, an allegation the prince has repeatedly and strenuously denied. How Andrew is trying to have sex assault case thrown out today Prince Andrew's lawyers are appearing at a New York court today to try and get his sex assault case dismissed. Virginia Giuffre, 38, claims she was 17 when she slept with Andrew three times in 2001 under orders from Epstein, a friend of the duke. She is suing for claims of battery and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Andrew has called her accusations 'baseless' and repeatedly denied them, claiming that she is seeking a 'payday at his expense'. His lawyers are today using details of a $500,000 settlement reached in 2009 between Ms Giuffre and Epstein to block the case against the Duke. They will argue that Andrew was essentially identified as a defendant in that settlement and so Ms Giuffre signed away the right to sue him. The unsealed court papers revealed that she agreed to 'release, acquit, satisfy and for ever discharge' Epstein and 'any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant'. Andrew is not named in the settlement but his lawyers believe he is covered as a 'potential defendant'. The document also references the term 'royalty', something the duke's lawyers also suggest gives them 'strong legal ground' to dismiss the case. It says: 'In addition to being continually exploited to satisfy the defendant's every sexual whim, (she) was also required to be sexually exploited by (Epstein's) adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen, and/or other professional and personal acquaintances.' His lawyers believe the document gives him a strong case to have the claims against him dismissed, though experts say its wording is 'vague'. If unsuccessful, Andrew faces the prospect of a lengthy discovery and deposition process that could involve close members of family and his police protection officers, ahead of a trial in the autumn. Advertisement Andrew B Brettler, the lawyer for the Duke, said today that a potential defendant was 'someone who was not named as a defendant but could have been'. He told Judge Kaplan that a potential defendant would be someone Ms Giuffre knew that she had 'claims against at the time that she filed the lawsuit' in 2009. Judge Kaplan said 'potential' was a phrase that neither he nor Mr Brettler could 'find any meaning at all' in. Mr Brettler told Judge Kaplan that the Duke 'could have been sued' but was not. Andrew's lawyer said Ms Giuffre needed to allege 'today' what her complaint against the duke is. Mr Brettler said: 'We just want a date, a month, or even a year. All we know is that she was 17 years old.' 'She has no obligation to do that in the complaint,' Judge Kaplan responded. Mr Brettler told Judge Kaplan that Ms Giuffre 'doesn't articulate' what had allegedly happened to her at the hands of the duke. He said she was over the age of consent in the state of New York and so needed to allege she was forced to have sex with the duke. Judge Kaplan said: 'With all due respect, Mr Brettler, that's not a dog that's got a hunt here' and that she had no obligation to do so. He said he understood Mr Brettler's point but 'it just isn't the law'. Mr Brettler said Ms Giuffre did not 'explain how she was forcibly compelled' under New York law. He said her complaint needed to include 'imminent threat of harm and there is no such allegation in her complaint'. Continuing his arguments, the Duke's lawyer told Judge Kaplan: 'We don't know what the conduct was.' The judge replied: 'Involuntary sexual intercourse. There's no doubt what that means.' Mr Brettler moved on to say 'Prince Andrew should not be dragged into this court 20 years after.' He said: 'Witnesses die, witnesses may be incarcerated.' Concluding his arguments, Mr Brettler said the case against his client filed by Ms Giuffre should 'absolutely be dismissed'. 'She has given plenty of interviews all over the world, then files this lawsuit. It is unfair, it is unjust, it should be dismissed.' Mr Brettler told Judge Kaplan that Ms Giuffre was 'healthy as far as we know' and had not been prevented from contacting her lawyers during the pandemic. He said she was 'represented by sophisticated attorneys'. Judge Kaplan asked whether if another defendant with different representation made the same claim it could be seen as timely. Mr Brettler said 'not necessarily' because he did not think the statute was constitutional and added that Ms Giuffre had had 'every means of accessing the courthouse' during the pandemic. Andrew's daughter Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi are pictured today in Verbier, Switzerland Andrew's other daughter Princess Eugenie with her husband Jack Brooksbank in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier today He said the complaint had been filed five days before the statute was expiring and that this was 'inherently unfair and unjust....the case should be thrown out'. Mr Boies, representing Ms Giuffre, said that the argument made by the Duke's lawyers that the complaint was unconstitutional was inconsistent with what they had said in their motion to dismiss, where they had made 'clear that they were attacking the legislative decision' made at the time. He said the complaint 'makes clear with respect to the sexual intercourse and the sexual touching' but that the argument of the duke's lawyers today that 'we have to allege some imminent threat of death' was inconsistent with what they had said previously in the motion to dismiss where they had said Ms Giuffre and 'other similarly situated individuals' could have been considered not to have consented in situations where they did not 'expressly acquiesce'. He said that the issue of lack of consent was much wider than the 'imminent threat of death'. Mr Boies also said Andrew would not be a 'potential defendant' as referred to in the civil case documents released yesterday for two reasons. Mr Boies said: 'The only claim that is asserted that was made in Florida in the 2009 action that covered Prince Andrew was the third count which was to transport somebody for the purpose of illegal sexual activity. Prince Andrew is interviewed for the BBC's Newsnight in November 2019. In the interview, Andrew denied Ms Giuffre's claim that they had shared a sweaty dance at a London nightclub, saying that at the time he could not sweat due to a condition Prince Andrew walks through New York's Central Park with Jeffrey Epstein following the latter's prison term in 2011 'There is no allegation that Prince Andrew was the person transporting. There is no allegation that Prince Andrew fell into the category of people who were doing the trafficking. He was somebody to whom the girls were trafficked.' The hearing then finished, with Judge Kaplan thanking both sides for the arguments and 'the passions'. He told them 'you will have a decision pretty soon' but declined to give any idea what 'pretty soon' meant. The judge also said the 'scheduling order' remained in effect while he deliberates. A deal made public for the first time yesterday by a New York court shows that Ms Giuffre agreed to drop a civil claim against Epstein for $500,000 in Florida in 2009. The settlement contained a provision that purports to protect 'other potential defendants' from being sued related to alleged sexual abuse committed by Epstein, who killed himself in jail two and a half years ago. Ms Giuffre sued the prince for unspecified damages last year, alleging he sexually assaulted her in 2001 when she was 17 and a minor under American law. The 61-year-old Andrew has not been criminally charged. Ms Giuffre says Andrew assaulted her at Epstein's home in New York, and on his private island in the US Virgin Islands. Ghislaine Maxwell gives Jeffrey Epstein a foot massage on his private jet dubbed the 'Lolita Express'. The photo was entered into evidence in Maxwell's case on December 7 by the US Attorney's Office She alleges he also sexually abused her at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was last week found guilty of sex trafficking minors for Epstein. Maxwell, who introduced Andrew to Epstein in the early 1990s, faces life behind bars after being convicted by New York jurors of five of the six counts she faced following a high-profile month-long trial. Epstein died aged 66 in a Manhattan jail in 2019, in what New York's coroner ruled was a suicide, after being charged with child sex trafficking charges. He was convicted in 2008 of paying young girls for sexual massages at his Florida mansion but served just 13 months in jail after striking a deal with the state prosecutor at the time. Andrew has rarely been seen in public since he was forced to quit the royal frontline in 2019 for failing to distance himself from Epstein. A courtroom sketch shows Ghislaine Maxwell sitting as the guilty verdict in her sex abuse trial is read in New York last week In a disastrous interview with the BBC that year, Andrew denied Ms Giuffre's claim that they had shared a sweaty dance at a London nightclub, saying that at the time he could not sweat due to a condition related to having fought in the 1982 Falklands War. Last week, Ms Giuffre's lawyers demanded that Andrew hand over medical records proving that he is unable to sweat. Andrew's legal team has accused Ms Giuffre of seeking to profit from a 'baseless lawsuit,' which is still in its early days. If the case proceeds and Ms Giuffre and Andrew are unable to reach a settlement then it could go before a jury trial, likely in the latter half of this year. On Friday, judge Kaplan rejected their attempts to halt progression of the suit on the grounds that Ms Giuffre now lives in Australia. A Banksy fan attempted to destroy a 500,000 piece of artwork by the secretive street artist to stop it being bought by a collector in England. Michael Thomas, 42, tried to smash his way into the temporary building housing the famous artwork in Port Talbort, south Wales, in order to spray it with white paint. The artwork, which shows a child playing in the falling ash and smoke from a fire in a skip, first appeared on two walls of a garage in the Taibach area in 2018. However a year later it was sold to John Brandler, who owns Brandler Galleries in Essex, for a 'six-figure sum' and moved to a new location in Ty'r Orsaf, where people could view it through the glass. Mr Brandler agreed the mural could be kept in Port Talbot for a minimum of two years before it was moved. It is understood that the artwork was set to be moved to England or even the US but Thomas said he was angry that the public work of art had been sold and would be moved from the area. The Banksy artwork shows a child playing in the falling ash and first appeared on two walls of a garage in the Taibach area in 2018 Thomas was given a 14-month prison sentence suspended for two years after admitting attempted burglary and criminal damage. Prosecutor Sian Cotter said: 'Witnesses heard him saying: ''It's the only thing in Port Talbot and they are taking it away.'' 'Thomas intended to destroy the painting so that no one else could have it. 'A couple and their five-year-old child heard the defendant shouting: ''It's for us. They're taking it away, some rich man has it.'' 'Another witness heard Thomas shouting: ''I'm going to kill it.'' The court heard Thomas had attempted to break into the building housing the artwork when neighbours hearing him breaking a window at 5.30am and called the police. Swansea Crown Court heard the painting of a boy enjoying falling snow next to a sledge was valued at half-a-million pounds. Port Talbot Council placed the artwork in a temporary building after it appeared on the side of a garage in 2018. Ms Cotter said: 'Thomas called police to say he'd committed the damage in anger because he didn't want the painting to leave Port Talbot. 'He said the work was being moved to England and that made him angry so he decided to destroy it.' Thomas tried to break a window to the building housing the famous when neighbours called the police. Pictured: Some of the damage caused to the front of the building The artwork was sold to John Brandler, who owns Brandler Galleries in Essex, for a 'six-figure sum' in 2019 Jonathan Tarrant, defending, said it was more of a protest than an act of criminal intent and it was unlikely Thomas would reoffend. Judge Geraint Walters told Thomas: 'There was an intention to move the Banksy artwork out of Port Talbot to the London area and that angered you. 'It may well be that it was not Banksy's intention that the painting should ever leave Port Talbot. 'I am aware the decision to remove the work has caused consternation in some quarters.' The judge said Thomas reacted bizarrely by breaking into the building with the intention of destroying the Banksy artwork. He added: 'This work does now belong to an individual who has had to pay for it. 'The commercial reality is that it is a work of art of great value and now it's in private ownership.' Thomas, of Port Talbot, was ordered to pay 1,058 compensation and was given an electronic tag for 12 weeks. In 2018, steelworker Ian Lewis, 55, said it was like 'Christmas had come early' after the work appeared on the side of his garage. New owner Mr Brandler said he already owned several Banksy pieces, and suggested putting 'five or six' more of the artist's works on public display in the Welsh town to help tourism. The art dealer said he had given a 'written guarantee' the artwork would stay in Port Talbot 'for a minimum of two to three years', and added: 'If it works, it can stay longer. If it doesn't work then I'll move it to a different industrial city.' A Pennsylvania Republican candidate for governor claims secret flights are carrying illegal immigrants into the state. Lou Barletta said a flight landed at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown last Thursday and that others arrived at Scranton a week earlier. He posted images of what he said were chartered airplanes that had taken off from El Paso, Texas, and arrived at Scranton on Christmas day. Barletta accused the Biden administration of playing games with the safety of people in Pennsylvania. 'The incredible secrecy and disregard for Pennsylvanians continues,' he said. 'First, we had to discover for ourselves that illegal immigrants were being shipped into Northeast Pennsylvania on at least four flights. 'But then when people demanded information, the flights were shifted to the Lehigh Valley and they just hoped no one would notice.' A photo shared by Rep. Lou Barletta apparently shows an evening flight of illegal immigrants arriving at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport Barletta, who is running for governor of Pennsylvania, said the flights showed the Biden administration was playing games with the safety of people in the state Barletta shared data from a flight tracking website that showed how planes arriving at Wilkes Barre-Scranton International Airport (AVP) had originated at El Paso, Texas But Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright disputed his claims, saying the flights were part of a Department of Health and Human Services program that had been running for several administrations. They carried unaccompanied children who had arrived from countries in Central America, including Honduras and Guatemala, he told WNEP. 'They find vetted sponsors where these children go,' he said recently. 'They come over the border, they're in Texas, they're unaccompanied, they need to go someplace. 'They have vetted sponsors where they go. These sponsors have to sign a contract that says that they will bring these kids to their court hearing.' They were originally destined to be flown to other airports, he added, but staff shortages at their intended destinations led to a change of plans. However, their arrival has riled Republican lawmakers in state. 'I am extremely concerned by recent reports that the federal government has flown illegal immigrants to the Wilkes Barre-Scranton International Airport (AVP),' Rep. Dan Meuser from Pennsylvania wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and ICE Acting Director Tae Johnson last month. 'It is my understanding that a total of 130 immigrants, 118 minors and 12 adults, arrived aboard an iAero charter flight on Friday, December 17 and were subsequently transported on buses from a private hangar. 'This flight seems to have occurred without airport officials receiving notice or a passenger manifest.' Barletta, suggested the December 17 chartered flight could have carried as many as 180 illegal immigrants. Barletta said Sunday that there were two more 'secret planes' from El Paso, Texas that landed in Scranton on Christmas with even more migrants. GOP Rep. Dan Meuser is demanding answers after the administration sent flights of migrants to Pennsylvania in December The transportation of migrants has been described as 'ghost flights' due to the secrecy surrounding them, including impromptu flights arriving in the middle of the night without a public manifest of passengers. Meuser, whose district falls on the outskirts of Scranton, said that Pennsylvania lawmakers and officials were not informed of the flights and he is questioning whether Scranton is the final destination for these migrants. Biden was born in Scranton and often refers to it lovingly as his hometown. But the president moved from Pennsylvania when he was 10 and lived in Delaware from there on. Meuser said at least 130 migrants were sent to Scranton, while another former Pennsylvania lawmaker claimed there were 180. Pictured: Haitian migrants cross into the U.S. from Mexico on December 27 to claim asylum to Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas 'Pennsylvanians deserve to know about these decisions affecting their community, and I expect immediate answers,' Meuser wrote to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting ICE Director Tae Johnson Meuser claims his constituents have questions surrounding the migration influx to Scranton that he is unable to answer without proper communication from the White House and their imigration and national security agencies. U.S. Congressman Matt Cartwright, a Democrat, represents the district that encompasses Scantron. His office did not address a DailyMail.com inquiry of whether Cartwright was made aware of the flights before they arrived in his district. Cartwright's office did, however, send along a statement from the Democratic representative saying: 'These are legitimate concerns and we've been looking into it.' 'We know that during the last two administrations, federal agencies have responded to overcrowding issues by relocating unaccompanied children to the custody of properly screened family members, host sponsors, and charitable institutions,' he added, without clarifying if he knew that flights of migrants were headed to Scranton. On the other hand, Republican Meuser said the 'lack of communication and transparency surrounding this process is unacceptable.' 'Pennsylvanians deserve to know about these decisions affecting their community, and I expect immediate answers,' he wrote to Mayorkas and Johnson, along with a series of nine questions. Mike Howell, who helped lead the DHS oversight counsel under Trump, told DailyMail.com that the agency is 'acting as travel agents who distribute illegal aliens around the country wherever they wish to go.' 'This is just one part of the administration's open-borders agenda, and is a clear constitutional abuse meant to alter the electorate in a swing state in a way the administration believes will benefit the left,' said Howell, who serves as a senior advisor for government relations for the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. 'Hopefully some brave patriots at DHS will come forward to Congress as whistleblowers to tell the truth,' he added. The relocation of migrants, mostly minors, comes as the Biden administration was forced to restart its Migrant Protection Program, otherwise known as Remain in Mexico policy. The Donald Trump-era program has the U.S. send migrants who entered illegally through the southern border back to Mexico to await court dates for asylum proceedings. It also comes as the administration reallocated projects from the Pentagon to DHS to allow for the agency to plug gaps in Trump's border wall and improve security in more vulnerable areas of the southern border. Customs and Border Protection data shows that officers encountered more than 1.75 million migrants at the southern border since Biden took office. Asylum-seeking migrants from Haiti prepare to cross the Rio Bravo river to turn themselves into Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas on Monday CBP data released this month shows there were 173,620 encounters with migrants at the southern border in November, an uptick from October when crossings finally were on a decline from the massive summer surge Numbers released this month show the agency's officers encountered 173,620 illegal crossers in November alone an uptick from the October crossings of 164,753. The November figures represent a 140 per cent uptick in illegal crossings from the same month last year, when there were only 72,113 encounters. 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 amounts to 46.2 million immigrants both illegal and legal living in the U.S. The latest figure is the highest the proportional U.S. immigrant population has been in 111 years. It is also triple the share of the population since 1970 and double since 1990. Some Republicans critical of Biden's border policies have suggested that migrants be sent to towns where Democrats would feel the burn like Biden's hometown of Wilmington, Delaware or Martha's Vineyard, where the Obama's own a house. Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate and former Representative Lou Barletta also is demanding answers about the flights to his state. On Thursday, the day before Christmas Eve, Barletta pressed Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and Attorney General Josh Shapiro, both Democrats, for answers about the flights. 'It is extremely difficult to adequately screen people and conduct a thorough background check when they have entered the country by illegal means,' Barletta said. Pictured: Healthcare worker Hernando Puno arrives at Blackpool Magistrates' Court where he is accused of nine counts of sexual assault A healthcare worker appeared in court today accused of carrying out a series of sex attacks on women at a hospital. Hernando Puno, 51, is alleged to have sexually assaulted seven women while working at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. In total he faces nine charges relating to incidents alleged to have occurred between November 1, 2012, and March 1, 2021. He is charged with intentionally touching each complainant and that touching was sexual when she did not consent and he did not reasonably believe she was consenting. Mr Puno, who lives in the town, indicated he would deny the assaults during a five-minute hearing at Blackpool Magistrates Court. The chair of the bench, Robert Osinski-Gray, declined jurisdiction and sent the case for a trial at Preston Crown Court. Mr Puno was told he could remain on conditional bail until his scheduled appearance at the crown court on February 2. No ages were given for his alleged victims beyond saying that each was 16 or over at the time of the alleged assault. Mr Puno arrived at court with his wife and, after the hearing, both emerged from the building wearing black masks before Mr Puno, who is suspended from his job at Blackpool Victoria, drove them away in a white SUV. Mr Puno, 51, is currently suspended from his job at Blackpool Victoria Hospital (pictured) The defendants bail conditions include a stipulation that he remains in the country, that he does not approach any witnesses in the case, and that he continues to sleep each night at his home address. He is also banned from seeking employment in any healthcare setting, and from entering any local care practice unless it is for treatment for either himself or his wife. At the request of Sue Mugford, defending, the bench confirmed that Mr Puno could potentially leave the country if such a departure was authorised by a senior detective in the Lancashire Constabulary. Donald Trump tore into Twitter and Facebook in a late Monday statement after the social media giants banned accounts linked to firebrand GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. On Sunday Twitter announced it had permanently suspended Greene's personal account for spreading COVID-19 misinformation, though she still retains access to her official Congressional handle. The next day, Greene said Facebook suspended her account for a 24-hour period. Trump, whose own accounts on the platforms were banned following the Capitol riot on January 6 of last year, urged his supporters to cease using both and called for a ban on their United States-based operations. 'Twitter is a disgrace to democracy. They shouldnt be allowed to do business in this Country,' the ex-president said through his Save America PAC. 'Marjorie Taylor Greene has a huge constituency of honest, patriotic, hard-working people. They dont deserve whats happened to them on places like low-life Twitter and Facebook. 'Everybody should drop off of Twitter and Facebook. Theyre boring, have only a Radical Left point of view, and are hated by everyone. They are a disgrace to our Nation. Keep fighting, Marjorie!' Last February Twitter said Trump's access to his account there, his favored way of reaching supporters which also became a daily source of news headlines, would not be restored even if he took back the White House. Trump lashed out at the social media sites just two days after Twitter permanently suspended one of Greene's accounts while Facebook banned her activity for 24 hours on Monday Facebook reached a decision in June to limit Trump's suspension there to two years. Trump's call for his supporters to drop the platforms comes months after he announced the creation of his own social media venture, TRUTH Social, which the ex-president said is scheduled to launch in early 2022. Greene meanwhile has joined Gettr, a relatively new social media platform created by former Trump adviser Jason Miller. The fallout from her Twitter ban resulted in more than 230,000 people joining the free speech site in a single day, Gettr said in a release. Twitter said Greene had run afoul of their five-strike rule for spreading COVID misinformation. She was last suspended in August for saying that vaccines were 'failing' to reduce the spread of COVID and that the FDA shouldn't have approved them. She got her third strike in July after tweeting that COVID wasn't dangerous. She was also suspended in January, days after the Capitol riot, for tweets echoing conspiracy theories about voter fraud in her home state of Georgia. Two or three strikes earn a 12-hour account lock; four strikes prompt a weeklong suspension, and five or more strikes can get someone permanently removed from Twitter. Trump said Twitter and Facebook are a 'disgrace to our nation' after they suspended Rep. Greene's accounts -- almost a year after doing the same to him On Sunday, the Georgia Republican's spokesman shared her response to Twitter, which she posted on messaging app Telegram. 'Twitter is an enemy to America and cant handle the truth. That's fine, Ill show America we dont need them and its time to defeat our enemies,' Greene said. In a statement released by her office, Greene said she was suspended for sharing a tweet citing numbers from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a self-reporting tool for vaccine side effects managed by the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration. The fringe Republican, who has previously shared QAnon conspiracy theories and suggested that California wildfires were caused by Jewish space lasers, announced her suspension from Facebook on her Gettr account. 'Facebook has joined Twitter in censoring me,' she said. 'This is beyond censorship of speech.' 'I'm an elected Member of Congress representing over 700,000 US tax paying citizens and I represent their voices, values, defend their freedoms, and protect the Constitution.' On her Gettr account she shared what appeared to be a Facebook screenshot. Greene's personal account was suspended on Sunday, as seen in this grab, after Twitter previously said Greene railed against social media companies for 'censoring' her, after her unfounded claims of 'extremely high amounts of COVID vaccine deaths' led to her accounts being suspended 'You can't post or comment for 24 hours. This is because you previously posted something that didn't follow our Community Standards,' it said. Facebook's intervention comes after Greene posted the same message to both platforms, claiming reports of injury or death among COVID-19 vaccine recipients were evidence of the federal government ignoring 'extremely high amounts of COVID vaccine deaths.' On GETTR, she said there had been 'zero investigation' into the deaths. 'Who appointed Twitter and Facebook to be the authorities of information and misinformation?' she asked. 'When Big Tech decides what political speech of elected members is accepted and whats not then they are working against our government and against the interest of our people.' There is no evidence of that coronavirus vaccines cause widespread, serious side-effects. Meanwhile conservatives and other right-wing figures often accuse the mainstream social media platforms of censorship. This compilation of Greene's final tweets railing against COVID measures appear to be what earned her her fifth strike and permanent ban from Twitter Facebook came under fire in recent days for disabling the account of a conservative children's book publisher that it claimed violated its 'low quality or disruptive content' policy. Heroes of Liberty specializes in kid-friendly biographies of national right-wing figures like Ronald Reagan and Amy Coney Barrett. The social media giant neglected to give exact examples of which posts violated the policy, but in a message to Heroes of Liberty it pointed to a rule included in its advertising guidelines that states: 'Ads must not contain content leading to external landing pages that provide an unexpected or disruptive experience.' 'This includes misleading ad positioning, such as overly sensationalized headlines or prompts for users to inauthentically interact with the ad, and leading people to landing pages that contain minimal original content and a majority of unrelated or low quality ad content.' Facebook told Fox Business on Tuesday that the account was permanently disabled 'in error' and has since been restored. A Brazilian national has been arrested for allegedly stealing the identity of a four-year-old Atlanta boy who died in a car crash in 1979 - and building a life in the US that included working as a United Airlines flight attendant for more than 20 years. Ricardo Cesar Guedes, 49, is facing federal charges of providing a false statement in a passport application, falsely impersonating a US citizen and entering an airport secure area under false pretenses due to his job as a flight attendant, which allowed him to pass through security checkpoints at many American airports. Federal prosecutors claim in a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Texas that Guedes stole the identity of William Ericson Ladd, of Atlanta, who died just one month before his fifth birthday in a 1979 car crash in Washington State. Authorities say Guedes, who lives in Lake Houston, Texas, came to the US sometime in the mid-1990s and overstayed his tourist visa. He began using a Social Security card in Ladd's name 17 years after the boy died and applied for a passport in Ladd's name in 1998, according to the Houston Chronicle. Guedes apparently had no connection to the boy and officials did not reveal how he managed to get the dead boy's Social Security number. However, once he had the information, Guedes bought a Lake Houston home, got married, bought a BMW, took out a mortgage and started his career at United as an illegal immigrant, according to the Chronicle. He is now being detained pending a trial, and a United Airlines spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that Guedes has been fired in the wake of the scandal. DailyMail.com has reached out to his attorney for comment. Ricardo Cesar Guedes, 49, is facing criminal charges for allegedly stealing the identity of William Ericson Ladd, of Atlanta, who died just one month before his fifth birthday in a 1979 car crash in Washington State Guedes worked as a flight attendant for United Airlines for 23 years under his assumed name He is now facing federal charges of providing a false statement in a passport application, falsely impersonating a US citizen and entering an airport secure area under false pretenses due to his job as a flight attendant William Ericson Ladd was born in 1974 to William Francis Ladd and Debra Lynn Ladd (nee Hays) in Atlanta. Speaking to federal prosecutors, Debra confirmed that her son had died and said she did not remember whether he had a Social Security number. Guedes, meanwhile, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1972, but assumed Ladd's identity in the mid-1990s. He renewed his passport six times since 1998 until December 2020 when the State Department flagged his application for 'various fraud indicators' after the fingerprints he had used for his application matched those Guedes submitted for his Brazilian national identity document in the 1990s. Federal agents also obtained records from Brazilian law enforcement officials who advised them that Maria Auxiliadora Duarte Guedes was Ricardo's mother. When they asked Maria about her son, she said she did not know anyone by the name of Eric Ladd, but admitted her son lived in the United States. Photos posted on 'Eric Ladd's' social media also showed him with Maria Guedes, the Chronicle reported, and traveling to other countries as a flight attendant with a badge showing he spoke Portuguese. Photos posted to social media showed Guedes, under the name Eric Ladd, traveling to other countries with a pin listing that he speaks Portuguese Guedes allegedly bought this house in Lake Houston - and took out a mortgage for it - under Ladd's name Guedes was arrested at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston in September as he tried to board a flight while holding a phone that was labeled 'Eric's iPhone' on the screen. When confronted by the federal officials, the Houston Chronicle reported, he identified himself as 'William Ericson Ladd.' An official then reportedly told him that it is a federal crime to lie, at which point Guedes said he was born in the United States but was raised by his missionary parents in Brazil. The officer then notified him that the government had a death certificate for William Ericson Ladd, making Guedes go silent, according to court documents, before showing Guedes a picture of William Ericson Ladd's gravesite in Alabama. Eventually, the Chronicle reports, Guedes signed a new fingerprint sheet identifying himself as 'Ricardo Guedes.' As officials placed him under arrest, he told them: 'I had a dream and the dream is over. 'Now I have to face reality.' Emma Watson has been accused of anti-Semitism by Israel's former UN envoy after the actress posted a picture on social media expressing support for Palestinians. The Harry Potter star, 31, shared an image of a pro-Palestinian rally with the phrase 'solidarity is a verb' to her 64.2 million Instagram followers on Sunday. The picture was posted with a quote from British-Australian scholar Sara Ahmed, which read: 'Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future. 'Solidarity involves commitment, and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground.' However, she was accused of anti-Semitism by Ambassador Danny Danon, Israel's former Permanent Representative to the UN, on Monday. He tweeted a screenshot of the Instagram post with the caption: '10 points from Gryffindor for being an antisemite.' Emma Watson pictured as she attends the world premiere of 'Little Women' at Museum of Modern Art in December 2019 Emma Watson posted a picture of a pro-Palestinian rally to her Instagram page with the wording 'solidarity is a verb' The picture was posted with a caption containing a quote from British-Australian scholar Sara Ahmed Ms Watson was accused of anti-Semitism by Ambassador Danny Danon, Israel's former Permanent Representative to the UN Gilad Erdan, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, also tweeted his dismay at the picture. He said: 'Fiction may work in Harry Potter but it does not work in reality. 'If it did, the magic used in the wizarding world could eliminate the evils of Hamas (which oppresses women & seeks the annihilation of Israel) and the PA (which supports terror). I would be in favor of that!' The Instagram post has received more than 1m likes and 101,000 comments. The Israeli dignitaries, though, have been criticised for overreacting and 'misrepresenting anti-Semitism'. Gilad Erdan, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, also took to Twitter to share his dismay at the picture Alex Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds North West, said: '50 points from Likud for misrepresenting Antisemitism. This doesn't help anyone in the Jewish Diaspora.' Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible Project, said Mr Danon's tweet was 'a perfect demonstration of the utterly cynical and bad-faith weaponization of antisemitism to shut down basic expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people'. It comes after Ms Watson reunited with her fellow Harry Potter stars to celebrate 20 years since the franchise launched with The Philosopher's Stone - which included Richard Harris, Alan Rickman and Helen McCrory. Speaking about appearing on the reunion without their late stars, Ms Watson said: 'It's obviously amazing to be back, but so many people we thought would be here for much longer like Helen and Alan and Richard.' In October, Israeli officials accused acclaimed author Sally Rooney of 'impeding peace' in the Middle East by refusing a publisher's offer to have her latest book translated into Hebrew. Sally Rooney, 30, was asked by Israeli publisher Modan to translate her new book -Beautiful World, Where Are You - but the author allegedly rejected the request The award-winning Irish writer defended her decision to refuse the translation of 'Beautiful World, Where Are You' by Israeli publisher Modan, saying she supported a cultural boycott of Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. She said the decision to reject the publisher - who she claimed had 'not publicly distanced itself from apartheid' - was an expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people 'in their struggle for freedom and equality'. But Israeli officials hit back, with a spokesperson for Israel's Foreign Ministry declaring: 'This is an unfortunate position that promotes narrow-mindedness and impedes peace, dialogue, or any meaningful change. 'Literature is a tool to promote dialogue and conversation. There is something inherently flawed with an intellectual who refuses to engage in conversation, and instead supports the silencing of opinion.' Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been accused of 'economic support for genocide' after the company opened a new showroom in China's Xinjiang region, despite the country's detention of potentially millions of Uyghur Muslims. Tesla's announcement quickly attracted criticism from rights and trade groups, making it the latest foreign firm caught up in tensions related to the Chinese region. U.N. experts and rights groups estimate more than a million people, mainly Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been detained in camps there. As a result, Xinjiang has become a significant point of conflict between Western governments and China in recent years, with a London tribunal ruling last month that China was carrying out genocide of Uyghur Muslims in the region. Despite the tensions, the U.S. electric car maker announced the showroom's opening in Xinjiang's regional capital, Urumqi, on its official Weibo account last Friday. Tesla CEO Elon Musk (pictured) has been accused of 'economic support for genocide' after the company opened a new showroom in China's Xinjiang region, despite the country's detention of potentially millions of Uyghur Muslims 'On the last day of 2021 we meet in Xinjiang,' Tesla said in the post. 'Let's start Xinjiang's all-electric journey!' The country had long-planned to open the showroom for sales, delivery and customer service purposes, according to The Times. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an American organisation based in Washington, D.C., on Monday urged Tesla and its chairman, Elon Musk, to close the showroom and 'cease what amounts to economic support for genocide.' 'No American corporation should be doing business in a region that is the focal point of a campaign of genocide targeting a religious and ethnic minority,' the group's communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, said in a statement. The United States has also labelled China's treatment of ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang as genocide. The United States and a few other countries plan a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February over the issue. China has rejected the accusations of forced labour or any other abuses there, saying that the camps provide vocational training and that companies should respect its policies there. 'Elon Musk must close Tesla's Xinjiang showroom,' Council on American-Islamic Relations also said on its official Twitter account, referring to Tesla's founder. Similar criticism came from a U.S. trade group, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, and U.S. senator Marco Rubio. A receptionist works at a Tesla showroom in Beijing, China, Jan. 4, 2022. American-based activists are appealing to Tesla Inc. to close a new showroom in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, where officials are accused of abuses against mostly Muslim ethnic minorities 'Nationless corporations are helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up genocide and slave labour in the region,' Rubio said on Twitter. Executive director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth wrote: 'What is @Tesla thinking, choosing to open a showroom in Xinjiang as the Chinese government, through its mass detention and persecution, is committing crimes against humanity there against Uyghur/Turkic Muslims.' Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters news agency. The carmaker operates a factory in Shanghai and is ramping up production there amid surging sales in China. Pressure on foreign companies to take positions on Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan and other politically charged issues has been rising. The ruling Communist Party pushes companies to adopt its positions in their advertising and on websites. It has attacked clothing and other brands that express concern about reports of forced labour and other abuses in Xinjiang. A slew of foreign firms in recent months have been tripped up by these tensions between the West and China over Xinjiang, as they try to balance Western pressure with China's importance as a market and supply base. Xinjiang has become a significant point of conflict between Western governments and China in recent years, with a London tribunal ruling last month that China was carrying out genocide of Uyghur Muslims in the region On Friday, the ruling party's discipline agency threatened Walmart Inc. with a boycott after some shoppers complained online they couldn't find goods from Xinjiang in its Walmart and Sam's Club stores in China. In December, Intel Corp., the world's biggest maker of computer chips, apologised for asking suppliers to avoid sourcing goods from Xinjiang after the state press attacked the company and comments online called for a boycott of its goods. The United States has barred imports of goods from Xinjiang unless they can be shown not to be made by forced labour. Other foreign auto brands including Volkswagen, General Motors and Nissan Motor Co. have showrooms in Xinjiang operated by the automakers' Chinese joint-venture partners. VW also operates a factory in Urumqi. In July, Swedish fashion retailer H&M reported a 23 percent drop in local currency sales in China for its March-May quarter after it was hit by a consumer boycott in March for stating publicly that it did not source products from Xinjiang. Although some have been trying to reduce their supply chain exposure to the region, especially as Washington bans imports such as Xinjiang cotton or blacklists Chinese companies that it says have aided Beijing's policy there, many foreign brands operate stores there. China is one of Tesla's biggest markets. The company's first factory outside the United States opened in Shanghai in 2019. Meanwhile, it was reported on Tuesday that Tesla founder Elon Mask has added $32.6 billion to his net worth, bringing his fortune to $304.2 billion. Musk's windfall once again took his worth over the $300 billion mark that he briefly passed in November, becoming the first person to ever do so. According to Forbes, the controversial social-media savvy billionaire - who is also the founder behind the commercial space enterprise SpaceX - remained at the top of the world's rich list going into the new year. In second place and $103.6 billion behind Musk is Bernard Arnault, the CEO of French fashion empire LVMH. Amazon founder and former-CEO Jeff Bezos sits in third place, Forbes said. Tesla's soaring stock price has again been credited for the South African's growing wealth. New York's disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo will not be prosecuted for allegedly groping a woman at his executive mansion, but could still face civil lawsuits, Albany County's district attorney says. The case is not being pursued despite prosecutors' acknowledgement his accuser was 'cooperative and credible.' It's the fourth time within the past week that allegations against Cuomo have been dropped; Manhattan's district attorney said Monday that is will not file any charges against Cuomo in the nursing home scandal. Last week, prosecutors in two districts said Cuomo would not face criminal charges after two women, including a state trooper, alleged that he planted unwanted kisses on their cheeks. Cuomo was due to be arraigned Friday over claims he inappropriately touched former staffer and current state worker Brittany Commisso, 33, in November 2020. Although Commisso reportedly sought to move forward with the case, she was told by prosecutors Monday that the case will be dropped because of the way the complaint was filed. Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo was due to be arraigned on Friday for allegedly groping former staffer and current state worker Brittany Commisso, 33, middle, in November 2020 Commisso was the first woman to take her claims against Cuomo to police, who charged him with a Class A misdemeanor of forcible touching over her allegation that he groped her breast in his office in November 2020. Albany County District Attorney David Soares confirmed Tuesday that the charge will not be prosecuted. The office's investigation into Cuomo is now complete. 'While many have an opinion regarding the allegations against the former Governor, the Albany County DA's Office is the only one who has a burden to prove the elements of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt,' Soares said in a press release. 'While we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible, after review of all the available evidence we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial. As such we have notified the Court that we are declining to prosecute this matter and requesting the charges filed by the Albany County Sheriff be dismissed.' The democratic prosecutor hinted Monday that the complaint was concerning. 'While many have an opinion regarding the allegations against the former governor, the Albany County DA's Office is the only one who has a burden to prove the elements of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt,' Soares said Monday. Cuomo has denied the allegations against him. His lawyer did not respond to a DailyMail.com request for comment. Commisso (left) is pictured with Cuomo and colleague Alyssa McGrath in this undated photo But Albany County's district attorney confirmed Tuesday that he will not be prosecuted for the alleged crime Fellow Cuomo accusers Alyssa McGrath and Virginia Limmiatis said through their attorney that while they were disappointed in the outcome, they were not surprised. 'Unfortunately, our penal laws and system frequently do not properly punish the acts of so many abusive men in power,' their lawyer Mariann Wang said in a statement. 'Cuomo's conduct was nonetheless unlawful and deeply harmful to the women who were subjected to it, as the Attorney General and Assembly found in their reports. My clients remain grateful for those investigations and above all to the other women who had the courage to come forward. Cuomo and men like him should not be in positions of power.' Cuomo's attorney Rita Glavin has said that Commisso's 'story changed over time.' The complaint filed by an investigator in Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple's office said evidence in the case included police BlackBerry messages, cell phone records, building security records and a text message from Cuomo's mobile phone. Soars criticized Apple for 'unilaterally and inexplicably' filing a complaint before consulting with prosecutors, and said the complaint was 'potentially defective.' Apple has contended that although the paperwork was processed quickly, he was confident the case would stick. A complaint filed by an Albany County sheriff's department investigator said evidence in the case included police BlackBerry messages, cell phone records, building security records and a text message from Cuomo's mobile phone Police in October filed a misdemeanor groping complaint against Cuomo, but a week later the district attorney asked a judge for more time to evaluate the evidence. The D.A. said that the sheriff's one-page criminal complaint, based on Commisso's allegations were 'potentially defective.' New York's attorney general's office released a 500-page transcript of Cuomo's deposition last November that contained claims by the former politician that Commisso asked for a raise during the same month of the alleged groping. He told investigators that she asked for a raise in November 2020 after filing for divorce from her husband. According to him, she begged him for a raise and was 'upset' and fearful that she was going to lose her job because she'd filed for divorce from her local politician husband, and was worried about money. Cuomo described Commisso as 'friendly', 'chatty' and 'flirtatious' when she came to work for him during COVID-19, after her department was shut down, but said he also had 'limited contact' with her. Cuomo claimed during a sworn deposition that Commisso asked for a raise during the same month as the purported groping Cuomo described Commisso as 'friendly', 'chatty' and 'flirtatious' when she came to work for him during COVID-19 but said he also had 'limited contact' with her Commisso was the first woman to take her claims against Cuomo to police, who charged him with a Class A misdemeanor of forcible touching over her allegation that he groped her breast in his office in November 2020 The ex-governor was also let off the hook last week when Westchester District Attorney Mimi Roca said he won't face criminal charges stemming from allegations of unwanted kissing by two women, one of them a state trooper assigned to his detail. District Attorney Mimi Rocah said there was 'credible evidence' the claims were valid 'In both instances, my office has determined that, although the allegations and witnesses were credible, and the conduct concerning, we cannot pursue criminal charges due to the statutory requirements of the criminal laws of New York,' Rocah said in a statement. The female state trooper said she felt 'completely violated' by his unwanted touching at an event at Belmont Park racetrack in September 2019. According to the report, the trooper said Cuomo ran the palm of his left hand across her abdomen, to her belly button and then to her right hip, where she kept her gun, while she held a door open for him as he left an event at Belmont Park on September 23, 2019. Last August, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a 168-page report with 74,000 pieces of evidence and dozens of interviews that chronicled accusations from 11 women against Cuomo and led to his resignation from office, although he has attacked the findings as biased and inaccurate. After James' report was concluded, she said pursuing potential criminal penalties would be up to prosecutors. The unnamed state trooper assigned to Cuomo's detail was on duty at his home in Mount Kisco and asked the governor if he needed anything before he responded by asking her if he could kiss her, according to James' report. The trooper said that she feared the ramifications of denying his request, so she said 'sure.' Cuomo kissed her on the cheek and, as listed in James' report, said something along the lines of 'oh, I'm not supposed to do that' or 'unless that's against the rules.' Former aide Lindsay Boylan, 36, was the first woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment in a Medium post on February 24. Charlotte Bennett, 25, came forward a few days later In a second allegation probed by Rocah's office, a woman claimed that an unprompted Cuomo grabbed her arm, pulled her toward him and kissed her on the cheek to greet her at an event at White Plains High School. While Rocah said that her office would not pursue criminal charges, she added that their conclusion is not related to 'any possible civil liability' because it is outside of her office's jurisdiction. Last week, a Long Island prosecutor said Cuomo wouldn't face criminal charges after the same unnamed trooper said she felt 'completely violated' by his unwanted touching at an event at Belmont Park in September 2019. Acting Nassau County District Attorney Joyce Smith said the allegations were credible and troubling but not criminal under state law. Former aide Lindsay Boylan, 36, was the first woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment in a Medium post on February 24. She claimed that the governor asked her to play strip poker and kissed her on the lips without her permission when she worked for him in 2017. Charlotte Bennett, 25, came forward a few days after Boylan and claimed that Cuomo sexually harassed her last June while she was working as a health policy adviser in his administration at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. Bennett accused Cuomo of 'grooming' her and asking inappropriate questions about her sex life. She also claimed that he told her he was open to dating women in their 20s. Cuomo accusers Alyssa McGrath and Virginia Limmiatis said through their attorney that while they were disappointed in the outcome, they were not surprised Attorney General Letitia James' report found that Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women in violation of federal and state civil rights law but left the possibility of pursuing potential criminal penalties to prosecutors Anna Ruch was the third woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment and the only one thus far who did not work with him in a professional capacity. She claimed that Cuomo put his hands on her face and asked if he could kiss her just moments after they met at a September 2019 wedding in Manhattan. Ana Liss, 35, a former aide, said Cuomo asked her whether she had a boyfriend, once kissed her hand at her desk and called her by patronizing names, including 'blondie,' 'sweetheart' and 'honey.' Fellow accuser McGrath said the governor, 63, ogled her body, called her and her co-worker 'mingle mamas' and asked about her lack of a wedding ring, according to The New York Times. The New York Times conducted several interviews with McGrath early last year in which she described the governor's pattern of flirtatious banter. She also claimed he looked down her shirt to compliment her on her necklace, told her that she's beautiful in Italian and kissed her on the forehead during an office Christmas party in 2019. Alyssa McGrath said Cuomo ogled her body, called her and her co-worker 'mingle mamas' and asked about her lack of a wedding ring as well calling her beautiful in Italian At a reception, the governor hugged her then put his arm around her lower back and waist as they posed for photo, Liss said. She said she eventually asked for a job transfer. In an interview, Liss said she was 'not claiming sexual harassment per se,' but felt the administration 'wasn't a safe space for young women to work.' Rita Glavin, a lawyer for Cuomo, responded to McGrath's allegations by admitting he uses Italian phrases like 'ciao bella.' 'The governor has greeted men and women with hugs and a kiss on the cheek, forehead, or hand. Yes, he has posed for photographs with his arm around them. Yes, he uses Italian phrases like 'ciao bella',' Glavin told the Times on Friday. The oldest allegations against Cuomo came from Karen Hinton, who served as a press aide for him when he led the US Department of Housing and Urban Development two decades ago and she was a consultant for the agency. Hinton told the Washington Post about a 2000 incident when she said Cuomo summoned her to his 'dimly lit' hotel room and embraced her after a work event. She said she tried to pull away from Cuomo when he pulled her back and held her before she managed to escape the room. The most damning allegations leveled against Cuomo to date came from a sixth accuser, whose name has not been released. The accuser, who is a member of Cuomo's staff, alleged that he closed a door, reached under her blouse and fondled her after summoning her to the governor's mansion in Albany for help with his cellphone, according to the Times Union of Albany. Advertisement Prince Andrew's two daughters have today been spotted in an exclusive Swiss ski resort, as their father faces a crunch point in his US sexual assault lawsuit. Eugenie, 31, the youngest daughter of the Duke of York, was seen carrying her skis as she walked alongside husband Jack Brooksbank in the exclusive resort of Verbier. Her sister, Princess Beatrice, 33, was also spotted smiling as she took a stroll through the town - where the Duke of York owns a luxury chalet - in a thick jacket and a bobble hat. Beatrice's husband, property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, was also spotted carrying ski boots as he walked through the resort. Meanwhile, The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, remained at the traditional-style 17million chalet - which boasts views of the Bagnes Valley. It comes as Prince Andrew, who is holed up at home in Windsor, today faces a nail-biting moment in his defence of sex assault allegations in the US. Today the 61-year-old's lawyers argued that a $500,000 (370,000) deal between his accuser Virginia Roberts and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein shields him from liability. Ms Roberts, who now goes by her married name of Giuffre, is suing the Duke of York for alleged sexual assault when she was a teenager. Prince Andrew denies the allegations, and his legal team are making their argument to dismiss the case. A decision on the motion to dismiss the US lawsuit is expected imminently. Eugenie, 31, the youngest daughter of the Duke of York, was seen carrying her skis as she walked alongside husband Jack Brooksbank (pictured together) in the famous Swiss resort of Verbier Her sister, Princess Beatrice (pictured left), 33, was also spotted smiling as she took a stroll through the town in a thick jacket and a bobble hat. Her husband, property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi (pictured right), was also spotted carrying ski boots as he walked through the resort Prince Andrew, who is holed up at home in Windsor, today faces a nail-biting moment in his defence of sex assault allegations in the US Judge Lewis Kaplan is holding the case by video call a day after a document was made public revealing the terms of the payout from Epstein. The document detailed Ms Giuffre had in 2009 agreed to 'release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge' Epstein and 'any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant'. David Boies, the lawyer acting on behalf of Ms Giuffre, who used to be known as Virginia Roberts, said Andrew would not be a 'potential defendant' as referred to in the civil case documents released yesterday for two reasons. He told the judge: 'The only claim that is asserted that was made in Florida in the 2009 action that covered Prince Andrew was the third count which was to transport somebody for the purpose of illegal sexual activity. 'There is no allegation that Prince Andrew was the person transporting. There is no allegation that Prince Andrew fell into the category of people who were doing the trafficking. He was somebody to whom the girls were trafficked.' Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, now known as Virginia Giuffre, at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London in 2001 Virginia Giuffre with her lawyer David Boies outside a court in New York at the time of a previous hearing in August 2019 Today's hearing was held between the parties' representatives via video conference with press and public able to listen in by telephone. Ms Giuffre alleges that Epstein lent her out for sex with his wealthy and powerful associates, including Andrew, an allegation the prince has repeatedly and strenuously denied. How Andrew is trying to have sex assault case thrown out today Prince Andrew's lawyers are appearing at a New York court today to try and get his sex assault case dismissed. Virginia Giuffre, 38, claims she was 17 when she slept with Andrew three times in 2001 under orders from Epstein, a friend of the duke. She is suing for claims of battery and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Andrew has called her accusations 'baseless' and repeatedly denied them, claiming that she is seeking a 'payday at his expense'. His lawyers are today using details of a $500,000 settlement reached in 2009 between Ms Giuffre and Epstein to block the case against the Duke. They will argue that Andrew was essentially identified as a defendant in that settlement and so Ms Giuffre signed away the right to sue him. The unsealed court papers revealed that she agreed to 'release, acquit, satisfy and for ever discharge' Epstein and 'any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant'. Andrew is not named in the settlement but his lawyers believe he is covered as a 'potential defendant'. The document also references the term 'royalty', something the duke's lawyers also suggest gives them 'strong legal ground' to dismiss the case. It says: 'In addition to being continually exploited to satisfy the defendant's every sexual whim, (she) was also required to be sexually exploited by (Epstein's) adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen, and/or other professional and personal acquaintances.' His lawyers believe the document gives him a strong case to have the claims against him dismissed, though experts say its wording is 'vague'. If unsuccessful, Andrew faces the prospect of a lengthy discovery and deposition process that could involve close members of family and his police protection officers, ahead of a trial in the autumn. Advertisement Andrew B Brettler, the lawyer for the Duke, said today that a potential defendant was 'someone who was not named as a defendant but could have been'. He told Judge Kaplan that a potential defendant would be someone Ms Giuffre knew that she had 'claims against at the time that she filed the lawsuit' in 2009. Judge Kaplan said 'potential' was a phrase that neither he nor Mr Brettler could 'find any meaning at all' in. Mr Brettler told Judge Kaplan that the Duke 'could have been sued' but was not. Andrew's lawyer said Ms Giuffre needed to allege 'today' what her complaint against the duke is. Mr Brettler said: 'We just want a date, a month, or even a year. All we know is that she was 17 years old.' 'She has no obligation to do that in the complaint,' Judge Kaplan responded. Mr Brettler told Judge Kaplan that Ms Giuffre 'doesn't articulate' what had allegedly happened to her at the hands of the duke. He said she was over the age of consent in the state of New York and so needed to allege she was forced to have sex with the duke. Judge Kaplan said: 'With all due respect, Mr Brettler, that's not a dog that's got a hunt here' and that she had no obligation to do so. He said he understood Mr Brettler's point but 'it just isn't the law'. Mr Brettler said Ms Giuffre did not 'explain how she was forcibly compelled' under New York law. He said her complaint needed to include 'imminent threat of harm and there is no such allegation in her complaint'. Continuing his arguments, the Duke's lawyer told Judge Kaplan: 'We don't know what the conduct was.' The judge replied: 'Involuntary sexual intercourse. There's no doubt what that means.' Mr Brettler moved on to say 'Prince Andrew should not be dragged into this court 20 years after.' He said: 'Witnesses die, witnesses may be incarcerated.' Concluding his arguments, Mr Brettler said the case against his client filed by Ms Giuffre should 'absolutely be dismissed'. 'She has given plenty of interviews all over the world, then files this lawsuit. It is unfair, it is unjust, it should be dismissed.' Mr Brettler told Judge Kaplan that Ms Giuffre was 'healthy as far as we know' and had not been prevented from contacting her lawyers during the pandemic. He said she was 'represented by sophisticated attorneys'. Judge Kaplan asked whether if another defendant with different representation made the same claim it could be seen as timely. Mr Brettler said 'not necessarily' because he did not think the statute was constitutional and added that Ms Giuffre had had 'every means of accessing the courthouse' during the pandemic. He said the complaint had been filed five days before the statute was expiring and that this was 'inherently unfair and unjust....the case should be thrown out'. Mr Boies, representing Ms Giuffre, said that the argument made by the Duke's lawyers that the complaint was unconstitutional was inconsistent with what they had said in their motion to dismiss, where they had made 'clear that they were attacking the legislative decision' made at the time. He said the complaint 'makes clear with respect to the sexual intercourse and the sexual touching' but that the argument of the duke's lawyers today that 'we have to allege some imminent threat of death' was inconsistent with what they had said previously in the motion to dismiss where they had said Ms Giuffre and 'other similarly situated individuals' could have been considered not to have consented in situations where they did not 'expressly acquiesce'. He said that the issue of lack of consent was much wider than the 'imminent threat of death'. Mr Boies also said Andrew would not be a 'potential defendant' as referred to in the civil case documents released yesterday for two reasons. Mr Boies said: 'The only claim that is asserted that was made in Florida in the 2009 action that covered Prince Andrew was the third count which was to transport somebody for the purpose of illegal sexual activity. Prince Andrew is interviewed for the BBC's Newsnight in November 2019. In the interview, Andrew denied Ms Giuffre's claim that they had shared a sweaty dance at a London nightclub, saying that at the time he could not sweat due to a condition Prince Andrew walks through New York's Central Park with Jeffrey Epstein following the latter's prison term in 2011 'There is no allegation that Prince Andrew was the person transporting. There is no allegation that Prince Andrew fell into the category of people who were doing the trafficking. He was somebody to whom the girls were trafficked.' The hearing then finished, with Judge Kaplan thanking both sides for the arguments and 'the passions'. He told them 'you will have a decision pretty soon' but declined to give any idea what 'pretty soon' meant. The judge also said the 'scheduling order' remained in effect while he deliberates. A deal made public for the first time yesterday by a New York court shows that Ms Giuffre agreed to drop a civil claim against Epstein for $500,000 in Florida in 2009. The settlement contained a provision that purports to protect 'other potential defendants' from being sued related to alleged sexual abuse committed by Epstein, who killed himself in jail two and a half years ago. Ms Giuffre sued the prince for unspecified damages last year, alleging he sexually assaulted her in 2001 when she was 17 and a minor under American law. The 61-year-old Andrew has not been criminally charged. Ms Giuffre says Andrew assaulted her at Epstein's home in New York, and on his private island in the US Virgin Islands. Ghislaine Maxwell gives Jeffrey Epstein a foot massage on his private jet dubbed the 'Lolita Express'. The photo was entered into evidence in Maxwell's case on December 7 by the US Attorney's Office She alleges he also sexually abused her at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was last week found guilty of sex trafficking minors for Epstein. Maxwell, who introduced Andrew to Epstein in the early 1990s, faces life behind bars after being convicted by New York jurors of five of the six counts she faced following a high-profile month-long trial. Epstein died aged 66 in a Manhattan jail in 2019, in what New York's coroner ruled was a suicide, after being charged with child sex trafficking charges. He was convicted in 2008 of paying young girls for sexual massages at his Florida mansion but served just 13 months in jail after striking a deal with the state prosecutor at the time. Andrew has rarely been seen in public since he was forced to quit the royal frontline in 2019 for failing to distance himself from Epstein. A courtroom sketch shows Ghislaine Maxwell sitting as the guilty verdict in her sex abuse trial is read in New York last week In a disastrous interview with the BBC that year, Andrew denied Ms Giuffre's claim that they had shared a sweaty dance at a London nightclub, saying that at the time he could not sweat due to a condition related to having fought in the 1982 Falklands War. Last week, Ms Giuffre's lawyers demanded that Andrew hand over medical records proving that he is unable to sweat. Andrew's legal team has accused Ms Giuffre of seeking to profit from a 'baseless lawsuit,' which is still in its early days. On Friday, judge Kaplan rejected their attempts to halt progression of the suit on the grounds that Ms Giuffre now lives in Australia. The judge in Prince Andrew's sex abuse case came down hard on the royal's lawyer as he argued that a sex assault lawsuit against Queen Elizabeth's second son should be thrown out of court. Judge Lewis Kaplan heard arguments Tuesday morning in Virginia Roberts Giuffre's case against the Duke of York. The judge said he will rule on whether to dismiss Giuffre's case against Andrew 'pretty soon.' Andrew's lawyers argued that a $500,000 deal between Giuffre and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein shields the duke from liability, as she sues him for alleged sexual assault when she was a teenager. Giuffre's legal team claims that the agreement is irrelevant to her complaint against Andrew and that the case must proceed - but the duke's legal team has now made its argument to dismiss the case. Giuffre's lawyer described the royal as 'somebody to whom the girls were trafficked' as a hearing in the bombshell case took place in New York. The Duke of York was photographed with his arm around the bare waist of then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts. In the background, Ghislaine Maxwell. Roberts claims she was forced to have sex with the royal three times Judge Lewis Kaplan heard arguments for an hour in Virginia Giuffre's claims against the Duke of York. Kaplan gave Giuffre's lawyer a hard time, interrupting his points several times during Tuesday's hearing Virginia Giuffre's lawyer David Boies (with Giuffre at an earlier hearing) claimed that Prince Andrew was not covered by a settlement with Jeffrey Epstein as he was not alleged to be a sex trafficker but 'somebody to whom the girls were trafficked' Prince Andrew has hired Hollywood attorney Andrew Brettler (right) to represent him in the sexual assault case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre Judge Lewis Kaplan held the case by video call a day after a document was made public revealing the terms of the payout from Epstein, who was found dead in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial. The document stated that Giuffre had in 2009 agreed to 'release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge' Epstein and 'any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant'. Giuffre's lawyer David Boies said Andrew could not be a 'potential defendant' as referred to in the civil case documents released yesterday for two reasons. He told the judge: 'The only claim that is asserted that was made in Florida in the 2009 action that covered Prince Andrew was the third count which was to transport somebody for the purpose of illegal sexual activity. 'There is no allegation that Prince Andrew was the person transporting. There is no allegation that Prince Andrew fell into the category of people who were doing the trafficking. He was somebody to whom the girls were trafficked.' Judge Kaplan repeatedly interrupted Andrew's lawyer Andrew Brettler, cutting him off mid sentence to ask him questions, sometimes repeating the same question. The judge interrupted Giuffre's lawyer David Boies several times but his tone appeared significantly less abrasive. How Andrew is trying to have sex assault case thrown out Prince Andrew's lawyers appeared at a New York court Tuesday to try to get his sex assault case dismissed. Virginia Giuffre, 38, claims she was 17 when she slept with Andrew three times in 2001 under orders from Jeffrey Epstein, a friend of the duke. She is suing for claims of battery and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Andrew has called her accusations 'baseless' and repeatedly denied them, claiming that she is seeking a 'payday at his expense'. His lawyers are using details of a $500,000 settlement reached in 2009 between Ms Giuffre and Epstein to block the case against the duke. They will argue that Andrew was essentially identified as a defendant in that settlement and so Ms Giuffre signed away the right to sue him. The unsealed court papers revealed that she agreed to 'release, acquit, satisfy and for ever discharge' Epstein and 'any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant'. Andrew is not named in the settlement but his lawyers believe he is covered as a 'potential defendant'. The document also references the term 'royalty', something the duke's lawyers also suggest gives them 'strong legal ground' to dismiss the case. It says: 'In addition to being continually exploited to satisfy the defendant's every sexual whim, (she) was also required to be sexually exploited by (Epstein's) adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen, and/or other professional and personal acquaintances.' His lawyers believe the document gives him a strong case to have the claims against him dismissed, though experts say its wording is 'vague'. If unsuccessful, Andrew faces the prospect of a lengthy discovery and deposition process that could involve close members of family and his police protection officers, ahead of a trial in the autumn. Advertisement Giuffre, a 38-year-old mother-of-three, sued Andrew in federal court in New York in July for infliction of emotional distress and battery. She claims she was forced to have sex with the duke three times in 2001 at Epstein's command when she was 17. Andrew strongly denies her claims and has said she is after 'another payday at his expense'. Brettler went first arguing each of the duke's points. He spoke on the 2009 settlement between Epstein and Giuffre and the phrase 'other potential defendants.' Brettler said, 'That phrase has to be given meaning. It must go beyond Epstein or this broad category that the head football coach of the University of Kansas could fit into?' Judge Kaplan said, 'What is a potential defendant as opposed to a defendant?' Brettler answered but the judge, unsatisfied with his answer, cut in to repeat the question. Judge Kaplan said: 'What's a potential defendant as opposed to someone who could have been named as a defendant but had not been? Brettler: 'I don't think there would be a distinction.' Judge Kaplan said: 'That comes to another point. The word potential must have meant something and if there's no difference it means nothing.' Judge Kaplan added: 'This is the use of the word potential to which neither you nor I can find any meaning at all.' Brettler responded: 'I respectfully disagree. Potential defendant is someone who could have been named in that lawsuit but was not, unlike this head coach...' Judge Kaplan interrupted and Brettler explained further what 'other potential defendant' meant.' Brettler said: 'Someone who was not named as a defendant but could have been by virtue of the allegations Giuffre had articulated in her complaint to include Prince Andrew. 'It's unquestionable Prince Andrew could have been sued in the 2009 Florida action. He was not. 'Therefore he was a potential defendant and a release under 2009 settlement by its unambiguous terms.' Judge Kaplan cut in again and said that 'this would include the Sultan of Brunei?' Brettler responded: 'If there were allegations against the Sultan of Brunei then it would'. Brettler pointed out that Giuffre dismissed a claim of battery against the lawyer Alan Dershowitz based on the same settlement. Judge Kaplan said that 'none of that is in the record' and documents he'd seen outside of the case were 'not consistent with that' The judge added: 'Dershowitz was an attorney for Epstein and attorneys were released specifically in the other part of the clause.' Brettler countered: 'It is true he was an attorney for Epstein, he was not an attorney for Epstein in that case, I believe.' Judge Kaplan cut in to say: 'So what?' Brettler responded: 'In settlement agreements not all attorneys are released from liability.' Judge Kaplan said: 'I understand you're asserting that but that doesn't mean it's true. There could be a different view.' Judge Kaplan continued, 'Were talking about the question of whether there are two or more reasonable interpretations of the language that could have been included. As a defendant, I understand your point of view, and I understand the other point of view to which I havent heard a persuasive answer, that is, that it was narrower than you suggested. 'Certainly if the intention of the parties had been was to release any other person or entity involved in any of the sexual activities with Mr. Epstein or others, it would have been easy to say it? Seems to me on the face of it possibly reasonable alternative views.' Brettler replied, 'I dont disagree it would have been easier to say it. It would have been easy to leave out the phrase other possible defendant. To which Kaplan said, 'Maybe Epstein wouldn't give her half a million dollars for clearer language?' Prince Andrew came under fire after he was spotted taking a stroll through New York's Central Park with Epstein following his prison term in 2011 Virginia Roberts holds a photo of herself at age 16, when she says Jeffrey Epstein began abusing her sexually Andrew addressed the allegations against him in an interview with the BBC show Newsnight in November 2019. The interview was described as a 'train wreck' that hurt the prince more than it helped him Virginia Roberts aged 17, around the time she says she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth Judge Kaplan butted heads with Brettler again when he tried to argue that the New York Child Victims Act, the 2019 law under which she brought her case, was unconstitutional. The law gave victims a window to sue anybody from any time in the past regardless of the statute of limitations. Brettler said that it 'does not satisfy due process requirements' and 'memories fade, witnesses die'. Judge Kaplan said: 'What exactly is your argument, your constitutional argument?' Brettler said that a second extension of a window to file complaints - Giuffre filed hers five days before the window closed - was a 'problem'. However he had issues with the law 'from the get go'. Judge Kaplan asked again: 'What is the constitutional argument?' Brettler said the second, year-long extension of the window for claims was 'completely arbitrary.' Judge Kaplan told Brettler: 'You know, you know for certainty that I'm obliged to accept as true on this motion the well pleaded factual allegations of the complaint'. Judge Kaplan read out part of the complaint which read: 'On one occasion Prince Andrew sexually abused plaintiff in London at Maxwell's home. 'Epstein, Maxwell and Prince Andrew forced plaintiff, a child, to have sexual intercourse with Prince Andrew against her will'. I must assume the truth of that allegation'. Brettler claimed that it only showed Andrew, Epstein and Maxwell 'forced her to do something against her will', adding that 'we don't know what the alleged sexual misconduct was or when it occurred.' Judge Kaplan shot back: 'Sexual intercourse. Involuntary sexual intercourse. There isn't any doubt about what that means, at least since someone else was in the White House.' Brettler insists that his client 'needs to lock herself into a story now, not some time in the future, and figure out where the chips may fall. 'She needs to allege today when he supposedly abused her. Id like a date, a month. Wed settle for a year. Right now all we have is that she was supposedly 17 years old. We dont have a date, time, location, we dont know when this was. Giuffre doesnt articulate what supposedly happened to her at the hands of Prince Andrew. Judge Kaplan interrupted to say, 'With all due respect Mr. Brettler, thats not a dog thats gonna hunt here. She has no obligation to do that in the complaint. Ill tell you that straight out right now. Its not going to happen. You have every right to that information when the parties engage in discovery'. Brettler said, 'We would argue her claims should be tested in discovery. We should be told what those allegations are at the outset.' 'I understand your point, it just isnt the law,' the judge said. Meekly Brettler replied, 'Ok.' 'Epstein, Maxwell and Prince Andrew forced plaintiff, a child, to have sexual intercourse with Prince Andrew against her will,' a judge read in court Tuesday Ghislaine Maxwell's house in Belgravia, London, where Virginia Giuffre claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew, Duke of York The developments come at a bad time for the duke: last week his former close friend Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein. She now faces up to 65 years in jail at her sentencing at a later date. Last week the duke suffered a setback when Judge Kaplan rejected his request to dismiss the case on the grounds that Giuffre doesn't live in the US. The duke refused to accept service for weeks until Judge Kaplan asked the British legal authorities to intervene and serve him. Giuffre claims she was forced to have sex with the duke three times in 2001 at Epstein's command when she was 17 If the lawsuit moves ahead it will go into the discovery phase and Giuffre's lawyers have already asked for documents that prove Andrew's bizarre claim in an interview that he doesn't sweat. The duke said this was evidence he didn't have a sweaty night out dancing at a club in London with Giuffre in 2001 before they had sex as she claims. Giuffre is seeking unspecified damages, but there is speculation the sum could be in the millions of dollars. She claims she was trafficked by disgraced financier Epstein to have sex with Andrew when she was aged 17 and a minor under US law. Giuffre's lawyer David Boies said: 'Our view, as expressed in our briefs to the Court, is that (1 ) Prince Andrew was not a party to, and did not even know about, the Release; (2) Andrew could not be a 'potential defendant' as that term is used in the Release both for the reason he was not subject to jurisdiction in Florida because the abuse happened elsewhere, and for the reason that the claims in Florida were federal claims against people who did the trafficking, not the state law claims made now against Andrew as a person to whom the girls were trafficked; and (3) the actual parties to the Release have made clear Andrew is not covered. 'But what will matter is what the Court's view is'. Jeffrey Epstein agreed to pay Virginia Giuffre $500,000 in an agreement reached in 2009 that Prince Andrew says protects him from her lawsuit as he is covered as a 'potential defendant' It's been claimed that Buckingham Palace 'sleepwalked' into the Prince Andrew crisis and has been paralyzed with indecision over how to handle things. Senior royal insiders said the duke operated with 'impunity' as a member of the Royal Family because staff were 'too scared' to stand up to him. And they say the idea he could still return to public life, despite the swirling controversy around his friendship with Epstein, must be quashed. The prince was seen in public Friday for the first time since Maxwell was convicted of multiple counts of child sex trafficking for her boyfriend Epstein, driving himself to Windsor Castle. In an interview Andrew told the BBC's Emily Maitlis that on the date Roberts says they had sex in London, he was at a Pizza Express in Woking, 30 miles from Maxwell's apartment. He has been told to prove this too. Giuffre, who at the time was known by her maiden name Virginia Roberts, claims she slept with Andrew three times in 2001, at a time when she was 17 and under the control of Epstein. The prince vehemently denies the accusations. But pressure has increased on him following Maxwell's conviction. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior former royal adviser stressed that while there was no knowledge of the extent of the duke's friendship with Epstein and Maxwell to anyone outside of the prince's private office, the 'Andrew problem' was a long-running issue for the royal household in general. The developments come at a hellish time for the Duke: last week his former close friend Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of recruiting and trafficking underage girls for Epstein 'Anyone who even dared to offer their professional advice that maybe his way wasn't the right one was met with a decisive 'f*** off out of my office',' the source said. The account is backed up by other former royal staff, all of whom claim the prince acted as if he 'didn't have to answer to anyone' and was allowed to 'go rogue'. Particularly troublesome, it was said, was Andrew's role as a roving trade 'ambassador', which saw him repeatedly criticized for cozying up to highly controversial world leaders and businessmen. A former Buckingham Palace staff member recalled how it was an 'impossible job' to persuade the prince or his advisers to take any instruction. 'The duke made clear that the only person he answered to was the Queen,' they said. 'He wouldn't take advice from anyone. [He] acted with total impunity and staff were just too scared to stand up to him as a member of the Royal Family. Her Majesty almost always backed him and he fully exploited that. 'There's an element of Buckingham Palace sleepwalking into this whole crisis. Andrew would tell his family that it was all untrue and it would all go away.' Lawyers for Prince Andrew's accuser are demanding he hand over any documents which explain why he doesn't sweat - his alibi for never having met her. He is pictured at Chinawhite nightclub in London in 2000 Andrew stepped back from official duties following the BBC interview. But the insiders said it was 'unsatisfactory' the option of his return to public life remained open. 'It would be better for all concerned to lance that boil now, once and for all,' they said. On Tuesday, Andrew will try again to have the case brought by Miss Roberts thrown out. But in court papers filed on Friday, her legal team made it clear they would test his alibi, when he disputed her claim he was sweating while they danced together in a London nightclub by saying he had a 'peculiar medical condition' which made it 'impossible' for him to perspire. Lawyers want the court to order him to hand over proof about his 'alleged medical condition of anhidrosis'. And they could ask for his former police bodyguards to testify about the duke's whereabouts at the time Miss Roberts says they were having sex. Buckingham Palace declined to comment. Kaillyn Harris, 26, turned herself in for the murder of Grace Carter, 65 An Alabama woman arrested for fatally shooting a 65-year-old woman cried and begged for forgiveness after a judge denied her bond on Monday. Kaillyn Harris, 26, turned herself in and was charged with the murder of Grace Carter after a stray bullet hit her at the Everlasting Life Holiness Church, in Prichard, last week. Harris, who was on probations for insurance fraud at the time of the shooting, began tearing up as Prichard police took her away on Monday. 'I'm sorry and I didn't intend to do this,' Harris said. 'Anybody who knows me, know I got a good heart. And I ain't intend to do this. Can y'all please forgive me?' Carter was attending Bible study at the Life Holiness Church, in Prichard, Alabama, last Tuesday when she was struck by the stray bullet Harris fired Harris cried and begged for forgiveness from Carter's family after her bond was denied Carter's family told WKRG that the apology helped, and that they were glad the judge ruled not to grant Harris bond. 'The fact that she turned herself in, and that it did sound sincere, we did appreciate that,' said Ramona Carter, Carter's daughter-in-law. Carter had been attending Bible study at the church last Tuesday at around 7:15 when a stray bullet fired from Harris's gun struck her. Harris surrendered to police on Thursday, with Prichard Police Chief Walter Knight telling WKRG that she appeared cooperative and 'very remorseful of the situation.' 'It's just such a tragic event that happened that altered the life of two families,' Knight said. A judge issued rejected Harris's bond request on Monday The shooting took place on December 27, with Harris turning herself in on Thursday Carter's husband, Cecil, told Fox 13 that his wife often attend services at the Everlasting Life Holiness Church and that the couple was celebrating his recent election victory as a pastor at the nearby Sunlight Missionary Baptist Church. 'She was really looking forward to it. She was... very proud of me,' Carter said. 'But right now the emptiness of her not being here for the installation is going to be hard for me.' Harris was charged with murder, shooting into an occupied dwelling and a probation violation, according to the Mobile County Sherriff's Office Her next court date will be held on Thursday. Stephen Peddie (pictured), 61, wrote the 'menacing' tweet on February 21 last year, in response to another post by social commentator Toby Young about Labour Brent MP Dawn Butler, 52 A former Brexit Party candidate who suggested shooting a Labour MP in the back of the head would be 'justified and wholly deserved' has been found guilty of sending an offensive message. Stephen Peddie, 61, wrote the 'menacing' tweet on February 21 last year, in response to another post by social commentator Toby Young about Labour Brent MP Dawn Butler, 52. Westminster Magistrates' Court heard how in his original tweet, Mr Young had accused Ms Butler of using taxpayers' money to fit a Jacuzzi-style bath in a north London property while claiming her main home was in east London - a claim she furiously denied. Peddie wrote in response: 'Egregious theft in a time of national emergency. 'Someone please explain to me why a bullet to the back of the head is anything but justified and wholly deserved.' Former Labour whip Ms Butler posted a screenshot of the tweet, writing: 'I received a death threat, with the threat of a bullet to the back of my head. 'All because Toby Young is peddling an [sic] decade old, incorrect, story about me so that his followers can send threats, you are both SCUM.' She tagged the Metropolitan Police Service and broadcaster Piers Morgan to her post. Peddie, a retired senior banker and management consultant, denied but was convicted of sending an offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing message by Deputy District Judge Briony Clarke. Peddie wrote in response to another tweet about Dawn Butler: 'Egregious theft in a time of national emergency. Someone please explain to me why a bullet to the back of the head is anything but justified and wholly deserved' 'It is simply a tweet of a menacing character in my view,' she said. Peddie, who represented himself, argued the tweet was a question rather than a threat and said it was not directly aimed at Ms Butler. But Judge Clarke said: 'I do not believe the defendant. 'Ultimately the content of the tweet is one which is sent off the back of a tweet sent by Toby Young specially mentioning Dawn Butler's bill for a jacuzzi and food shop.' Peddie admitted the Tweet was 'ill-advised' and described it as a 'moment of madness' in his police interview. Judge Clarke said although the tweet was not a 'direct threat to Dawn Butler', Peddie 'should and did recognise the risk that at the time of sending that it might create fear or apprehension to any member of the public who reads it'. Peddie (pictured) was bailed ahead of sentence at the same court on February 2 'I find the defendant guilty of this offence,' she said. Peddie, of Edenbridge, Kent, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court wearing a blue checked shirt, a yellow waistcoat, grey trousers and a navy patterned tie. He plans to appeal the verdict and said: 'I want to take this case to the European Court of Human Rights.' He was bailed ahead of sentence at the same court on February 2. Peddie was a prospective parliamentary candidate for the Kent constituency of Tonbridge and Malling in 2019 before quitting in protest at Nigel Farage's election strategy. Boris Johnson's former Brexit chief issued an astonishing snub to his ex-boss as he joined a hardline group of Tories opposed to Covid restrictions. Lord Frost was branded a 'hero' by members of the Covid Recovery Group of backbenchers as he was welcomed into a plot-organising WhatsApp group. The former diplomat and drinks industry lobbyist, who was made a peer by the Prime Minister, quit before Christmas over the Government's direction on Covid, taxes and green policies. He negotiated Britain's departure from the EU, which has been in the spotlight over the past year amid fights with Brussels over problems with the agreement he made involving Northern Ireland. Joining the CRG group on the popular messaging app he said he was 'looking forward to helping' and was called a 'hero' by chairman Steve Baker. Lord Frost has joined the Covid Recovery Group of backbenchers opposed to restrictions and was welcomed into a plot-organising WhatsApp group The former diplomat and drinks industry lobbyist, who was made a peer by the Prime Minister, quit before Christmas over the Government's direction on Covid, taxes and green policies. Joining the CRG group on the popular messaging app he said he was 'looking forward to helping' and was called a 'hero' by chairman Steve Baker. The messages were first revealed by Sunday Times reporter Gabriel Pogrund on Twitter. Lord Frost revealed before Christmas that he could not support Boris Johnson's 'coercive' Covid policies or the Plan B measures. The peer quit as Brexit minister with 'immediate effect', having previously agreed with the premier that he would leave his job in January. He cited concerns about 'the current direction of travel'. He told Sky News at the time he and Mr Johnson were aligned on Brexit issues but disagreed on wider Government policy. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has been handed responsibility for leading Brexit talks with the EU amid a long-standing dispute over border rules in Northern Ireland. The CRG has consistently led opposition to Mr Johnson's Covid regime, helping to mastermind backbench rebellions in votes before Christmas that showed the depth of anger at the impact of the pandemic on the economy. Britain's daily Covid cases hit a new record high of 218,000 today, according to official figures. Today's new infection number represents a 58 per cent rise compared to last week but includes several days of backlogged cases in Wales and Northern Ireland. Hospitalisations also continued to rise today with England recording 1,819 on January 1, the latest date with data, marking a 42 per cent rise on the previous week. But the statistics do not differentiate between patients that were admitted primarily for Covid and those who were admitted for a different illness and tested positive after admission. Ministers have taken confidence from the fact that hospital admissions already appear to be falling in Omicron hotspot London, which is two weeks ahead of the rest of the country in its outbreak. There were 347 admissions in the capital on New Year's Day, down 7 per cent. There is growing anger among Conservative backbenchers and business leaders that the nation is being ground to a halt by a variant that causes little or no symptoms for the overwhelming majority. Tory MP Craig Mackinlay told MailOnline the country was in the midst of a 'semi-lockdown' with 1million Britons currently isolating after catching Covid as he called for the PM to slash the quarantine period to five days like the US and France. He said it could be 'the answer' to England's self-isolation misery. Were almost facing a semi-lockdown because of people being off work who are perfectly well. You couldnt make that up,' he said. 'The US must have done a lot of work on it... and they have come up with five days as the answer. Perhaps it is. Iceland boss Richard Walker said 1,700 of his employees were now isolating after absences nearly doubled in the past week. He tweeted it 'would be very helpful to business if the isolation period was cut.' Unseen paintings by Jack Vettriano will feature in an exhibition at the gallery where he sought inspiration as a young artist. The show at Kirkcaldy Galleries in Fife will include 12 oil paintings he produced in his early 20s and 30s, signed with his birth name, Jack Hoggan. The works, painted before he achieved international success in the 1990s, will go on show alongside pieces that have sold for five and six-figure sums. It will be the 70-year-old artist's first retrospective since a major show at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow in 2013 and the first to focus on his formative years and early career. Although widely panned by critics, Jack Vettriano has sold his painitings for hundreds of thousands of pounds and has an estimated net worth of up to 3.6million. Pictured: Vettriano's Sweet Bird of Youth, which has been seen before Vettriano, left school at 15 to become a mining engineer but took up painting after a girlfriend gave him a box of watercolours for his 21st birthday. Pictured: Vettriano's The Billy Boys, prints of which sell for hundreds of pounds Self Portrait, a painting from 2002 by Jack Vettriano that will feature in an exhibition that will include unseen works, unlike this one, at the Kirkcaldy Galleries in Fife, where he sought inspiration as a young artist Vettriano, from Fife, left school at 15 to become a mining engineer but took up painting after a girlfriend gave him a box of watercolours for his 21st birthday. The artist learned by copying the Old Masters, Impressionists and Scottish artists and drew inspiration from works he saw in Kirkcaldy Galleries, which is managed by cultural charity OnFife. He said: 'I grew up admiring the work of so many great Scottish painters in what was then my local gallery. Jack Vettriano (pictured) was once called 'no 21st-century Van Gogh' but instead 'the Tom Jones of art: big, bold, brassy and devoid of inner truth.' Vettriano's most famous painting The Singing Butler, featuring a couple dancing on a beach despite an approaching storm, sold for almost 750,000 at auction in 2004 'Kirkcaldy has a great permanent collection and a free admission policy, so I have the Galleries to thank for the start of my art education.' The artist later adopted his mother's maiden name to mark a break with work sold under his family name Hoggan. The new exhibition opens in June and will include one of two paintings Vettriano entered for the Royal Scottish Academy's annual show in 1988. Sculptor David Mach has spoken out in support of Vettriano saying in The Scotsman : 'If he was a fashion designer Jack would be right up there.' Pictured: Vettriano's painting Mad Dogs. Images of the 12 unseen paintings featured in his show have not yet been released Mr Mach added: 'It's all just art world snobbery. Anyway, who cares, he probably makes more money than Damien Hirst anyway.' Pictured: Vettriano at his home in Battersea, London Both paintings sold on the first day, a turning point that inspired him to become a full-time artist. Among the 57 private loans will be pieces such as Billy Boys, Valentine Rose and Bluebird at Bonneville, while two works from OnFife's collection, including a self-portrait, will also feature. OnFife exhibitions curator Alice Pearson said: 'This is the first time Jack has agreed to exhibit work painted simply as a hobby beside later pieces that wowed sell-out shows in London and New York. Painter Jack Vettriano, whose work has been labelled as 'dim erotica', but sells for hundreds of thousands of pounds has criticised the art establishment for snubbing his work 'The exhibition will highlight the diversity of subject matter and styles Jack tackled while learning his craft, giving him the confidence and technical ability to develop his own identifiable style.' Also included will be Long Time Gone, which is set against a backdrop of the now-demolished Methil power station, a once familiar Fife landmark. The exhibition, which covers the artist's career up to 2000, was originally planned for 2019 but has twice been postponed because of Covid-19 restrictions. Sen. Joe Manchin returned to Washington this week sounding every bit as skeptical about President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan saying there were no talks underway with the White House, while also dumping on any change to Senate rules without Republican buy-in. 'There is no negotiations going on at this time, okay?' the West Virginia Democrat told reporters when asked about Biden's $1.8 trillion plan. He then spoke about the plan in the both the past and present tense as being filled with both 'well intended' and divisive provisions. 'And there's an awful lot of things that had a lot of a lot of things that were very I think well-intended. And there was a lot of things that was pretty far reach on some things and most delicate times that we have right now. And our country's divided. And I don't tend to do anything that divides our country any more,' he said. 'For us to go it alone it comes back at you pretty hard,' Sen. Joe Manchin said, calling for Republican buy-in as Sen. Charles Schumer threatened to try to force a rules change to end the filibuster for voting rights legislation. He also said there were no talks with the White House on Build Back Better Asked about the bill's tax provisions, he said 'there's a lot of good things' and talked up some of its billions in climate funds. Amid reports that Manchin wants to split off the expansion of the child tax credit from the bill, Manchin appeared to defend his prior position of a work requirement. 'If you have a credit, that means you've had to ... have earnings,' he said. He also spoke of the overall tax credit being in place through 2025, although the expansion expired last month. Manchin is a critical vote whose opposition scuttled Biden's hopes of getting a bill through by the end of the year. Without him, the Democrats can't get a deal through the 50-50 Senate. Democrats looking for Manchin to join a push to change Senate rules to end the filibuster to free up voting rights legislation could find cause for concern in his comments although he also spoke to the importance of protecting the vote. Manchin said 'the bedrock of democracy is voting, and we have to do what we can in order to preserve that' He said a rules chance 'where everyone's involved' is one that will usually 'stay' in place. 'For us to go it alone it comes back at you pretty hard,' he said. Democratic leaders are looking to turn to the voting issue amid the stalled Build Back Better plan. But Manchin threw cold water on the idea of Democrats forcing through a so-called 'nuclear option' change to break a Republican filibuster. 'Let me just say that to be open to a rules change that would trade a nuclear option. It's very, very difficult. So it's a heavy lift,' he said. He didn't 100 percent rule out a 'carve out' for voting rights an issue he called paramount but did not get behind it either. 'Once you change a rule or you have a carve out I've always said this. Anytime there's a carve out, you eat the whole turkey. There's nothing left because it comes back and forth,' he said. He also said 'the bedrock of democracy is voting, and we have to do what we can in order to preserve that.' Manchin has been negotiating with Republicans on voting rights legislation, but there is no sign it has the 60 votes needed for passage. 'Conversations are still ongoing,' he said. 'There's basically the the need for us to protect democracy as we know it,' said Manchin. 'And the Senate as it has operated for 232 years are extremely, extremely high bars that we must be very careful if we're willing to cross those. So I'm talking I'm not agreeing to any of this... I want to talk and see all the options we have open.' There is no filibuster in the Constitution. It has been a feature of Senate rules over the years, but has been changed on several occasions. In 1917, the Senate adopted a 2/3 rule to end debate and force a vote. In 1975, the Senate changed the number to three-fifths of all senators chosen and sworn 60. In more recent years, the Senate used parliamentary moves to end filibusters of lower court federal judge nominees under Democrats and of Supreme Court nominees under Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer is threatening to bring up changes to Senate rules to scale back the filibuster if the chamber does not act on election reform package by then. The change, if passed, would allow Democrats to pass through voting rights changes on a simple majority assuming they could get support from all 50 members of their caucus. Schumer accused Republicans of warping supermajority requirements and of 'weaponization' of rules meant to protect the rights of the minority. 'We must ask ourselves: if the right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, then how can we in good conscience allow for a situation in which the Republican Party can debate and pass voter suppression laws at the State level with only a simple majority vote, but not allow the United States Senate to do the same?' he wrote, pointing to a series of GOP-led changes to election laws since the 2020 elections. Schumer, who in 2017 opposed barring use of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, pointed to the early days of the Republic, and also invoked the January 6 Capitol riot. President Joe Biden came out for a filibuster carve-out for voting rights before Christmas. 'If the only thing standing between getting voting rights legislation passed and not getting passed is the filibuster, I support making the exception of voting rights for the filibuster,' he told ABC News in an interview. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer blasted GOP filibusters as a 'the weaponization of rules once meant to short-circuit obstruction' He called the riot 'a symptom of a broader illness - an effort to delegitimize our election process.' 'The Senate was designed to protect the political rights of the minority in the chamber, through the promise of debate and the opportunity to amend. But over the years, those rights have been warped and contorted to obstruct and embarrass the will of majority something our Founders explicitly opposed,' he wrote in a 'Dear Colleague' letter to Senate Democrats. He noted that the Constitution demands a supermajority for treaties and impeachment, but that founders rejected the requirement for legislation, having learned of its 'defects' in the Articles of Confederation. 'The weaponization of rules once meant to short-circuit obstruction have been hijacked to guarantee obstruction,' Schumer wrote. Schumer did not mention that Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) oppose changes to the legislative filibuster Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is leading a GOP filibuster against the election reform legislation, and opposes changes to the legislative filibuster Schumer's letter comes as Congress makes preparations for the body of late Senate leader Harry Reid to lie in state. Reid pushed through a move ending the filibuster for lower federal court nominees He did not mention that two influential Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema have remained opposed to changes in the chamber's filibuster rules. Both back a compromise election reform package that Republicans are filibustering. Democrats tried to bring their legislation up four times last year, failing in each effort. Schumer quoted former Senate leader Robert C. Byrd, who said 'Congress is not obliged to be bound by the dead hand of the past.' 'We hope our Republican colleagues change course and work with us. But if they do not, the Senate will debate and consider changes to Senate rules on or before January 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to protect the foundation of our democracy: free and fair elections,' he threatened. The legislation itself would make Election Day a national holiday, boost mail ballots and in-person voting options. It remains stalled in the 50-50 Senate. No Republicans have come out for it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has cast the move as a partisan power grab, while Democrats have pointed to state election law changes in GOP-run states as an effort to make it harder to vote after former President Donald Trump's election fraud claims that were repeatedly tossed out of court. Wrote Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in response: 'When Chuck Schumer says we need to abolish the filibuster to pass "voting rights," he's talking about a bill to mandate ballot harvesting, ban voter ID, and give taxpayer funding to campaigns. This has nothing to do with voting rights. It's a Democratic power grab,' he tweeted. North Korean officials are demanding handwriting samples from thousands of residents in Pyongyang after graffiti appeared calling King Jong Un a 'son of a b****.' The message, 'Kim Jong Un, you son of a b****. The people are starving to death because of you,' appeared on the walls of an apartment building in the Pyongchon district on December 22, according to news site Daily NK. The offensive scrawl comes amid a severe famine made worse by recent flooding and the closure of the northern border with China due to the Covid pandemic. The graffiti appeared as high level meetings of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea were taking place in the capital. It was soon scrubbed off the walls by local officials and police are working to track down the perpetrator. Officers have been going door-to-door to nearby homes and businesses to demand handwriting samples and question locals about their movements on the day the message appeared. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea at the Party Central Committee Headquarters in Pyongyang on New Year's Day The furore was reported to Seoul-based news site Daily NK by a network of undercover 'citizen reporters' in North Korea and China from which it gains information about the closed state. Police are likely to be using the thousands of CCTV cameras which Kim has installed throughout the city, the site reported. Criticism of Kim or the regime is strictly forbidden and those who dissent against his tyranny are likely to face long sentences at notorious forced labour camps. In serious cases, rebels can even be put to death. Protests against Kim are extremely rare and almost unheard of in the capital Pyongyang where only the elite are allowed to live. The last recorded example was in March, 2018, when a colonel was publicly executed after writing slogans on the April 24 House of Culture in Pyongyang. April 24 is the Day of the Sun, the birthday of Kim's grandfather Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea. However, the food shortages have become so dire that they are now causing misery to residents of the capital. Even Kim has appeared slimmer ever in recent photos, although many speculate that this is as a result of health problems. The North Korean government has blamed external factors for their food shortages though, citing sanctions imposed on them, natural disasters and the global coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: North Korean farmers harvesting rice on October 19, 2021 Kim has acknowledged a 'tense' food situation that could worsen if all of the crops fail, exacerbating economic problems amid strict self-imposed border and movement restrictions that have slowed trade to a trickle. Pictured: File image of men plowing a field in North Korea in July 2017 Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo's Waseda University and the author of a number of books on the Kim dynasty, told The Telegraph: 'To have a message such as this appear on a wall in Pyongyang will have been a shock to the authorities and to ordinary people. 'It is expected that the people there are loyal because their lives are better than those elsewhere, so the authorities will be worried that the elite are unhappy. I think a lot of people who saw the graffiti will have agreed with it, but they would have been too scared to say so out loud.' The impoverished country's food shortages are such that poorer citizens have resorted to kidnapping children of the wealthy, while the regime has recommended people eat 'delicious' black swan meat. In September, four child kidnappings were reported amid shortages of food, medicines, fuel and other essentials. The country has faced a supply crisis ever since it closed its border with China in January 2020 due to the pandemic. North Korea is heavily reliant on its Communist neighbor as sanctions mean that it is unable to trade publicly with other countries. Kim Jong-Un (C) visiting the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on New Year's Day in Pyongyang, North Korea The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that North Korea is short of 860,000 tonnes of produce this year - equivalent to approximately 2.3 months of food for the country of 26 million people. Although the country has no officially recorded cases of Covid, experts believe this is unlikely due to smuggling at the porous Chinese border and even Kim has hinted that his country is suffering with infections. In June, Kim sacked senior officials over what he called a 'crucial' lapse that had caused a 'great crisis with grave consequences.' The North Korean dictator recalled the country's Politburo and berated high-ranking Communist officials, signalling that the country's Covid defences had been breached. The official Korean Central News Agency did not elaborate on what the dictator was referring to and it is not known how many senior officials were sacked or what happened to them. A man accused of assaulting Sir Chris Whitty has been put on an electronic tag to ensure he is abiding by his bail conditions. Jonathan Chew, 24, stands accused of assaulting the Chief Medical Officer and obstructing a police officer at an antivaxx march he attended alongside his friend Lewis Hughes on June 27 last year. The pair allegedly spotted the respected medic, grabbed him around the shoulders and yelled 'oi,oi' - as they poked their tongues out at the camera. A video of the pair was widely shared on social media. Mr Chew's trial was put off for a second time today because his lawyers were not given paperwork until ten minutes before the hearing started, and it was decided that would prevent him having a fair trial. At the hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court today, magistrate Paul Goldspring told Mr Chew he had 'concerns' he was not actually living at his given address in Brentwood, Essex, due to problems establishing where he lived at earlier hearings. Jonathan Chew, 24, outside Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, where he is appearing accused of assaulting England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty Still taken from video appearing to show Professor Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, being harassed by two men in a park Mr Chew insisted he had not been given papers and body-worn video evidence the police said they had served at his address. He will now be monitored on an electronic tag between 9pm and 4am until his trial on January 27. Mr Goldspring told him: 'You may have gathered I am very reluctant to adjourn your case. 'You have a right to a fair trial and eventually the court's patience may not be in your favour. 'I have concerns, because the police have concerns, that you are not actually living at the address you say you are living at, and you will now be monitored on an electronic tag between 9pm and 4am.' Mr Chew pictured outside Westminster Magistrates Court following an earlier hearing in July last year Earlier Mr Chew's lawyer Rabah Kherbane claimed his learning difficulties may impede his ability to understand and follow proceedings, but that claim was rejected by the chief magistrate. But the judge said Mr Chew had showed a 'remarkable' understanding of complex legal matters at earlier hearings. A psychological assessment and report was ordered. Mr Chew, who has a diagnosis of ADHD, autism, conduct disorder and a sleep disorder, was criticised for his behaviour when he last attended court by video link in his dressing gown. As he sat outside the dock in blue jeans, a grey t-shirt and a mask today, Mr Chew continued to interrupt proceedings - saying prosecution evidence was 'all a lie man'. Mr Chew said 'naaah' when asked to give his phone number to the court at the end of the hearing and was once again told he would have to leave if his behaviour did not improve. Prosecutor Sam Trefgarne told the court the trial could go ahead today because the case against Mr Chew was 'evidentially very straightforward' and captured on video, but his plea was ultimately rejected. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said the Prime Minister has not 'earned the right' of a knighthood once he leaves office. Sir Keir dismissed criticism of Sir Tony Blair's knighthood and insisted the prime minister from 1997-2007 deserved the honour. More than half a million people have signed a petition calling for Sir Tony's appointment by the Queen to the Order of the Garter to be rescinded over his domestic record and the Iraq War. But Sir Keir insisted the honour - the oldest and most senior British Order of Chivalry - is not a 'thorny' issue and that Sir Tony was a 'very successful prime minister'. After giving a speech in Birmingham about Labour's priorities for 2022, Sir Keir was asked about the former prime minister's knighthood, and whether Mr Johnson should be honoured in future. He said: 'No, I am sorry, I don't think that this Prime Minister has earned the right to have an honour. I do think Tony Blair has.' Sir Keir Starmer has dismissed criticism of Sir Tony Blair's knighthood, insisting the former prime minister deserves the honour He said there was 'a world of difference' between Sir Tony and Mr Johnson, adding that 'Tony Blair changed the lives of millions of people for the better.' He said: '[Sir Tony] introduced a minimum wage, he set up Sure Start for young families that changed lives, put money into hospitals and into schools and of course was a key player in the peace agreement in Northern Ireland.' He added: 'So, I think there's a world of difference between the two (men), in my book.' In his speech, Sir Keir also paid tribute to the past Labour governments of Attlee, Wilson and Blair, adding they 'made Britain a better country'. He said: 'We must be the people who write the fourth chapter. The people who create a new Britain in the 21st century.' Sir Tony's knighthood could clear the way for his successors in No 10 to be given similar honours, following reports that the delay in granting the accolade was blocking the others. A Change.Org online petition calling for Sir Tony to be stripped of the honour had been signed by more than 544,000 people by Tuesday morning. But Sir Keir told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I don't think it's thorny at all; I think he deserves the honour. Obviously I respect the fact that people have different views. Sir Keir said there was 'a world of difference' between Sir Tony and Boris Johnson (pictured), adding that 'Tony Blair changed the lives of millions of people for the better' 'I understand there are strong views on the Iraq War. There were back at the time and there still are, but that does not detract from the fact that Tony Blair was a very successful prime minister of this country and made a huge difference to the lives of millions of people in this country.' Meanwhile, vaccines minister Maggie Throup told LBC: 'I think he did lots of good things. And I think it's only right that we do honour our previous prime ministers. And he was prime minister for such a long time.' In a hint that Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May could be in line for honours, she said: 'I think obviously it now opens the doors for others to be recognised in the same way.' Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has suggested that all former prime ministers should be offered a knighthood because 'it is one of the toughest jobs in the world'. Mitch McConnell is heading to Atlanta, Georgia on the one-year anniversary of the Capitol attack on Thursday to attend longtime friend and colleague Johnny Isakson's funeral, Punchbowl News reported Tuesday. With the Senate Minority leader heading to Georgia, it appears no senior Republican leadership will be physically at the Capitol on January 6, as Democrats prepare for a day of pomp and circumstance. The House is out of session this week, so it's highly unlikely House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will make an appearance at the Capitol on Thursday. Former President Donald Trump is holding a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will go to Capitol Hill Thursday and make remarks in Statuary Hall on the one year anniversary of the riot that Democrats are still trying to peg on Trump after he was acquitted in his impeachment case brought for inciting the attack. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will go to Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday for late former Senator Johnny Isakson's funeral, which falls on the one-year anniversary of January 6 Capitol attack Isakson died December 19 at age 76 after retiring from the Senate in 2019 following his Parkinson's disease diagnosis Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a dear colleague letter on Monday stating: 'One year ago this week, we experienced great sorrow: mere hours after the dawn of a new Congress and a new Majority, our beloved Capitol was attacked. It was attacked in a naked attempt to derail our Republic's most sacred tradition: the peaceful transfer of power.' 'Domestic violent extremists sought to inflict chaos and violence,' the New York Democrat added. 'Fueled by conspiracy and the ravings of a vengeful former President, they sought to destroy our Republic. Our democracy held for now.' Isakson, who served in the Senate from 2005-2019, died December 19 at age 76 at his home in Atlanta after retiring due to complications from Parkinson's Disease. The longtime Republican lawmaker is survived by his wife, Diane, whom he married in 1968, three children and nine grandchildren. Before becoming a senator for Georgia, Isakson served in the House representing the Peach State's 6th and 21st districts from 1999-2005 and 1993-1997, respectively. Isakson and McConnell were close friends during their shared 15 years in the Senate. The late senator's funeral is scheduled for January 6, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. McConnell (left) and Isakson (right) were close friends and colleagues during their 15 years in the U.S. Senate together While many see Thursday as a somber day, several Republicans including Trump are likely to use the day to push election fraud claims. The riot last year ensued when protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on the same day Congress moved to certify the election results in favor of Biden. Stop the Steal organizers applied pressure on lawmakers to oppose certification of the results in some swing states where they felt there was foul play in the collection of ballots due to the unprecedented times in the coronavirus pandemic. Since that day, Trump has continued to push the claim that the election was 'rigged' or 'stolen', despite several court defeats. Americans agree that democracy is in trouble, but members of the two political parties have starkly different opinions on the January 6 Capitol attack. A new USA Today/Suffolk University poll found that 51 per cent are 'very worried' about the future of American democracy, while 46 per cent said it's likely a similar attack on the Capitol could happen again. But Republicans were seven times more likely than Democrats to say the attack was a protest aimed at preventing a fraudulent election, versus one trying to overturn a legitimate presidential election. A new poll showed that 46 per cent of Americans believed it was likely another attack, similar to January 6 (pictured), could occur in the future There's a stark difference in how Republicans and Democrats view January 6, with a majority of Republicans believing it was a protest aimed at preventing a fraudulent election Overall, 53 per cent of those polled did believe January 6 was a protest aimed at overturning the results of a legitimate presidential election. However that sentiment was held by 85 per cent of Democrats and just 20 per cent of Republicans. Fifty-one per cent of independents also agreed. Twenty-nine per cent of survey respondents said it was a protest aimed at preventing the fraudulent election of now President Joe Biden. But a majority of Republicans - 56 per cent - agreed. Just 8 per cent of Democrats and 27 per cent of independents believed that was the motivation behind the January 6 assault. While 50 per cent of respondents called the January 6 rioters 'criminals,' that number sunk to 17 per cent when Republicans were asked. Just 20 per cent of Republicans said they believed January 6 was a protest aimed at overturning the results of a legitimate presidential election Sixty-six per cent of Republicans told pollsters that January 6 rioters 'went too far, but they had a point.' Overall, 38 per cent held that view. Just 6 per cent of respondents felt those in the MAGA mob acted appropriately. Among Republicans the number was slightly bigger, at 11 per cent. Republicans also had a more dour view of the Democrat-led House select committee that's investigating January 6. Fifty-nine per cent said they were not at all confident the special House committee investigation will be able to provide a complete and accurate account of what happened on January 6. Meanwhile, 54 per cent of Democrats answered they were somehwat confident in the process. Seventy-eight per cent of Republicans also called the committee a 'waste of time.' At the same time, 88 per cent of Democrats said it was 'important for the future of democracy.' A woman commander will take the helm of the USS Constitution for the first time in the 224-year history of the warship known as Old Ironsides, the Navy announced Tuesday. Commander Billie J. Farrell is scheduled to assume the role at an on-board ceremony on January 21. 'I am honored to have the privilege to soon command this iconic warship that dates back to the roots of both our nation and our Navy and to have been afforded the amazing opportunity to serve as U.S.S. Constitution's first female commanding officer in her 224 years,' Farrell said in a statement. The Constitution, which sailed into fame and earned the nickname Old Ironsides during the the War of 1812, is the world's oldest commissioned warship still afloat. News that Farrell achieved the milestone came on the heels of another important Navy announcement as helicopter Captain Amy Bauernschmidt was named the first woman to command a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier on deployment. Commander Billie J. Farrell is scheduled to assume the role at an on-board ceremony in the ship, also known as Old Ironsides, on January 21 The Constitution, which sailed into fame and earned the nickname 'Old Ironsides' in the War of 1812, is the world's oldest commissioned warship still afloat Farrell, a mother-of-two and native of Paducah, Kentucky will, relieve Commander John Benda, who has led the ship's crew since February 2020. Above, pictured with her family Farrell, a mother-of-two and native of Paducah, Kentucky will, relieve Commander John Benda, who has led the ship's crew since February 2020. The 2004 graduate of the Naval Academy most recently served as the executive officer aboard the USS Vicksburg, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, according to her Navy biography. 'I hope to strengthen the legacy of the USS Constitution through preservation, promotion, and protection by telling her story and connecting it to the rich heritage of the United States Navy and the warships serving in the fleet today,' she said. The Constitution, based at Boston's Charlestown Navy Yard, played a crucial role in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812, and defended sea lanes from 1797 until 1855. Nowadays, the ship functions as a museum where generations learn about the Navy's role in war. Ceremonies are often hosted and historical demonstrations, free tours and educational programs are available for visitors year round. Crew are all active-duty Navy personnel on special duty. USS Constitution on a nationwide port tour arriving in Savannah, 1931 The first woman to serve on the Constitution's crew was enlisted sailor Rosemarie Lanam in 1986. Above, Lanam next to Commander Joseph Z. Brown The ship was undefeated in battle, destroying or capturing 33 opposing vessels. It earned the nickname Old Ironsides during the war of 1812, when British cannonballs were seen bouncing off its wooden hull. It is crewed by active-duty sailors. The first woman to serve on the Constitution's crew was enlisted sailor Rosemarie Lanam in 1986. The first woman to serve as a commissioned officer on the ship was Lt. Commander Claire V. Bloom, who served as executive officer and led the 1997 sail, the first time Old Ironsides had sailed under her own power since 1881. Blooms uniform, epaulette, shoes, and handbag are on display at the USS Constitution Museum. Today, women comprise approximately 30 percent of the ships 80-person crew, a slightly higher figure than the 17 percent of women in all of the US Navy. Several women have also worked as carpenters riggers, sailmakers and caulkers during restorations made to the ship in 1992, 2007, and 2015. The Constitution, based at Boston's Charlestown Navy Yard, is the world's oldest commissioned warship still afloat The first woman to serve as a commissioned officer on the USS Constitution was Lt. Commander Claire V. Bloom, who served as executive officer and led the 1997 sail Blooms uniform, epaulette, shoes, and handbag are on display at the USS Constitution Museum On Monday, a Navy helicopter pilot became the first woman to command a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier on deployment. Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, commanding officer of the USS Abraham Lincoln, set sail for the western Pacific from San Diego on Monday after nine months of training exercises. 'This is an amazing day,' she said. 'They are going to do exceptional work out there, and I just can't wait to watch them succeed.' The deployment comes after five sailors were killed during training in September when their helicopter crashed into the carrier's flight deck and tumbled into the sea. Bauernschmidt, who came through the ranks flying helicopters, had only been in command 12 days when the tragedy struck. The warship sets sail amid soaring tensions between China and Taiwan, as well as other US-backed nations throughout the South China Sea and Pacific which are facing increasingly hostile action by Beijing. Bauernschmidt, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, graduated from the Naval Academy in 1994, the same year women were allowed to serve on combat ships and planes. Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt (addressing sailors on Monday), commanding officer of the USS Abraham Lincoln, set sail for the western Pacific from San Diego on Monday after nine months of training and work-ups The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Lincoln sets sail from San Diego on Monday Bauernschmidt has accumulated more than 3,000 flight hours in naval helicopters aboard various aircraft carriers throughout her career and has served in areas from Alaska to Southwest Asia according to her Navy biography. Captain Amy Bauernschmidt, commanding officer of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln Bauernschmidt is currently the commanding officer of the amphibious transport dock ship USS San Diego. 'I hope that I'm a good leader and a mentor to both men and women in the service,' Bauernschmidt said. She received her wings as a naval aviator in 1996 and flew with the Helicopter Ant-submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 45 'Wolfpack' in San Diego. She also deployed with the destroyer USS John Young as part of maritime operations in the Northern Arabian Gulf. Later, she was chosen to command Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 70, supporting Operation Enduring Freedom aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. Sir Patrick Vallance said Covid jabs may soon be offered once a year Sir Patrick Vallance says giving out Covid jabs every six months is 'untenable' and that the vaccination drive will soon 'settle' into a yearly inoculation programme similar to that for flu. Speaking at a Downing Street press conference tonight, England's chief scientific adviser said jabs were being dished out so often because the virus was relatively new and people were still building up immunity. But once adequate protection emerges, it is likely that several jabs a year will no longer be needed. Sir Patrick said that every time someone is vaccinated or catches the virus their immunity is broadened, making it better at fighting off current and future variants. He added that it 'isn't tenable' to keep rolling out Covid vaccines several times a year, and that this was not the 'long-term plan'. It comes after Professor Andrew Pollard, who was part of the team that developed the Oxford Covid jab, warned administering booster vaccines to everyone every six months was 'not sustainable'. Speaking on the anniversary of the jab being dished out, he said future drives should target the most vulnerable, rather than adults. The UK ordered 114million more doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines last month. They are set to arrive over the next two years and will 'future-proof' vaccine stocks, although it is not clear how they will be used. Israel has already approved fourth vaccine doses for the over-60s, while German health officials warn a second booster will be required to manage Omicron. Sir Patrick has said Covid jabs could be offered once a year. Over the last 12 months Britons have been asked to get three Covid jabs Pictured is a woman getting her Covid booster vaccine in Sevenoaks, Kent, at a pharmacy The graph shows the countries who have given the highest total number of vaccine doses and boosters per 100 population. It demonstrates how a number of nations are now, on average exceeding two doses per person. The UK is a mid tier performer in the lower cohort of the top 20 performers while the US doesn't even manage to make the cut While only a mid-performer in the top 20 nations for vaccine doses per 100 people the UK is a top performer when it comes to comparing nations such as the US, Canada, Australia and Israel Sir Patrick told a Downing Street press conference: 'There will be some people who may require an additional dose but longer term I would think as this becomes a disease which is endemic, in other words we have it circulating and it comes back every year, it will be something like an annual vaccine like flu or something of that order which this moves to. 'In years to come as we think about a longer term vaccine strategy, I don't see this as something you end up having a vaccine from as frequently as we do now. 'We need that because it is the very early stages of this disease and we need to get boosted for this variant at this moment. Universal Covid vaccine moves one step closer A Covid vaccine booster designed to take on multiple variants has shown promising results, early data suggests. Results of a phase one trial showed the jab, made by California-based biotechnology firm Gritstone, triggered high levels of neutralising antibodies. The proteins help the body to fight off the virus, stopping it from infecting cells and taking hold. The immune response was similar to already-approved mRNA vaccines, created by Pfizer and Moderna. But the team did, however, find antibody levels were up to 10 times lower among its volunteers. Data also showed the vaccine, scientifically called GRT-R910, was also generally safe and well-tolerated. The jab was initially trialled on 10 individuals but the researchers want to expand the study to include 120 over-60s, who are in good health and have previously received two doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab. A universal Covid vaccine is a highly-coveted 'Holy Grail' among the pharmaceutical industry, with several candidates already in development. Advertisement 'So I think there will be a change over time and this will settle into a much more routine type of vaccine programme as we have for other infectious diseases.' He added: 'The good news is that as you get vaccinated more the immune sytsem broadens its response so that it covers more variants. 'So the immune system tends to get broader as you get more exposed to infection or you get vaccinated and there are different parts of the immune system, some of which have a very long-lasting memory of what you've seen before and therefore will provide some durability. 'I think Andrew Pollard's right that it would be a situation that isn't tenable to say everyone's going to need to be having another vaccine every three or six months that's not the long-term view of where this goes to.' Britons have been asked to get three doses of the Covid vaccine over the last 12 months. In December 2020 they were told to get two doses of the Covid vaccine 12 weeks apart, with older people and those most at risk from the virus first to be called forward. Nine months later in September a booster programme was launched inviting all over-50s to get a third dose. This was then widened in December to include all over-18s in an effort to stem the Omicron variant. Department of Health figures show 34.3million Britons or 60 per cent of over-12s have already got three doses of the Covid vaccine. Some 47.4million or 82 per cent have got two doses, and 51.8million or 90 per cent have had their first dose. Boris Johnson today announced there would be no new Covid curbs in England which would stick to Plan B, and that the country can 'ride out' the Omicron wave. The UK today recorded a record 218,724 infections, but this was because Northern Ireland reported four days of cases and Wales reported two days worth. In England 148,725 Covid infections were recorded over the last 24 hours, which was a 27 per cent rise on last week. Sir Andrew, who previously insisted boosters might not be needed, said earlier today: 'The future must be focusing on the vulnerable and making boosters or treatments available to them to protect them. 'We know people have strong antibodies for a few months after their third vaccine but more data are needed to assess whether, when and how often those who are vulnerable will need additional doses.' Has Omicron finally peaked in London? The UK's Covid infections yesterday increased by 44.6 per cent in a week as Boris Johnson suggested NHS staff could be moved to plug shortages amid fears about the Omicron wave triggering a lockdown by default. UK Health Security Agency bosses reported a further 157,758 cases, a rise from the 109,077 cases which were reported in the country last Monday. The number of people dying with the virus saw a 70.6 per cent decrease, with 42 deaths reported in the UK yesterday compared to 143 on December 27. This is the thirteenth day in a row that cases have been above the 100,000 mark as the country moves out of the festive season and comes just days after the week-on-week increase was as high as 72.5 per cent on December 29. Meanwhile the number of people being admitted to hospital in London has fallen, with 314 patients admitted to hospital on January 1, a 28 per cent decrease from the 437 admitted last Monday. Today Professor in Medicine Paul Hunter said the latest data from the ZOE Covid study app suggested that infections in London peaked just before Christmas. He wrote on Twitter: 'Latest Zoe app data suggests that infections in London did peak a day or so before Christmas and are probably peaking nationally about now, though still region to region variation.' Advertisement He added: 'We can't vaccinate the planet every four-six months. It's not sustainable or affordable. In the future, we need to target the vulnerable.' Sir Andrew was chief investigator of the Oxford Covid vaccine trials and director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, which developed AstraZeneca's jab. A year on from AstraZeneca's jab being administered to a member of the public, Sir Andrew expressed optimism going forward even as the Omicron variant continues to ravage the UK. 'The worst is absolutely behind us. We just need to get through the winter,' he told the Daily Telegraph. As for Boris Johnson's current handling of the Omicron crisis, with his relatively light restrictions across England, he said: '[It] seems to be working so far. The system isn't falling over. But it's finely balanced. 'We can't fully answer whether he's got it right for some time.' In the 12 months since AstraZeneca was injected into Brian Pinker, 82, a dialysis patient in Oxford, 9billion Covid doses have been given worldwide. In Britain alone, 90 per cent of over-12s have had their first vaccine and more than 80 per cent have had two doses, while 33million boosters have been given. According to Sir Andrew, when the Oxford/AZ trials were first started in April 2020, vaccine scientists and investigators were told it would be two years before the vaccine could be rolled out. With so much of the UK and other richer nations now vaccinated, he has added his voice to calls to 'open up', despite the ongoing threat from Omicron which a plethora of studies have suggested is milder than previous strains. Sir Andrew said: 'At some point, society has to open up. 'When we do open, there will be a period with a bump in infections, which is why winter is probably not the best time. But that's a decision for the policy makers, not the scientists. 'Our approach has to switch, to rely on the vaccines and the boosters. The greatest risk is still the unvaccinated.' Some experts have warned the US, the UK and other major economies could be on the brink of over-vaccinating people in the fight against Covid. Scientists argue that rolling out vaccines every three-to-four months simply isn't 'doable' and may not even be necessary because of Omicron, which some believe will speed up the process of endemicity and consign days of sky-high hospitalisation and death figures to history. And they called for more data on dosing gaps between boosters before pressing ahead with plans to administer fourth jabs. Some experts claim the benefits of extra jabs are minimal because their primary purpose preventing deaths and hospitalizations has barely waned after a year and several Covid variants, effectively meaning boosters are adding to an already high base level immunity. Sir Andrew told Sky News: 'Today, less than 10 per cent of people in low income families have even had their first dose, so the whole idea of fourth doses globally is just not sensible. 'It may be that as the science evolves we can work out who the most vulnerable are in populations and target future boosters for them to maintain their protection. 'But for the vast majority of people now who are vaccinated, the risk is extremely low of severe Covid and its likely well reach a point where were focusing those booster doses on those who most need them. 'Does that mean well need updated vaccines each year? We need more data to make those decisions.' He said that, despite the UK's high daily Covid cases, there is 'still very good control of severe disease as a result of vaccination'. The UK Health Security Agency has announced more than 150,000 cases for six days in a row, while there have been more than 100,000 infections registered per day for nearly two weeks. Sir Andrew said: 'I dont think were completely over Omicron, certainly not in the UK and even less so in many other countries, and theres still some weeks for all of that to play out. 'But generally the news is relatively good from an overall perspective in that it does seem to be causing milder disease, but that doesnt mean that our health system which is very much on the edge in normal times is going to be able to cope with the increase in cases. 'So I think we do still have to have measures in place that protect the health service during this winter.' He said leaders are working on how the country transitions to an open society that protects vulnerable people. 'Third doses have been given and weve been trying to manage the amount of cases so that the NHS is protected, but as we go forwards into the year ahead, working out how to live better with the virus is going to be the critical next step,' Sir Andrew said. But he warned it is not clear why Omicron is causing more mild disease or that future versions of Covid will be similarly less severe. Updated versions of Covid jabs may be needed to 'manage living with the virus in the future', Sir Andrew said. Vaccine makers are already working on tweaking the current crop of jabs in case they are needed against Omicron. But these won't be ready for months and so far the current vaccines are holding up against severe Covid outcomes. He warned that misinformation spread about Covid vaccines undoubtedly cost lives. Passengers on a Ryanair flight that made an emergency landing in France after plunging 35,000ft in seven minutes prayed as the cabin filled with smoke. Flight FR4052 took off from Manchester at 6.33pm on Monday headed for Faro, southern Portugal, where it was expected to land at around 9.30pm. But just over an hour into the flight, pilots of the Boeing 737-8AS aircraft made a sudden descent from 41,000ft to 7,000 ft while over the English Channel. Those onboard joked the experience was 'better than a ride at Alton Towers' after they were safely back on land in Brest, northern France. The plane made the emergency landing shortly after 7.30pm and was met on the tarmac by fire trucks and police vehicles as passengers were evacuated. Despite France's strict Covid quarantine rules for arriving Britons, the passengers were allowed to board another plane shortly after and continued to Portugal. The Ryanair operated Boeing 737-8AS aircraft touched down in Brest and was met on the runway by several fire trucks Flight tracking software suggested that the plane engaged in an extremely rapid descend from 41,000ft to 6,725ft in seven minutes between 7.14 to 7.21pm, sparking concerns that there could have been a loss of cabin pressure Patricia Smith, was one of the few people on board the flight last night. She said that she 'said the Lord's prayer' during the emergency landing, which according to flight analysis sites saw it drop thousands of feet within minutes. She said: 'The crew were first class. The pilots remained totally calm issuing very clear instructions on procedures and the brace position. 'All of the passengers stayed calm although I did recite the Lord's Prayer as we started to plummet to land. 'Nobody moved. We all sat practising the brace position. It sounds odd, but you could have heard a pin drop. 'It was a very frightening experience but passengers afterwards remained calm and joked with each other. 'There was the British spirit once we had made the fast decent. People joked 'get that bar open' and that it had been 'better than the black hole ride at Alton Towers'. 'Thankfully there was no young children who would have been terrified as I was. The Ryanair crew were a credit to the Aviation industry.' Policemen escorted passengers onto a bus which brought them to the terminal Flight FR4052 took off from Manchester on Monday at 6.33pm and was headed for Faro, Portugal, where it was expected to land at around 9.30pm. Flightradar's flight tracker shows the plane made an unscheduled stop in Brest, France The pilots initiated the dive of 35,000ft after a fire broke out inside the aircraft, according to plane spotters in France. Following its landing, travellers sat for 15 to 20 minutes before they were taken into the airport and handed food in a box. And within three hours, they had been moved onto a replacement London flight to Faro to meet their final destination. The Boeing 737 aircraft was pictured on the runway with fire crews in attendance after it landed shortly after 8.30pm. Ryanair has since confirmed that a technical fault caused smoke in the cabin. A Ryanair spokesperson said: 'This flight from Manchester to Faro, Jan 3, diverted to Brest Airport as a precaution due to a minor technical issue which caused an unidentified smoke smell in the cabin. 'Passengers disembarked the aircraft as normal and were taken to a secure area in Brest airport where they were provided with refreshments.' After AT&T and Verizon agreed to a two week delay in rolling out new 5G services, the Federal Aviation Administration is working on a plan to create exclusion zones for the powerful cell towers near up to 50 major US airports. At issue is the 3.7 to 3.98 GHz frequency, known as C-Band, that the two wireless carriers spent tens of billions licensing for use to power their ultra-fast 5G networks. Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing have warned that there is potential for interference with vital aircraft instruments operating in the adjacent 4.2 to 4.4 GHz band, including radio altimeters which tell pilots their altitude in poor visibility. In short, the fear is that in rare cases, false altitude readings could confuse pilots as they approach the runway in poor visibility conditions, with potentially disastrous results. Though 5G technology has been the target of many wild and unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, this specific aviation concern has been raised in federal documents at the highest level. Aviation officials fear that 5G signals near airports could interfere with certain airplane instruments, including the radio altimeter used to gauge altitude The Federal Aviation Administration is working on a plan to create exclusion zones for powerful 5G cell towers near up to 50 major US airports (file photo) On Tuesday, President Joe Biden hailed the two-week delay as 'a significant step in the right direction' and expressed confidence that measures could be put in place to minimize disruptions to air travel before the new deadline. Biden said in a statement that the 'agreement ensures that there will be no disruptions to air operations over the next two weeks and puts us on track to substantially reduce disruptions to air operations when AT&T and Verizon launch 5G on January 19th.' In a statement to DailyMail.com, the FAA said: 'Safety is the core of our mission and this guides all of our decisions.' 'The FAA thanks AT&T and Verizon for agreeing to a voluntary delay and for their proposed mitigations. We look forward to using the additional time and space to reduce flight disruptions associated with this 5G deployment,' the agency added. The FAA declined to directly address what steps will be taken in the next two weeks to address safety concerns, but said that the wireless companies have offered to 'implement a set of mitigations' comparable to measures used in Europe, where C-Band has been in use for some time. In France, guidelines limit the transmission power of 5G towers near airports in order to avoid bleeding into the bandwidth used by radio altimeters, and AT&T and Verizon will agree to similar exclusion zones for 50 major US airports as the issue undergoes further study. AT&T and Verizon on Monday agreed to a two week delay in rolling out new 5G services as the plan is formalized. Above, a 5G tower in Utah is installed in a file photo The fear with the 5G C-band is that in rare cases, false altitude readings could confuse pilots as they approach the runway in poor visibility conditions, with potentially disastrous results T-Mobile, the second largest US wireless carrier, already operates 5G services in the midband spectrum, but on slightly different frequencies which do not raise the same aviation concerns. The two-week delay for AT&T and Verizon came after pressure from the White House, aviation unions and a threat by airlines to file suit to block the deployment that could have disrupted thousands of daily flights. Verizon Chief Executive Hans Vestberg told employees Tuesday in an email that it sees no aviation safety issue with 5G, but said the FAA 'intended to disrupt an already difficult time for air travel if we move ahead with our planned activation.' 'We felt that it was the right thing to do for the flying public, which includes our customers and all of us, to give the FAA a little time to work out its issues with the aviation community,' he wrote. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and FAA Administrator chief Steve Dickson told AT&T and Verizon in a letter Monday, the agencies will not seek any further delays in deployment of 5G wireless service beyond January 19 absent any 'unforeseen aviation safety issues.' The agreement 'will give us additional time and space to reduce the impacts to commercial flights,' they wrote. The attached 'final term sheet' said unless 'unforeseen aviation safety issues' arise the U.S. agencies 'will not seek or demand any further delays of C-Band deployment, in whole or in part, including a delay of return to routine operations.' U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and FAA Administrator chief Steve Dickson told AT&T and Verizon in a letter Monday hat by Friday regulators will provide the carriers 'with a list of no more than 50 priority airports that they would propose to be subject to the C-Band exclusion zones' Airlines for America, a group representing American Airlines , FedEx Corp, Delta Air Lines and others, had been preparing to file suit late Monday absent a delay, industry officials told reporters. A wireless industry official told Reuters the deal gives them assurances they will be able to begin deployment this month. AT&T and Verizon had agreed Sunday to adopt exclusion zones for six months around some airports in a bid to mirror safeguards adopted by France, but had initially rejected Buttigieg's request for a delay of up to two weeks. The letter said that by Friday regulators will provide the carriers 'with a list of no more than 50 priority airports that they would propose to be subject to the C-Band exclusion zones' that AT&T and Verizon had proposed Sunday. Additional requests may be made for 'voluntary surgical mitigation measures at any individual airport' but AT&T and Verizon 'shall have sole discretion to determine if any requested mitigations, adjustments or alterations will be made.' AT&T and Verizon won nearly all of the C-Band spectrum in an $80-billion auction last year. In total, Verizon paid $52.9 billion for the spectrum, including incentive payments and clearing costs, to reach more than 100 million Americans, while AT&T paid $23.4 billion. AT&T and Verizon in November initially agreed to delay the deployment by 30 days to January 5 after the FAA raised safety concerns and the carriers adopted voluntary precautionary measures for six months. The effort is reportedly being led by Rep. Jim Banks, who Speaker Pelosi rejected from the House Capitol riot committee House Republicans are reportedly working on their own report detailing security failures on January 6 as the Democrat-led Capitol riot committee's investigation heats up, a Monday evening report alleged. It's being prepared by Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected from the House committee, according to Axios. Sources quoted in the report said Banks will also send around a memo discrediting Pelosi's January 6 panel as 'illegitimate.' He's expected to share details of the report in a House GOP conference call Tuesday after an investigation that's being co-run by other lawmakers Minority Leader McCarthy nominated for the committee but Pelosi shot down. The report doesn't name who they are, but in July McCarthy pulled all five of his picks -- Reps. Banks, Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Troy Nehls of Texas -- after Pelosi rejected Banks and Jordan. Nehls, Banks and Jordan all voted against certifying Joe Biden's electoral college victory. Banks' Capitol riot report will allegedly detail failures to secure the Capitol building for the day's violent events, heed intelligence warnings and leaving Capitol Police unprepared. He's reportedly telling colleagues that senior House Republicans have spoken with members of the Capitol Police force, their union and other officials during the course of their probe. DailyMail.com has reached out to Banks' office for comment. After a bill that would've established a bipartisan committee on the Capitol riot was derailed by Senate Republicans, Pelosi established the House Select Committee. The GOP's findings will reportedly focus on security failings at the Capitol on January 6 and Banks will circulate a memo seeking to discredit Pelosi's committee Despite McCarthy's boycott the California Democrat appointed two members of his caucus -- Vice Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois -- to the panel. Cheney and committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson signaled shortly before the new year that their probe was moving into a more public phase. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, House Intelligence Committee chair, said during an interview with CBS on Sunday the select panel's public hearings could begin in a matter of weeks to months. Thompson has said the committee's heard from hundreds of witnesses and will produce an interim report this summer, followed by a final document in the fall. The Mississippi Democrat also said over the weekend that his committee is looking into whether it can subpoena sitting members of Congress. They've asked to hear from Jordan as well as Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, who declined to come voluntarily. In a letter to colleagues over the weekend, McCarthy accused Democrats of 'neglecting' to protect the Capitol in a message reflecting on the one year anniversary. He said Davis, one of his committee nominees rejected by Pelosi, would be circulating a memo to House Republicans 'outlining meaningful and measurable steps that should be taken to protect our Capitol from all threats.' 'Steps that the current majority party is negligent in acting upon,' McCarthy added. The Republican leader denounced the violence as 'lawless and as wrong as wrong can be,' and called for those who broke into the Capitol to face 'legal repercussions and full accountability.' Meanwhile committee Chair Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney have signaled their investigation is moving into a more public phase soon However he pivoted to criticizing Democrats for 'politicizing' the insurrection. 'Unfortunately, one year later, the majority party seems no closer to answering the central question of how the Capitol was left so unprepared and what must be done to ensure it never happens again,' McCarthy wrote in the letter. 'Instead, they are using it as a partisan political weapon to further divide our country.' Beyond the alleged report it's not clear if House Republicans are planning to mark the January 6 attack. Pelosi wrote to House Democrats in December announcing a solemn day of remembrance on Thursday featuring speeches and reflections from historians and people who were there that day, and a planned silent vigil. Trump meanwhile is planning to hold a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida at 5 p.m. Eastern Time that day. He's expected to further promote baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him and denounce Pelosi's committee as a 'witch hunt.' A 60-year-old man has been charged with criminal damage following reports of an anti-vaccine protest outside the Health Secretary's home in London. Footage posted to social media appeared to show a person delivering a letter with an anti-Covid vaccine message to what they claimed was Sajid Javid's home in Fulham. In the clip, a man stands outside the property and addresses the camera for several minutes, saying the letter is putting the Health Secretary 'personally on notice' for 'harming' people in Britain with vaccines. The video then shows the man being restrained in handcuffs by police officers. Footage posted to social media appeared to show a person delivering a letter with an anti-Covid vaccine message to what they claimed was Sajid Javid's home in Fulham In the clip, a man stands outside a property and addresses the camera for several minutes, saying the letter is putting the Health Secretary 'personally on notice' The Metropolitan Police said Geza Tarjanyi, 60, of Leyland, Lancashire, was arrested in Fulham on Monday. The force said Tarjanyi appeared in custody at Westminster Magistrates' Court today charged with having an article with intent to destroy or damage property. He was bailed to appear at Isleworth Crown Court on February 1. Today, Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said on Twitter: 'It's completely unacceptable that anti-vaxxers turned up at Sajid Javid's home and it's right that this should be taken seriously by the Police. 'Best wishes to the Health Secretary and his family. They shouldn't have to deal with this.' Last week the Sajid Javid said he was 'appalled' by the 'vile behaviour' of the protesters who stormed a Covid testing site in Milton Keynes Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said it was 'completely unacceptable' that anti-vaxxers turned up at Sajid Javid's home The incident comes just days after anti-vax activists stormed a Covid testing site in Milton Keynes and marched through the facility, tearing down signs, throwing traffic cones and appearing to steal medical supplies. It came on the same day that Boris Johnson visited a vaccination centre in Milton Keynes, urging people to get tested before New Year's Eve festivities. The Home Secretary later condemned the scenes, saying that police have her 'full support' to take action against those involved. And Sajid Javid also said he was 'appalled' by the 'vile behaviour' of the protesters, tweeting: 'I was appalled to see Piers Corbyn and his mob threaten NHS test and trace staff who are working so hard to keep people safe. 'This kind of vile behaviour is unacceptable.' President Biden on Tuesday thanked AT&T and Verizon for agreeing to delay their planned rollout of the 5G network by two weeks so as not to disrupt air travel. 'This agreement ensures that there will be no disruptions to air operations over the next two weeks and puts us on track to substantially reduce disruptions to air operations when AT&T and Verizon launch 5G on January 19th,' Biden said in a statement. 'My Administration is committed to rapid 5G deployment, while minimizing disruptions to air operations and continuing to maintain the worlds safest airspace.' The two telecommunications giants agreed to delay their planned rollout one day after they had initially rejected a request from the White House to postpone the scheme over fears the wireless technology could cause widespread disruption to air travel. The deployment of 5G services will bring faster internet speeds and broader range of frequencies known as C-Band. The rollout was initially scheduled for Dec. 5, but the companies agreed to delay until Jan. 5 to assess the impact on aviation. It remains to be seen whether two weeks will make a difference in the US air space's readiness for the 5G network. The aviation industry and the FAA had raised concerns that 5G could interfere with aircraft equipment such as radio altitude meters. The delay by the telecom giants represents a stunning U-turn, with the CEOs of both companies pledging in a joint letter to regulators as recently as Sunday to continue with the scheduled 5G rollout, with service modifications around airports. President Biden on Tuesday thanked AT&T and Verizon for agreeing to delay their planned rollout of the 5G network by two weeks so as not to disrupt air travel Verizon and AT&T said late on Monday they had agreed to a two-week delay in deploying C-Band wireless spectrum, averting an aviation safety standoff that threatened to disrupt flights starting this week. Pictured: Planes on the tarmac at Miami airport (file photo) The planned rollout came down to the wire as aviation groups begged the Biden administration to intervene to delay the rollout. 'Time has run out and it's imperative that the White House intervene today to delay the imminent rollout of C-band 5G signals,' the groups said in a statement, issued just hours before the spectrum was due to come into use. 'Starting Wednesday, the disruptions to our country's aviation system are going to be incredibly challenging, especially at a time when the industry is currently experiencing COVID-related operational issues,' the statement from the Aerospace Industries Association, International Air Transport Association, Regional Airline Association and others said. Verizon said the delay 'promises the certainty of bringing this nation our game-changing 5G network in January.' AT&T said it agreed to the delay at the request of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The telecoms giants had won an $80 billion government auction to move forth with the C-Band spectrum rollout for 5G. Many newer phones are already compatible with 5G, but the technology is essentially useless without the network. 'At Secretary [of Transportation Pete] Buttigieg's request, we have voluntarily agreed to one additional two-week delay of our deployment of C-Band 5G services,' a spokesperson for AT&T said in a statement. 'We also remain committed to the six-month protection zone mitigations we outlined in our letter. We know aviation safety and 5G can co-exist and we are confident further collaboration and technical assessment will allay any issues.' Over the next two weeks, regulators, airlines and wireless carriers will look at ways of minimizing the potential impact of interference on flight operations. The Federal Communications Commission, which has the authority over the spectrum used for 5G, said that Buttigieg's request for a delay was 'highly irregular' and 'not backed up by the science, engineering or law.' FCC commissioner Brendan Carr said in a Jan. 1 letter to Buttigieg that the FCC had already come up with a regulatory plan 'over 660 days ago in a thorough, 258-page' document. The delay came after the chief executives of AT&T and Verizon on Sunday had rejected a request to delay the January 5 introduction of new 5G wireless service over aviation safety concerns but offered to temporarily adopt new safeguards. Buttigieg and Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson had asked AT&T CEO John Stankey and Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg for a delay of up to two weeks. They warned that without a delay, there would be 'unacceptable disruption' to aviation because flights would be canceled or diverted to other cities to avoid potential risks to air safety. The officials' warning followed a request by a major airline trade group to delay the 5G rollout. The carriers had faced pressure from the White House, airlines and aviation unions to delay the deployment amid concerns about potential interference of 5G with sensitive aircraft electronics like radio altimeters that could disrupt flights. Pictured: A contract crew from Verizon installs 5G telecommunications equipment on a tower in Orem, Utah, U.S. December 3, 2019 (file photo) Verizon said the delay 'promises the certainty of bringing this nation our game-changing 5G network in January.' AT&T said it agreed to the delay at the request of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (pictured speaking on December 17 in Georgia) In December, the FAA warned that interference from the planned use of 5G wireless spectrum posed an air safety risk and could result in flight diversions. But it had not yet issued formal notices that would further outline the potential scale of impact. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents 50,000 flight attendants at 17 airlines, had said on Twitter that 'if medicine delivered to hospitals and homes is delayed' Verizon would be responsible. 'If passengers are stranded, thank @Verizon,' Nelson said. 'Their incentive is money. Our incentive is safety. Itas the purest form of profits over people.' Airlines for America told the Federal Communications Commission that using C-band 5G near dozens of airports could interfere with devices that measure an airplane's height above the ground. The group said it had raised the issue before but was given little attention by the FCC. Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said Monday night, 'Its clear that this irresponsible rollout of 5G wasnt ready for takeoff.' The conflict between telecommunications companies and airlines - and between the FCC and the FAA - involves a type of 5G service that relies on chunks of radio spectrum called C-Band, which wireless carriers spent billions of dollars to buy up last year. The wireless companies Sunday said they would not deploy 5G around airports for six months but rejected any broader limitation on using C-Band spectrum. That exclusion zone around airports is not as large as the FAA wants. An assistant police chief in Kent, Washington, was given a two-week suspension and ordered to take 'cultural sensitivity training' for displaying a sign that glorifies Nazi Germany at work. Derek Kammerzell was disciplined last July for hanging the insignia of Schutzstaffel Opergruppenfuhrer - one of the Third Reich's highest ranks - on his office door in September 2020, according to an internal report obtained by DailyMail.com. An investigation by a Washington law firm also included allegations that the veteran cop once showed off a photo of himself wearing lederhosen and sporting an Adolf Hitler-style mustache. On another occasion, he allegedly boasted about raising his hand in a 'hail Hitler sign' as a joke while posing with a public figure, the report said. The findings were obtained through a freedom of information request by local watchdog group No Secret Police, which shared the documents with DailyMail.com. In his notice of disciplinary action for hanging the Nazi propaganda, police Chief Rafael Padilla gave Kammerzell the option of taking an unpaid leave or using his paid vacation time. Kent Police Department Assistant Chief Derek Kammerzell was disciplined last year for hanging the insignia of Schutzstaffel Opergruppenfuhrer on his office door The department's top cop also said he 'tempered' his decision with the fact Kammerzell - a 27-year veteran of the force - had no disciplinary history and 'above-satisfactory performance reviews.' Kammerzell told investigators the insignia was related to the The Man in The High Tower, a TV series that examines what the world might have been like if the Nazis had won the Second World War. He said he adopted the nickname 'Obergruppenfuhrer' after colleagues began referring to him by the German name that translates into 'senior group leader.' Kammerzell claimed that at the time he hung the image, he didn't know it was a Nazi rank and instead thought it represented his position as a high-ranking cop with German lineage. He denied ever praising Nazis or fascism. Kammerzell claimed that he wasn't aware of the historical significance of the symbol he placed above his office nameplate He said he adopted the nickname 'Obergruppenfuhrer' after colleagues began referring to him by the German name that translates into 'senior group leader' Kammerzell told the investigator that he did joke 'more than once about his grandpa dying during the Holocaust by getting drunk and falling off the guard tower.' But he denied claims by a colleague that he once bragged about giving a 'heil Hitler' salute. The claim likely stemmed from a joke he made while posing with Kent's mayor during Oktoberfest in 2019, he said. Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla gave Kammerzell the option of taking an unpaid leave or using his paid vacation time as a consequence for hanging the Nazi symbol He recalls saying: 'Hey, you want to be seen with a German guy in lederhosen with our hands raised up?' He said claims he once bragged about wearing a Hitler mustache are related to various styles he pictured himself sporting during 'Movember,' when men grow their facial hair to raise money for prostate cancer. But the lawyer investigating the case didn't buy all of his excuses, including the claim he wasn't aware of Opergruppenfuhrer's Nazi connection. 'It is not plausible that after watching The Man in the High Castle and Googling Obergruppenfuhrer [that] Assistant Chief Kammerzell would not understand the Nazi affiliation,' the report said. 'First, Assistant Chief Kammerzell described the results of the Google search he performed, including the symbol that appeared, that it translated to senior group leader, and that it included NATO equivalent and non-equivalent rankings. I searched Obergruppenfuhrer on Google, and provide a screenshot of the search results below.' A Google search of the word yields a plethora of results related to the Nazi rank. Kammerzell (right) denied ever praising Nazis or fascism A Google search of the word 'Obergruppenfuhrer' yields a plethora of results related to the Nazi rank Kammerzell told investigators the insignia was related to the The Man in The High Tower, a TV series that examines what the world might have been like if the Nazis had won the Second World War The City of Kent said in a statement that it hired two law firms to investigate claims against Kammerzell, and believes the two-week suspension was an appropriate outcome based on legal advice and labor laws. 'The independent investigation showed Assistant Chief Kammerzell exercised poor judgment in this situation despite an otherwise stellar 27-year career with the Kent Police Department,' the statement says. 'The City of Kent and Kent Police Department condemn racism in all its forms and are committed to investigate and, when necessary, impose appropriate discipline for every violation of our values and policies.' The city said he has apologized and has 'fulfilled his responsibilities in full compliance with the department's values and policies' since returning to work. A restaurant owner has called for workers to be allowed to work while Covid-positive to prevent staff shortages as the virus is rampant anyway. Iyas Shaheen, the owner of Sorrento Restaurant and Bar in Airlie Beach, urged the government to allow people who are infected but don't have symptoms to work. The boss said he had lost a quarter of his workforce over the busy Christmas and New Year's Eve period after staff were forced to isolate as close contacts. Without enough staff, the restaurant was forced to turn away 400 customers as Mr Shaheen struggled to find replacements. Iyas Shaheen, the owner of the popular Sorrento Restaurant and Bar in Airlie Beach (pictured) has urged the government to change the rules to allow people who are infected with the virus but not experiencing symptoms to come to work Mr Shaheen lost a quarter of his workforce over the busy Christmas and New Year's Eve period after staff were forced to isolate as close contacts 'If we're going to move on and let the virus run rampant, we should treat it like any other illness where you call in sick if you're sick, but if you have the virus and you're not sick you can come to work and it does not have to be dependent on a negative test,' he told the Courier Mail. 'It [the virus] is everywhere now if you test positive but there's nothing wrong with you, you should be able to go to work.' Mr Shaheen called for a change to the directive as both the Omicron and Delta variants quickly spread through Queensland. Other venues were forced to temporarily close before the busy end-of-year trade to ensure there was enough staff to tend to the crowds of revellers, he said. Mr Sheehan blamed the reopening of the border to southern states previously considered Covid hot spots by the Queensland Government. He said the spread of the virus would have been less severe across the Sunshine State if the border had reopened after the festive period. The boss revealed he had lost a quarter of his workforce (pictured) over the busy Christmas and New Year's Eve period after staff were forced to isolate as close contacts As a result of the shortages the venue (pictured) had been forced to turn away 400 potential customers as Mr Shaheen struggled to find replacements The Queenslander border was flung open to residents from NSW, Victoria and the ACT on December 13, reuniting families who had been separated for 141 days. 'This is going to be a very, very special time of the year,' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in the days before the reopening. 'I know people have said to me personally, some of them haven't seen their grandkids for the first time.' Covid-19 case numbers continue to surge in Queensland causing chaos at testing facilities as 5,699 new infections were reported on Tuesday. Clinics across southeast Queensland were unprepared for the onslaught of hundreds of people who queued for up to seven hours to get tested. Tuesday's cases mark a significant uptick from the 4,249 cases detected on Monday and the 3,587 infections reported on Sunday. Covid-19 case numbers continue to surge in Queensland causing chaos at testing facilities as 5,699 new infections were reported on Tuesday (pictured, a Covid testing centre in Brisbane) Tuesday's cases mark a significant uptick from the 4,249 cases detected on Monday and the 3,587 infections reported on Sunday (pictured, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk) Health authorities pointed out that though the state is recording more than 20,000 active cases, the number of hospitalisations and ICU admissions is steady. Chief health officer John Gerrard warned most of the state's population are likely to be exposed to the Omicron variant 'within weeks'. He said the Omicron variant defied predictive modelling trends and millions would soon become infected. 'It's very different, what we're experiencing at the moment. The Omicron strain has made it a little bit more difficult because of the rapid rise in the number of cases we're seeing,' he said. 'We're expecting in the next few weeks very substantial numbers of people to get infected - all of us are going to be exposed in the next few weeks.' Ousted WeWork founder Adam Neumann wants to disrupt the business model of personal living spaces like he did with office buildings as the billionaire tech mogul snaps up apartment complexes around the country. Neumann, 42, who was ousted as WeWork CEO in 2019, has been buying up majority stakes in more than 4,000 apartments valued at more than $1 billion in cities like Miami, Nashville and Fort Lauderdale, according to the Wall Street Journal. Many of the acquisitions have occurred over the past year, and friends and associates have said he wants to create a widely-recognizable apartment brand stacked with amenities as he seeks to lure in the same kind of young professionals who took advantage of WeWork's co-working spaces. 'Since the spring of 2020, we have been excited about multifamily apartment living in vibrant cities where a new generation of young people increasingly are choosing to live, the kind of cities that are redefining the future of living,' said DJ Mauch, a partner in Neumann's family office. 'We're excited to play a role in that future,' he said. Neither Mauch nor Neumann provided any specifics on what would make them better than other landlords who provide high-end amenities and perks at luxury buildings. Adam Neumann, the ousted co-founder of WeWork, has been quietly buying up majority stakes in more than 4,000 apartments valued at more than $1 billion in cities like Miami, Nashville and Fort Lauderdale He made his money as the co-founder of WeWork, a communal working space, and was ousted from his position in 2019 - leaving with $200 million for consulting and other fees and nearly an 11 percent share in the company Neumann, 42, has also invested in a number of startups, such as Alfred Club Inc, a company that provides concierge services such as picking up and dropping off groceries and laundry in residential buildings, sources told the Journal. Neumann, an Israeli-born business mogul, earned his riches as the co-founder of WeWork in 2010, and raised more than $10 billion for a business once valued at $47 billion. In his heyday, Neumann also launched WeLive, which was planned as a network of buildings where people could rent rooms in shared, furnished apartments. The company opened apartment buildings in New York and Virginia, but closed them down after Neumann's departure in 2019. He left the company after plans for an IPO blew up in spectacular fashion in August of that year, resulting in investors tossing aside the eccentric CEO over his exorbitant spending and increasingly erratic behavior. He was accused of drug use and gender discrimination. To encourage him to leave the company, majority owner SoftBank Group Corp paid Neumann nearly $200 million for consulting and other fees and bought $578 million worth of shares from him. He continues to have an 11 percent share in WeWork, which is valued at around $722 million, Forbes reported, and is now worth $1.6 billion. Neumann is now buying up apartment complexes, like Stacks on Main in Nashville, Tennessee An entity tied to the Israeli businessman also owns Society Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Neumann is using his riches to buy stakes in the lucrative rental sector, which has seen prices surge in many cities since the start of the pandemic. Most of his real-estate holdings are new properties with more than 200 units and many amenities, the Journal reported. In Nashville, Tennessee, Neumann bought Stacks on Main, a 268-unit property that features a saltwater pool, a dog park, a rooftop lounge and valet trash pickup. Each apartment also has a Nest thermostat, and is billed on Apartments.com as 'the gateway to an East Nashville lifestyle without the crazy price tag.' Rents at the apartment complex start at $1,390. Meanwhile, in in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, an 'entity tied to Neumann' owns Society Las Olas, a 639-unit apartment building that includes a co-working space, a putting green and a barber shop. And in downtown Miami, Neumann recently signed a contract to buy a majority stake in the 444-unit Caoba apartment tower - valuing the property at roughly $220 million. The property includes a swimming pool with cabana and towel service, an outdoor game lawn and a separate sunning lawn, as well as a clubroom with a fully-equipped kitchen, billiard, foosball and media area. Nearby, another entity tied to Neumann also owns the 387-unit Yard 8 Midtown apartment building, which seems to target millennials on its website with a pitch that says: 'Home is a vibe. It's something you feel in your soul. A vibration of belonging, of something new and of endless possibilities. That's life at Yard 8 Midtown.' The apartment complex features a swimming pool and sundeck, a clubhouse with an outdoor bar and a coffee bar. Neumann has also reportedly invested in suburban apartments, where demand has grown over the past few years as people working remotely no longer have to commute to a city. He holds stakes in a building in Decatur, Georgia, and another in Norwalk, Connecticut, according to the Journal. Other properties Neumann now owns include Yard 8 and the 444-unit Caoba apartment tower in Miami, Florida But whether Neumann will be able to turn his reputation around remains to be seen after his widely publicized downfall. In April, Hulu released the documentary WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn. And in a 2018 lawsuit, former WeWork employee Ruby Anaya alleged Neumann 'plied [her] with tequila shots during her interview with the company,' according to CNN. She also claimed that a male employee grabbed her, pulled her into his body and tried to forcibly kiss her. She says she was fired in August 2018 in what she believes was an act of retaliation. Neumann's chief of staff, Medina Bardhi, also filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in New York in 2019, claiming that Neumann referred to her maternity leave as 'vacation' or 'retirement' and that she was repeatedly 'derided and marginalized by Mr. Neumann and other WeWork officials,' according to the New York Times. In November, Neumann conceded in an interview that the company could have matured 'sooner,' saying, 'We had a fun culture.' He also pushed back on earlier reports that he had received a $ 1.7 billion 'golden parachute' to leave the company. 'This perception that as the company went from a $47 billion valuation down to $9 billion, that I profited somehow while the company was going down, is completely false,' he said. Last year, WeWork Executive Chairman Marcelo Claure, also a SoftBank executive and executive chairman of Sprint, told CNBC that the claim is 'totally false.' A veteran Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist has announced that she's quit the company due to 'woke' policies implemented by senior staffers that hindered her ability to do her job. Tara Henley made the stunning claim in a strongly worded piece posted to the online writing platform Substack, a subscription-based service where authors can publish - and monetize - their work, for an audience that pays a monthly premium. In her writeup, Henley - who worked as a TV and radio producer and occasional on-air commentator for the broadcast giant - slammed CBC brass for what she called 'a radical political agenda that originated on Ivy League campuses in the United States.' 'To work at the CBC in the current climate is to embrace cognitive dissonance and to abandon journalistic integrity,' Henley sniped in the scathing column, criticizing the far-left ideology that she says has become commonplace at the media conglomerate in recent years. Renowned Canadian media personality Tara Henley has announced she's quit the company due to 'woke' policies implemented by senior staffers that hindered her ability to do her job The journalist took to Twitter to post a piece she penned detailing her reasoning behind her resignation, while simultaneously advertising her new Substack account, a platform where writers can get paid to publish their work 'Those of us on the inside know just how swiftly - and how dramatically - the politics of the public broadcaster have shifted,' Henley noted, detailing a 'woke worldview'-obsessed newsroom hopelessly hindered by company-evoked policies. Such policies, Henley alleges, limit critical thinking and force employees to obsess over race. 'For months now, Ive been getting complaints about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,' the peeved producer revealed in the hard-hitting write-up. 'People want to know why, for example, non-binary Filipinos concerned about a lack of LGBT terms in Tagalog is an editorial priority for the CBC, when local issues of broad concern go unreported. Henley wrote that the CBC has succumbed to 'woke' ideologies in recent months, damaging the journalistic integrity of the state-funded broadcasting giant She continued: 'Or why our pop culture radio show's coverage of the Dave Chappelle Netflix special failed to include any of the legions of fans, or comics, that did not find it offensive. 'Or why, exactly, taxpayers should be funding articles that scold Canadians for using words such as "brainstorm" and "lame."' 'When I started at the national public broadcaster in 2013,' she went on, 'the network produced some of the best journalism in the country.' She then asserted: 'By the time I resigned last month, it embodied some of the worst trends in mainstream media.' Henley added that she used to be the 'one furthest to the left in any newsroom,' but when confronted with the company's rapidly changing ideals - which she say formed in the past 18 months - she quickly became the 'most conservative.' In the Substack piece, Henley revealed that she is working on at least one other book, set to release in the near future. The journalist also hosts a podcast, which she says she plans to advertise in future Substack articles 'In a short period of time, the CBC went from being a trusted source of news to churning out clickbait that reads like a parody of the student press,' Henley wrote. 'This happened in the span of about 18 months. My own politics did not change,' she then asserted, noting that most of her political spats with colleagues centered on identity politics. 'I am now easily the most conservative, frequently sparking tension by questioning identity politics,' Henley wrote. For the past three-and-a-half years, the state-funded company has been run by chief executive Catherine Tait, 64, the firm's first female CEO, who succeeded longtime leader Hubert Lacroix in April of 2018. For the past three-and-a-half years, the state-funded company has been run by 64-year-old chief executive Catherine Tait, pictured, the firm's first female CEO, who succeeded longtime leader Hubert Lacroix in April of 2018 She went on to attribute the corporation's sudden about-face from unbiased journalistic coverage to its new, overly-mindful approach to journalism, to beliefs that stemmed in the US and subsequently 'spread through American social media platforms.' Henley claimed that such beliefs 'monetize outrage and stoke societal divisions,' thereby setting the tone for money-focused media outlets such as the CBC. 'To work at the CBC is to submit to job interviews that are not about qualifications or experience - but instead demand the parroting of orthodoxies, the demonstration of fealty to dogma,' the journalist wrote. 'It is to become less adversarial to government and corporations and more hostile to ordinary people with ideas that Twitter doesnt like.' 'It is to endlessly document microaggressions but pay little attention to evictions; to spotlight company's political platitudes but have little interest in wages or working conditions, she continued. 'It is to allow sweeping societal changes like lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and school closures to roll out - with little debate. To see billionaires amass extraordinary wealth and bureaucrats amass enormous power - with little scrutiny. And to watch the most vulnerable among us die of drug overdoses - with little comment.' Henley added that she felt that in order for an employee to be successful at the CBC, they would have to 'pretend that the woke worldview is near universal.' 'To work at the CBC now is to accept the idea that race is the most significant thing about a person, and that some races are more relevant to the public conversation than others,' she continued. 'How could good journalism possibly be done under such conditions?' Henley then posited. 'How could any of this possibly be healthy for society? All of this raises larger questions about the direction that North America is headed. 'These questions keep me up at night. I can no longer push them down. I will no longer hold them back.' The journalist then declared that her new Substack account would serve as a tool for in her quest to find answers to those questions, as well as subjects such as the current social climate, class divisions, education, and economic inequality - ignoring the fact that authors on the platform are paid for their work. A tweet advertising the journalist's Substack article, posted by Henley Monday morning, has garnered more than 14,000 likes and thousands of retweets. Henley, a Canadian-born writer and broadcaster who has had written pieces for The Guardian, The L.A. Times, The Globe and Mail, and The Walrus over the past two decades, also released a book last year, titled Lean Out: A Meditation on the Madness of Modern Life. In the Substack piece, Henley revealed that she is working on at least one other book, set to release in the near future. The journalist also hosts a podcast, which she says she plans to advertise in future Substack articles. CBC did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment concerning Henley's resignation and claims regarding the state-funded company. England's chief medical officer said he has been left 'saddened' by the proportion of unvaccinated patients in intensive care. Speaking at a Downing Street news conference, Professor Sir Chris Whitty said 'the great majority' of those who were in intensive care and had not been jabbed were 'not anti-vaxxers in the ordinary sense with some really weird ideas' but had been taken advantage of by those seeking to misinform them online. Sir Chris said 'misinformation' on the internet, 'a lot of it deliberately placed', about potential side effects from jabs was fuelling fears about whether Covid-19 was important enough to warrant vaccination, leading to vaccine hesitancy. Whitty also claimed that people were being misled as to whether the vaccines were effective against the disease. 'Insofar as I am frustrated it is simply people deliberately trying to scare away fellow citizens from something that is potentially going to be life-saving for them,' he said. 'In the end, it is the job of health professionals not to get frustrated but simply to say, look, let's go through all of your questions properly and systematically and say which ones are fair and which ones as in many cases, are really completely untrue.' Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty who has said that he has been left "saddened" by the proportion of unvaccinated patients in intensive care. Issue date: Tuesday January 4, 2022. Professor Sir Chris Whitty (L) said "the great majority" of those who were in intensive care and had not been jabbed were "not anti-vaxxers in the ordinary sense with some really weird ideas" but had been taken advantage of by those seeking to misinform them online (Boris Johnson (C) and Sir Patrick Vallance (R) pictured at today's Downing St. briefing) Sir Chris said the booster provided around 88% overall protection against being admitted to hospital. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was 'absolutely crazy' that people were ending up in intensive care with Covid because they had not been vaccinated. 'How absolutely crazy it is, absolutely crazy, that there are two million slots this week for people to get vaccinated and yet the majority of people in ICU for Covid are not vaccinated 61%,' he told the press conference. 'It is sad but it is also a huge opportunity for us to correct it.' Mr Johnson added: 'There are still almost nine million people eligible, who haven't had their booster. At a Downing Street press conference, Boris Johnson said that he would be recommending to Cabinet tomorrow that Plan B restrictions stay unchanged 'It's absolutely heartbreaking that as many as 90% of those in intensive care with Covid have not had their booster, and over 60% of those in intensive care who have Covid have not had any vaccination at all. 'People are dying needlessly because they haven't had their jabs, they haven't had that booster.' Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, said there were 'extraordinarily high levels of infection at the moment' in the UK, and claimed there was 'no evidence' that the Covid spread in London has reached the peak. 'Whilst it may be the case that in the younger age groups it is flattening off or possibly beginning to come down, it's still going up in the older age groups,' he said. 'I think it would be very wrong to suggest that there's a peak which means it's all over in London.' The press conference was held on the day a further 218,724 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases were recorded in England and Scotland. It was the first time the daily recorded figure has passed 200,000, though the number will have been inflated by some delayed reporting from over the holiday period. The Prime Minister said there is a good chance the nation can 'ride out this Omicron wave' without having to bring in further Covid restrictions, but did not answer widespread calls to cut the isolation period for Covid patients from seven to five days. In today's Downing St. briefing, Mr Johnson said now is the moment for 'utmost caution' and made no mention of any plans to reduce the Covid isolation periods, despite admitting that Omicron is milder and cases are not translating into the same intensive care demand as previous waves. The current isolation period in Britain is set at a minimum of seven days, providing a Covid positive individual can test negative on two lateral flow test results at least 24 hours apart on days six and seven. The PM's comments came amid a torrent of calls from business leaders and health experts alike to reduce the isolation period to avoid a 'lockdown by default' as industries across the nation face forced closures due to staff absences. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said there is a good chance the nation can 'ride out this Omicron wave' without having to bring in further Covid restrictions, but did not answer widespread calls to cut the isolation period for Covid patients from seven to five days Experts claimed that cutting the isolation period to five days would save the UK economy 300million this month while the Centre for Economics and Business Research estimated that the current rules will cost the country 1 billion, equal to 0.5 per cent of monthly GDP. Meanwhile, Professor of Medicine Paul Hunter told Sky News today that there is a strong argument for cutting the isolation period of Covid positive individuals to five days as the greatest risk of transmission comes from two days before to three days after someone becomes ill. 'I think the balance of evidence is that really, most infections are transmitted in the two days before to three or four days after somebody becomes ill,' he said. 'At the moment, much of the pressure is from keeping people off work, some of whom won't necessarily need to be off work.' The man behind a petition to strip Sir Tony Blair of his knighthood said the former PM had 'united the nation' after more than 600,000 people protested the honour. Angus Scott, 55, said he was 'astonished' by the response to his online petition aimed at stopping the former Labour leader from being elevated to the Order of the Garter. And the voice artist and presenter believes that if Sir Tony's knighthood were put to a referendum tomorrow the vote would go much the same way as the public's reaction. 'I'm astonished by the reaction,' he told the Metro. 'Although I knew deep down in this country there is a huge, seething resentment of Tony Blair, I only expected a few thousand signatures from people who felt the same way as me. 'Ironically, he has at last united the nation on a subject, which is that people are very passionately angry about this one man.' The petition now stands at 650,000 signatories, including military veterans, the families of fallen UK service personnel and politicians angry over his role in the Iraq War. The man behind a petition to strip Sir Tony Blair of his knighthood said the former PM had 'united the nation' after more than 600,000 people protested the honour Angus Scott, 55, said he was 'astonished' by the response to his online petition aimed at stopping the former Labour leader from being elevated to the Order of the Garter The petition now stands at 650,000 signatories, including military veterans, the families of fallen UK service personnel and politicians angry over his role in the Iraq War Sir Tony's inclusion in the New Year honours list has caused a storm, with experts saying the 14-year delay between his leaving office and getting the distinction showed the monarch was aware how much backlash there would be. Unlike usual knight and damehoods, he received a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter, the highest honour for civilian apart from the George Cross. It dates back to Edward III in 1348. Mr Scott started his shortly after news of the award was published, stating that the ex-PM 'is the least deserving of any public honour', especially one only in the gift of The Queen. In an explanation in his petition, Mr Scott wrote: 'Tony Blair caused irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation's society. 'He was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicement in various conflicts. For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes.' 'When he was prime minister, he hoodwinked a lot of people to vote for him but now we can analyse his legacy with 14 years of hindsight and can see everything he did, bar a few exceptions, has turned out to be fundamentally flawed and disastrous for this country,' Mr Scott added. Then Prime Minister Tony Blair (second from right) talks with Major General Richard Shirreff CBE (second from left) as he visits British troops in Basra, southern Iraq, in 2006 Anti-war protesters are seen massed in Hyde Park during a demonstration against war with Iraq in London on February 15, 2003 'As time has unfolded, more and more people have realised this man and his policies are toxic, and that's why so many have signed the petition.' Mr Scott says that he is 'just an ordinary citizen' and has been highly critical of the former Labour leader's record on the Iraq war. The petition urges Prime Minister Boris Johnson to 'petition Her Majesty to have this honour removed'. However, only petitions launched on the Parliament website can trigger a debate in the Commons - and the official platform has rejected efforts to start similar petitions. Downing Street has had to deny that Mr Johnson had 'any input' on the decision to elevate the former PM to the Order of the Garter, insisting it was a 'matter for the Queen'. Current Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, himself a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, dismissed criticism of Sir Tony Blair's knighthood saying he deserved it as Sir Tony was a 'very successful prime minister'. He however made the point following a speech in Birmingham that Mr Johnson had not 'earned the right' to a knighthood once he leaves office. He said: 'No, I am sorry, I don't think that this Prime Minister has earned the right to have an honour. I do think Tony Blair has.' Sir Keir Starmer has dismissed criticism of Sir Tony Blair's knighthood, insisting the former prime minister deserves the honour Labour MP Graham Stringer, who voted against the Iraq War in 2003, said he agreed with Speaker Lindsay Hoyle that former PMs should be honoured for their service. 'I think when you have been PM you should probably get your reward unless you are actually convicted of some criminality,' he told MailOnline. 'I voted against the iraq War. I think Blair was a good PM for the first six years, and the Iraq War ruined him. But he was PM for 10 years and if the Queen wants to give him the Garter then I think he should have it.' Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told MailOnline he could 'understand the controversy' and the 14-year delay in the honour 'speaks for itself'. 'In all other respects he has been the most successful Labour PM since Clement Attlee and responsible for some major achievements which even as a Conservative I acknowledge,' Sir Malcolm said. However, others have voiced fury at the move. Members of the oldest order of chivalry are chosen by the Queen The Order of the Garter was founded by Edward III nearly 700 years ago, inspired by tales of King Arthur and the Round Table. The Order is the oldest and most senior Order of Chivalry in Britain. It includes the Queen, who is Sovereign of the Garter, several senior royals, and twenty-four knights chosen 'in recognition of their work'. Buckingham Palace says the members are 'chosen personally' by the Queen. From the 18th Century the monarch selected members on the advice of the government - but this arrangement was scrapped in 1946 when Clement Attlee, with agreement from Winston Churchill - again made it the sole gift of the Queen. As a result there is no requirement for the PM to be consulted or offer advice - although they have regular audiences with the Queen and can discuss issues informally. Those picked have included Marshal of the RAF, Lord Stirrup, and former Prime Ministers Sir John Major and Sir Winston Churchill. Advertisement The twin brother of a soldier who died in Iraq said his 'blood ran cold' on hearing the news. Lance Corporal David Wilson, who was 27 and from Spennymoor, County Durham, died from a gunshot wound at Basra airbase in 2008 where he served with 9 Regiment Army Air Corps. His twin, Mike Wilson, now 40, said he was 'disgusted' that the former premier was awarded a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter in the New Year Honours list, adding it is 'an insult to David's memory'. SNP MP Angus MacNeil told MailOnline that the announcement of the knighthood for Sir Tony had been helpful for Mr Johnson. 'I think if I was Boris given the trouble and the hassle he's got, there's only one other guy he can put into focus that would create as much controversy and that is Tony Blair,' he said. 'Giving Tony Blair his honour has probably been an inspired blinder for Boris. 'If you want people to remember a controversial former PM hand Tony Blair a knighthood fast.' Royal biographer Angela Levin said the Queen had been put in a difficult position but may have taken the unpopular step to spare her the Prince of Wales having to do so later. She told MailOnline: 'I think it is a very difficult situation for the Queen and should have been anticipated in advance. 'Surely it would have been discussed with the Prime Minister and also Prince Charles in case he gets involved on behalf of the Queen. 'Perhaps the Queen insisted he was knighted because she felt indebted to Blair when Diana died and convinced her to return to Buckingham Palace and change her stiff upper lip approach.' The contagious Omicron variant continued to wreak havoc across the country, cancelling flights for the third consecutive week, forcing schools and businesses to shut their doors, and even pushing one hotel to use robots to fill in for overstretched staff. On Tuesday, 1,500 flights were cancelled and more than 4,000 were delayed across the country as airlines cited a shortage of pilots during the latest outbreak. Schools closed to prevent staff and students from getting sick, with more than 3,500 public schools across the country shuttered in the first week back since the Christmas break. Big chain stores like Walmart and CVS shut dozens of branches to clean and sanitize as the US smashed records for new daily COVID cases, which reached 1,082,549 on Monday. And in a sign of desperation across multiple industries, a hotel in Silicon Valley has begun using robots to deliver room service to customers. The US is smashing records for daily COVID-19 cases, which reached 1,082,549 on Monday Evidence is mounting that the Omicron variant maybe less deadly, with experts hoping it represents a turn toward herd immunity Widespread flight disruptions continued on Tuesday, with nearly 1,500 flights cancelled and 4,000 delayed across the country. Above, Orlando International Airport on Sunday Travelers line up at a ticket counter at Salt Lake City International Airport on December 30 Stores are also feeling the crunch, with retailers like Walmart and CVS closing locations last month for sanitizing. Above, a sign outside a CBS in Jackson, Mississippi on Monday The Radisson Sunnyvale is now deploying a small robot designed by manufacturer Savioke. 'They're in this kind of crunch mode where the higher paid staff are filling in for things that frankly robots can do,' Savioke CEO Steve Cousins told KGO-TV. The robot has reportedly reduced room service delivery time from 30 to five minutes and quelled the COVID anxiety of some guests. 'There are guests that like the fact that they can have items delivered and not have that contact with a human being,' Radisson Sunnyvale general manager Alex Martinez told the TV station. 'It's more of an enhanced experience than it is replacing someone.' The moves come as COVID infections soar but hospitalizations and deaths remain relatively low. On a rolling-average basis, daily COVID-19 cases are at 494,732 over the past seven days, up more than 110 percent from a week ago, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. There were 1,688 deaths recorded across the country on Monday, and the seven-day rolling average of deaths stood at 1,340, marking a 12 percent decline from week-ago levels. Hospitalizations have risen by about a third in the past week, at around 100,000, but remain nearly 30 percent below the peak levels recorded last January, when case numbers were much lower than they stand today. 'We're now in a totally different phase,' Monica Gandhi, an immunologist at the University of California, San Francisco, told Bloomberg. 'The virus is always going to be with us, but my hope is this variant causes so much immunity that it will quell the pandemic.' Though evidence is mounting that Omicron is a milder strain with less risk of severe illness, businesses are still struggling as workers call out sick . Flight disruptions that began before Christmas Eve are still piling up by the thousands. Flight disruptions that began before Christmas Eve are still piling up by the thousands every day. Above, travelers at a Delta ticket counter at the Salt Lake City airport on December 30 Airlines have cited a shortage of pilots due to COVID-19 infections. Above, travelers at LaGuardia Airport in New York City Infections have skyrocketed in the US due to the more infectious Omicron variant About 73 percent of the US population has at least one dose. Only 62 percent are fully vaccinated By Tuesday afternoon, 1,442 flights within the US were canceled and more than 3,600 were delayed. On Monday, more than 3,200 flights were cancelled and nearly 9,000 flights were delayed, according to flight tracker FlightAware. The cancellations have resulted in missed holiday reunions and intense frustration for many travelers, who have taken to Twitter to express their woes. One user tweeted on Tuesday: '@delta cancelled my flight without emailing me this morning, and had the audacity to be cordial about the first available flight being over a week from today. 'I don't want a response, I just want to yell into the void about a corporation that faces no consequences.' Another user wrote: 'Land in Dallas, turn on phone, text message saying my final flight home is cancelled till tomorrow. I swear I am not going on a vacation anytime soon after this.' Some airlines have cited the Omicron variant and a lack of available pilots as reasons for the cancellations. Schools are delaying reopening after the holidays, or remaining closed altogether, as a result of the Omicron variant. Schools are delaying reopening after the holidays, or remaining closed altogether, as a result of the Omicron variant Most of the school disruptions have been in the Northeast, according to a Burbiotracker New York City Mayor Eric Adams has vowed to keep schools open. Above, children walk into an elementary school past a Mayor Adams press conference in the Bronx on Monday For the week starting January 2, 3,556 schools across the country were closed, according to a tracker on aggregator Burbio.com. That's more than triple the amount of the 1,029 schools closed the week of December 19. Most school disruptions between December 13 and January 13 were concentrated in the Northeast, according to a map on the website. But in an unusual alignment, the new mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vowed to keep schools in their districts open. 'It's chaos,' said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, which has polled families throughout the pandemic. 'The No. 1 thing that parents and families are crying out for is stability.' In Chicago, students returned to school on Monday, but the school district has said it will cancel classes on Wednesday if the teacher's union votes to switch to remote learning on Tuesday, according to WLS-TV. 'Unfortunately, our union is again being backed into a corner of being the leader in the city that the mayor refuses to be,' said Chicago Teacher's Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates in an interview with the station. The Radisson Sunnyvale in Silicon Valley, above, is now deploying a small robot designed by manufacturer Savioke to help with room service and alleviate the burden on staff The robot has reportedly reduced room service delivery time from 30 to five minutes and quelled the COVID anxiety of some guests Walmart stores in states like Texas and New Jersey were closed for two days in December for cleaning. Above, a Walmart store in Bentonville, Arkansas in 2015 Pharmacy and retailer CVS said it temporarily closed 'fewer than 10 locations' for 'enhanced cleaning' last month Walmart shut nearly 60 stores in states like Texas and New Jersey for two days in December 'to present a safe and clean in-store environment for our associates and customers,' a company spokesperson told Reuters, according to a CNBC report. The retailer has 4,700 locations across the country. Pharmacy and retailer CVS, on the other hand, said it temporarily closed 'fewer than 10 locations' for 'enhanced cleaning' last month. The variant has affected the availability of staff at health care facilities, which are crucial as hospitalizations rise. In Rhode Island, the state Department of Health recently updated its guidelines to allow COVID-positive health staff to return to work in 'crisis' situations. At least two hospitals have allowed COVID-infected staff to work with patients. In South Florida, a hospital temporarily closed its maternity ward due to staff shortages related to recent outbreaks of COVID-19. Mothers-to-be who had planned on giving birth at Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale will have to find another option. Holy Cross spokeswoman Christine Walker says in a statement: 'In the best interest of patient safety, the Labor and Delivery unit is on diversion until further notice.' She says the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Post-Partum units at the hospital remain open. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden urged 35 million unvaccinated Americans to get their shots as the best way to protect themselves from the rampant Omicron variant of COVID-19 Nearby hospitals including Memorial Healthcare System and Broward Health are taking on patients from Holy Cross in the meantime. In his address to the nation on Tuesday afternoon, President Joe Biden said that cases will continue to rise, but there are enough booster shots for the 'whole nation'. About 73 percent of the US population has at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Only 62 percent are fully vaccinated and just 34.7 percent have a booster shot. 'Omicron is very transmissible, transmissible variant, but much different than anything we've seen before. But you can protect yourself. And you should protect yourself, quite frankly. Get vaccinated. Get boosted. There's plenty of booster shots. Wear a mask while you're in public,' Biden said. He added that this continues to be the pandemic of the unvaccinated, and that there was no excuse for people not to be vaccinated by this point. Supermarket shelves could stay bare for weeks as the latest Covid crisis wreaks havoc with Australia's supply chain, a top Coles executive has warned. Hundreds of meat workers in abattoirs have been sent into isolation in recent days as the Omicron strain sweeps across Australia. Startling images have shown Coles and Woolworths shelves stripped of their produce as supermarkets struggle to refill their stores after the Christmas and New Year shopping rush. Coles Chief Operating Officer Matthew Swindells said shoppers were in for a 'couple of difficult weeks' in the run-up to Australia Day as Omicron worsens existing labour shortages. Scroll down for video This Woolworths on Sydney's north shore had limited fresh produce and meat in stock earlier this week. Shoppers are in for a 'couple of difficult weeks' as supermarkets struggle to fill shelves in the run-up to Australia Day, a top Coles executive has warned 'We were facing a number of supply chain challenges already - a shortage of pallets and a shortage of truck drivers,' he told the Today show. '(After the Christmas rush) we're somewhat on the back foot trying to make sure that we can keep the food supply lines going. 'We've got probably another couple difficult weeks.' The supermarket executive warned shoppers they may need to change brand to find their favourite products. 'You might have to change brand or buy a different pack size,' he said. 'As it's a new year, try something different. 'It will take us a few weeks to fully recover from this and importantly, we need to get those team member numbers that are isolating back into the workforce to recover all of those food supplies.' The Omicron variant has meant as much as 70 per cent of factory and farms workers are unable to go to work. The peak industry body is calling for meat workers to get rapid antigen testing priority to keep them working or face a nationwide meat shortage in the next two weeks. Pictured are January 26 revellers. Coles Chief Operating Officer Matthew Swindells said said Omicron was worsening existing labour shortages 'This is an emergency as of now,' Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson told Seven News. 'We're now seeing a large amount of meat workers who actually can't get to work. 'There's hundreds and hundreds of staff up and down the eastern seaboard, certainly Queensland, NSW and VIC who aren't able to get to work at this stage.' He admitted there may be no lamb by Australia Day. 'That's a real possibility unless we get the settings right,' he replied. 'I'm actually concerned we will have a shortage because we just won't have the people on site over the next month to six weeks to be able to process anything.' An Aussie barbecue could be off the menu on Australia Day due to a national meat shortage caused by Covid (stock image) AMIC also called for urgent guarantees to be put in place to shore up meat production and supply capacity. 'In what is already a hugely challenging meat supply landscape, with record high livestock prices and labour shortages due to Covid border closures, we are hearing that multiple meat processing establishments are now having to temporarily shut their doors or operate at very low capacities due to the Omicron surge', Mr Hutchinson said in a statement. 'We are experiencing an unprecedented wave of staffing unpredictability. Shortages of meat on supermarket shelves haven't gone unnoticed by disappointed customers (pictured, a Coles on Queensland's Sunshine Coast 'As Covid spreads in the community, our industry workers are unable to present for work for at least seven days should someone in their family or household test positive, under the current national Covid protocol.' 'In some instances, we are hearing that under 30 percent of rostered workers have presented for work.' The surge of Covid-19 cases continues to cause widespread chaos, despite the national cabinet amending the definition of close contacts to ease isolation rules. Bare meat shelves have become the new norm at this Coles store on the Sunshine Coast, according to shopper Jett The rules have also been overhauled for positive Covid cases, who only have to isolate for a week if they have no symptoms on day seven. Woolworths says its shortage of produce such as meat is due to a logistical issue rather than a supply issue. 'The pandemic has delivered many challenges over the past two years and will continue to do so as we move into this next phase,' a spokesman told Daily Mail Australia. 'We're currently experiencing delays with some of our stock deliveries to stores due to Covid-related impacts on our supply chain operations. 'We have stock available within our network and our teams and suppliers are doing all they can to replenish stores as quickly as possible.' 'We thank our customers for their patience and apologise for the inconvenience.' Daily Mail Australia also contacted Coles for comment. Retailers Association' spokesperson Fleur Brown expects the supply chain issues will continue for at least 12 months. 'However, they are critical at the moment,' she said. 'They will ease a little as we get over the Omicron curve.' Qantas pilots returning to work after months away from the job due to the Covid-19 pandemic have been making errors and need more time for 'routine' procedures, according to a memo from the airline. Some have reportedly commenced take-off with the parking brake still on while there has also been 'misidentification of altitude as airspeed'. The details were outlined in a Qantas memo and come after thousands of employees returned to work last month when state and international borders were finally lifted. The airline's heads of fleet operations said 'expert pilots have lost recency and experienced a subsequent reduction in cognitive capacity', from the long hiatus, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Qantas pilots returning to work after months away from the job due to the Covid-19 pandemic have been making errors, according to a memo from the airline 'Combined with reduced flying across the network, we recognise a flow on effect for flight crew's focus and familiarity with the operation,' they said. 'Routine items that used to be completed with a minimum of effort now occupy more time and divert attention away from flying the aircraft.' Recency refers to requirements around pilots successfully performing take-offs and landings. Other 'threats' included incorrect positioning of switches in the cockpit and 'exterior inspection events'. A spokesperson for Qantas said airlines around the world were working to familiarise pilots with aircraft. 'We recognised very early that we needed to think differently about pilot recency, currency and refamiliarisation programs, and so we designed an enhanced return-to-work program fit for the unprecedented challenge facing our industry,' they said. 'Safety is our number one priority and all of the data shows that our pilots are coming back with the skills and confidence to do their job safely.' Due to the shutdown of travel from Covid, Qantas identified issues with pilots returning to the cockpit (stock image) The former manager of air safety investigation at Qantas, Mick Quinn, said the issue could be resolved by more training and pilots spending time in simulators. 'We are all people, and we all make mistakes, but the most important thing is how to manage them before they turn bad,' he told the publication. He said pilots around the world faced similar challenges having been out of the cockpit for so long. 'The only way is training, training and training, and simulator time,' he said. It comes after the Federal Government announced $78million would go towards Australia's aviation industry. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce unveiled an aviation recovery framework aimed at rebuilding the workforce and upgrading regional infrastructure. A strategic aviation advisory forum will brief the federal government and provide annual 'health checks' about the state of the sector. 'As a critical enabler of economic activity, the government is focused on ensuring the industry returns to pre-pandemic levels as soon as it is safe to do so,' Mr Joyce said. 'We are putting in place policies and regulation to foster a competitive, safe and secure aviation sector that all Australians can rely on, and not just for travel and leisure purposes.' An Arizona couple have been arrested on charges of child neglect for allegedly leaving their 11-year-old son to fend for himself for two weeks while they were traveling out of state. Melissa and Bobby Jo Green were apprehended last week, after deputies performing a welfare at their home in Elfirda found their son without any adult supervision. The 11-year-old boy told officers that there was 'frozen food available to him' and that he had not attended school for at least two weeks. According to a press release from the Cochise County Sheriff's Office, the alleged case of neglect was uncovered on December 12, when a concerned citizen called the authorities, saying that an 11-year-old son was possibly alone for an unknown length of time at a family's home off of Coral Lane in Elfrida - a small town of a few hundred people located more than 100 miles east of Tucson. Melissa Green, 34 (left), and Bobby Jo Green, 40 (right), have been charged with three counts of child neglect for allegedly leaving their 11-year-old son home alone for two weeks An investigation determined that Melissa Green, 34, the boy's mother, had left the home to go out of state before Thanksgiving, and Bobby Jo Green, 40, the child's father, had followed shortly after the holiday, according to cops. 'The child was left alone during the entire time until contact with Sheriff Deputies was made,' the press release stated. The 11-year-old boy was turned over to Child Protective Services after deputies were unable to reach his parents. The Greens finally returned home on December 28 and were arrested the next day on three counts each of child neglect. Melissa and Bobby Jo Green were booked into the Cochise County Jail on $100,000 bond each. Social media posts reveal that the couple first met in 2006 and welcomed their son in September 2010. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday the administration will start delivery of its promised 500 million at-home COVID tests later this month as contract negotiations continue to fill the massive order. She also denied an allegation that President Joe Biden 'has lost control' of the COVID pandemic after long lines of people waited to get tested around the holidays and the United States recorded a million new cases of the disease on Monday. When asked if she agreed with those critics, Psaki responded: 'We would not.' 'We're in a very different place than we were a year ago,' she added. '200 million people are vaccinated. Those are people who are protected, seriously protected, from illness and death from the virus. We have also just purchased the largest over-the-counter purchase of tests in history - 500 million tests.' hite House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration will start delivery of its promised 500 million at-home COVID tests later this month Psaki held her press briefing with only 14 reporters after the White House Correspondents Association cut down the number of attendees due to rising COVID cases The administration has been defensive of its response to the pandemic and of the testing shortage after long lines formed around the country with people wanted to be COVID tested ahead of spending the holidays with loved ones. 'I know this remains frustrating,' President Biden said Tuesday of the testing issue. 'Believe me, it's frustrating to me, but we're making improvements. And the last two weeks we've stood up federal testing sites all over the country.' Biden promised in mid-December that half a billion at-home COVID testing kits will be available for free to Americans. His administration has yet to offer comprehensive details on how the delivery system will work other than to say there will be a website where people can sign up. But the administration has yet to answer questions on how it will determine how many kits each household gets, how long it will take households to get the kits and how those kits will be delivered. Psaki noted that all bids for the testing contract are in and the administration is evaluating the responses with the expectation the first kits would be ready for distribution later in January. 'We are finalizing the contracts,' she said at her daily White House press briefing. 'The first delivery for manufacturers will start later this month. That's our expectation.' The United States recorded a million cases of COVID on Monday. That morning, the US reported 55,114,057 confirmed cases. By midnight, the tally had risen to 56,190,946 - an increase of well over a million in under 24 hours. But hospitalization rates and the death rate remains low compared to past waves. Psaki held her first press briefing of 2022 on Tuesday after Monday's briefing was cancelled after snow blanketed the Washington D.C. area. There were only 14 reporters asking her questions after the White House Correspondents Association shrank the number of attendees in the press briefing to help combat the rising cases of COVID, mostly due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant. The administration has defended its job on the coronavirus pandemic with President Joe Biden saying on Tuesday he understood the frustrations about testing Tamara Keith, vice president of the White House Correspondents' Association, places new signs in the White House briefing room to make it socially distanced Press Secretary Jen Psaki holds a media briefing with reduced number of reporters Washington D.C. has become a hot spot for the disease with one of the highest case rates and hospitalization rates in the nation. In Virginia and Maryland, the highest case spikes are in the DC suburbs. 'Given the virulence of the spread, medical experts have once again advised that it would be prudent to substantially reduce the number of people working in the cramped, poorly ventilated workspace that we share,' WHCA president Steven Portnoy wrote in a message to correspondents on Sunday evening. The 49 seats in the briefing room was decreased to 14, a practice that was in place during the height of the pandemic in order to maintain social distancing and help contain the spread of COVID. Over the past few weeks, the correspondents association has encouraged reporters to wear N95 masks and not to come to the White House unless necessary for work. There have been a few breakthrough cases of COVID among the reporters who cover President Joe Biden. The WHCA will review the arrangement and the latest COVID figures later this month to determine if the reduced seating needs to remain in place. The White House imposed those severe limits on the room's capacity for the first time on March 16, 2020, when the pandemic caused the country to shut down. Capacity in the press room was increased to 50 percent, or 24 seats, on May 24. It returned to full capacity in June 2021. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Sen. Ted Cruz should stop 'name-calling' and 'predicting the future' and work with the Biden administration on immigration reform after Cruz threatened President Biden with impeachment. Republican lawmakers will be under 'enormous pressure' to impeach Biden if they take back the House of Representatives in this year's midterm elections, the Texas Republican said on the latest episode of his podcast. 'Maybe Senator Cruz can work with us on getting something done on comprehensive immigration reform and putting in place measures that will help make sure smart security is what we see at the border, taking a more humane approach to the border, instead of name-calling, accusation-calling, and making predictions of the future,' Psaki shot back, asked about the senator's threat in her daily briefing. On The Verdict With Ted Cruz, the Cruz accused Democrats of 'weaponizing' impeachment against twice-impeached former President Donald Trump. Asked about whether his colleagues in the House will respond in kind, Cruz said: 'I do think theres a chance of that. Whether it's justified or not, Democrats weaponized impeachment.' Psaki said that Sen. Ted Cruz should stop 'name-calling' and 'predicting the future' and work with the Biden administration on immigration reform 'They used it for partisan purposes to go after Trump because they disagreed with him,' Cruz claimed. He said there are 'multiple grounds' on which to impeach Biden, singling out the southern border crisis and record number of migrants crossing into the US and straining American immigration infrastructure. 'The most compelling [reason] is the utter lawlessness of President Biden's refusal to enforce the border, his decision to just defy federal immigration laws,' the senator said. He added that the president's rollback of Trump-era border restrictions amounted to a dereliction of duty under Article II of the Constitution, which puts it on the commander-in-chief to enforce federal laws. Republicans have blamed Biden's undoing of Trump-era immigration restrictions in favor of a 'more humane' system for a record surge in migrants at the border in 2021. The Biden administration ceased building the border wall with Mexico and has taken steps not to deny entry to children and some families at the border. It has also directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to scale back arrests and target them to dangerous lawbreakers. The administration has tried to undo Trump's 'Remain in Mexico' policy, but that reversal has been held up in court. Most migrants are now expelled through Title 42, a coronavirus public health order. The Centers for Disease Control has not said when it will allow that edict to expire. Republican lawmakers have floated the idea that the president's son Hunter Biden, and his murky foreign business dealings, could also be grounds for impeachment. Cruz predicted that Republicans' odds of taking back the House in this year's midterm elections are as high as 90 percent Migrants heading in a caravan towards the US wait for buses at the "House of the Pilgrim San Juan Diego" in Mexico City on Dec. 22 He said of the extraordinary political process, 'The more you weaponize it and turn it into a partisan cudgel -- you know, whats good for the goose is good for the gander -- I've said it at the time, when we have a Democratic president and a Republican house, you can expect an impeachment proceeding.' 'That's not how impeachment is meant to work but I think the Democrats crossed that line. I think there'll be enormous pressure on a Republican House to begin impeachment proceedings.' House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has already gotten to work preparing for multiple investigations into the Biden administration should his party win back the majority after the November elections, Axios reported last month. He's sent several 'preservation notices' across Biden's Cabinet to retain documents that may be useful for future GOP-held committees. Cruz said those probes are 'extremely likely to happen,' estimating that Republicans are 90 percent likely to take back the House and 'it may be even higher than that.' 'What's interesting is in Washington, everybody assumes Republicans are gonna win. I think all the Democrats assume we're gonna take the House, it's almost baked into the cake of how everyone handles decision-making,' he said. He said his party will be under 'enormous pressure' to impeach Biden after Democrats twice voted to impeach Trump As to the chances of taking back the Senate, which is split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote for Democrats, Cruz was less optimistic. 'I put the odds of our taking the Senate at about 50-50, I think its gonna be a really good year, but it's a bad map,' he said. In this year's midterms, 14 Democrat senators will be up for re-election compared to 20 Republican-held seats. 'We have more vulnerable Republican seats up in the Senate than Democrat seats so we've got to have a few things bounce right, but if we take the House -- which as I said is overwhelmingly likely -- then I think we will see serious investigations of the Biden administration,' Cruz predicted. 'If we take the Senate, I hope we see the Senate engaging similarly in real oversight with teeth.' Pelosi is growing increasingly likely to lose her position as House Speaker at the end of this term Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi looks increasingly likely to lose her powerful position in November as more members of her caucus either retire or choose to run for a different office. As recently as Monday night, Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush told the Chicago Sun Times that he's ending his three-decade tenure in the House at the end of this term. The former Black Panther has comfortably beat back numerous primary and general election challengers to keep hold of his state's 1st Congressional District, including a bid from a young state senator named Barack Obama in 2000. There are currently 221 Democrats and 213 Republicans in the House, meaning Democrats can only afford to lose three seats while maintaining power. At the end of 2022, 24 Democrats are leaving the lower chamber compared to just 12 Republicans. It's also not the first time lawmakers have floated the idea of impeaching Biden. A group of Republican lawmakers led by Ohio Rep. Bob Gibbs filed articles of impeachment against the president in September. Gibbs claimed the president violated his oath of office on three points, according to text obtained by DailyMail.com: the southern border crisis, the evictions moratorium and Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Brian Babin of Texas and Randy Weber of Texas are co-sponsors on the effort. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed articles of impeachment against Biden on his first full day in office. Greene argued he is 'unfit' for office and 'will do whatever it takes to bail out Hunter'. Manhattan's new district attorney has unveiled a sweeping new policy to only seek prison sentences for a handful of offenses, and downgrade or dismiss charges for many felony crimes - and Mayor Eric Adams is on board with the plan. Alvin Bragg, who took office over the weekend, revealed his progressive new approach in a 'day one policies and procedures' memo released on Monday. The Democrat said offenses like marijuana misdemeanors, prostitution, resisting arrest and fare dodging will no longer be prosecuted. Bragg instructed prosecutors to stop seeking prison sentences for crimes except for homicides, assaults resulting in serious injury, domestic violence felonies, sex offenses, public corruption, and 'major economic crimes'. The directive comes despite New York City seeing a surge in violent crime. City-wide, crime statistics published in December by the NYPD show that shootings, murders and auto grand larceny have all nearly doubled while murder is up 50 percent in the city compared to 2019. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has unveiled a sweeping new policy to only seek prison sentences for a handful of offenses, and downgrade or dismiss charges for many crimes New York City is currently experiencing soaring crime rates and an increase in shooting incidents not seen since the mid-2000s New Yorks new DA unveils revised charges for crimes including armed robbery and drug dealing Among other woke proposals from Bragg's memo, the DA recommended: Robbers wielding guns or other deadly weapons to steal from stores and businesses will be prosecuted only for petty larceny - a misdemeanor - provided no victims were injured and there is no 'genuine risk of physical harm.' Armed robbery is a class B felony, usually punishable by up to 25 years in jail. Convicts who are caught with weapons other than guns will have their charges downgraded to misdemeanors, as long as they are not also charged with more serious offenses. The felony would normally see crooks jailed for seven years. Burglars who loot residential storage areas, parts of homes that are not 'accessible to a living area' and businesses located in mixed-use buildings, will be prosecuted for a minor class D felony, where they would normally face class B and class C charges punishable by up to 25 and 15 years in prison respectively. Drug dealers suspected of 'acting as a low-level agent of a seller' will only be charged with misdemeanor possession. Advertisement Aside from the same list of offenses, Bragg's prosecutors have also been told not to seek bail requirements for suspects awaiting trial. The memo also outlines a number of circumstances in which charges should be downgraded, including certain cases of armed robbery and drug dealing. Bragg also vowed to stop prosecuting many low-level offenses including subway turnstile jumping, prostitution, and trespassing. He will continue his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr's policy of declining to prosecute marijuana possession. New Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD cop who swept into office on a campaign vow to crack down on soaring crime in the city, nevertheless expressed support for Bragg's new polices at a Tuesday press conference, saying: 'I like Alvin.' 'I believe that he's going to be a good district attorney, and I'm going to sit down and have a conversation with him as we build out what we need to do around public safety,' the mayor said. 'I think he's on Team Public Safety,' added Adams. 'Team Public Safety is not only handcuffs, Team Public Safety is also ending the pipeline that turns people into career criminals.' In just his first few hours as mayor, Adams had to confront New York City's spiraling crime problem head-on as he called police about an assault in progress. Footage posted to social media on Saturday showed Adams calling 911 as he passed through the Kosciuszko J stop in Brooklyn on his way to City Hall - and witnessed three men fighting on the street below. One of the men was seen punching another man on the ground. Later, one of the suspects lifts a victim up and continues to punch him. New Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD cop who swept into office on a campaign vow to crack down on soaring crime in the city, nevertheless expressed support for Bragg's new polices As he made his way to City Hall for the first time on Saturday, New York City's new Mayor Eric Adams called 911 about three men brawling on the street They were seen in video tackling each other and punching one another in broad daylight As of Thursday, the city had recorded 481 murders, which have been fueled by an increase in gun crime, according to city data. The last time the city hit more than 500 murders was 2011, under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when homicides ended up totaling 515. The rest of the decade had seen a sharp decrease in murders, going down to 419 in 2012 and heading as low as 292 in 2017 under now former Mayor Bill de Blasio. But the numbers have climbed since, up to 462 in 2020 during the lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the city, which also saw stores hit by looting, and riots in the wake of George Floyd's murder. Those numbers have continued to go up this year, even as the city reopens, and are on pace to hit 10-year highs and the numbers continue to increase of late. Between November 28 and December 26, homicides were double what they were in the same period last year, with 41 murders compared to 24 in 2020. Overall, crime has risen 6.13 percent in New York City over 2020 through December 26. The biggest rise came in felony assaults like the ones previously mentioned, which rose 9.6 percent from 2020. Murders (4.1 percent), shooting victims (0.6 percent), rapes (3.3 percent), and Nevertheless, Bragg, who is also elected and made history as the first black person to hold the Manhattan DA's office, may also claim a mandate for his policies, which he insists will 'make us safer.' 'I have lived my entire life in Harlem and have seen all sides of the criminal legal system both professionally and personally,' Bragg said in a statement. 'These policies are rooted in these life experiences and professional experiences and substantiated by data,' he continued. 'They reflect both the need for fundamental reforms in the criminal legal system and the need for community safety. 'The two goals of justice and safety are not opposed to each other. They are inextricably linked. We deserve and demand both, and that has been the focus of my career, and indeed, my life,' said Bragg. Bragg added: 'These policy changes not only will, in and of themselves, make us safer; they also will free up prosecutorial resources to focus on violent crime.' 'To that end, new initiatives and policies on guns, sex crimes, hate crimes, and other matters will be announced in the coming weeks,' he said. Bragg inherited an investigation into Donald Trump and his business practices from his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr (above), who declined to seek reelection As district attorney, Bragg inherited an investigation into Donald Trump and his business practices from his predecessor, Vance, who declined to seek reelection last year after 12 years in the high-profile job. After weeks of speculation about whether Vance would close his tenure with a bang by indicting Trump, the former D.A. has passed that decision to Bragg, a civil rights lawyer and former federal prosecutor who was sworn in at a private ceremony, in part because of COVID-19 concerns. Bragg told CNN last month that he'll be directly involved in the Trump matter. He also said he has asked the two veteran prosecutors who led the case under Vance - general counsel Carey Dunne and former mafia prosecutor Mark Pomerantz - to stay on and see it through. 'This is obviously a consequential case, one that merits the attention of the D.A. personally,' Bragg told CNN. Five mothers who lost their soldier sons during the war in Afghanistan have written to the Queen urging her to strip Tony Blair of his knighthood. The heartbroken mothers claim the former prime minister caused untold misery when he sent British troops to fight in Helmand Province and Iraq on a bed of lies. In a desperate letter to their beloved monarch, Carol Valentine, Hazel Hunt, Caroline Whitaker, Caroline Jane Munday-Baker and Helen Perry, pleaded with her to overturn the decision to give the 68-year-old the top gong. We beg you to revoke his knighthood which we believe tramples on our sons sacrifices, they said. The mothers whose sons were aged between 21 and 29 when they died say Sir Tony has soldiers deaths on his hands and should face a war crimes trial instead of receiving an honour. Hit explosive as he was driving: Trooper James Munday, 21, (left) son of Caroline Jane Munday-Baker (right), served alongside Princes William and Harry in D Squadron of The Household Cavalry. Both royals said they were deeply saddened to hear news of the exceptional soldiers death in October 2008. Known as Magpie, the rugby fan died at the scene when the Jackal armoured vehicle he was driving hit an explosive device while on routine patrol in Helmand Province. In tributes, senior officers described Munday, from Birmingham, as among the best of his generation. Some of them even threatened to send back the Elizabeth Crosses bestowed onto them by the Queen in national recognition of the sacrifice borne by their families. In the open letter, the women say: As mums, we were destroyed by the loss of our children at war, but now we are further devastated to learn that the man responsible for sending them to their deaths is to receive the highest honour in the land. It makes a mockery of our childrens lives, and we are struggling to cope. The mothers say they believe the Queen herself a devoted mother and grandmother will understand our plight. They continue: We are all struggling to understand how a man who has caused so much worldwide upset and devastation could be given such a privileged award. Fatally wounded while on patrol: Private Richard Hunt (left), son of Hazel Hunt (right), had been in the Army less than two years when he became the 200th British soldier to die in the war in Afghanistan. He was fatally wounded when his armoured vehicle was blown up while on patrol near Musa Qala in Helmand Province. Private Hunt, of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, served with the Royal Welsh Regiment. The 21-year-old, known as Hunty, died from his injuries at the Royal College of Defence Medicine in Selly Oak, Birmingham, on August 15, 2009, two days after the explosion. Killed trying to clear landmines: Sergeant Simon Valentine (left), son of Carol Valentine (right), was killed on August 15, 2009, while trying to clear landmines on foot patrol near Sangin, Helmand Province. The 29-year-old was an experienced soldier, from Bedworth, Warwickshire. He had survived tours in Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Iraq, during his time with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Married to his wife Gemma, he was described as a born leader who was loved by his troops. He has caused untold misery while making himself a multi-millionaire at the same time. We do not view him as a man of peace on the contrary, we maintain he has the deaths of all our soldiers on his hands. This has left us all enraged, bewildered, and heartbroken and we beg you to revoke his knighthood which we believe tramples on our sons sacrifices. The letter emerged as Sir Keir Starmer insisted his predecessor deserves the honour despite nearly 600,000 people signing a petition calling for it to be rescinded. The Labour leader also went on the attack, saying Boris Johnson had not earned the right to be knighted and that there was a world of difference between the two PMs. Sir Keir, who marched against the Iraq War in 2003, added: I understand there are strong views on the Iraq War. There were back at the time and there still are. But that does not detract from the fact that Tony Blair was a very successful prime minister and made a huge difference to the lives of millions of people in this country. But Mrs Valentine whose son Sgt Simon Valentine, 29, was killed while trying to clear land mines near Sangin in 2009 said she hoped the Queen slips with her sword and cuts his bloody head off. She added: Tony Blair should not be rewarded for taking our sons from us. He deserves nothing less than a war crimes trial. Shot in friendly fire incident: Lance Corporal Michael Pritchard (left), son of Helen Perry (right), was killed in a friendly fire incident in Sangin on December 20, 2009. The 22-year-old soldier, of the 4th Regiment, Royal Military Police, was born in Maidstone, Kent, but lived in Eastbourne, East Sussex. He had been deployed to an observation post to check Taliban fighters were not planting IEDs (improvised explosive devices) on a road. It is thought that another British soldier fired at him thinking that L/Cpl Pritchard was an insurgent, an inquest heard. Gunned down by rogue policeman: Sergeant Gareth Thursby, 29, (left) son of Caroline Whitaker (right), was shot dead by a rogue Afghan policeman alongside another British soldier at a checkpoint in Helmand Province on September 15, 2012. The married father of two from Skipton, North Yorkshire, served in the 3rd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment. He was an inspirational leader known to his men as Dad. An inquest heard that no motive was found for the lethal attack. The troops always referred to our Queen as the boss and now I feel so let down by this knighthood. Mrs Hunt, whose son Private Richard Hunt died aged 21 following an explosion while on patrol in Musa Qala, said she would give back her Elizabeth Cross in disgust. I will never call him Sir no matter what happens. Hes not fit to lace our soldiers boots, she added. And Mrs Munday-Baker, who lost her trooper son James Munday at the age of 21 when his vehicle blew up, said the gong was a travesty. She added: Blair should have his head bent, alright, but in shame, not to receive a knighthood. He should be made to walk through a field of IEDs like our children did. Mrs Perry, who lost her military police officer son Michael Pritchard, 22, to a friendly fire incident, said she nearly choked when she heard about the honour. And Mrs Whitaker, whose 29-year-old son Sgt Gareth Thursby was shot dead by an Afghan policeman in 2012, said the bereaved mothers were members of a club none of them wanted to belong to. On the days I cant hold it together they pick me up and I do the same for them when they fall, she said. I cant get my head around this decision to knight Blair. Our sons may have been cannon fodder to him, but they were our flesh and blood. The Prime Ministers official spokesman yesterday refused to comment on the issue, saying that knighthoods were a matter for the Queen. However he pointed out that every former prime minister before Tony Blair has received the Order of the Garter or Thistle. Asked whether Mr Johnson believed the petitions signatories were wrong, the spokesman said it was a matter for the Queen. Armed police tasered an 80-year-old former ballet dancer in his kitchen after allegedly mixing up his address with a black suspect in his 30s. Roy Morton who suffers from a heart condition was woken by officers who smashed through his front door, fired the stun gun, pinned him down and handcuffed him. The terrified father of two, who now works in film and television, was later told police had actually intended to raid the home of another man who was suspected of possessing a firearm and attacking a woman. Mr Morton said he could have been killed by the 50,000-volt weapon during the raid on his four-bedroom home in Cricklewood, north-west London, last Tuesday. He condemned Scotland Yard commissioner Cressida Dick for the mix-up and said it had chilling echoes of the death of Jean Charles De Menezes in 2005. Dame Cressida oversaw the fatal operation in which the innocent electrician was mistaken for a terrorist and shot dead on the Tube. Roy Morton (pictured) who suffers from a heart condition was woken by officers who smashed through his front door, fired the stun gun, pinned him down and handcuffed him Describing the moment armed officers burst into his kitchen at 7am, Mr Morton told the Daily Mail: 'I was wearing my pyjamas just standing there on the tiled floor wondering desperately what the hell was going on. 'At least four police in full gear carrying machine guns were shining dazzling bright torches in my face, all shouting and screaming something unintelligible at me. They gave me no instructions, nothing. 'Suddenly one of them fired this Taser at me and the electricity started zapping. It hit me in the stomach and the top of my leg and I fell to the floor of the kitchen, helpless. 'Then they jumped on me, kneeling on my back to pin me onto the tiled floor, twisting my arms behind my back and handcuffing me and telling me I was under arrest for affray.' Describing his 'state of shock and confusion', he said officers then watched him get dressed and go to the toilet before taking him away. Mr Morton who was fitted with a pacemaker 25 years ago for a condition called heart block said he was taken to the Royal Free Hospital in north London after the arrest to have the device examined. He was later transferred to Colindale Police Station in a 'filthy' police van where he was told about the mix-up. Mr Morton said he could have been killed by the 50,000-volt weapon during the raid on his four-bedroom home in Cricklewood, north-west London, last Tuesday. Pictured: Mr Morton on tour in Barcelona as a ballet dancer 'I was told the officers who raided my home had in fact been looking for a 6ft black man in his 30s who lived in a flat and who may have been armed,' he said. 'I am white, I'm 80 years old, I'm 5ft 8 and I live in a house. I was not a threat to anyone... I could have died. 'What sort of training do they give these people? How could they possibly justify using such a weapon on a pensioner in his own home?' Mr Morton was eventually told he would be taken back home almost 12 hours after he was arrested. Although he said officers at the station quickly realised a mistake had been made, he is yet to receive an apology. He was also given a bill of 55 to fix the doors at his home but estimates the total cost of repairs could come to 3,000. He now intends to pursue the force for damages, saying he has since struggled with insomnia, shakes and heart palpitations. A Scotland Yard spokesman said the case had been referred to the police watchdog. Advertisement Intensive care admissions are half the levels of previous peaks with Boris Johnson insisting this means he is confident the NHS will not be overwhelmed. Despite record cases and soaring admissions, the number of patients in intensive care units has remained flat since Omicron arrived in the UK. Just five per cent of patients in hospital with Covid-19 are on mechanical ventilators, compared with 11 per cent at the peak of the pandemic last January. The Prime Minister said Omicron is milder than previous variants and keeps people in hospital for a shorter period. He told a Downing Street press conference yesterday: While hospital admissions are rising quickly, this is not yet thankfully translating into the same numbers needing intensive care that we saw in previous waves. Mr Johnson said the next few weeks would be a difficult period for our NHS, but added: Im also confident that we can get through it. 'Although Omicron does cause lots of hospitalisations, it is pretty clearly resulting in fewer people in ICU, and certainly less mortality than weve seen from other variants. He added it was absolutely crazy that people were ending up in intensive care with Covid because they were refusing the vaccine, with the latest figures showing 61 per cent of patients on ventilators are unvaccinated. Data from Covid patients admitted to hospital during the Omicron wave suggests their illnesses are generally less severe than previous strains of the virus The above graph shows the proportion of Covid patients needing ventilators while Delta was dominant (November) and after Omicron took hold (late December). It shows the proportion has halved, in yet another sign the disease is milder Most Covid-stricken anti-vaxxers in intensive care are ordinary people who have fallen for 'deliberate online misinformation' England's chief medical officer said he has been left 'saddened' by the proportion of unvaccinated patients in intensive care. Speaking at a Downing Street news conference, Professor Sir Chris Whitty said 'the great majority' of those who were in intensive care and had not been jabbed were 'not anti-vaxxers in the ordinary sense with some really weird ideas' but had been taken advantage of by those seeking to misinform them online. Sir Chris said 'misinformation' on the internet, 'a lot of it deliberately placed', about potential side effects from jabs was fuelling fears about whether Covid-19 was important enough to warrant vaccination, leading to vaccine hesitancy. Whitty also claimed that people were being misled as to whether the vaccines were effective against the disease. 'Insofar as I am frustrated it is simply people deliberately trying to scare away fellow citizens from something that is potentially going to be life-saving for them,' he said. 'In the end, it is the job of health professionals not to get frustrated but simply to say, look, let's go through all of your questions properly and systematically and say which ones are fair and which ones as in many cases, are really completely untrue.' Advertisement Professor Sir Chris Whitty, chief medical officer, stressed that booster jabs provided 88 per cent protection against hospitalisation and even greater protection against mortality. He added that Omicron was not leading to a surge in deaths, after another 48 were recorded yesterday. But Mr Whitty warned hospital admissions and deaths could keep increasing in the coming weeks as the variant spread to older and more vulnerable age groups. He said: In London it does look as if the numbers in younger adults are falling... But rates in older people are still going up and these are the people who are much more likely to be hospitalised. The number of Covid patients in Englands hospitals has doubled in the past fortnight and there are currently 15,055 patients receiving treatment. But only 797 are on ventilators fewer than two months ago when cases were significantly lower. At the peak last January, there were 34,336 patients in Englands hospitals, including 3,736 in intensive care. And the proportion of patients with Covid in hospital who end up in intensive care has plummeted compared with the numbers in April. Health chiefs say hospitalisations are plateauing in London and they are hopeful this could soon be replicated across the whole of the country. Another 1,881 people were admitted with coronavirus in England yesterday, down from 2,370 on December 29. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said there had not yet been a major increase in the number of seriously ill older people needing critical care and mechanical ventilation. Mr Hopson added: There are a number of chief executives who are saying, if we were going to see that surge, we probably would have seen the beginnings of it up to now, so there are glimmers of hope. Research by the UK Health Security Agency shows that patients with Omicron are between 50 and 70 per cent less likely to need hospital treatment than previous variants. And the proportion of patients admitted with Covid rather than because of it has increased. Latest data shows a significant rise in so-called incidental admissions, when for example someone breaks their leg and happens to test positive when arriving at hospital. Just 67 per cent of Covid patients are being treated primarily for the virus compared to 73 per cent a month ago. Almost half of those admitted to hospitals in London last week were admitted with not for Covid, figures suggest. Advertisement The campaign to strip Tony Blair of his knighthood was boosted last night by devastating allegations from his own defence secretary. Geoff Hoon says he was ordered by Downing Street to burn a secret memo that said the 2003 invasion of Iraq could be illegal. When the claim emerged in 2015, Sir Tony said it was 'nonsense'. But Mr Hoon, who was in charge of defence when the war started, insists the allegation was true and he has now given a sensational blow-by-blow account of a No 10 'cover-up'. He says his principal private secretary was told 'in no uncertain terms' by Jonathan Powell, Sir Tony's chief of staff, that after reading the document he must 'burn it'. Mr Hoon said the MoD mandarin was deeply alarmed by the order and they defied Downing Street by locking the memo in a safe instead. He also: Echoes claims that Sir Tony signed a 'deal in blood' with George Bush to back the war a year before it began; Reveals he was given a prime ministerial dressing down for telling the US that if MPs voted against the war UK troops couldn't take part; Accuses the No 10 press office of being behind notorious '45 minutes from doom' reports that exaggerated the threat from Saddam Hussein's military; Says he was sacked and 'hung out to dry' by Sir Tony to escape blame for the war. Sir Tony Blair meeting troops in the port of Umm Qasr, Iraq in 2003. Geoff Hoon says he was ordered by Downing Street to burn a secret memo that said the 2003 invasion of Iraq could be illegal When the claim emerged in 2015, Sir Tony said it was 'nonsense'. But Mr Hoon (pictured), who was in charge of defence when the war started, insists the allegation was true and he has now given a sensational blow-by-blow account of a No 10 'cover-up' The allegations came as the number of people who have signed a petition calling for a U-turn on the former Labour prime minister's honour surpassed 680,000. The Queen has made him a knight companion of the Order of the Garter, Britain's oldest order of chivalry. The onslaught from Mr Hoon in his memoir, See How They Run, is all the more damaging because he was one of Sir Tony's closest personal and political allies. He describes his shock at being told to destroy secret advice from attorney general Lord Goldsmith on the legality of the war in the run-up to the conflict. It was later revealed that Lord Goldsmith said the war could be illegal. Days before fighting began, he changed his mind and said it was legal. The official Chilcot report on the Iraq War delivered a devastating verdict in 2016 about the handling and presentation of intelligence and the justification for military action. It raised serious questions about the way Lord Goldsmith hardened up his legal advice days before the war started after the circulation of the memo that Mr Hoon says he was told to burn. The inquiry 'concluded that the circumstances in which it was decided that there was a legal basis for UK military action were far from satisfactory'. Human rights lawyer Philippe Sands revealed the existence of Lord Goldsmith's legal advice in his 2005 book, Lawless World. Professor Sands, of University College London, said yesterday: 'When Lord Goldsmith wrote the legal advice warning that war in Iraq could be illegal, he can hardly have expected that those who received a copy would be told to 'burn after reading'. 'Yet Mr Hoon says that this is what he was told, offering further confirmation of what has long been known ministers, parliament and the public were misled by Mr Blair into supporting a war that was seen by many as unlawful and a crime. In modern Britain, it seems, such a manifest act of wrongdoing does not preclude the offering of a high-level gong.' Mr Powell last night denied telling Mr Hoon to burn the legal advice. The onslaught from Mr Hoon in his memoir, See How They Run, is all the more damaging because he was one of Sir Tony's (pictured) closest personal and political allies. He describes his shock at being told to destroy secret advice from attorney general Lord Goldsmith on the legality of the war in the run-up to the conflict He said that months earlier he had sent copies of a separate 'minute' from Lord Goldsmith on the legality of the war to the Whitehall private offices of Mr Hoon and foreign secretary Jack Straw. At the request of Lord Goldsmith he had asked both to 'destroy the minute not burn it and the attorney general's advice came later'. Mr Powell joined Sir Tony as chief of staff when he became Labour leader in 1995, took up the same role in No 10 when he became prime minister and stayed with him until he left Downing Street in June 2007. A source close to Mr Hoon said Mr Powell was wrong and insisted the former defence secretary was told to burn Lord Goldsmith's 'legal advice' sent weeks before the conflict, not a separate minute sent months earlier. In his memoir, which came out in November, Mr Hoon savages Sir Tony for sacking him in 2005 over the phone: 'He was unable to give out bad news even bad news of his own making. I always had doubts about his handling and treatment of people. I was hung out to dry. Tony never seemed bothered about who got which ministerial jobs.' Damning truth about Sir Tony Blair's war: As revealed by his own defence secretary in new memoir that lays bare an order to burn memo on legality of Iraq invasion. So how can ex-PM be worthy of an honour? By Simon Walters for the Daily Mail He was defence secretary as Britain edged towards war which means Geoff Hoon had a front-row seat for the most controversial moments in Sir Tony's premiership. His new memoir reveals astonishing insights about the conflict in Iraq... and raises more troubling questions about his former boss's knighthood. Downing Street's orders to 'burn' legal advice Mr Hoon, then defence secretary, says No 10 ordered him to 'burn' secret legal advice from Sir Tony's attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, which said the Iraq war could be illegal. When the claim first emerged in 2015, the former PM said it was 'nonsense' but Mr Hoon insists in his book, See How They Run, that the order was delivered by Sir Tony's No 10 chief of staff Jonathan Powell. Mr Hoon defied the order and made sure the advice was locked in a safe at the Ministry of Defence. What the book says: 'British troops must act in accordance with the law. I was under pressure from Mike Boyce, the Chief of the Defence Staff, to provide him with the clear legal authority allowing him and the forces under his command to take action. US President George W. Bush (right) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair wave after their joint press conference at Crawford High School in Crawford, Texas, in 2002 'Without a clear mandate in the form of a second UN resolution authorising the use of force, the UK's participation in any invasion depended on a complex interaction involving several not entirely consistent UN resolutions. It was the responsibility of Lord Goldsmith to resolve the question. He produced a very long and very detailed legal opinion that only sophisticated scholars of international law would understand. 'I was sent a copy from Downing St under conditions of considerable secrecy. I was told that it was for my eyes only and that I should not discuss its contents with anyone else. I had no idea who else had received a copy. 'I read the opinion several times; it was not an easy read. Eventually I came to the view that the attorney general had decided that invading Iraq would be lawful if the Prime Minister believed that it was in the UK's national interest to do so. It was not exactly the ringing endorsement that the Chief of the Defence Staff was looking for, and in any event, I was not strictly allowed to show it to him or even discuss it with him. Moreover, when my Principal Private Secretary, Peter Watkins, called Jonathan Powell in Downing St and asked what he should now do with the document, he was told in no uncertain terms that he should 'burn it'. 'Peter Watkins was the very model of a principled British civil servant, and that instruction worried him greatly. He asked me what we should do and I agreed that we should lock the document securely into an MoD safe to which only he had access. For all I know it is probably still there.' Blair and Bush's 2002 Texas summit Mr Hoon appears to back claims that Sir Tony signed a 'deal in blood' with George W Bush when they met in April 2002 at the President's ranch in Crawford, Texas, to discuss a war with Iraq. Sir Tony has always denied the allegation. At the time he said he was seeking a diplomatic solution. However, leaked White House memos showed that US Secretary of State Colin Powell assured Bush a week before the summit that 'Blair will be with us' if the war went ahead. What the book says: 'Shortly after Tony Blair's visit to Crawford, an invitation came from the Americans for British involvement in the planning. There was no sense at the time, as far as I was concerned, that this was the result of any agreement that he had entered into with the Americans... even on the day of the Parliamentary vote many months later, I still believed that British participation in the invasion of Iraq was conditional. The Crawford meeting has, in retrospect, assumed much greater significance, and involved much greater controversy than was apparent at the time.' The '45 minutes from doom' dossier Notorious media reports claimed Iraq had weapons that meant UK sites were '45 minutes from doom'. The claim arose from a dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons drawn up by intelligence chiefs. Sir Tony and his director of communications, Alastair Campbell, denied responsibility but Mr Hoon points the finger of blame directly at Downing St. What the book says: 'I was asked by a lawyer at [one of the official Iraq inquiries] why I had not corrected a newspaper story that had suggested that the so called '45-minute warning' referred to the possibility that Saddam Hussein could launch missiles against British bases in Cyprus. 'I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about at the time. I later found out that the question referred to two articles in The Sun and Evening Standard, which included provocative photographs of missiles being launched. When I checked the dates of their publication against my diary, I established that I had been in Kiev meeting the president of Ukraine at the time. I had obviously been aware of the '45-minute warning' issue. Indeed, when the draft dossier was circulated I had specifically asked to speak to an expert from Defence Intelligence so that I could properly understand what the warning referred to. He told me he assumed it referred to the time taken to deploy and fire a chemical artillery shell. Since it was well known that Saddam Hussein had used such shells in the war with Iran and against his own people the explanation did not cause any great surprise. Soldiers from the 1st Batallion The Parachute Regiment carry out training exercises with a Chinook helicopter in the Kuwaiti desert Monday March 17, 2003 'I had absolutely no idea at the time of giving my evidence to the Hutton inquiry that the '45-minute warning' issue had been deployed by the press office in Downing St in a very different context.' The raging PM When Mr Hoon told the Americans that British troops would be unable to take part in a war if MPs voted against it, the minister recalls Sir Tony reacting with fury. What the book says: 'I had one of my regular phone calls with Donald Rumsfeld. I needed to say to him that if we lost the vote later that day, Britain would not be able to join in the invasion. 'I was not expecting to lose but thought it appropriate to explain the political and constitutional significance of what was happening in the Commons. [Mr Rumsfeld] went from the call to a press conference where he referred to our conversation, stating that... they had 'work-arounds' to compensate for a possible British no-show. 'The British media took it as meaning that the UK was not really needed; a story that run through the lunchtime news bulletins. As they concluded, I received a comprehensive Prime Ministerial bollocking over the telephone.' Mr Hoon (R) was sacked as defence secretary over the phone in 2005 two years after the Iraq war began (Blair and Hoon pictured together in 2004) Hung out to dry Mr Hoon was sacked as defence secretary over the phone in 2005 two years after the Iraq war began. What the book says: 'When Tony told me he had to 'let me go' as Defence Secretary I was seriously unimpressed. After I had done almost six years in one of the most difficult, demanding and unpopular jobs in his government, he wanted me out. 'I was sufficiently irritated to protest that it was 'unfair'. I was annoyed he had not chosen to see me and tell me to my face. He was unable to give out bad news even bad news of his own making. 'I did wonder whether it was a media scheme dreamed up by Alastair Campbell to distance at least part of the Government from Iraq, but given that joining in the war had been driven through by Tony, that hardly made sense. 'I always had doubts about his handling and treatment of people. He seemed completely uninterested in his strongest supporters. 'I was hung out to dry. Tony thought that being PM was the only job that counted. He never seemed bothered about who got which ministerial jobs. It was said that attending dinner parties in Islington was more significant than any number of speeches in support of him.' As bereaved mothers, we are heartbroken by Tony Blair's knighthood. We beg Your Majesty to revoke it: Read the gut-wrenching cry over former Prime Minister's honour... from five parents who lost their sons in Afghanistan By Liz Hull, Rose Dunn and Andy Jehring for The Daily Mail Five mothers who lost their soldier sons during the war in Afghanistan have written to the Queen urging her to strip Tony Blair of his knighthood. The 'heartbroken' mothers claim the former prime minister caused 'untold misery' when he sent British troops to fight in Helmand Province and Iraq 'on a bed of lies'. In a desperate letter to their 'beloved' monarch, Carol Valentine, Hazel Hunt, Caroline Whitaker, Caroline Jane Munday-Baker and Helen Perry, pleaded with her to overturn the decision to give the 68-year-old the top gong. 'We beg you to revoke his knighthood which we believe tramples on our sons' sacrifices,' they said. The mothers whose sons were aged between 21 and 29 when they died say Sir Tony has soldiers' deaths on his hands and should face a war crimes trial instead of receiving an honour. Some of them even threatened to send back the Elizabeth Crosses bestowed onto them by the Queen in national recognition of the sacrifice borne by their families. In the open letter, the women say: 'As mums, we were destroyed by the loss of our children at war, but now we are further devastated to learn that the man responsible for sending them to their deaths is to receive the highest honour in the land. 'It makes a mockery of our children's lives, and we are struggling to cope.' The mothers say they believe the Queen herself a 'devoted' mother and grandmother 'will understand our plight'. They continue: 'We are all struggling to understand how a man who has caused so much worldwide upset and devastation could be given such a privileged award. Hit explosive as he was driving: Trooper James Munday, 21, (left) son of Caroline Jane Munday-Baker (right), served alongside Princes William and Harry in D Squadron of The Household Cavalry. Both royals said they were 'deeply saddened' to hear news of the 'exceptional' soldier's death in October 2008. Known as 'Magpie', the rugby fan died at the scene when the Jackal armoured vehicle he was driving hit an explosive device while on routine patrol in Helmand Province. In tributes, senior officers described Munday, from Birmingham, as 'among the best of his generation' Fatally wounded while on patrol: Private Richard Hunt (left), son of Hazel Hunt (right), had been in the Army less than two years when he became the 200th British soldier to die in the war in Afghanistan. He was fatally wounded when his armoured vehicle was blown up while on patrol near Musa Qala in Helmand Province. Private Hunt, of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, served with the Royal Welsh Regiment. The 21-year-old, known as 'Hunty,' died from his injuries at the Royal College of Defence Medicine in Selly Oak, Birmingham, on August 15, 2009, two days after the explosion Killed trying to clear landmines: Sergeant Simon Valentine (left), son of Carol Valentine (right), was killed on August 15, 2009, while trying to clear landmines on foot patrol near Sangin, Helmand Province. The 29-year-old was an experienced soldier, from Bedworth, Warwickshire. He had survived tours in Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Iraq, during his time with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Married to his wife Gemma, he was described as a born leader who was loved by his troops 'He has caused untold misery while making himself a multi-millionaire at the same time. We do not view him as a man of peace on the contrary, we maintain he has the deaths of all our soldiers on his hands. 'This has left us all enraged, bewildered, and heartbroken and we beg you to revoke his knighthood which we believe tramples on our sons' sacrifices.' The letter emerged as Sir Keir Starmer insisted his predecessor 'deserves the honour' despite nearly 600,000 people signing a petition calling for it to be rescinded. The Labour leader also went on the attack, saying Boris Johnson had not 'earned the right' to be knighted and that there was a 'world of difference' between the two PMs. Sir Keir, who marched against the Iraq War in 2003, added: 'I understand there are strong views on the Iraq War. There were back at the time and there still are. 'But that does not detract from the fact that Tony Blair was a very successful prime minister and made a huge difference to the lives of millions of people in this country.' But Mrs Valentine whose son Sgt Simon Valentine, 29, was killed while trying to clear land mines near Sangin in 2009 said she hoped the Queen 'slips with her sword and cuts his bloody head off'. She added: 'Tony Blair should not be rewarded for taking our sons from us. He deserves nothing less than a war crimes trial. Shot in 'friendly fire' incident: Lance Corporal Michael Pritchard (left), son of Helen Perry (right), was killed in a 'friendly fire' incident in Sangin on December 20, 2009. The 22-year-old soldier, of the 4th Regiment, Royal Military Police, was born in Maidstone, Kent, but lived in Eastbourne, East Sussex. He had been deployed to an observation post to check Taliban fighters were not planting IEDs (improvised explosive devices) on a road. It is thought that another British soldier fired at him thinking that L/Cpl Pritchard was an insurgent, an inquest heard Gunned down by rogue policeman: Sergeant Gareth Thursby, 29, (left) son of Caroline Whitaker (right), was shot dead by a rogue Afghan policeman alongside another British soldier at a checkpoint in Helmand Province on September 15, 2012. The married father of two from Skipton, North Yorkshire, served in the 3rd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment. He was an inspirational leader known to his men as 'Dad'. An inquest heard that no motive was found for the lethal attack 'The troops always referred to our Queen as 'the boss' and now I feel so let down by this knighthood.' Mrs Hunt, whose son Private Richard Hunt died aged 21 following an explosion while on patrol in Musa Qala, said she would give back her Elizabeth Cross in 'disgust'. 'I will never call him Sir no matter what happens. He's not fit to lace our soldiers' boots,' she added. And Mrs Munday-Baker, who lost her trooper son James Munday at the age of 21 when his vehicle blew up, said the gong was a 'travesty'. She added: 'Blair should have his head bent, alright, but in shame, not to receive a knighthood. He should be made to walk through a field of IEDs like our children did.' Mrs Perry, who lost her military police officer son Michael Pritchard, 22, to a 'friendly fire' incident, said she 'nearly choked' when she heard about the honour. And Mrs Whitaker, whose 29-year-old son Sgt Gareth Thursby was shot dead by an Afghan policeman in 2012, said the bereaved mothers were members of a 'club' none of them wanted to belong to. 'On the days I can't hold it together they pick me up and I do the same for them when they fall,' she said. 'I can't get my head around this decision to knight Blair. Our sons may have been cannon fodder to him, but they were our flesh and blood.' The Prime Minister's official spokesman yesterday refused to comment on the issue, saying that knighthoods were a matter for the Queen. However he pointed out that 'every former prime minister before Tony Blair has received the Order of the Garter or Thistle'. Asked whether Mr Johnson believed the petition's signatories were wrong, the spokesman said it was 'a matter for the Queen'. He was defence secretary as Britain edged towards war which means Geoff Hoon had a front-row seat for the most controversial moments in Sir Tonys premiership. His new memoir reveals astonishing insights about the conflict in Iraq... and raises more troubling questions about his former bosss knighthood. Downing Streets orders to burn legal advice Mr Hoon, then defence secretary, says No 10 ordered him to burn secret legal advice from Sir Tonys attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, which said the Iraq war could be illegal. When the claim first emerged in 2015, the former PM said it was nonsense but Mr Hoon insists in his book, See How They Run, that the order was delivered by Sir Tonys No 10 chief of staff Jonathan Powell. Mr Hoon defied the order and made sure the advice was locked in a safe at the Ministry of Defence. What the book says: British troops must act in accordance with the law. I was under pressure from Mike Boyce, the Chief of the Defence Staff, to provide him with the clear legal authority allowing him and the forces under his command to take action. Without a clear mandate in the form of a second UN resolution authorising the use of force, the UKs participation in any invasion depended on a complex interaction involving several not entirely consistent UN resolutions. It was the responsibility of Lord Goldsmith to resolve the question. He produced a very long and very detailed legal opinion that only sophisticated scholars of international law would understand. I was sent a copy from Downing St under conditions of considerable secrecy. I was told that it was for my eyes only and that I should not discuss its contents with anyone else. I had no idea who else had received a copy. He was defence secretary as Britain edged towards war which means Geoff Hoon had a front-row seat for the most controversial moments in Sir Tonys premiership. His new memoir reveals astonishing insights about the conflict in Iraq... and raises more troubling questions about his former bosss knighthood (Hoon pictured in 2005) More than 130,000 people have signed a petition calling for former PM Tony Blair's knighthood to be rescinded. The decision to award the ex Labour leader a knighthood in the New Year's honours list has provoked a massive backlash. I read the opinion several times; it was not an easy read. Eventually I came to the view that the attorney general had decided that invading Iraq would be lawful if the Prime Minister believed that it was in the UKs national interest to do so. It was not exactly the ringing endorsement that the Chief of the Defence Staff was looking for, and in any event, I was not strictly allowed to show it to him or even discuss it with him. Moreover, when my Principal Private Secretary, Peter Watkins, called Jonathan Powell in Downing St and asked what he should now do with the document, he was told in no uncertain terms that he should burn it. Peter Watkins was the very model of a principled British civil servant, and that instruction worried him greatly. He asked me what we should do and I agreed that we should lock the document securely into an MoD safe to which only he had access. For all I know it is probably still there. Blair and Bushs 2002 Texas summit Mr Hoon appears to back claims that Sir Tony signed a deal in blood with George W Bush when they met in April 2002 at the Presidents ranch in Crawford, Texas, to discuss a war with Iraq. Sir Tony has always denied the allegation. At the time he said he was seeking a diplomatic solution. However, leaked White House memos showed that US Secretary of State Colin Powell assured Bush a week before the summit that Blair will be with us if the war went ahead. What the book says: Shortly after Tony Blairs visit to Crawford, an invitation came from the Americans for British involvement in the planning. There was no sense at the time, as far as I was concerned, that this was the result of any agreement that he had entered into with the Americans... even on the day of the Parliamentary vote many months later, I still believed that British participation in the invasion of Iraq was conditional. The Crawford meeting has, in retrospect, assumed much greater significance, and involved much greater controversy than was apparent at the time. US President George W. Bush (right) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair wave after their joint press conference at Crawford High School in Crawford, Texas, in 2002 The 45 minutes from doom dossier Notorious media reports claimed Iraq had weapons that meant UK sites were 45 minutes from doom. The claim arose from a dossier on Saddam Husseins weapons drawn up by intelligence chiefs. Sir Tony and his director of communications, Alastair Campbell, denied responsibility but Mr Hoon points the finger of blame directly at Downing St. What the book says: I was asked by a lawyer at [one of the official Iraq inquiries] why I had not corrected a newspaper story that had suggested that the so called 45-minute warning referred to the possibility that Saddam Hussein could launch missiles against British bases in Cyprus. I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about at the time. I later found out that the question referred to two articles in The Sun and Evening Standard, which included provocative photographs of missiles being launched. When I checked the dates of their publication against my diary, I established that I had been in Kiev meeting the president of Ukraine at the time. I had obviously been aware of the 45-minute warning issue. Indeed, when the draft dossier was circulated I had specifically asked to speak to an expert from Defence Intelligence so that I could properly understand what the warning referred to. He told me he assumed it referred to the time taken to deploy and fire a chemical artillery shell. Since it was well known that Saddam Hussein had used such shells in the war with Iran and against his own people the explanation did not cause any great surprise. I had absolutely no idea at the time of giving my evidence to the Hutton inquiry that the 45-minute warning issue had been deployed by the press office in Downing St in a very different context. The raging PM When Mr Hoon told the Americans that British troops would be unable to take part in a war if MPs voted against it, the minister recalls Sir Tony reacting with fury. What the book says: I had one of my regular phone calls with Donald Rumsfeld. I needed to say to him that if we lost the vote later that day, Britain would not be able to join in the invasion. I was not expecting to lose but thought it appropriate to explain the political and constitutional significance of what was happening in the Commons. [Mr Rumsfeld] went from the call to a press conference where he referred to our conversation, stating that... they had work-arounds to compensate for a possible British no-show. The British media took it as meaning that the UK was not really needed; a story that run through the lunchtime news bulletins. As they concluded, I received a comprehensive Prime Ministerial bollocking over the telephone. Soldiers from the 1st Batallion The Parachute Regiment carry out training exercises with a Chinook helicopter in the Kuwaiti desert Monday March 17, 2003 Hung out to dry Mr Hoon was sacked as defence secretary over the phone in 2005 two years after the Iraq war began. What the book says: When Tony told me he had to let me go as Defence Secretary I was seriously unimpressed. After I had done almost six years in one of the most difficult, demanding and unpopular jobs in his government, he wanted me out. I was sufficiently irritated to protest that it was unfair. I was annoyed he had not chosen to see me and tell me to my face. He was unable to give out bad news even bad news of his own making. I did wonder whether it was a media scheme dreamed up by Alastair Campbell to distance at least part of the Government from Iraq, but given that joining in the war had been driven through by Tony, that hardly made sense. I always had doubts about his handling and treatment of people. He seemed completely uninterested in his strongest supporters. I was hung out to dry. Tony thought that being PM was the only job that counted. He never seemed bothered about who got which ministerial jobs. It was said that attending dinner parties in Islington was more significant than any number of speeches in support of him. Asylum seekers suspected of lying about their age could face controversial X-ray checks under moves announced by Priti Patel today. The Home Secretary will unveil a scientific committee to scrutinise ways of analysing migrants who claim to be under 18. Miss Patel said the deception carried out by some asylum seekers is an appalling abuse of our system, which we will end. Two-thirds of almost 1,700 age assessments carried out in the year to September found that those who claimed to be underage were actually adults. It comes after a series of troubling cases of adult asylum seekers ending up in schools being taught alongside teenagers. Experts on the scientific advisory committee will look at the methods other countries use to determine peoples true ages, including X-ray examinations and other types of radiology, plus CT and MRI scans. One of the most troubling examples of an asylum seeker pretending to be a child was Parsons Green terrorist Ahmed Hassan (pictured). He posed as a 16-year-old before setting off a bomb on a Tube train in west London in 2017, injuring 23 people Their findings will ultimately feed into a system for assessing asylum seekers ages, as set out in legislation going through Parliament. Miss Patel said: The practice of single grown adult men masquerading as children claiming asylum is an appalling abuse of our system, which we will end. By posing as children, these adult men go on to access childrens services and schools through deception and deceit putting children and young adults in school and care at risk... I have given more resources and support to local councils to ensure that they apply vigorous and robust tests to check the ages of migrants to stop adult men being automatically classified as children. Group of people thought to be migrants being brought in to Dungeness, Kent, by the RNLI following a small boat incident in the Channel on December 16 The Tube bomber who said he was 16 One of the most troubling examples of an asylum seeker pretending to be a child was Parsons Green terrorist Ahmed Hassan. He posed as a 16-year-old before setting off a bomb on a Tube train in west London in 2017, injuring 23 people. His real age remains unknown, but the judge who jailed the Iraqi for 34 years in 2018 said he was satisfied the bomber was between 18 and 21. Mr Justice Haddon-Cave, at the Old Bailey, added: I am satisfied that you lied about your date of birth on arrival in order to glean the special privileges accorded to children entering the UK. And a Home Office probe in 2018 found an adult asylum seeker spent six weeks as a Year 11 pupil at Stoke High School in Ipswich. A pupil posted a photo of Siavash Shah, thought to be Iranian, online and wrote: Hows there a 30-year-old man in our maths class? Advertisement I am changing UK laws to introduce new scientific methods for assessing the age of asylum seekers to stop these abuses and to give the British public confidence that we will end the overt exploitation of our laws and UK taxpayers. She added: The Nationality and Borders Bill will end many of the blatant abuses that have led to our immigration and asylum system being abused by those with no right to be in our country. Migrants who claim to be under 18 receive better housing and support, a more sympathetic hearing in their asylum claim and are less likely to be detained. Currently, they are given the benefit of the doubt if they appear to be under 25. Physical examinations are not permitted. Instead, reports on disputed ages are based on assessments by social workers. A Home Office spokesman said European countries use X-rays, and sometimes CT scans and MRI imaging, as part of their age-assessment procedures. Finland and Norway use radiography to examine the development of teeth and the fusion of bones in the wrist, he said. France uses X-rays to assess the fusion of the collar bone, as well as dental and wrist X-rays. And Greece also deploys dental X-rays alongside social worker checks. Professor Sue Black, a leading forensic anthropologist and Lancaster Universitys pro-vice-chancellor for engagement, will be chairman of the advisory committee. Dame Sue said: I am pleased to have been asked to chair this committee and look forward to the opportunity to provide advice to the Home Office chief scientific adviser on the important issue of scientific assessment of age. The committee will look at the accuracy and reliability of techniques to determine age, as well as ethical and medical issues, the Home Office spokesman said. Last year the British Dental Association said it would be inappropriate and unethical to take X-rays of a patient that had no medical purpose. It suggested dentists could even be accused of criminal battery if they did so. The Home Office said resolving age disputes is currently very time-consuming, challenging and expensive for local authorities and the Government. Disagreements can lead to legal challenges which can cost councils hundreds of thousands of pounds and take as long as three years to resolve, the spokesman added. Each lone child migrant looked after by a local authority costs the taxpayer 46,000 a year. Under the Bill, the Home Secretary will be able to specify which types of age assessments can be used, including medical imaging technology and swabs for DNA analysis, for example. Asylum seekers will have to consent to the tests, the legislation says. But failure to co-operate may lead to damage to the persons credibility, it adds. Out of 1,696 cases of disputed age which were concluded in the year to September, 1,118 were found to be 18 or over the highest number since figures began in 2006. Samsung may have the answer to bashing your TV remote against the coffee table to get the last remaining drop of power from the batteries. Ahead of CES 2022 in Las Vegas, the tech giant has unveiled a new TV remote, called Eco Remote, that harvests radio waves from nearby home routers as its energy source. It's also equipped with solar panels on the back which can be charged by indoor and outdoor lighting, as well as USB-C as an additional charging option. Samsung said its new Eco Remote will be included with all of its 2022 TVs, available in either black or white. Samsung's Eco Remote harvests radio waves from nearby home routers as its energy source. Right shows solar panels on the back of the remote Samsung said its new Eco Remote, which is free from batteries, will be included with all of its TVs released in 2022 HOW DOES IT WORK? 1. TV remote converts radio waves from WiFi routers into energy 2. Solar panels on the back also keep the remote charged 3. The device eliminates the need for replaceable batteries Advertisement The Korean company is on a quest to become more environmentally-friendly, starting with eliminating batteries entirely from remotes for its smart TVs. Eco Remote will help prevent waste from about 99 million batteries over seven years, the firm said. At CES last year, Samsung revealed a solar powered version of the Eco Remote, but this new version for 2022 has the ability to harvest radio waves too. This gives users an additional charging option if there's little light for solar charging, according to the firm. 'Whether it's a bright and sunny day or the middle of the night, the battery stays fully charged by collecting routers' radio waves and converting them to energy,' Samsung said. The new remote contains a 'receiving antenna' that harvesting radio waves from routers that are up to 40 metres (130 feet) away. The technology, called radio frequency (RF) harvesting, is already used in ID tags and implantable electronics devices. The Eco Remote is made from recycled materials and has shortcuts for Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Samsung TV Plus BATTERIES HURT THE ENVIRONMENT When depleted batteries are discarded, they end up in landfills where they decay and leak. As batteries corrode, their chemicals soak into soil and contaminate groundwater and surface water. Plants and animals are then poisoned by these battery chemicals. Source: gsiwaste.com Advertisement RF harvesting is only really feasible for low-power devices, such as TV remotes, which is why it's not seen in high-intensity devices like smartphones. Eco Remote could potentially be compatible with any router that emits electromagnetic waves, such as a wired or wireless internet router. It could essentially be powered by the multiple radio waves that flow through today's homes and offices to power modern smart technologies, including 4G and 5G, GPS and Bluetooth. Samsung's new Eco Remote is also made with recycled materials, such as plastic bottles, 'making it even more eco-friendly', according to the company. Promo images show it also has shortcuts for streaming services Netflix, Disney + and Amazon Prime Video, as well as Samsung TV Plus, the company's own ad-supported streaming platform. Samsung is expected to show off the device at CES 2022, the annual consumer electronics show that takes place annually in Las Vegas, as well as other new products. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is closing a day early due coronavirus cases spiking across the US, cutting the typical four days to just three CES 2022 kicks off on Wednesday, January 5, and will host a range of representatives from global tech companies. CES will be hosted in-person after going virtual last year due to coronavirus, although a number of big name companies won't be making in-person appearances due to the Omicron variant. Several big name companies have pulled out of the in-person event, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and TikTok, which means it may not be the great comeback CES had hoped for. Humans taking the 40 million mile trip to Mars may age faster than people remaining on Earth, according to scientists, who are hunting for a way to stop it happening. Experts from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, will study the first all civilian crew to visit the International Space Station next month, before and after their trip. They are looking for early signs of senescence, a process where a cell ages and stops dividing, but doesn't die, so builds up in tissue throughout the body. While the crew's 10-day jaunt to the International Space Station won't pose a serious threat of senescence, it is hoped that spotting early signs could help in longer haul trips. The Axiom Mission 1 will send former NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president Michael Lopez-Alegria to space as commander, alongside three others Experts from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, will study the first all civilian crew to visit the International Space Station next month, before and after their trip (Stock image) WHAT IS CELL SENESCENCE? Cellular senescence is a phenomenon linked to the end of cell division. Cells constantly experience stress and damage from various sources, and responses range from recovery, to the death of the cell. Sometimes, a cell will enter a permanent cell-cycle arrest that is termed cellular senescence. This is where it is still alive, but unable to divide and reproduce, meaning it sits there, leaking chemicals that have been linked to inflammation, and is never cleared away from the body. When young, the process of senescence alerts the immune system to damage - with the immune system clearing the cells away in the process. However, as humans age, the immune system loses the ability to sweep away these harmful cells from the body. Over time they build up and contribute to the process of ageing, and increasing the risk of disease. Advertisement 'If we see senescence under these conditions, we would want to do some work in preparation for a longer mission,' study lead Dr James Kirkland told The Telegraph. NASA and China hope to send astronauts on the 40 million mile journey to Mars in the 2030s, and Elon Musk is confident of reaching the Red Planet this decade. At the end of February, Axiom space will take a crew of four civilian astronauts to the International Space Station in a chartered SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. The Axiom Mission 1 will send former NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president Michael Lopez-Alegria to space as commander, alongside three others. They are US-based entrepreneur and non-profit activist investor Larry Connor as pilot, alongside Canadian investor and philanthropist Mark Pathy, and impact investor and philanthropist Eytan Stibbe of Israel. The Mayo Clinic team will take blood and urine samples from the four members of the civilian crew, and hunt for signs of senescence. The goal is to find out whether routine spaceflight is linked to cell senescence, and if it is, that would require further intervention before anyone launches for Mars. The ISS sits within the Van Allen belt, a protective magnetic bubble surrounding the Earth, that reduces the impact of solar radiation. This means that travellers to the ISS should be protected from the worst impact of spaceflight, in a way a crew going to Mars may not be. 'This flight will give us an idea of whether routine spaceflight, without even going beyond the Van Allen belt, is associated with cell senescence,' Dr Kirkland said. 'If we see senescence even under these conditions, we would certainly want to do some work in preparation for a longer mission. Something will have to be worked out before or longer before interplanetary flights are really feasible.' Earlier studies revealed that those travelling to the Moon were five times more likely to die from heart disease, than astronauts only going to the ISS in low Earth orbit. When humans get older, cells inside the body enter a state known as senescence, which makes them neither alive nor dead, according to the Mayo Clinic team. This state stops the body from replacing non-functioning cells, with them building up over time, pumping out chemicals that increase inflammation. The Mayo Clinic team will take blood and urine samples from the four members of the civilian crew, and hunt for signs of senescence While the crew's ten day jaunt to the International Space Station won't pose a serious threat of senescence, its hoped spotting early signs can help in longer haul trips WHEN WILL HUMANS VISIT MARS? For decades humans have set their sights on stepping foot on Mars. Every generation of NASA Astronaut since the Apollo moon landings has been told they may be the first to step foot on the Red Planet. The Artemis generation, those selected to go to the Moon this decade, are the first where this may well be the case. NASA plans to land the first humans on Mars by the middle of the 2030s, which is a similar timeframe to China. Elon Musk's SpaceX has a more ambitious timeline, hoping to send a Starship, with crew, to build a base on Mars by the end of this decade. Advertisement They're important in youth as they cluster around injuries to signal to the immune system where damage needs repairing. They are cleared away after youth when someone is still young, but as people age the ability to sweep them away is lost. When cells are under stress, they deform, which causes senescence - this includes conditions of high levels of radiation or zero gravity. According to the team, low gravity conditions changes the shape of a cell, and high G-forces, including during take off, add to DNA cellular senescence. 'The crew on the ISS will be inside the Van Allen belt but the real worry is what's going to happen if there is a Mars mission, and if there is a solar flare, because then you're dealing with atomic radiation,' Dr Kirkland told The Telegraph. 'We've found in preliminary studies very low doses of atomic radiation can drive a cell into senescence at much lower levels than x-rays or gamma rays. 'And, with atomic radiation, it could pass right through the spacecraft: it's hard to stop. So if there's a Mars mission this could really be a major problem. 'I'm a physician, not a space scientist, so my view is biased, but I'd say the health problem is pretty darn bad, and I'm very worried after what I've seen.' As well as testing on the crew themselves, Mayo Clinic experts are sending isolated human cells in a pre-senescent state in incubators - designed to see if the ISS conditions push them into early dormancy. NASA and China hope to send astronauts on the 40 million mile journey to Mars in the 2030s, and Elon Musk is confident of reaching the Red Planet this decade. NASA Artemis astronauts, pictured, one of whom may visit Mars in the future 'The cells are on the verge of senescence, and we want to see if zero gravity, plus G forces and a high carbon dioxide atmosphere in the capsule plus the radiation will drive human cultured cells that are pre-senescent into a state of senescence. We'll have similar control cells back on Earth,' the team explained. If they do find spaceflight causes cellular ageing, it isn't the end of the road for Mars trips, according to the authors, who say there are multiple clinical trials under way in drugs that may fight the process. These drugs, known as senolytics, can improve the physical function in people suffering from diseases caused by cell senescence. BlackBerry reached the end of an era today, having pulled the plug on support for its classic smartphones some 22 years after the devices first hit the market. The move will impact devices running BlackBerry 7.1 and earlier, BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 although Android-powered models will be unaffected. Unsupported systems will stop receiving software updates and, as a result, will 'no longer reliably function', the firm warned in a statement released last September. This, the Canadian company added, has the potential to affect core operations like the ability to send and receive calls (including to emergency services) and texts. Data usage may also be affected, while applications like BlackBerry Link, Desktop Manager, World, Messenger and Blend will have 'limited functionality'. BlackBerry reached the end of an era today, having pulled the plug on support for its classic smartphones (like that pictured) some 22 years after their devices first hit the market BlackBerry first hit the market in 2000 and became a must-have for professionals, as the smartphone allowed users to easily write and send emails. The smartphones saw a dramatic increase in popularity from 2001 to 2007, as they made their way to new markets across the globe. However, BlackBerry's supremacy was topped in 2016, losing the title of top device to that of Apple's ascendant iPhone. And in the end, it was arguably BlackBerry's failure to adapt, lack of consumer insight and poor design that led to its demise in 2018 when the company announced that it would no longer be producing the smartphone. The last version of the BlackBerry OS the firm released dated back to 2013, so the devices set to lose support are very old, Ars Technica have reported. 'The termination of these service offerings and infrastructure will also impact functionality for applications,' BlackBerry said in a statement. These, they added, will include Enhanced Sim Based Licensing, Identity Based Licensing, BlackBerry-hosted email addresses and the original BlackBerry Protect, which let users locate, lock and wipe BBOS and BlackBerry 10 devices remotely. 'There is no impact to the new BlackBerry Protect which is an AI-based endpoint security solution,' the firm said. Android-powered BlackBerry devices like the Key2, pictured will operate just as normal In 2020, a Texas firm named OnwardMobility announced that it would be making a 5G Android-powered BlackBerry device with a full QWERTY keyboard to release in 2021 however, the promised smartphone has yet to actually materialise. 'Enterprise professionals are eager for secure 5G devices that enable productivity, without sacrificing the user experience,' OnwardMobility CEO Peter Franklin said. 'BlackBerry smartphones are known for protecting communications, privacy, and data. This is an incredible opportunity for OnwardMobility to bring next-generation 5G devices to market with the backing of BlackBerry and FIH Mobile.' The OnwardMobility website still mentions the Android-powered Blackberry, but still only lists it as being at the pre-order stage, with no suggestion as to when it will actually be released. Small fragments of a Russian military satellite and rocket stage could come crashing down to Earth this week, after the craft 'suffered a malfunction' in low Earth orbit. The new-generation Angara A-5 heavy carrier rocket was launched on December 27 from Plesetsk spaceport carrying a dummy payload. It was supposed to reach an orbit 22,000 miles above the Earth's surface, but a failure in firing of the upper stage of the rocket, left it in low Earth orbit. Experts predict that most of the 20 tonne payload will burn up in the atmosphere on Thursday morning, plus or minus 14 hours, with tiny fragments hitting the Earth. The most likely scenario, according to experts tracking the rocket, is that it will land in the Pacific Ocean, but it is too early to predict exactly where it will come down. Small fragments of a Russian military satellite and rocket stage could come crashing down to Earth this week, after the craft 'suffered a malfunction' in low Earth orbit The new-generation Angara A-5 heavy carrier rocket was launched on December 27 from Plesetsk spaceport carrying a dummy payload The modern Angara A-5 rocket is crucial to Russia's ambition to send up advanced spy and weapons navigation satellites into orbit The modern Angara A-5 rocket is crucial to Russia's ambition to send advanced spy and weapons navigation satellites into orbit in the coming years. The heavy-lift launch vehicle will also play a part in Russia's ambitions to send robots and eventually people to land on the moon - in partnership with China. The Angara and the Persei booster carried a mock satellite payload on this pioneering test flight, that was destined for a graveyard orbit. It appears that while the launch itself worked 'flawlessly', there was a failure with the Persei upper stage after its separation 12 minutes into the flight. This means it didn't fire its boosters that would have pushed it, and the payload, beyond low Earth orbit - causing it sit about 150 miles above the Earth. This orbit means it will rapidly decay, falling back to the planet over the course of days and weeks - and it is expected to enter the atmosphere on Thursday. Many satellites and rocket stages re-enter the atmosphere all the time, but they do so in a controlled manner, where the agency knows exactly when and where it will come back down to Earth, this isn't the case for the Persei upper stage. It is on what is known as an uncontrolled re-entry, where it will be impossible to predict where the fragments that don't burn up will land until the last minute. The Kosmolenta online newspaper said that the Persei had to make five engine burns in the test mission, but it 'malfunctioned' on the second. Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin, a close Putin ally, had initially tweeted his 'congratulations' on the 'successful launch' of the Angara. The Angara and the Persei booster (pictured) carried a mock satellite payload on this pioneering test flight The Angara and the Persei booster carried a mock satellite payload on this pioneering test flight But he added that it was necessary to wait for the performance of the Persei booster, developed by the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation and launched by the Angara carrier rocket for the first time. Moskovsky Komsomolets [MK] reported that American space tracking service NORAD reported an unknown object 'A', numbered 50505. 'By all indications - this object is very similar to our Persei stuck in low orbit along with the payload model (satellite). 'If so, then a total of about 20 uncontrollable tonnes are flying over us, which will sooner or later fall. It will be good if it is in the Pacific Ocean.' Experts now suggest that while the launch worked 'flawlessly', there was a failure with the Persei upper stage' (pictured) Independent experts say the mock spy satellite and booster rocket weighing 20 tonnes could come hurtling back to ground within weeks Most of the 20 tonne rocket is expected to burn up as it reenters the atmosphere, leaving a few small fragments to land on the planet. Astronomer Joseph Remis, tracking the decay of the rocket's orbit, predicts it will come down at 08:02 GMT on January 6, 2022. Although there is a 14 hour margin of error in this prediction, according to Remis, on SatFlare. MK reported that the space agency has declined to give information on the launch. 'The launch was ordered by the military so the state corporation does not give any comments on it,' said a spokesman. Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S21 FE smartphone at this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that boasts similar technology of the Galaxy S21 smartphone family, but for $100 less - the new handset starts at $699. S21 FE, dubbed 'Fan Edition,' features a 6.4-inch AMOLED screen, the same processor as the flagship devices, a triple-lens camera and 5G capability. The Galaxy S21 FE also comes in a range of colors including olive, graphite, lavender and white and includes Samsungs fastest chip.' And handsets battery can get a 50 percent charge after being plugged in for just 30 minutes. Samsung opened pre-orders for the Galaxy S21 FE on Monday and is set to start shipping the smartphones on January 11. Scroll down for video Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S21 FE smartphone at this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that boasts similar technology of the Galaxy S21 smartphone family, but for $100 less - the new handset starts at $699 TM Roh, president and head of Samsung Electronics, said in a statement: We saw an incredible response to Galaxy S20 FE and Galaxy S21 lineup. So we applied the same approach with S21 FE 5G, equipping it with the premium features that matter most to our loyal Galaxy fans because were focused on delivering a smartphone that meets their most important needs. Samsung was set to attend CES in-person at the Las Vegas venue, but as the conference date neared, it pulled out citing concerns of the coronavirus. Cases of the virus have dramatically spiked over the past two weeks with the introduction of the Omicron variant to the US. There are three cameras on the back, including a 12MP primary sensor with f/1.8 and Dual Pixel Autofocus and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), a 12MP ultrawide with f/2.2, and an 8MP telephoto sensor with 30X Space Zoom and f/2.4 The Galaxy S21 FE runs on the Snapdragon 888 chipset that powers the more expensive smartphones and offers two memory options: 6GB RAM with 128GB storage and 8GB RAM with 256GB storage. As of Tuesday, there are more than 56 million cases and over 826,000 deaths. However, Samsung still hosted a virtual presentation to show off its latest smartphone. The Galaxy S21 FE runs on the Snapdragon 888 chipset that powers the more expensive smartphones and offers two memory options: 6GB RAM with 128GB storage and 8GB RAM with 256GB storage. And it features a sleek and slim 7.9mm-thick body, which Samsung says is so it can easily slip into a pocket to keep up with any on-the-go lifestyle. Portrait Mode makes your subject the focus simply add an effect to make the shot a whole mood, then upload it straight to your social media There are three cameras on the back, including a 12MP primary sensor with f/1.8 and Dual Pixel Autofocus and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), a 12MP ultrawide with f/2.2, and an 8MP telephoto sensor with 30X Space Zoom and f/2.4. The Galaxy S21 FE can be dropped into four feet of water for 30 minutes without any damage and has an infinity-O display to reduce harmful blue light. And the screen is made of Gorilla Glass Victus that claims to protect the phone even when dropped from six feet in the air. S21 FEs powerful battery is reinforced with 25W Super fast charging capabilities so you can charge your battery by more than 50% in just 30 minutes, and enjoy the S21 FE 5Gs brilliant high-speed performance without interruption, Samsung shared in the announcement. Christian Eriksen expects to begin training with a top-flight team this month ahead of a potential return to competitive action, with Premier League clubs showing an interest in the Danish star. Eriksen has not played since he suffered a cardiac arrest during Denmark's Euro 2020 match with Finland on June 12 last year. The 29-year-old's contract with Inter Milan was terminated last month as Italian regulations prevents him from playing in Serie A as he is fitted with an internal defibrillator. Christian Eriksen expects to return to group training with a club this month, his agent says He has been given the all clear to resume his career after suffering a cardiac arrest in June But after a series of medical tests in December, Eriksen was cleared to resume his competitive career, meaning he can sign for a new club as a free agent, and it is believed discussions with several clubs are ongoing. 'It is going really well for Christian,' the playmaker's representative Martin Schoots told Sportsmail. 'He had all the checks just before Christmas and the results were so good that we expect him to be involved in a group training with a team some time later in January. 'But I would prefer Christian to talk about this himself and he will do so very soon.' The strongest interest in Eriksen has come from clubs in Denmark, Holland and England, where he spent his club career before joining Inter Milan from Tottenham in January 2020. He was forced to leave Inter last month due to Italian rules banning players with defibrillators Current Spurs boss Antonio Conte was in charge of Inter at the time and pushed hard for the club to sign Eriksen in a deal worth about 17million. Eriksen excelled for Ajax before his move to Spurs in 2013, having moved to the Dutch giants from Odense in his homeland in 2008. At Ajax, he was the first player in the history of the club to win five major trophies by the age of 21, including three league titles. In recent weeks, Eriksen has spent time at Swiss club Chiasso, where he has been working alone in preparation for a return to group training elsewhere. He is still based in Milan, about an hour's drive away. A number of Premier League teams are interested in signing the Danish star on a free transfer Eriksen has been training alone over the last couple of months and wants to start playing again 'Christian is very ambitious,' added Schoots. 'Italy is one of the only countries with these regulations. 'In other countries it is very different. His contract with Inter has been terminated and now we can look forward.' In the decade before the incident at Euro 2020, Eriksen had established himself as one of the best playmakers in Europe. He was a key member of the Spurs side managed by Mauricio Pochettino, who challenged for the Premier League title in 2015-16 and 2016-17, and reached the Champions League Final in 2019. He also helped Inter win the Serie A title under Conte last season. Arsenal outcast Pierre-Emerick Aubameyangs future at the club has become even more uncertain as European teams have been informed of the unsettled strikers availability. Sportsmail has also learned that Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles are set to leave the club. Aubameyang, who has been frozen out of the first team and was stripped of the club captaincy after returning late from an authorised trip to France to collect his sick mother, is on Africa Cup of Nations duty with Gabon. Arsenal have encouraged clubs to sign their unsettled striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Mikel Arteta has stripped the striker of the captaincy and frozen him out of his squad But his long-term future under manager Mikel Arteta is looking bleaker with recruitment staff at a number of the Continents top teams understood to have been made aware of the potential opportunity to sign Aubameyang, 32, as early as this month. His participation in Africa is likely to complicate any potential deal before the January window shuts, but the path for his eventual exit is being cleared. Aubameyangs huge 350,000-per-week wage will provide an obvious obstacle to his departure. Arsenal are also concerned that the public falling out which led to Arteta stripping Aubameyang of the captaincy means his value will plummet. But Arsenal fear the fallout from the debacle plus his huge salary could complicate matters Meanwhile, England international Maitland-Niles will hold talks with Arteta this week ahead of a potential move to Roma. Arteta, who missed the Gunners loss to Manchester City on Saturday because of Covid, is due to return to the clubs London Colney HQ in time for Thursdays Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Liverpool. Maitland-Niles, who can play at right back or in midfield, will chat face-to-face with Arteta after Roma, who are managed by Jose Mourinho, expressed a firm interest in him. Aubameyang is currently with the Gabon squad for AFCON, which will complicate any deal The Italian club have submitted a loan offer for the 24-year-old, with an option to buy in the summer. Maitland-Niles wants to join Roma, but if Arsenal stand in his way he will stay in north London. That would see him head towards the final 12 months of his contract and leave Arsenal in danger of losing him on a free transfer. Left back Kolasinac is also wanted abroad, with Marseille interested in the 28-year-old, who has six months left on his contract. Chelsea's debt to owner Roman Abramovich has passed the 1.5billion mark after the Russian injected further cash into the club last season. As reported by The Times, annual accounts for Fordstam Ltd, Chelsea's parent company, showed that the 55-year-old loaned the club 19.9m last season - taking the total debt to 1.514billion. The latest cash injection has helped the club overtake Premier League rivals Manchester United and Liverpool in terms of their wage bill - despite recording a 155.9m loss last season. Chelsea's debt to Roman Abramovich has passed 1.5billion due to a 19.9m cash injection Chelsea's Champions League success has led to an increased wage bill at Stamford Bridge PREMIER LEAGUE GIANTS' WAGE BILLS Manchester City - 351m p/a Manchester United - 322.6m Liverpool - 326m Chelsea - 333m Advertisement Chelsea's wage bill rose by 17.5 per cent to 333m, with their Champions League triumph playing a part due to bonus payments issued out to players. The Blues also spent big at the start of the last season, forking out 222m on the likes of Kai Havertz (71m), Timo Werner (48m), Ben Chilwell (45m), Hakim Ziyech (36m) and Edouard Mendy (22m). In comparison, Manchester United's wages rose to 322.6m last season, while Liverpool's salaries totalled 326m in 2019-20. Only Manchester City, who had a wage bill of 351m in the 2019-20 season, have had to pay a higher wage bill. Fordstam's accounts state: 'Funding is provided by the ultimate controlling party, Mr R Abramovich . . . The balance outstanding on all related-party loans at 30 June 2021 was 1,514.4 million.' The loans are said to be expected to be repaid to Camberley International Investments Ltd, which is believed to be controlled by Abramovich. Chelsea's wage bill has overtaken both Manchester United's and Liverpool's However, as the loans are from the owner himself, Chelsea are effectively debt free as Abramovich would have to repay himself from the proceeds if he were to sell the club. The Blues should make a healthy profit on player sales for this season with the Fordstam accounts revealing that three players were signed in the summer for an initial outlay of 109.7m and 13 players were sold for 103.7m. The likes of Tammy Abraham (34m), Kurt Zouma (29.8m) and Fikayo Tomori (25m) all left the club in the summer. However the spending figure will be spread over several years by a process known as amortisation to show a player trading profit in the accounts. Abramovich has not been seen much at Chelsea over recent years after he experienced visa issues back in 2018. He attended his first game at Stamford Bridge in three years back in November. The Chelsea boss visit to London represented a further underlining of his commitment to the club along with his cash injection last season. Abramovichs visa issues led to a planned rebuild of Stamford Bridge being shelved, but the Blues have undergone a significant transformation of the playing squad in the last 18 months. Manchester City are open to swapping Aymeric Laporte for Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong, according to reports in Spain. Laporte, 27, has become a key member of Pep Guardiola's backline again this season after falling out of favour in the previous campaign. As a result, Barca are understood to have identified the Spain defender as one of their top transfer targets in January, plotting a second raid on City just a week after signing Ferran Torres from the Etihad. Man City are open to Aymeric Laporte joining Barcelona if Frenkie de Jong (above) is included Barca have reportedly identified Laporte as a top transfer target in the January window Despite his solid form this term, El Nacional are reporting that the Premier League club would be prepared to discuss Laporte moving to Catalonia in a potential swap deal with De Jong. Guardiola is said to be a huge admirer of the latter, who has made 115 appearances for Barca since joining from Ajax in 2019. Barca are unlikely to be able to afford an outright deal for Laporte given their financial crisis and while paying their 55million fee for Torres in staggered payments. Including De Jong in a potential swap deal could tempt City into doing business with them for a second time this month, yet the player himself may not be open to the move. The Spanish club are planning a second raid on City after signing Ferran Torres last week It is believed De Jong is not looking to leave Barca anytime soon despite widespread speculation surrounding his future, with another five-and-a-half years still to run on his current contract. The Spanish club would therefore have to come up with a straight financial offer to prise Laporte away from City, which could prove difficult amid their financial woes. Barca manager Xavi recently admitted the club are unable to register Torres in their squad until they reduce their wage bill, urging winger Ousmane Dembele to lower his salary at the Nou Camp. 'We'll see how the salary cap situation is, if it's possible right away,' he said. 'There has to be players leaving. If we get Dembele to re-sign his contract and lower his pay it will allow us to sign Torres and we hope that it can happen.' Gogglebox Australia star Isabelle Silbery has had a tough few weeks. And the 34-year-old revealed on Monday she'd been hit by yet another blow after her fiance Alex Richards tested positive for Covid-19. She shared a photo on Instagram of herself lying on the couch, which she said will be her 'bed for the next week' as she and Alex isolate separately under the same roof. Tough times: Gogglebox Australia star Isabelle Silbery (right) has faced yet another blow after her fiance Alex Richards (left) tested positive for Covid-19, forcing them to isolate apart Bad luck! On Monday, she shared this photo on Instagram of herself on the couch, which she said will be her 'bed for the next week' as she and Alex isolate separately under the same roof 'This is my bed for the next week while my man has Covid-19,' she said. 'I hate that he's so sick but all I can do is be here for him, bring him food and write him love notes and spray the s**t out of the house.' Isabelle, the youngest of the Silbery family on Gogglebox, shared a video of herself delivering dumplings, soda and a sweet note to Alex's room. She also urged her followers to show kindness to their loved ones with Covid. 'To anyone else in this position - get creative, show love, reassure them, appreciate the time alone but monitor the symptoms and get help if needed,' she wrote. Kind gestures: Isabelle, the youngest of the Silbery family on Gogglebox, shared a video of herself delivering dumplings, soda and s sweet note to Alex's room Alex's diagnosis comes after Isabelle injured herself in a horrific staircase accident. Isabelle shared a photo to Instagram on Christmas Day of herself posing with Alex, as well as a selfie taken in hospital immediately after the accident. 'A broken jaw won't stop me from having a Merry Xmas,' she wrote in the caption. 'Christmas through a straw': Alex's diagnosis comes after Isabelle injured herself in a horrific staircase accident on Christmas Day 'A steep stair case + drinks + drugs found in my system that I didn't put there = Christmas through a straw,' she continued, suggesting she'd consumed a drink that was spiked. Praising her fiance, she added: 'Could've been a lot worse so I'm bloody thankful and also for this man [Alex] who is now my live in nurse, chef and just the best career I could ask for.' Isabelle has had a difficult few months, having announced in November she'd suffered a miscarriage. Support: Isabelle hinted she'd injured herself after consuming a drink that was spiked, but praised her fiance Alex (left) for taking care of her 'I was pregnant and then I wasn't. Miscarriage is so hard and after experiencing it myself recently and hearing the stories of other women and couples, I realise how common it is,' she wrote to Instagram at the time. 'I feel that it's clearly not spoken about openly enough. It's been a really rough time the rollercoaster of getting my head around being a mother again and then suddenly having it taken away,' she added. Isabelle went on to say she was 'working her way through it' with support from her friends and a psychologist. Devastating: Isabelle has had a difficult few months, having announced in November she'd suffered a miscarriage 'What's also been challenging is simultaneously supporting myself but also [fiance] Alex as we process our individual losses,' she said. 'We shared our happy news openly with our friends and family early on and we don't regret this because it's enabled us to be so well supported as we get through this. 'I now understand all the amazing women who have been through this and my heart goes out to all of you wherever you are.' Isabelle shares a son with ex-husband Craig Silbery, whom she split from in 2017 after five years of marriage. If you've lost a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth or newborn death, Sands provides 24-7 support on 1300 072 637 Giovanni Pernice has delighted fans after sharing a sweet message to his Strictly Come Dancing partner Rose Ayling-Ellis. The professional dancer, 31, and the 27-year-old actress danced their way to victory in the final last month, with Rose making history as the first deaf celebrity to win the show. Fans loved the chemistry and friendship that blossomed between the pair, and some couldn't help but speculate that romance could grow between them. Sweet: Giovanni Pernice has raised more than a few eyebrows after sharing a sweet message to his Strictly Come Dancing partner Rose Ayling-Ellis Inspiring: She added an inspirational message for her fans, writing: 'Stay afraid, but do it anyway. Whats important is the action' Giovanni did nothing to squash the rumours as he took to Instagram to leave a heartfelt comment to Rose on her latest post. Rose reflected over the past year with a slew of snaps including selfies with her EastEnders co-stars as well as behind-the-scenes snaps with Giovanni. She added an inspirational message for her fans, writing: 'Stay afraid, but do it anyway. Whats important is the action. Champions: The professional dancer, 31, and the 27-year-old actress danced their way to victory in the final last month and made history as the first deaf celebrity to win the show 'You dont have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow. 'That definitely what 2021 did for me, the year of growth, discovery and surprises. I cannot wait to see what 2022 would bring.' Giovanni commented underneath with a simple string of red hearts, sending fans wild in the comments. Reflection: Rose reflected over the past year with a slew of snaps including selfies with her EastEnders co-stars as well as behind-the-scenes snaps with Giovanni Heartfelt: Giovanni commented underneath with a simple string of red hearts, sending fans wild in the comments One fan wrote: 'Love you both so much! You would make the most perfect couple'. Another echoed: 'I'd actually love you both together. The way you look at each other, always smiling and happy. beautiful both of you.' 'You would make such a lovely couple,' chimed in a third. Perfect couple: One fan wrote: 'Love you both so much! You would make the most perfect couple' It comes after Giovanni announced he will be using a British Sign Language interpreter on his upcoming tour, in a sweet tribute to Rose. Production company Strictly Theatre Co, took to Instagram to proudly announce that Giovanni's show in Glasgow, Hayes and Manchester, would feature a British Sign Language interpreter. Giovanni's huge tour, This Is Me, will begin on March 1 in Coventry, before wrapping up in London on May 29 in 2022. His heartfelt gesture follows the pair's emotional silent performance to Symphony by Clean Bandit featuring Zara Larsson, which left viewers in tears. Convicted Australian drug trafficker 'Cocaine Cassie' Sainsbury showcased her impressive body transformation while celebrating New Year's Eve in Colombia. The 26-year-old has lost 29kg since she was locked up for smuggling 5.8kg of cocaine into the country in April 2017, and 12kg since she left prison in April 2020. The former jailbird, who is still on parole, flaunted her slimmed-down figure while ringing in 2022 with her fiancee Tatiana. Transformation: 'Cocaine Cassie' Sainsbury showcased her impressive weight loss as she celebrated New Year's Eve with her fiancee in Colombia Sainsbury showed off her trim physique in a white crop top and jeans as she posed for a selfie on Instagram. She also shared another photo of herself embracing Tatiana. The pair have plans to marry in Colombia in March and live between there and Australia once Cassie is able to return to her home country. She is unable to return home until she has completed the remainder of her sentence on parole. For the time being she and Tatiana are living in an apartment in Chapinero, a suburb of the Colombian capital of Bogota. Loved-up: Sainsbury showed off her trim physique in a white crop top and jeans as she posed for a selfie on Instagram. She also shared another photo of herself embracing fiancee Tatiana 'It was a really unexpected relationship,' Cassie told Daily Mail Australia last year. 'We had shared a group of friends and one night we went out for a birthday and we literally hit it off.' She found love with the 33-year-old computer technician after calling off her engagement to prison fiancee Joli Pico. Locked up: The 26-year-old is spending her final months on parole in Bogota, Colombia, after she was jailed for smuggling 5.8kg of cocaine into the country in April 2017 Cassie spent three years in El Buen Pastor prison, locked in a two-metre by two-metre cell with up to five other inmates. She still has nightmares about it. 'We were woken up between 2.30 and 3.30 in the morning,' she claimed. Inmates were fed breakfast while it was still dark. Between 5am and 7am, the guards did a headcount. Sometimes they were friendly, other times 'inhumane', she added. 'You were expected to be showered, beds made, cleaned. You never really knew when but you had to be ready,' she said. The food was 'absolutely horrible', generally including rice, a small serving of vegetables or salad, and meat. Freedom: Cassie was released on parole at 11.30pm on Friday, April 3, 2020 and now lives in a studio apartment in Chapinero, in Bogota's east 'When it was chicken you knew it was chicken. When it was meat, you didn't know exactly what it was,' she said. Health inspectors occasionally shut down the prison kitchen - even doing so for four days on one occasion, she claimed. But Cassie was allowed a job during her time in custody, teaching English at a local school in twice-daily sessions. Meshel Laurie has reached out to her social media followers for dating advice. The TV presenter and author, 48, took to Instagram on Monday to admit she was 'cracking the sads with a man for canceling on [me] for the umpteenth time...' She then asked her friends and fans for their thoughts on the tricky situation. Agony aunts: TV presenter and author Meshel Laurie (pictured) has reached out to her social media followers for dating advice after being left high and dry by a man she was dating Meshel also revealed the man in question had told her: 'This is why I hate making plans with you. I'm spending extra time with my son and I won't apologise for it.' One follower advised Meshel: 'Don't wait for someone to make you a priority. If he cared he'd ask for you to join him.' Podcaster Yumi Stynes was a little more blunt, responding: 'He's a piece of s**t.' Sad times: She took to Instagram on Monday to admit she was 'cracking the sads with a man for canceling on [me] for the umpteenth time...' Others went so far as to say the man was 'gaslighting' Meshel. One fan had a novel suggestion for dealing with the problem, writing: 'Delete one letter from his name in your contacts each time he lets you down. Once he's out of letters, his number is out of your phone.' Another kept things simple, telling Meshel: 'He's not into you.' 'Nope. Sorry if he has hurt you but I'm afraid he's not into you. Save yourself the pain,' they wrote. Making excuses: Meshel revealed the man in question had told her, 'This is why I hate making plans with you. I'm spending extra time with my son and I won't apologise for it' Say what you really mean, Yumi! Several fans told Meshel: 'He's not into you.' Podcaster Yumi Stynes (pictured on December 1) was a little more blunt, responding: 'He's a piece of s**t' The conundrum comes after Meshel recently underwent an impressive weight loss transformation. The radio host first surprised fans in July when she shared a picture of her thinner self after a live show in Melbourne. She was inundated with praise, which she responded to in an Instagram comment. Meshel was coy in her reply at the time, simply saying she had a 'good photographer.' The premiere of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! delivered solid ratings for Channel 10, despite being the lowest-rated opener in the franchise's history. Monday's episode drew 1.049 million viewers nationally, including 794,000 from the five major cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The broadcast delivered the highest ratings in the prime-time slot for Monday night across the free-to-air channels. The numbers are in: The premiere of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! delivered solid ratings for Channel 10, despite being the lowest-rated opener in the franchise's history The next show behind I'm a Celebrity was Nine's A Current Affair with 607,000 metro viewers and then ABC's Outback Ringer with 543,000. I'm a Celebrity placed first in all key demographics overnight: 16 to 39, 18 to 49 and 25 to 54. It also boosted 10's audience share to the number-one spot for Monday. Results: Monday's episode drew 1.049 million viewers nationally, including 794,000 from the five major cities: Sydney, Melbourne , Brisbane , Adelaide and Perth. The broadcast delivered the highest ratings in the prime-time slot for Monday night across the free-to-air channels While 10 usually sits in third place behind Nine and Seven, it topped both stations for the night with a 26.4 per cent network share. Seven came in second with 25.8 per cent and Nine in third with 23 per cent. It wasn't all good news for 10, however, with the opening episode drawing the lowest ratings for an I'm a Celebrity premiere since its inception in 2015. Mixed bag: I'm a Celebrity boosted 10's audience share to the number-one spot for Monday. But it wasn't all good news with the opener drawing the lowest premiere ratings since 2015 Last year's premiere had 1.031 million metro viewers. There were also declines in viewership in key demos compared to last year's opener. I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! is usually one of 10's most well-received and highest-rated reality programs. Stephen Merchant has been lauded by viewers of Four Lives after the chilling BBC One miniseries' first episode aired on Monday night. The actor, 47, plays the notorious Grindr serial killer Stephen Port, and the drama, which is based on true events, shows the families of his victims fight for justice in the face of a now widely-condemned police investigation. Sheridan Smith, who stars as Sarah Sak, the mother of Stephen's first victim Anthony Walgate, was also met with adulation from fans for her talents. Talented: Stephen Merchant (pictured in-character) has been lauded by viewers of Four Lives after the chilling BBC One miniseries' first episode aired on Monday night Taking to Twitter, one member of the TV audience wrote: 'Four lives @StephenMerchant and @Sheridansmith1 yes Stephen Merchant the best UK actor since @rickygervais I wanted to wait but Iplayer makes it to easy.' Another added: 'v. weird seeing Stephen Merchant in that kind of role, but i think he carries it off brilliantly. i think i'll need space to digest these episodes (same goes for Anne, blimey), but Four Lives is off to a great start.' A third chimed in: 'I always fear the worst* whenever comedians attempt a bit of Terribly Serious Acting. But Stephen Merchant is really good in Four Lives. No BAFTA-baiting showboatery, just a very understated, unsettling performance. * My default position on everything.' Showing their praise, another added: '@Sheridansmith1 excellent performance in four lives [two clapping hands emojis] x.' Famous face: Sheridan Smith (pictured in-character), who stars as Sarah Sak, the mother of Stephen's first victim Anthony Walgate, was also met with adulation from fans for her talents Concluding, a final said: '@Sheridansmith1 omg what a brilliant actor must of been hard playing this especially now your a mom yourself xx.' [sic] Port, 46, lured four unsuspecting victims to his east London flat then plied them with a fatal dose of date rape drug GHB before dumping their bodies nearby as part of a sick fetish for sex with unconscious men in 2014 and 2015. The show was set to be released in 2020, but had to be delayed because of an inquest into the Metropolitan Police's investigation into Port's crimes. In December, the ten week inquest culminated in a jury ruling that there had been police 'failures' in the investigation, and had they been avoided, some of his victims may still be alive. Praise: Taking to Twitter, one member of the TV audience wrote: 'Four lives @StephenMerchant and @Sheridansmith1 yes Stephen Merchant the best UK actor since @rickygervais I wanted to wait but Iplayer makes it to easy' Four Lives focuses on the fight to uncover the truth about what had happened to the families' lost sons, brothers and loved ones. The series was written by Neil McKay with Jeff Pope as executive producer. The pair have previously worked together on crime dramas The Moorside and Appropriate Adult. In the first trailer for Four Lives, viewers were given a glimpse of Merchant's terrifying portrayal of Port. The serial killer was known for being exceptionally tall, six foot five, and Merchant appears eerily similar at six foot seven. Scary: The actor, 47, (pictured in-character) plays the notorious Grindr serial killer Stephen Port and the drama, which is based on true events, shows the families of his victims fight for justice in the face of a now widely-condemned police investigation Four young men Anthony, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor - were murdered by Port. Last month, the grieving families of serial killer Stephen's four victims heaped shame onto the Met Police - after a jury found force failings on his first murder let him kill three more young men. An inquest into all of Port's four victims said 'fundamental' mistakes looking at Anthony Walgate's death 'probably' contributed to Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor being subsequently killed. The devastating ruling was summed up best by Mr Whitworth's stepmother who sobbed: 'These three boys could have been still walking around today had they investigated Anthony's death properly.' Awful: Port, 46, (pictured) lured four unsuspecting victims to his east London flat then plied them with a fatal dose of date rape drug GHB before dumping their bodies nearby as part of a sick fetish for sex with unconscious men in 2014 and 2015 The IOPC announced it was considering reopening its probe into 17 officers involved in the case. Nine officers were given re-training but were not formally disciplined after the investigation in 2018. Families of all four victims said through lawyer Neil Hudgell: 'The inadequate investigations by the Metropolitan Police into the deaths of Anthony, Gabriel, Daniel and Jack should be on public record as one of the most widespread institutional failures in modern history. 'The jury has been unanimous in identifying fundamental failings and basic errors in the investigation into Anthony's death which meant that Port was not stopped, and was allowed to carry on with his terrible acts. Devastating: Two of Port's four victims were Jack Taylor (left), 25, and Daniel Whitworth (right), 21 Young: Anthony Walgate (left) and Gabriel Kovari (right) were also victims of Port 'We continue to believe that had the police done their jobs properly in the first place, Gabriel, Daniel and Jack would not have been killed and other young men would not have been drugged and raped by him.' Mr Whitworth's former partner Ricky Waumsley said current Met Commissioner Cressida Dick - who was not in charge at the time of the murders - should resign over the findings. Police watchdog the IOPC also said it may open its investigation into officers following the evidence heard at the inquest. The three-part series will continue at 9pm on Tuesday 4 January and Wednesday 5 January. Another movie premiere has been called off due to COVID-19. The upcoming Los Angeles premiere of Peacemaker has been cancelled by HBO Max as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in the city, according to Deadline. Cases have been rising at a dramatic rate in the West Coast city as of late, but the decision to cancel the event was made prior to the holidays, reports the site. Another COVID cancellation: The upcoming Los Angeles premiere of Peacemaker has been cancelled as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in the city The decision was made out of an abundance of caution amid surging COVID cases. The Peacemaker premiere is just the latest event to be scraped on account of the virus. The 2022 Palm Springs International Film Festival, which was set to occur January 7 to 17, was cancelled in light of the current surge. A red carpet premiere was also scheduled last month for the upcoming film Cyrano, but that too was postponed 'out of an abundance of caution given the changing COVID landscape,' according to The Hollywood Reporter. Safety first: The decision was made out of an abundance of caution amid surging COVID cases Instead of the glitzy premiere, a screening of the film was set to move forward where COVID protocols 'including proof of vaccination [and] proof of negative test within 48 hours of the screening' would be observed. Attendees were required to wear masks except when eating or consuming beverages. The upcoming HBO Max series Peacemaker is set to premiere on the streaming service on January 13. Action-packed: The series which stars John Cena as the titular superhero will examine the origins of Peacemaker, who believes in achieving peace at any cost, and his missions after the events of The Suicide Squad The series which stars John Cena as the titular superhero will examine the origins of Peacemaker, who believes in achieving peace at any cost, and his missions after the events of The Suicide Squad. Peacemaker is the first DC Extended Universe television series. The Suicide Squad director James Gunn wrote all eight episodes of the spin-off series during the COVID-10 pandemic and also directed five of the episodes. Peacemaker also stars Steve Agee, Danielle Brooks, Robert Patrick, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma and Chukwudi Iwuji. Brad Anderson, Jody Hill and Rosemary Rodriguez also directed an episode each. Two of the stars of CBS' NCIS are heading to a more tropical locale with Wilmer Valderrama and Katrina Law confirming an NCIS: Hawai'i crossover. Both Valderrama, 41, and Law, 36, who play Nick Torres and Jessica Knight on the flagship NCIS series, confirmed they're heading to Hawaii to film the crossover episode in a new video they both posted to their social media pages. The video also features NCIS: Hawai'i stars Vanessa Lachey (Jane Tennant), Yasmine Al-Bustami (Lucy Tara), Tori Anderson (Kate Whistler), Jason Antoon (Ernie Malik), Noah Mills (Jesse Boone) and Alex Tarrant (Kai Mills). Crossover: Two of the stars of CBS' NCIS are heading to a more tropical locale with Wilmer Valderrama and Katrina Law confirming an NCIS: Hawai'i crossover Video: Both Valderrama, 41, and Law, 36, who play Nick Torres and Jessica Knight on the flagship NCIS series, confirmed they're heading to Hawaii to film the crossover episode in a new video they both posted to their social media pages The video begins with Valderrama, in a winter hat and a fleece, telling his followers, 'Listen, listen, I'm heading off to Hawaii to shoot a crossover event.' The video then cuts to Law, also in snowy conditions, stating, 'I've also got something to tell you, I'm coming to Hawaii too.' Al-Bustami says, 'The more the merrier' while Lachey welcomes them with, 'Aloha Wilmer and Katrina. Time to be the best host.' Hawaii-bound: The video begins with Valderrama, in a winter hat and a fleece, telling his followers, 'Listen, listen, I'm heading off to Hawaii to shoot a crossover event' Katrina: The video then cuts to Law, also in snowy conditions, stating, 'I've also got something to tell you, I'm coming to Hawaii too' Host: Al-Bustami says, 'The more the merrier' while Lachey welcomes them with, 'Aloha Wilmer and Katrina. Time to be the best host' Anderson adds, 'Wilmer and Katrina coming here? Now that's gonna be fun,' while Al-Bustami continues, 'It is absolutely gonna be great investigating together. Antoon adds, 'I know, I know it's super exciting. Wilmer and Katrina - Torres and Knight from NCIS - solving Mondays together in an NCIS and NCIS: Hawai'i crossover event,' while displaying a Hawaiian 'shaka' hand signal. Law adds, 'It's gonna be good to be back on the island solving crimes,' referring to her stint as Quinn Liu on CBS' Hawaii Five-O on the show's 10th and final season. Fun: Anderson adds, 'Wilmer and Katrina coming here? Now that's gonna be fun,' while Al-Bustami continues, 'It is absolutely gonna be great investigating together. Antoon: Antoon adds, 'I know, I know it's super exciting. Wilmer and Katrina - Torres and Knight from NCIS - solving Mondays together in an NCIS and NCIS: Hawai'i crossover event,' while displaying a Hawaiian 'shaka' hand signal Return to Hawaii: Law adds, 'It's gonna be good to be back on the island solving crimes,' referring to her stint as Quinn Liu on CBS' Hawaii Five-O on the show's 10th and final season The video ends with Lachey telling fans to 'mark their calendars' for the NCIS and NCIS: Hawai'i crossover, which airs on March 28, 2022. The NCIS franchise is no stranger to crossover episodes, with the original flagship series starting as a spin-off of the CBS hit series JAG. There have been several crossovers between NCIS and its spin-offs NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans that have aired throughout the years. Save the date: The video ends with Lachey telling fans to 'mark their calendars' for the NCIS and NCIS: Hawai'i crossover, which airs on March 28, 2022 Spin-off: The NCIS franchise is no stranger to crossover episodes, with the original flagship series starting as a spin-off of the CBS hit series JAG The franchise has also crossed over with other CBS shows like Hawaii Five-0 and Scorpion, with JAG stars like David James Elliott and Catherine Bell also crossing over into NCIS: Los Angeles episodes. NCIS is currently in the midst of its 19th season on CBS, while NCIS: Hawaii is in its first season, with a 'back nine' full-season order issued back in September. Both shows return with their first new episodes of 2022 on Monday night, with NCIS airing at 9 PM ET and NCIS: Hawai'i airing at 10 PM ET on CBS. Crossover: The franchise has also crossed over with other CBS shows like Hawaii Five-0 and Scorpion, with JAG stars like David James Elliott and Catherine Bell also crossing over into NCIS: Los Angeles episodes Emmy winner Amy Schumer wished her husband Chris Fischer a happy 42nd birthday on Monday by presenting him with a chocolate cake iced with the phrase: 'You're not the father, HBD.' 'You are not the father' was frequently a celebratory catchphrase made popular on The Maury Povich Show whenever guests took paternity tests. The 40-year-old comedian - who boasts 19.7M social media followers - wrote on Instagram: 'Happy birthday to my love! I'm really lucky to be married to this birthday boy. And have a little guy with him.' Emmy winner Amy Schumer wished her husband Chris Fischer a happy 42nd birthday on Monday by presenting him with a cake iced with the phrase: 'You're not the father, HBD' The 40-year-old comedian wrote on Instagram: 'Happy birthday to my love! I'm really lucky to be married to this birthday boy. And have a little guy with him' Amy also shared a cute video of their two-year-old son Gene David hiding beneath the chef's orange T-shirt. In it, Schumer pretends she's a ghost and wonders aloud if there's a boy inside the stretched shirt clearly revealing the outline of his face (and pacifier). 'What? What should I do?' Chris whispered to his son. As Fischer started to walk away, Schumer replied: 'As the ghost I think I should know what you're talking about too!' 'Is there a boy in there?' Amy also shared a cute video of their two-year-old son Gene David hiding beneath the chef's orange T-shirt 'Hello? Hello?' In it, Schumer pretends she's a ghost and wonders aloud if there's a boy inside the stretched shirt clearly revealing the outline of his face (and pacifier) 'What? What should I do?' Chris whispered to his son As Fischer started to walk away, Schumer replied: 'As the ghost I think I should know what you're talking about too!' The native New Yorker reportedly met the Beetlebung Farm manager - who has Asperger's Syndrome - through her personal assistant (his sister) just five months before they wed on February 13, 2018. Amy and Chris currently have three frozen embryos to eventually provide a sibling, via surrogate, for their cherubic child. On July 16, Schumer officially wrapped production on her 10-episode Hulu comedy series Life & Beth - which she wrote, produced, directed, and starred in. Still going strong! The native New Yorker reportedly met the Beetlebung Farm manager - who has Asperger's Syndrome - through her personal assistant (his sister) just five months before they wed on February 13, 2018 (pictured December 16) Expanding their brood? Amy and Chris currently have three frozen embryos to eventually provide a sibling, via surrogate, for their cherubic child (pictured July 27) Three-time SAG Award nominee Michael Cera and Grammy nominee Michael Rapaport portray John and Leonard, respectively, in the upcoming show. The Humans actress is next scheduled to perform stand-up comedy on April 2 at The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Amy will also soon star in an unscripted eight-episode series Amy Learns To... for HBO Max. It appears new star of The Bachelor, Clayton Echard, has a forgiving spirit. The 28-year-old responded to former Bachelor Nick Viall, 41 - who recently questioned ABC's pick of Echard for the next season - saying he holds no ill will toward him. Echard appeared on a new episode of SiriusXMs Pop Culture Spotlight with Jessica Shaw where he shared, 'I dont harbor any resentment for somebody that makes a comment like that.' Generous spirit: Clayton Echard, 28, responded to Nick Viall's comments questioning his casting as the new Bachelor, saying he doesn't 'harbor any resentment' Honest thoughts: In a recent interview with PEOPLE magazine, Viall, 41, revealed that he doesn't 'really get the choice' of Echard as the next Bachelor; Pictured Dec 7, 2021 Echard went on to say, 'Again, I think thats his platform. He kind of speculates on all these things, and he doesnt know anything about me.' The Missouri native also added, 'If he still feels that way towards the end of it, then fair, sure. Well have a conversation at that point. Right. Ill talk with him and say, "You know, what is it that you dont get?" But for now, I do understand.' Viall was confused with Echard's casting, since he had very little screen time on Michelle Young's 18th season of The Bachelorette. He told PEOPLE, 'I don't really get the choice.' The former Bachelor went on to state that he believes Young's top four contenders all would have made a better option. 'I've been kind of critical of the selection,' he said in a recent interview with the magazine. Not a good pick? The former Bachelor went on to say that Michelle's top four choices have 'out-shined Clayton in every possible way'; Echard pictured with Michelle Young on Dec 3, 2021 Viall went on to state that his opinion had nothing to do with personal feelings regarding Echard, whom he called a 'nice enough fellow,' but that he simply thought there were 'more charismatic' choices available. 'Just looking at Michelle's top four, each of the top four has better storylines, more charisma. They have out-shined Clayton in every possible way,' he said. The Wisconsin born television personality added that viewers didn't get to see much of Clayton on the show, and that he was worried the new season would have 'a lot of platitudes' and 'a lot of very high level "nice,"' which he deemed as inauthentic. However Viall also had a positive thought for Echard, saying he hopes the new Bachelor can prove him wrong. Veteran Bachelor: Viall has an extensive history with the show, having appeared on The Bachelorette twice and then starring in his own season of The Bachelor in 2015 Viall has quite a bit of experience on the show to back up his claims. He first appeared as a contestant on The Bachelorette in 2014, on Andi Dorfman's season, but despite making it to top two he did not get the final rose. He then reappeared on the show in 2015, making it to the final two yet again, and getting his heart broken one more time. in 2016 he starred on his own season of The Bachelor, and proposed to contestant Vanessa Grimaldi. Unfortunately, the two split after the show ended. Meanwhile Echard's reign as the new Bachelor starts on January 3rd. Chrishell Stause fixed a credit online on Monday for her 2019 movie Staged Killer. The 40-year-old reality star changed her last name from Hartley to Stause in a poster promoting the thriller on Instagram. A follower asked about the name change and Chrishell responded on her Instagram Stories. Credit change: Chrishell Stause, shown last July in Los Angeles, fixed a credit online on Monday for her 2019 movie Staged Killer 'My last name was different when I filmed this so I just fixed it myself. Too late to fix old promo materials or how I was already credited in the film. All good!,' she wrote for her roughly 2.9 million followers on Instagram. 'Being named Chrishell has it's advantages of not being mixed up with other people named the same,' she added she added with some upbeat emojis Chrishell and Justin, 44, were introduced in 2013 and got engaged in August 2016. They were married in October 2017 and Justin filed for divorce in November 2019 citing irreconcilable differences. Thriller movie: The 40-year-old reality star changed her last name from Hartley to Stause in a poster promoting the thriller on Instagram Self fix: 'My last name was different when I filmed this so I just fixed it myself. Too late to fix old promo materials or how I was already credited in the film. All good!,' she wrote for her roughly 2.9 million followers on Instagram Justin was previously married to Lindsay Korman, 43, from 2004 until 2012 and they have 17-year-old daughter Isabella together. Lindsay was credited as 'Lindsay Hartley' as a writer on Staged Killer, according to IMDB. Justin married Sofia Pernas, 32, last May. Former couple: Chrishell and Justin Hartley, shown in June 2019 in Los Angeles, got married in October 2017 and he filed for divorce in November 2019 citing irreconcilable differences Chrishell has been trying to remain positive since announcing her split earlier this month from Jason Oppenheim. The Selling Sunset star and Jason, 44, broke up only five months after going public with their romance. 'She's upset still. She feels like life has kicked her down quite a few times these past years, and that's been a hard feeling,' a source told People in a recent article. Staying positive: The reality star, shown in November in West Hollywood, California, has been trying to remain positive since announcing her split earlier this month from Jason Oppenheim 'She wants marriage and a family, so the fact that the journey hasn't gone as planned has made her feel like life hasn't always been fair to her. It's like a cycle of happiness, curve ball, happiness, curve ball,' the insider added. The source said Chrishell has been 'trying really hard to be positive' and remains a 'positive human by nature'. 'Despite the public breakups and divorce, she won't let that stop her from living her life and going after what she wants,' the insider said. Chrishell on the 'bright side' will he heading into 2022 with a 'blank slate and a refreshed mindset.' Happier times: Chrishell and Jason, shown in August in Los Angeles, broke up only five months after going public with their romance Jason and Chrishell have both made public statements since their split. 'While Chrishell and I are no longer together, we remain best friends and we will always love and support one another, Jason posted on Instagram Stories. 'She was the most amazing girlfriend I've ever had, and it was the happiest and most fulfilling relationship of my life,' he added. Positive nature: An insider said that Chrishell, shown in May in Los Angeles, has a positive outlook by nature Jason noted that he and Chrishell 'have different wants regarding a family', but will always have the utmost respect for each other. Chrishell also pointed to family plans as a key reason for their split. 'Men have the luxury of time that women don't and that's just the way it goes. All of that being said, navigating this public terrain is difficult and I am just trying my best...I very much hope to one day have a family and decisions I make at this point are with that goal in mind,' she wrote on social media. Hit show: Selling Sunset features Chrishell and has become a hit on Netflix Chrishell previously starred on the soap operas All My Children and Days Of Our Lives before joining the Netflix series Selling Sunset. She competed on season 29 of Dancing With The Stars in 2020 and finished in eighth place. Season four of Selling Sunset premiered on November 24, 2021, on Netflix. MAFS Australia star Jessika Power it tipped to make a surprise appearance on the British version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! The 30-year-old influencer is in 'final negotiations' with producers of the ITV reality show to appear on a future season, sources tell Daily Mail Australia. Jessika is already a household name in her native country thanks to her breakout role on MAFS in 2019, and is now a rising star in the UK. Rumour has it! MAFS Australia star Jessika Power is in 'final negotiations' with producers to appear on a future season of the British version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! She recently filmed an appearance on E4's Celebs Go Dating. It comes after Jess revealed she'd applied for residency in the UK, where she has been living on a work visa for the past few months. If approved, she can stay in Britain for another five years. In talks: Jessika is already a household name in her native country thanks to her breakout role on MAFS in 2019, and is now a rising star in the UK She recently admitted she'd been judged for making money off OnlyFans, but was having the last laugh as her bank balance soars. 'Do you know what? People always have an opinion, or they always make fun, or they always judge about the account that's in my [Instagram] bio. Go and have a look for yourself, you can see what it is,' she said. 'But I'm just sitting here right now on the other side of the world in Manchester, looking at over half-a-million-dollar value houses to buy.' Goals: Last month, Jessika revealed her hopes of becoming a British citizen after moving to Manchester just weeks earlier Last month, Jessika revealed her hopes of becoming a British citizen after moving to Manchester just weeks earlier. 'I would love to move here,' she said during an Instagram Q&A. 'I'd love to apply for my citizenship but you don't always get what you want.' It comes after she revealed the 'ridiculous' amount of money she'd made from OnlyFans in a radio interview last month. Not holding back: Jessika loves making adult content and says her haters should 'p**s off' The reality star told KIIS FM's Summer Breakfast with Mitch Churi she'd earned 'well past' US$200,000 so far, which is equivalent to AU$278,000. 'The amount of money I've earned is just ridiculous,' Jessika said. 'I've only been on it since August [and] it's well past 200,000 US dollars.' Inside Dubai: Playground Of The Rich (BBC2) Rating: Warship: Life At Sea (C5) Rating: Take a ride in this plush platinum white Rolls-Royce with its exclusive two-digit number plate. Drool at the walk-in wardrobe stacked with 4 million in shoes and handbags. And please do not bump into the 24-carat gold, diamond-studded, radioactive elephant in the middle of the room. Inside Dubai: Playground Of The Rich (BBC2) kidded itself we were getting a sly and knowing peek at the obscenely wealthy lifestyles of the super-spoilt emirate expats. Director Philip McCreery contrasted the posturing of witless Instagram poolside posers with the minimum wage existence of their Filipino servants who scrimp for used clothes in thrift shops. But he failed to confront the chilling allegations of kidnap and coercive control against Dubai's autocratic ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who is simultaneously prime minister, vice-president, minister of defence and, in the eyes of everyone who lives there, Dubai's king. Director Philip McCreery contrasted the posturing of witless Instagram poolside posers with the minimum wage existence of their Filipino servants who scrimp for used clothes in thrift shops 'Criticism is forbidden,' commented Will Mellor's voiceover. This documentary certainly did not dare. One interviewee, Gaynor Scott wife of 75-year-old Channel Islands entrepreneur Tom Scott was encouraged to make a fool of herself, burbling about how marvellous the Sheikh was and showing off the painting of him in her Emirate Hills home. But Gaynor was oblivious to all propriety. Pointing out her neighbours' houses on their gated estate, with its manmade ponds set in the desert sand, she remarked happily: 'This one here on the corner belongs to the Mugabe family.' She meant tyrannical thug Robert Mugabe, former dictator of Zimbabwe, who died in 2019. 'They do amazing parties actually on New Year's Eve,' said Gaynor. Most of those flaunting their cars, their handbags, their wine racks and their private jets for the camera had more sense than to mention a word about the Sheikh. There was no reference to the order by a British court that the Sheikh must pay a divorce settlement to his ex-wife Princess Haya, expected to exceed 500 million. Inside Dubai: Playground Of The Rich (BBC2) kidded itself we were getting a sly and knowing peek at the obscenely wealthy lifestyles of the super-spoilt emirate expats Nor were court findings that, on the balance of probabilities, he orchestrated the abduction of two of his children, Princess Shamsa (snatched off the street in Cambridge in 2000) and Princess Latifa (taken prisoner in 2018 as she tried to escape Dubai). Any documentary that fails to explain these charges is fundamentally flawed and has no claim to serious intent. At best, it's gaudy flim-flam. At worst, it is an advert for a corrupt state. No amount of gold-infused hand cream in the bathrooms of the Atlantis hotel can wash away that taint. Luxury was in short supply on HMS Northumberland, the Navy frigate deployed to the Arctic Circle to counter a Russian threat in Warship: Life At Sea (C5). Luxury was in short supply on HMS Northumberland, the Navy frigate deployed to the Arctic Circle to counter a Russian threat in Warship: Life At Sea (C5). The bunk beds were narrow letterboxes. First-time sailor Sahil, 20, slotted himself onto his mattress like a teaspoon in a cutlery drawer. 'Hope I don't fall off,' he said. I would be more worried about never getting out of there again. The series, though carefully edited to give nothing away to pique the interest of foreign observers, conveys a vivid and entertaining view of life on board. We saw the whole ship's company, including Captain Tom Hobbs, lining up for a random drugs test. Two of the matelots failed, with traces of cocaine in their blood, and faced instant dismissal. One of them sported a 'Los Pollos Hermanos' sticker on his helmet. If Captain Hobbs watched more TV, he might have spotted that giveaway clue . . . it was the brand of drugs baron Gus Fring in Breaking Bad. They took a couple's retreat to a secluded farm over the weekend to celebrate New Year's Eve. But Kendall Jenner and her BFF Hailey Bieber couldn't be kept apart as they reunited again on Monday for some exercise and pampering. The 26-year-old Keeping Up With The Kardashians star and the 25-year-old wife of Justin Bieber were spotted in Los Angeles as they worked out with a Pilates class before heading over to a salon Self-care: Kendall Jenner, 26, and her BFF Hailey Bieber, 25, were seen taking a Pilates class and dropping by a salon in Los Angeles on Monday Kendall skipped her haute couture looks in favor of a comfortable and casual ensemble. She had on a cozy brown fleece top, which she contrasted with black leggings and short Ugg boots that exposed her white ribbed socks. She wore her raven hair down and blocked out the sun with her slim Salt Optics sunglasses, and she added a touch of luxury to the low-key look with a brown Louis Vuitton tote bag. Hailey was similarly relaxed in a loose-fitting black sweater with matching leggings, along with gray-and-red trainers and a gray beanie. No fuss: Hailey was relaxed in a loose-fitting black sweater with matching leggings, along with gray-and-red trainers and a gray beanie The daughter of Stephen Baldwin sipped on an iced coffee for a pick-me-up, and she had a black handbag slung over her shoulder. Earlier, Kendall had arrived to their Pilates class in Hollywood in her sleek black Ferrari, which she drove with her bodyguard. She initially went mask free when she was on her own, but both models masked on their way to the salon to help slow the spread of Covid-19, which has been surging due to the rise of the Omicron variant, which is believed to be considerably more contagious. Cozy: had on a cozy brown fleece top, which she contrasted with black leggings and short Ugg boots that exposed her white ribbed socks Need for speed: Earlier, Kendall, who wore Salt Optics sunglasses, arrived to their Pilates class in Hollywood in her sleek black Ferrari, which she drove with her bodyguard Earlier on Monday, Hailey gave her 40.2 million Instagram followers a glimpse into her New Year's Eve weekend getaway with Kendall. She showed off her toned figure in a bikini photo snapped while she caught up on her copy of Taylor Jenkins Reid's historical fiction novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The blond beauty also shared a cute black-and-white photo of herself with her husband Justin Bieber, who joined her at the retreat in the country. 2022: Earlier on Monday, Hailey gave her 40.2 million Instagram followers a glimpse into her New Year's Eve weekend getaway with Kendall with a stunning bikini photo Couples retreat: The blond beauty also shared a cute black-and-white photo of herself with her husband Justin Bieber, who joined her at the retreat in the country Kendall was pictured bundled up in a black puffer jacket with scarlet sweatpants and red rain boots as she walked around the property with Hailey. Their friend Justine Skye also posted a cute photo of the two pals petting a donkey on the snout. But it was a photo that the catwalk star posted to her own Instagram page that got the most interest from her 209 million followers. Scoping it out: Kendall was pictured bundled up in a black puffer jacket with scarlet sweatpants and red rain boots as she walked around the property with Hailey Sweet: Their friend Justine Skye also posted a cute photo of the two pals petting a donkey on the snout Kendall included a sweet mirror selfie of herself beaming ear-to-ear while her beau Devin Booker nuzzled his head against hers. Eagle-eyed fans noticed that Ben's left hand which was clutching a glass of red wine had what appeared to be a gold band on his wedding ring finger. Kendall's own fingers were notably free of rings. DailyMail.com has reached out to reps for Kendall for comment and has yet to hear back so far. One commenter replied to the photo, 'But his ring...' while another one wrote, 'Another said: 'Anyone else notice the ring on his hand ????????' The two were first linked after they took a road trip to Sedona, Arizona, in April of 2020. Shocker: Kendall's eagle-eyed fans noticed on her own Instagram that her beau Devin Booker wore what appeared to be a gold band on his wedding ring finger, though she didn't have a ring on Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez had a relaxed Christmas weekend with family. 'It was a pretty quiet holiday for them,' a source told People Monday. 'They really enjoyed it after a busy fall.' Affleck, 49, who shares daughters Violet, 16, and Seraphina, 12, and son Samuel, nine, with ex Jennifer Garner, 49, was with his kids in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, an insider told the publication. The latest: Ben Affleck, 49, and Jennifer Lopez, 52, had a relaxed Christmas weekend with family, as Affleck spent Christmas Eve with his kids and Christmas day with Lopez and her children. The couple was snapped in LA last month The Argo star-director spent Christmas day with Lopez, 52, and her twins Max and Emme, 13 (with ex-husband Marc Anthony, 53), as well as his mother Chris, according to the publication. Affleck and Lopez reunited this past April following her split from former fiance Alex Rodriguez, 46. The rekindled relationship came 17 years after they previously dated after sharing the screen in the 2003 film Gigli. In November, an insider told People that the celeb pair was working to make the holiday season a focal point, as 'for Jennifer, Christmas is all about the kids. Lopez was seen in a Christmas day social media post showing waffles she made with her family Affleck and Lopez rekindled their relationship 17 years after they previously dated after sharing the screen in the 2003 film Gigli The celeb couple beamed as they were seen last month in Los Angeles 'She makes it very special for them. She loves Christmas. This year, it will take some more planning since Ben wants to be with his kids too.' This past August, an insider told the outlet that the celeb couple wants all their 'kids to get to know each other' amid their renewed romance. 'Since Jennifer and Ben are in it for the long run, it's just a natural step that they all spend time together with the kids,' the source said. Affleck and Lopez joined Garner and their kids for a trick-or-treating outing on Halloween. 'Everyone gets along and the focus is always on the kids,' an insider told the outlet. 'Jennifer, Ben and Jen Garner all wanted the kids to have an amazing Halloween. The kids are friends and wanted to go trick-or-treating together. It made sense that they all went together.' Grant Denyer and his wife Chezzi last month received an apology from a magazine that published a story falsely implying the father of three was having an affair. And the couple appeared to be moving on from the painful year that was when they hit Sydney Harbour for a family outing last week. The Channel Seven star and his wife-of-11-years were joined by their three kids for the summer excursion. Family outing: Grant Denyer and wife Chezzi enjoyed a boat trip in Sydney Harbour with their daughters Sailor, ten, Scout, six and Sunday, 11 months, last week The couple share daughters Sailor, 10, Scout, six and Sunday, 11 months, all of whom joined them for the New Year's Eve outing. Grant dressed casually in tan shorts and a white T-shirt, while Chezzi wore a white patterned blouse. The Denyers appeared at ease as they put a turbulent 2021 behind them. Rear view mirror: Grant (pictured) appeared to be moving on from the painful year that was when he hit Sydney Harbour for a family outing last week Family time: Grant dressed casually in tan shorts and a white T-shirt, while Chezzi (pictured) wore a white patterned blouse Fun times: The Denyers also documented their sailing trip on Instagram Making memories: Grant carried one of his daughters as the family watched the NYE fireworks In December, New Idea apologised to the TV presenter and his wife after publishing a story falsely implying he was having an affair with a woman half his age. The tabloid reached a confidential settlement with the Denyers after they called in the lawyers over an October 18 front-page article that suggested Grant was romantically involved with his Dancing with the Stars partner Lily Cornish. The publication printed an apology in its Monday edition and online, acknowledging the story was false and that Grant, 44, and Lily, 22, never had an affair. Apology: A magazine last month apologised to Denyer and wife Chezzi after publishing a story falsely implying he was having an affair with a woman half his age The apology reads: 'On 18 October 2021, [publisher] Are Media and New Idea published an article that conveyed that Grant Denyer was having an extra-marital affair with his Dancing with the Stars: All Stars dance partner, Lily Cornish, and that his wife, Chezzi was heartbroken as a result. The article was false. 'Are Media and New Idea acknowledge that Grant Denyer and Lily Cornish are not having an extra-marital affair. They have never had an affair. 'Are Media and New Idea regret publishing the article. 'Are Media and New Idea wish to sincerely apologise to Grant Denyer, Chezzi Denyer and Lily Cornish for the hurt and embarrassment caused by the article.' Legal matter: New Idea published a front-page story on October 18 falsely suggesting Grant was having an affair with dancer Lily Cornish (left) Grant hailed the magazine's mea culpa as a victory, telling his Instagram followers he hopes the apology 'sets a serious precedent for the future'. The former Channel 10 star also said he'd reached a 'suitable confidential settlement outside of court', but did not specify if New Idea paid any damages. He engaged the services of Richard Leder and Georgie Austin from Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Renee Enbom QC with the intention of suing New Idea. However, the matter never made it to court after a settlement was reached. New Idea published a front-page story on October 18 falsely implying Grant was having an affair with dancer Lily. The magazine included photos of Grant with his hand on Lily's thigh in between rehearsals for Dancing with the Stars: All Stars in Sydney. Statement: The magazine printed an apology in its Monday edition and online, acknowledging the story was false and that Grant and Lily never had an affair. Pictured: Grant and Chezzi While the photos were accompanied by the headline 'Grant Denyer Caught Out', the full set of images was later released, offering a more complete picture of what happened. The original article insinuated Grant and Lily were cheating on their respective partners - a claim the Denyers strongly denied - but the photos themselves actually suggested a platonic relationship. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting any infidelity took place. For example, while Grant did place his hand on Lily's thigh at one stage, it wasn't necessarily an intimate gesture. Victory: Grant said on Monday he'd reached a 'suitable confidential settlement outside of court', but did not specify if New Idea paid any damages. Pictured with his wife and daughters One photo appears to show him patting the young woman's leg in a fatherly manner, which is what he maintains happened. There were other moments when they acted like ordinary friends and colleagues. Shots of them looking chummy at the boat party and linking arms outside were seemingly cropped to make it appear as if they were alone. In reality, they were surrounded by their co-stars, including the likes of former Bachelorette Angie Kent and The Morning Show host Kylie Gillies. Grant later admitted he'd 'embarrassed' his family, telling 2Day FM's The Morning Crew with Hughesy, Ed & Erin the pictures actually showed him consoling his friend after she had received some sad personal news. The images, he said, were taken by a paparazzo just moments after he and Lily had finished speaking to his wife Chezzi over FaceTime. 'It's such a horrible, made-up story that's embarrassing for everyone,' he said. Backlash: Grant and his wife had categorically denied the New Idea report the week it was published in a series of social media posts 'We'd just been on the phone to Chezzi, we had been FaceTiming It had been a bit of a tough day and Lil had a bit going on in her personal life.' 'It's not up to me to divulge what it [the personal issue] is but I was just giving her a bit of a pep talk and fatherly advice,' he added. 'I just gave her a tap on the leg and she sort of leaned in for a bit of a hug after a chat and that's the photo on the [New Idea] front page.' Lily also addressed the New Idea story at the time, sharing a post to Instagram thanking her fans for being so understanding. 'Thanks everyone for the kind words and messages. I really appreciate the amount of love that has come out of this yucky / disrespectful situation. Killing it with kindness,' she wrote. 'It's such a horrible, made-up story': Grant later admitted he'd 'embarrassed' his family, telling 2Day FM's The Morning Crew with Hughesy, Ed & Erin the pictures actually showed him consoling his friend after she had received some sad personal news Grant and his wife had categorically denied the New Idea report the week it was published in a series of social media posts. Chezzi posted screenshots of the article on Instagram and blasted the magazine for fabricating such a 'gross and mean' story. She went on to claim the photographer who took the photos had apologised to her for the images being 'taken out of context'. She also pointed out that Lily's long-term boyfriend Jock White had been pictured visiting her during rehearsals for DWTS. Grant later issued his own blistering statement, calling the article a 'brutal' attack on a '22-year-old kid' and a 'dad of three girls'. Married At First Sight star Michael Brunelli is celebrating his freedom after spending more than a week in isolation following his Covid-19 diagnosis. The personal trainer, 31, celebrated getting his medical clearance from Victoria's health department on Monday by going out for a brisk stroll and visiting a nail salon. He revealed how he spent his first day out of isolation during an Instagram Q&A, saying he couldn't wait to escape the house for a pedicure. Taste of freedom! Married At First Sight star Michael Brunelli is celebrating his freedom after spending more than a week in isolation following his Covid-19 diagnosis Michael said that while he enjoyed the self-care session, it wasn't his first choice. He'd actually wanted to spend time with his parents, but they were on holiday. Michael's freedom comes after he and fiancee Martha Kalifatidis tested positive to Covid-19 after a whirlwind trip to North America in December. They visited New York City, Los Angeles and Mexico, and were diagnosed with Covid a few days after returning to Australia. Treating himself: The personal trainer, 31, celebrated getting his medical clearance from Victoria's health department on Monday by going for a pedicure at a local nail salon In it together: Michael's freedom comes after he and fiancee Martha Kalifatidis (right) tested positive to Covid-19 after a whirlwind trip to North America in December On Sunday, which was day seven of the couple's isolation period, tempers began to flare and Michael secretly recorded one of their spats for Instagram. Martha, 33, also revealed she'd lost her sense of taste and wasn't able to enjoy a barbecue with Michael and her mother Mary Kalifatidis. The double-vaccinated couple, who are unsure if they caught Covid in Australia or overseas, previously spoke about their symptoms. In the doghouse! On Sunday, which was day seven of the couple's isolation period, tempers began to flare and Michael secretly recorded one of their spats for Instagram 'Covid sucks. It is so f**king s**t. Some people are like, "It's just a cold," but it is a pretty s**t one. It's like tonsillitis, gastro and the flu in one,' Martha said last week. She added that Michael did 'projectile vomit' at the start of his symptomatic period, which is quite uncommon. Martha and Michael met on Married At First Sight in 2019 and announced their engagement late last year. Today show weather presenter Scherri-Lee Biggs soaked up the summer sun with a mystery man on Monday. The former Miss Universe Australia, 31, was seen enjoying a relaxed day out at Parsley Bay in Vaucluse, Sydney, with a male companion. Scherri-Lee showed off her figure in a swimsuit with a plunging neckline, which drew attention to her decolletage. Beach day: The Today show's fill-in weather presenter Scherri-Lee Biggs (right) spent Monday afternoon at Parsley Bay in Vaucluse, Sydney, with a mystery man (left) Scherri-Lee looked relaxed as she chatted to the mystery man on a rock overlooking the picturesque bay. After going for a swim, the Channel Nine star put on a pair of white shorts, a cotton shirt and sandals then left the beach. She also protected herself from the sun by wearing a floppy bucket hat, and styled her long blonde hair loosely. Her companion wore beige shorts and a white hat as he held the pair's belongings. Summer fun: Scherri-Lee showed off her figure in a swimsuit with a plunging neckline, which she teamed with a pair of white shorts Scherri-Lee has been filling in for weatherman Tim Davies over the holiday season. She recently had a wild animal encounter while feeding a caged lion at Sydney Zoo on December 21. After tossing the animal a piece of meat, it leapt up on the steel fence towards her. Soaking up the sun: The former Miss Universe Australia, 31, looked relaxed as she chatted to her male companion on a rock overlooking the picturesque bay She was also one of the breakout stars of Celebrity Apprentice's most recent season. Scherri-Lee shot to fame when she won Miss Universe Australia in 2011 - the year after Jesinta Franklin took the crown. She went on to represent her country in the Miss Universe 2011 pageant, placing in the top 10. She is a familiar face to Nine viewers in Perth and some industry insiders suspect she could soon be bound for the east coast. He confirmed his split from Brooke Blurton on Sunday, only for his ex to publicly accuse him of going against her wishes by announcing it too soon. And The Bachelorette's Darvid Garayeli tried to put the break-up drama behind him on Tuesday, telling fans he was 'putting on a brave face' since moving out of the Melbourne apartment he briefly shared with his former girlfriend. The landscaper, 27, shared a photo to Instagram of himself taken shortly after moving back in with family in Brisbane, and wrote in the caption: 'Back home with my loved ones.. and my washing.' Back home: The Bachelorette's Darvid Garayeli has moved out of the Melbourne apartment he shared with ex Brooke Blurton, just days after announcing their split He thanked fans for their kind words, and hinted he was still struggling after the split. 'Thanks for all the supportive messages, putting on a brave face,' he wrote. Darvid's relocation comes after he announced his split from Brooke on Sunday, just one month after their season of The Bachelorette finished airing. Following his break-up announcement, Brooke, 26, said she was 'surprised' he had decided to publicly share the news without consulting her. What went wrong? Darvid's relocation comes after he announced his split from Brooke (pictured) on Sunday, just one month after their season of The Bachelorette finished airing 'Hey beautiful people before my phone blows up. I just want to say right now I'm finding this really quite overwhelming and just as surprising to me as you guys,' Brooke said. 'I just woke up to the news. It was definitely agreed to part ways. I just wanted to do it privately, amicably and respectfully. 'This is not how and what I expected to be doing right now so as you can imagine, this is all a lot.' She added: You will all have your judgements and have your say but there is a lot going on in my world and D's of course. So I again just ask you be kind, we are human. 'I really do hope you respect some part of some what "privacy" we do have right now because like I said, this was a surprise to wake up just as much as it was for you guys. For now, tuning out but we will speak soon.' Shock: Following his break-up announcement, Brooke, 26, said she was 'surprised' Darvid had decided to publicly share the news without consulting her Unexpected: Brooke said she hadn't expected to wake up to see Darvid announcing their split Darvid had posted on Instagram several hours earlier: 'Starting off the New Year with an end to a chapter and hopefully the beginning of another. 'Unfortunately Brooke and I have parted ways. Whilst we both genuinely thought we were each other's person, things change and that's okay. 'Please respect our privacy and that at the end of the day we are both just people with real feelings. 'Thank you so much for being considerate, a lot of lessons learned.' Announcement: Darvid had posted on Instagram several hours earlier: 'Starting off the New Year with an end to a chapter and hopefully the beginning of another. 'Unfortunately Brooke and I have parted ways' The news came after Brooke and Darvid were spotted looking tense as they took a morning walk with their dog Cobar in Melbourne last month. Brooke chose Darvid during the Bachelorette finale, which aired in November, telling him she was in love with him and presenting him with a ring. 'From the moment I met you, I felt a lot of feelings. I felt calm, I felt trusting,' an emotional Brooke began. What happened? Brooke chose Darvid during the Bachelorette finale, which aired in November, telling him she was in love with him and presenting him with a ring 'I felt an instant chemistry and connection that I never, ever felt with anyone before. 'Look, I don't know how to say this, but you came in here and you granted me three wishes. And I still have one left.' She added: 'Darvid, will you make me the happiest girl? I love you so much.' Plans: After the finale, Darvid revealed they were about to move in together in Melbourne After the finale, Darvid revealed they were about to move in together in Melbourne. He said: 'I can't believe I found my person. When I entered this experience, I can honestly say I had no idea what to expect. I've come out of this with my life partner and she's so much more than I could have ever envisioned. 'It's been an absolute roller coaster to get to this point, four months of laughter, tears and endless FaceTimes. 'This is the beginning of a new chapter for both of us and I cant wait to move into our Melbourne abode.' Meredith Marks claims she defended Jennie Nguyen from a racist remark, made by their fellow Real Housewives of Salt Lake City costar Mary Cosby. After Cosby, 49, raised eyebrows for saying Nguyen, 44, has 'slanted eyes' on Sunday's episode of their reality show, the 49-year-old jewelry designer assured fans she spoke privately to her castmates about the offensive slur. 'I later talked to Mary one on one in hopes that would be productive. I also made sure Jennie knew that she has my support,' Marks tweeted, after she was asked why she didn't speak up in the moment. 'Please be patient.' Speaking up: Meredith Marks (pictured) claims she defended Jennie Nguyen from a racist remark, made by their fellow Real Housewives of Salt Lake City costar Mary Cosby; seen in November Hours later, on Sunday, Cosby voice her distain for Marks' post. 'Really Meredith?? You had a conversation with me hoping it would be productive!! You was there you seen I was coming from a place of a compliment!' she replied on Twitter. She added: 'Stop acting like your teaching me..you have your own issues to be productive onYou never have the right answer.. 'Switzerland.' Supporting her costar: After Cosby, 49, raised eyebrows for saying Nguyen, 44, (pictured) has 'slanted eyes' on Sunday's episode of their reality show, the 49-year-old jewelry designer assured fans she spoke out to her cast-mate about the highly offensive slur Upset: Cosby was upset because she claims Makr knew her comment was 'coming from a place of a compliment' Nguyen previously spoke out against the comment, which she said made her feel 'insulted' on RHOSLC. While Cosby insisted she didn't 'mean any harm' by her words, Nguyen told her she's 'an adult' and needs to 'take some responsibility.' 'Right now, there is a lot of Asian hate. Take responsibility for your words,' the newest Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star added. 'I later talked to Mary one on one in hopes that would be productive. I also made sure Jennie knew that she has my support,' Marks tweeted, after she was asked why she didn't speak up in the moment. 'Please be patient' Cosby went on to explain she believed she was giving her a 'compliment,' but Nguyen encouraged her to 'say things differently, like, I love your beautiful eyes' next time. 'But when you reference 'I love your slanted eyes,' you know, it's very insulting to me,' Nguyen replied. Finally, Cosby apologized and said she would 'never walk down that road.' Bachelor Nation alums John Hersey's and Katie Thurston's unexpected whirlwind romance is going strong. On Monday the 28-year-old reality TV star wished his girlfriend a heartfelt happy 31st birthday. He took to Instagram to share a photo of the two kissing and wrote, 'I could have never dreamt up what this year had in store for me.' Gushing tribute: John Hersey wished his girlfriend Katie Thurston a heartfelt happy 31st birthday on Monday The photo of them was from last month's First Noelle Ball in San Diego, California. They held hands hands as they were both dressed to the nines for the holiday event. Thurston wore a sleeveless navy black dress covered in sequins and Hersey donned a textured navy blue suit jacket. He continued in the tribute, 'I am both in awe of, and extremely grateful for the circumstances that brought us together.' Before they got together Hersey had previously appeared on Katie's season of The Bachelorette, and she dumped him on the show. Hersey went on to say in his caption, 'And thank goodness you dumped me on national television, or else we could have never gotten to where we are now. 'Falling for you was the best decision I never had a say in, and I couldnt be happier. Cheers to another year around the sun- happy birthday beautiful girl!!' Thurston jumped into the comments to post a red heart emoji and write, 'I sure do love you.' Grateful: The Washington-born beauty also took to her own social media page to give thanks to her beau The Washington-born beauty also took to her own social media page to give thanks to her beau. Sharing a video from their hotel room in Cabo San Lucas, the influencer tagged her boyfriend and two friends with the message, 'Love you all.' The recording showed a several balloons floating at the top of the ceiling. One read 'happy birthday' and others were star and heart-shaped. The end of the clip showed the former Bachelorette contestant jumping onto the bed and laughing. Two capricorns! It was just a week ago that the birthday wish was the other way around, as Katie wished her man a happy birthday on December 22 It was just a week ago that the birthday wish was the other way around, as Katie wished her man a happy birthday on December 22. She shared a photo of them relaxing on a grey couch and said, 'Cheers to you handsome. 28 looks good on you already. Happy birthday! Celebrating you is easy!' Thurston wore a black and white fuzzy striped sweater, black bottoms, and sheer black tights with polka dots. John was casual in a white t-shirt and dark denim. Feeling positive: The former Bachelor hopeful recently expressed her excitement for the new year with a post welcoming 2022 The former Bachelor hopeful recently expressed her excitement for the new year with a post welcoming 2022. She didn't say exactly how she brought in January 1, but she said along with a selfie of her and her boyfriend, '#NYE looked a little different this year so here is a picture of us dressing up together for the first time.' She thanked the past year 'for the memories' and added, 'And the best year yet begins..right now.' It's over: Before dating John, Katie was briefly engaged to Bachelorette contestant Blake Moynes Last month the timeline of Katie and John's relationship was brought into question when it was announced they were dating, just a month after the Bachelorette star split from fiance Blake Moynes. The dissolution of their relationship came just months after they became engaged on national television following Katie's season of The Bachelorette. Weeks later Katie and John went public with their romance, prompting her ex to make a statement about the order of events on a podcast. 'I really don't think there was any physical cheating there, but there's clearly emotional for it to transition as quickly as it did,' he said. Just days into the new year, a new couple has surfaced with Bachelorette alum Blake Horstmann currently dating Love Is Blind star Giannina Gibelli. Horstmann, 32, and Gibelli, 28, have started dating, 'after recently meeting,' a source told People. 'They're taking things slow. But [they] seem really happy together,' the source continued. Couple: Just days into the new year, a new couple has surfaced with Bachelorette alum Blake Horstmann currently dating Love Is Blind star Giannina Gibelli Dating: Horstmann, 32, and Gibelli, 28, have started dating, 'after recently meeting,' a source told People Fans have been speculating that they've been dating after spotting a number posts with similar backgrounds on New Year's Eve. Blake posted a photo from Mile High Spirits in Denver, Colorado, where he DJ'd a New Year's Eve party. 'Happy New Years! I need some New Years resolution help! Let me know your resolutions and we can do them together2022 is gonna be the best year in a while,' he said with hashtags #bigespressomartiniguy #hopeeveryonewassafelastnight. DJ: Blake posted a photo from Mile High Spirits in Denver, Colorado, where he DJ'd a New Year's Eve party The photo featured Blake enjoying a cocktail while sitting at a table with a number of barrels behind him, while Gibelli's Love Is Blind co-star Kelly Chase commented, 'happy new year.' As for Gibelli, while she didn't tag her location, she did share a photo on Sunday from a New Year's Eve party, standing behind a stack of similar barrels. 'Repeat after me: I am about to walk into the best year of my life,' Gibelli said in the caption of her post. Barrels: As for Gibelli, while she didn't tag her location, she did share a photo on Sunday from a New Year's Eve party, standing behind a stack of similar barrels She also teased that she was heading into a colder climate with a December 28 post that read, 'when Miami goes to the mountains,' though she didn't specify she was going to Denver. Fans also noticed that, on New Year's Eve, both reality stars shared Instagram stories of them getting ready for the night in seemingly identical rooms. They both also shared separate posts the next morning, both in bed, with fans speculating that they were in the same bed. Identical: Fans also noticed that, on New Year's Eve, both reality stars shared Instagram stories of them getting ready for the night in seemingly identical rooms Same bed: They both also shared separate posts the next morning, both in bed, with fans speculating that they were in the same bed Horstmann first surfaced in Bachelor Nation in 2018 when he appeared in Season 14 of The Bachelorette, Becca Kurfin's season. He finished runner-up to Garrett Yrigoyen and then appeared in Season 6 of Bachelor in Paradise but he quit in Week 5. Gibelli appeared in the Netflix dating series Love Is Blind in 2020. Paradise: He finished runner-up to Garrett Yrigoyen and then appeared in Season 6 of Bachelor in Paradise but he quit in Week 5 Like many Australians, former Bachelorette Angie Kent has been struggling to find a rapid antigen test during the nationwide shortage. The 31-year-old shared a video to Instagram on Tuesday explaining her difficulty tracking down a test kit, after visiting several pharmacies across the Sunshine Coast. She is looking for a test for her mother who began presenting Covid-19 symptoms. Desperate: Like many Australians, former Bachelorette Angie Kent has been struggling to find a rapid antigen test during the nationwide shortage 'I know we're totally over hearing about the Covid tests, the rapid tests and all that, but do I have an absolute doozy for you,' Angie said. After reassuring her followers she did not drive to her location after her drink-driving incident last year, Angie said she'd been on the search for a test for her mum. '[I've been] across the Sunshine Coast, like opposite ends, trying to find a rapid test for my mum who has got all the symptoms,' she explained. 'I'm obviously staying with her at the moment so therefore I'm a close contact,' she added, before clarifying she doesn't have any Covid symptoms. In a rush: The 31-year-old shared a video to Instagram on Tuesday explaining her difficulty tracking down a test kit, after visiting several pharmacies across the Sunshine Coast. She is looking for a test for her mother (right) who began presenting Covid-19 symptoms She revealed she and her mother had tried getting PCR tests but were turned away. 'You can't get a Covid test at the moment unless you have no symptoms, and most of them have completely run out,' she said. 'I'm so confused how anybody is supposed to get tested, but we're told to get tested.' Last option: She said she and her mother had tried getting PCR tests but were turned away Angie's scramble to get a rapid antigen test comes as the country faces a nationwide shortage. Talkback radio and social media have been flooded with angry Australians unable to get a test, while medical experts slam government inaction on securing enough to meet demand. Australian Medical Association vice president Dr Chris Moy said there didn't appear to be a plan from the government surrounding rapid tests. 'There is an inability to supply at the critical moment and there is a lack of equity of access and it is costing so much,' he told ABC Radio on Tuesday. Difficulty: Angie's scramble to get a rapid antigen test comes as the country faces a nationwide shortage. Pictured: a rapid antigen test Some residents have resorted to getting tests from overseas from Thailand and other countries in southeast Asia. Others have blasted the rapid antigen test situation amid the emergence of the highly-infectious Omicron strain and the cost acquire a test. The are reports self-test kits are costing the average Australian $100 a unit as shortages cause prices to skyrocket. The UK Government has similarly been mailing free rapid tests people's homes since April however this method is yet to be adopted in Australia. Zach Braff paid a sweet birthday tribute to his long-term girlfriend Florence Pugh on Monday. The 46-year-old Scrubs alum used Instagram Stories to wish his love a happy 26th birthday. Written under a photo of Pugh resting her head on the edge of a swimming pool the actor wrote, 'Happy Birthday to this beautiful human being.' Thoughtful: Zach Braff paid a sweet birthday tribute to his long-term girlfriend Florence Pugh on Monday The British-born star's hair was neatly slicked back with water and the straps of a black bathing suit were visible in the closeup shot. He thoughtfully added, 'I am so lucky to know you. And the world is so lucky they get to witness your incredible talent.' Zach then shared a second photo of his girlfriend sitting near a window sill with short, dark hair. Their rescue dog Billie was next to her in the shot as light poured in from the window. He didn't add any remarks to the photo, but tagged her. Sweet: The 46-year-old Scrubs alum used Instagram Stories to wish his love a happy 26th birthday The Black Widow star reposted both images in her Instagram Stories. She included a red heart emoji in the first one, subtly acknowledging her beau's kind words. The pair has been dating since around April 2019, and they're sometimes seen out and about with friends and their pup. Going strong: The pair has been dating since around April 2019 when they met on the set of Zach's film In the Time It Takes to Get There Last year Braff also shared a heartwarming birthday post for his much younger counterpart. He posted multiple photos of Florence to his Instagram grid, including some snapshots with him. They posed in a desert in one outtake, with the longtime actor in a red and black plaid jacket. The gushing boyfriend wrote in the caption, 'Happy Birthday to the most fun person Ive ever met. I would have felt blessed to have smiled with your for one night. I cant believe I get to giggle with you everyday.' Consistent! Last year Braff also shared a heartwarming birthday post for his much younger counterpart He continued praising the young woman, adding, 'What a pleasure it is to know you. What a gift to the world it was that you were born.' The comments on the post were noticeably turned off, presumably to avoid criticisms for their big age difference. The couple has steadily defended their relationship, with Pugh telling Elle UK in July: ''I have the right to hang out and be with and go out with anyone I want to.' Scherri-Lee Biggs tried her hand at wakeboarding on Tuesday, and it did not go to plan. The Today show weather presenter shared video to her Instagram Stories, showing her making an attempt at the water sport. The 31-year-old took off on the wakeboard, before quickly flying off and falling into the water. Oh dear: Scherri-Lee Biggs (pictured) tried her hand at wakeboarding on Tuesday, and it did not go to plan She wrote in her caption: 'What wakeboarding for the first time ever looks like'. Scherri-Lee added another video of her second attempt, which didn't go much better. On her third try, the TV star finally took off properly and made it across the water while staying upright. She tried: The Today show weather presenter shared video to her Instagram Stories, showing her making an attempt at the water sport She wrote in her caption: 'What wakeboarding for the first time ever looks like' She has spent the last few weeks filling in for Tim Davies as the Today show's roving weather presenter. Scherri-Lee enjoyed some well-deserved time off on Monday as she spent the day soaking up the sun at the beach in Sydney. The former Miss Universe Australia shared a photo to Instagram of herself reclining on a rock in Parsley Bay, Vaucluse. Day off: Scherri-Lee enjoyed some well-deserved time off on Monday as she spent the day soaking up the sun at the beach in Sydney The stunner wore a swimsuit with a plunging neckline, drawing attention to her decolletage. The glamorous journalist, who is considered a rising star at Channel Nine, lay back on the rock to show off her toned legs. She also shared a short video of her view of the bay, and captioned it: 'Ola Sydney.' Montana Cox was enjoying the summer sunshine in Sydney on Tuesday. The model headed to the beach at Bondi before strolling to a lunch date with a friend at Totti's Italian restaurant. The 28-year-old showed off her amazing figure in a black bikini, her toned abs on display. Fun-day: Montana Cox (pictured) was enjoying the summer sunshine in Sydney on Tuesday She paired the swimwear with a sheer black skirt, with a white polka dot pattern throughout. Montana completed the look with a pair of flat sandals, and carried a white tote bag on her arm. The beauty appeared makeup free, and had her hair slicked back off her face in a ponytail. Relaxed: The model headed to the beach at Bondi before strolling to a lunch date with a friend at Totti's Italian restaurant Looking good: The 28-year-old showed off her amazing figure in a black bikini, her toned abs on display Last year, Montana revealed her jet-setter lifestyle led to her contracting Covid-19 twice. She said that after her ordeal she was so eager to return home that she left her belongings overseas and fled Down Under. 'I have half of my apartment in New York, half of my stuff still back in London. I came back [to Australia] quickly,' she told Stellar Magazine. Moves: Montana revealed her jet-setter lifestyle led to her contracting Covid-19 twice last year. She said that after her ordeal she was so eager to return home that she left her belongings overseas and fled Down Under 'I was in London when Covid happened and I still had my New York apartment. I got rid of the lease and got someone to pack all of my stuff.' Since returning to Australia, Montana has used her time in lockdown to fine-tune her acting skills. In June, Channel Ten announced Montana was joining Neighbours. She first rose to fame on the 2011 season of Australia's Next Top Model. Charley Webb has confirmed she has left Emmerdale after 19 years. The actress, 33, addressed speculation she had quit the soap for good after her husband Matthew Wolfenden, 41, was reportedly embroiled in a race row - something which he has denied. Taking to Instagram on Monday night for a Q and A, Charlie, who played Debbie Dingle, said she 'never felt the need' to announce she wasn't appearing on screen. Departed: Charley Webb has confirmed she has left Emmerdale after 19 years (pictured in 2019) When a follower asked: 'Have you left Emmerdale?', Charley replied: 'This is always my most asked question but I've never answered it before because I've never wanted to make a big deal of it. 'I left to have Ace 2 years ago. I went back at the end of last year for 10 weeks to complete a storyline. 'So, I guess officially it's been a year. I never felt the need to announce it which is why we didn't.' Breaking silence: Taking to Instagram on Monday night for a Q and A, Charlie, who played Debbie Dingle, said she 'never felt the need' to announce she wasn't appearing on screen The actress 33, addressed speculation she had quit the soap for good after her husband Matthew Wolfenden, 41, was reportedly embroiled in a race row The mother-of-three, who is proud mum to Ace and sons Buster, 11, and Bowie, six, addressed the rumours which emerged last week saying she had no plans to go back. Webb's character Debbie, who is living in Scotland, has been absent from the show since the start of 2021. An insider told The Sun at the time: 'Charley is closing the door on Emmerdale for good and wont be going back. 'The past few months have given her time to think about the future and it is one that doesnt involve Emmerdale. Matthew being caught up in the row on set fuelled her decision to step away.' In October, Matthew, 41, was accused of making an inappropriate comment to a mixed-race female cast member on set. Race row: In October, Matthew, 41, and Isabel Hodgins, 27, was accused of making an inappropriate comment to a mixed-race female cast member on set He and Isabel Hodgins, who plays Victoria Sugden, were also facing claims that the mixed-race actresss accent was mimicked. 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 later alleged the actor had also had a row with Aaron Anthony, who plays Ellis Chapman. Anthony, 28, has reportedly told Emmerdale bosses he will quit the show when his contract expires. Matthew who plays David Metcalfe on the soap, and Isabel, who plays his on-screen girlfriend Victoria Sugden, won't return to screens until 2022 following their on-set row, according to reports. Neither have been seen on screen since October 28. Long time: The actress played Debbie Dingle on the soap opera for almost 20 years (pictured on the show in 2005) Despite both actors having returned to the Harewood set, filming for the soap takes place six weeks ahead of airtime, meaning neither will appear in Christmas storylines, said to be 'a disappointment for the bosses and scriptwriters'. A source told The Sun: 'It is very unlikely that Matthew and Isabel will be back on screen before Christmas [as] they have only just returned to the set, and as Emmerdale is filmed six weeks in advance, that puts their return date in January.' The added: 'It was a disappointment for the bosses and scriptwriters, but they of course understood that the appropriate enquiries needed to be made.' Matthew's representative declined to comment when approached by MailOnline. Isabel's representatives have also been approached for comment. The source also noted that 'neither actor has been suspended' from filming. Their absence was addressed on Emmerdale when their characters were said to have travelled to Portugal to visit character Diane Sugden's new home. Nineteen years: Some of Debbie's tense storylines included her having a fling with married man Andy Sugden and becoming a mother to Sarah when she was 15 Some of Debbie's tense storylines included her having a fling with married man Andy Sugden and becoming a mother to Sarah when she was 15. She also fell in love with Jasmine Thomas, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman but was left heartbroken when her father Cain had an affair with her girlfriend. Debbie later had a relationship with Cameron Murray who tried to kill her in a drama-packed episode which saw them desperately trying to stay afloat after becoming trapped in the pub's flooded cellar. A few years later, Debbie starts dating Pete Barton but she then has an affair with his brother Ross, with the pair planning to run away together just days before her wedding to Pete. Global superstar Khloe Kardashian branded British beauty Holly Ramsay 'stunning' on a bikini-clad snap, in an unexpected exchange on Thursday. The stunning image sees the daughter of Gordon Ramsay, who turned 22 on Friday, posing on a balcony in a leopard print string bikini in the Maldives. The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, 37, commented on the Instagram photo with the word 'stunning' and four heart eye emojis - a year after showing similar support for EastEnders star Maisie Smith. Famous friends: Khloe Kardashian, 37, has called Holly Ramsay, 22, 'stunning' on a bikini-clad snap of her in the Maldives on Thursday Holly looked simply sensational in the snap, which fell onto Khloe's radar, leading to the appreciative comment underneath. Another familiar face who loved the photo was Elizabeth Hurley's son Damian who wrote: 'Yooo' with three hot face emojis. In 2020, EastEnders star Maisie said her fragile body confidence rocketed after Khloe complimented her legs. Khloe said she was 'drooling' over her 'envy worthy' pins while posting on the social media site. Maisie, then-19, later admitted getting backing from the Kardashians is 'mental' and she 'can't believe' Khloe even saw her profile. Stunners: The photo sees the daughter of Gordon Ramsay, who turned 22 on Friday, posing on a balcony in a leopard print string bikini while enjoying her break Khloe pictured in October Compliment: The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star commented on the snap with the word 'stunning' and four heart eye emojis Impressed: Another familiar face who loved the photo was Elizabeth Hurley's son Damian who wrote: 'Yooo' with three hot face emojis Bikini clad: Holly has been updating her followers on her sun-soaked family trip with multiple photos of her frolicking in a swimsuit Holly has been updating her followers on her sun-soaked family trip with multiple photos of her frolicking in a swimsuit. The star has recently marked a year of sobriety and shared her personal milestone in the form of a typed message with her 280,000 followers last month. The influencer spoke candidly of her relationship with alcohol, including her decision to go tee-total after reaching her 'lowest point' last year. 'I hated them': In 2020, EastEnders star Maisie said her fragile body confidence rocketed after Khloe complimented her legs. Khloe said she was 'drooling' over her 'envy worthy' pins while posting on the social media site 'Alcohol and antidepressants do not mix well at all': The posts come after Holly shared her personal milestone in the form of a typed message with her 280,000 followers last month Back in May, Holly revealed she spent three months in a mental health hospital after being sexually assaulted twice when she was 18 years old. She was diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression. She also explained that alcohol and antidepressants 'do not mix well at all.' In full, Holly wrote: 'Today marks one year without alcohol. 'This is not something I thought I would ever say at the age of 21. However, by 21 (nearly 22) I never thought I would've been through half of what I have. Open book: The podcast host spoke candidly of her relationship with alcohol, including her decision to go tee-total after reaching her 'lowest point' last year Updating: Holly shared the personal milestone in the form of a typed message with her 280,000 followers last month Close: A doting Gordon penned: '@hollyramsayy what an incredible young lady and words cant explain enough how proud you make me feel love you so much Dad '. 'I choose to take a break from alcohol because it wasn't improving my mental health - which for me, comes first.' Holly continued to explain that it wasn't a decision 'taken lightly', nor is it one that is necessarily 'forever.' Her father was among those who flooded to the comments. A doting Gordon penned: '@hollyramsayy what an incredible young lady and words cant explain enough how proud you make me feel love you so much Dad '. Others chimed in with their words of support, with Emily Clarkson, daughter of former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, writing: 'You have so much power '. Fans of Holly's also left sweet comments, which ranged from 'my strong lady', 'proud of you' and 'such an inspiration.' Holly is the second eldest of Gordon and Tana Ramsay's brood of five children. If you have been affected by anything in this article, contact alcoholchange.org.uk here or call 0300 123 1110. Got your back: Others chimed in with their words of support, with Emily Clarkson, daughter of former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, writing: 'You have so much power ' The father of Khloe's child True, three, has been forced to publicly apologise to the star after it emerged that he fathered a child with his personal trainer. DailyMail.com exclusively revealed details of the paternity battle last month after Nichols filed a lawsuit against the NBA player. The serial cheater, 30, was pictured leaving the dance class of three-year-old daughter True, whom he shares with Khloe, in Los Angeles on Monday just hours before taking to his Instagram Story to confirm the news. 'Today paternity test results reveal that I fathered a child with Maralee Nichols,' he admitted in excerpt, and added a groveling apology to the reality star, writing: 'You don't deserve this.' He went on: 'Now that paternity has been established, I look forward to amicably raising our son. I sincerely apologize to everyone I've hurt or disappointed throughout this ordeal both publicly and privately.' Oh no: The father of Khloe's child True, three, has been forced to publicly apologise to the star after it emerged that he fathered a child with his personal trainer The truth comes out: 'Today paternity test results reveal that I fathered a child with Maralee Nichols,' Tristan wrote on Instagram The admission posted to Instagram marked the first time the Sacramento Kings player has publicly acknowledged he's now a father of three. In addition to his newborn son and three-year-old daughter True with Khloe, he also shares a five-year-old son Prince with ex Jordan Craig. He wrote: 'Khloe, you don't deserve this. You don't deserve the heartache and humiliation I have caused you. You don't deserve the way I have treated you over the years. 'My actions have certainly not lined up with the way I view you. I have the utmost respect and love for you. Regardless of what you may think. Again, I am so incredibly sorry,' his statement read. Maralee, 31, a fitness model, gave birth to a son on December 1 and claimed the child had been conceived while celebrating the NBA pro's birthday in Houston in March 2021. She's just returned home from a family holiday to Abu Dhabi. And Binky Felstead, 31, was feeling nostalgic for the trip as she showed off her incredible physique in a coral bikini while posing with her adorable son, Wolfie, seven months, in a sizzling throwback snap. The Made In Chelsea star reminisced about her time away with her children on Monday as she held onto little Wolfie whilst he toddled in the water in the image. Stunning: Binky Felstead, 31, showed off her incredible physique in a coral bikini as she reminisced on her Dubai holiday by sharing a throwback snap on Monday Binky looked sensational in the strapless two piece as stood in the pool with the picturesque views of Dubai in the background. She showcased her bronzed legs as she went fresh-faced for her dip and added a knotted fabric headband to secure her hair. In another photo, Binky took to an undisclosed beach location as she donned matching jumpers with her daughter, India, four. The reality TV star, slipped into a denim mini skirt and added a grey sweater that read 'Wild' in a neon pink graphic. Doting mother: In another photo, Binky took to an undisclosed beach location as she donned matching jumpers with her daughter, India, four She added a pair of oversized square framed sunglasses and wore her hair in a half up style. Her daughter wore the same jumper with a neon orange print that came down to her knees and black shade as she mimicked her mother. Binky welcomed her second child, Wolfie, with her fiance Max Darnton in June this year, whilst she shares India, with her ex-boyfriend Josh 'JP' Patterson. Wow: Binky recently returned from a family holiday to Abu Dhabi In an interview with MailOnline, the mother-of-two explained how she's trying to be the healthiest version of herself after giving birth to Wolfie. On the topic of her postpartum experience, the former Made In Chelsea star said: 'I know I will get back to how I feel happiest. 'Obviously you go through ups and downs, yesterday I felt great, I put some make-up on - I felt so amazing. 'This morning I've woken up so tired and got sore eyes. I'm being really careful what I'm eating so that's taking a toll on my energy levels. 'Ultimately, I'm trying to be the healthiest for me.' Chris Hemsworth cut a casual figure as he went for a family stroll with his wife Elsa Pataky and their children through a market in Ibiza on Sunday. The actor, 38, has been in Europe for the last several weeks filming Extraction 2 and recently celebrated Christmas in Austria. The film star opted for a laid back look for the outing as he sported a white T-shirt along with a pair of grey tracksuit bottoms. Out and about: Chris Hemsworth cut a casual figure as he went for a family stroll with his wife Elsa Pataky and their children through a market in Ibiza on Sunday Putting safety first with a face mask, Chris also donned a black cap and a pair of sunglasses on the outing. Elsa opted for a dark green jumper along with a pair of black leather trousers and matching boots. Letting her locks fall loose down her shoulders, she completed her look for the day with a black handbag. Chris and Elsa, who married in 2010, are parents to India, nine, and twins Tristan and Sasha, seven. Laid back: The film star opted for a laid back look for the outing as he sported a white T-shirt along with a pair of grey tracksuit bottoms It comes after the couple recently suffered another setback in their plans to build a second 'Westfield-style' mansion on a 35 hectare site in an exclusive part of Byron Bay. Daily Mail Australia revealed in August the Hemsworths wanted to build a new seven-bedroom home - each with its own ensuite bathroom - less than a kilometre from the $30million mega-mansion they call home. The new digs is expected cost the Hollywood power couple $4.4million but at the moment remains on the planning shelf. Daily Mail Australia has been told approval for the new compound has been put on hold due to a lack of expertise within Byron Bay Council. Delays: It comes after the couple recently suffered another setback in their plans to build a second 'Westfield-style' mansion on a 35 hectare site in an exclusive part of Byron Bay 'The council has lost a bunch of their staff in recent times and there is a huge backlog in processing Development Approvals,' a source told Daily Mail Australia. 'Not much is happening with it at the moment.' The development has been plagued with issues since it was lodged earlier this year, with experts claiming the Hemsworths are 'dreaming' if they hoped to come in on their documented budget. 'The Development Approval said the estimated cost to build the two houses was $4.4m. I reckon that wouldnt put Christmas dinner on the Hemsworths table,' a building industry expert told Daily Mail Australia in August. 'The figure will be way more.' Abode: The new $4.4million 'Westfield-style' mansion will be less than a kilometre from their $30million family home (pictured) Chris purchased the land - about a kilometre from his existing Byron Bay mansion - for $4.25million in 2019. Any blowout is unlikely to dent the coffers of the Thor star and his wife, who have a combined net worth of about $200 million. Development plans were first lodged in March, with a final draft being submitted with Byron Bay Council in July. If the setbacks are troubling the Hemsworths, they are doing their best to hide the pain. Chris and Elsa are rumoured to be the recent buyers of an exclusive 1,312-acre oceanfront site in Tasmania called Piano Coves. The area includes eight land titles with a price guide of between $10million and $15million. The property, in the state's northeast, boasts almost 3km of ocean frontage, including beaches and coves. The sale comes after Chris and his brothers, Liam and Luke, bought several multimillion-dollar properties in NSW's Northern Rivers region. These purchases have helped 'push up house prices' in the town of Newrybar, 18km from Byron Bay. "Sea of death" reborn with modern agriculture Xinhua) 09:58, January 04, 2022 BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- At the rim of China's largest desert Taklimakan, the remote Lop Nur area used to be barren and lifeless. Thanks to the application of totally water-soluble potassium fertilizer, the area shows vitality. A production line of the fertilizer, fulfilling modern agricultural irrigation demands, has been put into test run at Lop Nur, a dried lake located in northwest China and known as the "sea of death" for its high salt content. Potassium is a main element for crop growth. Traditional potash products were not suitable for drip irrigation due to their coarse particles. The new water-soluble fertilizer is easier to be absorbed by the soil. A research and development group from the SDIC Xinjiang Luobupo Potash Co. Ltd., the developer of the fertilizer production line, visited local farmers to learn about their needs and constructed a plant with an annual output of 1.5 million tonnes of potassium sulfate and 100,000 tonnes of potassium sulfate magnesium fertilizers. The potassium fertilizer labeled "Luobupo" brand has won users' trust, according to the Science and Technology Daily. By September 2021, more than 18 million tonnes of potassium fertilizer were transported out of Lop Nur, accounting for about 45 percent of the domestic market share. Previously, 70 percent of potassium fertilizers in China relied on imports, reported by the newspaper. Till the end of the 1990s, geologists discovered the world's largest sulfate potassium brine deposit at Lop Nur. In 2012, a potassium fertilizer project with an annual output of 1.2 million tonnes was put into operation. Lop Nur area experiences more than 200 days of seven or above level wind force per year, said the newspaper. Due to its geological, geographical and historical values, Lop Nur has attracted the attention of scientists from home and abroad since the mid-19th century. The annual precipitation of the area is 39 mm in Lop Nur, while the evaporation exceeds 4,800 mm, said the newspaper. Foreign experts declared that it was impossible to produce potassium sulfate here. The research group from the SDIC Xinjiang Luobupo Potash Co. Ltd., replaced the freshwater with brackish water from the edge of the desert. Consequently, the amount of water used in producing one tonne of potassium sulfate is only a third of that used by traditional processes. The enterprise has achieved 71 patents in the research of salt lake potassium resources and other elements in Lop Nur. It promised to invest more in research and promote sci-tech innovation and achievement transformation. "We will also introduce more products to benefit farmers," said Li Shoujiang, general manager of the enterprise. Together with the production line, railway transport projects, power plants and water supply projects have been built in Lop Nur which is transforming into a "sea of fortune." (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Hongyu) Chris Hemsworth is currently enjoying a family getaway with his loved ones in Europe. And on Tuesday, the Thor actor, 38, and his wife Elsa Pataky, 45, were spotted taking safety precautions as they stepped out to visit a local market in Ibiza. They were joined by their three children, India Rose, nine, and twins Sasha and Tristan, seven, who were also seen wearing face masks amid the global pandemic. Safety first: Thor star Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky donned masks with their children as they visited a market in Ibiza on Tuesday Chris cut a low-key casual figure, dressed in a white T-shirt, grey tracksuit pants and white sneakers. He completed his look wearing a pair of oversized designer sunglasses and a black cap. Meanwhile, Elsa showed off her natural beauty and appeared makeup free for the outing. Family outing: The couple were joined by their three children, India Rose, nine, and twins Sasha and Tristan, seven, who were also seen wearing face masks The Spanish beauty looked chic dressed in an emerald green sweater and black jeans. She completed her look wearing a pair of leather boots. Chris was recently in Prague with his family, shooting Extraction 2 for Netflix. Natural beauty: Elsa showed off her natural beauty and appeared makeup free for the outing He will reprise his role as mercenary Tyler Rake who was shot and appeared to have died at the end of the first Extraction film. Extraction was supposed to be filmed in Australia but moved location due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns. The highly anticipated sequel to 2020's Extraction - which became Netflix's most-streamed original movie upon its release - was supposed to be filmed in the Harbour City, but producers decided in August to relocate to the Czech Republic. The shoot is expected to run for four months, until March 2022. Paris Hilton had a nasty shock when her sister Nicky and mother Kathy tricked her with a surprise wedding in a field as she declared: 'It's just not my style!'. The heiress, 40, admitted she had a 'panic attack' when she thought her family had secretly planned her nuptials, masked as an al fresco lunch date, in scenes filmed for her television show, Paris In Love. Paris said that she was 'p****d off' that her family had taken the planning into their own hands, as she shouted: 'Nicky got married at Kensington Palace, I'm not getting married here!', referencing her sister's marriage to banking heir James Rothschild. Shut up! Paris Hilton had a nasty shock when her sister Nicky and mother Kathy tricked her with a surprise wedding in a field as she declared: 'It's just not my style!' Nicky and Kathy kicked off the prank after noticing a wedding ceremony about to take place while sat having lunch with Paris in the field above. Seizing the opportunity to wind her sister up, Nicky said: 'Shall we go change?' Confused Paris asked what Nicky was talking about, before their mother injected and said: 'Shall we tell her? They're starting to come'. Paris again asked what was going on, and Nicky replied: 'For your wedding'. Worried: The heiress, 40, admitted she had a 'panic attack' when she thought her family had secretly planned her nuptials, masked as an al fresco lunch date, in scenes filmed for her television show, Paris In Love Pictued: Paris said that she was 'p****d off' that her family had taken the planning into their own hands, as she shouted: 'Nicky got married at Kensington Palace, I'm not getting married here!', referencing her sister's marriage to banking heir James Rothschild Paris tells them to 'shut up', but not missing a beat, Kathy insists they need to go and shower and change in time for the wedding. Continuing to play on the prank, Nicky said: 'There's Carter's mom! They did a really nice job.' They then told Paris 'not to look' over at the ceremony which was being set up near by, as the TV star said: 'I'm so pissed. It's not my style.' Cheeky! Nicky and Kathy kicked off the prank after noticing a wedding ceremony about to take place while sat having lunch with Paris in the field above Wedding day: Seizing the opportunity to wind her sister up, Nicky said: 'Shall we go change?' Panic stations: Confused Paris asked what Nicky was talking about, before their mother injected and said: 'Shall we tell her? They're starting to come' 'There's no phone service. Please tell me you're joking.' Kathy said: 'Why?' Paris hilariously replied: 'Nicky got married at Kensingoton Place. I'm not getting married here. It's nice for a lunch. But for a wedding, it's beyond. Please tell me you're joking.' Kathy then confirmed that they were only joking and Paris replied: 'It's not funny'. Shocked: Paris again asked what was going on, and Nicky replied: 'For your wedding' Ha! Continuing to play on the prank, Nicky said: 'There's Carter's mom! They did a really nice job.' Nicky admitted they didn't even plan the joke, she just came up with it while they were sat having lunch. Paris did eventually get the wedding of her dreams, which was much more in keeping with 'her style' last November in a three-day extravaganza. Paris, who tied the knot with Carter, 40, at her grandfather's estate celebrated her nuptials with a fairytale ceremony, neon carnival and black tie dinner. Dream wedding: Paris did eventually get the wedding of her dreams, which was much more in keeping with 'her style' last November in a three-day extravaganza Her top-flight guest list for the first evening of festivities included her The Simple Life co-star Nicole Richie, her old pal Kim Kardashian and designer to the stars Rachel Zoe. DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Kim, who is in the process of divorcing her third husband Kanye West, attending with her friend Kimora Lee Simmons, the ex-wife of disgraced music mogul Russell Simmons. Kathy's sister Kyle Richards, a former child actress who later achieved notoriety on The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills, arrived on the arm of her smoldering husband Mauricio Umansky. Ashley Benson, Emma Roberts, Bebe Rexha, Paula Abdul, Larry English and his wife Nicole Williams, Christine Chiu were also part of the glittering guest list. Daisy Lowe put on a sultry display for her latest Instagram post as she cosied up to beau Jordan Saul for a New Year's post. The model, 32, slipped into a daring black dress, which included cut-out elements on the back and by the outfit's revealing slit. While she flaunted her sensational curves, Jordan placed his hands on her hips as the couple posed for the sexy snap. '2022 here we go': Daisy Lowe posed in a sultry dress with beau Jordan Saul as she looked forward to the new year with a slew of cosy snaps on Tuesday In another snap, the smitten pair stopped to take a photograph while on a date night, London-born Daisy's natural beauty shining through as she captured the moment. For another album highlight, which was captioned '2022 here we go ', the runway beauty used a black-and-white filter for a close-up feature as she exhibited her modelling finesse for a sexy bikini snap. Elsewhere, Daisy further showed her appreciation for her partner as she candidly snapped him sprawled across the sofa as he gazed into the camera. Memories: In another snap, the smitten pair stopped to take a photograph while on a date night, London-born Daisy's natural beauty shining through as she captured the moment Beauty: For another album highlight, the runway beauty, 32, used a black-and-white filter for a close-up feature as she exhibited her modelling finesse for a sexy bikini snap Cosy: Elsewhere, Daisy further showed her appreciation for her partner as she candidly snapped him sprawled across the sofa as he gazed into the camera The model took to Instagram in June to mark their first anniversary and reveal to her followers how she met her beau with a sweet post where she called Jordan her 'hero'. She captioned the upload: 'A year ago today I went to meet @misstilda for a walk on the Heath. But I was running a little late- Mercury was in retrograde [crying laughing emoji]. 'When I arrived, Monty ran straight towards a very handsome Belgium shepherd, attached to this handsome dog was a rather handsome man. Love: The model took to Instagram in June to mark their first anniversary and reveal to her followers how she met her beau with a sweet post where she called Jordan her 'hero' 'I dawdled around having some dog chat we ended up walking together for a couple of hours, what a dog walk!' She continued: 'Here we are a year later, through countless lockdowns, adventures, disasters and triumphs. You @jordanjaysaul have been my hero. 'Through and through. Thanks for feeling like home & always making me giggle even when I really dont want to! Its my absolute favourite making you laugh so much your legs give way. 'I am very happy I was 5 mins late to meet Tilds that day & I am so very grateful you are mine. Happy anniversary my pain in the ass. I love you .' [sic]'. Married at First Sight star Jules Robinson displayed her impressive 20kg weight loss as she celebrated her husband Cameron Merchant's 38th birthday on Tuesday. Uploading a gallery of photos and videos from the evening to Instagram, the 39-year-old showed off her abs in a black lace bra top and high waisted red pants. She completed her look wearing a floral blazer which appeared to be from her upcoming Moira Muse clothing line. Turning heads: Married At First Sight's Jules Robinson, 39, (pictured) flaunted her 20kg weight loss as she celebrated her husband Cameron Merchant's 38th birthday on Tuesday The Sydney-based couple traveled from Sydney to the Gold Coast earlier this week to celebrate Cam's special day. A second photo showed the couple posing alongside 2021 MAFS alum Johnny Balbuziente and Kerry Knight outside a sushi bar in Brisbane. Sharing the photo to his own page, Cam captioned the post: 'All I know is we are all having a jolly good time.' Friends: Uploading a gallery of photos from the evening to Instagram, Jules flaunted her abs in a black lace bra top and high waisted red pants. Jules is pictured with husband Cameron Merchant and MAFS stars Johnny Balbuziente and Kerry Knight Friends: Jules also shared a photo posing alongside Kerry Knight, who appeared on the 2021 season of the Channel Nine social experiment He continued: 'Thank you to everyone and really appreciate the amazing birthday wishes.. Honestly one of the great'. Jules revealed in October that she had lost nearly '20 kilograms' after signing on as the face weight loss company Jenny Craig. The reality star added she achieved her goal due to 'determination' and help from Jenny Craig, adding: 'I'm so sooo close to my goal! So close! Wow! Jules revealed in October that she had lost nearly '20 kilograms' after signing on as the face weight loss company Jenny Craig. Jules is pictured earlier this year (right) 'For anyone wanting to know details.. I'm doing #rapidresultsmax and have been for 15 weeks and I'm nearly at my 20 kilos goal, back to what I was pre pregnant.' Jules revealed how 20 kilos had 'crept on' her figure after she had welcomed her son Ollie last October. 'It was my own kinda lockdown working non stop from home and full-time mum. It happens! Familiar story right!' she added. 'I love my curves, I've embraced every part of postpartum and felt like I had the energy to focus on me about 8 months in.' 'If I can do this through lockdown, so can you,' she concluded. Ioan Gruffudd's new girlfriend Bianca Wallace shared a sweet snap with her dog on Tuesday - days after the actor's ex Alice Evans accused her of editing her latest snaps. The Australian actress, 29, posted an image to her Instagram Story as she pouted for the camera and snuggled up to her adorable pooch. It comes Ioan's ex Alice accused Bianca of editing a bikini snap last week, which she shared on New Year's Eve to reflect on 2021. Pose: Ioan Gruffudd's new girlfriend Bianca Wallace shared a sweet snap with her dog on Tuesday - days after his ex Alice Evans accused her of editing her latest snaps In her new snap with her dog she posed up a storm and was wearing a colourful jumper. Bianca looked radiant as she opted for minimal makeup while wearing her brunette tresses in a sleek straight style. The beauty captioned the image: 'Drowning in fluff' as the dog sat on her lap and blocked some of the screen. Looking good: It comes Ioan's ex Alice accused Bianca of editing a bikini snap last week, which she shared on New Year's Eve to reflect on 2021 It comes after Alice accused her editing a recent bikini snap. Bianca posted a snap of her in a black bikini and a romantic beach shot of her and who is presumed to be Ioan, 48, among other pictures as she looked back on 2021 which had 'the highest highs and the lowest lows.' The 'lowest lows' is perhaps in reference to the fallout from the reveal of her relationship with the Welsh actor in October and the backlash faced from his estranged wife Alice , 53, who claimed Bianca had 'ruined her life'. Taking to Twitter after Bianca posted the snap, Alice penned: 'It's ok Bianca. We believe you. Your "instas" are gorgeous. Which filter is it by the way? I NEED it!' Eek: Taking to Twitter after Bianca posted the snap, Alice penned: 'It's ok Bianca. We believe you. Your "instas" are gorgeous. Which filter is it by the way? I NEED it!' Bianca flashed a radiant smile as she showed off her toned figure in a black two-piece while posing at an idyllic beach setting. While another shot showed two shadows, presumed to be herself and Ioan, holding hands on a beach in Nice, with Ioan having been spotted filming in the South of France in November. Other images showed Bianca posing for fun, smiley snaps in various locations, including on of her posing topless with a towel on her head. While another saw her showing a glimpse of her taut midriff in a white crop top. Couple: Bianca posted a snap of her in a black bikini and a romantic beach shot of her and who is presumed to be Ioan, 48, among other pictures as she looked back on 2021 which had 'the highest highs and the lowest lows' Drama: The 'lowest lows' is perhaps in reference to the fallout from the reveal of her relationship with the Welsh actor in October and the backlash faced from his estranged wife Alice Evans, 53, who claimed Bianca had 'ruined her life' Captioning her post, Bianca wrote: '2021! A balancing act of a year with the lowest of lows and the highest of highs. 'I am going with what I always say on NYE. As long as you try your best, lead & live life with your heart and never give up on yourself, then that is all that matters. 'Onwards and upwards for 2022.' A look back: Other images showed Bianca posing for fun, smiley snaps in various locations, including on of her posing topless with a towel on her head Stunner: While another saw her showing a glimpse of her taut midriff in a white crop top It follows in the wake of the scorn she faced from her boyfriend's estranged wife Alice, who initially lashed out at their romance and called Bianca 'a b***h who manifested Ioan away from their daughters.' However, she's since appeared to have changed her tune and recently stated she 'needs to accept' that her estranged husband and his girlfriend 'are besotted' with one another. The actress has made her split from Ioan extremely public, after their 14-year marriage broke down in January last year, with tensions only further rising when the actor stepped out with Bianca in November. What a year: Bianca looked happy and content in the plethora of images as she summed up her 2021 Reflections: Captioning her post, Bianca wrote: '2021! A balancing act of a year with the lowest of lows and the highest of highs' In the wake of their appearance together, Alice, who is in a custody battle over her and Ioan's daughters Ella, 12, and Elsie, eight, took to Instagram once again to send her regards and also reveal she was seeing a rise in her own popularity. Following the release of images of the couple making their first public outing together, Alice then reflected on how she felt about the shots in a kind message. In her post, Alice penned: 'Ive been so careful for 20 years. because I wanted a private life. so I looked at them, felt a little embarrassed, also a little warm... 'If theyre that in love then lets try to make it work for them. and I deliberately did not post or mention anything. and no longer intend to... Acceptance: Alice appears to have changed her tune and recently stated she 'needs to accept' that her estranged husband and his girlfriend 'are besotted' with one another. 'Theyre clearly besotted with each other abs i need to accept that. ( Besides, ive never had so many hot guys ask me out on DM Im quite overwhelmed!!!' Evans is now adjusting to life on her own after he publicly confirmed a new relationship with his Harrow co-star on Instagram, a move she described as 'every woman's nightmare.' Ioan filed for divorce in March, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason behind their split. Warmed up: In the wake of their appearance together, Alice, who is in a custody battle over her and Ioan's daughters Ella, 12, and Elsie, eight, took to Instagram once again to send her regards and also reveal she was seeing a rise in her own popularity In November, Alice claimed Bianca 'ruined her life' in a scathing social media post. Hitting back at trolls claiming they're defending the actress, the star took to Instagram to share a playful snap, along with a caption claiming Bianca was 'a b***h who manifested Ioan away from their daughters.' Alice claimed the pair had been embroiled in a three-year affair - which has been denied by a friend of the couple. Evans and Gruffudd met on the set of 102 Dalmatians in 2000, when Alice was in a relationship with Pablo Picasso's grandson Olivier. The former couple became engaged six years later after she gave him an ultimatum about their relationship, and they tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in Mexico in September 2007. Gruffudd hasn't publicly addressed the couple's divorce. The Apprentice advisor Karren Brady has given a hilarious insight into the eagerly anticipated new series of the reality show. Karren, who returns alongside Lord Sugar and new advisor Tim Campbell for the show's 16th series, discussed the chaotic opening episode during an appearance on Tuesday's This Morning. A clip was shown of the BBC show showing the contestants coming up with a questionable name for their cruise liner company - with Karren, who was appearing via video link from the Maldives, saying: 'It goes from bad to worse. This opening episode is back with a bang. In the firing line: The Apprentice advisor Karren Brady has given a hilarious insight into the eagerly anticipated new series of the reality show (pictured Karren, Lord Sugar and fellow advisor Tim Campbell) 'It's really back to its best. We've got new things, a visit from a familiar looking tooth fairy when they devise a kid's toothbrush. 'All sorts of other things, including inventing a new videogame, we actually do a tourism task for Wales which involves Europe's longest zipwire. 'And I had to go down it, but I wasn't as scared as the candidate who was screaming their head off in fear. It was a lot of fun.' The new series marks the eagerly anticipated return of the show after it was forced off-air for two years due to the pandemic. Banter: Karren, who returns alongside Lord Sugar and new advisor Tim Campbell for the show's 16th series, discussed the chaotic opening episode during an appearance on Tuesday's This Morning Asked what makes a perfect candidate, Karren said: 'The 16 candidates all think they are the best, until they work out that they are not. 'The successes, you're talking about people with one dream. To own their own business. Not only do they get a cheque for 250k directly from Lord Alan's pocket, they also are mentored and partnered with him. For that important help and guidance. 'They all want to win and live that dream. They are fiercely passionate. The Apprentice does some incredible things to people. It takes you out of your comfort zone and encourages you do to things you've never done before. 'I think people love watching it and it's a case of asking why would you choose that as your logo, your name, or that's very clever. I think they like to see people's thought process. Blunders: A clip was shown of the BBC show, with Karren, who was appearing via video link from the Maldives, saying: 'It goes from bad to worse. This opening episode is back with a bang' 'Alan has invested millions into young people's businesses, through the Apprentice and outside, he's one of the things he is hugely proud of. Investing in young people and businesses. He's hugely proud of it. 'So sharing his knowledge and investing in people is something that he really believes in. It's a great opportunity.' The full lineup for the 2022 series of The Apprentice has finally been released ahead of the show's return this week after being rested for two years due to the Covid pandemic. A former rugby player, eco warrior, a 'witch school' graduate and the self-dubbed 'Asian version of Lord Sugar' lead the diverse 16-person group who will be battling it out in the boardroom in a bid to nab Lord Sugar's 250,000 investment in their business. THE APPRENTICE 2022: MEET THE WOMEN AMY ANZEL, 48 Occupation: Owner, beauty brand Lives: London Key information: Starting her beauty business a little later in life, Amy has now found what she really loves doing after previously working in sales, showbiz and jingles. She says: 'I can be nice when I need to be, but when I unfortunately have to be a b***h, I will' BRITTANY CARTER, 25 Occupation: Hotel front of house manager Lives: Bristol Key information: Brittany is looking to break away from her hotel role and launch the first alcoholic protein drink, with Lord Sugar's help. She says: 'My motto for life is 'always look on the bright side' FRANCESCA KENNEDY-WALLBANK, 26 Occupation: Owner, sustainability company Lives: Surrey Key information: The eco-conscious, mathematics graduate is looking for investment in her next venture, providing a product carbon footprint service for businesses with a simple equation of her own creation. She says: 'There's two types of people in the world- people that say they are going to do things and people that actually do them and I'm a doer' HARPEET KAUR, 30 Occupation: Owner, dessert parlour Lives: West Yorkshire Key information: Describing herself as a born leader, fearless and funny, Harpreet plans to 'level up' her successful, six-figure coffee and cakes business to become a leading brand in the UK. She says: 'I'm definitely not in business to make friends. I'm here to make money, and I'm sure Lord Sugar isn't looking for a new mate. KATHRYN LOUISE BURN, 29 Occupation: Owner, online pyjama store Lives: Swindon Key information: Kathryn has worked a wide range of jobs from mortgage advisor to events manager. Describing herself as ambitious, kind, and often 'savage', she says she's there to win, not to make friends. She says: 'My dreams in my head are absolutely huge and I believe I can achieve them.' SOPHIE WILDING, 32 Occupation: Owner, boutique cocktail bar Lives: Cheltenham Key information: Describing herself as 'magical and enchanting' Sophie even has a witch school qualification. She previously worked in sales and has huge renovation plans for her bar. She says: 'Failure is not an option. Winning is part of my DNA.' STEPHANIE AFFLECK, 28 Occupation: Owner, online children's store Lives: Kent Key information: With her East-London roots, the blonde is hoping to bond with Lord Sugar and match his no nonsense attitude towards business. She's looking for funding to develop her designer store and be part of the growing pre-loved fashion industry. She says: 'I've got grit, determination and I'm determined to be successful.' SHAMA AMIN, 41 Occupation: Owner, children's day nursery Lives: Bradford Key information: Shama already has a busy work life running her children's day nursery as well as juggling life with five children at home. She is ready to prove she has the 'skillset that is required to be one of the best, successful businesswomen in the early years sector.' She says: 'Being a lady of colour, wearing a headscarf as well and the challenges that we face on a daily basis, I just want to be a living example for the Asian women out there.' Advertisement This year's group features eight women and eight men from a wide range of business backgrounds, with specialists in online pyjama sales, the retail industry and the food and drink market set to make their screen debut when the series launches on Thursday. The contestants - who BBC bosses insisted were all double vaccinated before taking part in the series - are set to face the toughest challenges ever due to many businesses across the UK having been negatively affected by the pandemic. Amstrad mogul Lord Alan, 74, is joined by longtime ally and advisor Karren and series one winner Tim, who is replacing Claude Littner for the series while he recovers from multiple surgeries following a serious E-Bike accident. The hit BBC show is now in its 16th season, having began in 2005 as a groundbreaking show which featured some of the country's best young business minds hoping to secure a job with the then Sir Alan. However the programme has slowly turned into a more reality TV-inspired fare, with big personalities gloating irreverently about their skills in business. Over the years, Lord Sugar has invested close to a staggering 3million into winning pitches and this year's ambitious entrepreneurs will be doing their utmost to prove they mean business as they fight it out for the life-changing investment opportunity. Comedian, writer and actor Tom Allen returns as host of The Apprentice: You're Fired, which will air each week on BBC Two straight after the main show. Casting a wry eye over each week's events, Tom will be joined by a host of celebrity fans and business professionals to dissect and debate the candidates progress through each task. Two special episodes, The Final Five and Why I Fired Them, will also return to reveal the stories behind the series before the finale. The Final Five reflects on the journey of the candidates who make it through to the interviews, before they battle it out to secure their place in the final. Before the series finale, Lord Sugar will also reveal a further insight into his boardroom decisions in Why I Fired Them. The Apprentice starts this Thursday, January 6 at 9pm on BBC One, followed by You're Fired on BBC Two. Katie Price, 43, is planning to walk down the aisle for the fourth time. The mum of five has revealed she will marry her boyfriend Carl Woods this year, announcing she has 'definitely found the one.' Speaking on Tuesday's Good Morning Britain in her first TV appearance since she narrowly avoided jail last month, Katie declared 2022 to be her year. Wedding bells: Katie Price, 43, is planning to walk down the aisle for the fourth time. The mum of five has revealed she is planning to marry her boyfriend Carl Woods this year Katie, who is mum to Harvey, 19, Junior, 16, Princess, 14, Jett, eight, and Bunny, seven added she wants to expand her family. She gushed on GMB: 'Babies, marriage, this year I want it all. I've definitely found the one in Carl [Woods, her fiance] and we will get married.' The star explained that she is keen to marry close to home so her mum Amy can attend. Amy was diagnosed with Idopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in 2017. The condition scars the lungs and makes it difficult to breathe - there is currently no cure. Close: The star explained that she is keen to marry close to home so her mum Amy can attend. Amy was diagnosed with Idopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in 2017 'It will be in England, because of the family, my mum is terminally ill and can't travel. So I'd never get married unless my mum was there,' she told the ITV programme. Elsehwere in the interview Katie revealed she feels 'ashamed' of herself after narrowly avoiding jail last month. The former glamour model was handed a 16-week suspended sentence and two-year driving ban for flipping her uninsured BMW X5 into a hedge while disqualified and under the influence on a country lane near her home in West Sussex on September 28. The mother-of-five insisted that 2022 was going to be a 'year of no dramas' and revealed she's currently doing Dry January (staying sober for the month) to kickstart the year, as she's 'not a big drinker anyway'. Shame: Elsewhere in the GMB interview on Tuesday, Katie admitted she's 'ashamed' of herself after 'traumatic' drink drive arrest (pictured with eldest son Harvey, 19, during the interview) Appearing via video link alongside son Harvey, 19, she was probed about nearly ending up in jail for her latest arrest, to which she said: 'The events were really traumatic. 'It's been traumatic after, so I'm not ready to talk about it yet. But what I will say is that I went to the Priory and I've made the decision finally to see a therapist every week, forever, to deal with the traumatic events that led me to getting into that car. 'I'm very good at hiding things but when I'm ready to talk about it then I will come on to talk. There's reasons why I got in that car and my mental state but when I'm ready I will. 'I feel ashamed about it all. There are reasons that I am still dealing with now. It's a new year but I'm still dealing with it, people shouldn't judge people, there's always reasons for things.' Speaking out: Appearing via video link alongside son Harvey, 19, she was probed about nearly ending up in jail for her latest arrest, to which she said, 'the events were really traumatic' Katie escaped with a suspended prison sentence because she complied with a requirement to attend the 6,800-a-week rehab centre - despite going out shopping while staying at the facility. The former glamour model was told by a judge that she deserved to spend Christmas behind bars after committing her ninth motoring offence. Following her court appearance, Katie released a statement saying she is 'incredibly sorry' and 'sincerely grateful nobody was hurt'. Drink-driving campaigners said they were 'gobsmacked' by the 'unbelievable' sentence, but the judge said Katie would avoid going to jail because she completed a stint at celebrity rehab clinic The Priory and stayed out of trouble. Yet Katie has vowed to move on with her life, and looking ahead to the rest of the year, Katie said on GMB: '2022 is my year, 22 is my lucky number. My birthday. The main box on Deal or No Deal. This has to be my year of no dramas.' Kate Garraway has revealed she has received negative backlash after receiving an MBE for services to broadcasting, journalism and charity. The TV presenter, 54, previously won a National Television Award for her documentary Finding Derek which followed her husband Derek Draper's year-long battle with Covid. Appearing on Tuesday's episode of Good Morning Britain, Kate told how some people asked why she had been given the honour for 'just looking after Derek'. Criticism: Kate Garraway has revealed she has received negative backlash after receiving an MBE for services to broadcasting, journalism and charity She said: 'I feel very awkward about it all, thrilled to bits and incredibly honoured. But you think, me? And then you think it's not real.' Kate added: 'There's been a few comments since saying - "Why has she got this?" I look after my loved one. And you sort of feel like, I haven't got it for looking after Derek.' 'It's for broadcasting and charity work. There's lots of people you think deserve it more, it's a strange feeling.' GMB's Susanna Reid brought up the issue of negative comments Kate had mentioned, saying: 'You've played down the fact it's your role as a carer for Derek that might have contributed to this. I would disagree. Documentary: The TV presenter, 54, won a National Television Award for her documentary Finding Derek which followed her husband Derek Draper's year-long battle with Covid 'I think the fact that you have been very open and in fact made that documentary about looking after Derek, as a representative of someone who has suffered so badly with Covid. 'I know there are a lot of people who have cared for someone who has suffered with Covid who are very grateful and glad that you've highlighted how hard that is... 'Don't diminish how important that work has been in the pandemic.' Kate replied: 'No, and you're right Susanna, I don't think a day goes by when people don't say [that].' Hurtful: Appearing on Tuesday's episode of Good Morning Britain, Kate told how some people asked why she had been given the honour for 'just looking after Derek' Describing how she learned she was being given an MBE, Kate said: 'So what happens - in my experience anyway - is you get a letter saying you've been put forward for an honour, don't know what, would you accept it if you did? 'Derek's had a bit of time going in and out of hospital recently, so I was actually with him at the time and his sister-in-law was in charge of opening letters that looked official - mainly bills, and she opened it and said, "Gosh I shouldn't have opened this, this is really exciting you should have opened this yourself," and I said, "Oh for God's sake, we need to say yes to whatever it is," and then you hear nothing. 'Then there was something in the papers a couple of weeks before Christmas and I thought, "Well I haven't heard," and then on the 30th I got a letter. 'On the outside it said it was from Buckingham Palace and it said to Kathryn Draper Garraway on the outside. She said: 'I feel very awkward about it all, thrilled to bits and incredibly honoured. But you think, me? And then you think it's not real' (Derek and his children pictured on Christmas Day) 'It also said MBE and I thought, "Well, they're not going to get it wrong, it must be that", and inside they just say, "Congratulations, very pleased to hear, really thrilled that you've got this honour,'"so I thought it must be true. 'But I still didn't quite believe it until on New Year's Eve, people started - I think it was announced with the New Year's Honours List - people started to say congratulations. 'But it's a strange feeling because it's things that other people get.' Derek was rushed to hospital in March 2020 after contracting coronavirus, spending more than a year in medical care before returning home to be looked after by Kate and their children Darcey, 15, and William, 12. Kate added that the family are currently making a second documentary portraying the aftermath of Derek returning home from hospital last year 'and how it affects us as a family as well as navigating the system.' Kevin Spacey cracked a smile as he filmed alongside director Jakov Sedlar in Zagreb, Croatia on Tuesday. The disgraced actor, 62, joined crew members in the street- with the Oscar winner said to be working on a project about the first Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman, who ruled from 1990-1999 following the country's independence from Yugoslavia. The American Beauty star wore a shirt, patterned tie and grey overcoat and sported a lighter hair colour as he chatted with Jakov, after jetting into Europe on Thursday. His outing comes a month after it was revealed that he would have to pay $31million in damages and attorneys' fees to the producer of the Netflix series House of Cards. Film project: Kevin Spacey cracked a smile as he filmed alongside director Jakov Sedlar in Zagreb, Croatia on Tuesday Kevin was seen filming in a public street before sharing a joke with crew members. Franjo Tudjman is known for authorising major offensive Operation Storm in 1995, which ended the war in Croatia. He died in 1999 aged 77. Jakov and his producer son Dominik have a close friendship with Kevin that began in LA 12 years ago when Martin Sheen, who played Jura Zovko in Jakov's 1990 film Our Lady, introduced them at his villa. Kevin was spotted in August 2021, shooting a movie in California, after previously starring in an Italian film. He has been plotting a comeback to revive his stalled career. Biopic? The disgraced actor, 62, joined crew members in the street- with the Oscar winner said to be working on a project about the first Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman, who ruled from 1990-1999 following the country's independence from Yugoslavia In December it was revealed the actor has been ordered to pay the mammoth damages and attorneys' fees to the House of Cards producer. The case rounded out when an arbitrator found that he breached his contract by violating the company's sexual harassment policy. The arbitration took place behind closed doors last year, but it only came to light last month after the production company MRC filed a petition with the Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking to confirm the award after it was upheld in a confidential appeal, reported Variety. Following the eight-day arbitration in February 2020, the arbitrator found 'the allegations against Spacey to be true,' according to MRC's newly filed petition. The document also stated that the arbitrator concluded that Spacey's breaches of contract were 'egregious.' The two-time Academy Award winner and his companies, M. Profitt Productions and Trigger Street Productions, were ordered to pay $29.5million in damages, $1.2million in attorneys fees and $235,000 in costs associated with the arbitration. Filming: The American Beauty star wore a shirt, patterned tie and grey overcoat and sported a lighter hair colour as he chatted with Jakov, after jetting into Europe on Thursday President: Franjo Tudjman is known for authorising major offensive Operation Storm in 1995, which ended the war in Croatia.He died in 1999 aged 77 (picturd in January 1999) The actor starred in the political thriller as the ruthlessly ambitious President Frank Underwood until he was suspended and ultimately fired from the show in the fall of 2017 over an avalanche of sexual misconduct claims. What Kevin Spacey has been accused of: Kevin Spacey had been one of Hollywood's biggest stars but faced scandal after claims he sexually assaulted Star Trek actor Antony Rapp, who was 14 at the time. The pair were both in Broadway shows and met at a party in 1986 where, Rapp told Buzzfeed: 'My impression when he came in the room was that he was drunk. 'He picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don't, like, squirm away initially, because I'm like, 'What's going on?' And then he lays down on top of me. 'He was trying to seduce me. I don't know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.' On the day Rapp made his allegations, Spacey came out as gay and apologized to the actor, saying: 'I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. 'But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.' Others have since come forward with more claims of sexual misconduct, including Heather Unruh who alleged her 18-year-old son was sexually assaulted by the star in 2016. A civil lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice after it was revealed Unruh deleted texts off her son's phone before giving it to police, while a criminal assault charge was also dropped. Documentary filmmaker Tony Montana claims Spacey groped his penis in the Coronet Pub in Los Angeles in 2003, while Roberto Cavazos, a former actor at the Old Vic theater, said that he had fended off two 'unpleasant' advances made by the star in 2008 which 'bordered on harassment'. Harry Dreyfuss, the son of actor Richard, also claimed Spacey groped him when he was 18 years old. Spacey has also been accused of a number of sexual assaults in England between 1996 and 2013, including one claim he performed a sex act on someone asleep. Police have handed over their investigation to prosecutors who will decide whether to charge him. Spacey has denied the accusations. Advertisement It was alleged that Spacey inappropriately touched a young male production assistant and created a 'toxic' environment on set. Multiple sources claimed to The Hollywood Reporter at the time that Spacey 'groped the PA' who had been tasked with driving the actor to hospital after he injured his hand during a promotional shoot for the show. The assistant is said to have later complained to a superior about the incident. It is also alleged that he groped an actor who wanted to audition for the show. Around the same time, Anthony Rapp, the star of the original Broadway production of Rent, publicly accused Spacey of climbing on top of him on a bed when Rapp was just 14 years old during a house party in 1986, when Spacey was 26. In all, more than 20 men have accused Spacey of sexually inappropriate behavior. He has denied all allegations of misconduct. At the time of Spacey's suspension from House of Cards, two episodes of Season 6 were in production and most of the anticipated 13-episode season had already been written. After the internal probe found that Spacey breached his acting and producing contract by violating sexual harassment policies, he was ousted from the show and the entire season had to be scrapped and re-written without his character. MRC in January 2019 demanded a confidential arbitration, seeking to recoup from Spacey and his business entities tens of millions of dollars that were spent on rewriting the final season of House of Cards, starring Robin Wright and Michael Kelly. Spacey filed a counterclaim, accusing MRC of wrongfully terminating his contract over 'exaggerated' claims of sexual misconduct and assault. In his claim, Spacey alleged that MRC still owed him money, MRC addressed the legal victory over Spacey in a statement on Monday. 'The safety of our employees, sets and work environments is of paramount importance to MRC and why we set out to push for accountability,' the company stated. One of MRC's attorneys, Michael Kump, of Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump Holley LLP, also issued a statement that read: 'It was a privilege representing MRC in this matter. MRC stood its ground, pursued this case doggedly, and obtained the right result in the end.' Spacey's original accuser, Rapp, sued him in federal court last year. That case is still pending. Spacey said in 2017 he did not remember climbing on top of Rapp but apologized if the allegations were true. Spacey also used the statement to disclose he is gay. Several other cases against the actor have unraveled, including a criminal case in Massachusetts alleging assault and battery against Spacey, who was accused of groping an 18-year-old man at a bar on the resort island of Nantucket in 2016. Ouch: The outing comes after it was revealed the actor has been ordered to pay $31million in damages and attorneys' fees to the producer of the Netflix series House of Cards In 2017, Anthony Rapp, the star of Rent on Broadway, publicly accused Spacey of climbing on top of him on a bed when Rapp was just 14 years old during a house party in 1986 The case was dropped after the accuser invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify about text messages from the night of the alleged groping that the defense claimed were deleted. A criminal case against Spacey in Los Angeles was dropped after his accuser, a masseuse, died. Dapper: He later cut a navy suit which he layered above a pink shirt Spotted: He wore his brown tresses in a swept back hair do Group: He was joined by a fluffy of crew members during the shoot In Britain, the Metropolitan Police investigated six claims of sexual assault and assault against Spacey, who ran Londons Old Vic Theatre between 2004 and 2015. They have yet to say whether they will bring criminal charges. In May 2021, a New York judge ruled that a man accusing Spacey of sexually abusing him in the 1980s when he was 14 cannot proceed only as 'C.D.' in a federal lawsuit. The man had met Spacey in the actors suburban New York acting class before the alleged abuse, according to the lawsuit which seeks over $40million in damages. Red Notice action star Gal Gadot now regrets organizing the tone-deaf, cringeworthy quarantine cover of John Lennon's 1971 song Imagine when the coronavirus shut down the world in March 2020. 'The pandemic was in Europe and Israel before it came here [to the States] in the same way. I was seeing where everything was headed. But [the video] was premature,' the 36-year-old mother-of-three said in the February edition of InStyle, which comes out January 14. 'It wasn't the right timing, and it wasn't the right thing. It was in poor taste. All pure intentions, but sometimes you don't hit the bull's-eye, right?' 'It was premature': Red Notice action star Gal Gadot now regrets organizing the tone-deaf, cringeworthy quarantine cover of John Lennon's 1971 song Imagine when the coronavirus shut down the world in March 2020 Gal certainly wasn't alone as her famous friends - Kristen Wiig, Sarah Silverman, Will Ferrell, Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Kravitz, Natalie Portman, Kaia Gerber, Cara Delevigne, and Jimmy Fallon - also saw no harm in millionaires singing about 'no possessions' from their mansions. To poke fun of herself, Gadot sang the first few bars of Imagine while accepting her award at ELLE's 2021 Women in Hollywood on October 19. 'Yeah. Might as well. They had a mic there!' the Wonder Woman star shrugged. 'It just felt right, and I don't take myself too seriously. And with the whole Imagine controversy, it's funny...I felt like I wanted to take the air out of it, so that [event] was a delightful opportunity to do that.' The 36-year-old mother-of-three said in the February edition of InStyle: 'It wasn't the right timing, and it wasn't the right thing. It was in poor taste. All pure intentions, but sometimes you don't hit the bull's-eye, right?' Yikes! Gal certainly wasn't alone as her famous friends - Kristen Wiig (L), Sarah Silverman (R), Will Ferrell, Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Kravitz, Natalie Portman, Kaia Gerber, and Jimmy Fallon - also saw no harm in millionaires singing about 'no possessions' from their mansions 'Yeah. Might as well. They had a mic there!' To poke fun of herself, Gadot sang the first few bars of Imagine while accepting her award at ELLE's 2021 Women in Hollywood on October 19 The Wonder Woman star recalled: 'It just felt right, and I don't take myself too seriously. And with the whole Imagine controversy, it's funny...I felt like I wanted to take the air out of it, so that [event] was a delightful opportunity to do that' For the InStyle spread shot by Giampaolo Sgura, Gal glammed up in Valentino coat and By Far-brand Mary Janes selected by stylist Elizabeth Stewart. Gadot 'loved giving birth' to her three daughters - Alma, 10; Maya, 4; and Daniella, 6 months - from her 13-year marriage to Pilot Wave producing partner Yaron 'Jaron' Versano. 'I would do it once a week if I could. It's so magical,' the 5ft10in brunette gushed of labor. 'And I always take epidurals, to be fair, so it's not so painful. Just the moment you feel like you're creating life, it's incredible. But the pregnancies are hard for me - I feel sick and have migraines. I'm not in my element.' Leggy lady: For the InStyle spread shot by Giampaolo Sgura, Gal glammed up in Valentino coat and By Far-brand Mary Janes selected by stylist Elizabeth Stewart June 29 family portrait: Gadot 'loved giving birth' to her three daughters - Alma, 10; Maya, 4; and Daniella, 6 months - from her 13-year marriage to Pilot Wave producing partner Yaron 'Jaron' Versano The 5ft10in brunette gushed of labor: 'I would do it once a week if I could. It's so magical. And I always take epidurals, to be fair, so it's not so painful. Just the moment you feel like you're creating life, it's incredible. But the pregnancies are hard for me - I feel sick and have migraines. I'm not in my element' Gal believes the most bada** thing she does is 'juggling between my family life and my acting career.' 'When you're on set, you're like a kite. You can fly so high and try to catch the air,' Gadot described. 'Then you go back home to do your main shift as being a mother. It's not about me, it's, "Okay, now I need to bathe Maya, feed Alma, put Daniella to bed."' Finding balance: Gal believes the most bada** thing she does is 'juggling between my family life and my acting career' (pictured Monday) Hitting US/UK theaters February 11! Curiously, Gadot said nothing about her role as Linnet Ridgeway Doyle opposite the disgraced Armie Hammer (L) in Kenneth Branagh's Agatha Christie murder mystery Death on the Nile Curiously, Miss Israel 2004 said nothing about her role as Linnet Ridgeway Doyle opposite the disgraced Armie Hammer in Kenneth Branagh's Agatha Christie murder mystery Death on the Nile, which hits US/UK theaters February 11. The star-studded ensemble cast also includes Branagh, Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, and Letitia Wright. But Gal did reveal they're 'developing the script' for Wonder Woman 3 and they'll 'probably start [production] in a year and a half or so.' Ready for more Diana Prince? But Miss Israel 2004 did reveal they're 'developing the script' for Wonder Woman 3 and they'll 'probably start [production] in a year and a half or so' There will likely be an uproar over Gadot portraying Egyptian queen Cleopatra in a biopic in today's climate of authentic casting. 'We're going to celebrate the Cleopatra story,' the Israel Defense Forces veteran said. 'We're going to show not just how sexy and appealing she was, but how strategic and smart, and how much impact she had and still has on the world we're living in today. I've watched all the Cleopatra movies throughout history, but I feel like we're telling the story the world needs to hear now.' 'We're going to celebrate the Cleopatra story!' There will likely be an uproar over Gal playing Egyptian queen Cleopatra in a biopic in today's climate of authentic casting This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices. Kristen Bell's new alcoholic character winds up getting arrested playing detective of a murder she's not even sure she witnessed in the second trailer for her upcoming dark comedic thriller. The title of the eight-episode limited series - premiering January 28 on Netflix - is quite a mouthful: The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window. The 41-year-old Veronica Mars alum executive produced the strangely-toned satire and stars as Anna, a lonely alcoholic who suspects her British neighbor Neil (Tom Riley) murdered someone. Booked and fingerprinted: Kristen Bell's new alcoholic character winds up getting arrested playing detective of a murder she's not even sure she witnessed in the second trailer for her upcoming dark comedic thriller Premiering January 28 on Netflix! The title of the eight-episode limited series is quite a mouthful - The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window But Anna begins to doubt herself after overhearing her friend Carol (Brenda Koo) saying: 'She is bats*** crazy and she has a serious drinking problem.' Anna attends an AA meeting where she admits: 'I drink a lot and sometimes I mix it with pills, and I'm here because I woke up this morning convinced I'd witnessed a murder.' Anna somehow changes her mind and picks the lock on Neil's door - kicking off her own murder investigation: 'Well if they won't be the detectives, then I will!' 'Someone has been murdered': The 41-year-old Veronica Mars alum executive produced the strangely-toned satire and stars as Anna, a lonely alcoholic who suspects her British neighbor Neil (R, Tom Riley) murdered someone But Anna begins to doubt herself after overhearing her friend Carol (M, Brenda Koo) saying: 'She is bats*** crazy and she has a serious drinking problem' Anna attends an AA meeting where she admits: 'I drink a lot and sometimes I mix it with pills, and I'm here because I woke up this morning convinced I'd witnessed a murder' Anna somehow changes her mind and picks the lock on Neil's door - kicking off her own murder investigation: 'Well if they won't be the detectives, then I will!' Real or imagined? Something does seem to be amiss as the two-minute preview included flashes of a buried hand, a woman floating in a lake, a woman getting hit by a car, and a woman falling off a lighthouse Something does seem to be amiss as the two-minute preview included flashes of a buried hand, a woman floating in a lake, a woman getting hit by a car, and a woman falling off a lighthouse. At one point, Kristen's real-life work-out buddy - Benjamin Levy Aguilar - could be seen menacingly grabbing Anna as the mystery character Rex. The preview ended on a lighter note with Anna telling a flight attendant: 'Oh no thank you, I don't drink wine anymore... I'll have a vodka.' Held hostage? At one point, Kristen's real-life work-out buddy - Benjamin Levy Aguilar - could be seen menacingly grabbing Anna as the mystery character Rex The preview ended on a lighter note with Anna telling a flight attendant: 'Oh no thank you, I don't drink wine anymore... I'll have a vodka' Wino: It was technically the second trailer for The Woman in the House since Netflix dropped a teaser back on December 8 Creators Rachel Ramras, Hugh Davidson, and Larry Dorf also enlisted Mary Holland, Shelley Hennig, Christina Anthony, Michael Hitchcock, Samsara Yett, Cameron Britton, and Michael Ealy for the cast. It was technically the second trailer for The Woman in the House since Netflix dropped a teaser back on December 8. With all the spying through windows in the trailer, it reminded audiences that Bell got her start playing a teenage P.I. in four seasons of Veronica Mars as well as a big-screen spin-off. Watch the iconic series Veronica Mars, on Stan in Australia. She jetted off to the Bahamas with Pete Davidson on Sunday night from a private airfield in Miami. And two days later, Kim Kardashian shared two throwback snaps from her lavish viewing party for Sing 2, which took place at her $60 million home in LA. The entrepreneur, 41, posed with her four children North, eight, Saint, six, Chicago, three, and Psalm, two, as well as sister Khloe Kardashian, 37, and her daughter True, three. Cute! She jetted off to the Bahamas with Pete Davidson on Sunday night from a private airfield in Miami. And two days later, Kim Kardashian shared two throwback snaps from her lavish viewing party for Sing 2, which took place at her $60 million home in LA In December Kim shared snaps and clips of the elaborate party, which included a stage for karaoke, a bouncy castle, treats and a painting station. The star, who shares her four children with estranged husband Kanye West, gave fans a glimpse of the extravagant set up, which sisters Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian also showed off on Instagram. In her snaps shared Tuesday, Kim held up a peace sign - as did her kids Chicago and Saint - and Khloe, who held True in her arms. In the second picture, Kim held Chicago and Psalm in her arms as Saint held a guitar up in the air with North looking at the camera with a serious facial expression. Family: The entrepreneur, 41, posed with her four children North, eight, Saint, six, Chicago, three, and Psalm, two, as well as sister Khloe Kardashian, 37, and her daughter True, three Her Instagram posts come after the brunette beauty jetted off to the Bahamas with Pete Davidson from a private airfield in Miami on Sunday. Pete was in Miami for his New Year's Eve Party with Miley Cyrus. Since the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star is based in Los Angeles with her four children, and Pete lives in New York City, where he performs for SNL, the two have been flying back-and-forth to spend time with each other on the coasts. They were previously seen enjoying some time together on December 18, which also marked the last SNL episode before a hiatus. Throwback: In December Kim shared snaps and clips of the elaborate party, which included a stage for karaoke, a bouncy castle, treats and a painting station Good times: The star, who shares her four children with estranged husband Kanye West, gave fans a glimpse of the extravagant set up, which sisters Kloe and Kourtney Kardashian also showed off on Instagram So cool: In the December throwbacks, Kim was seated in her movie room with lots of snacks available for the viewing party for Sing 2 Yummy: There were also cupcakes with intricate decorations Incredible: There was a stage too for the kids to enjoy karaoke time He took Kim to one of his preferred movie theaters in Staten Island and rented out a screening room so that they could have a private viewing of Ridley Scott's latest film House Of Gucci, which stars Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino and Jared Leto, among other. The couple have gotten so comfortable in recent weeks that Kim also didn't mind Pete taking out her luxurious Rolls-Royce on his own for some last-minute Christmas shopping. During one of his outings, he was seen buying some high-end jewelry, though it's not clear if it was intended for Kim. He reportedly didn't spend the Christmas holiday with his girlfriend, as she was focused on being with her children and family for the occasion. Though the two seem to be getting more and more relaxed about taking their relationship public, Kim's mother Kris Jenner didn't seem excited about delving into their private life while chatting via video with Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper on New Year's Eve. After Andy asked her about her thoughts on Pete, Kylie Jenner's daughter Stormi Webster ran into the room, giving her grandmother a distraction that kept her from answering, though she didn't bother hiding that she was milking the interruption as long as possible. However, Page Six previously reported that Kris was 'obsessed' with Pete, and the whole family appears to have enjoyed spending time with him in recent months. Kris even threw him a birthday party in November, which was attended by Public Enemy hype man Flavor Flav. Rumors of a possible romance were first sparked when the two kissed during an early October SNL skit as she played Princess Jasmine and he portrayed Aladdin, and while initial reports claimed they are just friends, fans believed something more significant was brewing. Where it all started: Rumors of a possible romance were first sparked when the two kissed during an early October SNL skit as she played Princess Jasmine and he portrayed Aladdin, and while initial reports claimed they are just friends, fans believed something more significant was brewing Weeks later, she was spotted at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California for the theme park's annual Halloween event with a group of friends, including Pete, her sister Kourtney and Kourtney's new fiance, Travis Barker. Pete and Kim reportedly enjoyed a private rooftop dinner at Campania in Staten Island as well, followed by a group outing at club Zero Bond the following night. They confirmed their new romance in mid-November after they were seen holding hands in Dailymail.com's exclusive photos. They were taking a stroll in Palm Springs near her mom Kris Jenner's $12 million home where they enjoyed a stay together. Twinning: Pete's trousers are from Kim's holiday collection of lounge wear, which they were both been seen wearing the day before in a Instagram photo of the pair posted by hip-hop legend Flavor Flav in November, at Kris's compound (seen above) It is the first romantic partner for the reality star since she filed for divorce from estranged husband Kanye West in February 2021. Kanye, 44, who has now legally changed his name to Ye, was briefly linked to model Irina Shayk in June as well as Instagram model Vinetria, 22 and now Italian-American actress Julia Fox, 31, whom he was seen on dates with in Miami over New Years weekend. Pete, 28, has previously been romantically involved with a slew of celebrities including Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor, Kate Beckinsale, and his former fiance Ariana Grande. Advertisement She rang in the New Year in her native Brazil over the weekend. But Alessandra Ambrosio was still dancing her way into 2022 as she enjoyed an epic yacht party in her NUA Swim bikini on Tuesday. The model, 40, dropped jaws as she showcased her envy-inducing body while partying on the vessel with her friends in Florianopolis, Brazil. Bikini babe! Alessandra Ambrosio was still dancing her way into 2022 as she enjoyed an epic yacht party in her NUA Swim bikini in Florianopolis, Brazil on Tuesday There was no denying just how amazing Alessandra looked in her glossy brown string bikini. The beauty was a sight to behold with her brunette hair worn down, a pair of Vera Wang Eyewear shades shielding her eyes, and an array of boho chic jewelry jazzing up her look. As the group danced together at the edge of the boat, Alessandra's daughter Anja, 13, could also be seen joining the fun. Even with COVID surging around the world, Alessandra didn't seem to have a care in the world as she danced to her heart's content on the boat. Shake it! Alessandra grooved on the edge of the boat with her friends Taking five! She enjoyed a refreshing beverage in the midst of her dance break Throw your hands in the air like you just don't care! Alessandra was having the time of her life dancing with friends The stunner was feeling the moment as she threw her arms up into the air, looking as happy as can be. The party wasn't without a few libations to help enhance the bash. Alessandra was seen armed with a bottle of wine and glass of the alcoholic beverage as she joined her friends with a star print sarong wrapped around her waist. The bottle was almost empty, but Alessandra's glass was adequately topped up. I like to move it! The beauty shook her stuff while dancing in the water Simply stunning: She warped a star print sarong around her trim waist Matters of the heart: Not pictured partaking in the fun was Alessandra's boyfriend Richard Lee, though the hunk was seen celebrating New Year's Day with her in Brazil Not pictured partaking in the fun was Alessandra's boyfriend Richard Lee, though the hunk was seen celebrating New Year's Day with her in Brazil. Alessandra confirmed her romance with Richard when they were spotted on a romantic dinner date in February. To mark 2022, both Richard and Alessandra posted a loved up beach shoot where they coordinated in all white. She was previously involved with Italian fashion designer Nicolo Oddi who founded the brand Alanui with his sister Carlotta. Let's dance! The beauty didn't seem to have a care in the world as she grooved with a pal Working it! Heads turned as the beauty danced her way into the New Year The model sparked speculation she and Nicolo were no more after two years of dating as she rang in last Christmas and New Years without him. Alessandra shares her two children Anja and Noah, nine, with her ex-fiance Jamie Mazur who co-founded RE/DONE. During her New Year's Eve updates on her Insta Stories the mother-of-two shared a heartwarming selfie with Anja whom she called 'My Bestie.' Family time! Alessandra's daughter Anja, 13, was also seen joining in the fun Cheers to a good time! The festivities were enhanced with a bottle of wine Motherhood: Alessandra shares her two children Anja, 13, and Noah, nine, with her ex-fiance Jamie Mazur who co-founded RE/DONE Alessandra shared a selfie with Richard for a post in which she wished a 'HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022' to her 10.7 million Instagram followers. For her evening festivities she decked herself in a long sequined silver gown reminiscent of Old Hollywood and drew both children close for a picture. She had made sure Anja and Noah would also be able to enjoy the New Year's bash as plenty of other children were invited. Though the trip looked to be for pleasure and served as a chance to see her family, she has also been hard at work on the Brazilian competition show The Cut. Alessandra was tapped to host the series for HBOMax Brazil which follows 12 of the best hairdressers fighting for a winning title. Va va voom: Alessandra showcased her posing abilities as she struck a seductive posture on the boat Hollyoaks is set to kick 2022 off with a literal bang as a huge explosion rips though the village in shock scenes seen in a brand new trailer. And amid the terror and destruction following a huge inferno at Salon de The, young Bobby Costello is seen telling a devastating lie as he leaves his trapped step-father Sylver McQueen for dead. Meanwhile, Toby Faroe's past catches up with him as he looks set to confess to Lisa Loveday's murder to mum Martine and girlfriend Cleo. Trouble ahead: Hollyoaks is set to kick 2022 off with a literal bang as a huge explosion rips though the village in shock scenes seen in a brand new trailer The nail-biting clip teasing the hour-long special next week shows several characters' lives in danger as fire engulfs the salon during Marnie Nightingales Dee Valley hospital fundraiser. And one life hanging in the balance is that of Slyver who returns to the village and attempts to rescue his family after initially leaving wife Mercedes McQueen over fears she'd cheat on him again. However, after finding himself trapped in the rubble, he pleads with step-son Bobby to tell someone where he is so he can be saved. Wow: Amid the terror and destruction following a huge inferno at Salon de The, young Bobby Costello is seen telling a devastating lie as he leaves his trapped step-father Sylver McQueen for dead Killer confession? Meanwhile, Toby Faroe's past catches up with him as he looks set to confess to Lisa Loveday's murder to mum Martine and girlfriend Cleo But after reuniting with worried mum Mercedes who asks if he's seen Sylver, Bobby lies and says he hasn't seen him - leaving Sylver trapped and facing imminent death. Later in the trailer, Bobby is seen smiling sinisterly - has he inherited his killer grandfather Silas Blissett's evil ways? Meanwhile, having seemingly gotten away with murdering Lisa Loveday, Toby is revelling in being the 'man of the moment' having passed his psych test to become his grandfather's kidney donor. But his life looks set to unravel when undercover officer Saul Reeves figures out that Toby bumped off Lisa and confronts him about his crimes, telling Tobey he doesn't 'deserve' the happiness he now has. Inferno: The nail-biting clip teasing the hour-long special next week shows several characters' lives in danger as fire engulfs the salon during Marnie Nightingales Dee Valley hospital fundraiser Save me! After finding himself trapped in the rubble, Slyver pleads with step-son Bobby to tell someone where he is so he can be saved Deadly lie: But after reuniting with worried mum Mercedes who asks if he's seen Sylver, Bobby lies and says he hasn't seen him - leaving Sylver trapped and facing imminent death Uh oh: Later in the trailer, Bobby is seen smiling sinisterly - has he inherited his killer grandfather Silas Blissett's evil ways? Toby is later seen preparing to tell the shocking truth to Cleo McQueen and Martine Westwood just as the explosion goes off - but will he survive to reveal his terrible killer secret? Meanwhile, the explosive trailer sees Juliet reveal to her family that she plans to propose to girlfriend Peri - little knowing that Peri is listening in on the conversation. Peri is then seen confessing to her loved ones that she doesn't want to get married and will be forced to say no to her girlfriend if she asks. The truth: Toby is later seen preparing to tell the shocking truth to Cleo McQueen and Martine Westwood just as the explosion goes off - but will he survive to reveal his terrible killer secret? In for a shock: Will Cleo finally learn that her boyfriend is a killer? Ready to commit: Meanwhile, the explosive trailer sees Juliet reveal to her family that she plans to propose to girlfriend Peri - little knowing that Peri is listening in on the conversation The girls are also caught up in the explosion, with the clip seeing Juliet quip: 'Bet you wish you'd said yes to marrying me now' just moments before falling from a fragile staircase. Elsewhere, Sienna finds herself under suspicion as Warren accuses her of stealing his therapists notes in which he confesses to Brody's murder. Desperate for his fresh start after being let out of prison, Warren is left seething when the thief vows revenge on him and goes on to point the finger at grieving Sienna - but has he just unwittingly let the cat out of the bag? Sienna also has another murder-related issue to deal with as when she and Ste go on the hunt for their stolen cleaning van - but they get more than they bargained when do track it down as they catch Ethan with a body in it. On the warpath: Elsewhere, Sienna finds herself under suspicion as Warren accuses her of stealing his therapists notes in which he confesses to Brody's murder Drama: Sienna also has another murder-related issue to deal with as when she and Ste go on the hunt for their stolen cleaning van - but they get more than they bargained when do track it down Body disposal: But after getting a gun pointed at them, Sienna shockingly suggests that they bury the body in exchange for their lives - has she dragged herself and Ste into a whole new world of danger? But after getting a gun pointed at them, Sienna shockingly suggests that they bury the body in exchange for their lives - has she dragged herself and Ste into a whole new world of danger? The sizzling 2022 trailer also sees Marnie and Jack Osborne lean in for a kiss as they're trapped in the rubble. Felix Westwood puts his life in jeopardy as he runs into the burning blaze to try and save his wife and kids. While insecurities continue to play Nancy and Darren Osborne's tumultuous relationship as she struggles to believe his wild story amid his recent kidnap horror. Hollyoaks airs every weeknights at 6:30pm on Channel 4 and first look episodes air at 7pm on E4, and 6:30pm on Channel 4. Terrifying: Felix Westwood puts his life in jeopardy as he runs into the burning blaze to try and save his wife and kids After inheriting Big's fortune, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) moves out of her beloved brownstone in Greenwich Village to swankier digs downtown in the teaser for this Thursday's And Just Like That. 'I've had fun downtown. I've cried downtown. But never lived downtown,' Carrie tells pal Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone). 'Think strong. I have to move on. Try something else. Start a new chapter. Other people do.' Moving on up! After inheriting Big's fortune, Carrie Bradshaw (L, Sarah Jessica Parker) moves out of her beloved brownstone in Greenwich Village to swankier digs downtown in the teaser for this Thursday's And Just Like That Carrie tells pal Anthony Marentino (R, Mario Cantone): 'I've had fun downtown. I've cried downtown. But never lived downtown...Think strong. I have to move on. Try something else. Start a new chapter. Other people do' Bradshaw's 'giant leap for her future self helps her embrace the past,' and she dons her signature 'ghetto gold' Carrie nameplate necklace for the first time in the Sex and the City spin-off. The Matrix Resurrections action star Jonathan Groff guest stars in episode 106 as a plastic surgeon who mistakes his face lift patient (Anthony) for Carrie. Meanwhile, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) tells Charlotte (Kristin Davis) she's 'fantasizing' about Carrie's podcast boss Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez) after their marijuana and tequila-fueled kitchen tryst. 'Oh yeah, yeah I get that!' Charlotte nods, much to the shock of Carrie and Miranda. Reinventing herself: Bradshaw's 'giant leap for her future self helps her embrace the past,' and she dons her signature 'ghetto gold' Carrie nameplate necklace for the first time in the Sex and the City spin-off 'What are we doing today?' The Matrix Resurrections action star Jonathan Groff guest stars in episode 106 as a plastic surgeon who mistakes his face lift patient (Anthony) for Carrie 'Who have you been fantasizing about?' Meanwhile, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) tells Charlotte (Kristin Davis) she's really attracted to Carrie's podcast boss Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez) after their marijuana and tequila-fueled kitchen tryst Both of Charlotte's children - 'Rock' (Alexa Swinton) and Lily (Cathy Ang) - inform her that her Madame Alexander International doll collection is 'culturally inappropriate.' And Carrie's real estate agent Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury) takes her shopping at an Indian dress shop so they can glam up for her family's Diwali party in Queens. 'Diwali is the Hindu celebration of light triumphing over dark,' Seema explains. 'In Queens, it's the celebration of my family asking me why I'm still not married.' 'Oh yeah, yeah I get that!' Charlotte (L) nods, much to the shock of Carrie and Miranda 'Can I redecorate?' Both of Charlotte's children - 'Rock' (Alexa Swinton) and Lily (Cathy Ang) - inform her that her Madame Alexander International doll collection is 'culturally inappropriate' 'Diwali is the Hindu celebration of light triumphing over dark': And Carrie's real estate agent Seema Patel (R, Sarita Choudhury) takes her shopping at an Indian dress shop so they can glam up for her family's Diwali party in Queens When Seema asks her mother what she's 'so intense about' at the bash, she mysteriously replies: 'The jig is up' When Seema asks her mother what she's 'so intense about' at the bash, she mysteriously replies: 'The jig is up.' Based on Carrie's Diwali costume, this episode also might serve as the official introduction of her next onscreen leading man Jon Tenney, whom she was seen kissing October 20 on the set. The 56-year-old Emmy winner and the 60-year-old SAG Award nominee previously co-starred as Jo Ann Harris and Peter Bauer in 25 episodes of ABC legal drama Equal Justice way back in 1990. New boyfriend debut? Based on Carrie's Diwali costume, this episode also might serve as the official introduction of her next onscreen leading man Jon Tenney (L), whom she was seen kissing October 20 on the set 'The law's got a new appeal!' The 56-year-old Emmy winner (L) and the 60-year-old SAG Award nominee (R) previously co-starred as Jo Ann Harris and Peter Bauer in 25 episodes of ABC legal drama Equal Justice way back in 1990 HBIC: Cynthia - who like Parker and Davis scored $10M to star and executive produce AJLT - officially made her directorial debut with the episode, which is titled 'Diwali' (pictured October 20) Kristin gushed via Instastory on Tuesday: 'This is the episode @cynthianixon directed! It's so good, can't wait for you to see it' Cynthia - who like Parker and Davis scored $10M to star and executive produce AJLT - officially made her directorial debut with the episode, which is titled 'Diwali.' Kristin gushed via Instastory on Tuesday: 'This is the episode @cynthianixon directed! It's so good, can't wait for you to see it.' HBO Max's 10-episode continuation currently holds a 58% critic approval rating and an even more dismal 28% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Team Samantha? HBO Max's 10-episode continuation currently holds a 58% critic approval rating and an even more dismal 28% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes Mr. Big is dead alright! But according to Us Weekly, 'conversations have stopped' regarding a second season following the fallout of Chris Noth (L, pictured December 9) being accused of sexual assault by five women Parker, Nixon, and Davis said in a statement on December 20: 'We are deeply saddened to hear the allegations against Chris Noth. 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' But according to Us Weekly, 'conversations have stopped' regarding a second season following the fallout of Chris Noth being accused of sexual assault by five women. 'We are deeply saddened to hear the allegations against Chris Noth,' Parker, Nixon, and Davis said in a statement on December 20. '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.' Amber Heard was seen taking a spin in the $80,000 Tesla Model S that her ex-boyfriend Elon Musk gave her back when they were dating. Last year, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that the actress was convinced her 'controlling' ex had fitted the vehicle with a bugging device. Yet the new mother, 35, hasn't given up the pricey motor as she was seen running errands in Santa Monica, California on Tuesday in the black electric car from the billionaire's auto company. Heard and Musk dated for roughly a year back in 2018 following the end of her tumultuous marriage to actor Johnny Depp. Gifted: Amber Heard headed out for a spin in Los Angeles on Tuesday in the Tesla ex Elon Musk gifted her... a year after claiming the billionaire 'bugged' her $80,000 car Out and about: The new mother, 35, hasn't given up the pricey motor as she was seen running errands in Santa Monica, California on Tuesday in the black electric car The couple's relationship was called into question during Depps defamation case against Heard last year over a Washington Post op-ed calling herself a victim of domestic violence. Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com at the time featured claims that Musk gifted Heard a Tesla fitted with a bugging device and the actress' mother preferred Depp over the 'controlling' billionaire. The claims were made by non-profit founder Jennifer Howell, who said she became close friends with Heard's younger sister Whitney Henriquez while she was her boss from 2014 to 2016. She also got to know the sisters' late mother Paige, whom Howell says spilled extraordinary secrets about Heard's relationship with the SpaceX mogul after her split from Johnny Depp. Ex factor: Heard and Musk dated for roughly a year back in 2018 following the end of her tumultuous marriage to actor Johnny Depp In a sworn July 26 statement provided to Depp's lawyers, Howell stated: 'Paige shared with me while I was visiting Whitney that Elon Musk had gifted a Tesla or multiple Teslas (not sure if it was one or more), but Amber found out that they were ''bugged''.' She claimed Paige described Musk as 'controlling' and that compared to the tech CEO, Depp was either an 'angel' or a 'saint', as she wished Heard would reunite with the Pirates of the Caribbean star. Henriquez, 31, said that Howell's recollections were 'bizarre' and a 'complete fiction'. Musk's reps declined to comment at the time but sources close to the Tesla inventor described Howell's declaration as 'pure fantasy land' and pointed out that Heard had 'only ever said glowing things' about him. On the move: Last year, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that the actress was convinced her 'controlling' ex had fitted the vehicle with a bugging device However, Heard brushed off the drama as she stepped out on an unseasonably chilly day in Los Angeles after taking a spin in her new vehicle. The actress layered up in high-waisted, wide-leg jeans, a black top, black coat and a printed floral neckerchief. The Aquaman star looked very low key with her hair in a messy bun and was makeup-free under a cloth facemask. She appeared to be picking up a product at the drug store for her new baby girl, Oonagh Paige, whom Amber welcomed via surrogate eight months ago. A month after Amber's daughter was born, ex Musk, welcomed a new son with his then-girlfriend Grimes. Heard recently called it quits with Bianca Butti after nearly a year of dating after spending months on different continents, a source told the Sunday Mirror. In addition to fulfilling her obligations as a L'Oreal ambassador throughout Europe, Heard's life changed profoundly after becoming a mom in April. Meanwhile, Butti has been 'tied up with various projects in the US.' On top of everything, Heard will face off with ex-husband Depp in court this year, once again. Additionally, the former couple's marriage will be the subject of a new two-part documentary. Depp, 58, and Heard have been locked in years of legal battles and have both denied each other's allegations of domestic abuse. Battling it out again: After years of court battles, Heard and her estranged ex-husband Johnny Depp will fight it out in court once more in 2022 Discovery+'s upcoming documentary entitled Johnny vs. Amber - reportedly telling the story from both their perspectives - is in the works, according to Deadline. Depp's side of the story will be detailed by the first part of the documentary and then Heard's side will be fleshed out in the second. Depp and Heard have been waging a legal battle through various lawsuits since she filed for divorce in May 2016 after just 15 months of marriage. Days after she made her divorce filing she accused him of domestic abuse and secured a temporary restraining order against him. Depp has staunchly denied the allegations but was dealt a major blow last year when he lost a libel action he had filed against The Sun for calling him a 'wife beater.' Judge Mr Justice Nicol of the High Court of England and Wales ruled that The Sun's allegation was 'substantially true.' Depp had to pay had to pay $861,000 in legal fees - and although he attempted to appeal the High Court ruling he was turned down this March. Meanwhile Depp is also suing Heard for libel in Virginia over a Washington Post op-ed in which she said she was a victim of domestic violence. Heard made a $100 million counterclaim against him after his former lawyer Adam Waldman dismissed her allegations as part of a 'sexual violence hoax.' Part of her counterclaim - in which she accused Depp of trying to hurt her career by setting social media bots after her - has been thrown out. However both Depp's $35 million suit against Heard in Virginia and her $100 million countersuit are currently ongoing. Gabrielle Epstein's 'less is more' approach to fashion often gets her in trouble with Instagram's anti-nudity police. And the Aussie model, 27, was censored by the Facebook-owned platform yet again on Tuesday after sharing a photo of herself that was apparently 'too naked'. She told her followers an image she posted to her back-up account - which features more racy content than her main account - was removed because it supposedly violated Instagram's community guidelines. Removed: Aussie model Gabrielle Epstein, 27, was censored by Instagram yet again on Tuesday after sharing a photo of herself that was apparently 'too naked' 'What's new?' She said an image she posted to her back-up account was removed because it supposedly violated Instagram's community guidelines She posted a comparatively tame gallery of photos of herself in a white lace bra and sweatpants, and wrote in the caption: 'Hi, Instagram removed my pic this morning because I was too naked (what's new?) so here is this instead.' While it's unclear why Instagram took steps to remove Gabrielle's earlier post, the image may have been reported by a user or alternatively it could have been flagged by an algorithm that detects nudity. Instagram's community guidelines state: 'For a variety of reasons, we don't allow nudity on Instagram. This includes photos, videos and some digitally created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals and close-ups of fully nude buttocks. 'It also includes some photos of female nipples, but photos in the context of breastfeeding, birth giving and after-birth moments, health-related situations (for example, post-mastectomy, breast cancer awareness or gender confirmation surgery) or an act of protest are allowed. 'Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is okay, too.' Less is more! It comes after Gabrielle made a risque style statement on Saturday as she posed for a series of titillating Instagram snaps in nothing but a white men's shirt It comes after Gabrielle made a risque style statement on Saturday as she posed for a series of titillating Instagram snaps in nothing but a white men's shirt. She went braless in the oversized shirt, leaving the top buttons undone to offer her fans a generous glimpse of her cleavage. The blonde captioned the gallery of photos: 'Oversized shirts > in @PrettyLittleThing. Sending everyone so much love for the new year .' Daring display: She went braless in the oversized shirt, leaving the top buttons undone to offer her fans a generous glimpse of her cleavage Sponsored post: She captioned the gallery of photos: 'Oversized shirts > in @PrettyLittleThing. Sending everyone so much love for the new year ' Gabrielle also turned heads last Wednesday when she hit the beach in a soaking wet crop top and very skimpy bikini bottoms. She left almost nothing to the imagination in the see-through white T-shirt, which featured a retro Fanta logo from the early '90s. The drenched top offered a generous glimpse of underboob and drew attention to Gabrielle's impressively lean abs. Wet T-shirt contest! It comes after Gabrielle turned heads last Wednesday as she hit the beach in a soaking wet crop top and very skimpy bikini bottoms The OnlyFans star appeared to be one sudden move from a wardrobe malfunction as she struck a series of poses by the ocean. Meanwhile, her bottoms offered hardly any coverage at all and were pulled up perilously high on her hips. Gabrielle's Instagram followers were stunned by her barely there ensemble, with one commenting: 'Why do I all of a sudden have the thirst for Fanta?' 'Unreal,' another added, while a third wrote, 'Geeeee willikers Batman.' Throwback: She left almost nothing to the imagination in the see-through white T-shirt, which featured a retro Fanta logo from the early '90s Flawless: The drenched top offered a generous glimpse of underboob and drew attention to Gabrielle's impressively lean abs Cheeky display: Her bottoms offered hardly any coverage at all and were pulled up perilously high on her hips Gabrielle last month shocked fans by going underwear-free in an extremely flimsy black dress that left the entire side of her body exposed. She eschewed her bra and knickers as she gazed out towards the ocean in a gallery of Instagram snaps shared on December 1. Gabrielle swept her fair hair into a bun and accessorised with several items of jewellery, including a necklace and bracelet. She captioned the post: 'Watching the sunset in @prettylittlething.' Dare to bare: Gabrielle last month shocked fans by going underwear-free in an extremely flimsy black dress that left the entire side of her body exposed. Pictured on December 1 In November, Gabrielle fired back at critics who said her photos were 'too explicit'. Speaking to Maxim, she called out the 'toxic double standard' between how men and women are treated differently on Instagram. 'There are plenty of photos of men without their shirts on showing their nipples but the fact that mine can be covered and a photo still gets removed creates a very toxic double standard,' she said. Defiant: In November, Gabrielle fired back at critics who said her photos were 'too explicit' 'We are all human, we are all born with bodies and we should not be taught to be ashamed of how they look in a natural state.' She said she'd turned to OnlyFans to get around Instagram's censorship. 'I also feel like I can be more of myself on OnlyFans,' she explained. 'To me showing my body isnt about me being objectified; its about me feeling confident, powerful and beautiful in my own skin.' Double standards: 'There are plenty of photos of men without their shirts on showing their nipples but the fact that mine can be covered and a photo still gets removed creates a very toxic double standard,' she told Maxim Gabrielle's statements come after Instagram removed one of her pictures due to claims of 'sexual solicitation'. In September, she was frustrated to learn her post breached community guidelines. She uploaded a screenshot of an alert she'd received telling her a naked photo had been deleted because it breached 'adult sexual solicitation' rules. Confident: 'To me showing my body isnt about me being objectified, its about me feeling confident, powerful and beautiful in my own skin,' she explained It wasn't the first time she'd had content removed by Instagram, with the blonde bombshell commenting: '@instagram here we go again.' 'You can't even see ANYTHING what is going on,' she added. The supposedly offensive photo showed a naked Gabrielle lying on a white sheet while propping herself up on her elbows. Prior to finding fame as an adult model, Gabrielle was a competitive swimmer and ambassador for fitness brands. Advertisement They've been romantically linked since just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. And Kate Walsh looked smitten with boyfriend Andrew Nixon as they romped in the water during an afternoon beach date in Perth, Australia on Tuesday. The Emily In Paris star, 54, showcased her killer curves in a tiny orange and pink patterned bikini while making the most of her time in the sun with Nixon. Lovebirds: Kate Walsh looked smitten with boyfriend Andrew Nixon as they romped in the water during an afternoon beach date in Perth, Australia on Tuesday Going strong: They've been romantically linked just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 Kate's sexy swimwear consisted of a traditional triangle bikini top and a pair of stringy bottoms that tied at the hips. Her damp auburn tresses were worn down and clung to her back and chest while braving the ocean with her partner. The Grey's Anatomy star let her natural beauty shine by going makeup-free for their day at the beach. Andrew, who is an Australian farmer, rocked a pair of blue patterned board shorts. Bikini babe: The Emily In Paris star, 54, showcased her killer curves in a tiny orange and pink print bikini while making the most of her time in the sun with Nixon Classic silhouette: Kate's sexy swimwear consisted of a traditional triangle bikini top and a pair of stringy bottoms that tied at the hips Suited up: Andrew, who is an Australian farmer, rocked a pair of blue patterned board shorts The happy couple were captured strolling along the shore with their hands interlocked before taking a dip. Protecting themselves from the sun's rays, Andrew and Kate each shaded themselves with hats. Walsh looked stylish in a woven sunhat, while Nixon put on a trendy display in a white bucket hat. Baywatch moment: Her damp auburn tresses were worn down and clung to her back and chest while braving the ocean with her partner Sweet: During their time in the water, Kate and Andrew could hardly keep their hands off of one another as the waves rolled in Natural beauty: The Grey's Anatomy star let her natural beauty shine by going makeup-free for their day at the beach For some added protection, the pair shielded their eyes with their sunglasses of choice During their time in the water, Kate and Andrew could hardly keep their hands off of one another as the waves rolled in. They ventured into waist-deep water and attempted to out run the waves which led to several bouts of laughter between the pair. At one point, Kate wrapped one arm around Andrew and planted a kiss on his lips before returning to their spot in the sand. Romantic stroll: The happy couple were captured strolling along the shore with their hands interlocked before taking a dip Shady: Protecting themselves from the sun's rays, Andrew and Kate each shaded themselves with hats Stunning: Kate was seen beaming as she dipped her toes in the water The couple reportedly met while on a cruise early last year. Kate and Andrew have been living together in Perth since the COVID-19 pandemic began after he convinced her to relocate, according to The West Australian. Andrew is part of Nixon Farming, a family farming enterprise in the Moora region. The American actress previously told The Daily Telegraph she enjoyed living in Perth so much she didn't want to return to New York City, even when she was able to. 'I didn't really want to go back to New York in the middle of a pandemic when it was pretty gnarly to say the least,' she said. Taking a dip: The couple ventured into waist-deep water and attempted to out run the waves Personal styles: Walsh looked stylish in a woven sunhat, while Nixon put on a trendy display in a white bucket hat Chance encounter: The couple reportedly met while on a cruise early last year 'I couldn't go home initially, and now that I can, I don't really fancy going back. When I have my own mother saying don't come home, my 86-year-old mum we are in a very challenging time!' Kate jetted off to Paris in June, presumably to shoot the Netflix show Emily in Paris. She returned to Australia once production wrapped. Though Nixon's relationship is unclear, Walsh was famously married to producer Alex Young from 2007 until their 2010 divorce. Relocated: Kate and Andrew have been living together in Perth since the COVID-19 pandemic began after Andrew convinced Kate to relocate, according to The West Australian Abigail Breslin answered back Monday after a social media user made a nasty remark about her wearing a face mask, less than a year after she lost her father Michael Breslin to COVID-19. The Oscar-nominated actress, 25, took to Instagram Monday with a shot of herself and others on a ride - captioned 'Vegas, Baby' - as she was the only person wearing a mask. Breslin put up another post Monday - after an Instagram user posted the comment, 'Who's the pathetic loser wearing a mask?' - in which she highlighted the comment and her response. The latest: Abigail Breslin, 25, answered back Monday after a social media user made a nasty remark about her wearing a mask, less than a year after she lost her father Michael Breslin to COVID-19 'That pathetic loser would be me, someone who lost their dad due to someone not wearing a mask and giving him Covid,' she said in response, adding, 'You can kindly go f*** off now.' The exchange came less than two weeks after Breslin took to Instagram on Christmas Eve with an emotional post about the holiday after her father's death at the age of 78 in February of 2021. 'Merry Christmas eve everyone!' the New York City native said. 'I'm not gonna lie. This is a weird one for me. My first holiday season sans my dada.' Breslin said that while she's 'thankful' and 'truly blessed' to spend the holiday with her mother, brother, friends and boyfriend, the first holiday season without her father was challenging. The Oscar-nominated actress took to Instagram Monday with a shot of herself and others on a ride - captioned 'Vegas, Baby' - as she was the only person wearing a mask. Lonely Christmas: Breslin remembered her late father Michael Breslin on her first Christmas since he died of COVID-19 last year. The actress was snapped in NYC in July The Oscar-nominated actress took to Instagram Friday with an emotional post about the holiday after her father's death at the age of 78 in February 'It's hard to know I can't call my daddy and wish him a merry Christmas or send him a gift certificate to a good steakhouse,' she wrote. 'Some days are harder than others ... grief is a tricky little monster. 'I wish there was an expiration date to missing someone ... but I had almost 25 great years of having an awesome dad and I feel as though I know what he'd be saying right now.' She added: 'I think [it'd] be somewhere along the lines of "Why ya crying kid? I'm fiiiiiine. Don't worry about me! Love you, pretty.' Breslin last year described her father as 'a hilarious, boisterous, tenacious, rebellious, intelligent, sweet, incredible human being' who loved life, his family and the simple things The Stillwater actress said that 'to anyone who's missing someone this' holiday season, 'I see you, I hear you and you're not alone.' Breslin said that she was 'going to heavily cherish those who are here and hug them harder than ever,' before wishing her followers a Merry Christmas. The Little Miss Sunshine star opened up about her father's passing last year in a February 26 Instagram post, which came two weeks after he was initially diagnosed. After his passing, Abigail described her father as 'a hilarious, boisterous, tenacious, rebellious, intelligent, sweet, incredible human being' who loved life, his family and the simple things 'Hard to write this,' she wrote. 'Harder than I thought. Im in shock and devastation ... my sweet, perfect, amazing, heroic, wonderful dada passed away after my family and I said goodbye. It was COVID-19 that cut my sweet daddy's life too short.' Breslin said she was appreciative for 'the love and support' she and her family received amid the tragic turn. She described her father as 'a hilarious, boisterous, tenacious, rebellious, intelligent, sweet, incredible human being' who loved life, his family and the simple things. 'He loved taking pictures and flying planes and good dinners and music from the 50s and 60s and good couches and Kenyan mountain coffee and funny YouTube videos and email threads and weird poems and politics and he loved me and he loved my brothers and he loved my mom,' she said. Terry Mattingly leads GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge. He is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi. Skip to main navigation Spring Seedling Sale The 2022 spring seedling sale is now open! We recommend ordering by phone for the most up-to-date species availability information. DEC operates the Colonel William F. Fox Memorial Saratoga Tree Nursery, which produces tree and shrub seedlings for conservation plantings on public and private lands. Native New York seed sources are used when available. The nursery's annual spring seedling sale is open to all interested customers in New York and bordering states. SALE MATERIALS: View species availability (not provided in the PDF brochure) - This webpage shows the available species, their size, and their cost. This is the only resource that will show you updated availability, though we always recommend ordering by phone so that operators can provide you with the most up-to-date availability information. (not provided in the PDF brochure) - This webpage shows the available species, their size, and their cost. View the 2022 Trees and Shrubs Brochure (PDF) - The brochure contains a list of this year's available species, their size, and their cost, as well as ordering information that is also found on this webpage. Note: The PDF brochure does not include updates to availability of species. (PDF) - The brochure contains a list of this year's available species, their size, and their cost, as well as ordering information that is also found on this webpage. Note: The PDF brochure does not include updates to availability of species. View the 2022 Nursery Catalog (PDF) to read descriptions and preferred site conditions per species. Before ordering, consider specific space requirements for each type of tree: Species Spacing in Feet Trees/Acre Wildlife 6 x 6 1,210 Conifer 8 x 8 680 Hardwood 12 x 12 300 How to Order Sandbar willow makes a great visual screen and live snow fence Sandbar willow makes a great visual screenand live snow fence All requests are filled after January 3 in the order received. Some species sell out quickly, so order early. Ordering by Phone Order seedlings from January 3, 2022 until May 13 by calling (518) 587-1120, Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 4 PM. This is the recommended way to order since operators have the latest availability information. Operators can answer questions or direct you to the proper office for other information. An order will be completed over the phone and sent to you via mail or e-mail for your signature and payment. For all other inquiries call the Nursery office at (518) 581-1439, Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Ordering by Mail or E-Mail Complete the order form (PDF). Send the order form to: NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Saratoga Tree Nursery 2369 Rt. 50 S Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-4771 Or e-mail the form to nysnursery@dec.ny.gov Red oak seedlings Red oak seedlings Do not send payment at this time. DEC will send you an invoice for you to sign and return within 10 days along with your check or money order to complete the purchase, unless other arrangements have been made. DO NOT SEND CASH. Instructions on how to complete the order are on the invoice. We do not accept credit cards at this time. Shipping Options and Instructions Please make shipping arrangements when you place your order. Orders placed after May 1 must be picked up at the Nursery. There are three (3) options available: 1. Pick up your order at the Saratoga Tree Nursery, located just south of Saratoga Springs on Route 50, approximately 30 miles north of Albany. You will be notified by mail when your order is ready. Pay no shipping. 2. Preferred method: For a fee, seedlings are shipped by designated truckers to a single location within certain counties. Customers pick up their orders at designated locations on specified dates, which are not set until early April. Do not choose this option if you need delivery by or on a specific date. Orders shipped this way are given preference over option #3. Customers will be notified of the shipping charges when the order is made. Orders MUST be placed by March 31 for this option. 3. UPS delivery: Limited to customers who do not have the "designated trucker" option, or who place an order after March 31. Fee per order: $5.00 plus 20% of the total bill or $20.00, whichever is higher. Minimum UPS fee is $25. Shipments are made from mid-April through early May. Seedlings should be planted as soon as possible. Until planted, keep seedlings cool and out of direct sunlight. Do not let roots dry out. When we think about cybersecurity and protecting a business or organization, we tend to look at the most complex things, more so than the simpler, fundamental threats. Phishing is an example of a simple but highly effective threat. In 2020, as the world went remote, 75% of organizations globally experienced a phishing attack. An estimated 74% of attacks targeting organizations in the U.S. were successful. Phishing attacks affect all types of organizations. These tend to be successful no matter security training, industry, or organization control. There are things companies can do to safeguard against phishing. Using layered protection with single sign-on and multi-factor authentication are two of the most important. The following are some things to know about the threat landscape in 2022 and how to prepare for what's ahead in terms of phishing and cybersecurity in general. Phishing Prevalence Above, we mentioned the prevalence of phishing attacks in 2020. In 2021, the numbers were even higher and second to those types of attacks was malware. More companies in 2021 experienced a breach related to phishing than any other type of attack. While ransomware attacks were high-profile in 2021, just 13% of organizations surveyed by Dark Reading said they'd had a breach related to this type of attack in the past year. While we talk a lot about them, targeted attacks don't appear to be especially prevalent right now, especially when compared to phishing. The reason phishing attacks are likely so common and even growing is because of remote work. Remote work, which sped up rapidly during the pandemic, creates new opportunities for cybercriminals. Employees aren't working from a physical office every day. As a result, you don't have as much control over them or their device use. There are also new risks that an attacker can exploit when you're scaling. For example, each time you add a new user, you also add a potential security gap. Phishing Attacks Are Expensive Along with being common, phishing attacks are also expensive. Even when an attack isn't successful, it can still be costly for you as a business. In the 2021 Ponemon Cost of Phishing Study, researchers found the cost of these particular attacks has gone up nearly four times in the past six years. U.S. businesses lose an average of $1,500 per employee each year to phishing. Starting in March 2020, the enormous increase in the volume of emails being sent may have had something to do with this too. More email was coming into businesses, meaning more opportunities for employees to come in contact with phishing messages. There were hundreds of billions of emails sent every day in 2020. This trend is only going to go up in the next few years. In 2022, the following are some specific phishing trends to be mindful of. Secure Email Gateways Are Losing Reliability If a business relies on a Secure Email Gateway or SEG, they should be aware reliability is on the decline. SEG is very vulnerable to cybercrime, and more and more phishing emails seem to be passing through. Cybercriminals have been focusing their attention for years on how to get past security tools like an SEG, and now they're finally figuring out how to really do that with a high rate of success. Venture Beat says more than two million malicious email messages were able to get past traditional email defense, including security email gateways between July 2020 and July 2021. In April 2021, researchers found a phishing campaign that appeared as a SharePoint-related message. In the attack, the message could get past security email gateways, including the SEG Microsoft uses. Acceleration of Ransomware While ransomware wasn't the most common type of attack, it can actually be a subcategory of phishing. These types of attacks are likely to become more prevalent within this context. In the Emerging Risks Monitor Report from Gartner, it's suggested the threat of new models of ransomware remains the primary concern businesses face in the coming years. In 2021, the pace of ransomware attacks grew by 767%. Deepfakes and Brand Impersonation Brand impersonation isn't new, but it's still effective for bad actors. An employee is much more likely to trust a message they get from a brand they know and interact with, so criminals can use that to their advantage. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report in 2021, there's a type of brand impersonation called Misrepresentation, which is significantly more common than it was just a year ago. This is a type of social engineering. It's used as a step before business email attacks. In one example, a bank manager in the United Arab Emirates was scammed into transferring $35 million. Hackers used voice cloning and AI in the theft. Hackers will likely continue to exploit AI and deepfake technology to access sensitive data. As far as email implications, cybercriminals may be able to use language learning to develop brand impersonation emails that seem very realistic. The technology can compromise mail servers and run man-in-the-middle attacks. Initial Access Brokers Phishing attacks are big business. Rather than a single hacker sending these attacks out, what's instead happening is that there are large organizations that make ransomware and data breaches their business. These groups will work with experts, including initial access brokers. An initial access broker is a hacker that helps breach a company network, and then once they do, their employer, which is the criminal organization, is given access. In 2022, to combat against phishing and all other types of attacks, first, you want to get back to the basics. From there, you might also consider building out a Zero Trust security framework. With Zero Trust, any device or user trying to connect with systems and applications is vetted and verified. Then, devices and users are also continuously scanned for any suspicious activity. Zero Trust is the best way to protect your assets in a distributed and remote work environment. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription and are still unable to access our content, please link your digital account to your print subscription If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. The state government is eagerly waiting for the Centre to enhance its borrowing limit to mobilise funds for welfare schemes and development programmes. (Representational Image/ DC File) Hyderabad: The state government has decided to raise another Rs 1,187 crore through auction of bonds by the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday. With this, the total borrowings of the state government through auction of bonds will cross Rs 30,000 crore mark in the current fiscal 2021-22. The state government has been allowed to borrow Rs 47,500 crore through auction of bonds in 2021-22. It can raise only Rs 17,500 crore in the remaining three months of this fiscal (January-March) by March 30 as per FRMB Act. The state government is eagerly waiting for the Centre to enhance its borrowing limit to mobilise funds for welfare schemes and development programmes. The state government has sought an increase in FRBM limit from 3.5 per cent of GSDP to 5 per cent. Finance minister T. Harish Rao made a request in this regard to union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in July last. However, the Centre's nod is awaited. If the Centre approves, the state government can borrow an additional Rs 12,000 crore. As the Covid pandemic since March 2020 adversely affected the state government's finances, the government is depending heavily on loans to fund welfare schemes and development programmes, according to official sources. The government's expenditure in this fiscal has increased due to Dalit Bandhu, Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, subsidised rice, free power to various sections and enhancement of salaries and pensions for employees and pensioners. Although the state government is releasing funds to welfare schemes and development programmes in a phased manner, it owes dues to welfare schemes and bills to contractors, for which it needs to mobilise additional loans. New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday met three central ministers, including Nitin Gadkari, here and discussed in detail the issues of his state, an official statement said. In an hour-long meeting with Union Road, Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari, Reddy demanded sanctioning of several road projects to the state, including a six-lane road to decongest traffic in Visakhapatnam, it said. The chief minister discussed the preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) for developing a national highway from Visakhapatnam Port to Bhogapuram via Rishikonda and Bhimili. He also informed the meeting that this proposed road will be useful for Visakhapatnam as it will reduce the distance from Visakhapatnam port to Odisha and Chhattisgarh, the statement said. Further, this road will go close to the beach corridor projects along the coast. The development of this road will improve connectivity to the proposed Bhogapuram International Airport and boost tourism in the region, Reddy added. The chief minister also requested the Centre to sanction a six-lane road to decongest traffic in Visakhapatnam and early approval of east bypass road in Vijayawada. Besides, Reddy demanded the extension of a two-lane bypass road -- leading to national highway 216 -- to a four-lane road to address traffic issues in Baptla Mandal, Guntur district, the statement added. The Andhra chief minister separately also met Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur and Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Reddy on the second day of his visit to the national capital plans to meet a few more central ministers later during the day. On Monday, he had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and two central ministers Nirmala Sitaraman and Jyotiraditya Scindia. New Delhi: The submission of details of different acceptable identity documents such as the Aadhaar and PAN cards etc to the governments CoWin vaccination platform seems to have led to some citizens already being administered a full third Covid-19 vaccine dose in violation of guidelines. This is possible since the CoWin platform accepts details of different ID cards but is not able to detect if its the same person since there is no integration of these different identity cards on the platform. The governments CoWin platform chief on Monday confirmed to this newspaper that there is no solution to this issue as the CoWin software cannot integrate different identity cards (of the same person) because it is not permissible legally. In one such case that came to the notice of this correspondent, a college teacher in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh who is in his early fifties furnished his Aadhaar card details to the CoWin platform and got his two Covishield doses on May 27 and August 28 last year. He also got a certificate from the Union health ministry that showed him as a fully vaccinated person. But just last month, he was offered a third dose and was told he would have to give his PAN card details this time. He agreed as he apparently assumed that a third dose was now being administered officially. Accordingly, on December 23, the college teacher received his full third dose of Covishield. Immediately after that, he received another certificate showing him as a partially vaccinated person who had got his first dose, obviously because the CoWin software viewed him this time as an unvaccinated person. When the fresh partially vaccinated certificate was issued, the academic realised that something was amiss. When contacted for the governments response, Dr R.S. Sharma, CEO of the National Health Authority, which comes under the health ministry, and who is also the CoWin platform chief, told this newspaper: There is no solution to this The CoWin software cannot integrate different identity cards because it is not permissible legally. Dr Sharma further added: One solution could have been if the details of only the Aadhaar card could be submitted, but this is (also) not permissible legally. He added that the government expects citizens to be honest when they furnish their identity proof details for vaccination doses on the CoWin platform, adding that the CoWin platform cant figure out on its own that it is the same person if details of different acceptable identity cards are furnished by the same person. It may be recalled that just last week, the Centre had announced that those healthcare workers and frontline workers who have received two doses would be administered another precaution dose of the Covid-19 vaccine from January 10 on completion of nine months, or 39 weeks, after the date of administration of the second dose. The government had also said that all persons of 60 years and above with co-morbidities who have received two doses of the Covid vaccine will on doctors advice be provided with a precaution dose from January 10, again on completion of nine months or 39 weeks from the date of administration of their second dose. A gang member who will be on duty at the ticket scanning centres in the queue complexes will give the devotees, who purchase the morphed tickets from the gang, access for darshan, sources said. (DC file photo) TIRUPATI: The sleuths of Vigilance and Security wing of Tirumala Tirupati devasthanams (TTD) have busted a gang that has been selling fake Rs. 300 special entry darshan tickets (SED) for gullible devotees for a long time now. With the help of technology, the gang creates new SED tickets out of old tickets and cheats gullible devotees by collecting exorbitant prices for the morphed tickets. A gang member who will be on duty at the ticket scanning centres in the queue complexes will give the devotees, who purchase the morphed tickets from the gang, access for darshan, sources said. According to officials, the vigilance wing team has identified a Special Protection Force Constable, an outsourced employee working at laddu counter, some brokers and a person, who earlier worked at the ticket counter, as the culprits. TTD vigilance department also lodged complaints at Tirumala I and II town police stations that seven persons sold fake Rs.300 SED tickets at Rs. 3300 and Rs. 7000 to devotees. Four devotees from Telangana had recently come for Srivari Darshan without any darshan tickets. With their contacts, they approached some brokers at Tirupati and bought four fake SED tickets at Rs. 3,300 each. Similarly, another team of three devotees from Madhya Pradesh were trapped on New Year eve and got the fake SED tickets at Rs.7000 each, a vigilance official said. However, the vigilance sleuths have identified the fake darshan tickets at the ticket scanning centre and informed the higher ups. On the directions of TTD Chief Vigilance and Security Officer (CV&SO) Gopinath Jatti, a team of vigilance personnel launched an investigation into the matter. Based on the information given by the said Telangana and MP devotees, the sleuths nabbed the gang members who duped the devotees with fake tickets. Based on the complaint lodged by the TTD, the I town police registered cases against Balaji alias Balu (broker), Arun (laddu counter employee), A. Krishna Rao (SPF constable), Nagendra (a boy who worked earlier at Trilok agency ticket counter) for cheating devotees from Telangana. Similarly for cheating the devotees from MP, the II town police filed cases against one Chengareddy (broker), J. Devendra Prasad, E Venkat (former employees of Trilok agency). TTD CV&SO appealed to devotees to book their darshan tickets only through the official website of TTD: www.tirupatibalaji.gov.in. He warned of stringent action against all those who cheat devotees with fake tickets. New Delhi: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea related to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota in connection with the NEET-PG admissions on Wednesday, after the Centre sought an urgent hearing in the matter. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana and justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared in the court on behalf of the Centre, that the matter pertains to admissions to post-graduate medical courses and that students have been facing difficulties. "If it is a three-judge bench matter, then it will be listed before a three-judge bench tomorrow," the CJI said. A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud told the Centre on Monday that a bench of requisite strength can be set up by the CJI as the EWS quota matter is being heard by a three-judge bench. Large-scale protests have been held by resident doctors of various hospitals under the banner of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) in Delhi and other parts of the country over a delay in the NEET-PG counselling, which has been postponed due to the Centre deciding to revisit the criteria for the determination of the EWS quota. According to party sources, the BJP called for a peace rally today in Secunderabad following the arrest of its state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and Nadda, who will arrive here this evening will be participating in it. (Representational Image/ AP) Hyderabad: The city police on Tuesday denied permission for a proposed rally by the Telangana BJP to protest against the arrest of its chief, in which the party's national president J P Nadda is expected to take part. Hyderabad Police Commissioner C V Anand said permission was denied keeping in mind the COVID-19 restrictions on public meetings and rallies. Since GO MS 1 is in force, permission for any rallies cannot be given, Anand told PTI. According to party sources, the BJP called for a peace rally today in Secunderabad following the arrest of its state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and Nadda, who will arrive here this evening will be participating in it. Kumar whose planned protest was foiled on Sunday night for alleged violation of COVID-19 guidelines, was arrested in Karimnagar on various charges including violation of provisions of the Disaster Management Act and Indian Penal Code Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) and remanded. Kumar, Lok Sabha member from Karimnagar, was arrested when he planned to undertake a 'Jagarana' protest, a night vigil, in solidarity with teachers and other government employees against a state government order on introducing a zonal system in the allocation of jobs. The order hurt the interests of the teachers and others vis-a-vis their transfers, Kumar alleged. Meanwhile, Union Minister for Tourism G Kishan Reddy and senior party leaders visited Kumar in the prison. The eldest children of former United States President Donald Trump, Ivanka and Trump Jr., refused to comply with subpoenas issued by the New York Attorney General in relation to their father's real estate business. The subpoenas are part of a civil investigation that is looking into how the family business valued its holdings. A document that was filed on Monday said that there was a dispute between the OAG and the Individual Trump Parties regarding the subpoenas. Eldest Trump Children New York Attorney General Letitia James and an attorney for the Trump Organization jointly filed the document that said Trump Jr. and Ivanka were being named as responders in James's ongoing investigation. The inquiry parallels a criminal investigation conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney's office. A spokesperson for the AG's office said that as James's investigation into the Trump Organization's financial dealings continues, she is also seeking interviews under oath of Trump, Trump Jr., and Ivanka. However, despite numerous attempts by the Trump Organization to delay the investigation, James' office said it was confident that its questions will be answered to uncover the truth, ABC News reported. Read Also: Chuck Schumer Threatens to Change Filibuster Rules If GOP Blocks Voting Rights Bill Again James's civil investigation focuses on determining whether or not the Trump Organization inflated the value of his assets to secure bank loans and understated them elsewhere to reduce what he pays for his tax bill. The three Trumps were subpoenas by the Attorney General on Dec. 1, with Trump Jr.'s involvement as he helped run the organization during his father's presidency while Ivanka worked in the West Wing as a presidential adviser. In October 2020, Eric, Trump's younger son, was questioned by James's office regarding matters of the investigation. The Attorney General has the authority to file a civil lawsuit but cannot pursue criminal charges based on her findings. This means that if any of the Trumps get thrown into jail, it will not be because of James. Trump Organization Investigations However, the Attorney General also has a hand in a criminal tax-avoidance investigation looking into the Trump Organization that is led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Last month, former President Trump filed a lawsuit after receiving his subpoena contending that James's investigation was "guided solely by political animus," Yahoo News reported. Trump's lawsuit also claims that any testimony Trump gives in the civil inquiry might then be used against him in the criminal investigation, which would result in the violation of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Ronald P. Fischetti, a lawyer for Trump, said that James cannot wear two hats and do a civil investigation and a criminal investigation with the D.A. at the same time. He added that the Attorney General was politicizing her role. Bruce Green, who directs a center for legal ethics at Fordham University, said that the Trump family members would still be able to invoke their right against self-incrimination even if James's office won the right to question them. Green said that the family's lawyers would then have to show that the Attorney General was abusing the civil process to gather evidence for the criminal case, instead of simply stating the claim, the New York Times reported. Related Article: New Jersey Gov. Declares State of Emergency on 5 Counties Due to Snowstorm, Not COVID-19 @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Hyderabad: Lunch motion Petition moved by Mr. Bandi Sanjay, MP BJP from Karimnagar seeking Quash of FIR registered against him in Karimnagar district yesterday. The Criminal Petition filed by Mr. Bandi Sanjay has been returned to the Registry, High Court by Justice K. Lakshman with a direction to place the criminal Petition before the appropriate Bench. As per the Roster of the High Court, this Criminal Petition has to be heard by the Bench headed by Justice Ujjal Bhuyan , who has a roster of adjudication of cases related to public representatives. Hyderabad: The managing director (MD) of Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC) Manohar Rao dismissed allegations of molestation levelled against him by a former woman employee of the corporation. The allegations were malicious, and I reject them. I never misbehaved with any woman employee, the TSTDC MD said. The complainant was a contract employee in the tourism department in 2016, when Manohar Rao was serving the corporation as its executive director. It was in 2017 September, she filed a complaint in the local police station that she had been molested by Manohar on August 3, 2016, at the tourism department guest house at Nagarjuna Sagar. Manahor Rao said, If that incident took place as she alleged, why did the employee keep quiet for one year, and lodged a complaint on September 4, 2017? According to him, there was a protest by some contract employees of the corporation for equal work and equal pay in September 2017, that were not agreed by the management. The woman employee who was one of the protesters, planned to frame me, and she went and lodged a false complaint with the tourism department and with the Nalgonda police, Manohar Rao explained. He added, Based on the complaint, my superiors at the corporation ordered an enquiry by the redressal committee of the corporation that inquires into such complaints. Simultaneously, the superintendent of police of Nalgonda also ordered an inquiry. Both the tourism internal committee and the police inquiries established that I was with the tourism minister, and other department officials at the time of the alleged offence. Also, he said, the suite that was mentioned as the alleged scene of offence was given as 606, while he was in suite 604 at the tourism department hotel at Nagarjunasagar. The same matter was conveyed to the Telangana State Commission for SC and ST on November 7, 2017. The Nalgonda police said the question of the occurrence of the alleged incident did not arise. The allegations are far from the truth and baseless. As such, no further action is needed in the above petition, Manohar Rao added. Manohar Rao, who took charge as the MD of tourism on March 12, 2018, said, Because I filed a defamation case on January 30, 2019 in the Nampally court, she filed a writ petition against the police officials on October 4, 2021. The order was given on December 3, 2021, for this writ petition, in which the High Court pronounced the judgment, The writ petition is being disposed of and the court is giving liberty to the petitioner to lodge a fresh complaint as per the procedure. The police will conduct the preliminary enquiry and proceed further. The Chief Minister held a review meeting to discuss the strategy to be adopted by Telangana in the wake of the Centre convening a meeting with chief secretaries of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on January 12 in Delhi to discuss pending bifurcation issues. (Photo: Twitter) HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao said that there was no question of compromising on the interests of Telangana and asked Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to present strong arguments before the union home ministry on January 12 with regard to pending issues in AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. The Chief Minister held a review meeting to discuss the strategy to be adopted by Telangana in the wake of the Centre convening a meeting with chief secretaries of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on January 12 in Delhi to discuss pending bifurcation issues. Rao said that Andhra Pradesh was creating unnecessary disputes by raking up issues that were not in the bifurcation Act. AP was making irrelevant demands such as seeking a share in Singareni Collieries due to which several bifurcation issues were still pending even after seven years. He asked the Chief Secretary to cooperate with AP in the talks only if the AP government expressed its commitment towards AP Reorganisation Act. The Chief Minister stated that a final decision on attending the meeting would be taken based on the Covid conditions until January 12. New Delhi: Fresh trouble is once again brewing in the Punjab Congress. The states deputy chief minister and home minister, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, on Monday said he was ready to give up the home portfolio to state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu if the latter so wishes. Mr Randhawa said: Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu has been upset with me ever since I became the home minister. If Sidhu wants the home ministry, then I will put it at his feet in a minute. Mr Randhawa, as state home minister, had categorically stated that Akali Dal MLA and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, who is an accused in the drug case, is not in Punjab. Mr Majithia is also the brother-in-law of top Akali leader and former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal. Mr Randhawa said: As per my information, Bikram Singh Majithia is not in Punjab. These are fake videos and pictures. If Bikram Singh Majithia is seen anywhere in Punjab, we will immediately arrest him. Our teams are searching for him. He is inside the country because he does not have security from any of the governments. So, saying that the police has the information is false. The charges which have been slapped against him are very grave. The Punjab Congress has been in a state of ferment for the past several months. Reports indicate that Mr Sidhu is unhappy as many suggestions sent by him to the state government are not being followed in totality. Former state party chief Sunil Jhakhar has been attacking the state unit while Lok Sabha MP Ravneet Singh Bittu has also been attacking the Pradesh Congress. In November 2021, the removal of the states advocate-general on the insistence of Mr Sidhu and the Punjab PCC had caused a huge uproar in the party. A major tussle had been going on between Navjot Singh Sidhu and chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi. Mr Sidhu had been insisting on the removal of advocate-general A.S. Deol while Mr Channi wanted him to continue. Finally, Mr Sidhu prevailed and Mr Deol submitted his resignation. As the Assembly elections in the state draw closer, the Punjab Congress is far from finding a resolution to its rampant infighting. The aim of sending babus to teach school students is to create trust of parents in government schools and also to inspect the schools for any deficiency in infrastructure. (Representational Image/ PTI) The secretary-level reshuffle, in which nine Central ministries and departments got new secretaries, is being depicted as an opportunity for upward mobility for 1990-batch IAS officers who were waiting for secretary-level postings at the Centre for a long time. However, people are still trying to wrap their heads around some of these changes. One or two of them had been stowed away in cold storage but, clearly, circumstances have changed at the Centre and in multiple states and, therefore, a change of guard was felt necessary. Among those who surprised the conventional babu expectations was Vini Mahajan, the former chief secretary of Punjab, who has been named as secretary of the department of drinking water and sanitation. In 2020, Ms Mahajan was appointed by then Punjab CM Amarinder Singh as the state chief secretary but had stepped down from the post in September this year after Amarinders government was toppled. But since he has joined hands with the BJP, Ms Mahajan has been re-adjusted. It is likely that her husband Dinkar Gupta, who was removed as director-general of police of Punjab by the current state chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, may soon be brought to Delhi in a senior capacity with one of the paramilitary organisations. Equally of interest is the appointment of Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officer Bharat Lal as the next secretary of the Lokpal Secretariat. Many expected Mr Lal to become secretary of the department of drinking water and sanitation (which has now gone to Ms Mahajan) on the assumption that he had worked as additional secretary in the department and overseen the completion of some prestigious drinking water pipelines projects. Now bureaucrats are wondering whether this is a change of guard or a change of heart and what the next moves will be. * Varun Gandhi leads by example With the Omicron surge right during the campaigning for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Varun Gandhi, the third-term BJP MP from Pilibhit, has started the new year with a commendable idea. He, along with district magistrate Pulkit Khare and other district officials, is conducting meetings with health officials in the area to ensure that his parliamentary constituency is prepared to deal with the surge in Covid cases widely anticipated by health experts. Much too often babus at the grassroots level are used to being harangued by politicians and the public alike. So having their MP actively supervise the preparatory work to face the Covid challenge in the district is a welcome step to enthuse the district officials and try to ensure that the havoc of the second wave of Covid last year is not repeated. Good teamwork and able leadership can achieve a lot. In this pandemic, Varun is setting a healthy example that other lawmakers in Uttar Pradesh and at the Centre can emulate in their respective domains. * Babus to turn school teachers in Himachal Students and teachers in government schools in Himachal Pradesh are bracing for the descent of IAS and state administrative service officers on their premises to improve standards of education in these schools. The state government took this new initiative and chief secretary Ram Subagh Singh has sent out an order to all district education officers to implement the decision, which calls for these babus to take classes in the schools under their respective jurisdictions at least once a fortnight. The chief secretary says that the babus will teach students and also share their experiences and guide the students to choose their careers. The aim of sending babus to teach school students is to create trust of parents in government schools and also to inspect the schools for any deficiency in infrastructure. The state education secretary Rajiv Sharma has said that the officers will be expected to turn in regular reports of their teaching experience to the government. However, the babus may find it disconcerting that this noble initiative has not found favour with the existing teachers who see in this an attempt by the government to undermine the teaching community. Meanwhile, the government is hoping that the initiative sparks interest in students to opt for Central and state services. Apparently, there is a marked drop in the number of IAS and IPS aspirants in Himachal Pradesh. Hope this works! Alka Mittal has been appointed the interim Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), making her the first woman to head the country's largest oil and gas producer. Mittal replaces Subhash Kumar, another interim head, who retired after reaching superannuation age on December 31, 2021. "The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for entrustment of additional charge of the post of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), ONGC to Alka Mittal, Director (HR), ONGC for a period of six months with effect from January 1, 2022, or till the appointment of a regular incumbent to the post, or until further order, whichever is the earliest," the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said in an order dated January 3, 2022. Also Read ONGC without a chairman as Subhash Kumar retires and no replacement appointed Mittal is the first woman to head an oil and gas exploration and production company. Nishi Vasudeva was the first woman to head an oil company when, in 2014, she took over the reins of oil refiner and fuel marketing company Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL). A postgraduate in economics and a doctorate in commerce, Mittal had broken the glass ceiling in ONGC by becoming the first woman to join the company's board on November 27, 2018. Incidentally, ONGC will now have two full-time woman directors after government headhunter Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) selected Pomila Jaspal for the post of Director (Finance). Jaspal is currently Director (Finance) in ONGC's subsidiary, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL). The oil and gas sector has two women heading PSUs, with Vartika Shukla becoming the first woman to head engineering consultancy firm, Engineers India Ltd (EIL), on September 1, 2021. Kumar, who was Director (Finance) of ONGC, had been holding the additional charge of CMD since last April, ONGC had said in a stock exchange filing last week. "Anurag Sharma, Director (Onshore) has been entrusted with additional charge of the post of Director (Finance) with effect from January 1, 2022," the company had said citing a December 28, 2021 order of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to this effect. ONGC's last full-time head Shashi Shanker retired on March 31, 2021, and as his replacement was not selected Kumar, who was the senior-most director on the board, was given the additional charge. Also Read ONGC scripts turnaround of subsidiaries, OPaL reports 1st profit Government headhunter PESB on June 4, 2021, interviewed candidates to select a replacement for Shanker but did not find any suitable among nine candidates, including two serving IAS officers. The PESB interviewed 9 out of the 10 candidates who had applied for the post of CMD of ONGC. "Keeping in view the strategic importance and vision for the company and its future, the Board did not recommend any candidate and decided to constitute a search committee," PESB had said in a notice after the interviews. This time around, a search committee hasn't been constituted so far, indicating that a full-time replacement is unlikely to be appointed anytime soon. Once the panel is constituted, applications will be sought, which could take anywhere between one and two months. The ACC will take a call on the appointment after getting clearance from the anti-corruption bodies like CVC and CBI, a process that takes at least three to four months. Watch the latest DH Videos here: Alphabet Inc-owned Google said on Tuesday it has acquired Israeli cybersecurity startup Siemplify, at a time when there has been a significant rise in cyber attacks and data breaches. Since the pandemic started in 2020, Google's revenue from the cloud business nearly doubled to around $5 billion as companies shifted to working from home. The need to protect and hedge against security threats has also shot up in tandem, with big corporates also beefing up on cybersecurity products. Google said Siemplify's platform will be integrated into its cloud. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed by the companies but Israel-based technology news website CTech reported the acquisition is estimated to be $500 million. Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for confirmation. The buyout, Google's first Israeli firm deal, also underpins the middle-eastern nation's efforts to address cybersecurity concerns. Israel also happens to be home to cyber firm NSO Group, the maker of the Pegasus hacking tool that has come under fire from a string of companies and governments for misusing information. Check out latest videos from DH: US telecoms giants AT&T and Verizon on Monday agreed to postpone their deployment of 5G wireless service over concerns that it may interfere with flight safety equipment, AT&T and airline officials said. AT&T confirmed the deal in a statement, noting that at the request of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, "we have voluntarily agreed to one additional two-week delay of our deployment of C-Band 5G services." "We know aviation safety and 5G can coexist and we are confident further collaboration and technical assessment will allay any issues," the company said. The move came a day after AT&T and Verizon rebuffed a request to delay their rollout of 5G technology, scheduled for Wednesday, prompting airlines to threaten legal action. According to representatives of the airline industry, a last-minute draft agreement was reached first with telephone operator AT&T and then with Verizon to put off the deployment of their new 5G frequency bands by 15days. Also Read US seeks new 5G delay to study interference with planes Aviation regulators have raised concerns that the new system might interfere with the devices planes use to measure altitude and the rollout, initially scheduled for December 5, 2021, had already been postponed once. "Nobody has signed anything yet, but at this moment we will be holding in abeyance for this two weeks period as people are working frantically to come to an agreement," an airline industry official said. During this two-week break, changes made to facilities at airports, in particular, will need to be reviewed by the air safety regulator, the FAA, to "deem those mitigation factors in that deployment in those airports to be safe for flying," the airline official said. The 3.7-3.8 GHz frequency bands were awarded to AT&T and Verizon in February after a bid for tens of billions of dollars. Faced with concerns about potential interference problems with devices measuring altitude in airplanes, the FAA had issued new directives limiting the use of these devices in certain situations. US airlines have protested against the potential costs incurred, and called on the authorities to quickly find a solution. Watch the latest DH Videos here: As the world grapples with the highly mutated Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, scientists have identified a new strain of the Covid-19 causing virus in Southern France. Known as 'IHU', the B.1.640.2 variant has been reported by researchers at institute IHU Mediterranee Infection in at least 12 cases, and has been linked to travel to African country Cameroon. However, the researchers noted that it is too early to speculate on how this variant behaves as far as infection and protection from vaccines is concerned. The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study, posted on the preprint repository MedRxiv on December 29, revealed that IHU has 46 mutations and 37 deletions resulting in 30 amino acid substitutions and 12 deletions. Also Read Delhi imposes weekend curfew to curb Covid-19 surge Amino acids are molecules that combine to form proteins, and both are the building blocks of life. Fourteen amino acid substitutions, including N501Y and E484K, and nine deletions are located in the spike protein. Most currently used vaccines are targeted at the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which the virus uses to enter and infect the cells. N501Y and E484K mutations were earlier also found in Beta, Gamma, Theta and Omicron variants. "The mutation set and phylogenetic position of the genomes obtained here indicate based on our previous definition a new variant we named IHU," the authors of the study said. "These data are another example of the unpredictability of the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants, and of their introduction in a given geographical area from abroad," they added. The B.1.640.2 has not been identified in other countries so far or labelled a variant under investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the researchers, the index (first) case was an adult diagnosed positive by RT-PCR performed in a laboratory on a nasopharyngeal sample collected in mid-November last year. Epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding posted a long Twitter thread in which he said that new variants keep emerging but it does not necessarily mean they will be more dangerous. "What makes a variant more well-known and dangerous is its ability to multiply because of the number of mutations it has in relation to the original virus," Feigl-Ding tweeted on Tuesday. "This is when it becomes a "variant of concern" - like Omicron, which is more contagious and more past immunity evasive. It remains to be seen in which category this new variant will fall," he said. Many countries are currently experiencing a spike in Covid-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant which was first identified in South Africa and Botswana in November last year. Since then, the variant of concern has spread to over 100 countries. In India, a total of 1,892 cases of Omicron variant have been detected across 23 states and Union Territories so far. Watch the latest DH Videos here: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is poised to be elected for a second five-year term in the largely ceremonial role as he secured the backing of the ruling Green party on Tuesday. First appointed president in 2017, Social Democrat (SPD) Steinmeier, 65, last year said he would like to run again when Germany elects its next president on February 13. The Greens, who are part of a new three-way coalition government with the SPD and the liberal FDP, said in a statement they would be recommending that their MPs vote for him. Also Read: Germany calls nuclear power dangerous, rejects EU plan Steinmeier is a "very good and highly respected federal president who has rendered great service to our country during his first term", they said. The FDP has also said it will back Steinmeier. The office of president is a symbolic role in Germany providing a counterpart to the head of government, currently Chancellor Olaf Scholz, also a Social Democrat. One of Germany's most popular and trusted politicians, Steinmeier was appointed as head of state after extended stints as foreign minister and chief of staff for former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. With his snowy white hair, round glasses and dimpled smile, Steinmeier is a trained lawyer with a reputation for being diplomatic and measured in his speech. Announcing his desire to run for a second term last year, Steinmeier said being president had been an "honour" and an "enormous challenge". Presidents can run for a maximum of two terms in Germany, though Steinmeier would be only the fourth person to be re-elected to the role. Watch the latest DH Videos here: President Biden had to weather snowstorm while he was aboard the Air Force One as the city came to a halt due to a snowfall. The video of Biden eventually exiting the plane went viral fast, with social media users comparing him to former President Donald Trump. After airport employees labored in the heavy snow to move the stairlift to the jet's door, Biden was able to exit the plane. Because Marine One, the presidential helicopter that typically transports the president from Joint Base Andrews to the White House, was grounded due to the weather, Biden was forced to drive through the sleet after spending the weekend at home in Delaware. Biden returns to White House in snowstorm The president was stuck on the tarmac for 30 minutes after the truck transporting the stairs was pushed by workers as it struggled through the snow. As he walked down the stairwell, Biden covered his face against the snow, closely followed by a Secret Service agent, as per The Independent. To deal with the snowy DC streets, the president's armored limousine was swapped for an SUV version. In the snowstorm, the drive from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to the White House, which normally takes around 30 minutes because the capital's streets are closed to the commander in chief, took more than an hour. After his helicopter from Delaware was grounded due to weather, Biden traveled to the White House via motorcade from Joint Base Andrews. It comes as a result of heavy snowstorms that hit parts of the United States on Monday. Throughout the afternoon, up to 10cm of snow is expected in parts of the District of Columbia, northern Virginia, and central Maryland, The Sun reported. According to FlightAware, more than half of the flights at Ronald Reagan National Airport, Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport, and Washington Dulles International Airport were delayed or canceled. With the storm warning extending from northern Alabama to Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland, more than 500,000 people were without power. Thundersnow was likely in certain areas, according to the Weather Prediction Center. Read Also: Chuck Schumer Threatens to Change Filibuster Rules If GOP Blocks Voting Rights Bill Again Biden is five points behind Donald Trump in the polls Meanwhile, according to the current polls, not only does Biden's personal popularity rating remain low, but he would lose a general election to former President Donald Trump by nearly five points. Biden and his aides have repeatedly stated that the 79-year-old intends to run for president again in 2024, when he will be 86 years old. In a hypothetical match-up, though, an average of surveys collected by Real Clear Politics shows Trump beating Biden by 4.8 percentage points. The surveys included in the range were done in the six weeks leading up to December 19, and reveal that on average, 46 percent of voters support Trump, while just 41.2 percent say they would vote for Biden. It demonstrates Biden's problem as his government deals with a new wave of COVID-19 cases linked to the Omicron variant, consumer concerns about rising prices, and the failure of his domestic spending plans. Consumer prices had climbed 6.8% over the previous 12 months, a 39-year high, according to data released in November. Per Daily Mail, the polls range from a Rasmussen Reports poll of 1200 likely voters showing Trump a 13-point lead to a Wall Street Journal sample giving Biden a one-point lead. The idea of confronting Trump in a rematch in the 2020 election, according to Biden, makes it even more appealing. Related Article: Joe Biden's Net Worth: Facts You Need To Know About the 46th US President's Wealth @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the failed blood testing startup Theranos, now awaits sentencing after being found guilty of four of 11 charges of fraud Monday. Holmes, 37, left the San Jose, California, courtroom through a side door after the verdict was read in the case, which was closely scrutinized as a commentary on Silicon Valley. She was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was found not guilty on four other counts. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on three counts, which were set aside for later. Also Read: Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes guilty in fraud trial A conference will be held next week on the three counts in which the jury could not reach a verdict. Holmes can appeal the conviction, her sentence or both. She will also be interviewed by the US Probation Office as it prepares a presentence report. Each count of wire fraud carries up to 20 years in prison, although Holmes is unlikely to receive the maximum sentence because she has no prior convictions, said Neama Rahmani, president of the West Coast Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor. But he said her sentence was likely to be on the higher end because of the amount of the money involved. Holmes raised $945 million for Theranos during the startups lifetime, and those investments were ultimately wiped out. Watch the latest DH Videos here: Five global nuclear powers pledged Monday to prevent atomic weapons spreading and to avoid nuclear conflict, in a rare joint statement setting aside rising West-East tensions to reaffirm a goal of a nuke-free world. "We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented," said permanent UN Security Council members China, France, Russia, the UK and United States, adding: "A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." The statement was issued after the latest review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) -- which first came into force in 1970 -- was postponed from its scheduled date of January 4 to later in the year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the major recent tensions between both China and Russia and their Western partners, the five world powers said they saw "the avoidance of war between nuclear-weapon states and the reduction of strategic risks as our foremost responsibilities." The powers added: "We each intend to maintain and further strengthen our national measures to prevent unauthorised or unintended use of nuclear weapons." The statement also pledged to abide by a key article in the NPT under which states committed to full future disarmament from nuclear weapons, which have only been used in conflict in the US bombings of Japan at the end of World War II. "We remain committed to our NPT obligations, including our Article 6 obligation" on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict control. According to the UN, a total of 191 states have joined the treaty. The provisions of the treaty call for a review of its operation every five years. The statement comes as tensions between Russia and the US have reached heights rarely seen since the Cold War over a Russian troop build-up close to the Ukrainian border. That has raised fears that the Kremlin, worried by the possibility of further eastward expansion of NATO, is planning a new attack on its pro-Western neighbour. Crunch talks between Russia and the US on European security are expected in Geneva on January 10. Meanwhile, the rise of China under President Xi Jinping has also raised concerns that tensions with Washington could lead to conflict, notably over the island of Taiwan. Russia welcomed the declaration by the atomic powers and expressed hope it would reduce global tensions. "We hope that, in the current difficult conditions of international security, the approval of such a political statement will help reduce the level of international tensions," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. China's vice foreign minister Ma Zhaoxu was quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying the pledge "will help increase mutual trust and replace competition among major powers with coordination and cooperation". The idea that any nuclear war would be unwinnable was evoked by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and then US president Ronald Reagan in 1985 but this was the first time it had been raised by these five powers, said Marc Finaud, head of arms proliferation at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. "They have taken the lead and returned to this doctrine" after demands from non-nuclear states and NGOs, he told AFP. The joint statement also came as the world powers seek to reach agreement with Iran on reviving the 2015 deal over its controversial nuclear drive, which was rendered moribund by the US walking out of the accord in 2018. Washington has repeatedly warned that time is running out to agree a deal. The latest round of talks got underway in Vienna on Monday. Iran foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said "we sense a retreat, or rather realism from the Western parties in the Vienna negotiations." In an op-ed in international media published late last year, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the existence of 13,000 nuclear weapons worldwide as a growing threat, with the risk they could be used higher than at any time since the Cold War. "Nuclear annihilation is just one misunderstanding or miscalculation away," he said, describing nuclear weapons as a "sword of Damocles" over the planet. On Monday, Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that the Secretary General welcomed the new joint statement. "The Secretary-General takes the opportunity to restate what he has said repeatedly: the only way to eliminate all nuclear risks is to eliminate all nuclear weapons," Dujarric said in a statement. Jean-Marie Collin of the French branch of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), also welcomed the "positive" declaration. But "the fact that everyone is modernising and renewing their arsenals at the same time totally undermines it," he told AFP. The NPT recognises China, France, Russia, the UK and United States as nuclear weapons powers. India and Pakistan, however, have also developed nuclear weapons, while Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear arms but has never officially acknowledged this. These three states are not signatories of the NPT. North Korea, which has also developed nuclear weapons, pulled out of the NPT in 2003. Watch latest videos by DH here: Over 40 lakh adolescents in the 15-18 age group were vaccinated on Monday as India began vaccinating its teenagers as part of its staggered vaccination programme that started on January 16 last year. The number of registrations for vaccination in this age group that started Saturday crossed 51 lakh by Monday evening. If the number of daily vaccinated persons in this age group is maintained at the level of the first day, it will be taking 20 days to vaccinate the entire 7.4 crore children in this age group. In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on December 25 made the announcement for a vaccination plan for this age group. "Over 40 Lakhs between the 15-18 age group received their first dose of #Covid19 vaccine on the 1st day of vaccination drive for children, till 8 PM. This is another feather in the cap of Indias vaccination drive Syringe," Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said while Modi said, " I would urge more youngsters to get vaccinated in the coming days!" The Health Ministry also dismissed allegations on social media about administration of expired vaccines. "There have been some media reports alleging that expired vaccines are being administered in India under its national Covid-19 vaccination programme. This is false and misleading and based on incomplete information," the ministry said in a statement under the heading Covid-19: Myths versus Facts". Also read: Reports on expired Covid vaccines being used in India false, misleading: Health ministry In an official statement, the ministry noted that there have been some media reports alleging that expired vaccines are being administered in India under its national Covid-19 vaccination programme and explained the matter. "The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) on October 25 has approved the extension of shelf life of Covaxin (Whole Virion, Inactivated Coronavirus Vaccine) from 9 months to 12 months. Similarly, the shelf life of Covishield was extended by the National Regulator from 6 months to 9 months on 22nd February 2021. The shelf life of vaccines is extended by the National Regulator based on comprehensive analysis and examination of stability study data furnished by the vaccine manufacturers," it said. As the nation stared at the possibility of a third Covid-19 wave with Covid numbers once again registering an upward trend, different states came out with curbs. There were also demands including from Maharashtra that those in the 12-15 age bracket should also be allowed to get inoculated. With 33,750 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's active caseload stood at 1,45,582 till Monday morning. The weekly positivity rate is presently at 1.68 per cent with the recovery rate currently at 98.20 per cent. A total of 145.68 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive. Delhi LG Anil Baijal will chair a Delhi Disaster Management meeting tomorrow. Omicron was found in 81 per cent of the latest 187 samples tested for Covid-19 in the city. While Delhi has seen an over 800 percent rise in cases in one week in Delhi, Kolkata has seen a rise of over 400 per cent cases. Watch latest videos by DH here: Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said the scheme for a new corporate structure it had announced on April 14, 2021, has been "withdrawn" as the board is of the view that its existing structure is optimal for tapping emerging opportunities and unlocking value while scaling up digital businesses. The "seminal" telecom sector reforms package announced by the government has significantly boosted the outlook and investor confidence for the industry while simplifying the licence framework, the company said in a statement. With a strong balance sheet and 5G-ready network, Bharti Airtel said it is "well-positioned" to invest aggressively in the emerging growth opportunities offered by India's digital economy. "The Board of Directors of Airtel is of the view that the existing corporate structure of the company is, therefore, optimal for leveraging these emerging opportunities and unlocking value while continuing to scale up Airtel's digital businesses," it said. Accordingly, it added, the scheme of arrangement for the new corporate structure announced on April 14, 2021 "stands withdrawn". Under a modified scheme, the company, as previously approved by the board, will merge its wholly-owned subsidiary Telesonic Networks with itself, resulting in consolidation of fibre assets into Airtel. Besides this, Nettle Infrastructure Investments will also be merged with Airtel. "As announced earlier, the company will pursue its plan to eventually fold the DTH business (Bharti Telemedia) into Airtel to move towards the NDCP vision of converged services to customers," it said. NDCP refers to the National Digital Communications Policy. The company's businesses continue to be categorised under four key verticals - India, Digital, International and Infrastructure, it added. Bharti Airtel last year had announced a new corporate structure to sharpen the company's focus on driving the rapidly-unfolding digital opportunities while enabling it to unlock value. The new structure involved Airtel Digital Limited folding into the listed entity Bharti Airtel. This was intended to house all of the digital assets spanning Wynk Music, Airtel X stream, Airtel Thanks, Mitra Payments platform used by a million retailers, Airtel Ads, Airtel IQ, Airtel Secure, Airtel Cloud and all future digital products and services, the company had said on April 14, 2021. The company at that time had stated that the telecom business will be housed in a newly created entity -- Airtel Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited. Bharti Telemedia, the 100 per cent owned arm operating DTH services, will sit alongside Airtel Limited for now, it had stated at that time. Check out latest videos from DH: After Sulli Deals, the demeaning Bulli Bai has hit the social media targeting Muslim women. Women activists feel that the latest episode, which came in six months, would not have happened if police had taken action against the perpetrators in the first incident. Five womens organisations have now petitioned President Ram Nath Kovind seeking his immediate intervention in the issue. Mariam Dhawale, General Secretary of All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA), spoke to DHs Shemin Joy. The New Year started on a bitter note for women. We now see 'Bulli Bai'. This comes months after the 'Sulli Deals'. How do you see this kind of incident? This is basically to intimidate and scare the courageous minority women who are coming forward and raising their voices against injustice and against any kind of atrocities being committed on them. These are the tactics being used in this kind of political atmosphere where the BJP-RSS regime is ruling. They are targeting minorities and we can see that there is no kind of action being taken against the attackers.This is further encouraging these goons. Do you think the action taken when Sulli Deals came up was insufficient and it further gave an impetus for those behind the Bulli Bai to come up? Absolutely. When the FIR was filed, the first thing the Minister said was that the website or App was blocked. But no penal action was taken. The perpetrators were not arrested. Unfortunately, the atmosphere in this country has come to mean that people who are committing crimes against minorities are not touched. The latest is the Dharma Sansad where open calls were given to kill minorities are being protected. Nothing is happening. According to the manuvaadis, they are not anti-nationals. At the same time, false cases are imposed on those who are raising voices against injustice and atrocities. This trend is what we have to fight against now. Also read: Bengaluru man detained by Mumbai Police in connection with 'Bulli Bai' app case What are you going to do? Five women organisations -- NFIW, AIDWA, AIPWA, PMS and AIMSS -- have jointly written to the President on Monday seeking his intervention. We have said in the letter that we have unfortunately witnessed the most disgusting display of brazen misogyny for the second time in less than a year. This is done to humiliate and terrorise courageous Muslim women who were writing and protesting against injustice and corruption. The letter has said that FIRs against those responsible were filed in UP and Delhi but, unfortunately, no action was taken. The letter also said that inaction is part of a trend in which sections of the administration and even the judiciary remain spectators to criminal acts perpetrated against the minorities. We have also reminded the President that this latest atrocity has occurred at a time public meetings are being held where so-called Hindu religious leaders are openly calling for genocidal attacks against them with impunity. Do you think the latest episode is a right-wing agenda to further corner the secular sections of the society? Yes, very much. It is not just the secular space. It is to finish off everybody who is trying to raise their voice, who are espousing progressive, democratic, secular values in our country. The BJP-RSS wants to change our Constitution according to their manuvadi value system. Also read: DCW summons Delhi Police in connection with probe into 'Bulli Bai', 'Sulli Deal' cases For them, do you think empowered women are a problem? Yes. For them, women have to be subordinate, subdued and should not raise their voice. These attacks also come at a time the government is proposing to increase the age of marriage of girls from 18 years to 21 years. Do you think this is an attempt towards Uniform Civil Code? I wouldnt say it is on the way to Uniform Civil Code. It is on the way to imposing the manuvaadi cultural system in the country. We have said it cannot be a Uniform Civil Code but a gender-just Code. Why are you opposed to increasing the age of marriage of girls? There are several issues involved in this. The argument given by the government is of education and malnutrition. Both arguments fall flat. We believe that the concerns about maternal and child health can be much more effectively addressed by improving the nutritional status of girls and women throughout their lives, while also protecting and promoting their autonomy; specifically the right of adult women to make decisions about marriage and motherhood without coercion and force applied by family, community, vigilante organisations, or government. Also, if implemented, it will criminalise consensual marriages among adults and end up curtailing the autonomy of adult women. Also, how can you put a boy in jail for a consensual relationship just because you have raised the age of marriage and criminalised a consensual relationship? Since 2000, there are reports, teenage marriages have come down by 51%. There is a government report in 2019 which says the mean age of marriage has increased to 22.1 years. This means girls and boys dont want to get married early. So where are these marriages happening? Basically, they are people who are extremely poor who have no means of livelihood and education. Financial independence is a basic necessity for empowering women whereas India is facing the highest unemployment amongst women since Independence. The government has not been able to solve this. Without solving any of these factors, it is taking up this decision which is misleading the people of India. Watch latest videos by DH here: Union Minister of State for Health, Dr Bharati Pawat expressed concern over the emerging Covid-19 pandemic situation and noted that cases are increasing rapidly in Maharashtra and Kerala. The union health secretary is in constant touch with the health secretaries of all the states and is keeping a close watch on the changing situation, Pawar told reporters in Mumbai on Tuesday. The situation is alarming and the state should take necessary and timely actions to prevent further spread of the virus, she said on the spread of the Omicron variant. The Centre has already given instructions to the respective states regarding increasing the number of tests and has also provided funds to the states for the purchase of testing kits. Also Read | Delhi govt tells private hospitals to reserve at least 40% of beds for Covid patients The minister further informed that the union government has already provided all other required assistance and it is up to the states to utilise it wisely. All other measures should be implemented properly, she added. According to her, the implementation of containment measures should be speeded up. "It is a matter of concern that the number of patients in Mumbai is on the rise; everyone should be vigilant and should follow the guidelines, remembering that it is a fight against the virus, she said. The union government has already issued guidelines on what should be done if the number of patients increases and what decisions should be taken by the concerned states including on steps to be taken regarding availability of ICUs and hospital beds. Check out latest DH videos here Three African students of Assam's Dibrugarh University have tested positive for Covid-19, and their samples have been sent for whole genome sequencing, officials said on Wednesday. Two samples tested positive for the Omicron strain in a kit developed by the Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), NE of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in Dibrugarh, while the third result is awaited. "After the samples tested Omicron positive in our kit on Tuesday, we then carried out 'targeted sequencing', which confirmed the test results," an ICMR source told PTI. The samples have been sent to the CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST) in Jorhat for whole genome sequencing. Dibrugarh University International Affairs Executive Officer Arinjit Hazarika said an M Com student from Comoros recently returned from his country and tested positive for Covid-19. "His two roommates, hailing from Nigeria and Lesotho, in the international hostel also tested positive for Covid-19, and the trio was isolated in the hostel itself, which houses 22 foreign students," he said. The ICMR source said that the students from Comoros and Lesotho tested positive for Omicron in their kit. On Sunday, a 57-year-old man returning from Nigeria, his four family members and their domestic help tested Omicron positive in the RMRC kit, and their samples were sent for whole genome sequencing, the results of which are awaited. The RMRC kit can detect the Omicron strain in just two hours. The development is significant as a minimum of 36 hours is required for targeted sequencing and 4-5 days for whole genome sequencing to detect the variant. The kit is now being produced in bulk by a Kolkata-based firm in a public-private partnership mode. Watch the latest DH videos: Mumbai cyber police on Tuesday arrested a 19-year-old woman, believed to be the main accused in the 'Bulli Bai' app case, from Uttarakhand, as the engineering student from Bengaluru was remanded to police custody till January 10. The Maharashtra Cyber Police and Mumbai Police Cyber Cell had earlier filed an FIR against unidentified persons following complaints that photographs of Muslim women were uploaded for auction on the app hosted by GitHub platform. With two persons now under probe, Maharashtra's minister of state for home and information technology Satej Patel alleged a larger conspiracy. "There seems to be a much bigger network behind such coordinated crimes and I am confident that the Mumbai Police will soon unearth the entire nexus that is enabling such hate crimes against women in our country," Patil said. Also read: 'Bulli Bai' app case: Court remands Bengaluru engineering student in Mumbai Police custody till Jan 10 The 21-year-old accused from Bengaluru, identified as Vishal Kumar, an engineering student, was produced in a Magistrates Court at Bandra, which remanded him to police custody till January 10. The Mumbai Police has also secured the permission of the Mumbai court to carry out searches at the residence of the Bengaluru youth. Meanwhile, the woman detained in Uttarakhand is being questioned by a team from Mumbai Crime Branch-CID. She would be brought to Mumbai under transit remand. According to sources, the accused arrested from Bengaluru and the lady from Uttarakhand know each other. No further details about the two suspects have been shared so far. The Mumbai cyber police station had also registered a case against the app developers and Twitter handles that promoted the app. Hundreds of Muslim women were listed for auction on the Bulli Bai app with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. It has happened for the second time in less than a year. The app appeared to be a clone of Sulli Deals which triggered a similar row last year. Amid outrage over Muslim women being targeted through the dodgy app, the Delhi Police had sought details from the GitHub platform about the developer of the 'Bulli Bai' mobile application and asked Twitter to block and remove related "offensive contents" on its platform. The police had also sought from Twitter information about the account handler who first tweeted about the app. Leaders from across the political spectrum condemned the cyber harassment of women belonging to the minority community and called for strict action against the guilty. Terming the matter "serious", the Delhi Minorities Commission had issued a notice to city police chief Rakesh Asthana seeking an action-taken report on January 10. It had said the interests of Muslim women need to be safeguarded by nabbing the culprits. (With PTI inputs) Check out the latest DH videos here: With Covid-19 cases rising, political leaders are coming under attack for not wearing masks in public and conducting rallies with Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself is "often seen" without masks. There have been several social media posts questioning conducting the Assembly elections to five states in the coming months and political parties organising rallies. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who tested positive for Covid-19, also faced criticism for his rally in Punjab last week. "The rate at which the third wave is progressing, it seems an avalanche of Covid-19 cases are coming in the next few weeks. The Modi government is making the same mistakes it did during the second wave, which killed lakhs. Prime Minister Modi is himself often seen without masks. Will this govt ever learn?" Kharge tweeted. The rate at which the 3rd wave is progressing, it seems an avalanche of COVID cases are coming in the next few weeks. Modi govt is making the same mistakes it did during the 2nd wave, which killed lakhs. PM Modi is himself often seen without masks. Will this govt ever learn? Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) January 4, 2022 The Prime Minister was photographed and videographed without masks while travelling in a metro along with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Housing and Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri. Modi has also addressed a few gatherings in Uttar Pradesh recently while Home Minister Amit Shah also addressed a few rallies. Congress' Priyanka Gandhi, who isolated herself after a family member and staff tested positive, had also attended several rallies in the recent past. BJP's West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma took on Kejriwal, who was seen mingling with a large crowd in Chandigarh last week without wearing a mask, while wishing him a speedy recovery. Verma tweeted, "Arvind-ji, during your political tourism, you did not care about Covid-19 and people have been infected because of you. For you, vote-bank is more important than people's lives. When you are supposed to lead from the front, you have 'isolated' yourself. Delhi is watching." CM ISOLATE pic.twitter.com/yMn7bhoEeR Parvesh Sahib Singh (@p_sahibsingh) January 4, 2022 There were immediate retorts from sections that said it was actually a subtle message to Modi. Some on social media even called Kejriwal a "super spreader" while some others accused him of targeting those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi in March 2020. There was also some questioning on social media of the Election Commission going ahead with the elections in five states. Parties have urged the Election Commission not to defer the polls. BJP MP Varun Gandhi last week questioned the rationale behind imposing night curfew in Uttar Pradesh while the administration allowed political rallies amid a surge in Covid-19 cases and Omicron scare. Also read: Imposing curfew at night and holding rallies during day 'beyond comprehension': Varun Gandhi "Imposing curfew in the night and calling lakhs of people in rallies during the day this is beyond the comprehension of the common man. Given Uttar Pradesh's limited healthcare systems, we have to honestly decide whether our priority is to stop the spread of the dreaded Omicron or show electoral power," Varun had tweeted, which was seen as a veiled criticism of the BJP-led government at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh. Check out latest videos from DH: Delhi will have weekend curfew while government officers except those in essential services will work from home from Wednesday, as Covid-19 cases are surging in the national capital. However, the government will allow buses and metro trains to run in full capacity after finding that the reduced capacity has led to overcrowding at bus stops and metro stations that could lead to further spreading of Covid-19, especially its new variant Omicron. Tuesdays health bulletin showed 5,481 fresh Covid-19 cases in the capital as against 4,099 recorded a day before. The positivity rate rose to 8.37 per cent from 6.46 per cent but the government has not gone for declaring a red alert and imposing a full lockdown as formulated in the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) when the positivity rate stays above 2 per cent for two consecutive days. These decisions were taken at a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority chaired by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and attended by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia among others. The meeting came as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been on campaign for the upcoming Assembly elections and frequently visiting Punjab, Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, tested positive for Covid-19 and isolated himself at his official residence. North-East Delhi MP Manoj Tewari, who has also been on campaign trail, has also tested positive. There will be a curfew on Saturday and Sunday. Government officers barring those from essential services will be working from home. Private offices will be allowed to work with 50 per cent capacity, Sisodia told reporters after the meeting. Read | Surge in cases indicative of third Covid wave in India: Expert However, the government has reversed its earlier decision to allow only 50 per cent capacity in buses and metro trains, fearing that metro stations and bus stops could become super-spreader locations following overcrowding. No one without a mask will be allowed to board a bus or train. Other restrictions which were declared on December 28, when the capital was put under yellow alert under Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), will continue. Sisodia said there was nothing to panic as the trend has shown that Omicron is mild in nature. He said the capital had around 11,000 cases in the past 8-10 days but as on Tuesday, there were only around 350 people needing hospitalisation. Of this, only 124 are on oxygen and just seven on ventilators, he said. While night curfew will continue during weekdays, shops selling non-essential items will be allowed to remain open between 10 PM and 8 PM. Shops in malls will continue to follow an odd-even scheme among others while restaurants and bars are allowed to function with 50 per cent capacity. While a yellow alert was announced after the capital recorded positivity rate over 0.5 per cent for two days, the capitals administration has not followed the GRAP, which was formulated during the emergence of the much more virulent Delta variant. According to GRAP, a red alert should be declared if the positivity rate has remained above 2 per cent for more than two days. Haitian authorities reported that the country's prime minister, Ariel Henry, was able to survive an assassination attempt while attending a New Year's Day Mass to mark the nation's independence from France, fleeing to safety after the shootout. The terrifying incident left one person dead, and Henry's office said on Monday that the perpetrators were "bandits and terrorists." The criminals allegedly put soldiers behind walls to shoot at his convoy and also threatened the bishop by surrounding the Cathedral of St. Charles Borromeo. Haiti Assassination Attempt The prime minister's office said that arrest warrants have been issued and officials called the situation "intolerable." In a Twitter post, Henry said he was thankful that the bishop of Gonaives and other church officials were doing their duty "despite the tense situation that reigned in the city." A Haitian newspaper, Le Nouvelliste, was the one that reported s a single fatality and also revealed that at least two people were wounded during the shootout. The sudden incident prevented Henry from delivering his planned speech to those who were attending the mass, The Washington Post reported. Video footage of the incident was uploaded on social media platforms and showed the Haitian prime minister and his entourage scrambling toward the safety of their vehicles as a collective of armed men were shooting outside the cathedral. Media outlets suggested the possibility of gang involvement in the shooting. Read Also: Chuck Schumer Threatens to Change Filibuster Rules If GOP Blocks Voting Rights Bill Again Gangs in Haiti hold many parts of the country and their influence has only grown since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise last July. Police authorities, who called the attack on Saturday the work of "armed groups," said they were unable to immediately confirm the number of casualties. Local Gang Influence Before the incident, a local gang boss in Haiti had made verbal threats against Henry in local media. The recent assault renewed concerns about the safety of officials within the region since the fatal shooting of the nation's president, Reuters reported. Barely two weeks after Moise's assassination in the hands of suspected mercenaries, Henry was sworn in as the country's prime minister. His administration is currently facing mounting challenges to its legitimacy. The nation has yet to set a date to elect a successor to former President Moise. In a Twitter post on Sunday, Henry said that the country's enemies, enemies of the Haitian people, were terrorists who had no hesitation in using violence to kill people with all their might or to kidnap, take away their freedom, to rape them. The prime minister said that the perpetrators were driven by their desire for money. Henry has also pledged to crack down on gangs in the country that many authorities have blamed for the surge in kidnappings in the region. They are also believed to be responsible for blocking gas distribution terminals in a move that has caused a severe fuel shortage in recent months. The situation has forced the United States and Canada to urge their citizens in Haiti to leave and go back home to their native country amid threats to their livelihood and safety, Yahoo News reported. Related Article: New Jersey Gov. Declares State of Emergency on 5 Counties Due to Snowstorm, Not COVID-19 @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has tested positive for Covid-19 and he is in self isolation at his official residence. "I have tested positive for Covid-19 mild symptoms. Have isolated myself at home. Those who came in touch wid me in last few days, kindly isolate urself and get yourself tested (sic)," the Chief Minister tweeted on Tuesday morning. I have tested positive for Covid. Mild symptoms. Have isolated myself at home. Those who came in touch wid me in last few days, kindly isolate urself and get urself tested Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 4, 2022 The AAP supremo has been campaigning for the upcoming Assembly elections and frequently visiting Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand. He also visited Uttar Pradesh in the recent past to attend political rallies. Earlier in April 2020, Kejriwal's wife Sunita had tested positive for Covid-19 prompting Kejriwal to go into isolation. However, a test showed that he was negative for Covid-19. Delhi, which is contemplating to upgrade it alert level from yellow to a higher one, is witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases with Monday recording 4,099 cases and 6.46 per cent positivity rate. Check out the latest DH videos here: On the precipice of a third wave of Covid infections, a large number of doctors and paramedics in Delhi are turning out to be Covid positive which might put the city's health infrastructure under severe strain, experts said on Tuesday. At least 50 doctors have tested Covid positive at AIIMS in Delhi while 26 have been diagnosed with the disease at the Safdarjung Hospital, officials said. Forty-five healthcare workers, including 38 doctors, have contracted Covid at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in the last few days, according to an official. At the North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run Hindu Rao Hospital at least 30 doctors have contracted Covid while at the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Hospital it is seven, sources said. Also Read | Delhi govt tells private hospitals to reserve at least 40% of beds for Covid patients Even though the Delhi government repeatedly stressed that most cases this time would be mild or asymptomatic not requiring hospitalisation, data shows an uptick in the number of Covid patients in hospitals and those requiring oxygen and ventilator support. Experts said that since the highly transmissible Omicron variant is going to infect people in a never-seen-before number, those requiring medical care in hospitals will also be proportionate. Delhi reported 5,481 Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, the highest since May 16, with a positivity rate of 8.37 per cent, and three more fatalities due to the viral disease. In view of the alarming spike in cases, the AIIMS administration has cancelled the winter vacation of its faculty members. Also Read | Covid-19: Weekend curfew imposed in Delhi; CM Arvind Kejriwal, BJP's Manoj Tewari test positive "It is to inform that the competent authority has decided to cancel the remaining part of the winter vacation -- from January 5 to 10 -- due to ongoing Covid 19/Omicron pandemic. All faculty members are requested to join back their duty with immediate effect," read an office memorandum issued on January 3. Officials at the Safdarjung Hospital said at least 26 doctors from the departments of gynaecology, medicine and microbiology have been infected and are in isolation. Their contacts are being traced. Seven doctors at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, the largest healthcare facility of the Delhi government, have tested positive for coronavirus in the last two days, Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr Ritu Saxena said, adding three of them have been kept in a special ward and the rest are in home isolation. Dr Madhu Handa, the Medical Director of Moolchand Hospital, said four resident doctors and at least five nurses have tested Covid positive in a week. "The other doctors have to manage somehow, do double shifts. Sometimes, we hire more doctors. As for nurses, we have to manage or nursing third-year students are pulled into duty," he said. Dr B L Sherwal, the medical director of the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, said a few doctors are testing Covid positive every day and the number is likely to rise in the coming days "The number of hospitalisations has so far remained low, but it is going to increase and put the healthcare staff under strain. Doctors, nursing staff, laboratory technicians, paramedical staff form one of the most vulnerable groups. A large number of healthcare staff members are getting infected will compound the situation," he said. Dr Sherwal said the city government has trained 5,000 youths as medical assistants and they will be deployed if the need arises. The city government had last month ordered medical superintendents and directors of all state-run hospitals to hire manpower in anticipation of a surge in infections. Dr Manish Jangra, President of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association, said they had warned the government of a healthcare crisis and requested it to expedite the NEET-PG 2021 counselling. "The hospitals are operating with two-third of their staff. The situation will spiral out of control at the peak of the wave. Resident doctors are already struggling with burnout," he said. Dr Arun Kumar Sharma from the Community Medicine department of University College of Medical Sciences said the number of hospitalisation is likely to increase proportionately and a large number of doctors getting infected can lead to a temporary crisis even if they develop mild symptoms. "The burst in cases among doctors in Nalanda (Nalanda Medical College and Hospital in Bihar's Patna) is due to the Omicron variant which has been causing only mild disease. "Nonetheless, these doctors will also have to isolate themselves for seven to 10 days. So, it can definitely lead to a temporary crisis in hospitals," he said. Dr Sharma suggested that hospitals create a "buffer stock of doctors" which can be deployed in such a situation. "Also, Covid-appropriate behaviour will have to be strictly implemented in hospitals, dispensaries and clinics. The entry of patients in such places should be regulated according to the space available to ensure social distancing," he said. Government data showed the number of patients in hospitals in Delhi has increased from 247 on January 1 to 531 on January 4. In the last three days, the number of patients on oxygen support has increased from 94 to 168 and those on ventilators from four to 14. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had earlier said his government is ready to handle up to one lakh Covid cases a day in a worst-case scenario. The Centre's coronavirus task force head Dr V K Paul had in December warned India could witness 14 lakh cases a day if the Omicron variant surge is not slowed. Check out latest DH videos here As many as 2.15 crore families in Tamil Nadu will receive a gift hamper from the Tamil Nadu government on the occasion of the Pongal festival containing rice, ghee, and other grocery items. The distribution of the gift hamper was launched by Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday at the Secretariat by handing over the goodies to 10 families. Pongal, the harvest festival, will be celebrated on January 14 this year and the government decided to provide a gift hamper with 21 grocery items, including 100 grams of ghee produced by state-owned Aavin, to 2.15 crore ration cardholders. The gift hampers which includes different varieties of dal, and sugarcane, an integral part of Pongal festivities, will be distributed to all eligible families before the festival begins. Tokens for distribution of the hampers have been issued. The AIADMK government had in 2019 and 2021 added a cash gift along with the hampers distributed for Pongal. However, the DMK government decided to drop the cash from the hamper. Read | Will Pongal couple up as Tamil New Years Day from 2022? The grocery items are packed inside a cloth bag that says Tamizhar Thirunaal Vaazthukkal (Tamil festival greetings) and does not contain the name 'Pongal'. Many scholars describe Pongal as the festival of Tamils. In a tweet, Stalin said he was happy to launch the distribution of the Pongal gift hamper. We are one race Tamils. Pongal is the festival of Tamils during which we thank the sun and cattle, he said. Meanwhile, the government announced that the sugarcane provided with the gift hampers will be procured directly from farmers who have cultivated sugarcane. At a separate function, the Chief Minister distributed a new set of clothes to priests of temples under the Hindu, Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) department and uniforms to people working in the temples. Watch latest videos by DH here: The Kerala High Court has made a major technological leap by implementing a state of the art application that enables not just paperless court proceedings but also has artificial intelligence-based features for roster analysis and distribution of cases to reduce pendency. However, the shift to paperless procedures right from filing of petitions to the judgement has triggered fear among thousands of advocate clerks of going jobless. There are also concerns among the lawyers that they will be burdened with the task of filing petitions and other clerical procedures. The paperless court project of the Kerala High Court was formally inaugurated on January 1. It offers a lot of features for advocates and judges, right from referring to previous cases and legal publications online. One of the highlights of the application is the AI-enabled roster analysis facility for the Chief Justice. It helps the Chief Justice to evaluate pendency of cases before each judge, identify reasons for pendency and approximate time required for clearing pendency. Judges could even dictate orders using the voice to text conversion facility. Already two district level courts and six court rooms of the Kerala High Court have become fully paperless smart court rooms where even witness statements are recorded using voice-to-text conversion facility. Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan, who is a member of the computer committee of the High Court, said in a presentation on the paperless application that it was designed by considering the feedback from advocates. He also said that the new system would bring about transformative changes in the justice dispensation in the state. Meanwhile, advocate clerks were concerned that the shift to total e-filing would render around 10,000 advocate clerks in the state jobless in due course. Majority of the advocate clerks are computer illiterate and aged. Moreover, many advocates may also prefer not to use the service of clerks to reduce the costs. Kerala Advocate Clerks' Association state president Rajendran V K said that the concerns of advocate clerks who were playing crucial role in the judicial system over the decades were not considered while shifting to paperless court. There should be provision for advocate clerks also to access the online application. The association is also joining as a party in a case pending before the Supreme Court in this connection, he said. K B Pradeep, a senior High Court lawyer, said that the new application would not help in addressing pendency as it requires recruitment of more judges. At present around 1.5 lakh cases are pending before Kerala High Court, while the number of judges are 47, he pointed out. He also said that the shift to e-filing of application would only increase burden of lawyers. Since majority of the bench clerks are computer illiterate, the lawyers themselves would have to do the petition filing procedures also. Shift to paperless system is good, but should be done in phased manner, he said. Watch latest videos by DH here: With Covid-19 cases in the state increasing rapidly and mask compliance coming down, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday decided to create awareness on the need to follow Covid appropriate behaviour by distributing face masks to people who werent wearing one on a busy road in the state capital. Stalin distributed face masks to people on the arterial Anna Salai on his way back to his Chitaranjan Salai residence from Fort St. George, the seat of power of the Tamil Nadu government. While distributing the masks to people, including children, the Chief Minister told them not to step out of their homes without wearing a mask. You should always wear a mask. Dont come out without a mask. Follow Covid appropriate behaviour, he told passers-by and motorists. The Chief Ministers action came even as authorities of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) have collected over Rs 5 lakh as fines from people who did not comply with the Covid-19 rules. Also Read | 2.15 crore families in Tamil Nadu to receive Pongal gift hampers Stalin has been emphasizing that wearing a mask can prevent one from getting infected with Covid-19. While launching the vaccination drive for children of 15-18 years of age on Monday, Stalin had stressed the need to wear a mask and get vaccinated with two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. Health Minister Ma. Subramanian, who accompanied Stalin in his car, said the Chief Minister took a box of face masks with him while leaving the Secretariat. He got down from the car near Omandurar Hospital and distributed masks to people who werent wearing one. While he got down from his car at a few places, the CM distributed masks to a few sitting inside his car, through the 8-km journey he told DH. The Chief Minister was returning home after chairing a high-level meeting on the Covid-19 situation in Tamil Nadu. Subramanian said Stalin distributing face masks by alighting from his car will send a strong message to the people on the need to follow Covid appropriate behaviour. Tamil Nadu has been reporting a high number of cases for the past few days with Chennai topping the list. As of Tuesday morning, the state had 10,364 active cases, including those in home isolation, with Chennai topping the list with 4,259 persons. Check out latest DH videos here With Indias Covid numbers increasing by 8 times in the last two weeks, an expert advising the government on Tuesday said that a peak for the third wave might be on the horizon, but added that there was no need for a panic, even as the Union Health Ministry reminded the states to be ready for a surge. "Looking at the behaviour of the Covid infection in the last seven to 10 days in India, I feel that we may be in for a third wave peak very soon," said N K Arora, chairperson of the Covid working group at the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. Indias daily Covid count fell to just 5,326 on December 20, but began to rise sharply after a week to cross the 40,000-mark on Tuesday. Even though most of the cases are either mild or asymptomatic, there is a slow rise in hospital bed occupancy in Delhi and Mumbai. Also read: Karnataka imposes weekend curfew for 2 weeks to curb spread of Covid-19 In a letter to the state administrations, the ministry asked the states to repurpose the beds in private and public hospitals and start the work on reestablishment and recommissioning of make-shift or field hospitals so that in the eventuality of a potential surge, the states were not found wanting. Arti Ahuja, an additional secretary in the ministry, asked the states to open Covid Care Centres in hotel rooms and similar accommodations, and link them with dedicated Covid-19 hospitals. Moreover, the states are also to procure and stock logistical supplies like testing reagents and kits. Arora, however, said there was no need to panic. "Those who are yet to take the vaccine or are partially immunised should get the jab for protection against severe disease and hospitalisation. Also, one should strictly follow Covid-appropriate behaviour," he said. Independent experts are also hopeful that the next wave would not be as disastrous as the last one. The next wave by Omicron will not be as ferocious as Delta. Ultimately we will rely more and more on vaccines to manage Covid-19 be it endemic or epidemic. Vaccinations will eventually become routine -- and will most probably start in early childhood, veteran virologist T Jacob John, a former professor at the Christian Medical College, Vellore told DH. Till Monday, India detected 1,892 confirmed Omicron cases from 23 states and Union Territories, Maharashtra topping the list with 568 Omicron cases, followed by Delhi (382), Kerala (185), Rajasthan (174), Gujarat (152) and Tamil Nadu (121). Watch the latest DH videos: Amid an unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases leading to over 50,000 active patients, the Maharashtra government is expected to come out with a new set of stringent guidelines on Wednesday. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will chair a series of meetings and take a final call on the guidelines, however, lockdown has been ruled out at this stage. There would be a review meeting after which the chief minister would take a call on the new guidelines, which would be announced accordingly, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said after a review meeting in Pune. Over the last couple of days, state health minister Rajesh Tope has reiterated that the government would consider a lockdown only if the daily medical oxygen requirement crosses 700 metric tonne. Also Read | Cases increasing rapidly in Maharashtra, Kerala; implement all measures properly: Centre On the other hand, Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar said that lockdown in Indias financial capital would be imposed when daily cases cross the 20,000-mark. We are not thinking in terms of lockdown but surely we would be meeting and there would be strengthening of the existing restrictions, state relief and rehabilitation minister Vijay Wadettiwar said. Over the last two days, school education minister Prof Varsha Gaikwad and higher and technical education minister Uday Samant held separate meetings to assess the situation. In Mumbai, for classes I-IX and XI, the education would be only on online mode - a decision that has been replicated in the majority of the Mumbai metropolitan region. Check out latest DH videos here According to several reports, Russia is increasingly concerned about China's surging influence in Central Asia (CA). Recently, Russia and India discussed the prospects of joint manufacture of defence equipment and counterterrorism exercises in the Central Asian countries. After implementing its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, China has become a much bigger economic partner for most Central Asian countries, undermining the traditional influence of Russia. It has broken Russia's monopoly on Central Asia's energy and other goods exports, becoming their first or second most significant investment and trade partner. China bought 33.2 billion cubic metres (bcm) of the 63.2 bcm gas produced by Turkmenistan in 2019. Due to a price dispute, Russia could not buy any (2016-19). China's cumulative investments in Kazakhstan stood at $32.63 billion, $6.8 billion in Turkmenistan, $5.44 billion in Uzbekistan, $4.73 billion in Kyrgyzstan and $ 1.61 billion in Tajikistan (2005-18). While earlier, its investments were in the oil and gas assets, roads, railroads, power plants and electrical grids, now these are focused on establishing factories to process local raw materials with increasing hiring of local workers. These investments are altering the Russia centric orientation of the Central Asian economies. Also Read China building bridge over Pangong Tso to counter India's attempts to gain strategic edge Russia has become a junior partner to China in bilateral trade as well. In 2018, China's trade with these countries was about $41.7 billion, almost twice that of Russia. It accounted for 22 per cent of all Central Asian exports and 37 per cent of their imports. Several Central Asian countries are now trussed deeply in China's debt trap. The debt of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan owed to China is about 20 per cent of their respective GDPs, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan about 16 per cent and Kazakhstan 6.5 per cent (2018). China's BRI has achieved increased traction in Central Asia due to large loans provided by Beijing and the inability of the Russian companies to secure financing for the execution of projects after the western countries imposed sanctions following Russia's occupation of Crimea (2014). The progress of Russia's Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) has been lacklustre as some Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan see it primarily in economic terms while Russia views it more for regaining its earlier influence. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been reluctant to join the EEU. In the security field, which used to be Russia's exclusive preserve, China is gradually expanding its role, much to Moscow's chagrin. In 2016, China set up a base in Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakshan region, manned by its paramilitary and armed police to prevent the infiltration of Uighur activists via the Wakhan corridor. China has also established (2016) a new mechanism that includes Tajikistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan to monitor the security situation in this area. In addition, China has constituted (2020) a group of five Central Asian countries foreign ministers for annual consultations. Since 2002, China has conducted several exercises with the Central Asian security and police forces and emerged as an important exporter of military equipment (mainly air defence systems, drones, armoured carriers and surface missiles) and technologies. Also Read China implements new border law, India concerned Some CA countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have been augmenting their national identity by encouraging the Latinisation of their national languages and discouraging the use of Russian Cyrillic alphabets. They harbour apprehensions about Russia's intervention, given the precedent of Crimea and numerous ethnic Russians living there. The creeping influence of China has fostered deeper linkages with certain ruling elites. The president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, is a fluent Mandarin speaker; Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov was born and educated in China and has business ties there. The US influence in Central Asia has abated with its declining interest in Afghanistan. For instance, its security assistance to Tajikistan declined from $450 million a decade ago to about $11 million in 2020. Russia and China have prevailed upon the Central Asian countries not to provide any bases to the US for its counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan. Russia is unable to satisfy the needs of the Central Asian countries due to its low economic growth (average about 0.8 per cent between 2013-20). President Vladimir Putin has avoided reforms, which may undermine his regime's foundation and capacity to manage change -- the lessons of the Gorbachev era. Also Read China says Arunachal Pradesh 'inherent part' of its territory Russia has asked India to expand its political, economic and security linkages with the Central Asian countries. This is also in India's interest as it would not like to be encircled by an aggressive China from the north and east along with its "iron brother" Pakistan in the west. A significant constraint for India is the lack of connectivity as the trade routes to the Central Asian countries pass through Pakistan-Afghanistan and Iran. The Iran route was severely hampered earlier due to the US sanctions. India and the Central Asian countries are now exploring setting up new transportation links through the Chabahar port. India has extended a credit line of $1 billion to these countries for setting up new projects. Its private sector has made some investments in pharmaceuticals and auto-component sectors. India has provided a large number of scholarships for the training of experts. The US should facilitate India in expanding its cooperative activities with the Central Asian countries, as these would complement its objective of reducing China's dominance in this strategic region. (Yogesh Gupta is a former ambassador) Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH. Watch the latest DH Videos here: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the grand corridor to the Kashi Viswanath temple on December 13, nostalgic memories swept over me. The earliest, from my childhood in the mid-1950s, is of an enterprising Vadyar a Sri Vaishnava priest who organised an annual pilgrimage tour by hiring a bus, complete with provisions, cooks and utensils, to visit the holiest of the holy temples of India, from Tirupati to Kashi and Badrinath in the Himalayas. He arranged night halts in Dharmshalas, was fluent in Sanskrit and Hindi, knew the rules of these temples, was well-versed in the Puranas and scriptures and enthralled the pilgrims with legends and lore associated with the deities and the mythic rivers over the 45 days of the tour. The Kashi Viswanath darshan and Ganga snan were the high point of the tour. It dawned on me very early the inscrutable hold it had and the centrality of Kashi and Ganga on the lives, sentiments and imagination of Hindus, especially his perennial stream of Brahmin pilgrims. Later, in my 20s, when I first boarded an Indian Airlines flight, the notes of Shehnai that wafted through the plane as I entered the cabin captivated me, and it has remained a haunting melody since. And that lilting soul-seeping tune by Ustaad Bismillah Khan is, to me, inextricably linked to the Kashi Viswanath temple. The words of the Ustaad, a devout Muslim who said that his music was a gift from Lord Vishwanath, still resonate in my mind. The third imagery associated with the Ganga is from the heart-stirring song of Ganga beheti hi kyon by Bhupen Hazarika. Bhupen laments, On your mighty banks, that are home to countless people, despite hearing their anguished cries, O Ganga, how do you how can you flow so meekly, silently and unmindfully. He beseeches: Morality is destroyed and humanity is corrupted, yet shamelessly, why do you flow? ...O stream of Ganga, yet why do you not turn weak into strong warriors? O Ganga, why do you keep silent? Also read: Hate speech: Time to step back from the brink The song was poignant, and made you wonder, what was the point of all this worship, this holy dip, this seeking of personal salvation, if it did not cleanse and uplift our society and polity collectively. The glittering inauguration of the Kashi corridor by Modi elicited responses from many quarters on expected lines. Those from the BJP were mesmerised by the grandeur of the ceremony. The believing Hindus were moved to tears of ecstasy by the Vedic chants from the high priests. The intellectuals felt it was gross theatrical extravaganza and the height of narcissism of one man who turned the deeply pious ceremony into a marketing event, divesting it of its religious significance. Politicians were stunned by the sheer audacity of the Prime Minister, who strode through as if he were an emperor. They accused him of using religion for politics with an eye on the forthcoming UP elections. Some asked if he should not have made the occasion a national event by inviting the opposition parties and the heads of all religions, thereby mirroring to the world the all-embracing ethos of Hinduism. Was that not the resounding message of Swami Vivekananda when he addressed the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, where he said, I am proud to belong to a religion that has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance...We accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. By turning the ceremonials into a Hindu hegemonic celebration, did it diminish a great religion and its universal appeal, which has drawn people from around the world over millennia for its spirit of enquiry, its quest for truth, that sees the Creator in everything, into a parochial revelry? Power is the mistress of all politicians. Opposition politicians wear secularism on their sleeves, BJP politicians wear Hindutva on their robes, one to appease the minorities, the other to appease the majority community, to gain power. How are they any different? When BJP paints the Opposition as anti-Hindu, they panic and start visiting Hindu temples or reciting holy chants to stop alienating Hindus. They are falling into the trap laid by the BJP. They cannot win that communal contest. Their hypocrisy and want of convictions show easily. No one knows what they stand for. At least, people know what the BJP represents. Also read: Indias leaders are playing with fire Rahul Gandhis recent religious polemic against the Hindutva ideology of the BJP and RSS, as opposed to the Hinduism that he stands for, is a valid and much-needed debate in these toxic times. Yet, why is Rahul Gandhi not taken seriously? Why is Kejriwal, who trounced BJP and Congress in the Delhi elections twice by unprecedented margins solely on the twin planks of governance and development, grovelling before voters chanting mantras and promising pilgrimages? Why is he losing confidence in what he believes in? Politicians like Nehru, Sardar Patel, Jaya Prakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia needed no validation from others about their ideologies or religious beliefs nor stooped to prove that they were ardent Hindus. Their faith in humanism, fraternity, and equality for all did not waver. The Opposition must ponder deeply and get their ideology and politics right. Modi invoked the noble qualities of Ram and ideals of Ram Rajya in Ayodhya and paid obeisance to Viswanath in Kashi, with an oblique reference to those invaders like Aurangzeb who desecrated Hindu temples centuries ago. His followers took it as a call for a crusade of war against the minorities, unleashing terror and violence. The open calls for ethnic cleansing by some are the very antithesis of every ideal those deities symbolise. Modi can, and must, put a stop to this hate and violence before it gets out of hand. As he enjoys a huge mandate, his actions, his words, as well his silences, can unleash destructive forces. They can also douse the fire of hatred and heal and unite the country. Modi can leave a legacy of bringing a sense of pride to Hindus, with malice toward none, with charity for all. It may also be more prudent politics in the long run. The Hindus are amorphous and detest straight-jacketing into rigid belief systems. Modi can mix religion with politics if he believes in the ideals and precepts of Gandhi, whom he often invokes. Gandhi, the greatest Hindu that ever lived, said, Those who believe religion and politics arent connected dont understand either...For me, humanitarian service, or rather service of all that lives, is religion. And I draw no distinction between such religion and politics. (The writer is a soldier, farmer and entrepreneur) Watch latest videos by DH here: The state is on the cusp of a massive third wave, with the expectation that thousands of infections will start to occur per day. An eminent oncologist and member of the states Genomic Surveillance Committee, Dr Vishal Rao of HCG Cancer Hospital, tells DHs Akhil Kadidal that significant action is needed to prevent the surge in cases that could potentially overwhelm the system. In six days, state-wide case numbers have jumped 127 per cent. What measures should be taken to contain the spread of Covid? With Covid cases surfacing at a faster pace now, we need to acknowledge the historical realities of this virus. December 2019 saw the debut of the D614G variant. December 2020 saw the onset of the Delta variant, while December 2021 was the month of Omicrons advent. With every passing year, the virus seems to be getting smarter and stronger in terms of transmission, vaccine escape, and possibly even virulence. The race between vaccine and variant continues. So, we should not let our guard down and continue to keep our faith in vaccination, ventilation, masks, social distance, and hand hygiene. This will help us bring down the positivity rate. Also read: Bengaluru's Covid positivity rate crosses 2% for first time in 7 months At what rate is Omicron doubling? The positivity rate of the Delta variant was 0.5 per cent in March 2021 but at the end of April, it touched 25 per cent. Now with Omicron, the doubling time is 1.5 to 3 days, so with Omicron plus Delta put together, the positivity rate of the Delta surge of 2021 can potentially be reached in half the duration it took in 2021. Hence, we will be forced to take stringent social distancing measures if and when we touch 5 per cent of the test positive rate. Why is the test positivity rate so important? The positivity rate needs to be correlated with the hospitalisation, ICU and oxygen bed rates. The example of South Africa needs to be looked at where hospitalisation and mortality rates were significantly lower in the case of the Omicron surge. While it was 25 per cent for Delta, it was 5 per cent for Omicron. Having said that, social curbs must continue unabated. Should international flights be halted? Yes, proactive thinking will be needed to forestall the third wave, through measures like halting international flights for a brief while. Although global studies have revealed that international flight bans are not very effective in virus control, flights and airports are breeding grounds for mixtures of variants and virus transmission. Hence, increased vigilance and monitoring at airports are a must. Needless to say, the citizens role remains pivotal. We know that the virus does not move on its own; we help move it. If we move higher than 5 per cent, the government will also have to look at curbing the economic (activity) zones. Also read: Karnataka reports 1,290 Covid cases as surge continues; 1,041 cases in Bengaluru alone Is there anything the government should be considering at its meeting on Tuesday? At this juncture, it is crucial to look at clusters and syndromic approaches. Considering that not every case will be symptomatic, it will be prudent to impose curbs based on hospitalisation rates, not merely positivity rates. Social and cultural activities can be allowed in a restricted manner, exercising ample caution. This will be advisable rather than adopting a blanket ban approach. Further, attention to needy patients on priority will be crucial. Would a lockdown be necessary? Generally, a lockdown is a mandate of last resort. It cannot be a treatment for any epidemic or pandemic. As the earlier two waves have taught us, the five Ts of testing, tracing, treating, training, and teamwork are very effective. In my personal opinion, we dont need lockdowns at this stage, unless hospitalisation rates become significant. The lockdown during the Delta wave happened when the government could not manage peoples behaviour and bed arrangements in hospitals were completely overwhelmed. Studies show that Omicron may have lower disease severity. Is that something we can actually take comfort from? While the severity of Omicron has been on the lower side, the WHO has rightly cautioned the world about its high transmission rate and mutational burden. A Hong Kong study has indicated that Omicron has a much lesser multiplication rate in the lungs. This could co-relate to milder disease of less severity. In parallel, we have data from Glasgow University that omicron is trying to alter the route of its entry into the cell. Does that mean it is weakening? Experts caution us that the Omicron may make alterations of different tipping points and hence making drastic assumptions would be highly dangerous. Also read: Bengaluru sees biggest single-day jump in number of containment zones Testing has been low in the state for at least six weeks. At what levels should we be testing currently? In the coming days, testing rates would need to increase significantly. Higher number of rapid antigens and PCRs would need to be made to make quicker diagnosis, given that Omicron has a higher viral load. The first testing statistic we see anywhere is the number of tests conducted every day. This number alone doesnt tell us much as the number of tests that may suffice for a smaller state like Goa may not be adequate for a bigger state like Maharashtra. Also, a state like Delhi, with a bigger epidemic, will require more tests per day irrespective of the size of its population. The raw number of daily tests must then be seen in the context of the population in a given area (tests per million) or the scale of the epidemic (test positivity rate) Genomic sequencing continues to be low. But considering the surge in cases do you think that Omicron may be driving the case increases? Should we be concerned about a Delta plus Omicron third wave? The genomic surveillance team would gear up in quick time given the rising number of cases. The state government has given the necessary support in this direction. Watch latest videos by DH here: A Russian-intelligence insider could be a crucial support in helping the United States government crackdown on the case of Moscow's alleged hacking of the 2016 presidential elections. The individual, identified as Vladislav Klyushin, was extradited to the United States on insider trading charges in December. The report, which was released on Monday, cited unnamed sources that had close ties to the Russian government and called Klyushin the "highest level Kremlin insider handed to U.S. law enforcement in recent memory." Russian Hacking Just 18 months ago, the Russian-intelligence insider was given a medal of honor by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Additionally, the sources in the report said that Russian intelligence has concluded that Klyushin had access to documents related to Moscow's campaign to hack into servers of the Democratic Party in 2016. The report also suggested that Russia made subsequent efforts to leak damaging information to the press in an attempt to support former United States President Donald Trump's chances at winning the presidency during the elections. The documents would suggest that the Russian military intelligence led the hack and would be the best evidence that proves the Russian government had a hand in the incident, MarketWatch reported. Read Also: Ivanka, Trump Jr. Refuse To Comply With New York Attorney General's Subpoena on Business Fraud Investigation The documents that Klyushin had access to that were related to the 2016 Russian hack showed that the team responsible for the endeavor were called "Fancy Bear" or APT28. In filings made by the United States, Europeans, and Switzerland, the individual's path to the U.S., his flight from Moscow, his arrest in Switzerland, and his imprisonment in jail while the Russian and the American government competed over his extradition, were detailed. More than a half-dozen people, who requested anonymity, spoke about Moscow's efforts and its causes for concern. The accounts suggest that American and UK spy agencies approached Klyushin within the two years before he left Russia and received heightened levels of security in Switzerland. 2016 US Elections Klyushin also missed his last chance to appeal his extradition, something that many observers in Moscow were baffled with. Several of the people also said that the individual's transfer to the U.S. represented a serious intelligence blow to the Kremlin, The Print reported. They warned that the situation would grow direr for the Russian government if Klyushin decides to seek leniency from U.S. prosecutors in exchange for providing information about the inner workings of Moscow. Three of the anonymous sources said that Klyushin had access to secret records of other high-level GRU operations working internationally. In recent years, Russian military intelligence agents have been linked to a series of hacking attacks and the attempts of chemical poisoning assassination of dissident ex-GRU colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter while they were in the UK in 2018. The Russian government has denied all involvement in the case. U.S. filings showed indications of Klyushin's vantage point with his IT firm, M-13, working for the Russian presidency, government, and ministries. A former military intelligence official named Ivan Yermakov was one of the individual's subordinates. The individual was charged alongside his boss in the indictment, the Japan Times reported. Related Article: GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Green Rebuts Twitter's Permanent Suspension of Her Account as an Attack on Freedom of Expression @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Karnataka on Tuesday decided to impose a stay-at-home order on weekends and curb public gatherings amid a fresh surge in Covid-19 cases in what looks like the third wave of the pandemic. In Bengaluru, the government has decided to stop all physical classes in schools, except for grades 10, 11 and 12. This was decided at a three-hour-long meeting that Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai chaired with senior officials and the Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The weekend curfew will be applicable across the state. Also read: Delhi hospitals stare at workforce crisis as doctors test Covid positive From 10 pm Friday to 5 am Monday, a weekend curfew will be in place for two weeks. The existing night curfew that ends January 7 will also be extended for two more weeks, Revenue Minister R Ashoka told reporters. During the weekend curfew, shops selling food, milk, medicines, vegetables and such essential items will be allowed. Hotels will be permitted to give parcels, he said. Curbs will be imposed in public places. Theatres, malls, bars, pubs and all such public places will function at 50 per cent seating capacity. Full vaccination is a must for people visiting these places, Ashoka said. Ceremonies like marriage can have 200 persons in an outdoor venue and 100 indoors. Here, too, guests should be doubly vaccinated, Ashoka said. A negative RT-PCR report is mandatory for people entering the state from Maharashtra, Kerala and Goa. Places of religious worship will be open. But, at any given point, not more than 50 people will be allowed, Health Minister K Sudhakar said. Sudhakar said the third wave of Covid-19 had begun. Bengaluru is an epicentre. It was the epicentre in the first and second waves. Even in the third wave, Bengaluru will be the epicentre because the airport is here. International passengers arrive here and then go to other places, he said. Watch latest videos by DH here: As kids in the 15-18 age group began getting jabbed against Covid-19 on Monday, parents began receiving messages. "Vaccination done for 10 A girls. Those who were absent must be vaccinated at whichever place you prefer. Submission of certificates is a must by this week itself. It is compulsory, take it seriously," read one message that was sent by a CBSE school and shared with DH by a parent. The message spooked the parents. "We were really shocked with the communication from school saying children will not be allowed to write board exams if they are not vaccinated," said the parent. "What kind of rule is this?" "It is for parents to decide and we demand that concerned authorities should instruct schools about the same." Also Read: Reports on expired Covid vaccines being used in India false, misleading: Health ministry Such sentiments were also echoed by other parents that DH met after several schools made vaccination mandatory and sent out warning messages as the vaccination programme kicked off amid a Covid-19 surge. Parents revealed that some of the private unaided schools sent out messages on Sunday evening itself, mandating offline attendance for children on Monday following the vaccination session. "My daughter's school has made vaccination compulsory," said a parent. "They have been given the option to get it done outside or at the camp to be organised at the school. But we need to submit a vaccination certificate if the child has to attend offline or online classes from January second week." While several parents disapproved of schools making vaccination mandatory, at least one school batted for "caution" over the jabs that has triggered anxiety. "Vaccination for children is a government advisory. However, parental consent is required to facilitate the same on our campus. The schools will also need to gauge the current scenario and proceed with caution," said Aloysius D'mello, principal of Greenwood High International School, Bengaluru. On the other hand, government schools had a different kind of problem. At some schools, despite requests, most of the parents and kids did not turn up, with the former citing several issues. School principals asked parents to get their wards jabbed whenever and wherever it is convenient for them. Dr Vishal R, Commissioner, Department of Public Instruction, sought to allay fears of parents. "Vaccination is not mandatory, but parents should take it on a positive note," he told DH. But the private schools' management association advised parents to consider vaccination as a responsibility. "All these days parents said they were waiting for vaccines for children. Now, instead of blaming schools for making it mandatory, let them take it as a responsibility and get the kids vaccinated," said D Shashi Kumar, general secretary of Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka. Watch latest videos from DH here: Don't wait for what 2022 has in store but organise action is Eamonn McCann's message to the people of Derry. The former People Before Profit MLA and Councillor cited the successful strike action of the Derry dockers as an example of workers being full of fight when their power is let loose. Mr McCann also said that with a new Ireland on the horizon, society must be transformed along with any future constitutional change. He said: The past year has seemed overcast with gloom. But there is as much brightness as dark on the horizon up ahead. Everywhere that there is oppression there are people fighting back. It is on the outcome of these struggles that the future depends. The key reason the Earth is at risk of climate catastrophe is that production is not organised in the interests of the many but instead is geared instead to profit for the few. Despite all the fine words at COP26, investment in fossil fuels is as high as ever because thats where capitalists reckon the highest profits can be made. The pursuit of profit is the source of most of the worlds ills. In Ireland, women have made great strides through fearlessness, organisation and struggle, and have been at the heart of everything good thats happened in 2021. Womens liberation can free us all. In Ireland, Britain, the US, across Europe and the wider world, the trades union movement is stirring again. Rank and file groups are pushing union leaderships into action. The docks strike in Derry, the actions throughout the public sector, the Debenhams stoppage and many more examples show that workers are full of fight when their power is let loose. The brilliant campaigns in the US for union rights at Starbucks, Amazon and beyond show the way forward. Pressure for change from below is as strong as ever. The possibility of a New Ireland has been widely discussed in 2021. But only a strong socialist presence can ensure that its the content of society which must be transformed, not just the constitutional arrangements. Its easy in the face of the multitude of problems that assail us to conclude that the world is going to hell in a handcart and theres nothing much we can do about it. Thats wrong. Theres always something we can do, if we do it together, in an organised way, according to the politics of liberation that is to say through socialist struggle. We mustnt wait to discover what the new year has in store, but begin to organise action in workplaces, communities, campaign groups, everywhere to bring about a better world, starting with our own little patch of the world. On the many crises with which we are faced, time is running out. Action is needed. Only socialist politics can unite the struggles. That should be our watchword for 2022. Subscriber content preview The units will be rentals for 15 years, and then tribal families will have an opportunity to buy the townhouses. TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) A Native American tribe in southern Arizona plans to begin construction on an affordable housing development for its members. The Pascua Yaqui Tribe is using a low-income housing tax credit award from the Arizona Department of Housing to help secure $8.3 million in private investment. That will mainly fund the $9.6 million development of 27 townhomes on the tribe's southwest Tucson reservation. . . . Subscriber content preview SEATTLE Twin apartment buildings at 705-702 Second Ave. W. in Lower Queen Anne sold last week for a little under $13.4 million, according to King County records. The sellers were Canadian investors who had owned the property for over 45 years. . . . A conservative attorney warns Americans against voting for Donald Trump in the 2024 election. After all, the ex-POTUS winning could send shockwaves to the country due to another possible siege. Philip Rotner penned an essay this week where he claimed that Trump came so close to overturning the 2020 election result. But what prevented it from happening was Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Donald Trump didn't have the right people to support his plans Raffensperger refused Trump's request to find enough votes to be declared the winner in the state. "Trump didn't fail to overturn the 2020 election because our brilliantly engineered system of constitutional government held fast ... He simply didn't have the right people in the right positions to pull it off," Rotner said via the Huffington Post. Donald Trump could be planning another coup Since Trump was unsuccessful when it came to overthrowing the election, his supporters engaged in a siege that killed a handful of people. Jan. 6 marks the first anniversary of the Capitol riot, and so many experts, as well as those involved, have been revisiting and weighing in on the incident. Rotner said that if Trump will be elected president in 2024, Americans could expect another siege. And this time around, more people could die because what happened last year was just a dress rehearsal for the ex-POTUS and his supporters. Read Also: House Select Committee Approves Donald Trump's Request Not To Release Some Documents Irrelevant to Capitol Riot Investigation Donald Trump's children knew he was involved in the riot As of press writing, investigations are still underway regarding the Capitol riot. More information regarding Trump's involvement in the siege is being released every week. Last month, it was revealed that Trump's former chief of state, Mark Meadows, and even his son, Donald Trump Jr., wanted the ex-POTUS to stop the riot. This week, Ivanka Trump was also linked to her dad's involvement in the riot after Congresswoman Liz Cheney confirmed that she also asked her dad to appear on TV and put an end to the insurrection. During an interview, Cheney said she wanted to know why Trump didn't ask his supporters to stop the riot when he was just a few steps away from the press briefing room. Cheney also said that the ex-president was at the dining room of the White House, where he watched the harrowing events unfold on television. Congressman Bennie Thompson called Trump's request to prevent the House select committee from looking into his phone calls and text messages as a modus operandi. After all, the ex-POTUS is known for suing those trying to get information from him and then delaying their requests. But in the end, Trump won't get his way when it comes to the Capitol riot, according to VOA News. Joe Biden, Donald Trump to commemorate the riot On Thursday, Trump and Joe Biden will also appear in a split-screen telecast to commemorate the anniversary of the Capitol riot. Biden will give a speech regarding the deadly siege, which will be followed by an address from Kamala Harris. According to NDTV, Trump is expected to continue spreading lies about the 2020 election, as well as the riot. He previously said that the real insurrection happened in November, not in January. Related Article: Biggest Scandals in US Politics In 2021 Revisited @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Duncan, OK (73533) Today Windy with scattered afternoon thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. High 86F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies after midnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 47F. Winds NNE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Louth Fine Gael senator, John McGahon, has stated that the National Transport Authority (NTA) must deliver on its commitment to introduce a flexi commuter ticket in Q1 of 2022. Senator McGahon received confirmation from the NTA in September 2021 of their plans to introduce a flexi ticket in Q1 of 2022 and has said there can be no further delays to this timeline. I commuted to Dublin for seven years on the Matthews Bus and the train from Dundalk. Since June 2020, I have been lobbying the NTA to introduce a flexible tax saving ticket for commuters. At present, people can only avail of a monthly or an annual ticket, despite the hybrid model of working from home and the office since the pandemic began. This means someone commuting from a town such as Dundalk is paying anywhere between 2,600 to 3,600 annually, while only being in the office two or three days a week. Eighteen months on from first raising this issue, the NTA are yet to introduce a flexible ticket. Last summer, they confirmed they were keen to make the change but noted it would require legislative change in a Tax Act from 1997 which originally provided the Tax Saver Ticket and as a result, there would be a considerable delay. Disheartened by that news, I went directly to Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe who was able to confirm that no legislative change would be required, and a flexible ticket could be introduced under the existing legislation. I brought this information to the NTA who then subsequently confirmed to me last September that they would introduce a new flexi ticket in Q1 of 2022. I am calling on Minister Eamon Ryan to engage with the NTA to ensure commuters have easy access to these tickets by the end of March. This is about putting money back into peoples pockets and making workers lives that bit easier. Considering the pandemic and a hybrid model of working from home, eighteen months is an incredibly long time to wait for a flexi ticket to be introduced. This should have been done a lot sooner, but finally and hopefully, the NTA will keep to their own timeline and ensure a flexible tax saver ticket will be introduced in Q1 of 2022, concluded Senator McGahon. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. The Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon, has called for the Government to explore all options and to maintain their commitment to keep schools open. Speaking ahead of a meeting between the Department of Education, health officials, unions and school management bodies, the Ombudsman for Children said: Closing schools and denying children access to in-person learning cannot be our default response. "There is no doubt that the extremely high case numbers arising from the Omicron variant will be a challenge for everyone in the school community, but almost two years into the pandemic we know the negative impact school closures have, not only on childrens learning, but on their social development. We also know that the most vulnerable children and those with special needs are disproportionately affected. I support the view of the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, Dr Conor OMahony who said that school closures are not a simple trade-off between education and health. The negative impacts are wider and deeper than missing a few weeks of classes. The Special Rapporteur on Child Protection also called for Government to ensure that we have exhausted every safeguard and mitigation before looking at the option of school closures. This makes sense and it is something that I expect the Government and the Department of Education have been considering for some time. We should be trying to make this happen rather than retreating and going back to the same measures what were relied on twelve months ago. Each school, be that primary or secondary are dealing with their own individual problems and circumstances and we should support the principals to make the right decisions for their school. A one size fits all approach is not in anyones interest. Although the increase in Covid-19 cases over the Christmas break has been frightening, it was not unforeseen. I wrote to the Taoiseach before the Christmas break in light of the warnings in relation to Omicron and reinforced my view that keeping schools open is in the best interests of children. Realistically, I know that in the coming weeks there will be situations where classes or schools may have to move to online learning due to staff shortages. There may also be a need to make materials available to children who have tested positive or are isolating. Teachers and everyone in school communities must be supported to make this happen. They should also be provided with the equipment needed to ensure that schools remain as safe as possible for all children and staff. If a situation arises where school closures must be considered, all schools and students should not be treated the same, but I really hope that it does not come to that. Every effort must be made to ensure that Ireland, like most other countries in Europe, reopens our schools. Claremont, NH (03743) Today Cloudy with occasional rain showers. High 52F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Light rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Low 43F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. The Duchess of Cambridge surged to her piano bench in Westminster Abbey this Christmas with all the dazzle and assurance of the jaunty large red ribbon placed around her neck. This was a Kate we hadn't seen before. She was overjoyed to be the star of the carol performance she had organized, to own it, and to have all eyes on her. She looked to be finally grasping her role as Queen-in-waiting with two hands, humble yet unapologetically center-stage, and stepping up to the plate with grace. Duchess of Cambridge to celebrate 40th birthday next week Per MIRROR, her evolution is noticeable when she looks back on her path to this significant milestone. From Kate's early years as a hardworking family girl, through the Waity Katie years of her early romance with Prince William, the early years of marriage and motherhood, when she looked hesitant to express her own voice, to the duchess now fully embracing four decades. Kate is taking control of her career, just like her wardrobe has evolved from her early years' attractive but unremarkable style to today's bolder and more unique ensembles. While some may have been more outgoing, Kate showed early on that she had the ability to handle any situation, including royalty. She was born on January 9, 1982, at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, to parents Carole and Michael Middleton. She is the typical industrious elder sibling to her sister Pippa and brother James. The Duchess of Cambridge will be 40 on January 9, 2022; but instead of a spectacular party, it appears that her birthday celebrations, like her Christmas, will be scaled back owing to concerns about COVID-19. Kate is likely to hold a smaller gathering with family and close friends rather than a massive bash, according to OK! Magazine. The Queen had to cancel her plans for a meeting at Sandringham so Kate and her husband Prince William had a scaled-down version of the traditional royal Christmas. The Queen, Prince Charles, and Camilla attended a smaller Christmas lunch at Windsor Castle while Kate's family joined the Cambridges at Anmer Hall, their country mansion on the Sandringham estate. The event will be commemorated by the release of a new portrait of the Duchess by Kensington Palace. Kate divides her time between Anmer Hall in Norfolk and Kensington Palace in Central London although she has always yearned for a country life like the one she had as a youngster in Berkshire. The worst present Prince William ever bought for his wife was just exposed. "I did purchase my wife a set of binoculars once - she's never let me forget it," Prince William revealed in a BBC Radio Five Live podcast interview with Peter Crouch about gifts they'd given their spouses. Read Also: Prince Philip Will: Where Is It, Who Will Receive Inheritance From the Queen's Husband? Kate Middleton's royal titles Meanwhile, depending on the region of the United Kingdom, members of the Royal Family are referred to and by various names. Kate Middleton is known as the Duchess of Cambridge most of the time; but when she visits Scotland or Northern Ireland, she is referred to by two separate titles. Kate Middleton and Prince William have a number of responsibilities for the Queen, as well as patronages and charities. When they arrive in various regions of the UK, however, other titles are used to address them. As for why this is, Her Majesty the Queen can grant several regional titles, which become major titles within that area. Scotland, for example, became an independent country in 1707 and had its own aristocratic system. Similarly, the Royals in Northern Ireland have distinct names. As a result, when Kate married into the Royal Family, she was given three titles. On April 29, 2011, Kate married Prince William at Westminster Abbey. Queen Elizabeth II gave them a dukedom as a gift, and they became known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Kate, on the other hand, uses the title of Countess of Strathearn when she visits Scotland. When she visits Northern Ireland, she is referred to as Lady Carrickfergus. In Scotland, Prince William is known as the Earl of Strathearn; while in Northern Ireland, he is known as the Baron of Carrickfergus. Kate and William will take on additional senior roles in the future, as per Express.co. Related Article: Kate Middleton Is "Really Upset" About Estrangement From Prince Harry, Meghan Markle; Sussexes May Split in 2022, Expert Claims @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. North Andover, MA (01845) Today A mix of clouds and sun this morning followed by increasing clouds with showers developing this afternoon. High 57F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Steady light rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low near 45F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. The medical teams of Beijing's mountains Xinhua) 10:25, January 04, 2022 BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- About 70 km southwest of downtown Beijing lies the mountain township of Da'anshan, where the elderly account for more than half of the total population, most of whom have suffered from heart disease, high blood pressure, and other chronic diseases for years. Wang Jinhui, working in the health center of the township since 2013, has been committed to providing medical services for the mountain villagers. "More than 20 years have passed since I graduated from college, during which I have never left the mountain clinics," Wang said. When he arrived at Da'anshan Township about eight years ago, Wang found that the empty-nest elderly with chronic diseases hardly had access to medical services, while the rugged mountain roads made it even more difficult for them to get to the health center for treatment. To solve the problem, Wang came up with an idea to provide door-to-door medical services for local villagers, which was not well-supported by his colleagues initially. Rugged roads, the shortage of medical equipment and the lack of experience were obstacles in front of them. Nevertheless, Wang and his colleagues insisted on providing door-to-door medical services in Da'anshan. Wang divided the medical staff in the health center into five teams covering the whole township, and each team consists of a doctor, a pharmacist, a cashier and a driver, enabling mountain villagers to receive medical treatment at home. Door-to-door medical services have been provided in Da'anshan for about eight years, benefitting more than 70,000 villagers and establishing health files for over 3,700 people. Zhang Chunping, a villager with cerebral palsy, cannot afford his medical bills, so the medical team decided to use acupuncture, physical therapy and massage to relieve his pain while minimizing the prescription of drugs to reduce the cost. For the communities in Da'anshan Township scattered in the mountains, each medical team spends half a day in each community providing door-to-door medical services, which is demanding work, especially for greenhorns. "Many medical workers at Da'anshan health center are in their 20s and 30s. They are still adapting to the tough working environment in the mountains, but it is our mission to lend a hand to mountain villagers and relieve their pain," Wang said. To help young medical staff learn faster, the health center invites retired doctors in downtown Beijing to mentor the young medical workers in the health center. Wang was elected as a deputy to Beijing Municipal People's Congress in 2017, advocating for a better salary for medical workers in mountainous areas. "Many of them can find jobs outside the mountains, but they insist on living in the mountains to offer medical services to local villagers," Wang said. All the medical staff in mountain health centers are admirable, who never shy away from confronting difficulties, Wang added. "I hope more young health workers can join us to improve the well-being of mountain villagers." (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Hongyu) Longtime Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush, who won against Barack Obama in the 2000 Congressional race, just announced his decision to not run in what would've been his 16th term in office. According to reports, there were already whispers about Rush making an announcement regarding his campaign plans. But no one expected that the Illinois representative would say that he intended to do something else. Bobby Rush releases statement In his statement, Rush said that he wouldn't be resigning from the public eye completely. Instead, he will become more active in his church. He also vowed to work hand-in-hand with whoever will be elected as his successor. "I have been reassigned. Actually, I'm not retiring, I'm returning home. I'm returning to my church. I'm returning to my family. I have grandchildren. I'm returning to my passion. I will be in public life. I will be working hand in hand with someone who will replace me," he said via Market Watch. Rush also said that leaving Congress would pave the way for him to share his wisdom with more people. Bobby Rush denies claims that he'll be retiring Following his announcement, multiple sources are insisting that Rush will be retiring. So, the congressman was forced to debunk the claims by saying that retiring was not part of his plans. According to Politico, Rush said that he's not ready to go off to some spot in the sun, sit on the beach, and drink tequila. Instead, his goal is to maintain sway over voters that elected him for a seat in Congress throughout the past three decades. Read Also: Illinois Rep. Jonathan Carroll Admits Legislation He Filed Targeting Unvaccinated Residents Is Divisive, Says He Won't Pursue It Anymore Rush also said that the prospect of Democrats losing the House did not influence his decision. After all, he's confident that Democrats will retake the House and even increase their numbers in the Senate. Last year, there were predictions that Rush could win in the upcoming elections. But when asked if he would run for reelection, he said he would make an announcement in January. Who is Bobby Rush? Throughout the years, Rush has made headlines for all sorts of reasons. He was one of the few people that beat Obama during a Congressional race in 2020. He was also arrested in 2004 for blocking the driveway of Sudan's embassy while demanding an end to genocide. In 2012, he was reprimanded by the House after he wore a hooded sweatshirt following the death of Trayvon Martin. Other than these, Rush has also struggled with his health. He was previously diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery in 2008. He also battled COVID-19 recently but stressed that he didn't experience any symptoms. According to WGNTV, there are five other declared candidates in the Democratic party in Illinois, namely Jahmal Cole, Michael Thompson, Chris Butler, Kirby Birgans, and Dee Nix. Rush is also known for advocating against gun violence, which started following the police killings of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Years later, Rush's son, Huey Rich, was also killed during an armed robbery in Illinois' South Side. To this date, Rush is still advocating against gun violence and other important issues. Related Article: Illinois Reports 12,000 New COVID-19 Cases Daily; New Infections Could Lead to 'Super Immunity' @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) is set to propose delayed and staggered reopening of schools at a meeting tomorrow with the Department of Education and Public Health Officials. The Standing Committee of the union, which represents around 18,500 secondary teachers, met today to assess the position regarding the reopening of schools in the context of the prevalence of Covid-19 nationwide. The meeting heard of the unease of members regarding the health and safety of teachers, students and school communities. In a statement this evening, the union said it is "deeply concerned" Education Minister Norma Foley may reopen schools "without putting in place additional measures necessary to safeguard the health and safety of students and school staff". It said key concerns include the safety of school communities, staff shortages due to Covid-19, inadequate ventilation and lack of HEPA filtration units, provision of medical-grade masks and risks to medically high-risk individuals. The ASTI is calling for updated risk assessments to be presented prior to schools re-opening later this week. "The priority must be that students and school staff can learn and work in an environment where there are appropriate safety measures in place to protect all concerned," said ASTI President Eamon Dennehy. The union will be proposing a delayed and staggered reopening of schools, with face-to-face teaching with examination classes to be prioritised. The ASTI is also set to ask the Minister to consider making antigen tests available for all parents and their children to be used prior to going to school as a supplement to the existing testing and tracing regime in second-level schools. The union will also be calling for the speedy rollout of HEPA filtration units at the meeting with the Department of Education and Public Health Officials tomorrow. A CORK expert has warned that school closures can have particularly negative impacts on some children as pupils and teachers prepare for a return to class on Thursday. Special rapporteur on child protection, Professor Conor OMahony of UCCs Child Law Clinic, is behind an annual report, published this month, which documents the harm caused to children by school closures and lockdowns. Speaking to The Echo, he said: The evidence weve seen in 2020 and 2021 has all pointed in one direction and showed how harmful the closures were for a lot of children from marginalised backgrounds. Not everyone sees that, because they dont live in those communities. Schools allow children time in a safe environment for a certain amount of time every day. They also put them in contact with mandated reporters in school who will be on the lookout for red flags indicating signs of neglect or abuse. This may result in a report to Tusla, who will take action by identifying that child and addressing their needs. This was one of the most significant manifestations of school closures. He listed the negative impacts for children who are at risk. Children were not in contact with people who were the most likely to make a child protection referral. This made it much more difficult for Tusla to identify the children who needed our protection. The issue of children at risk is sitting on top of a pyramid of different impacts. "Socialisation is also a huge issue. Studies have shown children becoming introverted and going into themselves. Schools are expected to reopen as scheduled, despite growing concerns about the recent surge in daily reported Covid cases. Education Minister Norma Foley will meet with unions, management bodies, and Department of Education officials today to discuss plans, and has said that all infection prevention and control measures are under review. CORK University Hospital (CUH) is asking the public to explore other care options before attending its emergency department. In a statement released today, the hospital said that the department had been "exceptionally busy" over the past number of weeks. The increasing number of Covid patients admitted to the hospital, along with staffing challenges, is putting significant pressure on services. Due to the increased level of activity, delays may be experienced. Hospital management has requested that, where appropriate, the public contact their GP in the first instance and explore all other options available to them before attending the emergency department if their needs are not urgent. "Patient care is paramount in CUH and this situation is being treated as a priority by hospital management who have taken steps to address this issue," a spokesperson for the hospital said. The Mercy University Hospital made a similar appeal yesterday due to an increase in the attendances of acutely ill patients. Both hospitals wished to advise the public that the county's local injury units remain open. The Mercy Local Injury Unit, located at St Marys Health Campus, Gurranabraher, is open from 8am to 6pm daily. The Local Injury Unit at Bantry General Hospital operates between 8am and 7.30pm and the Local Injury Unit in Mallow General Hospital is open from 8am to 8pm. Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have discovered a link between air pollution, food delivery and plastic waste. In a study published in Nature Human Behavior, the researchers found that the more polluted air outside is, the more likely office employees are to use food delivery services. This, in turn, increases the waste produced from single-use food packaging and bags. While we see more research on the impact plastic pollution is having on the natural environment, there has been less work trying to understand the human behaviour that drives plastic pollution, Alberto Salvo, one of the studys authors, said in an NUS news release. This is where our study seeks to contribute finding a strong causal link between air pollution and plastic waste through the demand for food delivery. The study surveyed the lunch choices of 251 office workers for 11 workdays each in three Chinese cities known for having levels of smog Beijing, Shenyang and Shijiazhuang, the release explained. They also looked at data from an online food delivery platform with over 350,000 users. By comparing both datasets with air pollution data during the lunch hour, NUS researchers found that employees were 43% more likely to order food delivery when there was a 100 g m3 increase in particulate matter pollution (PM2.5), International Business Times (IBT) reported. By contrast, the general public was 7.2% more likely to use food delivery services with the same increase in air pollution. PM is the most common indicator for air pollution, and includes nitrates, ammonia, sulfate, mineral dust and black carbon, the news report explained. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), PM affects more people than any other pollutant, and PM2.5, or fine particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, can penetrate the lung barrier and enter the blood system. Chronic exposure to particles contributes to the development of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and lung cancer, the WHO said. During the lunchtime periods surveyed by NUS researchers, PM2.5 levels were often well above the 24-hour U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 35 g/m, making pollution highly visible, the NUS release said. Faced with smog or haze outside, a typical office worker at lunchtime can avoid exposure only by ordering food to be delivered to his or her doorstep, said NUS researcher Chu Junhong in the NUS release. Chu also explained in the release why air pollution seemed to have a smaller impact on food delivery in the general public than in workers, because people try to avoid the outdoors on a polluted day by using a home kitchen or eating at a cafeteria within their office building. In a second part of the study, office workers submitted photos of their lunches, which researchers used to quantify the amount of disposable plastic in different dining choices, explained an NUS Business School video. Not surprisingly, researchers found that delivered meals used more plastic than meals eaten in restaurants. The average delivered meal used an average of 2.8 single-use plastic items or an estimated 54 grams of plastic, the video explained. By comparison, the average restaurant meal used an average of 6.6 grams of plastic, usually in the form of chopstick sleeves or bottles. 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We will use information previously obtained in accordance with the Privacy Policy in effect when the information was obtained from you. Contacting Us If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or the practices of this Site, please contact us at contact@ecowatch.com Qian Hu in loan agreement with AquaEasy Integrated fish service provider Qian Hu Corporation Limited announced that it has entered into a US$738,716 unsecured convertible loan agreement with AquaEasy Pte Ltd, a unit of the Bosch Group and a global supplier of technology and services. AquaEasy, an artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT)-based solution, combines sensors, software and services based on data analysis capabilities to help shrimp farmers increase productivity, profitability and implement sustainable aquaculture practices while reducing risks and costs. Earlier this year, AquaEasy secured funding from EDB New Ventures, the corporate venture building arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). Since 2020, AquaEasy has been collaborating with Qian Hu in achieving an efficient and sustaining shrimp farming system at its farm in Singapore. Through cloud connection and AI, the collected data is analysed in real-time to provide insights and recommendations on water quality management, feeding optimisation and harvest prediction, while Qian Hu uses its proprietary patented HYDROPURE filtration system and nanobubble technology to enhance water quality. The AquaEasy AI solution has also been successfully deployed at many shrimp farms in Indonesia and Vietnam. Yap Kok Cheng, Qian Hu's chief executive officer, said: "We are excited to be partnering with AquaEasy for the long haul. As with AquaEasy, Qian Hu too believes in innovative solutions that would transform our enterprise and industry. Through this investment, we are putting our money where our mouth is." Ivan Tay, AquaEasy's head of AI, said: "AquaEasy's mission is to lead the way by revolutionising the aquaculture industry in Asia. We deliver the best AI technology and digitalisation to farmers and stakeholders enabling traceability and sustainability. "Our customers in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam are benefiting from increased productivity and profitability with our AI solutions. Qian Hu is a partner sharing AquaEasy's values and a leader in its domain with a complementary portfolio. We are looking forward to delivering the best technology solutions to farmers to boost their farming and to feed the planet sustainably." Qian Hu and AquaEasy also intend to look for opportunities to use AquaEasy's AI solutions and services within the aquaculture industry and collaborate in the development of AI solutions in new market areas, particularly in the following areas: - Research and development; - Develop and expand AquaEasy's AI solutions and product offerings in both Qian Hu's existing and new market areas encompassing other aquatic species such as fish including the ornamental category, as well as recirculated aquaculture systems in aquaponics; - Commercial go-to-market and deployment; - Integrate AquaEasy's AI solutions into Qian Hu's aquaculture systems, as well as market AquaEasy's smart aquaculture technology to Qian Hu's customers globally. Both Qian Hu and AquaEasy will also develop a platform, using AquaEasy's cloud-based IoT capabilities, to digitalise the aquaculture supply chain so that it will be more efficient and cost optimised. The platform provides real-time and transparency, thereby enabling traceability and sustainability of local produce. "This partnership will enhance the capability of growing Asia's aquaculture industry with cutting edge AI and IoT-technologies, transforming a traditional aquaculture industry into one that is smart, predictable and sustainable," Yap added. - Far Eastern Agriculture In a terrifying mystery that has left police perplexed, a seven-year-old girl went from her New Hampshire home in 2019 but was not reported missing to authorities until the end of 2021. Harmony Montgomery has been missing since October 2019 in a residence in New Hampshire, according to Police Chief Allen Aldenberg, who stated at a news conference on December 31 that the city's police department just learned of her absence last week. As the inquiry proceeds, the police chief confirmed that "several family members" have been contacted. Harmony's parents, on the other hand, have yet to speak with investigators. Harmony has been missing since she was five years old, and the case is filled with chilling facts concerning her disappearance. Home was sold in 2020 According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, police searched a property at 77 Gilford Street in Manchester in relation to Harmony's abduction. Officers came just before 8:30 am and stayed until 2 pm, according to reports. The house was sold in 2020, according to city assessor documents, only months after Harmony vanished. Police deployed tarps and police tape to fence off the location during the search, effectively obscuring much of the property from view, The Sun reported. A tent was observed in the backyard in drone footage uploaded on Twitter. The residence was covered from passers-by and next-door neighbors by tarps, but residents said that police dogs entered the house. At the time of the search, the current tenant of the house was apparently not present. Read Also: Kamarie Holland Slaying: Mother of Missing Georgia Girl Found Dead Joins Alleged Killer Friend Behind Bars, Faces Human Trafficking Charge Family feud happened before Harmony disappeared, uncle claims Harmony, Kevin Montgomery's great niece, "looked like a scared puppy" the last time he saw her, according to Montgomery. The terrified look on the then-5-year- old's face appeared during a tense situation at the Manchester, New Hampshire house Montgomery shared with several family members, including Harmony and her parents. Per The Daily Beast, Montgomery said he tried to push his way through the front door when he wasn't permitted in, which culminated in a call to the police and a family split in October 2019. According to Montgomery, the incident drove his nephew, Harmony's father, to break off all communication with a number of other family members, including blocking some of them from social media. Harmony, on the other hand, has been gone since October 2019 and was just recently reported missing by New Hampshire authorities. The Manchester Police Department issued a "missing youngster" alert on December 31 after learning of her years-long kidnapping and launched an investigation to find the 4-foot-tall girl who should be wearing specs and is blind in her right eye. Where are Harmony Montgomery's parents? The child's parents are Crys Renee Sorey and Adam Montgomery, according to Facebook posts. Harmony's parents have not been identified, and the information regarding her father has not been confirmed by police. Harmony's mother's name is Crys Renee Sorey, according to Facebook posts (Crystal Sorey). She is a stay-at-home mom who attended Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School and resides in Tampa, Florida, according to her Facebook page. She was born and raised in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Harmony is the sister of television anchor Blair Miller's adoptive son Jamison. "Jamison was very aware of his bond with Harmony when we adopted him." He admitted that maintaining that bond throughout the years had been challenging. He said he had never met Harmony before. They have a close relationship with Jamison's and Harmony's mother, as per HEAVY. Related Article: Mystery of 7-Year-Old New Hampshire Girl's Disappearance Only Reported This Week Despite Being Missing 2 Years Ago @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Norway to provide funds in support of aquaculture in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania Norway has committed funds to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to help shore up aquaculture projects in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania. As more people spiral into hunger and poverty due to pandemic restrictions, climate change and conflicts, the Norwegian Agency of Development Cooperation (NORAD) has committed kr45 million (US$5 million) to increase the incomes and build the resilience of small aquaculture farmers in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania. "This generous contribution of Norway underscores its credentials as a global leader in sustainable fisheries management and is further proof of the country's relentless determination to free the world from hunger and poverty," said Gilbert F. Houngbo, president of IFAD. "The sustainable development of the aquaculture sector holds significant potential to address malnutrition and poverty worldwide. Norway's support will help thousands of small aquaculture farmers build better lives for their families and produce the healthy foods their communities need." The contribution from NORAD will finance the Advancing Resilient and Nutrition-sensitive Smallholder Aquaculture (ARNSA) Project implemented by IFAD and its government partners. With the aim to support approximately 3,000 smallholders and make increased quantity and quality fish products available to at least 100,000 people, the project will pilot and scale-up climate resilient and nutrition-focused aquaculture technologies and approaches. It will, in particular, improve access to quality and affordable farm inputs such as seeds and feed, and to market opportunities especially for women and youth through innovation and value creation. It will also strengthen farmers' technical skills and extension services and address post-harvest losses. The project will focus mainly on inland aquaculture, except in Tanzania where attention will be given also to seaweed value chains. The support from NORAD contributes to IFAD's increasing attention to aquaculture in Sub-Sahara Africa, which now includes related investments in Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Ghana. - The Fish Site Effingham, IL (62401) Today Partly cloudy skies this morning will give way to occasional showers during the afternoon. High around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Rain early...then remaining cloudy with thundershowers developing overnight. Low near 60F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Athens, AL (35611) Today Sunshine and a few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 85F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 65F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she also lost access to Facebook, a day after Twitter banned her personal account. Unlike Twitter's suspension, which is permanent, Facebook's penalty will only last for 24 hours. According to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NBC News and other sources, Greene shared a screenshot on Telegram and Gettr (a social media platform for conservatives) showing a Facebook notification telling her that can't post or comment on the website for 24 hours. A spokesperson has confirmed to the publications that the social network removed one of her posts for violating its policies, but that "removing her account for this violation is beyond the scope of [its] policies." In particular, her post violated the Meta-owned platform's COVID-19 misinformation rules. It's worth noting that Facebook and Twitter have only suspended her personal accounts. Her verified government accounts remain active. Greene reportedly posted about "extremely high amounts of COVID vaccine deaths" with unverified raw data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. The system is a government database managed by the CDC and the FDA, but it relies on individuals to send in reports of their experience. VAERS' website states that it's "not designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem" and that "additional work and evaluation [of its data] is necessary to further assess a possible safety concern." Facebook started taking a tougher stance against misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and vaccines in general in early 2021. Greene is known for questioning the public health measures put into place to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. In addition to opposing vaccine mandates, she also famously refuses to wear a mask on the House floor and has racked up tens of thousands of dollars in fines. Talking about her Facebook suspension on Telegram and Gettr, Greene wrote: "Facebook has joined Twitter in censoring me... Who appointed Twitter and Facebook to be the authorities of information and misinformation? When Big Tech decides what political speech of elected Members is accepted and whats not then they are working against our government and against the interest of our people." Conservative politicians have long complained about being censored by the biggest social media platforms. Back in October, former President Donald Trump announced that he's planning to launch his own social network this year as part of his camp's efforts to fight back against "the Big Tech companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America." Ford is making new efforts to double production capacity of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup to 150,000 vehicles per year, the company announced. That follows news from December that it capped pre-orders at 200,000 units, with CEO Jim Farley saying "we are completely oversubscribed with our battery electric vehicles." In addition, the company will start inviting the first group of reservation holders to place orders for the F-150 Lightning starting on Thursday, January 6th. To boost production, Ford said it created a small task force of employees from "manufacturing, purchasing, strategy, product development, and capacity planning" to find ways to accelerate production. It's also working with key suppliers "to find ways to increase capacity of electric vehicle parts, including battery cells, battery trays and electric drive systems," the company said in a press release. The company noted that the F-150 Lightning is now in the the final pre-build phase before moving into mass production for retail and commercial customers, with deliveries starting this spring. The aim is to test production vehicles over a million miles or so in real-world customer conditions. Ford On the order side, Ford said it's using a wave-by-wave reservation process, asking pre-order holders to watch for an invitation via email or check their Ford.com account. The automaker indicated that later pre-order holders might have to wait for vehicles from the following model year. (Ford also noted that over 75 percent of reservation holders were new to the brand.) Deliveries of the 2022 F-150 Lightning pickup will begin in spring of 2022 with a starting MSRP of $39,974 before any available tax incentives. However, some reports indicate that some dealers may be dinging customers up to $30,000 extra to be among the first to receive their vehicles. Ford recently announced that it would triple production of the Mustang Mach-E to reach 200,000 units per year by 2023, with plans to have the "global capacity to produce 600,000 BEVs annually." To do that, it's building what it calls its "most advanced, most efficient auto production facility in its 118-year history in Tennessee," along with three battery plants built in collaboration with SK Innovation. All of that represents a total $11.4 billion investment with 11,000 new jobs created. The F-150 Lightning is eligible for a full $7,500 US BEV tax credit as of today (along with any state subsidies), but Ford is expected to hit its 200,000 vehicle eligibility limit later this year. At that point, the credit will gradually be phased out unless new legislation is passed that would change the rules. Intel hasn't forgotten about Evo, its premium branding for PCs that meet its array of performance benchmarks. Now in its third iteration (remember it was originally called Project Athena), the company says it's also adding a foldable specification for Evo PCs this year, along with new requirements around "intelligent collaboration" and support for faster H-series 12th-gen chips. So, in addition to guaranteeing long battery life and instant wake, new Evo PCs will also need to include WiFi 6E support, tap into the company's AI noise cancellation capabilities as well as Intel's Connectivity Performance Suite. The goal, as always, is to make sure consumers get the best experience possible when they're buying an "Intel Evo" branded PC. Intel Intel also offered more details around its plans for Screenovate, a recent acquisition that gained notoriety for integrating iPhones and Android devices with Windows PCs. (It also powers Dell's Mobile Connect tool, which allows you to send files to your phone and control its screen remotely.) According to Josh Newman, Intel's VP of Mobile Innovation, the company plans to bring Screenovate's technology to Evo PCs in the 2022 holiday season. The goal, naturally, is to offer it to more PCs eventually, but Newman says Intel wants to ensure that it's a high quality experience before that. The company plans to work with partners, including Apple, to make that happen. On stage during its CES presentation, Intel representatives showed Screenovate's software displaying iPhone text messages on a PC, as well as health data from an Apple Watch. They also demonstrated how an Android tablet could be converted into a secondary display. It didn't appear to be as seamless as Apple's SideCar feature, which lets iPads work as screens while connected to Macs, but it's a start. While Intel's specialized Project Athena/Evo PC branding seemed more like a marketing stunt at first, it's actually pushing PC makers to build better hardware. Newman says that partners are building off of Intel's foldable PC design, while also adding their own twists. The specification also gives Intel a bit more leverage: for example, it's requiring partners to design keyboard accessories for their foldables. While Intel can't force them to include keyboards in the box, company representatives tells us they're being "encouraged" to do so. Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here! Self-driving car technology is currently limited to test programs and specialized vehicles, but Mobileye thinks it can play a key role in making driverless vehicles you can actually buy. The Intel-owned company has unveiled an EyeQ Ultra system-on-chip designed with consumer self-driving cars in mind. The SoC can juggle all the computing needs of Level 4 autonomy (full self-driving in most conditions), but it's reportedly the world's "leanest" such chip car brands won't need to use more complex, power-hungry parts that could hike costs or hurt battery life. The EyeQ Ultra is built on a more efficient 5-nanometer process, but the architecture is the key. Mobileye's design revolves around four task-specific accelerators tied to extra CPU cores, graphics cores and image processors. The result can process input from cameras, LiDAR, radar and the car's central computing system while handling 'just' 176 trillion operations per second. For context, NVIDIA's Drive Atlan is expected to manage 1,000 trillion operations. Mobileye, an Intel company You'll have to wait a while to see the chip in action. Mobileye doesn't expect the first working EyeQ Ultra chips until late 2023, and you won't see full production until 2025. That's roughly in sync with numerous automakers' self-driving vehicle plans, however, and could help the company fight NVIDIA's offering. It's not clear that you'll get to 'drive' a Level 4 car in three years, but that's no longer as far-fetched a concept as it once seemed. Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here! The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced new measures for 12 to 15-year-olds who are already fully vaccinated. According to reports, the FDA authorized children within this age group to also receive their booster shots or a third dose of Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine. Initially, those who wish to get their booster shots need to wait six months before doing so. But the FDA also shortened the waiting period for children from six to five months. FDA still waiting for CDC's approval However, it is important to note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not yet approved the FDA's authorization. On Dec. 9, the FDA authorized booster shots for 16 to 17-year-olds, and the CDC approved the authorization on the same day. However, the same has not happened for the FDA's authorization for 12 to 15-year-olds. The FDA also announced this week that children aged 5 to 11 could also get their booster shots if they are immunocompromised. This is because two doses may not be enough to protect an immunocompromised child from COVID-19. Read Also: New Jersey Gov. Declares State of Emergency on 5 Counties Due to Snowstorm, Not COVID-19 FDA director explains the importance of booster shots Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said that they made the recent authorizations amid the belief that a booster shot can help provide better protection against delta and omicron variants. "In particular, the omicron variant appears to be slightly more resistant to the antibody levels produced in response to the primary series doses from the current vaccines," he said via the Huffington Post. Marks and acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock also said that the data on myocarditis, which has been linked to the mRNA vaccines among young men, is rarer with a third vaccine shot. It is also particularly rare among people within the 12 to 15 age group. According to ABC News, the FDA is also working towards ensuring that they can also administer the booster shots from other vaccine brands safely among children. The goal is to get the J&J booster shot two months after the first shot, the Moderna vaccine six months after the second shot, and the Pfizer booster five months after the second shot. Active COVID-19 cases in the US reached 1 million this week According to USA Today, there is a growing concern regarding the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country. Following the recent New Year's weekend, the numbers already reached over 1 million on Monday. A data from Johns Hopkins University also revealed that one in every 100 Americans had been reported as a positive case in just the last week. Joe Biden won't announce a countrywide lockdown Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have plans to meet with the White House's COVID-19 response team to discuss their next steps to help prevent the further spread of the virus. Some states announce mask mandates, especially in schools. There are also other restrictions in place, but no one has announced a hard lockdown as press writing. Last month, Biden said that he doesn't have plans to announce a countrywide lockdown, and he won't also expand vaccine mandates despite the alarming number of COVID-19 cases in the country, according to CNBC. Related Article: COVID-19 Pandemic Could End This Year If People Would Get Vaccinated, WHO Says @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Last month, Exeger and Mayht announced a partnership to create a portable Bluetooth speaker that's powered by light. At CES, they offered a glimpse at the prototype. Swedish company Exeger makes Powerfoyle, a material that can turn natural and ambient light into power. Dutch startup Mayht, meanwhile, is behind a type of audio tech called Heartmotion. It claims to have reinvented "the core of the speaker driver" to allow for speakers that can be more than 10 times more compact than other models without sacrificing sound quality or bass output. According to TechCrunch, Mayht's drivers need less energy than similar audio devices, so solar cells are a seemingly sufficient power source for the speaker. Details about the speaker's specs remain unclear, such as what percentage of the device's surface is covered in Powerfoyle material. We've seen some headphones that use this tech, including Urbanistas Los Angeles headphones. Based on our time with those, the speaker will need a decent proportion of solar cells to meet Exeger and Mayht's claim that it has "unlimited battery life" at least if you don't live in eternal darkness. Whether the speaker can deliver solid sound quality remains to be seen. The physical size of a driver and the depth of a cabinet are key factors in how speakers generate bass, so it'll be intriguing to hear how Mayht compensates for that. Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here! At CES 2022 today, Samsung has finally unveiled the Galaxy S21 FE (or Fan Edition) phone. This is basically a tweaked version of last years S21 that the company is selling for $700 starting January 11th. Thats $100 less than the regular S21, and for the price this years model offers the same 5nm processors, same 120Hz refresh rate (in a slightly bigger screen) and a similar triple camera system. The S21 FE has a larger battery, though, and comes with Android 12. Well have a full review coming soon, but based on our brief hands-on with a test unit, the S21 FE appears to be a well-rounded device. At first glance, the S21 FE isnt as eye-catching as last years flagship. While it features a similar bump on the top left corner for its camera module, its housing doesnt have a shiny finish like the original S21. I prefer the previous style this ones kind of bland. But the S21 FE feels sturdy and its matte finish helps it resist fingerprints, too The S21 FE is also available in a different set of colors than the original: This time, you get to choose from lavender, olive, silver or black (which is the color of my sample unit). Cherlynn Low / Engadget At 177 grams (or 6.2 ounces), the S21 FE is slightly heavier than the S21, which is reasonable given the newer models bigger 6.4-inch screen. The display still runs at Full HD+, and looks bright and sharp. But dont expect S Pen support here like youd get on the S21+ and Ultra. Like the S21, the Fan Edition doesnt support Samsungs stylus. Aside from size, the biggest difference between the S21 FE and the original model lie in their rear cameras. While both versions have a similar 12-megapixel main camera with a f/1.8 aperture, the FEs ultra-wide lens has a slightly wider field of view of 123 degrees. Also, the FEs telephoto camera uses an 8-megapixel sensor while the S21s is 64 megapixels, though they both offer 30x Space Zoom. During my hands-on period with the S21 FE, I havent really put its cameras through rigorous testing and so far I havent noticed any major issues with picture quality. Images came out colorful and clear. Oddly, the FEs front camera is 32 megapixels sharp while the originals is just 10 megapixels. The selfies Ive shot with it so far were indeed tack sharp and individual strands of my damaged hair were painfully clear. Cherlynn Low / Engadget These tweaks are similar to how the S20 FE varied from the S20. Samsung said it sold 10 million units of the S20 FE in just over a year since the phones launch in Q4 2020, making that model one of the best-selling Galaxy smartphones over the past year. Since this is just a brief hands-on and not our full review, I can't yet tell how the S21 FE will stack up to other phones in this price range. But already it faces stiff competition from the Pixel 6, which offers excellent cameras and software at the same cost, although it has a polarizing design. Though the combination of features for the relatively lower price might make the S21 FE an appealing phone to many Samsung fans, the company picked an awkward time to release this device. With next-gen flagships presumably on the horizon, Galaxy shoppers might be inclined to wait and see what the company might bring at that launch. Even if youre dying to buy a new Galaxy S series handset already though, at least wait till we can test the S21 FE out more comprehensively before spending your money. Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here! TCL continues its tradition of launching a barrage of devices at CES, and its a similar story to last year, with two new 30 series smartphones headed to the US later this year. Lets start with the TCL 30 XE 5G. It has a 6.52-inch display at 1,600 x 720 resolution and up to 90Hz refresh rate. With a 4,500mAh battery, it runs on one of Mediateks Dimensity chips, the Dimensity 700, which have been designed to work better with AI tasks like image processing. Talking of images, theres a triple camera system, but no need to get too excited. Theres a depth sensor and a 2-megapixel camera, meaning that most of the work will be done by the single 13-megapixel main camera sensor. Itll be able to record video up to 1080p another reminder that these are affordable phones first, impressive specs are less of a priority. Much less. TCL The TCL 30 V has a bigger 6.67-inch display, running at 1,080 x 2,400 resolution. Thats more pixels than the 30 XE, but lacks the 90Hz refresh rate. Compromises! It runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 chip again different to the XE with a more substantial 50-megapixel primary camera working alongside a 5MP super-wide shooter and a 2MP macro lens. Unlike the notched front-facing camera of the 30 XE, the bigger 30 V has a pinhole in the screen for its 16MP selfie cam. It also has a 4,500mAh battery which should ensure it lasts the day, given the lightweight specs of the device. Both devices are coming exclusively to the US, but on different carriers. The TCL 30 XE 5G launches on T Mobile date TBC while the 30 V is landing on Verizon. Adoption from two US carriers will make TCL's phones a more realistic option than in previous years. However, were missing one big piece of the puzzle: how affordable they actually are. Expect to hear pricing in the coming weeks. If youre looking for bigger specs (and prices, possibly), TCL is teasing more 30 series news at MWC in Barcelona later this year. Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here! Panasonic has trotted out all sorts of audio gear since reviving the iconic Technics brand in 2014. Recently, that list includes a smattering of true wireless earbuds and headphones, and at CES 2022, the company has yet another portable device ready to debut. With the EAH-A800, Technics has built a pair of hi-fi-ready wireless headphones with active noise cancellation (ANC) and claims of a whopping 50 hours of use on a charge. The over-ear EAH-A800 packs in 40mm drivers that Technics says are the result of its experience building hi-fi audio gear. In addition to a new design and materials for that component, an Acoustic Control Chamber manages air flow to assist with driver performance and bass response. The company has also leveraged capacitor tech from its high-end amplifiers to limit distortion and maintain sound quality. The EAH-A800 supports LDAC for higher quality audio over Bluetooth, in addition to the typical AAC standard. Technics/Panasonic Technics promises "industry-leading noise cancelling" via a dual hybrid setup. An analog filter equipped feed back mic and a digital filter outfitted feed forward mic monitor unwanted clamor inside and out. The EAH-A800 also has Natural Ambient and Attention modes. The difference is that the latter makes it easier to hear voices while the former is a more universal transparency setting. Technics also provides multi-point pairing here, which will allow you to connect to two devices simultaneously over Bluetooth and easily switch between them. The company is also making big promises when it comes to call clarity. Using a total of eight microphones, the EAH-A800 employs four to pick up your voice and four more to combat any environmental noise. Additionally, Technics says the feed forward mics are designed and positioned to reduce wind noise. Perhaps the most impressive claim on the EAH-A800 is the stated 50 hours of battery life. Technics says you can achieve this figure with ANC on listening to AAC audio. If you are listening via LDAC, the company says you can expect up to 40 hours of play time. Disable noise cancelling on either sound codec and listening time increases by 10 hours. So if you're willing to go without ANC or higher quality audio, you can get 60 hours of use out of these according to Technics. What's more, a 15-minute charge will give you 10 hours of use (ANC on, AAC quality streaming). The EAH-A800 will be available in black and white color options in February for $350 (299/349). Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here! After a months-long trial, and a jury that was eventually deadlocked on several of 11 total charges, Elizabeth Homes, the former CEO and founder of Theranos, has been found guilty on four charges. Holmes, who testified during the trial, said she hadnt intended to mislead the public or investors, and had been advised to protect the companys trade secrets. The founder, who will likely appeal the charges, could face up to 20 years in prison, though it's not yet clear when she will be sentenced. The tale of Elizabeth Holmes captured the fascination of many Silicon Valley watchers, leading to a best-selling book, several podcast series and an HBO documentary. That was just the start: Hulu is preparing a miniseries about the saga, with Amanda Seyfried starring as Holmes, set to arrive in March, while Apple recently nabbed the Jennifer Lawrence-led film adaptation of Bad Blood, a book on the Theranos saga. -Mat Smith Followed swiftly by Samsungs Galaxy S21 FE, and the OnePlus The smartphone train never stops. By the end of January 3rd, we had two new phones on the block. OnePlus is eking out the launch of its new flagship, happening during CES despite no in-person presence there. For now, we know itll come in two colors, have three cameras, and look a little sleeker than its predecessors. But expect to hear more very soon. Meanwhile, Samsungs Fan Edition of the S21 finally broke cover. Its $100 cheaper, has a larger battery (and screen), than the OG S21, making for a rather intriguing device, ahead of our full verdict. Continue reading. The company also unveiled a docking station with a fingerprint reader Targus Targus Cypress Hero Backpack has a built-in location tracker that could help its rightful owner find it through the Find My network if it goes missing. Conversely, if you misplace your iPhone, you can press a button on the backpack to ping your phone, as long as you've set things up in the dedicated app. For better or worse, it looks like a totally Targus backpack, and will cost $150. Continue reading. The company says Colorsonic mixes the product via a mess-free process. L'Oreal LOreal is showing off its first hair color device at CES, promising the ability to mix and apply coloring products evenly, according to the company. If it works as promised, Colorsonic should help users get consistent hair color results without having to go to the salon. LOreal? At CES? Yep, the company has been pushing the boundaries of cosmetics and tech for a few years now, including a smart skincare dispenser and even lipsticks you could make at home. Continue reading. The company is adding more sizes to its OLED family, too. Much like last year, the company is touting improved brightness as one of the main reasons to buy its 2022 sets. That's because this year LG's more affordable C2 lineup will also include the "evo" panel technology the company debuted in 2021. Additionally, LG claims its new Alpha 9 Gen 5 AI processors will help further increase luminance through smarter algorithms. LG has yet to share pricing, but what we do know is that the new G2 series will consist of 55-, 65- 75-inch models, as well as two new 83- and 97-inch sets. The more affordable C2 series will consist of six models total, including a new smaller 42-inch size LG says is a great fit for console and PC gaming. Continue reading. Theres a hands-free faucet and home energy storage system in the works, too. Kohler Kohler has revealed its Stillness Bath, which it unveiled at CES last year, will finally launch later this year in Q3. The bath takes inspiration from Japanese forest bathing, and aims to replicate a spa experience with the help of light, fog and aromas. Spooky. Even scarier? The Soak Freestanding Bath model will cost around $8,000. Continue reading. The biggest news stories you might have missed Netgear expands WiFi 6E router lineup with two new options for 2022 Withings' Body Scan scale can measure the composition of different parts of your body Acer's new Chromebook Spin 513 channels the Pixelbook's tall screen Apple's rumored new monitor could be a lot more affordable than the Pro Display XDR Mercedes-Benz boasts 620-mile range for its latest EV concept Y-Brush shows off a concept for its second-generation, uh, Y-shaped toothbrush Engadget Deals: Apple's AirTag is the cheapest it's ever been at Amazon Enid, OK (73701) Today Occasional thunderstorms - possibly severe during the afternoon hours. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High 82F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Gusty winds during the evening. A stray severe thunderstorm is possible. Low 41F. Winds NNW at 20 to 30 mph. Republican Senate Candidate Herschel Walker recently went on record to slam Joe Biden's social spending bill amid his ongoing campaign. On New Year's Day, Walker started off his rants against Biden by talking about the Build Back Better bill. He said that in order for the bill to move forward, the first time that the Biden administration needs to do is to control the border. After all, it's important to know who you're building it for and why. Walker also said that there's a need to protect the military troops because they are the ones protecting Americans against people from other countries. The Republican doesn't also agree that it's necessary to defund the police. After all, they should receive funding to have better training and equipment to protect the law of the land. Walker also talked about energy by saying that it's independent. "Build back better. You probably want to become energy independent. Otherwise, you're going to depend on other countries for your livelihood. Build back better. You probably want something written, like the law of the land, stating that all men are to be treated equal," Walker said via MSNBC. Read Also: Kamala Harris Praised Following Her Comments on Joe Manchin's Refusal To Support Build Back Better Bill Herschel Walker receives criticisms following his video rant However, Walker's comments did not sit well with a lot of people. One of them urged Georgia to reconsider voting for the former athlete in the upcoming election. Others called Walker embarrassing because it seems he didn't read the framework for the Build Back Better bill. Some critics also mocked Walker for allegedly beating his wife when they were still together. They posted memes showing a drawing of a woman with blood on her face. Herschel Walker accused of physically abusing his ex-wife In July, reports claimed that Walker repeatedly threatened his ex-wife's life and exaggerated claims of financial success during their marriage. He also, reportedly, alarmed business associates with his unpredictable behavior. Years ago, the former athlete also admitted to suffering from mental health issues and was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, according to the Associated Press. Walker refused to comment on the allegations at the time. Others also wondered if Walker could even spell Build Back Better and his name. News One also dubbed Walker as a hypocrite and a liar following his claims. The publication also questioned Walker's decision to say that all men are equal in the Constitution since the person that endorsed him for the Senate also tried to delegitimize legal and constitutionally protected votes through his stop-the-steal propaganda. Herschel Walker's comments could benefit Democrats According to reports, Walker's recent comments could benefit Democrats because they could guarantee that he would lose against his counterpart. However, there are also claims suggesting that his comments did not affect his standing because Donald Trump backs him. Following his New Year's rant, Walker appeared in an interview where he said no one trusts Biden administration. He also said that he's running for a seat in the Senate because he wants to bring the trust back to the country, according to Fox News. Related Article: Joe Biden Faces Tough Midterm Election Battle Amid Low Approval Ratings; Democratic Party Could Lose Control of Congress in 2022 @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Oh, bother. Disney might have to share one of their most beloved characters with, well, everyone due to a pesky public domain law reported by Rolling Stone. Winnie-the-Pooh, which was written by A. A. Milne in 1926, has gone through a few iterations over the years, but the most notable would be the take Disney had on the honey loving bear. According to USA Today, Disney got the film rights for the story through Milne's estate in 1961 and has made him their own ever since. But with the character going into public domain, The House Of Mouse will have to share the rights to the beloved characters of the Hundred Acre Wood, sort of. Most Disney characters fall under a trademark called "The Mickey Mouse Protection Act." This is not the case with the original story, however, leaving them to only have the rights to the likenesses of the characters unique to Disney. Thus, leaving other creatives to be able to make their own versions as long as they don't resemble the Disney specific drawings. In a strange twist to the story, the character of Tigger is still under Disney's thumb. Given that the character of Tigger was not actually a character in the Pooh-a-verse until he was introduced by Milne in 1928, Disney still has creative control over him for a while longer. So, what does this mean for future Winnie-the-Pooh projects? Anything really. If someone wanted to have the characters, say, live in Central Park and get into gritty adventures throughout New York City while in search of the best pizza slice, they could do just that. But we can only hope that maybe there are some creators who, if they decide to take the denizens of Pooh Corner in a new direction, their vision doesn't become some over-the-top fiasco just for the sake of being edgy. Only time will tell. In recent years, the European Unions relationship with several neighboring countries, particularly in the North Africa and the Middle East (MENA) region, seems to have gradually shifted from harmony to tension. The question that naturally comes to mind is if the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) might have served to make security political bonds stronger? As a book edited by Pernille Rieker, a senior researcher in the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), concludes, the ENP hasnt lived up to expectations. Back in 2000s, when many post-Communist states in Eastern and Central Europe became EU members, the bloc also initiated a process aimed at creating a ring of friends through building closer ties with several post-Soviet republics as well as countries in the South in the MENA region. However, the opposite has happened, Rieker explains. One such case is Morocco. The EUs relations with Rabat overall seem to have taken a downturn during the past year. A diplomatic dispute in May between Rabat and Madrid over the latters decision to host, under a fake name, a leader of the Western Saharan independence movement soured what had been improving relations across the Mediterranean Sea. A subsequent massive influx of migrants from Morocco into Ceuta, one of two Spanish enclaves situated on Moroccos northern coast, further fueled bilateral tensions and exposed divergent views on the Western Sahara issue. At around the same time, a fresh disagreement erupted between Germany and Morocco over the disputed territory, with Rabat recalling its ambassador in Berlin. Rabat has questioned why the EU and its member states refuse to recognize Moroccos sovereignty over Western Sahara, even though the US has done so. As its relations with Europe soured somewhat in 2021, Morocco has become increasingly receptive to the geopolitical influence of external powers such as China and Russia or the Gulf states. The accelerating tension with Rabat is putting European countries in a difficult situation, as they need to balance the need to uphold the principle of self-determination, as enshrined in the UN Charter, with the preservation of their relations with Morocco, one of their most important partners in North Africa. The widening diplomatic gulf between Europe and Morocco could lead to a gradual decoupling which has the potential to cut Rabat adrift and to benefit the external powers that are increasingly active in the region. But despite this somewhat gloomy picture, both sides seem to be looking for ways to repair the strained ties between both shores of the Mediterranean. Brussels and Rabat clearly recognize that it is in the interest of both sides to prevent the situation from festering any further and find ways to rekindle the strategically important relations. On 24 December 2021, Morocco said it is ready to restore diplomatic cooperation with Germany, apparently thanks to a perceived shift in position toward the disputed Western Sahara. The Kingdom appreciates the positive announcements and constructive positions recently made by the new federal government of Germany, the ministry said. These announcements make it possible to envisage a revival of bilateral cooperation and a return to normalcy of the diplomatic representations of the two countries. The statement appeared to be referring to language posted on the German website that calls Morocco a central partner of the European Union and Germany in North Africa and states that the German position on Western Sahara has been unchanged for decades Germany supports UN efforts to bring about a fair, durable political solution that is acceptable for all sides. Earlier in December, foreign affairs ministers of Morocco and Italy, Nasser Bourita and Luigi Di Maio, commented favorably on the excellent state of relations between Morocco and Italy, agreeing to accelerate implementation of the Multidimensional Strategic Partnership between the two countries. They reaffirmed their strong interest in maintaining and strengthening the legal framework that links Morocco to the EU, which is essential to ensure the continued stability of their strategic partnership. Apart from seeking to reinforce relations with its traditional European partners, Morocco has sought new allies on the continent on which to rely in order to face the challenges that lie ahead. As the Moroccan foreign minister said in December, his country was seeking a bilateral real partnership with the four countries that make up the Visegrad Group. On the eve of the V4+Morocco Foreign Ministers Summit in Budapest, Nasser Bourita met, among other leaders, with his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau. Poland much like the other V4 countries, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia consider the Kingdom of Morocco to be one of their most important partners on the African continent, and one with which it wants to develop economic cooperation based on considerable and yet not fully tapped potential on both sides. It is clear that also both Morocco and Spain would like to mend their strained relations. As Moroccan King Mohammed VI. said in August, his country is keen to strengthen ties with Spain after a rift between the two countries this spring, though he added the crisis had shaken mutual trust. We are keen today to strengthen (ties) bearing in mind the need for a common understanding of the two nations interests, he said in a speech but noted that Morocco would not accept that its best interests be trampled on. The analyst and international cooperation expert Nourdine Mouati agrees, arguing that also Spain should make a gesture to regain that trust with Morocco to further strengthen the bilateral ties. Overall, in 2022 and beyond, the relationship between the EU and Morocco needs to be reinvented so that it transcends notions of us and them, as Nasser Bourita argued in a 2020 interview. The renewed European Neighborhood Policy must transcend these notions and offer a clear political perspective that takes up the challenges but also brings answers to the ambitions of each partner. The Pound to US Dollar (GBP/USD) exchange rate climbed above $1.35 last week for the first time since mid-November. Pound (GBP) Soars as No New Covid Restrictions Introduced in England Before the New Year The Pound (GBP) has raced higher against the US Dollar (USD) and the majority of its other peers last week following the UK governments announcement that it would not be imposing any new Covid restrictions in England before the New Year. The governments decision came in stark contrast with that of the other UK nations, which all introduced stricter restrictions after Christmas as they sought to combat the spread of the highly infectious Omicron Covid variant. Despite facing a record surge in daily infections in England, the government appeared confident Omicron wont immediately overwhelm the NHS, following the release of data indicating that the new strain results in fewer hospitalisations than previous variants. Commenting on the decision, health secretary, Sajid Javid, said: We wont be taking any further measures. Of course people should remain cautious as we approach new year celebrations and take a lateral flow test if that makes sense, celebrate outdoors if you can, have some ventilation indoors if you can. GBP investors welcomed the decision as any further restrictions would have further dragged on economic activity at the end of 2021. US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rates Suppressed by Falling US Yields and Risk-on Trade Meanwhile, the US Dollar (USD) struggled to attract support during the post-Christmas lull amidst thin trading conditions. This saw demand for the safe-haven currency extremely limited amidst a prevailing risk-on mood as concerns over the Omicron variant continued to fade, with investors growing increasingly confident that the latest surge in cases will have a much lesser impact on the global economy. Kyle Rodda, Market Analyst at IG, said: The bulls and the bears the former are certainly winning the argument if price action is any guide -- are divided down the line of what Omicron might mean for economic fundamentals. The bull case is that Omicron is so mild that hospitalisations and deaths wont creep up and lead to economically damaging lockdowns. The bear case is markets are complacent, and Omicron is so infectious that even a smaller hospitalisation rate will overwhelm healthcare systems. Also dragging on the US Dollar was a fall in US Treasury yields, which remained suppressed by disappointment that US President Joe Biden was unable to pass his $1.75tn spending package before the New Year. GBP/USD Forecast: UK Covid Situation to Remain in Focus Looking ahead to this week, it's likely that UK Covid developments will continue to act as a key catalyst of movement in the Pound to US Dollar (GBP/USD) exchange rate. The direction of the pairing will largely depend on whether or not the UK government is able to resist tightening restrictions in the new year. Expect to see Sterling relinquish a good portion of its recent gains if surging case numbers force the governments hand. Meanwhile, Brexit could be thrust back into the spotlight at the start of next year as the UK finally starts to imposes customs controls on goods entering the UK from the EU, with the potential disruption to trade likely to weigh on the Pound. For USD investors the focus at the start of 2022 will undoubtedly be on the latest US non-farm payroll figures with the US Dollar potentially rallying if employment growth jumped in December as forecast. Also influencing USD exchange rates through the week will be the publication of the latest ISM PMI releases. Will another robust expansion of economic activity extend some support to the US Dollar? Elsewhere the US Dollar will remain sensitive to market sentiment, with any upside potential in the Greenback potentially being limited by the prevalence of a risk-on market mood as Omicron concerns continue to fade. The Pound Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) exchange rate is range-bound this morning as rising Covid cases cap significant gains while volatile oil dynamics dampen Canadian Dollar (CAD) trading. At the time of writing, GBP/CAD is trading at C$1.7200, virtually unchanged from todays opening levels. Canadian Dollar (CAD) Exchange Rates Trade Mixed amidst Various Headwinds The Canadian Dollar is trading in a mixed range against its peers today as risk-on tailwinds are capped by increasing concern over the Omicron Covid variant, and oil prices waver. The cost of WTI crude refreshed a fortnightly low yesterday before flashing mild gains: the CME group is optimistic that a further increase may be achieved in the short term. Weighing upon CAD, Canadas most populous province of Ontario announced new restrictions this morning, including school closures and shops operating at 50% capacity. 81.3% of Canadas eligible population are fully vaccinated yet various regions are struggling with resources to contain the spread of the virus and experts in both hospitality and the education sector have expressed concern about lasting damage. According to Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards Association: We had hoped that we would get to Jan. 5 and that we would be able to keep schools open for kids. Clearly, it is not safe to do so Weve got two weeks to do something. We are hoping the government will take those two weeks and not spare a penny. Canadian PMI data is expected to reveal a small increase in manufacturing activity for the month of December, potentially buoying the Loonie. Ahead of the release, however, GBP/CAD remains subdued. Pound (GBP) Benefits from Upbeat Data, PM Optimism The Pound (GBP) is trending up against the majority of its peers in the wake of better-than-expected manufacturing data, which revealed that activity in December 2021 fell by less than initially thought. The UKs finalised PMI revealed further growth in production, new orders and employment in the manufacturing sector: companies remained optimistic amid expectations of renewed global economic growth, planned investment and reduced disruption from Covid-19, Brexit and supply chain issues. Also supporting Sterling, Bank of England (BoE) consumer credit increased to 1.2bn in November last year, demonstrating increased borrowing and therefore increased spending. The annual growth rate for all consumer credit increased to 0.4% in November from -1% in October, the first positive growth rate since March 2020. While rising Covid infections in the UK cap Pound gains, a lack of new restrictions has helped to keep trading sentiment upbeat: Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that he would rely on existing Plan B measures such as working from home, vaccine passports and facemasks to combat the spread. Nevertheless, Multiple NHS trusts have already declared critical incidents amid soaring staff absences and according to the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, parts of the health service are in crisis. Doctor Sakthi Karunanithi, public health director for Lancashire County Council, says the county is at the foothills of an Omicron wave: [We are] beginning to experience what London did at the beginning of last month and, of course, London is better resourced and the infrastructures are well organised compared to other regions. GBP/CAD Exchange Rate Forecast: Canadian Data to Buoy the Loonie? Looking ahead, if Canadian manufacturing activity is shown to have increased in December 2021, CAD may receive a boost. The forecast reading of 57.8 would top Octobers seven-month high. Meanwhile, further warnings of an NHS crisis could subdue the Pound, weighing upon GBP/CAD. A lack of further UK data today leaves Sterling to trade on external factors. The Pound to Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate is subdued at the beginning of this weeks session as risk-on sentiment returns. At the time of writing, the Pound Australian Dollar exchange rate is trading at AU$1.8757, with minimal market movement. Australian Dollar (AUD) Exchange Rates Muted Despite Risk-On Mood The Australian Dollar (AUD) is rangebound against the Pound (GBP) in spite of risk-on sentiment returning. The risk-sensitive Aussie is benefitting from an upbeat market mood, which has been spurred on by the positive global attitude towards coronavirus. However, the omicron situation is Australia is capping AUDs potential as hospitals and testing stations come under pressure. Additionally, the Government has decided that only those eligible will be provided with free tests amid a PCR test shortage. This has placed undue pressure on AUD as cases are predicted to rise due to limited resources. The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, said: Were at a stage of the pandemic where you just cant make everything free. On the other hand, AUD is a proxy to the Chinese economy and is, therefore, benefitting from the strong Chinese data released during the overnight session. The Chinese PMI for manufacturing in December rose from 49.9, overshooting the forecast of 50 and printed at 50.9. This shows growth in the Chinese factory sector which is supporting AUD as it is likely to translate into demand for Australian exports. Pound (GBP) Exchange Rates Mixed amid Coronavirus Advancements and Brexit Negotiations Meanwhile, the Pound (GBP) is trading in a narrow range against the Australian Dollar (AUD) as coronavirus restrictions are currently not expected to be reinstated in the near future. Mathematical epidemiologist from Imperial College London and the designer of the UK lockdown procedures, Professor Neil Ferguson, is cautiously optimistic that case numbers may have plateaued. Ferguson said: An epidemic reaching such high numbers cant sustain those numbers forever. So we would expect to see case numbers start to come down in the next week, maybe already coming down in London, but in other regions a week to three weeks. Im cautiously optimistic that infection rates in London in that key 18 to 50 age group, which has been driving the Omicron epidemic, may possibly have plateaued. It is too early to say whether theyre going down yet. On the other hand, as the Brexit negotiations resume, the uncertainty surrounding the UK and EUs future relationship is weighing on Sterlings potential. Paul de Grauwe, professor at the London School of Economics, said: Recoveries are driven by optimism about the future . . . Brexit will impose chronic pessimism about the future of the UK economy. GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Forecast: Will AUD be Influenced by Final PMI Readings? Looking ahead, the Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate is likely to be impacted by external factors due to a lack of notable data scheduled for release. The Aussie may be impacted by the release of December's Services PMI for both Australia and China later in the week. Australias final reading of Decembers PMI is forecast to print at 55.1, a decrease from the previous 55.7, which suggests a slow in economic growth. Moreover, the evolving coronavirus situation will continue to weigh on the riskier asset as scientific research continues. Meanwhile, the Pound may be bolstered should case numbers remain relatively low, reducing the need and likelihood of the UK tightening restrictions again. However, as Brexit negotiations resume, the possibility for the UK and EU relationship to come under strain returns which may cause Sterling to lose its appeal. Commentary From Crisis Management Expert Edward Segal, Author of the Award-Winning Crisis Ahead: 101 Ways to Prepare for and Bounce Back from Disasters, Scandals, and Other Emergencies (Nicholas Brealey) The first few days of 2022 are a good time for company executives to make and commit to fulfilling the following crisis management New Year's resolutions. The resolutions are drawn from the articles I wrote in 2021for Forbes.com about the good, bad and ugly ways companies and organizations prepared for, responded to and recovered from disasters, scandals and other emergencies. When Marc Lasry, co-owner of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, announced in October he would resign as chairman of Ozy Media because of a crisis at the media company, he said, "I believe that going forward Ozy requires experience in areas like crisis management and investigations, where I do not have particular expertise." But Ozy did require that experience after all. The New York Times reported that, "... the digital media company that came under scrutiny for its business practices in recent days, announced on Friday that it was shutting down." If corporate officials needed to be reminded about the importance of preparing or updating their crisis management plans in these uncertain times, the headlines in March about a stranded cargo ship should be enough to make their plans a top prioritywhether they rely on supply chains or not. Consider And Plan For All Crisis Scenarios In the aftermath of November's deadly Travis Scott concert in Houston, KHOU-TV reported that, "The security and emergency response plan prepared by Astroworld organizers ahead of the festival outlines scenarios ranging from bomb threats and active shooters to lightning, tornadoes and even an earthquake. But the 56-page document never once mentions crowd surge "Nothing about crowd emergencies, nothing about crowd density, crowd collapse, crowd crush," said Paul Wertheimer, a nationally recognized crowd safety expert and founder of Crowd Management Strategies. "And yet it's a concert and festival with standing room environment... they' don't even mention that as one of the [possible] emergencies." Establish An Effective Chain Of Command Maarch's congressional hearings and investigations into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot highlighted importance of an effective chain of command in a crisis. As reported by the Washington Post, Major General William J. Walker, Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard, "... told lawmakers Wednesday how restrictions the Pentagon placed on him in the run-up to the Capitol riot prevented him from more quickly sending forces to help quell the violence. "Walker said he did not receive permission from his chain of command at the Pentagon to send forces to the Capitol until three hours and 19 minutes after receiving an urgent call at 1:49 p.m. Jan. 6 from the Capitol Police chief saying a request for Guard backup was imminent," according to the newspaper. Appoint A Crisis Response Team Before They Are Needed A crisis can happen any time to any business without any warning. April's mass shooting at the FedEx facility in Indianapolis, Indiana was a reminder that all companies should have a crisis management team in place before they are needed. They should have the authority and power they need to manage the situation. The less red tape they have to contend with, the better. Robin Crawford is a senior partner and public affairs practice leader at FINN Partners, a global marketing agency. She said, "It is essential to include individuals who are empowered to make decisions, speak to internal and external audiences, and provide approvals on behalf of the company. Test Your Crisis Plan And Crisis Response Team From cyberattacks to mass casualty events, computer simulations can provide the kinds of experiences, insights, and lessons that tabletop and other in-person exercises can't match. Andreas Grant is the founder of Networks Hardware. At least twice a year they practice their response to cyberattacks. He said, "This is superior to an in-person exercise because it places us in very real situations. Instead of just telling us to read the protocol on how to deal with a cyberattack, they make us experience a simulated attack. With this experience, it becomes much clearer on what to do if we get attacked for real." Don't Wait To Act Several weeks after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued an "urgent warning" for the ?Tread+ and Tread treadmills made by Peloton, the at-home fitness company announced it was recalling the exercise equipment. In a statement posted on the company's website, Peloton CEO John Foley said, "I want to be clear, Peloton made a mistake in our initial response to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's request that we recall the Tread+. We should have engaged more productively with them from the outset. For that, I apologize. Keep People Posted About Your Crisis In the aftermath of the collapse of a condo in Surfside, Florida, local and state officials held a series of briefings for reporters and the public's about the disaster. At one briefing, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) told reporters, "We are happy to report that through the help of the Red Cross we have short-term hotels set up for these folks, and obviously we are going to work with the city and the county, state to make sure that there is any longer-term needs, that we can be helpful in any way that we can." Know How You Would Recover From A Crisis Some crisis situations are so damaging for companies and organizations that they decide the most effective, efficient and strategic way to recover is to undergo a partial or extreme makeover. To that end, they will often use one or more tactics from what I call the 7 Rs For Recovering From A Crisis: Renounce, Reinvent, Restructure, Rebuild, Rename, Rebrand and Reset. Advocacy group Time's Up will apparently use several of those Rs as it tries to recover from their involvement in a recent crisis involving former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the allegations of sexual harassment that were made against him by several women. Actress and activist Ashley Judd, a Time's Up board member, told the AP that, "We're going down to the studs. We're going to rebuild and reset and come back in a way that honors our mandate, incorporates the voices of our critics, learns from our findings and holds ourselves accountable but also lives up to our potential." Jasper, IndianaThe Historical Fiction Company included Kevin Schewe's Bad Love Medicine among the 2021 award winners. HFC believes "all authors, whether traditionally published or indie, deserve a chance at success, and to see their hard work praised and honored in a forum that exclusively supports historical fiction." The foundation for scores of blockbuster movies and television shows, historical fiction is indeed a genre of writing worthy of praise." Bad Love Medicine also won an award in the Young Adult category at the Southern California Book Festival plus an International Book Impact Award in the same category with the addendum of Excellence for Book Content Quality. Creating historical fiction requires an attention to detail predicated on intense research. Kevin Schewe's extreme fascination with everything World War II, which began at a young age, gave him a headstart in laying out and writing his four-book Bad Love sci-fi adventure series. Since time travel is a primary element driving all the books, Schewe set up and continued the premise with explanations of all the major WWII nuclear bomb projects. Throughout the books, real life characters such as Presidents Roosevelt and Ford and British PM Winston Churchill make appearances and are portrayed with historical accuracy. Weapons, aircraft and cars are also highlighted with key specifications and in proper historical context. In Bad Love Medicine the Gang make a just in time voyage from an alien planet in an effort to reunite a love-struck couple, this while saving one from a deadly disease in the future (wrap your head around that). At the same time, they must prevent Hitler and the Nazis from creating a time machine of their own. They battle Russian agents in the 1970s, Nazi soldiers and scientists in the 1940s and make friends with aliens from another planet. "These stories just come to life in such an organic way," says Schewe. "They combine my childhood memories with my love of history, music, military aviation, WWII, science fiction and time travel." Whether you're a history aficionado, a time-travel buff, a sci-fi lover, or are just in need of a fun book to cheer you up, Bad Love Medicine is the adventure you've been waiting for. In Bad Love Strikes, the Gang discovered The White Hole Project, a time machine created by Albert Einstein at the request of President Franklin Roosevelt in case the atomic bomb failed. In the exciting sequel, Bad Love Tigers, the gang used the White Hole Project to travel back to 1945 to thwart Russian spies and protect the secrets of Area 51. In Bad Love Beyond, the gang traveled not just through time but through space as well to learn the reason behind Blue Nova One's mysterious visit to earth. Other awards the books have won are the Wishing Shelf Red Ribbon Winner, Literary Titan Silver Book Award, NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, AMI Indie Book Awards, and an eLit Award to name a few. "Skillful writing (both historical and fantastical), a zesty sense of humor, an appreciation for pop culture, and the ability to create memorably entertaining characters combine to make this an immensely impressive noveland experience! Very highly recommended." Grady Harp, Amazon Top 100 Reviewer, 5-Stars "If history was taught this way in school, everyone would be a scholar and educating ourselves not only about our accomplishments but the horrors of the past that should awaken and give insight to the path of a better future. A rare gem!" David Holladay, MD, 5-Stars Watch the exciting book trailers at https://bit.ly/BadLoveStrikes-Trailer or https://bit.ly/BadLoveTigers_Trailer or https://bit.ly/BadLoveBeyondTrailer or https://bit.ly/BadLoveMedicineTrailer About Kevin Schewe: Kevin L. Schewe, MD, FACRO, is a board-certified cancer specialist who has been in the private practice of radiation oncology for over 34 years. He is an entrepreneur, having founded Elite Therapeutics and Bad Love Cosmetics Company, LLC. A long-time history buff, Schewe is the author of the Bad Love Book Series, a young adult sci-fi adventure that spans much of early 20th century history. You can connect with Kevin Schewe through his website KevinSchewe.com or via Instagram @realkevinschewe Bad Love Medicine, ASIN: B098TN6GKC, Broken Crow Ridge Publishing, July 6, 2021, available on Amazon and www.jancarolpublishing.com in ebook and paperback, 258 pages. Media Contact: For a review copy of Bad Love Medicine, or previous books in the series, or to arrange an interview with Dr. Kevin Schewe, contact Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications Book Marketing at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090. Reach Lorenz on Twitter @abookpublicist Monday, January 3, 2022 Archbishop Desmond Tutus funeral made several environmentally supportive statements. His coffin was a plain unvarnished pine box with rope handles. He requested no extravagant spending on the services. And he taught the world about alkaline hydrolysis, a water-based disposition method also known as Aquamation. It was his requested disposition method, before his remaining bones were interred in St. Georges Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa. Tutu campaigned for gentler stewardship of the Earth and fought against climate change. His choice of Aquamation, which uses a fraction of the energy used in flame-based cremation, prompted widespread coverage of this disposition technology. News outlets worldwide, including NPR, The Washington Post, and The Guardian in the UK, ran stories explaining the process. A natural gas-powered flame cremation of an average size person generates 532 pounds of CO, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Multiply that figure by more than 1.8 million, the number of people in the U.S. cremated in 2020, and youve got a significant carbon footprint! Alkaline hydrolysis is essentially an accelerated version of what takes place during natural decomposition. Water, elevated temperature, and alkalinity are used to speed the process of reducing tissue to the basic building blocks of life: nucleic acids, proteins, lipids (fats) and glycans (sugars). The process generates a sterile coffee colored liquid, free of DNA, RNA and any drugs that were in the body. The remaining fluid, pH-balanced to be slightly alkaline, is beneficial for municipal sewage systems, which regularly deal with acidic effluent. Some interesting facts: Alkaline hydrolysis uses up to 90% less energy than flame-based cremation. Unlike flame-based cremation, these systems generate zero greenhouse gasses. Alkaline hydrolysis returns 20% more cremated remains to the family than flame cremation. When given a choice with no price difference, 80% of families choose alkaline hydrolysis over flame cremation. There are two types of alkaline hydrolysis systems: high-temperature/pressure and low-temperature/pressure. Both can handle a body of up to 500 pounds. The body is placed in the tank, where the tissue totally dissolves. Remaining bones are processed like the bones left after fire cremation, in a cremulator (basically a blender for bones). Both systems take longer to process a body than fire-based cremation. High-temperature Aquamation systems operate at 300 degrees Fahrenheit at 65 PSI (pounds per square inch). It takes 4-6 hours to process the body with this system, enabling a funeral home to handle seven bodies every two days. Low-temperature systems operate at 200 degrees at atmospheric pressure no added PSI. It takes 14-16 hours to complete the process with this system, enabling a funeral home to handle three bodies every two days. Learn more about alkaline hydrolysis in this Family Plot Blog post. If youd like to get a brochure about Aquamation, email your mailing address to [email protected]. You can also learn more about alkaline hydrolysis and which states in the US allow the process at www.AquamationInfo.com. Watch This Video! This video with Samantha Sieber of BioResponse Solutions shows how the alkaline hydrolysis system works. [embedded content] Related National and regional home care services are being offered a special opportunity to reach consumers via the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance's website. "The vast majority of consumers want and receive long-term care in their own home," explains Jesse Slome, director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance. "When they are looking for information, they often visit the Association's website." The organization just announced a special promotional opportunity for home care providers who want to connect with seniors. "We will allow a few, select home care providers to reach the tens of thousands of senior consumers visiting the Association's website each month." The 2022 opportunity is exclusively offered to home care service providers. The American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI) advocates for the importance of planning and supports insurance professionals who market both traditional and hybrid LTC solutions. To learn more about the opportunity call the Association at 818-597-3227 or visit the organization's website at www.aaltci.org. CPS Energy has sold its former headquarters along the River Walk downtown to Blueprint Hospitality, which plans to convert it to a hotel. Blueprint purchased the 10-story building at 145 Navarro St. along with the city-owned utilitys interest in the Tower Life building parking garage last month for $19 million. Based in the Houston and Chicago areas, Blueprint specializes in converting historic buildings to hotels, managing partner and CEO Kunal Mody said. It has completed or is working on projects in Little Rock, St. Louis and Fort Worth. On ExpressNews.com: Historic River Walk building on market for $13 million Its plans for San Antonio, such as a hotel brand and number of rooms the building will include, were still being ironed out. The basement through eighth floor were constructed in 1926 and floors nine and 10 were added in 1984 and 1985, according to CBRE, which marketed the property. The building includes about 211,352 square feet of space. Its proximity to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and River Walk frontage are attractive, said Kishan Patel, Blueprint managing partner and chief operating officer. The ability to own real estate on the River Walk that opportunity does not come every day, he said. We feel strongly about the market ... believing that corporate business will be back again, it seems like its well-positioned to capture some of the opportunities down there. The historic building is located in a federal opportunity zone and a tax increment reinvestment zone. Opportunity zones were established by former President Donald Trumps 2017 tax bill to attract investment to economically-disadvantaged areas. Investors can get tax breaks on capital gains if they put their capital in long-term investments within the zones. On ExpressNews.com: Will a Trump tax break fuel investment in San Antonio or just give money away? In tax increment reinvestment zones, increases in property tax revenue are used to reimburse developers for public improvements, such as sidewalks and drainage. Mody and Patel said they were considering using both mechanisms. The building was among more than $50 million worth of properties CPS designated as surplus and listed for sale in 2019 to help offset the $210 million cost of its new headquarters on McCullough Avenue. There were multiple bidders, CPS spokesman John Moreno said. Last year the utility sold an adjacent office building and parking garage at 146 Navarro St. for $22.25 million to BH Properties, a Los Angeles-based company that plans to renovate it. It also sold a former customer service center at 7000 San Pedro Ave. for $5.25 million to KEM Texas Ltd., which is affiliated with Paul Covey and Kevin Covey of local firm GrayStreet Partners. On ExpressNews.com: CPS Energy to give piece of downtown land to San Antonio Museum of Art and sell the rest The Villita Assembly building at 401 Villita St., a parking lot next to the Mexican Consulate and a former service center on Jones Avenue are among CPS properties still on the market. CPS board of trustees voted in 2015 to donate about half of the nearly 7-acre Jones site to the San Antonio Museum of Art and sell the other half. But the utility and the museum could not reach an agreement before a 2019 deadline. Dealing with financial fallout from the pandemic and fuel costs racked up during Februarys winter storm, trustees last year voted to instead give 1 acre to the museum and sell the rest. madison.iszler@express-news.net Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO and founder of blood testing technology company Theranos, was found guilty on four out of 11 charges. Holmes, 37, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to defraud investors and three wire fraud counts tied to specific investors. The former self-made billionaire faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 plus restitution for each count Years ago, Theranos was admired for its claims to revolutionize the healthcare sector through its core blood-testing technology. However, it failed. In the three-month trial, federal prosecutors presented 29 witnesses composed of former Theranos employees, executives, and a former US Defense Secretary to prove the alleged fraud that included Theranos's attempts to conceal its use of third-party manufactured machines for blood testing and misrepresenting its work with pharmaceutical companies and using the media to misinform the public, as per The Guardian. During the closing arguments, Prosecutor Jeff Schenk said that Holmes had chosen "fraud over business failure." "She chose to be dishonest with investors and patients. That choice was not only callous, it was criminal," said Schenk. Holmes's Downfall Holmes started Theranos in 2003 at the age of 19 while studying at Stanford. Eventually, she dropped out to manage her company full time. She attracted media attention with claims that Theranos had the breakthrough technology that could accurately test for a range of health conditions by using a few drops of blood, according to CNN. The tech company was able to attract high-profile investors including Oracle founder Larry Ellison, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Walton family of Walmart, and the family of former Education Secretary Betsy De Vos. At its peak, Theranos was valued at $9 billion; and Holmes became a darling of the press being a visionary entrepreneur. But a Wall Street Journal investigation in 2015 uncovered that the company only performed "roughly a dozen" of the hundreds of tests using its blood-testing equipment, with results that have suspicious precision. Investigations also found that Theranos's claims were just overhyped as it was relying on third-party manufactured devices from traditional blood testing companies. Read Also: Federal Authorities Bar Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Barred From Operating a Lab A Landmark Case One University of Washington history professor dubbed the Holmes's trial as "blockbuster," wherein a rare female Silicon Valley CEO and youngest self-made female billionaire on paper makes history as the first of the Valley to be convicted of crime. "What a blockbuster end to a blockbuster trial. Elizabeth Holmes made history as a rare female Silicon Valley CEO and the youngest self-made female billionaire [at least on paper]. Now she makes history again as the first Silicon Valley CEO to be convicted of a white-collar crime," said Professor Margaret O'Mara, author of "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America." Robert Dugdale, a former federal prosecutor who specializes in white-collar defense, considers the trial as a "significant win" for the government. " "The investor counts she was convicted of were the most serious counts in the case. On top of that, the judge can take the other conduct charged in the case into account when Ms. Holmes is sentenced, regardless of the fact that the jury acquitted her of that conduct or did not return a verdict concerning that conduct in the government's favor," Dugdale commented, per Washington Post. Related Article: Blood Test Could Detect Alzheimer's 20 Years Before Cognitive Problems Show @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A Washington, D.C., real estate investment trust has purchased a newly built health care clinic for veterans on San Antonios Northwest Side. Easterly Government Properties bought the 224,148-square-foot, $18 million facility last week from Kansas City, Mo.-based US Federal Properties. The parties did not disclose the purchase price. The building, leased to the Veterans Affairs Department, is at 9939 Texas 151 in Westover Hills. Easterly has said the purchase is part of a previously announced $635.6 million plan to snap up nine outpatient centers and one mental health clinic, all under long-term leases with the VA. The San Antonio Northwest Health Care Center is slated to open this spring and will be the third major VA facility in the region, joining Audie Murphy VA Hospital in the South Texas Medical Center and a site in Kerrville. Nenette Madla, a spokeswoman for the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, said the agency will be paid $5.93 million in rent the first year and $8.42 million in each subsequent year under a 20-year contract. Newmark Group Inc., a New York real estate firm representing US Federal Properties, said the three-story outpatient clinic is situated near three hospitals. The new San Antonio VA clinic will serve the community at a centralized location, consolidating existing service from multiple clinics, Newmark Vice Chairman Gary Carr said in a statement. The location in an expanding and developing area with access to major employment centers made this an ideal location for the VAs new center. Madla said the VA is still determining the opening date. The purchase of the outpatient clinic comes after Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough visited VA facilities in the San Antonio area last month as part of a national tour. McDonough said the South Texas Veterans Health Care System is the VAs fastest-growing network. What that means for us is this health care system is growing at 15 percent over the course of the last two years, he said. That will continue at that rate, we project at least at that rate over the next years. Madla said the VA also is finalizing plans for a clinic in the Uvalde area and will expand other facilities in the San Antonio area. Since November 2020, Easterly has bought four VA-leased properties, including facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Lenexa, Kan. In October, it acquired the 120,916-square-foot VA facility in Lubbock located near the Texas Tech University medical campus. The San Antonio deal marks the fourth purchase in a venture expected to close by the end of 2023. VA-San Antonio is the largest of the assets within the VA portfolio to be acquired thus far, Easterly CEO William C. Trimble III said in a news release. eric.killelea@ express-news.net The new year ushered in a fresh explosion of the COVID-19 virus as San Antonios Metropolitan Health District reported 11,528 newly diagnosed cases just in the past three days and upgraded the risk level to severe. As the pandemic closes in on its second year and the more contagious omicron variant continues to spread, nearly 4,000 cases a day are being reported in San Antonio and Bexar County 3,894 newly diagnosed cases were reported Monday, preceded by 3,757 on Sunday and 3,877 on Saturday. The latest daily numbers mark the highest recorded since July 16, 2020, when more than 5,500 cases were reported. The citys seven-day average has risen to 2,055 an increase of 424 in just the past 24 hours. Its positivity rate now stands at 27.3 percent. The number of COVID patients now admitted to San Antonio hospitals has risen to 506, nearly double the number one week ago. Thats the highest number of COVID hospitalizations reported since October. We announced last Friday ... that we were going into a critical situation with hospitals, County Judge Nelson Wolff said in a statement Monday night. We have asked for 400 nurses and will be asking for more. People need to help us avoid filling up our hospitals by taking precautions such as masking up, sanitation and avoiding gatherings. Fifteen percent of all patients hospitalized in San Antonio are currently battling the COVID virus. Among them, 71 percent about 359 people were unvaccinated, while 29 percent about 147 people had received their shots to protect themselves against the virus. Of those hospitalized, 22 are children. On ExpressNews.com: The odds were not in his favor San Antonio man survives COVID-19 but pays a price We have been closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation and are working to expand testing and other resources as needed, City Manager Erik Walsh said. Late last week, the city requested additional federal testing resources from the state. ... If you or someone you know needs assistance finding a test site or getting vaccinated, please call 311. The city has requested expanded capacity at the states testing sites and authorized additional testing sites to be established in the coming days. Fighting the omicron variant Infusions continue to be available in San Antonio for patients suffering from the omicron variant of COVID-19 despite a state health department news release last week claiming the local supply of such medication had been exhausted. The San Antonio regional infusion center operated by the nonprofit BCFS Health and Human Services Emergency Management Division never ran out of sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody that effectively treats this particular strain of the virus. A doctors prescription is required for the infusion, which is among several types of infusion medications that can help COVID patients avoid the need for hospitalization. Another shipment of sotrovimab, which is distributed by the federal government, is scheduled for Thursday, said BCFS System spokeswoman Evy Ramos. In a Dec. 27 news release, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported that the San Antonio regional infusion center and four other infusion centers in Austin, The Woodlands, Fort Worth and El Paso had exhausted their supplies of the medication because of a national shortage from the federal government. At the time, all remaining supply had been booked for patient appointments at those infusion locations, said state health department spokeswoman Lara Anton. But the state was notified late last Monday of a small and unexpected allocation of the medication, which was shipped to the regional infusion centers. Also, a relatively large number of people canceled their infusion appointments, which allowed the remaining supply to be designated for appointments through next Saturday, Anton said. It is our hope the limited supply will be adequate to meet the needs of scheduled patients until the next federal shipment, Ramos said Monday. On ExpressNews.com: Thousands of San Antonio-area students return to class this week despite omicron; Northside ISD reports 1,260 staff absences The national supply of sotrovimab remains very limited, Ramos said. According to the most recent reports, the federal government plans to distribute only 300,000 doses nationally in January, she said. Demand for sotrovimab continues to outpace supply. More than 66,000 courses of the medication were requested by Texas health care providers between Dec. 17 and Dec. 30, while only 5,620 courses were allocated to the state during that same period, Anton said. Other monoclonal antibodies havent proved to be effective against the omicron variant, which as of last week accounted for more than 90 percent of newly diagnosed COVID cases, the state health department said. However, regional infusion centers are continuing to offer those antibody infusions as prescribed by doctors to patients that have other strains of COVID. Getting tested The demand for COVID tests also remains strong. Curative, which runs the vast majority of free testing sites in San Antonio, said patients booking appointments at its locations can get in to be tested within one to two days. The public can visit Curative.com to find the nearest testing site. A list of local testing locations can also be found at covid19.sanantonio.gov, along with phone numbers and hours of operation. Curative is testing about 10,000 people per day in the San Antonio area during the ongoing COVID surge. The demand at Curatives free testing sites appears to be holding steady since it reached maximum capacity in the middle of last week, said spokesperson Pasquale Gianni. Curative offers both PCR and rapid antigen COVID-19 tests. Though testing lines may be long, at this time, we are not aware that individuals are not able to test at all, said Dr. Rita Espinoza, Metropolitan Health Districts chief of epidemiology. However, if an individual is experiencing symptoms and unable to get a COVID test, then the individual should stay home until they can get a test or at least five days from when their symptoms started and then wear a mask for another five days while around others. If possible, individuals should contact their health care provider to get recommendations based on their individual situation. pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: Peggy_OHare As COVID-19 cases continue to soar in San Antonio, the coronavirus vaccine site at Wonderland of the Americas marked its first anniversary and continued to see steady demand adults seeking booster shots as well as first and second doses for children all showed up Tuesday. The Wonderland location averages about 1,000 adults and 250 kids a day now, said Bill Phillips, executive vice president and chief information officer for University Health. Most adults come for their booster doses, he said. Although the site closed for about two months in July when demand dropped off, it reopened in September as federal regulators authorized the first booster vaccines. Health officials continued to see demand when some children got the go-ahead to receive shots. (Demand) really follows what the pits and valleys are in the pandemic, Phillips said. Now University Health is prepared to offer boosters to children aged 12 to 15 if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes that expected recommendation this week. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized a booster dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this week for kids aged 12 to 15, but University Health will wait for the full CDC guidance. Among the children getting vaccinated at Wonderland on Tuesday was Kaelyn Diaz, 6, who came with her mother, Adriana Diaz, 37. The family lives in Laredo but was still in San Antonio for the holidays when they felt the urgency for Kaelyn Diaz to get her second dose while she was still off from school. With this new variant on the rise, we didnt want to wait any longer, Adriana Diaz said. She and her daughter have not contracted COVID-19 as far as they know, but some family members have passed away because of coronavirus complications, she said. Adriana Diaz has already received her booster, but living with a young child and immunosuppressed people in their lives led to a feeling of relief when Kaelyn Diaz received her second shot. I see it as a step forward that we can now maybe go about our lives, Adriana Diaz said. Our human nature is not to be secluded. Maygan Rosas, 27, has also lost family to COVID-19. Her father passed away a couple of weeks ago from the virus. That helped compel her to travel an hour to Wonderland on Tuesday so her sons, 5 and 8, could get their first doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Her father was unvaccinated due to other health conditions, Rosas said. But by the time his doctor gave him the go-ahead to receive a vaccine, he had contracted COVID-19. It led to his hospitalization in an intensive care unit. After seeing what happened to her dad, Rosas received her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in early December. She said she waited because she mostly stays home and doesnt go out. When it came time to take her children, they didnt object because she told them it was going to help protect them. She also worries about the kids in school, where she said masks are no longer mandatory. At Wonderland alone, University Health has administered 538,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including first and second doses as well as booster shots. Weve adjusted on a daily basis to keep improving things, Phillips said. And weve learned that compassion is big. The clinic had shuffled between requiring appointments in the beginning to allowing walk-ins, then back to an appointment system when young children became eligible, trying to keep parents from waiting in long lines. But they never turned anyone away, Phillips said. Right now, people can walk in at the Wonderland site and receive a COVID-19 vaccine without an appointment. There werent any long lines Tuesday morning. A large site like the former Annas Linens space on the second floor of the mall allows room allows distance people getting vaccinated. Wonderland of the Americas is also centrally located within San Antonio, Phillips said, and is easily accessible off Loop 410 and I-10. Marina Botello, 76, received a booster shot Tuesday. Her daughter, Cindy Torres, 50, said she helped convince Botello it was time after her mother waited to get her third shot. Wonderland is where they received their first doses of the coronavirus vaccine, so they felt comfortable returning to the same location. Torres said she feels much better knowing her mother has the protection of a booster vaccine. Adriana Diaz, from Laredo, said they hesitantly spent the holidays with family after getting tested for COVID-19 to ensure a safer environment. They havent gathered with people often. Knowing her daughter received the second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine is encouraging. It does give you peace of mind, she said. megan.stringer@express-news.net A new Netflix mockumentary about the year 2021 compared the state of Texas to the Taliban, torching state lawmakers for turning back the clock on abortion rights in the United States. Charlie Brookers Death To 2021 presents an array of talking heads all caricatures quipping about a highlight reel of news events that made 2020 feel like a mere prequel. On ExpressNews.com: Florida is kicking our butt: Don Huffines campaign ad promises a Cowboys Super Bowl win and to be better than the Sunshine State In a scene following a segment on the Talibans return to power in Afghanistan, the films producers cut to aerial shots of the Texas Capitol in Austin. A voiceover said: Also intent on turning back the clock, another failed state ruled by fundamentalist extremists, who use religious dogma to restrict womens freedom: Texas. Texas recently passed a controversial law restricting abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a time when most women realize that theyre pregnant. They call it a heartbeat act, but you cant hear a heartbeat in any of the lawmakers, said journalist Kathy Flowers, played by Cristin Milioti. The new law allows allows private citizens to bring civil lawsuits to anyone who assists a pregnant woman seeking an abortion. On ExpressNews.com: Filmed in Texas, upcoming season of 'Queer Eye' to feature new Miranda Lambert song 'Y'all Means All' Informing on your neighbor is a very Christian practice, quipped Fox News-style pundit Madison Madison, played by Tracey Ullman. If Jesus had never been snitched on, hed never have ended up on a cross. Death to 2021 is produced by Brooker and Annabel Jones, the pair behind Black Mirror. The special is a follow up to last years Death to 2020. The satirical documentary stars a fantasy team of actors, including Hugh Grant who reprises his role as a foppishly pretentious and condescending academic. The special also pokes fun at the Jan. 6 insurrection, COVID-19 vaccines and rising virus variants, rampant climate change and the Texas-based space race between billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net St. Marys University announced that it will delay the start of classes until Jan. 24 because of the spread of COVID-19 omicron variant. The private university joins Trinity University, which was the first local university to delay its start date until Jan. 31. Over the holiday weekend, COVID-19 surged in San Antonio. Metropolitan Health District reported 11,528 new cases over Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and it upgraded the risk level to severe. Mondays daily case number 3,894 is the highest the city has seen since July 16, 2020, when it logged more than 5,500. The School of Law at St. Marys will begin classes Monday, as planned. And university President Tom Mengler says that beginning Jan. 12, students should log into their Canvas courses to check for assignments that might be required to limit loss of instruction. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio needs teachers Soon, therell be a magnet school for that In light of the current and expected impacts of the COVID-19 omicron variant, classes for (undergraduate), graduate and Ph.D. students will be delayed until Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, Mengler said in a memo to students. Class time will not be made up, and spring break will go forward as planned, Mengler said. The university encourages all students and staff to take the extra time to get fully vaccinated, including booster shots. Residence halls and dining services will be open starting Sunday, but the university welcomes students to move in closer to the end of the month before in-person classes begin. On ExpressNews.com: Northside ISD reports 1,260 staff absences as S.A.-area students return to school Face masks will continue to be required for everyone inside campus buildings. COVID-19 testing, quarantine, isolation and self-reporting requirements remain in place. The University of the Incarnate Word, Our Lady of the Lake University and Alamo Colleges are beginning classes as planned in-person. The University of Texas at San Antonio is also beginning classes as planned Jan. 18, but their faculty and staff are working remotely this week and next week. This gives us a bit more time to monitor the potential impact of omicron, said Joe Izbrand, spokesperson for UTSA. At this point, we remain on schedule for spring classes to begin on Jan. 18. Texas State University will teach the first two weeks of classes online starting Jan. 18, instead of in-person. claire.bryan@express-news.net William Ericson Ladd was born Sept. 14, 1974, in Atlanta. He died a month before his fifth birthday in a car accident. On what would have been Ladds 47th birthday, a flight attendant named William Ericson Ladd entered a secure crew member entrance at Houstons George Bush Intercontinental Airport, where customs officials conducted an extensive interrogation. Investigators say the senior United Airlines flight attendant had posed as the long-dead Georgia boy for two decades. Ultimately, he admitted to federal agents he was Ricardo Cesar Guedes, a 49-year-old who owned a Lake Houston home, got married, bought a BMW, took out a loan and worked as a flight attendant, including 40 trips for United in 2020 all in Ladds name. Guedes is detained pending trial for impersonating a U.S. citizen, entering a secure airport area with fake documents and passport fraud. In the past five years, the Diplomatic Security Service has opened an average of 2,000 passport fraud cases yearly, investigating such cases. Special agents stationed in 86 countries track down evidence for the State Department along with partner law enforcement units in 15 countries. A review of local prosecutions reveals Guedes is among several defendants accused of playing the long game, spending years constructing a fake identity based on a pile of real documents that belong to someone else. Guedes also used Ladds identity to sponsor his spouses application for permanent residency. He has no prior criminal record. His defense lawyer declined to comment. The particulars of local prosecutions shed light on the complexities and cruelties of passport fraud, a crime that has become far more difficult to pull off as official IDs become increasingly high tech. RELATED: Fake wedding albums in scheme paired immigrants from Vietnam with U.S. citizens Nicholas Porter, an assistant special agent in charge with Diplomatic Security Service, said defendants in these cases take on the identities of dead and living victims. Con artists cannot just paste a photo into an existing passport like they may have done in the old days, he said. Instead, aspiring impostors tend to build their way to a fake identity over time, obtaining one authentic document after another in their victims name, before they apply for a passport or some other document that tips off officials to their scheme, Porter said. People find creative ways to hunt down possible victims, the agent said. I think youd be surprised what people find just combing the internet, looking for obituaries. Theres a tremendous amount of information on people, Porter said. There are multiple ways of getting basic information to build the supporting documents to apply for a U.S. passport. Scammers check to see if death certificates have been issued and look for young people who never established credit, he said. Sometimes they track down lost IDs. The State Department has also found that Puerto Rico is a hot market for buying real passports from U.S. citizens who dont want them, Porter said. Nathan Lindstrom, Freelance / Para La Voz Floating weddings piloted under alias Suspects in this region built fake identities by applying for increasingly difficult-to-obtain documents as they earned confidence, documents show. These defendants assumed new identities for a variety of reasons. A typical federal prosecution involves a noncitizen who is using a fake identity to live, work or travel as a U.S. citizen, officials say. In other cases, U.S. citizens with murky personal histories use new IDs to conceal their true identities or gain access to a coveted profession or, in the case of Cynthia Lynn Knox, both. Knox, also known as Cynthia Lyerla, was a suspect in her husbands 1988 stabbing death in Southern California. She was also sued for wrongful death in their toddler daughters drowning in a fish pond, according to court records. Before that, the child had nearly died from ingesting too many Advil and again by nearly drowning in a bathtub. Knox received $300,000 in life insurance proceeds for the deaths of her spouse and child and vanished with her lover-turned-husband, John Litchfield. The couple ended up in League City piloting floating weddings and quinceaneras as charter cruise ship captains, according to court documents. Knox admitted in federal court the first step in creating her new identity was obtaining the birth certificate of an infant who died at birth in 1965 in Santa Ana, Calif. She used that to apply for a new Social Security number in the early 90s. Over decades posing as Christina White, Knox secured an Arizona drivers license, a merchant mariners license, a transit worker ID, Coast Guard certification to operate a large vessel, a passport and Transportation Security Administration documentation. Police recovered 20 IDs and 40 credit cards in the home she shared with Litchfield. Both had served as captain on charter and dinner cruises out of Kemah and Galveston since the 1990s. Decades later, Whites passport renewal application caught the attention of an investigator at the Bureau of Consular Affairs as a possible fraud. Diplomatic Security Service special agents searched dozens of databases, chased leads and scanned the internet, ultimately landing on a 1988 news clip about the homicide of Harold Lyerla. The agents sent Whites new passport photo to a retired detective in Lompoc, Calif., who said he was certain she was the murder victims missing widow. Fingerprints on Whites renewed Merchant Mariners license also matched fingerprints taken in the California murder case. Knox completed a three-year prison sentence for aggravated identity theft and making false statements in a passport application, according to records. Theres no indication she was prosecuted in either her husband or daughters deaths. Assuming IDs of living victims Other defendants orchestrate passport fraud to reap the benefits of citizenship, the State Department investigator said. Jesus Duenas-Barajas, a 53-year-old Mexican national, was convicted of lying on a U.S. passport application and aggravated identity theft. For nearly 30 years, Duenas-Barajas used the identity of Roy Nava, a teenager who died in 1978, records show. Duenas-Barajas admitted in court documents he applied for a passport in 2012 at the Westfield Post Office on Red Oak Drive in Houston using the Social Security number and birth certificate in Navas name. Hed also obtained a drivers license in the dead childs name. Authorities caught on to the scam when he called Social Security in 2013 requesting a form and couldnt answer basic questions about himself. Investigator Adam Porter, from the State Department, said many think no one is harmed, but these crimes do have victims. He tells trainees what brings home the seriousness of these scams is when the people targeted are significantly disadvantaged and in some cases still alive. One example is the case of Rafael Soriano-Sanmartin, an Austin man sentenced for passport fraud in April. Soriano-Sanmartin had been a caretaker for a person who is blind, deaf and mute, Porter said. He admitted in court that for 20 years he had been using his clients identity to secure documents. In the recent case at Bush Airport, officials say Guedes overstayed his tourist visa and began using a Social Security card in the Georgia childs name 17 years after Ladd died. From there, he obtained a pile of documents in Ladds name. His most recent passport renewal raised some red flags for consular officials. First, his social security number was issued in 1996, 22 years after Ladd was born. Second, a death certificate showed William Ericson Ladd died in 1979. The birth date on that death certificate matched the birth date in Ladds passport renewal application. True identity prompted by gravesite photo So who was the man whod been serving drinks and giving safety demonstrations on flights to the Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru? The fingerprints the flight attendant had given for his United background check matched birth records of a son born to the Guedes family in 1972, according to court documents. Social media images of the man posing as Ladd showed him with what appeared to be family members in Brazil, where about half his flights as an a United employee had been. A woman linked to those images, Maria Auxiliadora Duarte Guedes, told federal agents from the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service in Brazil that she didnt know anyone named William Ericson Ladd. But she did have a son born in Brazil. And fingerprints on this mans ID card matched the United employees passport application. The deceased childs mother, Debra Green, confirmed her boy was buried decades ago in Alabama. Green couldnt recall whether hed been issued a Social Security number. When confronted by federal officials in September, Guedes identified himself as William Ericson Ladd. An official warned him it was a federal crime to lie to him. Guedes said he was born in the United States but was raised by his missionary parents in Brazil. Then the official notified him the government had a death certificate for William Ericson Ladd. According to documents, Guedes became silent. The official showed Guedes a photograph of William Ericson Ladds gravesite in Alabama. The flight attendant ultimately signed a new fingerprint sheet using the name Ricardo Guedes. As officials placed him under arrest, they recalled, he told them, I had a dream, and the dream is over. Now I have to face reality. gabrielle.banks@chron.com twitter.com/gabmobanks Efforts across Texas to encourage aspiring college students to fill out their free application for federal student aid forms ahead of a Jan. 15 deadline have taken on new urgency after 100,000 fewer high school students nationwide completed the forms that were due in summer 2021. Colleges and universities use the applications to examine how much financial need a student has for scholarships. The federal priority deadline for high school seniors is Feb. 1, although the so-called FAFSA applications are accepted through April 1. Thousands of dollars in Federal Pell Grants are available for students in need, and those students can also access loans at favorable rates. In July 2020, more than 2 million applications were filed by high school seniors nationwide, data from the National College Attainment Network show. The high school class of 2021 filled out nearly 5 percent fewer of the applications, or about 102,000 less. About 18 million students seeking college financial aid file the application each year, in total. In addition to federal student aid, the applications can be submitted for student aid from Texas, typically offered to students to stay in-state for college. Texas state deadline is Jan. 15. I think that it is important that we help each other and we help the students here in high schools like mine, where sometimes its a bit harder for parents to be able to support the student, so sometimes its necessary to have those resources available for students, said Nataly Martinez, a spring 2021 graduate of Eastside Early College High School in Austin, at an event held by Austin ISD where students and parents were offered assistance with filling out the 108-question form. TEXAS TAKE: Get the latest news on Texas politics sent directly to your inbox every weekday Martinez, an academic junior at the University of North Texas, is the first person in her family to attend college. She said she completed 62 credit hours while still in high school. The questions on the form are often technical, and the familys 2020 income taxes must be completed before a FAFSA can be submitted for the household. The process can be especially difficult for families in which English is a second language or for those who have never had to prepare the documents before, like Martinezs. For high school students who need help filling out the form, information is available online or from college counselors at their schools. She thanked two staff members with the district, crediting them with helping her complete it. I am extremely thankful that I had them, because otherwise I would not be able to attend college today. It was because of the resources that I was able to find on this campus that I was able to pursue my college dream, Martinez said. School districts, local education nonprofits, business groups such as local chambers of commerce and other organizations often hold events or make resources available to prospective students and their families. Average earnings for college graduates are higher than non graduates, so whole communities benefit from increased college attendance and affordability. FAFSA help breaks into three categories, said Darrin Hanson, the director of college readiness for Houston ISD, the largest school district in the state: direct student or family support, professional development and public awareness. Houston ISD hosts events it calls Financial Aid Roadshows where district staff and local experts are made directly available to families to help them fill out their FAFSAs or answer questions. Professional development refers to the behind-the-scenes work to prepare the experts for those events, and they occur throughout the year, Hanson said. There are also online resources including videos to help families fill out the FAFSA, and some districts send text messages or emails to check in with students and families and to remind them of deadlines. Each year there are millions of dollars of federal student assistance that go unclaimed, said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, an Austin Democrat, speaking at the Austin event. We have barriers that stand in the way of too many students in our community and coming right out of the school from getting the education that they need and want to achieve, and this morning were trying to do something about it. edward.mckinley@ chron.com The Federal Emergency Management Agency will open six new COVID-19 testing sites across Texas, after state officials last week asked the federal government to help manage the states rising caseloads. The six sites, approved Monday, will be located in Bexar, Cameron, Dallas, Harris, Hidalgo and Tarrant counties. State officials said they expect the centers to open sometime next week, and a FEMA spokesperson said the department is working with our federal partners to quickly source the request. The exact locations of the testing sites have not yet been determined, but state and federal officials held a phone call on Tuesday to discuss the logistics. The Texas Department of Emergency Management will share details as soon as they become available from the federal government, said Seth Christensen, a spokesman for the department. Gov. Greg Abbott announced the states request on Friday, saying the six counties had been chosen for their high COVID statistics, including hospitalizations and positivity rates, the percentage of all COVID tests that are positive. The same day, the state also asked the federal government for extra medical personnel and additional allocations of sotrovimab, a type of monoclonal antibody treatment. Sotrovimab is the only drug known to treat the omicron variant, which has spread rapidly over the past month in Texas and across the nation. Last week, the state health department announced that five of its regional antibody treatment centers had run out of sotrovimab, but a last-minute shipment and a significant number of cancellations allowed the state to continue scheduling appointments through Jan. 8, said Lara Anton, a spokeswoman for the state health department. THE ODDS WERE NOT IN HIS FAVOR: San Antonio man survives COVID-19 but pays a price Still, the current allocations are less than ideal. Texas was allocated about 5,600 courses of sotrovimab from Dec. 17 to Dec. 30 - but providers had requested more than 66,000 courses during that same period, Anton said. The federal government is now allocating the antibodies on a weekly basis, rather than biweekly, she added. The state will receive about 2,400 courses this week compared to 2,300 the week prior, and 3,300 the week before that. The requests for the extra antibody allocations and medical personnel are still pending, Anton said. We expect that the request for federal staffing teams will take longer to be reviewed, she said. We are in the process of supplying additional information that they need to assess the states needs. We believe it will be at least a week before they make a decision. In the meantime, the new testing sites will help more quickly identify the virus and ease some local demand, especially as the nation faces a shortage of at-home test kits, officials say. More than 7,000 Texans were hospitalized with the virus as of Monday, and the state is reporting tens of thousands of new cases daily. cayla.harris@express-news.net Gregg County Sheriff Facebook After two years of searching, the vehicle of a missing East Texas woman was found last week with human remains inside, multiple media outlets reported. Rosemary Rodriguez, of Kilgore, has been missing since Oct. 7, 2019. She was last seen leaving her boyfriends house in her lime-green hatchback, KLTV reported. Josie Norris / San Antonio Express-News Monday had to be a frustrating day for holiday and business travelers at San Antonio International Airport. Just like at other airports across the U.S., flyers in and out of San Antonio were greeted with flight delays and cancellations. A New York federal judge ordered the dropping of the charges against two prison guards who admitted to falsifying records on the night Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in 2019. US District Court Judge Analisa Torres dismissed the cases against Tova Noel and Michael Thomas of the Bureau of Prisons after they completed deferred prosecution agreements in May. The agreements entailed the two to provide "truthful information" about their job in the Bureau of Prisons which includes the events and circumstances described in the indictment. Noel and Thomas also completed 100 hours of community service. Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019, on sex trafficking charges for allegedly paying girls as young as 14 for sex and for operating a sex trafficking ring at his Manhattan mansion and Palm Beach estate in the early 2000s. He pleaded not guilty. On August 10, 2019, while awaiting trial, the high-profile financier hanged himself in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, as reported by Fox News. On the night of the incident, instead of checking on Epstein every 30 minutes, Noel and Thomas surfed the internet and fell asleep just 15 feet away from Epstein's jail cell. The two also admitted falsifying records to cover up their negligence. In November 2019, Noel and Thomas pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and filing false records. According to the initial indictment, the two jail guards signed false certifications saying they had performed their duties. The Metropolitan Correctional Center where Thomas and Noel worked was chronically understaffed and had stressful conditions. Noel's lawyer Jason Foy said that the government had handled the case "differently" due to Epstein's notorious status. He added that his client was also able to provide information on the "toxic culture, subpar training, staffing shortages, and dysfunctional management" in the correctional facility which is no longer operational. Thomas's lawyer said that his client was happy about the dismissal of the charges and is moving forward in his life. Read Also: Ghislaine Maxwell Believes Jeffrey Epstein Was Murdered; Friends, Families Request To Remain Anonymous If They Testify in Her Defense Aftermath of Maxwell's conviction The New York court decision was made after the prosecution of Epstein's longtime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell last week, The Guardian reported. Maxwell now faces up to 65 years of imprisonment after a New York Jury found her guilty of sex trafficking on five of six counts in her involvement in Epstein's sexual abuse of underage girls. 2009 Court Settlement Unsealed Meanwhile, a previously sealed court settlement between Epstein and Virginia Roberts in 2009, now known as Virginia Giuffre, that allegedly protects Prince Andrew of UK from an ongoing sexual assault lawsuit was made public. Giuffre sued Andrew in August, accusing the British Royalty of forcing her to engage in sex when she was 17 at the London residence of Maxwell. Prince Andrew has denied all the accusations, as per Al Jazeera. Related Article: Second Accuser Testifies in Ghislaine Maxwell Trial; Witness Claims Jeffrey Epstein's Madam Would Name Drop Famous Personalities @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. San Antonio police continue to search for missing 3-year-old Lina Sardar Khil as authorities try to piece together how she disappeared just over two weeks ago from her Medical Center-area apartment complex. Officials said they have no updates as to where the child could be as they work tirelessly at receiving leads and tips on the case. A relative of a San Antonio man accused of killing his cousin in a drive-by shooting told Bexar County jurors that the men were fighting over a woman, as the murder trial of Edison Carraman began Tuesday morning. Carraman was 21 when he was arrested and charged in the fatal shooting of his cousin, Kristopher Carraman, 23, around 11:30 p.m. on March 27, 2020. Reports indicate the victim was at a family barbecue when a black vehicle drove passed a home in the 1800 block of Pyron Avenue on the South Side and opened fire on people standing outside. The victim was shot in the head and later died at Brooke Army Medical Center. No weapon was discovered at the scene, but police found shell casings from a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson firearm that matched bullets hidden in a drawer at Edison Carramans home. With the trial expected to have many relatives take the stand, multiple witnesses testified on Tuesday that they could positively identify Edison Carraman as the shooter, including two who said they made eye contact. Testifying for prosecutors David Martin and Rosa Garcia, Gonzalo Carraman uncle to the victim and cousin of the accused said he was standing outside and saw Edison Carraman fire a weapon toward the house. He later saw blood gushing from his nephews head. I literally saw my cousin shoot. He was on the passengers side, Gonzalo Carraman was heard on a 911 call played for the jury. Prior to the shooting, Gonzalo Carraman said he sent a text to Edison Carraman in an attempt to intervene between his cousin and nephew that night because Edison Carraman was dating the mother of Kristopher Carramans two sons, something that angered the victim. Gonzalo Carraman told the jury that as the oldest male cousin, it was his responsibility to step up between the men and try to explain how it wasnt right for the defendant to date his cousins ex. Thats not what we do with family, Gonzalo Carraman told the jury. Defense attorney Raymond Martinez asked Gonzalo Carraman during cross examination whether he knew that had he not instigated the text and phone call exchange, the shooting may never have occurred. You provoked him to come to the house, Martinez told the witness. I didnt pull the trigger, Gonzalo Carraman replied. Conflicting witness statements Martinez attempted to discredit witness testimony from relatives whom he said either told police at the time, or were caught on their body-worn cameras, saying the shots came from the driver of the car, while others said the shots came from the passenger side. Giovanni Alvarez, the aunt-in-law of Kristopher Carraman, is married to his aunt, Audrey Carraman. Alvarez said her wife immediately began CPR, while Alvarez and other relatives grabbed T-shirts to wrap around Kristopher Carramans head to try to stop the bleeding when he stopped breathing. When asked whether she saw the shooter, she said Edison Carraman was sticking out of the passenger-side window with a gun in his hand as he fired two shots into the air, a third shot, and yelled an expletive at Gonzalo Carraman before firing a fourth shot. I saw his (Edison Carramans) face. We made eye contact, Giovanni Alvarez told the jury. She said she did not see who was driving the car. Edison Carramans case is the first in-person jury trial of the new year. It was allowed to proceed following last weeks cancellation of jury trials in light of the spike in COVID-19 infections because the panel in the 437th District Court was chosen before Christmas, and Administrative Judge Ron Rangel has allowed courts with juries already seated to move forward with their own safety protocols. If convicted of murder, Edison Carraman, now 24, faces up to life in prison. ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863 America cherishes democracy, and democracy needs cultivating. Its up to us, the citizens, to make it work. Making democracy work is to renew the American system of representative government and reinvigorate citizen participation. As an organization devoted to citizen participation in government, the League of Women Voters of San Antonio believes our youth are critical to the health of our democracy. To safeguard our democracy, it is imperative to reach out to the next generation our future voters and future leaders. As anti-democratic forces threaten our democracy and erode public confidence, especially among youth, the League of Women Voters, the most trusted name since 1920 in nonpartisan voter education, is embarking on a strategic, comprehensive youth initiative project, Picture This: Our Future, Our Vote. The initiative advances the leagues core mission of encouraging informed and active participation of citizens in government. It is an attempt to engage the next generation to think about democracy, the role of our leaders, the role of our government and, most important, their role in making democracy work. Picture This: Our Future, Our Vote strives to engage community youth in imagining the world they want to live in and tracing the necessary steps to help build it. The project fosters a dialogue in a peer setting to help them identify and understand issues that are important to create the future of that world. Exploring ways to increase their awareness and grasp of issues that affect their lives will allow youths to make informed choices at the polls. On ExpressNews.com: Commentary: A true democracy is built upon diversity This initiative aims to ensure that high school and college students in the San Antonio area have the desire, the right, the knowledge and the confidence to participate. Young people often lack basic information about how or where to vote. A lack of confidence and preparedness also keeps them from showing up at the polls. This project empowers youth with nonpartisan tools and resources to help them navigate. Often, people of color experience higher rates of difficulties at the polls than their white counterparts, and the league has excellent resources that can address both statutory and nonstatutory barriers to voting. The project aspires to educate youth on how to select and elect leaders who share their vision and align with them. The goal is to empower younger citizens to shape better communities, a better state and a better nation through grassroots citizen action. To kick off Picture This: Our Future, Our Vote, the league organized an essay/poem/rap/spoken word contest. High school, undergraduate and graduate students in Bexar County were invited to respond to the prompt: What is your vision of a democratic society? What is your role within this society? These inspiring and moving submissions from the contest evoke joy, gratitude and hope for our democracy. Printing of the three winning submissions in the Express-News sends the youth in our community a powerful message that their voices are heard, respected and shared. On ExpressNews.com: Commentary: To build a better workforce, invest in lifelong learning, training As a volunteer, grassroots organization, the League of Women Voters of San Antonio will need the help of our educational institutions, our educators, our elected officials, our community leaders, print and broadcast media outlets, and citizen organizations to spread the word of this initiative and help engage the youth in the community. To shape the future of our communities, we must engage this important segment of our society. Each of us has a role to play in protecting our democracy and in making it work. Madhu Sridhar is president of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of the San Antonio Area. Contact her at madhusridhar2012@gmail.com Picture this: Hundreds of men are arrested on Class B misdemeanor trespassing charges without probable cause. They are locked up for weeks, even months, without a day in court. In many instances they have spent more time locked up pretrial without appearing before a judge 70 days, 90 days, more than 100 days than they would have if found guilty. Its hard to imagine how such a system we balk at using that word is constitutional. Defendants have a legal right to the presumption of innocence, counsel and to quickly appear before a judge to enter a plea. But this is the system Gov. Greg Abbott has instituted on the southern border with Mexico through Operation Lone Star, which appears more and more disgraceful with each passing day. Operation Lone Star has ballooned in expense and overwhelmed local criminal justice systems. Four recent deaths, reported as suicides by the Army Times, among Texas National Guardsmen deployed to the border under Operation Lone Star have raised questions about readiness, purpose, support and organization. On ExpressNews.com: Commentary: A true democracy is built upon diversity For immigrants, more than 2,000 of whom have been swept up in Operation Lone Star, there have been a number of legal missteps. As has widely been reported, especially by the Texas Tribune, some migrants have been wrongfully arrested and separated from their families (women and children have been released to federal authorities, the New York Times reported), and many have been detained for weeks without charges being filed against them. A recent shakeup of judges only will exacerbate this dynamic. In early December, Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan dismissed three retired visiting judges who had released migrants on no-cost bond at their initial hearings. Bear in mind, the men had waited weeks or months for these hearings. They then were released to federal authorities, again detained and either deported or released while their asylum claims are processed. The play here is clear: Shahan has not released migrants on no-cost bonds. In other words, the judicial shakeup likely means longer pretrial incarceration. While we are sympathetic to ranchers who have had migrants cross their properties more than 50 ranchers have agreed to the Texas Department of Public Safety patrolling their land Operation Lone Star is hardly an appropriate solution. Weve seen again and again how policies solely based on deterrence dont work because they dont address the root causes of immigration food insecurity, poverty and a lack of safety in immigrants home countries. Again, comprehensive reform starts with addressing these root causes. Beyond this, immigration is a federal issue and asylum-seekers have a legal right to have their cases heard. On ExpressNews.com: Commentary: To build a better workforce, invest in lifelong learning, training This fall, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, and other federal lawmakers called on the Justice Department to investigate Operation Lone Star, arguing it is wreaking havoc on Texas judicial system and is likely violating the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. Even more egregiously, these programs have directly led to a violation of state laws and constitutional due process rights, they said. More recently, the American Civil Liberties Union in Texas filed a federal discrimination complaint. And Texas RioGrande Legal Aid has sued for the release of 144 migrants detained in Operation Lone Star. State law is clear: If the prosecution isnt ready for trial, the defendant must be released either on personal bond or by reducing the bond requirement to an amount the defendant can pay, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid said in a statement. Just what is Abbott accomplishing by detaining migrants and asylum-seekers for months at taxpayer expense only to have them released to federal authorities? End this program. Stewart F. House/Getty Images Texas will beat the state of Florida, the Dallas Cowboys will have another Super Bowl ring and the Lone Star State will finally have its swagger back. These were the promises made by Republican gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines in a political advertisement aired Sunday during the Cowboys game against the Arizona Cardinals. A U.S. district judge in North Texas has blocked a mask mandate and vaccine requirement for staff and students in the Head Start program that was issued by President Joe Biden. Head Start is a federal school readiness program for young kids in low-income families that is administered nationally by the federal Health and Human Services department, but run locally by nonprofits or schools. Biden previously ordered that staff running Head Start programs must be vaccinated and all students over the age of 2 had to wear masks. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lubbock ISD sued the Biden administration to stop enforcement of that order. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a 2019 appointee of Republican President Donald Trump, ruled Friday that the Biden administration could not enforce its mask and vaccine mandates for the Head Start program in Texas, although the mandates would continue in other states. Hendrix wrote that the process by which the Biden administration implemented the mask and vaccine rules was in violation of federal law because such rules could only be put in place through a detailed process or with the authorization of Congress. The order applies until the judge holds a trial and issues a final decision on the full merits of the case, or if it is lifted by a higher court. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Biden has tried a variety of executive actions to require masks or vaccination across the country, in line with the recommendations of scientists at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Were committed to doing all we can to ensure that our Head Start children, families, practitioners and the community they serve and live in are protected against COVID-19, a spokeswoman for the HHS department wrote in an email, adding that about 97 percent of HHS staffers are vaccinated. We also know that universal masking indoors protects children, and Head Start participants. The families of children in the federal Head Start programs deserve the peace of mind that comes with a vaccinated and masked workforce. More than 1,000,000 COVID-19 cases were reported by the CDC Tuesday as the country grapples with the highly infectious omicron variant. I just halted another illegal fed vax & mask mandate. Thanks to my suit (first of its kind in the nation), Paxton wrote on Twitter after the decision, saying Biden is barred from using the Head Start Program to force vax & masks in TX. The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 doubled in Texas from Christmas Day to January 2, Austin NBC affiliate KXAN reported, and a researcher with the Federation of American Scientists wrote on Twitter that Texas has the most children hospitalized with the disease of any state, citing federal government data. Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott have resisted Bidens orders for months in various legal challenges. Texas just beat Biden again. Another of Bidens vaccine & mask mandates was just halted by a federal judge in Texas, Abbott wrote on Twitter about the decision. Abbott sued the Biden Administration on Tuesday over its efforts to require vaccinations for Texas National Guard members. Hours earlier, a federal judge struck down a similar lawsuit filed by the Oklahoma governor, noting that National Guard troops are already subject to nine other required immunizations. In his social media post about the Head Start case, Paxton called Biden, Prez Brandon, as in Lets go, Brandon, a reference to an incident at a NASCAR event last fall in which the crowd chanted curses aimed at Biden. edward.mckinley@chron.com Citing the explosion of COVID-19 cases, Texas State University in San Marcos announced Monday all its classes will be virtual for the first two weeks of the semester. New cases have surged across Texas in the past two weeks, fueled largely by the highly transmissible omicron variant. The state reported more than 3,500 new cases Jan. 2. Citaly Rosales is a junior at Texas State who lives in Austin. She found out about the virtual learning switch Monday along with the rest of her peers, and she has mixed feelings. I feel like its the best choice considering that COVID and omicron cases are multiplying pretty quickly, she said. On the other hand, Im not a big fan because I tend to learn better in a classroom setting. On ExpressNews.com: Northside ISD reports 1,260 staff absences as S.A.-area students return to school Hays County alone reported 626 new cases Jan. 3, according to Texas Health and Human Services. It reported 827 new cases Jan. 1 the second-highest number since the start of the pandemic. Its highest came Dec. 29, 2020, with 899 cases. At the end of November 2021, the county was reporting zero new cases per day. Other Central Texas colleges, like the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at San Antonio, have not announced plans to go remote as of Tuesday afternoon. Testing Rosales hopes to return to campus by Jan. 18 to do remote learning from her dorm because she cant concentrate from home while doing online classes. I always feel like Im more productive when Im studying at Alkek (Library), she said. University President Denise Trauth said in a statement Monday that although it will be a challenge for contact tracers to respond quickly to the expected high volume of cases, classes will begin virtually Jan. 18 the day they originally were supposed to begin in-person. And she assured students that in-person classes will resume Jan. 31. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio Metro Health reports 11,528 new COVID cases in three days A negative COVID test is required for students to move into residence halls, and Trauth encourages students to socially distance and get tested for COVID prior to arriving on campus. The library, transportation services, residence halls and dining halls will be open as normal, Trauth said. Annie Blanks writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. annie.blanks@express-news.net. Gov. Ned Lamont and other top state officials on Tuesday voiced their unwavering commitment to in-person learning despite an unprecedented surge in COVID infections that have stressed the public school system. This message from the Lamont administration comes on the fifth day of record positivity rates in Connecticut. According to the state data on Tuesday, 10,602 new COVID cases were found in 44,449 tests for a positivity rate of 23.85 percent, which is the highest since widespread testing started in the spring of 2020. If I have a message for you, its: 24 percent infection rate is lousy and it may get worse before it gets better. But we have the tools in place provided you take advantage of the tools, the masks, the vaccinations and then the testing we have the tools to keep you going safe and keep going about your lives, Lamont said Tuesday during a press conference on how the state plans to keep schools open amid the surge. COVID hospitalizations also jumped by a net of 110 patients for a total of 1,562 the most since May 1, 2020 when it was 1,590. Of those hospitalized on Tuesday, 32 percent 500 patients are fully vaccinated. In light of these staggering statistics, Lamont, along with the states education and public health commissioners, attempted on Tuesday to instill confidence in parents and educators as they reiterated their commitment to in-person learning. You have to build confidence every day to give teachers, give parents the confidence we are doing everything we can to keep schools open safely, Lamont said. However, its not yet known on the state level how many students and staff members have missed school so far this week with COVID after the holiday break. Staffing shortages have caused some schools to close, including in Ansonia, where classes are not expected to resume until at least next Monday and the days will be made up at the end of the year. However, Lamont said returning to broad remote learning is not an option and will not count toward the 180-day school calendar. I am going to do everything I can to keep kids in the classroom safely, he said. Theres nothing that compares to a great teacher in the classroom. While facing a tenuous situation as the daily COVID positivity rate rose to nearly 24 percent on Tuesday, officials said it remains critical to offer students the in-person learning experience that they lost during the early months of the pandemic. We also know that schools provide critical supports, mental health supports, social emotional supports, nutrition these supports have grown even more critical during the pandemic, state Department of Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker said. The press conference, held on the second day since students returned from holiday break, focused on new state guidance meant to keep children out of school for fewer days if they contract COVID-19 or face a potential exposure. The guidance, which the state Department of Public Health stressed on Monday was optional, offers much shorter quarantines for students with confirmed cases of COVID-19, and also eases isolation requirements for people with known exposures to the virus but no symptoms. In most cases, students and staff with a confirmed case of COVID-19 would only need to quarantine for five days before returning to class on the sixth day, which mirrors a recent update to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions guidance on the matter. If you are sick, stay home, get tested. If you have COVID-19, you at least know you must stay there for at least five days. If you dont, you can return sooner if your symptoms resolve and youre fever-free, Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani said. DPH also suggested that school districts pivot away from contact tracing, given how widely COVID-19 is spreading right now through communities. Because individual-level contact tracing is a tool that becomes less effective when community transmission levels are high, DPH recommends that schools begin to refocus the activities of health staff away from the investigation of relatively low risk in-school exposures and toward the identification, early isolation, and clinical management of students and staff with active symptoms that could be related to COVID-19, the department said in the guidance. The guidance comes as Connecticut is experiencing some of the worst COVID-19 spread since the onset of the pandemic. While both infections and hospitalizations have spiked in the recent weeks, children have been among those impacted. Yale New Haven Childrens Hospital and Connecticut Childrens Medical Center have also reported increases in pediatric COVID hospitalizations in the past month. With this rise in cases, a groundswell of new COVID-19 infections among the general population, and concerns of adequate support, the states teachers unions sent a unified message on Monday that more stringent safety measures are needed. The unions requested measures such as more aggressive testing protocols, access to testing, N95 masks and vaccines, and prohibiting combining classes for staff shortages and dual teaching. Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, the states largest teachers union, said Mondays return to classes saw many student and teacher absences, along with limited access to N95 masks and COVID-19 testing. That wasnt the agreement, she said. That doesnt feel safe, it doesnt feel cared for, it doesnt feel responsible. State officials detailed on Tuesday how they are earmarking hundreds of thousands of at-home tests and N95 masks for school districts. A total of 620,000 tests were being sent to schools, and an additional 50,000 were set aside for early child care facilities, according to the governors office. Deliveries and pickups of these tests started Tuesday morning. Officials hope these deliveries can help bridge the gap before the federal government starts to provide test kits to residents across the country. We are still more committed than ever to keeping our schools open, said Josh Geballe, Lamonts chief operating officer. NEW CANAAN The Board of Selectmen agreed Monday to hire the current Chief Financial Officer of Wilton, Anne C. Kelly-Lenz, as CFO for the town. She had been serving as acting CFO for both Wiltons Public Schools and the town. Kelly-Lenz will be replacing former CFO Lunda Asmanis, who left to accept a role in the Norwalk Public Schools in December. Personnel Director Cheryl Pickering Jones said Kelly-Lenz, who first started in Wilton in 2015, will start her new post on Jan. 18. Selectman Nick Williams said that it would be helpful to the town to acquire someone with the experience overseeing both a similar school district and the town, although qualifying his statement by adding that Kelly-Lenz no longer wanted to serve as the chief financial officer of both. When Asmanis departure was announced, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan had said he would have liked to combine the CFO of the town with the school district, in part to be able to keep the former director of management and budget for the City of Norwalk. He said Superintendent Bryan Luizzi had not agreed to the arrangement. Asmani also held various municipal finance positions in the towns of Maize, Sedgwick and Newton in Kansas prior to his first Norwalk stint. Moynihan said Wiltons First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice was disappointed Kelly-Lenz is leaving, but said he was disappointed when Asmani left. Kelly-Lenz was not immediately available for comment on Monday. Prior to starting as CFO in Wilton in 2015, Kelly-Lenz worked in Bridgeport as finance director, tax collector and treasurer. She holds both a bachelors degree in business administration and a masters degree in teaching from Sacred Heart University. She completed the Connecticut Tax Collectors certification and is member of the Government Finance Officers Association. Other town officials have voiced their approval of hiring Kelly-Lenz, including Chairman of the Audit Committee Bill Parrett and Board of Finance Chairman Todd Laveri, Jones said. On Monday, the US Food and Drug Administration reduced the waiting period between vaccine shots. This is to urge Americans to get their Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 booster shot as soon as possible. According to recent studies, Moderna booster shots serve as protection against the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. Typically, Americans have to wait six months after their second shot of Pfizer or Moderna's mRNA to be eligible for the follow-up booster. However, FDA reduced the waiting period to five. The new policy is effective for any healthy American aged 18 and above. Moderna COVID-19 Booster Shot: How Effective Is It Against Omicron? Any vaccine shot is effective for boosting a person's immune system against hospitalization and death due to COVID-19. However, it should be emphasized that vaccines lose their efficacy after a certain duration. According to Cnet, people who received two doses of Moderna were at least 50 times less effective at neutralizing the Omicron variant. But 20 weeks after the second dose, the protection decreases efficacy to 10 percent. However, a third booster dose would improve the protection back to 90 percent efficacy. This makes a booster shot critical to American's public safety. Moderna President Stephen Hoge said their company's booster shots increased "omicron-neutralizing antibodies" by approximately 37-fold. For reference, Pfizer said its booster shots raise antibody levels to 25-fold. Hoge admitted that the current 50-microgram COVID-19 booster shot is still the same formula used in the first two shots of the Moderna vaccine. However, Hoge emphasized that these shots give "quite respectable" protection against alpha, delta, and even omicron-specific strains. Read Also: Fourth Stimulus Check: $2000 Petition Could Finish This January; Will There Be 4th Stimulus Payments Amid Omicron? Who Is Eligible for Moderna COVID-19 Booster Shot? As previously mentioned, FDA reduced the waiting period between the vaccine and booster shots. Note that this is the only change in the system, and all the previous eligibility requirements remain as it is. According to Cnet, the booster shot is recommended to all people 18 years old and older. Notably, this age group includes pregnant women. CDC said that "people who are pregnant or recently pregnant are more likely to get severely ill with COVID-19 compared with people who are not." Fortunately, the researchers emphasized that getting vaccinated does not decrease fertility in women or men. Be warned that the side effects of Moderna's booster shots are similar to the primary doses. Some might experience pain or swelling on the injection site, while others might feel fatigue, muscle pain, headache, fever, chills, and nausea. In worse cases, the booster shot could cause severe allergic reactions. How to Get a Moderna Booster Shot Against Omicron Americans interested in getting their booster shots are recommended to prepare and set their appointment ahead of the date. They can research the nearest vaccine site by texting their ZIP code to the number: 438829. This is a free service backed by CDC, which provides the nearest vaccine location in the area together with the brand and age group available. Related Article: COVID-19 Omicron Cases in the US Are Spiking, Hospitals Filling Up: 2 Tools to Track Hospital Availability Amid Surge FAIRFIELD First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said shes not planning to reinstate the towns mask mandate despite rising cases based on health officials guidance. During Mondays Board of Selectmen meeting, Kupchick said about 30 people have emailed her asking her to reinstate a mask mandate. She said she and other town leaders posed the questions to the state Department of Public Health during the two statewide COVID calls last week and were told it wasnt needed at this time. I know that people feel that if a mask mandate is on, then all of a sudden the transmission is going to go down dramatically and thats not what were hearing from public health officials, she said. I keep trying to remind residents in our town that I am not a public health official. I take the guidance of public health officials. Fairfield reported 1,036 cases between Dec. 12 and 25 for a positivity rate of 119.3 cases per 100,000 people, according to the most recent state data. Kupchick still encouraged residents to take all of the necessary precautions to keep themselves and their families safe. She also said people are able to leave the store and shop elsewhere if they dont feel comfortable though officials are not seeing the bulk of the transmission happening in stores. Kupchick said contact tracers have found that most of the positive cases are happening in private gatherings and not at stores where the mask mandate would apply. She said shes received some phone calls from residents about people not wearing masks in grocery stores and while she understands their concerns, she reminded people health officials said the greater chance of getting COVID happens if people are unmasked within six feet of each other for at least 15 minutes. What our contact tracers have said over the past many months is that the majority of our positive cases are not where someone goes into a grocery store and someone two aisles away doesnt have a mask on, Kupchick said. Its coming from Thanksgiving events, holiday parties, dinner parties, kids having parties at their homes or just getting together. Thats where this thing is really spreading. Masks are still required for various situations under an existing gubernatorial executive order for schools, hospitals, public transportation and unvaccinated individuals. Certain towns have also brought back mask mandates for town buildings. Gov. Ned Lamont has said hes not bringing back a statewide mask mandate beyond that because of the enforcement component. The government is instead giving out 6 million free N95 masks to encourage people to wear them indoors. Faifield is also set to receive a shipment of free masks from the state. Kupchick said the health department is advising people to continue to take the necessary precautions and encouraged people to get vaccinated because those who are unvaccinated are more vulnerable. Vaccinated people are also showing less severe symptoms. We all know what we need to do wash our hands, take care of yourselves, if youre not feeling well stay away from other people and make sure youre not exposing, she said, adding this is especially true because what someone thinks are allergies could actually be COVID. She said the number of cases in South Africa where the omicron variant was first reported, have plateaued and hopefully that will soon be seen in the U.S. and Fairfield too. 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 didnt 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 theyre 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 Healths 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. Were 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 weve 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 theyre less likely to do that roaming shopping than they were five years ago, said Adam Hartung, a business strategy consultant with Spark Partners. Theyre not going to say, Oh, lets pick up a prescription and, while were at it, lets walk through the store and look at vacuum cleaners. That doesnt 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. Its 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 theres a hospital clinic and a pharmacy there, theyre 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, Shopkos 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 weeks notice after being told they had nothing to worry about. Their pharmacy had been among the chains 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 didnt 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 couldnt get past how Shopko had ended things. The way they slammed the door, I was really unhappy about that, Mather said. It wasnt fair to all the people at the Greenfield pharmacy and the people of Greenfield. Shopko couldnt 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. Its just a different storefront, with a new name on the sign. Fairfield, MT (59436) Today Partly to mostly cloudy. High 62F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Cloudy. Low near 40F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. More women and girls working in Scottish farming will be able to apply for funding for courses to help develop their skills, the Scottish government has said. The Practical Training Fund, launched in 2021, has already supported more than 400 women to undertake courses to develop their skillset or change careers. Administered by Lantra Scotland, eligible agricultural courses include support to get tractor and trailer driving certificates or help to train sheepdogs. Now women and girls over the age of 13 can apply for up to 500 or more on a case by case basis. This will cover the cost of a practical or technical training course through the fund, with the first batch of successful applicants being notified by the end of January 2022. It has been supported by another 75,000 of Scottish government funding, with 20,000 of the funding ring-fenced for applicants living in island communities. This year, 300,000 has been issued to support women in agriculture, including the wider roll-out of the personal development training programme 'Be Your Best Self'. A project will also test innovative solutions for childcare in rural areas, as well as the development of Skillseeder a skills sharing app which provides a one-stop shop to find skills development opportunities, particularly for those in rural areas. Rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon said: We want to see more women joining those who are already developing a career in Scottish agriculture which is why its important that women are given these opportunities in what has been a very male-dominated industry. Weve heard from women who have undertaken courses through the Practical Training Fund and said that they have more confidence and are more knowledgeable, which is great to hear." She added: "I would encourage more women to visit the Lantra Scotland website and apply." Pig producers need more government support this year as it seeks recovery from a 'perfect storm' of issues that have plagued the sector, the National Pig Association has said. The on-farm pig backlog remains and, in some cases, with contingency plans exhausted weeks ago, the NPA said producers had 'run out of options'. The sector's current crisis is a result of slaughterhouse and butchery worker shortages linked to Brexit and the impact of the pandemic. Feed prices are also continuing to increase while pig prices plummet, adding to the already dire financial situation facing many farmers. In his New Year message, NPA chairman Rob Mutimer set out his hopes for this year after the 'turmoil' of 2021. "Covid-19 was initially quite friendly to the industry, but the bite in the tail of the loss of Chinese exports and illness and staff shortages reducing the throughput of the processing sector has really hurt us. "With this being further compounded by Brexit, increased production costs and drop in the pig price, the industry has had a great deal to cope with over the past 12 months. "A serious backlog of pigs remains on farms, which is still causing huge problems for some farmers who have run out of options, and the financial situation is dire." Despite this, Mr Multimer said the pig industry was starting to see "the first chinks of light for recovery in 2022". These include a renewed access to the Chinese pork market, which is seeing some strong growth in prices in the third quarter of 2021. The sector has also seen strong sales of retail pig meat throughout the pandemic, something which Mr Multimer said farmers should be confident of. But into 2022, he said the government needed to fix the broken supply chain, so that all parts of it were sharing the burden during these difficult times. He added: "Producers want fairness in their dealings with processors and, while we appreciate the efforts of those retailers who have been backing British pork, we need to see all retailers prioritising our fantastic British product over cheap imports. "As we seek recovery, we will also need the full backing of the government in ensuring any support it delivers achieves its aim of reducing the backlog, rather than simply benefiting processors. "We welcome indications the government is planning to look further into the pork supply chain, which does need to be held to account." For the first time in years, Harrison and Hetherington (H&H) will host a dedicated collective sale of Charolais females on behalf of the British Charolais Cattle Society. With entries from some of the most prominent breeders in the country, the White Gold Charolais sale will be held on 21 January at the Borderway Mart, Carlisle. The sale has attracted 31 heifers either served or maiden from some of the best Charolais genetics in the UK. The line-up sees consignments of stock from herds including Burradon, Elgin, Kellys and Maerdy, among others. In the past, the Charolais Cattle Society have held a Christmas Cracker sale of females at the end of the year. On reviewing the demand, this new standalone female sale has been organised, with the backing and support of several Charolais breeders north and south of the border. Scott Donaldson, managing director for H&H, said the aim of this sale was to provide both a showcase and a live ring sale. "We know there is demand from those looking to improve their existing herds and those wanting to start up their own herd," he added. In recent years these noted herds have been primarily sold females directly off farm, so the opportunity to purchase females of this calibre, on the open market and under one roof, has been almost non-existent. "Our intention is for this sale to become a key and regular date in both the Charolais breeders calendar and our own calendar here at Harrison & Hetherington. The Charolais is a popular breed for British farmers due to its sustainability and profitability, with the breed seen as offering a bright future for British beef. With continued improvement to calving ease, unrivalled growth rates and outstanding carcass quality, the Charolais is renowned for crossing into profit. Commenting on the sale, Allen Drysdale, chairman of the British Charolais Cattle Society said there was a clear demand for top quality females. "We have secured a fantastic line up of some of the best current Charolais genetics in the UK," he said. In holding this sale, we are offering a platform for vendors to show off their breeding, and providing an opportunity for existing and new breeders to have a choice of best-quality stock to purchase on the open market. "This is a fantastic way to begin the year and without a doubt this will be a great sale. Im looking forward to it enormously. Three Scottish arable farmers are battling for an award which aims to recognise those businesses making the extra effort in improving soil health and utilising technology. The Scottish Arable Farm of the Year award winner will be revealed at AgriScot on 9 February, with the shortlist consisting of two farmers from Aberdeenshire and one from Midlothian. Finalist Jim Reid runs his family farm, Milton of Mathers at St Cyrus near Montrose, with his brother Ron, spanning 80 hectares of seed potatoes, with the rest of the arable land dedicated to barley and oilseed rape. He has been farming all his life and is constantly looking for new ways to trial agricultural methods to address the key challenges he is faced with. His goal is to improve the way he farms, and better the health and quality of his crops. The next finalist is Iain Wilson, who is the farm manager at Tulloch Farms near Laurencekirk, managing around 2,000 acres of land, the majority of which is used for arable cropping. His two main priorities are the health and safety of his staff, and the health and wellbeing of his soil. In a bid to improve yields, Iain embarked on a trial project in 2018 that saw 450 blackface ewe lambs graze on 25 acres of oats, 25 acres of wheat and 37 acres of oilseed rape. The trial proved so successful that it is now in its fourth year of grazing cereals and aims to graze around 400 acres of winter cereals this season, along with 250 acres of over-winter cover crops ahead of veg and spring cereals. Iain is full of innovative ideas, with a willingness to share these with other farmers. He is also aware of the importance of maintaining good financial records, so he can understand, at any time, what financial position his farm is in. The last finalist is Bill Gray, who has managed the farm at Preston Hall in Midlothian since 1996. He balances the competing demands of crop production and financial stability, while protecting the environment and enhancing wildlife. With a highly capable team, modern machinery and a forward-thinking approach, Preston Hall strives to be at the forefront of modern farming practices. In 2017, the farm took up the challenge of being one of Scotlands Monitor Farms and was involved in the project until 2019. The candidates are being assessed by the 2019 title holder, John Weir from Lacesston farm in Fife, and AgriScot Director and arable award convenor, John Kinnaird, together with AHDB as facilitators of the award. John Kinnaird said: Once again, we have three exceptional finalists who are all innovative in different ways. "Forward-thinking, open-minded farmers, such as our finalists, are what the arable sector in Scotland needs to face the undoubted challenges ahead. Jim Wilson, managing director of SoilEssentials, said the three finalists were "diverse, dynamic, and devoted to their farming businesses". "It will not be an easy task for the assessors to whittle them down to the ultimate award recipient. "We are keen to be getting back to AgriScot in February and will be delighted to meet these advocates of agriculture and find out more about them all." The winner will be rewarded with a bespoke precision farming package from SoilEssentials. The package will be tailor-made for the business, following a site visit to the farm to assess the technology being used and the business requirements. Farmers have welcomed the Welsh government's announcement that the 2022 direct payment budget will be maintained at 2020 and 2021 levels, as criticism continues of the UK's government's decision to slash the agriculture budget. The total direct payment ceiling of 238 million will be provided this year, matching the budgets in 2020 and 2021, the Welsh government recently announced. Minister for Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths said she had 'prioritised support' for the sector to help with the challenges facing farmers as a result of Brexit and the pandemic. The Farmers Union of Wales (FUW) has today welcomed the news, saying it "recognises the concerns farmers have raised in terms of the importance of this funding". The union's president, Glyn Roberts said: The ministers decision recognises the importance of the direct support budget not only to the 16,000 or so farm businesses that rely on it, but also the many more tens of thousands of businesses that benefit from these payments. Mr Roberts said that hundreds of thousands of Welsh people employed directly and indirectly in the agricultural and food supply chains would benefit from the funding. But he added that he shared the Welsh governments frustration that the UK governments promise to replace EU funding in full had been broken. Welsh farmers have already lost 137m as a result of the autumn 2020 spending review, and in November 2021, it was announced that the budget for agriculture would be cut by a further 106m compared with what was promised. Farming budgets in the EU are not facing such cuts, yet we were promised that no cuts would result from Brexit," Mr Roberts said. "We share the Welsh governments frustrations and concerns - particularly in light of the rising barriers for our food exports to the EU and the threat posed by our competitors, whether in the EU or through new trade deals. NFU Cymru also welcomed the Welsh government's announcement, as this year would present 'continued challenges for the sector'. President John Davies said: As a union, we have stressed to Welsh government that the BPS is crucial to maintaining the supply of safe, high quality and affordable food to all in society. "This is as important as it has ever been, as the nation continues to battle against the effect of the coronavirus." Mr Davies said farmers were dealing with trade friction resulting from Brexit, trade deals with major agricultural exporting nations and significant hikes in input costs. "[The] announcement from the minister is therefore a welcome assurance to the nations farmers," he added. As well as providing security to farming businesses, this announcement is also a boost for our rural businesses and communities, as Welsh farms provide the economic, social and cultural foundation of our rural communities." Only subscribers with PAID Print or E-Edition subscriptions please enter here to gain access. If you are not already a Paid subscriber do not go through this portal. Please return to the subscription page to purchase one of our offers. Thank you! Actor Song Sae-byeok in the film, "Special Delivery" / Courtesy of NEW, M Pictures By Kwak Yeon-soo With his penchant for playing comical characters in "The Servant" (2010) and "The Suck Up Project: Mr. XXX-Kisser" (2012), actor Song Sae-byeok has earned a reputation as the funnyman of the film industry. In 2014, he sought transformation from a comic relief character into a villainous character with "A Girl at My Door," in which he plays a deadbeat dad. Song discussed the challenge of playing a villain in movies, including the latest "Special Delivery," saying he lost about 5 kilograms and couldn't eat or sleep well "There were times when I woke up in sweat or had to prick my fingers with a needle to calm my upset stomach. It was stressful," he said during an interview with The Korea Times. "I imagined that a person whose sole purpose of life is to make money wouldn't enjoy eating. So I lost some weight even before our first table read, and the director seemed happy with the idea." In "Special Delivery," Song plays Kyung-pil, who goes after 10-year-old Seo-won, who is given 30 billion won ($25 million) from his deceased father, and Eun-ha (Park So-dam), who tries to save the young boy On playing a police officer and mob boss, Song shared he has always wanted to play a character with two sides. "Even if the villain is evil, I've always tried to feel empathy for him. However, I couldn't approach Kyung-pil with that feeling. I understood him as a person who has ambition for money but cares about nothing else," he said. Actor Song Sae-byeok / Courtesy of NEW Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi have raised their voice against trolls who tried to defame their ancestor- Fazl-e-Haq, who was his great grandfather. This began when the well-known lyricist raised his voice against a controversial website and app- "Bulli Bai' which was auctioning profiles of hundreds of Muslim women online. The second he spoke against this malpractice, trolls began targeting him and even dragged his ancestors into the conversation. Those who questioned the honor of the late Fazl-e-haq, got a reply from Akhtar. He wrote on Twitter, "The moment I raised my voice against the online auction of women and those glorifying Godse and preaching genocide to the army, police and people, some bigots have started abusing my great great grandfather, a freedom fighter who died in Kala Pani in 1864. What do you say to such idiots. He expressed his angst against the selling of women and was "appalled with every one's silence on the issue." Another twitter user accused him of taking a stand for people who were from his 'cadre'. To which Javed Akhtar wrote, "I have been deadly against all the Muslim fanatics and fundos, so go bark some where else. This whataboutery will not work with me. You are not talking to any Muslim right winger but a proud Indian. So shut up. Shabana Azmi too supported Javed and tweeted, "This is pure lies. Fazle Haq was a freedom fighter who was sentenced to Kala Pani by the British . He died in the Andamans and his grave is still there where he is revered as a hero. If you want to know more about him read Baghi Hindustan." SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - Coffee retailing giant Starbucks (SBUX) recently told its employees to get fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or undergo weekly testing, in order to comply with the Biden administration's upcoming vaccine mandate. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is mandating that private companies with at least 100 employees enforce weekly Covid testing and masking for unvaccinated workers to increase number of vaccinations and curb the spread of the virus. The mandate is set to go in effect on February 9. Starbucks Chief Operating Officer John Culver has asked the company's approximately 220,000 employees in the country to disclose their vaccination status by January 10. The company strongly recommended its employees to get vaccinated, but said workers can choose not to get vaccinated and instead get tested weekly. Employees will have to present a negative Covid-19 test starting February 9 and once a week going forward. The employees will be responsible for acquiring their own federally approved tests and submitting results. 'This is an important step we can take to help more partners get vaccinated, limit the spread of Covid-19, and create choices that partners can own based on what's best for them,' Culver wrote. 'If vaccination rates rise and community spread slows, we will adapt accordingly. But if things get worse, we may have to consider additional measures. For now, my hope is that we will all do our part to protect one another.' Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved 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. Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung announces business strategies for 2022, during a company conference held online at the group's headquarters in Seoul, Monday. He emphasized the necessity of "self-leadership" for Shinhan to become a leading financial firm. Courtesy of Shinhan Financial Group BEIJING, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Chery Automobile has launched its first new energy vehicle (NEV) QQ Ice Cream recently, in light of which Wuhu City of east China'sAnhui Province held a cultural festival on December 28 to not only introduce the new auto product, but also promote Wuhu's traditional culture. QQ Ice Cream was disclosed to the public at the opening ceremony of the cultural festival on Tuesday evening, which attracts many citizens to watch the performance such as 3D drones performance, fireworks show and light show. The new car is the first model of Chery's iCar ecology with price ranging from 29,900 to 43,900 yuan, which is believed to bring green, economic and convenient driving experience. Exhibition areas are also set at the cultural festival to showcase Wuhu's history and culture, modern technology and local brands. People have the chance to watch Wuhu rice carving, pulp dyeing and other traditional folk art as well as latest sci-tech achievements such as NEVs, robots, etc. The event is a grand activity to enrich citizens' cultural life, a stage to demonstrate the innovative achievements of Wuhu enterprises, and also a chance to promote the image of Wuhu, said Shan Xiangqian, Party Chief of Wuhu City. Original link:https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/325699.html Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719220/image_1.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719221/image_2.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719222/image_3.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719223/image_4.jpg - Multi-million dollar investment augments in-vitro biology capabilities in primary and secondary screening - Brings added value to customers by coupling biology services with existing chemistry capabilities MUMBAI, India, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Piramal Pharma Limited's Pharma Solutions (PPS) business, a leading Contract Research, Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO), today announced that the company has made a multi-million dollar investment to create a world-class high-throughput screening facility that will augment the existing in-vitro biology capabilities at its drug discovery services site in Ahmedabad, India. This new expansion, which is expected to go live in Q3 2022, will significantly add to the primary and secondary screening capabilities of compounds prepared at the Ahmedabad site. The benefits of this new investment will be seen in an improved experience for PPS discovery services customers. With integrated chemistry and biology services now available from a single site, we anticipate significant improvements to drug discovery cycle times. In addition, new personnel with experience in biology services are being added to the site team, complementing the existing technical and operational expertise. The new high-throughput screening technology enables PPS to evaluate and screen 1000 compounds per week using various assay platform technologies such as Fluorescent Imaging Plate Reader (FLIPR), TR-FRET/HTRF, Fluorescence Polarization (FP), absorbance, Luminescence/ Electrochemiluminescence (ECL), Alpha Screen, Lantha Screen, Flow Cytometry, and high content imaging. These platforms will be applicable to a variety of targets (e.g., G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and kinase-targeted therapies). Peter DeYoung, Chief Executive Officer, Piramal Pharma Solutions, said, "Assisting customers in the discovery process is synergistic with our efforts to be a patient-centric CDMO. With this investment, we are enhancing our discovery platform by adding new in vitro biology services to our existing capabilities, making us a more integrated partner." About Piramal Pharma Solutions: Piramal Pharma Solutions (PPS) is a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) offering end-to-end development and manufacturing solutions across the drug life cycle. We serve our customers through a globally integrated network of facilities in North America, Europe, and Asia. This enables us to offer a comprehensive range of services including drug discovery solutions, process & pharmaceutical development services, clinical trial supplies, commercial supply of APIs, and finished dosage forms. We also offer specialized services such as the development and manufacture of highly potent APIs, antibody-drug conjugations, sterile fill/finish, peptide products & services, and potent solid oral drug product. Our track record as a trusted service provider with experience across varied technologies makes us a partner of choice for innovator and generic companies worldwide. For more information please visit: www.piramalpharmasolutions.com | Twitter | LinkedIn About Piramal Pharma Ltd. Piramal Pharma Limited (PPL) offers a portfolio of differentiated products and services through end-to-end manufacturing capabilities across 15 global facilities and a global distribution network over 100 countries. PPL includes: Piramal Pharma Solutions (PPS), an integrated Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization; Piramal Critical Care (PCC), a Complex Hospital Generics business, and the India Consumer Healthcare business, selling over-the counter products. PPS offers end-to-end development and manufacturing solutions through a globally integrated network of facilities across the drug life cycle to innovator and generic companies. PCC's complex hospital product portfolio includes inhalation anaesthetics, intrathecal therapies for spasticity and pain management, injectable pain and anaesthetics, injectable anti-infectives, and other therapies. The Indian Consumer Healthcare business is among the leading players in India in the self-care space, with established brands in the Indian consumer healthcare market. In addition, PPL has a joint venture with Allergan, a leader in ophthalmology in the Indian formulations market. In October 2020, the company received growth equity investment from the Carlyle Group. For more information visit: www.piramal.com | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1718935/Piramal_Ahmedabad.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1718934/Piramal_Logo.jpg For Investors: Hitesh Dhaddha/Mayank Kumar Investor Relations investor.relations@piramal.com HELSINKI, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The medical technology company Injeq's development yielded the desired outcome after many years of efforts as the company's IQ-Tip needle received CE approval on December 21, 2021. The needle can be used in lumbar punctures from newborns to the elderly, treatment punctures of children with leukemia being one of the main indications. For medical devices, the CE certification translates to a marketing authorization in Europe. In other words, the company can expect a new era of growth as a result of the certification. Injeq IQ-Tip is revolutionary as it knows exactly where the needle tip is. The aim of this feature is to make challenging punctures easier for physicians and to promote patient safety. The first commercial application of the needle is intended for lumbar punctures, where the IQ-Tip system gives an audiovisual alarm when the needle tip detects cerebrospinal fluid during the procedure. "For medical devices, the CE certification translates to a marketing authorization. We have now been able to launch the commercialization measures we have been preparing for the Europe and the first deliveries to Germany have already been made. CE approval is a result of the team's long-term development work and hard final efforts", says Tommi Rasila, Injeq's Chairman of the Board of Directors and Interim CEO. CE certification has been granted for the IQ-Tip needle under the stringent Medical Device Regulation (MDR) of the EU. The regulatory requirements of medical devices changed during the development project, pushing Injeq into considerable additional work and efforts, including new clinical investigations. The work was completed in the autumn of 2020. The conformity of the Injeq IQ-Tip system was assessed by the distinguished Notified Body, TUV SUD Product Service GmbH in Germany. The CE certification demonstrates that the medical device fulfils all requirements set and is in compliance with all relevant regulations. Medical devices are divided into three risk classes according to their intended purpose and related risks. Injeq IQ-Tip needle is a class III medical device, which is subject to the strictest requirements, and is one of the first MDR 2017/745 certified new products in this category in Finland. The analyzer of the IQ-Tip system is a class IIa device, and the special cable is a sterile class I device, which were certified by the Notified Body already in June 2021. "The device must fulfil the requirements of the MDR throughout its life cycle in terms of product safety, clinical performance, risk management and follow-up. As a medical device manufacturer we must have a certified quality management system, which is subject to annual audits", says Jussi Seitsonen, Head of Quality. Injeq's first goal will be to bring the IQ-Tip system as a part of routine treatment practices of children with leukemia and neonates in Europe. During the first year, Injeq aims to find clinical reference users, particularly in leading university hospitals. The future goal is to facilitate challenging lumbar punctures of adults, and later, other demanding punctures, starting from Europe and expanding around the world. For additional information, please contact: Injeq Oy Chairman of the Board of Directors and Interim CEO Tommi Rasila tel. +358 40 750 8158 tommi.rasila@injeq.com Injeq in brief Injeq Oy is a Finnish growth company specializing in medical technology and aiming to produce intelligent technical solutions for demanding medical punctures and injections. The company's lead product, the IQ-Tip needle system, is a state-of-the-art solution for the safe execution of demanding patient punctures, with the initial main focus on lumbar punctures. Lumbar puncture is a procedure where cerebrospinal fluid samples are taken or medication is injected into the spinal canal. The clinical performance and safety of the product have been evaluated in three clinical investigations at university hospitals. Inspired by physicians' wishes and needs, the IQ-Tip needle system facilitates performing punctures with the final aim to improve patient safety and effectiveness of treatment. The needle can be used in lumbar punctures from newborns to the elderly, treatment punctures of children with leukemia being one of the main indications. Established in 2010, Injeq is based in Tampere and currently employs 16 people. Injeq operations are founded on experienced team of medical experts and extensive scientific research. www.injeq.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/injeq-oy/r/injeq-s-iq-tip--needle-receives-ce-certification---the-finnish-innovation-is-ready-for-sales-to-the-,c3481064 The following files are available for download: DALLAS (dpa-AFX) - Telecom giants AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. said they agreed to a two-week delay in their rollout of a new 5G service on C-Band frequencies at the request of U.S. transportation officials, reports said. A day ago, the companies had rejected a Federal Aviation Administration or FAA request to further delay the long planned 5G rollout on January 5. The mobile companies now said they have reached an agreement with the Department of Transportation to delay the launch until January 19. The companies had faced pressure from the Government officials and airlines to delay the launch over concerns that potential interference of 5G with sensitive aircraft electronics would disrupt flights. Verizon Monday said it agreed to the delay 'which promises the certainty of bringing this nation our game-changing 5G network in January..' Due to the agreed delay, Verizon had to cancel a celebration scheduled for 1PM ET on Tuesday to mark the beginning of its spectrum upgrade. AT&T said, 'At Secretary Buttigieg's request, we have voluntarily agreed to one additional two-week delay of our deployment of C-Band 5G services. We also remain committed to the six-month protection zone mitigations we outlined in our letter. We know aviation safety and 5G can co-exist and we are confident further collaboration and technical assessment will allay any issues.' The companies on Sunday had rejected the delay request by FAA of the rollout of the new 5G service, which was already delayed by 30 days. According to the officials and airlines, the new C-Band spectrum could cause widespread and unacceptable disruption to air traffic as 5G signals are feared to interfere with aircraft electronics, posing a safety hazard. Responding to the delay request, the CEOs of both telecom giants in a joint letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation had said the request seeks to take more steps that would be to the detriment of their millions of consumers, business, and government customers. The companies, however, offered then to alter the use of the C-Band spectrum for a six-month period, until July 5, 2022, near certain airports that will be selected in negotiations with U.S. officials and the aviation industry. The FCC approved 5G transmissions in the C-Band in February 2020, and AT&T and Verizon spent a combined $69 billion to purchase C-Band spectrum licenses in a U.S. Government auction. AT&T and Verizon recently said the U.S. Government had approached them in November 2021 to ask to delay their planned C-Band deployment on December 5 in order to avoid potential disruption to the aviation industry. Despite the works of thousands for almost a year and billions spent towards a C-Band deployment, AT&T and Verizon had then agreed to wait until January 5, 2022 to begin using the C-Band and to implement additional restrictions on use of the spectrum through July 5, 2022. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX AT&T-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de BASEL (dpa-AFX) - Novartis (NVS) said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued its decision upholding the validity of the US patent covering a dosing regimen for Gilenya. With the decision, Novartis said it expects no generic versions of Gilenya in the US market for at least the next two years. In August 2020, the U.S. Federal District Court for the District of Delaware issued a permanent injunction against HEC Pharma in the Gilenya patent litigation until the expiration of the '405 patent in December 2027. The CAFC decision confirmed the validity of the patent and allows that injunction to remain in place. Gilenya is a prescription medicine used to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved 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. DUBAI, UAE, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Malaysia's healthcare travel industry led by the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC), welcomed more new partnerships at the Malaysia Pavilion in Expo 2020 Dubai. Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were exchanged with renowned players such as International Assistance Sdn Bhd (IASB) and HADID International Services (HADID). These partnerships will further allow the industry to gain new customer pipelines for the industry while building brand presence for Malaysia Healthcare in ASEAN markets through IASB and Middle Eastern markets. "Having successfully navigated the pandemic over the past 18 months, we recognise how crucial it is to form strategic partnerships to catalyse industry recovery moving into 2022. It is key for Malaysia Healthcare to identify and join forces with partners who share the same value system and commitment towards service excellence and upholding safety standards. Thus, it is an honour for Malaysia Healthcare to collaborate with IASB and HADID as we jointly provide access to a safe, trusted, world-class quality, and seamless patient experiences for healthcare travellers," said Mohd Daud Mohd Arif, Chief Executive Officer of MHTC. Known for delivering world-class quality healthcare services which are both easily accessible and competitively affordable, Malaysia is fortifying its healthcare offerings through its' position as the Fertility and Cardiology Hubs of Asia, Cancer Care Centre of Excellence and Hepatitis C Treatment Hub of Asia. Malaysia has been recognised as the "Destination of the Year" by the International Medical Travel Journal (IMTJ) for four years (2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020) and the "Best Country in the World for Healthcare" based on International Living's Global Retirement Index from 2015 to 2021. ABOUT THE MALAYSIA HEALTHCARE TRAVEL COUNCIL The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) is a government agency that has been entrusted with the responsibility of curating the country's healthcare travel scene. Founded in 2009, MHTC works to streamline industry players and service providers in facilitating and growing Malaysia's healthcare travel industry under the brand "Malaysia Healthcare" with the intended goal of making Malaysia the leading global healthcare destination. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719271/image00053.jpg Press Release Nokia and Tele2 expand 5G partnership in the Baltics Nokia to supply 5G RAN solutions from its latest ReefShark-powered AirScale portfolio to Tele2 in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania The newly expanded deal marks twenty-five years of continuous cooperation with Tele2 in the region 4 January 2021 Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced that it is extending its partnership with Tele2 to deploy 5G RAN in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in a long-term deal. The deal will continue to build on the 25 years of strong and close cooperation between Nokia and Tele2 in the Baltic region. Nokia's 5G solutions will enable Tele2 to deliver connectivity and capacity benefits at ultra-low latencies to their customers as well as reduce complexity. Nokia is the incumbent and sole supplier in the deal. Nokia will provide equipment from its latest ReefShark System on Chip-powered AirScale equipment portfolio to modernize Tele2's nationwide radio network. The rollout will begin once Tele2 has acquired sufficient spectrum with auctions for both low and high band frequencies happening next year. Tele2 has previously acquired 5G spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band and the 700 MHz spectrum in Latvia. Nokia's AirScale RAN portfolio is designed for seamless, simple, and efficient 'plug-in' deployment and reduced power consumption. It covers all deployment scenarios including dense-urban environments and wide-area coverage. Nokia has partnered with Tele2 on 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G network deployments in the Baltics since 1996. Petras Masiulis, CEO Baltics at Tele2, commented: "We now have a strong and reliable partner for our complete 5G rollout in the Baltics and together we will provide a major upgrade to the connectivity in each country, providing our customers with better speeds, reliability, and coverage. Nokia has been a great partner to us throughout previous generations of mobile technology and we look forward to continuing this partnership as we deploy the next generation of infrastructure in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania." Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, stated: "We are delighted to extend our long-standing partnership with Tele2 in the Baltics and take great pride in being selected as their trusted 5G partner for this important deployment. Our best-in-class AirScale portfolio will deliver cutting-edge connectivity to their customers across multiple markets and I look forward to working closely with them on this project and beyond." Resources Nokia AirScale About Nokia At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together. As a trusted partner for critical networks, we are committed to innovation and technology leadership across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. We create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs. Adhering to the highest standards of integrity and security, we help build the capabilities needed for a more productive, sustainable, and inclusive world. Orange, via its holding company Orange Digital Investment, is investing in the 'Move Capital I' fund, a Kepler Cheuvreux Invest "Tech Growth" fund that supports future B2B champions of European tech. Move Capital is active in the fields of digital technology: IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Cybersecurity, Cloud and Industry 4.0. This investment is a boost for Orange Business Services, the global enterprise entity of the Orange Group. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220104005480/en/ By partnering with the Move Capital I fund, Orange Business Services is confirming its desire to become a stakeholder with a recognized panel of promising European technology companies in order to enhance its innovation strategy. (Photo credit: Orange Business Services) Orange Business Services and Move Capital share a common vision: to assist, support and finance French and European tech companies in the digital B2B sector to facilitate their development and emergence and ensure European technological sovereignty. The B2B technology ecosystem is in the midst of change with a series of happenings such as the deployment of 5G, the data boom, the rise in connected objects, the migration of services and solutions to the cloud and overall, the need to protect these ecosystems with cybersecurity solutions. For Orange Business Services, these rapid changes emphasize the importance of being supported by trusted partners. The digital economy is restructuring around an ecosystem of partners whose aim is to combine the best technologies in the market to cover the needs of innovative companies across the entire value chain. By partnering with the Move Capital I fund, Orange Business Services is confirming its desire to become a stakeholder with a recognized panel of promising European technology companies in order to enhance its innovation strategy. "We're convinced that this investment in the Move Capital I fund is key to anticipating our customers' needs, strengthening our services innovation and expertise in a dynamic B2B market landscape. As a network-native digital services company, we take advantage of a rich and innovative ecosystem to support our clients in their digital transformation and create a positive impact on their activities. A digital European approach to B2B is much appreciated by our global clients given the increasing fragmentation of digital ecosystems", said Laurent Godicheau, Chief Strategy Officer of Orange Business Services. "This investment in the Move Capital I fund will enable us, beyond the expected financial return, to implement a strong partnership with the Move Capital and Kepler Cheuvreux Invest teams and their ecosystem. We're delighted to support Orange Business Services in this block of their innovation strategy by actively developing this partnership and new synergies", announced Mai de la Rochefordiere, Deputy CEO of Orange Digital Investment. "We are very happy with the trust that Orange, as an anchor investor, has shown in the Move Capital fund. With Orange Business Services, we have a common vision and a willingness to support the emergence of French and European tech companies to further strengthen that ecosystem", added Sophie Sursock and Herve Malaussena, the co-founders of Move Capital. About Orange Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with sales of 42.3 billion euros in 2020 and 137,000 employees worldwide at September 30, 2021, including 79,000 employees in France. The Group has a total customer base of 266 million customers worldwide at Thursday, September 30, 2021, including 222 million mobile customers and 22 million fixed broadband customers. The Group is present in 26 countries. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services. In December 2019, the Group presented its new 'Engage 2025' strategic plan, which, guided by social and environmental accountability, aims to reinvent its operator model. While accelerating in growth areas and placing data and AI at the heart of its innovation model, the Group will be an attractive and responsible employer, adapted to emerging professions. Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN). To find out more (online and via your mobile device), go to: www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com or to follow us on Twitter: @orangegrouppr. Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220104005480/en/ Contacts: Press: Richard Rousseau; richard2.rousseau@orange.com; +33 (0) 6 86 52 64 84 Ibtissame Nafii; ibtissame.nafii@orange.com; +33 (0) 6 37 38 60 50 Orange Business Services: Christelle Innavong-Hanot; christelle.innavong@orange.com; +33 (0) 6 31 43 37 87 MILAN, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Melodity is taking the music industry one huge step further towards the decentralized creator economy and has started to build Web 3.0 monetization infrastructure to support musicians in completely new ways. To do so, Melodity is building a premier ecosystem that consists of play-to-earn (P2E), listen-to-earn (L2E) and Metaverse based on a proprietary blockchain that will empower opportunities for music artists, professionals, fans and music lovers. Three of the integrated platforms are DoMeta, DoDuet and DoMart. DoMeta is an almost completely music oriented metaverse, where users can enjoy their time playing, learning, creating and interacting with each other or participate in live events. It intends to draw communities by combining music, DeFi, blockchain and NFTs - as well as a play-to-earn model - into one unique package. DoDuet, with a listen-to-earn model, will create an innovative experience like no other. It is a user-friendly contest platform that gamifies Music and provides visibility and easy-access prizes for artists. It will reward participants in the contest just by listening to tracks and voting. DoMart, the NFTs marketplace, will provide not only songs distribution, but also a full bunch of possibilities for selling, buying, licensing and managing composite music NFTs. The ecosystem will always be a place where creativity grows in endless ways. The main goal is to allow music artists to maximize their incomes and visibility by offering them advanced instruments for managing their own art. Melodity wants to become the benchmark of the music industry in this new era contrasting old dynamics by providing a new home for artists where they can earn up to 90% of the income from their creations. "With an ambitious purpose, Melodity is a protocol designed with the idea at heart to give freedom and new means to all music artists so that they can unlock the full potential of their music," comments CEO Rolen Guzman. Melodity token Melodity token ($MELD) is hosted on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). It is the store of value for the environment and is in the early stages of launch. Melodity project was born of the passion of founders in helping to relieve the challenging financial circumstances of independent music artists. As ex amateur musicians, the founders witnessed first-hand how some of their friends struggle to generate income on their art. For more information: https://melodity.org https://t.me/Melodity_Official_Community https://twitter.com/meloditytoken Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1718574/Melodity.jpg - StoreDot's Series D funding round will be up to $80 million - The funding round is led by VinFast, a member of Vingroup, the largest private conglomerate in Vietnam; participants included bp ventures and Golden Energy - The capital will be used for completion of StoreDot's R&D and mass production scale-up of silicon dominant extreme fast charging (XFC) battery cells by 2024 - StoreDot is currently shipping cell samples for real-world testing by leading automotive manufacturers HERZELIYA, Israel, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- StoreDot, the pioneer of extreme fast charging (XFC) battery technology for electric vehicles, has announced the first close of its Series D funding round of up to $80 million, the majority of which have already been secured. The round is led by key strategic investors, strengthening StoreDot's partnerships in the global automotive battery eco-system. The lead investor is the fast-growing flagship Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer, VinFast, which plans to scale up manufacturing and deploy StoreDot's Extreme Fast Charging in future EV architectures. Participants include bp ventures, a current StoreDot investor and active partner, underpinning its purpose of reimaging energy for people and our planet. In addition, Golden Energy Global Investment Ltd., a wholly owned company by EVE Energy's founder, Dr. Liu Jincheng, will be one of the participants in the funding round. The funds raised by this round will be used to complete StoreDot's research and development for its silicon-dominant extreme fast charge (XFC) battery cells for electric vehicles and continue its progress on Extreme Energy Density cells based on Solid State technology for future deployment. This funding also enables the company to ramp up its California-based R&D center and commence scale up operations in key global locations, in readiness for full mass production of cells in 2024. Dr Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot CEO: "This strategic round of funding, with principal investors coming from leading automotive, energy and technology companies, is a huge vote of confidence in StoreDot, its XFC battery technologies, our long-term product roadmap and our world-class technology and innovation that are all aimed to solve the Range Anxiety of EV drivers. "We are now properly funded to take our silicon-dominant XFC cells to the end of the R&D phase and into scale-up in readiness for mass production in 2024 for global vehicle manufacturers. It will help overcome the major barrier to EV ownership - charging times - providing a 50% reduction, and, ultimately, helping us all achieve a zero-emissions, clean world." Pham Thuy Linh, Deputy CEO, VinFast: "Enhancing customer experience is our top priority. We have been making dedicated efforts in research, connecting global intelligence by forming partnerships with and investing in breakthrough technology companies, especially in EV battery such as StoreDot and its extreme fast charging (XFC) proprietary technology. "StoreDot which is led by gifted scientists and experienced entrepreneurs, along with strong support from VinFast and other strategic investors, is believed to gear up for mass production globally in a very near term." StoreDot is in advanced talks with leading global car makers for integration of its XFC technology into their future models. The Company demonstrates a clear technology roadmap including its next generation XED, extreme energy density solid state cells with planned mass production in 2028. J.P. Morgan acted as Sole Placement Agent on the transaction. About StoreDot: StoreDot is a pioneer and leader of extreme fast charging (XFC) batteries that overcome the critical barrier to mainstream EV adoption - range and charging anxiety. The company has revolutionized the conventional Li-ion battery by designing and synthesizing proprietary organic and inorganic compounds, making it possible to fully charge an EV in just five minutes - the same time it takes to refuel a conventional combustion engine vehicle. StoreDot's battery technology is optimized for best driver experience with XFC in Li-ion batteries, as well as future technologies for extreme energy-density (XED). StoreDot's strategic investors include VinFast, bp, Daimler, Samsung Ventures and TDK. In 2019, the company achieved a world first by demonstrating the live full charge of a two-wheeled EV in just five minutes. In 2020, the company demonstrated the scalability of its XFC batteries by fully charging a commercial drone in five minutes in another world first. Moving XFC battery technology from the lab to a commercially-viable electric vehicle for the first time, StoreDot has launched engineering samples of its XFC batteries that are designed to be manufactured at scale on traditional Li-ion production lines. For more information see: www.store-dot.com. About VinFast VinFast - a member of Vingroup - envisioned to drive the movement of global smart electric vehicle revolution. Established in 2017, VinFast owns a state-of-the-art automotive manufacturing complex with globally leading scalability that boasts up to 90% automation in Hai Phong, Vietnam. VinFast has announced three electric car models, exceptional battery leasing policies, and industry-leading 10-year warranties. In July 2021, VinFast started expanding to the North American and European markets. Two of its smart electric SUV models - VF e35 and VF e36, are expected to be available for pre-orders globally in the first half of 2022. Find out more at: https://vinfastauto.com. About Vingroup Established in 1993, Vingroup is one of the leading private conglomerates in the region, with a total capitalization of 35Billion USD from three publicly traded companies (as of November 4, 2021). Vingroup currently focuses on three main areas: Technology, Industry, and Services. Find out more at: https://www.vingroup.net/en. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1718847/StoreDot_VinFast.jpg Contacts: Tom Green tom@influenceemobility.com Chas Hallett chas@influenceassociates.com The head of Citibank Korea, the Korean unit of U.S. banking giant Citigroup, on Tuesday vowed to do everything she could to protect customers from the planned closure of its retail services in South Korea. In October, Citigroup said that it would discontinue its retail banking services "in phases" here in line with its global business reorganization efforts. The announcement has spawned concerns over the possibility of service disruptions for customers. "As we wind down the consumer banking business, we should respect all related laws and procedures, and most of all, place the top priority on customer values to take the consumer protection measures without setbacks," Yoo Myung-soon, CEO of Citibank Korea, said in her New Year greetings to employees. "We should continue our efforts to prevent customer complaints and do the best we can to safeguard consumers' rights and interests by promptly dealing with the complaints," she added. Citibank Korea has said it will work hard to minimize inconvenience for customers through close consultations with financial authorities and maintain services until remaining contracts expire. A company official earlier said that around 2,000 out of about 2,300 employees involved in the retail business have been approved to leave the company in return for compensation under a voluntary retirement program. Citigroup opened its first branch in South Korea in 1967 and launched Citibank Korea in 2004 after acquiring KorAm Bank. (Yonhap) Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - Bam Bam Resources Corp. (CSE: BBR) (OTC Pink: NPEZF) (FSE: 4NPB) ("Bam Bam" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Larry Segerstrom, P.Eng., M.Sc. Geology, M.B.A. has consented to the join the Board of Directors of the Company. David Greenway, President & CEO, commented, "Bam Bam is extremely delighted to have Mr. Segerstrom, an experienced Professional Geologist with extensive experience in the discovery and advancement of porphyry copper-gold projects, join our Board. Larry will be an exceptional source of guidance as the company advances its Majuba Hill copper, silver, and gold project. On behalf of myself, along with the rest of the Board, we welcome Larry and we look forward to his valued insights as the newest part of our team." Mr. Segerstrom is a bilingual Professional Engineer and Geologist with more than 38 years of technical, operational, and business experience, including exploration, mine geology and operations, and 20 years as a senior executive. He is currently Manager of the Los Reyes gold-silver Project for Prime Mining. Past management positions include COO of Paramount Gold and Silver Corp. and Manager of Geology of the Grasberg Mining District for Freeport-McMoRan. After receiving his M.Sc. at the University of Arizona geology department studying under porphyry copper specialists, Dr. John Guilbert and Dr. Spencer Titley, Mr. Segerstrom has focused a good deal of his professional life on porphyry copper-gold and copper-molybdenum deposits in Indonesia, Chile, U.S., and Mexico. Mr. Segerstrom has been involved in several discoveries, including leading the teams that developed new ore reserves totaling 3.4 billion pounds of copper and 3.6 million ounces of gold at Freeport's giant Grasberg copper-gold porphyry district, as well as a new inferred resource of more than 750,000 ounces of gold and 60 million ounces of silver at Paramount's San Miguel epithermal project in Northern Mexico. Most recently, he worked for Azucar Minerals Ltd. from 2015 to 2020 exploring and developing the El Cobre project, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, an 11,860 Ha property which contains copper-gold porphyry mineralization over a strike length of four kilometers. To date, Azucar has discovered five copper-gold porphyry zones within the property along an approximately 4-5km trend, stretching from Norte down to Encinal in the southeast. Mr. Segerstrom holds a M.Sc. in Economic Geology from the University of Arizona, a M.B.A. in Global Management, and is a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. "I feel honoured to be joining the Board of Bam Bam. The company has done excellent work on moving Majuba Hill forward and I look forward to lending my skills to assist with the company. I look forward to working with David, the Board, and the senior management team," stated Larry Segerstrom. Marketing Agreement Further, the Company renewed its agreement with TD Media, LLC, dba Life Water Media, to provide digital marketing services to the Company for a term of 30 days, commencing on January 10, 2022, in consideration of USD $300,000. Life Water Media will utilize its online programs to generate a greater following, increase investor awareness and attract new investors through many different online platforms and methods of engagement. About Bam Bam Resources Corp. Bam Bam Resources Corp. (CSE: BBR) (OTC Pink: NPEZF) (FSE: 4NPB) is engaged in the identification, review and acquisition of latter stage copper and copper/silver/gold assets. This is in direct response to the growing worldwide demand and lack of supply for precious metals fueled by the Green New Deal in the US and most other developed nations with similar programs aimed at addressing climate change. Such programs are heavily reliant on silver, gold and especially copper to produce Electric Vehicles and other renewable power sources, as well as building infrastructure to provide clean and affordable electricity. The flagship project is the Majuba Hill copper, silver and gold District located 156 miles outside Reno, Nevada, USA. Management has been mandated to focus on safe, mining friendly jurisdictions where government regulations are supportive of mining operations. On Behalf of the Board of Bam Bam Resources Corp. "David Greenway" David C. Greenway President & CEO For further information, please contact: Joel Warawa VP of Corporate Communications E: jw@bambamresources.com P: 1 (855) 475-0745 Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. ## To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/108991 Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks rallied on Tuesday as traders returned to their desks after a long holiday weekend. The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 94 points, or 1.3 percent, at 7,478, catching up with a global rally on hopes that the Omicron coronavirus variant will have only a limited impact on the global economic recovery. Britain's vaccine minister said people being hospitalized with Covid-19 in the United Kingdom were broadly showing less severe symptoms than before. Investors also cheered data from the British Retail Consortium showing that U.K. shop prices grew at a faster pace in December. Shop prices climbed 0.8 percent on a yearly basis in December, following a 0.3 percent gain in November, which was the first rise in two-and-a-half years. Food prices rose at a faster pace of 2.4 percent driven by the sharp growth in fresh food prices. Meanwhile, non-food prices dropped 0.2 percent. Capita Plc shares advanced 1.2 percent. The BPO company said that it completed on 3rd January, the sale of its Secure Solutions and Services (SSS) business to NEC Software Solutions U.K. for a consideration of 62 million pounds. Wizz Air Holdings soared nearly 19 percent. The low-cost airline reported that it carried 2.64 million passengers in the month of December 2021, up 296.3 percent from 665,722 passengers a year ago. British Airways-owner IAG jumped 10 percent. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved 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. Fidelis New Energy expands its presence into Europe with appointment of senior leadership of Fidelis New Energy Europe HOUSTON, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fidelis New Energy, LLC ("Fidelis"), a leading developer, investor, and operator of climate impact infrastructure, announced its expansion into Europe with its European headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, and appointment of Ulrik Dan Weuder as Managing Director, Fidelis Europe and Lotte Kemplar as General Counsel, Fidelis Europe & Deputy General Counsel, Fidelis. "We are pleased to join forces with Ulrik and Lotte to further support and accelerate commitments by Denmark and other European countries to achieve carbon neutrality before 2050 by advancing the Fidelis climate impact infrastructure strategy abroad. Ulrik and Lotte are not only close friends with whom we have worked for years, they are seasoned European-based infrastructure investment professionals and leaders who will also contribute to the global Fidelis vision and strategy," said Dan Shapiro, CEO and Co-Founder, Fidelis. Ulrik Dan Weuder has over 25 years of experience in planning, investing and managing large infrastructure and complex equity investments. Lotte has over 15 years of experience as a legal professional with strong experience in deal structuring and infrastructure transactions. Lotte's experience includes sophisticated transactions within large infrastructure and M&A transactions in Europe and the United States, including the management of operating infrastructure assets. Both are joining Fidelis after successful careers with the Danish pension fund ATP. Bengt Jarlsjo, Co-founder of Fidelis, added "Being born and raised in Scandinavia, I am pleased we have selected Denmark as the headquarters for Fidelis Europe and appointed Ulrik and Lotte to lead that expansion. With our partners in the region, we see great potential for projects within our strategy in Scandinavia and Europe as a whole. Our European presence will also enhance our continued collaboration with our Scandinavian and European technology partners as we continue to advance transition infrastructure assets across our portfolio." About Fidelis New Energy, LLC Fidelis is an infrastructure firm that develops, delivers, invests in, owns, and operates climate impact infrastructure with long useful lives, providing critical services to society while generating stable and predictable cash flows. Fidelis focuses on four decarbonization core sectors: (1) Renewable Fuels (sustainable aviation fuel and ground transportation fuels from renewable feedstocks), (2) Carbon Management (capture, use, transportation and sequestration of CO2), (3) Clean Hydrogen, and (4) Renewable Power including Power to X. For more information, please visit www.fidelisinfra.com. FOR MORE INFORMATION Gardner Boulmay III (832) 551-3300 gardner@fidelisinfra.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719207/Ulrik_Dan_Weuder.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719208/Lotte_Kemplar.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719212/Fidelis_New_Energy_Logo.jpg BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks advanced on Tuesday after a string of new studies suggested that the Omicron virus variant might be less severe than initially feared. Strong economic data from Germany and the U.K. also boosted investor hopes for a quick economic recovery from the pandemic. Germany's retail sales rose for a second straight month in November, defying expectations for a decline, preliminary data from Destatis showed. Retail sales increased a calendar and seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent from the previous month. Economists had forecast a 0.5 percent fall. In October, sales grew a revised 0.5 percent. Separate data from the British Retail Consortium showed that U.K. shop prices grew at a faster pace in December. Shop prices climbed 0.8 percent on a yearly basis in December, following a 0.3 percent gain in November, which was the first rise in two-and-a-half years. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.6 percent to 492.88 after rising half a percent on Monday. The German DAX rose 0.3 percent, France's CAC 40 index added 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 rallied 1.2 percent. Julius Baer gained 0.8 percent. The Swiss private bank is parting ways with an independent wealth manager it bought five years ago. Novartis rose about half a percent. The pharmaceutical firm said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued its decision upholding the validity of the US patent covering a dosing regimen for Gilenya. Swedish telecommunications company Telia Company AB dropped 0.6 percent after it agreed to sell Telia Latvija SIA to Tet SIA. Capita Plc shares advanced 1.2 percent. The British BPO company said that it completed on 3rd January, the sale of its Secure Solutions and Services (SSS) business to NEC Software Solutions U.K. for a consideration of 62 million pounds. Wizz Air Holdings soared nearly 19 percent. The low-cost airline reported that it carried 2.64 million passengers in the month of December 2021, up 296.3 percent from 665,722 passengers a year ago. British Airways-owner IAG jumped 10 percent. Nordex Group, a German wind turbine maker, rose about 2.8 percent. The company said that it has received an order for 380 MW wind turbines from Finnish utility company Fortum for Pjelax-Bole-Kristinestad Norr wind farm cluster in Finland. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de SANYA, China, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As the globe enters a new year, the Sanya Tourism Promotion Board ("STPB") is ready to transform Sanya into the world's hottest tourist destination in 2022. Building on the momentum gained in 2021, the New Year will see the STPB continue to expand markets for inbound tourism and enhance the popularity of Sanya's major drawcards, in order to position Hainan Island as a global premium travel destination. Since being established in 2020, the STPB has continually evolved Sanya's tourism offering and innovated the region's travel-related companies to attract visitors to the island. Over the past year, the STPB leveraged major opportunities from the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port, focused on new trends within the tourism sector, expanded Sanya's destination branding, and boosted its trade efforts to promote the overall development of Sanya and invite more tourists to its shores. Boasting warm weather, spectacular scenery, and diverse experiences, Sanya is the perfect backdrop for work, travel and play. In 2021, the STPB focused on cultivating new tourism opportunities and hotspots to attract different types of travelers to Sanya, such as its "Wonderland Sanya" theme. Designed to reinvigorate Sanya's image amongst Gen Z and millennial travelers, Wonderland Sanya invites young people to fall in love with the destination's unique and vibrant possibilities across five angles of food, travel photography, culture, outdoor activities and luxury hospitality. Beyond a new brand image that appeals to younger travelers, the STPB hosted a number of activities under the Wonderland Sanya theme to give people even more reason to visit in 2021. These included the Hainan Island Fashion Week, Hainan Free Trade Port Internet Celebrity Creation Competition, Sanya International Diving Festival, Sanya x Game for Peace, and Sanya Parent-Child Study Trip Forum, as well as activities to promote destination weddings, family travel, night tours, and e-sports tourism. In 2022, the STPB already has an exciting lineup of events on the cards that will attract new international travelers to the destination and give previous travelers a reason to return. In tandem, the STPB has worked with local companies to design, develop and promote products that are popular with travelers. Last year, the STPB designed a variety of tourist maps, culinary maps, travel guides, and cultural products to expand the horizons of tourists and invite them to discover all that Sanya has to offer. A Sanya Tourism App is also in the works for 2022 to give overseas travelers peace of mind during their visit. In addition, STPB carried out trade activities in major cities across China in 2021, with a focus on interactive activities that promote engagement and encourage discussion. Furthermore, its market research and consulting arm commenced data modeling for tourism companies to support precise data-based marketing strategies and forecasts. These activities are set to continue in 2022, as the STPB seeks new opportunities to achieve a win-win scenario for operators and travelers. The STPB also has its sights set on turning Sanya into an international transit destination in 2022, as China grants seventh freedom of air rights to Hainan for the first time. Tourists can fly in to Beijing or Shanghai and fly out from Sanya -- giving them more reason to add Hainan Island to their travel itinerary. In 2022, STPB is ready to catapult Sanya into the global travel spotlight. Capitalizing on progress made over the past two years while injecting fresh ideas into the mix, Sanya is poised to become the destination of choice for global tourists in 2022. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719380/image_1.jpg New Blood Glucose Monitor and Rapid At-Home Vitamin D Deficiency Test Provides Innovative Solutions to Canadian Healthcare Needs VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2022 / EMPOWER CLINICS INC. (CSE:CBDT)(Frankfurt:8EC)(OTCQB:EPWCF) ("Empower" or the "Company") an integrated healthcare company - serving patients through medical centers, telemedicine platforms, a medical device company, and a high complexity medical diagnostics laboratory - is pleased to announce its subsidiary, MediSure Canada, has received new Health Canada Medical Device Licences for MediSure healthcare products. This includes a Class 3 Medical Device Licence under the number 107186 for the commercialization of its next MediSure Empower Blood Glucose Monitoring System ("BGM"), and a Class 2 Medical Device Licence under the number 107206 for the commercialization of a Medisure Vitamin D Rapid Test ("Vitamin D Rapid Test"). MediSure Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary, has over two decades of experience in the diabetic management healthcare industry. The Company is pleased to expand its product line and provide innovative solutions to Canadians living with diabetes. The latest BGM product augments the existing line by providing a system with state-of-the-art Bluetooth capabilities. It allows patients to instantly connect their health information to their phone through a lighter and more compact medical device. This latest BGM product will provide doctors and Canadians with additional choices in their diabetic management planning. MediSure continues to see immense demand for its products due to its reputation for high-quality, affordable products. The Company is currently working to register the device with insurance providers; this step will make the product accessible through Canadians' healthcare plans. MediSure anticipates rolling out its new BGM online and in pharmacies in late Q1 2022. MediSure continues to expand beyond the diabetic industry with its recent MediSure Rapid Antigen Health Canada test submission and now the approval of its first ever Vitamin D Rapid Test. Vitamin D deficiency affects roughly 10% of Canadians, and it contributes to various adverse health effects such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and infections and immune system disorders. Vitamin D testing places a great toll on the healthcare system as patients are required to see their doctor and be referred for blood work. MediSure Vitamin D Rapid Test lowers the barriers to identifying this problem by creating the first fully at-home Vitamin D Rapid Test kit in Canada. Through the kits patients are able to receive a result on whether they have vitamin D deficiency without heading to the doctor's office. These kits enable patients to act as better advocates and stewards of their healthcare. MediSure anticipates commercialization of this product in Q1 2022. "MediSure has made immense progress since joining Empower," said Steven McAuley, Chairman and CEO of Empower. "Through the capacity and leadership of our team, they've been able to double down on their sales, increase their research and development, and, most importantly, expand their ability to provide affordable and quality health management solutions." "The next-generation BGM product and Vitamin D test are amazing additions to the MediSure line," added Mario Cortis, President of MediSure. "Canadians health is better served when they have access to top-quality tools, I'm proud we're able to redeploy our experience in the diabetes industry to improve other healthcare needs." This press release is available on the Empower Clinics Verified Forum on AGORACOM for shareholder discussion, questions and engagement with management https://agoracom.com/ir/EmpowerClinics ABOUT MEDISURE: MediSure Canada is a Canadian medical device company dedicated to bringing value to the high cost of diabetes, both to patients and insurers. MediSure's products are designed and manufactured with safety and durability in mind, meeting all ISO standards with world-class quality controls. Equipped with features that lead the industry in technology, MediSure's products are designed to offer a user-friendly experience and an overall improved approach to diabetes management. ABOUT EMPOWER: Empower is an integrated healthcare company that provides body and mind wellness for patients through its clinics, with digital and telemedicine care, a medical device company and world-class medical diagnostics laboratories. Supported by an experienced leadership team, Empower is aggressively growing its clinical and digital presence across North America. Our Health & Wellness and Diagnostics & Technology business units are positioned to positively impact the integrated health of our patients, while simultaneously providing long term value for our shareholders. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Steven McAuley Chief Executive Officer CONTACTS: Media: Steven McAuley CEO s.mcauley@empowerclinics.com 604-789-2146 Investors: Tamara Mason Business Development & Communications t.mason@empowerclinics.com 416-671-5617 DISCLAIMER FOR FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements can frequently be identified by words such as "plans", "continues", "expects", "projects", "intends", "believes", "anticipates", "estimates", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or information that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding: the Company's plans with respect to the offering of other Empower services and products; that the Company may be able to commercialize new MediSure products or any new medical devices. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions known to management at this time, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including: that the Company may be unable to enter into definitive agreements, or close transactions with respect to, proposed future clinic openings; that due diligence with respect to anticipated clinic openings and acquisitions may not be satisfactory to the Company; risks related to delays in permitting or construction; risks related to supply chains and access to labour; that legislative changes may have an adverse effect on the Company's business and product development; that the Company may not be able to obtain adequate financing to pursue its business plan; that the Company will be able to commence and/or complete build-outs and tenants improvements for new clinics; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; and other factors beyond the Company's control. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur on the terms or in the time expected, or at all, or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this release, which are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities laws. SOURCE: Empower Clinics Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/680844/MediSure-Canada-Receives-Health-Canada-Licence-For-Two-New-Best-In-Class-Products The Chinese manufacturer has launched two new bifacial products based on its n-type TOPCon 2.0 cell technology. The JW-HD156N panel has a power output of 615W, a front side efficiency of 22% and is intended for utility scale projects. The second product, called JW-HD108N, is an all-black panel with a power rating of 430W, for the residential segment.Chinese PV module manufacturer Jolywood has launched two more bifacial solar module series based on the company's n-type TOPCon 2.0 cell technology. The two series were dubbed JW-HD156N and JW-HD108N and have a power output of up to 615 and 430W, ... 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. Dato' Sri Alias bin Ahmad KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - G3 Global Berhad ("G3 Global") has appointed Malaysian civil service veteran Dato' Sri Alias bin Ahmad as Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman with effect from January 4.A filing with Bursa Malaysia showed that he succeeds Datuk Wan Khalik Bin Wan Muhammad as Director of the Company and Executive Chairman of the Board, who has resigned today.Dato' Sri Alias, who served as the secretary-general of the Ministry of Education (MOE) before retiring on 22 May 2018, looks forward to working closely with fellow board members and the management of G3 Global. He seeks to provide the experience and insights that he has gathered after serving the Malaysian government in various capacities and departments.Aged 63, Dato' Sri Alias holds a bachelor's degree in the study of Arts and Social Sciences and a master's in Strategic and Defence Studies from University Malaya. Besides that, he holds various diplomas and certificates from other institutions including the University of Oxford, United Kingdom.He served 34 years in the Malaysian civil service and has held many posts of importance in the government.Some of the notable positions held include Director General of the Department of Immigration (2010-2014), Secretary General of Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) (2014-2016), Secretary of National Security Council (NSC) (2016), and Secretary General of MOE (2016-2018).Other departments that he has served include the Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA), and the State Security Department.Commenting on the appointment of the new Chairman, G3 Global managing director Dirk Quinten said: "With the extensive experience and credibility possessed by Dato' Sri Alias, I am confident that G3 Global will continue to flourish as a dynamic and competitive player in the industries it is involved in, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare."Interesting developments have taken place at G3 Global recently; it started when the Company made a filing on 26 November 2021 which showed that Datuk Seri Aminul Islam Abdul Nor (better known as Datuk Seri Mohd Amin) had emerged with a 25% stake in G3 Global, and has been made an executive director of the Company.Mohd Amin is the founder and chairman of technology firm Bestinet Sdn Bhd, which provides information technology solutions for managing foreign labour for all stakeholders.Following that, G3 Global had on 8 December 2021 proposed to diversify into the healthcare sector related business, which includes the distribution of Covid-19 test kits. This is done via Bestinet Healthcare Sdn Bhd, a 51% owned subsidiary of G3 Global, and with orders for 2 million test kits in hand, G3's subsidiary had a promising start. An EGM will be conducted for the shareholders' approval early 2022.The Company is moving to shift its focus to AI and other information technology-based healthcare solutions. Beyond the sales of test kits, G3 Global's healthcare business will also explore the vast potential of AI in healthcare, especially in the area of healthcare diagnosis.For further media enquiries please contact:Hakim Syed Munifh.juraimi@swanconsultancy.biz+60 12 318 5410Source: G3 Global BerhadCopyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. Zug, Switzerland and Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - Hunter Technology Corp. (TSXV: HOC) (OTCQB: HOILF) (WKN: A2QEYH) (FSE: RWPM) (ISIN: CA4457371090) ("Hunter" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that as part of its continued commercialization strategy it has named current Board member, Dr. Konstantino Ghertsos, as Chief Executive Officer effective immediately. Concluding his mandated interim role, Alain Fernandez, will step down as interim CEO, while remaining on the Board of Directors to further support the Company. The appointment of Dr. Ghertsos strengthens the Company's ability to existing sales efforts of its Hunter Marketplace Solutions ("HMS") offering in Central Africa. HMS is designed to create customised blockchain-based marketplaces that leverage the power of decentralized finance to facilitate more transparent and efficient trading of physical commodities. "I am excited to transition the CEO role to Kostas. He has been integral of connecting our existing technologies to opportunities in West and Central Africa, and beyond. Under his commercially focused guidance the Company will be able to accelerate its path towards revenue generation," said outgoing interim CEO Alain Fernandez. "I would like to thank Alain and the Board for this appointment," said Dr. Ghertsos. " I look forward to continuing the existing efforts to implement HMS in unserved markets in Central Africa. There are many use-cases we have been working on this year. These include both sovereign and private opportunities and will be scalable across many countries," added Dr. Ghertsos. He has served as Director of Supply for Inver Energy Ltd. in Ireland and was previously a Senior Trader at MRI Trading in Switzerland. He has also held several key trading and senior executive roles in European public companies. Dr. Ghertsos holds a BSc in Oceanography and Marine Biology from the University of Southampton, a Matrise (Master's Degree) in Marine Ecology from the University of Paris VI, & a PhD in Oceanography & a DEA in Data Analysis & Computer Modeling from the University of Lille I. The Company wishes to thank Mr. Fernandez for his service and looks forward to continuing to work with him at a Board level. About Hunter Technology Corp. Hunter Technology Corp. is a blockchain marketplace company that has developed proprietary technologies that digitalise and streamline transaction lifecycles for underserved and inefficient markets. With its Hunter Marketplace Solutions ("HMS") product, the Company supports the creation of customised marketplaces and enhanced data analytics capabilities that deliver more favourable economics and fair market access for all, as well as supporting numerous ESG opportunities throughout transactional ecosystems. The first such HMS-powered solution is OilEx, which will connect independent oil producers, buyers, and traders in a trusted digital marketplace to optimize prices, simplify processes, improve transparency, and support a reduced carbon footprint. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dr. Konstantino Ghertsos Chief Executive Officer (778) 655-9202 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. ("Exchange") nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements") as such terms are defined by applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events, including the Offering and the commercialisation and distribution of the HMS. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," and "intend," statements that an action or event "may," "might," "could," "should," or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond Hunter's control and Hunter's actual results could well differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to many various factors. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company cannot guarantee that the events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. The timing of events and circumstances and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, one should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of today's date and Hunter undertakes no obligation to update or publicly revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/108910 Chinese, Ukrainian presidents exchange congratulations on 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties Xinhua) 13:06, January 04, 2022 Photo taken on April 1, 2020 shows humanitarian aid from China at the Boryspil International Airport in Kiev, Ukraine. (Xinhua/Li Dongxu) BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Tuesday exchanged congratulations on the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. In his message, Xi said China-Ukraine relations have maintained a sound and steady momentum of development since the establishment of diplomatic ties 30 years ago, noting that the two countries have deepened political mutual trust, carried out fruitful cooperation in various fields and strengthened people-to-people and cultural exchanges, which have improved the well-being of the two peoples. A container is unloaded from a container train from China's Wuhan in Kiev, Ukraine, July 6, 2020. (Photo by Sergey Starostenko/Xinhua) Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China and Ukraine have supported each other and worked together to fight the pandemic, demonstrating the profound friendship between the two peoples, Xi said. Xi also stressed that he attaches great importance to the development of the two countries' strategic partnership, and stands ready to work with Zelensky to take the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to push for more results in bilateral ties as well as cooperation in various fields for the benefit of the two countries and their people. A container train from China's Wuhan is welcomed upon its arrival in Kiev, Ukraine, July 6, 2020. (Photo by Sergey Starostenko/Xinhua) In his message, Zelensky said that over the past 30 years, the development of Ukraine-China relations has maintained a positive momentum with close exchanges at all levels and fruitful practical cooperation between the two countries. He also said that the Ukrainian side has been fully confident in the broad prospect of the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries, and is willing to continuously deepen the traditional friendship of the two peoples, strengthen cooperation in various areas and push forward the strategic partnership between the two sides. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) From left are Ruling Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki. Yonhap Implementation of supplementary budget worth W30 trillion feasible: ruling party presidential candidate By Lee Min-hyung Korea's national debt is feared to snowball this year again, as the government is under mounting pressure to execute another supplementary budget for the self-employed stricken by the ongoing pandemic. Both ruling and opposition parties are stepping up their rhetoric, urging the Ministry of Economy and Finance to draw up the extra budget before the Lunar New Year holiday which falls at the end of January. Economists here advised the government to take a balanced approach when providing financial aid to self-employed workers, rather than offering unconditional support packages. "Given the steeply rising national debt, it is not proper for the government to execute an excessive level of the supplementary budget," Sejong University economist Kim Dae-jong said. "Against this backdrop, the government is urged to share the financial burden with those who receive the benefit." As small business owners have been hit hardest by the pandemic for the past two years, and the virus spread is showing no signs of abating, few would disagree with the idea of providing financial support to them, according to him. eureKARE participatesin DNA Script's $200 Million Series C Financing Fundraisewill accelerate commercial launch of revolutionary enzymatic DNA printing technology Luxembourg and Paris, France - January 4, 2022 (TBD): eureKARE ("the Company"), a pioneering company focused on financing and building next generation biotechnology companies in the disruptive fields of the microbiome and synthetic biology, is pleased to announce that it has participated in DNA Script's $200 million Series C financing which today closed with completion of the second tranche. DNA Script is a pioneering life sciences technology company developing a new, faster, more powerful and versatile way to design and manufacture nucleic acids. Proceeds from this financing will be used to advance the SYNTAX Platform, DNA Script's first commercial product powered by its proprietary EDS technology. SYNTAX empowers scientists to rapidly print synthetic nucleic acids for genomics and molecular biology applications at the convenience of their lab bench. On-demand printing enables labs to iterate without waiting days or weeks to receive their genetic material from third-party service providers. eureKARE participated in the second tranche of DNA Script's $200 million Series C financing alongside accounts and funds advised by T. Rowe Price Associates and Baillie Gifford, Healthcor Management, Irving Investors and Sino Biopharmaceutical. They joined Coatue Management, Catalio Capital Management, Fidelity Management and Research, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Casdin Capital, as well as other investors who participated in the first closing. Rodolphe Besserve, Chief Executive Officer at eureKARE, said: "DNA Script's disruptive SYNTAX platform is changing the way that nucleic acids are produced, combining convenience with speed to allow on-demand production in the lab. The addition of new investors is a reflection of DNA Script's international ambition and is a testament to its technology. eureKARE's investment is highly complementary to our vision of driving forward the ongoing revolution in the synthetic biology space as it enters a new era, thanks to the emergence of novel tools for new applications." eureKARE's investment in DNA Script marks the Company's 7th investment and the third in a synthetic biology company, following its investment in Omne Possibile and Coave Therapeutics, exemplifying the Company's mission of selecting and supporting high quality European innovation with revolutionary potential. - End - About eureKARE eureKARE is a unique project development company dedicated to investing and developing next generation biotechnology companies in the cutting-edge fields of the microbiome and synthetic biology. eureKARE has a two-step investment approach to deliver long-term value creation. The Company supports translational research by creating and financing new companies out of high value European science through its biotech start-up studios eureKABIOME (Microbiome) and eureKASYNBIO (Synthetic biology). The Company also intends to invest in more mature biotech companies and will systematically propose to offer some liquidity to early investors, thereby addressing a critical need in the European biotech field. Guided by its influential founder, Alexandre Mouradian, and a pan-European team, eureKARE has a rapidly growing portfolio of companies that have the potential to disrupt the life sciences industry. eureKARE is headquartered in Luxembourg, with a presence in France & Belgium. For more information visit: https://eurekare.eu/and follow us on LinkedIn. About DNA Script Founded in 2014, DNA Script is a pioneering life sciences technology company developing a new, faster, more powerful and versatile way to design and manufacture nucleic acids. The company has developed an alternative to traditional DNA synthesis called Enzymatic DNA Synthesis, or EDS, allowing this technology to be accessible to labs with the first benchtop enzymatic synthesis instrument, the SYNTAX System. By putting DNA synthesis back in the lab, DNA Script aims to transform life sciences research through innovative technology that gives researchers unprecedented control and autonomy. www.dnascript.com. Contact eureKARE SA Marina Shapochnik, Head Investor Relations marina.shapochnik@eurekare.eu Consilium Strategic Communications Amber Fennell, Sukaina Virji, Genevieve Wilson +44 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - EMX Royalty Corporation (NYSE American: EMX) (TSXV: EMX) (FSE: 6E9) (the "Company" or "EMX") is pleased to announce results from recently completed geochemical surveys at EMX's 100% owned Mt Steadman and Yarrol gold projects in central Queensland, Australia. Numerous gold-in-soil anomalies have been identified by surveys conducted on both projects, with several anomalies extending to the edges of the survey grids, meaning that they remain open for expansion. A total of 895 samples were collected, with results including 2.17 ppm gold in a new target area at Mt Steadman. Results from the Yarrol project also delineated several robust gold-in-soil anomalies, as well as a new target area with high levels of cobalt and nickel in rock chip samples. These results highlight the additional exploration potential of both projects. EMX will continue executing exploration programs on both projects in the coming year, and both projects are currently available for partnership. Mt Steadman Project. The 5,700 hectare Mt Steadman project is an intrusion-related gold system ("IRGS") in the New England Orogenic Belt in Queensland, Australia, a province that hosts IRGS-type gold, porphyry and epithermal deposits. Mt Steadman is located along the Perry Fault system, a major structural feature in the area (see Figure 1). The Mt Steadman project was the focus of exploration in the 1990's when shallow reconnaissance drilling programs led to the recognition and definition of historical gold resources. However little exploration has taken place since (see EMX News Release dated April 26, 2021). In Q3 and Q4 2021, EMX conducted a broad soil geochemical survey to the north of the Fitzroy historical resource (see Figure 2). A total of 351 samples were collected on 200 meter and 400 meter spaced traverses with samples collected every 50 meters along each line. This program resulted in the delineation of multiple anomalous gold-in-soil trends. The most prominent anomaly extends for 400 meters along trend and reaches a maximum width of 200 meters at its northern extent. The anomaly remains open to the north and includes a sample of 2.17 ppm gold. This new soil anomaly is similar in scale and tenor to those around the historic Fitzroy prospect located 1km to the southeast. This anomaly also exhibits coincident anomalous molybdenum and tellurium geochemistry, similar to geochemical signatures seen at Fitzroy, and closely correlates with the mapped extent of a zone of hydrothermal breccias, quartz veining and alteration. Yarrol Project. The 17,500 hectare Yarrol project is located between EMX's Queensland Gold royalty property and Evolution Mining's Mt Rawdon gold mine, and is positioned along the regional scale Yarrol Fault. Several other historical mines and active exploration projects lie along the Yarrol Fault structural trend. EMX's Yarrol Project was the site of historical mining activities from the late 1800's through the 1930's. Further exploration carried out in the 1980's and 1990's led to the definition of two historical gold resources on the Yarrol Project, but little exploration activity has taken place since that time (see EMX news release dated April 26, 2021). EMX's 2021 programs at Yarrol included the collection of 544 soil samples, which identified two new gold-in-soil anomalies (see Figure 3). The northern anomaly, known as the Limestone Creek area, lies approximately five kilometers northwest of the historical Yarrol gold resources. This new anomaly has dimensions of 200 by 600 meters, with the strongest results along the southernmost line. The area was identified as a target by EMX on the basis of magnetic inversion geophysical models, previous geochemical results and the presence of numerous historical prospecting pits. The Limestone Creek anomaly also coincides with a zone of albite-silica-goethite alteration developed adjacent to a monzonite porphyry and remains open to the south. The anomaly has a scale and tenor that resembles those over the historical gold resources on the Yarrol Project. Other gold-in-soil anomalies have been delineated immediately northwest of the historical Yarrol resources, along a contact zone between geological formations within folded and faulted sediments, which also merit follow-up exploration. In the process of carrying out the sampling programs at the Yarrol Project, EMX geologists also noted boulders of dark manganiferous material in several drainages in the northern part of the exploration license. The boulders were traced back to an outcropping stratigraphic horizon of dark, manganiferous material that has the appearance of a conglomeratic unit. Nine rock chip samples collected from various boulders, float materials and outcrop exposures averaged 1.1% cobalt, 0.15 % nickel and 10.0% manganese, with a high of 1.6% cobalt with 0.25% nickel. EMX considers this to be a significant discovery of additional mineral potential on the Yarrol Project, as previous efforts had strictly focused on Yarrol's intrusion-related gold mineralization. Additional sampling programs are underway to better quantify the extent of this unit and its degrees of enrichment in cobalt, nickel and manganese. Barium is also enriched in this material, with eight of the nine samples submitted for analysis exceeding the upper analytical limit of 1% barium. Upcoming Exploration Plans. Additional geochemical sampling programs will be carried out at both the Mt Steadman and Yarrol projects in the coming months with the goal of extending the soil anomalies and identifying additional drill targets. Drill programs are being planned for mid-2022. EMX's Australian Royalty Generation Program. EMX maintains an active royalty generation program and continues to review new project opportunities throughout Australia. The Company currently holds two royalty projects in Australia (Koonenberry and Queensland Gold) and has three exploration projects in Queensland that are available for partnership. More information on these projects can be found on the EMX website (www.EMXroyalty.com). Comments on Sampling, Assaying, and Nearby Mines and Deposits. EMX's exploration samples were collected in accordance with industry standard best practices. EMX conducts routine QA/QC analysis on its exploration samples, including the utilization of certified reference materials, blanks, and duplicate samples. All samples were submitted to ALS Brisbane for sample preparation and analysis (ISO 9001:2000 and 17025:2005 accredited). The soil samples were analyzed using the AuME-TL-44 method which is a trace level gold and multi-element technique consisting of an aqua-regia digest and an ICP-MS finish. The rock chip samples were analyzed with a four-acid super trace technique (ME-MS61) with an ICP-MS finish. The rock chip samples were also analyzed with a lithium borate fusion prior to acid dissolution (three-acid) and an ICP-MS finish (ME-MS81). Over limit cobalt and manganese samples were analyzed by a HF-HN03-HCL04 digest, HCL leach and ICP-AES (OG62) finish. The nearby mines and deposits discussed in this news release provide context for EMX's properties, which occur in a similar geologic setting, but this is not necessarily indicative that the properties host similar mineralization. Dr. Eric P. Jensen, CPG, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and employee of the Company, has reviewed, verified and approved the disclosure of the technical information contained in this news release. About EMX. EMX is a precious, base and battery metals royalty company. EMX's investors are provided with discovery, development, and commodity price optionality, while limiting exposure to risks inherent to operating companies. The Company's common shares are listed on the NYSE American Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol EMX, as well as on the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol "6E9." Please see www.EMXroyalty.com for more information. For further information contact: David M. Cole President and Chief Executive Officer Phone: (303) 973-8585 Dave@emxroyalty.com Scott Close Director of Investor Relations Phone: (303) 973-8585 SClose@emxroyalty.com Isabel Belger Investor Relations (Europe) Phone: +49 178 4909039 IBelger@EMXroyalty.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain "forward-looking statements" that reflect the Company's current expectations and projections about its future results. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding perceived merit of properties, exploration results and budgets, mineral reserves and resource estimates, work programs, capital expenditures, timelines, strategic plans, market prices for precious and base metal, or other statements that are not statements of fact. When used in this news release, words such as "estimate," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "will", "believe", "potential" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which, by their very nature, are not guarantees of the Company's future operational or financial performance, and are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors may include, but are not limited to: unavailability of financing, failure to identify commercially viable mineral reserves, fluctuations in the market valuation for commodities, difficulties in obtaining required approvals for the development of a mineral project, increased regulatory compliance costs, expectations of project funding by joint venture partners and other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release or as of the date otherwise specifically indicated herein. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified in this news release, and other risk factors and forward-looking statements listed in the Company's MD&A for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 and the year ended December 31, 2020 (the "MD&A"), and the most recently filed Revised Annual Information Form (the "AIF") for the year ended December 31, 2020, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. More information about the Company, including the MD&A, the AIF and financial statements of the Company, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the SEC's EDGAR website at www.sec.gov. Figure 1. Location map for the Yarrol and Mt Steadman projects. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1508/108814_emxfigure1.jpg The summary of historical production at Mt Rawdon is from the Evolution Mining website: https://evolutionmining.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Mt-Rawdon-fact-sheet-2020_LR.pdf (2020). The summary of historic production at Mt Morgan is cited from Mt. Morgan: A. Taube; The Mount Morgan gold-copper mine and environment, Queensland; a volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit associated with penecontemporaneous faulting. Economic Geology; 81 (6): 1322-1340. Figure 2. 2021 Soil Results from the Mt Steadman Project. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1508/108814_e9855e3924041a44_004full.jpg Figure 3. 2021 Soil Results from the Yarrol Project. To view an enhanced version of Figure 3 please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1508/108814_e9855e3924041a44_005full.jpg To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/108814 Soledad Project Highlights Include: Remaining 13 resource definition and exploration holes at Huancarama reported totalling 3,265m Two additional high-grade intervals of >50m lengths also reported 56.15 m @ 0.45 g/t Au, 115.1 g/t Ag, and 2.34% Cu (3.62% Cu-EQ) 54.90 m @ 0.63 g/t Au, 81.7 g/t Ag, and 2.41% Cu (3.52% Cu-EQ) Off-set IP surveys continue over high priority targets defined by gradient array and other data sets; numerous new targets have been defined Finalizing first-ever resource estimate on the Soledad Project 16 out of 110 current targets have been tested to date (15%) Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - Chakana Copper Corp. (TSXV: PERU) (OTCQB: CHKKF) (FSE: 1ZX) (the "Company" or "Chakana"), is pleased to provide results from thirteen additional resource definition and exploration holes drilled in Huancarama totaling 3,265m at the Soledad project, Ancash, Peru (see table below). The resource drilling is part of a fully funded exploration and resource drilling program completed in 2021 (Fig. 1). These results compliment previous results from Huancarama and will increase confidence in the initial resource estimate covering several breccia pipes, which is currently being finalized. "The multiple high-grade intercepts from Huancarama are a fitting conclusion to the 2020-2021 resource drilling program at Soledad. Since restarting the drill program in August of 2020, we have completed over 30,000m of drilling in 143 drill holes. The initial resource estimate on the shallower extent of several breccia pipes, a first for the project, is nearing completion and will help us better understand the upside potential of the broader Soledad project. Mineralized tourmaline breccia pipes occur within a 12 km2 area, within which we have defined 110 targets through systematic multidisciplinary exploration. Only 16 out of the 110 targets have been tested thus far. In addition, the current geophysical program has defined numerous new targets within the known productive structural corridors that host mineralized breccia pipes," stated President and CEO, David Kelley. Results Huancarama (Resource Definition) DDH # From - To (m) Core Length (m) Au g/t Ag g/t Cu % Cu-eq %* Au-eq g/t* SDH21-254 81.20 154.00 72.80 0.98 87.4 0.53 1.93 2.89 including 125.00 145.00 20.00 2.61 222.3 1.06 4.67 7.14 and 181.00 199.00 18.00 0.73 47.3 0.19 1.07 1.64 SDH21-257 71.00 82.00 11.00 0.34 64.8 0.18 0.96 1.46 and 90.00 103.00 13.00 0.26 65.5 0.22 0.95 1.45 and 124.00 166.00 42.00 0.31 34.9 0.77 1.27 1.94 SDH21-259 92.00 99.00 7.00 1.08 333.9 1.92 5.48 8.38 SDH21-263 155.00 196.00 41.00 0.52 32.0 0.51 1.12 1.72 SDH21-265 74.00 168.00 94.00 0.37 45.9 0.82 1.45 2.22 including 102.00 119.00 17.00 0.80 76.6 1.90 3.08 4.71 SDH21-266 54.00 161.85 107.85 0.46 62.7 0.72 1.56 2.38 and 169.00 173.00 4.00 1.39 281.0 7.38 10.69 16.35 SDH21-267 124.00 146.00 22.00 2.71 162.5 1.91 5.07 7.76 SDH21-268 59.00 61.00 2.00 0.64 611.4 12.35 18.00 27.53 and 64.00 65.00 1.00 0.27 189.0 11.50 13.29 20.33 and 72.00 172.00 100.00 0.36 39.9 0.63 1.21 1.85 SDH21-269 79.00 143.00 64.00 0.46 32.2 0.64 1.22 1.86 SDH21-271 168.30 219.00 50.70 0.63 118.8 3.46 4.89 7.48 including 168.30 189.00 20.70 1.12 181.8 6.64 8.93 13.65 SDH21-273 170.85 227.00 56.15 0.45 115.1 2.34 3.62 5.53 including 173.00 180.00 7.00 1.02 393.7 9.17 13.20 20.20 and 274.00 281.00 7.00 1.12 92.2 2.22 3.74 5.72 SDH21-275 43.00 47.10 4.10 0.67 91.2 0.17 1.39 2.12 and 167.10 222.00 54.90 0.63 81.7 2.41 3.52 5.38 including 167.10 177.00 9.90 1.62 230.4 5.93 8.96 13.70 and 277.00 285.00 8.00 0.40 31.4 1.03 1.56 2.39 * Cu_eq and Au_eq values were calculated using copper, gold, and silver. Metal prices utilized for the calculations are Cu - US$2.90/lb, Au - US$1,300/oz, and Ag - US$17/oz. No adjustments were made for recovery as the project is an early-stage exploration project and metallurgical data to allow for estimation of recoveries are not yet available. The formulas utilized to calculate equivalent values are Cu-eq (%) = Cu% + (Au g/t * 0.6556) + (Ag g/t * 0.00857) and Au-eq (g/t) = Au g/t + (Cu% * 1.5296) + (Ag g/t * 0.01307). Huancarama The Huancarama breccia pipe is in the central part of the project at an elevation of 3,950m and is one of several breccia pipes that will be included in Chakana's initial resource estimate (Fig. 1). This breccia pipe is part of a breccia complex with six outcropping breccias over a lateral distance of 200m east-west. Two of the breccias, separated by 50m at surface, coalesce at depth, forming a larger breccia pipe approximately 100m x 60m in plan. Breccia has been intercepted to a depth of 492m below surface and remains open. Drill holes described in this release were drilled from three different platforms and were designed to confirm the geometry and continuity of mineralization within the breccia pipe (Figs. 2 and 3). All resource definition holes intersected significant mineralization (see Figure 4 for select core photos of the mineralization). In addition to the high copper, gold and silver grades reported in these drill holes, three of the holes also intersected very strong molybdenum mineralization at depts of around 350m below surface (Fig. 3). For example, SDH21-271 intersected 36m of 0.26% molybdenum from 337m; SDH21-273 intersected 13.7m of 0.29% molybdenum from 354m; and SDH21-275 intersected 21.25m of 0.20% molybdenum from 350m. The significance of this mineralization in relation to surrounding intrusive rocks is being investigated. One exploration hole (SDH21-274) was drilled to the northeast of the main Huancarama breccia complex testing a possible feeder structure to the breccia complex. This hole intersected strongly altered andesitic lithic tuff along structures, but no significant mineralization was encountered. 2021 Resource and Exploration Drill Program A total of 23,947m of drilling has been completed in 2021. The objectives of this drill program are to complete resource definition drilling on several breccia pipes and test several new exploration targets. Breccia pipes that will be included in the initial resource estimate are: Bx1, Bx 5, Bx6, Paloma East, Paloma West, and Huancarama (Fig. 1); a seventh pipe, Bx 7, may also be included pending a final evaluation of the results to date. During 2021 our drilling was focused on the north half of the project where drill permits are in place. Permitting for the south half of the project is well advanced. The southern half of the property hosts several outcropping mineralized tourmaline breccia pipes and has been recently covered by the Company's ongoing geophysical program. Numerous targets exist, none of which have been drilled previously. Geophysical Surveys Gradient-array induced-polarization (IP) surveys have been completed over the entire 12km2 footprint of the Soledad mineral system. Off-set IP surveys are now in-progress covering high priority target areas. This work complements the extensive exploration database that supports our current inventory of 110 exploration targets. This new information identifies both new targets and prioritizes existing targets that will be tested when the exploration drilling programs resume. About Chakana Copper Chakana Copper Corp is a Canadian-based minerals exploration company that is currently advancing the Soledad Project located in the Ancash region of Peru, a highly favorable mining jurisdiction with supportive communities. The Soledad Project is notable for the high-grade copper-gold-silver mineralization that is hosted in tourmaline breccia pipes. A total of 60,854 metres in 260 diamond core holes for exploration and resource definition drilling have been completed since 2017, testing 16 of 110 total exploration targets, confirming that Soledad is a large, well-endowed mineral system with strong exploration upside. Chakana's investors are uniquely positioned as the Soledad Project provides exposure to base and precious metals. For more information on the Soledad project, please visit the website at www.chakanacopper.com. Sampling and Analytical Procedures Chakana follows rigorous sampling and analytical protocols that meet or exceed industry standards. Core samples are stored in a secured area until transport in batches to the ALS facility in Callao, Lima, Peru. Sample batches include certified reference materials, blank, and duplicate samples that are then processed under the control of ALS. All samples are analyzed using the ME-MS41 (ICP technique that provides a comprehensive multi-element overview of the rock geochemistry), while gold is analyzed by AA24 and GRA22 when values exceed 10 g/t by AA24. Over limit silver, copper, lead and zinc are analyzed using the OG-46 procedure. Soil samples are analyzed by 4-acid (ME-MS61) and for gold by Fire Assay on a 30g sample (Au-ICP21). Results of previous drilling and additional information concerning the Project, including a technical report prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, are made available on Chakana's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Qualified Person David Kelley, an officer, and a director of Chakana, and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD (signed) "David Kelley" David Kelley President and CEO For further information contact: Joanne Jobin, Investor Relations Officer Phone: 647 964 0292 Email: jjobin@chakanacopper.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statement Advisory: This release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of Chakana to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements or information relates to, among other things, the interpretation of the nature of the mineralization at the Soledad copper-gold-silver project (the "Project"), the potential to expand the mineralization, and to develop and grow a resource within the Project, the planning for further exploration work, the ability to de-risk the potential exploration targets, and our belief in the potential for mineralization within unexplored parts of the Project. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs but given the uncertainties, assumptions and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward- looking statements or information. The Company disclaims any obligation to update, or to publicly announce, any such statements, events or developments except as required by law. Figure 1 - View looking north showing outcropping breccia pipes and occurrences within the northern Soledad cluster. Pipes that will be included in the initial resource are shown in green (Bx 1, Bx 5, Bx 6, Paloma East, Paloma West, and Huancarama). Breccia pipes shown in yellow have had exploration drilling completed. Other pipes/occurrences and targets defined by other exploration data remain to be tested by drilling. Additional breccia pipes occur on the south half of the property and are not shown here. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2172/108990_f40b2b7754f0fac3_001full.jpg Figure 2 - Map showing drill holes reported in this release and modeled breccia pipes at Huancarama (light red shape) based on all drill holes. Light gray contours are at 10m intervals. Blue rectangle in the inset map shows the area of Figure 2 within the overall Soledad property. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2172/108990_f40b2b7754f0fac3_002full.jpg Figure 3 - 3D sectional view of Huancarama looking west-northwest. Light red 3D shape shows breccia pipe geometry based on all drill holes. High molybdenum zone intersected in holes SDH21-271, SDH21-273, and SDH21-275 highlighted. To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2172/108990_f40b2b7754f0fac3_003full.jpg Figure 4 - Select core photos from Huancarama reported in this release: SDH21-257 (125.0m) tourmaline breccia with chalcopyrite-pyrite replacing clasts; SDH21-259 (96.9m) chalcopyrite-pyrite filling open cavity in breccia; SDH21-269 (105.2m) tourmaline breccia with chalcopyrite-pyrite replacing clasts; SDH21-271 (170.85m) chalcopyrite-cemented tourmaline breccia; SDH21-271 (184.85m) chalcopyrite-cemented tourmaline breccia; SDH21-273 (173.0m) chalcopyrite-cemented tourmaline breccia; SDH21-275 (183.3m) massive chalcopyrite-pyrite filling void in breccia with siderite. Core diameter is 6.35cm (HQ) in all instances. To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2172/108990_f40b2b7754f0fac3_004full.jpg To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/108990 BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - In an unprecedented move, five powerful nuclear-weapon nations have pledged not to fight a nuclear war, and agreed that a further spread of nuclear arms should be avoided. In a joint statement issued on Monday, leaders of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States have affirmed that they consider the avoidance of war between Nuclear-Weapon States and the reduction of strategic risks as their foremost responsibilities. 'We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weapons-for as long as they continue to exist-should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war. We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented,' the statement reads. The five countries, which are also permanent members of the UN Security Council, said they remain committed to their Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations, including the Article VI obligation 'to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.' 'We each intend to maintain and further strengthen our national measures to prevent unauthorized or unintended use of nuclear weapons. We reiterate the validity of our previous statements on de-targeting, reaffirming that none of our nuclear weapons are targeted at each other or at any other State.' The five countries, also known as the P5, underlined their desire to work with all states to create a security environment more conducive to progress on disarmament. The joint statement by parties involved in political, economic and defense rivalry amid rising East-West tensions declares that their ultimate goal is a world without nuclear weapons with undiminished security for all. 'We are resolved to pursue constructive dialogue with mutual respect and acknowledgment of each other's security interests and concerns,' says the statement published by both the White House and the Kremlin. Chinese vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said, 'The five countries should take the joint statement as a new starting point to enhance mutual trust, strengthen coordination, and play a positive role in building a world with lasting peace and common security.' Russia's TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that the statement 'was negotiated through diplomatic channels' and 'comprehensively reflects the positions of the parties and the leaders.' Beginning Tuesday, New York is hosting a U.N. conference to review the implementation of the NPT. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - Blackrock Silver Corp. (TSXV: BRC) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the maiden drill campaign on its 100 percent owned Tonopah North project located adjacent to and north of its Tonopah West project. The Tonopah North project covers 20 square kilometres along the prolific Walker Lane trend of Western Nevada. The fully permitted and funded inaugural drill program will consist of 9,000 metres in twelve reverse circulation (RC) drillholes. The program will test two silver-gold concepts associated with the mapped margin of the Tonopah Caldera and the projection of major northwest structures, and the lithium potential within the middle and lower portions of the Siebert Formation. HIGHLIGHTS: A total of 9,000 metres of drilling planned in twelve RC drillholes; Multiple high-priority silver-gold targets identified, including the extension of the Pittsburg-Monarch Fault System, one of the most significant structures of the Tonopah silver district; District-scale potential; and Lithium potential identified. Andrew Pollard, the Company's President and CEO, stated, "2022 is poised to be a pivotal year for the Company, as we focus on the simultaneous expansion and de-risking of our Tonopah West project (maiden resource expected during Q1) while we continue our search for new discoveries in the shadows of where historic miners left off nearly a century ago. With over 110,000 metres of drilling under our belt on the Tonopah silver district, which has sharpened our understanding of the key structural controls that shape this prolific silver-gold system and benefitting from technology that wasn't available to the old-timers, we've delineated multiple new targets with district-scale potential and are excited to finally test them with the drill-bit." Tonopah North Targets Extension of the Pittsburg-Monarch Fault System Two drill sites (Sites A and B) have been permitted to test the extension of the Pittsburgh-Monarch fault system to the northwest. The two sites are located along the structural trend and correspond to an area showing a disruption in the gravity where the structures cut the proposed location of the Tonopah caldera margin. In the main Tonopah district, the thickest and highest-grade silver is associated with the intersection of the east-west oriented veins and the Pittsburgh-Monarch fault system. At this intersection, the Victor vein had a width of 24 metres (80 feet) and the Ohio vein was 14 metres thick (50 feet). The goal of the drillholes on this target is to intersect the fault within favorable volcanic lithologies and intersection similar mineralization to the Victor and Ohio veins. Sites G, H and I will test a second north-northwest structural zone imaged in the gravity and magnetic geophysical data sets. The drillholes test the interpreted structural zone inside and outside of the postulated caldera margin. A total of five drill sites totalling 3,300 metres is planned to test these structural targets. East-West Structural Zone Based on magnetic data, structural lineaments and mapping, a large swath of east-west oriented structures are located on the north edge of the Tonopah caldera. The surface lithologies are comprised of outcrops Siebert Formation along the outer margin of the proposed Tonopah caldera. The geologic and structural setting look very similar to the Tonopah district which is located on the southern margin of the Tonopah caldera. The potential to identify a new district-scale target exists within the area. This large area would have been ignored by early prospectors because the volcanic lithologies exposed are post mineral in the main Tonopah district. A total of three drillholes (Sites J, K and L) are planned totalling 2,300 metres. Lithium Potential To help confirm the margin of the Tonopah caldera, four drillholes are planned along an east-west fence; however, the Siebert Formation is exposed at the surface, and American Lithium Corp's, TLC, lithium deposit is located approximately 3 kilometres to the northwest of Blackrock's claim position within the Siebert Formation. The lithium is hosted within the middle and lower members of the Siebert formation. Four drillholes (Sites C, D, E and F) will serve a dual purpose of identifying the margin of the Tonopah caldera as well as testing the Siebert Formation for lithium concentrations. A total of 3,400 metres is planned in four drillholes. Figure 1: Tonopah North Project - Proposed Drillhole Location Map To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/676/108970_a0e6002db4480b43_002full.jpg Table 1: Tonopah North Project - Proposed Drillhole Location Information Site ID UTM_NAD27_E UTM_NAD27_N A 476333 4216405 B 475735 4216805 C 475735 4217610 D 476145 4217605 E 476530 4217610 F 476945 4217605 G 477340 4217605 H 477730 4217605 I 477350 4218400 J 478920 4218855 K 478730 4219200 L 478545 4219535 Blackrock's exploration activities at the Tonopah North Project are being conducted and supervised by Mr. William Howald, Executive Chairman of Blackrock Silver Corp. Mr. William Howald, AIPG Certified Professional Geologist #11041, is a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101. He has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release. About Blackrock Silver Corp. Blackrock is a junior precious metals focused exploration company that is on a quest to make an economic discovery. Anchored by a seasoned Board, the Company is focused on its Nevada portfolio of properties consisting of low-sulphidation epithermal gold & silver projects located along the established Northern Nevada Rift in north-central Nevada and the Walker Lane trend in western Nevada. With over 110,00 metres of drilling completed at our flagship Tonopah West silver-gold project, the company plans to deliver a maiden resource estimate in Q1, 2022. For further information, please contact: Andrew Pollard, President & CEO Blackrock Silver Corp. Phone: 604 817-6044 Email: andrew@blackrocksilver.com Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements concern the Company's strategic plans, timing and expectations for the Company's exploration and drilling programs, estimates of mineralization from drilling, geological information projected from sampling results and the potential quantities and grades of the target zones. Such forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions, which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: conditions in general economic and financial markets; accuracy of assay results; geological interpretations from drilling results, timing and amount of capital expenditures; performance of available laboratory and other related services; future operating costs; and the historical basis for current estimates of potential quantities and grades of target zones. The actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of the risk factors including the timing and content of work programs; results of exploration activities and development of mineral properties; the interpretation and uncertainties of drilling results and other geological data; receipt, maintenance and security of permits and mineral property titles; environmental and other regulatory risks; project costs overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses; availability of funds; failure to delineate potential quantities and grades of the target zones based on historical data, and general market and industry conditions. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements included in this news release if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as otherwise 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) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/108970 Julius Meinl Living PLC, through its group companies, acquires prime real estate assets for development into serviced residences that the group will then operate itself ("Julius Meinl Living"). 2021 has continued to offer a challenging environment for the hospitality industry. While Covid related travel restrictions were softened throughout the year, frequent changes in regulations and the possibility of new lockdown measures in the last quarter of the year have left their mark on the demand for travel services. Against this backdrop, Julius Meinl Living has moved forward to define its market place and to roll out a product that is perfectly suitable to the current state of the hospitality sector. A brand full of tradition with a contemporary look and feel Following a careful review and consumer testing, Julius Meinl Living recently revealed its brand strategy. The flagship properties will be known as "The Julius"; an obvious choice of sorts, but still one that was taken only after evaluating consumer expectations, associations and embedding it into a comprehensive plan for the development of the brand. "The Julius" draws on the Julius Meinl family's 160-years of activity as consumer goods and retail pioneers and creators of the Viennese food emporium Julius Meinl am Graben. "The Julius" draws on the legacy of service, quality and innovation arising from this activity and marks the family's first entry into the world of travel and hospitality. "The Julius" balances luxury and modern design with warmth, comfort and convenience. Evoking the timeless standard and spirit of European hospitality through a modern mindset, "The Julius" offers a place to relax, explore, work, and treat as a home in the city. Representing design-led, next generation hospitality, "The Julius" offers both short and long-term stays in generously sized residences. Recognising the importance of flexibility for the modern traveller, "The Julius" provides tech-enabled services, self-check-in and contactless room entry, as well as on-site shops and restaurants, stocked with premium House of Julius Meinl products. Spacious communal areas, relaxing lounges and professional co-working spaces enable guests to network, meet like-minded people or simply unplug. Whether staying for one night, one month or more, guests will experience the freedom of apartment living, with hassle-free access, easy-to-use technology and flexible amenities. Each booking is tailored to the needs and preferences of the guest, providing options such as an individual address for deliveries and detailed guides to help navigate the city as a local. In each city where "The Julius" opens, it will retain these same essential elements, whilst still reflecting in its design the tone, history and feel of each city. Opening Prague - Opening the World Julius Meinl Living's first flagship property is located at Senovazne Namesti 3 in the heart Prague. The property is known as "The Julius Prague" and occupies a reimagined art deco building designed by leading Italian architects Matteo Thun & Partners. A central light-filled conservatory sits at the heart of the building and guides guests to 168 individual residences, complete with living room and separate bedroom space, and many featuring an open-plan kitchen. Residences, communal areas and restaurants offer soft furnishing and an autumnal colour palette, inspired by the works of the celebrated Czech artist Alphonse Mucha. World-class amenities are combined with elegant yet homely features such as oak wood floors, soft linen sheets and contemporary bathrooms. The Julius Prague is commencing operation by means of a soft opening, with a "grand opening" scheduled for spring 2022. Further information on The Julius Prague is available at www.the Julius.eu, where bookings are now being taken. Strong Start in Budapest The acquisition Julius Meinl Living's property in Budapest completed in August 2021. Since then, the property has benefitted from a recovery in demand, linked to the lifting of local lockdown restrictions, but also from Julius Meinl Living's active marketing and fine-tuned pricing strategy. The property is now trading up to 2019 levels on a consistently profitable basis. The property is currently branded as the "Escala Hotel & Suites". Occupying a lower price point and having a less central location than "The Julius" properties, the Escala will not be rebranded as "The Julius". Instead, Julius Meinl Living has initiated the evaluation of alternative brand names and a mid-market concept that will enable the property to be presented alongside "The Julius" as part of a multi-brand strategy. In parallel, Julius Meinl Living is currently finalising a refurbishment of the property to be carried out in three phases: technical systems, public areas then the property's 50 apartments. Works will be carried out during the course of 2022, with the property expected to remain open throughout. Termination of Belgrade Project Through its Serbian subsidiary, Julius Meinl Living had contracted to acquire a property suitable for "The Julius" in Belgrade by means of a forward purchase agreement. The property was part of a large scale, multifunctional urban development next to the Belgrade castle known as K-District. Covid-related delays in the construction of the property gave rise to a disagreement with the developer of the property, Kalemagdan Development, on the way to achieve a timely and cost-effective completion of the property. Julius Meinl Living performed a review and came to the conclusion that a protracted legal dispute and a further delay of the project would not be the right way to deploy its resources. A decision was taken to withdraw from the project and in response to this situation Julius Meinl Living has agreed to the mutual termination of its contract with Kalemagdan Development. Julius Meinl Living made no material payments to Kalemagdan Development through the life of its contract with the company and is neither making nor receiving any payments as a result of the mutual termination of this contract. As a consequence of the termination of this contract, Julius Meinl Living will in its 2021 accounts write-off the modest fair value gain of 2.4 million recorded in relation to the Belgrade property in its 2020 accounts. It is expected, however, that in the 2021 accounts, substantial fair value gains on the Prague and Budapest properties will more than offset this loss and that an overall net fair value gain will again be recorded. Building on 2021's achievements Julius Meinl Living continues to work to identify additional flagship properties that can be acquired for eventual operation under The Julius brand. In parallel, and in order to build on the success of the acquisition of Budapest's Escala Hotel & Suites, Julius Meinl Living is seeking also further opportunistic acquisitions of serviced residence properties. Such properties will likely eventually use the same name as the current Escala Hotel & Suites, once it has been rebranded. A number of both flagship and opportunistic acquisitions in major cities across central and Eastern Europe are under consideration, as well as in Western Europe. Julius Meinl Living's outlook remains focused on expansion and growth and the termination of the contract for the Belgrade property does not alter Julius Meinl Living's strategy and objectives. 2021 has been a defining year for Julius Meinl Living in terms of gearing up operations, establishing its brand in the market, and fulfilling the expectations of investors and customers. ------------------------ This publication embed "Actusnews SECURITY MASTER ". - SECURITY MASTER Key: xZ1wYZycZGrHmWqaaZ5rZ2eZbWiWk2mZaGecxZWZl8eWbZpgx2uWbpXKZnBjmmlr - Check this key: https://www.security-master-key.com. ------------------------ Copyright Actusnews Wire Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-72545-jmlfls-press-release-040122.pdf An Extraordinary General Meeting of Prosafe SE will be held at the offices of Advokatfirmaet Schjdt, Ruselkkveien 14, 0201 Oslo, Norway on 25 January 2022 at 09.00 a.m. CET. Due to the extraordinary situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and in light of travel and meeting recommendations and restrictions currently in place, Prosafe urges shareholders to vote electronically in advance or submit proxy forms, and not attend the meeting in person. The notice of the Extraordinary General Meeting and appendices is attached and will be distributed to Prosafe's registered shareholders and can be downloaded from www.newsweb.no (http://www.newsweb.no) or www.prosafe.com (http://www.prosafe.com) with direct link https://www.prosafe.com/investor-information/corporate-governance/general-meetings/ www.prosafe.com Prosafe is a leading owner and operator of semi-submersible accommodation vessels. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange with ticker code PRS. For more information, please refer to(http://www.prosafe.com)Stavanger, 4 January 2022Prosafe SEFor further information, please contact:Jesper K. Andresen, CEOPhone: +47 51 65 24 30 / +47 907 65 155Stig Harry Christiansen, Deputy CEO and CFOPhone: +47 51 64 25 17 / +47 478 07 813This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act Attachments Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - BELGRAVIA HARTFORD CAPITAL INC. (CSE: BLGV) ("Belgravia Hartford", "Belgravia" or the "Company") is pleased to announce during the month ended December 31, 2021, Belgravia Hartford purchased through its normal course issuer bid ("NCIB") for cancellation, a total of 323,000 common shares ("Common Shares") at an average price of $0.15 per share. As of December 31, 2021, the Company has purchased for cancellation a total of 1,864,524 Common Shares representing approximately 92.81% of a maximum number of Common Shares that may be acquired pursuant to the NCIB. Accordingly, our issued and outstanding Common Shares after cancellation is 47,224,724. The NCIB will terminate on the earlier of (i) February 23, 2022, and (ii) the date on which the Company has purchased for cancellation the maximum of 2,008,963 Common Shares pursuant to the NCIB. About Belgravia Hartford Belgravia Hartford Capital Inc. ("Belgravia" or the "Company") is a publicly traded investment holding company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange. Belgravia is focused on growing its assets and holdings and increasing its net asset value (NAV). Belgravia invests in a portfolio of private and public companies located in jurisdictions governed by the rule of law. It takes a multi-sector investment approach with emphasis in the resources and commodities sector. Belgravia and its investments are considered high risk holdings and it may expose shareholders to significant volatility and losses. For more information, please visit www.belgraviahartford.com Forward-Looking Statements Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and 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. Forward-looking statements include statements that use forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "potential" or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding planned investment activities & related returns, the timing for completion of research and development activities, the potential value of royalties, and other statements that are not historical facts. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company, including, but not limited to, changes in market trends, the completion, results and timing of research undertaken by the Company, risks associated with resource assets, the impact of general economic conditions, commodity prices, industry conditions, dependence upon regulatory, environmental, and governmental approvals, and the uncertainty of obtaining additional financing. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. For More Information, Please Contact: Mehdi Azodi, President & CEO Belgravia Hartford Capital Inc. (250) 763-5533 mazodi@blgv.ca To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/108944 CBRE Investment Management, a subsidiary of CBRE Group, and Hillwood Investment Properties today announced a definitive agreement whereby entities affiliated with CBRE Investment Management will acquire a more than 57-asset, 28.4-million square-foot portfolio of state-of-the-art logistics properties in the United States and Europe valued at approximately $4.9 billion from Hillwood. The portfolio includes 33 U.S. assets, totaling 19.2 million square feet, and 24 assets across Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom, totaling 9.2 million square feet. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and CBRE Investment Management expects to close on the assets in stages through its investment products in the U.S. and Europe. "This milestone transaction reflects our ability to leverage the strong financial capacity of our parent company to secure compelling opportunities that help to drive strategic real assets solutions for our clients," said Chuck Leitner, CEO of CBRE Investment Management. "Backed by a $35 billion AUM global logistics platform and a skilled team with deep domain expertise, we are positioned to be one of the world's leading investors and operators of logistics assets." CBRE Investment Management formed a global sector-specific team in June 2021 to enhance and better align its global logistics expertise. About CBRE Investment Management CBRE Investment Management is a leading global real assets investment management firm with $133.1 billion in assets under management* as of September 30, 2021, operating in more than 30 offices and 20 countries around the world. Through its investor-operator culture, the firm seeks to deliver sustainable investment solutions across real assets categories, geographies, risk profiles and execution formats so that its clients, people and communities thrive. CBRE Investment Management is an independently operated affiliate of CBRE Group, the world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2020 revenue). CBRE has more than 100,000 employees serving clients in more than 100 countries. CBRE Investment Management harnesses CBRE's data and market insights, investment sourcing and other resources for the benefit of its clients. For more information, please visit www.cbreim.com. *Assets under management (AUM) refers to the assets under management, fair market value of real assets-related investments with respect to which CBRE Investment Management provides, on a global basis, oversight, investment management services and other advice and which generally consist of investments in real assets; equity in funds and joint ventures; securities portfolios; operating companies and real assets-related loans. This AUM is intended principally to reflect the extent of CBRE Investment Management's presence in the global real assets market, and its calculation of AUM may differ from the calculations of other asset managers and from its calculation of regulatory assets under management for purposes of certain regulatory filings. Forward-Looking Statements Certain of the statements in this release regarding the acquisition of the U.S. and European logistics portfolio from Hillwood Investment Properties that do not concern purely historical data are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are made based on our management's expectations and beliefs concerning future events affecting us and are subject to uncertainties and factors relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. Accordingly, actual performance, results and events may vary materially from those indicated in forward-looking statements, and you should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future performance, results or events. Numerous factors could cause actual future performance, results and events to differ materially from those indicated in forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the ability to close on the acquisition of the assets and realize the expected investment returns as well as other risks and uncertainties discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws. If we do update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that we will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. For additional information concerning factors that may cause actual results to differ from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements and other risks and uncertainties to our business in general, please refer to our SEC filings, including our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021. Such filings are available publicly and may be obtained from our website at www.cbre.com or upon request from the CBRE Investor Relations Department at investorrelations@cbre.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220104005260/en/ Contacts: Pam Barnett CBRE Investment Management +1 213 683 4368 pam.barnett@cbreim.com RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA and WOODINVILLE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2022 / King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and CarbonMeta Technologies Inc. (OTC PINK:COWI, "CarbonMeta") have announced today the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a joint cooperation on processing plastic waste into hydrogen gas high-value solid carbon materials using microwave catalysis. KACST and CarbonMeta will work together on advancing the microwave catalysis processes that was developed by University of Oxford, as well as developing hydrogen and carbon extraction processes that are needed for industrial applications. "This collaboration will help advance a solution for eliminating plastic waste; instead of polluting our land and oceans, waste plastics could produce clean hydrogen fuel and value-added carbon products," said Dr. Hassan Alayied, Director General of International Cooperation and Partnerships. "Through this agreement, KACST will contribute in providing the necessary technical personnel and specialized laboratories to achieve this goal." KACST and CarbonMeta will be working together to accelerate the commercialization of the waste plastic catalysis processes and the material separation processes for manufacturing hydrogen, graphite and carbon nanotube products. "Collaborating with KACST will step up our efforts to commercialize the patented technologies that were exclusively licensed from Oxford University Innovation." said Lloyd Spencer, chairman and CEO of CarbonMeta. "We look forward to working closely with KACST in Saudi Arabia and University of Oxford in the United Kingdom to manufacture and market hydrogen, graphite and carbon nanotube products." About King Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), formerly known as the Saudi Arabian National Centre for Science and Technology (SANCST), was established in 1977. It is an autonomous government organization that leads Research and Development, provides Technological support by collaborating with public and private entities, and support innovation and foster scientific research to promote the industrial development in the Kingdom. KACST is also responsible for the promotion of science and technology, and the coordination of scientific endeavor among the various institutions within Saudi Arabia. For more information about KACST, please visit https://www.kacst.edu.sa/ About CarbonMeta Technologies Inc. CarbonMeta Technologies (OTC PINK:COWI), headquartered in Woodinville, Wash., is transitioning into a resource reclamation company that will process organic wastes and generate economically sustainable hydrogen and high-value carbon products. For more information about CarbonMeta Technologies, please visit www.CarbonMetaTech.com. About CarbonMeta Research Ltd. CarbonMeta Research Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CarbonMeta Technologies that is based in the United Kingdom, and whose focus will be on the development of technologies and solutions for processing organic wastes and generating economically sustainable hydrogen and high-value carbon products such as carbon nanotubes. For more information about CarbonMeta Research, please visit www.CarbonMetaResearch.co.uk. Forward-Looking Statement This press release may contain 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, as amended. The ability of the Company to complete and file its Fiscal Year 2016 annual report on Form 10K relies on third parties to complete their activities. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which include among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with smaller reporting companies, including without limitation, other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. CONTACT INFORMATION Mark Duiker CarbonMeta Technologies Investor Relations (844) 641-2676, option 3 Investor@CarbonMetaTech.com SOURCE: CoroWare, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/680826/KACST-And-CarbonMeta-Technologies-COWI-Sign-MoU-To-Cooperate-on-Processing-Plastic-Waste-into-Hydrogen-and-Carbon-Products The North Korean defector who is presumed to have crossed the tense inter-Korean border to return home last week had received due resettlement support from the South Korean government, Seoul's unification ministry said Tuesday, amid reports he suffered economic difficulties after his defection. The man crossed the heavily fortified eastern border into the North over the weekend, about a year after he reached the South, also using an eastern front-line route in November 2020, according to the military. Following media reports he could have opted to return home due to economic difficulties, a unification ministry official said the government provided due support granted for North Korean defectors settling in the South. The presumed border crosser, in his 30s, is known to have worked as a cleaner here. "The defector had received overall support for safety, housing, medical care, employment and living in accordance with the North Korean Refugees Protection and Settlement Support Act," the official told reporters on background. According to government data, at least 30 North Koreans went back to their communist homeland from South Korea in the past decade. "Such returns stem from various and complex reasons, including yearning for family, and psychological and economic difficulties," the official said. "The government has been continuing efforts to improve our support programs to help them better resettle in the South." As of 2020, 33,752 North Korean defectors were living in South Korea. (Yonhap) EDGEMERE, MD / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2022 / BV Financial, Inc. (the "Company") (OTC PINK:BVFL), announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, BayVanguard Bank, a Maryland-chartered stock savings bank, acquired North Arundel Bank, a Maryland-chartered mutual savings bank located in Pasadena, Maryland. In connection with the merger, the Company issued 251,004 shares of its common stock to Bay-Vanguard, M.H.C., Inc., its parent mutual holding company. Based on September 30, 2021 financial information, on a combined basis, BayVanguard Bank has approximately $835 million in assets, $713 million in deposits and $107 million in stockholders' equity and operate from seventeen banking offices located in the Baltimore metropolitan area and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. David M. Flair, co-President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, stated "We look forward to working with the North Arundel team in delivering to all of our customers and shareholders the benefits that we expect from this transaction." Timothy L. Prindle, Co-President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, continued "We are excited to complete our acquisition of North Arundel Savings Bank and welcome their customers and employees to BayVanguard Bank." The conversion and consolidation of data processing platforms, systems and customer files is expected to occur on or about March 5, 2022. Upon the closing of the transaction, Machteld V. Thomas, the former President of North Arundel Savings Bank, was added to the Boards of Directors of each of Bay-Vanguard, M.H.C., Inc., BV Financial, Inc. and BayVanguard Bank. About BV Financial, Inc. and BayVanguard Bank BV Financial, Inc. (OTC Pink: BVFL) is the parent company of BayVanguard Bank. BayVanguard Bank is headquartered in Edgemere, Maryland with sixteen other branches in the Baltimore metropolitan area and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The Bank is a full-service community-oriented financial institution dedicated to serving the financial service needs of consumers and businesses within its market area. For additional information, visit its website at www.bayvanguard.com. CONTACT: David M. Flair Timothy L. Prindle Co-President and Chief Executive Officer Co-President and Chief Executive Officer (410) 477-5000 SOURCE: BV Financial, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/680861/BayVanguard-Bank-Acquires-North-Arundel-Savings-Bank Institutional Investment Professional Arno Van Grondelle Named CEO of RELPI Europe The Real Estate Limited Partner Institute (RELPI) today announced the expansion of its compelling Interests Aligned programs to Europe and the United Kingdom with the appointment of institutional real estate investment and media professional Arno Van Grondelle as CEO of RELPI Europe. RELPI's intimate, focused and curated local meet-ups foster open conversation and deep relationships among leading stakeholders in the investment and allocation of capital in real estate. The series was formally launched in 2021 with events in Austin, New York and Philadelphia, and was met with an overwhelming interest and attendance. In addition to the expansion into Europe and the United Kingdom, RELPI has announced events in Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York so far in 2022. "Our success and expansion reflect the pent-up demand for in-person gatherings and virtual meetings of informed, high-level executives to share insights, ideas and transparent conversations devoted to best practices in institutional real estate asset allocation and investment," said RELPI's CEO and Executive Director Jonathan Schein. "In less than six months, the RELPI community has grown to include more than 125 pension funds, endowments foundations and family offices, as well as more than 50 fund managers." The addition of Arno Van Grondelle as CEO of RELPI Europe will accelerate this expansion. Mr. Van Grondelle brings extensive knowledge and leadership experience from his many years working in the institutional real estate investment and media industries. Most recently he served as Managing Director of Europe at Institutional Real Estate Inc., responsible for client relations, business development and sales for Institutional Real Estate Europe magazine. He previously served as International Sales Director at PropertyEU, where he was responsible for the sales of PropertyEU's comprehensive media portfolio, including PropertyEU magazine and EXPO Real's Preview and Daily News. "Arno's wealth of knowledge, experience and relationships in the European investor and LP arena will solidify RELPI's fast mover status in the industry," said Mr. Schein "His professionalism and market acumen will make a great addition to our growing platform designed to connect key players for the mutual benefit of the dynamic private equity real estate investment and capital industries." "I am very excited to join RELPI and further build this community in Europe," said Mr. Van Grondelle. "We are dedicated to bringing together real estate institutional investors, fund managers, operating companies and those organizations allied to the industry on a local, regional and global scale." The Interests Aligned series are designed to be streamlined and efficient (just three hours long) with a strong emphasis on social networking, offering RELPI's unique value proposition intimate, ultrahigh-value gatherings, in a streamlined, economically effective manner, with "proximity" in mind. For more information about the Interests Aligned series, to register or inquire about membership, please visit: www.RELPI.org About RELPI As an established producer of successful meetings, events and conferences devoted to the global institutional investment community for the commercial real estate class, with "proximity" as the prime value proposition, RELPI is perfectly positioned to deliver a best-of-both-worlds solution: intimate, ultrahigh-value gatherings in a streamlined, economically effective way. From "virtual salons" and global summits focused on investors in all major global markets, to emerging manager programs and even "private label," bespoke roundtables, RELPI is enabling tomorrow's business connectivity today. https://www.relpi.org View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220104005129/en/ Contacts: Jonathan A. Schein +1-917-854-2345 j.schein@relpi.org Arno Van Grondelle +31 6 248 59 666 a.vangrondelle@relpi.org NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2022 / Hennessey Digital, a leading marketing agency specializing in law firm digital marketing, has published its 2022 State of Law Firm Website Rankings, a new study providing technical analysis of the organic search results of 16,000 law firm websites. The report identifies the top factors and trends impacting law firms' page rank on Google for high-value keywords in the 200 largest US cities. Insights from this research are the latest from Hennessey Digital, whose award-winning law firm response time study was released last year. The tech-focused agency helps top law firms dominate their markets through organic search, PPC, and other digital marketing strategies. While data from the study does not suggest a straightforward relationship between page rank and one specific website characteristic, it reveals a combination of factors that affect search performance, including: the number of entities on the page how responsive the page is to mobile layout the number of inbound and outbound links a page has The research also confirms website attributes measured by Google's Core Web Vitals also impact ranking on search engine results pages. Other interesting findings include the discovery of technologies used on high-ranking sites, such as commonalities in the content management systems and web hosting providers used by many top law firm websites. Hennessey Digital's Founder & CEO Jason Hennessey believes conducting research like this is important in order to help firms and companies stay ahead of dynamics that impact their visibility and success online. "As digital marketing experts, we have the responsibility to be curious and always looking to learn and discover new information that makes our agency smarter and our clients better positioned for growth. We've invested heavily in technology, engineering and analytics so that we can make data-informed decisions, innovate, and provide our clients with confidence they have access to some of the best resources and strategists in the industry," Hennessey says. Vice President of Engineering Blin Kazazi notes how findings from this study resulted in developing enhanced processes for Hennessey Digital clients' websites, a maneuver aligned with the agency's culture of innovation and transparency. "This study confirmed our suspicions in some areas about SEO and ranking on the search engine results page, and revealed blind spots in others, such as the importance of JSON-LD schemas.This led to us building an in-house schema developer tool our clients will benefit from to help improve their ranking on the SERP," says Kazazi. "You might wonder why we're so transparent about things that may give us a competitive advantage. We believe that sharing what we know can empower and help make everyone successful, whether it's our clients, lawyers, web developers and other digital marketers." Complete results of the law firm website rankings study, including a list of the top 30 factors that influence how websites perform in search, are available on Hennessey Digital's website. About Hennessey Digital Founded in 2015 by internationally recognized SEO leader Jason Hennessey, Hennessey Digital has grown from a staff of two to more than 100 global employees. Specializing in technical SEO, content marketing, pay-per-click advertising (PPC), conversion rate optimization (CRO), and creative services, Hennessey Digital helps clients get more qualified leads and grow their businesses through a holistic marketing strategy. Hennessey Digital was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in America in 2019, 2020, and 2021 and was recognized as a 2021 Vet100 honoree for the fastest-growing veteran-owned companies in the U.S. Follow Hennessey Digital on Social Media: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Contact Liz Feezor, Director of Communications, Hennessey Digital press@hennessey.com SOURCE: Hennessey Digital View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/680764/Hennessey-Digital-Releases-2022-State-of-Law-Firm-Website-Rankings-New-Research-Identifies-Trends-Impacting-Search-Engine-Optimization-and-Organic-Search-Rankings-for-Law-Firm-Websites-on-Google SALISBURY, MD / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2022 / The Drug Delivery Company, LLC, a research and development company that specializes in breakthrough, innovative treatments for addiction and substance abuse disorders, announced that it was allowed its 4th patent for its drug delivery technology portfolio (USPTO # 11,197,819). This latest invention, "Extended Release Bio Absorbable Subcutaneous Medicinal Dosage Delivery Implant System", is pivotal to the company's long acting (6 month) bio absorbable naltrexone implant, which is targeting opioid use disorder. It is hoped that this implant will reduce the rising number of fentanyl and opioid overdose deaths. In addition to the Covid 19 pandemic, 2021 will remembered for another tragic milestone - a new record for the most overdose deaths. Data from the CDC demonstrated that there was a 28.5% increase in drug overdose (fentanyl) deaths to 100,306 deaths during the 12-month period which ended in April 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/20211117.htm The Drug Delivery Company (DDC), (Salisbury, MD), has developed a long-acting naltrexone implant that is implanted under the skin. Preliminary studies of this naltrexone implant have demonstrated that it can deliver adequate levels of naltrexone into the blood stream for up to 7-9 months. The higher doses of naltrexone released by the DDC implants were able to block "fentanyl-induced respiratory depression", as compared to placebo implants in pre-clinical trials. Respiratory depression is what causes people to stop breathing after taking or injecting fentanyl. The "steady-state" release of naltrexone from the implant, eliminates an addict's craving for opioids, increasing the likelihood that they will remain abstinent and in treatment. "The implant is inserted during a minor procedure and provides protection against relapse or overdose for up to 6 months at a time." said Dr. Jeffrey Benner. "We believe that it will save lives by preventing fentanyl overdoses." The implant is made from bio absorbable materials, that dissolve after the medication has been released. For that reason, it does not have to be removed. But, it can be easily exchanged for a new implant (every 6 months) for longer term treatments. It is made from well-tolerated, non-inflammatory materials (polymers). "Our early data is promising, but further studies are needed. We are applying to the FDA to request permission to begin trials in humans in 2022. We are very excited. This implant can reduce the number of unnecessary overdose deaths." said Dr. Steven Cohen. This project has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Addiction (NIDA), a subdivision of the National Institute of Health (NIH), as part of its Help End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative. There is an urgent need for treatment options that can delivery anti-addiction medications - without interruption - for longer periods of time. Francis Collins, MD, the outgoing director of the NIH, remarked that, "If we had a version of naltrexone that lasted for 6 months, that would be really, really powerful." https://www.webmd.com/special-reports/opioids-pain/20180314/opioid-collins With the current medical therapies, 50-66% of all opioid addicts drop out of treatment during the first year. Addiction experts consider the first year of abstinence to be an important milestone to reach when recovering from opioid addiction. If an addict can remain abstinent through one year, they are likely to make it. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sallysatel/2017/11/27/study-shows-two-addiction-medications-similar-but-drop-out-rates-high-three-possible-remedies/'sh=5e4e701d3884 One of the biggest barriers to treating opioid addiction or use disorder is medication compliance. Relapse, or a return to illicit opioid usage after opioid detoxification, occurs in up to 90% of patients, and is especially a problem for those being treated with medical assisted therapy. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5522736/ Traditionally, this approach involves replacing illicit opioids with safer legal opioids such as methadone or buprenorphine-naloxone (Suboxone). Daily usage is required to avoid going through opioid withdrawal. If discontinued, 50-90% of addicts will return to illicit opioid use. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5522736/ But Naltrexone is a different type of medical therapy. It is not an opioid. It is an opioid antagonist, and it is non-addictive. An opioid antagonist blocks an addict's cravings for opioids. For this reason, a patient must be completely detoxified (for about 7-10 days) before starting naltrexone. If they are not detoxified, they will experience a severe withdrawal reaction. VivitrolTM is an extended-release version of naltrexone that is injected intramuscularly every 4 weeks. Vivitrol can help patients remain abstinent for longer than patients receiving supportive therapy alone. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK481477/ - :~:text=During the 24-week treatment,CI, 0.28 to 0.65), Implantable extended-release naltrexone implants, with a lower dose of naltrexone, have been used in Australia and elsewhere for more than a decade. A 6-month Russian study eval found that 53% of those with naltrexone implant group remained abstinent, as compared to only 11% of the placebo group. Inflammation of the implant site was noted in some patients. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4014017/ The DDC implant was designed to release higher levels of naltrexone for a longer period and is made from well-tolerated polymers to minimize inflammation. Drug Delivery Company is a Biotechnology start-up company that has been working in sustained-release drug delivery since 2014. It was founded in 2014 by Jeffrey. D. Benner, MD and Steven M. Cohen, MD. Contact : For all inquires including investment opportunities, please contact: Steven M. Cohen, MD, scohen@rvaf.com, (727) 685-6632. Or visit our website: https://drugdeliverycompany.com/ Biographies: Jeffrey D. Benner, MD is a co-founder and CEO of the Drug Delivery Company. He is a practicing physician and retinal specialist ophthalmologist who has been practicing at the Retina Consultants of Delmarva in Salisbury, MD since 1993. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is an inventor who holds 10 patents. He can be reached at: jffbenner@gmail.com Steven M. Cohen, MD is a co-founder and President of the Drug Delivery Company. He is a practicing physician and a retinal specialist ophthalmologist who has been practicing at Retina Vitreous Associates of Florida in St. Petersburg, FL since 1994. He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School. He is an inventor who holds 8 patents. He can be reached at: scohen@rvaf.com SOURCE: The Drug Delivery Company View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/679386/The-Drug-Delivery-Company-Receives-4th-patent-for-Its-Bio-Absorbable-Drug-Delivery-System-Moving-it-Closer-to-Its-Goal-of-Helping-to-Slow-the-Opioid-Fentanyl-Overdose-Crisis Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - Lorne Park Capital Partners Inc. (TSXV: LPC) ("LPCP") is pleased to announce that its Board of Directors has approved the declaration of a cash dividend of $0.005 per common share, payable on January 31, 2022 to the shareholders of record as of January 18, 2022. The dividend payments qualify as eligible dividends for Canadian income tax purposes. The declaration, amount and payment of future cash dividends are subject to the Board of Directors' continuing determination that the payment of dividends is in the best interests of the Company, its shareholders and is in compliance with all laws and agreements of the Company applicable to the declaration and payment of cash dividends. The ability of the Company to pay future dividends will be reviewed on a quarterly basis taking into consideration actual and forecasted cash flows and the macroeconomic outlook at that point in time. About Lorne Park Capital Partners Inc. LPCP was created to bring together boutique investment management and wealth advisory firms in order to deliver robust, cost effective investment solutions to affluent investors, foundations, estates and trusts. LPCP's unique strategy creates better alignment between investment managers and wealth advisors while providing them with additional resources to accelerate their growth. For further information, please contact: Robert Sewell Chief Executive Officer Lorne Park Capital Partners Inc. investor.relations@lpcp.ca (905) 337-2227 Cautionary Notes Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains statements which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", "plan", and other similar expressions. Forward looking information in this news release includes, without limitation, LPCP's objectives, goals and future plans. Forward-looking information addresses possible future events, conditions and financial performance based upon management's current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. In particular, the forward-looking information contained in this news release reflects assumptions about the timing and results of the amalgamation and regulatory approvals. Management of LPCP considers the assumptions on which the forward-looking information contained herein are based to be reasonable. However, by its very nature, forward-looking information inherently involves known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such information. Such risks include, without limitation, changes in economic conditions, applicable laws or regulations. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. LPCP disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES, ANY FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF U.S. SECURITIES LAW. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/109006 NEW YORK and TORONTO and VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- INX Limited (INX ATS: INX), ("INX"), the owner of digital asset trading platforms, and Valdy Investments Ltd. ("Valdy") are pleased to announce that they have received conditional approval from the Neo Exchange Inc. (the "Neo Exchange") for the listing of the common shares of the resulting issuer on the Neo Exchange upon completion of the proposed reverse takeover of Valdy by INX (the "Transaction"). In connection with the Transaction, INX will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Valdy, and the resulting issuer will continue the business of INX. Upon completion of the Transaction, Valdy will change its name to "The INX Digital Company, Inc." (the "Resulting Issuer"). Subject to satisfaction of the closing conditions set out in the Amended and Restated Securities Exchange Agreement between, among others, INX and Valdy, dated November 3, 2021, the Transaction is expected to be completed on or about January 10, 2022. "We are proud that the Neo Exchange has conditionally approved our listing on the Neo Exchange," said Shy Datika, CEO and Founder of INX. "We have built a number of businesses to address the growing global importance of digital assets. A public listing on the Neo Exchange will introduce us to a wider audience. We are very excited to participate in and help lead the digital revolution." James Decker, CEO and Director of Valdy, said "On behalf of the board of directors of Valdy and the shareholders of Valdy, we would like to thank the INX team for their tireless efforts to advance this transaction. Closing of this transaction and listing of the resulting public company on the Neo Exchange will be a significant achievement and Valdy is pleased to be involved as INX grows its business." Final approval of the listing is subject to the satisfaction of certain customary conditions required by the Neo Exchange. It is anticipated that the common shares of the Resulting Issuer (the "INX Shares") will commence trading on the Neo Exchange under the ticker symbol "INXD", following the issuance of the Neo Exchange's final approval and listing bulletin. None of the INX Shares to be issued in connection with the Transaction have been, or will be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to any U.S. Person (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any INX Shares in any jurisdiction where such offer or solicitation would be unlawful, including the United States. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the listing statement to be prepared in connection with the Transaction, and to be filed prior to listing on the Neo Exchange, any information released or received with respect to the Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in INX Shares should be considered highly speculative. For further information, please contact: Douglas Borthwick Chief Business Officer INX Limited Email: douglas.borthwick@inx.co James Decker CEO, Valdy Investments Ltd. Email: jdecker@hotmail.co.uk About INX INX owns regulated trading platforms for digital securities and cryptocurrencies, combining traditional markets expertise and an innovative fintech approach. INX's vision is to be the preferred global regulated hub for digital assets on the blockchain. INX's overall mission is to bring communities together and empower them with financial innovation. INX's journey started with its initial public token offering of the INX Token in which it raised US$83 million. INX is shaping the blockchain asset industry through its willingness to work in a regulated environment with oversight from regulators like the SEC and FINRA. In addition to operating two regulated trading platforms for blockchain assets, its interdealer broker, I.L.S. Brokers, plans to offer non-deliverable cryptocurrency forwards to Tier-1 banks in the near future. For more information, please visit the INX website here . Forward-Looking Statements Some of the statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities law. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "project," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "intends," or "continue," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements relating to our objectives, plans, and strategies; statements that contain projections of results of operations or of financial condition; statements relating to the research, development, and use of our products; and all statements (other than statements of historical facts) that address activities, events, or developments that we intend, expect, project, believe, or anticipate will or may occur in the future. Forward- looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties. We have based these forward-looking statements on assumptions and assessments made by our management in light of their experience and their perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments, and other factors they believe to be appropriate. These statements are only current predictions and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements. INX discusses many of these risks in greater detail in its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ending December 31, 2020, filed with the Securities Exchange Commission on April 29, 2021, including under the headings "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements." You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date hereof, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. Except as required by law, we are under no duty to update or revise any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719457/NEO_1200x675.jpg Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - McLaren Resources Inc. (CSE: MCL) (FSE: 3ML) ("McLaren" / the "Company") announces that it has closed a non-brokered private placement financing consisting of flow-through share units (the "Flow-Through Units") for gross proceeds of $266,560. The Company has issued a total of 3,808,000 Flow-Through Units. The Flow-Through Units were issued at a price of $0.07 per unit, with each Flow-Through Unit consisting of one common share in the capital of McLaren issued on a flow-through basis pursuant to the Income Tax Act (Canada) and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant is exercisable at a price of $0.10 per common share for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance. Gross proceeds from the financing will be used by McLaren for exploration expenditures on its McCool, Blue Quartz and Kerrs gold properties located in the prolific Timmins Gold District in Northern Ontario. As a result of the financing, Accilent Capital Management Inc., a principal shareholder of the Company as a finder and also as a subscriber of Flow-Through Units through its affiliate Pavilion Flow-Through L.P., has increased its direct and indirect holding of the voting securities of the Company from 18.23% to 22.19% on a fully diluted basis. In connection with the financing, McLaren paid finder's fees consisting of $2,205 in cash and 226,000 shares of the Company, including a finder's fee of 201,000 shares of the Company to Accilent Capital Management Inc. The Company also announces that it has issued 150,000 shares of McLaren to two prospectors as a final payment in conjunction with the acquisition of additional McCool claims (see news release entitled McLaren Resources Greatly Expands Size of Its McCool Gold Property, dated October 4, 2021). In addition, the Company is extending the exercise date of 9,140,000 warrants, with an exercise price of $0.10 per warrant, from January 5, 2022 to July 5, 2022 and 1,875.000 warrants, with an exercise price of $0.125 per warrant, from June 30, 2022 to December 31, 2022. All other terms and conditions of the warrants remain unchanged. A total of 1,562,500 warrants with an exercise price of $0.125 are under indirect control by Accilent Capital Management Inc. About McLaren McLaren has been focussed on exploration work on its gold properties in the Timmins Gold Region of Northeastern Ontario. McLaren now owns a 100% interest in the past-producing, 640 ha, Blue Quartz Gold Mine property as well as the 1,650 ha McCool and 775 ha Kerrs gold properties, all located within the Abitibi Greenstone Belt along the Destor-Porcupine Deformation Zone, which is host to many of the gold deposits in the area, approximately 85 km east of Timmins city centre. McLaren also owns a 100% interest in the 408 ha Augdome gold property which is located in Tisdale and Whitney Townships immediately east of the Dome Mine owned by Newmont. The Augdome property is currently under a four-year option to Newmont. For more information, please contact: Radovan Danilovsky, President, Phone: 416-203-6784, www.mclarenresources.com. MCLAREN RESOURCES INC. 44 Victoria Street, Suite 1616 Toronto, Ontario M5C 1Y2 The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of the press release. The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain statements contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements". When used in this document, the words "anticipated", "expect", "estimated", "forecast", "planned", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements or information. These statements are based on current expectations of management; however, they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this news release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements. McLaren Resources Inc. does not undertake any obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date hereof, except as required by securities laws. This news release which announces a completed financing is not for distribution in the United States. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/108989 Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - High Fusion Inc. (CSE: FUZN) ("High Fusion" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the filing of a business acquisition report including financial results for the California business acquired from OutCo Labs Inc. ("OutCo") in August 2021. "We are pleased to report that our California business acquired in August 2021 performed well during the past 2 years with revenues in excess of $10MM and breakeven EBITDA," stated John Durfy, CEO of High Fusion Inc. Mr. Durfy further commentated stating, "With the recent changes to the ordinance in San Diego, our two dispensaries have been granted recreational licences coupled with approval to more than double our in-door cultivation, we expect significant revenue growth in the business in the short term." With the closing of the acquisition of the business of OutCo in August of 2021, the Company will continue to consolidate financial results from this business starting in the first quarter ending October 31, 2021. Fiscal 2020 and Interim 2021 Financial Highlights Pursuant to an audit conducted on the business of OutCo included in the Company's business acquisition report filed December 1, 2021, the business of OutCo generated 2020 annual revenues of approximately $10.5MM ($11.06MM in 2019) and gross profit of $3.1MM ($2.9MM in 2019). To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7105/109008_903d598a2496ebb8_002full.jpg During the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020, gross margin improved up to 30% from 26% in the previous year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization, and non-cash share-based changes (EBITDA) were breakeven during 2020 as the business of OutCo launched new products and improved efficiencies. During the first six months of 2021, the business experienced 27% gross margin and negative $438,217 in EBITDA due to lower gains on biological assets. Transformative Changes to Regulations in San Diego The approval from the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and receipt of recreational licenses was announced in the press releases dated September 1, 2021, and October 22, 2021. Receipt of the recreational licenses comes in accordance with the San Diego County Board of Supervisors approval of a series of changes specific to the five current cannabis operations running in the unincorporated area of San Diego County. Accordingly, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to: - Allow all five operators to sell recreationally - Allow the sale and manufacture of edible products - Allow for expansion and build-out on existing properties - Allow transferability of licenses - Develop a social equity program for the county - Create a new ordinance over the next 18-24 months, with input from the five operators Source: San Diego County Board of Supervisors: https://bosagenda.sandiegocounty.gov/cob/cosd/cob/doc?id=0901127e80da8d00 About High Fusion Inc. High Fusion Inc. (formerly Nutritional High International Inc.) is focused on developing and manufacturing branded products in the cannabis industry with a specific focus on flower, pro-rolls, vapes, edibles and oil extracts for medical and adult recreational use. The Company operates and controls licenses in California, Colorado, and Oregon. High Fusion has manufacturing, retail and grow operations in California through its acquisition of the business of OutCo and owns and operates oil extraction and edible manufacturing facilities in Colorado and Oregon. The Company's brand portfolio includes its award winning FLI edibles and vape product, along with a number of new brands including Red Octopus and Dubbi Brothers in addition to the OutCo and Thrive brands recently acquired. Neural Therapeutics Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of High Fusion focused on ethnobotanical drug-discovery and development company. Neural Therapeutics is focused on developing products and conducting research on the psychoactive cacti plants with the primary objective to find where the historical use in traditional medicine has proven to be effective and capitalize on the opportunities that can be applied in modern medical and natural health product markets. For updates on the Company's activities and highlights of the Company's press releases and other media coverage, please visit www.high-fusion.com. For further information, please contact: High Fusion Inc. Robert Wilson, Chief Financial Officer 416-666-4005 Email: rwilson@nutritionalhigh.com Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information: NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR OTC MARKETS GROUP INC., NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDERS HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements include statements regarding acquisitions of, or partnerships with existing well-run businesses in California, its expectation to increase its investment in Colorado and expand its Palo Verde operations in the Colorado market. plans to leverage the Company's investment in Oregon through the relaunch of its manufacturing operations in the state and seek strategic partnerships and/or acquisitions to grow this business, the timing and ability to complete the Neural Therapeutics spin-out. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. This forward-looking information reflects the Company's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to the Company and on assumptions the Company believes are reasonable. These assumptions include but are not limited to: the ability of the Company to successfully execute its business plans; legal changes relating to the cannabis and psychedelic industries proceeding as anticipated; and the Company's continued response and ability to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic being consistent with, or better than, its ability and response to date. The Company's securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. Persons", as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; general capital market conditions and market prices for securities; the actual results of the Company's future operations; competition; changes in legislation affecting the Company; obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals including acquiring and renewing U.S. state, local or other licenses, the uncertainty of existing protection from U.S. federal or other prosecution, regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. state-law legalization, market and general economic conditions of the cannabis sector or otherwise; the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals; risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures, service disruptions, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, economic activity, financing, supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession; and a deterioration of financial markets that could limit the Company's ability to obtain external financing. A description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in the Company's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions, or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this press release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this press release and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. However, the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/109008 Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of Congo--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) (OTCQX: IVPAF) Co-Chairs Robert Friedland and Yufeng "Miles" Sun announced that the company plans to issue the 2021 year-end production results, as well as production and cost guidance for 2022, for the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday January 10, 2022. The Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project is a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines (39.6%), Zijin Mining Group (39.6%), Crystal River Global Limited (0.8%) and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (20%). A 2020 independent audit of Kamoa-Kakula's greenhouse gas intensity metrics performed by Hatch Ltd. of Mississauga, Canada, confirmed that the project will be among the world's lowest greenhouse gas emitters per unit of copper produced. About Ivanhoe Mines Ivanhoe Mines is a Canadian mining company focused on advancing its three principal projects in Southern Africa: the development of major new, mechanized, underground mines at the Kamoa-Kakula copper discoveries in the Democratic Republic of Congo and at the Platreef palladium-rhodium-platinum-nickel-copper-gold discovery in South Africa; and the extensive redevelopment and upgrading of the historic Kipushi zinc-copper-germanium-silver mine, also in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kamoa-Kakula began producing copper concentrates in May 2021 and, through phased expansions, is positioned to become one of the world's largest copper producers. Kamoa-Kakula is being powered by clean, renewable hydro-generated electricity and is projected to be among the world's lowest greenhouse gas emitters per unit of metal produced. Ivanhoe Mines has pledged to achieve net-zero operational greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1 and 2) at the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Mine. Ivanhoe also is exploring for new copper discoveries on its Western Foreland exploration licences in the Democratic Republic of Congo, near the Kamoa-Kakula Project. Information contacts Investors: Bill Trenaman +1.604.331.9834 / Media: Matthew Keevil +1.604.558.1034 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/109009 Michael Martin appointed CEO; Founder Robert Chew to continue as Chairman of the Board and Chief Innovation Officer INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CAI, a global consulting company that provides technical, operational consulting, and project management services to life sciences, data centers, and industrial process manufacturing industries, today announced Michael Martin, CAI President, will succeed Bob Chew as Chief Executive Officer. Martin was appointed by the Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2022, at which time Chew will continue as Chairman of the Board and chief innovation officer. Chew co-founded CAI in 1996 and oversaw the growth to a $135 million global organization with 750 employees. He is a member of the Global Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Leadership Forum. He and CAI have both received several awards from ISPE including member of the year, company of the year, and the prestigious Richard G. Purdy award. "Founding this company and providing faster, more effective ways to deliver manufacturing capacity to some of the largest pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the world has been the highlight of my career," said Chew. "I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved in terms of making life-saving therapies more readily available across the globe. I am excited to see CAI continue to deliver for our clients under Mike's leadership. Mike has been instrumental in setting the vision for CAI's next chapter of innovation and leadership as we help our customers improve the human experience and create a better working world." Martin has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and large-scale project management at a major pharmaceutical company. He has global experience in constructing and starting up manufacturing plants in China, Puerto Rico, and Ireland. He has also served as a site head for device manufacturing as well as serving in various engineering and operational leadership roles in the U.S. He has served at CAI in varying capacities over the past three years, most recently as President, where he leads the senior leadership team to help achieve CAI's mission of building a better working world and improving the human experience. "CAI aims to help its clients accelerate the achievement of their goals which in turn, helps the people they serve to have a higher quality of life," said Martin. "As we move forward, I'm confident that the passion and unwavering commitment to CAI's mission that Bob has inspired among the entire team will propel both our company and our clients to continued success. I am thrilled to lead CAI into this exciting new chapter." Martin has a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and a master's in Business Administration from Indiana University Kelley School of Business. He is a professional licensed Engineer and maintains his accreditation. ABOUT CAI Since CAI's founding in 1996, we have delivered nearly a billion dollars in services for hundreds of clients across thousands of projects globally. With offices in the US, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Korea, Switzerland, India, Ireland, Italy, China, Singapore, United Kingdom, and Malaysia, we have built an international team of over 750 professionals providing local support from a global company. Our engineering, technical, and consulting services are fashioned to deliver mission critical facilities with a high level of performance and reliability. When operational readiness and startup are critical, CAI delivers to a higher standard. www.cagents.com Contact: David Shenberger +13177219847 dwshen@cagents.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719252/CEO_Succession.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1535735/CAI_25_years_Logo.jpg A South Korean Air Force F-35A fighter made an emergency landing during a training flight Tuesday due to avionic system issues, with its pilot emerging unscathed, according to military officials. The radar-evading jet made a "belly landing" on a runway at an air base in Seosan, 151 kilometers south of Seoul, at around 12:51 p.m. after the issues caused the landing gear to become momentarily inoperable, the officials said. The pilot walked away from the crash landing, they added. South Korea's Air Force and the U.S. military plan to initiate a joint investigation into what went wrong with the fighter manufactured by the U.S. defense firm Lockheed Martin. The Air Force will suspend all flights by its F-35A fighters pending the probe, the officials said. It has so far received more than 30 F-35A jets from the United States under a plan to deploy a total of 40. (Yonhap) MIAMI" Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlas Renewable Energy, a global renewable energy generation company, has been recognized as SEAL Awards' Business Sustainability winner under the Environmental Initiative Award Category. Atlas was recognized for its environmental activity to preserve and protect the Howler Monkey species near its 444MW photovoltaic project La Pimienta, located in Mexico's municipality of Carmen in the state of Campeche. The program consists of three main environmental benefits including the conservation of 300 hectares of secondary vegetation of the evergreen forest patches in the area, the creation of biological corridors to connect the forest patches that surround the solar plant, and the conservation of the Black Howler Monkey Habitat, which is an endangered species that has been red-listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUNC). "Helping preserve biodiversity and improve local species' habitats near our renewable energy projects is of utmost importance and this is always taken into consideration in the design phase of a project," said Eddaly Cuesta, ESG Manager for Colombia and Mexico at Atlas Renewable Energy. "Seeing this program develop from a basic idea to a program with tangible results is very fulfilling from both a personal and professional perspective. Everything was possible thanks to the great leadership within Atlas, which understands that protecting and preserving biodiversity is an essential part of the development of our projects." The environmental initiative aligns with Atlas' ESG pillar for biodiversity protection which intends to help protect and maintain environments and species near our renewable energy projects. With this, Atlas aims to motivate others within the industry and foster even more commitment toward the preservation and conservation of species and habitats. Within this pillar, Atlas has executed reforestation activities, donated seedlings, held workshops for environmental education, and has helped toward the conservation of different species across Chile, Brazil, and Mexico. "We have a commitment as clean energy generators to provide power and to do so as sustainably as possible. Taking care of the ecosystems in which we operate is a priority for Atlas, not because it is required but because it's the right thing to do. That's why we often go above and beyond local regulations and do more than what is expected in this sense. I'm very proud of what Atlas has achieved, and the support from the other divisions within the company, such as EPC and Development, which have been fundamental in the materialization of this program", said Maria Jose Cortes, Head of ESG at Atlas Renewable Energy. "Thank you SEAL Awards for this recognition and thank you to our trusted partners such as BIOS, ERM, Ecology Institute AC, and IDB Invest for being such an important element during the development and execution of this initiative." The first phase of the project, which consisted of the relocation of individual howler monkeys and the creation of corridors to connect forest patches, is well underway. Currently, the program is moving into phase two, which consists of monitoring the Black Howler monkey population for the next couple of years to ensure their wellbeing, executing reforestation actions and preserving the forest patches that continue to be connected by the biological corridors. "The environmental merits of renewable energy are consistent and obvious," said Matt Harney, Founder of SEAL Awards. "Our judging panel found Atlas' prioritization of conservation and biodiversity in its La Pimienta Solar Project to be unique and exemplary. We encourage all renewable energy developers to model this conservation-centric approach." About Atlas Renewable Energy Atlas Renewable Energy is a renewable energy generation company that develops, builds, and operates renewable energy projects with long-term contracts across the Americas. The current company portfolio is 2.2GW of contracted projects in development, construction, or operational stages, and aims to expand by an additional 4GW in the next years. Launched in early 2017, Atlas Renewable Energy includes an experienced team with the longest track record in the solar energy industry in Latin America. The company is recognized for its high standards in the development, construction, and operation of large-scale projects. Atlas Renewable Energy is part of the Energy Fund IV, founded by Actis, a leading private equity investor in the energy sector. Atlas Renewable Energy's growth is focused on the leading emerging markets and economies, using its proven development, commercialization, and structuring know-how to accelerate the transformation toward clean energy. By actively engaging with the community and stakeholders at the center of its project strategy, the company works every day to provide a cleaner future. To know more about Atlas Renewable Energy, visit: www.atlasrenewableenergy.com Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719663/Atlas_Renewable_Energy.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1441896/Atlas_Renewable_Energy_Logo.jpg Contact: Dave Chambers / +44 (0)75 5788 7405 / dchambers@headlandconsultancy.com CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Amwins, a global distributor of specialty insurance products and services, today announced the appointments of Sam Baig and Jeff McNatt as presidents of Amwins Brokerage, effective immediately. James Drinkwater, who has served as president of the Brokerage division since 2008 and was also named president of Amwins Group in 2018, will directly focus on his roles as president of Amwins and executive chair of Amwins Global Risks. "Both Sam and Jeff are accomplished leaders bringing a wealth of experience and expertise that will continue to advance the evolution of our brokerage business," said Scott M. Purviance, chief executive officer of Amwins. "James has led our brokerage division to record growth during his tenure and will continue lending his keen industry knowledge and unmatched business acumen to the firm as we bring on the future." As presidents, Baig and McNatt will be responsible for the design and execution of the overall brokerage strategy, while overseeing more than 400 specialty broker teams and various risk and industry practice groups that share knowledge and solutions across the Amwins platform. Additionally, they will focus on recruiting, training and development of the next generation of Amwins brokers, cultivating key market and retail client relationships, and assisting in the formation of exclusive capacity and firm-wide proprietary products. "Both Sam and Jeff understand Amwins' inherent entrepreneurial culture and bring complementary industry experience that will effectively take our business to the next level," said Drinkwater. "This evolutionary transition exemplifies our commitment to our partners and the clients they serve, as we continue delivering broad resources and unrivaled access to leading insurance markets worldwide." Prior to his new role, Baig served as executive vice president and leader of the Georgia branches of Amwins Brokerage, where he oversaw operations, thought leadership, talent management and organic growth of the region. Sam joined Colemont in 1996, which later became part of Amwins, and he was responsible for the production and placement of all lines of property and inland marine risks, with a focus on commercial and multi-family real estate, public entities, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, distribution and construction. McNatt previously served as executive vice president and leader of the Florida branches of Amwins Brokerage. Jeff joined Amwins in 2007 as a property broker, opening an Amwins office in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2011, he relocated to Florida to open an Amwins office in Satellite Beach, managing a large book of catastrophic and non-catastrophic business. About Amwins Amwins is the largest independent wholesale distributor of specialty insurance products in the United States, dedicated to serving retail insurance agents by providing property and casualty products, specialty group benefit products, and administrative services. Based in Charlotte, N.C., the company operates through more than 155 offices globally and handles premium placements in excess of $26 billion annually. To learn more, visit www.amwins.com. For further information contact: Amwins Group, Inc. Lisa Kuszmar Telephone: 704.749.2780 Email: lisa.kuszmar@amwins.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1450185/amw_brokerage_Logo.jpg HATTIESBURG, MS / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2022 / The Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) has funded $126,000 in new marine science research for 2022. The funds, approved by the members of the Center's Industry Advisory Board at its annual fall meeting, will support new, much-needed research on prominent fisheries such as thread herring, ocean quahogs, squid, and surfclams. Part of the National Science Foundation's Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers program, SCEMFIS connects marine scientists with members of the fishing industry to identify scientific priorities for better understanding commercially important fish species, and directs industry funding to projects that study them. Since its founding, SCEMFIS has promoted research that has increased our understanding of these species, and improved their management. The following research projects were approved by SCEMFIS for 2022: Biostatistical and fishery-dependent sampling of Atlantic thread herring and Atlantic chub mackerel in the mid-Atlantic region - As a result of climate change and the subsequent migration of fish stocks, a fishery for Atlantic thread herring is developing in the Mid-Atlantic. As part of that development, fisheries managers need better biological data on the species in order to manage it sustainably. This project, led by Dr. Robert Leaf (University of Southern Mississippi), will conduct a sampling survey of thread herring to collect data on the fish being harvested by the fishery, including factors such as age, length, and weight. ($69,336 in funding) As a result of climate change and the subsequent migration of fish stocks, a fishery for Atlantic thread herring is developing in the Mid-Atlantic. As part of that development, fisheries managers need better biological data on the species in order to manage it sustainably. This project, led by Dr. Robert Leaf (University of Southern Mississippi), will conduct a sampling survey of thread herring to collect data on the fish being harvested by the fishery, including factors such as age, length, and weight. ($69,336 in funding) Ocean quahog population dynamics: project completion - SCEMFIS researchers have worked extensively at expanding our understanding of ocean quahog, especially work in charting the age frequencies for quahogs in the Northwest Atlantic, as well as measuring the uncertainty that comes with estimating the age-at-length of quahogs. This project, led by Dr. Eric Powell (University of Southern Mississippi), and Dr. Roger Mann (Virginia Institute of Marine Science), will complete the Center's ongoing work on ocean quahog, finishing and publishing current unpublished research on quahog age frequencies. ($41,210 in funding) SCEMFIS researchers have worked extensively at expanding our understanding of ocean quahog, especially work in charting the age frequencies for quahogs in the Northwest Atlantic, as well as measuring the uncertainty that comes with estimating the age-at-length of quahogs. This project, led by Dr. Eric Powell (University of Southern Mississippi), and Dr. Roger Mann (Virginia Institute of Marine Science), will complete the Center's ongoing work on ocean quahog, finishing and publishing current unpublished research on quahog age frequencies. ($41,210 in funding) Genetic and age structure of Southern surfclams - The surfclam fishery has recently resumed fishing in the waters off the coast of Virginia in a region where high bottom water temperatures have led to the deaths of most Atlantic surfclams during much of the 2010s. Increased survival recently may be due to recruitment of the Southern surfclam. To better understand how and why surfclams have returned to this area, this project, led Dr. Daphne Munroe (Rutgers University), will conduct genetic testing on a sample of clams from the area. The tests will help determine their relationship with the rest of the coastwide Atlantic surfclam stock. ($10,795 in funding) The surfclam fishery has recently resumed fishing in the waters off the coast of Virginia in a region where high bottom water temperatures have led to the deaths of most Atlantic surfclams during much of the 2010s. Increased survival recently may be due to recruitment of the Southern surfclam. To better understand how and why surfclams have returned to this area, this project, led Dr. Daphne Munroe (Rutgers University), will conduct genetic testing on a sample of clams from the area. The tests will help determine their relationship with the rest of the coastwide Atlantic surfclam stock. ($10,795 in funding) Squid age estimation using CAT Scan technology - A recurring challenge in managing squid is the lack of demographic data available to estimate the ages of the squid in the population. This project, led by Dr. Roger Mann, (Virginia Institute of Marine Science), will evaluate the use of CAT scan technology as a tool to age squid. The scans will be used to measure the size of squid statoliths, which are the hard structures in squid heads that grow over time, and attempt to age the squid based on these measurements. ($5,000 in funding). About SCEMFIS SCEMFIS utilizes academic and fisheries resources to address urgent scientific problems limiting sustainable fisheries. SCEMFIS develops methods, analytical and survey tools, datasets, and analytical approaches to improve sustainability of fisheries and reduce uncertainty in biomass estimates. SCEMFIS university partners, University of Southern Mississippi (lead institution), and Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, are the academic sites. Collaborating scientists who provide specific expertise in finfish, shellfish, and marine mammal research, come from a wide range of academic institutions including Old Dominion University, Rutgers University, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, University of Maryland, and University of Rhode Island. The need for the diverse services that SCEMFIS can provide to industry continues to grow, which has prompted a steady increase in the number of fishing industry partners. These services include immediate access to science expertise for stock assessment issues, rapid response to research priorities, and representation on stock assessment working groups. Targeted research leads to improvements in data collection, survey design, analytical tools, assessment models, and other needs to reduce uncertainty in stock status and improve reference point goals. PRESS CONTACT: Stove Boat Communications john@stoveboat.com SOURCE: Science Center for Marine Fisheries View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/680893/Science-Center-for-Marine-Fisheries-Approves-126000-in-New-Research-for-2022 Seattle, Washington--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - Pervasip Corp. (OTC Pink: PVSP) ("Pervasip" and the "Company") today announced that its President and Chief Executive Officer, German Burtscher, issued the following letter to Pervasip's shareholders: Dear Shareholders: We ended 2021 with numerous accomplishments, healthy financials, an amazing lineup of new opportunities, various strategic initiatives, and a companywide restructuring that we concluded over the past 3 months, after completing our acquisitions of Artizen Corporation ("Artizen") and its subsidiary, Zen Asset Management LLC ("ZAM") in September 2021. We have an amazing foundation to grow from in 2022, including close to $17 million in annual revenues, positive EBIDTA, one of the most established cannabis management companies in Washington state, and the intellectual property behind one of the top 10 national cannabis brands. Our plan for 2022 is to rapidly expand ZAM's position as a platform operator in the Western United States and broaden the market reach for the Artizen brand, including by increasing yields, adding new offerings, and establishing the Artizen brand in new markets. We already have significant progress on each front that we are excited to share over the coming months. With our investment in KRTL Biotech we are also starting to review the medicinal fungi market for unique product and other growth opportunities. In addition, with the recent approval obtained by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), formerly known as the Korea Food & Drug Administration (KFDA), KRTL is commencing research that will better assist the medical and psychological community in the treatment of specific disorders, which include pain resulting from cancer treatment, autism, PTSD, ADHD, depression, addiction, improvement in concentration and other psychological illnesses. This is an exciting time for us and I urge you to be on the lookout for a stream of announcements over the next 6 months as we race into 2022. We look forward to our next communication. Until then, thank you for your continued interest and support. Best Regards, German Burtscher President and Chief Executive Officer Pervasip Corp. Pervasip Corporation Pervasip Corp., a developer of companies and technologies in high value emerging markets, owns Artizen Corporation and its subsidiary, Zen Asset Management LLC, a diversified asset management company founded to acquire, develop, and support companies and technologies in the cannabis industry. ZAM's existing clients operate four licensed cannabis cultivation and one processing facility in Washington. Most of the biomass produced by these independent cultivators has been sold historically under the Artizen brand, including all-time top selling products in flower in Washington state. Additional information on Artizen-branded products is available online at www.artizencannabis.com. Pervasip additionally owns 5% of KRTL Biotech, Inc., a developer of biotechnologies with a focus on pharmaceutical applications of cannabinol and psilocybin. Additional information on KRTL is available online at www.krtlbiotech.com. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements and information that, to the extent that they are not historical fact, may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information may include financial and other projections, as well as statements regarding future plans, objectives, or economic performance, or the assumption underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as may, would, could, will, likely, except, anticipate, believe, intend, plan, forecast, project, estimate, outlook, or the negative thereof or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Examples of such statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the objectives and business plans of the Company; ability to realize benefits from its recent corporate appointments; ability to retain its key personnel; the intention to grow the Company's business and operations; the competitive conditions of the industries in which the Company operates; and laws and any amendments thereto applicable to the Company. Forward-looking information is based on the assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. The material factors and assumptions used to develop the forward-looking information contained in this news release include, but are not limited to, key personnel and qualified employees continuing their involvement with the Company; and the Company's ability to secure financing on reasonable terms. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, risks relating to the future business plans of the Company; risks that the Company will not be able to retain its key personnel; risks that the Company will not be able to secure financing on reasonable terms or at all, as well as all of the other risks as described in the Company's periodic disclosure statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking information. Further, any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company's management to predict all of such factors and to assess in advance the impact of each such factor on the Company's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect information or events after the date on which it is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law, including securities laws. For further information, please contact: T: 855-464-2535, Extension 1 E: info@pervasip.net To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/109013 Thomson Reuters Announces Gary Bisbee as its Next Head of Investor Relations Bisbee joins the company today after 20 years as a leading research/sell-side analyst Frank Golden, current Head of Investor Relations, to retire in July 2022 TORONTO, Jan. 4, 2022 -- Thomson Reuters (TSX / NYSE: TRI) today announced Gary Bisbee has joined the company and will transition into the role as its next Head of Investor Relations, effective March 1, 2022. Bisbee will succeed Frank Golden, who informed the company of his intention to retire in July 2022 after 18 years in the role. Based in New York, Bisbee will report directly to Mike Eastwood, chief financial officer of Thomson Reuters. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/13199/THOMSON_REUTERS_LOGO.jpg "I am pleased to welcome Gary into this strategic leadership position. Gary brings a wealth of knowledge and a strong network from across the financial and investment community to the company with over two decades of experience as a top equity research analyst at several leading global financial institutions," said Eastwood. "Having also covered us for many years, Gary is well positioned to continue to advance our strategy and vision to the market and among our shareholders. His leadership in this respect comes at a critical time as Thomson Reuters continues its transformation into a content-driven technology company." Bisbee brings more than 20 years of research and sales experience to Thomson Reuters. He formerly served as Senior Equity Research Analyst and Managing Director at Bank of America Securities, where he tracked and provided outlook on the leading business, technology, and information services companies. Prior to that, he spent time at RBC Capital Markets, Barclays Capital, and Lehman Brothers in similar roles. Bisbee began his career in institutional equity sales at Lehman Brothers. "I'm truly honored to join Thomson Reuters at such an exciting and pivotal moment for the company. I have long admired Thomson Reuters as a leading technology and information services company, and I look forward to partnering with Mike and the rest of the company to help define Thomson Reuters vision for itself and the industry as it continues its transformation plan," stated Bisbee. Eastwood added, "I, along with the rest of the Thomson Reuters executive team, also want to thank Frank for his many years of service. He has worked in partnership with the company's leadership across some of the most important moments in our corporate history to educate and expand our shareholder base, including our acquisition of Reuters and our partnership with Blackstone for Refinitiv and the subsequent sale to London Stock Exchange Group. Frank and Gary will work closely together over the next several months to ensure a smooth transition and uphold the high standards of integrity and financial reporting, alongside strong analyst and shareholder relations." Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters is a leading provider of business information services. Our products include highly specialized information-enabled software and tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals combined with the world's most global news service - Reuters. For more information on Thomson Reuters, visit tr.com and for the latest world news, reuters.com. CONTACTS BLACKROCK LATIN AMERICAN INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (the "Company") LEI: UK9OG5Q0CYUDFGRX4151 Voting Rights and Capital (Article 15 Transparency Directive, DTR 5.6) In conformity with the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rule 5.6.1R, the Company would like to notify the market of the following: As at 31 December 2021, BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust plc's capital consists of 39,259,620 Ordinary Shares of 10 cents each, carrying one vote each, excluding 2,181,662 ordinary shares held in treasury. As at 31 December 2021, the total number of voting rights for Ordinary shareholders in BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust plc is 39,259,620. Shareholders should use 39,259,620 as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company. All enquiries: Sarah Beynsberger BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, Company Secretary Tel: 0207 743 2639 4 January 2022 For the first time in medical history, a drone has played a crucial part in saving a life during a sudden cardiac arrest. The world unique achievement took place in Trollhattan, Sweden in December of 2021, when an Everdrone autonomous drone delivered a defibrillator that helped save the life of a 71-year-old man. "This is a truly revolutionary technology that needs to be implemented all over", says the patient who now has made a full recovery. GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Everdrone's Emergency Medical Aerial Delivery service (EMADE), an innovative link in the chain of life-saving measures of Region Vastra Gotaland, Sweden, was put to the toughest of tests in the morning of December the 9th of 2021. In the Swedish city of Trollhattan, a 71-year-old man was shoveling snow in his driveway when he suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Thanks to the combination of an immediate emergency call, the quick actions of Dr. Mustafa Ali and the swift delivery of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), lifesaving measures through defibrillation could be initiated before the arrival of the ambulance, and his life was saved. The time from the alarm until the AED was safely delivered at the doorstep of the incident address was just over three minutes. After the initial treatment on site, the patient was rushed to the hospital and is today fully recovered. "I can't put into words how thankful I am to this new technology and the speedy delivery of the defibrillator. If it wasn't for the drone I probably wouldn't be here", says the 71-year-old patient who has made a full recovery and now has been able to return to his home. For Dr. Mustafa Ali the experience was just as gratifying, despite the gravity of the situation. "I was on my way to work at the local hospital when I looked out the car window and saw a man collapsed in his driveway", says Dr. Ali. "I immediately understood that something was wrong and rushed to help. The man had no pulse, so I started doing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) while asking another bystander to call 112 (the Swedish emergency number). Just minutes later, I saw something flying above my head. It was a drone with a defibrillator!" Thanks to Dr. Ali, and the use of the defibrillator, life-saving treatment was initiated early and, which in the end, meant that the life of the patient was saved. "This is a truly revolutionary technology that needs to be implemented all over; sudden cardiac arrests can happen to anyone, not just old people with arteriosclerosis" says the patient. The drone delivery system in Region Vastra Gotaland is developed and operated by Everdrone, a world-leading company in autonomous drone solutions. The solution has been developed and is continuously improved in close collaboration with Center for Resuscitation Science at Karolinska Institutet, SOS Alarm and Region Vastra Gotaland. The operations are also supported by Vinnova, Swelife and Medtech4Health. "This is an excellent real-world example of how Everdrone's cutting-edge drone technology, fully integrated with emergency dispatch, can minimize the time for access to life-saving AED equipment", says Mats Sallstrom, CEO of Everdrone. Approximately 275,000 patients in Europe and 350,000 in the US, suffer from OHCA annually. Approximately 70% of OHCAs occur in private homes without AEDs on site, and ambulance response times are often too long to save the life of the patient. The chance of survival decreases by 7-10% with each minute following the collapse, and consequently, the current survival rate among OHCA patients is merely 10%. Everdrone's innovative airborne AED delivery service is a proven method to tackle this critical issue. The service can currently reach 200,000 residents in Sweden and is expected to expand to more locations in Europe during 2022. The drone system has been scientifically established to cut response times and the full study is published in the European Heart Journal. https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab498/6358076 Press material Still images: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ip89s2sxvetp9sv/AAALHexCDMZfD9HzMhz0RbtNa?dl=0 Edited video (ready for publishing): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3hfj31oxg1g2j9z/AABe6mx57MNLtb0sjTbIpBeWa?dl=0 Unedited video material (for local editing): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ka2a5d4nsz89i5r/AACoV25vLnbxgjAMrVVw5pHya?dl=0 About Everdrone Everdrone AB develops technology for autonomous drones and offers advanced drone services. The company's test and development facilities are located at Sisjon, Gothenburg. The company focuses on civil applications, primarily related to healthcare and emergency response. Everdrone actively works with regulatory issues associated with drones, specializing in operations in urban areas. For more information, please visit https://everdrone.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719658/Everdrone_Logo.jpg Image: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719659/Everdrone_AB.jpg Contact information: Mats Sallstrom CEO Everdrone Mobile +46 (0) 702 28 10 95 Email mats@everdrone.com Press Release - January 4, 2022 DOLFINES pre-qualified by Saudi Aramco for future tenders on inspection and Acceptance services contracts for its drilling rigs After being audited by Saudi Aramco Drilling and Workover Contractors Pre-qualification Comittee, DOLFINES ABU DHABI represented by BAAS International Group Company Ltd (BIG Group) has been approved technically to bid on upcoming contracts for Rig inspection and Acceptance services. Saudi Aramco being the world's largest oil producer, this pre-qualification opens several business opportunities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, increasing DOLFINES strong presence in the Gulf region. " DOLFINES will transfer the most advanced technologies and provide value added services to the Kingdom. This commitment is aligned with our Kingdom 2030 vision of enabling local talents and bring the global experience DOLFINES has to the energy transition in Saudi Arabia. ", Bader A. Al Suwaidan, CEO & Chairman of BIG Group, said. Jean-Claude Bourdon, President of DOLFINES, said "Our commitment to the region and Saudi Arabia has recently been underlined with our partnership with BIG group and our successful pre-qualification by Saudi Aramco is an early milestone to expand our footprint in the drilling related services and offshore renewable solutions. We are excited for this opportunity and are proud to play a role in the energy space future within the Kingdom." About DOLFINES (www.dolfines.com) Founded in 2000, DOLFINES is an independent specialist in engineering and services in the renewable and conventional energy industry. Faced with the challenges of decarbonizing the energy sector and capitalizing on its strong expertise, DOLFINES wants to play a key role in this energy transition by designing and providing innovative services and solutions for the exploitation of renewable energy sources onshore and offshore, above and below sea level. Respecting the highest standards of quality and safety, DOLFINES is labelled an innovative company certified ISO 9001 for its technical assistance, auditing, inspection and engineering activities. Euronext Growth TM DOLFINES is listed on Euronext GrowthTM - FR0014004QZ9 - ALDOL DOLFINES is eligible to PEA-PME Contacts : DOLFINES: Delphine Bardelet Guejo, CFO - delphine.bardelet@dolfines.com ACTIFIN : Loris Daougabel, Media Relations - + 33 (0) 1 56 88 11 16 - ldaougabel@actifin.fr COMALTO: Jean-Francois Carminati, Shareholders Relations - + 33 (0) 6 63 87 57 60 - jfcarminati@comalto.com ------------------------ This publication embed "Actusnews SECURITY MASTER ". - SECURITY MASTER Key: nJtpksmal26Zx29qZcdpbZKXmmxoxWOZZ5Wek2hsapzKb5tonGtpmZzKZnBjmmpo - Check this key: https://www.security-master-key.com. ------------------------ Copyright Actusnews Wire Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-72552-dolfines_pr_saudiaramco.pdf Capricorn Investment Group makes their first move into the Nordic venture space with their investment in Norselab, an Oslo-based European impact investment manager for private capital. "With their thoughtful approach to innovative impact investments, Norselab stands out as an ideal partner to expand our presence into the Nordics and Europe. We are thrilled to help scale their impact investment platform," says Michaela Edwards, Partner at Capricorn Investment Group. Edwards is the partner in charge of the investment into Norselab. The deal, offering Capricorn's Sustainable Investment Fund a 20% stake in Norselab, relied heavily on their belief in the team and the structure that they have built. "The team behind Norselab has an outstanding track record in building and scaling tech companies, in addition to a clear ambition to build a larger ecosystem of funds. These were key factors weighing in on our investment decision," adds Edwards. Both firms share the belief that impact investments will offer the best opportunities over the coming decades. Through investment into companies that target industries in need of transformation, Norselab aims to ignite disruption, and to create potential for solid returns and massive impact. Unexplored opportunities in the Nordics Capricorn's investment in Norselab marks its first, strategic move into the Nordics. According to Edwards, the Nordics are still unexplored territory from a global perspective, and offer plentiful opportunities for both impact and high returns. She highlights that Norway, with its ongoing green shift and hunger for innovation, offers a great location from which Norselab can expand to Europe. Building system value Norselab launched its first impact-focused venture fund, Meaningful Equity I, in 2020. On the back of a solid tailwind in terms of market trends and deal flow, the impact investor is expanding its platform with several new funds. This means a significant upscaling of the organization where creating system value through knowledge sharing is the key to accelerate growth and value creation across the ecosystem. "Our partnership with Capricorn Investment Group will connect us with their globally leading impact investment ecosystem. Being part of their impact funds also means that our portfolio companies will gain greater access to international resources, co-investors and talents," says Yngve Tvedt, Norselab Founder and Chief Investment Officer. Uncompromising on impact Tvedt adds that Capricorn's solid impact profile was decisive for Norselab's decision to bring on board a larger capital partner. "Impact is at the heart of our investment philosophy, and core to the products and services of the companies we invest in. We want to build Norselab into a leading European impact investment platform, and believe Capricorn is a match made in heaven for scaling Norselab while staying true to our fundamental DNA," says Tvedt. With the Sustainable Investment Fund, Capricorn Investment Group aims to back purpose-built investment managers with an authentic vision around impact. "We're not in business to create incremental change, we are aiming to drive systemic change," comments Edwards. A fit-for-scale platform Norselab's CEO, Erik Syvertsen, explains how they created an international fund platform for venture investments with the building blocks that most market participants would recognize from larger institutional structures. "As we established our first fund, we knew that a robust infrastructure with scalability would be essential if we were to have international ambitions both in terms of deal flow and the ability to attract capital. Capricorn recognized the value in the ecosystem we are aiming to build in and around Norselab. It's a privilege for us to work with a capital partner that is aligned with our values and ambitions across the board," says Syvertsen. Norwegian capital partners joining the party Two significant Norwegian capital partners are also part of the deal. Long-term Norselab investor Ness, Risan Partners, invests in the impact investment platform to offer Norselab's attractive impact products to their large Nordic customer base. Joakim Lehmkuhl is also among the new capital partners. His connection to international investor groups will give the Norselab team solid traction to scale its platform out of Norway. About Capricorn Capricorn is one of the largest mission-aligned firms in the world, and has since its inception in 2000 grown to manage more than $10 billion in multi-asset classes for foundations and institutional investors, through their range of impact-focused fund products. Their Sustainable Investors Fund (SIF) is a private equity partnership whose investment objective is to create significant value through ownership and early stage investment in public and private asset managers who incorporate sustainability as a key driver of investment returns. The firm has offices in New York City and Palo Alto, and was born from a belief that sustainable investment practices can enhance risk-adjusted returns. Underlying this investment approach is a deep desire to demonstrate the huge investment potential that resides in breakthrough commercial solutions to the world's most pressing problems. About Norselab Norselab is a leading impact investment platform based out of Oslo, Norway. With an uncompromising focus on net positive impact, Norselab invests in fast-growing, meaningful companies that ignite radical changes in traditional industries. Norselab established their internationally regulated fund structure in 2020, and closed their first venture fund, Norselab Meaningful Equity I, in 2021. Norselab is currently scaling up its activities, and plans to launch several new funds in 2022, all with impact at their core. About Ness, Risan Partners Ness, Risan Partners AS (NRP) is an independent and privately-owned investment firm. Its clients include family offices, private investors, investment companies, foundations, trusts and institutional investors. NRP offers direct investment and fund solutions within the real estate, shipping and offshore sectors. The company was founded in 2000 by Christian Ness and Ragnvald Risan, and has more than 70 employees and an AUM of more than 1Billion. Interviews on request. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220104005857/en/ Contacts: Media contact: Maria de Perlinghi Partner, Impact Communications at Norselab +47 92221959 maria@norselab.com BOSTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2022 / This Saturday, January 8th, over 150 friends and family of Boston resident Cathy Nally will be gathering at Carson Beach in South Boston at 1:00 pm to participate for the first annual Rally 4 Nally Polar Plunge to help raise awareness and support for Cathy's fight against ALS. Cathy was diagnosed in October 2020 and her children, Dan and Betsy Nally have already raised over $150,000 to support their mom and help others who are fighting for their lives from this disease. Dan and Betsy have always been philanthropic and are no strangers to the Boston non-profit world. As kids, growing up in Westwood, they worked with the Greater Boston Food Bank to provide turkeys during thanksgiving to thousands of needy families in the region. Following the Polar Plunge will be a fun and casual reception with food, cocktails, raffles, games, and more at the Venezia Restaurant. Date: Saturday, January 8, 2022 Time: 12:00 - 1:00 pm - Polar Plunge at Carson Beach, William J. Day Blvd, Boston 2:00 - 6:00 pm - Reception at Venezia Restaurant, 20 Ericsson St, Boston, MA 02122 Additional things that may be of interest: The Plunge is also a tribute to Pete Frates to build upon his momentum in his fight with ALS. His brother Andrew Frates is a friend and advisor to the Nally's. Over 130 blonde wigs will be distributed to Plunge participants as a fun hat tip to Cathy's legendary hair, which will hopefully be an unforgettable visual and memory for everyone attending. The Plunge coincides with Cathy's birthday which is January 4th. The effort for the Plunge is also bringing attention to Cathy's advocacy work, which helped lead to the bipartisan and groundbreaking Act for ALS which was signed by President Biden into law on December 23rd. Let us know if you would like to send a crew or photographer to cover this event. Cathy, Dan and Betsy will all be available for interviews and comments. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday and appreciate your assistance in helping us raise awareness for ALS. For additional information, visit https://givebutter.com/rally4nally. For further information, contact: Amy Riemer, Communications Director 978-502-4895 (mobile) amy@riemercommunications.com SOURCE: Rally 4 Nally View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/680925/Rally-4-Nally-Polar-Plunge-to-Raise-Money-and-Awareness-for-ALS-Taking-Place-at-Carson-Beach-on-Saturday-January-8th People scan QR codes on mobile phones to enter a restaurant in Seoul, Dec. 14. Korea Times photo by Ko Young-kwon By Lee Hyo-jin Since the implementation of the vaccine pass system in early December, Hyun Dae-ok, a Gyeonggi Province resident in his 60s, has had to ask for help every time he visits a cafe or restaurant. For a blind person like Hyun, scanning a QR (quick response) code on his mobile phone, to provide proof of his COVID-19 vaccination record, is virtually impossible without the help of someone else. "I have to ask a staff member to scan the QR code for me or have another person hold my hands to show me where the check-in scanner is. It is very challenging to do it myself, especially when there are people standing in line behind me," he told The Korea Times. COOV, the smartphone application for vaccine certification offered by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), is not easy for Hyun to use either. "I've been told to update the app to link my booster shot certificate to the Naver or KakaoTalk apps, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do this by myself," he said. Showing either proof of one's vaccination through the QR code-based vaccine pass system, or a negative PCR test result from within the last two days, is mandated by the government upon entering multiuse facilities, and has now become a part of daily life for people in Korea. While the contactless and convenient technology has gained huge popularity in the pandemic era, it has inadvertently been blocking easy access to marginalized segments of the population, including people with visual impairments who function via sounds and touch on a daily basis. As the government plans to expand the vaccine pass to department stores and large retailers from Jan. 10, groups such as the visually impaired are demanding that the government make the system more inclusive. "It is highly disappointing that COOV, an app operated by the government, is inconsiderate of users with disabilities," said Lee Yeon-joo, an official at the Korea Blind Union. The union has recently conducted monitoring of Android and iOS versions of the app, which found that both have failed to meet the mobile accessibility guidelines for visually impaired people. "We have sent the monitoring results to the KDCA, calling for improvements to the app as soon as possible, or to come up with other verification measures that are easily accessible to people with disabilities," he said. Although the government offers paper vaccination records which can be downloaded from the KDCA website to be used instead of their digital equivalents, Lee said, "For visually impaired people, downloading and printing certificates from the website can be a bigger challenge." He added that people with low vision also suffer from other difficulties in their daily lives due to COVID-19 measures, such as the antimicrobial covers placed over elevator buttons that often cover braille signs. "The authorities should pay more attention to these issues, which may not seem very important for some people, but are major disruptions in the everyday lives of people with disabilities." COLORADO SPRINGS, CO / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2022 / Fortitude Gold Corp. (OTCQB:FTCO) (the "Company") announced it has filed a Plan of Operations with the Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") for the Golden Mile project located in Mineral County, Nevada, U.S.A. Proposed operations at Golden Mile include an open pit mine and heap leach process taking gold to the carbon phase, after which processing the loaded carbon into gold dore utilizing the nearby Isabella Pearl ADR plant. Fortitude Gold is a gold producer, developer, and explorer with operations in Nevada, U.S.A. focused on shareholder dividends. Fortitude Gold released an initial resource for its Golden Mile property in November 2021, which included a mineral resource of 78,500 gold ounces at a 1.13 grams per tonne grade in the indicated category, and 84,500 gold ounces at a 1.10 grams per tonne grade in the inferred category. The current Golden Mile mineral resource is located on patented claims. Company management is moving towards a production decision based on this initial project resource and is currently finalizing estimates for project capital expenditures, sustaining project capital, as well as overall project economics. Though the mineralization remains open along both strike and depth for potential expansion with infill and step-out exploration drilling, management are evaluating a production decision independent of the mineral expansion potential. The Company targets an official board level production decision for Golden Mile in the first half of 2022 based off the project's initial resource. Mr. Jason Reid, Fortitude Gold's CEO and President, commented, "We are pleased and excited to have initiated the first step in the permitting process for our Golden Mile project. As we finalize estimates on project capital expenditures and economics, this recent filing of the Plan of Operations with the BLM continues to advance the project full steam towards a production decision. Filing the Plan of Operations keeps us on track for the potential building of this mine on an expedited basis assuming that our production decision is positive. The Plan of Operations is an important submittal which initiates the first part of a larger permitting process involving additional agencies. We are excited to be consistently moving closer to building our second plus one gram per tonne gold mine, on an accelerated basis, in Nevada, U.S.A." About the Golden Mile Project The Golden Mile property is located in the Bell Mining District, Mineral County, Nevada, approximately 36 kilometers (22 miles) east of the town of Luning, Nevada. Mineralization at the property is intrusion related, with primary gold and copper mineralization associated with skarn style replacement in carbonate units. Secondary mineralization is associated with structurally controlled stockwork and breccia zones. The Company envisions taking gold to the carbon stage at the Golden Mile project, then trucking the loaded carbon to the Isabella Pearl project's permitted and operating ADR plant for final dore production. This approach, coupled with the mineralization being located on patented land, could substantially decrease project capital costs, permit times and construction timeframes in potentially building the Golden Mile project. About Fortitude Gold Corp.: Fortitude Gold is a U.S. based gold producer targeting projects with low operating costs, high margins, and strong returns on capital. The Company's strategy is to grow organically, remain debt-free and distribute substantial dividends. The Company's Nevada Mining Unit consists of five high-grade gold properties located in the Walker Lane Mineral Belt, with the Isabella Pearl gold mine in current production. Nevada, U.S.A. is among the world's premier mining friendly jurisdictions. Cautionary Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. If you are risk-averse you should NOT buy shares in Fortitude Gold Corp. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. When used in this press release, the words "plan", "target", "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and "expect" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the statements regarding the Company's strategy, future plans for production, future expenses and costs, future liquidity and capital resources, and estimates of mineralized material are forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon information available to the Company on the date of this press release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this press release. In particular, the scope, duration, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mining operations, Company employees, and supply chains as well as the scope, duration and impact of government action aimed at mitigating the pandemic may cause future actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. Also, there can be no assurance that production will continue at any specific rate. Contact: Greg Patterson 719-717-9825 greg.patterson@fortitudegold.com www.Fortitudegold.com SOURCE: Fortitude Gold Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/680928/Fortitude-Gold-Submits-Golden-Mile-Project-Plan-of-Operations BUFORD, GA / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2022 / Masterbeat Corporation (OTC PINK:MSTO), a company specializing in hard, tangible asset acquisitions with an intense focus on real estate, collectible classic automobiles, and other tangible assets, is pleased to announce it has sold its 183 Rolling Dunes, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida beach property for $4.25 Million ($4,250,000). The land acquisition and construction costs for this property are $1.85 Million ($1,850,000) which realizes a $2.4 Million ($2,400,000) gross profit for the Company. In February of 2021, SBQ announced the acquisition and purchase of a parcel of land (183 Rolling Dunes) in a high-end area located in the sunny beach town of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. The Rolling Dunes lot was purchased for $400,000, with an estimated construction cost of $1,450,000, for an "all in" cost of $1,850,000. At the time, comparable properties in the immediate area were selling for between $2.5 Million and $3.2 Million and generating an annual rental revenue of approximately $300,000 per year. In July, 2021, SBQ announced that SBQ had broken ground and was going to be starting construction on the 183 Rolling Dunes asset. In August, 2021, they announced the lot was cleared and construction had started. In October of 2021, the 183 Rolling Dunes property was listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) with an asking price of $4.25 Million. In December, 2021, SBQ received an all-cash offer and agreed to sell the property for the asking price of $4.25 Million. The funds are in escrow until the completion of the build which is still expected to be completed in April, 2022. The 183 Rolling Dunes property will realize a gross profit of $2.4 Million ($2,400,000) and, after the Realtor Commission of 4 % ($170k), a net profit of $2.23 Million ($2,230,000) for the Company. SBQ's 183 Rolling Dunes, Santa Rosa property is the first of multiple custom 5,000 sq. ft. vacation style homes that SBQ will be constructing in the Florida Panhandle. SBQ recently announced the acquisition of three additional properties in the area that will be constructed throughout 2022. SBQ will be implementing an aggressive land acquisition strategy throughout the year. The Company plans to use proceeds from its recently filed Regulation A capital raise to purchase additional, already identified, parcels of land followed by traditional construction financing to build these vacation style properties. SBQ's vacation style homes are custom 5,000 sq. ft. vacation style homes that feature 8 to 9 bedrooms, 8 to 9 bathrooms, 3 to 4 stories with ocean views, rooftop decks, short walks to the beach, elevators, 16-person hot tubs, fire pits, professional putting greens and can sleep up to 32 people per home. Rented Inc., recently listed the Florida Panhandle as the best location for investors to purchase vacation rental homes. Florida's northwest Gulf Coast ranked #1 on the new "100 Best Places to Buy Vacation Rentals." The report was compiled by Rented Research and Weiss Analytics ranking destinations by the cost of ownership, short-term revenue potential, acquisition cost, annual appreciation, and projected changes in asset value. The new 2020 report determined that Florida's Panhandle offers the best returns on vacation home investments over "Every Other Market" in the United States and has an index score of 98.7 out of 100. The Florida Panhandle has emerged as the clear winner as the top vacation-home investment area in the United States. See more at www.inman.com/2020/07/20/florida-is-the-no-1-state-to-purchase-a-vacation-rental/ "Pre-selling our Rolling Dunes property for $4.25 Million ($2.4 Million Gross Profit) is another major milestone for the Company and its shareholders. We proved our concept with our Verano Palace property, and we have now proved our vacation rental property business model is robust and scalable with this Rolling Dunes sale that realizes dividend-like returns," stated Josh Tannariello, CEO of Masterbeat Corp. "This property is just the first of numerous similar properties already on our books, but our plan is to truly scale up our model. We plan to strategically use our recently filed Regulation A capital raise to aggressively purchase similar land parcels. These acquisitions, paired with traditional construction loan financing (as recently announced) to build our vacation rental properties, are expected to exponentially increase our cashflow, revenues and asset values to realize a potential trading market move." About MasterBeat Corp. MasterBeat Corporation (OTC:MSTO), incorporated under the laws of Delaware, is a publicly traded company specializing in hard, tangible asset acquisitions with an intense focus on real estate, precious metals, and other tangible assets. The company believes its progressive approach to an old school model, especially in this market based on fragile earnings multiples and uncertainty, to acquire hard, tangible assets will not only offer long term capital appreciation but also deliver revenues, profits, and self-sustainability. www.masterbeatcorp.com info@masterbeatcorp.com Safe Harbor Statement This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934 that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. Although we believe that the expectations and assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Some of these uncertainties include, without limitation, the company's ability to perform under existing contracts or to procure future contracts. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties, including without limitation, successful implementation of our business strategy and competition, any of which may cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the statements. We undertake no obligation and do not intend to update, revise or otherwise publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of any unanticipated events. Although we believe that our expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will materialize. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Contact: Josh Tannariello 561-570-7050 josh@masterbeatcorp.com SOURCE: MasterBeat Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/680952/MasterBeat-Corporations-SBQ-Holdings-LLC-Sells-Rolling-Dunes-Florida-Vacation-Rental-Property-for-425-Million Department of Defense now able to Move Forward on Brain Plasticity Research Cincinnati, Ohio--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - NervGen Pharma Corp., (TSXV: NGEN) (OTCQX: NGENF) through its subsidiary, NervGen US Inc., ("NervGen" or the "Company"), a clinical stage biotech company dedicated to creating innovative treatments for nervous system damage, applauds President Biden for signing the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (FY22 NDAA) into law on December 27th, 2021. The Senate report accompanying the legislation included specific encouragement to the Department of Defense (DoD) to fund traumatic brain injury (TBI) research related to neuroplasticity therapeutics. The President's signature now allows the DoD to move forward with that research. "We are very excited about the potential applicability of NVG-291 to service-related conditions, including traumatic brain injury," said NervGen's President & Chief Executive Officer, Paul Brennan. "We believe that collaborations with the DoD will be an important part of our success. The signing of this act is an important step in enabling the programs that we have been developing with the DoD over the last year to be able to funded if approved. We look forward to working with the DoD on TBI research and other neurological conditions. This is a very encouraging sign as we set our course for an exciting 2022 for NervGen." More information about the Senate language can be found here: https://www.nervgen.com/2021/10/u-s-senate-defense-bill-includes-nervgen-supported-language-on-promise-of-brain-plasticity-therapeutics-for-traumatic-brain-injury/ About NervGen NervGen is restoring life's potential by creating innovative treatments of nervous system damage due to injury or disease. The Company is initially developing treatments for multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and Alzheimer's disease. About NVG-291 NervGen holds the exclusive worldwide rights to NVG-291 and is developing a unique new class of drugs around the technology. NVG-291 is a therapeutic peptide which is a mimetic of the intracellular domain of protein tyrosine phosphatase (protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma), a cell surface receptor known to interact with chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) and to be involved in the regulation of neuroplasticity and central nervous system repair. In preclinical studies, NVG-291 has demonstrated the potential to promote repair mechanisms in the nervous system, including axonal regeneration, remyelination, and enhanced plasticity. The demonstration of repair via these mechanisms in animal models of nervous system injury has been accompanied by recovery of multiple neurological functions, including motor, sensory, autonomic and cognitive functions. NVG-291 has shown efficacy in a range of animal models, including models of nervous system trauma (e.g. spinal cord injury, peripheral nerve injury) and disease (multiple sclerosis, stroke). For further information, please contact: Huitt Tracey, Corporate Communications htracey@nervgen.com 604.362.6209 Nancy Thompson, Vorticom Public Relations nancyt@vorticom.com 212.532.2208 Follow NervGen on Twitter (@NervgenP), LinkedIn (NervGen Pharma Corp.), and Facebook (facebook.com/nervgen/) for the latest news. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements and information herein include, but are not limited to, the Company's current and future plans, expectations and intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements, or any other future events or developments constitute forward-looking statements, and the words "may", "will", "would", "should", "could", "expect", "plan", "intend", "trend", "indication", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "likely" or "potential", or the negative or other variations of these words or other comparable words or phrases, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements relating to: the applicability of NVG-291 to service-related conditions, including traumatic brain injury; the importance of the potential DoD research funding and government agency collaborations to advance the development of therapeutics for TBI and other neurological conditions; the clinical development of NVG-291 for Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury; the belief that inhibiting the activity of protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma is a promising target for reducing the clinical effects of nervous system damage through multiple mechanisms; and the creation of innovative treatments of nervous system damage due to injury or disease. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by the Company in light of management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that we believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. In making forward-looking statements, the Company has relied on various assumptions, including, but not limited to: the Company's ability to manage the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; the accuracy of the Company's financial projections; the Company obtaining positive results in its clinical and other trials; the Company obtaining necessary regulatory approvals; and general business, market and economic conditions. Many factors could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements or future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including without limitation, a lack of revenue, insufficient funding, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, reliance upon key personnel, the uncertainty of the clinical development process, competition, and other factors set forth in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Information Form, Prospectus Supplement, financial statements and Management Discussion and Analysis which can be found on SEDAR.com. All clinical development plans are subject to additional funding. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements made in this news release. Furthermore, unless otherwise stated, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and we have no intention and undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/109051 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - Dynasty Gold Corp. (TSXV: DYG) (FSE: D5G1) (OTC Pink: DGDCF) ("Dynasty" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has received an independent mineral resource estimate report prepared in accordance with National Instrument Resource Estimate Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). The report estimates an Inferred Resource of 182,000 ounces gold and is confined to the Pelham Zone in the northern part of the Thundercloud gold project located approximately 47 km southwest of Dryden, Ontario. The NI 43-101 report was prepared by Fladgate Exploration Consulting Corporation ("Fladgate") for Dynasty based on 66 core holes totaling 12,093 meters of historic drilling within the Thundercloud database. However, approximately twenty (20) drill holes from the 1988 drill campaign were not included because the drill data could not be located. This unavailable drill data represents approximately 30% of the total drilling in the Pelham Zone that constitutes less than ten percent (10%) of the total area of the property. Cut-off grade Tonnes Au (g/t) Au (Ozs) 0.45 4,140,000 1.37 182,000 "We are encouraged by this resource estimate even though 30% of the drill data was not located at this time," states Ivy Chong. "The current mineral resource model allows us to focus on identifying specific targets to drill to potentially expand and increase the resource size. Planning to drill is underway. We will also look for the remaining 30% drill data to incorporate in any future resource estimate." About the Pelham Gold Resource The Pelham Resource of gold mineralization as presented by Fladgate is a gold vein deposit in a fractionated gabbro. Exploration in the Pelham Zone has been completed to a relatively advanced stage. The gold mineralization in the Pelham area displays relatively good continuity, allowing an estimate of the mineral resource. The gold mineralization exhibits a very strong lithologic (gabbro-sediment contact) and structural controls. Gold is present in a variety of styles including: veinlets, clots, and disseminated sulphides. Most of the drill data used to support mineral resource calculation in the Pelham Resource was from drilling carried out by Teck Resources Limited ("Teck") and Laurentian Goldfields in 2007 to 2011. Their drill holes intercepted mineralization at depths of up to 350 m below surface. Gold mineralization has been defined along a strike length of 430 m and 150 m down-dip. The mineralization trends ENE along an azimuth of 075, dips at 50 to the north and plunges gently at 25 to the ENE. Mineral resource estimation is well-constrained by three-dimensional wireframes representing geologically realistic volumes of mineralization. It is reported using economic and technical criteria such that the mineral resource has reasonable prospects of economic extraction by applying preliminary economics for potential open pit mining methods but it does not represent an economic analysis of the deposit. Grade estimation has been performed using an interpolation plan designed to minimize bias in the average grade and to provide grade estimates with a variance approximating those predicted from the variograms models and using a selective mining unit (SMU) of 5 m x 5 m x 5 m. Mineral Resources for the Project was classified under the 2014 CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves by application of a cut-off grade of 0.45 g/t Au that incorporated mining and metallurgical recovery parameters. Mineral Resources are constrained to a pit shell based on commodity prices, metallurgical recoveries and operating costs. Fladgate Recommendations Fladgate concludes that further work at Pelham is warranted to detail identified higher grade areas therein and to explore for additional potential parallel zones of mineralization in the hangingwall and footwall of the known mineralization. Fladgate confined its comments to the Pelham Resource as known. For more details, please refer to the Thundercloud NI 43-101 Technical report filed on SEDAR. Thundercloud Mining Infrastructure and Environment The property can be accessed by the TransCanada highway (Highway 17) approximately 350 km both ways from Winnipeg airport in Manitoba to the west and Thunder Bay, Ontario to the east, then by following an 11 km logging road leading to the east entry of the property. The main trans-continental Canadian Pacific Rail Line is 55 km north of the property. Most supplies and services and accommodation are available in Dryden or along Highway 17. Local experienced contractors are readily available. Exploration work can be done for most of the year, at least to the onset of the winter. Drilling, however, can occur all year round. Power is available along the TransCanada Highway and adequate water for drilling is available on the property. There are a number of large operating gold mines in the area as well as several advance-stage developing gold projects. Outside the Pelham Zone Only limited scattered exploration work has been carried out on the other 90% of the Thundercloud property. Work by Teck Resources Limited ("Teck") in 2007 and 2008 confirmed that mineralization extends south of the Pelham Zone along the west edge of the QFP and reaches the West Contact Zone. Previous geochem data returned anomalous gold values in the eastern and southern parts of the property that need to be followed up. Gabbro hosts the gold mineralization in the explored part of the Pelham deposit, and similar appearing mineralization was also discovered in other parts of the property, but no drilling has followed as yet. Richard Redfern, a "qualified person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Properties, has read the NI 43-101 report and reviewed the technical content contained in this news release. About the Thundercloud Property The Thundercloud property is in the Archean Manitou-Stormy Lakes Greenstone belt in Western Ontario. The geological setting is comparable to the Abitibi belt in Eastern Ontario but is much less explored. The belt contains numerous gold showings and several high-grade past mined deposits. In recent years, close to 30 M oz of gold have been mined and discovered. About Dynasty Gold Corp. Dynasty Gold Corp. is a Canadian exploration company currently focused on gold exploration in North America with projects located in a greenstone belt in Ontario and in the Midas gold camp in Nevada. In addition currently, Dynasty owns a 70% interest in the Hatu Qi2 gold mine in the Tien Shan Gold belt, Xinjiang, China, and is in legal dispute with Xinjiang Non-Ferrous Industrial Metals Group and its subsidiary Western Region Gold Co. Ltd. For more information, please visit the Company's website www.dynastygoldcorp.com. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DYNASTY GOLD CORP. "Ivy Chong" _________________________________ Ivy Chong, President & CEO For additional information please contact: Vancouver Office: Ivy Chong Phone: 604.633.2100. Email: ichong@dynastygoldcorp.com This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. 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. The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/109069 Brampton, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 4, 2022) - Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. (CSE: SNA) (CSE: SNA.CN) ("Star" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed its previously announced non-brokered private placement of 68,166,667 units in the capital of the Company ("Units") at a purchase price of $0.003 per Unit for gross proceeds of $2,045,000. Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company and one warrant. Each of the warrants acquired entitles the holder to purchase one (1) additional common share of the Company at five ($0.05) cents per warrant exercised. The warrants are exercisable during the five (5) year period from the date of issue. All securities issued in the Offering and any shares issued upon exercise of warrants are subject to a four month statutory hold period from the date of issuance. The net proceeds of the private placement will be used for working capital for further development of the operations, sales and marketing efforts surrounding the Star-A.D.S. system. The Company has agreed to pay finder's fees in the amount of Twelve (12%) percent of the gross proceeds in Units. The price was reserved with the CSE. The Company has also successfully converted $2,803,470 of outstanding debt (the "Debt Conversion") into 112,138,800 units (the "Debt Conversion Units"). Each Debt Conversion Unit was issued at two and a half ($0.025) per Debt Conversion Unit and consists of one (1) common share of the Company and one (1) warrant. Each of the warrants acquired entitles the holder to purchase one (1) additional common share of the Company at five ($0.05) cents per warrant exercised. The warrants are exercisable during the five (5) year period from the date of issue. All securities issued in the Offering and any shares issued upon exercise of warrants are subject to a four month statutory hold period from the date of issuance. Amir Bhatti, CEO of Star Navigation, states that, "The Company is now in a position to fulfil its mandate to secure sales and increase its brand awareness through a fulsome marketing effort of the Star-A.D.S. system." About Star Navigation: Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. has developed its proprietary, In-flight Safety Monitoring System, STAR-ISMS, the heart of the STAR-A.D.S. System. The System's real-time capability of tracking performance trends and predicting incident-occurrence enhances aviation safety and improves fleet management while reducing costs for the operator. Star's M.M.I. Division designs and manufactures high performance, mission critical, flight deck flat panel displays for defence and commercial aviation industries worldwide. These displays are found on aircraft and simulators, from P-3 Orion and C-130 aircraft, to Sikorsky and Agusta Westland helicopters, as examples. Certain statements contained in this Release constitute forward-looking statements. When used in this document, the words "may", "would", "could", "will", "expected", "intend" and similar expressions, as they relate to Star or its management or board are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect Star's current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many other factors could cause Star's actual performance or achievements to vary from those described herein. Should one or more of these factors or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Star does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this release. Please visit www.star-navigation.com or contact Mr. Amir Bhatti, CEO at 1-416-252-2889 #230 amir.bhatti@star-navigation.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/109076 LAS VEGAS and SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Motor to share its vision for robotics in the real world and metaverse under the theme 'Expanding Human Reach' to fulfill unlimited freedom of mobility to fulfill unlimited freedom of mobility Company to pioneer new 'Metamobility' concept, going beyond physical movements through robotics and the metaverse to affect change in the real world envisions that distinctions between future mobilities will become blurred through extended robotics technologies such as AI and autonomous driving to explore the possibilities of diverse mobilities such as automobiles and UAM becoming smart access devices to the metaverse platform to expand mobility solutions to Metamobility, using robots as a medium between the real and virtual worlds envisions that distinctions between future mobilities will become blurred through extended robotics technologies such as AI and autonomous driving to explore the possibilities of diverse mobilities such as automobiles and UAM becoming smart access devices to the metaverse platform to expand mobility solutions to Metamobility, using robots as a medium between the real and virtual worlds Company to also introduce new Mobility of Things (MoT) concept wherein traditionally inanimate objects will gain mobility using robotics to also reveal Plug & Drive (PnD) and Drive & Lift (DnL) modular platforms as all-in-one solutions for its unlimited MoT ecosystem to also reveal Plug & Drive (PnD) and Drive & Lift (DnL) modular platforms as all-in-one solutions for its unlimited MoT ecosystem Executive Chair Euisun Chung : "We envision future mobility solutions made possible by advanced robotics - even expanding our mobility solutions to Metamobility" : "We envision future mobility solutions made possible by advanced robotics - even expanding our mobility solutions to Metamobility" Diverse applications of PnD and DnL modules, including the recently revealed Mobile Eccentric Droid (MobED) as well as Boston Dynamics' Spot and Atlas, to be on display at the Hyundai Motor booth and Atlas, to be on display at the Hyundai Motor booth Booth visitors to experience the company's leading robots as well as its vision for Metamobility, from Jan. 5-7 Hyundai Motor Company today shared its vision for pioneering the use of robotics in both the real world and metaverse at CES 2022, one of the most influential tech events in the world, running from Jan. 5-7. The company's press day event was also livestreamed via Hyundai Motor's YouTube channel (Link). Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9003551-hyundai-motor-metamobility-concept-ces-2022 Euisun Chung, Executive Chair of Hyundai Motor Group, opened the presentation, followed by Dong Jin Hyun, Vice President and Head of Hyundai Motor Group Robotics Lab; Chang Song, President and Head of Transportation-as-a-Service (TaaS) Division of Hyundai Motor Group; and Marc Raibert, Founder and Chairman of Boston Dynamics. They were joined by Ulrich Homann, Corporate Vice President and Distinguished Architect, Cloud+AI at Microsoft. Under the main theme of 'Expanding Human Reach', Hyundai Motor's presentations reflected how the company's robotics business will drive the paradigm shift towards future mobility, going beyond the traditional means of transportation to fulfill unlimited freedom of movement for humankind. "At Hyundai, we are harnessing the power of robotics to achieve great things. We envision future mobility solutions made possible by advanced robotics - even expanding our mobility solutions to Metamobility," said Euisun Chung, the Group's Executive Chair, during his presentation. "This vision will enable unlimited freedom of movement and progress for humanity." For more information about Hyundai's Vision on New Metamobility Concept, please visit: globalpr.hyundai.com YouiBot, a Shenzhen, China-based maker of an industrial mobile robot, raised RMB300M in two Series B funding rounds. The two rounds of financing mainly come from the investment of FG Venture and Xicheng Jinrui, followed by the investment of IDG, Pine Venture, SIG, BlueRun Venture, SoftBank and HAX, and TAIHECAP was designated as the exclusive financial advisor. The investment institutions in early period include ZhenFund, C&I Capital, INNO, BOLE and XJTU 1896. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations, accelerate growth and its business reach. YouiBot is a mobile robot and solution provider in China, rooted in industrial logistics, intelligent routine inspection and operation & maintenance, specialized in production and operation scenarios of precision electronic manufacturing and energy industry and always keeps its first ranking in semiconductor and power plant. So far, the software-hardware integrated solution has been applied in semiconductor, 3C, electric power and IDC. In the 36000 m2 Frame factory of a precision electronic manufacturing head enterprise, YouiBot builds an unmanned workshop with 150 mobile robots and YOUI TMS system, realizes automatic upgrading of production and logistics of mobile phone middle frame and improves production efficiency and benefit simultaneously. So far, the company has become the cooperative partner of many famous brands in domestic and abroad such as LUXSHARE ICT, ASM, CRRC, FAST, China Huaneng, AICC, COMAC and Hitachi, covering 26 provinces and cities, with the products being exported to more than 30 countries like Japan, Korea, Singapore, Spanish and Germany. FinSMEs 03/01/2022 Civic group members hold banners displaying their demands to presidential candidates during a press conference at the headquarters of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy in Jongno District, Seoul, Tuesday. The participants denounced the candidates for shunning policy debates and making excessive tax reduction promises. Yonhap The L.A. Dodgers The L.A. Angels Both the Dodgers and the Angels Neither one of them Vote View Results Three years ago, Rwandan leader Paul Kagame closed border the nations border with Uganda Mr Kagame claimed that Uganda was interfering in Rwandas internal affairs and also harbouring elements that intended to oust him from power. He further alleged that a number of Rwandan nationals had been killed in while crossing into Uganda, an accusation he couldnt prove. Contrary to Kigalis narrative, Uganda continued to welcome Rwandans who illegally entered Uganda through porous border as Rwandan security shoots, kills and detains a number of Uganda who attempt to cross into the country. Whereas Kagame has not heeded to calls to reopen border, his government has been secretly ferrying and selling cattle into Uganda. This investigative website has established that Rwandans escorted by soldiers would smuggle the cattle using boats on River Kagitumba through the border in Nyamirama hills in Ntugamo district. The cows would then be sold on Ugandan market through their agents, said a top security official. The smuggling has been happening from the time Kagame closed the border until late last year when President Yoweri Museveni received intelligence about the development. Towards last Christmas Museveni deployed UPDF in Ntungamo to arrest the smugglers and their agents in the neighbouring towns of Kabale, Mbarara and Rwampara. In the operation led by a senior UPDF soldier at the rank of Brigadier (names withheld for security reasons) tasked the RDC David Kaboyo, the LC5 and also veterinary doctors in the district to be in the lockout. In the briefing Museveni learnt that the smugglers who are guarded by RDF bring in the cattle at night on boats with silencers to be also to bypass border patrol. A few days to Christmas 80 cows were intercepted and their smugglers arrested, said a source. Speaking to this website Ntungamo RDC David Kaboyo said its true Rwanda was illegally bringing cows into Uganda and this was identified using a huge network including Local Council leaders, DISOs and veterinary doctors. Those arrested have been taken to Court to face full arm of the law, he said. He couldnt confirm is the smuggling had stopped. SABOTAGE A stop security official who interviewed about this matter but preferred not be named revealed that Rwanda government had long been sabotaging cattle keepers in Western Uganda. Rwanda has been working with elements in Uganda to kill our beef and milk market locally and internationally, he said. He listed an example of a retired CPT Bisangwa of the director Virunga Dairy farms who used to supply milk products in Kigali but he was stopped. This official said that Rwandan cattle after smuggling it into Uganda has been sold on a lower price so as to kill our market which is has been also hard since Uganda has more cattle than them. Their actions can disorganize but they cant succeed. People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol leaves the party's headquarters on Yeouido, Seoul, Monday. Joint Press Corps By Nam Hyun-woo The presidential hopefuls of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) are suffering from a high level of distrust from both the public and members of their own political camps, and even facing calls from their own party members to be replaced with less than 70 days left until the March 9 presidential election. The election committee of PPP presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol has been almost disbanded after all of the chiefs of the committee offered to resign on Monday, in an effort to overhaul the organization amid a rapid decline in Yoon's support rate following the party's internal disputes and the candidate's continued slips of the tongue. As Yoon's gaffes continue, along with conflicts within the party, the candidate has faced mounting criticism from within the PPP over his leadership, along with calls to replace him. Such demands peaked when PPP election committee chief Kim Chong-in on Monday told Yoon to "act" according to the campaign team's direction. Along with the comment, Kim announced the decision to reform the election committee without informing Yoon beforehand, indicating that many of the decisions at the committee have been made without seeking the candidate's opinion. The moves triggered strong responses from both inside and outside the party. Yoon's primary rival within the PPP, Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, said that the comment shows that the party looks down on the candidate, while DPK Chairman Song Young-gil said that the opposition party has admitted that Yoon is nothing more than a "figurehead." Although the PPP is unlikely to replace the candidate when the election is about two months ahead, there is still anticipation that Yoon may have to form a coalition with the moderately-conservative People's Party and contend with its presidential candidate, Ahn Cheol-soo, for a single candidacy. People's Party presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo speaks to Kim Ho-il, the chairman of the Korea Senior Citizens Association, at its office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps While Yoon's support rate falters, Ahn has seen a noticeable growth in the number of backers, dropping hints that a coalition with the former doctor and software tycoon could be a viable choice for the PPP. According to a survey by Global Research, requested by broadcaster JTBC, Ahn's support rate stood at 9.1 percent, following behind Yoon with 28.1 percent and DPK candidate Lee Jae-myung with 37 percent. The poll questioned 1,012 adults from Jan. 1 to 2, and further details are available at the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission website. In response to a question about who should be the single candidate in case Yoon and Ahn form a coalition, 41.1 percent of respondents said they prefer Ahn, while 30.6 percent said they prefer Yoon. Among the respondents who said they support a Yoon-Ahn coalition, however, Yoon outpaced Ahn by 55.9 percent to 35.9 percent. So far, Ahn has been ruling out any possibility of a coalition with Yoon and the PPP. "There will be no coalition and I am the only person who can beat DPK's Lee," Ahn said during an interview with Sisa Journal. However, pundits say chances are high that the PPP will seek a coalition with Ahn, although either Yoon or Ahn will not be able to fully absorb each other's support rate. Against this backdrop, there are multiple scenarios for such a coalition, such as a primary between Ahn and Yoon after Ahn joins the PPP, or a merger of the People's Party with the PPP. Also, there is a chance that the two will hold a primary regardless of their party. Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, second from right, listens to an official at Kia's plant in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps Shawn Dennison, public affairs officer for the Frederick County Health Departments COVID-19 program, left, chats with Matthew Kuhn as he stood in line for nearly two hours last week to be tested for the COVID-19 virus at the department's testing center on Hillcrest Drive. This is our best offer! You get home delivery Monday through Saturday plus full digital access any time, on any device with our six-day subscription delivery membership. This membership plan includes member-only benefits like our popular ticket giveaways, all of our email newsletters and access to the daily digital replica of the printed paper. Also, you can share digital access with up to four other household members at no additional cost. Subscriptions renew automatically every 30 days. Call 240-215-8600 to cancel auto-renewal. Most subscribers are served by News-Post carriers; households in some outlying areas receive same-day delivery through the US Postal Service. If your household falls in a postal delivery area, you will be notified by our customer service team. Keep the conversation about local news & events going by joining us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Recent updates from The News-Post and also from News-Post staff members are compiled below. One of the reactors inside the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province / Yonhap By Ko Dong-hwan Korea has come to a fork in the road, as it seeks to decide whether or not to embrace nuclear energy and natural gas as eco-friendly resources to generate power. The challenge under pressure from experts and activists on whether to accept or ditch them, came to the fore after the European Union's Taxonomy draft text accepted them under certain conditions earlier this month. The environment ministry highlighted in a statement released Jan. 3 that the EU Taxonomy was "just a draft and will go through a scrutinizing process within EU institutions before being finalized." "The draft will require at least four months of discussions among inside agencies before entering enforcement, so we will closely monitor how these unfold and on what kinds of standards and perspectives their decisions are based," said Minister of Environment Han Jeoung-ae. The statement came after the ministry released its "K-Taxonomy" the Korean version of the EU Taxonomy last month, which excluded nuclear but accepted natural gas as environmentally friendly power sources. The decision immediately brought a backlash from those on the pro-nuclear side, who said that the country was "going against the global trend." Some said that the country has tilted toward the anti-nuclear movement that, thanks to President Moon Jae-in's like-minded energy policy, has become "some kind of obnoxious cult." This drew protests from anti-nuclear energy voices, including environmental protection groups such as Greenpeace Korea, who said that those who are against the K-Taxonomy are "trying to hold the country back from taking steps toward carbon neutrality." Environment Minister Han Jeong-ae speaks during the Glasgow Climate Change Conference in Scotland, the U.K., Nov. 4, 2021. Courtesy of the Ministry of Environment Gainesville, TX (76240) Today Variable clouds and becoming windy with thunderstorms, especially during the afternoon hours. A few storms may be severe. High 83F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. Low 53F. S winds shifting to N at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%. The Corvallis City Council unanimously allocated $30,000 for the Corvallis Police Department to use to remove abandoned/disabled recreational vehicles from city streets. The Monday, Jan. 3 discussion and vote followed a report from Corvallis police Chief Nick Hurley, who said his department currently is working on nine RV cases. The city removed five such vehicles in 2019, none in 2020 (when illegal camping enforcement was suspended) and 12 in 2021. The vehicles were described as too dilapidated to be resold. The plan is to tow and dispose of them. A key issue in the debate focused on how to fund the effort. The council landed on the funding to be split equally between mayor-City Council discretionary funds and the general fund contingency fund. The original resolution called for all $30,000 to be allocated from mayor-council discretionary funds, but several councilors expressed concerns about the council paying the full cost. Ward 4s Gabriel Shepard moved to amend the resolution and split the allocation. The amendment passed on a 7-2 vote, with Jan Napack (Ward 1) and Andrew Struthers (Ward 9) voting in opposition. In other business councilors: Unanimously approved receipt of a public art piece that will be placed in the new second-floor area of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library when the construction is completed in March. The piece, called "She Rose from the Sea," was created by Corvallis native Dale Donovan and Kalapuya elder Don Day of Stayton. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Corvallis Gazette-Times. It is intended to be floor-standing and is made of clay tile, petrified wood and arrow heads that decorate a cedar image of Marys Peak. The Marys Peak Alliance and the Marys Peak Group of the Sierra Club purchased the installation, which is being donated to the library. The piece was created in 2018 as part ARTscend Marys Peak program. The Marys Peak Alliance took Donovan and about 40 other artists up to Marys Peak and gave them one day to work on an art project on the summer solstice. The art was later displayed at eight local galleries. Initiated a process that could allow Oregon State University to move forward with plans to modify some on-campus streets. Councilors responded positively to OSUs report on the issue, which noted the key goals of improving connections for bikes, pedestrians and buses while continuing to provide access to service vehicles. We want to make it easier for people to get to and around campus without using a private vehicle, said Bob Richardson, the universitys land use manager, and this ties in with the citys goals as well. Heard a report from City Manager Mark Shepard on the annual setting of the city's transit operations fee, which is tied to gas prices in Oregon. The average price in Oregon was $3.44 per gallon in 2021, which means the fee, paid by city property owners, will rise from $2.75 per month to $3.44 per month, effective Feb. 1. The projected $204,000 in additional fee revenue brings the annual total from the fee to $895,300. The total operating budget for the transit system is $4.7 million in this fiscal year. Shepard also noted the initiation of renewal talks with Northwest Natural concerning the utility's franchise agreement with the city. The agreement is set to expire Jan. 1 with city officials hoping to conclude negotiations on a new deal by December. NW Natural currently pays the city $600,000 per year, which represents 5% of gross sales to customers within the service area. Councilors and the staff report both noted the need to keep in mind concerns about greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas. Dozens of communities nationwide have banned natural gas infrastructure in new development. Contact reporter James Day at jim.day@lee.net or 541-812-6116. Follow at Twitter.com/jameshday or gazettetimes.com/blogs/jim-day. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 3 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. During a virtual hearing on Jim Torgesons lawsuit before Superior Court Judge Jay Adleman, left, attorneys JoshuaBendor, top right, and Tim LaSota made their arguments. Gillette, WY (82718) Today Cloudy early then partly cloudy and windy this afternoon. High 53F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Partly cloudy and windy. Low 34F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. By Kim Ae-ran "Con cuore di padre. San Giuseppe: meditazioni e preghiere" (With a father's heart. Saint Joseph: Meditations and prayers), written by Luigi Maria Epicoco, an Italian priest and recently translated into Korean. This book was published by "Pauline" under the title of "Father Saint Joseph," which includes a collection of 30 meditations on Joseph, "Patris Corde" (Apostolic letter of Pope Francis) and various prayers addressed to Saint Joseph. As Saint Joseph is described as a person who is beloved, tender, obedient, hospitable, creative and courageous, a father's role in a family is usually that of a faithful and devoted worker, with similar qualities to those of Saint Joseph. My second brother-in-law who passed away at the age of 67 last December due to late stage lung cancer is no exception. In spite of all the obstacles and difficulties in his life, he did his best for his family. However, it is a pity that he enjoyed smoking too much. All of a sudden, his serious physical condition was discovered after a general medical check-up. The doctor assessed his health and told him that he could probably live for two or three months only. His family, of course, did their best to try and help him recover his health. Nevertheless, it was too late. Thanks to the efforts of the family and the grace of God, he, in preparation for death, could reconcile with all the inner hurt that had remained in his memory. One day, for some reason due to a conflict with a Catholic priest, he stopped going to church. He couldn't forgive and accept the priest who talked to him in a negative way. His pride and his sense of self-dignity were hurt so much that he began to build a barrier against the structure of the church. Because his parents passed away when he was very young, he regarded "Mary, Mother of Jesus" as his spiritual mother. Naturally, he had a very special devotion to Saint Mary and kept praying the Rosary all the time. When I visited his home during summer vacation once, I noticed that he used to hold the Rosary beads in one hand even whilst smoking. When he drove a car, he moved the beans from one place to the other. Being a member of "Regio Mariae," he kept praying the Rosary. So, when he lost consciousness in his hospital bed, he spontaneously responded to the prayer of "Hail Mary, full of grace" He truly had a loving prayer habit for the Rosary. In general, about two-thirds of Catholics are in a cold mood in terms of practicing belief. The major reason for being non-practicing is due to a busy lifestyle: maintaining a livelihood, child-rearing, financial burdens, demanding job or study obligations. The second reason is the burden for the sacrament of confession due to spiritual pain, disappointment and conflict with the priest or religious person. The third reason is the post-modern phenomenon of a value for leisurely life, hobbies, a change of view towards belief or conflict in the family. There are still other reasons such as annoyance, being skeptical and unfaithful, alienation, maladjustment or the lack of questioning. Regardless of all the factors with ups and downs both in society and in the church, a father in any family has a special mission and responsibility for his family members. Let us appreciate their presence and give thanks to them! The author is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul (fsp.pauline.or.kr.) living and giving the Good News to the world by means of social communication. OTTAWA, Jan. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. (Cornerstone or the Company) (TSXV:CGP) (OTC:CTNXF) (FWB:GWN1) announces that, further to its news release dated December 2, 2021: https://cornerstoneresources.com/news-releases/21-23-ecuador-constitutional-court-rules-on-exploration-activities-in-the-los-cedros-protected-forest-in-the-rio-magdalena/ it was notified today of a final decision by Ecuadors Constitutional Court dated December 21, 2021 in response to ENAMIs December 6th petition for clarification (recurso de aclaracion y ampliacion) of parts of the decision referred to in the December 2, 2021 news release. The final decision of the Constitutional Court reaffirms the revocation of the environmental permit (registro ambiental) for the Rio Magdalena Project. Cornerstone is consulting with legal counsel to determine what rights and remedies Cornerstone may have, including under the 1996 Canada-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty, unilaterally terminated by Ecuador in 2018 but which has a 15 year survival/sunset clause. Cornerstone will provide an update after such consultations. About the ENAMI EP - Cornerstone Strategic Exploration Alliance (SEA) On June 14, 2016, Cornerstone announced that its Ecuadorean subsidiary, Cornerstone Ecuador S.A. (CESA), had signed a Spanish language Agreement, or Acuerdo de Colaboracion e Inversion para el Desarrollo Conjunto de Proyectos de Exploracion Minera with Ecuadors State Mining Company, Empresa Nacional Minera Empresa Publica (ENAMI EP), creating a structure to jointly prospect and explore for mineral deposits in Ecuador (the ENAMI-CESA Strategic Exploration Alliance or SEA). The Espejo, Rio Magdalena, and Playa Rica blocks were identified and ranked by Cornerstone in 2015-2016 as highly prospective after an exhaustive analysis of public and private information available at the time, reserved by CESA after the opening of the cadastral map and then the reservations were transferred to ENAMI for inclusion in the SEA. On March 6, 2017, Cornerstone announced that ENAMI had been granted a number of mineral concessions in Imbabura and Carchi provinces in the same area as the Cascabel (SolGold/Cornerstone) and Llurimagua (Codelco/Enami) concessions, for exploration by the SEA. Nine concession titles totaling around 42,000 hectares were granted in 2017 by the Ministry of Mining (now the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources). For more information about the ENAMI-CESA SEA, please see Cornerstone news release 16-12 dated June 14, 2016 https://cornerstoneresources.com/news-releases/16-12-cornerstone-signs-definitive-joint-exploration-agreement-with-ecuadors-state-mining-company-enami-ep/ About Cornerstone Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Ecuador and Chile, including the Cascabel gold-enriched copper porphyry joint venture in northwest Ecuador. Cornerstone has a 20.8% direct and indirect interest in Cascabel comprised of (i) a direct 15% interest in the project financed through to completion of a feasibility study and repayable at Libor plus 2% out of 90% of its share of the earnings or dividends from an operation at Cascabel, plus (ii) an indirect interest comprised of 6.86% of the shares of joint venture partner and project operator SolGold Plc. Exploraciones Novomining S.A. (ENSA), an Ecuadoran company owned by SolGold and Cornerstone, holds 100% of the Cascabel concession. Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including SolGolds fully funding the project through to feasibility, SolGold Plc will own 85% of the equity of ENSA and Cornerstone will own the remaining 15% of ENSA. Qualified Person Yvan Crepeau, MBA, P.Geo., Cornerstones Vice President, Exploration and a qualified person in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for supervising the exploration program at the Rio Magdalena project for Cornerstone and has reviewed and approved the information contained in this news release. Investor Inquiries Further information is available on Cornerstones website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on Twitter. For investor, corporate or media inquiries, please contact ir@cornerstoneresources.ca, or: Investor Relations: Mario Drolet; Email: Mario@mi3.ca; Tel. (514) 904-1333 Due to anti-spam laws, many shareholders and others who were previously signed up to receive email updates and who are no longer receiving them may need to re-subscribe at http://www.cornerstoneresources.com/ Cautionary Notice: This news release may contain Forward-Looking Statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of Cornerstones beliefs, plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The words potential, anticipate, forecast, believe, estimate, intend, trends, indicate, expect, may, should, could, project, plan, or the negative or other variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes that its expectations reflected in these Forward-Looking Statements are reasonable, such statements may involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in our regulatory filings, viewed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets, predicting natural geological phenomena and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of an environmental, climatic, natural, political, economic, business, competitive, or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes the facts and information contained in this news release to be as correct and current as possible, Cornerstone does not warrant or make any representation as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or information contained herein and these statements should not be relied upon as representing its views after the date of this news release. While Cornerstone anticipates that subsequent events may cause its views to change, it expressly disclaims any obligation to update the Forward-Looking Statements contained herein except where outcomes have varied materially from the original statements. On behalf of the Board, Brooke Macdonald President and CEO 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. Oslo, 4 January 2022: In line with the terms adopted by the Annual General Meeting of Scatec ASA in 2021, the Board of Directors continue the share-based incentive programme for leading employees of the company, following the same principles as previous years. Today, a total of 1,049,596 share options were granted to leading employees, including the following primary insiders: Raymond Carlsen, CEO: 43,183 Mikkel Trud, CFO: 30,345 Torstein Berntsen, EVP Power Production & Asset Management: 26,844 Pal Helsing, EVP Solutions: 26,844 Roar Haugland, EVP Sustainable Business & HSSE: 23,342 Terje Pilskog, EVP Project Development & Project Finance: 29,178 Snorre Valdimarsson, EVP General Counsel: 25,677 Toril Haaland, EVP People & Organisation: 22,175 Jarl Kosberg, EVP Project Development Hydropower: 26,844 Andreas Austrell, VP Investor Relations: 9,946 Each share option gives the right to subscribe for and be allotted one share in Scatec ASA. The strike price of the options is set to NOK 150.79 per share based on the volume weighted average share price over the ten last trading days preceding the grant date of 4 January 2022. The options will lapse if not exercised by 1 January 2026. The option grant is divided into three tranches whereby 1/3 vests each year over three years, with the first tranche vesting 1 January 2023. The current grant is the third of three contemplated annual grants of share options in accordance with Scatecs share-based incentive programme. Attached is an overview of the primary insiders total numbers of share options. For further information, please contact: Andreas Austrell, VP Investor Relations tel: +47 974 38 686, email: andreas.austrell@scatec.com About Scatec ASA Scatec is a leading renewable power producer, delivering affordable and clean energy worldwide. As a long- term player, Scatec develops, builds, owns and operates solar, wind and hydro power plants and storage solutions. Scatec has more than 3.5 GW in operation and under construction on four continents and more than 500 employees. The company is targeting 15 GW capacity in operation or under construction by the end of 2025. Scatec is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SCATC. To learn more, visit www.scatec.com or connect with us on Linkedin. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to the Market Abuse Regulation article 19 and section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading act. Attachment CALGARY, Alberta, Jan. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canacol Energy Ltd. ("Canacol" or the "Corporation") (TSX:CNE; OTCQX:CNNEF; BVC:CNEC) is pleased to provide the following information concerning its December 2021 natural gas sales, the Clarinete 6 development well, near term drilling plans for 2022, and the Corporations normal course issuer bid. Gas sales averaged 183 MMscfpd for December 2021 Realized contractual natural gas sales (which are gas produced, delivered, and paid for) were 183 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfpd) for December 2021. Clarinete 6 development well encounters 174 feet of net gas pay The Clarinete 6 development well was spud on December 9, 2021 and reached a total depth of 7,478 feet measured depth on December 15, 2021. The well encountered 174 feet true vertical depth of net gas pay with an average porosity of 22% within the primary Cienaga de Oro sandstone reservoir target. The Clarinete 6 well was tied into the Clarinete production manifold and has been placed on permanent production. Near term drilling program The rig is currently mobilizing to drill the Toronja 2 development well, which is targeting gas bearing sandstones within the Porquero sandstone reservoir. Toronja 2 is anticipated to take approximately 3 weeks to drill and complete, and will be tied into permanent production by late January 2022. Following the completion of the Toronja 2 well, the rig will be mobilized to spud the Carambolo 1 exploration well, which the Corporation anticipates spudding in the latter half of February 2022. The Carambolo 1 exploration well will take approximately 5 weeks to drill and complete. Normal course issuer bid During December 2021, the Corporation repurchased 369,800 shares at an average price of $3.18 per share. Since May 25, 2021 the Corporation has repurchased a total of 3,348,500 shares at an average price of $3.24 per share. About Canacol Canacol is a natural gas exploration and production company with operations focused in Colombia. The Corporation's common stock trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the OTCQX in the United States of America, and the Colombia Stock Exchange under ticker symbol CNE, CNNEF, and CNE.C, respectively. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, including without limitation statements relating to estimated production rates from the Corporation's properties and intended work programs and associated timelines. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Corporation cannot assure that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. They are made as of the date hereof and are subject to change and the Corporation assumes no obligation to revise or update them to reflect new circumstances, except as required by law. Prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. These factors include the inherent risks involved in the exploration for and development of crude oil and natural gas properties, the uncertainties involved in interpreting drilling results and other geological and geophysical data, fluctuating energy prices, the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated costs or delays and other uncertainties associated with the oil and gas industry. Other risk factors could include risks associated with negotiating with foreign governments as well as country risk associated with conducting international activities, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Corporation. Realized contractual gas sales is defined as gas produced and sold plus gas revenues received from nominated take or pay contracts. LAS VEGAS, Jan. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JuiceBar, a commercial EV charger manufacturer based in Connecticut, entered the home charging market today with the release of a 48-amp charger that it calls the Cheetah. Amps measure the speed at which a car charges, making the Cheetah one of the fastest chargers on the home market. Our new home charger combines the speed and unparalleled reliability of our commercial chargers with a smart interface that will impress every EV driver, said JuiceBar CEO Paul Vosper. Vosper said that the Cheetah will be Made in the USA, just like our commercial chargers. EV infrastructure is a national priority, added Vosper. Instead of meeting our goals with flimsy, foreign-built chargers, we intend to achieve them with US-made products that support American jobs. The Cheetah will be compatible with all EV models. The home version will be available in 32, 40, and 48-amp configurations and will include dual safety relays, a smart mobile app, and a 3-year warranty. Options include an extra-long 25-foot cord and a cord retractor. Amy Harris, JuiceBars Chief Marketing Officer, said that the company will soon be announcing plans to offer customers an option to make their EVs 100% carbon neutral through the purchase of certified renewable energy credits that offset the cars carbon footprint. About JuiceBar JuiceBar is a pioneer in EV charging stations and has been committed to building a global EV charging infrastructure since 2009. JuiceBar chargers are manufactured and assembled in America and can be found in hundreds of cities throughout North America. Our commercial chargers offer unique safety features, OCPP connectivity, and charge times that are 60-250% faster compared to most Level 2 chargers. We are recognized for our technology, superior user experience, custom branded charger designs, and our ability to consult and guide buyers through a cost-effective transition to e-mobility solutions. To learn more visit: www.JuiceBarCharger.com . Media Contact Nicole Robinson Skyya PR for JuiceBar nicole@skyya.com ph: (763) 229-1739 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/88f97f47-eeec-4fbe-ac0c-c63b79e64674 By Kaushik Basu NEW YORK U.S. President Joe Biden's recent Summit for Democracy was an important global event, but it slipped by almost unnoticed. With democratic norms fraying from Southeast Asia to Central Europe, Biden was right to warn of "the sustained and alarming challenges to democracy and universal human rights." But too few acknowledge that rising authoritarianism around the world, like climate change and the evolution of lethal viruses, can pose an existential risk to humanity. Most people do not appreciate the extent to which civilizations depend on pillars of norms and conventions. Some of these have evolved organically over time, while others required deliberation and collective action. If one of the pillars buckles, a civilization could well collapse. Efforts to counter the current threats to democracy should start with the fact that every economy is embedded in culture and institutions. As Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson have argued, long-run growth may depend more on institutions than on anything else. But institutions are not always exogenous. As the growing field of cultural evolution shows, human beings are adaptive learners who rely, often unwittingly, on social learning to entrench norms that are necessary for a society to flourish. Likewise, Avinash Dixit and Simon Levin argue that, in some contexts, we may need to take deliberate steps to instill pro-social preferences that can help us adapt to our changing world. We can do this through education, and by deliberating and deciding as citizens to promote certain kinds of collective behavior. That is what happened when delegates from American states convened in Philadelphia in 1787 to revise the existing Articles of Confederation and ended up drafting the U.S. Constitution, which became the cornerstone of the new country's long-term growth and prosperity. We are in a similarly challenging situation today, as cross-border flows of goods, services, and capital flatten the world economically. The rapid advance of digital technology, accelerated over the last two years by the COVID-19 pandemic, is causing huge strains. Increased outsourcing of production has contributed to hyper-nationalism, which in turn is fueling the rise of anti-democratic leaders who exploit people's desperation. These changes have come so swiftly that deliberate collective action is needed to defend democracy. We do not have the luxury of waiting for our norms and institutions to evolve. Fortunately, we are better equipped for this task today than ever before, because of a methodology that we lacked a century ago. Game theory, which began as an abstruse, mathematical discipline, is now a staple of the social sciences, from economics to politics, in domains such as moral contracts and the negotiation of conventions and constitutions. To understand the power of such strategic analysis, consider why some authoritarian leaders, like former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, succumb to popular rebellion, while others, like Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, remain in power. When a vast majority of a country's population is ready to rebel, as seemed to be the case in Belarus in the summer of 2020, and the leader has limited capacity to suppress the uprising, how can he or she prevail? To address this question, I developed an allegory I call the Incarceration Game. One million citizens of a particular country want to join a rebellion to overthrow the tyrannical leader, who can catch and jail at most 100 rebels. With such a low probability of being caught, each person is ready to take to the streets. The leader's situation looks hopeless. Suppose he nonetheless announces that he will incarcerate the 100 oldest people who join the uprising. At first sight, it appears that this will not stop the rebellion, because the vast number of young people will have no reason to abandon it. But, if people's ages are common knowledge, the outcome will be different. After the leader's announcement, the 100 oldest people will not join the revolt, because the pain of certain incarceration is too great even for a good cause. Knowing this, the next 100 oldest people also will not take part in the revolution, and nor will the 100 oldest people after them. By induction, no one will. The streets will be empty. Authoritarian rulers' intentional or unwitting use of such an approach may help to explain why earlier revolts crumbled when on the verge of success. To demonstrate this empirically in history or in recent cases, like that of Belarus or Myanmar, will require data that we do not have yet. The Incarceration Game is a purely logical conjecture. What it does, importantly, is to remind us that toppling a dictator requires a strategy to foil such a tactic. Good intentions alone are not sufficient; the upholding of democracy needs a strategy based on sound analysis. So do we. Today, we can marshal this kind of strategic analysis to advance the honorable aims that motivated Biden's Summit for Democracy. In some respects, the world is now at a similar stage to that of late-eighteenth-century America. We need a minimal global constitution that provides a set of guarantees, like basic human rights and press freedom, and authorizes countries to intervene when a government violates these fundamental rules. This will have to rely on creating an edifice of self-enforcing beliefs. Drafting such a universal constitution cannot be left to any particular country, however democratic and powerful it may be, because self-interest will invariably intrude. If the United States took on this task, then no matter what the initial intention, it would end up defending its own economic interests in the name of helping the world, as it has done many times already. While Biden should be applauded for taking the lead on reinvigorating democracy, he should establish an autonomous group to draft the necessary strategy and then create an autonomous multilateral authority to help achieve it. It would, of course, be naive to think this will be easy. But we have an existential reason to try. Kaushik Basu, a former chief economist of the World Bank and chief economic adviser to the Government of India, is professor of economics at Cornell University and a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. This article was distributed by Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org). Pune, India, Jan. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global medical nonwoven disposables market has been anticipated to value USD 2,280.6 million in 2021 and grow at a CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period, according to a recent report by Quince Market Insights. Rapid advancements in nonwoven production technology, increased focus on reducing hospital acquired infections (HAIs), and improvements in healthcare services and infrastructure across emerging regions are the major factors driving the global medical nonwoven disposables market. Furthermore, rise in disposable income, growing health awareness, and a significant increase in the aging population are contributing to market growth. Get Sample Copy of This Report @ https://www.quincemarketinsights.com/request-sample-60784 The market for medical non-woven disposables is estimated to grow due to growing aging population affected by dementia and other chronic diseases. Dementia is a syndrome marked by a loss of control as well as sensory impairments that can be caused by a variety of factors. According to the World Health Organization, dementia is becoming more common around the world, with approximately 10 million new cases reported each year. Medical nonwoven disposable products like diapers and underwear are required for these patients, as these products help reduce the disability caused by urinary incontinence. The market is projected to grow due to the availability of high-quality incontinence products for the aging population with chronic diseases. Moreover, increased government support for patients in emerging countries that require continence care will have a positive impact on market growth. Both public and private organizations are working to educate people about the benefits of incontinence products and to promote them. In developing countries like India and China, such initiatives help to raise the awareness about incontinence products. However, environmental degradation caused by incontinence product disposal can hamper the global market growth to some extent during the forecast period. Global Medical Nonwoven Disposables Market, by Product Based on product, the global medical nonwoven disposables market is divided into wound dressings, incontinence products, and surgical products. The incontinence products segment is anticipated to be the fastest growing segment during the forecast period. Incontinence products include disposable absorbent products, such as absorbent pads, baby diapers, incontinence pants, protective underpants, and feminine hygiene and related products. Injury, aging, disease, or other external factors can lead to the loss of ability to control bladder incontinence or fecal incontinence in adults. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the prevalence of urinary incontinence ranges from 9.9% to 36.1% and reported to be twice in older women than older men. This impacts the quality life of older people, their health, and need for care. Thus, the rising prevalence of urinary incontinence is expected to promote the growth of the incontinence products segment. Global Medical Nonwoven Disposables Market, by Material Based on material, the global medical nonwoven market is segmented as polyamides and polyesters, acrylic, rayon, acetate, polyethylene, and polypropylene. The acrylic segment is estimated to be the fastest growing segment during the forecast period. Acrylic, also known as polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), is a medical grade plastic that has long been used in the production of medical devices and implants, such as intraocular lens implants, bone cement, cranial implants, and medical devices that require impact strength, chemical resistance, biocompatibility, and clarity. Acrylic is currently used to make cuvettes and tubing connectors in the medical industry. It is also used to make test kits, syringes, luers, blood filters, and drainage wands, as well as flowmeters, blood-pump housings, fluid silos, surgical-blade dispensers, incubators, and surgical trays. Global Medical Nonwoven Disposables Market, by End User Based on end user, the global medical nonwoven disposables market is segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, clinics, nursing homes, consumer and home health care. The ambulatory surgical centers segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment in the global medical nonwoven disposable market during the forecast period. During the projected timeframe, the growing burden of chronic diseases in both developing and developed economies is expected to drive the ambulatory surgical centers segment market. Furthermore, the rising prevalence of chronic diseases in adults as well as in the geriatric population is increasing the demand for outpatient surgery centers, which provide superior healthcare treatment services at an affordable cost to patients. As a result, the rising prevalence of chronic diseases is expected to augment the segment growth. Enquiry Before Buying This Report @ https://www.quincemarketinsights.com/enquiry-before-buying/enquiry-before-buying-60784 Global Medical Nonwoven Disposables Market, by Region Based on the region, the medical nonwoven disposables market is divided into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America. Europe is expected to be the fastest growing region in the medical nonwoven disposables market during the forecast period. The rapidly growing geriatric population base is a major driver for the European medical nonwoven disposables market, as aging is considered one of the greatest risk factors for the development of incontinence. In addition, people of this age group are more likely to accept their symptoms and use products for incontinence. Urinary incontinence (UI) affects 10% to 20% of the population across Europe and is a widespread disability and debilitation. In 2016, approximately 60 million people in Europe experienced UI. The increasing number of incontinence patients during the forecast period in Europe are expected to contribute to the regional medical nonwoven disposables. Some Noted Developments Considered in the Report: April 2021- PFNonwovens (Czech Republic) announced investment into the new technology in Znojmo, the Czech Republic, to make premium, aperture, and 3D pattern fabrics, which will expand its product portfolio in hygiene and medical applications May 2020- Berry Global, Inc. (U.S.) announced a capital investment in South America's meltblown nonwoven fabric capacity. This investment has expanded company's global presence and has solidified its position as the world's leading nonwovens manufacturer. This line is Berry's first meltblown asset in South America, based on its Meltex technology. It continues to meet the demand for health and wellness products. More than 400 metric tonnes of Meltex meltblown nonwoven material will be delivered to the region, allowing for the production of more than 500 million surgical-grade masks per year. September 2019- Unicharm Corporation (Japan), Asia's largest hygiene products company, announced that it would buy out the entire stock of DSG International, a Southeast Asian diaper as well as absorbent product manufacturer. The USD 530 million deal is one of Unicharm's biggest foreign acquisitions to date, and it significantly expands Unicharm's product line of diapers in Southeast Asia while adding manufacturing capacity in new countries for the Tokyo-based company. September 2019- Smiths Medical announced a distribution partnership with Medline Industries (U.S.) for the portex acapella choice vibratory PEP therapy device. This expanded distribution collaboration will concentrate on the non-acute and home care channels. This collaboration with Smiths Medical will expand Medline's portfolio of patient-centeric solutions that are linked to better outcomes. COVID-19 Impact on the Market The QMI team has closely monitored the impact of COVID-19 on the global medical nonwoven disposables market and has observed the heavy impact of COVID-19 outbreak. The novel coronavirus that emerged in 2019 is causing a surge in demand for disposable medical supplies around the world. Domestic nonwoven producers are ramping up production to meet the increased demand for masks, protective suits, and other nonwoven-intensive disposable medical supplies that can be used to prevent the spread of coronavirus. As a result of the crisis, the nonwovens industry has almost split into two distinct industries - disposable and long-lasting. The disposable nonwovens industry is experiencing high levels of utilization, as it offers products that are crucial for healthcare and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. The longer this phase of the crisis lasts, the more disposable nonwovens are expected to be consumed. The long-lasting or durable nonwovens industry, on the other hand, is primarily made up of products that are heavily influenced by the global economy. The longer the economic crisis lasts, the lower will be the level of consumption of durable nonwovens. The two parts of the industry will, therefore, balance the impact of COVID-19 on the global nonwovens market as a whole. Major Findings of the Global Medical Nonwoven Disposables Market Report Include: An in-depth global medical nonwoven disposables analysis by the segments, along with an analysis of trend-based insights and factors Profiles of the major key market players operating in the global medical nonwoven disposables market include: Berry Global Inc. (U.S.), Asahei Kasei Corporation (Japan), Paul Hartmann AG (Germany), Kimberley-Clark Corporation (U.S.), Cardinal Health, Inc. (U.S.), Unicharm Corporation (Japan), Advanced Fabrics (SAAF) (Saudi Arabia), and Others. Competitive benchmarking, product offering details, growth strategies adopted by the leading market players, along with their major investments in the last five years Key impact factor analysis across regions includes analysis, along with drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges that are prevailing in the global medical nonwoven disposables market Browse key industry insights spread across 155 pages with 85 market data tables and 41 figures & charts from the report, Global Medical Nonwoven Disposables Market , by Product (Surgical Products, Incontinence Products, Wound Dressings), Material (Polyamides and Polyesters, Acrylic, Rayon, Acetate, Polyethylene, Polypropylene), End User (Hospitals, Clinics, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, Clinics, Nursing Homes, Consumer and Home Health care), Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, South America) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2030 in-depth analysis along with the table of contents (ToC). Buy Now Full Report @ https://www.quincemarketinsights.com/insight/buy-now/medical-nonwoven-disposables-market/single_user_license Contact Us: Ajay D Quince Market Insights Pune India Phone: US +1 208 405 2835 UK +44 1444 39 0986 APAC +91 706 672 4848 Email: sales@quincemarketinsights.com Web: www.quincemarketinsights.com Browse Related Reports: Medical Plastics Market, By Type (Polyvinyl Chloride, Polypropylene, Engineering Plastics, Polyethylene, Polystyrene, Silcones, Others), By Application (Disposables, Medical Bags, Catheters, Syringes, Implants, Surgical Instruments, Diagnostic Instruments, Dental Tools, Drug Delivery Devices, Others), By Region (North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Rest of the World) Market Size & Forecasting (2016-2028) https://www.quincemarketinsights.com/industry-analysis/medical-plastics-market Veterinary Equipment and Disposables Market, By Product (Consumables, Anesthesia Machines, Ventilators, Patient Monitoring, Oxygen Masks, Infusion Pumps), By Animal (Cats, Dogs, Equines, Bovines), By End User (Hospitals, Clinics), By Region (North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Rest of the World) Market Size & Forecasting (2016-2028) https://www.quincemarketinsights.com/industry-analysis/veterinary-equipment-and-disposables-market Latex Medical Disposables Market, By Product Type (Latex Gloves, Latex Foley Catheters, Latex Probe Covers, Urine Bags), By End User (Hospitals, Clinics, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, Clinics, Diagnostic Centers), By Region (North America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Rest of the World) Market Size & Forecasting (2016-2028) https://www.quincemarketinsights.com/industry-analysis/latex-medical-disposables-market Foodservice Disposable Distribution System Market, By Product Type (Tableware Disposables, Finger Food Disposables, and Durable Plastic Glasses), By Distribution Channel (Wholesale and Retail), By Application (Restaurants, Bars and Pubs, Clubs, Foodservice Providers and Caterers, and Others), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America) Market Size & Forecasting To 2028. SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman urges ReneSola Ltd. (NYSE: SOL) investors with significant losses to submit your losses now. The firm is investigating possible securities law violations. Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/SOL Contact An Attorney Now: SOL@hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895 ReneSola Ltd. (SOL) Investigation: The investigation focuses on ReneSolas statements about its purported development, construction, operation, and sales of solar power projects in Europe. More specifically, ReneSola has repeatedly touted its increasing number of late-stage projects throughout Europe, which would soon be ready to sell project rights at notice to proceed, or NTP. But, on Dec. 2, 2021, analyst Grizzly Research published a scathing report entitled We believe ReneSola is a Fraudulent Company; Most Projects Never Existed. According to the report: (1) [o]ur on the ground due diligence, filings review, and communications with local municipalities in Europe indicate SOL has been vastly misrepresenting its project development pipeline; (2) [m]ost of SOLs projects are in Europe, but our research indicates that most of these projects seemingly do not exist; (3) SOL might have fabricated projects to give the appearance of a better development pipeline and future economics; and, (4) [w]orse yet, SOL continuously categorizes projects as late-stage, and close to finalization, that our research shows to be either non-existent or delayed for years. This news drove the price of ReneSola American Depositary Shares sharply lower. Were focused on investors losses and whether ReneSola and its management lied to investors about the existence and developmental stage of its purported projects, said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation. If you invested in ReneSola and have significant losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firms investigation, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman. Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding ReneSola should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email SOL@hbsslaw.com. About Hagens Berman Hagens Berman is a national law firm with eight offices in eight cities around the country and over eighty attorneys. The firm represents investors, whistleblowers, workers and consumers in complex litigation. More about the firm and its successes is located at hbsslaw.com. For the latest news visit our newsroom or follow us on Twitter at @classactionlaw . Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mount Saint Marys University is pleased to welcome Krishauna Hines-Gaither, PhD, as the inaugural vice president for equity, diversity and justice. A highly experienced diversity educator and leader, Hines-Gaither will be responsible for guiding and coordinating campus-wide efforts to integrate diversity and inclusion into policies, practices and procedures within the University. Hines-Gaither brings to the Mount almost two decades of experience in higher education and a focus in justice, equity, diversity and inclusion scholarship and practice. Before joining Mount Saint Marys, she served as the interim vice president for diversity, equity & inclusion and the director of the Intercultural Engagement Center at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Dr. Hines-Gaither is a proven leader in DEI work in the higher education space and will be an outstanding addition to our community, said President Ann McElaney-Johnson, PhD. I am excited to welcome her to the Mount as we continue to move our work forward to become an anti-racist university. As the only womens university in Los Angeles, and one of the most diverse in the nation with 83% of students of color the University has had a commitment to social justice since its founding in 1925. Its recent commitment to becoming an anti-racist institution is one of the priorities of its strategic plan for the next five years. As the new vice president overseeing the recently renamed Bernadette Gonzaque Robert Center for Equity, Diversity and Justice, Hines-Gaither will develop recruitment and retention programs to increase diversity of faculty, staff and students at the graduate and undergraduate level; promote inclusive education and training for all members of the Mount community; support efforts to create diverse and inclusive curriculum across the University; and strengthen the Mounts offerings and engagement experiences through more effective and diverse community partnerships. I am excited to join Mount Saint Marys University during this pivotal moment in time, said Hines-Gaither. I have had the opportunity to meet several Mount community members already, and with every interaction I find a welcoming community that is deeply invested in the success of our synergistic vision for equity, diversity and justice. I look forward to building a sustainable vision with my new Mount colleagues. In sharing her vision about the Center, Dr. Hines-Gaither said, We will be a cutting-edge training center for students, staff and faculty. We will fulfill the goals of our newly minted strategic plan by increasing representation and increasing our MSMU footprint. We will work diligently to become an anti-racist university. Finally, we will pursue a publishing agenda that tells our story and that sets a standard for other EDJ centers throughout the nation. During her time at Guilford, Hines-Gaither co-chaired the colleges first staff of color committee, served on the interfaith council, and provided cutting-edge equity programming. She also chaired the diversity and inclusion councils subcommittees to increase equity in curricular/co-curricular programs and to combat bias in hiring. She previously served as the inaugural director of diversity and inclusiveness at Salem College, a womens college in North Carolina, which is also her alma mater. In that role, Hines-Gaither advised several multicultural student clubs and began the campus first large scale program for cross-cultural dialogues. Her work for inclusion has been recognized locally and nationally. Guilford College has a perfect score of 5 on the Campus Pride Index for LGBTQIA friendliness, and was named a Top 30 institution in the nation for LGBTQIA support. Guilford College became the first institution in North Carolina to hire a coordinator dedicated to immigrants and refugees of varying documentation statuses. Dr. Hines-Gaither was named a Voice for Change by Spectrum News in North Carolina honoring her commitment to inclusion. She is a frequent speaker, workshop facilitator and scholar. She has taught Spanish, race & ethnicity studies, women and gender studies and (Afro) Latin American studies. She is currently under contract with Routledge Press to author a book on anti-racism. Hines-Gaither has a bachelors degree in Spanish language and literature from Salem College and a masters in Spanish language teacher education from Wake Forest University, both in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her doctorate is in cultural studies/critical theory and analysis from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Attachment More partner-enabled options for ride-hailing, hotel booking, ticketing, fuel payments and spatial audio will complement the apps navigation experience CES 2022 HERE Technologies, the leading location data and technology platform, today announced new partners for its free mobile navigation application, HERE WeGo. With additional options beyond pure navigation from A to B, HERE WeGo will offer a comprehensive end-to-end journey experience for people on the go. Starting in the first quarter of 2022, these options will include: Ridesharing with Lyft: route planning will include ridesharing results with Lyft options; upon choosing them, the Lyft app will open with a tap of a button with all information pre-loaded to order the desired ride (in the USA and Canada). route planning will include ridesharing results with Lyft options; upon choosing them, the Lyft app will open with a tap of a button with all information pre-loaded to order the desired ride (in the USA and Canada). Accommodation reservations with Booking.com: when planning a journey, users will be able to seamlessly check property availability, prices, offers, reviews and complete payment via the Booking.com platform, all in a few tabs. when planning a journey, users will be able to seamlessly check property availability, prices, offers, reviews and complete payment via the Booking.com platform, all in a few tabs. Ticketing for inter-city journeys with FlixBus: travel options for journeys between cities will also extend to connections offered by FlixBus; with a tab of a button, users can complete the payment for the desired trip through the FlixBus portal. travel options for journeys between cities will also extend to connections offered by FlixBus; with a tab of a button, users can complete the payment for the desired trip through the FlixBus portal. Fuel payment with ryd: when in need of refueling, users will be able to find fuel stations that allow fast and secure payment with ryd; ryd enables drivers to pay directly through their phone without the need to leave their car and pay at the till (in Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg). We are excited to introduce new partners to the refreshed HERE WeGo experience. Their individual strengths and capabilities will help to make HERE WeGo a comprehensive trip companion, said Jrgen Behrens, SVP and Chief Product Officer at HERE Technologies. As strong believers in a cooperative approach around mobility, we are looking forward to add even more partners and options to HERE WeGo in 2022. HERE WeGo is a free navigation app that guides local and global travelers on journeys both familiar and foreign. Built with a privacy-first mindset, users dont have to create an account and opt-in to data sharing with HERE to calculate routes and navigate with the app. HERE WeGo offers: Voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation for 126 countries in 38 languages; Real-time traffic information for 58 countries, including traffic-related routing; Alternative routes for more flexible trip planning; Rest areas along a highway prompt for convenient rest during the trip; Speed limit alerts for enhanced road safety; Lane assistance for more precise guidance at junctions and motorway exits; Spatial audio through integrated 3D audio technology from Mach1, enhancing the orientation and situation awareness of the driver for a better guidance experience; Adding way points to create multi-stop trips; Fuel prices display (available in certain countries) help find most attractive fuel station; Integration of Apple CarPlay; Support of offline experience, from maps and search to route calculation and navigation; Public transit information in more than 1600 cities in over more than 60 countries; Shortcuts for frequent destinations; Collections to save and organize favorite places; and Easy sharing of locations. HERE WeGo is available for free as a download via the the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and the Huawei App Gallery. Media Contact Dr. Sebastian Kurme +49 173 5153549 sebastian.kurme@outlook.com About HERE Technologies HERE, a location data and technology platform, moves people, businesses and cities forward by harnessing the power of location. By leveraging our open platform, we empower our customers to achieve better outcomes - from helping a city manage its infrastructure or a business optimize its assets to guiding drivers to their destination safely. To learn more about HERE, please visit https://www.here.com and https://360.here.com. Attachment NEW YORK, Jan. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Cloopen Group Holding Limited (Cloopen or the Company) (NYSE: RAAS). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Cloopen 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 or around February 9, 2021, Cloopen conducted an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States, selling 23 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) priced at $16.00 per ADS. Then, on March 26, 2021, just over six weeks after its IPO, Cloopen published its 4Q 2020 and FY 2020 financial results. Cloopen reported 4Q 2020 revenues of just $39.6 million, $2 million short of analysts consensus, net losses of $46.8 million, representing a staggering 466.9% increase year-over-year, and operating expenses of $27.6 million, representing a 30% increase over 4Q 2019. Cloopen blamed a change in fair value of warrant liabilities of . . . US$34.4 million for Cloopens remarkable net loss and an increase in the provision for doubtful accounts resulting from increased in accounts receivables for the 59.2% increase in general and administrative expenses. On this news, Cloopens ADS price fell $2.67 per ADS, or 18.52%, to close at $11.75 per ADS on March 26, 2021. Then, on May 10, 2021, after the market closed, Cloopen filed its Annual Report on SEC Form 20-F, revealing for the first time that its dollar-based net customer retention rate for recurring solutions had hemorrhaged from 102.7% in 2019 to 86.8% by year end 2020. On this news, Cloopens ADS price fell $0.62 per ADS, or 6.47%, to close at $8.97 per ADS on May 12, 2021. Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com RADNOR, Pa., Jan. 04, 2022 (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 press release is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/29b51b2a-01c7-47db-b70b-34a206af1e0f Dallas, Texas , Jan. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Those accused of federal drug crimes believe their lawyer should file a lot of pretrial motions, and the more, the better. Usually, they are not sure what types of motions they want filed, but they often believe that filing motions shows that their lawyer is fighting for them. To answer whether it is important to file them, John Helms covers what a pretrial motion really is in the resource, Is It Important To File Pretrial Motions. Federal pretrial and Rule 12 motions of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure What are the typical pretrial motions in federal drug cases? Why motions to dismiss the Indictment are rare in federal drug cases and rarely succeed. Why motions in limine are fairly common and why they are filed. The public is encouraged to read this resource web guide Is It Important To File Pretrial Motions by downloading for free. About Federal Criminal Defense Attorney John Helms John Helms is a Dallas criminal justice trial attorney. While in the United States Attorneys office for nearly three years as a federal criminal prosecutor for the Northern District of Texas, Mr. Helms never lost a trial or an appeal. Rated Best Dallas Criminal Defense & Appeals Lawyer | Former Federal Prosecutor To learn about federal criminal defense visits https://johnhelms.attorney/federal-drug-crimes/ Because of his background prosecuting criminal cases against defendants who were facing serious jail time in Federal and State penitentiaries, he is uniquely positioned to evaluate and assess both sides of a criminal defense case. For more information visit https://johnhelms.attorney/ Media Contact William Perras 214-666-8010 Copyright: Federal Crimes and Drug Defense Lawyer John Helms Explains The New Resource - The Importance Of Filing Pretrial Motions? Attachment Gloucester, MA (01930) Today Partly cloudy this morning. A few showers developing during the afternoon. High 51F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight Occasional rain. Low 43F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Boom time for marijuana sales in Illinois, as industry expands with new products By Kim Jae-heun Korea's two main platform operators Naver and Kakao are heading for a competition in the digital healthcare sector, which is predicted to grow 19 percent annually when combined with artificial intelligence (AI) and big data. Naver will introduce the Naver Care service for its employees at its in-house hospital in the new company building in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. There, the company plans to open clinics for family medicine, rehabilitation medical treatment, otolaryngology (a medical specialty focusing on the ear, nose, throat and related parts of the head and neck) and urology and adopt AI technology developed by Naver CLOVA CIC, a subsidiary. Naver CLOVA CIC will build an electronic database using recorded communication between patients and medical workers via voice-recognition functions. The two companies are diving into the medical healthcare field because of its huge growth potential. According to market research firm GIA, the global digital healthcare industry was scaled at $152.5 billion as of 2020 and is expected to increase by 18.8 percent every year to $508.8 billion by 2027. "IT companies are actively investing in digital healthcare for its growing needs due to the recent spread of the contactless trend affected by COVID-19. At the same time, Korean society is aging at a fast rate and the proportion of chronically-ill people is increasing rapidly too," an industry source said. Kakao Brain, the AI technology research and development unit of Kakao, invested 5 billion won ($4.19 million) recently in Galux, a local bio startup, to collaborate on research to design new drugs. Kakao Ventures scouted Seoulwise Convalescent Hospital head Kim Chi-won to beef up its digital healthcare business. Yes, like every other state in the nation At least half of it No, keep funneling to the General Fund Eliminate the fuel tax Uncertain Vote View Results U.S. single-day COVID-19 cases surpass 1 million as Omicron variant continues to haunt Europe Xinhua) 15:47, January 04, 2022 WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The United States shattered a single-day record with over 1 million COVID-19 cases on Monday amid the rapid spread of Omicron variant and government decisions to ease prevention and control measures in the country. As of 0500 GMT Tuesday, the country registered about 1.07 million confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States remains the country worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's most cases and deaths. The number of new COVID-19 cases has doubled in the last seven days to an average of 418,000 a day, local media reported. "The United States reported more than 2 million coronavirus cases in one week, breaking yet another record as the Omicron variant surges across the country," reported USA Today on Saturday. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has decided to shorten the recommended times that people should isolate when they have tested positive for the virus from 10 days to five days if they don't have symptoms, a move that drew criticism from some medical experts and created confusion among the public. "The rapid spread of COVID-19's Omicron variant is weighing on U.S. businesses, keeping more workers home sick or quarantined and leading some companies to cut services and reduce hours," reported The Wall Street Journal on Monday. The rise of U.S. COVID-19 infections to record levels in recent days has resulted in thousands of canceled flights, prompted retailers to train available employees on new jobs or close some stores altogether, companies were quoted as saying. "The rapidly spreading Omicron variant is hitting businesses at a time when consumers' demand for products and services has surged, and many companies already are struggling with staffing and supply-chain challenges," said The Journal report. According to Johns Hopkins, more than 292 million COVID-19 cases and over 5.44 million related deaths have been registered worldwide. Across the Atlantic, the Omicron variant has sent Britain's daily new caseload surging over Christmas and the New Year, with 157,758 infections reported in England and Scotland on Monday. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that the country's National Health Service (NHS) will be under "considerable" pressure in the coming weeks amid the wave of the highly transmissible Omicron variant. "No question Omicron continues to surge through the country," Johnson said at a vaccination centre. "I think we've got to recognize that the pressure on our NHS, on our hospitals, is going to be considerable in the course of the next couple of weeks, and maybe more." As of Tuesday, the total number of the novel coronavirus cases in Britain surpassed 13.4 million, with more than 149,000 related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins data. On Monday, French Health Minister Olivier Veran said that January would "be tough" for French hospitals due to the spread of the Omicron variant and other diseases. "The flu has started, gastroenteritis is already there. There are other pathologies, other people who suffer from chronic diseases and need treatment. Out of 400,000 beds in hospitals today, 20,000 are already occupied by COVID-19 patients, and this is even before the impact of the Omicron wave," Veran told radio France Inter. In neighbouring Germany, daily COVID-19 infections increased to 18,518 cases, roughly 4,600 more than last week, the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said on Monday. More than 7.2 million COVID-19 infections have been officially registered in Germany, while the death toll climbed to more than 112,000, according to Johns Hopkins. The figures still showed an "incomplete picture of the epidemiological situation" due to less testing and delayed reports over the holiday season, according to Robert Koch. German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag that he was "very, very concerned about the unvaccinated who are now walking into the Omicron wave." Spain also witnessed a huge rise in the number of COVID-19 cases over the New Year. The country registered 372,766 new cases of the virus from Dec. 30 to Monday, taking the total number of infections to 6,667,511. The Spanish Ministry of Health said on Monday that the highly contagious Omicron variant was responsible for 43 percent of all cases in Spain. The country's vaccination campaign is continuing at a rapid pace, with 90.3 percent of the population aged 12 and over having received two doses of vaccine. (Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji) Airplanes of Korean Air and Asiana Airlines are parked at Incheon International Airport, Jan. 4. Yonhap The country's antitrust regulator said Tuesday it will accelerate its review of a deal by Korean Air, the country's biggest carrier, to buy the debt-ridden Asiana Airlines. In November 2020, Korean Air inked a deal to acquire a 63.88 percent stake in its smaller rival Asiana Airlines, a deal valued at 1.8 trillion won ($1.5 billion) that could create the world's 10th-largest airline by fleet numbers. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said in its 2022 policy plan that it will "swiftly and closely" review Korean Air's takeover and other deals aimed at industrial restructuring. "We expect the FTC to hold a deliberation session to make a decision in January or February," Kim Jae-shin, vice chief of the regulator, told a press briefing. The commission recently sent a report to Korean Air, which a company official said detailed conditions for approval of the takeover. Korean Air said it was closely reviewing the commission's report. The flagship carrier will have four weeks to review it, according to the regulator. If approved, the takeover is expected to reshape the country's airline sector that has been reeling from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. But critics said the conditions put forward by the regulator for approval appear to fall short of addressing a monopoly in the country's airline industry. The FTC also said it will strengthen the monitoring of unfair business activities by online platforms this year in a bid to encourage competition in the digital sector and protect consumers. The commission said it will focus on keeping close tabs on whether mobility and online shopping operators abuse their dominant market status and hamper competition. Amid a non-contact consumption trend, online platform giants, such as Naver and Kakao, have aggressively expanded into new businesses with their increased market presence. There are concerns that the powerful online platforms have abused their market status and engaged in unfair business practices against suppliers and contractors, posing a threat to the survival of small merchants. The FTC said it will also strengthen investigations into unfair business activities related to intellectual property rights in web-based cartoons, novels and music services. (Yonhap) GREENWICH With new cases surging of COVID-19, the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra announced it has postponed its concerts scheduled for this weekend. The GSO made the decision due to the need to protect the public health and the shortage of testing resources, according to a post on its website. We will notify the community as soon as we have new dates when Melisse Brunet will conduct the orchestra, the website said. All tickets purchased for this concert will be honored on the new dates. This weekends canceled concerts had been scheduled for Jan. 8 and Jan. 9 at the Performing Arts Center at Greenwich High School. We are extremely disappointed and apologize to all, the GSO said in a statement. In preparation for the concert, Brunet and William Hagen, who was scheduled to be guest soloist on the violin, held a Zoom conversation about Edouard Lalo's, Symphonie Espagnole. To watch, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_BYe0f3FGA&t=174s. The Greenwich Symphony Orchestras musicians, conductors and soloists have submitted proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, and when concerts are held, audience members must provide proof of vaccination as well. We want to minimize the health risks to our audience, musicians and the general public, the GSO said in its health guidance rules on its website. While inside the building, all attendees must wear face masks. Ventilation and air filtration in the Performing Arts Center have been upgraded to reduce COVID-19 transmission, the GSO said. The GSOs next series of concerts is scheduled for Feb. 26 and 27 featuring the music of Alberga, Rachmaninov and Elgar with Conductor Joshua Gersen and pianist Sara Davis Buechner. Conductor candidates Brunet is one of five candidates for the job as music director of the GSO, and the only woman in the running. Each of the five candidates is taking a turn as conductor during the 2021-22 season. She began her career in France and this fall was named director of orchestral studies at the University of Iowas School of Music. She also is the new music director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic in Wilkes-Barre. Her concert program was to have included Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman by Joan Tower, Symphonie Espanole by Lalo and Dvoraks Symphony No. 7 with William Hagen as guest soloist on the violin. Her website titles the concert, Listen Boldly: Tower, Lalo, Dvorak. A native of Paris, Brunet began her studies on the cello, and also learned to play the trumpet, French horn and piano. She holds six diplomas from the Paris Conservatory, a bachelor in music from the Universite la Sorbonne, a professional studies diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a doctorate in conducting from the University of Michigan. Also, she has studied French, English, German and Italian lyric diction, and speaks English, French, Italian, Chinese and German. To learn more about Melisse Brunet, go to melissebrunet.com. Other finalists There are five finalists to replace David Gilbert, who joined the GSO as conductor and musical director in 1975 and led the group until his retirement in early 2020. His departure after more than 45 years set off a search that involved 176 candidates for music director. The other four finalists are: David Lockington, conductor laureate of the Grand Rapids Symphony in Michigan; Martin Makjut, music director of the Rogue Valley Symphony in Oregon; Stuart Malina, music director and conductor of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania; and Ransom Wilson, music director of the Redlands Symphony in California. Each finalist will lead one of the GSOs five weekend concerts and also spend time meeting with the community and rehearsing with the musicians. For information, visit greenwichsymphony.org or call 203-869-2664. GREENWICH Thousands of motorists thronged Greenwich Avenue and the roadways around Grass Island Park on Tuesday, hoping to get their hands on the much sought-after free at-home COVID-19 tests handed out by the town. By 11:30 a.m., hundreds of cars were sitting in traffic along Shore Road and Horseneck Lane, waiting for the drive-thru giveaway to begin at noon. The test kits were given out from a police pickup truck at the waterfront park. A similar scene was playing out at the Greenwich Senior Center, for a drive-thru pickup reserved for seniors over the age of 60 at the rear entrance on Bruce Place. Despite some traffic congestion, the distribution continued at both sites without interruption into the afternoon hours, and many residents said they were pleased and happy to have acquired free at-home test kits. The town received a shipment of 6,000 Flowflex kits ordered by the state of Connecticut. Its been so hard to get these, Flavia Serpa said as she was about to drive away from the Grass Island distribution site. Having these kits, its very helpful. She said she didnt mind the 30-minute wait to get her allotment of kits. At 4 p.m., Greenwich police issued a statement that the giveaway had ended. We distributed the kits allotted to our town. We do not have a timeline on when we will be getting more kits, police said. The town set limits on the distribution, and allowed residents to get only two kits per household. The first-come, first-served giveaway was set for town residents only, but the process relied on the honor system, and the police officers and town staffers handing out the kits did not check for identification during the height of the rush. At other times, they checked for drivers licenses or park passes. E.J. Haskell said she was in line for 15 minutes and didnt object to the wait. Super smooth, she said. Really happy to have this for me and my family. Kaelan Gillick said he was happy to acquire the COVID-19 test kits, and said it meant he could schedule visits with family members. Ive got family thats high risk and vulnerable, and its nice to have these if I want to visit them. Peace of mind, he said. Authorities were set to begin the distribution at Grass Island at noon, but with heavy traffic congestion in the area, they started the giveaway at 11:30 a.m. to reduce the congestion. By 12:20 p.m., there was a steady trickle of cars, but the big crush was over. The giveaway at the senior center drew 730 cars, according to police, as well as a number of pedestrians. Abby Silverstein said she had been unsuccessful in obtaining at-home test kits, so getting one for free from a smiling town employee on Bruce Place made her day. Extremely happy, she said. The senior center still had a substantial number of kits at 1 p.m. when the operation was closed down, and the remaining kits were sent to Grass Island. Residents were also given free N-95 face masks, although the senior center ran out of masks in the early afternoon. The giveaway came as COVID-19 continues to spread at high rates throughout Connecticut. The state reported Tuesday that the latest positivity rate has surged to nearly 24 percent. The state also reported a net gain of 110 more people hospitalized with COVID, increasing Connecticuts total to 1,562 the most since May 1, 2020 when it was 1,590. Of those hospitalized, 32 percent 500 patients are fully vaccinated. While we understand the publics desire to have test kits in hand in case of exposure, it is imperative that our very limited supply is distributed to those truly in need residents who are experiencing symptoms and our senior population, First Selectman Fred Camillo said in a statement issued Monday. The giveaway followed a canceled roll-out last Thursday, after the states initial plan to acquire tests, which would be distributed by every town and city, fell apart. Over the weekend, the state was able to acquire some tests from CVS. The number of available kits was significantly fewer than the 16,020 tests the town was originally scheduled to receive from the state last week. The town of Greenwich had about 6,000 free at-home test kits available to hand out Tuesday. Each kit contains one test. At 4 p.m., Greenwich police issued a statement that the giveaway had ended. We distributed the kits allotted to our town. We do not have a timeline on when we will be getting more kits, police said. COVID numbers On Monday, Greenwich Hospital was treating 50 COVID-positive patients, including three patients in the intensive care unit on ventilators, according to Camillos office. Greenwichs current rules require that anyone entering any town facility, including Town Hall and libraries, and all schools, to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status. According to Camillos office, the town of Greenwich has confirmed 7,696 COVID-19 cases and 100 deaths attributed to the outbreak since it started in March 2020, based on statistics from the state Department of Public Health at the end of 2021. Under recently revised guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, anyone who gets positive result on a self-test for COVID should isolate for five days, if asymptomatic, then wear a mask for five days when around others. rmarchant@greenwichtime.com Earlier today OnePlus started teasing the imminent arrival of the 9RT in India, and now the company has finally decided to let us know when the launch event is actually taking place. It's going to be on January 14 at 5 PM local time. The phone will be joined by the OnePlus Buds Z2. The OnePlus 9RT was initially unveiled for the Chinese market back in October, and this is going to be its first outing in another territory. Hopefully India is just the first step in its global journey, we'll have to wait and see. The OnePlus 9RT has a 6.62" 1080x2400 120 Hz AMOLED screen, the Snapdragon 888 chipset, 8/12 GB of RAM, 128/256 GB of storage, a triple rear camera setup (50 MP main with OIS, 16 MP ultrawide, 2 MP macro), a 16 MP selfie snapper, and a 4,500 mAh battery with 65W fast charging. The OnePlus Buds Z2 got announced in mid-December for the US and Europe, and now they're on their way to India too, delivering ANC in a more affordable package than the OnePlus Buds Pro. A British sailor facing a sexual assault charge is scheduled to start trial in April. British naval serviceman, Ashley Mansell, appeared at a hearing for a case in which he allegedly groped a woman at a Tumon nightclub in August of last year. In the hearing, the judge said Mansell, who was calling in from the United Kingdom, was scheduled to begin jury selection and trial Apr. 6. Mansells attorney said, however, he had not received discovery from the Office of the Attorney General for the case since a request was made in October. Discovery was received, though, for another case Mansell is involved in with another British naval serviceman, Fraser Malek. In that case, Mansell and Malek are being charged for allegedly getting into an altercation with the friends of the woman Mansell sexually assaulted earlier that night, charging documents state. Mansell and Malek allegedly punched the victims which resulted in one having a fractured jaw that required surgery. Mansell is being charged with aggravated assault as a third-degree felony, fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct as a misdemeanor and public drunkenness as a violation. Malek is being charged with two counts of assault as a misdemeanor. Mansell and Malek were on Guam for on-island exercises with the British Navy when the incident occurred. Models pose in front of a media wall at Samsung Electronics' exhibition space at Las Vegas Convention Center, ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show 2022. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics 500 Korean companies to exhibit next-generation tech at event By Kim Bo-eun Logo for Consumer Electronics Show / Courtesy of Consumer Technology Association Samsung's appearance at Consumer Electronics Show 2022 in Las Vegas will present its enhanced vision of a smart and connected home experience. User convenience is heightened by artificial intelligence (AI)-powered robots that assist with various tasks. Samsung Electronics is seeking to provide a connected experience for customers with its "SmartThings" platform, by connecting key electronic devices such as TVs and other home appliances, as well as smartphones. The tech giant is presenting a refrigerator incorporated with "SmartThings Cooking," a system that recommends recipes based on ingredients in the fridge and user preference. Another feature is its "SmartThings Energy" system, which offers energy-saving plans by analyzing the energy consumption data of the past two months. Samsung's signature Bespoke appliance series has been upgraded this year. The Bespoke refrigerator has strengthened AI capabilities, and enables users to watch TV via a screen on the fridge. The appliance has incorporated Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa, which provides notifications such as when to switch water purifier filters. Users are able to control various appliances connected on the SmartThings platform with Samsung's "Home Hub" tablet, which won the CES Innovation award. Models pose with robots at Samsung Electronics' exhibition space in Las Vegas Convention Center, set up for the Consumer Electronics Show 2022. From left they are "Samsung Bot Handy," "AI Avatar" and "Samsung Bot i." Courtesy of Samsung Electronics In addition, Samsung will feature its "AI Avatar" and "Samsung Bot" that assist in making a personalized and intelligent future home. The AI Avatar is able to identify the user's location, to connect the user with the closest smart device in their home. It is basically an assistant that is able to respond to voice commands and control IoT-based appliances. Samsung will also introduce two robots "Samsung Bot i" which is able to prepare video conferences, and "Samsung Bot Handy" which can set the table for dinner, among other tasks. Samsung Bot i is set to debut at this year's CES. It is able to move along with the user, who can control it remotely. The connected experience also extends to the car. This is possible by connecting a camera inside the car with a Galaxy smartphone or Galaxy watch, to be able to track whether the driver is experiencing stress or is feeling drowsy or restless, and adjust light and other settings within the vehicle accordingly. Samsung Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee will deliver a keynote speech on connected experience technology and sustainability at CES, Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., local time. Han is the head of the new division that has merged Samsung's consumer electronics and smartphone businesses. At SK Group's "Green Forest Pavilion" exhibition space for the Consumer Electronics Show 2022 at Las Vegas Convention Center, SK affiliates will introduce carbon emissions-cutting technologies in producing chips and batteries. Courtesy of SK Group The world's largest tech show will take place in its original on-premises format for the first time in two years, as the 2021 show was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event has been shortened by one day, to be held from Jan. 5 to 7 based on COVID-19 concerns. Over 2,000 companies are taking part in CES 2022, although major global firms such as GM and Intel as well as other U.S. bigtechs are participating virtually. Affiliates of Samsung, Hyundai, SK and LG will be among the 500 companies presenting Korea's technologies for smart homes, next-generation chips, mobility and digital healthcare. This graphic image shows Hyundai Heavy Industries Group's next-generation technologies to be showcased at CES 2022. Courtesy of Hyundai Heavy Industries The Department of Public Health and Social Services reported 210 new cases of COVID-19 from 1,393 tests run on Jan. 3, with 45 new cases identified through contact tracing, according to a news release from the Joint Information Center. The islands COVID-Area Risk score is 22.2. There have been a total of 19,899 officially reported cases of COVID-19, including 273 deaths. There are 620 people in active isolation. Hospitalization There were 11 people hospitalized with COVID-19, with none admitted to the ICU or on a ventilator. Of those hospitalized, eight were vaccinated and three were not. Vaccination update As of Jan. 3, a total of 129,791 of Guams eligible population those ages 5 and older have been fully vaccinated, and 4,866 residents ages 5-11 years old received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech two-dose series. There have been 39,944 boosters administered to eligible residents. After-school vaccinations Public Health has partnered with the Guam Department of Education to launch after-school vaccination clinics, according to the release. Eligible students, with parental consent, are encouraged to take advantage of the clinics to get vaccinated. The clinics will be: From 3 to 6 p.m. on Jan. 5 at Machananao Elementary School, Yigo. From 3 to 6 p.m. on Jan. 6 at Astumbo Elementary School, Dededo. Vaccination sites The COVID-19 vaccination clinic, operated by the Guam National Guard, will be held: A man on probation in three felony cases was arrested and charged in connection with a vehicle theft from October, according to a magistrates complaint in Superior Court. Donovine Manuel Sablan, also known as Donavine Manuel Sablan, 30, was charged with theft by receiving as a second-degree felony and driving a vehicle without identification as a misdemeanor. On Oct. 29, police responded to a stolen vehicle complaint at the KNS store in Agana Heights, where a customer said hed left the keys in his blue 2017 Mitsubishi Lancer for a few minutes when he ran inside to the store. When he walked out, he saw the car being driven toward Government House, the complaint stated. On Dec. 31, 2021, while patrolling in Dededo, police saw a blue Mitsubishi Lancer with a different license plate and an expired sticker. They stopped the car, and the driver had no identification. When they checked the vehicle identification number, they found it matched the car stolen in October. The complaint stated that Sablan was on probation in three separate felony cases, including one in which a bench warrant was issued. In one of the cases, from March 2020, Sablan was arrested after he was found with methamphetamine during a traffic stop, according to the magistrates complaint from that case. CHamoru Land Trust property needs, massive amounts of infrastructure, according to Speaker Therese Terlaje, who said the administration should provide federal American Rescue Plan pandemic funding for those projects. The Land Trust holds public land in trust for eligible applicants, who can apply for long-term residential or agricultural leases. The Land Trust also leases commercial property to generate money for Land Trust operations and programs. Much of the property in the Land Trust inventory is inaccessible because it lacks roads, with no water or power infrastructure. Previous approval Lawmakers and the governor last year approved a commercial lease of submerged land for GTA, which requires the telecommunications company to pay the Land Trust $100,000 per year for each landed undersea cable in Tamuning, with the money to be used for infrastructure improvements and surveying of Land Trust property. More money is needed for infrastructure, Terlaje said during a public hearing Tuesday on a bill related to the Land Trusts rules and regulations. Im hoping to see some ARP funding allocated for those purposes, she said. Bill 229 Tuesdays hearing was for Terlajes Bill 229, which changes some of the definitions in the Land Trusts rules and regulations to make them consistent with a court settlement between Guam and the federal government. Guam lawmakers in 2019 changed the eligibility requirements for Land Trust leases in order to resolve a federal lawsuit that accused the Land Trust program of being illegally race-based. Most of the people who met the old eligibility requirements for leases were ethnically CHamoru. Eligibility was changed to reinforce the Land Trusts mission of land restoration, and the term native Chamorro was replaced by eligible beneficiary, which is any person whose land was acquired by the U.S. government between 1898 and 1968 and the descendants of those people. It also includes anyone who occupied or farmed land acquired by the U.S. government, and their descendants. I still strongly believe that the settlement was a win for the CHamoru Land Trust Commission. It was a win for our people, former commission Chairwoman Pika Fejeran told lawmakers. Im really happy to see that the new commission has worked really hard to ensure that the CHamoru Land Trust is following the settlement agreement so we can finally one day put the lawsuit behind us and move forward and really work hard and focus on getting land to the families that really need the land. Waiting list The Land Trust currently is working on revised standard operating procedures so it can begin issuing leases according to the new eligibility requirements, Land Trust program coordinator Joey Cruz told lawmakers. The Land Trust has not issued new residential or agricultural leases since 2018. Thousands of applicants still are on a waiting list that started in December 1995. Speaker Terlaje noted that lawmakers gave more money to the Land Trust this year so it can hire more help. The Fiscal 2022 budget provides $1.54 million for the Land Trust, including a $424,296 subsidy from the General Fund. The Land Trust last fiscal year had a total budget of $1.2 million, with no General Fund subsidy. Whatever they need, we should give them more because they need to catch up, said attorney Mike Phillips, who represented Guam in the federal lawsuit. They need the priority and the resources that really theyve deserved since 1975. Were way behind. We need to catch up. A new study by the Palau International Coral Reef Center has determined that giant clams are abundant and widespread in Palau, according to a news release from the center. The study, published by researcher Lincoln Rehm, reported that in spite of pressures from tourism and fishing, giant clam populations remain abundant and healthy. The study attributes Palaus healthy clam populations to conservation measures such as marine protected areas and bans on exporting clams. Palau International Coral Reef Center Research Office assistant Randa Jonathan and former researcher Lincy Marino joined Rehm as co-authors. The authors found that oruer was the most abundant clam species, followed by melibes and ribkungal. Kism, oktang and duadeb were less common. Oruer, melibes and ribkungal were also found to be more abundant in Palau than other areas of Micronesia and the Indo-Pacific. Oruer in particular has become scarce in other Micronesian islands, but remains dense in Palau. Despite a fourfold increase in tourism in the past decade, and rising fishing pressure, the implementation of marine protected areas and export bans seem to have succeeded in preserving Palaus clams, the news release stated. The Palau Mariculture Demonstration Center has also likely reduced fishing of wild clams by supporting local clam aquaculture. Challenges However, the authors also caution that Palaus clam populations still face challenges. The study found low numbers of large adult oruer and ribkungal, which signals high fishing pressure and could limit the species ability to reproduce in the future. To continue supporting these populations, and to replenish dwindling kism, oktang and duadeb, the authors recommend continued investment in clam aquaculture, restocking wild populations with farmed clams and implementing harvest limits. These measures could ensure that giant clams remain a valuable economic and food resource for Palau into the future. After leadership of Oasis Empowerment Center decided not to follow the governments vaccine mandate, Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center Director Theresa Arriola said the agency severed its contract with the substance abuse treatment center and took over the program. Oasis last day of service was on Dec. 31. They were not going to require mandating vaccination for staff, and that was a problem because they were a service provider for us. As a government of Guam service provider, our service requirements fall down to our service providers, said Arriola. Apparently, they made that decision, either as a church or corporate, whatever you want to call it, and they, in return, knew that they were risking their contract being discontinued, and I guess theyre OK with it. Established in 2004, Oasis Empowerment Center was a faith-based outreach of Elim Pacific Ministries. It provided an inpatient recovery program for women who suffered from alcohol and drug abuse. The treatment center, under Executive Director Mona McManus, served both women and men on an out-patient basis and received its funding from Guam Behavioral Health. Arriola said Salvation Armys Lighthouse Recovery Center is going to assist Guam Behavioral Health with the program and has already amended its contract to include women, as the center was previously only assisting men in recovery. The plan is for the Lighthouse Recovery Center to take over the program completely while going through the transition process. Although she wasnt present on the day of the client transfer, Arriola said that power and water stopped working that day, and some items, like furniture, were also removed from the residence. Power and water had to be cut because it was under Oasis and they were paying for it, Arriola said. I was told that Oasis took out whatever they thought was theirs, which was fine, because we knew the day was coming, she said. She said the women were moved to a different residence under the control of Guam Behavioral Health. Arriola said there were no issues during the move. She said most importantly, the women are already settled in and continuing their recovery treatment with minimal interruptions. All of the former Oasis clients have been vaccinated. Of the eight former staff members who transferred to work with Guam Behavioral Health, most have been fully vaccinated, and others were in the process of getting vaccinated, she said. Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Chairman Chey Tae-won delivers a speech during a New Year greeting session hosted by the KCCI in central Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap By Yi Whan-woo Korea's corporate world was urged to capitalize on the new opportunities created by the pandemic in relation to the concept of a contact-free society, during a New Year's greeting session hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) in Seoul, Tuesday. The session at the KCCI headquarters brought up the term, the "metaverse," a virtual environment where users interact through digital avatars, as a "space where businesses can innovative themselves" and therefore requested that firms begin taking the relevant steps to realize it. Businesses were also advised to build greater resilience against the current disrupted global supply chain, to strengthen fair competition a value especially emphasized by Millennials and Generation Z and to play a role to prevent a decline in Korea's population. "We're facing a great transition in virtually every field, with tricky challenges that we have never experienced before," KCCI Chairman Chey Tae-won said in his address. "And now is the time for companies to understand what society really wants and manage it in the right way." Chey, who is also SK Group chairman, emphasized the need to "newly define" the roles of firms and create opportunities in relation to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), climate change, the global supply chain crisis and other factors that are leading to a rapidly changing business environment. "Such roles are critical for the sustainability of corporations as a whole and also for the nation's economy," he said. He requested the government to support companies by motivating them to use their expertise in national projects concerning new technologies and industries. Accordingly, he called for "upgrading private-public partnership" in which the government and private sector help each other to meet mutual interests. Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Chairman Chey Tae-won, front right, speaks with Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, front left, as other participants listen during a New Year's greeting session hosted by the KCCI in central Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap The annual session was attended by more than 100 participants, including businesspeople, high-ranking officials, lawmakers, members of the diplomatic corps and representatives from activist groups, academia and journalism. Among them were Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki, ruling Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Song Young-gil, main opposition People Power Party Chairman Lee Jun-seok, American Chamber of Commerce in Korea Chairman James Kim and Andrew Herrup, the acting deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Korea. In a separate speech, Prime Minister Kim attributed Korea's record exports and the elevation of its status as a developed economy by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to "ceaseless efforts for innovation" by entrepreneurs. "We should fully use our potential as a foothold to become what I call a 'first mover,' after being a 'fast follower,' in the past," Kim said. Kim explained that government management in 2022 is directed at fully normalizing the economy and consolidating the groundwork for "pacesetting leadership" in the world. To fulfill this goal, he promised to make "full-pledged support" for the self-employed and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Job creation is also at the center of the government's focus, and he said that it appreciates the country's six largest conglomerates Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, LG, POSCO and KT for their pledges last year to create 179,000 jobs collectively by 2024. Regarding regulations that businesses find "obstacles," the prime minister said the government "is ready to roll up its sleeves and remove them." Haiti - FLASH : Assassination attempt against Prime Minister Henry On Monday the Prime Minister a.i. Ariel Henry denounced an assassination attempt against his person, Saturday January 1st, 2022, during the celebrations of the 218th anniversary of independence, organized in the city of Gonaives. It was after the traditional "Te Duem", leaving the church of Saint Charles Borromeo, that Ariel Henry and other officials were forced to flee under the bursts of gunfire which left 1 dead. A bullet impact is visible on the windshield of the Prime Minister's armored vehicle https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35616-haiti-flash-218th-the-pm-leaves-gonaives-under-the-bullets-1-dead-and-several-wounded.html (video) "Something was tried against me [...] My life is in the crosshairs of these people," while acknowledging that he knew the risks he was running, he said "We cannot accept that bandits from whatever background they may be, for basely pecuniary reasons, they want to blackmail the State," the Prime Minister declared to international press agencies. The Prime Minister confirms that individuals shot Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Berto Dorce the Minister of Justice declared "The perpetrators and accomplices of the acts perpetrated on the occasion of the commemoration of the 218 years of national independence in Gonaives will not remain unpunished. The Gonaives prosecutor's office is instructed to put public action against the thugs" indicating that arrest warrants have been issued against several suspects. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35616-haiti-flash-218th-the-pm-leaves-gonaives-under-the-bullets-1-dead-and-several-wounded.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35595-haiti-flash-armed-individuals-oppose-the-arrival-of-the-pm-in-gonaives-on-january-1-2022.html SL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... Surgeon and his wife kidnapped Saturday, January 1st, 2022 in the morning, the surgeon Josue Edwich Bince and his wife have been kidnapped by armed individuals in the Rue Chareron, in the vicinity of the Saint-Francois de Sales hospital. The kidnappers demand a heavy ransom for their release. 2022 : At least 22 gunshot kills in 3 days The year 2022 began with its procession of corpses at least ten dead in clashes between rival gangs in Bel-Air-Bas Delmas, 10 dead during the attempt to escape inmates at Croix des Bouquets prison https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35621-haiti-flash-14-victims-in-the-attempt-to-escape-from-croix-des-bouquets-prison.html , the inspector de Police Jerry Toussaint killed during a police operation in Fessard https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-35625-icihaiti-insecurity-divisional-inspector-jerry-toussaint-shot-dead.html and a died in Gonaives on January 1st https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35616-haiti-flash-218th-the-pm-leaves-gonaives-under-the-bullets-1-dead-and-several-wounded.html Weapons smuggled into prison The Divisional Inspector, Garry Desrosiers, Spokesman for the National Police of Haiti (PNH) confirmed that during the attempt to escape from the prison of Croix-des-Bouquets https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-35621-haiti-flash-14-victims-in-the-attempt-to-escape-from-croix-des-bouquets-prison.html 4 weapons had been smuggled into the cells and 3 seized on the guards by the detainees "A police officer was placed in isolation at the level of the Central Directorate of Judicial Police (DCPJ) and an investigation is underway to determine the circumstances of entry of firearms into the cells." USA : Massive return of Haitian migrants continues Number of people expelled at the end of 2021: from December 6 to 10, 2021: 369 - from December 13 to 17, 2021: 1,127 - from December 20 to 24, 2021: 1,040. Haiti : Less than 50 million US investment in 2021 Jean Baden Dubois, Governor of the Central Bank, reveals that foreign direct investments in Haiti in 2021 were less than $50 million while in the same year our Dominican neighbors received more than $4 billion in direct investments foreigners. Thanks from the PM "On behalf of my Government and the Haitian people, I express my deep gratitude to the foreign states which have shown their solidarity and friendship with the symbolism of this memorable day [HL: 218th independence], by displaying the colors of our two-tone on different sites in their territory https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-35590-icihaiti-diaspora-218th-anniversary-of-haiti-s-independence-in-canada-program.html " Prime Minister ai Ariel Henry HL/ HaitiLibre Published on 2022/01/03 | Source New photos added for the Korean drama "The Silent Sea" (2021). Advertisement Directed by Choi Hang-yong Written by Park Eun-kyo Network: Netflix With Bae Doona, Gong Yoo, Lee Joon, Kim Sun-young, Heo Sung-tae, Lee Mu-saeng,... 8 episodes - Fri Started filming: 2020/08 Synopsis "The Silent Sea" is a mystery sci-fi thriller that follows a story of elite scientists who set off for the moon to retrieve some unknown samples from an abandoned research station. It is based on the eponymous 2014 short film directed by Choi Hang-yong, which garnered attention at the Mise-en-scene Short Film Festival the same year. Jung Woo-sung is the executive producer. Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2021/12/24 Published on 2022/01/04 | Source New stills added for the upcoming Korean movie "The Pregnant Tree and the Goblin" (2019) Advertisement Directed by Kim Dong-ryung, Park Kyoung-tae With Park In-soon, Kim Ah-hae, Kim Mi-sook-IV, Shin Seung-tae, Shin Yoon-sook, Jo Eun-kyung-I,... Synopsis In a shanty village located next to the US military base in Uijungbu City, lives a former US military camp town sex worker, Park In-soon. Having lived in the village for more than 40 years, In-seon feels uneasy after hearing the news report on demolition plans of the military base. One winter night, In-seon encounters the death of her colleague and ends up attending her funeral. She is soon discovered by the Death Messengers who have come to look for wandering ghosts. While the Death Messengers come up with stories to take the ghosts to afterlife, In-seon starts to unfold her own 'true' story to fight back against her own extinction. Release date in Korea : 2022/01/27 Quincy, IL (62301) Today Cloudy with occasional rain during the afternoon. High 63F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Rain early...then remaining cloudy with thundershowers developing overnight. Low 54F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 574-583-5121 or email cgrace@thehj.com. Hastings, NE (68901) Today Windy with rain likely. High 42F. Winds NE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Cloudy and windy at times with occasional light rain...mainly this evening. Low 34F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Higher wind gusts possible. SK Innovation's planned sale of its stakes in two Peruvian gas fields to a foreign partner has been canceled amid disapproval from the Peruvian government, a regulatory filing showed Tuesday. The South Korean refiner said in the regulatory filing that its contract with Argentine energy company, Pluspetrol, to hand over its 17.6 percent stakes in Block 88 and Block 56, located in the Cusco region, has been ended. "Despite our continued efforts, the contract has inevitably been terminated without completion of the selloff process due to the Peruvian government's position in disapproval of the sale," the company said. A SK Innovation official declined to comment. SK Innovation clinched the deal with Pluspetrol in September 2019, in what would have helped the company secure US$1.05 billion in cash. SK Innovation had said it would use the money to increase investment in other promising energy sectors, like battery and materials areas, and expand its presence in the Asian and North American markets. (Yonhap) Editor: Thank God our weekly conspiracy theorist is finally able to laugh. She pro So far, no positive signs have appeared from the Taliban movement with respect to human rights, especially women's which is one of the world powers' conditions for recognizing the government. On the contrary, the situation started to get worse and worse, and the world powers contradicted themselves by establishing diplomatic relations with the movement without paying any attention to the humanitarian file, the form of administration in the country, and the rights and freedoms. Human rights are still violated, corruption spikes, integrity disappears, especially after the Taliban neutralized the Independent Election Commission, and poverty rates have increased significantly, not to mention the security situation that is witnessing great deterioration as a result of the explosions that hit the country, in addition to the movements adoption of a policy of ethnic cleansing against the dissidents, the most prominent among all are the cases of repression and violation of freedoms that women are subjected to in the country. Geo-strategic importance The American withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of war marked the beginning of a regional and international competition to fill the void, as Turkey, Iran, Russia and China moved to expand, extend influence and control, while Qatar and Pakistan strengthened their relations with the new ruler in the country (Taliban) through playing what she calls a "mediator role". Throughout history, Afghanistan has paid a price with its strategic location, the cost of global conquest, at times, as it is in a position of very sensitive geo-strategic importance; It is located in the middle of major Asian regions such as Central Asia, South and West Continent and the Far East. Afghanistan, which enjoys a sensitive geographical location, makes it an important transit corridor for oil and natural gas exports from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea, not to mention its richness in natural resources and other mineral resources. Prior to the American withdrawal from the country in August, the United States announced its agreement with Turkey to assume security responsibilities there after the withdrawal, especially securing Kabul Airport, the vital strategic facility, in cooperation with Qatar, which participates in Turkey in supporting political Islamist groups in Middle East and North Africa region. Observers believe that the Turks view this mission as an opportunity to easing tension with Washington, and represent a foothold for them in Central Asia and other gains. It seems that Turkey's Erdogan is also seeking to reproduce the experience of the intervention in both Libya and the recent Azerbaijani-Armenian war in the Karabakh region in the southern Caucasus, as the French newspaper "Le Figaro" revealed that a military company close to Erdogan is sending batches of Syrian mercenaries to Afghanistan. After the Taliban extended its influence in the country in mid-August, the movement is now looking to gain international recognition after it formed its interim government composed of men only on September 7, and for that it held talks with regional and global countries, including China, Russia, India, Turkey and Iran, in addition to Gulf states, but it seems that Pakistan, Qatar and Turkey are the biggest winners in terms of strengthening relations with the movement, benefiting from ideological rapprochement and support for political Islam movements. Turkey and Qatar strengthen their role Qatar and Turkey, the two countries closest to the extremist Islamic movements, have strengthened their position in the country through diplomatic dialogue with the Taliban, under the name of overseeing Kabul airport, as well as recently, an agreement was concluded between Washington and Doha for the latter to manage US diplomatic interests in Afghanistan. In a special statement to our agency, Mounir Adib, a researcher in extremist movements and international terrorism, attributed the reasons for Qatar and Turkey strengthening their position in Afghanistan by establishing diplomatic relations with the Taliban to the two parties' close association with terrorist organizations, and said: "The presence of the Taliban movement in power in the country is important. Great for both Qatar and Turkey, so they were the main and main supporters in the negotiations, and I think that they were and still provide support by providing advice to ensure the success of the Talibans experience in governance. And he continued, "Achieving this matter will reflect positively on both Turkey and Qatar, as both countries support political Islam organizations. The success of their experience is in the interest of each, as this supportive and welcoming role for organizations." Political Islam provides a safe haven for them, especially with the international pressures on both countries to prevent receiving these organizations on their lands. The alternative here is Afghanistan, as its political situation allows receiving the leaders of these organizations. Pawns to strike China and achieve political agendas Munir Adeeb highlighted how Qatar and Turkey used the Taliban to strike China and highlight Turkey as a superpower to achieve political interests, saying: "There is no doubt that the situation in Afghanistan will greatly affect the Uyghurs in China, who feel persecuted by the Chinese authorities. Therefore, I think that Al-Qaeda and the Taliban will launch operations against China in the future or will put pressure on it in one way or another, and this will certainly cause inconvenience to China, and all these moves will take place in the hands of Turkey, which supports the movement. Adeeb went on to say: "So this matter shows how political Islam organizations are employed by both Turkey and Qatar for political interests, perhaps for Turkey in the region, especially since it wants to be a great power, as Turkey has previously supported the Uyghurs, which it does in Crimea with many of the ethnicities who are expected to be defended by the Taliban by virtue of the ideological agreement. With Qatari mediation, representatives of the Taliban government have met with US and European officials since the US withdrawal, for talks allegedly aimed at addressing issues including providing safe passage for those wishing to leave Afghanistan, ensuring humanitarian access, respecting womens rights, and avoiding Afghanistan becoming a haven for terrorist groups. No breakthroughs have been achieved on the ground. And the fears that specialists in the terrorist affairs warned of, that Afghanistan would become a hotbed of terrorism and drug dealers were realized after the movement took power, as terrorist bombings hit the country from time to time. In a statement, US Central Command Commander Frank McKenzie said it was clear that al-Qaeda was trying to rebuild its presence inside Afghanistan, adding that some militants were coming into the country across its fragile borders, but it was difficult for the United States to track the numbers. safe haven for terrorism And the newspaper "Washington Post" reported that thousands of fighters and supporters of the Taliban are now pouring into Afghanistan, coming from neighboring Pakistan; In response to the calls of influential leaders and clerics, with the aim of enhancing the movement's combat capabilities and increasing administrative expertise. Commenting on this, Munir Adib said: "Afghanistan, under the rule of the Taliban, has become a safe haven for all groups of violence and extremism and political Islam organizations, starting with Al-Qaeda and passing through ISIS and other organizations that may be local or regional that have spread in the Arab region." Adeeb highlighted the support provided by the movement to al-Qaeda previously, by saying: "The Taliban hosted al-Qaeda, which carried out the bombings of September 11, 2001, as well as its refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden, one of the founders of al-Qaeda, and said at the time, Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Taliban movement Its founder is that Osama bin Laden is the guest of Afghanistan and they will not hand him over to the United States of America, noting that the movement still embraces al-Qaeda, along with other political Islam organizations. Adeeb warned that Afghanistan would become a destination for political Islam organizations and ISIS mercenaries, especially after losing its geographical control in March 2019. He cited the reasons for Afghanistan's strategic and appropriate location for these organizations in terms of social, political and geographical terms, with its vast desert areas and mountains, especially the Tora Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan. futuristic attacks He added: "I think that these organizations, when they rearrange their cards, will launch attacks, perhaps on other powers, whether neighboring countries or other countries that may be geographically far from Afghanistan, and this happened earlier when terrorist organizations launched attacks on the Egyptian state in the nineties of the last century. and some European countries. Adeeb believed that there are no hopes for detente in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban, and said: "It is natural that cases of killing and violence will increase in Afghanistan because the Taliban is an extremist movement. I do not think that there will be hope that it will change its behavior at home, but rather it will export violence and extremism to the people of Afghanistan." . hotbed for drug dealers Many reports confirm that the Taliban movement relies on the opium trade to finance itself. In this context, the competent UN office stated that the revenues of Afghan opiate production during 2021 ranged from $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion, almost twice as high as they were before. It encourages farmers to rely on opium poppy cultivation, thus increasing the yield and its trade. Most of the drugs are usually smuggled from Afghanistan through Iran to Turkey, from where they are transferred to mafia groups around the world. The Turkish mafia leader, Sedat Bakr, revealed, during a series of tweets and videos of him previously, the involvement of Erdogan's government and his ministers in cases of corruption, money smuggling and drug trafficking. humanitarian and economic crisis Cases of killings, violations of human rights and instability are increasing significantly in Afghanistan, as the latter was ranked as the least secure country during 2021 according to the Institute for Global Economy and Peace, in addition to the deteriorating economic reality experienced by Afghans, as the International Rescue Committee ranked Afghanistan, which has a population of about 40 million people named it "the world's worst humanitarian trouble area", on the Special Emergency Monitoring Committee's list of the most prominent crises around the world. The latest survey conducted by the World Food Program showed that 98 percent of Afghans do not have enough food, and the International Monetary Fund has predicted that the Afghan economy will shrink by 20-30 percent in 2022. In this context, the advisor of the Arab Center for Studies and researcher in international relations and political economy, Abu Bakr Al-Deeb, told our agency: "Afghanistan is heading towards the largest humanitarian crisis in contemporary history, after the Taliban movement took control of it and stopped humanitarian aid to it," calling on the countries of the world and humanitarian organizations to support the Afghan people. To save the country from collapse, he emphasized that "Afghanistan needs $4 billion to prevent starvation." Al-Deeb explained that about four months after the overthrow of the Afghan government and the Taliban's takeover of power in Kabul, the Afghan people are suffering from poverty, and more than half of the Afghan population is suffering from severe hunger, including one million children who are at risk of starvation. bleak future Al-Deeb pointed out that "the future of Afghanistan looks bleak in light of a sick economy that has been weakened by the drought and the Corona pandemic, the lack of foreign aid and the Taliban's control of matters, and some have to sell their children." At the conclusion of his speech, the advisor of the Arab Center for Studies and researcher in international relations and political economy, Abu Bakr al-Deeb, warned that the deterioration of matters in Afghanistan would negatively affect the whole world, especially Europe, and concluded: "The world must be moral to save the country from economic and social collapse. The world is moving to help the Afghan people." A ANHA Today, Tuesday, the Deputy US Special Envoy for Syria, Matt Borrell, visited the Department of Foreign Relations in Qamishlo to discuss the latest developments in the region. He was received by the co-chair of the Department of Foreign Relations, Abdul Karim Omar, the co-chairs of the co-presidency, Fanar Al-Gait and Abeer Elia, and a member of the administrative board, Dr. Muhammad Hassan, according to the official website of the Department of Foreign Relations. During the meeting, views were exchanged on several political and economic issues of common interest. The Department of Foreign Relations put the Deputy US Special Envoy for Syria, Matt Borrel, in a picture of the economic situation as a result of the siege imposed on the region, especially after the closure of the Tal Kocer (Al Yaroubiya) crossing and the lack of relief and humanitarian supplies. ) and its repercussions on the economic and humanitarian situation, and thus the stability of the region. The co-chair Omar, explained the impact of the repeated Turkish attacks on the areas of Tel Tamr and Zarkan, in addition to targeting civilians with drones, on destabilizing the region, indicating that all of this is in the service of terrorism. The two sides discussed the threat of terrorism, the situation of detention centers, the Al-Hol and Roj camps, and the need for the international community to shoulder its responsibilities. For his part, Ambassador Matt Burrell stressed the continued presence of the coalition forces and the United States in the region to fight terrorism, support the stability of the region, strengthen economic relations and work to open the Semalka (Fish Khabur) crossing because of its economic and humanitarian repercussions on the people, in addition to putting pressure on the international community to bear His responsibilities towards the file of ISIS detainees and their families in the Al-Hol and Roj camps. A ANHA Turkish occupation state has launched an attack on legitimate defense zones since April of last year, and despite its use of all kinds of weapons, Guerrilla fighters made a great resistance, which prompted Turkish occupation army to use chemical weapons. The continuous crimes of Turkish state aroused the political and social figures, which demanded the international community to intervene to stop Turkish occupation crimes. Amin Aliko, member of the General Council of PYD, condemned Turkish state crimes, and said, "The violations practiced by Turkish state in legitimate defense areas are not new, because Turkey has a long bloody record that it inherited from its Ottoman ancestors". International silence encourages Turkey Aliko touched on Turkish state's continued perpetration of crimes against the Kurds and Guerrilla, with the international silence, and said: "The international silence regarding Turkey's violations makes it a partner to it. It also encourages it to continue its crimes." Turkey revenges for ISIS and seeks to revive it again Aliko added Turkey is attacking the only force (Guerilla) that has managed to defeat the most powerful mercenary group in the world, ISIS, and said: "Although the Guerilla defeated ISIS in Shengal, but once again Turkey seeks to revive ISIS mercenaries again through their use of chemical weapons against Guerilla forces in legitimate defense zones. He stressed the need for international community to intervene to stop Turkish state's use of chemical weapons against the People Defense Forces, and said: "The silence of international community regarding Turkey's use of chemical weapons is evidence of the existence of common interests between them". Turkey fails to fight Guerrilla For her part, Roshen Mousa, member of Women's Council of PYD, touched on the resistance shown by Guerrilla in the legitimate defense areas, which inflicted heavy losses on Turkish state, and said: "The victories achieved by guerrilla push Turkey to use chemical weapons, as it is unable to make any progress, Despite of its modern weapons. Roshen Mousa also said: "Turkey wants to break the will of the people, because there is a strong connection between the people and Guerrilla fighters." As for the silence of the countries regarding Turkish state's use of chemical weapons, she said: "everything indicates that the international community is a partner to Turkey in its crimes". Roshen appealed to the international community to intervene to put an end to the Turkish state and prevent it from using chemical weapons, and said: "We condemn the attacks launched by Turkish state on legitimate defense areas using chemical weapons." Also, Mustafa Hammo, member of the General Council of PYD, indicated that Turkish state is doing its best to obstruct the struggle of Kurdistan Freedom Movement, but it fails every time, and said, "Turkey is doing everything it can to obstruct the struggle of Kurdistan's Freedom Movement, as it has resorted to using internationally prohibited weapons". He added, "Although all the countries of the world have agreed on a law prohibiting the use of chemical weapons, they see what the Turkish state is doing and do nothing". Sh-S ANHA On Dec. 15, the Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving (IACG) welcomed seven new members representing nonprofits, community foundations and other voices in the philanthropic sector. These new members included the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, the Black Belt Community Foundation, the California Association of Nonprofits, the California Wellness Foundation, the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, GiveDirectly and Homeboy Industries. These new members add to the growing number of philanthropic leaders supporting common-sense reforms that accelerate resources to working charities. They join as the coalition recently commemorated one year since philanthropists, leaders of major foundations and members across the philanthropic sector launched IACG. Inequity abounds across our nation, and nowhere is it more blatant than philanthropy. Rural communities include 95 percent of the land and 20 percent of the people in the United States, not to mention being the source of our water and food. Yet barely 7 percent of philanthropic investment is made in rural communities, said Gerry Roll, chief executive officer at the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky. A critical step to closing this gap is ensuring charitable dollars sitting on the sidelines are actually used for charitable purposes. The Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Givings proposals provide an opportunity for all of us to thrive in the 21st century by accelerating the movement of charitable funds into our communities rather than being warehoused. Now is the time. We cant simply continue to allow those holding onto the most assets be the only voice that gets heard. Officials with other new members of the Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving also stated that they feel this movement will be beneficial for their service areas. Here in the Black Belt of Alabama, we firmly believe that our rural communities know what is best for them when it comes to creating sustainably productive and lasting change. At the core of creating greater, more accountable, equity-driven charitable giving is relationship building and understanding local community needs. We are extremely excited and grateful to become a member of the Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving and work together to empower local charities with resources that help them tackle the ever-increasing challenges in their communities, said Felecia Lucky, president of the Black Belt Community Foundation. The reforms proposed by the Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving stand at the intersection of equity, need, and tax fairness. Just as most foundations and DAF account holders are conscientious managers of their charitable dollars, most automobile drivers are safe drivers. But we still need safety regulations, drunk driving laws, enforcement and data, said Jan Masaoka, chief executive officer at the California Association of Nonprofits. President and CEO of the California Wellness Foundation Judy Belk said, Given the crises our state and nation are facing, we refuse to accept the status quo of individuals and institutions getting richer while communities are suffering. We support efforts to accelerate the flow of charitable dollars to communities, and we see the IACG as a step in the right direction. At Cal Wellness, we are pushing ourselves to reform our practices, and we hope collective efforts like the IACG prompt foundations like ours to embark on bold, fundamental shifts in their grant making as well. Nancy Van Milligen, president and chief executive officer at the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, said the IACG's work is very needed in their community. Communities and grassroots organizations in rural areas receive far less philanthropic investment than their urban counterparts. The Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Givings policy reforms are urgently needed to ensure that charitable giving closes this gap and directly supports these communities and organizations, which are on the front lines addressing critical and complex social issues. We need to fix the status quo of philanthropy and take bold action, said Milligen. Too much money is sitting on the sidelines given how much good we can do today. This initiative is making a great push to unlock these funds. Imagine if philanthropic funds were already in the hands of the people we aim to help. Would they give them back so we can tweak plans on their behalf or put them to use right away?, said Joe Huston, managing director of GiveDirectly. At Homeboy Industries, weve always stretched every dollar to help as many former gang members and inmates redirect their lives. The reality is there are still so many who come in needing our services. For nonprofits such as ours, access to resources is critical to uplifting our communities from poverty, homelessness and violence. The Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Givings proposals prioritize getting those resources into the hands of working charities faster, giving us the opportunity to help anyone who walks through our door, said Thomas Vozzo, chief executive officer at Homeboy Industries. As part of its launch last year on Giving Tuesday, IACG unveiled a statement of principles that outlines federal policy reforms that would restore the connection between charitable tax benefits and benefits to charities. Specifically, IACG proposes the following reforms: For private foundations, close loopholes to better ensure that distributions qualifying for the payout requirement are available for use by working charities; and incentivize greater payout through reforms to the excise tax. For donor-advised funds (DAFs), adopt measures to make sure that DAF accounts are distributed to working charities within a reasonable period of time. For individuals, incentivize greater giving by expanding and extending the new non-itemizer charitable deduction in a cost-effective way. Thomas R. Shepherd, third generation leader of funeral services, dies Thomas Redmond Tom Shepherd, the third generation funeral director who led the well-known family business from 1965 until health issues prevented his active involvement, died Thursday after more than two years of declining health, friends and family members said. Shepherds son, William Shepherd, confirmed his fathers death but said he had been unable to find out which funeral home is handling the arrangements. The funeral home that Tom Shepherds grandfather founded in 1903 cannot handle the funeral arrangements because it has been shut down by state regulators after an investigation into numerous violations of funeral service rules and state law. In recent years Tom Shepherds wife, Melody, had taken an active role operating Thos. Shepherd & Son Funeral Directors. Although she was not a licensed funeral director, she was the company president and also served as crematory manager. The N.C. Board of Funeral Service on Nov. 10 revoked Tom Shepherds funeral director license and Melody Shepherds crematory manager license, barring both from reapplying for five years. Ive not actually spoken to him for 27 years and you can imagine why, William Shepherd said of his father. In addition to his wife and William, Shepherd is survived by a daughter, Trisha, of Poway, California, and his first wife, Patricia "Patsy" Shepherd. He had no grandchildren. In 1903, company founder Thomas Shepherd managed a furniture and general merchandise store at 218 Main Street and sold coffins on the side. Thomas Shepherd later bought out his brother, M.M. Shepherd, and later, in 1924, opened one of the first funeral homes in Western North Carolina. Thomass son, William Billy Shepherd, joined the family business in 1934, later serving as president and managing funeral director until his death in 1965. In 1954, under Billys leadership, the company opened Shepherd Memorial Park, the first public nonsectarian perpetual care cemetery in Henderson County. Thomas Redmond Shepherd became managing funeral director of the funeral home in 1965 upon Billy Shepherd's death. Tom Shepherd had been active in civic life for many years, winning the Richard C. and Vina L. Sauer Award, which the top honor for philanthropy given by Community Foundation of Henderson County. An employee testified during a Board of Funeral Service hearing on the funeral homes practices on Nov. 10 that she had seen Tom Shepherd only one time in the six months she worked there in the first half of 2020. No fourth-generation family members had been involved in the Shepherd funeral business. We werent allowed to, William said. She used coercive control. My sister and I have not been involved nor we were invited. Melody Shepherds personal mobile phone will not accept voicemail messages and the Lightning was unable to learn any further details. I dont think shes going to have a memorial, which in my opinion is certainly unfortunate, Shepherd said. I am of course in pursuit now to secure my rights as an heir, not necessarily as a beneficiary. If me and Trisha are (in the will) we will never know. Shepherd, 48, said he hoped the Board of Funeral Services and the N.C. Cemetery Commission would continue their review of the business. Its depressing for me that me and my sister had to sit by and see it destroyed, he said. Protesters seeking payment from Evergrande Group gather as police officers stand guard outside the Evergrande International Center in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, Jan. 4. Reuters-Yonhap Investors in financial products issued by China Evergrande Group protested outside the cash-strapped company's offices in Guangzhou, Tuesday, with many worried that their investments will be sacrificed to keep real estate projects afloat. Members of the crowd of roughly 100 people shouted "Evergrande, return our money!" reprising a chant used by disgruntled investors and suppliers last autumn as the deterioration in the company's financial position became apparent. On Friday, Evergrande announced a dial-back of plans to repay investors in its wealth management products, announcing that each could expect 8,000 yuan per month in principal payment for three months starting in January, irrespective of when their investment matures. Once China's top selling developer but now reeling under more than $300 billion in liabilities, Evergrande had previously agreed to repay 10 percent by the end of the month when the product matured, without specifying an amount. The change sparked investor fear that they won't get their money back. "I think it's hopeless, and I'm scared, but if we don't fight for our rights, that's worse," said a retired woman surnamed Du who was among those outside Evergrande's offices in the southern Chinese metropolis and said she had invested one million yuan in Evergrande wealth management products. "The economy's not good at the moment, these are ordinary people and they need this money for kids, for supporting their parents," she said. As of midday, about 60 of those protesting had been contained by security personnel. Lured by the promise of yields approaching 12 percent, gifts such as Dyson air purifiers and Gucci bags, and the guarantee of China's top-selling developer, tens of thousands of investors bought wealth management products through Evergrande. More than 80,000 people including employees, their families and friends as well as owners of Evergrande properties bought products that raised more than 100 billion yuan over the past five years, said a sales manager of Evergrande Wealth, launched in 2016 as a peer-to-peer (P2) online lending platform that originally was used to fund its property projects. Police officers stand guard outside the Evergrande International Center where protesters gathered to seek payment from China Evergrande Group, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, Jan. 4. Reuters-Yonhap Greenville, TX (75401) Today Becoming windy with scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 84F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early. Thunderstorms developing late. Low 66F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, we've all known individuals who have done more than their share to help their neighbors and communities with food, comfort, care, companionship and dozens of other needs. If you know of such a person, you can nominate them to be featured in our upcoming H A landslide at a construction site in southwest China's Guizhou province has killed at least 14 people, state media reported Tuesday. Workers were reinforcing a hillside when the landslide happened on Monday evening, the official Xinhua news agency said. Rescuers have found 14 bodies, as well as three injured people, with the cause of the accident "still under investigation", Xinhua reported. Rescue work is "completed", with the three injured currently in stable condition, Xinhua added. Photos published by state media showed rescue crews working overnight under floodlights, with masses of debris and crushed machinery visible. Construction and industrial accidents are not uncommon in China, often due to lax safety standards. In December, two workers were killed and twenty others rescued from a flooded coal mine in Shanxi province. In July, 14 workers died in south China's Guangdong province after a tunnel they were building flooded. (AFP) We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Submit For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website at ladowntownnews.com/site/privacy.html By clicking to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here. More than 4,400 flights were cancelled worldwide on Sunday Jan. 2, according to flight tracking website Flight Aware, dashing pre-holiday hopes for smooth travel going into 2022. With the Covid-19 omicron variant now bearing down hard in the eastern United States and throughout Europe, more than 2,700 cancellations affected flights into, within or out of the U.S. yesterday. The cancellation miseries began in earnest on Christmas Eve. Globally, airlines cancelled more than 6,000 flights over the Christmas holiday weekendFriday, Saturday and Sundaywith more than 1,700 into, within or out of the U.S. But midweek cancellations continued, with airlines cancelling 1,082 flights into, within or out of the U.S. on Wednesday, Dec. 29 and 1,125 on Thursday, Dec. 30. While omicron was not the only factor contributing to cancellationsthere were weather issues as wellstaff shortages due to omicron infections and the requisite 10-day isolation period in place leading up to the intensive holiday season were the primary problem, according to the airlines. "The nationwide spike in omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation," United Airlines offered in a statement on Christmas Eve. JetBlue issued a similar statement: "Like many businesses and organizations, we have seen an increasing number of sick calls from omicron." Airlines bulked up staffing with new employees prior to the holidays and wooed existing employees to work through the holiday season or take extra hours with increased pay. The strategy worked for some carriersboth Southwest and American Airlines came through with few cancellationsbut not all. Read the full article at businesstravelnews.com The pandemics onset and subsequent series of lockdowns adversely impacted the entire world, and the hospitality industry was at the forefront. However, the sector has also been quick to bounce back from the initial disruptions and dip in business. With realigned strategies, innovative tactics, and a tech-first approach, the hospitality space is already making a comeback as people once again begin to travel, albeit somewhat differently compared to the pre-pandemic time. It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, and the hospitality industry has proved it right. To ensure a safe, hassle-free experience, the industry is putting a strong emphasis on hygiene, safety and providing efficient customer service on all aspects: reservations, payments, lodging, and food and beverage (F&B) services. But to understand how innovation has truly transformed the industry, lets delve deeper. The rise of backpacker hostels in India Apart from images of picturesque locations, travel often generates images of quaint/luxurious accommodations and a relaxed, leisurely time to break free from our daily routine. However, not every traveler can afford luxury accommodations that will require them to shell out thousands of rupees each day. As the dynamics of travel evolve, travelers preferences are also changing, with people now seeking our budget-friendly yet comfortable and safe, experience-driven accommodations. And the answer to their search has ended with backpacker hostels. In the last three-four years, backpacker hostels have popped up in numerous locations; they are now present in tourist hotspots as well as remote destinations as people look to escape the bustling city life and avoid the tourist crowds. There are 40-50 hostels in cities such as Goa, Jaipur, Delhi, etc., summing up to 2,500 hostels in the Indian market. Offering safe, affordable, comfortable stays that cater to todays travelers, i.e., GenZ and Millennials expectations, backpacker hostels are undeniably becoming sought-after options. Read the full article at entrepreneur.com Ken Hammond, a long-time Chronicle editor who for many years guided the papers Sunday Texas Magazine and nurtured scores of local writers, died Jan. 2. He was 78. Hammond died at Houston Methodist Hospital, from natural causes, including complications from pulmonary fibrosis. Prior to being hospitalized in late December, he lived in Southwest Houston. After joining the Chronicle in 1979 as a city desk reporter, Hammond was soon recruited to write for the features department. A dependable writer and a quiet but congenial co-worker, he quickly became a respected and popular member of the team. Quick to smile, he had a dry, sometimes cynical or self-deprecating sense of humor. When the Texas Magazine editorship became open, Hammond was the obvious choice. Chronicle, freelance and amateur writers found his editing style exacting but insightful. He was kind and patient but also an inspired editor, said long-time features reporter Claudia Feldman. We all felt so lucky when we got to write a story for him. We knew whatever we were working on was about to get much better. Hammond edited State Lines, a weekly column which often published writing by the newspapers readers on personal experiences or memores related to Texas. Hammonds nurturing side was obvious when he would talk excitedly about some new contributor he was guiding through his or her first published story. Some of those writers communicated with him years after he had left the newspaper. He was proud of that and should have been, said former Chronicle reporter Evan Moore. He solicited a number of those writers, a few of whom have gone on to reach some recognition. He went out of his way to make that a feature of the magazine. Ken cared about writing. The popularity of the State Lines column eventually led to a book of the same name, featuring 52 of the best stories from the column. State Lines is still available from Texas A&M University Press. Kenneth Hammond was born in Albion, Michigan, Sept. 25, 1943, but grew up in Ohio. He was really into music in his younger years, said his son, Greg Hammond, and that was an influence for (brother) Brady and me. He loved reading and was always trying to get us more into it. He loved cars. He drag-raced as a kid, somewhere in the Midwest. Graduating in journalism from Ohio State in 1968 made him the first of his family with a college degree. He was able to use his journalism skills right away, but not exactly the way he had planned. The Vietnam war was on, and Hammond found the Army waiting. He was about to be drafted, so I think he went that day and enlisted, Greg Hammond said. In Vietnam, Hammond wrote for the American military newspaper, Stars and Stripes. His tour was not always a pleasant experience, and in later years he would sometimes recall the frustration of not being able to write the stories he felt were important. But he also shared good memories of the people and some of the culture he experienced. After the Army, Hammond hitch-hiked around the country. Greg Hammond recalls stories of plumbing, bar-tending and other temporary occupation until he finally arrived in Fort Worth, where he met his future wife of 23 years, Mickey Hammond, and worked as a police reporter for the Fort Worth Star Telegram. In 1979 Hammond and his young family moved to Houston for his career with the Chronicle. He also taught public affairs reporting at the University of Houston. After retiring from the Chronicle in 2004, Hammond became an English instructor and tutor at Houston Community College, a job that often proved challenging due to health issues. He was still on the job when he fell ill last month. Moore was one of the last friends to talk to Hammond; he called him on Christmas Day in the hospital. Hammond still had his wry, understated sense of humor. The nurses are all pretty nice, he told Moore. They check on me all the time and they overfeed me. And I dont have to make a single decision for myself. Hammond is survived by his sons, Greg and Brady Hammond. Burial and services are pending. Louis Park is a former Houston Chronicle writer. Some of the best years of my life I miss those people. Good times and memories, but I have moved on. Not my best days, but I have made peace with them. Glad to be away from those people I dont miss the high school experience. Vote View Results An 81-year-old man convicted of killing a Houston police officer during a 1990 traffic stop is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in April, officials said. Carl Wayne Buntion, the oldest inmate on Texas death row, will be executed April 21 at a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility in Huntsville, Judge Kelli Johnson on Tuesday ruled. The execution date comes three decades after Buntion gunned down James Irby, a Houston Police Department motorcycle officer, during a traffic stop near Airline Drive and Lyerly Street. Buntion, then 50, was a passenger in the stopped Pontiac, which had heroin in the trunk, court records show. He shot Irby, 37, again, twice in the back, after he collapsed to the ground during the June 1990 incident. He fled from the traffic stop and fired more shots at witnesses near Interstate 45. One bystander used Irbys radio to call for help. Authorities tracked him to the nearby Pony Express warehouse, where he later surrendered. The driver, John Killingsworth, was charged in connection to the drugs, rather than the fatal shooting. Irby was an 18-year veteran of the police department. Lawyers for Buntion could not be reached for comment. At the time of the shooting, Buntion had seven convictions and had been out on parole for six weeks following a prison stint for sexual assault of a child. A jury found him guilty in Irbys death in 1991 and sentenced him to die. His sentence was vacated by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2009 but a jury in 2012 returned him to death row. Patrick McCann, who represented Buntion during the second trial, said Buntion was then partially deaf and blind. He had limited mobility then. Hes done nothing but deteriorate since, McCann said. Its a cop killing, now 30 years old. I suppose the state of Texas has a long memory for that. District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement that it is time that (Buntion) be held accountable for his horrific crime. He robbed Officer Irby of his life and deprived the Irby family of a lifetime of memories with him; it is time for them to have justice, Ogg said. Former district attorney Johnny Holmes prosecuted Buntion in the original trial which was moved to Fredericksburg in Gillespie County, about 200 miles west of Houston, because of the publicity. News reports at the time of the incident stated that police believed Buntion had vowed to avenge his twin brothers death in 1971 at the hands of a police officer. According to prosecutors, Buntion was a member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas a prison gang. He is being held at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston. The state last executed death row prisoner Rick Rhoades whose case happened in Harris County in September 2021. There are nearly 200 people on death row in Texas, according to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penaltys website. nicole.hensley@chron.com Thousands of Houston Independent School District students returned to class Monday against the background of a quick rise in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations that has added uncertainty to school districts in the Houston region as they resume instruction in the coming days following winter breaks. While anecdotal accounts indicated the surge had affected some Houston ISD kids and teachers, the extent of any disruptions was not clear Monday as the district did not release new numbers of confirmed infections or attendance on the first day back from break at the states largest district. COVID REPORT: Omicron may be less severe, but it's raising Houston hospitalizations to staggering levels In interviews, HISD parents expressed varying degrees of concern about the current surge being driven by the omicron variant and several lauded the district for its efforts in trying to combat spread of the virus, including a mask mandate expected to remain in place for the time being and free testing scheduled to begin this month at all campuses. Meanwhile, Texas Childrens Hospital announced it had nearly 70 pediatric patients hospitalized with COVID-19, which marked an increase from 30 such cases a week ago. A majority of the patients were unvaccinated, including those younger than 5 years old who are not yet eligible for the jabs. We know that there is concern around children being in school. We want them to be in school, we want to be clear about that, said Dr. James Versalovic, the hospitals pathologist-in-chief. We are working, as I have mentioned, with school districts and school leaders throughout our communities to give them timely information, to recommend masking and other strategies for prevention of transmission. Two days after testing negative Thursday, Ruth Maria Lopezs 5-year-old daughter started coughing and presenting cold-like symptoms. Lopez took her to get tested Sunday, but had not yet received the results Monday. So she kept her daughter home. At the end of the day, I just did not want to send her with symptoms, said Lopez, an education professor at the University of Houston, adding she was working from home and not all parents have the privilege of being able to watch their child. I want to be absolutely sure because we are trying to look out, not just for her, but for her classmates, for her teacher, for everyone in that school. COVID HELP DESK: Does it matter to know whether I have the omicron or delta COVID variant? Starting this month, HISD plans to offer testing for students and staff at campuses. Parents and employees are required to fill out a consent form in order to be screened. The effort is the districts latest in response to the pandemic. Over the winter break, HISD operated several drive-thru screening sites that tested 1,885 individuals, according to the district. Experiences at school districts elsewhere may not bode well for Houston-area systems scheduled this week to resume class. In San Antonio, Northside ISD had about 1,260 staff absences, 926 of which were reported as teacher absences or any classroom-related position that required a substitute; not all were believed to be health-related. And in New York, roughly one-third of students at the nations largest school system were absent on Monday, according to news reports. The New York Times reported districts in Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Newark planned to switch to remote instruction, but a majority of districts in the country appeared to be operating as planned.. Beyond HISD, most districts in the Houston region will see students return from breaks on Tuesday and Wednesday. Aldine ISD announced last week that its mask mandate would remain in effect until further notice because of an upward trend in COVID-19 cases. The district had previously said it would lift the requirement. For Marie Williams, a mother of three HISD students, the omicron variant had not increased any worries. My concern level is about the same, she said while waiting to pick up her daughter outside of Jack Yates High School on Monday. We do what we can. We trust the kids will make the best decision and that the school will enforce the masks. Dominique Smith, a freshman at Yates, said many students did not wear their masks properly and the mandate had not been strictly enforced when students are in hallways between classes. Still, Smith preferred attending school in person. I think it was harder online than in person, but like in person, a lot of people are getting sick, Smith said. If I did go back online, itd probably be harder, but Id be safe. The recent spike in cases and hospitalization raised stress for Ivonne Martinez, whose son attends HISD. The 9th grader is vaccinated but had not yet received a booster. It is not as stressful as the other times, but as we know, the recent information that we see is that you have to have a booster to fare better, Martinez said. You do your best but you are still sending them in with a bunch of other students and with omicron on site. It is much stressful, but obviously, we just do what we can and hope for the best. alejandro.serrano@chron.com A small but growing body of research suggests the omicron variant is less severe than previous strains of the coronavirus, even as it sickens vaccinated people and children in record numbers. While much is still unknown about the highly contagious strain that emerged late last year and swept across the globe with unprecedented speed, a preliminary study of nearly 900 patients in the Houston Methodist health care system found that those with omicron were younger and significantly less likely to require hospitalization compared with the alpha and delta variants. Patients admitted to the hospital required less intense respiratory support and had a shorter length of stay. The study, published Saturday on medRxiv, reinforces what doctors in the United Kingdom and South Africa two major omicron hot spots have reported about the latest wave of infections. British and South African health officials have in recent weeks seen encouraging evidence of the newest variants diminished severity, even as infection rates reach record-setting heights around the world. Omicron spread unusually quickly across the Houston area, and in general, it is causing less severe disease compared to the alpha or delta variants, Dr. Randall J. Olsen, medical director of Houston Methodists Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory and one of the studys authors, said in an email Monday. But the news that omicron seems milder may not matter in Houston, where masking remains optional and more than 25 percent of the eligible population is unvaccinated. Doctors on Monday described a counterintuitive reality: The threat of severe illness to any given individual is lower, but with so many new infections, the total number of people requiring acute care will almost certainly exceed that of previous surges. Put simply, omicrons ubiquity offsets its lessened severity. Hospitals are already feeling the strain. The Texas Medical Center topped 400 new COVID admissions per day between Christmas and New Years Day, double the previous week and on par with the worst of deltas summertime peak. Before omicrons arrival, the hospital consortium was averaging just 56 hospitalizations per day throughout the month of November. At Texas Childrens Hospital, pediatric hospitalizations are up fivefold since mid-December. Seventy kids, most unvaccinated, were in the hospitals COVID wing as of Monday, a tally the hospitals pathologist-in-chief, Dr. James Versalovic, called staggering. We cannot say this (variant) is milder for children because it is frankly early and we need time to follow these children and gather data about their outcomes, Versalovic told reporters Monday. The soaring hospitalizations come amid staffing shortages as health care workers fall ill by the hundreds and as public officials appear reluctant to return to the more restrictive containment measures that characterized earlier phases of the pandemic. While breakthrough infections account for a greater share of new cases, doctors remain confident in the protective power of the current double-shot mRNA vaccines and booster shots, which seem to provide a significant shield against severe illness. Of the 862 Houston Methodist patients who contracted omicron in November and December, half were fully vaccinated. An additional 10 percent had received a booster shot. Overall, about 15 percent of the patients in the study required hospitalization for an average of three days, though its unclear from the data provided how many of those were fully vaccinated individuals. During the summertime delta surge, 43 percent of Houston Methodists COVID patients were admitted to the hospital for an average stay of 5 days. The prevalence of vaccinated people in the pool of early omicron cases is a stark departure from delta, which largely spared inoculated populations. Breakthrough infections accounted for just 1 percent of all COVID cases in Houston from the time vaccinations began until mid-December, according to the Houston Health Department. Public health officials expect omicron to alter that ratio in the weeks to come. As the two-year anniversary of the pandemic approaches, Dr. Wesley Long, medical director of microbiology at Houston Methodist, understands the publics desire to see omicron as less of a threat than previous strains. But he said it is simply too soon to predict how the region will fare. Hospitalizations and mortality are lagging indicators it takes weeks or months for the most severe outcomes to run their course, Long said. nora.mishanec@chron.com twitter.com/nmishanec A former county commissioner is suing Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, claiming Hidalgo and the county violated state law when they met to approve redistricting maps. Former Commissioner Steve Radack argues the commissioners violated the Open Meetings Act because they did not make public the map that ultimately was approved within 72 hours of the meeting. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the courts adoption of the new maps. More from Dylan McGuinness: Former Houston cop who thought A/C repairman was a voter fraud mastermind indicted on felony assault charge County Attorney Christian Menefee dismissed the suit as meritless. The Open Meetings Act requires governments to post public notices about meetings at least three days before they occur. Courts and attorneys general have said the notices have to be sufficiently specific to let the public know what will be addressed. It does not require them to post supporting documents, although governments sometimes do. The county posted a timely notice of the meeting and met on Oct. 28 to take up redistricting. The lone item on the agenda said: Request to receive public input regarding Harris County Commissioners Court redistricting plans, and consider and possibly adopt an order approving a new district/precinct plan for Harris County Commissioners Court, including any amendments thereto. Andy Taylor, Radacks lawyer in the case, said they do not think that was adequate notice for the specific map made by Commissioner Rodney Ellis, which he dubbed the Stealth Plan. It gave one of the courts two Republican-leaning districts a Democratic advantage, likely cementing a Democratic supermajority after the 2022 elections. We believe the evidence will show that the map was created prior to October 28th but a decision was made not to share that map with the public. In order for the Open Meetings Act to have any meaning or value, we contend that the Ellis 3 Stealth Plan should have been publicly posted that specific map ahead of time in compliance with the 72 hour requirement. The lawsuit was filed on Dec. 31, and Hidalgo and the county have not responded to it yet, according to court documents. Hidalgos office did not respond to a request for comment, and Ellis declined comment. dylan.mcguinness@chron.com Anxiously scanning COVID-19 hospitalization data is no way to start the New Year, and yet here we are, in the throes of yet another surge in infections from a new variant that has left Texas health officials, hospital administrators and frontline workers desperate for a lifeline namely, more tests, more treatment and more medical personnel. The urgency is borne out of an omicron variant wave that is shattering previous pandemic records: as of Monday, Houstons seven-day average positivity rate is at 31 percent, according to the Texas Medical Center, while the statewide positivity rate is a hair below 34 percent. Hospitalizations have also increased by 277 percent over the past two weeks another record. Across the globe, the numbers are even more staggering: nearly 1.5 million new cases every day, making for an especially gloomy holiday season in which flights are being grounded, new travel restrictions have emerged, and mask mandates resurfaced. To make matters worse, tests were either sold out at stores or required waits in long, snaking car lines to access. President Bidens poor planning is a big reason why. He reportedly dismissed a bold plan from COVID-19 testing experts back in October to ramp up rapid testing ahead of the holidays. Even after omicron was identified as a problematic variant, his press secretary Jen Psaki last month mocked the notion of providing home tests to every American. It was an astounding oversight for a president who has gone to great lengths, including vaccine mandates, to protect Americans in this pandemic. We expect better. If there is any silver lining, its that omicron appears to be a milder version of the COVID virus, killing far fewer adults than the delta variant. But plenty are still getting sick and this surge could potentially get worse before it gets better. Roughly 1,200 school districts in Texas will mark the end of the holiday season by welcoming back students and staff, many of whom may have spent the past week or two visiting friends or relatives, heightening the risk that school hallways and classrooms will be incubators for the variant. As of Monday, 279 Texans under age 18 were hospitalized for COVID-19, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, inching closer to the high point of 345 pediatric COVID patients back in September. Gov. Greg Abbott hasnt acted with anything like the urgency needed in past waves, but were glad to see hes moving quicker this time. On Friday, Abbott asked the Biden administration to open additional testing sites in some of the states most populous areas including Harris, Dallas, and Bexar counties and to send more shipments of sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody treatment that experts say is somewhat effective in combating the omicron variant. The federal government controls the distribution of monoclonal antibodies, and infusion centers in cities such as Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, San Antonio and The Woodlands have exhausted their supply. The Department of State Health Services has also requested three teams of medical personnel to help with hospitals in urban areas. Of course, Abbotts hypocrisy in enlisting Bidens help is lost on no one. The Republican governor rarely misses an opportunity to blast Biden on any number of issues, and has set the stage for a lawsuit against the administration for ordering big businesses to mandate vaccinations. Abbotts own COVID policies have defied logic and basic public health guidance, from a refusal to reinstate a mask mandate, his attempted prohibition of local governments and school districts from doing so, and the lack of any coordinated, top-down effort to encourage people to get shots in a state that still lags the national average in vaccinations. Nevertheless, in times of crisis, the federal government is supposed to be a backstop for states that dont have the means to help people. Just as it was appalling for President Trump to demand governors praise him in exchange for COVID relief, it would be foolish for President Biden who frequently calls for basic decency and bipartisanship to do the same. Thankfully, it appears he is attempting to satisfy Abbotts request. A spokesman for the Department of State Health Services told the editorial board that Texas received 2,280 courses of sotrovimab last week and another 2,406 courses this week from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Anthony Fauci, Bidens top medical adviser, has said he expects omicron to peak relatively soon, as it has appeared to do in South Africa, where it was first confirmed. The available COVID vaccines and boosters continue to offer solid protection a United Kingdom study found that people who had received booster doses were 81 percent less likely to be admitted to the hospital. If you squint hard, you can envision a future in which omicron usurps delta globally as the dominant strain, infections begin to wane as more people continue to get vaccinated and natural immunity develops, and the virus becomes more of a seasonal headache on par with the flu. But first, we must get through this surge. Its imperative that every level of government works closely to stanch the bleeding. This is no time to play politics. As we approach the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, one of the most grievous and shameful events in our nations history, its heartening to explore the findings of a year-end review by the Associated Press of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states former President Donald Trump continues to dispute. His perpetuation of the Big Lie fueled the attempted insurrection. The APs comprehensive review involved contacting hundreds of local election offices around the country. Taking nearly a year to complete, the review found surprise, surprise that the cases of potential fraud were so surpassingly few that they could not have made a difference in the 2020 presidential election. The report confirmed the findings of numerous election officials in battleground states (many of them Republicans), as well as Trumps former Atty. Gen. William Barr, more than 80 federal judges and election experts representing both parties. Americans in the six battleground states cast 25.5 million votes for president in 2020. Out of that vast number, APs researchers found fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud. Not 475 thousand, just 475. There was no collusion, no vast, labyrinthine conspiracy, no sophisticated voting-machine computer manipulation. Nearly every one of the 475 possible cases was an individual acting alone to cast additional ballots. Some were Democrats, some Republicans. Some were elderly voters, some were former inmates, others were seeking to vote on behalf of dead relatives. A Wisconsin man mistakenly thought he could vote while on parole, for instance; an Arizona woman was suspected of mailing a ballot for her dead mother; and a Pennsylvania man and Trump supporter tried to vote twice, once for himself and the second time for his son (after disguising himself by donning sunglasses). Almost all the 475 potentially fraudulent votes were tossed out. In cases where the intent to vote illegally was clear, prosecutors have brought or are considering charges. But the alleged instances of fraud never amounted to enough to sway local or state results, much less the presidential election as Trump and his supporters continue to claim. Try to picture the two numbers from the battleground states 475 and 25.5 million. Imagine the potential fraudsters in one line and the total number of voters in another, with a space of about five feet between each person in line (or six feet, just to be socially distanced). The fraud line would stretch about half a mile, from, say, City Hall to maybe a couple of blocks east of Minute Maid Park. The line of voters? All 25.5 million of them standing five feet apart would circle the globe. Yes, we know that vote fraud happens. At least since colonial times, when Americans indicated their choice by tossing little colored balls into boxes, groups, political parties and individuals have tried to manipulate election outcomes. It happens. It goes almost without saying that we do not condone any kind of vote fraud, no matter how innocuous, no matter who benefits. Messing with the system strikes at the heart of a functioning democracy and should be dealt with harshly. Nobody, however, stole the 2020 presidential election. Messing with the system works both ways, though. Every American should resent being taken for a fool by perpetrators of the Big Lie. Despite his clamorous claims, continuing to this day, the former president lost to Joe Biden. He knows that and so do most Americans, even those who insist otherwise. Trump was braying about ballot fraud, even before he won in 2016. The reason he cant be laughed off more than a year after he lost in 2020 is that too many Americans in his thrall believe him. And too many Republican lawmakers mimic his Big Lie to hamstring democracy, regardless of whether they actually believe Trumps absurd claims. They have used those claims to justify costly and time-consuming partisan state-level reviews. Some of them Arizona in particular have been laughably inept. As the Associated Press noted, the tiny handful of cases that came to light in the 2020 battleground states underscore the fact that suspected fraud is almost always detected and exceptionally rare. That fact hasnt stopped Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and 15 other GOP governors from working to control who gets to vote in their state. Voter fraud is virtually non-existent, George Christenson, election clerk for Milwaukee County in Wisconsin, told the AP. In Wisconsin, five people statewide have been charged with fraud out of nearly 3.3 million ballots cast for president. I would have to venture a guess thats about the same odds as getting hit by lightning, Christenson added. Of course, we dont need a Milwaukee County election official to tell us that. Our own AG could have. In the past year Trumps Texas toady spent more than $2 million taxpayer dollars rooting about the state for voting fraud. He found basically nothing. There is a very specific reason why we dont see many instances of fraud, and that is because the system is designed to catch it, to flag it and then hold those people accountable, Amber McReynolds, a former director of elections in Denver, told the AP. Texas is no exception. The system works here, as well. With midterm elections in the offing, voters should carefully scrutinize the fitness for office of any candidate who has helped perpetuate the Big Lie. We would urge voters to educate themselves about the process as a way of inoculating themselves against election falsehoods. Were less prey to myth, lies and rumors when were familiar with how the process works, either as a voter or a volunteer election worker. The truth, weve been told, will make us free. With Trump and his Big Lie minions busily laying the groundwork for undercutting the legitimacy of elections in 22 and 24, voters need to be ready. All of us Republicans, Democrats, independents need to be aware that truth in 2022 is likely to face its sternest test in our lifetimes. Every year, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd turns over her column to her Republican brother. She writes, I have gotten emails asking me not to run my brother Kevins annual column this past year. And I have gotten emails asking me to please run Kevins column. I prefer to let people know what Republicans like Kevin are thinking. So here he is. I begin with a personal note, a quick apology for missing the Thanksgiving column. I was recovering from a heavyweight bout with COVID. Despite two vaccinations last spring, I got very ill at the end of October, including the dreaded COVID fog, where you cannot formulate your thoughts putting me on par with a lot of politicians in D.C. It took a full month, including physical therapy, to recover. Now Im back. The Republicans are watching the political scene these days with a mixture of glee and trepidation. President Joe Biden is underwater in the polls, but Donald Trump is a potential problem. No one is sure of Trumps intentions at this point. There is no doubt that the Trump presidency ended on a sour note. His claims of a stolen election and his badgering of state officials to overturn the results probably cost the Republicans the Senate. David Perdue led the first round of the Georgia Senate election by about 88,000 votes but lost the runoff due in part to the confusion Trump was causing in the state. The rally on the Mall and the subsequent attack on the Capitol are also on Trumps tab. That day was awful to watch because protecting the Capitol was our family business. My father was in charge of security for the U.S. Senate. He got summer jobs for me and all my four siblings at the Capitol when we were teenagers. I worked for four years in the Senate and House, folding lawmakers newsletters. One of the perks was access to the dining room, where I ate side by side with congressmen and senators. I hope Trump does not run. He can do a lot more for the party as an advocate than a candidate. Like him or not, some of his policies were working: accords between Arab countries and Israel; Iran on its heels; China chastened; the border fence going up; low unemployment; a strong economy; and, best of all, low energy prices and higher wages. Biden swept into the presidency on a wave of hope, a friendly press and a highly disliked opponent. He had run as a moderate, a creature of the Senate and a unifier, promising a return to normalcy. Trumps bungled effort to overturn the election and the ill-advised rally that ended with an attack on the Capitol further raised Bidens standing. Once he became president, everything changed. Like one of the residents of Santa Mira, the fictional town in Don Siegels 1956 masterpiece, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Biden looked the same, but his actions revealed a startling transformation. The moderate Joe Biden was gone. The sweeping changes he proposed in the first few months sounded more like Bernie Sanders. Many of them backfired, severely damaging his early support. The White House strategy should have been simple. Leave the policies that are working alone and take credit for them as yours (an old trick of Bill Clintons). Instead, Biden (or his handlers) seemed intent on more drastic action. In the first hours, he canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and the many jobs it would bring. He quickly recommitted to the Paris climate agreement and looked overeager trying to restart the failed Iran nuclear deal. Biden proposed trillions of dollars in spending on new social programs, promising to outdo the New Deal and the Great Society and move the country more fully into a big government-dependent state. (Congratulations to Sen. Joe Manchin for putting country over party, and shame on the Democrats for not knowing the difference.) The president may have mistimed his alliance with the far-left. The American people are growing tired of the role of government in their lives. They are sick of lockdowns and masks for COVID. They are sick of the government at every level interfering in our schools and telling us what our children are taught. And they are sick of government programs that have hobbled our country and increased our massive debt. The Democrats have messaging problems as well. Nancy Pelosis unfortunate position that members of Congress should be able to continue owning individual stocks jars with the image the party is trying to project and is at odds with the forces that drove the country to elect Trump. (And many Republicans have been no better on this issue.) Saying that members of Congress should be able to trade or hold individual stocks because the United States is a free-market economy blissfully ignores that all sorts of lower-level employees in the federal bureaucracy give up their right to buy individual stocks in certain companies when they take various jobs because of the appearance of conflicts of interest. The president says hes running again. But he would be 86 at the end of a second term. Kamala Harris has had a horrible first year as vice president. And the Democrats have no bench, unless you count Beto O'Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Bill de Blasio and Gavin Newsom. The day the Capitol was under attack, I felt nostalgic for the days when things were a lot more collegial and when the two parties mixed and laughed together. Now were even further apart. Maybe if we try to find a middle ground, collegiality doesnt have to be a relic of the past. It does not hurt to think of it as we ring in a new year. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Abimbola Adetowubo, right, walks her two children to Shoesmith Elementary School, 1330 E. 50th St., on Monday, Jan. 3. In an interview, she said they learn better from in-school instruction, where they can interact in in the classroom teachers and other kids, and that she is confident in Shoesmith's safety protocols. Wait! Before you go Please sign up for our Evening Digest and Breaking Newsletters Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Skee Mask, label Ilian Tape remove all music from Spotify Munich EDM producer and DJ Skee Mask and Ilian Tape, the indie label that releases his music, have removed their tracks from Spotify. All my shit is gone. Skee Masks 2018 album, Compro, was named Best New Music by Pitchfork. Only a few random tracks on compilation remain on Spotify, but Apple Music and others have the catalog. Its done, all my shit is gone from Spotify, Skee Mask aka Bryan Muller wrote to his fans via social media. My music will be available there again as soon as this company starts (somehow) becoming honest & respectful towards music makers, he added. Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music. Share on: China Post to issue new stamp collections to celebrate Year of the Tiger People's Daily Online) 17:04, January 04, 2022 (Photo from the official Weibo account of People's Daily Online) China Post is to issue a set of two special stamps for the Year of the Tiger on Jan. 5, 2022. The designs of the stamps are respectively named as Guo Yun Chang Long (meaning "a prosperous China") and Hu Yun Ji Xiang (meaning "tiger of good fortune"), respectively. The denomination of the set is 2.4 yuan. The first stamp depicts an energetic tiger peering into the distance, artistically displaying the determination and ambition of China to develop itself. The second one depicts a heart-warming picture wherein a gentle mother tiger tends to her two baby tigers, extending the best wishes for family harmony and reunion to people all over the country. Chinese netizens have been expressing their keen affection for these cute tigers. (Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liang Jun) On the 17th of December 2021, New Chinatown Foundation hosted its 3rd Edition of Chinatown Award Ceremony at Labourdonnais Hotel to conclude 2021 as a successful year with 105 events and to honor ten exceptional personalities for their unfailing support to New Chinatown Foundation. The evening was graced by the presence of several eminent personalities namely His Excellency Mr. Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory, former Vice President of Mauritius, Honorable Lady Jugnauth, Her Excellency Mrs. Christine Umutoni UN Resident Coordinator, Her Excellency Dr Alyaa Samir Borhan Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Honorable Dr Muhammad Ismael RAWOO Parliamentary Private Secretary, Honorable Sandra Mayotte Parliamentary Member, Mrs Leela Luckheenarain, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Arts and Cultural Heritage, Mr. Josh Ramnarain, Senior Advisor at National Infrastructure and Community Development as well as many other personalities. Like every year, ten awards were given to the worthiest members and supporters of 2021. Mitesh Sunneechurra was awarded the Most Promising Youth Award 2021 for his strong determination and motivation even through tough situations. The award was given to him by Mr. Vikram Neeraj BOODHUN, Director of Culture at the Ministry of Arts and Culture. The Phoenix Inspirational Award 2021 was given to Ruyi Luo, the talented winner of Water Cube Cup Contest for two consecutive years for her exceptional performance and her enthusiasm to inspire others and the honors was done by His Excellency Mr. Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory. Chinatown Musical Troupe which has supported the New Chinatown Foundation since the very beginning and always present to perform the traditional erhu during cultural events, has been awarded The Best Music Artist of Chinatown 2021 and the award was presented by Dr Leela Devi Luckeenarain, Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Arts Culture. The Best Artist of Chinatown 2021 award was given by Jean Paul Lam to Taichi For Joy which is a group of friends practicing taichi as the name says for joy for their joyful and creative participation and support to New Chinatown Foundation. Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much, the best way to describe the partnership built over the past year between New Chinatown Foundation and lUnion des Francais a lEtranger. Mr. Charles de Loppinot has been the key in the development of this partnership and the Best Partner Award 2021 was presented to him by Her Excellency Dr Alyaa Samir Borhan, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Mauritius. Mr. Mario Hung Wai Wing who has always been supportive and contributed towards many activities of the New Chinatown Foundation was presented with the Friendship Award 2021. Mr. Josh Ramnarain, Senior Advisor at National Infrastructure and Community Development did the honors of presenting the award to Mr. Mario Hung Wai Wing. For his belief, devotion, team spirit and contribution to the New Chinatown Foundation, The Best Team Player 2021 Award was bestowed to the energetic, charismatic zenfant Chinatown, Mr. Nalla Yerally. He proudly received the award from Mr. Guillaume Hugnin, President of Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Ambassador of Chinatown 2021 was awarded to Honorable Sandra Mayotte by Jean Paul LAM, the President of New Chinatown Foundation for her exceptional talent and contribution as well as her enthusiasm to team with the New Chinatown Foundation in the promotion of culture and tradition. Mr. LI Hai, Honorary President of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce in Mauritius and Chairman of the Yihai Group, has been awarded the Gratitude Award 2021 not only for his support and belief in the young generation working for a better tomorrow while maintaining and preserving our heritage but also for his avant-gardist thoughts and inspiration to create a Chinese Museum at Trou Fanfaron in the near future. He was presented the award by Honorable Lady Jugnauth. Her Excellency Mrs. Christine Umutoni did the honors of awarding the Visionary Award 2021 to Mr. Jean Claude de LEstrac, Member of Le Comite des Sages of New Chinatown Foundation. He has been supportive to the cause of New Chinatown Foundation which feel that with his guidance, visionary ideas and experience, the New Chinatown Foundation will certainly reach higher in the coming years. The New Chinatown Foundation has greatly evolved since its creation and today has ascended to an unprecedented level, standing taller and stronger. To name a few of its achievements: 1) Longest Eco Dragon in Africa Tangloon (108m) 2) The highest concentration of Art Murals (55+) 3) The highest concentration of Eco Bins (20+) 4) The First Shaolin Temple Abbot visit to Mauritius 5) The only Manga Street in Mauritius 6) The most consistent NGO working towards empowerment of the Next Gens 7) The first Chinatown Digital Art Hub Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires As coronavirus cases increase, more than 700 Nazareth Area School District students were absent Monday, with more than half because of COVID-related reasons, Superintendent Dennis Riker said in a message sent to parents. Advertisement Of the more than 350 COVID-19 related absences, 179 individuals tested positive for COVID-19, Rikers letter states. Several students and staff members were also sent home Monday and are awaiting test results, the letter states. This number is anticipated to increase as conversations with families continue to take place. These students will be required to follow the quarantine parameters established in the Health and Safety Plan, Riker said in the letter. Riker confirmed Tuesday he sent the letter to parents Monday. Advertisement In the letter, Riker acknowledged that more than 700 absent, which is about 15% of the districts enrollment, is significantly higher than normal. The district had determined that as of Monday afternoon, over the previous 10-day period, there were 14 individuals who were infectious while participating in school activities at Nazareth Area High School, one individual at Nazareth Area Middle School and one at Butz Elementary School. Monday was the first day back to school following the holiday break. Nazareth and many other Lehigh Valley districts are grappling with a return to school as COVID-19 cases are surging. Catasauqua High School went virtual for this week because of staffing shortages caused by the pandemic, the district announced Monday. Reading School District is virtual this week because of COVID-19 concerns following winter break. Spread at Nazareth Area High School was significant enough before the start of the holiday break that the school held classes remotely Dec. 23, which was a half-day. The district, which in late November dropped its mask mandate, recently announced that it would switch back to requiring masks for students in grades 5-12. Masks are encouraged at the elementary schools but are optional. Update from Superintendent. Masks still required for tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/ecSZkgNLrJ Alan Davis (@NazHSPrincipal) January 3, 2022 Advertisement In Nazareth, the back-and-forth with the masking has upset some parents. Marci Levine, a mother of two 11th graders at Nazareth Area High School, said she believes the high rate of COVID-19 spread in the district is the result of people failing to take the pandemic seriously or only responding once the situation in schools escalates. Its the same pattern of being reactionary and not doing enough, Levine said. Its reactionary and not proactive. She added she didnt believe that merely encouraging masking for elementary students did enough to protect those students, especially considering that those 5 and younger cannot get the COVID-19 vaccine. Advertisement Morning Call reporter Leif Greiss can be reached at (610) 679-4028 or lgreiss@mcall.com. We rely on the support of our subscribers to fund our journalism as we continue to cover the coronavirus crisis. If youre not already signed up, we hope you will consider subscribing. Already a print subscriber? If you havent already, please activate your digital access. State levies $30,000 fine against Ellensburg doctor for failing to require employees and patients to wear masks "Vaxxed and boosted" Whoopi Goldberg absent from 'The View' after testing positive for COVID-19 Considering the urgency of the global climate crisis, there is, understandably, a premium on investments that promise emissions reductions or other positive social and corporate governance outcomes on top of conventional financial returns. These environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investments and ESG funds are major players on international markets. Financial services firm Morningstar found that global sustainable mutual fund assets reached $3.9 trillion at the end of the third quarter this year. It's not surprising that people want to "do well while doing good." The whole model falls apart, however, if ESG funds cannot point to verifiable yields for the climate, as is the case with an estimated 55 percent of climate-focused ESG equity funds. Without accurate, comprehensive data on companies' ESG performance, investors are flying blind. Markets, and the planet, are the big losers in a dynamic plaguing the ESG world. ESG funds that cannot show results face problems, of course. Growing evidence suggests such institutional investors can expect trouble in global capital markets. Yet the climate--the priority for many ESG investors--suffers the most. Even companies we assume have smaller carbon footprints can, in a full-fledged accounting of the company's environmental impact, turn out to be responsible for inordinate emissions. Their inclusion in an ESG fund, then, is unwarranted, but investors have difficulty in measuring and reporting comprehensive impact. This is especially true of organizations' Scope 3 emissions, or the greenhouse gases emitted by assets and operations outside their direct control, which can be as much as 5.5 times greater than the organization's direct emissions. Accounting for upstream and downstream carbon emissions is, of course, more difficult than just estimating the emissions a company avoided through a building energy-efficiency retrofit or purchasing renewable power. The accounting difficulty, coupled with the fact that the final results will not look as good, could explain why only one-third of the net-zero emissions by 2050 commitments made by the world's 2,000 largest listed companies include Scope 3. This is a tremendously difficult problem that even companies with substantial financial, technological, and human capital resources struggle to navigate. And big tech companies, a favorite of ESG funds on account of the relatively low carbon intensity of their operations, are no exception. In many cases, firms of this breed possess the resources and manpower needed to develop, implement, manage, and ultimately disclose the progress of climate-related components of their ESG programs, as long as they concern direct, or "owned," emissions. Accounting of their full value chain, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired, with research from the Technical University of Munich suggesting these firms underreport their annual upstream and downstream carbon emissions by some 202 megatons and 189 megatons, respectively. By way of example, consider the hypothetical case of a large tech company with a diverse suite of B2B and B2C products and services. Let's imagine the company commits to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and that this company has a strong track record of ESG and climate-related disclosures that generally shows investors progress toward that end. Yet it is not hard to see how real-world activities could dramatically disrupt emissions models and consequently undermine emissions estimates. Say our tech company's model depends on getting products rapidly to consumers. Today's shipping bottlenecks would be unacceptable, and the company may well charter its own vessels rather than hope for the cargo ship backlog to ease. Will the company's models of its emissions footprint, or of the lifecycle emissions footprint of any given product, take this change into account? Given existing ESG standards, the answer is probably no. Certainly, ESG investors lack adequate data to verify whether companies they invest in are taking such large changes into account. There is no shortage of real-world examples of how real-world emissions accounting can get very complicated. Some utilities get well-deserved plaudits for strong ESG reporting going back nearly two decades and for rapidly decarbonizing their energy resource mix; yet how do we account for the climate impact of wildfires sparked by their equipment? This is to say nothing of when a company faces competing reporting standards; investors and government entities like the Environmental Protection Agency may well require different disclosures, creating embarrassment (or worse) for a company when its disclosures to investors and to the government do not align. These complications, and the fact that an estimated 9 percent of companies accurately quantify their emissions, make the 86 percent of institutional investors who don't trust companies' ESG data seem prescient. Without investment-grade ESG data, climate-focused investors cannot make informed decisions and reward climate-beneficial behavior, let alone reduce their own value chain emissions. If climate-focused ESG investors do not demand comprehensive, auditable data, they open the door for more widespread and camouflaged greenwashing. Still, companies themselves have the capability, and the responsibility, to fix the root causes of the "flying blind" conundrum. The first root cause is the inaccuracy and inconsistency of methods that organizations use to measure their contributions to climate change. The second cause is the insufficient extent to which organizations accurately and uniformly measure their exposure to the financial risks of climate change. Relatedly, the final cause is the inconsistency of methods organizations use to inform risk mitigation efforts and verify and disclose the effectiveness of any interventions. But it won't be this way forever. Governments have a role to play, and jurisdictions the world over are beginning to implement more uniform standards. That was top of mind at COP26, where a day of talks dedicated to sustainable finance culminated in the formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), which establishes a "baseline" of minimum reporting on climate-related risks. Still, the world is on a collision course with disaster. Some estimates are that global warming may exceed 3C by century's end--well above Paris Agreement goals. Companies and investors alike must get their ESG data houses in order, so trillions of ESG dollars can flow to where they are the most effective. They have a responsibility to act before governments do. Microsoft has had a very good run the past few years. It introduced a new browser, Edge, based on Chromium, which is faster and more reliable than what it replaced. It also launched Teams, a competitor to the popular communication platform Slack, which exploded as millions of people moved to working remotely during the pandemic. Microsoft's Edge browser isn't bad. It's one of the better Chrome alternatives, and it comes with a few interesting features that make it worth a look. Microsoft Teams isn't bad either if what you want is something other than Slack and you're already deeply integrated into Microsoft's productivity ecosystem. If you're using Windows, however, Microsoft very much wants you to use both. For example, Windows 11 makes it very difficult to get away from Edge as the default. Sure, you can set a different browser as your default, but any link within the system will still open in Edge regardless of your choice. Microsoft even went so far as to block a utility called EdgeDeflector that opened those links in whatever browser you set as default. Windows 11 also includes Teams installed by default, and it has a central place in the dock, whether you want it there or not. If you happen to use Outlook as your email and calendar client, it automatically includes a Teams link when you're sending an invitation for a meeting. Among other problems, that can get confusing if you're using Zoom, for example. Again, it's not that these are bad products. The problem is that Microsoft's current push to get people to use its software has very serious 1998 vibes. That was the year the Department of Justice sued Microsoft over its anticompetitive behavior, mostly that it was forcing PC manufacturers to include Microsoft Internet Explorer on computers that ran its Windows operating system. At the time, Microsoft was the most dominant software company in the world. It made the operating system that powered the vast majority of personal computers, and its Office productivity suite was also the default option for businesses and consumers. Microsoft had also decided it should be making a browser to fend off competition from Netscape. It leveraged its control over the operating system to force PC manufacturers to include its browser, Internet Explorer. As you might imagine, Explorer quickly became the most dominant browser in the world. Eventually, Microsoft and the DOJ settled, and the company agreed to make it easier for third-party developers to take advantage of APIs on Windows. Separately, in Europe, Microsoft had to offer users a "browser ballot" which included a handful of competing browsers and gave the option of which they wanted to download. Microsoft has obviously done pretty well since then. It's currently the second-most valuable company in the world, after Apple. It even passed Apple last month for a few weeks as the largest company by market cap. Many critics argue that the settlement was less than a slap on the list, since it didn't prevent Microsoft from tying future products to Windows, which is exactly what is happening today. Now, however, it isn't PC manufacturers that Microsoft is trying to compel with its tactics; it's doing it to users. Microsoft is trying to force you to use Edge and Teams, even if you've chosen to use a competing option. One of the ironic side effects of the antitrust case against Microsoft is that it paved the way for Google Chrome to become the most dominant browser in the world today. The vast majority of people--including the vast majority of Microsoft's customers--use Google Chrome despite its problems. Since 1963, The Independent has helped create a great community! Since our founding in September of 1963, The Independent has been dedicated to giving Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, and Sunol readers the news they need to be in-the-know about what's going on in the Tri-Valley region. Send to Email Address Your Name Your Email Address Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Email check failed, please try again Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Indian office sector ended the year 2021 with net absorption for Q4, 2021 (October-December 2021) at 11.56 million sq. ft, the highest in the last eight quarters, and up by 86% Q-o-Q, according to JLLs Office Market Update-Q4, 2021. On a half-yearly basis (six months), net absorption was up by 26% for the H2 periods (July-Dec 2021) on a Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) basis. In Q4 2021, the markets of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Delhi contributed 61% of the total absorption. Hyderabad surpassed Bengaluru with 3 million sq. ft of net absorption recorded during the quarter, pushing Bengaluru to second place which followed closely with 2.4 million sq. ft. Older pre-commitments also held firm and were an indicator of occupier confidence in business and growth. Pre-commitments were a major driver of net absorption with 60% of the new supply which came on-stream in Q4 2021, already pre-leased. On a full-year basis, net absorption was up marginally by 2% Y-o-Y at 26.2 million sq ft. For the entire year of 2021, Bengaluru led with a 30% share of net absorption, followed by Delhi NCR and Hyderabad. All three cities together accounted for nearly 64% of net absorption in the year 2021. Office net absorption witnessed a significant surge in Q4 2021; up by 81% Q-o-Q City Q3 2020 (mn sq. ft) Q4 2020 (mn sq. ft) Growth (%) Q4 2020 over Q3 2020 Q3 2021 (mn sq. ft) Q4 2021 (mn sq. ft) Growth (%) Q4 2021 over Q3 2021 Bengaluru 2.70 1.37 -49% 1.24 2.42 95% Chennai 0.21 1.04 407% 0.70 0.85 21% Delhi NCR 0.20 1.02 416% 1.40 1.61 15% Hyderabad 1.54 2.83 83% 1.22 2.99 145% Kolkata 0.02 0.15 564% 0.03 0.47 1470% Mumbai 0.56 0.96 70% 0.97 1.88 93% Pune 0.46 1.05 126% 0.64 1.34 108% Total 5.70 8.42 48% 6.21 11.56 86% Net absorption up in the top 7 cities City 2020 (mn sq. ft) 2021 (mn sq. ft) Y-O-Y Growth (%) Bengaluru 6.83 7.82 14.5% Chennai 2.27 2.03 -10% Delhi NCR 3.27 4.72 44% Hyderabad 6.48 4.14 -36% Kolkata 0.19 0.57 201% Mumbai 4.11 3.70 -10% Pune 2.52 3.18 26% Total 25.66 26.17 2% Source: Real Estate Intelligence Service (REIS), JLL Research While net absorption was up marginally, we have observed greater traction in overall leasing activity. The Gross Leasing Volume (GLV)* for the last quarter of 2021 was recorded at the pre-Covid levels as seen in Q4 2019 at 15 million sq. ft. This is also the highest in last eight quarters and higher than the average quarterly GLV numbers during the pre-Covid (2018 and 2019) period as well. On a yearly basis, GLV of 2021 was still lower Y-o-Y. This was due to the lockdown in the wake of the second wave during early 2021 and a more measured approach towards real estate activity thereafter. With a greater understanding of employee expectations and a hybrid form of working best suited to them, most firms had reworked their workplace strategies. Real estate decisions were well-placed to be taken, given a deeper understanding of the future of work and evolving work culture, said Radha Dhir, CEO and Country Head, India, JLL. Term renewals have risen by nearly two times since 2018-2019 and were recorded at over 13 million sq. ft in 2021, clearly indicating that in a period defined by Covid, occupiers were looking to save costs. A total of 481 term renewal deals were recorded during the year compared to 203 in 2020 and 193 deals in 2019. Developers were also quite active in keeping portfolio occupancies high by incentivizing term renewals, she added. The cities of Bengaluru at 30%, Delhi at 21%, and Hyderabad at 19%, together contributed to 70% of the GLV recorded in the last quarter of 2021. Office demand is driven by IT/ITes IT/ITeS (42%), Manufacturing (15%), and flex space providers (10%) contributed to 67% of the total leasing activity in Q4. For the full year 2021, IT/ITeS remained the leading occupier category with a 38.9% share of leasing activity, followed by manufacturing/industrial (15.4%) and flex space with an 11% share. For most occupiers their real estate plans are intact and in fact, an active demand of 33-35 million sq. ft is already matching pre-Covid levels. This is a clear sign of the long-term confidence that occupiers have for India as a vital cog to their operations and towards the role of the office in their future. In any case, we forecast a net absorption of around 31-33 million sq. ft for 2022, up by 20-25% Y-o-Y. We also forecast around 45-47 million sq. ft of upcoming supply in 2022 which is already pre-committed to the extent of 25-26%. The top developers (based on city-level Grade A office space ownership and well-known national/regional brands), are expected to contribute around 58% of this upcoming supply and have recorded pre-commitment rates of nearly 42-45%, which again signifies the long-term outlook for business and need for offices among occupiers, said Dr. Samantak Das, chief economist and head research and REIS, India, JLL. Completions led by Bengaluru, Hyderabad; pre-leased projects make up a large chunk City Q3 2020 (mn sq ft) Q4 2020 (mn sq ft) Growth (%) Q4 2020 over Q3 2020 Q3 2021 (mn sq ft) Q4 2021 (mn sq ft) Growth (%) Q4 2021 over Q3 2021 Bengaluru 4.70 2.30 -51% 2.49 2.45 -2% Chennai 0.00 3.17 0% 0.37 0.09 -76% Delhi NCR 0.22 1.35 503% 2.94 0.35 -88% Hyderabad 3.33 3.72 12% 2.94 2.53 -14% Kolkata 0.00 0.13 0% 0.00 0.10 0% Mumbai 0.65 1.48 128% 1.79 1.68 -6% Pune 0.59 0.73 24% 0.37 1.93 420% Total 9.49 12.88 36% 10.91 9.12 -16% Source: Real Estate Intelligence Service (REIS), JLL Research New completions remain robust in 2021 City 2020 2021 Y-O-Y Growth (%) Bengaluru 10.05 15.24 52% Chennai 3.70 0.96 -74% Delhi NCR 5.46 8.51 56% Hyderabad 10.79 9.31 -14% Kolkata 0.13 0.10 -22% Mumbai 4.42 7.98 81% Pune 2.57 3.58 39% Total 37.12 45.67 23% Source: Real Estate Intelligence Service (REIS), JLL Research New supply of 9.12 million sq ft was completed in Q4 2021, down by 16% Q-o-Q. Markets of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune headlined new completions in the quarter, with over 60% of the supply coming on-stream in Q4, already pre-committed. While 95% of the new completions were pre-committed in Hyderabad; Bengaluru and Pune witnessed 37% and 45% pre-commitment rates in the new supply. For the year 2021, the new supply addition was recorded at 45.7 million sq ft and was higher by 23% y-o-y. Bengaluru led with a 33% share of annual supply in 2021, followed by Hyderabad with 20% and Delhi with 19%. Rentals remain range-bound Overall office rentals remained largely stable across most major office markets in India in Q4 2021. However, Delhi NCR witnessed rental growth of 1.7% Q-o-Q. Landlords continue to be accommodative to the demands of occupiers and support deal closures. Vacancy up on an annual basis; down 60 bps Q-o-Q 2018 (%) 2019 (%) 2020 (%) 2021 (%) Top 7 Markets 12.8% 12.5% 13.4% 15.3% Vacancy dropped from 15.9% in Q3 2021 to 15.3% in Q4 2021 backed by good leasing activity. For the first time since the pandemic broke, demand has surpassed new supply and hence vacancy has dropped by 60 bps Q-o-Q. The limited infusion of new supply and good demand has aided in keeping the vacancy levels well below 16%. Vacancy levels in Pune continue to remain in single digits while in Bengaluru now stand at 10.0%. With the market recovering in terms of demand momentum and good quality supply pipeline by reputed developers and healthy pre-commitment rates, the vacancy is expected to remain within a tight range in the coming quarters. Looking ahead Advertisements 4 startups selected from over 150 applications Startups for Hiring solutions, Industrial manufacturing monitoring, and dispute resolution In 5 years of Avishkar, a total of 25 startups have been accelerated in AI, NLP, IoT, CV, robotics, and other emerging technologies Program includes Rs. 40 lakhs seed fund jointly with SucSEED Indovation VC fund HYDERABAD, India, Dec. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at IIIT Hyderabad announced the onboarding of 4 startups for the 14th cohort of Avishkar Deep Tech accelerator. From an overwhelming application pool of 150 startups, the selection committee shortlisted 4 startups for the programme. The accelerator offers IIITH's research support, business mentorship, market access and Rs 40L seed fund. Avishkar is a 6-month cohort-based accelerator programme facilitated jointly by CIE, IIIT Hyderabad, Co-creation Consulting, and SucSeed Indovation Fund. It brings together the deep-tech expertise of IIITH's research labs and the opportunity of working within the ecosystem of IIITH Foundation while engaging in in-depth business mentoring from Co-creation consulting and Investor connections from SucSEED Indovation Fund. The program focuses on honing the business plan, team, and overall strategy of the startups and getting the startups business investment ready. It facilitates the startups' journey from a seed level to a VC/Angel level readiness. Prof. Ramesh Loganathan, COO CIE-IIITH says, "Connecting research with startups is a key need to help realize deep-tech innovation that can succeed in the markets. Happy to see yet another cohort of Avishkar commencing." The startups in this cohort are: * Hirex.ai, a cognitive voice-bot solution for automated hiring interviews. * CometLabs, an AI-powered solution for hiring deeptech developers by competitive development events and bootcamps. * Embedsense, an industrial IoT company providing remote monitoring, process optimization, and predictive maintenance in moulding manufacturing setup. * WebNyay, an online dispute resolution ecosystem end-to-end digital platform for the resolution of complaints and disputes in an efficient, speedy, flexible, and inexpensive manner. Avishkar, through the six years, has enabled a number of alumni Avishkar startups. That have since raised external VC funding. Revos (USD 4M), Instoried (USD 8M) Scholr (Acquired by Edtech giant of India, Byju's), Paymatrix (Acquired by Muthoot) among others. About CIE IIIT Hyderabad: CIE@IIITH, also known as CIE (Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship) is a DST approved incubator operational since 2008. CIE@IIITH has so far supported around 400 startups and has seed- funded 19 startups, 80% of which are cash positive. CIE@IIITH was also instrumental being the kiln of the initiatives that culminated into the foundation of T-Hub. Along with developments in AVISHKAR, CIE@IIITH is also focusing on turning a new leaf in terms of infrastructure facilities, programmes and startup engagements focusing towards building a deeptech startup ecosystem. New working spaces are launched, seed funding programmes, structured workshops and mentoring opportunities and technology transfer facilitation are also being deployed now. About IIIT Hyderabad: The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIITH) is an autonomous research university founded in 1998 that focuses on the core areas of Information Technology, such as Computer Science, Electronics and Communications, and their applications in other domains through inter-disciplinary research with great social impact. Some of its research domains include Visual Information Technologies, Human Language Technologies, Data Engineering, VLSI and Embedded Systems, Computer Architecture, Wireless Communications, Algorithms and Information Security, Robotics, Building Science, Earthquake Engineering, Computational Natural Sciences and Bioinformatics, IT in Agriculture and e-Governance. Website: www.iiit.ac.in ANNEXURE Hirex.ai is a cognitive voice-bot solution for automated hiring interviews. Age: 2 years Domain: HR Tech Customers: IT & ITes Companies - Atom, Data Economy, Ubercomm, Suvega Fleet, Vijaya Management Services Funding: Friends and Family(approx. 75L) Website: https://www.hirex.ai/ WebNyay is an online dispute resolution ecosystem end-to-end digital platform for the resolution of complaints and disputes in an efficient, speedy, flexible, and inexpensive manner. Age: 2 years Domain: Online dispute resolution software(SaaS) Customers: Digital Media - Finshots, Newsclick, Cobrapost, The Citizen Funding: Bootstrapped Website: https://www.webnyay.in/ Embedsense is an industrial IoT company providing remote monitoring, process optimization, and predictive maintenance in moulding manufacturing setup. Age: 7 years Domain: Industrial IoT Customers: Britannia, Bosch, Pricol Funding: Bootstrapped Website: https://embedsense.com/ CometLabs is an AI-powered solution for hiring deeptech developers by competitive development events and bootcamps. Age: 1.5 years Domain: Online Community Building Customers: Krishi Network, Oni, Beyond Innovation Funding: Bootstrapped( The extensive music catalog of David Bowie, stretching from the late 1960s to just before his death in 2016, has been sold to Warner Chappell Music. More than 400 songs, among them Space Oddity, Ziggy Stardust, Fame, Rebel Rebel and Lets Dance on 26 Bowie studio albums released during his lifetime, a posthumous studio album release, Toy, two studio albums from Tin Machine, as well as tracks released as singles from soundtracks and other projects, are included. Advertisement Financial details of the sale were not released. Warner Chapell is the music publishing wing of Warner Music Group Corp. Bruce Springsteen sold his catalog to Sony Music last month for a reported $500 million. Among others that have sold their catalogs in recent years, either in part or in their entirety, are Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Stevie Nicks. David Bowie, born David Jones in London in 1947, died in January 2016 after battling cancer for 18 months. As a performer, Bowie had an unpredictable range of styles, melding European jadedness with American rhythms and his ever-changing personas and wardrobes. Advertisement The gaunt and erudite Bowie brought an open theatricality and androgyny to popular music that changed the very meaning of being a rock star. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Last year Warner Music Group reached a deal with the Bowie estate that gave Warner Music licensed worldwide rights to Bowies recorded music catalog from 1968. RuPaul will take another musical step further with the performers 14th studio album Mamaru, out Friday. (Courtesy of Amazon Studios) RuPauls musical step RuPaul is an all-around entertainer with a flourishing VH1 reality competition series RuPauls Drag Race and a longtime music career that includes the classic song Supermodel (You Better Work). Now, the drag queen titan will take another musical step further with the performers 14th studio album Mamaru, out Friday. Its led by the single Blame It On the Edit, which appears to explore the editing process of the Drag Race series. Matthew Murphy of The Wombats perform on the main stage during the TRNSMT Festival at Glasgow Green in 2019. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty) New release from The Wombats The Wombats pushed the release of their forthcoming album Fix Yourself, Not the World, but the English rock band will give a sneak peek of the album a week early in an intimate tour. The band will kick off the tour in Kingston Upon Thames in the United Kingdom on Thursday. The band will make seven other stops before ending the tour in Brighton on Jan. 12 two days before the release of their fifth album. Catch them later in America in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New York and Boston. AP Entertainment Writer Jonathan Landrum Jr. Veteran screenwriter Javed Akhtar took to social media to express how he is 'appalled' with everyone's silence, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, over the harassment of Muslim women. What is the Bulli Bai controversy? Twitter Hundreds of Muslim women, including prominent personalities, were listed for "auction" on an app called 'Bulli Bai' with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. It has happened for the second time in less than a year. The app appeared to be a clone of Sulli Deals which triggered a similar row last year. Akhtar took to Twitter and said he was stunned by the prevailing "silence" over these issues. There is an online auction of hundred women There are so called Dharm Sansads , advising the army the police n the people to go for the genocide of almost 200 MLN Indians .I am appalled with every one s silence including my own n particularly of The PM . Is this Sub ka saath ? Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) January 3, 2022 "There is an online auction of hundred women. There are so-called Dharm Sansads, advising the army, the police, and the people to go for the genocide of almost 200 MLN Indians. I am appalled with everyone's silence, including my own and particularly of The PM. Is this Sub ka saath?" the 76-year-old tweeted. Akhtar also commented on a Dharma Sansad held in Haridwar last month that sparked public outrage over hate speeches allegedly delivered by some participants against Muslims . BCCL A second FIR was lodged against ten persons in connection with the event on Monday. Twitter Akhtar's son, actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, also tweeted against the "sickening" act of putting women for 'auction,' which first emerged on Saturday. "This is sickening! " Farhan tweeted on Sunday, requesting authorities to take swift and strict action against the people behind this grotesque act," Farhan tweeted on Sunday. Twitter Several other Bollywood personalities, including Swara Bhasker, Richa Chadha, Shruti Seth, and screenwriter Varun Grover, commented on the issue and called it "disgusting." Grover said the targeting of Muslims in the country is systemic and deliberate. (With PTI inputs) (To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.) On January 4, 2022, Mumbai Police arrested a 21-year-old engineering student named Vishal Kumar for setting up "Bulli Bai", an app that wanted to auction Muslim women. On the same day, 18-year-old Shweta Singh was arrested from Uttarakhand for her involvement in the creation of "Bulli Bai." A deplorable sequel to "Sulli Deals", the GitHub-based app displayed women belonging to the Muslim community in a derogatory fashion, drawing much flak online. Unsplash The app called "Bulli Bai" is now offline and the police claim to be working on the case. Even then, we've heard no acknowledgment from GitHub's parent company Microsoft. Even Twitter, where the predatory nature of the app was brought to public attention has remained a quiet observer. While local police forces were shaken to work by tweets from prominent women who were featured on the list, tech companies have turned a blind eye to the entire fiasco... yet again! Unsplash What Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals tell us about tech companies When the original "auction" Sulli Deals came into being, the social media news cycle absorbed it as it would - its discovery was followed by collective outrage, after which the entire thing fizzled out and even until now, no arrests have been made. To be blunt, this isn't an extraordinary one-off development. When social media platforms backed by big tech allow hate to fester on their platforms, a sum of this hate is inevitably more hate, with the potential of causing harm to people in the physical realm. Also read: Bulli Bai App: Indian Authorities Ask Twitter And Github About App's Origin The question worth asking right now is whether tech biggies like Microsoft are doing enough to not only take reactive measures, but also to proactively discourage users from using their tool to dehumanise a minority community -- whether it's in India or anywhere else in the world where they do business. Unsplash Besides privacy infringement, the app was endorsing human trafficking of Muslim women, painting them as caricatures to be sold off and bought as its male patrons deemed fit. Prominent figures like actress Shabana Azmi and Malala Yousafzai were among the 100 Muslim women featured on the app. Even Fatima Nafees, the mother of Najeeb Ahmed, a JNU student who disappeared was not spared. What big tech must do For context, "bulli" and "sulli" are sexist slurs used to dehumanise Muslim women in India. The fact that these words were even acceptable to Microsoft is atrocious. It shines light on a problem currently plaguing India, wherein American tech giants import solutions from their home societies to the highly diverse social set-up of India. What we need is a series of ever-evolving localised strategies to fight such hate. So far, all tech companies involved in the unfortunate incident have remained tight-lipped. Just last year, the government tightened its control over tech companies with its new IT laws that require localised solutions to local problems on social media. Sure, it brought more transparency for the government but ordinary citizens seem to have not benefited at all. Also read: Bulli Bai Case: 21-year-old Engineering Student Detained In Bengaluru By Mumbai Police Why is it so hard for tech companies to reflect and react? As Sophie Zhang, a Facebook whistleblower told us - these are all corporate companies that eventually want to make money. Naturally, the safety of their users is going to take a back seat. If you think that's an over-generalisation of a 'sporadic' problem plaguing big tech, then it isn't wholly accurate. Unknown In conversation with Al Jazeera, Fatima Zohra Khan, a lawyer from Mumbai said that "we got no response from Twitter, GitHub and Go-Daddy" while adding that Mumbai Police is requesting the tech companies to reveal data. "These websites refuse to share information unless a court warrant is produced." Reacting to such abhorrent incidents shouldn't be the norm for big tech companies. They should be more proactive in ensuring their platforms and services aren't weaponised against sections of our broader society. It's high time tech companies took into account the role their complacency plays in promoting such hateful behaviour, especially if they choose to remain silent spectators. If anything else, 2021 helped us understand how tech biggies like Facebook and Twitter can shake the basic foundations of any democracy. Should they not then also take responsibility for all unchecked hate exploding on their respective portals? When Microsoft (Github's parent company) wants to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, we'd like to hope it's not at the expense of anyone. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com. Sometimes, certain human beings display such evidence of extreme bravery, that their names should go down in history in golden words. A recent incident from Mumbai will hit you right and you would salute these two cops for fearlessly performing their duties and saving lives. Two cops, or maybe supercops, accompanied by firefighters, managed to rescue around 25 residents who were trapped in their apartments during a massive fire that broke out at the 21-storey Rose Mary Society in Chikuwadi, Borivli, Mumbai, on Sunday morning. Police Naik Rajkumar Bhendigeri According to a report by Mid-day, the cops had reached the spot soon after getting the alert. The duo broke open the jammed doors and helped the residents to get out of there. The brave cops managed to save an infant as well as senior citizens during the rescue operation. They performed all of this without the use of any safety equipment. Talk about being efficient! Constable Sham Rathod Residents of the building that was charred told the news publication that the cops went up and down from the terrace to the 14th floor and instructed the residents to use mobile flashlights to signal their location to make the process easier and quicker. The residents cannot thank the two cops enough for saving their lives in due time. Twitter (Representational image) A few days ago, firefighters in the UK rescued four small Labrador puppies from a shed fire and revived them with oxygen masks. These firefighters had responded to a fire at Freer Road, Aston, in Birmingham, England, and found a shed engulfed in flames. They reached right in time to save four little puppies from the burning shed moments before the fire took over the structure. Pictures of the incident were shared by West Midlands Fire Service to show these labrador puppies being given oxygen therapy by a firefighter. The fire service had tweeted: "Crews are in attendance at Freer Road in Aston at reports of a shed fire, crews have rescued four puppies who are currently receiving oxygen therapy. 4 Labrador puppies rescued by @WMFSAston & @WMFSPerryBarr from shed fire. All puppies are safe and well @WestMidsFire pic.twitter.com/O5ImiZiuG1 Aston Fire Station (@WMFSAston) December 29, 2021 For more trending stories, click here. In an unfortunate incident, an unvaccinated couple, who had four children, died on the same day after catching Covid. Alvaro and Sylvia Fernandez, from California, US, passed away within hours of each other on December 19, reported Mirror. 44-year-old Alvaro was worried about the vaccine and wanted to do some more research before getting the jab. The couple tested positive for COVID-19 days before they died from complications caused by the virus. GoFundMe Alvaro's Alma Hernandez said. "He (Alvaro) wanted to wait and do more research. He googled information. He didn't want to believe everything that was on the news. This is kind of an eye-opener for everybody in my family that whoever is not vaccinated definitely should have their vaccinations." Alma added that her brother and his wife were high school sweethearts and could not live without each other. A GoFundMe page has been set up to support the couple's children - and it has already raised more than 15,000. KNBC This heartbreaking news has come after the grieving father of a "fit and healthy" young mum who suddenly died while 29 weeks pregnant said medics revealed she would still be alive if she "had taken the vaccine". David Exley said his 24-year-old daughter Sadie had a hunky-dory pregnancy with no complications until she suddenly started suffering from migraines and chest pain. The mother-of-two was diagnosed with a blood clot in her lung. She was diagnosed with Covid in late November and her condition deteriorated. A week later, she was rushed to St James Hospital in Leeds when she became paralysed on one side, ExaminerLive reports. She was transferred to Leeds General Infirmary and rushed to the intensive care unit. She was pronounced brain dead after suffering a brain haemorrhage. Doctors were able to save her baby who was delivered by emergency C-section at 29 weeks weighing just 2.1lbs. Her father added, I got the news over the phone, it was just sheer panic. I drove straight to the hospital. I dont know how to describe how I felt. My head was a shed. I didnt eat for days, I was just waiting to know if she was going to be better. They tried to save her but it was apparent that we had lost Sadie. They saved baby Elliot but they couldnt save our Sadie. David Exley For more trending stories, click here. Forney, TX (75126) Today Windy with scattered afternoon thunderstorms. High near 85F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Partly cloudy with late night showers or thunderstorms. Low 67F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Its 2 a.m. and youve just put the finishing touches on the option list for your new home build. Last week you picked the lot with a mountain view, and this week youve configured your new 2,500-square-foot home using a web-based design tool. Once your design is complete, you hit the build button. Three days later, you get a text that your home is ready for occupancy, the utilities are activated, and the occupancy permits already granted. You have yet to speak with a single human about your home build. How do we get a home delivered at this speed? It will require complete automation of the design and build processes, with as few humans as possible in the mix. This includes automation of all construction-related trades, and even automation to meet all required legal checkpoints along the way. It will be a homeowners utopia. Back in my youth, I was a laborer on a construction site. My job was to move plywood and drywall from one place to another. Even then I was struck by the number of repetitive tasks required to build a home. Yes, todays construction crews leverage some automation, such as power tools, but it still seems outdated when you look at how we now build cars and other manufactured products. Manufactured homes have been available for several decades. They are produced in a factory, and completed sections are transported to the lot for assembly. However, the amount of manual labor is still much the same as when all of a build takes place at the final site, and the costs are similar to those of traditionally built homes. This is an industry thats primed for disruption. The technology to truly automate building homes is just beginning to arrive. At the same time, the price of new homes is too high for the average buyers budget. A Virginia family recently moved into Habitat for Humanitys first 3D-printed home in the United States. While Im sure this was more about proving the concept rather than saving money and time, it did show that more types of home construction could be automated, and thus potential costs could be reduced and even the quality of the construction improved. The 3D-printed home solves only part of the problems of home construction. However, there is nothing on the horizon that will stop the automation of the building trades. The use of optical-driven robotics for carpentry, electrical, and plumbing tasks will work with emerging construction automation systems to provide better planning and sequencing of the build. The idea is to optimize the processes and thus reduce costs and increase speed to delivery. In the big picture, this is the same transformation going on in other industries through the digitalization of everything. The construction industry is already looking to weaponize cloud computing to begin automating more core processes of a home build. I suspect well see the day sooner rather than later when we can purchase a lot, design a house to build on that lot, and then walk into that house within a few days, all thanks to automation driven by cloud computing technology. The real value is not the ability to do a people-less build, although thats cool. The real value is to lower the cost of housing to more affordable levels while increasing quality and safety. The processes and technology we used to build houses when I hauled 2x4s up several flights of stairs all those years ago are pretty much the same today. Thats about to change. An alert bank teller thwarted a home improvement scam against a 90-year-old Longswamp Township homeowner, leading to the arrests of a Delaware man and his teenage son, state police said. Troopers said the suspects, who are transient, may have engaged other homeowners in Berks and neighboring counties as well as the tri-state area. Advertisement It all unfolded just before noon on New Years Eve when the homeowner went to his bank in Macungie to withdraw $3,800, according to investigators. When the teller asked why he needed to withdraw the money, he said roofers needed more money to complete a job at his home. Sensing the customer may be the victim of a home-improvement scam that commonly targets elderly homeowners, the teller called county dispatchers. Advertisement According to the probable cause affidavit: Macungie police officer Patrick McLaughlin responded to the mans home in Longswamp to investigate what was termed suspicious activity. McLaughlin noticed a black pickup truck with a Delaware license plate. State police at Reading, who provide the primary police coverage for Longswamp, arrived later. McLaughlin stopped the truck and detained its occupant, James P. Burke, 50, of Bear and his 14-year-old son. Breaking News Alerts As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > Meanwhile, Trooper John Finkbiner interviewed the homeowner. The man said Burke knocked on his door with the boy and said they saw cracks in his chimney that needed to be repaired. He offered to fill in the holes for $700-$800, and the homeowner agreed. The pair got onto the roof and dismantled part of the chimney and told the man the job now would cost $3,800 instead of the original price. The homeowner drove to Wells Fargo in Macungie to withdraw the money but was discouraged by the suspicious teller. The man told the trooper that due to the tellers intervention, he didnt withdraw the money. Trooper Max Seiler examined the work done by Burke and found it to be of poor quality, with holes patched with caulking material in an attempt to scam the victim out of $3,800. Burke was free on $40,000 bail after arraignment Friday night before District Judge Andrea Book in Reading Central Court. He faces charges of home improvement fraud, theft by deception, criminal mischief and related counts. Advertisement The son is facing similar charges, but it was unclear if he had been detained. Troopers asked anyone who had contact with Burke or experienced similar home improvement fraud to contact Seiler at 610-378-4011 or mseiler@pa.gov. About this article This article was written by InsideNoVa's news partner, WTOP, and republished with permission. Sign up for WTOP's breaking news, traffic and weather alerts as well as daily emails. If you can avoid Interstate 95 in Virginia on Tuesday morning, do so. A horrendous traffic jam that began during Monday mornings winter storm has grown steadily worse with plummeting overnight temperatures causing melting snow to refreeze. As of 5 a.m. Tuesday, the WTOP Traffic Center was following at least four trouble spots on I-95 alone from spinouts in icy conditions, each involving multiple spinouts including tractor trailers. Hundreds of drivers are still stranded in the Stafford area. Some have reported been at a standstill for over 12 hours, shutting off their engines in frigid weather to conserve dwindling fuel. Plans are underway to guide vehicles currently stopped on the interstate to nearby interchanges, where they can access alternate routes. The Virginia Department of Transportation and Gov. Ralph Northams office have not returned multiple requests from WTOP for an update on reopening efforts. At 5:20 this morning, VDOT tweeted that crews would begin taking drivers off at any available interchange - exits 140 (Courthouse) and 143 (Garrisonville) for southbound drivers and exits 104 (Carmel Church) and 110 (Ladysmith) for northbound drivers. I-95 remains closed both ways from Dumfries (Exit 152) to Carmel Church (Exit 104) south of the Fredericksburg area. Callers on Tuesday reported crews in the Quantico area were finally letting traffic inch past crashed trucks only to run into another blockage down the road. Among those stuck on I-95 is U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who tweeted Tuesday morning that he started his drive to Washington from Richmond at 1 p.m. Monday. "19 hours later, Im still not near the Capitol. My office is in touch with @VaDOT to see how we can help other Virginians in this situation. Please stay safe everyone." WTOP traffic reporter Dave Dildine called it a worst-case scenario. Some people were seen abandoning their vehicles in snow-covered travel lanes, walking down I-95 to parts unknown, Dildine said. Some callers were sobbing and scared. Psychologically is it extremely distressing to be motionless on a highway for hours on end without knowing how much longer it will last. On Twitter, drivers reported being stuck for hours. Real-time social media posts from local businesses and organizations across Northern Virginia, powered by Friends2Follow. To add your business to the stream, email cfields@insidenova.com or click on the green button below. At their March Board Meeting, downtown development district Rio Nuevo announced plans to fund and advance multiple real estate projects. The announcements come as Rio Nuevo reports it is back to pre-pandemic sales tax revenue and is seeing strong requests for new construction downtown. A federal appeals court has upended case law for reinsurers in New York, declaring that policy limits dont extend to litigation costs for a property and casualty insurance carrier. In Global Reinsurance Corp. of America vs. Century Indemnity, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals last week said that previous decisions, issued in the 1990s, have been undermined by a recent opinion by the New York State Court of Appeals. Based on that, and relying on contract law, the federal court panel found that Global must cover Centurys defense expenses in underlying asbestos claims that were filed against Caterpillar Tractor Co. The 2nd Circuit upheld a federal district courts decision, denying Globals request for a declaratory judgment on the policy caps. The key concept, the court said, was the concurrency of the reinsurance policies to the liability policies. Applying ordinary rules of contract interpretation, we agree with the district court: The reinsurance certificates follow-form clauses require Global to pay its proportionate share of Centurys defense costs in excess of the certificates liability limits, the appeals court wrote in its Dec. 28 opinion. We base this conclusion on the certificates unambiguous language as well as the testimony of Centurys experts confirming that a strong presumption of concurrency prevailed in the reinsurance market at the time the certificates were issued. From 1962 to 1981, Century Indemnity and its predecessor companies sold liability insurance to Caterpillar. The policy terms noted that Century would participate in Caterpillars defense against claims and that those litigation costs would be paid in addition to the liability limits defined in the policies. In the late 1980s, asbestos suits against Caterpillar began to pile up, forcing Century to indemnify the manufacture for extensive damages and defense costs. Meanwhile, Century had bought reinsurance through Global and Global had issued 10 certificates of reinsurance in the 1970s. Century began billing Global for a share of the indemnity losses and defense costs, but Global refused to pay above the policies stated limits, the court explained. Global sued Century in 2014, seeking a judgment on the policy limits. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York sided with Global, agreeing that the policy limits barred further litigation expense reimbursement. Century appealed to the 2nd Circuit, arguing that the certificates were written to be concurrent with, or the same as, the underlying policies in the treatment of defense costs, and that as a result, those costs were payable in addition to the certificates policy limit. Century argued that the concurrency doctrine was fundamental to the reinsurance market itself, and that the federal appeals court had erred in the 1990s decisions, known as the Bellefonte and Unigard opinions. We thought this argument merited further consideration and therefore asked the New York Court of Appeals by means of a certified question whether New York law imposed a rule of construction or a strong presumption that a reinsurance certificates liability limit caps the reinsurers liability with respect to both indemnity losses and defense costs regardless of whether the underlying policy being reinsured is understood to cover defense costs in excess of the policys liability limit, Circuit Judge Steven Menashi wrote. The New York court answered, no state law imposes no such construction or presumption. The 2nd Circuit panel said that meant that the Bellefonte and Unigard decisions were no longer the law of the circuit, Menashi explained. The 2nd Circuit remanded the case to the federal district court. That court reversed its previous decision. Global then appealed, again, to the circuit court. Because the certificates do not specifically provide that the terms of Globals reinsurance differ from those of the Century policies with respect to the treatment of defense costs, the follow-form clause requires that Globals payments toward Centurys defense costs be made in addition to the certificates limits, Menashi wrote for the 2nd Circuit. This conclusion follows not only from the unambiguous language of the certificates but also from evidence of custom and usage concerning the central importance of concurrency to the reinsurance market when the certificates were issued. Also last week, the 2nd Circuit made another ruling in favor of an insurance carrier in a COVID-19 business-interruption suit. In 10012 Holdings Inc. vs. Sentinel Insurance, the court found that the policy did not cover losses that resulted when the New York City art gallery was forced to close during the pandemic. Under New York law, the policy provided coverage only if the insured had suspended operation because of physical damage to the property or to nearby property, the 2nd Circuit concluded. The ruling is consistent with most other federal court decisions on COVID-19 business interruption claims. A litigation tracker provided by the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School shows that of 540 motions in federal court to dismiss those types of suits, almost 94% have gone in favor of the insurer. Topics Lawsuits As the sun was rising on Christmas Day, Nick Miller was summitting the worlds tallest free-standing mountain, more than 7,500 miles away from his Lehigh Valley home. It was amazing, Miller said. They wake you up 11:30 at night and climb throughout the night, and you actually summit when the sunrise is coming up, which is pretty awesome. Advertisement Miller, 27, who was vice president of the Allentown School Board last year, spent his holiday in Tanzania in east Africa, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. The climb was part of a fundraising effort to refurbish the weight rooms at Allen and Dieruff high schools, which Miller says are in desperate need of updates and new equipment. [ Allentown high school students are using weight room equipment older than them. A school director is raising money to replace it by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro ] The Allentown School District has $400 million in building deficiencies it needs to address. In November, school officials announced the district received $100 million from the American Rescue Plan, of which $34 million has been earmarked for building and facility upgrades. Advertisement Much of the equipment and weights, from the 1980s and 1990s, are rusted and falling apart, Miller said. The trip up the 20,000-foot mountain took six days, with another two for the descent, he said, adding that he faced a handful of challenges. Last Call Daily Get top headlines from The Morning Call delivered weekday afternoons. > I actually had some extreme altitude sickness throughout the way, starting day four, Miller said. And thats fever, throbbing headache, vomiting and the like. So, that added another challenge to the entire climb, and then youre dealing with the weather and wind chill puts it in negative degrees. Sustained winds of 30 mph and single-digit temperatures were just another factor to overcome, he added. But, you know, you have three hours or four hours of sleep from the night before, and youre just pushing on one foot one foot after another, Miller said. Asked how it felt to summit the mountain, he said the accomplishment was two-fold, as the effort raised almost all of the fundraisers $24,000 goal. Its definitely a sweet feeling, being at the top of Kilimanjaro its something Ive been looking forward to for a long time, Miller said. And to finally be make it through all those different challenges and to make it to the top, it was an awesome feeling. Donations are being collected until the end of the month through the Allentown School District Foundation. Advertisement Morning Call reporter Molly Bilinski can be reached at mbilinski@mcall.com. This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Mosaic Insurance and BMS Re. A summary of these new hires follows here. BHSIs Dilley to Lead Financial Institutions at Mosaic Insurance Specialist underwriter Tom Dilley has joined Mosaic Insurance to lead the companys global financial institutions division. Based in London, Dilley has been appointed SVP, Head of Financial Institutions, taking overall responsibility for the unit launched and guided by Chris Brown through the companys first year. Brown will now focus entirely on his leadership role driving Mosaics syndicated capital program, working closely with a growing number of commercial partners to provide capacity to clients in specialty lines around the world. Dilley has more than 16 years experience in the global financial institutions market, bringing a wealth of established broker and client relationships. Previously, he oversaw the UK FI sphere at Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, building a market-leading business. He also spent 12 years with ACE (now Chubb), latterly overseeing the product line in the UK and Ireland. Financial institutions coverage is among Mosaics six specialty lines, each selected for their high technical barriers to entry and relevance to current and projected global market conditions. Other units include cybersecurity, political risk, political violence, transactional liability, and professional liability. *** BMS Re Names Guy Carpenters Gomez as EVP, LatAm & Caribbean BMS Re, the London-based independent specialist reinsurance broker, announce the appointment of Juan Carlos Gomez as executive vice president of BMS Re Latin America & Caribbean (LAC), effective immediately. Based in London, Gomez will report to Aidan Pope, executive chairman & CEO of BMS Re Latin America & Caribbean. In this newly created role, Gomez will coordinate product development and the production and placement of regional facultative reinsurance and specialty business into the London and Continental European markets. Gomez has more than 20 years experience as a broker and underwriter. He joins from Carpenter Marsh FAC Latin America & Caribbean, where he was deputy CEO, having previously been CEO of Guy Carpenter Colombia. Prior to this, he served as vice president at Generali Colombia and was regional manager for RSA Colombia. We are very pleased that a professional of Juan Carlos calibre has joined the team. His detailed knowledge of our key strategic territories and of placing complex FAC and Specialty risks into international markets will enhance BMS Res offering to clients, including cedents and independent retail brokers, said Pope. With a strong track record as both broker and underwriter, Juan Carlos has a keen appreciation of what our clients really need from international carriers. I am delighted to be joining BMS Re as it expands from its Miami hub into new Latin American and Caribbean territories. BMS Res independent structure and keen focus on reinsurance in the region gives us a unique opportunity to provide innovative solutions to clients, commented Gomez. A federal appeals court has ruled that Tyson Foods cant claim it was operating under the direction of the federal government when it tried to keep its processing plants open as the coronavirus spread rapidly within them during the early days of the pandemic. So the Des Moines Register reports that alawsuitfiled by several families of four workers who died after contracting COVID-19 while working at Tysons pork processing plant in Waterloo will be heard in state court. The families allege that Tysons actions contributed to the deaths. Tyson had sought to move the case to federal court because it said federal officials wanted it to keep its plants running. The company cited an executive order former President Donald Trump signed that designated meat processors as essential infrastructure. The fact that an entity _ such as a meat processor _ is subject to pervasive federal regulation alone is not sufficient to confer federal jurisdiction, Judge Jane Kelly wrote in the decision. The court also noted that Trumps order was signed in late April 2020 after many of its workers were infected. More than 1,000 Tyson workers at the Waterloo plant tested positive for the virus that spring and at least six died. Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said the Springdale, Arkansas-based company is disappointed in the court ruling, but he defended the steps Tyson took to keep workers safe during the pandemic. Were saddened by the loss of any of our team members to COVID-19 and are committed to protecting the health and safety of our people, Mickelson said. Weve implemented a host of protective measures in our facilities and in 2021 required all of our U.S. team members to be vaccinated. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Legislation Iowa A federal judge has approved a partial settlement of a lawsuit filed by the parents of a man who was shot and killed by Kansas City police in 2018. Court records do not include the amount of the settlement paid to the parents of 34-year-old Robert White by The Downtown Council of Kansas City and the areas community improvement district, The Kansas City Star reported. The lawsuit filed earlier this year contends White was unarmed when he was shot 17 times as he was being used as a human shield by Tim Mosley, 33, who was also shot and killed by officers. The lawsuit continues against a private security company, the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners and the officers involved in the shooting. The officers involved said they werent able to determine which of the two men was holding a gun pointed at them before they fired. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Bakers office determined White was an innocent bystander but said officers were not legally responsible for his death because they had only a few seconds to determine what was happening at the time. The Downtown Council of Kansas City uses funds from an area community improvement district to pay for security in the area. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Law Enforcement Kansas RIMS Introduces 2022 Officers and Directors Patrick Sterling will lead RIMS, the risk management society, as president for the 2022 term. Sterling is vice president at the steakhouse restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse in Louisville, Kentucky. A 34-year veteran of the restaurant industry, Sterling oversees executive and management staffing, benefits and compensation, human resource administration, risk management, asset protection and employee relations. Prior to joining Texas Roadhouse in 2004, he served in several leadership positions for Ruby Tuesday restaurants. He has been a member of RIMS for 17 years. Sterling joined RIMS global board of directors in 2018 and has served as the secretary, treasurer and vice president. He was a Risk Manager of the Year Honor Roll inductee in 2016 and a Risk Innovator award winner in 2009. The risk management profession has reached a pivotal moment in its history, said Sterling. As organizations moved quickly to address tremendous volatility and uncertainty, the value of strong risk management has never been more apparent to business leaders. Its up us to keep this momentum going. Officers on RIMS 2022 board of directors: President: Patrick Sterling, SPHR, SHRM-SCP; Vice President, Legendary People, Texas Roadhouse. Vice President: Jennifer Santiago, MBA, RIMS-CRMP, ARM; Director, Risk Management and Safety, Wakefern Food Corp. Treasurer: David E. Arick, ARM; Assistant Treasurer, Global Risk Management, International Paper Company. Secretary: Kristen Peed, AIC, ARM-E, CPCU, CRM, RPLU; Director of Corporate Risk Management, CBIZ, Inc. New Board Members: Manuel Padilla; ARM, AIC, SPPA, CPRM, Vice President, Risk Management & Insurance, MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated. Christie Weinstein; Director, Risk Management, Honeywell International Inc. Incumbent Board Members: Kevin Bates; Group Head of Risk & Insurance, Lendlease. Penni Chambers; Vice President, Risk Management, Hillwood a Perot Company. Barry Dillard; Vice President, Risk Management Services, The Walt Disney World Resort and Disney Cruise Line. Twane Duckworth; Managing Director Risk Management, City of Garland, Texas. Tina Gardiner; Manager, Risk Management Services, The Regional Municipality of York (Ontario). Christy Kaufman, CPCU; Vice President of Risk Management, Zillow Group. Ex Officio: Ellen R. Dunkin, Esq.; Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Chief Risk Officer, Amalgamated Life Insurance Company, a Member of the Amalgamated Family of Companies. Hughes Named President of Kimball Hughes Public Relations Kimball Hughes Public Relations announced the appointment of Rod Hughes as president. Hughes, who previously served as vice president, will lead the insurance communications agency, which is headquartered in Philadelphia and has operations in Chicago, Boston and Hartford. Gary Kimball, who launched the company in 1995, will continue in a consulting role and advise on client strategy, crisis communications and new business development. Both Hughes and Kimball are principals in the 26-year-old national agency. This change in leadership, planned since 2017, is effective immediately. Since joining the agency in 2012, Hughes has played a key role in leading the strategic management of its insurance and other business-to-business client work, as well as evolving the agencys portfolio of services. During his tenure, Kimball Hughes PR has has expanded to serve technology, the legal profession and real estate as well as association and non-profit communications. Hughes was as a journalist covering insurance litigation and the law before entering public relations in 2003. CPCU Society Leadership Council Announces 2022 Officers The Institutes CPCU Society has announced its new Leadership Council officers for 2022. Christopher J. Hampshire has succeeded Sharon A. Koches as president and chair. As a vice president in Gallagher Bassetts carrier practice, Hampshire works with property/casualty insurance carriers and insurtechs to design claims handling programs. Before joining the Leadership Council in 2018, he served as the Philadelphia CPCU Society chapter president in 2016 and 2017. He is also host of the CPCU Societys podcast, IN the Know: The CPCU Society Unscripted. With the recent expansion of the Societys membership, this is an exciting time to welcome more professionals working in the risk management and insurance industry to join us. Moving into 2022, we are determined to increase engagement with industry employers and prove the positive return on investment of their employees memberships, stated Hampshire. Brett Clausen is assuming a new role on the Leadership Council, transitioning from secretary/treasurer to 2023 president-elect. He is a Lean Six Sigma and leadership development vice president for Farm Bureau Financial Services, as well as a former managing governor for the CPCU Society and governor of the Mountain States Region, past president of the Professional Experience Resource Group (PERG), and board member of the Arizona Insurance Institute. Kevin Seward transitions from a Leadership Council member to a new role and begins his term as secretary/treasurer in 2022. Seward is an Application Development Manager at Farm Bureau Financial Services. He is a former chapter governor in the North Central region and past chapter president of the Iowa chapter. In addition to serving on the Leadership Council since 2019, Seward previously served on the Diversity Committee for the Society and the board of Ethical Inquiry for The Institutes. Topics Leadership The Florida Supreme Courts call for an additional appellate court and six now seven new judges in the state has met with mixed reviews, with some attorneys welcoming the idea, while others, including a few judges, have said the caseload does not warrant the expense. One insurance attorney said that in at least some parts of the state, the redrawing of appeal court district lines could have an impact on the types of decisions that have resulted in large plaintiffs attorneys fees and large judgments against insurers. The fifth district has been very plaintiff-friendly in the last few years, said Katie Koener, an insurance defense attorney with the Kelley Kronenberg firm in Tampa. And the second has been more favorable to insurance companies. The addition of a sixth appeals court district court would mean redrawing most district lines in the state. If approved by the Florida Legislature, which meets next week, the plan would move two heavily populated counties surrounding Orlando from the fifth district to the more-rural second district, based in Lakeland. The Supreme Courts recommendation would also fold four Tampa-area counties into the new sixth district. Three northeast counties would move from the first district to the fifth, with court offices in Daytona Beach. And four of the seven proposed new judgeship positions would go to the fifth district, which could significantly alter the demeanor of the bench there. Koener cited a number of appeals court decisions handed down by the 5th District Court of Appeals in recent years, which have driven insurers crazy. In one of those, Hugh Hicks vs. American Integrity Insurance Co., the court agreed with the plaintiff that a policy that excluded damage from water leaks over a period of 14 or more days provided coverage for the first 13 days of the leak. Insurance attorneys found that line of reasoning to be very difficult to swallow, partly because its impossible to know exactly when the leak occurred. By contrast, the Lakeland-based 2nd District Court of Appeals has made some significant rulings in insurers favor, Koener said. In other districts, insurers also appear to be on something of a winning streak in recent months. An informal count of appeals decisions shows that insurance companies have prevailed in at least seven cases handed down since September. The Supreme Court said an additional court is needed, not only for an expected increase in overall caseload, but also to re-balance the number of judges in districts. One district now has 10 judges while another has 16, the court explained in its opinion. In the 1st DCA, covering the northern part of the state, about a third of the appeals filings come from the Jacksonville area, but only 13% of the appeal courts judges hail from that part of the state, the court said. The configuration proposed in the committees plurality plan would help address this geographical anomaly existing in the current district court system, Chief Justice Charles Canady wrote in the courts opinion. Some lawyers were not sure of the need or what the impact of a new court might be. I was surprised when I read the opinion. Im not sure what to think about it, frankly, said Elaine Walter, a Miami attorney and a director of the Florida Defense Lawyers Association. The court is required by the Florida Constitution to annually certify if theres a need for more or fewer courts and judges in the state. In its opinion posted in November, the court for the first time in more than four decades called for an additional appeals court and a total of 70 appellate judges, statewide. In December, the court revised its opinion and said that due to recent changes in the residency of some judges, the state now needs an additional spot, for a total of 71 judges. Justice Canady also noted in the November opinion that the court expects a significant increase in cases and appeals as the COVID-19 pandemic winds down and businesses and courtrooms fully reopen. Those operational impacts at the trial court level have a direct bearing on the number of appeals filed in the district courts, Canady wrote. An increase in district court workload is anticipated as the trial courts fully return to normal operations. Its now up to the Florida Legislature to decide if it will approve and fund the plan. An additional court could cost at least $1 million per year, just to cover six new judges salaries. Judges are paid almost $170,000 per year. And a new courthouse could prove expensive with the increase in the cost of building materials and labor. Do they need another building, with clerks and security and all that? asked David Langham, the chief workers compensation judge for Florida. He noted that one court building could cost $40 million to construct and furnish. Its uncertain if a new court and more judges will help solve one of Floridas biggest problems the flood of litigation that has arisen from property insurance claims disputes. Insurance industry advocates have repeatedly pointed out that litigated insurance claims in the state have exploded in recent years, leading to huge financial losses in the industry and higher premiums for policyholders, along with a chilling effect on the number of carriers in the state. But its not obvious that those types of cases are driving the need for another appeals court. Data compiled by CaseGlide, a litigation management software maker that tracks insurance litigation, show that litigated insurance claims have increased dramatically at the trial court level, from 16,300 in 2014 to 52,209 in 2020. Assignment-of-benefits cases make up 22% of those, up from 17% in 2014. The firm does not collect data on insurance claims appeals. But the Supreme Courts committee that recommended the additional court district reported that the overall number of appeals of all types has dropped significantly in that time. Appeals court filings in Florida have gone from 23,730 in 2016 to 17,785 in 2020 a 21% decrease. On one hand, more judges could mean faster resolution of cases, which could have the effect of encouraging more litigation, some have said. Others said that faster resolutions would help insurers as much as plaintiffs. It could help remove a bottleneck and move cases through faster, said Julie Nevins, who handles insurance coverage and bad faith cases in Miami. Justice Ricky Polston dissented from the courts certification of the need for more judges. As I explained in my dissent to the majoritys November 24, 2021 opinion, no additional district court of appeal judges are needed. None. Not six. Not seven, Polston wrote. This revised certification makes my point. It is based on where current judges live, not any objective basis of a need for more judges to do the work. The court recommended no more circuit judges and only one additional county court judge in the state. One idea thats been discussed is to set up one appeals court to handle insurance claims cases, much like Floridas 1st District Court of Appeals handles all workers compensation case appeals. I think theres merit in that thought process, said Langham, the comp judge. We ask an awful lot of judges who must hear a wide variety of cases, he added. But having one court that specializes in insurance matters might make things move more expeditiously. Others said such a plan may prove to be impractical and may not help that much. The litigation overload is found more at the trial court level, particularly in South Florida, not at the appeal courts, said David Henry, an insurance defense and third-party litigation lawyer in Fort Lauderdale. Appeals court decisions are often considered to be quite important, because some cases are not appealed to the state Supreme Court, and the high court declines to hear others, leaving the appellate court ruling as the law of the land. One of the most significant Florida workers compensation cases, the Miles vs. City of Edgewater decision by the 1st District Court of Appeals in 2016 allowed claimants to contract with their lawyers to set attorney fees. The case was not reviewed by the high court and continues to have an impact on fees. Florida appears to have more appellate courts and judges than some large states, less than others. Texas, with a similar population, for example, has 14 appeals courts and 80 judges. New York has some 60 judges. California has more than 100 appellate judges. Topics Lawsuits Florida Hackers broke into a South Florida hospital systems computer network in October, potentially exposing patients pesonal information, including medical treatments, drivers license numbers, phone numbers and more, the hospital announced. Broward Health, which runs five hospitals and four outpatient centers in the Fort Lauderdale area, said it reported the data breach to the FBI on Oct. 19, as soon as it was discovered. Federal authorities asked the health system to delay notifying patients while an investigation was underway, according to the Miami Herald. This personal information was exfiltrated. However, there is no evidence the information was actually misused, Broward Health said in a statement. Officials urged patients of the health system to check their insurance benefit statements for medical services they may not have received, and to check with their bank statements and credit reports. South Florida has been known as a hotbed of health care fraud, the newspaper reported. The hospital system said the hackers were able to get into the Broward Health system while they were using the offices of another medical provider that had access to the Broward Health computers. Meanwhile, another clinic owner has been charged for allegedly submitting some $38 million in fraudulent claims to United Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Armando Valdes, who operated Gasiel Medical Services clinic in Miami, billed the insurers for infusions of the expensive immunosuppressant drug Infliximab, federal prosecutors said. But the infusions were not medically necessary and were not actually provided in many cases, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Florida said. Valdes used the proceeds to acquire beachfront real estate and luxury vehicles, the prosecutors said. The indictment can be seen here. Valdes was released last week on a $1 million personal surety bond. The terms required him to surrender his passport and avoid any employment in the health care field. Topics Cyber Florida Medical Professional Liability Gallagher Buys PEO Insurer in Florida Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the global insurance brokerage and consulting firm, announced that it has acquired Florida-based Risk Transfer Agency. The 22-year-old agency, with offices in Orlando, offers insurance products for professional employer organizations and temporary staffing firms. Dino Fabrizio, Jennifer Robinson and associates will remain in their current offices and will report to Peter Doyle, head of Gallaghers Southeast region retail property-casualty brokerage operations, and to Chris Leisz, head of Gallaghers U.S. wholesale brokerage, binding authority and programs division, Gallagher said in a news release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is one of several that Gallagher has completed around the country in recent weeks. Acrisure, Appalachian Acrisure, a fintech company and insurance broker, has acquired Tennessee-based Appalachian Underwriters, a managing general agency, along with U.S. Administrator Claims, a third-party administrator. Appalachian, headquartered in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has more than $400 million in gross premium, from placing workers compensation, commercial specialty, personal lines and transactional wholesale policies, according to a news release. Acrisure said it offers fintech products for insurance, asset management, real estate and cyber services, and has revenue of more than $3 billion. Liberty, Home Port Home Port Insurance Group, in Pembroke Pines, Florida, has been acquired by The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers, the companies announced this week. The family-owned Home Port is led by Mariano Demarin. Liberty calls itself one of the fastest-growing insurance brokers in the United States. Gracey-Backer Acquires Edwards Agency After Owners Retirement Gracey-Backer Inc., a 97-year-old insurance agency in Delray Beach, Florida, announced that it has acquired the Bob Edwards & Associates agency in West Palm Beach. Edwards owner Linda Pearson is retiring and the agency will be consolidated into Gracey-Backers Delray Beach office, expanding the firms personal and commercial lines customers, the company said in a news release. Gracey-Backer was founded in 1925 by Matthew Gracey IV and Frank Gracey during one of the first Florida real estate booms. The agency offers all lines of insurance, including professional liability, personal, and commercial insurance. Ronald Backer and Barbara Backer are third-generation and John Backer, David Backer, and Katherine Backer Moyer are fourth-generation owners. Topics Mergers & Acquisitions A.J. Gallagher Search teams looked for two missing people in the smoldering debris from a massive Colorado wildfire while people who escaped the flames sorted through the charred remnants of their homes to find what was left. Investigators were still trying to determine what caused flames to tear through at least 9.4 square miles, leaving nearly 1,000 houses and other buildings torched in suburbs between Denver and Boulder. The inferno broke out last Thursday, unusually late in the year following an extremely dry fall and amid with hardly any snow. Experts say those conditions, along with high winds, helped the fire spread. Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said authorities are pursuing a number of tips and had executed a search warrant at one particular location. The sheriff refused to provide further details on Sunday and didnt comment on whether he thought the fire was arson. Its complicated and its all covered with a foot of snow, Pelle said of the scene where the fire started. The outcome of that investigation is vital there is so much at stake. We are going to be professional. We are going to be careful. Rex and Barba Hickman sifted through the ashes of their Louisville home with their son and his wife. Their son Austin cut a safe open with a grinding tool to reveal gold and silver coins, melted credit cards, keys and the charred remains of the couples passports. They had evacuated with their dog, their iPads and the clothes on their back and Rex Hickman said he was heartbroken to discover that there was nothing left of their home of 23 years. Theres a numbness that hits you first. You know, kind of like you go into crisis mode. You think about what you can do, what you cant do, he said. The real pain is going to sink in over time. The couple have to find a rental property and clothes in the short-term and their insurance company told them Sunday it would take at least two years to rebuild their home. We know how fortunate we are, Rex Hickman said. We have each other. We have great friends, wonderful family. So many people have got to be suffering much more than we are, and we feel for them. While homes that burned to the foundations were still smoldering in some places, the blaze was no longer considered an immediate threat especially with frigid temperatures and a snowstorm on Saturday. Authorities initially said everyone was accounted for after the fire, but Boulder County spokesperson Jennifer Churchill said the reports of three people missing were later discovered amid the scramble to manage the emergency. One of the missing people was found alive, officials said Sunday. Crews were still looking for a woman with a home in the town of Superior and a man from the nearby community of Marshall. Pelle said their homes were deep in hot debris and covered with snow. It is a difficult task. Other investigators were trying to determine if the missing people might have made it out but did not contact their families or friends, Pelle said. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and federal emergency officials visited some of the damaged neighborhoods Sunday morning. I know this is a hard time in your life if youve lost everything or you dont even know what you lost, Polis said after the tour. A few days ago you were celebrating Christmas at home and hanging your stockings and now home and hearth have been destroyed. Most of the 991 buildings destroyed by the fire were homes. But the blaze also burned through eight businesses at a shopping center in Louisville, including a nail salon and a Subway restaurant. In neighboring Superior, 12 businesses were damaged, including a Target, Chuck E. Cheese, Tesla dealership, a hotel and the town hall. The two towns are about 20 miles northwest of Denver and have a combined population of 34,000. The flames stopped about 100 yards from Susan Hills property in Louisville. She slept Saturday night in her home using a space heater and hot water bottles to keep warm because her natural gas service had not been turned back on. She choked up as she remembered seeing the sky change color and recalled nervously fleeing with her college-age son and the dog, cat and a fire box with birth certificates and other documents. I dont even know how to describe it, she said. Its so sad. Its so awful. Its just devastating. Related: Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Colorado Eco Eye new series RTE One, 7pm An Eco Eye on Sligo Town Duncan Stewart investigates the relentless demise of Irish towns and asks what is being done now to reverse their decline. What would it take to bring our towns back to thriving compact communities, suitable for all demographics once again? A new Urban Regeneration Fund and a Town Centre First policy sets to reverse the decline of Irish towns and Sligo town is earmarked for the largest investment of new funding. Will this help to turn Sligo town around? The Style Counsellors RTE One, 8.30pm Jessica Wade, 46, from Ballyfermot works as a social care worker in Tiglin, working with homeless people. She is a recovering drug addict who has turned her life around and is now giving back by helping other people. She recently lost weight in lockdown, so a lot of her clothes are now too big for her. She also feels she dresses too young for her age. She wears way too much black and she describes herself as a tomboy. Jessica would like to get some inspiration on how to dress Donie OSullivan: Capitol Man RTE One, 9.30pm Donie O'Sullivan: attended UCD where he studied History and Politics. One-hour documentary telling Donie's story, how he went from a small town in County Kerry to become an international household name at CNN. It takes an in-depth look at the run-up to 2020 election with exclusive footage from the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol building. While in college, Donie led an investigation into the misappropriation of funds in the Students Union, which led to convictions related to the discovery of 2m of embezzled funds. He furthered his education with a Masters in Political Science from Queens University in Belfast. Action Pack Netflix Animation series aimed at pre-schoolers. Each episode follows the adventures of Treena, Watts, Wren, and Clay, who have developed superpowers they use to take on any villains who make the mistake of turning up in their home town of Hope Springs. Radio Ag Saothru na Feamainne, RnaG, 2pm: Treasa Bhreathnach examines the seaweed harvesting industry in Ireland. Arena, RTE 1, 7pm: The Costa Book Award winners will be announced will Shanagarrys Victoria Kennefick take home the poetry honours? Plus, Daedalus Press editor Pat Boran discusses the publishing houses new Local Wonders: Poems of Our Immediate Surrounds poetry anthology. Thursday marks the first anniversary of the riots in Washington DC by supporters of former US President Donald Trump. Amid the turmoil that day, however, a very Irish name began to trend on social media: Donie. Kerry man and CNN reporter Donie OSullivan was live at the scene as Trump supporters overwhelmed the US Capitol and he impressed viewers internationally. On Twitter, #Donie appeared among the top trends in Ireland and he responded at the time: Overwhelmed by all the love from Ireland tonight. His fanbase has only grown in the 12 months since, and tonight RTE will air a documentary about the Caherciveen native. What is Donie's background? OSullivan completed his undergraduate degree in University College Dublin (UCD), where he helped lead a ground-breaking investigation into the mishandling of funds at the Students Union, and he has a masters degree in political science and government from Queens University Belfast. He worked as a journalist for Storyful in New York and Dublin and has been with CNN since 2016 after being hired by Cork native Samantha Barry. He works closely with CNN's investigative unit tracking and identifying online disinformation campaigns targeting the American electorate and he was part of a team that uncovered Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential election. He also covers how social media platforms, Congress, and the American intelligence community are responding to the threat of disinformation and troll campaigns. What is the documentary about? Capitol Man is a one-hour documentary that tells OSullivans story, how he went from growing up in a small town in Co. Kerry to become an international household name at CNN. It takes an in-depth look at the run up to 2020 election with footage from the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol building. It also goes behind-the-scenes with OSullivan to see what happens next as he explores the rise of QAnon, extreme right-wing militias and the legacy of the Trump presidency. Throughout the hour OSullivan talks about his personal life and his mental health struggles. His colleagues, family and friends also speak about what drives him. When is Capitol Man on? Capitol Man is on RTE One tonight at 9.30pm. It will also be available on the RTE Player. After hearing a recitation of convictions in three states for theft, fraud and impersonating a police officer, among other crimes, a Lehigh County judge on Monday declared a Michigan man who won a write-in campaign for constable in Allentown ineligible to serve. Lehigh County Detective Edward Ressler testified about Nicholas C. Douglas criminal record during a hearing before Judge Robert Steinberg on a petition to remove Douglas from office filed last month by the district attorneys office. Advertisement Ressler said he and a colleague obtained certified court records showing Douglas has been convicted more than a dozen times in two Ohio counties, Mississippi and Michigan between 2002 and last year. Those convictions disqualify Douglas from holding elected office under the Pennsylvania Constitution because they are for crimes involving deceit or falsification, First Assistant District Attorney Steve Luksa argued. Douglas, who appeared at the hearing via videoconference from his home in Michigan, testified that he had successfully applied to have his civil rights restored in Ohio and that he had turned his life around since his convictions, most of which are more than six years old. He added that he has earned a license as a pastor and ran for the constable job so that he could provide for his fiancee and her children. Advertisement Im asking for my kids ... give me the opportunity to show that someone with a record can come back and make a difference, Douglas said. Steinberg said Douglas September conviction in Monroe County, Michigan, for taking property by false pretenses was, by itself, enough to disqualify Douglas. You may very well make a fine pastor but you are not going to be a constable in Lehigh County. You are ineligible by law, Steinberg said. Last Call Daily Get top headlines from The Morning Call delivered weekday afternoons. > Douglas said he will appeal the decision. The Morning Call published an investigation of Douglas last month. Luksa said after the hearing that the petition to remove Douglas from office was not an attack or intended to punish him but rather to uphold the law, the integrity of the office and protect how people perceive the office. Douglas was elected by 30 write-in votes for constable in Allentowns 12th Ward, where no candidate was on the ballot. Lehigh County chief elections clerk Tim Benyo testified that Douglas was certified winner of the position but that he had never submitted a candidates affidavit stating his eligibility for the position or financial disclosure, which are both required for the elections office to issue a certificate of election. Luksa also called the owner of the building where Douglas said he was renting an apartment and listed as his address on a voter registration application submitted the day after the election. The owner testified Douglas had not paid rent or a security deposit and he never finalized the lease. Court records show Douglas is on probation in Michigan for his most recent conviction and is scheduled to appear for a hearing on an alleged violation of probation later this month. Advertisement Constables have been part of Pennsylvanias justice system since it was a colony under English rule and while their roles have evolved since then, they remain law enforcement officers with statewide authority and the power to make arrests and authority to carry guns. Unlike police officers, they are not employed by municipalities but rather serve as independent officials with the power to appoint deputies. Constables most commonly work for district judges and lawyers serving legal papers and warrants but they are also allowed to serve as peacekeepers at polling places and public events. Morning Call reporter Peter Hall can be reached at 610-820-6581 or peter.hall@mcall.com. Technological University Dublin has said the move to online learning is likely a factor in a large number of cases of alleged cheating in the past two years, with more than 400 individual cases since the start of 2020. Figures released through Freedom of Information show that 20 students were investigated for plagiarism arising out of one incident on December 17, 2020. In a separate case, another 12 students were alleged to have colluded during an end-of-semester online exam, one of 30 instances of collusion during an online examination in that part of the college alone. At least 445 individual cases of alleged plagiarism or cheating were recorded across the various schools and campuses that form TU Dublin since the start of last year. The detail was provided by the college in relation to the types of alleged cheating by some students and how it was detected, in many cases through plagiarism-checking applications, such as Turnitin. For example, at the Department of Informatics, TU Dublin Blanchardstown campus, 38 alleged incidents of cheating were investigated last year and another 42 were recorded up to the end of October this year. In one incident, a student persistently denied plagiarism, but the original source of the assignment was subsequently found on the online site, coursehero.com. In another case, a student "resubmitted a practical report in its entirety that he submitted last year". A small number of cases involved use of a mobile phone in an exam, but the most common form of cheating was plagiarising from online sources. In one case from last January, "the entire submission appears to be simply a download of work from the web". There were 62 incidents of alleged cheating within the TU Dublin Department of Humanities in the same period, and 25 plagiarism cases reported by lecturing staff for the Department of Engineering since the start of last year. There were 12 allegations arising from the School of Business and 85 at the College of Business on Aungier St, including 27 cases of alleged plagiarism and two cases of alleged collusion from last May. At the College of Engineering and Built Environment, Bolton St, there were another 81 cases, including plagiarism and collusion. Last January, collusion among 12 students during an end-of-semester online exam was proven and all had to resit. That was one of 30 separate incidents of alleged collusion between students during the siting of an online exam. At the Academic School & Departments, TU Dublin, 12 students were detected plagiarising on a date in October 2020, and the following December, 20 students were involved in a similar incident. Professor Brian Bowe, head of academic affairs at TU Dublin, said there were a "number of different contributing factors" regarding the figures, including that TU Dublin has approximately 28,500 students. "The variation in the representations of information contained within responses you have received from TU Dublin and from other HEIs, along with the fact that other HEIs have requested extensions to the deadline, bears out a reporting issue already identified by QQIs National Academic Integrity Network (NAIN), when it sought similar information from all HEIs last year as part of its own work," Prof Bowe said. "Differences in terminology and definitions, difficulties in detection and reporting consistency are all being actively tackled by the network." He said plagiarism represented a large proportion of the cases listed. "The standard, integrity, and quality of our awards is of the utmost importance and TU Dublin's investment in anti-plagiarism software, and the associated integration and training, has been stepped-up since the pandemic and this has possibly led to increased detection rates. "TU Dublins figures likely reflect the pivot to almost entirely online delivery and assessment in the date range specified." The Chief Medical Officer has said it is inevitable that children will pick up Covid-19 from household contacts in the days and weeks ahead. The warning came as a further 21,302 cases of the virus were confirmed this evening. The Department of Education has confirmed that schools will reopen this Thursday as planned. The HSE's Dr Colm Henry, who attended the meeting, said there was no public health rationale to delaying reopening of schools. Dr Tony Holohan said that as the country experiences a significant surge in infection, it is important that unnecessary indoor mixing of households should be minimised to reduce the impact on essential services. It is important that all of us continue to support schools, business owners, family and friends to keep to the spirit of public health advice. We must continue to restrict our movements to the greatest extent possible, by limiting the people we interact with from other households if we are to suppress transmission of Covid-19 and sustain our essential services. He said that as schools prepare to return to the classroom, there is very high and rising incidence of Covid-19 across all age groups. "We also know, as a result, that there will be cases and outbreaks in schools and childcare settings. "The Irish and international experience of the pandemic continues to give us reason to believe that schools are a lower risk environment for the transmission of Covid-19 and that the majority of children who are infected experience a mild form of this disease." Speaking to the parents of pupils, Dr Holohan said children who have Covid symptoms or who live in a household where someone has received a positive or detected test result should not attend school. He also encourage those with children aged between five and 12 to get vaccinated. While the countrys schools will re-open, it is accepted by Education Minister Norma Foley that individual classes may be sent home as a result of a shortage of teachers in the coming days and weeks. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire This afternoon's meeting between the Minister for Education Norma Foley, representatives from public health, the HSE and education stakeholders heard that Covid-19 mitigation measures in place in schools have been reviewed and will remain in place in the coming term. It was said that public health officials believe these measures are effective and appropriate. Ahead of the reopening, the meeting was told schools have been provided with guidance on maintaining good ventilation while parents and students are being given guidance on ensuring symptomatic students and household close contacts do not attend school. While the countrys schools will re-open, it is accepted by Ms Foley that individual classes may be sent home as a result of a shortage of teachers in the coming days and weeks. Covid hospitalisations jump to 884 The HSEs lead on the vaccination and contact tracing programmes has acknowledged that the number of Omicron cases is substantially higher than the levels officially recorded through PCR tests. The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has jumped to 884, up from 804 on Monday. As of 11am, some 90 patients with the virus were in intensive care - down three on yesterday. The number of confirmed cases in hospital has been rising in recent days, as have the daily case totals. It comes as the HSEs lead on the vaccination and contact tracing programmes has acknowledged that the number of Omicron cases is substantially higher than the levels officially recorded through PCR tests. When asked about the number of people in hospital with Covid as opposed to those in hospital because of Covid, Mr McCallion said that the clinical feedback he had received was that there were substantial numbers in hospital because of Covid. However, he said that there had been some encouraging signs as Covid hospitalisations had been gradual and he hoped that was a trend that would continue. 'Challenging' to access PCR testing amid warning of antigen test shortage Mr McCallion encouraged anyone with a positive antigen test to act as if they had the virus and to follow public health guidance. Access to PCR testing was challenging at present, he said, which was why changes had been introduced for people aged four years to 39. However, the secretary-general of the Irish Pharmacy Union has warned that there will be a shortage of Covid-19 antigen tests in the country this week as further stocks are awaited. Speaking on RTE radio, Darragh OLoughlin said that pharmacies were running out of antigen tests and some were putting a limit on the quantities of tests that individuals could purchase. Suppliers were having difficulties, he explained. Cars queue for PCR tests at the Citywest Hotel, Saggart, Dublin. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins It was his understanding that there were orders due into the country later this week, but in the meantime, there would be shortages. Demand for supply has soared beyond production capacity, he said, not just in Ireland, but also in the UK, the US and Australia. Meanwhile, an investigation has been launched following reports of false positive results from Genrui Covid antigen tests. The Health Products Regulatory Agency (HPRA) has said it is following up with the manufacturer of the test to investigate the matter. Cork paediatrician Dr Niamh Ni Loinsigh raised concerns about the Genrui antigen tests on Twitter, saying she had received hundreds of messages on social media from people about the tests. "When PCR was available, there seemed to have been lots of false positives with these kits," said Dr Ni Loinsigh. "This could have major implications for people now with no PCR available." The test, produced by Genrui Biotech Inc, is CE certified and on the approved EU list. An Bord Pleanala has given the green light for a primary health care centre near Blarney Castle in Cork against the recommendation of one of its planning inspectors. It is the second time in recent weeks that the board has decided not to accept the recommendation of one of its own inspectors in relation to a project on a sensitive area of land just to the north of the world-famous castle, on the north-western fringes of the city, and has instead granted planning. The latest decision relates to an appeal to the board from JAW Asset Holdings Limited in relation to a city council decision over a year ago to refuse planning for a three-storey primary care centre, with five ground-floor retail units and cafe, at Saint Ann's Road, Monacnappa in Blarney. Mixed-use development The 1.02-hectare site at the centre of this appeal lies to the north of the long-time derelict former Blarney Park Hotel site, where the board granted planning just before Christmas for a mixed-used development against the recommendation of one of its inspectors. In refusing planning for the primary health care project in October 2020, city planners said the site is part of a larger overall regeneration site in the Blarney Macroom Local Area Plan (LAP) which has been identified for a sensitive approach where any future development will need to protect and enhance the existing character of the area and view of the castle. In refusing planning for the primary health care project in October 2020, city planners said any future development will need to protect and enhance the existing character of the area and view of the castle. Picture Denis Minihane It is considered by reason of its design, scale and layout, the proposed development would not protect and enhance the character of the area and views of the castle but rather would detract from it, planners said. They also said the project represented "piecemeal haphazard development on an area of strategically important land. The developers planning consultants, HW Planning, appealed the councils decision to An Bord Pleanala. In her report, planning inspector, Brid Maxwell, considered submissions from An Taisce, the Irish Georgian Society, and Blarney Castle Estate, which all raised concerns about the design, scale and location of the proposal and the impact it would have on the character and setting of Blarney. But in their appeal, HW Planning argued that the councils decision was based on a conservative and rigid interpretation of the LAP which represents an outdated and flawed vision for Blarney. They said balance is required in the protection of Blarneys unique and valuable cultural heritage while enabling its development as a modern urban town. They also insisted that the proposal is neither haphazard nor piecemeal and will integrate positively with the scheme proposed for an adjacent site. But Ms Maxwell agreed with city planners and recommended the board refuse permission. Charles Colthurt and his wife, Caroline, on the grounds of Blarney Castle in Co Cork. Mr Colthurst was opposed to the development. However, in its ruling, the board said it was satisfied that the proposed development would constitute an acceptable quantum, mix and scale of development", that it would be visually acceptable, and would not seriously injure or detract from the character or the wider heritage value of the area. It also said it believes the project would enhance the amenity offering for tourists through the provision of additional retail units. And it said when assessed in tandem with the project on the adjoining site, the proposed primary health care project represents an integrated and coordinated design approach" to regenerating the wider landbank. The Department of Education has confirmed that schools will reopen this Thursday as planned. The decision was reached following meetings between the Minister for Education Norma Foley, representatives from public health, the HSE and education stakeholders. The HSE's Dr Colm Henry, who attended the meeting, said there was no public health rationale to delaying reopening of schools. The meeting heard that Covid-19 mitigation measures in place in schools have been reviewed and will remain in place in the coming term. It was said that public health officials believe these measures are effective and appropriate. Ahead of the reopening, the meeting was told schools have been provided with guidance on maintaining good ventilation while parents and students are being given guidance on ensuring symptomatic students and household close contacts do not attend school. While the countrys schools will re-open, it is accepted by Ms Foley that individual classes may be sent home as a result of a shortage of teachers in the coming days and weeks. Speaking during a meeting with teachers unions, management boards and parents groups, Ms Foley said a combination of factors including the vaccine rollout and the lower hospital numbers mean the country is in a different space to last year. The meeting started at 3pm and attendees were told that public health officials have reviewed the Covid-19 mitigation measures and can see no reason why schools cant reopen as planned. This is despite concerns being expressed by the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) about the prevalence of the Omicron variant and a call for a staggered return. The same heat isnt there as it was last January and the hospitals are so much lower than last year. Also all of the teachers will have had a booster shot, or the option of one, said the source. However it was acknowledged there will be shortages of teachers and the focus is on supporting schools. This is not about closing schools, but there may be situations where individual classes are sent home. Staffing at primary level is an issue, the source added. The government is looking at utilising up to 4,000 student teachers who are still available until February in order to plug short term gaps. It is also hoped that the pending reduction on isolation periods for asymptomatic close contacts will ease the pressure. Speaking to reporters at Government Buildings earlier today, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said the rules for close contacts were causing problems across public services, industry and critical infrastructure. Speaking on his way into a meeting with Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, Mr Varadkar confirmed the Government was looking at possibly changing the rules for fully-vaccinated close contacts with no symptoms and negative antigen tests. The Irish Examiner reported on Tuesday morning the growing unease within Cabinet at the current isolation rules as advised by Dr Tony Holohan and the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet). Mr Varadkar said Omicron wave is unfolding as anticipated and is having a serious impact, but he said it is also clear the variant is less severe. The sheer number of cases has led to an increase in hospital admissions but not a significant rise in ICU, he said. The Tanaiste said the statistics are not giving a full picture due to bank holidays and testing capacity issues. No increase on restrictions expected as Cabinet to meet tomorrow Today's meeting of the three party leaders comes ahead of a full Cabinet meeting tomorrow. Party leaders will consider recent changes in US advice, which significantly relaxed the advice for close contacts. The Irish Examiner understands there is no political appetite to increase the current level of restrictions, with cases expected to peak shortly. However, it has also been made clear that there will be no easing of restrictions before the end of January to allow the Omicron variant peak to pass. The comments from Mr Varadkar were earlier echoed by Justice Minister Helen McEntee, who insisted it is the clear intention that schools will reopen on Thursday despite strong opposition from teachers unions. Ms McEntee said the country is in a very different place compared to this time last year because of the vaccination programme which has spared the hospital system from being overwhelmed. She said Cabinet will hear an update from Education Minister Norma Foley tomorrow but made clear it is the intention that all schools will return as planned. Speaking on her local radio station, LMFM, Ms McEntee said the Government has made additional monies available for Hepa filters to improve ventilation in schools but acknowledged the pressure on the education system due to staff absences. Ms McEntee said it is her expectation that there will be a change to the requirement of fully vaccinated close contacts to restrict their movements for 10 days at Cabinet, following a meeting of the three party leaders in Government later today. The Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland has called for the planned reopening of schools this week to be delayed and staggered. Last night, the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) called for the planned reopening of schools this week to be delayed and staggered ahead of its meeting today with Department of Health and public health officials. Citing the unease of members regarding health and safety and expected teacher shortages, the union last night called for appropriate safety measures to be put in place, including: A phased and staggered reopening of schools, prioritising exam classes; Making antigen tests available for all parents and children; Speedy rollout of Hepa filters. The priority must be that students and school staff can learn and work in an environment where there are appropriate safety measures in place to protect all concerned, said ASTI president Eamon Dennehy. The call came as several Cabinet members insisted that children will return to the classroom this Thursday, with Covid-19 hospitalisations at a stable, if high number. One minister said: "I think schools will open. Not aware of any country in Europe planning to keep them closed and were all in much the same boat." ASTI president Eamon Dennehy: 'The priority must be that students and school staff can learn and work in an environment where there are appropriate safety measures in place.' Picture: Dave Cullen The General Secretary of the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) has called for clarity on isolation measures so that it can be determined if schools can reopen on Thursday. Michael Gillespie said that public health advice was needed about the duration of self-isolation times so teachers and students will know if they can return to school. We need to get an idea of the numbers in schools that will be missing. Mr Gillespie told Newstalk Breakfast that the TUI had always advocated for disadvantaged students and they were very much aware of the impact of school closures on such students. He was responding to a question about comments from the Special Rapporteur on Children who expressed concern about the impact of school closures on children. When asked about the ASTI call for a staggered return, Mr Gillespie said it was too early to say if that would work. The situation was not one size fits all as schools could have different levels of attendance. 'Every effort' must be made to ensure schools reopen Ombudsman Dr Niall Muldoon, the Ombudsman for Children, has called for the Government to explore all options and to maintain their commitment to keep schools open. The Ombudsman was speaking ahead of a meeting between the Department of Education and unions and said that all schools should not be treated the same. He said that closing schools and denying children access to in-person learning cannot be our default response. Dr Muldoon said that the Omicron variant will be a challenge but almost two years into the pandemic we know the negative impact school closures have, not only on childrens learning, but on their social development. He said that the rise in cases was not unforeseen and that a one size fits all approach to schools is not in anyones interest. Realistically, I know that in the coming weeks there will be situations where classes or schools may have to move to online learning due to staff shortages. There may also be a need to make materials available to children who have tested positive or are isolating. Teachers and everyone in school communities must be supported to make this happen. They should also be provided with the equipment needed to ensure that schools remain as safe as possible for all children and staff. If a situation arises where school closures must be considered, all schools and students should not be treated the same, but I really hope that it does not come to that. Every effort must be made to ensure that Ireland, like most other countries in Europe, reopens our schools. Meanwhile, senior Cabinet sources say the requirement for asymptomatic close contacts who have booster shots to stay at home is disproportionate and unfeasible. Ministers have called on the advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) to be relaxed. The three Coalition party leaders will meet tonight to discuss the isolation rules ahead of a Cabinet meeting tomorrow. The thing Nphet need to reconsider is requiring triple-vaccinated close contacts with no symptoms and negative antigens to stay at home, a senior minister told the Irish Examiner: Its disproportionate and is going to knock out huge amounts of the workforce. They were told it was a mistake before Christmas. While there is a great deal of annoyance within Fine Gael ranks about the restrictions, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar and his ministers are said to be OK with the current restrictions for January as long as meeting nobody indoors doesnt become government advice. Its what people expect and makes sense to allow hospitals and cases to peak before easing them, said one minister. Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly have continuously adopted a cautious approach and backed the public health advice from Nphet. Speaking privately, Cabinet members said there is a growing sense that, while hospitalisations are up, ICU numbers are at their lowest level in six to eight weeks and while they will rise slowly, they are well below the 130 of a few weeks ago. Trolley numbers ... are running at the second lowest in 10 to 20 years at the moment: So, yes, hospitals are under real pressure but no more so than most early Januarys, said one senior minister. Ministers hit out at Nphets continued reliance on restrictions, with one saying: "Nphet does like restrictions, almost the default action for them, but we already have the toughest [restrictions] in Europe, with the exception of the Netherlands, which is in lockdown. Even there, you can receive two people a day." The criticism went further from some: They are not as quick to recommend stuff that works masks, antigen tests, vaccine boosters, another said. Asked to explain the lack of pushback on Nphets demands, one minister said it was down to an abundance of caution and no counterweight from Taoiseachs office. Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy has warned of the pressure on the critical supply chain as a result of the high levels of staff being absent from the workforce because of the Omicron variant. The number of staff absent from work in the food manufacturing and the retail distribution sectors is running at 15%-18%, he said. FRANCE has taken over the rotating EU presidency for the next six months, an opportunity the president, Emmanuel Macron, will no doubt use to nudge Europe towards his goal of greater strategic autonomy in the world. Some in Brussels worry that hotly contested presidential elections in April could interfere with Frances EU presidency before a key conference on the future of Europe delivers any results. Its not reassuring that Macrons decision, temporarily, to fly the blue and gold EU flag at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris has already drawn the fury of far-right and conservative election candidates. But many European Muslims are concerned about the French stint in the EU chair for another reason: They fear that Frances divisive anti-Muslim political discourse will seep dangerously into EU policymaking. The French election campaign essentially means it is open season on Muslims in France. Many French politicians have adopted rampant Islamophobia as an electoral strategy. Toxic debates on Islam and Muslims, mixed with acrimonious intersectional swipes at race and migration, are becoming increasingly venomous. The French far-right party leader Marine Le Pen. Alarmingly, Muslim-bashing is no longer the preserve of the far-right, anti-immigration candidate, Marine Le Pen. Macrons hardline interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, accused Le Pen, during a recent television debate, of going soft on Islam. The former TV pundit Eric Zemmour has brought an even more vicious anti-Muslim agenda to the presidential contest, while candidate for the Gaullist Les Republicains party, Valerie Pecresse, is taking a hard line on immigration, having previously banned the wearing of burkinis at outdoor leisure centres in the Paris region. Macron himself, who is expected to seek re-election, is already enforcing a spate of anti-Muslim policies, including a bill supposedly aimed at preventing separatism and the emergence of a counter society among Frances six million Muslim citizens. Macrons government is also under criticism for shutting down the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, a leading anti-discrimination body which documents anti-Muslim hate crimes. The European Network Against Racism warns of a full-blown Islamophobic witch-hunt of French Muslims and says the government is using 'countless administrative procedures' to close down Muslim-led organisations, mosques, schools, and even Muslim-owned snack bars, on unproven claims of links to the Muslim Brotherhood But the fear now is that France will use its EU presidency to push for even tougher Europe-wide measures. Its a reasonable fear in the context of French ministers calling out Helena Dalli, the European commissioner for equality, for meeting members of Femyso, the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations, a network that also participated in a Council of Europe anti-discrimination campaign focusing on hijabs. That campaign caused a political outcry in France as an attack on its values. Dalli rightly defended meeting Femyso representatives to discuss challenges facing young European Muslims as a result of stereotyping, discrimination, and outright hatred. Attacking Dalli for the meeting, Marlene Schiappa, the citizenship minister in the Macron government, said Femyso was an Islamist association that was attacking France and infiltrating EU institutions, allegations which Femyso flatly denies and which its president, Hande Taner, described in a statement as laughable. An intervention by the French government with the European Commission meanwhile prompted a delay which led ultimately to the cancellation ostensibly for administrative reasons of planned EU funding for another rights group, Alliance Citoyenne, which has defended the right of Muslim women to swim in public pools wearing burkinis. European parallels Frances Muslim-panic has parallels elsewhere. In Austria the former chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, took aim at the alleged rise of so-called political Islam after the launch of a much-criticised website called Islam map which shows the locations of more than 600 mosques. The map, according to rights groups, has led to incidents of violence against Muslims. Denmarks former immigration minister, Inger Stjberg , was given a jail sentence recently for illegally ordering the separation of young asylum-seeking married couples from Syria and Iraq, where the woman was under 18. Seeming to implicitly link Islam and refugee policy as is often the case across Europe, Stjberg had said she wanted to protect child brides. She previously caused controversy by arguing that Danish Muslims be kept out of work places during Ramadan because daylight fasting could create safety hazards. Stjberg has now been impeached, and may be a political outlier, but it is hard not to see Denmarks hardline approach to integration and refugees, including a June law which enables it to transfer asylum seekers outside the EU while their cases are being processed, as at least partly driven by a fear of Muslims. The Austrian academic, Farid Hafez, raises troubling questions too about the motivation behind the Vienna forum on countering segregation and extremism in the context of integration, an annual conference launched by Austria with the support of France and Denmark to fight political Islam and so-called non-violent extremism and Islamism. If not outright McCarthyism, as Hafez calls it, such initiatives are a dangerous step towards prejudging all Muslims as a potential threat to liberal societies. Once restricted to the EUs far-right groups, Frances fixation with Muslims has extended across the European political landscape; Islam is seen either as a threat to national secular traditions or to the idea of Christian Europe. Hungarys Viktor Orban and his EU allies have long raged against Islam, but dog whistling to anti-Muslim extremists is becoming the standard pattern for many mainstream EU conservatives. Even without chalking up any major electoral victories (so far), far-right parties have in effect succeeded in mainstreaming their hostile narrative on Muslims and migrants. No wonder hostility and discrimination towards Europes Muslims is widespread as the EUs own Fundamental Rights Agency warns. The 2020 issue of the annual European Islamophobia report, co-edited by Hafez with scholars, experts, and civil society activists from more than 30 European countries, concluded that anti-Muslim racism has worsened across the continent There are bright spots. In Germany, which welcomed more than a million refugees from Syria and other countries in 2015, the new governing coalition has promised a modern immigration country. EU governments and the European Commission are quite rightly struggling against violations of the rule of law, attacks on the judiciary, and the erosion of media freedoms in Hungary and Poland. But they have turned a blind eye to policies and actions that reinforce exclusion and prejudice in some western EU member states. Being a European Muslim has never been a walk in the park. With about one-third of French voters saying they will vote for far-right and ultra-nationalist candidates, Frances Islam-panic is likely to escalate in the coming months. Despite the EUs lofty talk of equality, diversity, and non-discrimination, European Muslims should be braced for a tough start to the new year. Shada Islam is a Brussels-based commentator on EU affairs The Guardian Two explosives-laden drones targeting an Iraqi military base housing US troops in western Anbar province have been destroyed, officials said. It is the second such attempted attack coinciding with the anniversary of the 2020 US air strike that killed a top Iranian general near Baghdad airport. On Monday, two armed drones were shot down as they headed toward a facility housing US advisers at the airport. According to the official, the fixed-wing drones rigged with explosives were engaged and destroyed by defensive capabilities at the Ain al-Asad airbase. An Iraqi military statement confirmed the attempted attack, saying the drones were shot down outside the parameters of the base. The facility houses troops with the US-led international coalition fighting the so-called Islamic State group (IS) in Iraq. In Mondays attack, the drones were shot down by the C-RAM defence system that protects American installations in Iraq, and there were no reports of damage or injuries from the incident. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, although one of the wings of the drones had the words Soleimanis revenge painted on it, according to the coalition and Iraqi officials. These are attacks against Iraqi installations and an attack against the Iraqi people and the military that protects them, a coalition official said. We maintain a minimal footprint on Iraqi bases. The coalition no longer has its own bases in Iraq. The 2020 US drone strike at Baghdads airport killed Gen Qassim Soleimani, who was the head of Irans elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces. Pro-Iran Shia factions in Iraq have vowed revenge over the killing and have conditioned the end of attacks against the US presence in Iraq on the full exit of American troops from the country. The US-led coalition formally ended its combat mission supporting Iraqi forces in the ongoing fight against IS last month. Some 2,500 troops will remain as the coalition shifts to an advisory mission to continue supporting Iraqi forces. While we have ended our combat mission, we maintain the inherent right of self-defence, the coalition official said. People who take pictures of breastfeeding mothers without consent could face up to two years in jail under plans to change the law. Domestic abuse victims will also be given more time to go to the police as part of amendments to the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill put forward by the British government on Tuesday. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said taking non-consensual photographs or video recordings of breastfeeding mothers would be made a specific breastfeeding voyeurism offence in England and Wales, punishable by up to two years in prison and covering situations where the motive is to obtain sexual gratification, or to cause humiliation, distress or alarm. The decision comes after Labour MP Stella Creasy campaigned for legal reforms after being photographed breastfeeding her baby on public transport. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said no new mum should be harassed in this way, adding: We are committed to doing everything we can to protect women, make them feel safer, and give them greater confidence in the justice system. Creating the specific offence gives police and prosecutors the clarity and powers they need to ensure perpetrators face justice, the MoJ added. Meanwhile, Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, welcomed another amendment being made to the Bill which confirms plans to give victims in England and Wales more time to report assaults in a bid to stop abusers evading justice. The time limit on common assault cases is currently six months, meaning a prosecution has to be brought to court within that time frame from the date of the alleged offence. That could be extended to two years. Such cases can involve violence or threatening behaviour which lead to someone fearing they will be attacked. They can often include things like being spat at, pushed or slapped. Cases are typically dealt with in magistrates courts. Campaigners have argued that police should be given more time to be able to bring charges as cases involving domestic abuse can be complex and victims can be reluctant to come forward. Yvette Cooper, Labours shadow home secretary, put forward an amendment on the changes last year after working with a woman in her Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford constituency, who reported to police repeated domestic abuse but was told she had run out of time and nothing would be done. She said: Weve been putting huge pressure on the Government to lift the time limit so Im glad they have now accepted our proposal to stop victims of domestic abuse being timed out of justice. We will keep up the pressure for more action. Ms Jacobs added: It is important that all domestic abuse victims have the time and opportunity to report to the police. This is especially important following Covid restrictions, when many victims faced additional challenges to seeking help and reporting domestic abuse. I want to see increased prosecutions for domestic abuse and hope to see that, as these measures remove another barrier to bringing perpetrators to justice. Home Secretary Priti Patel said: Every department in Government is working to address and tackle all issues relating to violence against women and girls, adding that the amendments put victims voices at the heart of our decisions. The plans will now be considered by Parliament. Trinity, TX (77320) Today Sun and clouds mixed. A stray thunderstorm is possible. High 88F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 74F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Were working to cover how COVID-19 is affecting our region. Tell us your story. Have you or someone close to you been monitored, quarantined or tested and can you share about the process? Are you a medical professional dealing with this who wants to share your experience and needs at this time? Are you a student or worker affected by closures? Are there questions you have about the coronavirus and COVID-19 response that havent been answered? We want to hear about your experience. We understand this is a sensitive and private issue and we are willing to protect your identity if you request it. HARRISBURG State Sen. Mario Scavellos recent purchase of a house in northern Northampton County may put the longtime Republican in the same Senate district as six-term Democratic Sen. Lisa Boscola, but Scavello says the two will not face off in an election. A deed recorded Nov. 5 shows Scavello, 69, and his wife, Mary Ann, bought a home in Roseto in the southern portion of his 40th Senate District following years of living in Mount Pocono, Monroe County, in the 40ths northernmost reaches. Advertisement But under a proposed redistricting plan unveiled in December, the new Scavello home would become part of a significantly altered 18th District, which Boscola has represented since 1998. Scavello said late Monday that he and Boscola have spoken about the situation. If the map proposed by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission becomes final, he said, he would not move into the home and run against Boscola. Advertisement The two, he said, are friends. I am probably going to have to sell the house and look for something different, said Scavello, who said he and his wife are downsizing and looked at four or five houses before selecting the single-story home. State Sens. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, and Mario Scavello, R-Monroe (April Gamiz/The Morning Call ) Boscola said she completely understood Scavellos motivations because she also moved from Lower Saucon Township to Bethlehem Township to be closer to the heart of her district. The potential disruption of Scavellos plans is an indication of massive uncertainties facing lawmakers across the state as the commissions process for redrawing legislative boundaries plays out. On Dec. 16, the five-member commission unveiled and approved proposed legislative maps, based on 2020 census data, for Senate and House districts for the next 10 years. As part of a 30-day public comment period, several hearings have been scheduled this week. An online portal for submission of public comments has received a steady stream of opinions, including quite a few that focus on the Lehigh Valley and its Senate districts. The proposed Senate map creates a new district in the heart of the Lehigh Valley by pulling the 14th District now covering Carbon County and part of Luzerne south so it is sandwiched between the 18th to the east and the 16th to the west. Advertisement [ Mark Nordenberg on drawing Pennsylvanias new legislative maps, GOP attacks and what comes next ] The 16th is represented by Republican Sen. Pat Browne. The proposed 14th includes chunks of Allentown and Bethlehem, meaning that its adoption would have two senators representing portions of each city. Currently, all of Allentown is represented by Browne, and all of Bethlehem by Boscola. Browne said the proposed new configuration makes sense, given the areas demographic changes. Boscola has lambasted the commissions approach. She plans to testify before the commission Friday and explain why she thinks the proposal is a terrible idea for Northampton County. Boscola said the two cities and the two largest school districts that serve them should not be split up. She said the proposed map appears to be the result of a political deal made behind closed doors and, as she goes through her third redistricting process as a senator, shows how Northampton County is a ripe target for gerrymandering. History proves they play with this county, she said. They crack it and break it up continuously. Advertisement She went to court 20 years ago when a redistricting plan took Easton out of the Northampton County district she represented. She lost the court fight in 2002, but Easton was restored to the 18th District in 2012. Boscola said she would run for reelection regardless of the final outlines of the district. Last Call Daily Get top headlines from The Morning Call delivered weekday afternoons. > An online comment submitted to the commission by Bruce Haines, managing partner of Hotel Bethlehem, said, Carving Bethlehem into a district with Allentown is detrimental to the financial future of our business as the needs of Allentown versus those of Bethlehem could not be further apart. A comment from AC submitted Dec. 20 said it certainly is not in the Lehigh Valleys best interest to merge these cities into one district. Many of the submissions criticizing the handling of the Lehigh Valley are signed by different people but use identical language, including, West Bethlehem, while a part of Lehigh County, should remain a part of the 18th Senate District currently led by Senator Lisa Boscola. Meanwhile, the proposed House map also has triggered criticism. Republican House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff of Centre County has called the proposal an extreme partisan gerrymander and, as one of the five members of the commission, plans to seek changes. Advertisement [ See how the proposed Pennsylvania state House map scores in every key area ] Among other things, the proposed House map divides Allentown between three districts, rather than the current two. The commission may make changes to the proposed maps at the end of the 30-day period. Morning Call Capitol correspondent Ford Turner can be reached at fturner@mcall.com 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. Jacksonville, TX (75766) Today Scattered thunderstorms during the morning. Partly cloudy skies this afternoon. High near 85F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early followed by scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 71F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Staff Writer Jonathan Roberts is a reporter and photographer for the Johnson City Press covering Jonesborough, healthcare and higher education. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and has been with the Press since 2019. NEW STORY: Lehigh Valley could see up to 4 inches of snow from first winter storm of season late this week: Confidence is high If snow lovers in the Lehigh Valley felt slighted by missing out on Mondays storm that buried the Jersey Shore, fear not. The regions first major winter storm of the season is apparently headed this way. Advertisement Theres a chance of freezing rain or a light wintry mix early Wednesday, which could produce some slick spots during the morning rush. But the main focus is the Thursday night into Friday time period, which could lead to the first snowstorm of the year. Initially, there may be enough cold air to see just a little bit of icing [Wednesday morning], said meteorologist Ed Vallee of Empire Weather in the companys latest northeast video update. Advertisement Temperatures will be around 32 or 33 degrees, so its just something to keep in mind, Vallee said, while already looking ahead to Fridays potential storm. Meteorologists are watching that potent but fast-moving system, which is expected to develop in the southeastern U.S. and move off the coast somewhere around North Carolina and Virginia. Its a track that would put our region in a favored location for snow a storm that would likely be a plowable event, but certainly not a backbreaker for snow shovelers once its over. The GFS model shows an expected snowstorm over the Lehigh Valley and the rest of the Mid-Atlantic region on Friday. (TropicalTidbits.com) Thats good news for the Lehigh Valley, which has yet to see any measurable snow so far this season and is considered abnormally dry by the U.S. Drought Monitor. Instead, were watching residents of South Jersey dig out from Mondays hard-hitting system that dumped a half foot to nearly a foot of snow, and wondering how much will fall here later this week. Here is a look at the preliminary snowfall reports. Given the plethora of reports, some outliers have been filtered out to provide the most recent and reasonable amounts. Highest amounts were 10-14" from MD/DE to southern NJ. https://t.co/BTuE4QumU6 #PAwx #NJwx #MDwx #DEwx pic.twitter.com/svwO0E0NSI NWS Mount Holly (@NWS_MountHolly) January 4, 2022 Both Empire Weather and the National Weather Service says models have come into better agreement with the track of the upcoming storm, but timing differences remain. Most guidance seems to be in agreement this will be a quick impact [storm], NWS meteorologist Sarah Johnson wrote in an early morning NWS briefing, suggesting no more than 12 hours of precipitation overall. Last Call Daily Get top headlines from The Morning Call delivered weekday afternoons. > Forecasters are still trying to discern if this will be a late Thursday through mid-day Friday storm, or be primarily during the day Friday. The latter is starting to look a little more likely, though some models are still projecting a storm that begins late Thursday night and is gone by late Friday morning. For now, it appears all the ingredients are there for a storm to form, and a quick-hitting system could leave us with with just a few inches of snow in the Lehigh Valley. Its a light-to-moderate event. Its a quick mover of maybe 8 to 10 hours in any given location and its out of here, Vallee said, stressing ensemble models are showing a higher-end scenario of 3 to 6 inches, but others are showing just a few inches at most. Advertisement PennDOT will be ready to keep the roads clear no matter what, said spokesman Ron Young. We are prepared, and at this time do not have staffing issues that will cause any issues with operating the plow trucks or other equipment, Young said on Tuesday. Behind the storm, the weather service says tranquil but relatively cold weather is expected on Saturday, when high temperatures are expected to range from the mid 20s to mid 30s. The next opportunity for precipitation after Fridays system is likely to occur over the course of the day on Sunday, but with mostly rain for our area. Johnson City, TN (37604) Today Sunny to partly cloudy. High near 80F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Joplin, MO (64801) Today Rain this morning with strong thunderstorms likely by evening. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. High near 70F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Occasional thunderstorms - possibly severe. Damaging winds, large hail and possibly a tornado with some storms. Low 48F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. My plans for a quiet New Years Eve went up in smoke. The fireworks started in my neighborhood not long after we got home from dinner and continued intermittently as the year wound down. Thankfully, after the anticipated midnight barrage, they petered out quickly. Advertisement I suspect others were not so fortunate, with revelers blasting away late into the night. Thats happened previously at my place. So much for starting the new year happy. Advertisement Fireworks are fine at the right time and place. Shooting them off in crowded neighborhoods and over neighbors roofs late at night is annoying and dangerous. Its also illegal, but seldom is anyone arrested for it. State lawmakers created this problem in 2017 when they legalized consumer-grade fireworks and slapped an 18% sales tax on them. Cha-ching. The decision was all about money. Lawmakers failed to consider the nuisance and threat they enabled. Or, maybe they just didnt care. In response to complaints, theyve acted concerned. But nearly five years have passed. If our Legislature really was concerned, it would have done something by now. A few weeks ago, the House and Senate held yet another hearing on the problem. These hearings are just part of the show in Harrisburg. Lawmakers appear to be interested in listening to the people. They show empathy. They say the right things. Then they count on the public to forget a hearing ever was held. Advertisement They know other news will take center stage. And 2022 is going to be a busy year at the Capitol. The midterm elections and redistricting will dominate the headlines. A lot of other stuff like fireworks will be easy to drown out. Dont let our lawmakers forget. If they dont take action by the primary election, hold them accountable at the polls. The message they got at the Dec. 15 hearing was as loud and clear as a bottle rocket whistling past their ears. Fireworks debris sits in the parking lot at Jordan Park after Fourth of July celebrations in Allentown in 2021. Dispatchers received 558 fireworks complaints over the holiday weekend. (Rick Kintzel/Morning Call) [ Pennsylvania lawmakers pretty much give up on banning consumer fireworks ] Fireworks arent allowed to be used within 150 feet of homes, but the thrill seekers dont care. They just blast away, and its nearly impossible for authorities to punish them. Advertisement Nearly every witness at last months hearing criticized the law. They included police and fire officials, with Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney testifying how a family of eight lost their home when fireworks burned it down, and how an 8-year-old boy died because used fireworks were discarded carelessly and caused a fire. Also calling for changes were municipal government associations; the Humane Society; farming advocates; and regular old citizens such as Julian Kern of Allentown. In written testimony, he told lawmakers at least those who bothered to read it that he has autistic children who are sensitive to noise. They dont understand why fireworks are blasting around their home all through the night. Fireworks are a quality of life issue that we deal with every year, Kern wrote. Fireworks have no place in our dense cities. He said fireworks used by his neighbors have struck his car, and him. Advertisement Cathy Yarnall of Barto testified how her neighbors routinely set off fireworks above her farm, traumatizing her horses. Because the display is more than 150 feet from an occupied building, its legal, police told her when she summoned them last July. My horses were trembling at the front of the property ... and were struggling to breathe. The whole property, including the barn, was full of smoke, Yarnall said in written testimony. [ How to stop fireworks: Make Pennsylvania lawmakers live through war-zone experience ] Many of those who testified stopped short of calling for lawmakers to repeal the fireworks law. But they pleaded for changes. And they suggested solutions. A repeal is the only solution, in my opinion unless lawmakers give municipalities the authority to ban fireworks within their borders and make possession of them a crime. Otherwise, enforcement will be nearly impossible. Authorities must catch someone in the act. Even a lighter in one hand and a bag of Roman candles in the other may not be enough to warrant charges. Advertisement There doesnt seem to be interest in repealing the law. Early last year, local representatives Peter Schweyer, Jeanne McNeill, Mike Schlossberg and Bob Freeman introduced repeal legislation. It has not moved. Suggestions offered at last months hearing included putting limits on when fireworks can be used or giving municipalities that ability; allowing municipalities to have a voter referendum on whether fireworks should be banned; allowing municipalities to prohibit fireworks from being used near schools, farms, veterans facilities and hospitals; and allowing municipalities to determine what is an appropriate fine. The current fine, $100, is measly. Considering how much some fireworks cost, thats just another expense some thrill seekers wont mind paying. Lawmakers left Harrisburg last year with a list of ways to address the problem. If they needed a reminder of how big of a problem it is, Im sure many of them got it on New Years Eve. Morning Call columnist Paul Muschick can be reached at 610-820-6582 or paul.muschick@mcall.com [ Fireworks are here to stay in Pennsylvania. So get used to them. ] All but middle school students returned to school in Enfield today and not because of COVID A United Nations court has ordered Niger to suspend its expulsion of eight Rwandans linked to the countrys 1994 genocide, officials confirmed Monday. Nigers government announced the expulsions in late December just a month after the Rwandans were officially welcomed in the capital Niamey citing diplomatic reasons. But a judge with the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals on Friday ordered Niger stay the removals as they may be in violation of earlier UN agreements. A UN spokesperson in New York confirmed the official publication of the court order to AFP on Monday. The Rwandans lawyers had argued that Niger had committed to host the group, after they answered before the international criminal tribunal for their roles in the genocide. Of the eight people in the group, four were convicted of crimes during the genocide by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and have served their sentences. The other four were acquitted by the ICTR. A Rwandan umbrella group of genocide survivor organizations had welcomed the expulsions. Around 800,000 people died between April and July 1994 in Rwanda as the extremist Hutu regime tried to wipe out the Tutsi minority, causing one of the 20th centurys biggest massacres. burs-nr/md/rbu I present my feelings of forgiveness for the great pain caused by the execrable acts committed (), which led to the deaths of innocent people who were marked as combatants, leaving deep desolation among their loved ones. To them I offer my absolute willingness to contribute to the clarification of the truth, as a means of redress, wrote Paulino Coronado, a retired general and former commander of the Colombian armys 30th Brigade, in the letter he sent to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, locally known as the JEP. November and December saw a flurry of movement in the first case opened by the judicial arm of the Colombian transitional justice that focuses on deeds committed by Colombian state agents. Twenty one former Army officials among them one civilian formally accepted the charges brought against them for having murdered 247 civilians and then unlawfully passing them off as rebels killed in combat, a tragedy that has appalled Colombians for over a decade and that became euphemistically known as false positives. A second significant achievement for the JEP Seven high-ranking officers four colonels and three majors joined General Coronado in accepting that these extrajudicial executions amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, as the tribunal noted in its two July indictments. This marks the first time that state actors acknowledge their responsibility for crimes committed during the countrys 52-yearlong armed conflict within the transitional justice system stemming from the 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This is the second significant result for the JEP this year, after seven former FARC commanders accepted the accusation against them over thousands of kidnappings. The arraignment hearing in which they will formally accept the charges, including that these abductions amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, has been moved forward a couple of times due to victims observations and legal motions. It will likely be held during the first two months of 2022. In an interesting twist, three of the first 25 indicted state officials did not accept the JEPs charges, meaning the macro-case on false positives will simultaneously advance along the tribunals two tracks. While the majority will qualify for 5-to-8 year sentences in a non-prison setting, provided they contribute with the truth and personally redress victims, the three reluctant colonels will see their case move to adversarial proceedings where, if found guilty, they will be handed down 15-to-20-year prison sentences. More to come Last July, following three years of investigation, the JEP unveiled two indictments in the false positive case, which exhaustively detail the different modus operandi and strategies used to present civilian homicides as fictitious operational results. The tribunal first charged six officers, three non-commissioned officers and one civilian with 120 extrajudicial executions, 24 forced disappearances and one attempted murder in Catatumbo, a mountainous zone on the border with Venezuela between 2007 and 2008. Then it followed up with a second indictment, charging eight officers, four non-commissioned officers and three soldiers with 127 similar executions in the northern Caribbean coast between 2002 and 2003. For their role in what it described as criminal organizations embedded within military units, the tribunal accused them of the war crime of wilful killing of protected persons and the crimes against humanity of homicide and forced disappearance. The JEPs justices also charged them with homicide of protected persons and forced disappearance under Colombian law. In both cases, it underscored that all victims were civilians and that therefore the military had a legal duty to protect them, as well as eight rebels killed by soldiers after being wounded in combat or turning themselves in. These two indictments are part of a broader probe on extrajudicial executions from 2002 to 2008, a six-year period coinciding with Alvaro Uribes administration in which the special tribunal deems that at least 6.402 such murders took place. In March, the JEP laid down its criteria to build the case and explained which specific regions, military units and years it will focus on to illuminate the broader criminal pattern. In line with this approach they termed from the ground up, justices will first present indictments in six sub-cases beginning with these two and use these to glean information on the underlying patterns of behaviour and the institutional norms and culture that allowed such crimes to occur. This means that after bringing charges against these and other officers with regional command, the JEP will then present its case against those most responsible at the top, potentially including members of the top brass of the Armed Forces and the Defence Ministry during those years. JEP justice Oscar Parra receives a new report on false positives from a university and a legal NGO. Jurisdiccion Especial para la Paz A striking change of heart I own up to my responsibility for having contributed to the armed conflict instead of to peace, as my duty as a public servant and a citizen demanded of me. I ask forgiveness to each citizen who was a victim of my actions, whom I recognise as dignified persons and subjects whose rights were violated, and I commit myself to redress them by providing the complete truth known to me about these murders, retired major Guillermo Gutierrez Rivero wrote, according to excerpts made available by the JEP. Gutierrez, chief of operations of the 2nd Artillery Battalion La Popa that operated in the northern departments of Cesar and La Guajira, was implicated by the JEP in the execution of several Kankuamo Indians. But as recently as October 2019, he denied before the tribunal having had any knowledge or responsibility of the executions carried out by his military unit. But its perhaps General Coronado, the highest ranking military indictee so far, who has shown the most striking change of heart. Forced to retire in 2008 when the scandal was uncovered, the general initially insisted that victims were outlaws and later on denied any involvement. After being accused of wilfully failing in his duty to prevent the commission of these crimes, Coronado who had not requested admission to the JEP at the time of the indictment is now calling on former colleagues to come around like him. My acknowledgement is also a call to leaders and all those who have held positions of command and power in our country to reflect on what they failed to do or allowed to happen by endorsing, probably in good faith and overconfidence, those disastrous actions that are now fully known and accepted by the perpetrators, he wrote. Three reluctant colonels, including a presidential candidate In stark contrast, three officers rejected the JEPs findings and refused to acknowledge their responsibility over the crimes they were indicted for, meaning that their cases were referred to the tribunals prosecution unit and will probably head to a trial. Chief among them is colonel Hernan Mejia, who commanded La Popa battalion between 2002 and 2003 and who was the first major officer taken off duty over this scandal. According to the JEP, he took advantage of his rank and position as battalion commander to form a criminal organisation that he also spearheaded and his orders were executed by battalion officials who were part of this organisation. Mejia who declared himself a presidential candidate for 2022s election and has been defended by former president Alvaro Uribe and members of his party rejected the tribunals charges, arguing that the Attorney Generals Office stole his military units original documents and staged fake witnesses. Two other colonels will join him. Jose Pastor Ruiz who was an intelligence officer at La Popa and had remained silent when called before the JEP filed a request for annulment arguing that the tribunal didnt have jurisdiction over his case and asking to remain within the ordinary criminal justice system. The tribunal rejected his motion on the grounds that it has overriding and preferential jurisdiction over members of the security forces. In another intriguing turn of events, colonel Juan Carlos Figueroa who succeeded Mejia at La Popa and was considered a fugitive since leaving Colombia for Paris in July 2019 and never responding to justices calls to the stand reappeared after the indictment against him. In a written statement submitted by his lawyer, Figueroa informed the JEP that he currently lives in the United Arab Emirates and rejected the tribunals accusation that, once he became aware of the criminal organisation in place (), far from deactivating it, he took up its leadership and used pressure and various incentives to get his subordinates to report such combat casualties. In view that he chose not to accept the charges, the tribunal also referred him to the prosecuting unit. The victims long wait With the decision by 21 former Army officials to accept the JEPs charges, Colombia may get closer to providing victims of extrajudicial executions with the truth, justice and redress they have been seeking for as long as two decades. In total, 984 victims are accredited as parties to the case, usually relatives of the young men aged 25 to 35 who were executed. Several hearings over the past few months organised by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the extra-judicial arm of the transitional justice, have also seen an increasing number of former soldiers owning up to their roles and asking for forgiveness. In February or March, when the arraignment hearing before the JEP will probably be held, hundreds of victims will finally get a chance to hear their acknowledgement and their regret in person. Sweden has charged a woman for allegedly allowing her son to fight for the Islamic State group as a child soldier in Syria, prosecutors said Tuesday, in the first case of its kind. The Swedish woman allegedly travelled to Syria in 2013, Swedens prosecution authority said, a year before the jihadist group declared a caliphate in large swathes of the country and neighbouring Iraq. The 49-year-old stands accused of having allowed her son to fight for armed groups, including IS, from the age of 12 to 15. The woman is being charged for having made possible that he be recruited and used as a child soldier from August 2013 to May 2016, it said in a statement. During that time, he allegedly took part in hostilities performed by armed groups, including the terrorist organisation IS. The boy then died in 2017, it added, without elaborating on the cause of his death. This is the first time charges are being brought in Sweden for the war crime of using a child soldier, the prosecution authority said. The woman, who returned to Sweden in 2020 after the military defeat of the IS proto-state, has denied all charges. But public prosecutor Reena Devgun said an investigation seemed to indicate otherwise. It showed that the son, during the time he lived at home, was educated and trained to partake in the hostilities, and that he had been equipped with military equipment in addition to military weapons and that he was used in battle, she said in a statement. Public broadcaster SVT said the woman had left Sweden for Syria in 2013 with her five children. Nurses at St. Vincents Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts voted Monday to approve a new contract, ending the strike that kept them on the picket line. 301 days. The Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents 700 nurses on strike, reached a preliminary agreement on December 17 with Tenet Healthcare, the hospitals parent company in Dallas. Union members have now approved the agreement with 487 votes in favor and 9 votes against. The contract will take effect retrospectively until January 3, 2021, and will be valid until December 31, 2025. The nurse has not had a contract since the end of 2019. The union announced in a press release that under the agreement, nurses can return to their previous positions within 30 days, and Tenet Healthcare agreed to provide safer working conditions.Saint Vincents Hospital will also Keep all permanent replacement nurses It hired employees during the months-long strike. This is a long and hard struggle of 700 brave nurses who are doing their best to achieve the improvements we need to ensure the best possible patient care, the nurse at the hospital and the co-chair of the local nurses association of the Massachusetts Association of Nurses Marlena Pellegrinos negotiating unit said at a press conference. The new contract will provide improvements for patients and our team, and we are very happy to finally end the strike and return our sole focus to patient care, Caroline Jackson, CEO of St. Vincent Hospital, said at a press conference. We will set a new tone at St. Vincents Hospital: We are a team with a common goal. We will not attack nurses and substitute nurses. Not nurses and management. A team united under the principles of professionalism, excellence, responsibility and compassion. According to the nurses union, under the agreement, Tenet Healthcare agreed to maintain specific staffing levels and ratios in different departments and restrict flexible staffing, which allows the hospital to send nurses home when the number of patients is small. Nurses will receive a 2% annual salary increase in the contract, retroactive to January 1, 2021, and pay the salary two years before the end of the last collective bargaining agreement. The contract also adds two nurses to the hospitals workforce safety committee to handle workplace violence on behalf of the nurses, and requires the hospital to install metal detectors in the emergency room and provide additional police personnel at night, weekends and holidays. After two weeks of federal mediation, negotiators reached a preliminary agreement last month.The labor action started in March last year two years later Two years of conversation Unable to reach an agreement between Tenet Healthcare and the nurses union. According to data from the Massachusetts Association of Nurses, this strike is the longest strike by nurses in state history and the longest in the country in 15 years. Four Massachusetts Congressional Democrats Questioning how Tenet Healthcare uses its COVID-19 relief funds In June last year, the strike took into account the insufficient number of employees. National Nurses United has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate what it calls exploitative contracts for new nurses in Tenet Healthcare and two other health systems. With this agreement, we can go back to that building proudly, not only proud of what we got in the agreement, but also proud of what we built together as nurses. They know they do it for patients and the community. Everything they can do, said Dominique Muldoon, a nurse at the hospital and co-chair of the negotiating team, in a press release. H&M, a major fashion company, has denied rumors that it will open a store in Metaverse. According to false reports, customers can walk through the store and purchase products in the Ceek meta space. H&M denies Metaverse rumors and cooperation with Ceek Several major publications reported on Monday that retail clothing giant H&M has opened a 3D store in Metaverse, including Economic Times and Mixable India. H&M (Hennes & Mauritz) is a large fashion and design company with 53 online markets and stores in 75 markets around the world. As one of the worlds largest clothing brands, as of September 30, 2021, H&M has 4,856 stores worldwide. Its largest markets are Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Russia, Italy and the Netherlands. However, the company denied reports that it is opening a store in Metaverse. When Bitcoin.com News asked about this news, a H&M spokesperson clarified: We want to confirm that H&M will not open a store in Metaverse at this time. According to false reports, the company stated that customers will be able to walk into the store, choose the products they want, and buy in the Ceek City universe. Payments must be made with cheek tokens (CEEK). The Ceek virtual reality environment is managed by a smart contract on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), with detailed information on its website. In addition, the false report also claimed that customers will be able to order the clothes seen in the H&M Metaverse Store from their physical store later. Rumors of H&M opening a store in Yuanjie followed closely tweet It was released by Ceeks official Twitter account on December 7th last year. The company said it has created a concept VR store that will be shown to H&M. However, a spokesperson for H&M told Bitcoin.com News: We also did not cooperate with Ceek. Ceeks official Twitter account later clarified on Monday: The H&M store in the Ceek metaverse is just a concept to show to H&M, not a real virtual store. We are discussing with the people at H&M to make this a reality, but its not yet Reality. Do you think H&M should open a store in Yuanjie? Please let us know in the comments section below. Kevin Helms As a student of Austrian economics, 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. The Healthcare Anchor Network, made up of more than 1,000 hospitals that encourage community-centric procurement, recruitment, and investment, said on Tuesday that it has officially become an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Since its establishment in 2017, the Washington, DC-based team has been a project of the non-profit research group The Democracy Collaborative. However, leaders believe that HAN, which now has 70 members of the health system, has assets of more than US$150 billion, and purchases more than US$75 billion each year, can exist independently. This allows us to truly ensure that as we grow and take new initiatives, the organization (previously a program) can respond more positively to the needs and priorities of its members, HAN President David Zucker Man said. HAN encourages its members Sign the letter of commitment and make a specific commitment Revolve around purchasing and investing in ways that benefit the communities they serve. Twelve members agreed to increase their influence purchasing by a total of US$1 billion within five years. Impact purchasing refers to purchasing from companies owned by ethnic minorities and women, as well as local and employee-owned companies. More than a dozen members also signed South Koreas land-based investment commitments, requiring them to allocate at least 1% or US$50 million from long-term reserves or unrestricted investment funds, whichever is lower. To solve the community conditions that create the environment. Ethnic, economic and environmental differences. Zuckerman said that HAN expects all its members to make commitments on investment, supply procurement and recruitment, but also understands that the health system is in a different position in the process. We hope that the healthcare anchor network can include the system that is just getting started in this work, and make a slightly different commitment from what we stated in the leadership commitment, he said. 2019, South Korea Organized a campaign Fourteen of these members pledged to invest more than US$700 million in community-based initiatives to address the economic and environmental drivers that cause differences in health outcomes. SSM Health in St. Louis is one of the members of the health system that provided seed funding to help HAN get started. SSM Chief Community Health Officer Dr. Alex Garza said that the non-profit system has identified postal codes with high poverty rates and set targets for hiring people living in these areas. He said that the system is also committed to increasing local procurement and is exploring the best way to invest in local businesses. Garza said that the goal behind all of this is to further consider health issues so that SSM can help reduce the risk factors that affect peoples health. If you just think about its economics, you cant do that. I mean the monetary return on investment, he said. This is the long-term return on your investment. But we know that if we dont start now, without front-end investment, we will never be able to build a healthy community. HAN has raised more than $2 million in seed funding from a handful of health systems, including Kaiser, Intermountain Healthcare, Trinity Health, CommonSpirit Health, and ProMedica. Zuckerman said the organization will still rely on grants, but donations from the health system will help it get started. He said that later this year, HAN will announce a new commitment around local recruitment and workforce development. Download Modern Healthcares app to keep up to date when industry news breaks out. Kaiser Permanente, a large-scale integrated medical system located in Oakland, California, has made further progress in procurement and investment. John Vu, Kaisers vice president of community health strategy, said that the system now spends more than $2 billion annually on minority and female-owned businesses, and $220 million has been invested in HANs place-based commitments. These investments are distributed among various initiatives, including affordable housing and community revitalization. We believe that we must create good conditions for health, Vu said. This includes working hard to contribute to good economic opportunities wherever we are. Intermountain has been a member of HAN almost since the initiative was launched. Lisa Nichols, assistant vice president of the system for community health, said that to date, the health system of Salt Lake City has invested in more than 600 affordable housing units, including a fund that can provide Teachers, health professionals and police provide affordable housing. . We all know that health is more than just healthcare services, Nichols said. So, in terms of all the assets we can consider when improving the health and well-being of the community, we have indeed fulfilled our mission in a more comprehensive way. HAN requires all its members to submit data on recruitment, procurement and investment every year. Zuckerman said it then posts the information to a members-only platform where the health system can view their progress against benchmarks. In the end, he said that the idea is to track improvements year by year and publicly share the progress. Second-generation icons Lee Junho and YoonA spiced up the stage with their hot dance collaboration at the 2021 MBC Gayo Daejejeon, and their video already garnered millions of views as of writing. The two also received various reactions from fans for their interaction at the event, showcasing their friendship. YoonA and Lee Junho's 'Senorita' Stage Collab Performance Garners Over 2 Million Views on YouTube The internet went into a frenzy during the 2021 MBC Gayo Daejejeon (2021 MBC Song Festival), thanks to 2PM Junho and YoonA's collaborative dance performance. Apart from the stellar celebrities were present, fans were delighted to witness Lee Junho and YoonA's powerful chemistry in their "Seniorita" dance collaboration. Even before they began their performance, the 2PM and SNSD members already charmed everyone with their stunning visuals. They wowed the viewers with their dance steps and charisma on stage. Hours after the event, MBC uploaded the whole dance video on their YouTube channel. Surprisingly, Lee Junho and YoonA's video already has more than 2 million views as of writing, proving the popularity of the two second-generation icons. YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN: Former Gugudan Member Kim Na Young Signs with Goodman Story Agency, Home to Cho Seung Woo, Kang Pil Seok and More They also earned praises from fans all over the world, and trended on Twitter during the music festival broadcast. They also gained positive feedback for their hosting skills and interactions, showing their decade-long friendship. Lee Junho Receives Backlash for His Recent Instagram Post On December 31, Lee Junho updated his Instagram with his snaps with YoonA while wearing their dance costumes. In one of the photos, the 2PM member was holding YoonA's sleeve, which is in reference to his recently-concluded drama "The Red Sleeve" cuff. Unfortunately, this did not sit well with some fans and die-hard shippers of Lee Junho and Lee Se Young. Some of the complaints under his post include, "Why are you holding the sleeve of someone other than Sung Deok Im (Lee Se Young)?" Due to this, the "Wok of Love" star changed the hashtag to #MBCGayoDaejejeon. Meanwhile, following the success of "The Red Sleeve Cuff," Lee Junho will have his first offline fanmeeting this coming January 22 and 23 in celebration of his birthday on January 25. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 2PM's Lee Junho to Have an Exclusive Offline Fanmeeting for His Birthday What can you say about Lee Junho and YoonA's recent stage collaboration at the 2021 MBC Gayo Daejejeon? Share your thoughts with us! For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars. Kdramastars owns this article. Written by Shai Collins. Netflix is gearing up for the upcoming movie "Kill Bok Soon," which stars Jeon Do Yeon and Hwang Jung Min. The streaming giant announced that the action thriller film had begun its production; however, the target release date is yet to be confirmed. 'Kill Bok Soon' Official Cast: Jeon Do Yeon, Hwang Jung Min, and More Following the update, Netflix also confirmed the list of stars who would join Jeon Do Yeon and Hwang Jung Min. "Kill Bok Soon" cast includes Sol Kyung Gu, Esom, and Goo Kyo Hwan. Helmed by the "Kingmaker: The Fox of the Election" director Byun Sung Hyun, the upcoming action thriller movie follows the story of a legendary killer named Bok Soon. She gets caught up in a messy situation right before the contract renewal with the company. The "Lost" star took on the titular role and lived a double life as a single mother and a ruthless killer. "Kill Bok Soon" will show what prompted her to enter this kind of activity. Interestingly, this is said to be her first-ever action film that would undoubtedly stimulate the viewers' curiosity in terms of her fighting skills. Meanwhile, Sol Kyung Gu transformed into Cha Min Kyu, the CEO of MK Ent, where Bok Soon is working. She treats him as his mentor but knows that she can't trust Min Kyu as he is a dangerous person who can steal everything she has. Goo Kyoo Hwan will take on the character of Han Hee Seong, one of the hired killers at MK Ent. Because of his impressive skills, he is known to be one of the high class killers of the company but Ming Kyu does not recognize his worth. Seemingly, Esom will be Cha Min Hee, Cha Min Kyu's sister and the company's director who showed great connection towards Bok Soon. As for Hwang Jung Min, the officials and Netflix have not revealed his character but will surely play a significant role in "Kill Bok Soon." According to a local media outlet, a representative lauded the synergy between the actors who are set to "create a bloody and interesting relationship between the killers" and will also feature stylish and fresh directing skills. Jeon Do Yeon's Upcoming Projects this 2022 "Kill Bok Soon" is among Jeon Do Yeon's upcoming projects for the year. To recall, she made a cameo in "Hostage: Missing Celebrity" with lead star Hwang Jung Min and had her last film in 2020 through "Beasts Clawing at Straws." Interestingly, she will return to the big screen with two exciting movies. Apart from the action thriller film, Jeon Do Yeon will star in "Emergency Declaration" and transform as airline director Sook Hee. She will work alongside Song Kang Ho, Im Si Wan, Lee Byung Hun, Kim Nam Gil and more. "Emergency Declaration'' is scheduled to be released sometime this year 2022. KDramastars owns this article Written by Geca Wills Deputies come to the aid of 75-year-old Jacksonville woman, snowed-in without power Oregon stores now must pay and register to sell tobacco and e-cigarette products You need to anticipate that as many as a third of your workforce at any one time may become ill with COVID-19 and they may not be able to come to work, B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told businesses on Tuesday. Hopkinsville, KY (42240) Today Clouds and some sun this morning with more clouds for this afternoon. High 84F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Low 67F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday represented a record day in Kentucky for the number of new COVID-19 cases and positivity rate. (Kentucky Today/Tom Latek) Kilgore, TX (75662) Today Scattered thunderstorms this morning, then cloudy skies this afternoon. High 86F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening with thunderstorms becoming likely overnight. Low 69F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Storm Barra wreaked havoc by causing major disruption across Kilkenny in early December. In the city, a large trampoline hit power lines on the Castlecomer Road while the Lacken boardwalk was damaged by a fallen tree and had to be closed. Thousands were left without power in North Kilkenny and rail travel between Kilkenny city and Waterford city was also disrupted. The local hospitality sector struggled once again in December as they were among the first to be hit with further government restrictions. Chairman of the Kilkenny City and County vintners, Anthony Morrison noted that he had zero bookings over the festive period. Everything is cancelled, all the Christmas parties and gatherings as companies and workplaces dont want to be associated with socialising, he said. A final War of Independence centenary event took place at the Closh in the city in December. Members of Keep Kilkenny Beautiful (KKB) and the local community planted two trees during a reflective ceremony at the site. The trees were planted to commemorate the two volunteers, Thomas Hennessey and Michael Dermody, as well as innocent bystander Thomas Dollard, who lost their lives in the Friary Street ambush in the War of Independence 100 years ago. Santa arrived in late November to kick off a month of events to take place in December as part of Yulefest 2021 Christmas in Kilkenny! It was a sight to behold as Santa arrived down the River Nore, carried safely by the Civil Defence and flanked by two boats full of Dragon Paddlers and a string of canoe and kayakers. He arrived at Canal Square where he was greeted by excited spectators. He was on duty again later that day as he helped Mayor Andrew McGuinness and his children turn on the Christmas lights. There was also a great turnout when approximately 2,000 people gathered outdoors to watch the opening of the Festival of Light in Castlecomer. Local school children took part in the magical Parade of Light from The Square in the town to the Estate Yard at the Discovery Park and Santa Claus also paid a visit to turn on the lights, bringing December in with style! The annual Lions Club Christmas Hamper appeal proved to be another huge success. Five local charities benefitted from the generosity of local people - St. Vincent De Paul, Kilkenny Social Services, Church of Ireland, Good Shepherd Centre, and Amber Womens Refuge Centre. Lions President Eddie Holohan praised the depth and spirit of the people of Kilkenny, both business and community, who contributed so generously in these difficult times. The generosity of local communities in Kilkenny also filled over 6,000 shoeboxes with gifts for children in need - just in time for Christmas! There are 14 patients on trolleys at St Luke's Hospital today according to the latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisations. The hospital is coming under pressure with rising Covid cases and people are advised not to attend unless it is an emergency. A spokesperson said that the Emergency Department at St Lukes General Hospital is extremely busy. "If you attend the Emergency Department and do not need urgent treatment we regret that there will be significant delays and very long waiting times. Please consider all care options including your GP, GP Out of Hours and Pharmacy services. As always, the hospital will see and treat the sickest patients and those requiring urgent care first. Do not delay attending the hospital if you or someone else may be having a heart attack, stroke or other serious medical emergency. Call 999/112 for immediate assistance." The Covid-19 testing system in Ireland is expected to remain under major pressure in the coming days, a senior health official has said. It comes as one teaching union has called for a re-think on the full re-opening of schools, ahead of a meeting with Education Minister Norma Foley. The Governments party leaders are also expected to meet today (January 4) to discuss the ongoing Covid-19 situation. Here are today's walk-in #COVIDVaccine clinics. We're operating walk-in clinics for dose 1 and dose 2, and booster vaccine clinics for healthcare workers, people over 30 and some clinics for 16-29s. Keep an eye for updates on queueing times throughout the day. #ForUsAll pic.twitter.com/6t1rkUbrUQ HSE Ireland (@HSELive) January 4, 2022 Senior HSE director Damien McCallion said today that there continues to be a huge demand for PCR testing as Ireland copes with record levels of Covid-19 cases. He predicted that the testing system, which now has a capacity of 650,000 tests a week when PCR and antigen testing is combined, will remain under strain for at least a week. Mr McCallion acknowledged that the actual level of cases are probably much higher than that recorded by the PCR testing system. There are definitely higher numbers of the disease out there, he said. Were seeing this globally with all testing systems under strain given the high transmissibility of this particular variant. Mr McCallion also confirmed that there were 30,000 registrations on the first day of vaccine registration for children aged five to 11. I think what our experience tells us from looking at the 12 to 17 uptake is that its a much slower process and we understand that because parents will want to have the information, they will want to talk to their child, consult with others, perhaps. And what we would encourage parents to do is to do that, to look at trusted sources of information thats really important. Mr McCallion also said that be believed Ireland has a sufficient supply of antigen testing. We certainly have sufficient numbers on the supply chain through January. So were hoping that well get through, but like all of our systems, as demand increases, thats something well have to track and monitor on an almost daily basis at the moment, he told RTE radio. Health and safety must be the priority for re-opening schools https://t.co/ptG4qAtrQw ASTI (@astiunion) January 3, 2022 Later today, teaching unions will meet with the education minister to discuss the re-opening of schools. Government ministers have insisted that despite the high case numbers, schools will re-open as normal on Thursday. The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) has called for a staggered approach to the re-opening of schools, given the high level of the virus in the community. General Secretary Kieran Christie said on Tuesday that there could be chaos in some schools in the days to come without some kind of review and revision, given the threat that the Omicron variant poses. The union wants HEPA filters and medical grade masks to be made available in schools. Michael Gillespie, general secretary of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), said that one size does not fit all. I think we are going to have schools that may be able to fully open on Thursday because we dont know the actual effect in each school. We could have a school where there might be 20% of the staff missing and they may have been able to source some, and there may be no effect. But there may be schools that have 25% or 30% missing and then tough decisions may have to be made in those schools. Were talking about being based on a school-by-school basis, as opposed to a one size fits all across the country. He added: I think it is important that every school opens with whatever restrictions that may have to be applied based on the staffing thats available. A school has to open and it has to be open, not just with the health and safety about Covid but other health and safety restrictions there. There has to be teachers to teach in front of class. Colm O Rourke, principal of St Patricks Classical School in Navan in Meath, said that schools should be opened on hope rather than fear. The realities of the school situation is that teachers of exam subjects may be out more than other classes, so each school would be better to make judgments themselves on a day-to-day basis on what you are able to bring in, and I would hope that we would be able to bring in everybody, he added. A 17-year-old girl who had one of her eyes ruptured in a vicious Dublin assault last week has given an update on her condition. Alanna Quinn-Idris (17) was with a male friend, named Louis, when the two were attacked outside the Civic Centre on the Ballyfermot Road in Dublin at roughly 9.30pm, last Thursday night, December 30. It has been reported that the attackers used a hurley, a saddle post from an electric scooter, and a knife in the barbaric attack. The friend was stabbed while he and another bystander tried to help Ms Idris, who later ended up with broken bones in her cheek and eye socket, broken teeth, and a ruptured right eye. Her mother, Jamie Quinn, told The Irish Independent that her daughter has been tormented in recent years by a group of young males who hang around the area. GoFundMe: Ms Quinn-Idris has since posted an update on her condition on a GoFundMe fundraiser set up for her and her friend. She explained: "I just want to start this post off by saying thank you so so much to everyone whos sent me a message over the past few days; Ive been absolutely showered with love and support by so many kind hearts." "Im trying my best to reply to everyone as fast as possible, but I just want to say that words cannot express how grateful I am for every single one of you." She continued: "Im not the best at writing things but I just want to say that throughout this whole experience, Ive tried my best to maintain a positive attitude and just be appreciative of the fact that both me and Louis are still here alive and safe. Today was admittedly harder. "Ive finally accepted that there is an over 90 per cent chance that I wont be able to see out if my right eye again, which sucks because my right side is my good side lol. Ms Quinn-Idris added that, despite all this, she is grateful that her friend is recovering well and was there with her that night, along with everyone else that intervened and got them medical aid. Following this, another statement from her mother read: "When her dad called the other night asking to give the go ahead, I wasn't too sure." "I did not want people to think that we were taking the opportunity to make a profit off this horrible horrible situation... but then I thought to myself a couple of hundred euro would be nice if she was lucky, she could do a nice few days away somewhere when she has recovered enough with her friend." She continued: "I never in my wildest of wild dreams could have imagined it would have gone this far for her... I don't even know how to express my gratitude to each and every person; and not only for the donations, the love and encouragement is just as appreciated. Ms Quinn-Idris' mother also revealed that the family has decided to relocate to a different area for safety reasons: "It breaks my heart to potentially leave our home and the area I have lived in all my life, but I will never be comfortable letting my children out to socialise in this area again and we cannot live like that: a fresh start is what we need." "At least Alanna can now make her bedroom her little sanctuary thanks to each and eveyone of you: she said she wants a nice bright room with a big window to grow her plants (she has green fingers!)" She concluded: "Unfortunately I think after her shock last night Alanna didn't have a great day today she has literally slept the entire day: I think that adrenaline she was surviving on the last few days has ran out! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Pls continue to pray." In addition, it was revealed that the donations would be split 50/50 between Alanna Quinn-Idris and her friend Louis. The fundraiser has already raised more than 50,600 for Alanna and her friends recovery, and can be accessed by clicking here. Gardai have since said that CCTV from Ballyfermot and the bus network, as well as phone traffic, will provide crucial evidence in the investigation. "An incident room has been established at Ballyfermot Garda Station and significant progress has been made in the investigation to date," a spokesperson for An Garda Siochana said in a recent statement. Anyone with information is asked to contact Ballyfermot Garda Station on 01 666 7200, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station. TEHRAN, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Monday that the E3 group of France, Britain and Germany as well as the United States have realized that they have to quit their "maximalist demands" in the talks on the restoration of the 2015 nuclear deal. "If we have a common text today, it is the result of the Western sides adopting a more realistic approach in the Vienna talks and realizing that they cannot have demands beyond the scopes of the nuclear deal in the ongoing negotiations in the Austrian capital," the ministry's spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh made the remarks in an address to a press conference. He said the mechanisms pursued in Vienna are clear, adding both bilateral and multilateral talks have been held in Vienna between Iran and the P4+1 countries. The Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed in July 2015. In May 2018, the U.S. government under former President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement. Iran and other remaining parties to the JCPOA started a diplomatic process in Vienna in April 2021 to revive the JCPOA, as part of which rounds of negotiations have been held. The eighth round of the Vienna talks began on Dec. 27. Following a break owing to the arrival of the New Year, the negotiations are expected to resume on Monday. Enditem RAMALLAH, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that a new political path must be opened to end the Israeli occupation, official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. The Palestinians "will not agree to remain forever under the occupation, and the occupation must end in accordance with the international resolutions and under the umbrella of the international Quartet," Abbas was quoted by WAFA as saying at the end of a two-day meeting of his Fatah Party's Revolutionary Council. The international Quartet usually refers to a group of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia that was established in Madrid in 2002 to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. During the meeting, which was held in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the 86-year-old president announced that the Palestinian Central Council, the mini parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization, will soon hold an important meeting to make decisive and necessary decisions. "These decisions aim to protect the Palestinian cause and the national merits that will never make a compromise to it whatever the price is," Abbas said. Abbas had warned that if Israel rejects the world-backed two-state solution, "the Palestinians will be obliged to go for other political choices." In October 2021, Abbas said one of the choices is to implement the UN Security Council's resolution passed in 1947, or build one democratic state on the land of historic Palestine in which the full political and civil rights of the Palestinians are gained. The last direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, sponsored by the United States, lasted nine months and broke down in 2014 over their deep differences on the issues of borders, security, and settlement. Since then, there have been no diplomatic ties between Israelis and Palestinians because of the Palestinian rejection of the Israeli expansion of settlements and Israeli measures against the Palestinians in East Jerusalem. The Palestinians want to establish an independent state alongside Israel on all the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including the entire West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Enditem Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. High 53F. Winds ENE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 42F. Winds NNE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible. A medical worker is seen at a COVID-19 vaccination center in Hawalli Governorate, Kuwait, on Dec. 22, 2021. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua) KUWAIT CITY, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait will impose new restrictions to contain the spread of COVID-19, Kuwait's Center for Government Communication said on Monday. From Jan. 9 to Feb. 28, Kuwait will suspend all social events in closed areas, according to a decision of the government, the center said. The decision will be re-examined in light of the epidemiological situation, it added. People wait in the arrivals hall of Kuwait International Airport in Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait, on Dec. 20, 2021. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua) Meanwhile, starting from Jan. 4, all incoming travelers are required to provide a PCR certificate with a negative result, taken at a maximum of 72 hours before their flight's departure time. Kuwait reported 982 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, raising its tally of infections to 419,314. The death toll from the virus remained at 2,468, while the tally of recoveries rose by 171 to 412,073. Two Easy Ways To Subscribe! The Kodiak Daily Mirror offers full-service, five-day a week subscriptions with home delivery in addition to unlimited access to our online services (including our e-Edition). Online-access-only subscriptions include unlimited access to the Mirror's online services without delivery of the printed newspaper. (Note: New users: You must register and login before purchasing a subscription. Kokomo, IN (46901) Today Some early morning breaks in the overcast, otherwise cloudy. High 66F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 54F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. Delegations from the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members China, France, Russia, the UK and the U.S. attend a Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons conference in Beijing, Jan. 30, 2019. AFP-Yonhap The five declared global nuclear powers pledged Monday to prevent the spread of atomic weapons and to avoid nuclear conflict, in a rare joint statement setting aside rising West-East tensions to reaffirm a goal of a nuclear-free world. "We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented," said permanent UN Security Council members China, France, Russia, the UK and United States, adding: "A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." The statement was issued after the latest review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) which first came into force in 1970 was postponed from its scheduled date of January 4 to later in the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the major recent tensions between both China and Russia and their Western partners, the five world powers said they saw "the avoidance of war between nuclear-weapon states and the reduction of strategic risks as our foremost responsibilities." The powers added: "We each intend to maintain and further strengthen our national measures to prevent unauthorized or unintended use of nuclear weapons." The statement also pledged to abide by a key article in the NPT under which states committed to full future disarmament from nuclear weapons, which have only been used in conflict in the U.S. bombings of Japan that ended World War II. "We remain committed to our NPT obligations, including our Article 6 obligation" on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict control. According to the UN, a total of 191 states have joined the treaty. The provisions of the treaty call for a review of its operation every five years. U.S. President Joe Biden holds virtual talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin amid Western fears that Moscow plans to attack Ukraine, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens on with other officials during a secure video call from the Situation Room at the White House in Washington, Dec. 7, 2021. Reuters-Yonhap 'Reduce tensions' The statement comes as tensions between Russia and the U.S. have reached heights rarely seen since the Cold War over a Russian troop build-up close to the Ukrainian border. That has raised fears that the Kremlin, worried by the possibility of further eastward expansion of NATO, is planning a new attack on its pro-Western neighbor. Crunch talks between Russia and the U.S. on European security are expected in Geneva on Jan. 10. Meanwhile, the rise of China under President Xi Jinping has also raised concerns that tensions with Washington could lead to conflict, notably over the island of Taiwan. Russia welcomed the declaration by the nuclear powers and expressed hope it would reduce global tensions. "We hope that, in the current difficult conditions of international security, the approval of such a political statement will help reduce the level of international tensions," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. China's Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu was quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying the pledge "will help increase mutual trust and replace competition among major powers with coordination and cooperation." A Simorgh (Phoenix) satellite rocket lifting off during its launch at an undisclosed location in Iran is seen in this handout picture released by Iran's Defence Ministry Dec. 30, 2021. The Islamic republic announced it had carried out a new space launch, in a move likely to irk Western powers amid tough talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal. AFP-Yonhap A child receives a dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine at an event launching school vaccinations in Los Angeles, in this Nov. 5 file photo. AFP-Yonhap President Biden said schools should stay open despite the fast-rising number of COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant. Seeking to reassure Americans as the pandemic surges again, Biden urged school districts and local governments on Tuesday to do everything they can to keep schools open for in-person learning. Advertisement President Joe Biden speaks as he meets with the White House COVID-19 Response Team on the latest developments in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. (Andrew Harnik/AP) We know that our kids can be safe when in school, Biden says. Thats why I believe that schools should remain open, adding that they have the funding needed for testing and other mitigation measures to stay open during the surge. Biden said states have been provided $10 billion in funding for testing in schools and urged authorities to spend the cash. Advertisement The president spoke as he prepared to virtually attend a meeting of the White House coronavirus task force. The highly contagious omicron strain has powered a massive spike in COVID cases, with 1 million new cases recorded Monday alone, more than double the previous record according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > Omicron is very transmissible, but its different from everything weve seen before, Biden said Even though cases are rising among even fully vaccinated people, Biden stressed that virtually all of those Americans seriously ill or dying from COVID are unvaccinated. You can still get COVID, but its very unlikely you will get seriously ill, he said. Be concerned, but dont be alarmed [unless] youre unvaccinated. The White House announced last month that it would make 500 million rapid antigen tests available free to requesting Americans, but it will be weeks, if not months, before those tests are widely available. Advertisement Well set up a free and easy system, including a new website to get these tests out to Americans, COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said last week. Were actively working to finalize that distribution mechanism, which includes a website where people will be able to order tests for free. And well share more details in the weeks ahead days and weeks ahead. Pressed when the first tests would reach Americans, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, I dont have an update on that at this point in time. Garrett, IN (46738) Today Mostly cloudy. High around 60F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low around 50F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. Gov. Eric Holcomb is well aware Hoosier Republicans have practically unlimited power, and nearly unlimited resources, heading into Tuesday's first daily meeting of the 2022 Indiana General Assembly. But the Republican chief executive is preaching caution to the state's occasionally unruly legislative congregation urging them to follow through on initiatives begun last year and to prepare for next year's budget session, rather than immediately upending the state's tax rates, education system and myriad other stable public policies. "We've got a lot of momentum. We want to make sure we're doing everything we can to keep that momentum going forward," Holcomb said Monday as he unveiled his modest agenda for the 10-week legislative session. The governor said it all starts with prioritizing the state's business environment by eliminating the business personal property tax on newly purchased equipment, restructuring corporate incentive programs to make Indiana more attractive for investment, and encouraging remote workers to relocate to Indiana. At the same time, Holcomb wants to "skill up" Hoosier workers beginning in the earliest years by establishing an Office of Kindergarten Readiness at the Department of Education, measuring schools based on how well they prepare students for success beyond the classroom and working to better connect Hoosiers seeking new jobs with the skills and training Indiana employers need. "We've got a 3% unemployment rate here in the state of Indiana, lower than any state that we touch. That's 100,096 individuals, and we've got 152,000 unfilled jobs posted on our state website," Holcomb said. "How do match those? We'll be proactively reaching out." Holcomb also is urging the Legislature to improve access to mental health services, support his effort to reform Indiana's public health systems, invest in initiatives to prevent sudden unexplained infant deaths, follow through on plans to bolster state infrastructure and broadband connectivity, safely dispose of dangerous firefighting foam and modernize law enforcement training and technology. "These priorities will cultivate a more competitive environment to attract new economic development opportunities, establish better access to public health resources and help connect Hoosiers to better employment and training opportunities," Holcomb said. "Our efforts will advance Indianas reputation as a state Hoosiers want to live, work, play, study and stay." The governor repeatedly declined to specifically address many of the hot-button proposals pending in the House and Senate, including limiting how schools teach controversial subjects, immediately reducing tax rates and preventing businesses from implementing COVID-19 prevention measures. "I'll look at the bills that come across my desk. There's a number of them," Holcomb said. "I've got my agenda that's what I think we need to focus on." House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, and Senate President Rod Bray, R-Martinsville, both said they'll consider Holcomb's priorities as they work with him to improve Indiana. Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Overcast. High 58F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low 49F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. French twins and former TV stars Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff died of COVID-19 just days apart, according to several local reports. They were 72. Grichka, the younger twin, died in intensive care on Dec. 28. His brother Igor died six days later, on Monday, at the Georges-Pompidou hospital in Paris. Advertisement According to Le Monde, the two brothers were admitted into the hospital on Dec. 15. Even though their relatives didnt reveal their cause of death, their lawyer, Edouard de Lamaze, confirmed that Igor had of course died of COVID-19. [ Plastic surgery gone horribly wrong: Formerly hunky French actors now resemble Jocelyn Wildenstein ] They were reportedly never vaccinated against coronavirus. Advertisement French TV hosts Igor and Grichka Bogdanov pose prior to take part in a lunch gathering French most read writers in 2010, on March 8, 2011 in Paris. (LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images) In peace and love, surrounded by his children and his family, Igor Bogdanoff left for the light on Monday January 3, 2022, his family wrote in a statement shared by his agent, according to French news station BFM TV. Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > Family friend Pierre-Jean Chalencon said that the brothers didnt seek treatment until it was too late, deciding that their symptoms were similar to the flu. People have said they were anti-vaxxers but they absolutely werent, Chalencon told BFM TV. Several friends told them to get themselves vaccinated but they felt because of their lifestyle and their [lack of] comorbidity, they werent at risk of COVID, he added. The brothers rose to fame in the 1980s, as the hosts of the popular science show Temps X. The show, which ran from 1979 and 1987 and was shot on a spaceship set, introduced series like The Twilight Zone, Star Trek and Doctor Who to French audiences. Years later, in the 1990s, the brothers dramatically changed their features, although they denied ever having had what people call cosmetic surgery. We are proud of having faces like extra-terrestrials, they once said, according to the BBC. More Information In other matters, the Police Jury voted to hire David OMary of Downsville as the new solid waste superintendent. He will replace Wardell Bowie, who retires Feb. 28. OMary brings 28 years of experience in landfill operations. His salary was set at $95,000. At least 14,000 New York City students and school staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of winter break on Dec. 23, including more than 4,000 over the past two days, according to newly-released Education Department data. The numbers which average to more than 1,000 new cases reported per day since schools went on break give a snapshot of the big challenges facing city schools as they return to in-person learning during a virus surge driven by the contagious omicron variant. Advertisement They include any positive test results of public school students and staff reported by administrators to the citys Situation Room responsible for monitoring school cases. Nearly 2,500 DOE students and staff got positive COVID-19 test results on Sunday, during a rush to get tested before returning to school, according to the data. Another 1,681 kids and teachers tested positive on Monday, the first day back. Advertisement John Marro, the dean of students at Public School 347, The American Sign Language and English Lower School, in Manhattan, takes students' temperatures as they arrive on the first day after the holiday break, Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. (Jennifer Peltz/AP) DOE officials said they are expecting higher case counts because of a recent rule change that allows positive test results from rapid tests to be counted in addition to PCR tests. In the days leading up to the winter break, between 800 and 900 new cases were reported each day, on average, according to the Education Department. Fewer students and staff tested positive on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, according to the DOE data, with only 277 and 216 positive cases registered on those days, respectively. City officials have not updated the online daily COVID-19 case count since Dec. 30. Education officials said the holdup is because of the switch in how cases are being counted, but that the website will be up and running again starting Wednesday. The DOE provided the case counts from the winter break after the Daily News inquired about data posted Tuesday to the state health department website showing 11,747 cases reported in New York City schools on Monday, Jan. 3. State officials didnt respond to requests for comment about how they tabulated the totals, but the website says the numbers are either shared by the parent/guardian of the student, notified by teachers and staff, or communicated by the local health department. Mayor Eric Adams visits Concourse Village Elementary School in the Bronx with Schools Chancellor David Banks on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office) City Education officials said that total is not complete and includes many of the cases that arose during the break. The DOE did not break down how many of the roughly 14,000 cases were students and how many were staff. But in the state health department tally, 6,776 cases are from students, and 4,971 are among staff. The Situation Room was open for much of the break and principals could report cases during the vacation. But some families only told schools about cases that cropped up during the break when classes restarted on Monday, sparking a flood of case reports to the Situation Room, according to multiple principals and DOE officials. Advertisement Students and parents are greeted as they return to Concourse Village Elementary School in the Bronx on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office) The effects of the COVID-19 surge were evident in schools across the city Monday, as many struggled with large numbers of staffers out sick or caring for sick family members, and student attendance was only 67%. Kids exposed to a classmate who is infected no longer automatically have to quarantine. They are instead given rapid tests, and can stay in school if they test negative. But children are still required to quarantine if they are exposed to a positive case outside of school. DOE spokeswoman Katie OHanlon said, this number represents every case called in by principals over the 11 day winter break, as schools remained vigilant in identifying cases, reporting them, and stopping the spread hand-in-hand with the Situation room. The daily number is comparable to our pre-break daily average. Moving forward our website will be updated to ensure the public has a clear view of the health and safety of our schools. Advertisement Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > (The College Fix) The University of Pittsburgh will require its students to shelter-in-place when they return to campus Jan. 8. Georgetown University will be virtual through Jan. 30. Yale University has pushed back the start of its spring semester a week to Jan. 25, and it will also start online. Princeton University has even issued something of a travel ban. The recent omicron surge has prompted college and university leaders to revamp their spring semester plans, citing the highly transmissible COVID variant as the reason. A University-wide shelter-in-place period will begin on Saturday, Jan. 8 on all campuses for students in University housing, the University of Pittsburgh told students. During the shelter-in-place period, students should only leave their rooms or apartments to attend classes, labs or clinicals in person. Fox News reports that at Princeton, Beginning January 8 through mid-February, all undergraduate students who have returned to campus will not be permitted to travel outside of Mercer County or Plainsboro Township for personal reasons, except in extraordinary circumstances. Georgetown President John DeGioia stated in his announcement that students can delay moving in if they want. Prior to Jan. 31, in-person gatherings will also be limited with events being held virtually or outdoors. As we continue to monitor the trajectory of the pandemic, we will share any further updates to our plans as soon as they become available, DeGioia stated. At Yale, administrators state that they hope to begin in-person classes by Feb. 7. NBC reports that Howard, Syracuse and several other universities have also all pushed back the start of the spring semester by roughly a week, adding that while some public health experts said omicron might result in fewer hospitalizations, especially in vaccinated people, the new variant is responsible for a sudden increase in infections. The measures come despite the fact that many colleges and universities have mandated not only COVID-19 vaccines, but also booster shots. Many also continue to require masks. For more of this story, visit The College Fix. The Aurora Police Major Crimes Homicide Unit is investigating after a woman, who had been kidnapped in Aurora, was found dead in Douglas County Friday. On December 16, 2021, the Aurora Police Major Crimes Unit was notified by the Fort Collins Police Department regarding a missing person that they had been investigating. Information obtained through their investigation led detectives to believe that the missing person, a 29-year-old woman, was last seen in Aurora. Investigators believe the woman may have been kidnapped on November 6th. The suspects, two men and a woman, were last seen driving a 2016 Chevrolet Malibu. Detectives then discovered that the Malibu was seen in Douglas County, near North State Highway 83 and Russellville Road, on November 7th. The vehicle has since been recovered and the three people believed to be involved are in custody. The two men and woman involved with the females disappearance were arrested by local police in Sheridan Wyoming on December 29 for unrelated charges. Detectives from the Aurora Police Major Crimes Unit drove up to Wyoming that day to question them. The next day, December 30, Aurora Police Detectives secured warrants for their arrest for first degree kidnapping. The suspects have been identified as: 43 year-old Shantel Edlund of Sheridan, Wyoming 39 year-old Case Childers of Casper Wyoming 23 year-old Leo VanBuskirk of Sheridan, Wyoming The three suspects, previously charged with First Degree Kidnapping, will most likely be charged with First Degree Murder. The three suspects currently remain in custody at the Sheridan County Detention Center. BOZEMAN, Mont. A staffing shortage of substitute teachers mixed with COVID concerns and full-time teachers calling out sick is affecting some of the biggest school districts in Montana. At the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year in September, human resource directors at some of the biggest school districts across the state from Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Missoula, Helena and Great Falls said they are still in search of filling positions. Still the most common needs at these school districts continues to be substitute teachers, paraprofessionals, school lunch workers, custodians and in some schools bus drivers. Both Bozeman Public Schools and Missoula County Public Schools offered signing bonuses and retention bonuses. Bozeman Public Schools Human Resource Director Pat Strauss said they paid out approximately 20 hiring bonuses through Dec. 31, 2021, for special education paraprofessionals, custodians, food service employees and substitute teachers. The Bozeman School District advertised $250 signing bonuses and an additional $250 bonus for successful employment after six months while substitute teachers would receive an additional $500 bonus for successful completion of 60 days of substitute work. On Jan. 3, 2022, after returning from holiday break, Strauss said they were still short about 12 paraprofessionals in the district and had approximately 30 teachers call out sick. Strauss said their ability to cover those absences is affected by a shortage of available substitutes as well and that they continue to hire and orient new substitute teachers weekly. Bozeman School District Interim Superintendent Casey Bertram sent a letter out to families at the start of holiday break removing the masking requirement at the high school grade band only after six weeks of declining COVID-19 transmission at the high school grade band. Bertram said in the letter, If we experience a large influx of active COVID-19 cases at the high school grade band over winter break the decision to rescind the masking requirement may be revisited. The BSD7 COVID Advisory Task Force will meet on Jan. 7 to discuss masking requirements at the middle school and elementary grade band. In September of 2021, Missoula County Public Schools Human Resource and Labor Relations Executive Director David Rott said they looked to hire around 30 open hourly positions with retention incentives of $250 for part-time and $500 for full-time workers. You can find a list of job needs from school districts in Billings, Butte, Great Falls and Helena at this link. All school districts said full-time teacher positions were not a concern and each say they can still function not being fully staffed, but the risk of burn out with current full-time teachers is a concern. When asked about challenges with hiring in their respective areas, both the Bozeman School District and Missoula County Public Schools gave examples of potential candidates for employment who couldnt afford to live within city limits and mentioned the challenge of competitive wages advertised by national fast-food chains and other business around town. Through tragedy and triumph, one Iowa family has been on both sides of the organ donor decision process After a weekend of muted celebrations, Americans face the uncertainty of a new year as the nation battles another coronavirus wave, and pictured, a child receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Miami, Florida, on Nov. 22, 2021. A Manhattan federal judge appeared inclined Tuesday to let a Jeffrey Epstein accusers sex abuse lawsuit against Prince Andrew proceed over the British royals objections. Advertisement Judge Lewis Kaplan forcefully pushed back against arguments by the duke of Yorks lawyer, Andrew Brettler, that Virginia Giuffres lawsuit should be tossed. Giuffre says Epstein lent her to Andrew for sex in the early 2000s when she was 17 years old. Kaplan was uninterested in Brettlers demands that Giuffre share more details about her allegations. Advertisement With all due respect, Mr. Brettler, that is not a dog thats going to hunt here, Kaplan said. Ill tell you that straight out, right now. Its not going to happen. Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew (Alec Tabak for New York Daily News; AP) He added that Andrew had the right to scrutinize Giuffres claims when they soon start sharing evidence. In one awkward moment, Kaplan quoted a specific line from Giuffres lawsuit. On one occasion, Prince Andrew sexually abused plaintiff in London at Maxwells home. During this encounter, Epstein, Maxwell, and Prince Andrew forced plaintiff, a child, to have sexual intercourse with Prince Andrew against her will, the judge read from Giuffres suit. I must assume the truth of that allegation at this stage of the litigation, Kaplan said. Brettler responded that the allegation was too vague. It was sexual intercourse. Involuntary sexual intercourse, Kaplan replied. There isnt any doubt about what that means.. Advertisement Prince Andrew smiling as he stands with his left arm around the waist of a young Virginia Giuffre. It is alleged to have been taken in early 2001. Ghislaine Maxwell stands in the background. The princes lawyer also argued that a $500,000 settlement in 2009 between Giuffre and Epstein shielded Andrew from her new lawsuit. Mr. Epstein would never want to have to be dragged back into a lawsuit where she would sue Prince Andrew later and Mr. Epstein would then have to be subpoenaed and to give testimony, argued Brettler. But Kaplan said the exact scope of the settlement, which includes broad language applying to other potential defendants, was open to interpretation. Giuffre has long maintained Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell trafficked her around the world for sexual abuse. Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > Maxwell, Epsteins chief enabler, was convicted last week of sex trafficking charges. She faces up to 65 years in prison when sentenced. Advertisement Epstein killed himself in jail in August 2019, a month after his arrest for trafficking minors. South Africa: Parliament arson suspect appears in court A 49-year-old suspect has appeared at the Cape Town Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning in connection with the fire that engulfed Parliament on Sunday until late last night. The suspect, Zandile Christmas Mafe from Khayelitsha, is facing five charges including housebreaking with intent to steal and theft, two counts of arson, possession of an explosive device and destruction of essential infrastructure. The case since been postponed to 11 January for the investigators to confirm certain information which includes the residential address of the accused and whether hes got assets, the National Prosecuting Authoritys Eric Ntabazalila told journalists outside court. In addition, Ntabazalila said the investigators have not been able to go to Parliament to assess the extent since the crime scene was still active. However, Mafes lawyer Luvuyo Godla believes that his client is being used as a scapegoat and denies that his client did not have his explosive when he was arrested. Meanwhile, Parliament has confirmed that the fire flare up that engulfed the roof of the National Assembly building on Monday afternoon has now been contained. The fight against the fire continued into midnight following yesterday afternoons re-emergence of the fire which was propelled by solid south-easterly winds and necessitated the deployment of heavy-duty aerial fire-fighting appliances to reinforce the existing capacity, the statement read on Tuesday. The spokesperson, Moloto Mothapo, said further damage has been caused, with the building that houses offices of Members of Parliament and support staff, being completely gutted and the roof around where the flare-up occurred destroyed. Parliament has commended the firefighters who displayed a courageous and brave fighting spirit to put down the fire by midnight. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-01-04. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Liqueur chocolates launched in Beijing People's Daily Online) 18:09, January 04, 2022 Chocolates filled with Baijiu (Chinese distilled spirit), the first of its kind in the world, was officially launched by Shanxi Xinghua Cun Fenjiu International Trade Limited Company at Huaxi Live, Wukesong, Haidian district in Beijing from Jan. 1 to 3, 2022. (Photo/Shanxi Xinghua Cun Fenjiu International Trade Limited Company) When the fragrant and sweet Shanxi Fenjiu was infused into the silky Danish chocolate, it stimulated the wonderful taste and brought more possibilities for the brand in a creative form, giving Chinese Baijiu a new path for internationalization. The press conference was held in Fenjiu-themed pop-up store. With the shape of a mysterious castle and fairy tale, the site was divided into 5 zones: Fenjiu culture international communication history with cartoon interactive zone, Fenjiu Liqueur Chocolate tasting zone, Fenjiu cocktail tasting zone, photo shooting zone and Fenjiu international brand exhibition zone. The whole scene was full of distinctive style, and a blend of history and modernity. It brought guests a unique visual impact while also allowing them to immerse themselves in the cross-international and cross-cultural charm of "Chinese Baijiu" meeting "Danish chocolate". (Photo/Shanxi Xinghua Cun Fenjiu International Trade Limited Company) Baijiu is a unique creation of Chinese people and a proud traditional culture in China. Shanxi Fenjiu, known as "the source of Chinese liquor, the origin of light aroma Baijiu, and the root of Chinese liquor culture", has 6,000 years of history, 1,500 years of history as famous liquor, 1300 years of distilled liquor history, 300 years of brand history and 100 years of international history. It is a representative of Chinese Baijiu culture and light aroma Baijiu. Light aroma Baijiu has the typical "international aroma", which is the most popular aroma type among Westerners. Over the years, Fenjiu has been playing out the advantage of "international aroma", from the export of products and brands, culture and standards, and continuously leading the internationalization process of Chinese Baijiu. Denmark is a famous hometown of fairy tales. Anthon Berg from Copenhagen, the "hometown of Andersen", has always been a royal boutique for European royalty and nobility. With an ancient history of 138 years, it is the birthplace of liqueur chocolate. Anthon Berg has a special making process for liqueur chocolate, which can maintain the purity and original flavor of the liqueur when it is directly put into chocolate. The meeting between Fenjiu and Anthon Berg, the origin of Danish liqueur chocolate, is a crossover cooperation between the two brands. With Fenjiu putting into Anthon Berg chocolate, the fusion of two different flavors represents the collision between eastern and Western cultures, which is innovative and gives new forms of Baijiu, showing a more unique and fresh taste. At the press conference, the media and participants gave high praise for the chocolate after tasting. Some in the industry commented that the joint cooperation between China and the West also conveyed the diversified innovation spirit, high-quality positioning and internationalization direction of Fenjiu. This kind of crossover does not mean simple trial in other industries, but to get spiritual resonance between brands, to achieve deeper resonance and to develop new boundaries of Baijiu culture. The general manager of Shanxi Xinghua Cun Fenjiu International Trade Limited Company said that the internationalization of Chinese Baijiu in the past is more oriented to the Chinese market. With the acceleration of internationalization, Baijiu needs to be truly oriented to the market of foreigners. The launch of such crossover brand products as "Fenjiu Liqueur Chocolate" is a sign that Fenjiu is really in building an international marketing channel. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) The Manhattan district attorney will not bring charges in connection with former Gov. Andrew Cuomos handling of nursing homes during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, a lawyer for the embattled ex-gov said Monday. I was contacted today by the head of the elder care unit from the Manhattan district attorneys office, who informed me they have closed its investigation involving the Executive Chamber and nursing homes, said Elkan Abramowitz, a lawyer for Cuomo. Advertisement I was told that after a thorough investigation as we have said all along there was no evidence to suggest that any laws were broken. FILE - New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo prepares to board a helicopter after announcing his resignation on Aug. 10, 2021, in New York. (Seth Wenig/AP) A source familiar with the investigation said the decision to not bring charges was made while former Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr. was still in office. Advertisement A spokesman for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, whose first day on the job was Monday, declined to comment. Cuomo declined to comment through a spokesman. The former governor faced intense scrutiny for a policy early in the pandemic requiring recovering COVID-19 patients be readmitted to nursing homes and long-term care facilities after being discharged from hospitals. Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > The policy meant that still-infectious people were being sent back into one of the most vulnerable populations in the state. Cuomo came under further fire after it emerged his office had undercounted the states nursing home death toll by as much as 50%. Cuomo officials conceded in February 2021 that the full count of deaths in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities exceeded 15,000. Previously, the state reported only about 8,500 nursing home deaths. FILE - In this file photo, Theresa Sari, left, and her daughter Leila Ali look at a protest-memorial wall for nursing home residents who died from COVID-19, including Sari's mother Maria Sachse, March 21, 2021, in New York. (Seth Wenig/AP) Former top aide to Cuomo, Melissa DeRosa, admitted to lawmakers that the state withheld numbers fearing political retaliation by then-President Donald Trump. In retrospect, we should have prioritized providing more information, Cuomo said as the scandal escalated. No excuses: I accept responsibility for that. I am in charge. I take responsibility. We should have provided more information faster. Federal prosecutors and Attorney General Letitia James are still conducting separate probes of Cuomos handling of nursing homes. Advertisement Cuomo resigned from office in August after an AG report substantiated claims from 11 women who said the governor sexually harassed and, in some cases, groped them. At Gateway Technical College, if you can dream it, you can make it real. Thats what Laura Valeriano says. Because in her case, its true. Laura dreamed of a better future, and Gateway helped make that a reality as she earned her Human Service Associate degree and entered a career field and future she looks forward to every day. Gateway has helped me to have a better life, says Laura. I have a better job and can help support my family, and it has helped to change my perspective on life. I am looking forward to my future. Laura works as a service coordinator at an area residential facility, assisting seniors, low-income people and those with disabilities. She helps them find resources, which will allow them to live independently, as well as help them manage their finances. She uses her Gateway training and experiences to benefit her clients every day, fueled by instructors who taught her real-world skills. Our instructors told us the truth about the field we had classes and lectures, but they would also take time to tell you about real-life experiences, she said. They would tell us, This is what you will experience out there in your career and they were right. There are times when I am handling a situation and recall what our instructors told us about it and how to handle it. Thats helped me in my career. Lauras dream of gaining a degree and career are firmly rooted at Gateway, even before she began working on her associate degree. She began at the college by taking courses in the ELL program to learn English and the GED program to earn a United States-recognized high school diploma and replace the one shed earned in another country. After that, college staff members encouraged her to continue her education and attain her career goals. I figured why not? I liked Gateway, it was affordable, I was happy with the ELL program, I wanted a career and decided to go for it. I had decided that, financially, I didnt want to be where we were at for the rest of my life. And, I didnt want that for my kids, too. My ambition, then, was to go to college. The Human Service Associate program was a natural fit because of the care Laura gave to one of her children who has special needs. I started in this program for my child. I started to understand more about disabilities the more I tried to help him incorporate into society. I said I already know some of the basics and if I can help him, why couldnt I help others? I like that I can help people who are struggling. When people start to struggle too much, they begin to believe thats OK. And its not, said Laura. When they have a crisis, they dont know where to turn to get help, and thats when I am there, to help them. I can connect them with the resources they need. I like what I do very much. The support Gateway provides its students is a foundation of the college, Laura said. I was a mother of two kids at that time and the flexibility of the courses and the support really helped me. Honestly, there was a point where I was unsure if I could do this, but Gateway encouraged me to stay, and I am glad I did. Laura was also helped by two Gateway Technical College Foundation scholarships, the Gateway Centennial Scholarship and the Atty. Joseph Jr. and Kathy Madrigrano Scholarship. A video of Laura speaking at a Foundation event can be found here: https://bit.ly/LauraValeriano The start of the new year included snow blanketing the Lake Geneva area, along with other areas of southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. A snow emergency was called in the City of Lake Geneva, Dec. 31 in anticipation of about 12 inches of snow hitting the area, Jan. 1. The Lake Geneva area received between four to five inches of snow throughout the weekend, according to the National Weather Service. Police Chief Michael Rasmussen said the snow emergency initially was called for 1 p.m. then rescheduled for 5 p.m. after the public works department learned that heavier snow would not be falling until late afternoon, Jan. 1, and because they felt rescheduling the snow emergency to 5 p.m. would be less impactful to the downtown businesses. The snow emergency was cancelled during the morning hours of Jan. 2. They were worried that there was originally going to be six to 12 inches, Rasmussen said. To adequately clear the downtown and to keep people safe, it was determined to call a snow emergency so crews could be able to keep up with the snow and keep the roads safe. Rasmussen said the snow emergency was declared by Mayor Charlene Klein, then he signed off on the emergency declaration after he and Klein met with the public works department. Everyone at the city, we all talk about it and determine the safest cause of action, Rasmussen said. Klein said she and city staff began monitoring the weather forecast and snow predictions Dec. 31. She said she met with the public works staff to determine if a snow emergency should be declared. We always consult with them, Klein said of the the public works department. Theyre the guys that are doing the snow removal. During a snow emergency, vehicles are not allowed to be parked on city streets. Vehicles must be parked in a driveway or in a municipal parking lot in the downtown area. The snow emergency basically gets all the cars off the road and out of the downtown, so we can plow the downtown, Rasmussen said. Klein said the purpose of a snow emergency is to help make the roads safe for motorists and to make it easier for city crews to plow the snow. Its all about public safety. Thats our first priority, Klein said. We want to keep the public safe and have safe streets for them to drive on, plus have the streets cleared for our emergency vehicles. Spyro Condos, president of the Business Improvement District Board, said he feels the snow emergency should have been called for 2 a.m., Jan. 2 to allow people to park in the downtown area to shop in the businesses while the roads were being cleared. You just dont interfere with businesses, Condos said. I know were concerned about safety, but thats what your salt trucks are doing. Theyre out there plowing the streets and dumping salt. You dont need to worry about the areas where cars are parked, because the snow is falling on the cars. Condos, who owns Speedos Harborside Cafe, said he closed his business at 5 p.m. because of the snow emergency and other downtown businesses closed, as well. At least they were able to change from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., but that news killed the businesses downtown, Condos said. We had to close at 5 oclock. We had quite a few people, and I had to shoo them out of here and we had to close. Condos said the Business Improvement District Board plans to discuss the snow emergency issue during their Jan. 12 meeting, which will be held 9 a.m. at Harbor Shores on Lake Geneva, 300 Wrigley Drive. Public Works Director Tom Earle said having a snow emergency makes it easier for his crews to plow the city streets. He said his crews plow the municipal parking lots first, so people visiting the downtown area can park their vehicles in them. The calling of a snow emergency allows DPW to clear the stalls downtown as well, which is the biggest complaint we get, Earle said. Without it, there are cars everywhere and we cannot get the stalls clear. Klein said she had talked with several downtown business owners who were pleased with how the snow removal process was handled. They were happy we had the snow out of the parking lots, so on Sunday their customers had a safe, clear space to park, she said. Klein said sometimes it is difficult to determine whether a snow emergency should be called because weather patterns can change. Timing is everything with a snowstorm, Klein said. It could have gone the other way, and we could have gotten 12 inches. I know some people said it was only four inches, but I know there were some areas that got seven inches, and thats pretty significant. Rasmussen said he feels the snow emergency was called for the appropriate time and that city crews did a good job removing the snow. The plows were out at the right time, and they got everything handled, Rasmussen said. I think the street department did a good job with keeping the roads cleared. Condos said, despite the snow emergency being called for 5 p.m., he is pleased with how the streets were cleared in the downtown area. They did a great job of removing the snow. It was excellent, Condos said. I would have just had them do it at 2 a.m. instead of dinnertime. Klein said she hopes she does not have to declare too many more snow emergencies this winter. Hopefully, we wont have to call too many this winter, Klein said. We got through all of December until the end of the year. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. More than 4,100 Dane County residents tested positive for COVID-19 over the New Years weekend as the virus has now infected more than one in six Wisconsinites, according to public health officials. Another 20 people were hospitalized with the virus, although the Madison and Dane County public health department has not reported any deaths attributed to COVID-19 since Dec. 23, according to state data. Dane Countys seven-day average case count has now topped 995, more than twice what it was during the previous peak in November 2020, when vaccines were not yet available. But the average weekly number of people hospitalized was only about three-quarters of what it was during that previous wave. The state confirmed 17,244 new cases between Thursday and Monday, pushing the cumulative number of cases to more than 1 million. The 7-day average for the state was the highest since Nov. 24, 2020. Morgan Finke, a spokesperson for the city-county health department, said in spite of high vaccination rates, nearly 2% of Dane County residents have tested positive in the past two weeks with the emergence of the omicron variant. Omicron is incredibly effective at spreading, Finke said. A county order requiring indoor face coverings remains in effect until Feb. 1, but health officials also advise avoiding crowded spaces, staying home when sick, testing and vaccinations. Hospital leaders have warned the surge, along with a demand for regular care, is straining facilities and staff. While early data suggest the omicron variant typically causes less severe illness than other strains, any rise in case levels could result in more hospitalizations, especially among people who arent vaccinated, health officials say. Finke said officials are hopeful the county will see fewer hospitalizations with the current wave, either because of the virus properties or high levels of immunization. But she warned that hospitalization numbers are a lagging indicator and the sheer number of individuals being diagnosed with COVID right now may result in more hospitalizations regardless of how severe omicron may or may not be. With nearly one out of every 100 people infected, Dane Countys caseload is considered critically high but stable according to data from the state Department of Health Services. Over the past week an all-time high 16% of tests administered came back positive, a sign that the supply of tests may not be keeping up with demand. Thats the highest positivity rate since the start of the pandemic nearly two years ago. COVID-19 has claimed 383 Dane County residents so far. The statewide death toll stood at 10,075, with six new deaths reported Monday by the state health department. The virus continues to infect Black, Hispanic and Native American people at rates more than double that for white people. The infection rate is lowest among Asian people. Dane County, where 76% of residents are considered fully immunized and almost 81% have received at least one dose of the vaccine, continues to lead the state in vaccination rates. Statewide, just over 58% of the population is fully vaccinated. According to state health officials, unvaccinated people are five times more likely to contract COVID-19 and 12 times more likely to die from it. In the not-so-distant future, when youre getting your yearly head-to-toe physical from your doctor, a blood test that detects several types of cancer might be part of your checkup. Besides saying ah and having your vital signs and reflexes examined, your primary care physician may also send you to a nearby lab for a quick screening as virtually every cancer sheds into the bloodstream, said David Harding, vice president of Thrive Earlier Detection Corp. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, health care company was acquired by Madison biomedical giant Exact Sciences for $2 billion earlier this year. Thats partly because Thrives licensed cancer screening blood test, based on Johns Hopkins research, demonstrated in a study it could pick up 10 types of cancer in 26 women. But Exact Sciences wanted to make the test even more powerful. The Madison company sought to combine its method for evaluating DNA "methylation" a process that looks for changes to human DNA strand patterns with Thrives. Thrives approach targets abnormal mutations and proteins. Now, as part of a larger research effort to determine the safety and efficacy of the new liquid biopsy test, Harding said Exact Sciences has joined forces with Pennsylvania-based hospital Jefferson Health to simulate the screening in a real-world setting. We want to survey patients who would normally come in and present for primary care visits to understand their intentions and even their fears to have a test like this, Harding said, adding the test is undergoing separate clinical studies as well. (Jefferson Health) has a terrific primary care network ... a diverse set of (patient) populations that they serve. The hospital services more than 125,000 adults who are eligible for cancer screening. The target population is asymptomatic (cancer) patients, Harding explained. For doctors, Harding said, the partnership provides an opportunity to determine how to best recommend the test during a patient visit and how to guide a patient through a diagnosis if the test detects something abnormal. Harding declined to share a timeline for the survey process, but said that both Exact Sciences and Jefferson Health plan to subsequently participate in a Food and Drug Administration study that determines how well the test works. Thats expected to happen in the back half of 2022, he said, with both parties slated to publish study results soon after. In September 2020, Exact Sciences CEO Kevin Conroy unveiled preliminary data relating to the effectiveness of the blood-based test. The biomedical giant, along with the Mayo Clinic, has researched what are called biomarkers for various cancers in blood for nearly a decade. The early study found that the screening could identify between 83-87% of liver, lung, ovarian, pancreatic or stomach cancer cases with a false positive rate of 5%. The broad intent is to catch cancer at the earliest stage possible, Harding said, adding that the test is not meant to replace any cancer-detection methods currently on the market. There are three reasons we see so many red American barns. Its traditional, its practical and the color looks good. But there's more to it than that. New Delhi, Jan 4 (PTI) The All India Muslim Personal Law Board Tuesday asked Muslim students not to participate in 'Surya Namaskar' exercise, claiming it is a form of "sun worship" which is not allowed in their religion. It also demanded the government withdraw an order issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in this regard. Also Read | Telangana: Six Students Suspended From Government Medical College Suryapet for Ragging. On December 29, the UGC had issued a notice requesting all higher educational institutes to have their students perform the Surya Namaskar' exercise as part of the celebrations of the country's 75th year of independence. In an official statement, the AIMPLB Tuesday said India is a secular country where many religions are practised. "Sun worship is not allowed in Islam and other minority religions. The government should withdraw the order while respecting the secular values enshrined in the Constitution," it said. Also Read | Maharashtra Reports 18,466 Fresh COVID-19 Infections, 20 Deaths in Past 24 Hours; Records 75 New Omicron Cases. If the government wishes to organise any programme in schools it should organise something related to patriotic music, it said. The statement said the government should instead focus on issues like unemployment, price rise and its "failure" to protect the country's borders. "Muslim students are not allowed to participate in the programme," read the AIMPLB statement. Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh reacted to the statement, advising the AIMPLB to desist from "politics" and alleging it appears the Board's stand is aimed at benefiting the Congress in election. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi [India], January 4 (ANI): Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Tuesday said that no violation of COVID-19 protocols had taken place during the protest by Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and he was arrested supporting the protest of the Telangana Government Teacher Association in the State. Sanjay Kumar was arrested for violating COVID-19 protocols while holding a protest in Karimnagar. He, along with five others, was booked under sections 188, 332, 333, 149, 147 of the IPC and the Disaster Management Act. Also Read | Jammu and Kashmir: Gunfight Breaks Out Between Terrorists and Security Forces in Kulgam. Reddy said, "No violation of COVID-19 protocols has taken place during the protest. Sanjay Kumar was protesting against the Telangana government's anti-people policy. He was supporting the protest of the Telangana Government Teacher Association in the state. And that is the reason he was arrested." He further said, "The state government has adopted and implemented anti-people policies in Telangana and the voters of the state will teach them a lesson." Also Read | Agra: Offline Sale of Tickets For Taj Mahal Stopped in View of Rising COVID-19 Cases. On Monday, BJP chief JP Nadda called the arrest of Kumar the "murder of democracy". "The arrest of Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay is highly condemnable and amounts to the murder of democracy. He was peacefully staging a protest following all COVID protocols in his office. Police forcibly entered his office & manhandled him," said Nadda. "K Chandrashekhar Rao government has gone mad seeing BJP's victory in recent bypolls and the support that our party is receiving in the state. We will take all legal and democratic recourse against the police action," he added. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], January 4 (ANI): In the wake of increasing COVID-19 cases and the rising threat from the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the Kerala government on Tuesday restricted the number of attendees to 75 in weddings, funerals, social, political and cultural programmes in closed spaces while allowing 150 persons in open spaces. The decision was taken in a high-level meeting convened by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today. Also Read | Gujarat: 15-Year-Old Girl Dies By Suicide After Being Scolded By Father Over Tuition Fees Money. Kerala reported 3,640 new cases, 30 deaths, 2363 recoveries in the last 24 hours, informed the state government. Active cases in the state stand at 20,180. Also Read | OmiSure: Tata Medical and Diagnostics Develops Kit To Detect Omicron COVID-19 Variant in RT-PCR Tests. After 423 deaths were added to the death tally as per the new guidelines of the Central government, the total number of deaths in Kerala from COVID-19 infection went up to 48,637 said Kerala govt in an official statement. Kerala has reported a total of 185 Omicron cases so far, according to the Union Health Ministry data. As far as the COVID-19 vaccination in the state is concerned, a total of 15.43 lakh children are eligible in the age group of 15 to 18 years for the COVID-19 vaccination, out of which, two per cent of beneficiaries have been given vaccination. (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, Jan 4 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that a "delinquent officer" has no absolute right to be represented in departmental proceedings through the agent of his choice and that it can be restricted by the employer. A bench of justices MR Shah and Sanjiv Khanna, which set aside an order of the Rajasthan High Court, said that the High Court has committed an error in permitting the respondent officer of a bank, who was accused of committing irregularities, to be represented in a departmental inquiry through an ex-employee. Also Read | Gujarat: 15-Year-Old Girl Dies By Suicide After Being Scolded By Father Over Tuition Fees Money. The top court passed the verdict on an appeal of Rajasthan Marudhara Gramin Bank (RMGB) against the division bench order of the High Court by which it had dismissed the appeal of the bank against the single judge bench order. The apex court said that the view taken by the single judge bench and confirmed by the division bench is unsustainable. Also Read | OmiSure: Tata Medical and Diagnostics Develops Kit To Detect Omicron COVID-19 Variant in RT-PCR Tests. Accordingly, the present appeal is allowed and the impugned judgment and order passed by the single judge confirmed by the division bench permitting the respondent delinquent officer to be represented in the departmental proceedings through ex-employee of the bank is hereby quashed and set aside, it said. The bench said, "It is observed that there is no absolute right in favour of the delinquent officer's to be represented in the departmental proceedings through the agent of his choice and the same can be restricted by the employer." The High Court had passed the order on a plea of one Ramesh Chandra Meena who, working as a cashier-cum-clerk, is alleged to have committed certain irregularities amounting to misconduct. A show-cause notice was issued by the Bank dated April 24, 2019 whereby it was stated that while working at Rawastar Branch, he had committed irregularities like while granting loans to farmers/villagers under the loan scheme and he did not take adequate precautions and without written mandates of borrowers, he transferred the loan amount in favour of another person and had thus committed misconduct. Meena, while denying the charges, informed the Enquiry Officer that he may be allowed to defend himself in the inquiry through a legal practitioner. Keeping in view the restrictions under the provision of Rajasthan Marudhara Gramin Bank (Officers and Employees) Service Regulation, 2010, on the engagement of legal practitioner during the inquiry, his request permitting him to defend himself through a legal practitioner was declined by the Enquiry Officer. Subsequently, the matter was taken by Meena to the High Court, which directed the Bank to permit him to be represented through a retired officer of the Bank in the disciplinary proceedings. The top court bench said, As a matter of right in each and every case, irrespective of whether charges are severe and complex in nature or not, the employee as a matter of right cannot pray that he may be permitted to represent through the agent of his choice. It said that applying law laid down by this court in the earlier decisions to the facts of the case on hand, the respondent employee has no absolute right to avail the services by ex-employee of the Bank as his Defence Representative (DR) in the departmental proceedings. It said that the Regulations put specific restrictions on engagement of a legal practitioner and it provides that for the purpose of an enquiry under Regulation, 2010, the Officer or Employee shall not engage a legal practitioner without prior permission of the competent authority. The bench said that the High Court has not appreciated the effect of the Handbook, which has been approved by the Board of Directors and it is applicable to all the employees of the Bank and its clause with respect to the defence representative specifically provides that DR should be serving official/ employee from the Bank. As per the Bank there is a justification also to permit the delinquent officer to be represented in the departmental proceedings through serving official/ employee from the Bank only. "The Bank has justified its action of not permitting ex-employee of the Bank as DR and according to the Bank, the exemployee who themselves may have been subject of a disciplinary enquiry/ charge sheet/dismissed from service, it said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) An autistic teenager ran away from his Brooklyn home Sunday, and police are asking the publics help finding him. Terell Gray, 13, was last seen at his home on McKinley Ave. near Crescent St. in Cypress Hills about 3:30 a.m. The youngster, who police sources describe as high-functioning and verbal, went missing after an argument over homework. Advertisement Terell Gray, 13. (DCPI) The teen also ran away from home last month, sources said. Police describe the youngster as 5-feet-6 and about 125 pounds, with a thin build, medium complexion, black hair and brown eyes. Cops believe hes wearing a a black hooded sweatshirt with the logo for the Brownsville Collaborative Middle School on it, red sneakers and a camouflage backpack. Advertisement Police ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. Srinagar, Jan 4 (PTI) An encounter broke out between militants and security forces in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, police said. Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Okay village of Kulgam district which turned into an encounter, a police official said. Also Read | Lucknow Shocker: Man Throws His Wife From 8th Floor of the Building Over Marital Dispute. He said there were no reports of any casualties so far on either side. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 4 (ANI): Mumbai Police on Tuesday arrested a 21-year-old engineering student after questioning him for hours in connection with the 'Bulli Bai' app case, informed Police. The arrested engineering student was earlier detained by Mumbai Police in Bengaluru and was brought to Mumbai for questioning. Also Read | Peacemaker: Streaming Date and Time, Where to Watch John Cena, James Gunns Upcoming DC Show Online!. "Deputy Commissioner of Police of Mumbai Police Cyber Cell himself questioned the accused which went on for almost 10 hours," said a Police official. After questioning the first suspect for hours, Police on Tuesday detained one more suspect in connection with the case. Also Read | Weekend Curfew Imposed in Delhi Amid Rising COVID-19 Cases; Buses, Metro to Run at Full Seating Capacity. Mumbai Police on Monday filed a first information report (FIR) against unknown persons based on complaints that doctored photographs of women were uploaded for auction on the 'Bulli Bai' application hosted on the GitHub platform. On Sunday, West Mumbai Cyber Police station registered a case against the 'Bulli Bai' app developers and Twitter handles that promoted the app. The case was registered against the unknown culprits under sections 153(A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion etc), 153(B) (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 295(A) (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), 354D (stalking), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 500 (criminal defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bhubaneswar, Jan 4 (PTI) Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Tuesday sanctioned Rs 78.76 lakh from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund(CMRF) to support 13 institutions run by Missionaries of Charity (MoC) in the state, a statement by the Chief Minister's Office said. Also Read | Gujarat: 15-Year-Old Girl Dies By Suicide After Being Scolded By Father Over Tuition Fees Money. Patnaik has also asked district collectors to remain in touch with the institutions run by MoC and that the government will fund them from CMRF. Also Read | Delhi Reports 5,481 Fresh COVID-19 Cases, 3 Deaths in Past 24 Hours; Sources Say 'Onset of Third Wave'. Based on the requests of collectors, the Chief Minister has sanctioned assistance for 13 institutions run by MoC spread over 8 districts. More than 900 inmates in various leprosy homes and orphanages in the state will be benefited by this decision, the CMO statement said. On December 30 Patnaik had directed all the collectors to ensure that no inmate of the institutions run by the MoC suffer, specially from food security and health related issues. The application by Missionaries of Charity, which was set up by Mother Teresa, for renewal of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) registration was refused on December 25 for not meeting eligibility conditions as some adverse inputs were received. In a statement the MHA had said that it did not freeze any account of the MoC but State Bank of India has informed that the organisation itself sent a request to the bank to freeze its accounts. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi [India], January 4 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate multiple developmental projects during his visit to the states of Manipur and Tripura on Tuesday. At around 11 AM, Prime Minister will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of 22 developmental projects worth over Rs 4,800 crore in Imphal. Thereafter, at around 2 PM, in Agartala, he will inaugurate the New Integrated Terminal Building at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport and will also launch two key development initiatives, the Prime Minister's office informed on January 2. Also Read | Maharashtra Reports 12,160 COVID-19 Cases, Including 68 Omicron Infections In A Day. "In Manipur, the Prime Minister will inaugurate 13 Projects worth around Rs 1,850 crores and lay the foundation stone of nine projects worth around Rs 2,950 crore," the official release said. In line with the countrywide projects to improve connectivity, the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of the construction of five National Highway Projects to be built at a cost of more than Rs 1700 crore. Another important infrastructure that will enhance seamless year-round connectivity to Silchar from Imphal and reduce traffic congestion, is the construction of Steel Bridge built over Barak River on NH-37 built at a cost of over Rs 75 crore. This Steel Bridge will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister during the programme. Also Read | COVID-19 Vaccination for Children: Over 1.5 Lakh Teenagers Aged 15-18 Years Administered Vaccine Doses in Uttar Pradesh. Prime Minister will also dedicate, to the people of Manipur, 2,387 mobile towers built at a cost of around Rs 1100 crores, the official release said. The projects being inaugurated by the Prime Minister include the Rs 280 crore worth 'Water Transmission system of Thoubal Multi-purpose project', which will provide drinking water supply to the Imphal city; the Water Supply Scheme project by Water Conservation, for Tamenglong Headquarters built at the cost of Rs 65 crore, to provide safe drinking water to residents of ten habitations of Tamenglong district; and the 'Augmentation of Senapati District Headquarter Water Supply Scheme' built at a cost of Rs 51 crore to provide a regular water supply to the residents of the area. In an effort to strengthen the health sector in the state, Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of 'State of the Art Cancer Hospital' in Imphal worth around Rs 160 crore on Purchasing power parity (PPP) basis. Further, to boost the COVID related infrastructure in the State, Prime Minister will inaugurate '200 Bedded COVID Hospital at Kiyamgei' which has been set up at a cost of about Rs 37 crore in collaboration with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the release added. Prime Minister will inaugurate three projects of the Imphal Smart City Mission, developed at a cost of more than Rs 170 crore, including the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC)', 'Development of Western Riverfront on Imphal River (Phase I)' and 'Development of Mall Road at Thangal Bazar (Phase I)'. The Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of 'Centre for Invention, Innovation, Incubation and Training (CIIIT)' to be built in the state at a cost of about Rs 200 crore. This project is the biggest PPP initiative in the State. Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for the construction of Manipur Institute of Performing Arts at Gurgaon, Haryana. The institute will be built at a cost of more than Rs 240 crore. In line with the mantra of 'Sabka Saath-Sabka Vikas-Sabka Vishwas', Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of 72 Projects worth more than Rs 130 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram. To strengthen the handloom industry in the State, Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of two projects worth Rs 36 crore namely, 'Mega Handloom Cluster' at NongpokKakching in Imphal East District, which will benefit about 17,000 weavers in Imphal East District and 'Craft and Handloom village' in Moirang. Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for the construction of Government Residential Quarters at New Check on to be built at a cost of around Rs 390 crore. He will also lay the foundation stone of a ropeway project at IbudhouMarjing, Imphal East. During his visit to Tripura, Prime Minister will inaugurate the New Integrated Terminal Building of Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) Airport and launch key initiatives: Mukhyamantri Tripura Gram Samriddhi Yojana and Project Mission 100 of Vidyajyoti Schools. The New Integrated Terminal Building of Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport is built at a cost of about Rs 450 crore. Project Mission 100 of Vidyajyoti Schools is aimed to improve the quality of education in the state by converting 100 existing High/Higher secondary schools to Vidyajyoti Schools with state of art facilities and quality education. The project will cover about 1.2 lakh students from Nursery to class XII and will cost around Rs 500 crores in the next three years. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bathinda (Punjab) [India], January 4 (ANI): A warden of Bathinda Central Jail has been booked and arrested on the charge of possession of 15 grams of heroin, police informed on Tuesday. The police reckon that the warden was supplying heroin to the jail inmates. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh Shocker: 72-Year-Old Farmer Shot Dead by Son and Grandson Over Property Dispute in Meerut. Further details are awaited. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Washington [US], January 4 (ANI): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed with the representatives of the Bucharest Nine group Russia's destabilizing military buildup near the Ukrainian border and the need for a NATO stance for collective defense, said State Department spokesperson Ned Price in a statement on Monday (local time). "The Secretary and Foreign Ministers discussed Russia's destabilizing military buildup along Ukraine's border; the need for a united, ready, and resolute NATO stance for the collective defense of Allies; and transatlantic cooperation on issues of shared concern," Price said. Also Read | Imran Khan's Ex-Wife Reham Khan Narrowly Escapes Gun Attack in Islamabad. Blinken also stressed the United States' commitment to close consultations and coordination with allies and partners as they work toward de-escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. "The Secretary stressed the U.S. commitment to continued close consultation and coordination with all of our Transatlantic Allies and partners as we work toward de-escalation through deterrence, defense, and dialogue," he said in the statement. Also Read | Third COVID-19 Vaccine Dose Can Boost Effectiveness Against Omicron to 88%, UK Studies Show. According to US State Department statement, the Bucharest Nine group - composed of NATO's eastern flank allies, including Hungary, Poland and Romania. They also discussed with Blinken their solidarity with Lithuania in the face of escalating tensions with China after allowing Taiwan to open a representative office there, Price said. Yesterday, US President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a call that the United States and its allies will "respond decisively" if Russia invades Ukraine. In a White House statement, President Biden expressed support for diplomatic efforts, starting next week with the bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue, at NATO through the NATO-Russia Council, and at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The call comes days before Russian and US officials are set to meet in person in Geneva on January 10 amid a Russian military buildup on the Ukraine border and ongoing tensions. The US and NATO have voiced concerns over Russia's alleged preparations for invading Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly denied the accusations, saying that Russia has the right to relocate the troops within its territory at its own discretion, while NATO's military activity near Russian borders poses a threat to its security. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Washington [US], January 4 (ANI): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu coordination efforts regarding the threat of Russian escalation in Ukraine as well as the normalization process with Armenia, said State Department spokesperson Ned Price in a statement on Monday (local time). "Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Cavusoglu discussed the importance of continued coordination regarding the threat of Russian escalation in Ukraine. They also discussed issues related to the Horn of Africa, Turkey's appointment of a Special Envoy to discuss the process of normalization with Armenia," Price said. Also Read | Imran Khan's Ex-Wife Reham Khan Narrowly Escapes Gun Attack in Islamabad. The two diplomats also discussed ways to deepen bilateral cooperation as NATO allies in areas of mutual concern, he added in the statement issued by US State Department. Yesterday, US President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a call that the United States and its allies will "respond decisively" if Russia invades Ukraine. Also Read | Third COVID-19 Vaccine Dose Can Boost Effectiveness Against Omicron to 88%, UK Studies Show. In a White House statement, President Biden expressed support for diplomatic efforts, starting next week with the bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue, at NATO through the NATO-Russia Council, and at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The call comes days before Russian and US officials are set to meet in person in Geneva on January 10 amid a Russian military buildup on the Ukraine border and ongoing tensions. The US and NATO have voiced concerns over Russia's alleged preparations for invading Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly denied the accusations, saying that Russia has the right to relocate the troops within its territory at its own discretion, while NATO's military activity near Russian borders poses a threat to its security. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Brasilia, Jan 3 (AP) Passengers on the cruise ship MSC Preziosa had to wait more than six hours to disembark at Rio de Janeiro Sunday due to an inspection by Brazilian health authorities that confirmed 28 cases of COVID-19 on board -- 26 passengers and two crew members. Rio's health secretariat said in a statement that among those who tested positive, people living in Rio or the nearby region can quarantine themselves at home. Others must first isolate in hotels, and there was no information provided about who would pay for the costs. Also Read | US CDC Mulling COVID-19 Test Requirement for Asymptomatic, Says Disease Expert Dr Anthony Fauci. After the inspection, MSC Preziosa was authorised by federal health regulator Anvisa to continue operating. Other passengers were waiting to embark for Bahia. The ship had set out from the Brazilian resort of Buzios. In a statement to the Associated Press, MSC said it applies protocols that are stricter and stronger than in any other travel industry, adding that only vaccinated people are allowed to board, and that it conducts regular tests on passengers and crew members. Also Read | Afghanistan Pilots, Resettled in US, Fear for Family They Had To Leave Behind. The company also said that when identified, positive cases are isolated in cabins with balconies and disembarked at the first ship stop. Cases identified on ships are only a small fraction of those identified on land, the company said. It declined to say how many passengers were on board or what their nationalities were. Epidemiologist Denise Garrett, who is also vice president of Brazil's Sabin Vaccine Institute, said the atmosphere on cruise ships is very conducive to transmission, especially now with omicron. There are thousands of people sharing the same indoor air," she said. "It should be avoided at all costs. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week raised the risk of COVID-19 spreading on cruises to the maximum level, saying COVID-19 can spread easily among people on board, even among those fully vaccinated. Anvisa has issued a recommendation to Brazil's health ministry that the travel season be suspended. The ministry said in a note it will evaluate the appropriate measures together with the ministries related to the issue. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Colombo [Sri Lanka], January 4 (ANI): China is expanding its footprint in Sri Lanka, particularly in an area which it had hitherto neglected as it views the Island nation as a geostrategic hub for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the Indian Ocean. Policy Research Group, Poreg in an article, said that in order to expand its footprint in Sri Lanka, the Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Qi Zhenhong, visited the Tamil majority Northern Province just before Christmas. Also Read | UK Nurse Wakes Up From 28-Day COVID-19 Coma After Being Given Dose of Viagra: Reports. The Chinese embassy described the three-day tour of the area from December 15 as a familiarisation visit. "It was a study tour to the North that had been planned for long but could not be realised due to COVID-19 and other reasons". But the diplomatic observers, however, see the trip as part of China's strategy to expand its footprint in Sri Lanka, particularly in an area which it had hitherto neglected, reported Poreg. Also Read | Imran Khan's Ex-Wife Reham Khan Narrowly Escapes Gun Attack in Islamabad. Qi Zhenhong visited the landmark Jaffna Public Library and donated food packets to 'extend solidarity' to local communities in the fight against the ongoing Covid pandemic. The iconic library was destroyed in 1981 during insurgency and has been rebuilt with Indian assistance. The Ambassador also visited the Guilan Sea Cucumber Hatchery and farm in east Ariyalai, Jaffna, as well as the New Silkroad Foodstuff Factory in Thoddaveli, Mannar, as part of his 'study tour.' He also went to the Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, a temple near Jaffna and the Adam's Bridge, reported Poreg. This was the first visit by the Chinese Ambassador to the Northern Province, a region dominated by the Tamil community, an ethnic group that has traditionally been close to India. The research group also reported that there is also a growing view that the visit was a thinly veiled challenge to Indian influence in Northern Sri Lanka given its geographical proximity to India and cultural and linguistic affinity with Tamil Nadu. However, the Sri Lankan Tamils are reportedly opposed to Chinese investments in the North, as well as a joint venture between China and Sri Lanka to grow sea cucumbers in Jaffna for export to China. Anti-Covid vaccine Sinopharm is on offer from Beijing but it has few takers in the Lankan Tamil belt. They doubt its efficacy, says a local report. "People of Sri Lanka's north and east do not want China to have a footprint. We will oppose them. We don't want them here. All these years, they (the Chinese) didn't see us, nor did they think of the interest of the Tamil people. They have discriminated against us, even on official name boards... So, why the sudden interest in us now? Said Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, Batticaloa MP. Further, Tamils also support India because of the significant role it played in the rehabilitation of the war-ravaged Northern Province in 2009. The restoration of the Jaffna-Colombo railway link, the construction of 50,000 houses, and the upgrading of Kankesanthurai harbour are shining examples of the relief and rehabilitation programme India has undertaken. India continues to provide small business rehabilitation assistance in Jaffna, reported Poreg. Clearly, China is now strategizing a dual approach to win over both the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamilians. Ambassador Qi's visit and offer of assistance could be a strategic move to expand the Chinese footprint, targeting the fisheries community as the initial step, added Poreg. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Washington, Jan 4 (AP) Do at-home COVID-19 tests detect the omicron variant? Yes, but US health officials say early data suggests they may be less sensitive at picking it up. Government recommendations for using at-home tests haven't changed. People should continue to use them when a quick result is important. Also Read | Imran Khan's Ex-Wife Reham Khan Narrowly Escapes Gun Attack in Islamabad. The bottom line is the tests still detect COVID-19 whether it is delta or alpha or omicron, says Dr Emily Volk, president of the College of American Pathologists. Government scientists have been checking to make sure the rapid tests still work as each new variant comes along. And this week, the Food and Drug Administration said preliminary research indicates they detect omicron, but may have reduced sensitivity. The agency noted it's still studying how the tests perform with the variant, which was first detected in late November. Also Read | Third COVID-19 Vaccine Dose Can Boost Effectiveness Against Omicron to 88%, UK Studies Show. Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, said the FDA wanted to be totally transparent by noting the sensitivity might come down a bit, but that the tests remain important. There are many good uses for at-home tests, Volk says. Combined with vaccination, they can make you more comfortable about gathering with family and friends. If you've been exposed to a person who tested positive but you don't have symptoms, a rapid test five days later can give a good indication of whether you caught the virus. It can also help if you're not sure whether your runny nose or sore throat is COVID-19. But consider the context when looking at results. If you feel sick after going out to a nightclub in an area with high infection rates, for example, you should look at a negative result from an at-home test with a little more scepticism, Volk says. Following up with a PCR test is a good idea, she says. Those tests are more accurate and are done at testing sites and hospitals. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) In a time of rising mayhem on city streets, Manhattans new district attorney wants to dial back prosecution of minor crimes. Alvin Bragg, a former federal prosecutor sworn to office Jan. 1 as Manhattans first Black DA, told his staff not to bother with many cases of fare beating, resisting arrest and other nonviolent crimes a move toward fulfilling his campaign promise of criminal justice reform. Advertisement These policy changes not only will, in and of themselves, make us safer; they also will free up prosecutorial resources to focus on violent crime, Bragg wrote in a memo dated Tuesday. He promised that new initiatives and policies on guns, sex crimes, hate crimes, and other issues will be announced in the coming weeks Advertisement Law enforcement unions were skeptical, and feared the new policies would reduce cops legal tools to fight crime. Hes emboldening the criminal element to resist arrest and put New York City police officers and detectives in harms way, said Paul DiGiacomo, head of the NYPD Detectives Endowment Association. Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, said although he had serious concerns about Braggs proposals, he was willing to talk them through with the new DA. Police officers dont want to be sent out to enforce laws that the district attorneys wont prosecute. And there are already too many people who believe that they can commit crimes, resist arrest, interfere with police officers and face zero consequences, he said in a statement. FILE - Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (Craig Ruttle/AP) Mayor Adams, a former NYPD officer, seemed willing to give Bragg the benefit of the doubt, for now. I have a lot of respect for DA Bragg He has a real vision, Adams said at a press conference when asked about the new policies. Were all going to come together and wear one jersey: Team Safe New York. The mayor doubled down on that praise Tuesday night after a violent scene at a Brooklyn Dollar Tree store where an armed robber fired at two responding police officers and was shot by one of the cops during the struggle. One of Braggs instructions tells his prosecutors to pursue petit larceny charges, a misdemeanor, against suspects initially charged with armed robbery in a commercial setting, provided they didnt create a genuine risk of physical harm. Advertisement Listen, this guy was a bad guy, Adams said of the suspect at a Tuesday night news conference, He was a bad guy, and he did not care who he was going to hurt and it was clear if you look at the video, watching him walk in the store with a gun out. Innocent people were in the store. I want to stop the impetus of crime and stop the crime thats taking place right now, and I think that D.A. Bragg, who I think is a brilliant district attorney, I think hes gonna bring a new flavor, hes gonna deal with violent crimes, and were gonna sit there and were gonna be partners together to make it happen, Adams added. Braggs memo gives his assistants many specific instructions on how to handle parts of New Yorks penal code but he also cautioned that theyre not set in stone. My commitment to making incarceration a matter of last resort is immutable, he wrote before adding: The path to get there through these policies will be dynamic, and, not static. He said hed be speaking with his staff about the changes in the coming weeks. Braggs instructions to his assistants come with plenty of caveats. Advertisement Resisting arrest can only be charged if the person is resisting arrest for a serious crime and the charge of obstructing governmental administration can only be charged against people who are aiding someone who is resisting arrest. Bragg asked his staff not to pursue certain misdemeanor cases of trespassing so long as they dont involve stalking or crimes covered by laws meant to bar abuse by family members against each other. Paul DiGiacomo, head of the Detectives Endowment Association, which represents NYPD detectives. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) Burglary can only be prosecuted as having happened in someones home if suspects enter a place with direct access to a buildings residential space, the memo says. That means people who burglarize apartment building basements, or basements of commercial buildings with apartments on upper floors, would face burglary charges carrying lesser punishments. Bragg said that in prostitution cases, assistant district attorneys can still charge sex traffickers and pimps. And any of the misdemeanor charges on Braggs list can be prosecuted if they are part of an indictment that includes a felony charge. Aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle can only be charged if a motorist is also accused of involvement in dangerous driving or crashes that injure someone, Braggs memo says. It cant be used against people whose only offense is failing to pay fines. Advertisement Bragg said his policies will improve public safety and curb crime. Data, and my personal experiences, show that reserving incarceration for matters involving significant harm will make us safer, he wrote. Braggs new policies take further many practices of his predecessor, Cy Vance Jr. Vance in 2018 stopped prosecuting most fare beating cases. Also that year, Vance ordered a halt to prosecution of marijuana possession cases, except for those involving sales or cases that posed some public danger. He and other DAs around the city also sought dismissal of thousands of pot possession charges. Vance stopped prosecuting prostitution cases in 2016, and along with other city DAs sought dismissal of thousands of charges of loitering for the purpose of prostitution and providing massages without a license. Braggs memo appears to continue that policy. Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, said although he had serious concerns about Braggs proposals, he was willing to talk them through with the new DA. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) In his memo, Bragg advised assistant DAs that people who miss court dates wont automatically be assumed to be fleeing law enforcement, resulting in bench warrants. And prosecutors will consider undocumented peoples immigration status before filing charges. The office is also scaling up support for New Yorkers coming out of the system post-conviction. Bragg, a Harlem native, explained his desire for the new rules by citing personal experience and proximity to violence. Advertisement Before I was 21 years old, I had a gun pointed at me six times: three by police officers and three by people who were not police officers. I had a knife to my neck, a semi-automatic gun to my head, and a homicide victim on my doorstep, he wrote of his life growing up in New York City in the 1980s. In my adult life, I have posted bail for family, answered the knock of the warrant squad on my door in the early morning, and watched the challenges of a loved one who was living with me after returning from incarceration. Jullian Harris-Calvin of the Vera Institute of Justice lauded the moves by Bragg, who she said was poised to be a very different DA than his predecessor. Manhattan sends more New Yorkers to Rikers Island than any other borough, and DA Braggs directive hits directly at the heart of the problem, said Harris-Calvin. FILE - Fare beating was deemed to be a crime that would not be prosecuted if charged by police. (Richard Harbus for New York Daily News) Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > Bragg said keeping defendants out of jail before their case goes to trial will now become standard practice except for homicides and violent assaults including sex offenses, domestic violence cases, and cases involving public corruption, rackets, or major economic crimes. The new DA cites the crisis on Rikers Island, where 16 prisoners died in 2021 awaiting trial, among reasons for reserving pretrial detention only for severe cases. Advertisement Bragg also set out a new policy on sentencing requests, saying that the office would request a maximum of 20 years in prison for all crimes that do not have a life-in-prison option. He also noted the office would never seek life without parole in any case. And the new administration will strive to limit the number of young people tried as adults, which Bragg said evidence shows will lower recidivism rates and make communities safer. A source at the DAs office said the new framework intends to keep people safe from violent crime while challenging the notion that incarceration equals safety through data-backed approaches. The present system, that recycles people in and out for 30 days or three months and they come out worse, has been ineffective, the source said. With Audrey Nielsen and John Annese Washington, Jan 4 (AP) Some school systems around the US extended their holiday break Monday or switched back to online instruction because of the explosion in COVID-19 cases, while others pressed ahead with in-person classes amid a seemingly growing sense that Americans will have to learn to co-exist with the virus. Caught between pleas from teachers fearful of infection and parents who want their children in class, school districts in cities such as Milwaukee, New York, Detroit and beyond found themselves in a difficult position at the start of the second half of the academic year because of the super-contagious omicron variant. Also Read | Imran Khan's Ex-Wife Reham Khan Narrowly Escapes Gun Attack in Islamabad. New York City, home of the nation's largest public school system, reopened classrooms to roughly 1 million students with a stock of take-home COVID-19 test kits and plans to double the number of random tests done in schools. We are going to be safe, and we will be open to educate our children, newly sworn-in Mayor Eric Adams said on MSNBC. Also Read | Third COVID-19 Vaccine Dose Can Boost Effectiveness Against Omicron to 88%, UK Studies Show. New Yorker Trisha White said she feels the risk is the same for her 9-year-old son in or out of school and that being with classmates is far better for him than remote learning. He could get the virus outside of school, she said as she dropped the boy off. So what can you do? You know, I wouldn't blame the school system. They're trying their best. While the teachers union had asked the mayor to postpone in-person learning for a week, city officials have long said that mask requirements, testing and other safety measures mean that children are safe in school. The city also has a vaccination mandate for employees. New cases of COVID-19 in the city shot up from a daily average of about 17,000 in the week before the holidays to nearly 37,000 last week. New COVID-19 cases in the US have tripled in the past two weeks to over 400,000 a day, the highest level on record, amid a rush by many Americans to get tested. The outbreak is putting a heavy burden on vital sectors of the economy, including hospitals and the airline industry, which are seeing large numbers of employees infected. Public heath experts have said that eradicating the virus is unlikely and that the world will instead have to find a way to keep COVID-19 down to an acceptable level, in much the same way it does with the flu. Policymakers and health authorities have been mindful of the toll on the economy and the education system. Last week, after the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention cut the recommended COVID-19 isolation period from 10 days to five, CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said: We want to make sure there is a mechanism by which we can safely continue to keep society functioning while following the science. In another development Monday that could have a bearing on the ability of schools to stay open, the Food and Drug Administration gave the OK for Pfizer booster shots for children as young as 12. Boosters already are recommended for everyone 16 and older. Elsewhere around the country, Syracuse, New York, cancelled school Monday because of the increasing number of infections and a lack of substitute teachers to cover absences. In Wisconsin, the 75,000-student Milwaukee school system is going back to virtual instruction Tuesday because of rising cases among staff members. The district said it is aiming to return to in-person classes Jan 10. The Madison, Wisconsin, district also announced a shift to virtual learning, beginning Thursday. Detroit School Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told parents there will be no in-person or online learning through Wednesday because of a high rate of infection among employees that could lead to extensive spread of COVID-19 and excessive staff shortages. The Peoria, Illinois, district extended winter break by a week. Schools in Davenport, Iowa, surprised parents early Monday by announcing the cancellation of all classes for the day because of a shortage of school bus drivers that was blamed at least in part on COVID-19. Minnesota's educators braced for a spike in coronavirus cases as classrooms reopened as scheduled. What I've heard from superintendents is that they are nervous about omicron," said Bob Indihar, executive director of the Minnesota Rural Education Association. It seems to be the new normal that changes are going to happen and quarantines and people being out are just part of the process now. Districts are kind of taking it in stride. The president of the National Parents Union, a network of parent organisations, called the sudden switch back to virtual learning an abomination. Once again, parents are left scrambling at the last minute and, worse, far too many children are being deprived of an in-person learning experience, which is critical for their academic and social-emotional development, Keri Rodrigues said in a statement. Many businesses have likewise shelved or postponed return-to-work plans because of the surge. Thousands of airline flights have been cancelled in recent days in a mess attributed in part to staff shortages. Dawn Crawley, CEO of House Cleaning Heroes, a cleaning service based in Herndon, Virginia, said she had to cancel four of 20 cleaning jobs for Tuesday because four employees are sick three with COVID-19. The fear is it will run through the team" as well as customers, she said. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Colombo, Jan 4 (PTI) Sri Lanka has agreed to implement a joint project with India to redevelop the strategic World War II-era oil tank farm in the eastern port district of Trincomalee, the island nation's government announced here on Tuesday. The Lankan government said that after reviewing the three existing agreements with the Indian government regarding the strategic Trincomalee Oil Tank Complex, commonly known as the Trinco Oil Tank Farm, the two sides have reached an agreement to implement a joint development project. Also Read | 'Omicron Likely Plateaued in UK, but 15% Cases Reinfections', Says Scientist Neil Ferguson. The Cabinet has approved the proposal to allocate 24 and 14 oil tanks of Trincomalee Oil Tank Complex to Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and the local operators of the Indian Oil Company (LIOC) respectively while remaining 61 oil tanks are to be developed under Trinco Petroleum Terminal Pvt. Ltd, with shares of CPC (51%) & LIOC (49%). Joint Cabinet Spokesperson (Minister) Udaya Gammanpila said this joint venture will be for a lease period of 50 years. Also Read | Massive Asteroid Twice the Size of Empire State Building to Zoom Past Earth at 43,000 Miles Per Hour on January 18. The new agreement will be an extension of the 2002 agreement with the local operators of the Indian Oil Company, LIOC, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported. Sri Lanka in 2002 entered the original deal with India on the island's most strategic oil storage complex, which was used as a supply base during World War II. India at all times had shown a strategic interest in the Trincomalee tank farm which the British rulers had built to refuel Allied warships and aircraft. In October, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa told visiting Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla that Indian investors are invited to invest in the island nation and Sri Lanka was keen to resolve the situation regarding the Trincomalee oil tanks in a manner that is beneficial to both countries. The World War II-era oil storage facility, with a capacity of nearly 8 million barrels of oil, located in the strategically advantaged port district of Trincomalee has been a key bilateral economic partnership link for decades. Since 2003, the Lanka IOC, the Sri Lankan subsidiary of India's oil major Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), has the leasing rights to 99 tanks at the facility for a period of 35 years for an annual payment of USD 100,000. Shringla had also visited the oil storage site during his trip to Sri Lanka. The visit was considered significant as oil sector trade unions in the country have demanded that the tanks be brought under the control of the state fuel entity Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). The formalisation of the agreement next week will come in the background of Sri Lanka seeking India's help to tide over its current economic woes exacerbated by the ongoing foreign exchange crisis in the local economy. The Sri Lanka-India oil tank storage venture comes amid mounting concern over growing Chinese influence in the country. Officials said that the island nation has shut its only refinery for its inability to pay for crude oil and was negotiating a credit line with India for fuel purchases. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Birmingham [UK], January 4 (ANI): Pakistan-origin British national and drug dealer Aqib Ali has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by Birmingham Crown Court for "operating a county lines network of drugs" in Birmingham and Warwickshire. 29-year-old Ali supplied the drugs on a commercial scale at street level through a county lines network which operated between Birmingham and Warwickshire, according to West Midlands Police. Also Read | 'Omicron Likely Plateaued in UK, but 15% Cases Reinfections', Says Scientist Neil Ferguson. Aaqib Ali was sentenced to 10 years in prison at Birmingham Crown Court on December 23 on two charges of posessing and supplying Class A drugs. The Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) acted on information and executed warrants at address linked to him in Aston and Erdington in August. Also Read | Massive Asteroid Twice the Size of Empire State Building to Zoom Past Earth at 43,000 Miles Per Hour on January 18. According to West Midlands Police, Aaqib Ali was the key player in supplying cocaine and heroin on a commercial scale at street level. Class A drugs were recovered from one of them along with 20,000 in cash and his drugs phone. A substantial amount of cocaine and heroin was found in his car, , according to West Midlands Police. Analysis of Ali's mobile phone, the police said, showed it had been registered in a false name, with messages proving that he was running a drugs network. "One message claimed he was making the equivalent of 2,800 a night from selling cocaine alone,the police statement added. Ali had only been released from prison on licence last December after being convicted of other drug offences and immediately set about returning to his criminal ways. DC Louise Ford, from the County Lines Taskforce at ROCU, said: "There's no doubt Ali was the one running this significant drugs supply chain. There were vast phone messages which proved he was the kingpin and while he will have recruited others to help, he was the one coordinating it all." "We're confident we've managed to crush his network and remove a prominent drug dealer from our streets. It also shows that if you return to crime you will be caught again, and face even more time behind bars," Ford added. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New York [US], January 4 (ANI): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the violence against demonstrators in Sudan protesting the military takeover of power and urged security forces to show utmost restraint, Sputnik reported citing UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric statement on Monday (local time). According to the news agency, the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said on Sunday two protesters were killed by live fire in the city of Omdurman. This brings to 56 the number of civilians killed by Sudanese security forces since the military, led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan, arrested Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on October 25. Also Read | Imran Khan's Ex-Wife Reham Khan Narrowly Escapes Gun Attack in Islamabad. "The Secretary-General condemns the continued violence targeting protestors and calls upon the Sudanese security forces to exercise the utmost restraint and adhere to their obligations in relation to the rights to freedom of assembly and expression," Dujarric said. The spokesman also said Guterres has taken note of the resignation of Prime Minister Hamdok, adding it is regretful that a political understanding on the way forward is not achieved despite the gravity of the situation in the country. Also Read | Third COVID-19 Vaccine Dose Can Boost Effectiveness Against Omicron to 88%, UK Studies Show. "The Secretary-General encourages all stakeholders to continue engaging in meaningful dialogue in order to reach an inclusive, peaceful and lasting solution," Dujarric said. Hamdok was reinstated on November 21 after signing a pact with Burhan that seeks to install a civilian cabinet that will be subject to military oversight. Protesters demand transition to a fully civilian rule, Sputnik reported. (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 York [US], January 4 (ANI/Sputnik): UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid welcomed a statement issued on Monday by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council affirming that nuclear war cannot be won, his spokesperson Paulina Kubiak told Sputnik. Earlier in the day, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States said in the joint statement that their nuclear weapons were not aimed at each other. Also Read | Imran Khan's Ex-Wife Reham Khan Narrowly Escapes Gun Attack in Islamabad. "President Abdulla Shahid welcomes the joint statement made by the five nuclear powers who are also the Permanent members of the security council," Kubiak said. "The commitment to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations, including Article VI obligation and the desire to increase mutual understanding and confidence, and prevent an arms race that would benefit none and endanger all, is the right message to the entire planet as we begin the new year." (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Patna, January 4: In a gruesome incident, a pregnant woman and her three-year-old son were burnt alive by her husband in Bihars Supaul district on Tuesday. The accused, identified as Ashish Kumar, tied his wife Ranjan Devi and son Vaibhav to the bed and set them on fire at his house in Mayurwa locality, which comes under the Triveniganj police station. The incident came to light when some neighbours spotted fire coming out from the house of Aashish Kumar. They tried to douse the flame, but by then the victims were charred to death. Hyderabad Shocker: 52-Year-Old Man Burns Former Live-In Partner Alive, Sets Himself on Fire. "The local residents informed us about the incident at 2 pm. We reached the crime scene and found the dead bodies were lying on the bed. Both the bodies and the bed were completely burnt," said Bhagwati Thakur, SDPO of Triveniganj. The deceased woman's father said in a complaint to the local police that Ashish Kumar was demanding Rs 1 lakh from them for which he was applying pressure on Ranjan Devi. "As the deceased's family was unable to pay the money, Ashish Kumar used to beat his wife. He wanted the money to pay a bribe to the agents of the Railway Recruitment Board for a Group-D job," the officer said. "Preliminary investigation reveals that Ashish Kumar's sister, mother and one more person were also involved in the crime. They are currently absconding. We will put them behind bars very soon," he said. "The bodies have been sent for post-mortem. The FSL team has also reached the spot. The reports will give some clue about the sequence of events," he said. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 05, 2022 12:16 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed grief over death of Dr Sindhutai Sapkal. The Prime Minister said that "Dr. Sindhutai Sapkal will be remembered for her noble service to society. Due to her efforts, many children could lead a better quality of life. She also did a lot of work among marginalised communities. Pained by her demise. Condolences to her family and admirers. Om Shanti." Sindhutai Sapkal, a social worker and Padma Shri Awardee, died at age 74 in Pune's Galaxy Care Hospital due to heart attack. Dr. Sindhutai Sapkal will be remembered for her noble service to society. Due to her efforts, many children could lead a better quality of life. She also did a lot of work among marginalised communities. Pained by her demise. Condolences to her family and admirers. Om Shanti. pic.twitter.com/nPhMtKOeZ4 Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 4, 2022 (SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.) New York, January 4: NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office that detects, tracks, and characterizes Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) to enable mitigation of potential future NEO impacts, stated that an asteroid almost double the size of the Empire State Building is heading towards the Earth. The massive asteroid is set to zoom past Earth at 43,000 miles per hour around January 18, said reports. Nostradamus Predictions For 2022: From Asteroid to Political Assassination and Artificial Intelligence to Civil War, These Are the Prophecies by Legendary Astrologer. However, this is not the only asteroid expected to zoom past from near Earth this year. Earlier, NASA had provided information on the five asteroids that are expected to have a close brush with planet Earth. Their names below: Asteroid 1: Name - (2021 YK), Approximate Size - 36 Feet (Bus-Size), Closest Earth Approach - 118,000 miles. Date- 2 January, 2022 Asteroid 2: Name - (2021 YQ), Approximate Size - 200 Feet (Airplane Size), Closest Earth Approach - 1,330,000 miles. Date- January 5, 2022 Asteroid 3: Name - (2014 YE15), Approximate Size - 24 Feet (Bus-Size), Closest Earth Approach - 4,600,000 miles. Date- January 6, 2022 Asteroid 4: Name - (2020 AP1), Approximate Size - 13 Feet (Car-Size), Closest Earth Approach - 1,080,000 miles. Date - January 7, 2022 Asteroid 5: Name - (2013 YD48), Approximate Size - 340 Feet (Building-Size), Closest Earth Approach - 3,480,000 miles. Date - January 11, 2022. NASA late last year launched "DART"- the first test mission to defend planet Earth against objects in the space. "NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the worlds first full-scale mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards, launched Wednesday at 1:21 a.m. EST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California," the space agency had said in its press release on November 24, 2021. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 04, 2022 04:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). New York Attorney General Letitia James has sent subpoenas to Donald Trump's eldest children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump. The subpoenas were part of James' investigation into the family company's Trump Organization tax fraud, according to a New York Post report. James initially brought the case against the company and Eric Trump in August 2020, while alleging that Eric was stonewalling her investigation. James' subpoenas were seeking testimony and documents in condition with an investigation into the valuation of properties owned or controlled by the Trump Organization, according to court papers filed on Monday. Eric was the executive vice president of the Trump Organization. He was previously ordered by a judge to testify and was questioned through video by AG prosecutors the following month, Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen testified before Congress that the former president's annual financial statements exaggerated the value of his assets, which would lead him to get better loan and insurance policy terms. Cohen's statement was the basis of James' investigation on the Trump Organization and the company's alleged tax fraud. The Attorney General said that her office was forced to bring its case after it released seven subpoenas, which the Trump Organization and Eric refused to cooperate with. READ NEXT: Donald Trump Files Lawsuit Against New York Attorney General to Block Fraud Investigation Into His Business Donald Trump Jr. And Ivanka Trump's Subpoenas Meanwhile, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. have refused to comply with the subpoenas and intends to file motions to block the subpoenas as soon as Monday, according to an ABC News Go report. A spokesperson for the Attorney General's office said that they are confident that their questions will be answered and that the truth will be revealed as "no one is above the law" despite their attempts to delay the office's investigation. James also expressed her want to speak to the former president. Meanwhile, the Trump Organization said in a statement that James' investigation is another "political witch-hunt," according to an Independent report. The company said that the state of New York is being overrun by violence, and yet the sole focus of the attorney general is to probe Trump all for her "own political ambitions" as she eyes a gubernatorial stint in the state. Trump Organization Tax Fraud Probe The Trump Organization was charged in July for alleged running a 15-year scheme to help its executives evade taxes through compensating them with fringe benefits that were hidden from the law enforcement, according to The New York Times report. The Manhattan district attorney's office also accused Trump Organization executive Allen H. Weisselberg of avoiding taxes on $1.7 million in perks that should have been stated as income. Weisselberg faced grand larceny and tax fraud, among other charges. Meanwhile, Trump was not charged and no other executives were accused by name of wrongdoing. Trump also defended Weisselberg, noting that his longtime lieutenant was an "honorable man." The former president that he is with Weisselberg all the way. Weisselberg pleaded not guilty and his lawyers, Mary E. Mulligan and Bryan C. Skarlatos, said in a statement that they will fight the charges in court. READ MORE: Donald Trump Jr. Begged Mark Meadows to Urge His Father to Stop Capitol Riot, Texts Reveal This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: New York Attorney General Subpoenas Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump - from NBC News A 2-year-old boy watched in horror from the back seat as his father was pistol-whipped, shot and wounded behind the wheel of an Audi during a wild struggle with a pair of Queens muggers, police said Tuesday. The chaos began when the dad pulled up outside his Forest Hills home on 72nd Road near 113th St. about 9 p.m. on Monday and two armed crooks wearing hoodies yanked open the doors and demanded his money and phone. Advertisement The dads wife and their 7-year-old daughter had just gone inside the home, cops said Tuesday, but the baby was still in the back seat. The Audi is a rental the family used for a Florida trip to see relatives over the holidays, one relative told the Daily News. The family had just recently returned home to Queens when the dad was held up. Advertisement Refusing the crooks demands, the dad was pistol-whipped, then shot in the chest and arm during a struggle over his cell phone. The toddler was not hurt. The wounded dad, his arm in a sling, returned home from Jamaica Hospital on Tuesday afternoon. Hes doing fine, the victims wife said Tuesday. He just really needs rest right now. The victim was behind the wheel of his Audi outside his Forest Hills home about 9 p.m. Monday when two armed men wearing hoodies yanked open the doors and demanded his belongings. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News) Neighbor Susana Kazimova, 34, was walking with her husband when she heard the shots I told my husband, Its gunshots. He said, No, maybe its fireworks, Kazimova recalled. I said, Christmas, New Years is gone. They came upon the victims wife calling 911. We walked over and we saw the people saying, Are you OK? Kazimova said. Refusing the crooks demands, the victim was pistol-whipped then shot in the chest and arm. His son was not hurt. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News) The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. > The victims wife told police she had just brought their daughter inside and was going back out to grab the couples son when she witnessed the shooting. Advertisement I was inside. I saw the two guys going inside the car, the wife told The News on Monday night, cradling the 2-year-old. The two crooks fled empty-handed and were last seen speeding away in a dark-colored sedan, police said. They have not been caught. This level of violence is rare for Forest Hills. As of Dec. 26, the 112th Precinct, which protects the leafy neighborhood, did not have a single shooting all last year. Cops counted 1,562 shooting incidents across the five boroughs last year, 30 more than in 2020. Cops in the 112th Precinct saw a 9% jump in robberies in 2021, although the numbers were still relatively small compared with other precincts. As of Dec. 26, cops had investigated 59 robberies, five more than in 2020. Its not good, Kazimova said of the shooting. This is the safest neighborhood you could ever imagine. Look whats going on. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty on four federal fraud charges on Monday, as the jury remains "deadlocked" on three of the nearly dozen charges slammed against her over her modernized blood test. It can be recalled that Holmes, 37 years old, initially faced 12 fraud counts, NBC News reported. However, one count was dismissed by the court earlier in her trial. The said move was a result of an error from the prosecutors. While Elizabeth Holmes was indicted on four charges, she was then acquitted of the other four fraud charges slammed against her. According to ABC News, Holmes was found guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud against Theranos investors. She was also found guilty on three counts of wire fraud against patients. Reports noted that the jury spent seven days going over the evidence and charges. Judge Edward Davila, the one who presided Holmes' trial, is expected to serve the sentence of the Theranos founder at a later date. Officials did not specify when Holmes' sentencing will take place. Holmes potentially faces up to 20 years of imprisonment. Aside from her jail time, she also faces fines and potential restitution to defraud her company's investors. READ NEXT: Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Prosecution Rests Its Case on the Theranos Founder's Fraud Trial Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Jury 'Deadlocked" on Three Charges Earlier on Monday, the jury tasked in Elizabeth Holmes' criminal trial said they remain unable to come up with a unanimous verdict on three of all the 11 fraud counts, CNN reported. The jury, composed of eight men and four women, deliberated for 45 hours, but they returned a note saying that they were standstill on some of the fraud counts, specifically on three counts of fraud against investors. In response, Judge Davila issued an "Allen Charge," which allows the jury to continue deliberating to try and reach for a verdict. However, the jury passed another note saying that they remain unable to reach a verdict on the said counts. The notes passed by the jury were one of the three notes they sent since getting Holmes's case. The first note from the jury inquired about taking home jury instructions, which was not allowed by the judge. The second note of the jury is about their request to replay the audio recordings of a call where Elizabeth Holmes could be heard pitching investors on the company for a new round of financing. Meanwhile, former Securities and Exchange Commission prosecutor Gorge Demos said the jury can render a verdict on counts they are unanimous on, and the government can decide whether to retry cases on counts they are "deadlocked" on. Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Theranos Founder Says What She Told Investors Were True According to Federal prosecutors, Holmes intentionally conned her investors to support her product, which according to them, the Theranos founder knew was "faulty." However, Holmes repeatedly told prosecutors that she "genuinely" believed what she told her investors was the truth. Prosecutors also painted during the trial that Holmes' motive in committing the fraud was not to garner money but to reinforce the company she built. "She committed these crimes because she was desperate for the company to succeed," Prosecutor John Bostic said. Elizabeth Holmes was behind the Theranos company, which developed a modernized blood test featuring a cheap finger prick and then offered a comprehensive result for several medical issues. A report from the Wall Street journal in 2015 noted that Holmes' devices were inaccurate, prompting the downfall of her company. READ NEXT: December 2021 ADP National Employment Report, ADP Small Business Report and ADP National Franchise Report to be Released Next Week This article is owned by Latin Post. Written By: Joshua Summers WATCH: Mixed Verdict in Trial of Elizabeth Holmes - From CNBC Television Ezra Miller, DC's "The Flash." put an end to rumors that his upcoming movie will change the continuity of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) by completely erasing the Snyderverse. End of Snydervese? According to CBR, "The Flash" star commented on the rumor in an Instagram conversation, which was screen-captured and shared on Reddit. "No power or force in any known megaverse would or could ever erase Zack Snyder's mighty wrkz," Miller said. He also stood by his words, stating he could be quoted saying that and be taken to the press or any other pillar of capitalism. Miller's response was following the rise of several rumors that suggest that the upcoming "The Flash" film from Warner Bros. would decanonize all the previous installments by director Zack Snyder in the DCEU. This includes the events in "Batman v. Superman," "Man of Steel," and "Justice League." READ ALSO: LeBron James, Malik Monk Propel LA Lakers to Team's First Win in 2022, Defeating Karl Anthony Towns-less Timberwolves Miller to Return as Barry Allen in his First Solo Film as 'The Flash' The upcoming "The Flash" film will see Miller suit up again as Barry Allen in his first solo film. He has already played the fastest man on earth, alongside Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman, in their own SnyderVerse films. Gal Gadot was also in the Justice League film as Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa as Aquaman. On the other hand, it has been reported that Cavill will not be reprising his role as Clark Kent/ Superman. However, Affleck will be returning as the Dark Crusader in "The Flash." In addition, Michael Keaton will also return as 1989's Batman in the film. It has been confirmed by "The Flash" director Andy Muschietti, that they have already wrapped up filming the Scarlet Speedster's movie in October 2021. Muschietti also revealed that the film will be full of surprises during a DC FanDome panel in China. "We can tell you there are surprises, we cannot reveal what they are," Muschietti said. At the moment, details surrounding the plot of "The Flash" movie are still scarce. However, it was revealed that it will mainly deal with the existence of the multiverse and alternate realities. This was indicated by Keaton's return as the Caped Crusader and the appearance of Flash's evil doppelganger, who will also be portrayed by Miller. Moreover, during an interview last year, Muschietti stated that the storyline for the upcoming "The Flash" movie will become the foundation for future films in the DCEU. He also added that it will be inclusive in the sense that everything will exist in one unified universe. "The Flash" will be speeding into the silver screen in November of 2022. READ MORE: Rapper Kodak Black Arrested After Being Charged With Trespassing in Florida on New Year's Day This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Jess Smith WATCH: "The Flash" Movie To ERASE SUPERMAN & SNYDERVERSE?! (DCEU Reboot | New Justice League) - The Reel Rejects Ghislaine Maxwell's husband Scott Borgerson had called her while she was in prison to say that he had moved in with another woman, according to a friend familiar with the matter. Maxwell's friend described the phone call between Maxwell and Borgerson as confrontational, according to a Business Insider report. The two had a clandestine marriage in 2016. Borgerson was a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and came into the limelight in 2020 after Maxwell was accused of partnering up with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to abuse girls. The source said that Borgerson told Maxwell that he was seeing someone else and had moved on. The person familiar with the matter added that the marriage was over before the trial started. Borgerson was recently seen with another woman, who was known to be a U.S. journalist at a local paper. The incident had caused reports that he may have a new girlfriend, according to an Independent report. However, Borgerson earlier denied that they were dating and claimed that they were just old friends. Maxwell filed court papers in 2020 noting that all of her assets had been transferred into a trust under Borgerson's control. READ NEXT: Ghislaine Maxwell Trial Nearing Its End as Jury Starts Deliberations; Prosecutor Says She's 'Complicit' in Jeffrey Epstein's Sex Abuse of Teen Girls Ghislaine Maxwell's Marriage A source noted that Borgerson did not attend Maxwell's trial, wherein the socialite was convicted of five of six sex-trafficking charges. Her husband said in 2020 that Maxwell was a "wonderful and loving person" when Borgerson asked a judge to free Maxwell while she was awaiting trial. Borgerson was not named in the court documents. But he noted that he has never witnessed anything close to inappropriate with Maxwell. Meanwhile, Maxwell's brother, Ian, said in October that they were surprised to find out that she was married to Borgerson. Ian said he did not know that Borgerson and Maxwell were still together when he was interviewed in October. One insider said that Borgerson did not attend a single day of his wife's trial, adding to "read into that what you will," according to a New York Post report. The marriage of Maxwell and Borgerson only came to light in 2020 when he tried to get his wife freed with a $28.5 million bail package. Borgerson was seen with Kris McGinn. They both refused to talk about their alleged relationship, and neither has responded to messages. Ghislaine Maxwell's Trial and Conviction In December, Maxwell was found guilty of sex trafficking in her Manhattan federal court trial. She was charged for her involvement with ex-boyfriend Epstein's abuse of teenage girls, with some of the victims being as young as 14-years-old, according to The Guardian report. The British socialite was not found guilty of one count, which was the enticement of an individual under the age of 17 to travel with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity, The jurors have reached their verdict after 40 hours of deliberation within six days. Maxwell was reported to have appeared expressionless as the verdict was read. She poured herself a cup of water from a bottle of water and took a drink. She is currently facing a sentence of up to 65 years in prison. READ MORE: Ghislaine Maxwell's Trial, About to Start On Her Sex-Trafficking Charges; Maxwell's Brother Says Sister's Paying the Price After Jeffrey Epstein Killed Himself This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Ghislaine Maxwell's mysterious hubby Scott Borgerson, now MIA - from New York Post Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed critics who accused him of being absent in December as the Omicron variant sweeps through the state. His critics include Democrat gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried. DeSantis noted in a press conference that perhaps he should have been "at the beach in Delaware" and that people would have been happy about it, according to a Newsmax report. DeSantis' comment referred to U.S. President Joe Biden's Delaware Beach stay at his beachside property as the nation grapples with the surge of COVID cases and spread of the Omicron variant. The Republican governor said he only caught word of many thinking he was on vacation last Wednesday. He noted that he just was with his wife's cancer treatments. Case DeSantis announced in October her breast cancer diagnosis while assuring that she would "end up good on the other end of it." DeSantis noted that he accompanied his wife to all her chemotherapy treatments, and he was there most of the time. He added that the idea that it would be considered a vacation was offensive to a lot of people, especially those who have gone through breast cancer treatments. Fried and DeSantis' press secretary, Christina Pushaw, had verbal jabs on Twitter regarding the matter. Fried tweeted that "as a governor, I'll show up." Pushaw replied and asked Friend if someone she loves gets cancer, "you wouldn't show up to their treatments?," Breitbart News reported. DeSantis said that just because he was not in front of the cameras every day, it does not mean that he and his team were not working behind the scenes to fight the spread of the Omicron variant. READ NEXT: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Supports Florida Girl Suspended 36 Times Over Refusal to Wear Mask, Says It's 'Unacceptable' Ron DeSantis' Delaware Beach Comment Biden spent the holiday at his Delaware beach house property with no public events scheduled as the Omicron variant spreads across the nation. He also said that there is no "federal solution" to the ongoing COVID pandemic, which Republicans criticized him for. The White House called a lid on that day, which means that there will be no public events with the president, according to a Daily Mail report. Biden met with 25 governors to address the ongoing pandemic. The president told governors that the federal government will have their back, adding that if they need something, they should say it. In Florida, COVID cases have risen by 948 percent in just two weeks as the highly transmissible Omicron variant continues to drive a huge number of infections and hospitalizations in the U.S. Meanwhile, cases have risen by more than 100 percent across the country, according to The Guardian report. Many areas were facing a shortage in testing equipment, and infections have doubled in the last seven days to an average. Local and state officials cautioned that residents were waiting hours in a sometimes miles-long queue to get a test in Florida. State Sen. Shevrin Jones accused the state health department and DeSantis of being missing in action. READ MORE: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Announces State Will Officially File Lawsuit Against Pres. Joe Biden's COVID Vaccine Mandate This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: DeSantis responds to inquires about recent absence amid coronavirus crisis -from Washington Post Betty White's agent on Monday debunked the COVID-19 booster-related rumors surrounding the actress' death, reiterating that the "Golden Girls" star died of natural causes. In a statement to Associated Press, Jeff Witjas, White's agent and close friend, debunked the rumors that the actress received a COVID-19 booster shot on December 28 and that her death may have been related to it. There's also images shared on Twitter and Facebook containing a quote that read, "'Eat healthy and get all your vaccines. I just got boosted today.' - Betty White, Dec. 28th, 2021." Addressing the false quote, White's agent noted that White did not receive a booster on December 28. "People are saying her [Betty White] death was related to getting a booster shot three days earlier but that is not true. She died of natural causes," Witjas said, adding that her death should not be politicized. "That is not the life she lived... Betty died peacefully in her sleep at her home," Witjas added. READ NEXT: Celebrities We've Lost in 2021: Remembering Some of the Biggest Stars Who Died This Year Vicki Lawrence Reveals Betty White's Last Word On Monday, Vicki Lawrence, Betty White's co-star on the hit series "Mama's Family," revealed Betty's last word before her death. Lawrence told Page Six that White's last word was "Allen," which was her late husband's name. Lawrence noted that she learned about what White said when she texted her friend and co-star Carol Burnett about the actress' passing. "I texted Carol and said 'This just sucks.' I hate this,'" Lawrence said. She then mentioned that Burnett replied to her message claiming that White's assistant said the very "last words" that came out of the actress' mouth was her husband's name. Betty White married her late husband Allen Ludden in 1963. They only parted ways when Ludden died in 1981 at the age of 63 because of his stomach cancer. Aside from revealing White's last word, Lawrence also shared that it was a "joy" working with the veteran actress on the set. Lawrence said that working with White was like "having a good time." Lawrence further noted that she does not recall a moment when Betty White came on the set unprepared or ever messing up her lines. Betty White's Death According to her agent, Betty White died on December 31 at age 99 due to "natural causes." The actress died weeks away from her 100th birthday, which is on January 17. In a statement on Friday, White's agent expressed how he would miss the actress. Witjas told PEOPLE that Betty White did not fear death because she always wanted to be with her beloved husband. "She believed she would be with him [Allen Ludden] again," White's agent added. READ MORE: Here's Why Ralph Macchio Dislikes 'The Karate Kid Part III' Despite Being Proud of How It Crosses Cobra Kai Season 4 This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Joshua Summers WATCH: Betty White's Last Instagram Post Will Break Your Heart - From Looper Something fishy happened in Texas before the year 2021 ended. Residents of a town witnessed a rare weather phenomenon in which fish started to rain down from the sky. On December 29, residents of Texarkana reported that small fish started to fall from the sky in what many described as an epochal weather condition. In a Facebook post by the city of Texarkana, they talked about the rare but not impossible weather phenomenon."2021 is pulling out all the tricks... including raining fish in Texarkana today. And no, this isn't a joke," stated the post that was accompanied by a picture of a fish in the middle of a grassy field. However, the reality was not as epic as it may seem. The city also explained that a waterspout most likely picked up the fish, which were said to be around palm-sized. The waterspout possibly dropped the fish back down to the ground after it lost momentum, Fox News reported. Fish Rain in Texas Is Rare but Not Impossible According to National Geographic, fish rain is an example of animal rain. Animal rain is a rare but real weather event that happens when waterspouts sweep up small animals such as snakes, bats, birds, frogs, or in this case, fish, and they fall down the earth with raindrops. Strong winds called updrafts can also pick up larger animals than waterspouts. While these incidents are rare, they can always happen when the weather condition is right and if the animals' weight is just light enough. READ NEXT: Morro Bay Shark Attack Kills Surfer; Officials Say It's the First Fatal Shark Attack in San Luis Obispo County in 18 Years Texas Residents Amazed by the Fish Rain Despite the explanation by the city government, residents are still amazed by the bizarre weather event. One resident, Tim Brigham, told CNN that he thought that seeing small fish falling from the sky was pretty cool and useful because he was able to get a bucketful that he would use as bait for fishing. Meanwhile, Discount Wheel and Tire employees stopped their regular work to clean up their parking lot, which was filled with swimmers from the sky. Other residents also shared their own photos of fish in their backyards after the city asked on Facebook to show their own "fishy pics." Most pictures of the fish were not bigger than the palm of the people who posted them. The animal rain in Texarkana is one of the only recorded moments of the rare weather phenomenon in Texas. But in 2017, California also experienced the same event after more than 100 fish dropped from the sky at a school property in Oroville. In northern Australia, the town of Lajamanu has experienced fish rain at least three times in the past 30 years. READ MORE: Southern California Beaches Shut Down After Sewage Spill This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Jess Smith WATCH: Fish Fall From the Sky During Rainstorms in Eastern Texas | Rush Hour - From NewsNation Now Some Republican senators are seeking information regarding the records and backgrounds of Afghans that the administration of President Joe Biden has brought to the U.S. since August. According to Breitbart News, GOP senators Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley, and Rick Scott wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on December 17 to inquire about information related to the thousands of Afghans flown to the U.S. after the U.S. pulled its troops out of Afghanistan five months ago. READ NEXT: State Department IG to Launch Series of Reviews on Afghanistan Operations Including Biden Admin's Withdrawal Republicans Inquire About Afghans Brought Into the U.S. By Joe Biden's Administration In the joint letter, the three senators requested information about how the agencies are "vetting/screening these individuals." The senators wanted this information to be made available to them by December 30. However, Johnson's office told Breitbart that as of Monday, they have yet to receive a response from the administration of Joe Biden. In the letter, the senators asked the administration to provide details about the number of Afghans connected to derogatory information, interviewed in-person, put into secondary screening proceedings, arrested by U.S. law enforcement, detained by ICE for national security or other concerns, deported from the U.S., or sent back to a third country for further processing. They also requested information concerning Afghans' identifying records or documents, such as how many arrived in the U.S. with no ID or only with a birth certificate or other travel documents that would generally be insufficient for foreign nationals to come to the U.S. According to the senators, more than 120,000 individuals were airlifted out of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the South Asian country. Of that number, the senators noted that the U.S. has helped evacuate about 80,000 people, and of those, 5,500 were Americans and over 73,000 were Afghans or other foreign nationals. The senators went on to say that it was unacceptable that several months after Joe Biden's "disastrous and deadly withdrawal," the administration still does not have a full account of all the Americans who are still in Afghanistan or Afghans who were evacuated to the U.S. The GOP senators then urged the Biden administration "to immediately address the lack of transparency regarding this evacuation and resettlement operation and be straightforward with the American people." Administration of Joe Biden, Non-Governmental Groups Welcome Afghan Refugees The U.S. government and some non-governmental groups are reportedly working to settle nearly 100,000 Afghans in the U.S. by next September. The Voice of America reported that the effort supports the Operation Allies Welcome plan of the Biden administration. The plan was created to help Afghan nationals who fled their country after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. According to the U.S. Department of State, about 48,000 Afghan refugees have already moved off U.S. military bases since summer and settled in communities across the U.S. "We know that resettlement isn't a weeks-long or months-long process. Success requires years of effort. And so that's where it's really important to have strong community ties," said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which is one of nine national resettlement agencies. Since summer, the said nonprofit, operating in around half of U.S. states, has reportedly resettled around 6,000 newly arrived Afghan refugees. READ MORE: Taliban Says U.S. Agreed to Provide Humanitarian Aid to Afghanistan, but Not Recognition This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Joshua Summers WATCH: Inside U.S. Army Base Housing Afghan Refugees - From CBS Evening News The former Chairman of the Irish Competition Authority, Dr John Fingleton has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the UKs New Years Honours List. Dr Fingleton, who originally hails from Cullenagh, Ballyroan and who is a former Leinster Express Person of the Year, received the CBE for his services to the economy and to innovation. He is the founder and CEO of a Fingleton, a consultancy business which specialises in UK Regulatory issues. Fingleton helps chief executives and their teams to anticipate, address and navigate complex and strategic regulatory issues. Founded in 2013 and based in Haymarket, London, Fingleton works with business leaders and investors across all sectors of the UK economy,, as well as countries closely aligned to it such as Australia. Dr Fingleton is also a board member of the UK Research and Innovation and also serves as the Senior Independent Member on the Council of Innovate UK and a Trustee of the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He is a frequent speaker on competition, consumer protection and regulation as well as contributing to significant policy developments. Prior to this he was Chief Executive of the UKs Office of Fair Trading. He has also chaired the International Competition Network and sat on the Competition Committee of the OECD. He was appointed as Chairperson of the Irish Competition Authority in May 2000 He read economics at Trinity College Dublin and did postgraduate studies in economics at Nuffield College, Oxford. He lectured at Trinity College from October 1991 until April 2000. Dr Fingleton received the Leinster Express Person of the Year Award in 2003. The citation for the award read at the time was: "Interests as diverse as farmers and pharmacists, the legal profession and the licensed trade, have all felt the force of his unstinting views and his pursuance of the public interest. Regardless of being viewed as friend as foe his views are taken seriously in all quarters, and at the highest levels of decision making." Dr Fingelton's parents are Brendan and Mai Fingleton from Cullenagh. Sir David Attenborough was stabbed by a cactus with needles like glass while filming his latest TV series. The 95-year-old naturalist and broadcaster wore protective gear while investigating the cholla cactus in California during shooting for The Green Planet on BBC One. However, the combination of a Kevlar under-glove and a welding glove failed to prevent him from being hurt by spicules of glass while reaching inside the plant. The new series from the BBCs Natural History Unit uses ground-breaking filming techniques to show viewers the intricate lives of plants and the ecosystems that flourish around them and the ways in which they are just as aggressive as animals. Sir David said: The cholla really is a physical danger. It has these very dense spines in rosettes, so they point in all directions. And if you just brush against it, the spines are like spicules of glass, I mean they are that sharp and they go into you and you really have trouble getting them out. So that is a really dangerous plant. The cholla is an active aggressor. I mean, you feel you better stand back and you better watch out. Executive producer Michael Gunton added: One of the joys of going on location is thinking up horrible things to get (David) to do. So what we did, because it was so dangerous, was we got a Kevlar under-glove, and then on top of that, a welding glove. So you can imagine thats about as good protection as you could possibly get. So, David bravely put his hand inside this cholla cactus, as requested. And halfway through it, these spikes still managed to get through those two bits of protection. And its quite painful, isnt it? The Green Planet will see Sir David travel across the globe, from the US to Costa Rica and across Europe to different terrains including deserts, water worlds, tropical forests and the frozen north. The documentary series, which comes 26 years after The Private Life Of Plants aired on BBC One, aims to show how science and technologies have advanced, and how our understanding of the ways in which plants behave and interact has evolved, the BBC has said. In November, the series had its global premiere in Glasgow in conjunction with the Cop26 summit on tackling climate change. The Green Planet begins on BBC One on January 9. They wanted it their way, right away. A pair of angry Brooklyn Burger King customers were caught on video beating a worker because their fast food order didnt come out fast enough, cops said Monday. Advertisement NYPD are looking for two Brooklyn Burger King customers that were caught on video beating a worker. (DCPI) The burger beatdown happened at the fast food chains outlet on Linden Blvd. near Hegeman Ave. in Brownsville about 6:15 p.m. Dec. 4, cops said. One of the customers leaped over the counter and grabbed the 22-year-old worker, holding him so both suspects could repeatedly punch him in the head and face, cops said. One of the suspects also flashed a knife, cops said. Advertisement The duo ran off toward Powell St., and medics treated the victim at the scene. Cops are asking anyone with information about the attackers to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. Hospitals are suspending elective care amid growing pressure on the health system from Covid-19, the HSE chief has said. Today (January 4), Paul Reid said that it remained unclear when Ireland would reach the peak of the current wave of the virus. The Omicron variant has caused record numbers of cases in the country over recent days. Mr Reid said that hospitals would be suspending elective care, due to growing pressure from Covid-19. Many hospitals were already suspending elective care with the pressures theyre under, he said. Confirming that the HSE will rely on the help of some private hospitals, he told RTE radio: The reality of it is we will have to suspend, in many cases, elective care. That decision, he said, will be monitored over the next two weeks. The growing pressure is mirrored in the Covid-19 testing system. Here are today's walk-in #COVIDVaccine clinics. We're operating walk-in clinics for dose 1 and dose 2, and booster vaccine clinics for healthcare workers, people over 30 and some clinics for 16-29s. Keep an eye for updates on queueing times throughout the day. #ForUsAll pic.twitter.com/6t1rkUbrUQ HSE Ireland (@HSELive) January 4, 2022 This afternoon, teaching unions will meet with the Education Minister to discuss the reopening of schools. Government ministers have insisted that despite the high case numbers, schools would reopen as normal on Thursday (January 6). Government party leaders are also meeting to discuss the latest Covid-19 situation, following the festive period. The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) has called for a staggered approach to the reopening of schools, given the high level of the virus in the community. General secretary Kieran Christie said today that there could be chaos in some schools in the days to come without some kind of review and revision, given the threat posed by the Omicron variant. The union wants HEPA filters and medical-grade masks to be made available in schools. Update on the Booster Programme. pic.twitter.com/LsBT4hEZzH Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) January 4, 2022 Green Party junior minister, Pippa Hackett, said today she did not believe there would be chaos once schools return. Its a fearful term and I wouldnt like to think that there will be chaos on Thursday, she said. I think the overall agreement and acceptance is that we really want to do everything we can to get kids back to school and at this moment in time they will be returning to school this week. Asked on RTE radio about calls for new protective measures for teachers and pupils, she said that the Government had always listened to public health advice. She said she hoped that the meeting between trade unions and the Department of Education would deliver clarity later on. I think children have been safe in schools up until now and I think they will continue to be safe in schools. Certain trains serving Athy, Kildare Town, Monasterevin, Celbridge/Hazelhatch and Newbridge have been cancelled for the rest of the week. Irish Rail confirmed in a recent statement that around 20 of its services are being cancelled for the rest of this week due to COVID-19 and close contact absences. These services will be affected for a number of days: specifically, up to and including Friday. The following services are cancelled: 06:12hrs & 07:19hrs Newbridge to Grand Canal Dock 06:30hrs Carlow to Heuston 07:35hrs Newbridge to Heuston 08:17hrs, 10:32hrs, 12:35hrs, 17:30hrs, 17:52hrs, 19:32hrs & 21:35hrs Hazelhatch to Grand Canal Dock 15:08hrs Newbridge to Pearse 07:26hrs, 09:11hrs, 11:30hrs, 16:28hrs, 16:59hrs, 18:40hrs, 20:30hrs & 22:30hrs Grand Canal Dock to Hazelhatch 13:30hrs & 18:17hrs Grand Canal Dock to Newbridge Barry Kenny from Irish Rail told host Shane Beatty on Newstalk FM's Breakfast Briefing: "Like every employer, like every service provider at the moment, with the number of cases that are in the country... it isn't something that we can escape. He added: "We just have - particularly in Heuston at the moment - a number there that means unfortunately this is unavoidable. Mr Kenny also said that Irish Rail will be working right through this to ensure that we minimise the impact on as many services as possible. Further information about Irish Rail's COVID-19 policies, in addition to updates regarding train routes in Kildare, can be found by clicking here. Local politicians have called for urgent measures to help stop record-high Covid-19 case numbers overwhelming the health service. County Kildare currently has the third highest incidence rate of the virus behind Louth and Dublin. Naas Hospital has one of the lowest number of patients with Covid-19 in the country but has only one general bed available and not ICU beds available up to Tuesday morning. There were 13 Covid-19 positive patients in Naas Hospital and a further ten suspected of having the virus. A Cabinet meeting on Wednesday will discuss further measures to stop the spread of the Omicron variant but vaccinator and local councillor Peggy ODwyer said it was difficult to see what would be gained with increased restrictions. Opposition Senator Mark Wall called for clarity from the Government on how it plans address the rise of Covid-19 patients in hospitals. In Naas Hospital, there were seven patients with Covid-19 on Monday, while there were six people suspected of having the virus. Almost 250 people have been testing positive for Covid-19 in County Kildare every day in the fortnight up to December 22 the latest figures available. Kildare has the third highest incidence rate at 1,550 behind Louth at 1,687 and Dublin at 1,804. Senator Wall said: People are asking for direction, they are asking what the Government and NPHET know and what the future is for their families. We must hear more from Government on what their plans are to deal with the rise in numbers, in particular our hospitals where staff are already under so much pressure. What many people are saying to me is that we need a defined plan, based on numbers. Such a plan would let people know the various levels where they can go about their daily lives, whats open at different levels etc. In relation to schools reopening, Senator Wall said: We have always followed the current health advice and will again regarding schools. If there are schools where understandable staff absences require the schools to close for safety reasons, then fair enough, we must close that school. Schools must be assisted with providing HEPA filters and assisted with contact tracing and testing where and when needed. We need to see the urgent roll out of free antigen tests to homes. Vaccinator and veteran nurse Cllr Peggy ODwyer suggested that Ireland will probably follow other countries in keeping schools open. The Fine Gael politician also queried what benefits imposing other restrictions could have on controlling the spread of the virus. She told the Leader: There are no indications that NPHET are going to recommend [closing schools] as all other countries are aiming to reopen schools. Of course the recommended guides will be followed by each household if a Covid-19 case is identified. From the community perspective, the Omicron transmission is widespread but Im not sure what more we can gain with further restrictions. Businesses have been hit so hard and now with staff out either Covid-19 positive or close contacts they are struggling to stay open for the times that they can. Hospitals are under extreme pressure and the way Christmas fell at weekends, A&E departments in private hospitals were closed which only added to the situation we are in now. Cllr ODwyer also claimed that Covid-19 case number may be much higher than reported due to lack of access to PCR tests. I feel that many who have positive antigen tests over the last few days will not go for PCR tests now and the numbers are much higher than reported. Senator Fiona OLoughlin called for free antigen tests and more PCR testing facilities in Kildare. The Fianna Fail representative added: I dont think more restrictions should be put in place. Many more of us will contract Covid but with vaccinations and boosters there is not the same fear as this time last year. As always, personal responsibility is of the utmost important importance. Independent TD Dr Cathal Berry said: "My preference is that schools would open as planned on Thursday but we will need to simultaneously see a rapid rollout of the promised CO2 monitors and HEPA filters in every classroom to mitigate risk." He added: "Much will depend on the meeting between Minister for Education Norma Foley and the teaching unions this week however and of course the full Cabinet on Wednesday where the final decision will be taken." Local infection rates In the 14 days up to December 20, Naas Local Electoral Area (LEA) had 651 cases or an average of 46.5 per day. There were 559 confirmed cases in the Newbridge LEA or 1,575.4 per 100,000. Clane had 379 cases or a LEA rate per 100,000 of 1332.8. Kildare LEA had 356 confirmed cases and a rate per 100,000 of 1385.1. Athy area saw 295 and a LEA rate of 1111.5 per 100,000. A Kildare Councillor has urged members of the public to help catalogue all vacant properties in the towns of Naas and Sallins. Social Democrats Cllr Bill Clear said in a recent statement that his aim is to either encourage the property owners to do something with property, or failing that, put them on the Derelict Site Register. He explained: "Its a necessary element of dealing with building supply." "Increasing supply isn't just about building new buildings; it's about managing the empty buildings we already have which have not been used." Cllr Clear added: "I am often contacted by businesses who cannot find a premises in Naas, even though the Main Street alone has 18 empty commercial buildings. He elaborated that he will take pictures of the buildings, record the addresses and try to identify their owners. "Once I have determined the status of the building or land I will see if they can be renovated or rented. "I will then inform the owners of the options and grants available to them to renovate the property and assist them in this process - and I will get a valuation of the property and contacts of local auctioneers." "If that does not work out I will place them on the derelict site register which will cost the owners 7 per cent of the value of their property per annum." He continued: "I will request that any empty commercial buildings are properly advertised for rental and are available for new businesses who will also receive incentives to improve the buildings. "I will also place the land which is either zoned or given planning permission on the vacant site register, and make a submission on any rollover of permissions that have no development in five years. Cllr Clear further said that although Naas was recently crowned Irelands cleanest town, "we need this to be complimented by action by Kildare Environment and Planning sections on derelict buildings." He also admitted that he believes that if councillors or the County Council do nothing about the problem of vacant properties, local towns and villages "will crumble" while the outskirts of the respective towns will continue to pull business away from the urban centres. "If you have a building, house, land in your area that is derelict, send me a photo to bill.clear@socialdemocrats.ie with an address and I will add it to the list," he concluded. Cllr Bill Clear is not the only Kildare politician to have brought up the issue of derelict buildings to the council: back in November, a motion regarding derelict and vacant houses was proposed at the Kildare Draft Budget 2022 meeting by Sinn Fein Cllr Noel Connolly. Despite it being seconded by Cllr Clear, Fine Gael Cllr Mark Stafford and Fianna Fail Cllr Suzanne Doyle, the motion was voted down. A leading teachers' union is seeking a "delayed and staggered reopening" of schools at a meeting with the Department of Health today (January 4) due to safety concerns. The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has warned that reopening schools without introducing additional safety measures would be an unacceptable risk. The union, which represents around 18,500 secondary teachers, met yesterday to assess the return of schools as Covid-19 cases hit record highs, fuelled by the Omicron variant. The meeting heard that there is unease among members around the safety of staff and pupils. The ASTI is deeply concerned that the Minister for Education may re-open schools without putting in place additional measures necessary to safeguard the health and safety of students and school staff the union said in a statement. This would constitute an unacceptable risk in the context of the Omicron wave. There is uncertainty regarding the impact in schools of this significantly more transmissible variant. The ASTI is calling for updated risk assessments to be presented prior to schools re-opening later this week. Union president Eamon Dennehy said, The priority must be that students and school staff can learn and work in an environment where there are appropriate safety measures in place to protect all concerned. The ASTI will be proposing a delayed and staggered reopening of schools at a meeting tomorrow with Department of Education and Public Health Officials. Face to face teaching with examination classes should be prioritised. The union has cited concerns around safety of school communities, staff shortages due to Covid, inadequate ventilation and a lack of Hepa air filtration devices and risks to immuno-compromised individuals. We will be asking the Minister to consider making antigen tests available for all parents and their children to be used prior to going to school as a supplement to the existing testing and tracing regime in second-level schools Mr Dennehy added. The ASTI will also be calling for the speedy rollout of Hepa filtration units. It beggars belief that almost two years into this pandemic this basic facility is not in place where necessary. A Senator representing County Kildare has welcomed the Housing Minister Darragh O' Brien's newly expanded loan scheme. Minister OBrien's newly expanded Local Authority Home Loan scheme will see the income ceiling for a single applicant rising by 15,000 to 65,000 in Kildare. Fianna Fail Senator Fiona OLoughlin said about the announcement: "I am pleased to see Kildare included in the expansion of the Local Authority Home Loan Scheme: supporting home ownership is a key objective for this Government." "In Housing for All, our new Plan for housing in Ireland we as a Government and as a party committed to introducing a reformed Local Authority Home Loan scheme to further support access to homeownership for creditworthy homebuyers who otherwise find it difficult to access sufficient finance." She continued: "I am pleased to be informed by the Minister that the new regulations will make it easier for single people to avail of a State backed mortgage for a new, second-hand or self-build home. I believe the Fresh Start principle, which is something we have being discussing within the party for some time, will broaden the opportunities for people who are divorced or separated and have no interest in the family home, or who have undergone insolvency proceedings." "This is a very welcome announcement for us in South Kildare, with Minister OBrien now raising the income ceiling for a single applicant by 15,000 to 65,000 in Kildare; this is in addition to the enhancements which were made to the scheme last September." Fiona concluded by saying that, previously, she would speak to would-be homeowners who have good jobs, good income and good credit, but due to bank lending limits they are unable to get their foot on the property ladder. "(For this reason) I am happy to see Minister OBrien listening to my calls and taking action on this." In related news, last week, Senator Fiona O' Loughlin joined a number of Kildare representatives in saying that access to antigen tests should not be impaired by cost barriers. Housing charity Peter McVerry Trust is looking for derelict properties across the country to transform and help alleviate Ireland's homeless problem. The charity is working with a number of local authorities in the country and is now looking to source more suitable properties in towns and villages across the country. The are particularly looking for derelict buildings in town centre locations which they can transform into social housing. The Peter McVerry Trust has urged owners of derelict commercial or residential buildings to contact them The national housing and homeless charity is involved in delivering social housing in a number of counties including Tipperary and Mayo. Pat Doyle, CEO of Peter McVerry Trust, said We are delighted to be able to help meet the housing needs of people impacted by homelessness in Co Tipperary. We have been working closely with the council to understand the need that exists locally and how best we can be of support to people in the county. We are now working on developing housing pathways to ensure people can exit hostels and B&Bs and get the wraparound supports they need once housed". We are working to turn vacant properties in towns and cities across Ireland into social housing through the Repair and Leasing scheme. If you own a vacant property and would like to work with us, please get in touch, emptyhomes@pmvtrust.ie pic.twitter.com/DLHG14Jdkd Peter McVerry Trust (@PMVTrust) December 26, 2021 Mr Doyle says the charity is already working on providing housing units in the county: "In partnership with Tipperary County Council, we have secured our first project in the county which consists of four one-bedroom units in Cashel. Given that one-bedroom homes are the type that are most needed and yet the hardest to come by, our focus on one-bedroom units will allow us to help move single people and couples out of homelessness and help vital projects such as Housing First. We are now working on progressing other opportunities in Tipperary. "We are looking at any possible opportunities to grow the number of homes we can provide, particularly the number of one-bedroom homes. This includes long-term vacant buildings, commercial properties that can be converted to residential, or vacant sites with planning permission. "Wed encourage anyone that has a property, which would be suitable for social housing, to contact us so that we can secure more housing options to help tackle homelessness," Mr Doyle said. The homeless charity recently worked on a family home just outside Castlebar in Mayo, which saw a long-term vacant house brought back into use. The charity is also working on 13 units located in Ballina town centre. leitrimobserver.ie recently ran a poll asking our readers 'Do you think Leitrim schools should open this week?" And it appears many parents are not happy with the the idea of schools re-opening in light of the huge number of confirmed Covid cases in recent days. In fact 254 parents said no to our poll question while 145 believe schools should re-open. To have your say in our poll go to https://www.leitrimobserver.ie/poll/home/714277/reader-poll-do-you-think-leitrim-schools-should-open-this-week.html Meanwhile a leading teachers' union is seeking a "delayed and staggered reopening" of schools at a meeting with the Department of Health today (January 4) due to safety concerns. The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has warned that reopening schools without introducing additional safety measures would be an unacceptable risk. The union, which represents around 18,500 secondary teachers, met yesterday to assess the return of schools as Covid-19 cases hit record highs, fuelled by the Omicron variant. The meeting heard that there is unease among members around the safety of staff and pupils. The ASTI is deeply concerned that the Minister for Education may re-open schools without putting in place additional measures necessary to safeguard the health and safety of students and school staff the union said in a statement. Novartis AG said Tuesday that a U.S. appeals court has upheld the exclusivity of its multiple-sclerosis blockbuster drug Gilenya. In August 2020, a U.S. federal court in Delaware blocked Chinese drugmaker HEC Pharma Co. from selling a generic version of the drug until the expiration of the Gilenya patent in December 2027, the Swiss company said. This decision confirms the validity of the patent and allows that injunction to remain in place," Novartis said. With this decision, Novartis confirms that it expects no generic versions of Gilenya in the U.S. market for at least the next two years," it said. Novartis has already entered into settlement agreements with filers for a generic version of Gilenya, though they will not be able to launch a version before an agreed-upon date prior to December 2027. The potential generic entry date is confidential, the Basel-based company said. France implemented shorter isolation times for vaccinated people exposed to Covid-19 on Monday, as European countries continued to adapt their self-isolation rules to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant while trying to keep workers available in vital areas such as healthcare. Vaccinated people in France who test positive for Covid-19 must now isolate for seven days, rather than 10, and can end the isolation after five days if they test negative and have had no symptoms for 48 hours. Vaccinated people no longer need to self-isolate if a contact has the virus but must get tested immediately and conduct follow-up tests at home. Since Jan. 1, Italy has exempted vaccinated people from quarantine in some circumstances. Germany is also debating looser quarantine rules for critical workers and those who have had a vaccine booster shot. The moves show the continued efforts of European governments to avoid lockdowns for fully vaccinated people while focusing restrictions on the unvaccinated. They worry that the Omicron variant could bring parts of the economy to a halt if large numbers of Europeans have to quarantine at home after they or their contacts test positive. Covid-19 infections in France are spiking, up 131% over the last week to an average of more than 162,000 a day, according to figures published Sunday evening. In response, France is tightening some social-distancing rules. From Monday, those who can work remotely must work from home at least three or four days a week. Bars and restaurants can only serve drinks to people who are seated. And children over the age of six must now wear masks everywhere that teens and adults do, including on the streets of Paris. Frances National Assembly is set Monday to continue to debate a new bill to convert the countrys health pass, which shows that a person is vaccinated, has recovered from the virus or has tested negative, into a vaccine pass. This would effectively require vaccination against Covid-19 for a range of daily activities, from eating out to taking trains. Germanys government will decide on Friday whether to shorten the 14-day quarantine period for people infected with the Omicron variantor their close contactswho work in critical infrastructure such as hospitals or power plants, as well as those who have received three vaccine shots. The government hasnt decided how much to shorten the isolation period by. Isolation for people exposed to the Delta variant can be as short as seven days. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said the government is also considering new social-distancing restrictions to slow the spread of the Omicron variant. Dr. Lauterbach warned that letting Omicron spread to reach a higher level of population immunity, as is policy in some countries, would be dangerous in Germany because of the relatively high number of unvaccinated elderly people. The cases will multiply quickly, affecting many unvaccinated who are not protected," Dr. Lauterbach said. That makes me very worried." Covid infections in Germany, which have fallen sharply since mid-December, appear to be rebounding again. The seven-day average of daily detected infections rose to 29,000 on Monday, around one-third higher than a week ago. But Dr. Lauterbach said the numbers were likely an underestimate due to data-reporting delays. Throughout the pandemic, Germanys authorities have stood out among developed countries in struggling to generate timely and reliable Covid-19 data, reflecting a lack of coordination across its federal system of government, as well as a lack of information technology in its public administration, which often relies on fax machines. Delayed and incomplete data have eroded German public confidence in official figures about the pandemic, according to a survey published on Monday. Some 57% of the surveyed said that they dont trust official infection numbers, according to the poll by Insa for the newspaper Bild. Italy too has eased self-isolation rules since the beginning of the year. People who have been vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 in the previous four months no longer need to self-isolate if a close contact tests positive, provided they themselves have no symptoms of illness. Italys government is considering making vaccination or recovery from Covid-19 a condition for entering all workplaces. A decision could come on Wednesday. Italys total new infections over the past week shot up to around 680,000, more than double the number in the previous week, in a sign that the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly in the country. Long queues in front of testing hubs and pharmacies have become a common sight. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text One man died and another was hospitalized after their car slammed into the back of a dump truck at a Brooklyn intersection early Tuesday and drag racing is being eyed as a possible cause, police said. Police at the scene of fatal crash at Morgan Ave. and Division St. in Brooklyn Tuesday morning. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News) The silver Infiniti Q50 sedan driver rear-ended the truck on Morgan Ave. near Division Place in East Williamsburg about 1 a.m., cops said. The impact left the car a twisted wreck. Advertisement The driver was pulled from the crushed car and taken to Bellevue Hospital but couldnt be saved. Cops were trying to determine his identity. The silver sedan driver was nearing Division Place and Morgan Ave. in East Williamsburg when he rear-ended the truck about 1 a.m., cops said. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News) A 21-year-old man pulled from the wrecks rear seat was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center and was expected to recover, cops said. Advertisement The driver of the dump truck was not hurt, police said. A Honda traveling alongside the Infiniti managed to avoid the crash and sped off north on Morgan Ave. without stopping, a police source said. Police suspect the Infiniti and the Honda were drag racing at the time of the crash. By Jean Chen Ho Viking. 288 pp. $26 - - - Jean Chen Ho's short story collection "Fiona and Jane" follows two Taiwanese American women over the course of their 20-year friendship. The pair meet in a Los Angeles classroom in second grade after Jane emigrates from Taiwan. These childhood friends' lives swing away from each other only to crash together again and again, exemplifying the realities of messy millennial womanhood. The collection's themes are broad yet intricately rendered. The book opens with three stories that ground the reader in the disparate struggles that will haunt each of the women throughout her life. In "The Night Market," Jane is 18 and visiting her father in Taiwan. Her mission is to bring him back to Los Angeles, where she lives with her mother, and where Jane believes her father belongs. However, her plans are thwarted with the arrival of her father's longtime friend Lee, with whom her father is in love. This revelation of queer love is doubly confusing for young Jane, who has recently begun a romantic relationship with her female piano teacher. But by the time Jane is ready to come to terms with her queer identity, her father is dead. "Go Slow" focuses on the pair's teen years as they drink in a Koreatown strip mall and contend with the vulnerability of their bodies. "The Inheritance" highlights the class differences between Jane and Fiona as Fiona comes into an unexpected sum of money that allows her to follow her writer boyfriend, Jasper, to New York City while Jane stays behind. Over the years, there are career switches and divorces. Fiona, on the cusp of 30, moves back in with her parents; Jane navigates queer shame. They do nothing on society's strict timetable. In fact, "Fiona and Jane" celebrates a woman's ability to be late, to show up in their own lives when and where they want to, to change their minds, to be lonely and to be in love, and to be respected regardless. Through "Fiona and Jane," Ho honors the hours put into a relationship, while also acknowledging the ways in which our lives are irreversibly changed by short-term engagements. The collection explores the dichotomy between deep and lengthy bonds, like Jane and Fiona's, and fleeting encounters with lovers, fair-weather friends, colleagues, even parents. In the collection's titular story, 27-year-old former Marine Julian, who struggles with PTSD and suicidal ideation, serves as a vehicle for a 37-year-old Jane to work through her persistent guilt over her father's death. Jane and Julian's bizarre and brief relationship signifies the power of being close to someone ostensibly different but emotionally similar, and the piercing impact of these ephemeral encounters. Julian and Jane view the work of an artist who documents everyday life in telegrams and postcards. The words that the artist writes become a mantra for resilience and connection between the couple: "I got up today. I am still alive. I am still alive." Fiona and Jane, too, take life one day at a time, tapping in and out with each other as they plod along. The collection ends with the two women at 37, no more "resolved" than they were at 17. By concluding with Fiona and Jane as works in progress, Ho asserts that resolution is a pointless life goal. Instead, we are left with the beautiful tangle of two lives in the midst of being lived. - - - Rosa Boshier is a writer and artist whose work has appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books, the Guardian and Vice, among other publications. Mitchell County Sheriffs Office COLORADO CITY, Texas (AP) The ex-boyfriend of the mother of a 13-year-old West Texas girl reported missing more than a decade ago has been indicted for murder in the girl's death. The Mitchell County grand jury indicted Shawn Casey Adkins, 36, of Big Spring, Texas, on a murder count Thursday in the death of Hailey Dunn. Adkins has been in Mitchell County Detention Center since his arrest last June with bonds totaling $1.25 million. Jail records did not list an attorney for Adkins. Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News More than 1,000 staff members did not return to work at Northside Independent School District on Monday, January 3, the same day classes resumed after winter break. NISD spokesperson Barry Perez tells MySA about 926 of 1,260 people out are believed to be teacher positions. NISD has around 13,000 employees, Perez says. He adds the absences could have been for many reasons, such as seasonal allergies, family illness, and COVID-19-related illness. The average substitute fill rate is about 80 percent on a normal day (meaning about 80 percent of teachers find a sub) but ran significantly lower at 58 percent on Monday, Perez says. A Staten Island man is accused of killing an acquaintance as they traveled through Yonkers, shooting him in the head to settle a longstanding beef over cash and a romantic rivalry. The arrest Monday of Eric Williams, 22, ended a mystery that began June 20, when police found a man bleeding from his head about 5 a.m. on Bronx River Road, a residential street overlooking the Bronx River Expressway. Advertisement The man, who had been shot in the head, died at an area hospital. Eric Williams, 22 (Yonkers Police Department) The victim was later identified as Jabree West, also 22, of Delaware, and police learned about Williams after tracing Wests movements ahead of the shooting. Both young men had ties to Delaware and knew each other, cops said. Advertisement According to police, both young men traveled together to Mount Vernon, Westchester County, and crossed into Yonkers, where Williams allegedly shot West, possibly while they looked for a car service. Afterward, Williams fled, at one point returning to Delaware, cops said. Yonkers police spokesman Detective Lt. Dean Politopoulos described the slaying as the violent culmination of several disputes between them over personal matters, and said the fights involved money, and an old shared love interest. Police on Staten Island arrested Williams on Dec. 19, after finding him with a loaded Glock 23 handgun in his jacket pocket, according to a criminal complaint. He was ordered held on Rikers Island, then transferred to Yonkers Criminal Court, where he was arraigned on a murder charge. The Baggs Jazz Project will be playing Attitudes on Wednesday and then at Stamps on Jan. 8. The band includes (left) Sergey Dumphrey on drums, Jordan Heburn with vocals, Paul LaGreca on saxophone, Charlie Baggett on keys and vocals the leader of the group and his big brother Jake Baggett playing guitar. The group plays covers and originals and loves Josh Vacanti. (Photography by Benjamin Joe) Lena Ann "Lee Ann" Enzinna, age 77 of the City of Tonawanda, April 28, 2022. Lee Ann was a 1962 graduate of Tonawanda High School and a graduate of Buffalo State Teachers College. She had been employed by Roswell Park Cancer Inst. for many years. Daughter of the late Samuel F. Sr. and Lena E Hospitals are suspending elective care amid growing pressure on the health system from Covid-19, the HSE chief has said. Today (January 4), Paul Reid said that it remained unclear when Ireland would reach the peak of the current wave of the virus. The Omicron variant has caused record numbers of cases in the country over recent days. Man fined 100 following altercation outside Longford post office A fine of 100 was imposed on a defendant who got into an altercation with another man outside the Post Office in Longford town. Mr Reid said that hospitals would be suspending elective care, due to growing pressure from Covid-19. Many hospitals were already suspending elective care with the pressures theyre under, he said. Confirming that the HSE will rely on the help of some private hospitals, he told RTE radio: The reality of it is we will have to suspend, in many cases, elective care. That decision, he said, will be monitored over the next two weeks. The growing pressure is mirrored in the Covid-19 testing system. Here are today's walk-in #COVIDVaccine clinics. We're operating walk-in clinics for dose 1 and dose 2, and booster vaccine clinics for healthcare workers, people over 30 and some clinics for 16-29s. Keep an eye for updates on queueing times throughout the day. #ForUsAll pic.twitter.com/6t1rkUbrUQ HSE Ireland (@HSELive) January 4, 2022 This afternoon, teaching unions will meet with the Education Minister to discuss the reopening of schools. Government ministers have insisted that despite the high case numbers, schools would reopen as normal on Thursday (January 6). Government party leaders are also meeting to discuss the latest Covid-19 situation, following the festive period. The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) has called for a staggered approach to the reopening of schools, given the high level of the virus in the community. General secretary Kieran Christie said today that there could be chaos in some schools in the days to come without some kind of review and revision, given the threat posed by the Omicron variant. The union wants HEPA filters and medical-grade masks to be made available in schools. Update on the Booster Programme. pic.twitter.com/LsBT4hEZzH Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) January 4, 2022 Green Party junior minister, Pippa Hackett, said today she did not believe there would be chaos once schools return. Its a fearful term and I wouldnt like to think that there will be chaos on Thursday, she said. I think the overall agreement and acceptance is that we really want to do everything we can to get kids back to school and at this moment in time they will be returning to school this week. Asked on RTE radio about calls for new protective measures for teachers and pupils, she said that the Government had always listened to public health advice. She said she hoped that the meeting between trade unions and the Department of Education would deliver clarity later on. I think children have been safe in schools up until now and I think they will continue to be safe in schools. Hospitals are suspending elective care amid growing pressure on the health system from Covid-19, the HSE chief has said. On Tuesday, Paul Reid said that it remained unclear when Ireland would reach the peak of the current wave of the virus. The Omicron variant has caused record numbers of cases in Ireland over recent days. The HSE chief executive said on Tuesday that hospitals would be suspending elective care, due to growing pressure from Covid-19. Many hospitals were already suspending elective care with the pressures theyre under, he said. Confirming that the HSE will rely on the help of some private hospitals, he told RTE radio: The reality of it is we will have to suspend, in many cases, elective care. That decision, he said, will be monitored over the next two weeks. The growing pressure is mirrored in the Covid-19 testing system. Here are today's walk-in #COVIDVaccine clinics. We're operating walk-in clinics for dose 1 and dose 2, and booster vaccine clinics for healthcare workers, people over 30 and some clinics for 16-29s. Keep an eye for updates on queueing times throughout the day. #ForUsAll pic.twitter.com/6t1rkUbrUQ HSE Ireland (@HSELive) January 4, 2022 Senior HSE director Damien McCallion said on Tuesday that there continued to be a huge demand for PCR testing as Ireland copes with record levels of Covid-19 cases. He predicted that the testing system, which now has a capacity of 650,000 tests a week when PCR and antigen testing is combined, will remain under strain for at least the next week. Mr McCallion acknowledged that the actual level of cases was probably much higher than that recorded by the PCR testing system. There are definitely higher numbers of the disease out there, he said. Were seeing this globally, with all testing systems under strain given the high transmissibility of this particular variant. Mr McCallion also confirmed that there were 30,000 registrations on the first day of vaccine registration for children aged five to 11. I think what our experience tells us from looking at the 12 to 17 uptake is that its a much slower process, and we understand that because parents will want to have the information, they will want to talk to their child, consult with others, perhaps. And what we would encourage parents to do is to do that, to look at trusted sources of information thats really important. Mr McCallion also said that be believed Ireland had a sufficient supply of antigen tests. We certainly have sufficient numbers on the supply chain through January. So were hoping that well get through, but like all of our systems, as demand increases, thats something well have to track and monitor on an almost daily basis at the moment, he told RTE radio. Health and safety must be the priority for re-opening schools https://t.co/ptG4qAtrQw ASTI (@astiunion) January 3, 2022 On Tuesday afternoon, teaching unions will meet with the Education Minister to discuss the reopening of schools. Government ministers have insisted that despite the high case numbers, schools would reopen as normal on Thursday. The Government party leaders are also meeting to discuss the latest Covid-19 situation, following the festive period. The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland has called for a staggered approach to the reopening of schools, given the high level of the virus in the community. General secretary Kieran Christie said on Tuesday that there could be chaos in some schools in the days to come without some kind of review and revision, given the threat posed by the Omicron variant. The union wants HEPA filters and medical-grade masks to be made available in schools. Michael Gillespie, general secretary of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), said that one size does not fit all. I think we are going to have schools that may be able to fully open on Thursday, because we dont know the actual effect in each school. We could have a school where there might be 20% of the staff missing and they may have been able to source some, and there may be no effect. But there may be schools that have 25% or 30% missing and then tough decisions may have to be made in those schools. Were talking about being based on a school-by-school basis, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all across the country. He added: I think it is important that every school opens with whatever restrictions may have to be applied based on the staffing thats available. A school has to open and it has to be open not just with the health and safety about Covid, but other health and safety restrictions there. There has to be teachers to teach in front of class. Colm O Rourke, principal of St Patricks Classical School in Navan in Meath, said that schools should be opened on hope rather than fear. The realities of the school situation is that teachers of exam subjects may be out more than other classes, so each school would be better to make judgments themselves on a day-to-day basis on what you are able to bring in, and I would hope that we would be able to bring in everybody, he added. Update on the Booster Programme. pic.twitter.com/LsBT4hEZzH Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) January 4, 2022 On Tuesday, Green Party junior minister Pippa Hackett said she did not believe there would be chaos once schools return. Its a fearful term and I wouldnt like to think that there will be chaos on Thursday, she said. I think the overall agreement and acceptance is that we really want to do everything we can to get kids back to school and at this moment in time they will be returning to school this week. Asked on RTE radio about calls for new protective measures for teachers and pupils, she said that the Government had always listened to public health advice. She said she hoped that the meeting between trade unions and the Department of Education would deliver clarity later on Tuesday. I think children have been safe in schools up until now and I think they will continue to be safe in schools. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly tweeted new figures on Tuesday showing that Ireland has now administered 2.2 million boosters and third doses. Health officials say they are concerned over the lag effect between a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases and the number of people admitted to hospital with the virus. Health Service Executive (HSE) boss Paul Reid said there are no indications that Ireland is at the peak of the current wave of Covid cases. It comes as the HSE said there is a need for a focus on Covid services for the next two weeks. In a letter to health service managers, Mr Reid said that where there are staff shortages in Covid-related services, staff must be redeployed from other areas to provide support. Medical face masks are the common blue disposable masks that are widely available. Wear them if you are:self-isolatingliving with or caring for someone who has COVID-19at higher risk of getting seriously ill if you get COVID-19aged 70 or morehttps://t.co/YNHCIvukf0 pic.twitter.com/knonG1ouMl HSE Ireland (@HSELive) January 3, 2022 Mr Reid urged health managers to prioritise unplanned Covid care. Speaking to RTE News At One, Mr Reid said the number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 has jumped from 360 to 884 in 10 days. He said there are a significant number of health staff off work with Covid-related sickness. Speaking about the letter, he added: It does set out clear priorities for all of the services to focus on, and they are simply time-dependent care, which is really important, emergency care, Covid-related care. Importantly, for us keeping testing and tracing and indeed vaccinations resources going. It sets our priorities for this on a national basis, but also a number of steps to help us in terms resourcing. Members of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) previously warned that hospital numbers could peak at more than 2,000. We are all trying to avoid getting to where we were last January of 2021. In essence, we have 2,020 people in hospital and 220 people in ICU, Mr Reid added. The numbers have escalated certainly in the last few days and have been a real level of concern. Thankfully we havent seen that transmission to ICU. What they are dealing with at the moment are Delta-related long-term cases. But we still dont know that kind of lag effect between those sharp rises and hospitalisations and if thats a severity which transmits into ICU. That is our concern in the coming weeks in particular. Epidemiology of intensive care admissions in cases (aged 15 years and older) of COVID-19 in Ireland updated report published https://t.co/ErqUvz4VOF pic.twitter.com/3yimEVNayB HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) (@hpscireland) January 4, 2022 Mr Reid said there are no indications Ireland is at the peak of case numbers, but added that the severity of the Omicron variant is not as strong at an individual level. He warned the force of impact from the volume of cases could pose a real threat to the health system. He said the health service could suffer a further blow as a result of high numbers of staff not being able to attend work. Nobody wants to end up in hospital with Covid and thats the reality for all of us, he added. The early indications, which we should take some level comfort from, is that the level of severity is not as strong. But, again, we would rather see over the next week what transmits from those cases now to ICU, to have a clearer picture on that. There are mounting calls for government leaders to allow schools to open on an individual basis after one local politician revealed he has been "inundated" with calls from worried parents over growing Covid-19 case numbers. Fine Gael Cllr Garry Murtagh said a large number of parents have been in contact to express their fears over the proposed reopening of the State's first and second level education sector on Thursday. "There is an obvious high level of anxiety among students, parents and teachers alike at this time and I feel it would be prudent to keep schools closed until this wave of the deadly virus has abated," he said. The north Longford representative said the most pressing concern at second level establishments across the county was the uncertainty which was being felt by Leaving Cert students ahead of June's anticipated State examinations. Cllr Murtagh urged Education Minister Norma Foley to assuage much of those fears by extending the same option offered to students last year in choosing between predictive grades or sitting their exams in five months time. If schools do open this week even for exam classes there will be a huge level of absences in both the teaching and student communities, resulting in Leaving Cert students being disadvantaged when exam time comes so this needs to be addressed immediately," he said. Cllr Murtagh said he intended writing to the minister to relay the concerns of parents as well as "some teachers and students" who have been in contact with him over the past number of days. The Fine Gael councillor's remarks are expected to precede a crunch meeting of government leaders this lunchtime in light of increasing pressure from teachers' unions. The education minister is due to hold fresh talks with union chiefs after the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) called for the planned reopening of schools this week to be delayed and staggered. The General Secretary of the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) has, meanwhile, called for clarity on isolation measures so that it can be determined if schools can reopen on Thursday. Strong alcohol will no longer be sold at "pocket money prices" as a new law to deter binge drinking takes effect today (January 4). That's according to Junior Health Minister, Frankie Feighan, who commented on the introduction of the minimum unit pricing. He said, We are taking this action to ensure that cheap strong alcohol is not available to children and young people at pocket money prices and to help those who drink to harmful levels to reduce their intake. The minimum unit price of 10 cents per gram of alcohol is provided under the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 The move has been welcomed by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, who said, Today Ireland joins a small number of countries in the world to introduce minimum pricing. This measure is designed to reduce serious illness and death from alcohol consumption and to reduce the pressure on our health services from alcohol related conditions. It worked in Scotland and I look forward to it working here. Longford town retains its top ten status in latest litter survey Longford has cemented its position among the top ten cleanest towns in the country. The move is expected to impact more on alcohol sold in supermarkets and off licences, rather than pubs, restaurants and night clubs. It will mean an average bottle of wine cannot be sold for under 7.40 euros, while a can of beer will cost at least 1.70 euros. Spirits will see the biggest jump in price, with vodka and gin set to cost a minimum of 20.70 euros, while whiskey will rise to at least 22 euro. Ireland has joined the likes of Scotland, Wales, the Russian Federation and parts of Australia and Canada introducing the move. Scotland was the first in Europe to introduce it in 2018, followed by Wales in 2020. A pregnant mother-of-three and the man accused of fatally shooting one Illinois police officer and wounding another could face the death penalty in connection with the deadly violence. While Illinois does not typically carry out executions, prosecutors can file a petition with the U.S. Attorney Generals Office seeking the death penalty in certain federal murder cases. Advertisement Kankakee County States Attorney Jim Rowe announced he would submit such a request on Monday during a bond hearing for 26-year-old Xandria Harris. She was charged alongside Darius Sullivan for the shooting death of 49-year-old Bradley police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic and critically wounding her 27-year-old partner, Officer Tyler Bailey Wednesday night. This combo of images released by the Illinois State Police, shows Darius D. Sullivan, left, and Xandria A. Harris. (AP) Both officers were responding to a report regarding dogs barking inside an unattended vehicle, parked at the time outside Comfort Inn in Kankakee County. According to Rowe, Sullivan fired off several rounds shortly after the pair of deputies knocked on the door of their hotel room amid their search for the dog owners. Advertisement Darius Sullivan fired two shots from what we believe was Sgt. Rittmanics service weapon, striking Sgt. Rittmanic in or about the throat and or neck, Rowe told the court. Bradley Police Department Sergeant Marlene Rittmanic, 49, of Kankakee, Illinois, was killed in the line-of-duty on Dec. 29, 2021 at the Comfort Inn on Rt 50 in Bradley, Ill. (Bradley Police Department) Rowe also explained how Harris, Sullivans girlfriend at the time, helped disarm Rittmanic, calling her equally responsible for the fatal gunfire, WLS reported. Sgt. Rittmanic was pleading with them to just leave, you dont have to do this, please just go. Please dont. Please dont, Rowe said. Throughout the entire interaction, she was pleading for her life. Rittmanic was pronounced dead after the shooting while Bailey remained in a Chicago-area hospital on Tuesday. The States Attorney also intends to seek life sentences for both Sullivan and Harris as the existing state-level charges proceed, Rowe said. Judge Kathy Bradshaw Elliott, during the hearing on Monday, dubbed Harris a real threat to community and denied her bail. Sullivan, who was taken into custody in Indiana, meanwhile is fighting extradition charges to Illinois. With News Wire Services School & Education, Community, Charity & Cause By Chris Boyle Published: January 04 2022 New York State has awarded $900 million to nearly 15,000 child care providers in first-of-its-kind initiative to shore up the child care industry. Governor Kathy Hochul has announced New York State's success in awarding $900 million in Child Care Stabilization Grants to child care programs statewide, including $118,922,360 to Long Island. The grants are part of a $2.3 billion package of investments in New York State's child care industry funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act and Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act. The Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) awarded funding to nearly 15,000 eligible child care providers over four months, from August through November. "Child care is the backbone of our economy, and this transformative investment is critical to building our economic recovery," Governor Hochul said. "This funding is a lifeline to providers and helps ensure New Yorkers have access to quality child care across the state. I am proud of our success in getting these funds out the door to the essential workers who care for our youngest." The funds are being administered by OCFS to cover the costs of personnel, rent or mortgage, utilities, facility maintenance or improvements, personal protective equipment, supplies needed to respond to COVID-19, goods and services needed to maintain or resume child care services, mental health supports for children and employees, health and safety training for staff, and more. OCFS Commissioner Sheila J. Poole said, "I commend Governor Hochul for her commitment to investing in child care and supporting an industry that supports all other businesses. This is a long overdue recognition of the foundational role child care plays in our economy. I look forward to our continued efforts to reopen, rebuild and revitalize child care in New York State to support every working family who relies upon it." OCFS is grateful to its partners across New York State who assisted child care providers in applying for the grants, including OCFS-organized application assistance for providers statewide through Child Care Resource and Referral agencies, the Civil Service Employees Association, United Federation of Teachers, and Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation. The Early Care and Learning Council was contracted to help coordinate this vital assistance statewide. Arts & Culture By Ls Cohen Published: January 04 2022 Dating back to the early late 19th century, the railroad station has a lot of history. The Ronkonkoma railroad station has a history that is almost as long as the Long Island Rail Road itself. The station is the terminus of track electrification, although plans are for that to change. It also was created to replace not one but three other stations in the late 1800s. Want to catch a train from Ronkonkoma Station? Check out the train schedule by clicking here. We compiled some interesting facts about the Ronkonkoma Station below. How many did you know? History Before Ronkonkoma Station, Lake Road Station was built in 1843 It was named Lake Road Station as it was located on Lake Road, which is now Pond Road According to a history website , by 1850 Lake Road Station was moved to the Dr. E. F. Peck General Store on the northwest corner of what is today Ocean Avenue and Lakeland Street The same site says that the original Lake Road Station operated simultaneously with the one at the general store on Ocean Avenue Lake Road Station was eventually renamed Lake Station Lake Station was phased out and no record of the original station's existence can be found after 1857 At some point Lake Road Station or the second station at the general store was referred to as Lakeland Station Ronkonkoma Station was originally called Lake Ronkonkoma Station Lake Ronkonkoma Station was built in 1883 to replace the original Lake Road Station/Lakeland Station It replaced both Lakeland Station and another station built in 1853 called Hermanville At the time, Hermanville served a community along the south side of the tracks By 1860, Hermanville Station was no longer on maps The word "Lake" was dropped from the station name eventually The station house caught fire in 1933 A temporary building was used until September 1937, when the second Ronkonkoma station was completed The 1937 station was used for storage until it was torn down in 1994 The current station was designed by architect Richard Henry Behr In 2018, a project to complete 13-miles of new second track was completed between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma Previously, there was a single track along this route causing what the railroad called a significant risk to reliable service and on-time performance in the event of a service disruption. The double track project cost $431 million General Facts It is 48.5 miles from Ronkonkoma Station to Penn Station, according to the LIRR It was estimated that the entire Ronkonkoma LIRR line carried 9,841,068 passengers in 2018 According to the LIRR, the Ronkonkoma Station serves approximately 15,021 passengers each weekday The Ronkonkoma Station has its own Yelp review page The design for the train station is known as the Spanish Solution Ronkonkoma is a major railroad station and transportation hub along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road in Ronkonkoma, New York It is the eastern terminus of the Ronkonkoma Branch and the western terminus of the Greenport Branch The parking garage was built in 1996 on a former freight spur As of May 2011, Ronkonkoma station had a total of about 6,100 parking spaces The opening of East Side Access into Grand Central Terminal is expected to enable an increase in service on the Ronkonkoma Branch during the AM rush by almost 50% Main Line Electrification In 1987 Ronkonkoma Station became the eastern terminus of Main Line electrification According to a New York Times article , a rush hour trip from Ronkonkoma to Penn Station decreased from about 97 minutes, including changing trains in Jamaica to 71 minutes After electrification, ridership dramatically increased on the Ronkonkoma line The New York Times said that in a survey conducted by the railroad that among peak-hour train riders 42% were new to the branch, 34% switched from another one, 6% were new riders on the LIRR and 2% were returned riders The railroad estimated that there was increase of over 2,000 new passengers during the morning rush hour Ronkonkoma Station Train Yard All tracks at Ronkonkoma Yard are powered The yard is usually full after rush hour According to amodernli.com , the LIRR completed a planned expansion of the Ronkonkoma Yard and built a new employee facility there in November 2020 The expanded yard and new employee facility is now known as the LIRR Mid-Suffolk Train Storage Yard The expansion will support the planned increase in rail service with the opening of East Side Access into Grand Central Terminal The yard will provide additional space to store, maintain, inspect, clean, repair and service electric train cars It now contains 22 total tracks, each with capacity for a 12-car train Newsday reported that the new yard is about 30 acres, more than twice as big as the original Ronkonkoma Yard The yard expanded onto wooded land belonging to Long Island MacArthur Airport The expansion cost $136 million Bonus: Check out this cool old photo of a train in Ronkonkoma from the 1960s. And this photo from 1981. Ensure you get a print copy of the Loudoun Times-Mirror delivered weekly to your home or business! Complete online access is included with all print subscriptions purchased online. Plus, up to four other members of your household can share online access through this subscription with their own, individual linked accounts at no additional charge. (Are you a current advertiser? Ask your sales rep for our special advertiser rate code!) Biome Technologies - Southampton-based plastic material and resin manufacturing company - Says its Stanelco RF Technologies division has won a GBP535,000 contract to supply 12 radio frequency heating systems into the food packaging sector in Europe. Biome did not name the client. The company added that revenue stage payments will be received against milestones through the first half of 2022. Current stock price: 347.00 pence, up 12% in London 12-month change: up 45% By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Sharecast News) - London stocks kicked off the new year in style on Tuesday, with travel shares pacing the gains as investors welcomed signs that Omicron is less severe than previous Covid variants.At midday, the FTSE 100 was up 1.3% at 7,483.69, having taken its cue from a positive session on Wall Street, which saw the Dow and the S&P hit record highs. Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "With yet more indications that Omicron, though highly infectious, does not cause such serious illness, a wave of relief is pushing up companies which have been hit by worries about tighter restrictions." As far as the travel sector is concerned, she said "there is clearly expectation that bookings will have got a rocket boost from hopes that this latest spike of infection will flatten relatively quickly". "With so many people in the short-term being forced to isolate at home, it's likely many people will be spending the next few weeks browsing travel blogs for inspiration, given there is so much desperation for a holiday around." Travel-related stocks were the standout gainers, with BA and Iberia owner IAG the top riser on the FTSE 100. Engine maker Rolls-Royce, Premier Inn owner Whitbread, InterContinental Hotels, Carnival, easyJet, Wizz, Tui and SSP were all sharply higher. The sector also got a boost after Wizz Air said December capacity soared by almost 200% year on year, reflecting eased Covid-19 restrictions. Events business Informa racked up healthy gains, along with GKN owner Melrose. On the downside, Dechra Pharmaceuticals was under the cosh after an initiation at 'neutral' by Exane BNP Paribas, which highlighted a "particularly punchy valuation" despite short-term upside risks. Market Movers FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,483.69 1.34% FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,921.08 1.88% techMARK (TASX) 4,592.87 0.30% FTSE 100 - Risers International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 160.10p 12.37% Informa (INF) 542.60p 5.03% M&G (MNG) 208.90p 4.71% Melrose Industries (MRO) 167.40p 4.69% BP (BP.) 345.60p 4.57% Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,686.20p 3.93% Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,685.00p 3.90% HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 465.70p 3.80% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 127.54p 3.79% Whitbread (WTB) 3,107.00p 3.74% FTSE 100 - Fallers Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 5,035.00p -5.45% Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,601.00p -4.59% Fresnillo (FRES) 858.40p -3.85% AstraZeneca (AZN) 8,498.00p -2.07% Polymetal International (POLY) 1,289.00p -1.72% Croda International (CRDA) 9,976.00p -1.42% Admiral Group (ADM) 3,113.00p -1.39% Rentokil Initial (RTO) 577.00p -1.20% Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,840.50p -1.05% SEGRO (SGRO) 1,422.50p -0.97% FTSE 250 - Risers Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 4,712.00p 12.51% easyJet (EZJ) 622.80p 12.01% TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 256.50p 10.85% Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 1,556.00p 9.58% Carnival (CCL) 1,486.60p 7.44% SSP Group (SSPG) 255.20p 6.29% WH Smith (SMWH) 1,572.50p 6.25% Discoverie Group (DSCV) 1,084.00p 5.65% Hammerson (HMSO) 34.58p 5.43% Energean (ENOG) 899.50p 5.20% FTSE 250 - Fallers Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 242.00p -4.35% Indivior (INDV) 248.00p -3.50% Darktrace (DARK) 406.00p -3.38% Reach (RCH) 273.00p -3.36% Softcat (SCT) 1,766.00p -2.11% Kainos Group (KNOS) 1,880.00p -1.93% Essentra (ESNT) 338.50p -1.88% Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,640.00p -1.80% Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 306.00p -1.61% Auction Technology Group (ATG) 1,494.00p -1.45% (Alliance News) - Zenith Energy Ltd said on Tuesday it has achieved record profitability following strong electricity generation at its Torrente Cigno concession in Italy. The Calgary, Canada-based oil, gas and electricity production and development company said the record levels were due to the sustainable favourable energy pricing climate. During December, the company produced a total of 1,020 megawatt hours. This was the highest production rate in the past 12 months. Electricity prices during the month averaged at EUR264 per megawatt hour, resulting in net revenue of around EUR269,000 per month. Zenith added that net production costs had remained fixed at EUR35,000 per month. In its last update on Torrente Cigno, Zenith said it had produced a total of 920 megawatt hours during October. Its average electricity price was EUR214 per megawatt hour, resulting in EUR181,500 per month in revenue. Looking forward, Chief Financial Officer Luca Benedetto said Zenith is looking to expand its Italian portfolio during 2022 through potential acquisitions and enhancing the productivity of some of its assets. Shares in Zenith were up 6.6% at 0.93 pence on Tuesday morning in London. By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. MANISTEE A local organization is looking to make a nationwide impact in its advocacy for Native American causes. Through its collaboration with tribal governments and community organizations, the Native Justice Coalition provides a platform for healing, social and racial justice by and for Native American people, according to its website. Executive director, Cecelia LaPointe says that since its founding in 2016, the coalition has sought to bring resources, initiatives and programming into tribal communities. We basically believe that in order for Native people to heal from historic trauma and racism it is important to create space to provide resources for our people to heal, LaPointe told the News Advocate. The 501(c)3 nonprofit describes itself as a progressive Anishinaabe Native-led coalition, based in Anishinaabe Aki (Michigan), according to its website. The Anishinaabe include the Odawa (Ottawa), the Ojibwe (Chippewa) and the Potawatomi and make up the 12 federally-recognized tribes and four historic tribes of Michigan, according to a 2019 coalition press release. Today, federally-recognized Anishinaabe tribes are located in Ontario, Manitoba, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Kansas and Indiana. LaPointe said the coalition counts 33 community partners that include tribal governments, colleges, anti-racism groups and other affiliated organizations. The coalition focuses its work along four key areas: healing, racial, restorative and gender justice and offers initiatives aimed at each aspect of the historic and ongoing issues impacting Indigenous communities. Each tribal community carries its own history, culture and language. Indian Country collectively faces ongoing colonization that harms the sovereignty and traditional lifeways of Native Peoples, states part of the 2019 release. The coalition also focuses its work in rural, remote and reservation communities that have traditionally seen little in the way of philanthropic contributions, LaPointe said. Over the past decade, U.S. foundation support benefiting Native Americans declined from 0.5% to 0.3% of total foundation giving, states a 2011 report from Foundation Funding for Native American Issues and Peoples. Total grant dollars targeting Native Americans dropped 30.8% in the latest year, compared to a 14.1% overall downturn in foundation giving, the report continues. The coalition, along with its various community partners, facilitates Anishinaabe Racial Justice Conferences that discuss a variety of topics impacting Native populations. Two of the conferences were held in 2018 and 2019 at the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Baraga, Mich. for Native peoples across the Great Lakes region to come together and share experiences of healing, wellness and sobriety, according to the release. What you wont hear in the mainstream or alternative news is that colonization never ended, LaPointe wrote in a 2018 article for the website Cultural Survival. If it ended we could properly address historical and generational trauma in our individual lives, families and communities. Instead we deal with racism, mascots, stereotypes and discrimination from the majority culture in addition to the issues within our own communities. One of the coalitions main initiatives is its Harm Reduction Project, which seeks to reduce the stigma around addiction and provide avenues for recovery that are grounded in Anishinaabe culture and teachings. At the Native Justice Coalition we look at the ways ongoing colonization has impacted our people and our goal with this project is to reduce stigma while emphasizing individual strengths, states the coalition website. Our approach is grassroots, community based, and has a strong Anishinaabe cultural foundation. A main concern for the coalition is fostering Native American identities. The coalition's Two-Spirit Program is aimed at decolonizing concepts of gender and identity, according to its website. Two-Spirit is an umbrella pan-Native American term (that) describes gender identity, gender expression and/or sexual orientation. Some Two-Spirit's may align with colonial LGBTQ+ identities while others may not, the website states. LaPointe however cautions that the term is not for describing non-Native people. It's a way to understand the beautiful gender variance, gender identity and or sexual orientation that exists in our communities (and) that has existed in our community, LaPointe said. It's also not for non-Native people to appropriate because so much of our culture has been taken. It's great to appreciate our culture we love that, but don't take it. The coalitions is also focused on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. As of 2016, the National Crime Information Center has reported 5,712 cases of missing Native American women and girls. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that murder is the third-leading cause of death among Indigenous women and that rates of violence on reservations can be up to ten times higher than the national average. In 2019, the coalition helped organize a billboard campaign across the Great Lakes to help raise awareness of the ongoing violence and genocide that affects Native women, girls and Two-Spirits in the U.S. and Canada, LaPoint said. Since its launch, the coalition and its allies have run the billboard in 12 locations and a total of 20 times since August 2019. The first billboards were located in Manistee and Duluth Minn. The program is part of a campaign sponsored by the Global Indigenous Council, with the support of Native American politicians including U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland and congresswoman Sharice Davids (D-KS). While the pandemic has meant setbacks in providing educational and outreach events, LaPointe remains optimistic about making a difference for Native American communities in 2022 and beyond. We're looking to have a full plate, LaPointe said, adding that current plans are to host a racial justice conference in 2022. I'm very grateful to be in this position, because it's from my heart and my spirit is for the work. It's really important I take it very seriously, LaPointe continued. MANISTEE COUNTY For over a year, local health officials have shared the latest updates in their fight against COVID-19 via regular virtual press conferences hosted by Munson Healthcare. Despite frequently changing dynamics of the ongoing pandemic, recommendations remain largely unchanged at the first such meeting of the new year: wash or disinfect hands, social distance, mask up and get vaccinated. We do know that vaccines are protective over developing serious illness and hospitalization even with the omicron variants, we would highly recommend you continue to seek that as an option, said Dr. Christine Nefcy, Chief Medical Officer of Munson Healthcare. These precautions are important to mitigate the dangers posed by new variants such as omicron, according to Dr. Nefcy. The other mitigation factors like masking, hand washing and social distancing are also effective. So there are a number of safety measures we would ask that people consider and use in order to protect both yourself and those around you against coronavirus in general and the omicron variants specifically, Nefcy said. As the super-contagious omicron variant rages across the U.S., new COVID-19 cases per day have more than tripled over the past two weeks, reaching a record-shattering average of 480,000, according to the Associated Press. Omicron accounted for 95% of new coronavirus infections in the U.S. last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday, in another indication of how astonishingly fast the variant has spread since it was first detected in South Africa in late November. Statewide there were 61,235 new cases reported from Thursday to Monday a per day increase of 12,247 cases, only slightly lower than the record of 12,929 set Dec. 30, 2021. The state also reported 298 deaths, of which 172 were identified during a regular review of the state's vital records. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been nearly 1.6 million COVID cases and 27,286 COVID deaths in the state. While Nefcy said the variant had not been sequenced in Manistee County, a recent uptick in cases suggests it is present within the region. Any data that we have about where omicron is and where it showed up is actually behind the reality, Nefcy said. So when we hear that its here in the state and understanding how contagious that particular variant is, I would absolutely say I 100% believe that it is here in northern Michigan. Mask wearing remains an important component of efforts to slow the spread of disease, but officials are recommending more specific ways on how people should go about masking. What we know about the monochrome variant is it's less droplet spread and more aerosolized, so that's part of why it's much more contagious. Nefcy said. New masking tips include the following: If you wear washable masks, choose those with multiple layers (two or more) or breathable fabric, like cotton. Discard disposable masks after one-time use. Wash your reusable mask at least once per day by hand with soap and water or in a washing machine. Avoid masks with built-in ventilators, where virus particles can escape. Winter scarves or ski masks should be worn over your mask. Men should shave or trim their beards to avoid gapping in the mask. Masks with gaps, or that fail to fully cover the nose and mouth, are ineffective. Dont mask children under the age of 2. Nefcy noted other benefits from masking, such as protection against cold and flu, and increased warmth in winter. Nick Torney, an infectious disease pharmacist for Munson Healthcare, said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, when it comes to COVID-19 and its delta and omicron variants. When it comes to this disease state and many other viral disease states we just have really limited options when it comes to treatment of viral infections and COVID-19 is definitely one of those, Torney said. I don't think that we can rely on treatment options as much as we rely on prevention strategies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December issued an emergency use authorization for Pfizers paxlovid (nirmatrelvir tablets and ritonavir tablets, co-packaged for oral use) for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients. Torney said it is recommended to start this therapy within five days of the onset of symptoms with a five-day treatment duration. The FDA also recently approved Mercks molnupiravir through an emergency use authorization for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19. Both FDA approved treatments are for patients who are not hospitalized. These medications are in very limited supply right now, Torney said. That's expected to increase as the months progress, but we're talking in our area, less than 50 courses (to) 100 courses of therapy that's available currently. Nefcy said that increased rates of COVID-19 testing may be due to a number of factors, but that testing remains an important component in public health efforts. I think we are seeing more sick people and we're seeing more people with symptoms, Nefcy said. We're not only in a pandemic, it's also flu season. It's also RSV season, it's kind of coughing cold season, she continued. So we are seeing more people sick and we have been asking people to listen if you have any symptoms at all, please get tested. And the reason we're saying that is because we obviously are trying to temper the spread of the coronavirus and a lot of people have it so that's why the positive tests are increasing. Tiger King Joe Exotic will be resentenced on Jan. 28, a federal judge in Oklahoma ruled Monday, as his ex-pals, Jeffrey and Lauren Lowe, agreed to surrender their rights to 97 animals of endangered or threatened species. Joe Exotic is serving a 22-year sentence for his January 2020 conviction for trying to hire someone to murder an animal rights activist in Florida, as well as on 17 wildlife charges. Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage and who was the subject of a popular 2020 Netflix series, will be resentenced after a federal appeals court ruled in July that he merited a shorter sentence because the trial court should not have treated two murder-for-hire convictions separately when his prison term was calculated, and that the 22 years should be a maximum, with a potential for just 17 years. Advertisement Maldonado-Passage maintains his innocence. He is also sentenced for killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records. He is said to be delaying treatment for prostate cancer until after his resentencing. He is currently housed in a federal medical center in Butner, North Carolina. The U.S. Department of Justice Monday announced that his former friends, Jeffrey and Lauren Lowe, who took over his animals and park, have signed a consent decree agreeing to surrender their rights to 97 animals of endangered or threatened species as well as 47 others covered by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), including any present or future offspring. Advertisement FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Santa Rose County Jail in Milton, Fla., shows Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic. A federal judge in Oklahoma has set a Jan. 28, 2022, date for the resentencing of Exotic. (AP) The pair also agreed in the Dec. 23 consent decree that they will never exhibit animals again. The 97 endangered animals include 68 big cats and a jaguar, all seized from Tiger King Park in Thackerville, Oklahoma, last May and August. The Lowes were accused of harming and harassing the animals. One of the tigers living at the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park is pictured at the park in Wynnewood, Okla. (Sue Ogrocki/AP) The decree and judgment stem from November 2020 charges against the Lowes and the two business entities alleging that they had illegally possessed and transported protected animals, exhibiting them without a license and placing the health of animals in serious danger, the department said. Inspectors identified numerous animals in poor health and living in substandard conditions under the Lowes care at both Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, and at Tiger King Park, in Thackerville, Oklahoma. Even after the U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended Jeffrey Lowes AWA exhibitor license, which Lowe then terminated, the two kept on going, the Justice Ddepartment said. Yet the Lowes continued to exhibit animals, both in person and for compensation via online platforms, the department said. In addition to exhibiting without a license, the Lowes did not provide timely and adequate veterinary care or nutrition, failed to maintain safe and sanitary conditions and housed animals in enclosures which were too small and exposed to the elements. With News Wire Services Rapper J $ tash allegedly shot and killed a woman in front of her three children on Saturday, in Temple City, California, before shooting himself. Authorities responded to a domestic violence call around 7:14 a.m. New Year's Day, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Inside the residence, officers found a 27-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man who were pronounced dead at the scene. According to the deputies, the female victim suffered multiple bullet wounds, while the male victim only has one apparently self-inflicted bullet wound, hinting at suicide. The suspect has been identified as J $ tash, whose legal name is Justin Joseph. The female victim has been identified as Jeanette Gallegos. According to the first reports from the authorities, the incident was reported through a call to 911 by Jeanette's children when a series of shots were fired in the house that the couple shared. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said the 911 call came from one of the girl's three children, claiming that J $ tash allegedly shot and killed her. This would have led to the suicide of the Florida native rapper. According to The Sun, the couple would have discussed their relationship in the early hours of January 1 when J $ tash took Gallegos to a master bedroom and closed the door. The Sheriff added that the three children of the deceased (ages 7, 9 and 11, respectively), knocked on the door periodically to make sure their mother was okay. However, the altercation would end in tragedy, when around 7 am, the children heard gunshots and called their grandmother, who told them to call the police. So far, the authorities are investigating the facts to find out if it was a murder-suicide. Who was J $ tash? The late rapper J $ tash was considered a promising artist in the music industry, since since the release of his first album, "Rich Bell" (2016), he began to amass a large number of fans. Following the success of his first music project, the artist released three albums including: No More Distractions, Relax With Me, and 6ix Before 7even. These successes led him to conquer social media where he managed to create a community with just over 160 thousand followers on Instagram. His social media accounts have currently been made private. A Los Angeles police officer who fatally shot a 14-year-old girl at a Burlington Coat Factory store was following active-shooter protocols, his union said Monday. In the horrifying incident Dec. 23, Officer William Jones opened fire on an assault suspect at the store, killing him. But during a search for additional suspects, police found teen Valentina Orellana-Peralta was also hit by a bullet that penetrated a dressing room wall. She died in her mothers arms. Advertisement Initial 911 calls reported a gun at the store, Los Angeles Police Protective League spokesman Tom Saggau told NBC News. And Officder William Jones, 42, had undergone mass casualty active shooter training about two weeks before the incident, Saggau said. A wreath with a picture of Valentina Orellana-Peralta, is displayed at a news conference outside Los Angeles Police Department Headquaters in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP) The conflicting 911 calls, some said hes got a bike lock, hes got a chain ... but the other information that made its way was that hes got a gun and hes shooting, Saggau told NBC News. Advertisement You can have conflicting witnesses calling 911, and the officers have to prepare for the worst-case scenario. The worst-case scenario was gun, shooting in a store, thats an active shooter protocol immediately. A police yellow tape is seen at the scene where two people were struck by gunfire in a shooting at a Burlington store part of a chain formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory in North Hollywood, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP) Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. > Retired LAPD Captain Greg Meyer, a nationally recognized expert in the use of force ,said the cops carrying such high-powered weapons was understandable considering the information they had been given. You absolutely want to have the rifle up front in this situation. Thats normal for what you believe will be an active shooter situation, he told the Los Angeles Times. When officers get the information, active shooter, shots fired, without strong evidence to the contrary, theyre going to respond as if its an active shooter, shots fired. That means going in hard and fast, basically, he told the Los Angeles Times. But several advocacy groups are calling for Williams to be arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter, KABC-TV reported. Williams, a 10-year veteran on the force, has been on administrative leave since the shooting. One of the bullets he fired at suspect Daniel Elena Lopez, 24, who was also killed, reportedly bounced off the floor and pierced the wall of the dressing room where Valentina and her mom, Soledad Peralta, were in. In video footage made available to the public, officers can be heard saying, Slow down, slow down. But they were not trying to reign in Williams specifically, Saggau told NBC News. Its a way of communicating to ensure each officer in a situation remembers to look around for potential threats from any direction, he said. The formation the officers were in was also part of the active-shooter protocol, he said. Mary C. (Hoff) Lee, 84, of Atlantic passed away Sunday, May 1, 2022, in her residence. Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Loutzenhiser-Jordan Funeral Home and Cremation Services Inc., 366-368 S. Main St., Greenville. Coping with a breakup after being together for a long time is a hard thing to do. It is even harder when exes have to work together after parting ways. However, celebrities are known to be thorough professionals who know how to keep their personal and work life different. There have been instances when various celebrities had to work with their ex-partners despite the awkwardness. However, for celebs, nothing can be worse than kissing your exes on screen. Do you agree? After breakup, the awkwardness can last for a while, but here are some celeb exes who locked lips on screen after ending their relationship. While some of them still maintain distance, others are friendly with each other. Ranbir Kapoor-Deepika Padukone Ranbir & Deepika started dating each other during their Bachna Ae Haseeno days and were together for a long time. However, they parted ways on a bitter note as the Rockstar actor was accused of cheating. Later, they decided to be cordial with each other and reunited for films like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Tamasha. In both the movies, the ex-couple locked lips on screen and their chemistry was praised by fans. Ever since the release of Tamasha in 2015, they are yet to team up for another project. Shahid Kapoor-Kareena Kapoor Khan The duo first shared screen-space in Ken Ghosh's Fida in 2004 and started dating each other. They were together for almost five years and did films like 36 China Town and Chup Chup Ke. However, they parted ways during the filming of Imtiaz Ali's Jab We Met which was released in 2007 and turned out to be a huge hit. Reportedly, Shahid and Kareena were uncomfortable on the sets post parting ways. However, they didn't let their personal equation affect the film. Jab We Met's climax scene also had a kissing scene between the exes which must have been very awkward for both of them. Ranveer Singh-Anushka Sharma Ranveer and Anushka were reportedly in a relationship during Band Baaja Baarat and Ladies Bs Ricky Bahl, however, they soon parted ways. After their break up, the duo romanced each other again in Zoya Akhtar's Dil Dhadakne Do. They both had a few intimate scenes in the multi-starrer, including a kissing scene. The film was released in 2015 and the actors haven't yet worked together since then. Ranbir Kapoor-Katrina Kaif After his breakup with Deepika, Ranbir started dating his Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani co-star Katrina Kaif. They were in a serious relationship until 2016 and various reports, at that time, even suggested that they were all set to get married. However, they broke up while shooting for Anurag Basu's Jagga Jasoos. Despite the awkwardness, they completed the film's shoot and even promoted it together. For a scene in Jagga Jasoos, the ex-couple even shared a kiss. Well, there must have been discomfort between the two while shooting for that scene, however, they deserve appreciation for being thorough professionals. Back in 2019, Akshay Kumar's interview with Prime Minister Narendra Modi had become the talk of the town. Among other things, the one question that had raised eyebrows was Akshay asking the PM about his mango eating habits. The question led to an explosion of memes on social media and recently, a clip from The Kapil Sharma Show has gone viral where Akshay and Kapil can be seen conversing about the infamous mango question. In the clip, Akshay can be seen pulling Kapils leg for asking questions using Archanas name. Kapil then instantly reminded Akshay about his question to PM Modi where he asked him about mangoes. Kapil Sharma YouTube The comedian said, Maine aapki ek interview dekhi, aap ek bahut bade politician ka interview kar rahe they main naam nahin loonga. Aap unse pooch rahe they Mere driver ka bachchan pooch raha hai ki aap aam choos ke khaate hain? (I saw an interview of yours with a renowned politician. I wont name him. But you asked him, My drivers son wants to know about your mango eating habits?). Since Kapil didnt name anyone, Akshay challenged him to name the politician he is talking about. He even said, Agar asli banda hai toh naam le (If you are a real man, take his name). Interestingly, the clip didnt make it to the final cut of the episode that was aired on TV or is streaming on the Sony LIV app. It was uploaded as a part of an uncensored bit by Kapil Sharma on his YouTube channel. The clip has gone viral on social media with many hailing Kapil Sharma for reminding Akshay about the question and trolling the superstar for challenging the comedian in such a way. One person wrote, Do not miss the end, Akshay trying to hide his parabola shaped spine by asking Kapil Asli banda hai toh naam le. Another wrote, The gall to say "asli banda hai toh". Another response read, The way he made Akshay speechless was hilarious, though! Face with tears of joy Akshay usually has something or the other up his sleeve to counter, but this time even he was rendered speechless. Take a look at the clip and some of the responses below: things are so bad even legit superstars take the 'he who must not be named' approach when it comes to modi, nevertheless, didn't know kapil sharma had it in him. pic.twitter.com/lQpUW6PEu4 Shreemi Verma (@shreemiverma) January 3, 2022 Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter As for the mango question, at the India Today Conclave in 2019, Akshay was asked about how much research went behind compiling questions for PM Modi, he responded, How much research do you think goes into asking about aam? There was no research. I asked whatever came to my mind. He further defended his lines of questions to the Prime Minister by saying, I am not the kind of guy who asks dictated questions. Just like an interviewer can ask me about paratha, I asked him about aam. A PM can eat aam, can joke, he is a normal man. The Chinese nation will not be able to rejuvenate itself without a rich and prosperous culture, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, told the Party at its 19th National Congress in 2017. Noting that Socialism with Chinese characteristics roots in Chinese culture, Xi stressed the need to combine fine traditional culture with the Marxist stand, viewpoint and approach. Drawing the essence of traditional Chinese culture, Xi, who is also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has applied them to the governance of the Party, the state, and the military. In late November 2012, shortly after the 18th CPC National Congress, Xi visited an exhibition in China's National Museum that reflected Chinese history since the First Opium War and put forward the concept of the "Chinese Dream." "National rejuvenation has been the greatest dream of the Chinese people since modern times began," he said. In 2014, while talking with teachers and students of Peking University, Xi said that core values carry the spiritual aspiration of a nation and country, and represent the standard for judging right and wrong. The core socialist values that China upholds are prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, the rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity and friendship. "These values embody the thoughts of the ancient sages," Xi told pupils while visiting a primary school in Beijing in 2014. Xi stressed efforts to creatively transform and develop traditional Chinese culture under the guidance of core socialist values to adapt the fine traditions with modern life. In Xi's eyes, China's excellent traditional culture is the root and soul of the Chinese nation. He emphasized the protection of traditional blocks, ancient buildings, the Grand Canal, grottoes, and other unique ancient relics. While presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on archaeology, Xi noted that to protect and inherit the historical and cultural heritage is to fulfill the responsibility for history and the people. Xi also values the traditional culture of ethnic minority groups. During a visit to Guizhou Province, where a large number of ethnic Miao people live, Xi lauded the villagers' efforts to use Miao embroidery to pass down ethnic and traditional culture. "What's traditional is also fashionable," Xi said. Preserving traditional culture does not equate to rigidity and isolation. Culture will thrive with exchanges. Speaking at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, in 2014, Xi used tea and beer as a metaphor for the coexistence of Eastern and Western cultures. "The Chinese people are fond of tea and the Belgians love beer," Xi said. "To me, a moderate tea drinker and a passionate beer lover represent two ways of understanding life and knowing the world, and I find them equally rewarding." "When good friends get together, they may want to drink to their heart's content to show their friendship. They may also choose to sit down quietly and drink tea while chatting about their life," Xi added. The ancient Silk Road promoted trade and communication among Eastern and Western civilizations 2,000 years ago. The Belt and Road initiative that Xi proposed in 2013 drew the wisdom of ancestors and opened up a path of opportunities for different countries to achieve common prosperity in the 21st century. Xi also encouraged Chinese artists and writers to establish a distinctive Chinese style and demeanor in world literature and art. In 2012, Mo Yan was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature, and sci-fi writer Liu Cixin won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for his bestseller "The Three-Body Problem" in 2015. The Chinese are more aware that the national rejuvenation not only refers to better livelihood but also a confident expression of its civilization. "The time-honored Chinese culture is capable of adding glory to it today and in the days to come," Xi said. ALBANY An upstate prosecutor dropped forcible touching charges against Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday, just days before the former governor was scheduled to face a judge. Albany County District Attorney David Soares said he chose not to pursue the misdemeanor charge alleging the disgraced governor groped a staffer at the Executive Mansion despite determining the complaint to be credible. Advertisement Soares said that after review of all the available evidence we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial. As such we have notified the court that we are declining to prosecute this matter and requesting the charges filed by the Albany County sheriff be dismissed, he added. Advertisement Then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (right) and Albany County District Attorney David Soares (left) (Mike Groll/AP) The decision, first reported by the Albany Times Union, comes just days before Cuomo was to be arraigned in Albany City Court. Soares raised serious concerns about the charges and the manner in which they were filed by the Albany sheriffs office months ago. In November, Soares said that his office was reviewing the case and noted that the filing could be potentially defective after the sheriffs office lodged the misdemeanor sex offense charges against Cuomo without alerting prosecutors. Front page for Aug. 11, 2021: Sex harassment scandal sinks Cuomo. Gone in two weeks; Hochul to step up. Accusers cheer; pols jockey for 2022. Make that coffee to go, Andy. Gov. Cuomo heads for helicopter to take him out of Manhattan on Tuesday, after saying he'll leave office amid a sex harassment scandal. (New York Daily News) Cuomo resigned in August following a bombshell report detailing multiple allegations of sexual harassment against him. The criminal complaint alleged that the 64-year-old Democrat groped a female aide at the governors official residence in December 2020. While the victims name is redacted in the filing, former Cuomo executive assistant Brittany Commisso has publicly accused the ex-governor of groping her. The 33-year-old told independent investigators working under state Attorney General Letitia James that Cuomo grabbed her breast when they were alone in his second-floor office at the governors mansion late last year. After shutting a door, he came back to me and thats when he put his hand up my blouse and cupped my breast over my bra, she said. I exactly remember looking down, seeing his hand, which is a large hand, thinking to myself, Oh, my God. This is happening. Advertisement Brittany Commisso (left) and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (right) Cuomo has repeatedly denied ever touching anyone inappropriately, and his legal team has alleged that James was out to ambush him as she was poised to announce her own now-abandoned gubernatorial run. [ Manhattan DA will not bring charges for Cuomo nursing home scandal ] Commissos attorney Brian Premo told the Times Union on Tuesday that he can only confirm my client had no control over the filing or prosecution of criminal charges. She had no authority or voice in those decisions, Premo said in a statement. The only thing she has any power over is her resolution to continue to speak the truth and seek justice in an appropriate civil action, which she will do in due course. Albany Sheriff Craig Apple has repeatedly defended his investigation and has blamed the courts for prematurely releasing the summons. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News) Soares decision comes after two other prosecutors declined to pursue charges against the ex-governor. Last week, Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah announced that Cuomo will not face criminal charges over two incidents in which he allegedly harassed and kissed women on the cheek. Advertisement Rocah said in a statement that an investigation by her office found credible evidence confirming the allegations, but that she would not pursue charges due to statutory legal requirements. Long Island prosecutors likewise said Cuomo wont face criminal charges after a female trooper assigned to his security detail said she felt completely violated by his unwanted touching at an event at Belmont Park in September 2019. Former New York Gov. Cuomo wont face criminal charges after a female New York State Trooper assigned to his security detail said she felt completely violated by his unwanted touching at an event at Belmont Park in September 2019. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News) Acting Nassau County District Attorney Joyce Smith said the allegations were credible and troubling but not criminal under state law. A Cuomo spokesman said he had no comment on Soares decision. Kartik Aaryan has come a long way in his cinematic career. He has made his presence felt with his performances in the recent past. He is just like any other outsider looking for his place in the industry. He followed the conventional path and moved to Mumbai to pursue his dreams of acting. It wasnt an overnight success as he had to face countless rejections, stay in rented accommodations with other flatmates and the likes during his days of struggle. Kartik marked his debut with Luv Ranjan's Pyaar Ka Punchnama and he was stereotyped as a guy who can deliver monologues and do movies like the Punchnama series. He was even targeted for the apparent 'misogynistic' approach of the franchise. But, he also proved he can play a character with an emotional arc in movies like Love Aaj Kal, Silvat, and Akaash Vani. With his latest outing Dhamaka and many more announcements, he is living his best days. With success comes fan following and Kartik enjoys a crazy female fan following. Just today, his two die-hard fans were spotted outside his building and screaming his name. The video of the same has been shared by celebrity photographer Viral Bhayani. In the video, they can be heard screaming, Kartik please come. please please please. Sharing the video, Viral wrote, Two fangirls consistently scream @kartikaaryan's name under his building to catch a glimpse of the actor! #KartikAarayan. Heres the video: Soon after the video started to go viral, people bashed these two fans for creating a nuisance outside his building. People also went on to say that its more of PR machinery and some said that this is just a way to get famous as these two women knew cameras were around. Here are the reactions: Instagram Instagram Instagram Instagram Instagram Well, these female fans were in for a surprise as their favourite actor did step down to meet them. In the video shared by Filmfare, Kartik is seen obliging them with pictures and also telling them he saw the video and hence he got to know about them screaming his name. His guards also told him to greet these two female fans. Heres the video: Kartik is winning hearts because of his humility but do you appreciate the behaviour of these fans? Let us know in the comments section below. ALBANY Back to the drawing board. New Yorks Democratic-led Legislature is poised to take over the Empire States redistricting process after the bipartisan commission tasked with creating new maps failed to reach a consensus. Advertisement The 10-member New York State Independent Redistricting Commission voted Monday to send a pair of competing maps, one drawn up by Republicans and one by Democrats, to the Legislature as each side blamed the other for the stalemate. New York State Assembly Chamber as members meet on the opening day of the 2021 legislative session at the state Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Hans Pennink/AP Photo) The deadlock gives Democrats the upper hand as the Assembly and Senate will now likely oversee the creation of new congressional and state legislative district boundaries that will be in place for the next decade. Advertisement We didnt reach an agreement simply because one side turned their backs and walked away without explanation, Republican Vice Chairman Jack Martins said of his Democratic counterparts. Commission Chairman David Imamura, a Democratic appointee, meanwhile, said the Dem proposals were crafted based on input from a series of public sessions. We made enormous progress in finding common ground among the commission, but there remained significant differences on important points, Imamura and his fellow Dems said in a statement. Namely, we saw our colleagues indifference to public input at every step of the process, and especially in our final round of bipartisan negotiations. In our instances of disagreement, we relied on public input to guide our decision-making, while it is clear our colleagues did not, he added. The commission was created in 2014 in an attempt to take politics out of the redistricting process. However, under the law, the state Legislature will now decide whether to accept either of the submitted plans. A two-thirds vote in the Senate and Assembly is required to send one of the new maps to Gov. Hochul, who could then approve or veto the changes. If Democrats, who have a supermajority in both chambers, reject both maps, the commission would literally go back to the drawing board. Should lawmakers again dismiss the commissions work, the Legislature would have the ability to redraw the lines. Time is of the essence because the state primary is slated for June 28. Advertisement Good government groups, including the League of Women Voters, Citizens Union, and Reinvent Albany, criticized the commission Monday for failing to agree on one set of maps. The intended purpose of the IRC was to create an alternative to having district maps drawn by an incumbent, partisan legislature, said Laura Ladd Bierman, the executive director of the League of Women Voters of New York State. The failure of the Commission to collaborate on and approve a single set of maps constitutes an abdication of the Commissions responsibilities, confuses the redistricting process and places the interests of New York State voters in fair representation at risk. The nonpartisan Kentucky League of Women Voters is calling on state lawmakers to put the brakes on plans to pass new state House redistricting maps this week. State House Republicans announced their redistricting plan last Thursday, although the bill wont be filed in Frankfort until Tuesday, January 4, the first day of the legislative session. The plan, the League of Women Voters said Monday, favors incumbents and includes sharp divisions in certain counties, including Daviess County, designed to ensure those currently holding office could continue to do so. The public needs time to view the redistricting maps before lawmakers vote, said Susan Perkins Weston, a board member with the League of Women Voters. The public ought to have time to comment, Weston said. We have been working on this since 2017. All along we have been saying, please hold hearings. Please release the maps early. The rough maps presented last week show Daviess County being reduced from five House Districts to three: the Seventh District, represented by Rep. Suzanne Miles; the 13th District, represented by Rep. DJ Johnson; and the 14th District, represented by Rep. Scott Lewis. All three are Republicans. The 14th District would be expanded to include Hancock County, and the Seventh District would be made smaller geographically and be inside Daviess County. The 13th District, which is currently inside the city of Owensboro, would have its boundaries pushed east to include more rural parts of the county. The maps released during House GOP leadership press conference last week didnt include precinct by precinct changes. In what the House released, we cant fully tell what happened to Daviess County, Weston said. The current 13th District was designed so theres a legislator set up to be responsive to the residents of the town, Weston said. Regarding protecting incumbents, Weston said the state House Democrats engaged in that as well when they held the majority and drew districting maps. The maps are required to be redrawn based on the latest U.S. Census data. Democratic party leaders created the current House districts in 2013. I wouldnt say this map is worse than that previous one, Weston said. Im saying citizens should ask for it to be drawn better. Incumbents shouldnt be the drivers seat in redistricting, Weston said. The changes to the 14th District and Seventh District are not surprising, Weston said, because they were driven by changes in population. Daviess is where there is growth, Weston said. The region outside Daviess County has lost population, so the Seventh and 14th Districts would reflect those changes, Weston said. The change to the 13th District make the district part city-part county, with voters in different areas having differing priorities, Weston said. Either group might be frustrated by that, Weston said. When asked if she felt expanding the 13th District into the county was a way to bring more rural, conservative-leaning Republican voters into the district, Weston said, I think its possible. Johnson, when asked if pushing the boundaries of the 13th District into the county would help him as a Republican, said, I would say there is a chance it would, but said the change in the district would be a benefit to the county. As the 13th District state representative, much of what I do impacts the entire region, so having an expanded presence in Daviess County is a good thing, Johnson said. There are interests for county residents that I need to be aware of, and having a larger presence in the county gives me an opportunity to serve the county while still serving the city. The 13th District does not include the entire city. The Seventh District previously was part of Owensboro and will have a larger portion under the new map, Johnson said. Johnson said of him and Miles, I think both of us can better serve the entire county area with this arrangement. The House leadership office did not return a call or email for comment Monday. Miles could not be reached for comment. Weston said the House GOP plan seems to have created districts of equal size, and the plan-makers appear in good faith to have expanded the ability of minority voters to elect candidates. Redistricting to benefit a particular political party does not violate the constitution, Weston said. The hope, Weston said, is that the redistricting bill will not be voted on the first week. Meanwhile, the Senate has not released its redistricting plan for its districts or for Congressional districts. Last week, House Speaker David Osborne said he anticipated the Senate would release its plan Tuesday, the first day of the 2022 legislative session. When asked what the League of Women Voters wants, Weston said they support changing the filing deadline for office. Osborne said a bill would be introduced this week to move the filing deadline of January 25. Also, Weston said, the organization wants time, if they would give it to us. Thats a big ask at this point. James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse The Daviess County Detention Center is resuming more regular activities that were put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic. County Jailer Art Maglinger said the jail is set to resume some of its volunteer-led recovery programs, and some church programs coordinated by volunteers will restart soon. The pandemic halted programs for a time last year, and programs that were allowed to resume were again stopped due to the risk of COVID entering the jail population. In October, the jail resumed GED classes and some other classes for inmates, along with in-person attorney visits. The jail does not have any active COVID cases, Maglinger said. Maglinger said the jail is ready to resume Narcotics Anonymous and Celebrate Recovery programs, which are led by volunteers. The church services might be delayed by a couple of weeks, Maglinger said. Alcoholic Anonymous was scheduled to resume jail programs, but it decided to postpone coming returning out of concern of volunteers being exposed to COVID, Maglinger said. The Department of Corrections emphasizes the importance of programs like AA and NA, although inmates do not receive any jail credit for participating, Maglinger said. The inmates value them Maglinger said of the programs. The jail is quarantining new inmates for 10 days before placing them in with other inmates. Maglinger said jail officials are considering changing the policy, based on new Centers for Disease Control guidelines. We are trying to decide if we are going to move it from 10 days to five, he said. James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse While standing over a still on which whisky was being cooked, E.C. Aubrey, G.H. McDaniels and Charles McCullogh were arrested by Chief John Lyons. The men were in a dilapidated store building at Plum and Eighth streets, where McCullogh had been staying for some time. The still was from five to eight gallons and was made of copper and copper coil. About a quart of moonshine in a jug was found in the room, with a barrel of mash. The still was very dirty and gave evidence of hard use over a long period of time. The police believe that one or two of the men have been operating it for some time, moving it from one place to another. Jan. 3, 1922, when Judge Wilson struck the rostrum in circuit court, it was with the same gavel with which he called for order in the house of representatives when he was presiding officer of that deliberative body several years ago. There was resting upon the courts bench a massive bouquet of flowers to which was attached a card reading From friends and admirers of George S. Wilson and Glover Cary. Jan. 4, an overturned canoe floating on the Ohio River was found today by the crew of the United States steamer Kankakee. It was identified as the one in which Clyde Crowe, 18, Thomas Fruchte, 15, and Leo Wininger, 18, used Saturday when they started duck hunting in the back water of the Ohio River. The finding of the canoe four miles west of the city caused the parents of the missing boys to abandon hope that they are alive. Jan. 5, John W. Langdon filed suit today for divorce from Amanda Hudson Langdon, charging cruel and inhuman treatment in that at the time they were married on November 26, she was without his knowledge engaged to another man. After they were married, she continued to receive letters and money from the other man, also without his knowledge. They separated on December 21, two days after Edward Broadus of Louisville was killed in a duel while attempting to exterminate the Langdon family. Jan. 6, chief of police John Lyons has declared war on bootleggers, moonshiners and other violators of the prohibition law. The chief has occupied most of his time since going into office in getting a line on all violators of the prohibition law, and hes determined that within a few weeks this city will be as dry as any American city in the present era should be. Chief Lyons says that he will use every means at his disposal, including search warrants. Jan. 7, a large new barn and contents belonging to P.H. Axton, undertaker at Richland, burned about 5 oclock this afternoon. Ten tons of hay, 50 bushels of corn, two tons of baled straw, one buggy, three wagons, several sets of harnesses and two horses were badly burned and one horse was rescued. The hearse had been rolled out to wash, and while thus occupied, the man discovered the blaze in the straw but was unable to control it, and it soon spread and burned the barn and all it contained. 50 years ago Jan. 3, 1972, members of the Mechanicsville Homemakers Club honored Mrs. Katie Sutherland recently at the December meeting and Christmas party. Fifty members and their families and guests attended the dinner. Mrs. Ida Jo Burg read a poem, A Candle in the Night, by Mary Stoner Wine. Mrs. Burg presented a plaque from the club to Mrs. Sutherland in recognition of 20 years perfect attendance. She told of her work as 4-H leader and as county foods leader to the homemakers association. Jan. 4, the biennial changing of the City Hall guard was accomplished Monday with Waitman Taylor taking the oath of office as mayor and Jack Fisher, Alton Puckett, George Greer and Russell Shifley being sworn in as the new board of city commissioners. Moments after assuming office, Taylor and the new board agreed unanimously to reappoint Max Rhoads as city manager, Hugh Moore as city attorney and Elmer Brown as city prosecutor. Jan. 5, the recovery of $4,000 in stolen office equipment by two Owensboro policemen last week has resulted in the breakup of a two-year-old equipment theft ring in Indianapolis. According to a city police spokesman, nine arrests have been made and an additional $10,000 worth of stolen equipment recovered in Indianapolis since Dec. 29, when Patrolmen David Rose and Gary Hancock made the local recovery. The two Owensboro officers recovered three stolen IBM typewriters, two calculators and an adding machine. Jan. 6, slipping and sliding weather moved into Kentucky after an overnight storm deposited rain, sleet and snow on the highways. Schools were closed in at least 41 counties, and some large industrial plants reported slight production delays because of tardiness and absenteeism. With temperatures expected to reach 15 or below by morning, state police warned that driving conditions would remain hazardous. The storm first appeared in western Kentucky then expanded its scope and became statewide. In summer 2020, The New York Times coordinated a nationwide project to document the lives of Americans out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved collaborating with 11 other local newsrooms around the U.S. The Messenger-Inquirer was the only newspaper from Kentucky in the collaboration. The resulting collection of stories was published Oct. 23, 2020, in the New York Times print edition and at nytimes.com/outofwork. The following list is the Messenger-Inquirer's local unemployment coverage from that time period; read more by clicking the "New York Times Project" header. Click on "Out Of Work In America" to go to the full Thank you for subscribing! By signing up to this free newsletter you agree to receive occasional emails from us informing you about our products and services. You can opt out of these emails at any time. MANISTEE About 30% of U.S. home fires involving Christmas trees typically happen this month. That is why the National Fire Protection Association is reminding residents to keep the festive memories and remove the hazards by disposing of Christmas trees promptly after the holiday season. As much as we all enjoy the look and feel of Christmas trees in our homes, theyre large, combustible items that have the potential to result in serious fires, said Lorraine Carli, NFPAs vice president of Outreach and Advocacy. The longer Christmas trees remain in homes, the longer they present a risk. Carli said cut Christmas trees continue to dry out and become more flammable over time. Fresh cut trees are involved in a much larger share of reported Christmas tree fires than artificial trees, she said in a news release. According to the latest data from the associations winter holiday fire data, 160 home structure fires began with Christmas trees, resulting in two civilian deaths, 12 civilian injuries and $10 million in direct property damage, on average each year between 2015 and 2019. The City of Manistee picks up Christmas trees at the curb through the end of January. Residents are encouraged to place the trees at the curb with the trunk end facing the street. The world dealing with a pandemic has shown how important service groups are to keeping their communities afloat and attractive. The Harbor Beach Rotary Club works to keep people safe and make Harbor Beach thrive. Like other rotary clubs around the world, the one in Harbor Beach works to do good in the world at the local and international level, focusing locally on building a vibrant community to be in. Its stemmed from making the world a better place, said past club President Gabe Holdwick. Our motto is service above self. The biggest project the rotary club takes part in is planting trees along the Brian Backus Nature Trail. A wave of emerald ash borers killed many of the ash trees that were along the path, so the club has worked since 2019 to plant trees of various sizes to replace those lost. Between club dollars and assistance from Corteva, weve spent about $10,000 planting trees, Holdwick said. Most of the clubs efforts remain confined to Harbor Beach and the east side of the county. It participated in food drives during the pandemic, made contributions to the Harbor Beach Goodfellows, gave scholarships to graduating Harbor Beach students, gave dictionaries to elementary school students, and made contributions to other Harbor Beach-based organizations. One other cause that Rotary Club International, not just the Harbor Beach club, has been involved with since the 1980s is eradicating polio worldwide, with less than 10 new cases appearing each year in a few countries. Gladwick said the club puts on a huge fundraiser each year in part because a past club member was a polio survivor. We make it a tradition to sponsor polio (eradication) efforts in his memory, Gladwick said. Currently the rotary club has 12 members, which includes some Corteva workers. Holdwick said they have had a stable number of members over the years of between 10 and 15, which has not been affected by COVID. More Information How to join: Harbor Beach Rotary Club meetings take place in the women's clubroom of the Harbor Beach Area District Library at noon on Wednesdays. Anyone who would like to join is more than welcome to attend a meeting. See More Collapse Our only issue was sometimes people had to step away from their volunteer roles, so we had to be more flexible, Holdwick said. Because the pandemic caused a limitation of being together in the same space, the rotary club is still working on trying to meet in-person and doing in-person fundraisers again. Were trying to get back to doing stuff we did prior to COVID, Holdwick said. Were determining what our fundraising situation is and what money we have to work with. Still, when the club was not able to meet together in person, the members were still able to help the community in other ways. Along with planting trees on the nature trail, they helped out with Cortevas food distribution efforts in 2020. The club is always looking for new members to join. People interested can simply attend one of their meetings, which take place at the Harbor Beach District Library. Part of the reason we do what we do is to make Harbor Beach a good place to live, Holdwick said. Thats what motivates us and what we continue to do. Were thankful to have as many partners as we do to be a part of making Harbor Beach great. A winter storm warning has been issued by the National Weather Service for most of the western lower peninsula. The warning, in effect from 4 a.m. Jan. 5 until 7 a.m. Jan. 6, is for Allegan, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kent, Lake, Leelanau, Mason, Manistee, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, Ottawa and Wexford counties. "A storm system moving through the Great Lakes tonight into Wednesday will bring accumulating snow and gusty winds to the region. The areas expected to see the most impacts will be along the Lake Michigan coast, where the lake will enhance snowfall totals. There will be impacts to travel in these areas," the National Weather Service states on its website. Heavy snow can be expected with accumulations of 4 to 9 inches. Wind gusts could reach as high as 50 miles per hour in portions of southwest and west central Michigan, according to the NWS. The winter weather could make travel difficult with blowing snow reducing visibility and scattered power outages are a possibility. The weather system will bring near blizzard conditions that may include occasional whiteouts. "Localized heavy lake effect snow and hazardous travel conditions could continue into Thursday and Thursday night for portions of western Lower Michigan," the NWS forecast states. Other areas closer to central parts of the state will also see the weather system. A winter weather advisory has been issued for Barry, Ionia, Kalamazoo, Mecosta, Montcalm, Osceola and Van Buren counties from 4 a.m. Wednesday until 7 a.m. Thursday. Travel will be impacted with 2 to 4 inches of accumulating snow, icy road conditions and winds of up to 45 miles per hour. MIDDLETOWN U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, thanked doctors, nurses, and health care staff at Middlesex Hospital Dec. 28 for their efforts to keep people healthy during the holiday season. Blumenthal stressed at the 28 Crescent St. facility that the best way for Americans to show their appreciation during the pandemic is to get vaccinated, boosted tested to stop the spread of COVID-19. The senior senator is traveling the state to spread the message, he said. Health agencies like this one are at their moment of maximum danger and sacrifice, Blumenthal said, according to an audio recording. Testing is ever more important during this time of high infectivity; high case rates across the state, Mayor Ben Florsheim said during the event. As of Blumenthals visit, there were 80 medical personnel out of work sick, he said. Theyve been putting their lives on the line, theyve been afflicted with this disease they are not superhuman. Medical staff are more likely to get sick because of their exposure, he added. The more information coming in about where COVID is, who has it, where its spreading is critical to knowing where we need to go setting the policies and making the decisions about how to keep businesses safe, how to keep schools and public services safe, the mayor said. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) might consider tweaking Senate rules to allow passage of a Democratic voting rights measure. Even as he repeated his absolute preference not to change the filibuster at all, Manchin did not rule out supporting modifying the filibuster rule that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation if Republicans refuse to negotiate. Advertisement Im talking, Im not agreeing to anything of this, Manchin said on Tuesday. I want to talk and see all the options. The moderate deciding vote in the evenly split Senate called changing the filibuster a heavy lift, a description that indicates he is not ruling it out. Advertisement To be open to a rules change that would create a nuclear option, its very, very difficult, Manchin said. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) He also criticized Democrats for allowing exemptions to the filibuster allowing confirmation of federal judges with a simple majority vote. Republicans countered by extending the exception to Supreme Court justices. Anytime theres a carve out, you eat the whole turkey because it comes back, the West Virginia lawmaker said. The two Democrats, Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have tried to warn their party off changes to the Senate rules, arguing that if and when Republicans take majority control of the chamber they would use the lower voting threshold to advance bills Democrats strongly oppose. Were trying to convince both of them to give us a fair-chance deal with voting rights, said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) But despite their reluctance on major filibuster changes, Manchin and Sinema both support the election legislation. In fact, Manchin helped craft the latest package in an unsuccessful effort to win Republican support. Now the two Democrats colleagues are working on ways to change the filibuster so at least this legislation could pass. President Biden has made few comments about the debate hes a former longtime senator who largely stands by existing rules but is also under enormous political pressure to break the logjam on the voting legislation. Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said he will push to change the rules before Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 17, a timing that spotlights the fact that Democrats view voting rights reforms as essential to protecting civil rights. Advertisement Senate Democrats held a caucus lunch meeting Tuesday at which the maneuver was set to be discussed along with President Bidens Build Back Better spending plan. Manchin said there have been no talks on possibly reviving BBB since he effectively torpedoed it before Christmas. Some Democrats floated alternatives to scrapping the filibuster including forcing senators to stay on the floor talking to block legislation or possibly prohibiting it from being used to block debate. Another possibility would be to require at least one vote from the opposing party to pass laws. One Republican, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, argued on Monday that ending the filibuster would turn the Senate into a Lord of the Flies-style institution where majority rules, no matter what. It is absurd and dangerous to the institution itself, Lee said in a statement. He said Schumer and his disastrous plan must be stopped. With News Wire Services NEWTOWN Five high school girls with indelible experiences of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting share one voice of gratitude for the gun-reform activists who stood up for us when we couldnt stand up for ourselves in a video posted by a homegrown nonprofit. Having other people around me who are brave enough to share their stories has helped me be able to tell my own, said Rayna Toth, 16, a Newtown High School senior, and one of five girls who share their stories in a social media video posted by the Newtown Action Alliance. I am forever grateful for those who gave me a voice when I was too young and too afraid to use mine. The videoed testimonies provide a rare window into how teenagers who survived the worst crime in modern Connecticut history are living with their pain. Their stories may answer, in part, one of the biggest unknowns: what the lasting effect on these kids would be. I was 8 years old and sitting in my third-grade classroom when a man walked in with a gun and stole the lives of 26 people of Sandy Hook Elementary School six educators and 20 children, said Camille Paradis, a board member of the Junior Newtown Action Alliance at Newtown High School, in her portion of the social media video. That gun stole my childhood as well as the lives of those people, and it changed the course of my life and my community forever. I now live with that trauma and that PTSD from the event, and I am now part of the movement to end gun violence and to ensure that guns are kept out of the hands of dangerous people and theyre kept out of vulnerable communities. In contrast to other communities where mass school shootings have mobilized students, such as the March for Our Lives movement that was born out the 2018 massacre of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the youth of Newtown didnt begin speaking out until a few years ago, when they were old enough to take on leadership positions in the Junior Newtown Action Alliance. I was in third grade at the time, and I lost my best friend, Daniel, who was in first grade and who was 7 years old. Obviously along with his family and other victims and other survivors in the community, I felt the pain. It was devastating not being able to see him again, but I dont think I exactly understood what was going on, says Maggie LaBanca, co-chair of the Junior Newtown Action Alliance, in her segment of the social media video. It took a while for me to join an activism club like this and to try to speak out and fight for change because theres 26 people now who cant, LaBanca continues in the video, which was recorded on the ninth anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting in mid-December. I would like to thank all the adults and all the supporters we have had over the years who have spoken for us when we were children, and we couldnt. Fellow Junior Newtown Action Alliance member Naiya Amin said in her segment of the video that I got involved in this movement because I have seen and continue to see the effects that (the shooting) has had on the community. Im grateful for everyone who stood up for us when we couldnt stand up for ourselves, said Amin, a senior at Newtown High School. Im grateful for everyone who continues to stand up for us and stand with us and uplift the voices of the young survivors of gun violence as well as share their own experiences. Fellow high school senior Madeline Richard agreed, saying she joined the gun-violence prevention movement after becoming friends with some of the survivors and they told me their stories and their experiences. [A]longside them I became more educated on gun control and the importance of it especially bills in Congress that could have prevented it, Richard said. Thats what started my path on becoming more compassionate on gun control legislation and comprehensive gun reform. rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342 The littoral combat ship USS Milwaukee is back at sea, the Navy announced Monday, less than two weeks after members of the crew tested positive for COVID-19. The ship outbreak is the first since the arrival of vaccines and a sharp contrast from the first major outbreak in March 2020 on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, which led to a sailor's death while others were quarantined in hotel rooms on Guam with more than 1,000 sailors testing positive for the coronavirus. The Milwaukee, on a deployment to South America, paused in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on the day before Christmas after some of the crew tested positive for the disease. The Associated Press reported that about two dozen sailors -- one-quarter of the crew -- tested positive for COVID-19. Read Next: USS Abraham Lincoln Captain Becomes First Woman to Take a US Aircraft Carrier to Sea The Navy announced that the ship returned to sea Monday -- 11 days after the outbreak began. Cmdr. Kate Meadows, a spokeswoman for the Navy, told Military.com in an email that none of the crew members were hospitalized, left behind or swapped out with replacement sailors. The service has said that the entire crew is fully immunized. The story of the Milwaukee stands in sharp contrast to the two other publicly known shipboard outbreaks of COVID-19. The outbreak on the Roosevelt in March, 2020 left the ship unable to return to sea until May, nearly two months of incapacitation, and the incident led to the firing of Capt. Brett Crozier, the carrier's captain, who clashed with leadership over the response to the outbreak. Later, in January 2021, the destroyer USS Chafee also experienced a surge of COVID-19 cases. Navy Times reported that 41 sailors out of a 350-person crew either tested positive or were considered close contacts of those infected. The Hawaii-based Chafee stayed in-port in San Diego for more than a month before getting underway again. In the case of the Roosevelt, vaccines had yet to be developed; during the Chafee outbreak, they were available only to vulnerable populations. Bradley Martin, a Rand Corp. researcher and former Navy captain who wrote a study on the Roosevelt outbreak, said the way the service handled the outbreak on the Milwaukee "appears to be an application of common sense and improved awareness of COVID effects." Martin previously told Military.com that vaccines are not perfect, but their power lies in managing and mitigating the strength of outbreaks. "If Milwaukee's underway in a week because everybody feels better it would kind of prove the point," he noted last week. "The departure with the crew intact seems to have demonstrated appropriate risk management and prudence on the part of the Navy," Martin told Military.com in an email Tuesday. As part of its response, the service also offered and recommended booster shots to the rest of the Milwaukee crew. A Navy message released Dec. 22 notes that while booster shots are "not mandatory," they are "strongly recommended." "Because all studies are converging on the need for a vaccine booster to ensure enduring protection, it is essentially becoming the next-shot in a series and will likely become mandatory in the near future," the message added. The Pentagon has also begun to recommend a booster shot for all eligible Defense Department personnel. -- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin. Related: 'This Is Not a Repeat of the Roosevelt' Navy's Latest COVID Outbreak May Show Value of Vaccines HONOLULU Hawaii's Department of Health on Monday upheld the governor's order requiring the Navy to drain massive World War II-era fuel tanks after oil leaking from the aging facility contaminated Pearl Harbor's tap water. Marian Tsuji, the department's deputy director, on Monday said she agreed with the conclusions of an official appointed by the department to review the facts of the case. She said she would adopt the official's proposed findings as final, though would fix a typographical error. The Navy is reviewing the decision, said Cmdr. Reann Mommsen, a spokesperson for the Navy Office of Information in Washington. Hawaii law allows parties to appeal such decisions in the court system. David Henkin, an attorney for Earthjustice, which represented the Sierra Club of Hawaii in the case, urged the Navy not to appeal. The threat to Oahus irreplaceable drinking water supply is far too dire for lawyers games. It is time for the Navy finally to do the right thing and promptly comply with the Department of Healths order to defuel the Red Hill tanks, he said in a statement. The department's hearings officer for the case, Deputy Attorney General David Day, concluded the tanks were a ticking time bomb that threaten the water supply on the state's most populous island. He said they posed an imminent threat to human health and safety or the environment and agreed with the governor's order to defuel the tanks. The Navy objected to Day's findings last week, saying he used an overbroad interpretation of the Department of Healths emergency authority to regulate underground fuel storage tanks. The Navy argued the tanks didn't currently pose an imminent threat. The Navy last month detected petroleum in a well that supplies water to Pearl Harbor area military housing, offices and elementary schools. Navy officials say they believe the well became contaminated by a series of pipeline leaks at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility nearby. The Navy received about 1,000 complaints from people saying their water smelled like fuel or chemicals or that they suffered from nausea, vomiting and other physical ailments. More than 3,000 military families are living in hotels and other alternative housing while the Navy addresses the contamination. Honolulu's water utility draws from the same aquifer as the Navy's well, prompting concerns that one of Oahu's most important water sources may have also become tainted by oil. The utility has shut off one its wells that draws on the aquifer so petroleum doesn't taint its own water. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) was stranded overnight on Interstate 95 when a freak snowstorm swept through Virginia, spawning several crashes and forcing authorities to close the highway. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) (Alex Brandon/AP) The former vice presidential candidate tweeted at dawn Tuesday morning that he had been stuck for 19 hours along with hundreds of other motorists on a shut-down stretch of the busy artery south of Washington D.C. Advertisement I started my normal 2 hour drive to DC at 1pm yesterday. 19 hours later, Im still not near the Capitol. My office is in touch with @VaDOT to see how we can help other Virginians in this situation. Please stay safe everyone. pic.twitter.com/Sz1b1hZJZ5 Tim Kaine (@timkaine) January 4, 2022 My office is in touch with @VaDOT to see how we can help other Virginians in this situation, Kaine tweeted, referring to the Virginia Department of Transportation. The two-term Democrat said he left his home in Richmond for work at the U.S. Capitol at 1 p.m. but still hadnt gotten there Tuesday. Advertisement Hundreds of other motorists were in the same predicament and many were hungry and cold after spending the night in their vehicles. Others ran out of gas. Kaine tweeted that a family from Connecticut went car to car in the middle of the night handing out oranges. Bless them! Kaine tweeted. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam vowed to get help to the stranded motorists and reopen the highway, which is the main artery running up and down the East Coast. David Calhoun was on the board but he was not CEO when Boeing agreed to the $3.9 billion deal with the White House in 2018. As a current print subscriber, you receive 24/7 access to our website and online e-edition at no additional charge. All you have to do is activate your access. To activate digital access, you will need your account number. You can find your account number on any recent subscription notice or bill. Keokuk, IA (52632) Today Cloudy this morning with showers during the afternoon. High 62F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Periods of rain. Low 52F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible. 04.01.2022 LISTEN Mr John Kwakuvi Hounlessodji, the Chief Executive Officer of Infinity Den Enterprise and Infinity Star Hotel at Penyi in the Ketu North Municipality of the Volta region has supported the people of Tadzi community with portable drinking water on Thursday, December 30, 2021. According to Mr Hounlessodji, the people of Tadzi have been lacking good drinking water for many years. He noted that the situation compelled him to construct a mechanized water project to address the water issues. He added there are many other plans to help the people of Tadzi to get access to some basic needs. He further urged Tadzi community to use the facility well in ways that will serve them for many years. "Water they say is life, the more you take good care of the facility, the more you are sustaining your lives. "Adopt the culture of maintenance and keep safe the water always," he stated. Togbe Ashiagbor IV, the 'Dusimefia' of Weta in the area expressed his excitement over the donation of the water facility by Mr Hounlessodji. "Our suffering and water problems have been long overdue, and the intervention by Mr Houlessodji has just been like a God sent from Heaven," he stressed. He praised Mr Houlessodji for other innovative projects such as the construction of the community centre at Tadzi among others. Mr Dzakpa Christian, the secretary of the Tadzi youth in his remarks thanked Mr Hounlessodji for the intervention. He promised to ensure the facility is maintained and protected for their own benefit. Present at the ceremony were Chiefs and people of Tadzi who expressed their excitement over the project. 03.01.2022 LISTEN The Eastern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Mr Kiston Akomeng Kissi has wished Ghanaians a happy and prosperous new year. Mr Akomeng Kissi in a press statement hinted that the Nana Akufo-Addo led government will continue to deliver the numerous infrastructural projects. Read the full press release below: EASTERN REGIONAL SECRETARIAT NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY - KOFORIDUA 01/01/22 WISHING YOU A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR On behalf of the Eastern Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Hon Kiston Akomeng Kissi and his entire Regional Executives, we wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year. As you are aware the New Patriotic Party's Government led by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has rolled out numerous Infrastructural Projects in the Education, Health, Tourism, Road, Trade and Industry, Agriculture etc and implemented other Pro-Poor Policies to the benefits of all Ghanaians including the good people of the Eastern Region. This year will witness aggressive Industrialisation Agenda and massive interventions in all sectors to promote Socio-economic development of the country. The Eastern Regional Executives take this opportunity to wish all Ghanaians especially the good people of the Eastern Region "AFEHYIAPA". May this year bring us joy and happiness we all deserve. Let's all continue to respect each other and live in peace towards national stability. Signed DAVID PRAH EASTERN REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, NPP Some 30 fruit and vegetables weighing less than 1.5 kg may no longer be sold in plastic bags in France. The ban came into force on Saturday, 1st of January 2022, to the dismay of the sector's packaging industry. The packaging ban is part of a multi-year programme to phase out plastic in France, where plastic straws, cups and cutlery, as well as styrofoam takeaway boxes were banned in 2020. The ban on single-use plastic packaging is part of the implementation of a measure included in the text of the 'anti-waste law' passed in early 2020. And the October 8, 2021 decree specifies the ban on the sale of 'unprocessed fresh fruit and vegetables under 1.5 kilos' packaged in plastic by any retailer. The full legislation will not be applied until 2026, allowing firms to adapt. Retailers have also been granted six months to use up existing plastic packaging stocks. Protecting exports? "We were never consulted," complained Laurent Grandin, head of the fruit and vegetable sector's Interfel association. He told French news agency AFP that the costs were "insurmountable" for small companies who would have to keep using plastic to protect exports, notably to Britain, a major client for apples. Pomanjou produces up to 40,000 tonnes of apples annually in the Loire valley and has, over the last three years, introduced 100 percent cardboard packing. However packing costs have as a result soared 20 to 30 percent, said company representative Arnaud de Puineuf. Supermarket group Casino said it will now sell tomatoes in cardboard packaging and provide customers with paper or cellulose bags. Ban on recycled plastics The packaging companies say the 8th of October decree caught them by surprise, particularly the ban on recycled plastics. "We have client firms...who will have to stop their fruit and vegetable packing activity, even though they have been working on alternatives using less plastic or recycled plastic for several years," a statement statement from the Elipso association that represents manufacturers, reads. Elipso and Polyvia, a union covering 3,500 firms making packaging, have appealed to France's State Council, which has jurisdiction over administrative disputes, against what they say is a distortion of European markets as the ban applies solely to France. Cardboard manufacturers But Armand Chaigne, director of industrial markets at packaging firm DS Smith, sees the benefits, notably for cardboard manufacturers. "It is estimated that in Europe, out of the eight million tonnes of plastic produced per year for single-use packaging, 1.5 million tonnes could already be removed," he said. "That represents about 70 billion units of single-use plastic packaging", or "about seven billion euros of additional turnover potential for cardboard." (with AFP) A member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Communication team, Hon. Abdul El Samed insists that the passage of the e-levy would positively impact the development agenda of the Akufo-Addo led government and call on all Ghanaians to support it. He stressed that government has well thought through the levy and optimistic it would help generate the needed revenues for the many development projects and policies laid down to improve the lives of Ghanaians. In an interview with Kwabena Nyarko Abronoma on Bryt FM news, Hon. Abdul El Samed also pleaded with the Minority in Parliament to be objective in their submissions on the issue and help in the passage of the levy in the interest of Ghanaians, not their political affiliation. Even though the 2022 budget statement has been approved, the controversial e-levy is yet to have approval from the House as both sides of the house engage in blows. Hon. Abdul El Samed emphasised that government has achieved a lot in all sectors of the economy since assumption into office in 2017 and therefore needed the support of the Minority in Parliament to be able to accomplish all policies of government. "I wish all Ghanaians a Happy New Year and also ask them to support the e-levy to help develop the country we all desire to have," he added. The Tamale Archdiocesan Catholic Youth Council (TACYC), in partnership with the Catholic Relief Service (CRS), under the modules of the Sahel Peace Initiative, organized a soap-making training for over 100 rural women in the Northern Region. The initiative, carved out of the theme Women Entrepreneurship for Community Development seeks to equip rural women with entrepreneurial skills to thrive. Speaking on the theme, Ms. Rachel elaborated the need for women to be entrepreneurs, and not to solely depend on their husbands. She added that learning handy skills empowers women and also deters temptation from the devil as one becomes busier when shes been engaged. Ms. Dorcas, a team member from the CRS Ghana SPI desk, also elaborated more on the significance of peace in a community. She stated that women have a vital role to play when it comes to peacebuilding in society, and when they are economically empowered, they stand a chance of avoiding issues that threaten their peace. She urged the women not to learn the soap-making and sleep over it, but to start their own businesses that will enable them earn income and support themselves. The Chairperson for the TACYC, Mr. Joshua expressed excitement, as he noted that the training is crucial to addressing women vulnerability. However, TACYC can only continue to organize more projects of such, if only we realize that the soap-making training has made an impact in your lives, he said. The participants were verbally taken through the procedures in the liquid soap preparation by the lead trainer; Ms. Benedicta. In addition, they were put into groups of ten; each group was provided with the necessary items needed for the soap preparation. Community members expressed their gratitude for the opportunity and assured the organizers to utilize the skills gained. A group of lawmakers loyal to China's Communist Party were sworn in to Hong Kong's legislature on Monday following an election without opposition candidates. This as yet another pro-democracy news outlet announced it could no longer operate amid a growing crackdown on freedoms in the territory. Until just two years ago, the former British colony was known as an enclave of free expression, something that is unknown on the mainland. However, last year, the central government in Beijing clamped down on Hong Kong's freedoms, 23 years after the UK handed over the territory to China in 1997. The move lead to the closure of independent news outlets, the dismantlement of dozens of civil groups and NGO's, the removal of monuments to dissent, and a poorly attended election won by pro-Beijing politicians, but boycotted by the pro-democracy camp. The founders of news outlet Citizen News said the news site will stop publishing on Tuesday. While they have received no order to close, they said on Monday that deteriorating media freedoms in the financial hub put them in an impossible position. "We all love this place, deeply," the editors wrote on the statement, published via Twitter. "Regrettably, what was ahead of us is not just pouring rains or blowing winds, but hurricanes and tsunamis." Media closures The platform is Hong Kong's third media outlet to close in recent months, following the shuttering of the territory's last pro-democracy print newspaper, Apple Daily, and the online site Stand News. Citizen News was founded in 2017 by a group of veteran journalists. The small site focused on political news and analysis pieces, as well as investigations and in recent months became a refuge for many journalists who had lost their jobs when other outlets closed or faced other pressures. "With Apple Daily's sudden closure in the past summer, the journalism majors who were originally supposed to intern with it made arrangements with Citizen News so that it could take them instead, so that students wouldn't lose this internship opportunity, said Vivian W.W. Tam, a senior lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong's journalism school, in a public Facebook post. Tam declined to be interviewed. National Security Law But a new sweeping National Security Law - imposed on Hong Kong by China's central legislature - has made independent reporting increasingly dangerous. Journalists and political activists have been arrested under the law, and it has forced civil rights groups and unions to disband. Many more activists have fled. Meanwhile, new laws have changed how Hong Kongers vote for their representatives, including a requirement that all those that seek office must be patriots, effectively bringing the body under Beijing's control. What we understood about press freedom has changed a lot, said Chris Yeung, founder and chief writer at Citizen News. Yeung said at a news conference on Monday that the trigger for their decision to shut down was what happened to Stand News. Last week, authorities raided Stand News and arrested seven people including editors and former board members for allegedly conspiring to publish seditious material. Stand News announced on the same day that it would cease to operate. Sedition Two of Stand News' former editors who were arrested were later formally charged with sedition. In the summer, authorities forced the closure of Apple Daily, the newspaper owned by media tycoon and democracy activist Jimmy Lai. Lai is currently in jail and was charged with sedition last week. The Society of Publishers in Asia, a group based in Hong Kong that hosts an annual journalism award, said Monday it is concerned about pressures against independent media in the city. We call on the Hong Kong authorities to respect freedom of expression and the press which are vital to the success of our industry, it said in a statement. The US and other Western governments have condemned the limits on media and civil freedoms that Beijing promised to uphold for 50 years following Hong Kong's 1997 handover. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam last week defended the raid on Stand News, telling reporters that inciting other people ... could not be condoned under the guise of news reporting. The only remaining independent news media with reach in the city are Hong Kong Free Press, an English-language news outlet, which opened with the closure of Stand News, and The Initium, a Chinese-language news outlet which moved its headquarters to Singapore in August. (with AP) A newborn baby was found in a plane restroom trash can after a flight to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. According to the BBC, the baby was found by officials at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport during a customs check after the Air Mauritius plane, which departed from Madagascar, landed on Jan. 1. Advertisement Air Mauritius (Shutterstock/Shutterstock) Both the child and a 20-year-old woman suspected of being the mother, who was not identified, were rushed to a local hospital. Both are in good condition. The woman faces a charge of abandoning a newborn but remains hospitalized. Smoke and flames re-emerged from the upper floors of South Africa's parliament on Monday hours after the blaze was declared under control, as police confirmed they had charged a man with starting the inferno that engulfed the building. The blaze, which broke out at around 5 am (0300 GMT) on Sunday, was initially brought under control after a struggle that stretched into the night, with exhausted firefighters leaving the site to the cheers of onlookers and journalists. But in the late afternoon on Monday, spokesman Jermaine Carelse said the fire had restarted in a part of the Cape Town complex -- the roof of the building housing the National Assembly. The city's Fire and Rescue Service said on WhatsApp: "The wind has been getting steadily stronger and ignited the smouldering wood inside the roof void space, parts of which are not accessible for dousing or dampening." When the fire restarted, only a dozen firefighters were still deployed from the around 70 who had fought to tame it. By RODGER BOSCH AFP Only a dozen firefighters were still deployed from the around 70 who had fought to tame the fire, and some 50 reinforcements were rushed in, using a crane lift to direct their hose. No casualties have been reported, but the damage is catastrophic. "The most damage is in national assembly that won't be used for months," Carelse said. The blaze began in the wood-panelled older part of the complex -- a section that houses South Africa's first parliament and some of the nation's most cherished artefacts. It then spread to the neighbouring new assembly, where legislators currently meet. Parliament spokesman Moloto Mothapo said the roof of the National Assembly had collapsed. "The entire chamber where the members sit... has burned down." Suspected arson President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters at the scene on Sunday that a man had been held and that the building's sprinkler systems had apparently failed. The blaze was initially brought under control after a struggle that stretched into the night. By RODGER BOSCH AFP The Hawks elite police unit said a 49-year-old man would appear in court on Tuesday, charged with "housebreaking, arson" and damaging state property. The parliament's presiding officers met with Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille to take stock of the devastation. Jean-Pierre Smith, Cape Town's mayoral committee member for safety and security, said the entire complex had suffered damage, both from the fire and the tonnes of water used to fight it. As for the roof of the building's historic section, "it's gone," he said. Completed in 1884, the historic section is where parliament keeps treasures including around 4,000 heritage and artworks, some dating back to the 17th century. The collection includes rare books and the original copy of the controversial former Afrikaans national anthem "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" (The Voice of South Africa), which was already damaged. The roof of the National Assembly has collapsed. By RODGER BOSCH AFP It also features a Keiskamma tapestry, measuring 120 metres (390 feet) in length, that traces the history of South Africa from the first indigenous peoples, the San, to the historic democratic elections of 1994. "The temperature in there is still around 100 degrees (Celsius, more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit), making it difficult to fully determine the true extent of damages," said Smith. Second fire in a year The area was quickly secured when the fire broke out on Sunday. Map of Cape Town, South Africa, locating the seat of parliament. By Tupac POINTU AFP The security cordon stretched to a square where flowers were still displayed in front of St. George's Cathedral, where anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu's funeral took place on Saturday. Cape Town has been home to South Africa's houses of parliament since 1910, when separate administrations formed a union under British dominion and became a predecessor to the modern South African republic. The site includes the National Assembly and the upper house National Council of Provinces, while the government is based in Pretoria. It was in parliament where South Africa's last apartheid-era president, FW de Klerk, announced in 1990 plans to dismantle white-minority rule. The complex consists of three sections, with the newer additions constructed in the 1920s and 1980s. In March another fire also broke out in the older wings of parliament, but it was quickly contained. Cape Town suffered another major fire in April, when a blaze on the famed Table Mountain which overlooks the city spread, ravaging part of the University of Cape Town's library holding a unique collection of African archives. Detained Tunisian ex-justice minister Noureddine Bhiri of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, who is refusing food or medication after his transfer to hospital, is suspected of "terrorism", the interior minister said Monday. Bhiri, deputy president of Ennahdha -- viewed by President Kais Saied as an enemy -- was arrested by plainclothes officers Friday and his whereabouts were initially unknown. Ennahdha had played a central role in Tunisian politics until a power grab by President Kais Saied last year. Tunisia was the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring revolts of a decade ago, but civil society groups and Saied's opponents have expressed fear of a slide back to authoritarianism a decade after the revolution that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. "There were fears of acts of terrorism targeting the country's security and we had to act," Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine said late Monday of the arrest. A member of a delegation that visited Bhiri in hospital told AFP on Monday that he was refusing food or medication. On Sunday activists and a former Ennahdha legislator said Bhiri was in a critical condition and facing death. But the source told AFP that Bhiri, 63, is "not in critical condition for the time being". The source, asking not to be named, said that a joint team from Tunisia's independent anti-torture group INPT and the United Nations rights commission visited Bhiri at hospital in the northern town of Bizerte on Sunday. He is "lively and lucid", and being kept under close observation in a private room of the hospital's cardiology ward. 'Kidnapping' charge Since Friday, however, Bhiri has "refused to take any food or medication, prompting his transfer to hospital" two days later, the source said. Samir Dilou, a lawyer and ex-Ennahdha MP, condemned Bhiri's arrest as "political" and an abuse of the justice system. He told a Tunis news conference that he is lodging a "kidnapping" charge against Saied and the interior minister Charfeddine. The interior minister said late Monday that evidence had been sent to the justice ministry regarding Bhiri's activities, but that the prosecution "delayed" action on the matter. This, Charfeddine said, prompted him to "quickly apply... judicial control" over Bhiri. Bhiri's wife, Saida Akremi, also a lawyer, told reporters he had suffered "a heart attack", and that she was being denied access to him because she refused to sign documents as demanded by security services. Mondher Ounissi, a doctor and member of Ennahdha's executive bureau, said Sunday that Bhiri suffers from several chronic illnesses, including diabetes and hypertension. He has been "deprived of his medication" and "his life is threatened", Ounissi said, adding that Bhiri usually takes 16 pills a day. The interior ministry on Friday said that two individuals had been ordered under house arrest, without identifying them. It said the move was a "preventive measure dictated by the need to preserve national security". The anti-torture group INPT has identified the second person detained as Fathi Baldi, a former interior ministry official. The president "bears full responsibility for the life of Mr Bhiri", the anti-Saied group "Citizens against the coup" said Sunday on Twitter. It said he had been "rushed to the hospital in a very serious condition". Saied on July 25 sacked the Ennahdha-supported government and suspended parliament, presenting himself as the ultimate interpreter of the constitution. He later took steps to rule by decree, and in early December vowed to press on with reforms to the political system. 04.01.2022 LISTEN Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has said the government is committed to ensuring a turnaround of the economy this year. Dr. Bawumia said though Ghana's economy has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, things will normalize. According to him, the government will do whatever it can to bring back the economy from the shackles of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at a meeting with some Muslim Leaders in Accra, Dr. Bawumia said 2022 will be better for Ghanaians. In the coming year, we will continue to strive to get the economy back on track from the shackles of COVID-19. We are also committed to our inclusive governance of the past five years, which has seen us invest in education and other sectors of the country. Challenges with the economy had always been contentious, as some Ghanaians complained of undue hardships. However, the government in the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy promised to avert the situation. The Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson had earlier asked Ghanaians to brace themselves up for more economic difficulties this year. In a six-bullet point post on Facebook, Dr. Forson, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam constituency, among other things, said: folks, we need to brace up for more hardship this year. He predicted that there would be at least 30% increase in general goods while the Ghanaian cedi will hit seven cedis to a dollar by the end of the year, 2022. A Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. John Kumah , subsequently criticised the negative outlook of the economy predicted by Dr. Forson. In a statement on Facebook, the deputy Minister insisted that Dr. Forson's predictions were not supported by data. It is unfathomable to think that a former Deputy Minister of Finance could be this pessimistic, speculative and propagandist on important issues concerning the economy of Ghana. citinewsroom Congolese chef Dieuveil Malonga learned his craft in Europe's top restaurants, but says he owes his success to grandmothers across Africa, who passed on the gastronomic secrets that underpin his celebrated Afro-fusion cuisine. "I travel (to) different countries... to learn from the grandmothers. Then I get these old recipes and I bring it to my laboratory here and we try with my chefs to give it something of a modern touch," he said. The 30-year-old from Congo-Brazzaville has visited 38 of Africa's 54 countries, bringing back fermentation and other techniques, as well as ingredients that add texture and flavour to the dishes served at his restaurant in Rwanda's capital Kigali. The treasures sourced during his trips are everywhere in Meza Malonga ("Malonga's Table" in Kiswahili). Bins holding tiny chilli peppers from the Ivory Coast, pebe nuts from Cameroon and dried mbinzo caterpillars from the Congo fill an entire wall of the establishment. Malonga says his customers are happy to pay for an experience that marries traditional African ingredients with modern techniques. By Simon MAINA AFP Food experts have largely ignored the continent's culinary heritage, with not a single Michelin-starred restaurant to be found on the continent. But that may soon change, thanks to the efforts of chefs like Malonga, who co-founded Chefs in Africa -- a website devoted to promoting the region's rising stars. "Something... is happening in Africa, and people are getting interested in knowing more about African cuisine," he said in an interview with AFP at his restaurant, minutes before the dinner rush kicked off. He stressed the diversity of African food, citing the example of Nigeria, where one can choose from more than 20 dishes on any given day. 'I like to eat' Malonga was born near Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, where, despite losing his parents at a young age, he enjoyed "a very happy childhood" within a tight-knit community, according to his website. At 13, he moved to Germany and lived with a pastor's family, later joining a renowned cooking school in Muenster. It was a perfect fit. "I like to eat, I eat all the time," he said, bursting into laughter. "I (come) from a family that likes and celebrates food." Malonga left, pictured with colleagues in his Kigali restaurant, says he comes from a family that celebrates food. By Simon MAINA AFP After graduating, he trained at some of Germany's top restaurants, including the triple Michelin-starred Aqua in Wolfsburg, before moving to France to work at the InterContinental hotel in Marseille. Despite his success, he said he could not shake off the feeling that something was "missing". So he headed back to Africa and embarked on a two-year odyssey across the continent. There he found "the key" to his new life, he said. After falling in love with Rwanda -- a fertile, hilly country with a gentle climate -- he opened Meza Malonga in 2020. Here, he says he revels in foraging for ingredients and meeting the people who grow the aromatic herbs and edible flowers used in his dishes. The restaurant is not cheap -- an average meal including drinks costs around $150 (130 euros) per person -- but his customers are happy to pay for an experience that marries traditional African ingredients with modern techniques. On the day AFP visited, the 10-course menu included sweet potato-marinated tuna, shrimp with powdered cassava and, for dessert, a coffee foam dusted with crushed peanuts. His clientele includes locals, expatriates and tourists, who line up for a meal that looks as good as it tastes -- with chefs using tweezers to meticulously arrange each dish. Diner Laura Tomini said the experience made her feel like she was "in business class". Next generation Although Africa-born chefs like Pierre Thiam have made a splash on the global food scene, popularising Afro-fusion in the West, Malonga wants to raise the continent's own gastronomic profile. By 2023, he hopes to "create something big" by opening a new restaurant in the rural northern region of Musanze, at the foot of the Virunga mountain range and its famous gorillas. Malonga says he revels in foraging for ingredients and meeting the people who grow the aromatic herbs and edible flowers used in his dishes. By Simon MAINA AFP He wants the second incarnation of Meza Malonga to serve as a training ground for the next generation of Africa's top chefs. In Kigali, the soft-spoken Malonga works with 10 young cooks, mainly Rwandan but also Burundian, Ugandan and Tanzanian, who praise his openness to their ideas and his willingness to let them shine. In Musanze, he says he plans to recruit and train many more chefs -- with the goal of transforming the continent's gastronomic reputation. The 13 persons in police custody for their alleged involvement in the Bawku chieftaincy disturbances will be put before court today, Tuesday, January 4, 2022. There was a renewed chieftaincy clash in Bawku last Monday, which led to the loss of lives and the destruction of property. Sporadic shootings were recorded in parts of the town prior to the renewed clashes following attempts to perform the final funeral rites for a chief who died about 41 years ago. A group calling itself Bawku Mamprugu Youth Association in a press statement however said the continuous detention of the suspects is a violation of their human rights. They said their detention almost a week after their arrest without taking them through due process was unfair. We would want to make it clear to the government or the state that our kinsmen are being treated like animals who have been caged without any rights. Our kinsmen, numbering 11 men and a woman, had been arrested and sent to Accra and locked up at various police cells. Our lawyers have done all that is legally possible for the police at the CID division of the police headquarter to release the suspects on bail either on police inquiry or before a court of competent jurisdiction as constitutionally required in respect of their fundamental human rights. The group also accused the Interior Minister of preventing the release of the suspects. Our information is that the Interior Minister has turned himself into a court of law and given instructions that our kinsmen should not be released. Whatever the reasons, only Ambrose Dery can tell. For someone who is not just a lawyer but also a law maker to wantonly break the law and gleefully state that he does not mind paying compensation to the detained for his negligence and using taxpayers' resources to unlawfully detain our kinsmen is most disappointing, the statement said. citinewsroom In the past year, Ghana's Parliament seized global attention-- twice for violence. First, in the choice of Speaker and then for the e-Levy vote at the end of the year. According to a probably apocryphal story, the day after the second brawl, an aspiring Parliamentary candidate called on a Constituency executive to make his intentions known. The Constituency executive sized up the diminutive aspiring MP and said, "Massa, wo mfe susua. Parliament ho, sesei de3, yenka brofo, y3bo aky3de3. Wo betumi ako de3?" It is strange that the year after President Agyewodin Rawlings joined his ancestors, the defining characteristic he brought to our politics -- violence--is on the ascendancy. Even during his term, there were no brawls in our Parliament. While he punched up his Vice-president, at the Castle, Parliament knew to resolve its differences " by the force of arguments rather than the argument of force." Since the advent of the 1992 constitution, violence has been trending downwards in our politics, except for a few aberrations-- like Kume Preko and Kumbungu but in the last year, the trend has reversed. First, we had some by-elections characterized by violence. Then in 2020, seven of our fellow citizens left home to vote and ended up dead at the hands of our security forces in an election described bizarrely by our own Electoral Commission as "peaceful". Indeed, the deaths in 2020 made that election more violent than the January 13th, 1972 coup. Some apologists for Agyewodin Rawlings, watching the events after his death, suggest that President Rawlings didn't bring violence, he only unleashed the violence that was hidden within us. A cardinal feature of a democracy is the absence of violence and the ability to resolve differences through debate and compromise. Three events towards the end of the year should give us hope. When the Speaker returned to address a divided Parliament, he chose to calm the riled tempers rather than inflame them. Then Gabby, as an emissary for the President, visited former President Mahama, who received him cordially. Finally, former President Kufuor, in an interview with Kesben fm, called for "Abotare" and "Ahobrase3". These were hopeful steps and we must build on them. We must investigate violence, call out the perpetrators and deal with them. If the Parliament and other organs continue to be violent, sooner or later, others who are better equipped for violence will step forward-- to institutionalize violence to our collective detriment. Let us not tempt them or fate. Let there be peace. May God bless Ghana. Arthur Kobina Kennedy 2nd January, 2022. The Minister of Local Government, Mr. Dan Kwaku Botwe has called for support for the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) with the argument that it will address the demand for development. Speaking at a mini durbar to climax the Annual Odwira Festival of the chiefs and people of Adukrom in the Okere District of the Eastern Region, the Minister said if implemented, e-Levy would help the government to construct more roads, schools and more hospitals in the country. The E-Levy is a thought-through budget proposal to meet the huge demands of development, Mr. Dan Botwe who is also Member of Parliament for Okere Constituency said. The Local Minister continued, The demand for good roads, schools, and hospitals amidst the huge burden of ensuring that there are job opportunities for the young ones far outweigh similar demands in my days as a youth and we, as a people must all come to that realisation. The E-Levy is a proposal in the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy proposal of the ruling government. When approved, the government will charge 1.75 per cent tax on all financial transactions done electronically. The levy will affect mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments, as well as inward remittances. 04.01.2022 LISTEN Striking members of the Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anaesthetists have laid the blame for the stalled negotiations in the impasse over their title change at the doorstep of the Health Ministry. Speaking to Citi News, the President of the association, James Nwinsagra, said his union was expecting the Ministry of Health to be more proactive. Mr. Nwinsagra, however, says his outfit is open to engagement to resolve the impasse. He also said the Labour Ministry and the National Labour Commission had directed the Minister of Health to avert any industrial action. According to him, they [the Health Ministry] were given three days. The three days expired on the 22nd of December 2021. As we speak, the Ministry of Health hasn't responded in any way and there has not been any other engagement, he added. As a result, the Anaesthetists have been on strike since Saturday, January 1, 2022, after not renewing their licenses with the Medical and Dental Council. The National Labour Commission gave us a reminder that it is illegal for anyone to engage in the practice after 31st December 2021 without renewing [our license]. We are simply obeying the rules, and we don't want to engage in any illegality. Each year, members are expected to renew their license with the Medical and Dental Council, which makes them eligible to practice. However, the group says it has parted ways with the Medical and Dental Council for its failure to champion the course of anaesthetists over the years. The groups main contention has been changing the title of members from 'Physician Assistants' to 'Certified Registered Anaesthetists'. ---citinewsroom A fire that devastated South Africa's parliament was finally contained on Tuesday after a two-day battle, firefighters said, as a man appeared in court to face charges of starting the blaze. Flames broke out in the Cape Town complex before dawn on Sunday, spreading to the National Assembly, whose roof collapsed, and threatening national treasures housed in an older section. The blaze was initially declared under control on Monday but then flared up again, fanned by strong winds. "Firefighters managed to contain the fire just before 12:00 last night," spokesman Jermaine Carelse told AFP. There were fresh flames again early Tuesday, he added, which firefighters extinguished. Zandile Christmas Mafe, 49, appeared in Cape Town Magistrates' Court to face charges of arson. By RODGER BOSCH AFP "We currently have four fire engines on scene with approximately 20 staff members that will monitor the situation throughout the day." A 49-year-old man, Zandile Christmas Mafe, was arrested in the complex on Sunday. He appeared briefly in court Tuesday to answer charges of breaking into and "setting fire to parliamentary buildings" and intention to steal property, including "laptops, crockery and documents". Bearded and dressed in a grey shirt with knee-length shorts, he removed his mask on arriving in court and turned to present his face to the TV cameras and press photographers. His attorney, Luvuyo Godla, who is defending him pro bono, said the defendant pleaded not guilty, while prosecutors argued against granting him bail. He was remanded in custody until January 11 pending further inquiries, which depend on when investigators can gain access to the building. Catastrophe No casualties have been reported in the fire, but the damage has shocked the country. The blaze tore through the wood-panelled assembly where parliamentary debates are held and the president makes his annual state-of-the-nation address. The blaze tore through the wood-paneledassembly where parliamentary debates are held. By RODGER BOSCH AFP Carelse said such was the devastation that a parliamentary session would not be held there for a long time. Parliament spokesman Moloto Mothapo said "the entire chamber where the members sit... has burned down". The fire started in the older part of the complex -- a section that once housed South Africa's first parliament. Completed in 1884, the section is where parliament keeps treasures, including around 4,000 heritage and artworks, some dating back to the 17th century. The fire then spread to the newer National Assembly and a third building housing the upper house, the National Council of Provinces. Security question Investigators said the fire broke out in two separate areas and the water sprinkler system did not work properly because the water was cut off. Surveillance cameras showed the suspect in the buildings at around 2:00 am. "However, security only saw him at 6:00 am, when they looked at the screens after being alerted by the smoke," Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille told AFP. Flames rose from the building on Monday, fanned by strong winds. By GIANLUIGI GUERCIA AFP "CCTVs were working. The problem is that there was no monitoring of the CCTV cameras on that fateful night," she told a news conference on Monday. "Certainly, there was a security breach," she added, saying that this was under investigation. The fire broke out just a few hundred metres (yards) from St. George's Cathedral, where anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu's ashes were interred on Sunday while the blaze raged, a day after his funeral. Last March another fire also broke out in the older wings of parliament, but it was quickly contained. Cape Town suffered another major fire in April, when a blaze on the famed Table Mountain, which overlooks the city, ravaged part of the University of Cape Town's library holding a unique collection of African archives. South Africa has an unusual political arrangement in that its parliament is in Cape Town while the seat of government lies in Pretoria, more than 1,300 kilometres (more than 800 miles) to the north. The country's economic and financial hub is Johannesburg. French lawmakers have suspended debate over a bill that will transform the Covid health pass into a vaccine pass, a move that has allowed opposition parties to claim victory in an election year by derailing the government's timeline to have the legislation passed by 15 January. Already heated discussions in parliament on the bill were suspended after midnight on Monday after a majority of deputies present voted to suspend the late-night session. The move caught the government's LaRem party by surprise, and there were not enough lawmakers physically present to block the motion. The legislation being debated would make it mandatory for people to show proof of vaccination to go to restaurants or cinemas or other public spaces, and remove the option of showing a recent negative test. The government argues this is necessary to stop the rapid spread of Covid, driven by the Omicron variant, but the legislation has faced strong resistance from the far-right National Rally and the hard-left France unbowed, whose MPs have vowed to vote no. Opposition celebrates The dramatic move to suspend debate was celebrated by the opposition, though it is just a momentary setback, as the bill is backed by the government, which has a majority in parliament. National Rally leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen tweeted the move as a victory for democracy, to keep debate over the vaccine pass from being discussed overnight, far from the view of the public. France Unbowed leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon, who is also running for president, said that the move puts health minister Olivier Veran, who has argued in favour of the bill, in his place. The mainstream right Les Republicains has publicly supported the bill, though several MPs voted with the opposition to stop debate on Monday night. The president of the Republicains group in parliament, Damien Abad, called the suspension is a humiliation for the government's party, which found itself in the minority in the chamber. LaRem has come under fire for not taking the debates seriously, and it is not the first time that the party has found itself short on votes on Covid legislation. The president of the parliamentary group, Christophe Castaner, called on lawmakers to stay present and mobilised all week. Staying on course? The heads of the various parliamentary groups must now set a new date for debates to resume, said National Assembly Vice-president Annie Genevard. Once the legislation is passed, it needs to be voted on by the senate before becoming law. Government officials have vowed to implement the legislation by its planned date of 15 January Calling the suspension a cynical act of politics, junior minister for European affairs, Clement Beaune told LCI television that lawmakers could be called to debate over the weekend. We need to move fast," he said. (with wires) A Swedish woman has been charged with war crimes for allegedly helping to recruit her son to fight as a child soldier in Syria. The charges mark the first time the country has charged an individual with war crimes for abetting in recruiting child soldiers, for which there is an absolute ban, according to a statement from the Swedish Prosecution Authority. Advertisement The woman, who has denied all charges, allegedly helped get her now-20-year-old son to fight as a child soldier between 2013 and 2016, during which they lived in Syrian territory previously controlled by the Islamic State group. FILE - A view of Aleppo on July 19, 2015. (Khaled Khateb / AFP/ Getty Images) The son, who was 12 when he first arrived in Syria, was given weapons and military equipment and was used in combat and for propaganda purposes and for other missions that formed part of warfare, said Prosecutor Reena Devgun. Advertisement The woman, who has denied all charges and whose name was not published, is a western Sweden native who converted to Islam, according to Swedish public broadcaster SVT. She and her husband reportedly traveled to war-torn Syria in 2013, where he died. Two of her sons, aged 14 and 18, were later also killed, according to SVT. He was recruited and used as a child soldier by a terrorist organization in warfare that was extremely ruthless and brutal, said Devgun. With News Wire Services Over 35, 000 members of the Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU) whose members include bursars, cooks, cleaners, administrators, accountants, auditors, among others will withdraw their services from tomorrow despite the plea by Otumfuo Osei Tutu II for unions to use dialogue to resolve its concerns and not strike. The members are withdrawing their services to demand the payment of Ghc600 each professional development allowance. At a news conference in Accra on Tuesday, January 4 General Secretary of TEWU, Mark Denkyira Korankye said, though the schools are re-opening tomorrow there will not be caterers to cook for the students. We went to the Ministry of Education, we have written and given all the justifications that are required. The Minister said we should liaise with the Ghana Education Service management, we are have engaged them. In fact, in the wisdom of the management of GES, they said let us put together a technical committee to look at the issues and give appropriate recommendations. This was supposed to have been complete in September last year. We are in January 2022 , the committee has not even met let alone to make recommendations for its consideration. so we feel that this feet dragging is on purpose maybe to deny our members of this right and that this why we think that we must push and move to the next step where that one will compel management to sit and conclude any discussion with us on this matter. The Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has tasked teachers to adopt an improved way of negotiation rather than resorting to strike whenever their concerns are not addressed. He argued that school children are the ones who face the consequences of such actions and not politicians. He was addressing members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) at their 6th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference. On several occasions, teachers resort to industrial action when government fails to address their grievances. This they claim is the only and effective language government understands. But the Asantehen said Obviously, those who really suffer are the innocent children. I urge you all to focus your minds on the need for an improved way for negotiations and consultations which will minimize, if not eliminate, any recourse to industrial action and the harmful consequences on our children. He also urged policy makers to work to ensure that the conditions of teachers are improved. While we will always urge moderation in the face of the national economic realities, we will nonetheless, urge policy makers to ensure that the status of our teachers truly reflect the level of importance we attach to their place in society, he said. Regarding this, the TEWU General Secretary said Otumfuo righty appealed that dialogue and consensus building is what we need. we have given all these opportunities we wrote to GES, they responded and invited us to a meeting, they said lets form a technical committee e and it has taken already four months without the first meeting. we think that if we dont take the necessary stopes our members right will be trampled upon and it is not right to do so so that is why we have come to this end. ---3news.com The Reverend Dr Lawrence Tetteh, a renowned international evangelist, has urged the leaders and citizens to be godly and humble in the discharge of their responsibilities to attract God's blessings for sustainable national development. He said the numerous challenges undermining the development of the nation were because the people had turned away from the instructions of God. Dr Tetteh, who is also the founder of the Worldwide Miracle Outreach made the call in a Watch Night Service message, on December 31, 2021. As a nation we have decided to do things our own way without heeding to the Word of God. The reason why our politicians are struggling is because of this Word. ...Until we come to the realisation of this word and change our ways, we will continue to be in a mess, he said. Dr Tetteh decried what he described as "the lack of humility among the citizenry", a character, he said, had been the bane of the country's development for ages. He also expressed concern about what he described as "widespread" corruption and admonished the people and institutions to change their ways to advance the development of the nation. The nation is not humble. We have become so arrogant as if there is no tomorrow. Humility is a prerequisite to the breakthrough we are looking for. Ghana must be humble and until everybody in their own small way learn to be humble, we are in trouble, he said. He urged the nation to constantly pray and seek God's guidance in taking decisions that would affect the development of the nation. All the resources we need are in this country and because we are not praying, we have been blindfolded of the resources...We must seek the face of God and turn from our wicked ways, he said. GNA The Coronavirus (Covid-19) situation in Ghana continues to worsen by the day in the latest figures from the Ghana Health Service. In the last few weeks, the number of active cases in the country has increased astronomically with the death toll also seeing an increase as well. Today, the statistics on the dashboard of the Ghana Health Service is indicating that the active cases now stands at 13,025. The figure is as a result of 1,084 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the death toll has also gone up to 1,309. With experts attributing the increase in the number of active Covid-19 cases to activities during the yuletide season including programmes that constituted large gatherings, it is being predicted that the numbers should start going down now that the festivities have ended. However, Ghanaians are urged to strictly adhere to the Covid safety protocols to complement the efforts of the government to fight the pandemic. Unvaccinated Ghanaians are encouraged to visit any nearby centre to receive jabs of the available vaccines to stay safe. 04.01.2022 LISTEN The Queen-mother of New Juaben traditional area in Eastern region, Nana Yaa Daani II has died. The Queen-mother reportedly died Monday, January 3, 2022, at a hospital after battling sickness for over a year. Born in 1952, the late Nana Yaa Daani II was a trained Nurse but failed to practice over the fear of blood. She engaged in various trades in Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo and became a successful businesswoman. Nana Yaa Daani known in private life as Nana Afua Serwaa was enstooled Queenmother in year 2000. The death of the Paramount Queen-mother occurred five months after the Omanhene of the Traditional area, Daasebre Prof. Emeritus Oti Boateng died and is yet to be buried. Two sub-chiefs of New Juaben also died as Omanhene was pronounced dead. New Juaben Traditional area in the Eastern region has been thrown into a state of grief as three chiefs including the Daasebre Prof.Emeritus Oti Boateng died last year. The death of the Queen-mother brings the number of traditional rulers who have died from last year to this year to four (4). The Oyokohene Nana Kodua Kesse II who was Adontehene, and Okogyeaman Ankomah Basapong Suhyenhene and Mponuahene of the New Juaben Traditional area died months apart in the year 2021. The late Okyokohene who was a former Council of State member was however buried in December 2021. ---DGN online Sri Lanka's President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, sacked a minister for criticizing an ambitious government plan to become the world's first country to only use organic fertilizer to grow crops, officials said on Tuesday. The president's spokesperson, Kingsly Ratnayake, said the president had used his powers to remove Education Minister Susil Premajayantha with immediate effect. The president's office did not give reason for the step, but Premajayantha said he believed he was removed after saying the country's agricultural policy had failed, and converting to organic farming had led to a sharp rise in vegetable prices. The minister's comments came amid public protests over rising vegetable and rice prices due to major shortages after the government banned the import of chemical fertilizers in May last year. The government revised the policy in November, lifting the ban on chemical fertilizer imports, but the move came too late for most farmers who had been unable to cultivate crops, leading to shortages. Opposition parties and farmers have held protests about the harm caused to the agricultural sector and the increased cost of living. However, Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage defended the government's decision and vowed to continue encouraging organic farming through the payment of subsidies. GNA The Majority Leader of Parliament Hon Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has accused the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin of turning the House into an enclave for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). According to him, parliament is now a safe haven for the NDC due to some unilateral decisions by the Speaker of the House. Addressing issues of Parliament on Kumasi based OTEC FM's "Nyansapo" show on January 4, 2022, the Suame MP opined that the Speaker of Parliament is acting under pressure from his party NDC. "Alban Bagbin's decision to employ only known members of the opposition NDC as staff at his office shows clearly that he's doing the bidding of his party". He told the host of the show Captain Koda. "I personally don't think what he (Speaker) is doing was right), he did not only employe former NDC MP's as his office staff, he also brought the General Secretary of the NDC to Parliamentary Service Board which has unleashed a lot of pressure on NPP members of Parliament," he stated. He accused Alban Bagbin of a grand plot to frustrate government business in the House. The Majority Leader wants the Speaker held accountable for the recent chaos in Parliament. The House will resume sitting on January 18, 2022. The Majority leader of Parliament Hon Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has said the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin was not elected constitutionally. He insists the Speaker of Parliament was elected based on consensus by some leaders in Parliament. According to him, the election process was not concluded when chaos erupted in Parliament. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu noted that the process was compromised by the kicking and snatching of ballot boxes by the Minority in Parliament during the election of a Speaker. He indicated that Parliament had therefore planned to hold another election in two weeks time to constitutionally elect a Speaker. The Majority Leader revealed that it was only agreed that Alban Bagbin becomes Speaker by consensus to temporary lead them swear in members of the House to pave way for President Akufo-Addo to be sworn in. Speaking on Kumasi based OTEC FM's Breakfast show dubbed "Nyansapo " on Tuesday, January 4, 2022, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu who is also the Member of Parliament for Suame Constituency stressed that, "Alban Bagbin was only adopted as the speaker of parliament just so to swear in the Members of Parliament after the initial voting process failed. We had planned to conduct the elections again in two weeks time to constitutionally elect a new speaker but some members of the minority declined the idea making Alban Bagbin the leader of the House. The former Member of Parliament for Nadowli Kaleo and a member of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin was elected Speaker of the 8th Parliament. Mr. Bagbin, who was the Second Deputy Speaker in the previous Parliament reportedly won the elections with 138 votes. His only contender, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye polled 136 votes. The election of Bagbin was not without controversy as chaos characterized the night including the invasion of military personnel in the chamber. Germany has lashed out at proposals by Brussels to classify nuclear power as a sustainable technology under the EU's landmark labelling system for green investments which is central to European plans to decarbonise the bloc's economy. The German government reiterated at the weekend that it considers nuclear energy dangerous and objects to EU proposals that would allow nuclear technology to remain part of the bloc's plans for a carbon-neutral future. Berlin welcomed a plan to label some natural gas energy projects as green investments, but stressed its opposition to a proposal to do the same for nuclear projects. It is questionable whether this greenwashing will even find acceptance on the financial market, said Germany's economy minister Robert Habeck, who is a Green party MP in the country's governing coalition. Green investment The proposal is part of a so-called 'taxonomy' list that aims to help channel the billions of euros of investment needed to decarbonise the EU economy. On Friday Germany pulled the plug on three of its last six nuclear power plants as part of its move to a full withdrawal from nuclear energy, which gathered pace after the meltdown of the Fukushima reactor in Japan in 2011. The German government considers natural gas an important bridging technology on the way towards phasing-out nuclear energy and coal-fired power stations. Can nuclear be green? While nuclear power produces very few carbon emissions, the European Commission has sought expert advice on whether it should be deemed green, given the potential environmental impact of radioactive waste disposal. A draft of the Commission's proposal would label nuclear power plant investments as green if the project has the ability and funding to safely dispose of radioactive waste. To be deemed green, however, new nuclear plants must receive construction permits before 2045. EU countries and a panel of experts will scrutinise the draft proposal, which could change before it is due to be published later this month. The policy has been mired in lobbying from governments for more than a year and EU countries disagree on which fuels are truly sustainable. Austria and Luxembourg are also vigorously opposed to nuclear power. While France and other countries like the Czech Republic and Finland see nuclear energy as crucial to phasing out coal. Sudanese forces fired tear gas Tuesday at anti-coup protesters demanding civilian rule days after the prime minister resigned, as the US and EU warned the military against naming their own successor. Shouting "No, no to military rule", protesters called for the disbandment of Sudan's ruling council headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who led an October 25 coup, detaining the then Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and derailing a transition to a full civilian government. Streets leading to the presidential palace and army headquarters in the capital Khartoum were sealed off by hefty deployments of troops, riot police and paramilitary units, witnesses said. Burhan had dismissed both Hamdok and the government in the October coup, dismantling a precarious power-sharing arrangement between the military and civilians that had been established in the wake of the April 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar-al-Bashir. The military chief reinstated Hamdok on November 21, a deal the prime minister accepted partly on the promise of elections in mid-2023 -- but the protest movement slammed the deal as a "betrayal" and kept up its rallies. Hamdok then resigned on Sunday -- six weeks after he was reappointed by Burhan -- saying the country was at a "dangerous crossroads threatening its very survival". 'People's choice' Main developments in Sudan since the October coup.. By Gal ROMA AFP On Tuesday, the United States, European Union, Britain and Norway warned the military against naming their own successor to Hamdok, saying it would "not support a prime minister or government appointed without the involvement of a broad range of civilian stakeholders". The four Western powers said that they still believed in the democratic transition of Sudan, but issued a veiled warning to the military if it does not move forward. "In the absence of progress, we would look to accelerate efforts to hold those actors impeding the democratic process accountable," the statement read. "Unilateral action to appoint a new prime minister and cabinet would undermine those institutions' credibility and risks plunging the nation into conflict," it added. The coup -- one of several in Sudan's post-independence history -- has triggered mass demonstrations and a bloody crackdown that has left at least 57 people dead and hundreds wounded, according to the independent Doctors' Committee. On Tuesday, security forces fired tear gas near the palace, as well as at rallies in suburbs north of Khartoum and in the eastern city of Port Sudan. A Sudanese protester picks up a tear gas canister amid clashes with security forces on January 4. By - AFP Protesters also gathered in Khartoum's twin city Omdurman and the South Darfur state capital Nyala, taking the total on the streets across the country into the thousands. Emad Mohamed, a witness in Wad Madani, south of Khartoum, said protesters carried the Sudanese flag and were beating drums as they chanted "civilian rule is the people's choice". Demonstrators in east Khartoum "burnt car tyres and built brick barricades on the streets," witness Sawsan Salah said. Other protesters urged the military "to go back to the barracks." Protests calmed later on Tuesday evening. 'Urgent action' Demonstrators demand civilian rule in the Sudanese capital's twin city of Omdurman on Tuesday. By - AFP Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Tuesday that he "respects" Hamdok's decision and called for "urgent action" to resolve the crisis. UN chief Antonio Guterres "regrets that a political understanding on the way forward is not in place despite the gravity of the situation in Sudan", UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday. On Tuesday, Burhan met with US Charge d'Affairs Brian Shukan, stressing the need to "continue dialogue between all sides to come up with a national consensus programme," according to a statement by Burhan's office. His office also said he had met with UN special representative Volker Perthes over "the current political situation" and discussed "speeding up the appointment of a new prime minister." Activists online have urged demonstrators to keep heading to the presidential palace "until victory is achieved", according to the Sudanese Professionals Association, an alliance of independent trade unions that was instrumental in the anti-Bashir protests. French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Tuesday that the suspension of the vaccine pass bill in parliament was nothing short of a political coup, after lawmakers refused to discuss the pass after midnight last night a move he described as "irresponsible". I don't understand that after a certain number of officials in your party voted for the vaccination pass, last night 32 deputies voted against it, said Castex, referring to the mainstream right Les Republicans party. He hailed those who are pushing for the debate to be reopened without delay. Heated discussions in parliament on the bill were suspended after midnight on Monday after a majority of MPs in the lower house voted to suspend the late-night session. The move caught the government's LaRem party by surprise, and there were not enough lawmakers physically present to block the motion. The legislation being debated would make it mandatory for people to show proof of vaccination to go to restaurants or cinemas or other public spaces, and remove the option of showing a recent negative test. The government argues this is necessary to stop the rapid spread of Covid, driven by the Omicron variant. But the legislation has faced strong resistance from the hard-right National Rally and the hard-left France unbowed, whose MPs have vowed to vote against it. Opposition celebrates The dramatic move to suspend debate was celebrated by the opposition, though it is just a momentary setback, as the bill is backed by the government, which has a majority in parliament. National Rally leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen tweeted the move was a victory for democracy, to keep debate over the vaccine pass from being discussed overnight, far from the view of the public. France Unbowed leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon, who is also running for president, said that the move puts health minister Olivier Veran, who has argued in favour of the bill, in his place. The Republicans party has publicly supported the bill, though several MPs voted with the opposition to stop debate on Monday night. The president of the Republicans group in parliament, Damien Abad, called the suspension a humiliation for the government's LaRem party, which found itself in a minority in the chamber. LaRem has come under fire for not taking the debates seriously, and it is not the first time that the party has found itself short on votes on Covid legislation. The president of the parliamentary group, Christophe Castaner, called on MPs to stay present and mobilised all week. Staying on course? The heads of the various parliamentary groups must now set a new date for debates to resume, said National Assembly Vice-president Annie Genevard. Once the legislation is passed, it needs to be voted on by the senate before becoming law. Government officials have vowed to implement the legislation by its planned date of 15 January Calling the suspension a cynical act of politics, junior minister for European affairs, Clement Beaune told LCI television that lawmakers could be called to debate over the weekend. We need to move fast," he said. (with wires) Betty White died of natural causes and did not receive a COVID booster shot a few days before her death, contrary to online rumors, her friend and agent Jeff Witjas said Monday. Thats just not true 100% not true, Witjas told the Daily News in a phone call. Advertisement Actress Betty White and talent agent Jeff Witjas attend The TMA 2015 Heller Awards on May 28, 2015 in Century City, California. (Vivien Killilea) White, who died either Thursday night or Friday at age 99, had been staying close to home during the pandemic, Witjas said. He debunked claims circulating on social media regarding a quote attributed to The Golden Girls star in which she said, " Eat healthy and get all your vaccines. I just got boosted today, supposedly uttered on Dec. 28. Advertisement The memes about White being affected by the COVID-19 booster shot have proliferated online, with posts such as a tweet sharing the fabricated quote and captioned, Died 3 days later! Coincidence, according to AP. The posts come with a link to an article in a Minnesota news outlet, Crow River Media, carrying the title, Betty White: Im lucky to still be in good health. The article itself says nothing about a booster shot, AP said. The rumors are all not true, Witjas, who said he has been a longtime friend of Whites. He added that he had no idea of Whites vaccination status overall. But I do know for a fact that a booster was not involved at all in Bettys passing, Witjas told The News. That seems to be the story out there, and its just not true. Betty passed due to natural causes. The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. > He said she had been well taken care of by people who were supremely careful about their shots. People can do what they want to do. But they shouldnt hang it on Betty for any reason. Its just not right. Its not her legacy, Witjas said. She was never a political person when she lived. I would certainly hate to see her become politicized in passing. Betty always spoke the truth, Witjas said. I as her agent always spoke the truth with her. Its not going to stop now. He also expressed worry that people might be deterred by the false reports. If people truly believe that Betty passed away because of a COVID shot, a booster, theyre not going to go out and get it, Witjas said. Advertisement Today you can attribute anything to anybody, and make it true. But I dont want that to be done to Betty, he said. Unless its true. But in this case its not true. Whites death came just 18 days before what would have been her 100th birthday. Her death was mourned widely by celebrities and animal rights groups, and everyone in between. 04.01.2022 LISTEN The earth's surface is covered by water to an extent of about 71 per cent. In Ghana, the coastline stretches about 550 kilometres. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Ghana has a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles, a contiguous zone that does not extend beyond 24 nautical miles, an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 200 nautical miles off its baseline, and a continental shelf which extends more than 200 nautical miles due to certain technicalities regarding our seabed and subsoil, and its subsequent approval by the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). The approval given by the CLCS was for 2 polygons extension from the initial 200 nautical miles (which was 370 km from the territorial sea baseline). The extension is designated as the Eastern Extended Continental Shelf Region and Western Extended Continental Shelf Region. In 1985, Ghana ratified UNCLOS, and in 1986, the Maritime Zones (Delimitation) Law was enacted to give effect to the UNCLOS. The sea provides us with a wealth of opportunities, including aquatic life, natural resources such as oil and gas embedded in the seabed, tourism, maritime transportation, and renewable energy. Many of these areas, however, remain underdeveloped. The principal reason that accounts for this phenomenon is sea blindness. The term "sea blindness" relates to the public's, media, and decision-maker's lack of knowledge of the sea or maritime domain. We are more concerned with the 'land' than the sea because we do not live on the sea and are thus uninterested in what occurs there. That said, our generation did not introduce the concept of sea blindness. During the struggle for territorial sovereignty, our forebears were primarily concerned with liberating our people and reclaiming landed territories; they were oblivious to maritime issues, even though it was the main route through which we were invaded and exploited. Presently, this sea blindness is manifested in several governmental decisions as well as our maritime domain's underdevelopment. The lack of political will, attention, and commitment to the maritime industry will continue to hinder economic growth and development. Due to sea blindness, the public and the media are unable to advocate for the strategic transformation of our maritime domain, including its attendant accountability by the decision-makers. Maritime concerns are rarely placed at the forefront of significant government policy efforts. For example, in the field of security, successive governments have recognized the necessity to retool and reform security agencies such as the police to combat various crimes. Over the years, we've seen the procurement of vehicles and other forms of equipment to improve the protection of individuals and property on the land, including the installation of CCTV cameras in strategic locations across the country. In terms of execution, however, maritime security receives little attention or importance. Smuggling, armed robbery, and piracy within our territorial waters, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and high seas must be a source of worry for all of us. Because the sea is so vast, strengthening maritime security demands a regional effort and collaboration. Individual countries must first commit unreservedly to this goal. Offshore activities are hampered or put in danger due to a significant lack of maritime security tools such as speedboats, air surveillance, and satellite imagery, etc. Whenever maritime security is endangered or breached, it has an impact on the whole maritime stratum and economic life. Fishing contributes greatly to household income and increases our food security. However, the level of essential domestic support, development, and investment is extremely low. Our territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) are dominated by foreign fishing vessels, while our indigenous fishermen continue to use traditional canoe fishing methods. The same priority that has been given to certain crops under the 'Planting for Food' initiative can be extended to help our local fishermen flourish and engage in modern and large-scale fishing as per international laws and standards. It's worth noting that illegal and unreported fishing is estimated to cost our sub-region $1 billion in lost income each year. Seaborne trade accounts for over 90% of world trade; it is an indispensable industry; even during the height of the Covid 19 epidemic with its difficulties, the shipping industry was thriving and fulfilling our essential needs. To be able to successfully engage in the global shipping trade, we must improve our maritime infrastructure in areas like shipbuilding and repairs, demolition markets, and establishing an indigenous shipping line through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. The government's flagship program, One-District-One-Factory, which is mostly centred on agro-processing, may be extended similarly to resurrect the Tema Shipyard, which has the potential to bring in millions of dollars for the state and create jobs for our teaming youth force. Furthermore, because of our strategic position, the establishment of a ship demolition market will be a large source of revenue as well as a supply of raw materials for our smelting industries. Sea blindness has had an impact on the development of our inland waterways. Thus, to make them safer for navigation, as well as our failure to pay attention to our inland water transportation networks. Inland water transportation, in addition to being inexpensive and safe, will reduce traffic congestion and the number of accidents on our highways. Our navigable lakes and rivers, as well as our coastal seas, can convey both freight and passengers. The Cabotage Bill is currently gathering dust on the shelves. It is yet to pass the second reading of Ghanas Parliament. These are symptomatic of sea blindness. Commercial banks and financial institutions are reluctant in extending funding for maritime investment. Due to their limited or lack of industry understanding, diversifying into the maritime industry is not appealing to our indigenous business leaders. There must be tailored maritime-related courses in our major public institutions to offer specialized training in strategic areas where we lack the necessary capabilities. In doing so, we must explore courses that fit within the future of global maritime. The resultant effect of our sea blindness is the several missed opportunities that are staring at us in the face. The marine industry should not be limited solely to freight forwarding, which is a supportive service. Despite the enormous potential of Ghana's territorial waters, Continental shelf, and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), we continue to be disadvantaged. The government must take the lead in the fight against sea blindness, marshalling its resources to develop our maritime domain and prospects holistically, spur massive investment in that area, and steer the conversation at all levels to increase public interest and decision-making for economic development and the realization of its full potential. By: Chief Obosu Mohammed, DPA LL. B LL.M MCIArb Executive Director [Institute for African Maritime Development] [email protected] President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said so great has this governments commitment to education been that public expenditure on education has almost doubled from twenty billion, seven hundred million cedis (GH20.7 billion) between 2013 and 2016, that is in the Mahama era, to forty billion, four hundred million cedis (GH40.4 billion) between 2017 and 2020, that is in the Akufo-Addo era, representing an increase of some ninety five percent (95%). He said this on Tuesday, 4th January 2022, when he delivered a speech at the 6th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi. Addressing the gathering at the event, President Akufo-Addo noted that GNAT is what it is today because of the work of its past and current membership and leadership, and he assured that, under his administration, the work undertaken by the membership and leadership of the Association will not be in vain. The President, thus, used the opportunity to thank all teachers in the country for the work they did, and continue to do, in ensuring that the education of Ghanaian children, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, has not been truncated. Continuous assessment, the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have all been written by thousands and thousands of students, under your care and guidance, in conditions of safety and orderliness, and without incident. The nation is extremely appreciative of these acts of selflessness and patriotism, he said According to President Akufo-Addo, his vision of a modern, competitive, Ghanaian economy, spearheaded by indigenous entrepreneurs, with productive employment for the great majority of its citizens, requires skilled economic actors, and to get there, the nation needs an educated workforce. Through the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy, we are ensuring that value is being added to the intellect of every Ghanaian child. This is our surest way of succeeding in adding value to the Ghanaian economy, thereby helping to create acceptable, well-paying jobs for the young people of our country, he said. The President continued, For us, in Ghana, also to make a success of our nation, we must pay attention to teachers. It is only a group of well trained and motivated teachers that can help deliver the educated and skilled workforce we require to transform our economy and nation. Outlining the many initiatives implemented by Government since 2017, he stated that his government has restored, since coming into office five years ago, and continues to pay, teacher trainee allowances, which were abolished by the previous administration. In addition to the yearly average increase in salaries over the last five (5) years, my government is, for the first time in our nations history, paying a professional allowance to teachers. We have abolished the three (3) months' pay policy for teachers, we have cleared the arrears, and promotions due teachers have also been effected, he said. He stressed that to prevent undue delays in promotion of qualified teachers, Government will, in 2022, improve on the conduct of the aptitude test instituted by the Ghana Education Service, leveraging on lessons learnt from the one conducted in 2021. Affordable Housing for Teachers Government is also committed to the development of affordable housing for teachers all across the nation. The current initiative will involve the provision of housing for both mortgage and rental. I am fully aware that one challenge facing teacher ownership of homes beyond finance is their inability to purchase homes where they intend to retire, he said. Through a subsidised loan programme, President Akufo-Addo indicated that teachers will be provided an opportunity to own houses in desired locations in various parts of the country, stating that the Ministry of Education is working with the National Service Scheme on this. In addition, the Ministry of Works and Housing is in discussion with teacher unions to provide more housing opportunities for teachers. Within the next two years, it is proposed that ten thousand (10,000) housing units on affordable terms will be developed for teachers across the country. This, as we all know, is the tip of the iceberg, but it is a good beginning, he added. Touching on the vexed issue of laptops for teachers, President Akufo-Addo was glad the supply of laptops was appreciated by teachers, and promised that the other related matters of concern will be addressed. Good relations between GNAT and my government are matters of importance to me, and I will do my best to promote such relations, he added. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced plans by the government to facilitate the provision of 10,000 units of affordable houses for teachers across the country. He said the Ministry for Works and Housing was in discussion with teacher unions for the implementation of the project within the next two years. Additionally, the President said the Ministry of Education was working with the National Service Scheme, through a subsidised loan programme, to provide more housing opportunities for teachers. He was speaking at the opening of the Sixth Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers GNAT) in Kumasi. The Conference, which is the climax of the 90th anniversary celebration of the Association, is being held under the theme: "[email protected]: Surviving as a Reliable and Vibrant Teacher Union in the 21st Century". Delegates from all the 16 regions are attending the Conference, which is expected to elect national officers for the next quadrennial. "I am fully aware that one challenge facing teachers beyond finance is their inability to purchase homes where they intend to retire," President Akufo-Addo observed. He said his Government was committed to ensuring that teachers would own homes in desired locations in various parts of the country through the subsidised loan programme. "This, we all know, is the tip of the iceberg but is a good beginning," he told the elated teachers. He said public expenditure on education had almost doubled from GHC 20 billion between 2013 and 2016; to GHC 40 billion between 2017 and 2020. "Our collective goal should be to build a new Ghanaian civilisation where our prosperity and development are underpinned by attributes of creativity, innovation, hard work, honesty, integrity and fellow feelings," he advised. Through the implementation of the Free Senior High School Policy, the President said, the government was ensuring that value was being added to the intellect of every Ghanaian child. He said that was the way to go in order to succeed in adding value to the economy, thereby helping to create acceptable, well-paying jobs for the young people. "Government recognises that all modern successful nations that have experienced extraordinary results in the formation of human capital and economic development have shown that teacher quality is perhaps the single most important determinant of their success," he stated. He said it was, therefore, important to pay attention to teachers in the quest for accelerated development, emphasising that it was only a group of well trained and motivated teachers that could help deliver the skilled workforce required to transform the nation. GNA The Ghana Health Service has disclosed that about 99 percent of hospitals in the Ashanti Region risk closing down following hikes in covid-19 cases. This comes as the Omicron virus sweeps across the region, skyrocketing the daily infections which according to GHS has overwhelmed health facilities in the Region. Speaking to this reporter in an exclusive interview, the Ashanti Regional Deputy Health Director Dr. Micheal Rockson Agyei said most of the health workers in these hospitals have been hit hard impeding healthcare delivery in the Region. "We have received distress calls that most of our hospitals are in critical situations as a result of how fast the Omicron variant of covid-19 has spread throughout the region. "Some hospitals in the Region even moved to close down their facilities after staff were infected with the virus but it took the timely intervention of GHS to step in and help the facilities restructure things and continue their services," he stated. Dr Rockson Agyei attributed the ballooning cases to the blatant disregard of the covid-19 protocols during the yuletide. He disclosed that five out of every ten persons in the Region have been infected with the virus. The most difficult aspect, according to him, is that most of these persons refused to visit the hospital or self-isolate while others resort to all manner of self-medication. "We are now preparing our reports, but I suspect that the actual number of infections might be underreported as many are not reporting to health facilities after getting the infection," he stated. President Nana Akufo-Addo has promised to address all outstanding issues surrounding the One Teacher One Laptop initiative. Some teacher unions and stakeholders in the country's education sector have raised concerns about the initiative, which will provide laptops to teachers in Ghana on a cost-sharing basis. Speaking at the 6th Quadrennial and 53rd National Delegates Conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the President assured that concerns on the initiative will be resolved. I am glad to hear how much you welcomed the supply of the laptops. I promise you that the other related matters of concern will be addressed. The relationship between GNAT and my government is a matter of concern to me, and I will do my very best to promote such a relationship. Government facilitated the acquisition of 280,000 laptops for members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) this year. Teachers will be expected to bear 30 percent of the cost, while the government pays 70 percent for the laptops that will be provided by KA Technologies. There has, however, been some opposition from some teachers including GNAT members criticising the cost-sharing module in the policy and a lack of transparency. They are also worried that the policy could mirror the failed RLG partnership to supply laptops to Ghanaians schools. From the onset , the Ghana Education Service has said it has been working closely with the unions as far as the initiative is concerned. The GES said each teacher is to sign an acknowledgement form stating all personal particulars and also authorizing the deduction of the amount from their allowances. But the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has applauded the government's decision to provide teachers with laptops. The National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has commended President Nana Akufo- Addo for the One Teacher One Laptop initiative. Speaking at the the 6th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Kumasi on Tuesday January 4, the National President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mrs Philippa Larsen, said Your excellency, I wish to commend you and your government for supplying customized laptops to teachers. We are grateful and wish to take this opportunity to remind the Minister of Education of other related issues that we had lengthy discussions on. We believe this is going to be done to ensure peace and tranquility on the educational front. President Akufo-Addo pledged to address the issue about concerns raised by teachers over the 'One Teacher, One Laptop' initiative. The One Teacher One Laptop initiate was launched by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia . During the launch, he handed over 350,000 laptops in fulfilment of government's pledge to equip Ghana's teachers with the requisite ICT skills to prepare the next generation for the Fourth Industrial revolution. At a brief but colourful ceremony at the campus of the St Mary's Senior High School, Accra on Friday 3rd September, 2021 Dr Bawumia, assisted by the Minister for Education, Hon Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum; the Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa; and the leadership of Teacher Unions, handed over the first of these laptops, known as the TM1 (Teachers Mate 1) to the 71 teachers of the school. Effective teaching and learning is critical to developing the human capacity for work, innovation and creativity; necessary ingredients for capacity building. Teachers are the indispensable pillars to this necessary capacity building. This initiative, in collaboration with the Teacher Unions, is to support the vision of the Ghana Education Service of creating an enabling environment to facilitate effective teaching and learning Dr Bawumia stated. Under the initiative, Government is to provide every teacher in Ghana, from Kindergarten to the Senior High School level, with a laptop preloaded with educational materials and with access to an E-Library equipped with books recommended by the GES on the various subjects. The materials can be accessed whether online or offline, and with free Wi-Fi available in 722 Senior High Schools across the country, access to the almost innumerable resources available on the internet is expected to aid research, teaching and learning. The State takes up 70% of the cost of the laptop, while the teacher makes up the difference. The laptop, however, becomes the personal property of the teacher and serves the benefit of providing a tool for developing the teacher's professional and personal capacity. This shift to ICT-based teaching and learning has many benefits for both teachers and students, according to experts in education. With the curriculum materials already installed onto the laptops, the suggested lesson notes prepared by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) can be downloaded onto the laptops and used to end the burdensome task of writing lesson notes into notebooks. This would perfectly be in tandem with the fifth skill and competence under the new standards-based curriculum, the promotion of digital literacy. The laptops would also help in the field of assessment. The filling of School-Based Assessment, report cards, cumulative records, and the building of learners' individual portfolios would become easier if each teacher owns a laptop. ---3news.com A US envoy will travel to Ethiopia this week to encourage talks to end more than a year of war in the wake of a rebel withdrawal, the State Department said Tuesday. Jeffrey Feltman, the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, will visit Addis Ababa on Thursday "to engage with senior officials regarding the prospects for a broader peace," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. The trip comes after rebels, who months earlier had threatened to march on Addis Ababa, said they had withdrawn to their stronghold of Tigray. The Ethiopian government replied that the military would not pursue the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front further into the region. "We do believe this offers an opportunity for both sides to halt combat operations and come to the negotiating table," Price said. The trip comes after the United States angered Ethiopia by removing trading privileges for the longtime ally due to human rights concerns during the war. The United States and rights groups say that Ethiopia has deliberately withheld food assistance and have voiced alarm at accounts of mass killings and rape. President Akufo-Addo has said he has spent twice as much on education compared to what his immediate predecessor pumped into sector within their respective first four-year terms. So, great has this government's commitment to education been that public expenditure on education has almost doubled from twenty billion, seven hundred million cedis (GH20.7 billion) between 2013 and 2016, that is in the Mahama era, to forty billion, four hundred million cedis (GH40.4 billion) between 2017 and 2020, that is in the Akufo-Addo era, representing an increase of some ninety-five per cent (95%), Mr Akufo-Addo said on Tuesday, 4 January 2022, when he delivered a speech at the 6th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi. Addressing the gathering at the event, President Akufo-Addo noted that GNAT is what it is today because of the work of its past and current membership and leadership, and he assured that under his administration, the work undertaken by the membership and leadership of the Association will not be in vain. The President, thus, used the opportunity to thank all teachers in the country for the work they did, and continue to do, in ensuring that the education of Ghanaian children, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, has not been truncated. Continuous assessment, the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have all been written by thousands and thousands of students, under your care and guidance, in conditions of safety and orderliness, and without incident. The nation is extremely appreciative of these acts of selflessness and patriotism, he said According to President Akufo-Addo, his vision of a modern, competitive, Ghanaian economy, spearheaded by indigenous entrepreneurs, with productive employment for the great majority of its citizens, requires skilled economic actors, and to get there, the nation needs an educated workforce. Through the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy, we are ensuring that value is being added to the intellect of every Ghanaian child. This is our surest way of succeeding in adding value to the Ghanaian economy, thereby helping to create acceptable, well-paying jobs for the young people of our country, he said. The President continued, For us, in Ghana, also to make a success of our nation, we must pay attention to teachers. It is only a group of well trained and motivated teachers that can help deliver the educated and skilled workforce we require to transform our economy and nation. Outlining the many initiatives implemented by Government since 2017, he stated that his government has restored, since coming into office five years ago, and continues to pay, teacher trainee allowances, which were abolished by the previous administration. In addition to the yearly average increase in salaries over the last five (5) years, my government is, for the first time in our nations history, paying a professional allowance to teachers. We have abolished the three (3) months pay policy for teachers, we have cleared the arrears, and promotions due teachers have also been effected, he said. He stressed that to prevent undue delays in promotion of qualified teachers, Government will, in 2022, improve on the conduct of the aptitude test instituted by the Ghana Education Service, leveraging on lessons learnt from the one conducted in 2021. Affordable Housing for Teachers Government is also committed to the development of affordable housing for teachers all across the nation. The current initiative will involve the provision of housing for both mortgage and rental. I am fully aware that one challenge facing teacher ownership of homes beyond finance is their inability to purchase homes where they intend to retire, he said. Through a subsidised loan programme, President Akufo-Addo indicated that teachers will be provided an opportunity to own houses in desired locations in various parts of the country, stating that the Ministry of Education is working with the National Service Scheme on this. In addition, the Ministry of Works and Housing is in discussion with teacher unions to provide more housing opportunities for teachers. Within the next two years, it is proposed that ten thousand (10,000) housing units on affordable terms will be developed for teachers across the country. This, as we all know, is the tip of the iceberg, but it is a good beginning, he added. Touching on the vexed issue of laptops for teachers, President Akufo-Addo was glad the supply of laptops was appreciated by teachers, and promised that the other related matters of concern will be addressed. Good relations between GNAT and my government are matters of importance to me, and I will do my best to promote such relations, he added. The Delhi High Court (HC) on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by Future Retail seeking a direction to declare as illegal the ongoing arbitration proceedings with Amazon in Singapore. Justice Amit Bansal at the Delhi HC says that the filings were dismissed without giving any further details. Citing an order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the company had approached the HC. In December last year, CCI had imposed a penalty of Rs202 crore on Amazon and suspended its approval for the e-tailer's deal with Future Coupons, seeking more information. Citing CCI's order, Future Retail had argued the 2019 deal, which Amazon had used to assert its rights over Future, has been suspended. Citing this deal, Amazon has blocked Future's attempt to sell retail assets to a rival, alleging breach of certain contracts. Both Amazon and Future Retail are fighting cases to either enforce or overrule certain decisions taken by the arbitrator. In December, CCI said that Amazon ought to have notified the combination and Future Retail (FRL) shareholding agreement for acquisition of strategic rights over FRL through Future Coupons Private Ltd (FCPL) shareholders' agreement (SHA) as well as the commercial agreements between Amazon and Future groups, to establish strategic alignment and partnership between Amazon group and FRL as well as have a 'foot-in-the-door' in the India retail sector. In the latest filing, Future Retail contended that the 2019 deal could not get the CCI's approval, therefore, it has no legal existence in the country, and the continuation of the entire arbitration proceedings is a perpetuation of illegality. Amazon failed to notify FRL SHA and the commercial arrangements, as part of the combination between the parties, and suppressed the actual purpose and particulars of the combination, as discussed above, in contravention of the obligation contained in sub-section (2) of Section 6 of the Companies Act read with Regulation 5 and sub-regulations (4) and (5) of Regulation 9 of the Combination Regulations, CCI had said. CCI's order further added that, given that the combination is between players who are known in the online marketplace and offline retailing, and they have contemplated strategic alignment between their businesses, the Commission considers it necessary to examine the combination afresh, based on a notice to be given with true, correct and complete information, as required therein. Read: Future Retail says Amazon misrepresented to CCI, seeks cancellation of FCPL deal ) Earlier in November last year, independent directors of Future Retail wrote to CCI stating that the representations made by Amazon in the application to CCI for approval, were completely opposite and contradictory to their own internal correspondences and notes as submitted before the courts. ( On 9 September 2021, the Supreme Court had stayed all proceedings before the Delhi High Court on Amazon's petition seeking enforcement of Singapore emergency arbitrator's (EA) award, which restrained the Future group from going ahead with its Rs24,731-crore merger with Reliance Retail. Actor David Koechner was arrested in California on New Years Eve on suspicion of DUI and hit-and-run. The Anchorman co-star and former Saturday Night Live player was arrested around 3 p.m. in Simi Valley, outside Los Angeles, and released early New Years Day morning, according to People. Advertisement BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 17: David Koechner speaks onstage during the 2019 Writers Guild Awards L.A. Ceremony at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 17, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Rich Fury/Getty Images) Koechner, 59, allegedly drove erratically and hit a street sign and a median before fleeing the scene. According to ABC 7, Koechners BAC was 1.5 times the legal limit. The Missouri native, who has more than 200 credits on IMDB, including 15 episodes of The Office, where he played salesman Todd Packer, and Talladega Nights, is due in Ventura County court in March. Advertisement The actor has several stand-up comedy tour dates scheduled to begin later this week, but its unclear if those performances will be affected by his arrest. Online fraudsters have come up with an innovative way to cheat people (especially senior citizens) - this time in the guise of COVID vaccine booster dose. Due to the recent surge in cases of COVID-19's Omicron variant, the situation has paved the way for this type of online fraud. Mumbai Police has forewarned people to be vigilant of these new scams and that no such booster doses are available yet. The modus operandi for this new fraud is simple. The caller, who identifies himself as a government employee, contacts the senior citizens and enquires with them if they are double vaccinated. Sometimes they do not ask but inform you that you are double vaccinated and are due for a booster dose. The caller may even share the correct age, date of birth, address, Aadhaar number and make it look very genuine. When the senior citizen gives an affirmative answer, the scamster also shares the date of vaccination and centres to make it look more authentic. After confirmation of the basic details, the scamster asks the victims if they are interested in taking a third vaccination, a booster dose, which is effective in fighting the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Once the victim falls prey to the conjob, the scamster asks them to register themselves to be eligible for the booster dose, which will be rolled out for the public in January or February. The scamster then informs the victim that an OTP will be received on their phone. About 15 minutes after this phone call, another call is made to the victim to seek the OTP, which could empty the bank account or siphon off the victim's money. Police officers said fraudsters keep on coming up with new ways to cheat people. These fraudsters often scan social media for those looking for COVID resources and contact them. To stay away from such scams, the elderly especially should enquire with the government channels to ascertain if any such doses are offered. Mumbai Police has circulated an audio message on social media that explains the modus operandi and cautions people about the new fraud. Talking about the ways to avoid such frauds, the cybercrime cell said that people should not blindly believe in such random calls. Crosscheck with government authorities about any scheme. People should not fall for such traps and verify the information before making any payment. Remember, if you receive an email, text message or phone call pretending to be from the government and you are asked to provide your Aadhaar number or any financial details to sign up for the precautionary (booster) dose, it is a scam. If and when the booster doses are made available, it can only be procured through proper channels. The police have appealed to the citizens not to fall prey to such scams and report it at the nearest police station if they receive any such calls or messages seeking details or offering a third dose (booster) in exchange for personal details. So far in the last two years, online scamsters have cashed in on every opportunity to fool the citizens, taking advantage of the pandemic scaring and looting them of their hard-earned money. During FY2019-20, banks have reported frauds worth Rs244 crore related with ATM-debit card, credit card and internet banking. Banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its master directions issued on 18 February 2021, had advised banks to implement customer protection controls for their digital payment applications. These controls include, cautioning the customers against commonly known threats in recent times like phishing, vishing, reverse-phishing and remote access of mobile devices and educating the customers to secure and safeguard their account details, credentials, PIN, card details, and devices. Banks have been directed (by the RBI) to examine the fraud cases and report them to law enforcement agencies, examine staff accountability, complete proceedings against the erring staff expeditiously, take steps to recover the amount involved in the fraud, claim insurance wherever applicable and streamline the system as also the procedures so that frauds do not recur. We had mentioned in Mondays closing report that Nifty and Sensex on an uptrend. On Tuesday, the indices opened gap up and ended with major gain. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,079 stocks advanced, 980 declined, and 46 remained unchanged with advance decline ratio of 1.10. The trend of the major indices on Tuesdays trading are given in the table below: Delhi High Court has dismissed Future Groups plea to suspend Singapore arbitration with Amazon. Delhi government has imposed weekend curfew and work from home for government employees amid rising Covid cases. Alembic Pharmaceuticals has received USFDA approval for doxycycline hyclate delayed-release tablets which are indicated to reduce the development of drug-resistant bacteria. The stock closed 4% higher. Tata Motors share price declined by 1.6% after broking firm CLSA downgraded it from buy to sell and revised target to Rs 408 from Rs 450. Wockhardt share closed 6% higher after it announced that its board would consider fund raising options on January 6. Federal Bank shares closed 1.4% higher after brokerage firm Motilal Oswal maintained its buy call giving a target of Rs 130, an upside of more than 45% from current share price. Mirza International share closed around 17% higher after the company announced that one of its promoter has bought 1,00,000 equity share from open market. Marico shares were down more than 2% after it announced that its volume growth will remain flat in Q3FY22. Hinduja Global Solutions shared gained more than 10% today after the company announced that its board will meet on 6 January to consider a proposal for bonus issue of equity shares. The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below: The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below: Elizabeth Holmes, founder and chief executive of Theranos, has been found guilty on four of 11 charges of fraud, concluding a high-profile trial that captivated Silicon Valley and chronicled the missteps of the now-defunct blood-testing start-up, say reports. Theranos, a health technology company, had soared in valuation after the company claimed to have revolutionised blood testing by developing testing methods that could use surprisingly small volumes of blood, such as from a fingerprick. Prosecutors said Ms Holmes knowingly lied about technology that she said could detect diseases with a few drops of blood. Jurors found Ms Holmes guilty of four charges, including conspiracy to commit fraud against investors and three counts of wire fraud. She faced 11 charges in total and was found not guilty of four charges relating to defrauding the public. The split verdict came after the judge said the jury, having deliberated for seven days, could deliver a partial verdict after being unable to reach consensus on another three counts, says a report from BBC News The jury returned no verdict on three counts of wire fraud and a not guilty verdict on three additional counts of wire fraud and one of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The three no verdict counts will be retried in a new case. According to a report from Wall Street Journal (WSJ) , the guilty verdicts against Ms Holmes mean the Theranos founder could be going to prison for years. Sentencing is a complex and time-consuming process, and many steps still stand between Ms Holmes and any potential prison time. She likely will be allowed to stay free on bail until her sentencing, which could take place six months or more from now, sentencing experts said. The verdict seals Ms Holmes extraordinary rise and fall and could have wide-ranging consequences for the tech industry, a report from the Guadian says , adding, It also marked an indictment of the hype machine that helped rocket Holmes to fame, as she graced the covers of major magazines, headlined conferences, and drew comparisons to Apples Steve Jobs. According to a CNN Business report , the charges Ms Holmes was found guilty of include one count of conspiracy to defraud investors, as well as three wire fraud counts tied to specific investors. She faces up to 20 years in prison as well as a fine of $250,000 plus restitution for each count, the report says. By 2015, Forbes had named Ms Holmes the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in America based on a $9-billion valuation of her company. Following revelations of potential fraud about Theranoss claims, the next year, Forbes revised its estimate of Holmess net worth to zero, and Fortune named her in its feature article on The Worlds 19 Most Disappointing Leaders. The decline of Theranos began in 2015, when a series of journalistic and regulatory investigations revealed doubts about the companys technology claims and whether Ms Holmes had misled investors and the government. In 2018, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Theranos and Ms Holmes with deceiving investors by massive fraud through false or exaggerated claims about the companys blood-testing technology accuracy. Ms Holmes settled the charges by paying a $500,000 fine, returning 18.9 million shares to the company, relinquishing her voting control of Theranos, and being barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years. In June 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Ms Holmes and Theranos former chief operating officer (COO) Ramesh Balwani on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for distributing blood tests with falsified results to consumers. The recent trial in the case, began on 31 August 2021 and in January this year, Ms Holmes was convicted of four counts of fraud and conspiracy. Ms Holmess career, the rise and dissolution of her company, and the subsequent fallout are the subject of a book, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by The WSJ reporter John Carreyrou, and an HBO documentary feature film, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. Weather Alert THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS TRANSMITTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. Ravalli County Sheriff's Office has requested a Missing Endangered Person Advisory for Mario Locatelli. Mario is an 89 year old male, 5 feet 4 inches tall, and 140 pounds. He is bald and has blue eyes. Mario left his home on April 30th to Parawon, Utah. He did not arrive at this destination and has not been seen since. Mario suffers from dementia so there is concern for his safety. He is believed to be driving a gray 2018 Toyota Tacoma double pickup with license plate M G 0 A T. If you have any information on Mario Locatelli, please contact Ravalli County Sheriff's Office at 4 0 6, 3 6 3, 3 0 3 3 or call 9 1 1. A clip from a New Years Eve episode of The Joe Rogan Experience was removed from YouTube due to content promoting COVID vaccine hesitancy amid a raging global pandemic. Content from the questionable Spotify podcast was downloaded to YouTube Friday and removed a short time later, according to the Post Millennial. It included a conversation with Dr. Robert Malone, who has in the past made controversial comments about coronavirus. Rogans guest during the recent podcast likened vaccine policies in the U.S. to the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany. Advertisement Dr. Robert Malone gestures as he stands in his barn on his horse farm Wednesday July 22, 2020, in Madison, Va. (Steve Helber/AP) According to Malone, in both cases, mass formation psychosis led large populations to become fixated on a leader or series of events on one small point, which makes those people easy to manipulate. By Malones account, a very intelligent, highly educated population ... went barking mad during the rise of Nazism. Though according to resources including Brittanica, Nazism is largely considered an anti-intellectual and atheoretical movement fueled by nationalism and a charismatic dictator. Advertisement The YouTube link to Rogans expunged show leads to a placeholder that reads, This video has been removed for violating YouTubes Community Guidelines. The Daily News Flash Weekdays Catch up on the days top five stories every weekday afternoon. > Spotify reports that Rogans show where the host admits should be taken with a grain of salt is listened to by more people than any other podcast globally. Malone, 61, was also blocked by Twitter last week for the same reason. Both moves were greeted with frustration by conservatives, who believe they should be free to share alternate theories on topics including vaccines and immunology without being subjected to a given platforms fact-checking process. They point to the fact that Malone whose skepticism of COVID vaccines is at odds with the mainstream medical community was among the earliest researchers in mRNA technology that eventually led to the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines. Malone has also shared his thoughts during conversations with fringe cable TV hosts including Tucker Carlson and Glenn Beck. Critics accused both Malone and Rogan for generating attention by saying things that are contrary to conventional wisdom for that reason alone. Joe Rogan is paid millions of dollars to have controversial opinions and guests because a lot people really like the feeling of being independent from (or looking down on) mainstream people and perspectives, tweeted author and science communicator Hank Green. Look at his schtick through that lens and it all makes way more sense. Joe Rogan is paid millions of dollars to have controversial opinions and guests because a lot people really like the feeling of being independent from (or looking down on) mainstream people and perspectives. Look at his schtick through that lens and it all makes way more sense. Hank Green (@hankgreen) January 1, 2022 Malone ambiguously suggested on Rogans program that the press is incentivized to push a storyline because they are all controlled by the same large funds as Pfizer is and so is tech. Fox News personality Lara Logan came under fire from Jewish groups a month ago after comparing leading U.S. immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci to sadistic Nazi doctor Dr. Josef Mengele. GOP congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was booted from Twitter in recent days, has also attempted to liken U.S. vaccination efforts to Nazi atrocities. COLORADO CITY, Texas (AP) The ex-boyfriend of the mother of a 13-year-old Colorado City girl reported missing more than a decade ago has been indicted for murder in the girl's death. The Mitchell County grand jury indicted Shawn Casey Adkins, 36, of Big Spring on a murder count Thursday in the death of Hailey Dunn. Adkins has been in Mitchell County Detention Center since his arrest last June with bonds totaling $1.25 million. Jail records did not list an attorney for Adkins. Sun Valley, ID (83353) Today Cloudy with rain developing this afternoon. High around 50F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Rain and snow this evening turning to all snow overnight. Low 34F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 100%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches. As Central Florida schools welcome thousands of students back to in-person classes after winter break, COVID-19 positive children are piling into Nemours Childrens Health emergency department. Nemours, one of three childrens hospitals in the Orlando area, has 12 COVID-19 positive patients hospitalized as of Monday, a number not seen since the summers delta surge, said Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases Dr. Kenneth Alexander. He worries the caseload will increase as the new semester unfolds and the highly infectious omicron variant continues to dominate Central Florida. Advertisement We were literally down to zero even two weeks ago, Alexander said. Six patients are hospitalized for serious COVID-19 complications such as trouble breathing, and six are in the hospital for another condition and incidentally tested positive, though some still have mild symptoms such as a cough, runny nose or sore throat, he said. Advertisement In addition, parents are bringing their children in droves to the emergency department for tests and treatment. Alexander said around 75 to 80% of COVID-19 tests in the emergency room are positive. The influx is increasing wait times for other services, he added. Where were getting hammered is in the emergency room, he said. What I think we need to tell parents is that if the kid has a positive rapid COVID test at home, consider that positive and keep them home. They dont need a subsequent confirmatory test. Outside the hospital, the state has seen a 22% test positivity rate for children 5-11 and a 29% positivity rate for children 12-19, according to data from the Florida Department of Health. Meanwhile, Osceola County public schools reopened Monday, Orange and Lake County schools reopen Tuesday, and Seminole County schools reopen Wednesday. Orange County Public Schools is mandating masks for all adults on campus and giving excused absences to students who decide to work from home, Superintendent Barbara Jenkins announced late Monday. Masks are encouraged but not mandated for students. I think ... what well see is kind of this gradual rolling surge in kids as school comes back in, Alexander said. Children with COVID-19 still make up a small proportion of hospitalizations. Though Floridas child hospitalizations increased by about 216% during the week before Dec. 28, only 218 of the 4,626 COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals that week were under 18, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The Health Report Weekly A weekly update on health news in Florida. > Further, children are unlikely to get COVID-19 symptoms that require hospitalization, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to the President, emphasized in an interview with MSNBC. Many of them are hospitalized with COVID as opposed to because of COVID, he said. If a child goes in the hospital they automatically get tested for COVID, and they get counted as a COVID hospitalized individual, when in fact they may go in for a broken leg. Advertisement However, even though the majority of children will not get severely sick with the virus, they will likely still spread it to vulnerable people, Alexander said. The state will simultaneously be grappling with influenza, which spikes annually when students return to school after winter break. You never want to anthropomorphize a virus, but COVID has done something very smart. It has started to infect our children, he said. Infecting children is one of the easiest ways for a virus to enter our homes: Children dont socially distance; they dont wear masks as reliably as adults do. Vaccination and medical grade masks are the best way to significantly mitigate risk, though neither will reduce it to zero, he said. About 15% of Florida children age 5 to 11 are vaccinated with at least one shot against the virus, and 58% of kids 12 to 19. They are the two least vaccinated age groups in Florida. ccatherman@orlandosentinel.com We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Contact us Photo taken on April 1, 2020 shows humanitarian aid from China at the Boryspil International Airport in Kiev, Ukraine. (Xinhua/Li Dongxu) BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Tuesday exchanged congratulations on the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. In his message, Xi said China-Ukraine relations have maintained a sound and steady momentum of development since the establishment of diplomatic ties 30 years ago, noting that the two countries have deepened political mutual trust, carried out fruitful cooperation in various fields and strengthened people-to-people and cultural exchanges, which have improved the well-being of the two peoples. A container is unloaded from a container train from China's Wuhan in Kiev, Ukraine, July 6, 2020. (Photo by Sergey Starostenko/Xinhua) Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China and Ukraine have supported each other and worked together to fight the pandemic, demonstrating the profound friendship between the two peoples, Xi said. Xi also stressed that he attaches great importance to the development of the two countries' strategic partnership, and stands ready to work with Zelensky to take the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to push for more results in bilateral ties as well as cooperation in various fields for the benefit of the two countries and their people. A container train from China's Wuhan is welcomed upon its arrival in Kiev, Ukraine, July 6, 2020. (Photo by Sergey Starostenko/Xinhua) In his message, Zelensky said that over the past 30 years, the development of Ukraine-China relations has maintained a positive momentum with close exchanges at all levels and fruitful practical cooperation between the two countries. He also said that the Ukrainian side has been fully confident in the broad prospect of the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries, and is willing to continuously deepen the traditional friendship of the two peoples, strengthen cooperation in various areas and push forward the strategic partnership between the two sides. Josean Martin Grau, owner of the Grillers Puerto Rico restaurant, in a black shirt, poses with the three Three Wise Men who participated in his food and gift delivery event in 2020. (Suministrada) The Three Wise Men will arrive in Kissimmee on January 8 when a group of Latino entrepreneurs make an effort to bring joy and hope with hot meals, toys and music to families with limited resources. The intention is to keep the tradition of the Magi alive, to bring smiles, joy and hope to families in need. The idea is to go back to our community, said Josean Martin Grau, owner of the Grillers Puerto Rico restaurant and founder of Un Rayito de Esperanza (A Ray of Hope). Advertisement The initiative this year will bring at least 450 meals and 500 toys to families. [ En Espanol: Empresarios de Kissimmee estan listos para llevar Un Rayito de Esperanza junto a los Reyes Magos ] At 1 p.m., the group will leave Grillers PR restaurant on 192 in Kissimmee to visit Lake Buenavista and surrounding areas around the hotels. Advertisement Olga Gonzalez, mayor of Kissimmee, applauded the effort and said she will join the event and make a difference. That is what we need these days, to lift each other up, she said. Such charitable efforts are even more important in a county as diverse as Osceola, Gonzalez said. Events like this should be replicated beyond Kissimmee, even throughout Florida. Remember that the one who gives, receives. You have to remember that when the communities are good, the businesses are also good, she said. Josean Martin Grau, propietario del restaurante Grillers Puerto Rico. (Suministrada) Last year, Martin Grau and other three restaurants participated. This year, over a dozen businesses in the restaurant industry will prepare dishes of typical food with pork, arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), macaroni and potato salad. To see the smiling faces of the children when the gifts are delivered and to see the joy of the parents is priceless. Furthermore, we are teaching our children the gift of giving and helping others, said Martin Grau, who will be accompanied by his two daughters and wife. He said the event helps him to remember his humble beginnings. Advertisement I come from well below and I know the need first-hand, but I remember the Three Kings Day as one of the most beautiful days of my childhood. This is why I want these children to have memories like mine of the Three Kings, he said. Martin Grau and his family arrived in Orlando in 2017, and he started his business with a food truck. He now has two well-established restaurants in Orlando and Kissimmee. I have achieved in the United States what perhaps I would never have achieved in Puerto Rico and for that my heart is full of gratitude, he said. After working for Universal Studios as a cook, Martin Grau began his food bus business using a a $500 loan from a friend. Success belongs to those who get up early, who do not give up, he said. But more importantly, when they are up, they cant forget about their communities because if our communities are doing well, our businesses are doing well. Advertisement Freddie Guilbe, owner of Jr Tropical Ice Cream in Kissimmee, agrees. He will participate in the Un Rayito de Esperanza caravan because he firmly believes in supporting the community and reaching out to those who need it most. We must promote change, make our communities improve, he said. Jr Tropical Ice Cream is part of the caravan that will bring food and gifts to minors in Kissimmee as part of the Three Kings celebration. (Suministrada) There are families that do not have the financial resources for a good dinner at Christmas and much less to give toys to their children and we want to help with that, so that they remember the Three Kings Day, Guilbe said. In addition, at Jr Tropical Ice Cream there is another initiative with social impact: Children with autism or Down syndrome receive a free ice cream for life every Wednesday they visit the premises. Advertisement Other sponsors of the event are Florida Bakery, Crocante, Viktor Pollo, Miguelos Cafe Bar, Tainos, Melao Bakery, Cayo Azul, Bam Bam Potatoes and others. The caravan, which will be supported by the Osceola County Mounted Unit, will run until 6 or 7 p.m. Osceola County Sheriff Marco Lopez will trace the route of the caravan. The entrepreneurs participating in Un Rayito de Esperanza are already looking ahead to 2023. We must keep the Three Wise Men alive, said Martin Grau. These are difficult times for many families, many have had many losses not only economic, have lost their jobs, or have lost a relative. For this reason, we are carrying out this activity: bringing hope to those most in need. Horry County Schools sent updated COVID-19 quarantine guidance to parents on Tuesday, which reflects the Centers for Disease Controls shortened quarantine duration of five days. If you test positive for COVID-19, you need to isolate regardless of your vaccination status, stated an email sent to parents Tuesday. Those who test positive must isolate for five days, and after day five they can return to work or school if they wear a mask around others for five days afterwards. For those who are only exposed to someone with the virus and they have been fully vaccinated with a booster (completed initial vaccination series and booster for ages 16 and up, or completed initial vaccination series for ages 5-15), they do not have to quarantine. However, they must wear a mask around others for ten days. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control recommends testing on day five. HCS said individuals are eligible for a booster six months after completing their Pfizer or Moderna vaccination series, or two months after their single dose of Janssen. Those who have not been vaccinated, have not completed their primary vaccination series or have not received the booster they are eligible for must quarantine for ten days and no test is required. However, that quarantine can be cut to five days if an individual tests on day 4 or beyond and receive a negative result. HCS says those individuals must mask up around others from days six through 10. Of course, if symptoms develop, individuals should stay home and get tested, HCS said. Check here for a complete summary of the new guidance. Tidelands Health officials are asking people to avoid trips to the emergency room to receive COVID-19 tests if they are experiencing mild or no symptoms. The hospital system does not provide asymptomatic COVID-19 testing and those without symptoms who need a test are encouraged to get a free test through the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, according to release from Tidelands. Those who are 12 years old and older experiencing non-emergency COVID-19 symptoms can receive a test and appropriate care at Tidelands Health respiratory clinics in Murrells Inlet and Georgetown. Our hospital emergency departments are not designed to be asymptomatic COVID-19 testing sites, Ashley Capps, vice president of nursing and operations, said in a release Tuesday. We ask community members for their cooperation by seeking the appropriate level of care from the appropriate venue and only come to the ER when emergency care is needed." Individuals should also not visit the ER if they have mild symptoms like a cough, runny nose or body aches, the release states. Tidelands reminds people who are experiencing a medical emergency to dial 911 or visit their nearest ER for assistance. To schedule an appointment at the respiratory clinic in Georgetown, call 843-527-4442. To schedule an appointment in Murrells Inlet, call 843-652-6300. Normal physician office visit fees apply, the release states. Tidelands Health continues to encourage people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. All of us must continue to do what we can to protect ourselves and others from this virus, Capps said. Get vaccinated. Get boosted. Wear a face mask in public places. Be smart, and lets get control of COVID-19. Here's where to get the vaccine and booster for free at three of Tidelands' Grand Strand locations: Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its guidelines for the number of days a person needs to quarantine or isolate after being exposed to or contracting the COVID-19 virus, guidelines for Illinois schools remain the same for now. Officials hope they soon will align with the national health organization's recommendations. Jacksonville School District 117 Superintendent Steve Ptacek said nothing has changed regarding the number of days a student or staff member has to quarantine or isolate from a JSD school, despite changes at the state and national levels. "Last week the (Illinois Department of Public Health) adopted the revised CDC guidelines, which shorten the time for isolations/quarantines for individuals without symptoms; however, (pre-K-through-12) schools are not covered in this adoption, and we are still to follow the IDPH COVID school guidance document," Ptacek said. The CDC's new guidelines require those who have contracted the virus to isolate for five days. After those initial five days, those who are asymptomatic or whose symptoms are resolving meaning they have not had a fever for 24 hours should follow those five days by wearing a mask around others. "The change is motivated by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after," according to the CDC. SARS-CoV-2 is the official name of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Those who are unvaccinated or at least six months out from their second dose of vaccine or two months out from the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine and are in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 also should quarantine for five days followed by five days of wearing a mask around others. Those who are fully vaccinated do not have to quarantine but should wear a mask for 10 days. The CDC also recommends that all those who come into close contact with someone who has tested positive get tested themselves after five days, especially if symptoms are present. If symptoms do occur, the CDC recommends quarantining until one has received a negative test. That means the period of time students or staff members are out of the classroom remains longer than the newly recommended period. Changes are being discussed, Ptacek said. "Basically, nothing has changed for schools," he said. "We are hoping a new guidance document will be released soon and that it might update schools to the new, shortened isolation and exclusion periods for those without symptoms. I will let you know when the new guidance document has been released, even if there are no changes." Triopia Superintendent Adam Dean said he is in contact with Morgan County Health Department and awaiting any changes. "We are just waiting currently," Dean said. "The five days only would be great but, unfortunately, that isn't happening in schools yet." Waverly Superintendent Andrea Guerrero said her district also is awaiting guidance from the local health department and will follow its advice. Ptacek said he hopes changes come soon. "They have suggested there could be changes coming," Ptacek said. "We want to keep kids in school more and we look forward to it." Just days before his 100th birthday, Bill Hayes settled into his recliner at Cedarhurst of Jacksonville and reflected on his life, including his military service during World War II, when he was assigned to a B-17 bomber flying missions over Germany. "I shot down six fighter planes. You see that thing over there," Hayes said, pointing to a shadow box containing medals and detailing 35 missions. "Each tag is for one mission." On each mission, Hayes was housed in the lower ball turret underneath the B-17 bomber. His specific job? To shoot down any enemy planes while en route to a bombing target. "I was told that if you see other planes coming at you with sparks coming from the wings, shoot back, because they're trying to shoot you down, Hayes said. Hayes was no stranger to doing his part and working hard. Born Jan. 8, 1922, on a farm between Murrayville and Manchester, Hayes moved to East St. Louis with his parents when he was 5. By the age of 12, he was working. "I worked at a national stockyard so I would go to school in the day until 3:30 (p.m.) and then go to work," Hayes said. "The stockyard was about six to seven blocks away." Within a few years, his mother and father were divorced and, by the age of 15, Hayes decided to take control of his own life. "I ran away from home when I was 15," he said with a confident laugh. Hayes is a man who, once his mind is made up, can't be swayed, said his granddaughter-in--law. "He's very strong willed and, if he tells you his opinion, he sticks with it," Marcy Hayes said. After running away, Hayes headed back to Jacksonville in 1937. In 1943, Hayes was married with an infant son when he said goodbye to his wife and boarded a train headed to Chicago for boot camp. His high test scores resulted in Hayes being switched from the Army to the Air Force and sent to Texas. "They told me I could fly planes. Who wouldn't want to do that?" Hayes said, adding that they ended up telling him he didn't have enough formal education to be a pilot; instead, he was placed in Air Force gunnery school. "I could take a .50-caliber (gun) apart and put it back together with gloves and blindfolded in 20 minutes," he said. En route to England, where he was stationed at the British Royal Air Force Base at Thorpe Abbotts, Hayes stopped in Iceland and Wales, got caught up with the locals and became familiar with "fish and chips," he said. By the time he arrived at the base, reality was setting in that missions soon were to be assigned. "Yes, I was scared. I was always scared. Anyone that said they weren't were crazy," Hayes said. Hayes' new routine was to be up at 3:30 a.m. for a briefing and breakfast before departing on the given mission. "It was dark when we left and they had a scheduled time to leave," he said. There was only one instance where they didn't make it back to the base as scheduled; a German submarine had been reported in the English Channel. "There was all but one (returning to base) because of a U-boat, so we landed in Paris and had dinner," he said, adding that they were back at the base the next day. In 1945, after the cessation of the European conflict, Hayes was honorably discharged and made it back to Jacksonville to be with his wife and son. Looking for work, Hayes spent time as a house painter, a bread delivery truck driver and a salesman before landing work as a plumber working with heating and cooling systems. That job stuck until 1984, when he retired at the age of 62. Retirement didn't slow him down. "I ended up being an inspector for nine years," a code enforcer for HVAC systems, he said. Hayes became a union member a year after switching careers and was awarded a gold union member's card on Sept. 22, 2004, for being part of UA Local 137 Plumbers & Steamfitters for at the time 50 years. Hayes, who had remarried, made Jacksonville his permanent home. He has three sons, one of whom is deceased, and three grandsons. His second wife also is deceased. Marcy Hayes, who married Bill Hayes' grandson Brian, appreciates knowing her father-in-law and being part of his life, she said. "His belief in God is amazing; he has a very strong faith," she said. What's more valuable to Marcy Hayes is the relationship she witnesses between her husband and his grandfather. "Him and Brian are super close," she said. The Hayes family will celebrate Bill Hayes' 100th birthday with a gathering Saturday. For the past 17 years the city of Kissimmee and Osceola County have celebrated Three Kings Day, an event that has become more popular with the increase in the Hispanic community in Central Florida. The Wise Men will arrive January 9 from 10 a.m. at 2 p.m. to Old Town Kissimmee, 5770 W Irlo Bronson Memorial Hwy. Advertisement [ En Espanol: Llegan los Tres Reyes Magos a Kissimmee ] I am very honored to be one of the founders and to see how this event has grown over the years. We have moved from place to place, but the intention is always the same: to bring gifts and joy to our children and the community in a celebration as important as the Day of the Kings, said Guillermo Hansen, a businessman and community leader in Central Florida. Advertisement The Three Kings Celebration, also known as Epiphany, takes place every January 6. It is an intricate part of Latin folklore and when children receive gifts from the Magi, just like during the feast of the Epiphany the three kings visited the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem and brought him gifts. This event, in addition to providing gifts, represents number one maintaining our customs. But once youre involved, getting there and giving the kids a bike is like winning a car for you and me. Seeing them go out with their bike and a toy is amazing. So, secondly, uniting families in this celebration, as we celebrated in our countries is very exciting, Hansen said. The Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce will celebrate the 2022 Three Kings Day celebration at Old Town Kissimmee (Suministrada) Each child under 11 will receive a toy and a free raffle ticket for a chance to win a bike. Winning raffle tickets will be drawn at random and announced on-site from the stage. A total of 50 or more bikes will be given away at the end of the event. Hansen remembers how in his native Mexico the celebration of Three Kings Day had a special symbolism. Sometimes you wait until the last minute to buy the gifts and have them on January 5. In Mexico, usually middle class people and those who have the least are the ones who most appreciate this celebration because, regardless of the material, it is the day that the three kings came to honor our little boy Jesus. It is important to keep our traditions alive so that they continue to be passed down from generation to generation, said Melissa Zayas Moreno, elected president of the Council of Hispanic Business 2022 from the Kissimmee / Osceola County Chamber of Commerce. Advertisement Visiting Polk County The City of Winter Haven & The PR Hispanic Chamber will also welcome the The Three Wise Men on January 8 at 4 p.m. The chamber plans a celebration of its 15th anniversary and will be kicking it off collaborating with the city of Winter Haven on January 8 with a party block downtown. Advertisement The free event will feature music, vendors, giveaways, activities for kids , raffles and more. Left turns are no longer allowed from 6:30-8:30 a.m. from Tenbrook Road into the Walgreens parking lot or from the parking lot onto Tenbrook Road. Traveling home after the holidays? Remember to get tested upon return, and again 3-5 days later, to protect yourself and others. Make an appointment at the free testing site at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds here: www.LHI.care/covidtesting View Photo Tuolumne County has 126 total new Covid cases since Thursday, December 30, 86 of the 124 community cases are unvaccinated. Public Health also reports two new Sierra Conservation Center inmate cases. Tuolumne Countys active cases increased to 222 including four people who are hospitalized, one person in the hospital is vaccinated. Public Health Officials state, The local health order for isolation and quarantine is currently being updated and expect it to be issued shortly. They reference the California Department of Public Healths (CDPH) updated Isolation and Quarantine guidelines for the public here and for healthcare personnel here. The newly reported community cases include 17 cases age 17 or younger and 18 cases age 60 or older. The new Covid cases by gender and age: two girls and seven boys age 11 or younger, one girl and seven boys age 12 to 17, ten women and eight men age 18 to 29, 13 women and 12 men in their 30s, 16 women and five men in their 40s, 12 women and 13 men in their 50s, five women and two men in their 60s, five women and four men in their 70s, one woman in her 80s and one man in his 90s. The total current case rate, a 14-day average for Tuolumne County increased to 37 per 100,000 population. The case rate reached a low of 15.1 on December 17th. Fifty-five individuals were released from isolation, in all 6,425 have been released from isolation. The number of active cases has been above 60 since near the end of July, the first three Delta cases were identified July 2nd active cases peaked August 16th at 407, with the lowest active cases since July being 62 on November 29th. A total of 59% of the population eligible to get vaccinated has been vaccinated. There have been 1,623 inmate cases, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) reports five active Covid cases at the Sierra Conservation Center. The SCC manages 3,196 inmates including all the southern fire conservation camps and has tested 26% of the prisons population in the past 14 days. Tuolumne Public Health Officials state there are positive actions we can take to protect ourselves and those around us from illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. Vaccination (including a booster) is the most important step we can take to reduce the spread of disease, and reduce the impact to our healthcare system. Also, the continued practice of other preventive actions like wearing a mask in public, keeping your distance, avoiding crowds, washing hands, cleaning surfaces, and staying home when sick will help slow the spread of the virus. These actions remain the same in light of the Omicron variant. Calaveras County Public Health reports 39 new cases since their last report on Wednesday, December 29. There are 23 active cases with two hospitalized. Two of the new cases are age 17 or younger and eight are age 65 and older, in total 853 under age 17 and 789 over 65 have been identified with Covid. There are 37 more recovered cases for a total of 4,557 cases recovered and 55.67% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated in the county. Mariposa County Public Health says Cases in Mariposa County, like much of the nation, are increasing again. If you havent received your COVID-19 vaccine yet, we highly recommend scheduling an appointment to help reduce the impacts of this wave. And if you are eligible for your booster nows the time to get it! They will be offering first doses, second doses, boosters and pediatric doses at both of the clinics this week: Tuesday from 8:30 am 12:00 pm or Thursday from 9:00 am 12:00 pm and again from 2:30 4:30 pm at their Community Health Center, located at 5300 Hwy 49 N, in Mariposa. With the colder weather, appointments are inside, space is limited, and scheduling and appointment is highly recommended. Schedule an appointment by visiting myturn.ca.gov or calling 1-833-422-4255. California Public Health is requiring universal masking for all public indoor settings to slow the spread of both Delta, the highly transmissible omicron variant, and to increase protection for individuals, families, and communities during the holidays. More details are here. Additionally, CDPH updated requirements for attending mega-events, and issued a new travel advisory. Mariposa Public Health shares the CDC added multiple studies to their Science Brief on Community Use of Masks to Control the Spread of SARS-CoV-2 as detailed here. As detailed here there is no information yet on the presence of the omicron variant in Mother Lode. COVID-19 Testing Public health recommends scheduling an appointment to get tested 5 days after possible exposure and if you are having any symptoms, to get tested right away. Excluding the holidays and staffing issues, the Tuolumne County State testing site schedule is 7 days a week from 7 AM to 7 PM at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds. Appointments can be scheduled at www.lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling 888-634-1123. Testing is also at pharmacies, at Rapid Care and the hospital emergency department if you are experiencing any symptoms, or contact your healthcare provider. The Mariposa LHI/OptumServe testing site is at the YARTS Park and Ride beside Rite Aid and is open Tuesdays to Saturdays, 7:00 am to 12:00 pm, 1:00 to 4:00 pm, and 5:00 to 7:00 pm. COVID-19 Vaccine appointments and booster vaccine shots are recommended for anyone age 16 and older (Pfizer only for age 16-17) Vaccine appointments for children ages 5 to 11 can be made through myturn.ca.gov, by calling 833-422-4255, or the pediatric vaccine may also be available through local pharmacies more details are here. For ways to manage this fear of needles or a phobia and help others with it, view the CDCs information guide here. Learn more about self-care strategies by visiting namica.org County Date New Active (Hospital) Total 2022 All Cases (All Deaths) Amador 1/3 43 114 (10) 68 4,042 (62) Calaveras 1/3 39 23 (2) 39 4,674 (94) Mariposa 1/3 50 61 (12) 50 1,786 (18) Mono 1/3 2 118 2 1,948 (5) Stanislaus 1/3 443 2,802 (91) 443 84,986 (1,478) Tuolumne 1/3 126 222 (4) 126 8,418 (148) Reported cases at end of 2021 and 2020 Sacramento, CA California lawmakers returned to the state capitol this week for a new legislative session. This year they are met with a $31-billion budget surplus, so lawmakers will debate how to spend the new revenue over the coming weeks and months. Democrats control the governors office and both houses of the legislature. Earlier this week Democratic Senate and Assembly leaders indicated that 2022 priorities will include helping students address mental health issues and learning loss, temporary and permanent solutions for those facing homelessness, improvements to the unemployment system, funding wildfire and climate initiatives, improving the public health infrastructure, implementing universal TK education, and addressing issues with the states child welfare and foster care system. Governor Gavin Newsom will release his formal proposed new budget around mid-month. Today, the Assembly Republican Caucus sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom listing the GOP priorities. Republican Leader Marie Waldron argues, With his upcoming budget proposal, Governor Newsom faces a choice. A business-as-usual budget that will continue forcing taxpayers to spend more and get less, or a reform-minded plan that will deliver a safe and affordable California for all. These common-sense requests from my colleagues and I will help California finally meet its true potential. The Republican priorities are detailed below: Improved educational outcomes by increasing parental control at schools, support for students of public, charter and home-based schools, and mental health assistance for children. Fully funding public safety by expanding the California Highway Patrols Organized Retail Theft Program and bringing accountability back to the criminal justice system. Investing in wildfire prevention with ongoing funding for fuel reductions, wildfire prevention and response. Building meaningful infrastructure, including water storage, supply chain infrastructure, road repair and projects to eliminate traffic congestion. Making California more affordable through permanent tax relief, streamlined housing construction, paying down unemployment insurance debt and eliminating businesses state tax liability for federal COVID-relief funding they have received. Addressing Californias mental health and homelessness crises by expanding treatment options for Substance Use Disorder and eliminating barriers to treating people who are incapable of asking for help. A 23-year-old Florida man was killed Tuesday morning after driving off a Marion County road and crashing into trees, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. At around 1 a.m., an Ocala man was driving a vehicle at a high rate of speed when the car entered grass on the east shoulder of SW 186 Court near SW 31 Street, said the FHPs Lt. Kim Montes. Advertisement The man lost control of the vehicle and crossed the roadway, colliding with two trees on the west side of the road, Montes said. Troopers reported the man was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle. The man was pronounced dead at the scene by Marion County Fire Rescue, Montes said. Advertisement Jpedersen@orlandosentinel.com A geodesic home in Texas has made a recent roundup highlighting the best Airbnb rentals in the United States. The mid-century rental property in Leander has made a list put together by Conde Nasts Traveler publication. Each of the 52 properties featured on the list is run by a Superhost with a rating of 4.8 or higher, according to the publication. Kitschy as the 1970s kit-built exterior may look, this five-bedroom geodome is stuffed with modern amenities like soaking tubs and high-end appliances, the article by Conde Nast reads. At $913 per night, the Texas home is one of the pricier rentals on the list. In addition to the five bedrooms, it also features three full baths, a full kitchen and an observation tower loft library with 360-degree views, according to the official Airbnb listing. Photo provided/Airbnb While the property provides a retreat from city life, it is also only a 30-minute drive from Austin, so there is no shortage of activities for people looking to get out and about. "Originally built in the 90's from the popular geodesic dome home building kits of the 1970s, The Geodome was completely remodeled in 2020 with Wifi-enabled and fully integrated smart devices throughout the entire house," the listing on the Airbnb site reads. The 3,500 square foot home next to Lake Travis has what is described as a "speakeasy" lounge on the bottom floor, a fireplace and 55-inch smart television on the main floor and a spiral staircase leading from the third-floor bedrooms into the observation tower library. If the amenities aren't enough, the photo opportunities might just serve as the icing on the cake. "Throughout the entire house are fun design Easter eggs that will bring a smile to your face and make a great IG post. The elements of natural wood and trend-setting industrial design and MCM furniture will immediately captivate your attention and help you feel right at home," the Airbnb listing reads. For more information on the property, contact the property owner through the Airbnb listing page. By Xochitl Gonzalez Flatiron. 373 pp. $27.99 - - - The opening chapter of Xochitl Gonzalez's debut novel, "Olga Dies Dreaming," is all about napkins -- wildly overpriced wedding reception napkins. That may sound like a small cloth in which to wrap a big book, but Gonzalez folds those napkins into a satire of consumer excess, an appraisal of business morality and a study of family relations. In short: Don't underestimate this new novelist. She's jump-starting the year with a smart romantic comedy that lures us in with laughter and keeps us hooked with a fantastically engaging story. A Hulu pilot is already in the works starring Aubrey Plaza, and given this source material, it should be terrific. Gonzalez's heroine is Olga Isabel Acevedo, a 40-year-old dynamo from South Brooklyn. At a young age, Olga set her sights on success and never wavered -- not when her mother abandoned her and not when her father died after contracting AIDS. "Every single thing she had done with her life she had figured out for herself," Gonzalez writes. Now as the owner of a business she built from scratch, Olga charges well-heeled women in New York, Dallas and Palm Beach a fortune to plan their weddings. If that involves fencing liquor from Russian mobsters and overcharging brides for phantom place settings, who's counting? After all, as a regular guest on "Good Morning, Later," Olga is the closest thing America has to a wedding-planner celebrity. Presumably, Gonzalez is pulling at least some of these funny shenanigans from her own experience: She once worked as a wedding planner herself. But it's the tremendous verve of her prose that makes these pages crackle -- the way she captures Olga's air traffic controller command of every incoming and outgoing waiter, caterer and vendor to create each client's magical day. Alas, while Olga can make every couple's dream come true (for a price), she can't seem to find romance herself. Even her own assistant notes, "You don't have a single, actual romantic bone in your body." (BEGIN ITAL)Ouch!(END ITAL) Although Olga has little use for God, she finds herself praying, "Please, let me know what it is to feel loved again." If you know anything about how romantic comedy -- or God -- works, you have some idea of how this story ends, but you'll be completely surprised by how it gets there. As the novel opens, Olga is trying to extract herself from a zombie relationship with a hardware store mogul who thinks sending photos of his crotch is the height of courtship. Her latest one-night stand -- picked up at a bar after a bad day -- is Matteo, a swarthy sad sack who confesses that he's a hoarder. Worse, he peppers her with intrusive questions about her professional dedication to rich jerks. But when she tells him to get lost, Matteo won't budge. "I'm not trying to diss you," he says. "I'm just genuinely curious about you." That may be the most erotic thing anyone has ever said to Olga. After so many dead-end relationships, this odd guy who sleeps with his socks on makes her "feel a glimmer of possibility that this time she might be understood." Meanwhile, Gonzalez develops a rich parallel story about Olga's brother, Prieto. He's a popular U.S. congressman who represents Brooklyn and takes a special interest in Puerto Rico. A code-switching political Jedi, Prieto jokes with guys on the street corner just as naturally as he flatters rich donors who call him the Latino Obama. But as a closeted gay man being blackmailed by shady real estate developers, Prieto is risking his reputation, his career and even his freedom. He's working to preserve the Latino culture of rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods even while he secretly greases the wheels for outside developers. As these two siblings charge ahead with their successful but precarious lives, Gonzalez periodically interrupts the novel with old letters from their errant mother, who ran off to join the Young Lords and fight for Puerto Rico's independence. Olga never saw Mami again, but every few years, one of her notes mysteriously arrives to castigate Olga for catering to capitalist pigs. Even when Olga got accepted to an Ivy League college, Mami offered nothing but scorn. "Do not confuse admission for a chance at power," she wrote. "This kind of college has no place for you, even if they offered you one of their precious 'affirmative action' spots. They do not want to teach your people's history; they don't want to read your people's books. They see no value in our culture." As a parenting approach, that's pretty dreadful; as a recruiting technique, it's worse. This is a woman who doesn't "know the difference between missives and mothering" -- between her abstract responsibilities to the cause and her maternal responsibilities to her children. Under the lash of Mami's disdain, Olga feels even more determined to chase the American Dream while trying to maintain a sense of her Puerto Rican heritage that isn't soiled by her mother's egotism. She ends up building a business dependent on the same kind of elites that the Young Lords hoped to topple in Puerto Rico. If this is a novel about toxic family secrets, it's also a novel about clandestine national schemes. Aside from a collection of winning characters and an ingenious plot, what's most impressive about "Olga Dies Dreaming" is the way Gonzalez stretches the seams of the rom-com genre to accommodate her complex analysis of racial politics. She's particularly wise about the way successful people of color must wend their way through American culture, negotiating with neighborhood suspicion on one side and White condescension on the other. By the time Hurricane Maria demolishes Puerto Rico, Gonzalez has spun all the various personal and political crises of this story into a perfect storm. And with remarkable dexterity, "Olga Dies Dreaming" transitions temporarily into a political thriller about the way Washington and powerful business interests conspire to profit from the island's suffering. (The Very Stable Genius who threw paper towels at desperate Puerto Ricans gets a special call-out, too.) But Gonzalez never loses sight of Olga and her quest to find love without selling her soul -- or a thousand overpriced napkins. Rarely does a novel, particularly a debut novel, contend so powerfully and so delightfully with such a vast web of personal, cultural, political and even international imperatives. For fiction lovers, what an auspicious start to 2022. Feliz ano nuevo, indeed! Ricky Middlesworth/ABC via Getty Images The love journey ended early for one of the Texas contestants on The Bachelor. Clayton Echard sent home 26-year-old registered nurse Rianna, from Dallas, during the pre-recorded episode that aired on Monday, January 4. Lyndsey W., a 28-year-old industrial sales representative from Houston, and Sierra, a 26-year-old recruiting coordinator in Dallas, both received a rose and will keep fighting to win Echard's heart. On Monday, the show returned for the first time in two years, with 31 women arriving at the Bachelor Mansion to meet lead Echard, who was previously on Michelle Young's Bachelorette season last year. Echard said he's looking for his wife and wants to start a family soon. During the episode, he talked about his fear of rejection and his hope to find his future partner within the contestants. As many across the country mourn the death of Betty White, a billboard memorializing White has been spotted in San Antonio. The San Antonio-based Clear Channel billboard, which is located near 410 and West, displays "Thank you for being a friend." The phrase was the title of the theme song for "The Golden Girls," the sitcom in which White starred in alongside Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty. "Our in-house creatives typically design these type of tributes for public figures like Betty White," said Jason King, Clear Channel Outdoor Senior Vice President of corporate communications and marketing. "They run on a space available basis and can be seen on 2,000 billboards nationwide." White passed away on Dec. 31 at the age of 99, just missing her 100th birthday by a few weeks. The death shocked the nation, as many were hoping the TV icon would make it to her milestone birthday on January 17. "It's nice to see folks are moved by it enough to take a photo of our billboards and share it on their social networks like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for those that may not be in San Antonio to see it," King said. Courtesy of TJ Skrodzki Fans of the iconic actress are coming up with ways to honor the beloved Hollywood legend on what would have been her 100th birthday. The unofficial Betty White Challenge has spawned to support one of Whites favorite causes animals. On Betty Whites 100th birthday, January 17, everyone should pick a local rescue or animal shelter in your area and donate just $5 in Betty Whites name, the tweet reads. Make her 100th birthday the movement she deserves. White often lent a helping hand to animals and was involved with the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, American Humane, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Endangered Wolf Center and BraveHearts Therapeutic Riding and Educational Center, according to CNN. For nearly a century, Betty White has been a tireless and devoted animal welfare advocate and we are proud to have known her for 70 years longer than any other supporter in our history, said Dr. Robin Ganzert, American Humane president and CEO, in a statement. Let me just say this Whataburger's Spicy Ketchup Limited Batch #2 is picoso, more so than the regular spicy ketchup, and if you haven't gotten your hands on some yet then you're missing out. I was able to track down some of Whataburger's Spicy Ketchup Limited Batch #2 Monday afternoon though it involved visiting multiple locations on the Far Westside and Castroville. Sure, it's just a fast-food condiment but it's also Whataburger a Texas icon. Everything the San Antonio-based fast-food chain does is going to have a considerable amount of commercial hype, and Whataburger did a pretty good job teasing this one. Steven Santana | MySA Whataburger officially announced the launch of the Spicy Ketchup Limited Batch #2 on January 3 in a press release, but photos of the new spicy ketchup were already circulating online. Now that it's officially launched, the new condiment may be easier to track down, but you can always just ask before making your order. (Still, be prepared to make multiple stops.) I found my packets at the Loop 1604 and Potranco Road location on the Far Westside, but I also visited the location at Loop 1604 and Marbach and the Castroville store, neither of which had the ketchup. But you want to know how it tastes. What's the difference? Is it spicier? Steven Santana | MySA The Verdict The Spicy Ketchup Limited Batch #2 definitely has more of a kick than the regular Spicy Ketchup. (It has hot sauce in it. It says so right on the packet.) Still, it probably won't make you break a sweat, especially if you frequent taquerias or grew up in San Antonio around red or green chile. But the difference in the level of spice hits your tongue immediately and lingers for a bit. I didn't dislike the regular Spicy Ketchup but the plain ketchup at Whataburger has always been my preferred choice. (No shade, but regular Spicy Ketchup tastes like mild Pace Picante without the veggies.) Whataburger But the Spicy Ketchup Limited Batch #2 is spicy and is honestly what I expected the regular Spicy Ketchup to taste like when I first tried it. I had it with traditional Whataburger fries so I wouldn't lose or taint the flavor with a burger or one of the other sandwiches on the menu. I recommend you try the Spicy Ketchup Limited Batch #2 with a fry or two as well. Whataburger also just brought back the Buffalo Ranch Chicken Strip Sandwich and its Dr. Pepper Shake for a limited time. You may have to try more than one location to get your hands on this limited batch. However, if you're willing to make the 20-minute trip, one of the employees at the Castroville location told me that they just received the promotional signs yesterday, which means they might have some today. Luis Alvarez/Getty Images As the post-holiday demand for COVID-19 testing rises amid the omicron surge, San Antonio's Metro Health Department is warning against phony swabbing sites. San Antonians have been sharing their experiences with sketchy locations online and now health officials are sharing some tips to safeguard against rogue operations. "We have just been made aware that fake testing sites are popping up in the Bexar County area and are addressing this issue," Cleo Garcia with Metro Health tells MySA. The man shot and killed by deputies after turning his gun on officers during a domestic dispute in Pine Hills Sunday was identified by authorities Tuesday. Kadeem Errol Livingston Smith III, 28, was killed during a Sunday incident at a home in the 1000 block of Santa Barbara Road, according to the Orange County Sheriffs Office. Advertisement The agency in an unsigned statement did not release the names of the deputies who shot Livingston Smith, saying they had invoked confidentiality under Marsys Law, the victims rights amendment to Floridas Constitution. At a news conference Sunday, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said Livingston Smiths mother called 911 around noon Sunday to report a family dispute. Advertisement The four deputies who arrived saw Livingston Smith shoot his father in the arm and pistol-whip him, Mina said. Livingston Smith then began to shoot at deputies, who returned fire and killed him, according to the sheriff. None of the deputies was injured. This is an extremely tragic situation, Mina said. But if you shoot at a deputy, point a gun at a deputy, were going to return fire. Mina said Livingston Smiths father was expected to survive. The agency said Tuesday that the fathers injuries were not life-threatening. Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. > OCSO said deputies have responded to the home on Santa Barbara Road 14 times since 2019, mostly for medical or alarm-related calls, but at least once for a domestic violence situation and once for a verbal argument. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting and will turn over its findings to the Orange-Osceola State Attorneys Office for review. After that is complete, OCSO will conduct an internal investigation. The deputies involved are on paid administrative leave pending the FDLE investigation. OCSO said the deputies are considered victims of aggravated battery by Livingston Smith, allowing them to remain anonymous. The First District Court of Appeal in April ruled that Marsys Law applies to cops who use deadly force if they are also considered crime victims, as is typically the case, a decision that alarmed First Amendment experts and police accountability advocates. Advertisement The Florida Supreme Court is expected to consider the issue this year. mcordeiro@orlandosentinel.com Staff writer Kate Santich contributed to this report. SDI Productions/Getty Images San Antonio police have arrested and charged a man for exposing himself outside a home after a grocery delivery. According to an arrest affidavit, Xavier Downs, 29, was seen on a Ring door camera "exposing his genitals [and] masturbating" after a delivery he made on September 26. He was arrested and charged with indecent exposure on January 2, jail records show. The affidavit states Down initially went back to his vehicle after delivering the customer's groceries from H-E-B. He left the bags at the front door and did not have contact with the customers, the arrest report stated. By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, I have streamlined Water Cooler somewhat. The main change is that the Politics section is now first. I anticipate that 2022-2024 will be quite lively, and with the previous structure, I was stretched too thin, and not able to devote enough time to that topic. lambert NOTE I just realized that, in the throes of reorganization, I forgot to include the plant. One moment! UPDATE I needed to do a pantry clearout after the holiday break, so I have broken my rule and added some UPDATEs. Bird Song of the Day This is the closest I can come to the owl of Minerva. The media notes say: This recording after playback of his own sounds. Very meta thanks, Zuck, for polluting a perfectly useful word but I believe readers have said this is something you should never do. * * * But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? James Madison, Federalist 51 They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Hunter Thompson Politics But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? James Madison, Federalist 51 They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Hunter Thompson Capitol Seizure UPDATE The views of a Clintonite bag-man: My prediction for 2022: Before the midterm election, we will have a serious discussion about whether individual Republican House Members are disqualified by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment from serving in Congress. We may even see litigation. pic.twitter.com/pF7P2fw0kn Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) December 21, 2021 It could have been so much worse: America got lucky on Jan 6 [The Hat Tip]. The case for the prosecution. (Has anybody noticed, in that famous picture of a noose, on display in this article, that the noose isnt actually functional?) Biden Administration How Biden could have prepped for Omicron [Politico]. Many quotes from epidemiologists. For example: The biggest mistake the Biden administration made was to push a vaccines-only approach, rather than a vaccines-plus, including rapid tests, improving indoor air quality, and distributing high-filtration masks ubiquitously, coupled with public indoor mask mandates for high-risk shared spaces. Vaccines-only suffers from a key weakness: variants. And we have now seen this play out with Omicron. We have wildfire spread as our current vaccines do not provide sterilizing immunity meaning, people can and do still transmit the virus effectively. Rapid tests can stop public super-spreading by keeping very infectious people home. Better indoor air quality and ventilation/air filtration measures can pull infectious aerosols out of the air regardless of what variant they are carrying. And high-filtration masks can stop people who are contagious from exhaling as much virus in the air and prevent uninfected people from inhaling that virus-laden aerosol, regardless of variant. As weve been saying, or rather screaming, for some time. (To be fair to Biden, nobody in a position of power made these recommendations in January 2021; the Democrat base was and is firmly, indeed fervently, behind Bidens Vax-only policy). EXTENDED CUT: How We Win the Battle with COVID (with Ed Yong) (podcast) [In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt]. I dont have a lot of use for insider Slavitt (see NC here, here, and here), but mildmannered Ed Yong has some tough things to say: [Theres] this tendency to go for, like, rugged, toxic individualism, over the kind of collective actions we need to actually defeat an infectious disease. And we saw this from some of the highest echelons of power in this country. Like Trump, who is Americas id in human form, is gone, but despite that many of his successors are still hewing to similar kinds of rhetoric. When the CDC made its controversial and I feel ill-advised decision to change its initial guidance for masking indoors for fully vaccinated people, the rhetoric coming from people like Joe Biden and Rochelle Walensky was very much about this individual responsibility thing. You know, Your health is in your hands, the choice is yours to vaccinate or not. Obviously, this is an infectious disease. Your health is not fully in your hands. Breathing is a social relation And it will be interesting to see if and how Democrats are held accountable for managing it in 2022 (and 2024, grid willing). Well, thats sorted: One cool thing about the entire covid experience is that I am convinced there will never be another attempt by state institutions in the US to contain a contagious disease. Itll never happen again. Dan Credentials (@CharlemagnumPI) October 11, 2021 * * * The Senate Must Evolve: Chuck Schumer Seizes on January 6 to Try to Break Voting-Rights Stalemate [Vanity Fair]. In private, Manchin has left the door open to at least some kind of filibuster reform. Right now, 60 is where I planted my flag, he told donors in June, according to leaked remarks published by the Intercept. But as long as they know that Im going to protect this filibuster, were looking at good solutions. But in public comments, he has been more absolute. I will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster, he wrote in an op-ed last summer. Voting rights legislation will depend on which of those two Joe Manchins is the real one: Is he the hardliner he has presented himself as, or is that some kind of negotiating tactic? It remains to be seen, but Democrats are preparing to put some fleshed-out proposals in front of him. What happened on January 6th is directly linked to the one-sided, partisan actions being taken by GOP-led state legislatures across the country, Schumer wrote Monday. We can and must take strong action to stop this anti-democratic march.' If true, a little late in the day. UPDATE Why Democrats havent given up on Joe Manchin and voting rights [CNN]. A third option, which enjoys the most support among Democratic senators, would make filibusters harder to mount and easier to end. Instead of initiating a filibuster by simple declaration, and forcing proponents of action to overcome it, it would require filibustering senators to talk continuously, as popularized by Jimmy Stewart in the 1939 movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It would guarantee that the minority could offer a specified number of amendments to the legislation at issue. It would let every senator speak on the floor twice. But it would ultimately allow the majority to end debate and force final action with 51 votes, not 60. The old-fashioned filibusters were great spectacle, for good or ill. Scoop: Manchin returns to Build Back Better negotiations with demands [Axios]. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is open to reengaging on the climate and child care provisions in President Bidens Build Back Better agenda if the White House removes the enhanced child tax credit from the $1.75 trillion package or dramatically lowers the income caps for eligible families, people familiar with the matter tell Axios. Bidens court picks face fierce GOP opposition [The Hill]. Fierce, but ineffectual: By the end of his tenure, Trump had gotten 234 judges confirmed, second only to the Carter administration, after the Senate GOP majority made it a top priority. But Biden surpassed Trumps numbers in his first year. The 40 judicial confirmations under Biden are the most since former President Reagans first term. Democrats and Biden, eager to make their own mark, have placed an emphasis on diversifying the bench. Democrats en Deshabille I have moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Party (the Democrat Party is a rotting corpse that cant bury itself) to a separate, back-dated post, to which I will periodically add material, summarizing the addition here in a live Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It turns out that defining the Democrat Party is, in fact, a hard problem. I do think the paragraph that follows is on point all the way back to 2016, if not before: 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, of course, that the class power of the PMC both expresses and is limited by other classes; oligarchs and American gentry (see industrial model of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to mind. Suck up, kick down. * * * Left and Center-Left Both Claim Stacey Abrams. Whos Right? [New York Times]. The reporter emptied their Rolodex (in which Third Way still appears). When Abrams lost her race for governor, she ran to Washington and got herself hired by Neera Tanden, whose name does not appear in the article. Thats all you need to know. UPDATE Democrat strategists who hate the working class: 2022 2022 House Race Ratings [Cook Political Report]. Handy chart: Commentary: National update: on the current trajectory, there will actually be a few *more* Biden-won congressional districts after redistricting than there are now (224/435). Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) December 22, 2021 Democrat NGOs were always hopped up on this, along with some of the Democrat press. Democrat electeds never were. I dont know what accounts for the discrepancy (except the constant NGO quest for funding). Cook Report projects GOP as clear favorite to win House majority [The Hill]. Republicans need to net just five seats in 2022 to recapture control of the lower chamber, a goal that appears well within reach, especially given the fact that the party of a new president tends to lose ground in Congress in midterm election years. What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State [FiveThirtyEight]. At this point, redistricting has created six more Democratic-leaning seats nationally and five fewer highly competitive seats (the number of Republican-leaning seats has held steady). However, because many of those newly blue seats are already held by Democrats, its actually Republicans who have gained a handful of House seats through the redistricting process so far. Republicans have also converted light-red districts into safer seats in states like Indiana, Oklahoma and Utah. Overall, redistricting hasnt drastically changed the House landscape so far but thats good news for Republicans, since the old maps already tilted the House playing field in their favor. Democrats Are Doing Weirdly Well in Redistricting [Eric Levitz, New York Magazine]. The new House map is more than half finished. And in many states where maps havent been finalized, the broad outlines are already visible. Taken together, the emerging picture is far more favorable for Democrats than most anticipated. As of this writing, it looks like the new House map will be much less biased in the GOPs favor than the old one. And according to at least one analyst, there is actually an outside chance that the final map will be tilted, ever so slightly, in the Democrats favor. Now, just because the emerging map is an improvement on the old one doesnt mean that Republicans wont still boast a structural advantage. After all, the existing House map was drawn in the aftermath of the 2010 Tea Party wave. In 2011, Republicans had sole discretion over the borders of 219 House districts, while Democrats dictated those of just 44. An unanticipated leftward drift among suburban voters mitigated the severity of the 2011 maps biases by decades end. But it remains a very pro-Republican baseline. In all probability, the new House map will still favor the GOP. Nevertheless, the new map is going to favor Republicans by less than the old one, which wasnt a given. Republican Funhouse UPDATE If we dont center this dudes lived experience, were guilty of ableism. Nonetheless: Dude has the upper body strength to fire one-handed but he doesnt have the brains to lock his wheelchair so the recoil doesnt push him all over the place. https://t.co/jb4CwNucCo Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) December 24, 2021 2020 Post Mortem UPDATE Question, answer: Bernie partly a fluke of US electoral system (that allows Vermont to have two senators) and him being just safe enough (e.g. mostly avoiding anti-imperialism) that he could fly in small planes. https://t.co/WqZzLMTuQI Jessica Yogini (@JessicaYogini) January 3, 2022 I do think we need a candidate who has to travel by bus or train. Trump Legacy UPDATE Efforts to Trump-proof presidential certification crash into congressional realities [Politico]. Can the Electoral Count Acts key provisions be enforced, or can a rogue future Congress in league with a losing presidential candidate simply ignore it? Experts are split on whether any Congress can pass a law that would dictate how its successors certify presidential elections. Typically, the House and Senate have the constitutional power to set their own rules, which can be changed at will. Attempting to legislate against this would be unconstitutional. But the Electoral College certification is so significant that many constitutional scholars say it overrides that congressional prerogative. Still, their view is, practically speaking, irrelevant. What matters most is how leaders of the Congress elected in 2024 and future presidential years behave. Theyre not beholden to adopt the prevailing view of the scholarly community, and congressional leaders often dont. Whether a future Congress can deviate from the [Electoral Count Act] is an open question, said a House aide familiar with efforts to reform the law, addressing the unfinished work on condition of anonymity. By putting [changes] in law, they acquire a status that makes it hard to walk away from, and likely why Congress never has done so. That argument has uncanny parallels to the debate that consumed Congress in 1887, a decade after a disputed presidential election nearly splintered the republic anew. Realignment and Legitimacy UPDATE The Republican Party Is Succeeding Because We Are Not a True Democracy [Jedediah Britton-Purdy, New York Times]. Majorities of the people, not the Electoral College, should be able to pick the president and decide who controls the House and Senate. All who make their lives in the United States including the incarcerated, people convicted of felonies and noncitizens should be allowed to vote. This might sound alarming to inland Republican voters who imagine themselves besieged by a permanent coastal majority. But in a working democracy, there are no permanent majorities or minorities. Forging partnerships in a truly democratic system, inland conservatives would soon find new allies just not ones determined to break democracy itself. Some of these changes probably require amending the Constitution. Hard changes have come through constitutional amendment before: Shortly before World War I, activists successfully pressed state legislatures to ratify an amendment giving up their power to choose U.S. senators. Maybe we can revive mass movements for amendments, starting with one that would make the amendment process itself more democratic. And also from the Times: UPDATE Democrats, Voting Rights Are Not the Problem [Yuval Levin, New York Times]. Some Republicans insist that the process of counting and certifying the vote in some states was corrupt in 2020. There is no evidence none to support any specific claims on this front. But greater care and transparency about postelection administration would serve us well regardless and could render such claims easier to test and refute in ways that would build public confidence. Some Democrats insist that Republicans are preparing to manipulate the certification process in elections in some states. So far, this mostly looks like Trump supporters running for offices with authority over election administration, which is no crime in a democracy. But requiring accountability and transparency and setting some boundaries on what can happen after an election would help ease these concerns and avert the dangers that Democrats have warned about. And all of us saw just a year ago that Congresss role in certifying presidential elections could be clarified and rid of opportunities for confusion and mischief. Reforms focused on these themes would be a more productive path than what weve seen so far, which are efforts focused mostly on voting itself on who can cast a ballot, when and by what means. elections [Joe Costello]. In the United States, the counties conduct the elections. They control the voter rolls, set up the voting mechanisms, whether booths or by mail, and tally the votes. Election confidence is gained only by making the entire process transparent, open to all sides, and to all public scrutiny. However, this simple fact elections are run by the counties is little understood by most Americans, not so incredible really. In the last half-dozen years, the national media ran countless stories alleging nefarious election manipulations by various foreign and domestic actors. It was quite clear that many of these stories were produced by people who did not understand the counties control the election processes. But, confused media coverage is de rigueur these days. Liberals vs. conservatives: I think theyd enjoy Hamilton https://t.co/KwrQdcGIPT Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) January 1, 2022 (Musical interlude). UPDATE Americans Need to Ratchet Down Crazy Politics [The Liberal Patriot]. Normal Americans need to take back control of democratic discourse and end the toxic drift in politics towards treating people or officials who think differently as enemies of the state. Yeah, you know. Like RussiaGate. (Normal Americans. Ruy Teixeira is one of the co-editors of this blog. Is this really where he is now, analytically?) UPDATE The liberty of local bullies [Noah Smith, Noahpinion]. I know, I know, but this ones not so bad: I have often remarked in the past how libertarianism at least, its modern American manifestation is not really about increasing liberty or freedom as an average person would define those terms. An ideal libertarian society would leave the vast majority of people feeling profoundly constrained in many ways. This is because the freedom of the individual can be curtailed not only by the government, but by a large variety of intermediate powers like work bosses, neighborhood associations, self-organized ethnic movements, organized religions, tough violent men, or social conventions. In a society such as ours, where the government maintains a nominal monopoly on the use of physical violence, there is plenty of room for people to be oppressed by such intermediate powers, whom I call local bullies. The modern American libertarian ideology does not deal with the issue of local bullies. In the world envisioned by Nozick, Hayek, Rand, and other foundational thinkers of the movement, there are only two levels to society the government (the big bully) and the individual. If your freedom is not being taken away by the biggest bully that exists, your freedom is not being taken away at all. #COVID19 Case count by United States regions: If anything, this count is an underestimate. Counts from the long New Years weekend look suspiciously low, and at least one state was so overwhelmed it didnt supply data at all. (I wrote: As happened in 2020, I would expect a second, higher peak, from Omicron if for no other reason. Here we very are. This chart is a seven-day average, so changes in direction only show up when a train is really rolling.) It would sure be nice if rise like a rocket (and fall like a stick) applied, but we cant know that yet. To be fair, previous peaks how small the early ones look now have been roughly symmetrical on either side. But the scale of this peak, and the penetration into the population, is unprecendented. The official narrative that Covid is behind us, and that the pandemic will be over by January (Gottlieb), and I know some people seem to not want to give up on the wonderful pandemic, but you know what? Its over (Bill Maher) is completely exploded. What a surprise! MWRA (Boston-area) wastewater detection: The MWRA, too, needs a bigger chart. 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. From CDC: Community Profile Report (PDF), Rapid Riser counties: Looks like the flying coals landed and caught everywhere. Quite a change from the previous release. The previous release: Hospitalization (CDC Community Profile): The tsunami arrives. (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: 848,885 833,029 . Well, we didnt hit a million by New Years. So theres that. Covid cases in top us travel destinations (Statista): Might was well check out where we go, in case we bring something back (as from Italy to New York in 2020). This is a log scale. Sorry for the kerfuffle at the left. No matter how I tinker, it doesnt go away. (The data is from 2019, and so subject to subsequent events, but this is the best I can find.) The CDC modeling hub and excess deaths charts will appear weekly, on Friday. Stats Watch Employment Situation: United States Job Quits [Trading Economics]. The number of job quits in the United States increased by 370,000 to a series high of 4.527 million in November 2021, while the quits rate increased to 3.0 percent, matching the series high in September, as employers continue to have difficulty retaining workers. Quits increased in several industries with the largest in accommodation and food services (+159,000); health care and social assistance (+52,000); and transportation, warehousing, and utilities (+33,000). And for all those industries, its very easy to tell a wages and working conditions story centered on Covid. For example, health care: To me, this is the most alarming chart from the Great Resignation: Skyrocketing quits in health care Doctors, nurses, aides & more are burned out and were still in a pandemic Healthcare quit rate: March: 2.3% April 2.5 May 2.4 June 2.5 July 2.7 Aug 2.8 Sept 2.8 Oct 2.7 Nov: 3% pic.twitter.com/WZucDL0MjL Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) January 4, 2022 Manufacturing: United States ISM Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) [Trading Economics]. The ISM Manufacturing PMI in the US fell to 58.7 in December of 2021 from 61.1 in November, below market forecasts of 60. The reading pointed to the weakest growth in factory activity since January, amid a slowdown in new orders (60.4 vs 61.5) while employment grew the most since April (54.2 vs 53.3) and prices paid eased the most since March 2020 (68.2, the lowest reading since November 2020, vs 82.4). The U.S. manufacturing sector remains in a demand-driven, supply chain-constrained environment, with some indications of slight labor and supplier delivery improvement. Supply Chain: United States LMI Logistics Managers Index Current [Trading Economics]. The Logistics Managers Index fell to 70.1 in December of 2021, the lowest reading since January, but still pointing to a significant expansion in the logistics sector, amid abnormally high inventory metrics, combined with tight capacity and unseasonably high price growth. The reading also suggested that some supply chains may now be carrying too much inventory, potentially stocking up to avoid potential missed holiday sales. There was a contraction of inventories for downstream retailers but a rise for upstream firms such as manufacturers, wholesalers and 3PLs. Essentially, downstream retailers struggled to find enough capacity to handle consumer demand during the holiday rush, while their upstream vendors labored to store and manage the deluge of inventory that flowed into supply chains throughout 2021 * * * The Bezzle: An Bored Ape is some sort of coin: all my apes gone pic.twitter.com/yGdrDVJYfM flglmn (@flglmn) December 30, 2021 Lots of dunking on apes, but here is the crucial point: The Bezzle: web3 is Centralized [Wesley Aptekar-Cassels]. The entire blockchain world is focused on building systems for global consensus, but global consensus is a goal that is fundamentally at odds with the goal of decentralization. And: The problem here is the profit motive: people who are working on web3 generally want to get paid for it, but its fundamentally harder to extract rent from truly decentralized systems than it is from centralized ones. Because of that, people end up building systems that are centralized at their core, with some aesthetics of decentralization smeared on top, and call it web3. Tech: Snow Closed the Highways. GPS Mapped a Harrowing Detour in the Sierra Nevada [New York Times]. Public safety officials warned that alternate routes offered by apps like Google Maps and Waze dont always take into account hazards to drivers. Oh. Manufacturing: A long thread on chips. Here is a highlight: So the most valuable item in global trade is something you DONT SEE as it is an intermediate product. You only see the final products such as cars/laptops/etc. Chips are one of the US top exports (airplanes, oil, chips). China is a net importer of chips. Has a deficit of chips. pic.twitter.com/bWp8PXir9C Trinh (@Trinhnomics) December 31, 2021 Manufacturing: Pontifications: Assessing the advantages Boeing, Lockheed Martin-Airbus have in KC-Y tanker competition []. Boeing is the incumbent. From Sean OKeefe was the president of EADS North America, Airbus parent when Boeing won the KC-X contract. He also worked for the government as the NASA administrator and on The Hill: There is no question that this experience Boeing has had during the past decade on the KC-46 program is one that has a record. Theres a real legacy there. Their performance has been very challenged in this condition. They have had a year-over-year charge theyve had to take for this program, and the very likelihood they may ever, ever make a dime on the KC-46 is much in doubt. That speaks to a performance record that transcends any legacy or any capacity to really have an institutional relationship. Thats going to be a factor. Thats the one that when you get done with it, it almost evens out in terms of the advantages and disadvantages they have. Oof. * * * Todays Fear & Greed Index: 68 Greed (previous close: 67 Greed) [ CNN ]. One week ago: 54 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 4 at 12:05pm. Big switch to Greed over the holidays! Rapture Index: Close unchanged [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 185. (Remember that bringing on the rapture is a good thing, so higher is better.) Civil War Studies A true scholar: We did not stop the expansion of slavery, and enslavers dominated the presidency, Senate and Supreme Court until 1865, when the North was reluctantly drawn into a war that ultimately ended slavery. Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) January 3, 2022 Meanwhile Thank You! (podcast) [The Civil War (1861-1865)]. The podcasters, Rich and Tracy Youngdahl, live in Boulder, Colorado. They had to flee their home when the Marshall Fire hit their neighborhood, but when they returned, their home was intact, although many of their neighbors homes were not. Note: These supremely dedicated amateurs actually know the year the Civil War began. Games Land speculators will kill your games growth [Game Developer]. The hot new trend these days is games featuring digital real estate. Im concerned these will lead to digital land speculation bubbles that will make players, developers, and investors alike lose stupid amounts of money. If youre developing or investing in a game or app like this and expecting to ride a blistering wave of growth to a multi-billion dollar valuation youd better take a hard look at the fundamentals before you run smack into a brick wall. Digital real estate is not actually a new phenomenon, and history consistently shows that when digital land sufficiently resembles the economic properties of physical land, we see digital land speculation, digital housing crises, and even full-blown digital recessions. That means a period of exciting growth suddenly grinds to a halt once scalpers corner precious digital property and keep it out of the hands of those who actually want to play the damn game or perform valuable and productive activities for the community. The Agony Column I like this thread a lot: and I thought to myself, and said aloud, Hell yes, I have three potatoes The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) January 1, 2022 Is Depression Actually a Unique State of Consciousness? [Psychology Today] (original). [Philosopher Cecily Whiteley] proposes that when an individual is depressed, she departs from a state of wakefulness to a distinctive depressive state of consciousness, a change which is reflected in an experience of an existential shift as described by Ratcliffe (p. 13). Understanding depression this way has several benefits: First, it explains why the experience of depression can be so difficult to describe to someone who has never been depressed: It changes the very context in which one lives, thinks, and expresses themselves. Second, framing depression as a state of consciousness helps to explain the ebb and flow of the symptoms of depression over time, in which sufferers feel like a different person in each stage. Third, there are fascinating parallels between the self-reported experience of depression and being under the influence of psychedelics, particularly in terms of the existential shift one experiences in each. As Whiteley explains, in both cases, individuals report robust phenomenological changes or alterations to their experiences of time, their sense of self, bodily experience, mental agency, concentration, and attention. Interesting! And so appropriate for the solstice Totally unasked and perhaps uncalled-for but well-meant advice, at least for Seasonal Affective Depression: No matter the direction or distance, move! Get more sun. Take walks. When you do, look up at the sky, not down at your feet. And remember the days are lengthening. Class Warfare /231/ New Class Analysis ft. Catherine Liu (podcast) [Bungacast]. On Thursday 9 November, George Hoare and Alex Hochuli took part in a conversation with Catherine Liu about their recent books The End of the End of History and Virtue Hoarders, respectively. The focus was on the social and political role of the Professional-Managerial Class in historical context. I feel asleep. Sorry. This actually means that this podcast is useful to me and I will keep listening to it. Aristocracies in formation: The Lefts Middle-Class Problem [Class Unity]. For all his talk about how not to unite the working class, [DSA representative Jamaal Bowman] seems more interested in proving his own abstract theoretical model correct than in taking seriously the interests and desires of the working class in all its diversity. Consider how he approvingly refers to the calls to defund the police that gained steam in the wake of the George Floyd protests last summer as confirmation that actual movements against racism tend to have no trouble understanding the deep links between economics and racial disparity. Not only does Bascunan seem unaware that cash-strapped police departments are often more lethal than better funded ones, and that several of the whitest (and poorest) states in the country experience some of the highest rates of police killings he fails to ask whether the call to defund the police is even supported by the working-class black and brown people activists claim it would benefit the most. The available evidence suggests this is not the case. This is not to suggest that proponents of defunding the police do not have legitimate and serious criticisms of policing they do. And we certainly arent claiming that all workers are necessarily leftwing. But a new study provides data to support Class Unitys belief that the best way to appeal to working-class people of all backgrounds is to focus on bread-and-butter economic issues and frame these in universal terms, rather than attempt to split the difference by cloaking them in the woke rhetoric that is so common among academics and NGO activists and so alienating to the majority of workers without a college degree. News of the Wired AITA for cleaning out the fridge without telling my husband? [Reddit]. But WHATS IN THE BOX? Kill it with fire: ICYMI: From Grace, a healthcare robot born out of the global health crisis, to Ameeca, the hyper-realistic humanoid robot, meet the most memorable robots of 2021 pic.twitter.com/mQBBGn8iPD Reuters (@Reuters) January 3, 2022 * * * : 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 (tennessewaltzer): tennessewaltzer writes: Here is a photo of the sunrise over the Tennessee River in Waterloo, Alabama. Moar sunlight! * * * : 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: Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated. 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! Yves here. I dont mean to seem as if I am criticizing the author of this Common Dreams piece, but rather his source, Thomas Homer-Dixon. As the saying goes, a reporter is only as good as his sources. But pieces like this drive me crazy. First, if Trump was such a danger to democracy, why did Biden promise Nothing fundamental will change, and very much stick to that pledge? Second, as we have long said, the very successful neoliberal campaign of making people see themselves as individuals and weakening of community ties has resulted in social disfunction being channeled into self-harm (drug addiction, suicides) and random acts of rage and not into large scale protests. For instance, despite the press trying to pump air into the deflated Trump balloon, his 2020 Tulsa comeback rally and his December 2021 rallies in Florida had mainly empty seats. Third and most important, the article does mention income inequality as a key cause, but misses that this was an engineered effect of the neoliberal counter-revolution against New Deal reforms. Homer-Dixon further misses, as Mark Blyth has pointed out, that the US went further in a reactionary direction in the wake of the financial crisis, when that was not at all an inevitable outcome, and in fact concessions to the working classes were the far more likely reactionif nothing else, for elite long-term self-perservation. But no one does long term any more. And as for the hand-wringing about propaganda, Homer-Dixon needs to read Alex Careys classic Taking the Risk Out of Democracy. Carey explains how America was the early leader in propaganda, dating to at least the National Association of Manufacturers messaging against labor at the start of the 20th century. And Goebbels developed his techniques by studying the American propagandist and father of public relations, Eddie Bernays. Thats not to say that the US is not at the real risk of becoming a failed stateand that outcome seems more likely than a strongman taking over. But a key reason is (as Lambert has put it) the late Romanov-era-level of incompetence of our elites, and the resulting failure of the government to handle crises and even operate as anything other than a vehicle for looting. Just look at the inexcusable cost of insulin for starters. So scapegoating yet to emerge evil right wing authoritarians is so much more convenient than calling out the pervasive derelictions of duty on the watch of the professional-managerial class. By Jake Johnson. Originally published at Common Dreams In a matter of years, the United States deeply flawed and increasingly fragile democratic system could collapse under the weight of a long-running reactionary onslaught and be replaced by a right-wing dictatorshipone for which former President Donald Trump was just a warm-up act. Willingness to publicly endorse the Big Lie has become a litmus test of Republican loyalty to Mr. Trump. Such was the stark warning that Thomas Homer-Dixon, executive director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University and a scholar of violent conflict, delivered in an exhaustive op-ed published in the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. Homer-Dixon, the former head of a center on peace and conflict studies at the University of Toronto, warned that the political and social landscape of the U.S.a profoundly unequal and ideologically polarized nation that also happens to be armed to the teethis flashing with warning signals. By 2025, he wrote. American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence. By 2030, if not sooner, the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship. Arguing that prominent reactionary figures such as the late right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh and Trumpwho awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2020are as much symptoms of U.S. political dysfunction as its causes, Homer-Dixon contended that the nations present crises have their roots in myriad historical phenomena: But successful polities around the world, he continued, have overcome flaws just as fundamental. So why is U.S. democracy particularly vulnerable to full-scale collapse in the near future? Homer-Dixon argued that what seems to have pushed the United States to the brink of losing its democracy today is a multiplication effect between its underlying flaws and recent shifts in the societys material characteristics. These shifts include stagnating middle-class incomes, chronic economic insecurity, and rising inequality as the countrys economytransformed by technological change and globalizationhas transitioned from muscle power, heavy industry, and manufacturing as the main sources of its wealth to idea power, information technology, symbolic production, and finance, he wrote. Americas economic, racial and social gaps have helped cause ideological polarization between the political right and left, and the worsening polarization has paralyzed government while aggravating the gaps. Eager and well-positioned to exploit such divisions are Trump and his Republican loyalists, many of whom have endorsed the so-called Big Lie that Trump won the 2020 presidential election but had it stolen from him by the Democratic Party. That falsehoodwhich helped fuel the January 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection and, according to one new survey, is embraced by two-thirds of GOP votersis potent anti-democratic poison, Homer-Dixon wrote. Willingness to publicly endorse the Big Lie has become a litmus test of Republican loyalty to Mr. Trump, he observed. This isnt just an ideological move to promote Republican solidarity against Democrats. It puts its adherents one step away from the psychological dynamic of extreme dehumanization that has led to some of the worst violence in human history. And it has refashionedinto a moral crusade against evilRepublican efforts to gerrymander Congressional districts into pretzel-like shapes, to restrict voting rights, and to take control of state-level electoral apparatuses. As The Guardian reported Sunday, Allies of Donald Trump and others who have spread baseless conspiracy theories about the election have launched campaigns for key positionsfrom governor to secretary of statethat have significant influence over the post-election certification process. Republicans who have embraced lies about the election are also running for secretary of state offices in Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada, the outlet noted. Overlooked for years, there is now a broader awareness of the enormous power these secretaries of state wield over how elections are run and ballots are counted. That power was on unprecedented display in 2020, when secretaries of state made decisions about things like how to establish ballot drop boxes and whether to automatically send out mail-in ballot applications to voters. Secretaries of state wield enormous unilateral power and, if they were elected, election deniers could do extensive damage in future elections, The Guardian added. Unless dramatic steps are taken, one of the worlds largest cities could face Day Zero when supplies of water run so low that government must begin rationing the precious liquid as early as 2028. Many residents of the working class barrio of Azcapotzalco, in the northwestern part of Mexico City, had a very dry Christmas this year. Water stopped flowing to many households on Christmas Day, allegedly the result of an outage of three power stations in an electrical substation that provides power to wells in the neighbourhood. Representatives of Mexico Citys Sacmex Water System said the situation would be resolved in a matter of hours. In the end, it took ten days, and only after local residents had forced the issue, in classic Mexican fashion, by blocking key roads in the neighbourhood. They told us they were going to bring us water tankers and that the service would be fully restored the day after, Paty Perez, a resident of the area, told the daily newspaper Excelsior. It is impossible for us to live without water. Azcapotzalco is one of the municipalities that always lacks water; there are elderly people who live on the fourth floor of their buildings who have to carry the water up the stairs. It is not just poor neighborhoods that are feeling the effects of Mexico Citys worsening water crisis. Whenever my Mexican wife and I come to her native city (where we are at the moment), we stay in a 13th floor apartment on the edge of the leafy, colorful middle-class barrio of Coyoacan, which is home not only to the Museo de Frida Kahlo but also the former home of Leon Trotsky, both well worth a visit. The apartment belongs to a generous, gregarious septuagenarian Argentinean emigree whom my wife regards as an adopted aunt. She and her neighbours are also having problems with water. At any moment, particularly in Spring, the supply can suddenly run dry and may not return for a number of hours or even until the next day. This has been happening for many years but it began occurring a lot more frequently when work began, in 2012, on a giant skyscraper complex a few blocks away called Complejo Mitikah. The complex features two office towers, one owned by We Work, both of which are overshadowed by Mitikah tower, a 67-floor apartment building that, once finished, will be Mexico Citys largest residential skyscraper. The complex is billed as a fully self-contained vertical city that will include a giant shopping mall, a supermarket, a private hospital, gyms, swimming pools, boutique restaurants and bars. If the skyscrapers residents, many of whom will no doubt work from home, would rather not venture out into the city, they wont have to; just about everything they could possibly want or need is on site. Naturally, the complex has massively increased the demand for water in the local neighborhood, but it is other local residents that are paying the price. More and more often, the underground water tanks that serve nearby residential buildings are running dry. This is particularly true in Springtime, just before Mexicos rainy season begins. It can take hours or in extreme cases even days before water tankers arrive to refill the tanks. On public holidays or over long weekends the government can sometimes cut off water to residents in order to carry out much-needed maintenance work. Two Dry Years Mexico has suffered two consecutive years of low rainfall. The situation was already severe in April 2021. As an article in El Pais noted in May, surviving the dry season depends in large part on how much water has been accumulated during the wet months: In 2020, the rains were not sufficient to fill all of the countrys network of dams and now, as a consequence, of the 210 biggest in Mexico, more than half are at less than 50% of their capacity. Furthermore, 61 are at critical levels at less than 25% capacity, mostly in northern and central Mexico. Mexico is no stranger to water crises. In 1996 and 2011 the country suffered severe droughts but as the El Pais article points out, lessons were not learnt. It is also true that Mexico has not exactly taken care of its precious water resources. Mexico City itself lies in the heart of a region called Valley of Mexico that was once home to a vast network of lakes. Located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, the valley contains most of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area, as well as parts of four neighbouring states: the State of Mexico, Puebla, Hidalgo and Tlaxcala. Between the 17th and early 20th centuries the five lakes of Valley of Mexico Xaltocan, Chalco, Texcoco, Xochimilco and Zumpango were almost totally drained, partly to protect the city from constant flooding but also to help it grow. Mexico City could only grow into the vast metropolis it has become through a ruthless process of land reclamation. Xochimilco, in the southern part of Mexico City, still exists but it is much diminished. Zumpango, in the State of Mexico, was reconverted into a reservoir in the late eighties and early nineties. A Step in the Right Direction Lake Texcoco may also see a renaissance of sorts in the coming years. Almost a decade ago, the drained lake bed was chosen as the site for a massive new international airport, despite the fact that it continues to attract much of Mexico Citys run-off water. The ground has extremely high water content and low resistance to stress not exactly ideal conditions for a huge international airport. But as I reported for Wolf Street, for the construction companies involved, it would have been the perfect boondoggle: once the airport was built, the chronic structural problems that ensued would have necessitated huge amounts of maintenance work, just to keep the land fit for purpose. By 2018, hundreds of billions of pesos had flowed into the project and costs were soaring. But then in December of that year, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador won the presidential elections. One of his first acts was to cancel the project, after consulting the public on the matter in a referendum, much to the horror of the investment community. The AMLO governments current plan for Texcoco is to restore the former lake and build a national park around it. Given that under Texcocos marshy land lies one of Mexico Citys most important aquifers, this is a welcome development for a city facing an existential water crisis. As a recent report by Greenpeace points out, not only is Mexico City suffering from a severe shortage of water, but what water is available is distributed unevenly. In largely middle or upper middle-class municipalities such as Benito Juarez, Coyoacan, Cuauhtemoc and Miguel Hidalgo, only 0.1% of homes do not have piped water compared to 11% in working class neighborhoods such as Milpa Alta. The Crisis in Numbers Mexicos water crisis has been a long time in the making. In 2016, more than 50 million Mexicans roughly 40% of the population were facing perennial or seasonal water shortages in urban areas, according to research published in Nature, which ranked Mexico as one of the countries where water scarcity was likely to deteriorate the most. That was before the latest drought. According to the same study, Mexico City was the third most populous mega city on the planet facing severe water shortages (on a seasonal basis), behind Delhi and Shanghai. The city already has a population of nearly 22 million, rising to 27 million if you include the surrounding areas, but the local authorities expect it to reach as high as 30 million by 2030, reports the BBC. It has more rainfall than London but with most of its lakes gone, much of that water is wasted. Mexico, together with Spain, is the worlds fifth largest consumer of water on a per-capita basis, after the United States, Australia, Italy and Japan. Water consumption in Mexico, as in most of the world, is divided into personal, industrial, and agricultural use. Globally, industry accounts for 22% of the worlds annual water consumption, compared to 8% for personal consumption and 70% for agriculture, according to UN data. In Mexico, according to the National Water Commission, agriculture uses between 68 and 70% of the countrys water, industry and hydroelectric plants around 14%, while personal consumption accounts for around 10%. Much of that water is not safe to drink. As Greenpeace reports, the groundwater in Mexico City has seen an increase in the concentration of metals such as arsenic, boron, iron, manganese and lead, as well as chemical compounds, drugs, antibiotics and other emerging pollutants. Most people who can afford to, drink bottled water, which has provided huge profits for companies such as Coca Cola, Nestle and Pepsi Co, while sharply increasing the countrys consumption of plastics. In the last few years, Mexico has topped numerous rankings as the worlds largest per-capita consumer of bottled water. And the level of consumption keeps rising. Seventy-six percent of households currently buy bottled water, according to a household and environment study by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi). That number is up from 70% in 2015, according to the same document. The total amount spent on bottled water has increased three fold in the past 15 years, reports the Mexican daily La Jornada. Day Zero Approaches A recent study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Latin Americas largest university, warns that time is fast running out for Mexico City. The metropolis could face its own Day Zero when supplies of water run so low that government must begin rationing the precious liquid as early as 2028. Cape town, South Africa, was the first major city on the planet to come close to running out of water. Day Zero arrived in 2018, when the South African government began to set quotas and manage the amount of water that each citizen could use. The same could happen within the next decade in Mexico City, the UNAM report warns: Water is the most valuable resource we have, but we could run of it out in a matter of years. Mexico faces an acute water crisis, but its citizens are not aware of it as water continues to flow freely from the taps. In order to avoid running out of water immediate actions are needed Those actions include increasing the cost of water for industry and farmers, raising public awareness about how to reduce ones personal consumption of water (such as by turning off the tap when brushing ones teeth or saving shower water while waiting for it to heat up) and investing more in maintenance of the citys water infrastructure. Some 35% of Mexico Citys water is lost in leaks as it flows along the citys pipe network. Whales Once Walked Along the Coasts of North America Smithsonian Fossils Suggest an Aquatic Plant That Bloomed Underwater Was Among First Flowering Plants Plantings Seattle amateur scientist helping to unlock the secrets of slime molds Oregon Public Broadcasting How NFTs became a $40bn market in 2021 FT On the Intraday Behavior of Bitcoin (PDF). The Ledger. From the first peer-reviewed journal on Bitcoin. Possible subject matter: I have only read the introduction and am already RIVETED (it is called The Great Beanie Baby Bubble). Truly the most batshit time to be alive. pic.twitter.com/pVesXr2061 Repealing Section 230: Giving Mark Zuckerberg What He Wants? Dean Baker, Counterpunch (Re Silc). The Creepy TikTok Algorithm Doesnt Know You Wire Climate #COVID19 When Three Shots Are Not Enough NYT A third dose too much for seniors who have had COVID-19 (translation) Le Devoir (original). Moderna. FDA authorizes Pfizer booster dose for 12 to 17 year-olds Center for Indectious Disease Research and Policy A WHO official weighs in on Covid, vaccines, and mistakes that were made Helen Branswell, STAT. Mistakes were made. Really? Covid-19: An urgent call for global vaccines-plus action British Medical Journal * * * Leading Causes of Death Among Adults Aged 25 to 44 Years by Race and Ethnicity in Texas During the COVID-19 Pandemic, March to December 2020 JAMA. Commentary: Its an important piece of work because it counters a still pervasive narrative that COVID-19 is a disease of the elderly that young people can shrug it off. True, fewer young people have died from COVID-19 than older people, but more young people have died from COVID-19 during the pandemic than from nearly any other cause. Decreased severity of disease during the first global omicron variant covid-19 outbreak in a large hospital in Tshwane, South Africa International Journal of Infectious Diseases. Conclusion: There was decreased severity of disease in the Omicron driven fourth wave in the City of Tshwane, its first global epicentre. Beware! South Africas population is very different from our own, both demographically and (at this point) immunologically. * * * Explainer. Long Covid: why do some people have symptoms months after infection? FT NY COVID Hospitalizations Top 2021 Surge Levels; Omicron Quintuples Risk of Breakthrough Cases NBC * * * COVID-19: Workers Need Respirators American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (upstater). Handy guide. Meanwhile, CDC and the Administration continue shambolic: Current screenshot of the @CDCgov website page on masks, telling public to use cloth/fabric masks and *not* to wear N95s. What a moment in history. https://t.co/eVUv3jBOwZ pic.twitter.com/M0HiGdAEjf Violet Blue (@violetblue) January 4, 2022 Encouraging practice like this: I (in an N-95) just stood next to an anesthesiologist who was wearing only a surgical mask for 3 hours At the end of the case he said yea me son definitely has COVID right now Im not even bothering to get tested. I probably have it Im immune-compromised#SurvivingSurgery Social Distanced Med Student (@DrSomedayMaybe) January 3, 2022 Because freedom! Speaking of shambolic, read the sign: As Omicron surges, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo says the state is working to "unwind" the COVID "testing psychology" that the federal government has prioritized. pic.twitter.com/cju0o1uVJm The Recount (@therecount) January 3, 2022 Doublethink, or? Newsom promised 6 million COVID tests for students. Only half have arrived LA Times Yves here. Even though Richard Murphy discusses how British voters have a dim view of nearly everything the Government is doing, the same broad-based dissatisfaction holds in the US. However, as political scientist Tom Ferguson has documented, government policy reflects the pet wishes of well-funded interest groups, and not the general public, so the failure to represent public interest is baked in here. However, the response in the US to decaying government performance, and with it, legitimacy, are centrifugal impulses. Hard core libertarians like Milton Friedman are closeted anarchists; the real deal i the left are getting more vocal, and both camps are also becoming more interested in survivalism (along with people who are not ideologically driven but see more self-sufficiency as a hedge). What is worrisome is that our putative Democratic party elites are becoming more and more authoritarian when they arent good at it, in terms both of strategy and execution. By Richard Murphy, a chartered accountant and a political economist. He has been described by the Guardian newspaper as an anti-poverty campaigner and tax expert. He is Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London and Director of Tax Research UK. He is a non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics. He is a member of the Progressive Economy Forum. Originally published at Tax Research UK I had not previously noticed an opinion poll brought out by Ipsos Mori in mid-December. They asked people over a range of ten indicators whether they thought that the government was doing a good or bad job. These were the findings: Thats a negative score on everything bar vaccines. Even in a usually strong area for the Tories, like the economy, there was a significant negative ranking. On many issues the scoring was dire. I do, of course, know all the weaknesses in polling. But, that being said this is a grim set of data for the government, and as 2022 begins it can only get worse. They are not managing the omicron variant well, and most people will know it. None of this does, of course, say that people think Labour would necessarily do better. Although their poll ranking has risen significantly that is more a measure of the frustration that this poll indicates than positive support. But, that said, I do take a positive from this. It is that people in this country have yet to embrace the idea that the role of the government is to see a problem and then walk away from it, which is what this government does. They expect initiative and not inaction. They demand that issues be addressed, rather than verbiage be offered. They think that a government should deliver on promises, like levelling up, even if no one really knows what it is. This is important. There is evidence that some people now despise government for simply being in existence. This appears to be the motive for much of the anti-vax lobby. For reasons that they seem to find very hard to explain they loathe the idea of government, and associate it with the idea of expertise, which they detest with equal venom, although what they would out in the place of either is very hard to work out. What I read into this poll data is that this is not a comm0n-place view. The framing of the questions is about action e.g. improving the NHS rather than simply is the NHS doing a good job? Asking the questions in that way gives very poor results. If that is the case then. it is reasonable to conclude that people want pro-active government still. So do I. But were not going to get it with the Tories in office. Those seeking power should take note. The Tory way of leaving things to the market to sort out is no longer an option that people want. My Nashville Post role has evolved since 2000 when I joined the now-defunct The City Paper. TCP became a Post sister publication in 2008 (when I began doing some Post work) and folded in 2013. I have been managing editor of the Post since late 2011. Follow William Williams Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Attendance clerk Cheetara Harris organizes the first and second grade laptops t the Orange County Public Schools Academic Center for Excellence (ACE), on West Livingston Street, on Thursday, August 6, 2020. Starting Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2021, face masks are again required for any adults on OCPS campuses. They are "strongly encouraged" for students as they return from the two-week winter holiday break. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel) With COVID-19 cases at record highs, Orange County Public School employees and any other adults on campuses must wear face masks starting Tuesday, a rule that will remain in effect through the end of the month, Superintendent Barbara Jenkins announced late Monday. Jenkins announcement, made via social media and sent to parents via phone and email messages, came as some 200,000 OCPS students head back to class Tuesday after a two-week winter break. Advertisement The district said face masks are strongly encouraged for students but stopped short of mandating them. Face mask mandates would violate a new state law passed in November as part of Gov. Ron DeSantis ongoing battle with school districts over COVID-19 safety protocols. The Orange school district enforced a 60-day student mask mandate early in the school year facing state penalties as a result but dropped the requirement at the end of October when coronavirus cases dropped significantly. Advertisement The recent surge of cases, fueled by the new omicron variant, changed things again. This is an effort to keep our workforce safe as we deal with the surge in cases, Jenkins said in her message to parents. Due to actions taken by the state last fall, schools and school districts cannot require students to wear masks, however we are strongly encouraging it. Please continue to practice pandemic precautions as we work together to keep our children and staff safe. Jenkins also said that children who stay home because of worries about the virus will be given excused absences as long as they keep up with their assignments, though she added the district is not encouraging parents to keep their children out of class. All adults on OCPS campuses, and in district vehicles, whether employees, visitors or vendors must wear face masks through the end of January, the superintendents message said. Some other Florida school districts, including Broward and Miami-Dades, are also mandating face masks on their campuses because of the recent surge in cases. lpostal@orlandosentinel.com (Natural News) The Bank of Mexico plans to establish its own digital currency in circulation by 2024 to adopt the latest payments technology and incite financial formation in an economy that relies mostly on cash transactions. Mexicos central bank under the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tweeted on Dec. 30 that it is important to use these new technologies and latest-generation payments infrastructure as valuable options to advance financial inclusion in the country. In a recent report, the Bank of Mexico said that it is examining the development of a digital currency in various phases. It will employ as a foundation for the platform the present electronic payments system to broaden payment options under a rapid, safe and efficient plan. Central bank advisors have been in discussions with financial institutions about the application and the foundation needed to start a digital currency that could be employed for basic transactions, a person aware with the Bank of Mexicos plans said. A vast number of transactions are done with cash given the wide informal economy, which in 2020 made up almost 22 percent of Mexicos gross domestic product. Mexicos central bank, which is known for its traditional monetary policies, has advised against the risks of privately issued cryptocurrency assets like bitcoin due to its volatility in value and limited acceptance. Bank officials, however, have been receptive to central-bank digital currencies as a way to advance financial inclusion. Bank of Mexico Gov. Alejandro Diaz de Leon said at an International Monetary Fund (IMF) event last July that central banks need to move fast to create new forms of money and fully operable digital currencies amidst the increasing use of crypto assets and the risks they bring. Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego said last June that he was making his Banco Azteca the first bank in Mexico to accept bitcoin. The Bank of Mexico, the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit and banking and securities regulators said in response that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are not legal tender in Mexico and that financial institutions are not approved to offer operations with such assets. (Related: Chinas Central Bank bans all cryptocurrency transactions.) Although they can be exchanged, they do not fulfill the function of money, as their acceptance as a form of payment is limited and they arent a good reserve or value reference, the group said in a statement. Unlike bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currencies are a virtual or electronic form of fiat currency. The Bahamas began in October 2020 the worlds first central bank digital currency the sand dollar. The Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which is led by former Bank of Mexico Gov. Agustin Carstens, stated in a 2021 survey that 86 percent of central banks are studying the potential of central bank digital currencies, 60 percent were testing related technology and 14 percent were working pilot projects. The BIS said that the objective of the research is to find out whether such currencies protect public trust in money, preserve price stability and establish safe payment systems. Aside from Mexico, the United Kingdom is also considering a new central bank digital currency. The Bank of England (BoE) had previously released a paper on the opportunities, challenges and design of central back digital currencies and the Financial Times has reported the U.K.s plan to have its own central bank digital currency. [The] aim would be to future-proof sterling against cryptocurrencies and improve the payments system, the Financial Times reported. The digital version of sterling, however, will not replace physical cash or existing bank accounts according to the BoE. El Salvador adopts bitcoin as legal tender El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin, leaving behind central banks that are still probing the potential for digital currencies. El Salvador has been an avid supporter of the cryptocurrency, with its president Nayib Bukele saying that its existence spells the downfall of fiat currencies. Bitcoin has been on a roller coaster ride in 2021 and it has reached an all-time high late in the past year. It was helped by the launch of a bitcoin futures exchange traded fund in the capital markets aside from El Salvadors adoption. Whether cryptocurrency replaces fiat currency remains to be seen, but Bukele believes that idea is possible. What has been called by international organizations as The #Bitcoin Experiment, is nothing more than the world watching how mass adoption changes a countrys economy. If its for the good, its game over for FIAT. El Salvador is the spark that ignites the real revolution, Bukele tweeted on Dec. 23, 2021. El Salvador has other projects in mind that are bolstering its move to the crypto space. One is its project to create a bitcoin-funded city, which features the cryptocurrencys ability to push economic growth in El Salvador. Watch the video below to know more about digital currency. This video is from the RealNewsChannel.com on Brighteon.com. Follow BitcoinCollapse.news to know more about cryptocurrency. Sources include: WSJ.com MishTalk.com Nasdaq.com (Natural News) Catch-22 is a term first used to describe someone who requests their own sanity evaluation as sane by default for simply making the request. In other words, you cant be crazy if you choose to be assessed for crazy, or so the crazy ones may think. Most Americans who have been injected with the Fauci gene therapy shots believe they will need them at least twice a year for the rest of their life. They dont think its crazy. They can defend it, by parroting all of the CDC coined phrases that are based on pure fiction. Now, as 2022 begins, most Americans are caught choosing between evil and the lesser of evils, having no clue how to escape, or that they should even try. Theyll continue wearing their masks while declaring themselves fully vaccinated, all while waiting for the next booster jab to maintain that status, which means absolutely nothing in terms of better health outcomes. Instead of a catch-22, theyre all caught in catch-2022. Its truly a boondoggle, that leads into a labyrinth, inside of a maze, thats surrounded by fake news, staged events and fake science. They are part of a global-scale-sized Truman Show, and they are the protagonists living without a clue. The entire pandemic was staged to look much more deadly and drastic than it really is, but nobody who got the clot shots can fathom it Most of the vaccinated world is so brainwashed by Covid propaganda that they still wont remove their own masks. They keep them on inside their cars alone. They wear them at the gym while running on the treadmill. They keep them on in restaurants while they eat, pulling them up and down, up and down, while they chew their food. They are terrified of a flu that causes less deaths than MRSA does in hospitals. You can check the pharma death clock on that one for up-to-date statistics. Most of the vaccinated world takes pharmaceutical medications daily, while watching the very commercials for those meds that explain side effects worse than the condition being treated, but they cant process the information in their brain. They are brainwashed. They believe they can maintain their lives with prescription medications for cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, dementia. They think they can eat anything they want, watch TV news and save themselves by getting the deadly clot shots quarterly. They are caught in a catch-2022, and they do NOT even have a clue whats happening to them. Here are the top 6 catch-2022s for the Covid-Truman Show now airing live on Earth all day, every day, everywhere #1. Covid vaccines CAUSE heart attacks and blood clots instead of preventing viral infection. #2. The Left cried for 4 years that Trump stole the election by colluding with Russia, then the Left colluded with Communist China (and MSM/Social Media/Tech Giants) and stole the 2020 election with fake ballots and satellite-controlled voting machines. #3. CDC and FDA claim ivermectin is dangerous horse medicine when its safe and effective against Covid. #4. Trump claims hes an American hero but pushes deadly clot shots as hard as Fauci. #5. Masks cause bacterial infections of the mouth, throat and lungs that lead to pneumonia, instead of preventing contraction and transmission of Covid-19. #6. Vaccines are supposed to protect a person for years, but they only last a few months, where natural immunity from infection can last a lifetime, but that scientific FACT is covered up by MSM, FDA and CDC. Watch out for myths and misinformation about the Fauci Flu on mass media. Be sure to bookmark Vaccines.news for updates on experimental vaccines and boosters that can cause blood clots, ADE and other horrific side effects. Sources for this article include: Pandemic.news TruthWiki.org NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The OneAmerica insurance company is reporting a major uptick in death claims ever since Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines were introduced under Operation Warp Speed. The Indianapolis-based company, which has been around since 1877, says that the death rate is up 40 percent compared to pre-plandemic levels. And these deaths are occurring in working-age people, just to be clear, between the ages of 18 and 64. We are seeing, right now, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business not just at OneAmerica, confirmed company CEO Scott Davison about this industry-wide trend. The data is consistent across every player in that business. Dr. Robert Malone, M.D., M.S., the inventor of the mRNA (messenger) technology used in Fauci Flu shots, says he was shocked to receive an email about OneAmericas announcement from a stock analyst colleague of his. This headline is a nuclear truth bomb masquerading as an insurance agents dry manila envelope full of actuarial tables, Malone writes, pointing to the headline that stated: Indiana life insurance CEO says deaths are up 40% among people ages 18-64. Big Pharma working with Big Tech to cover up 100,000 excess deaths per MONTH from covid jabs Up until now, Malone has taken a more conservative approach to the plandemic. He knew for a while that the jabs were a bad idea, but he stopped short of calling the whole thing a conspiracy. All of that quickly changed, however, after Malone got banned from Twitter simply for telling the truth. After losing access to his more than 500,000 followers, Malone came to the shocking realization that this is not only a conspiracy but one that involves more than just Big Pharma. Big Tech is also involved, and is working overtime to cover up the fact that nearly 100,000 excess deaths are now occurring per month, thanks to the injections. Be sure to also check out the following Situation Update with Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, who dives deep into the scandal from his own unique perspective: Malone agrees that we need another round of Nuremberg trials Malone describes his journey of being red-pilled as an adventurous one, to say the least. He now understands that there is, in fact, a Great Reset depopulation plan in action, and that the jabs play a big role in this. He also now understands why Reiner Fuellmich is pushing for another convention of nations to try and prosecute those perpetrating this mass genocide against the people of the world. There is simply no denying anymore that all-cause mortality is off the charts. And the only thing that has changed, besides the alleged spread of covid, is mass vaccination with mystery chemicals, one of which (mRNA) Malone himself created. The general consensus seems to be that the cause of this spike remains a mystery. But again, the only thing that has changed is that tens of millions (billions?) of people have had their genes and immune systems tampered with by Big Pharma and the government. After reading the entire announcement from OneAmerica, Malone concluded that, at a minimum, the nation now has both a huge human tragedy and a profound public policy failure on its hands. IF this holds true, then the genetic vaccines so aggressively promoted have failed, and the clear federal campaign to prevent early treatment with lifesaving drugs has contributed to a massive, avoidable loss of life, he adds. The Biden regime also has a whole lot of blood on its hands for mandating these things on workers and others, which represents a serious crime against humanity and a massive loss of life. FURTHERMORE, we have also been living through the most massive, globally coordinated propaganda and censorship campaign in the history of the human race, Malone further writes, pointing to Big Tech platforms like Twitter for their complicity. All major mass media and the social media technology companies have coordinated to stifle and suppress any discussion of the risks of the genetic vaccines AND / OR alternative early treatments. Malone is particularly incensed that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution has been systematically erased by the likes of Twitter (and Facebook / Meta and many others). We are not just talking about running over the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States and grinding it into the mud with an army of artificial intelligence-powered heavy infantry, he says. This article (by OneAmerica) reads like a dry description of an avoidable mass casualty event caused by a mandated experimental medical procedure. One for which all opportunities for the victims to have become self-informed about the potential risks have been methodically erased from both the internet and public awareness by an international corrupt cabal operating under the flag of the Trusted News Initiative. The latest news about Chinese Virus injections can be found at ChemicalViolence.com. Sources for this article include: TheCenterSquare.com RWMaloneMD.substack.com NaturalNews.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) As governments all around the world push a fourth booster shot for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19), scientists like Prof. Ian Jones, a virologist at the University of Reading, are warning that this is a mistake. It turns out that catching the new Omicron (Moronic) variant of the Fauci Flu is better than getting injected, as the strain functions like a natural vaccine. It is reportedly mild enough to not cause too much harm perhaps just a few sniffles while still generating the antibodies needed for lasting immunity. The more injections people receive, the more difficult it will be for them to develop this type of natural immunity if it is even possible at all post-jab. (Related: Is Moronic the solution to the plandemic?) Some experts claim the benefits of extra jabs are minimal because their primary purpose preventing deaths and hospitalizations has barely waned after a year and several Covid variants, effectively meaning boosters are adding to an already high base level immunity, reports indicate about the failure of the vaccines. Stop vaccinating and the plandemic will end According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is rarely known for telling the truth, the Moronic variant now accounts for anywhere from 40 to 70 percent of all new cases of the Fauci Flu. Even though there is no test for Moronic or for any other strain of Chinese Germs, seeing as how SARS-CoV-2 has never actually been isolated in accordance with Kochs postulates the government claims that it is spreading like wildfire. The vast majority of Moronic cases are also occurring in the fully vaccinated, suggesting that unvaccinated people are either already immune or are not rushing out to get tested at the first sign of a runny nose. While the number of daily deaths in the United Kingdom used to be around 2,800 when the Delta variant was said to be the dominant strain, that number has since halved to 1,400 under Moronic. This is further proof that Moronic is really nothing to worry about and really could be the ticket out of this plandemic once and for all. The drop comes after multiple studies showed that Omicron was likely to cause up to 80 per cent fewer hospitalizations than Delta, although scientists have cautioned that more data is needed, and say the sheer number of infections caused by the new variant could ultimately cause an additional spike in serious illness and death, reported the Daily Mail. Even so, Israel and other countries are reportedly pushing a fourth booster shot to help flatten the curve, even as hospitalizations and deaths soar to new heights. As mild as Moronic is turning out to be, Jones says that future variants may be even more mild. This is good news that should (in a just world, anyway) bring an immediate end to the plandemic and all of its restrictions. Dr. Simon Clarke, a microbiologist colleague of Jones, added that he cant see governments pushing out covid injections for that much longer, based on the latest data. Although after two-and-a-half months, immunity starts to wane, that doesnt mean it drops below being extremely effective, Clarke contends about the injections. We can only get that long term data over the long term, theres no crystal ball with this, he added. We just dont know what the optimum strategy is. Other epidemiologists says that trying to continue injecting people every six or even three months is a daunting prospect that is unrealistic and probably highly ineffective anyway. The latest news about the Chinese Virus can be found at Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: DailyMail.co.uk NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) They were never even at risk before their first two injections, but now children aged 12-15 are slated for a third booster shot, thanks to new approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA has decided that kids need to get boosted immediately in order to flatten the curve because there is apparently not enough myocarditis going around these days. Peter Marks, the FDAs vaccines chief, says that parents should not worry about the heart effects of these injections because most inflammation in younger patients is mild. Dr. Robert Malone, M.D., M.S., meanwhile, was recently banned from Twitter for saying the opposite, even though he is the guy who came up with mRNA (messenger RNA) technology in the first place. Marks, a Big Pharma hack, insists that boosting children may help provide better protection against both the delta and omicron variants, especially since the latter is slightly more resistant to the jabs. Israel provided the real-world data that FDA used to authorize boosters for children Not only did the FDA authorize the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 12-15, it also shortened the waiting time between shots. Now, young children can get both injections in as little as five months as opposed to having to wait six months. Children 5-11 who are considered to be immunocompromised will also be allowed to take a third injection along with children 12-15 who are not immunocompromised. This includes children: who have undergone solid organ transplantation, or who have been diagnosed with conditions that are considered to have an equivalent level of immunocompromise, may not respond adequately to the two-dose primary vaccination series. The FDA insists that getting shot again and again with Pfizer syringes is the best way to provide continued protection against COVID and the associated serious consequences that can occur including hospitalization and death. It turns out that Israel essentially made this decision for the FDA. According to reports, real-world data from Israel, including safety data from more than 6,300 individuals 12 through 15 years of age who received a booster dose of the vaccine at least 5 months following completion of the primary two-dose vaccination series is all that was needed for the FDA to green-light the next phase of the plandemic. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its director Rochelle Walensky must also sign off on the FDAs new emergency use authorization (EUA) for children, but this will be no problem at all as this is considered largely a formality. The FDA claims that it also relied on peer-reviewed data from multiple laboratories in addition to Israels recommendation when making its decision. The plan is to get the EUA vax officially recommended on the pediatric schedule, wrote one commenter at Zero Hedge. Once that happens the vaxx can be approved because the pediatric schedule is the key to obtaining legal immunity for the manufacturer. The only FDA approved vaxx (Comirnaty) is not available in U.S. because the lack of legal immunity. Its all about the mystery clot shot for children. Another pointed out the lunacy of Peter Marks calling mild heart inflammation an acceptable risk for children. Im so glad that I dont have kids because my answer would be [go to hell], this same person wrote. Pfizer would like to thank Pfauci for his service. Another wrote that Pfizer has been completely corrupt and evil for decades per witnesses. At this point, this same commenter added in speculation, I have to ask if they are not deeply involved in sex trafficking, too. The latest news about Chinese Virus shots can be found at ChemicalViolence.com. Sources for this article include: ZeroHedge.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) A recent study published in the journal Science suggests that the universe may be two billion years younger than scientists originally thought. An international team of researchers used a concept called gravitational lensing and found that the Hubble constant, the unit of measurement used to describe the expansion of the universe and estimate its age, is much higher than previous calculations. Measuring Hubble constant thru gravitational lensing A higher Hubble constant implies that the universe is younger than initially believed and got to its current size because it is expanding quickly. The currently accepted age of the universe is around 13.7 billion years, which is based on a Hubble constant of 70 kilometers per second per megaparsec (km/s/Mps). However, the expansion rate of the universe is still being debated, with many studies challenging the established estimate with calculations of their own. In 2013, European scientists looked at leftover radiation from the Big Bang and posited that the expansion rate was 67 km/s/Mps. Meanwhile, a 2019 study led by Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University observed Cepheid stars and came up with 74 km/s/Mps. Another group of researchers, whose findings got published in the same year as Riesss study, calculated 73.3 km/s/Mps after examining quasars. The standard way of estimating the Hubble constant is by measuring the movement of stars. However, scientists still have not agreed on the best way to do that. We have large uncertainty for how the stars are moving in the galaxy, said the latest studys lead author Inh Jee of the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Get CLEAN FOOD and help support our mission to keep you informed: The Health Ranger Store lab verifies everything we sell with accredited testing for heavy metals, microbiology and food safety. Certified organic facility, ISO-accredited on-site laboratory, no GMOs or synthetic ingredients. The world's #1 source of lab-verified clean foods and superfoods for nutritional healing. 600+ products available. Explore now. For their study, the researchers used gravitational lensing, a visual effect that occurs when a huge amount of matter, such as a cluster of galaxies, creates a gravitational field that warps and magnifies the light coming from the distant galaxies behind the cluster. They relied on a special type of that effect called time-delay lensing, which occurs when the gravitational lensing is particularly strong, bending the light to the point that it appears as multiple images to Earth-based observers. The light in each image travels a different path and shows up in the lensed images at a different time. The researchers studied two lensing systems and came up with a Hubble Constant of 82.4 km/s/Mps. This puts the age of the universe at around 11.4 billion years. (Related: The universe is expanding too fast, admit baffled astronomers.) However, Jee said that they only used two gravitational lenses as these were all that were available. The margin of error may be big enough that its possible the universe could be older than calculated. Astronomer Avi Loeb of Harvard University, who wasnt part of the study, also said that the large margin of error undermines the teams analysis. It is difficult to be certain of your conclusions if you use a ruler that you dont fully understand, said Loeb. He added, however, that gravitational lensing is an interesting and unique way to calculate the universes expansion rate. Applications of gravitational lensing Gravitational lensing boosts the capabilities of observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope, which otherwise would not be able to see far-flung objects in the cosmos. But besides estimating the age of the universe, it can also be used to measure the amount of dark matter, a mysterious, invisible substance that cant be directly studied. Dark matter contributes a huge amount to a galaxys total mass. So by studying how a galaxy bends light from background stars, scientists can infer the distribution of the dark matter in that galaxy. Studying dark matter, in turn, can provide insights into how the universe evolved. Learn more about the origin of the universe at Cosmic.news. Sources include: WFXL.com HubbleSite.org PhysicsToday.scitation.org Academic.OUP.com SymmetryMagazine.org (Natural News) Citing a lack of workers (due to the mandates), New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced that MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) employees will no longer be required to get vaccinated for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19). New York Citys subway system is already running thin from the last batch of workers who up and left following Hochuls earlier announcement that all state employees must take the jabs or else be fired. Mass walk-offs caused Hochul to later backtrack her position. Since trying to force MTA workers to get injected only threatens to further erode the reliability and functionality of the citys subway system, buses and other transportation means, Hochul says that employees can continue to work with just their natural immunity. Our concern, as you mention shortages of crews, is the individuals who will not want to participate in a mandatory vaccination program will be individuals who would exacerbate that problem, Hochul said in a statement. We do not want to make it impossible for the New York City workforce to have the proper transportation channels theyre accustomed to. Hochul went on to explain that she does not want to take the blame for creating a dynamic where there are no trains picking people up for their jobs in the morning or getting healthcare workers to their jobs in hospitals. So thats the calibration I keep referring to and were going to stay with the plan for now, she further added. Hochul is just another empty suit (dress?) Back in the fall right after she was installed to replace Andrew Cuomo, Hochul fired all unvaccinated health care workers in New York and replaced them with National Guard troops. Since that time, Hochul has been on a crusade to get needles into every remaining arm in New York, using force if necessary except now she sees that she will commit political suicide if she follows through with forcing the injections on MTA workers. New York Citys trains and subways are already having to run on a reduced schedule through at least the end of the year due to staffing shortages caused by Hochuls mandate. This Monday through Thursday, trains will run less frequently than usual. Like everyone in New York, weve been affected by the COVID surge, the MTA tweeted. Were taking proactive steps to provide the best, most consistent service we can. That means you may wait a little longer for your train. Hilariously, Hochul tried to argue that her decision to backtrack was not because of mass worker walk-offs but rather because most of the agency is already vaccinated and the nature of their jobs include limited face-to-face interaction with the public. We have 80 percent of MTA workers already vaccinated, Hochul howled. MTA workers the people who drive the buses are isolated, if you operate a train, youre isolated, even a toll collector is isolated. We did this calculation on examining how much exposure there would be to the public and were satisfied with our decision. Likely story, Hochul. Everybody knows that you jumped the shark and are now trying to pretend as though you conducted independent research and determined that the injections are somehow still necessary for everybody else except the MTA. The courts, the cops, the businesses, the schools, trucking, the stock market, the media, the elections everything, corrupted to the core, wrote one commenter at Natural News about the current state of the country as a whole, not just New York. As for New York specifically, this same commenter wrote that it is a ruthless, barbaric, greedy state fill with Fed fraud, stock and bond fraud, and is also the epicenter of the 9/11 false flag attack. New York is a cesspool of corruption of the worst kind. The latest news about the collapse of society due to Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine mandates can be found at ChemicalViolence.com. Sources for this article include: SiLive.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The masters of science at the NIH, CDC and the FDA have made it their priority to snuff out any cheap, effective solutions for combating viral infections. These agencies have suppressed known treatments, nutraceuticals and anti-viral extracts, to make way for historic investments in new vaccine technologies and other profiteering scams generated by Big Pharma. The latest profiteering scam is Merck and Pfizers anti-covid pills. Mercks new treatment plan (Molnupiravir) costs $700 for ten pills! The study that guarantees its effectiveness is not very promising at all and still rendered hospitalizations and deaths in the treatment arm of the study. Pfizers new DNA polymerase inhibitor (Paxlovid) is a part of an experimental two-drug protocol that uses properties ripped off from ivermectin. Ivermectin, of course, is a cheap, effective medicine modeled from a specific species of bacteria. Ivermectin has been used safely for decades, but was repeatedly censored, smeared and lied about during the covid-19 scandal, even though Africa, among other places, has used it with great efficacy to combat respiratory infections for decades. Merck joins the racketeering corruption, with new profiteering scams of their own Pfizers new Paxlovid can only be prescribed as a two-drug protocol and requires a companion prescription for an HIV-drug named ritonavir. This protocol remains an investigational drug not fully approved by the FDA. The drug is under the FDAs emergency use authorization and is therefore experimental. Pfizer has nothing to worry about because they cannot be held liable if the drugs harm people, just like with their mRNA vaccine experiment. Mercks up-and-coming profiteering scam is a blockbuster drug that goes by the name molnupiravir. This oral drug functions as a nucleoside agonist. It delivers N-hydroxycytidine into the cell, which is then converted to NHC triphosphate. This NHC triphosphate is incorporated into viral RNA by viral RNA polymerase and subsequently misdirects the viral polymerase to incorporate either guanosine or adenosine, disrupting viral replication. Because this drug can cause unknown risks to mammalian cells, the treatment is limited to ten pills over the course of five days. The treatment will cost a whopping $700. In comparison, a course of ivermectin costs only $20. Vitamin D, zinc and vitamin C are even less expensive than that, and provide exactly what the body needs to overcome just about any respiratory infection associated with covid-19. In the molnupiravir study, 68 of 699 in the placebo group were hospitalized or died after the twenty-nine-day observation period. A slightly smaller number of people who took molnupiravir (48 of 709) were hospitalized or died after the twenty-nine-day observation period. The study did not mention what kind of medical care the two groups received. Had the placebo group received an actual anti-viral treatment, would most of these people have recovered? Comparing an experimental drug to substandard medical care and withheld treatments is not the proper way to study the drugs efficacy or approve it for millions of Americans. (Natural News) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST A 24-year-old Congolese missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka Mormon Church and LDS Church, is dead, becoming at least the 11th Mormon missionary to die suddenly and/or unexpectedly in 2021. (Article republished from TheCOVIDBlog.com) Elder Tshiama Anaclet Tshiama was originally from Luputa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its unclear how long hes been a member of the LDS Church. But Mr. Tshiama was doing missionary work in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire in 2021, according to a press release by the church. Note that Mormon missionaries are not paid, per se. They volunteer and, according to Mormon missionaries on Quora, might receive $400-$500 per month from the church, depending on mission location. A travel companion found Mr. Tshiama dead on December 19. He reportedly died in his sleep. The LDS Church said theres no definitive answer as to how the young man died. But preliminary reports suggest it is the result of an undiagnosed medical condition, the press release states. We emailed the LDS Church for more information, but have not heard back from them as of publishing. Mormon leaders mandate injections for foreign missionaries Russell M. Nelson is the 17th president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He assumed that position on Sunday, January 14, 2018. Nelson is also a long-time doctor, surgeon and medical researcher. He has thus been beholden to big pharma since receiving his medical degree from the University of Utah in 1947. Dr. Nelson and seven other senior LDS Church leaders did the vaccine on camera thing on January 19. The LDS Church released a statement that day for church members and missionaries: As appropriate opportunities become available, the Church urges its members, employees and missionaries to be good global citizens and help quell the pandemic by safeguarding themselves and others through immunization. Individuals are responsible to make their own decisions about vaccination. An April 30 press release used stronger language and essentially mandated the injections for all Mormon missionaries. Young missionaries in the United States who will travel to a mission outside their home country on or after August 1, 2021, should be vaccinated before traveling. Senior missionaries may travel to their assigned mission, where visa and travel conditions permit, after they have been vaccinated. Missionaries who choose not to receive the required immunizations, which will now include the COVID-19 vaccination, will be assigned to a mission in their home country in accordance with long-standing existing Church policies. Mr. Tshiama was from the Congo and doing his missionary work in the Ivory Coast. Thus he was fully vaccinated in accordance with church policy. An August 12, 2021 press release reinforced the previous two declarations, adding that the mRNA and viral vector DNA injections are safe and effective. LDS leadership also urged all church members to wear masks. Though letters from clergy are not required for religious exemptions from the injections, Mormon leaders said they do not support such exemptions. Some LDS churches experienced vast increases in both vaccination and mask-wearing rates after the August statement. Brigitte Madrian, dean of the Brigham Young University (BYU) business school, told the Salt Lake Tribune that Dr. Nelson is both a world-renowned physician and a prophet. She urged students at the Mormon flagship university to follow the prophet. Follow the profit we did We decided to heed the advice of Ms. Madrian, except we followed a different prophet. The Mormon Church was always very secretive about its finances. But that all changed in 2019 due to whistleblowers. A website called Mormonleaks first started publishing data on the inner working of the LDS Church in 2018. It found that the church is connected to at least 13 investment firms and hedge funds worth over $32 billion. David Nielsen is a former Mormon. The Minnesota man, along with his brother Lars Nielsen, dug into the churchs finances further and published the findings in the form of a complaint to the Internal Revenue Service in November 2019. The 74-page IRS complaint exposes the legal racket of non-profit churches as a whole and how the LDS Church enriches a few top leaders via investing/gambling member tithes. Ensign Peak Advisors (EPA) was incorporated in 1997 as a section 509(a)3 supporting organization for the LDS Church. That status allows EPA to circumvent financial disclosure rules. EPA pays little to no federal or otherwise taxes because of said status. Mr. Nielsen, who deserves a lot of credit for his impressive work exposing the church for what it is, summed up the EPA/LDS relationship in one sentence. The Mormon Church could tell every member in the world to stop tithing and it could continue funding every program in full [and still make a profit], he said, paraphrased. All Mormons are required to give 10% of their income to the LDS Church. Mr. Nielsen made a seven-minute video summing up the IRS complaint. Mormonleaks pressured Ensign Peak Advisors to file disclosures for its Q4 2019 Wall Street holdings. You can see the entire disclosure document here. But the most important part of it relates to big pharma. The LDS Church, via EDS, owned $646 million in Johnson & Johnson stocks in Q4 2019, its fifth-largest investment in any one individual company. Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, aka the Fauci fact-checkers, are of course the top four companies the LDS Church is invested in. Facebook, Merck and the Walt Disney Company (ABC, ESPN, etc.) are also in the top 15. The LDS Church owns $81 million in Pfizer stock. Several Mormon missionary deaths in 2021 Of course vaccines are the leading cause of coincidences. But unless its normal for 11 Mormon missionaries to die in a 12-month span, then theres been more coincidences in LDS land than ever before in 2021. One of the deaths happened in Nigeria on January 1, 2021 and was thus not likely caused by the lethal injections. Five of said deaths, all under age 20, were from car crashes in the United States. A 21-year-old Mormon missionary in El Salvador died from drowning on March 5, 2021. Make what you will of all the foregoing. But at least four of these deaths, including Mr. Tshiama, fall right in line with what weve been covering for a year now. Mr. Saintlouis Pointdujours Dortilus was a 24-year-old Haitian Mormon missionary. He died of sudden health issues in Port-au-Prince on January 26, 2021. Philippines Mormon missionary Giovanni Pelin Pangan died unexpectedly of a heart attack on March 9, 2021. He was just 48 years old. Argentinian Mormon missionary Jose Maria Batalla was serving in Bolivia when he died of cardiac arrest on July 13, 2021 in a Fort Lauderdale, Florida hospital. He was 60 years old. The Mormon Church blamed COVID-19 for his death. Divest of organized religion Note for non-Americans and those not in the know Utah is home to 2.1 million Mormons. The next closest state is California, with about 757,000. There are about 17 million Mormons worldwide. This blogger doesnt pretend to be an expert in Latter Day Saints ideology. But a one-year stay in Cedar City, Utah in the mid-late 1990s was like an immersion program into Mormon life and culture. There are sweet, nice people in Cedar City. But at least back then, it was readily apparent that the lifestyle was very strict. Young people rebelled a lot, kind of like Amish kids sneaking away from their homes and participating in forbidden activities. Mr. Tshiama and at least seven of the other Mormon missionaries who died in 2021 would likely be alive today if CEO Russell M. Nelson didnt force them into injections. So-called church leaders are just as dangerous today as mainstream doctors and hospitals. Churches enjoy tax benefits from a U.S. federal government that actively coerces and forces experimental mRNA and viral vector DNA injections. Again, have your personal relationship with God. U.S. churches are now vaccine clinics and advertising agencies for Pfizer, Moderna, et al. Stop tithing to big pharma churches and give directly to people in need. That is what Jesus Christ would want. Stay vigilant and protect your friends and loved ones. Read more at: TheCOVIDBlog.com Orange County Public Schools reported a record number of students with COVID-19 Tuesday as classes resumed after winter break amid a surge of virus cases fueled by the new omicron variant. The regions largest school district logged 866 student COVID-19 cases on Monday, far surpassing the 491 reported Sept. 7, though Mondays tally was a catch-up figure of all cases reported during the two-week school holiday. Advertisement The Osceola County school district the only local district to start classes Monday immediately saw fallout from the spike in cases as both student and teacher absences were far higher than normal. About 23% of Osceolas students, or more than 12,600 youngsters, were absent Monday, more than double a normal winter day, said Dana Schafer, the districts spokesperson, in an email. The district had 314 teachers absent, compared to 180 at the same time last year, she added. Advertisement Across Central Florida, school administrators urged students and staff to stay home if they felt sick, and OCPS on Monday mandated face masks for school employees and other adults on campus. The district strongly encouraged students to wear them but stopped short of mandating them as a new state law bars school districts from requiring that children wear face masks at school, part of Gov. Ron DeSantis ongoing battle with school districts over COVID-19 safety protocols. Students arrive at Maitland Middle School on the first day of classes after the winter break, Tuesday, January 4, 2022. Orange County Public Schools announced Monday it is reinstating its mask mandate for all employees, visitors and vendors to Orange County's 200+ campuses. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP) (Joe Burbank/AP) The Orange school district enforced a 60-day student mask mandate early in the school year facing state penalties as a result but dropped the requirement at the end of October when coronavirus cases dropped significantly. The Florida Legislature adopted the new law in November. No other district besides Orange mandated masks for adults this week, though some in South Florida have taken similar steps. OCPS plans to keep its adult mask mandate in place through January. Seminole County Public Schools, which resumes classes Wednesday, encouraged mask-wearing by students and staff in a message sent to employees and parents Monday. SCPS is continuing to follow Florida law relating to parent choice regarding student use of face coverings. For at least the month of January, we are encouraging parents to consider having their students wear a mask while indoors. In addition, we are encouraging staff, vendors, and visitors to do the same, said the message from Superintendent Serita Beamon. Schools reopen for classes this week as Florida reported a record 51,873 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday and positivity rates climbed rapidly with Orange Countys rate at 35%, Osceolas at 34%, Seminoles at 33% and Lakes at 26%. The virus is considered under control when the COVID-19 test positivity rate is under 5%, health experts say. The 866 positive cases OCPS reported Monday on its COVID-19 dashboard showed clusters of cases across the county, from 77 at Lake Nona High School in south Orange to 48 at Timber Creek High School in east Orange to 33 at Boone High School near downtown Orlando. Orange Superintendent Barbara Jenkins said in a message to parents Monday that children who stay home because of worries about the virus will be given excused absences as long as they keep up with their assignments, though she added the district is not encouraging parents to keep their children out of class. Advertisement Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. > The Osceola school district said it did not track COVID-19 cases during the school break and would not have new case numbers until next week. The Lake County school district, where students also returned to classes Tuesday, reported 24 students were positive so far this week as were 67 employees. The district recorded few positive cases during the winter break but with schools closed most cases likely were not recorded, said Sherri Owens, the districts spokesperson, in an email. Because of concerns about the omicron variant, Lake County Schools also urged anyone feeling ill to stay home and distributed rapid COVID-19 test kits to schools. The Seminole school district Monday held distribution events for at-home COVID test kits for any employees who wanted them and also increased by $30 a day the pay for substitute teachers, anticipating a need for more of them as COVID keeps some teachers out of class, said Michael Lawrence, the districts spokesperson, in an email. Schools across the region and the state already were grappling with teacher vacancies and a shortage of substitutes. Seminoles COVID-19 dashboard is not yet updated, with the last cases reported in mid-December before the holiday break. Advertisement lpostal@orlandosentinel.com (Natural News) To help flatten the curve, New Zealands Ministry of Health has decided to allow doctors to murder all Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) patients deemed unlikely to survive. A new euthanasia law expands the criteria for receiving a lethal injection to those who test positive for the Fauci Flu with a fraudulent PCR test. Reports indicate that people who are suffering unbearably from the consequences of covid are also now eligible for a lethal injection. When asked for clarity about the new law, which came into effect last month, the New Zealand government stated that in some circumstances, a person with Covid-19 may be eligible for assisted dying. This admission was made after Henoch Kloosterboer, editor of the anti-euthanasia The Defender website, made a request under the Official Information Act, which is New Zealands version of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). It appears as though New Zealands euthanasia law, which was passed at the very same time that a cannabis legalization measure was defeated, was written intentionally vaguely with many loopholes so as to leave the door wide open for abuse, according to Kloosterboer especially if New Zealands health service claims that it is becoming overwhelmed with another covid surge. It would not be hard to envisage a situation in which a speedy and sizeable rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations could result in pressure to utilize euthanasia and assisted suicide as tools to resolve such a serious crisis, Kloosterboer is quoted as saying. The new euthanasia law, he further added, has now made the Covid-19 pandemic potentially even more dangerous for the people of New Zealand. New Zealands euthanasia law is the worlds most extreme (but dont you DARE touch cannabis) The 2019 End of Life Choice Act, as it is called, is widely considered to be one of the most extreme in the world. Its so-called safeguards are so flimsy that almost any circumstance or excuse could easily circumvent its restrictions. Meanwhile, New Zealanders who wish to smoke a little cannabis to calm their nerves, pain and the insanity of the day which would likely lead many of them to no longer desire suicide at all can still be prosecuted with prejudice, thanks to the governments simultaneous rejection of legalization. The new euthanasia law guarantees the right of all New Zealanders to access a doctor who will kill them within a period as short as four days from receiving a request. Anyone who is considered to be terminally ill within six months, in an advanced state of irreversible physical decline, or who is suffering unbearably (again, cannabis can help with this), is now eligible for assisted suicide. Even worse is the fact that New Zealand doctors are almost incentivized to kill their patients thanks to a provision that allows them to receive $1,000 from the government for every death they perform. One silver lining in all this is that only 96 of the countrys 16,000 physicians have thus far agreed to participate in the program. And all but one of the nations 32 hospices have said that they will not permit euthanasia, period. The one exception Totara Hospice in South Auckland has agreed to allocate space on its premises for the practice while its staff will conscientiously object to any participation, the Catholic Herald (U.K.) reports. As an example of how New Zealands euthanasia law might be applied, consider the fact that in Canada, where similar provisions exist, a 90-year-old woman recently opted to die by assisted suicide rather than endure yet another Chinese Virus lockdown. She was not even sick, just to be clear, but chose to die rather than remain forcibly isolated from her friends and family. The latest news about the plandemic depopulation plan can be found at Genocide.news. Sources for this article include: CatholicHerald.co.uk NaturalNews.com APNews.com (Natural News) White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci recently admitted that the omicron variant of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is less severe than previous strains, even as several Democrat-run areas reimplemented mask mandates and introduced coercive vaccination requirements. All indications point to a lesser severity of omicron versus delta, said Fauci, also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). With omicron, if you have a larger number of infections and as the data that I presented here indicate that there is it looks like [theres] a significant lessening of severity compared to others. He conceded that people will ultimately have to live with something that will not be eradicated nor eliminated completely. It will be much more relevant as to what the level of seriousness of impact is, as opposed to infection, which might turn out to be milder. However, many blue-led states across the country still reimplemented strict COVID measures and introduced coercive vaccination requirements, including vaccine passport requirements in New York City and continued mask mandates on planes. Fauci noted that while the data is encouraging, research is still in its preliminary stage. He said that people should not become complacent as the extremely high volume of cases could still overwhelm healthcare systems even if the new variant causes fewer hospitalizations. His comments came as COVID cases hit record highs in many nations, including the United States. Hospitalizations have also been rising, but not with the same speed as the rise in number of new cases. Fauci said the pattern and disparity between cases and hospitalizations suggest that there will be a lower hospitalization-to-case ratio with omicron. (Related: Omicron could actually be the SOLUTION to the entire covid plandemic.) Fauci continues to spread fear as government promotes booster and COVID vaccines for children While there is no final determination yet about the omicrons severity in children, Fauci expects more hospitalizations from the younger age group simply because more people will get infected with the new variant. The NIAID director didnt waste the chance to promote the vaccine. The risk of severe disease from any circulating variant, including omicron, is much higher for the unvaccinated. And so, adults and children who are eligible [should] get vaccinated, and vaccinated people [should] get boosted when eligible, he said. The omicron shows a degree of immune evasion from antibodies, including those induced by the vaccines, but Fauci claimed that booster shots could bring back up a certain degree of protection. So boosters are critical in getting our approach to omicron to be optimal, Fauci said. He also highlighted data from South Africa, the U.K. and the U.S., all of which suggested there is a lower risk of hospitalization or death from omicron compared to previous waves of the virus. A separate study also showed the risk of hospital admission for omicron infection at about 40 percent compared to the risk posed by delta, while another study indicated that omicron has an overall significant reduction in the risk of hospitalization. In the U.K., new daily case reports exceeded 100,000 earlier in December. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the government is watching data but would not call for stricter measures until after the holidays at the earliest. Watch the video below to learn more about the spread of omicron variant. This video is from the Tammy Cuthbert Garcia channel on Brighteon.com. Get more news and updates about the spread of the omicron variant at Pandemic.news. Sources include: Breitbart.com CNBC.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) The antiviral oral drug, paxlovid, that was developed by Pfizer to treat the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) can cause severe or life-threatening effects when used with common medications. The pill is also not recommended for people with severe kidney or liver disease. On Dec. 22, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization for paxlovid. The drug supposedly prevents COVID patients with initial symptoms from becoming too ill and getting hospitalized. But the agency is now admitting that the drug can be fatal when used with common medications like statins, blood thinners and some antidepressants. Pavloxid is recommended for patients 12 years old and above with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19. Patrizia Cavazzoni, FDAs director for Drug Evaluation and Research, said that the granting of EUA to paxlovid will provide a new tool to fight the virus as new variants emerge. Paxlovid promises to make antiviral treatment more accessible to patients who are at risk for progression to severe COVID 19, Cavazzoni said. The Biden administration in November had already purchased some 10 million courses of paxlovid. It inked an agreement with Pfizer amounting to $5 billion. The paxlovid cocktail is made up of two tablets of the antiviral nirmatrelvir and one tablet of ritonavir. Ritonavir suppresses a key liver enzyme called CYP3A, which metabolizes many medications, including nirmatrelvir. But when the paxlovid treatment is paired with other medications that are also metabolized by the CYP3A enzyme, the ritonavir component may boost the co-administered drugs to toxic levels. Pfizer announced in December that the pill can reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent when taken by those with COVID-19 symptoms. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Dec. 8 told CNBC that shipments of the pill have already arrived in the United States. Paxlovid is said to be effective when taken by a suspected COVID-19 positive within three days. Data also suggests that it will be effective in combatting the omicron variant. But doctors and researchers agree that the pill will not stop the transmission of the COVID virus. (Related: Pfizer, Merck launch trials for new oral COVID-19 drugs youll have to take ALONGSIDE vaccines.) Some doctors also expressed concerns that the availability of the oral drug will lead people away from vaccination. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), millions of Americans remain unvaccinated. UK approves use of second oral COVID-19 pill Meanwhile, the U.K.s drug regulator also approved the use of paxlovid. According to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), paxlovid can be given to to people aged 18 and older with mild to moderate symptoms and who are at risk of developing severe disease. For those who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, this treatment could be life-saving, said June Raine, chief executive of the MHRA. The omicron coronavirus variant rapidly spreading across the U.K. has squeezed the availability of effective treatment options. The variant has mutations that can dodge the protective effects of Roche/Regenerons monoclonal antibody ronapreve, which has been used for some time in the country. Paxlovid is the second oral antiviral to be conditionally approved for use in the United Kingdom. MSD/Ridgebacks molnupiravir was also authorized on November 4, 2021. Both are used to treat people at home and both medicines must be given within five days of symptoms. Watch the video below to learn more about the side effects of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine. (Natural News) A video that has gone viral (watch below) shows that Modernas Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine comes with a blank package insert. ?? watch till the end Apologies for the overlap. pic.twitter.com/eCf1ni9wtb Doc Huckleberry (@DocHuckleberry5) December 24, 2021 A pharmacist at a CVS pharmacy is seen handing a customer the vaccine insert sheet, which he initially claims contains complete testing and safety data. Upon inspection, though, it is revealed that the paperwork is as white as snow with no words on it. At first, the pharmacist notices the blank outside pages and proceeds to explain to the customer that the writing is on the inside. As he unfolds it for her, however, the pharmacist finds nothing but a huge sheet of blank paper. Embarrassed by being wrong, the pharmacist then leaps towards a computer to try to look up the information online but by this point it is already too late. After being confronted by the customer about the lack of informed consent, the pharmacist then realizes that hes been lying to customers all this time, and proceeds to actually own up to the fraud. So, if we dont know what were injecting into ourselves, I dont understand how thats informed consent, the customer points out. Youre exactly right and you are correct, the pharmacist then responds. I should not be giving these vaccines at all. Why are you giving them? the customer then responds back. Because I am because I am told to and thats how because I am told to and I am told , the pharmacist bumbles in response. And everything I have shown including the patients that I have given it to, it is safe. At the conclusion of the footage, the pharmacist is seen apologizing to the customer, admitting that he has no scientific studies upon which to base his safe and effective claim about the injections. He then proceeds to state that he feels totally inadequate as a pharmacist because of the discovery. J&J vaccine package insert also blank It turns out that many vaccine package inserts are published after the drugs have already been approved by the federal government. In the case of Chinese Flu shots, there is apparently no data at all being published alongside their distribution, leaving recipients with no informed consent. Back in May, as you may recall, another video went viral showing that the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) injection for the Fauci Flu likewise comes with a blank package insert. That video is available for viewing at Infowars. Clearly, vaccine manufacturers are unconcerned with giving safety and efficacy data, or ingredients information to the public. The question is: why? asks Adan Salazar. Numerous Infowars commenters chimed in about how ridiculous it is that people everywhere are willingly getting injected with mystery chemicals just because the government or their employers (or their city or state governments) are telling them they must in order to continue living. Yes, dont inject unknown substances, or known dangerous substances, into your body, one of them wrote. You HAVE to take the JAB to know whats in it: I think thats what Nancy Pelosi said, or was that about a bill that went through Washington? joked another. Nancy wants me to take the JAB. Charles wants me to take the JAB. Obama wants me to take the JAB. Clinton wants me to take the JAB. Bush wants me to take the JAB. Are you kidding me? Cognitive dissonance strikes when he realizes he doesnt know after parroting the mainstream medias (CIA) talking points about the safe & effective yet dangerous mRNA vaccines, wrote yet another about the pharmacists reaction to the discovery. More related news coverage about Fauci Flu shots can be found at ChemicalViolence.com. Sources for this article include: Infowars.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) NASHVILLE Mr. Shawn Kuhn was a 21-year-old college student we wrote about a couple months ago. He received his second Pfizer mRNA injection sometime in May 2021. Mr. Kuhn was hospitalized with a condition mainstream media called COVID-19 pneumonia by late August. He was in-and-out of Georgia hospitals for the next six weeks before being intubated in an intensive care unit. He died on October 11. (Article republished from TheCOVIDBlog.com) Mainstream media headlines read, Vaccinated student died of COVID-19. The University of Georgia student newspaper headline read, UGA student dies of COVID-19 complications. At the time, breakthrough COVID-19 case was the mainstream media propaganda term most often used for these types of deaths. That term is apparently obsolete now. The COVID pneumonia thing is out of the same playbook they used to create so-called Omicron. Mainstream media are now relying solely on what Belgian professor of clinical psychology, Dr. Mattias Desmet, calls mass formation psychosis among the global populace. Mainstream media and government can literally get away with any and all COVID-19 propaganda in 2022 no matter how ridiculous and contrary to reality it may be. Death of Dr. Dimitri Ndina ABC-affiliate WKRN in Nashville published a story on Thursday entitled, COVID-19 takes life of longtime Nashville doctor, family says. Dr. Dimitri Ndina was a pharmacist at Tennessee Oncology. He received his first dose of Pfizer mRNA sometime in the first week of December, his 19-year-old daughter, Alexa Ndina, told WKRN. Dr. Ndina, 57, fell extremely ill a few days after the shot. He was admitted to Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown on December 7. Alexis told WKRN reporter Allie Lynch that her father started to clot in his lower regionfrom his legs and started to work up. She almost verbatim described a thromboembolism, a common adverse/deadly reaction from the mRNA injections. But reporter Lynch failed to follow-up on this information and allowed the fallacious death by COVID-19 narrative to continue unabated. Alexis is unwilling or psychologically incapable of connecting the very obvious dots between the Pfizer injection and her fathers death. Dr. Ndina spent the last two weeks of his life in a hospital before passing away on December 20, less than three weeks after the Pfizer injection. Granted everyone grieves differently. But the video version of the story shows an eerily jovial (and masked) Alexis as she describes the death of her father. Alexis final message about her father is perhaps the most obtuse, tone deaf statement weve ever written on this blog. To continue his legacy I want everyone to stay proactive in being healthy because thats what he would have wanted. There is a GoFundMe page collecting funds for the Ndina family. However we wont be linking it here. Dr. Ndina is also survived by his wife and one other adult child. Mass formation psychosis Warning the following is not a joke. Israel diagnosed its first case of flurona. Zionist media described it as a simultaneous coronavirus and influenza virus infection. Coincidentally or otherwise, Maryland-based Novovax began testing its flurona vaccine this past September. In other words, big pharma creates the drugs, mainstream media create the narrative, and the sheep obsequiously graze in the matrix. Ever since the so-called pandemic commenced, this blogger has been trying to figure out how and why the masses are so inert, so acquiescent when the facts and truth are right in front of them. A Twitter user named Rickard emailed us several videos of the aforementioned Dr. Mattias Desmet. The term mass formation psychosis is trending on Twitter in the United States as this article is being written. Thats because Dr. Robert Malone, one of the pioneers in mRNA technology, spoke about it on a recent Joe Rogan podcast. He was speaking about the work of Ghent Universitys Dr. Desmet. You need the mass media to create a mass phenomenon at that scale, Dr. Desmet said in reference to Nazi Germany and the former Soviet Union. The following is an excellent conversation between attorney Reiner Fuellmich, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg and Dr. Desmet, breaking down how seemingly intelligent people are falling for all this COVID/vaccine propaganda. As Dr. Desmet said, facts no longer matter to the masses. Mainstream media said unequivocally that Dr. Ndina got sick days after the Pfizer injection and died two weeks later. Yet said media still pushed the he died from COVID narrative and the masses ate it up. Thats what were dealing with. Dr. Ndinas own family is allowing him to die in vain, and hoping to score big on GoFundMe. But as a journalist, this blogger blames WKRN reporter Allie Lynch for her spineless, Pfizer-sponsored reporting of this particular incident. As we enter 2022, its now a waste of time and energy trying to communicate with vaxx zealots. They are far too indoctrinated, beyond reasoning. Its every man, every woman, every family for themselves. Stay vigilant and protect your friends and loved ones. Read more at: TheCOVIDBlog.com (Natural News) A pair of billionaires who have God complexes have teamed up to form an organization they claim fights disinformation but instead is used to discredit real sources of news exposing globalist corruption. George Soros and LinkedIn venture capitalist founder Reid Hoffman launched Good Information Inc. in late October to funnel money to mainstream media fake news factories like the ones that lied continuously about President Donald Trump as astroturf centers pushing false information or refuting truth reported by independent competitors. The Gray Zone noted at the time: On its website, Good Information describes itself as a civic incubator aimed at fostering and financially backing projects that counter disinformation where it spreads by increasing the flow of good information online. But more than merely providing an alternative to bad information through their own reporting, the company suggests that censorship is also on the menu We believe there is an urgent need for regulation of social media platforms, the organizations website states. And just what is good and bad information? Obviously, it is whatever that organization and the media minions it funds say it is. Like, for instance, when, for years, mainstream outlets claimed that Trump was in cahoots with Russian President Vladimir Putin to steal the U.S. election from Hillary Clinton and then manipulate the electorate for Trumps own benefit. That was a lie from the very first report; even the highly partisan Robert Mueller witch hunt found nothing (because there wasnt anything to find). But now, Soros and Hoffman have formalized disinformation under the guise of defending truth. The outlet continues: Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has weaponized his vast wealth in support of US foreign policy for several decades. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and later the unraveling of the socialist bloc in Eastern Europe, The Washington Post celebrated Soros as a member of a new network of overt operators supporting pro-democracy activists and media operations in place of and alongside the CIA. Continuing his anti-communist crusade into the 21st Century, Soros has sponsored color revolutions and information warfare campaigns against designated US enemies from Hong Kong to Syria to Russia. Mostly, this meddling has come in the form of left-wing information operations, meaning, of course, that U.S. foreign policy has long been broadly left-wing. Now, with Good Information Inc., Soros and Hoffman, the latter of whom has also done his fair share of election meddling, are bringing this information warfare operation to the United States, where they will, once again, back the lefts broad objective of ruling in perpetuity. Hoffman was the money man behind Project Birmingham, a covert disinformation operation devised by a tech company called New Knowledge which aimed to depress voter turnout among Republicans during Alabamas 2017 special senate election, The Gray Zones Alexander Rubenstein wrote. The operation created a Facebook page for a previously unknown Republican candidate and promoted him to the media to divide the GOP vote. In that race, it was discovered that Hoffmans cash was used to orchestrate an elaborate false flag operation that planted the idea that the [Roy] Moore campaign was amplified on social media by a Russian botnet. The New York Times performed its role by duly reporting that yes, Hoffman did fund the Facebook campaign, but only as an experiment in the Alabama Senate race. Nothing to see here; just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill, CIA-type information warfare being conducted on home soil. Nothing to see here. Thats not all. Blumenthal and Soros teamed up again to ensure that Joe Biden won the Democratic primary by sacking Independent [Communist] Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Hoffman bankrolled a dark money outfit called Acronym (also funded by Soros) which launched a dysfunctional digital vote counting system, Shadow App, that helped upend Bernie Sanders apparent win in the Iowa Caucus, The Gray Zone reported, noting that then-Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg managed to eke out a win days later, but of course, he was never going to get the nomination, either. Biden the Mindless was pre-ordained. This was done to Sanders during the 2016 campaign in order to hand the nomination to Hillary Clinton, which begs the question: Why does Sanders continue to caucus with a party that abuses him? In any event, Soros and Hoffmans Good Information Inc. is just another info-warfare operation aimed at pushing the lefts globalist agenda, nothing more. Read more stories like this at Disinfo.news. Sources include: TheGrayZone.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) This is a red alert for humanity. We have less time remaining than you might think. Ive done some rough math, and its beyond alarming. It spells the end of human civilization if we dont stop the vaccine holocaust in the next 365 days. As estimates and projections show below, as long as clot shot covid vaccines are being administered around the world, about ten million people each day are being put on an irreversible countdown to vaccine death. For each day that these vaccine shots continue, in other words, roughly ten million people will likely die over the next decade, based on these projections. (See the math below.) This explains why Biden and other world leaders dont care about legal challenges and the rule of law. They know that if they can bully these vaccines into people for just one more year, they will murder over 3.5 billion more human beings from vaccine-induced deaths that kick in over the next decade. Thats why we have less time remaining than you might think. And thats why the vaccine zealots dont care if they get stopped over the next 2-3 years by court challenges. By then its too late for humanity. Even if we stop all covid vaccines right now, were likely to still see between one and two billion deaths over the next decade as vaccine deaths take their toll. (See the numbers below.) Disclaimer: The numbers presented here are estimates and projections based on early data available now. These estimates may substantially improve or worsen as new data become available. These conclusions are subject to change based on new data as it is released for total mortality, cancer deaths and other factors. These conclusion are not peer-reviewed. Comments and suggestions are welcomed. See below for full details. By the way, remember that Reuters fact checkers are all compromised because Reuters is the propaganda arm of Pfizer. They share some of the same board members. The job of Reuters is to pump out Pfizer disinformation and label it facts. These so-called facts are then used to suppress the truth on social media platforms like Facebook. Its all a grand evil conspiracy involving Pfizer, Reuters, Facebook and a true depopulation agenda to mass murder billions of human beings. The mass casualty event has begun As Dr. Robert Malone has recently pointed out, we are living through a mass casualty event that looks a lot like genocide: (emphasis ours) It is starting to look to me like the largest experiment on human beings in recorded history has failed. And, if this rather dry report from a senior Indiana life insurance executive holds true, then Reiner Fuellmichs Crimes against Humanity push for convening new Nuremberg trials starts to look a lot less quixotic and a lot more prophetic. AT WORST, this report implies that the federal workplace vaccine mandates have driven what appear to be a true crime against humanity. Massive loss of life in (presumably) workers that have been forced to accept a toxic vaccine at higher frequency relative to the general population of Indiana. This article reads like a dry description of an avoidable mass casualty event caused by a mandated experimental medical procedure. One for which all opportunities for the victims to have become self-informed about the potential risks have been methodically erased from both the internet and public awareness by an international corrupt cabal operating under the flag of the Trusted News Initiative. George Orwell must be spinning in his grave. Looking at the evidence The VAERS system is currently reporting roughly 21,000 post-vaccine deaths in America. A well-documented URF (Under Reporting Factor) in normal times is around 40. This reveals that at least 840,000 Americans have already died from covid vaccines. Yet we also know from credible sources such as attorney Thomas Renz and the Medicare whistleblower that VAERS data is months behind on data entry. The process of entering records into VAERS is being intentionally slowed to prevent these numbers from rapidly growing. Additionally and critically nurses are being actively ordered by doctors, hospitals and administrators to avoid submitting VAERS reports related to covid vaccines. This is widely documented in articles like this one from CitizensJournal.us: Angela, a nurse for more than 25 years, confirms that in her hospitals emergency room, they say they are seeing more heart problems in young adults, which are never reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) as potential adverse reactions to COVID vaccinations. Another nurse, Jennifer, says ER nurses privately say they are seeing all the clotting, bleeding and things you would expect from the vaccine six months later brain bleeds, heart attacks in younger 50-year-olds. No doctor will admit this is from the vaccine. They wont make the VAERS report. When Daniel asked fellow nurses and practitioners if they report to VAERS, they looked at him like, Whats that? All nurses interviewed say they are seeing ground-glass opacity results in the CT scans of peoples lungs who recently took the experimental vaccines and that this is never reported to VAERS. We also know from anecdotal evidence that a shocking number of US doctors have no idea what VAERS is. They make no reports whatsoever and arent even aware of the existence of this system. This fact, combined with the realization that nurses are being actively ordered to avoid VAERS reporting on covid vaccines, means the URF of 40 is far too low. Given the environment of extreme suppression now leveled against doctors and nurses to try to cover up vaccine injuries, a more legitimate estimate of the URF would be 200. If accurate, this would mean that 21,000 VAERS reports actually translated into 4.2 million US deaths from these vaccines so far. Bookmark that thought as we look at other numbers that paint a truly frightening picture. Vaccines kill people in three phases, taking as long as a decade for all the vaccine-induced cancer deaths to play out Although weve all seen people literally keel over dead from vaccine-induced heart attacks, most people who are on track to die from covid vaccines dont die right away. There are three phases of covid vaccine mortality, described in this chart below: Remember that according to Dr. Ryan Cole, a Mayo Clinic trained, board-certified anatomic pathologist, 62% of patients injected with mRNA vaccines show micro blood clots. Dr. Cole presents this evidence in the following video from the White Coat Summit: Micro blood clotting is an early sign of vascular damage and heart damage. People receiving covid vaccines are often diagnosed with myocarditis, which has a 56% fatality rate over five years. A study published by the American Heart Association then widely censored by Big Tech found that mRNA covid vaccines greatly increased the risk of vascular inflammation and therefore heart attacks and other vascular events. The risk of heart attack alone increased by 127% in a group of 500 patients, according to this one study. As DailyExpose.uk explains: A new study suggests the mRNA injections produced by both Pfizer and Moderna are raising inflammatory blood markers used to estimate the risk of a person suffering a heart attack. Dr Aseem Malhotra, a consultant cardiologist, points out that in the UK there have been 10,000 excess non-Covid deaths many of which were due to heart attack and stroke. A few days after these ominous results came out, a whistleblower and researcher from a different group contacted Dr Aseem Malhotra to say that in imaging studies they have found inflammation in the coronary arteries after vaccination. But they decided not to publish this yet because they are afraid of losing future grant money from the drug industry. The whistleblower was quite upset about this. Dr. Charles Hoffe (Canada) is also reporting substantial increases in blood clotting among mRNA vaccine takers. Via LifeSiteNews: The core problem he has seen are microscopic clots in his patients tiniest capillaries. He said, Blood clots occurring at a capillary level. This has never before been seen. This is not a rare disease. This is an absolutely new phenomenon. Most importantly, he has emphasized these micro-clots are too small to show up on CT scans, MRI, and other conventional tests, such as angiograms, and can only be detected using the D-dimer blood test, a standard test that indicates whether blood clots are being actively formed somewhere within a persons vascular system. Using the latter, he found that 62 percent of his patients injected with an mRNA shot were positive for clotting, not a small fraction that can be easily dismissed. Myocarditis fatalities and inhibition of DNA damage repair Through simple math, if we take 62 percent of covid vaccinated people who show micro blood clots leading to myocarditis and multiply by the known myocarditis 56% fatality rate over five years, this alone would mean that 36% of mRNA vaccine takers will be dead in five years. Granted, this assumes that all the micro blood clot people end up with myocarditis, and that relationship isnt yet satisfactorily documented. So this 36%, based entirely on heart attack deaths, may be too high by itself. Yet this only begins to tell the story of deaths from other causes such as vaccine-induced cancer. Another fact we now know is that once mRNA vaccines start producing spike protein nanoparticles in a persons body, some percentage of those spike proteins enter cell nuclei and achieve about a 90% suppression of the NHEJ mechanism, which is the chromosomal repair mechanism that maintains genetic integrity for the body. See this Nov. 2, 2021 article Vaccine spike protein enters cell nuclei, suppresses DNA repair engine of the human body, will unleash explosion of cancer, immunodeficiency, autoimmune disorders and accelerated aging. That article cites a critical research paper entitled, SARSCoV2 Spike Impairs DNA Damage Repair and Inhibits V(D)J Recombination In Vitro, authored by Hui Jiang and Ya-Fang Mei, at the Department of Molecular Biosciences, The WennerGren Institute, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden, and the Department of Clinical Microbiology, Virology, Umea University, SE-90185 Umea, Sweden, respectively. You can see an archived PDF of this study at: https://www.naturalnews.com/files/viruses-13-02056-v2.pdf In the conclusion of the paper, authors write, We found that the spike protein markedly inhibited both BRCA1 and 53BP1 foci formation (Figure 3DG). Together, these data show that the SARSCoV2 fulllength spike protein inhibits DNA damage repair by hindering DNA repair protein recruitment. The study finds that the suppression of NHEJ activity exhibits a dose-dependent response to the presence of spike protein. This means that spike proteins in the cells will cause the suppression of chromosomal repair mechanisms, leading to loss of genetic integrity over time. In effect, once people are injected with mRNA vaccines, when they are subsequently exposed to even mild sources of ionizing radiation sunlight, mammography, high-altitude commercial air flights, food plastics chemicals, etc. their bodies may initiate the growth of new cancer tumors that cannot be suppressed because the NHEJ system is no longer functioning. In effect, people will become mutants because they can no longer maintain genetic integrity due to the spike protein suppression of the NHEJ repair mechanism. We are already seeing reports of alarming increases in cancers among the vaccinated. For example, as reported from Cancer.news: Women recently injected with experimental covid vaccines are showing symptoms of BREAST CANCER A group of Utah doctors have discovered something terrifying in recent mammogram screenings taken at the Breast Care Centre in Salt Lake City, Utah. Women who were recently injected with experimental COVID vaccines suffer from abnormal inflammation of the lymph nodes in their breasts. According to the Intermountain Healthcare doctors, women who take the covid-19 vaccines are showing symptoms of breast cancer. Dr. Brett Parkinson, MD., warns, Whenever we see these on a normal screening mammogram, we call those patients back because it can either mean metastatic breast cancer which travels to the lymph nodes or lymphoma or leukemia. Instead of dealing with the cause of this problem (vaccines), the doctors are now telling women not to get mammograms after vaccination. And from Vaccines.news: Idaho doctor reports 20 times increase in cancer among those vaccinated for covid: In a video produced by the Idaho state governments Capitol Clarity project, Cole revealed how he is now seeing a 2,000 percent chronic illness increase in folks who took [the vaccine]. Since January 1, in the laboratory, Im seeing a 20-times increase of endometrial cancers over what I see on an annual basis, Cole stated in the video. Im not exaggerating at all because I look at my numbers year over year, and Im like Gosh, Ive never seen this many endometrial cancers before. In a normal year, there are around 600,000 cancer deaths in the United States. With the spike protein suppressing NJEH by 90%, and with doctors already reporting a 2000% increase in one type of cancer (endometrial) from early 2020, its clear that cancer deaths are going to substantially increase in the coming years due to covid vaccines. Add that data point to the big picture here. A 40% increase in all cause mortality, says life insurance CEO Providing an additional clue to all this, we have recently reported on the shocking interview with Scott Davison, CEO of OneAmerica, a life insurance company. Davison reveals that all-cause mortality is up 40% among their life insurance policy holders, which covers a wide range of people, aged 18 64. Davison refers to this as, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business not just at OneAmerica. This observation is based on third quarter data from 2021. The numbers for Q4 will look far worse due to the well documented fact that VE numbers (Vaccine Effectiveness) plummet with each passing week after vaccination, representing a continued destruction of the immune system. As more time goes by, those who took the vaccines have weaker and weaker immune systems, making them more vulnerable to common infections and flu strains that would normally be of little threat. This is confirmed by official government data from the UK as well as independent research such as this study from the Francis Crick Institute in the UK: Pfizer vaccine destroys T cells, weakens the immune system study: A study from the Francis Crick Institute in the United Kingdom has found that the Pfizer-BioNTech Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine destroys T cells and weakens the immune system It found that only 50 percent of the people who received a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine had a quantifiable neutralizing antibody response against the alpha variant of COVID-19. This number decreased even further to just 32 percent and 25 percent for the delta and beta variants, respectively. A 40% increase in all-cause mortality, if applied across all age groups, means that an additional 3,100 Americans are dying each day. Thats over 90,000 people per month being killed by the vaccine as of Q3, 2021. (The normal pre-covid death rate is around 7,700 per day in the USA.) We estimate that by the time Q1, 2022 data are available, we will likely see up to a 60% increase in all cause mortality, leading to an additional 4,600 deaths per day. This alone is nearly 1.7 million deaths per year, or about half a percent of the entire US population. My (conservative) prediction is that as post-vaccine cancer deaths take hold, we are going to see, at minimum, a 400% increase in cancer deaths starting in 2022. Thats roughly 2.4 million vaccine-related cancer deaths per year for the foreseeable future, very likely continuing through the next decade. 93% of post-vaccine deaths attributed to the vaccine itself One more factor to consider in all this is the astonishing research conducted by Drs. Bhakdi and Burkhardt, commented on by Steve Kirsh at Substack.com. Although the sample size was small (15 autopsies), it showed that 93% of people who died after being vaccinated were, in fact, killed by the vaccine. As Kirsh explains: The coroner or the public prosecutor didnt associate the vaccine as the cause of death in any of the cases. However, further examination revealed that the vaccine was implicated in the deaths of 14 of the 15 cases. The most attacked organ was the heart (in all of the people who died), but other organs were attacked as well. The implications are potentially enormous resulting in millions of deaths. The vaccines should be immediately halted. Importantly, as Dr. Bhakdi explains on video, these autopsies showed that people were killed by killer lyphocytes attacking their own organs such as the heart and lungs. In other words, mRNA covid vaccines caused the bodys own immune system to start growing lymphocyte tissues in places where it doesnt belong, such as the heart and other organs. This shocking finding caused former Pfizer VP Mike Yeadon to write Steve Kirsh and explain, This is about the worst 15 min (video) Ive ever seen. Mass covid19 vaccination is leading to mass murder. That video is shown here: Brighteon.com/2d124f9e-e8f3-4938-a4ab-f9358d580a52 Essentially, what Dr. Bhakdis findings reveal is that far more people are now dying from the vaccine than from natural causes. This would imply that the pre-covid daily death rate of 7,700 Americans (thats per day) is about to be dwarfed by vaccine-induced deaths which will, at some point, emerge as a multiple of 7,700. Its not unreasonable to imagine that over the next few years as cancer tumors and lymphocyte attacks accelerate, we could start to see daily deaths in America exceeding 16,000 or even 30,000 as the post-covid vaccine deaths accelerate. At 30,000 deaths per day, by the way, the number of dead in a year reaches nearly 11 million people, or about 3.3% of the total U.S. population expiring in a given year. Over a decade, thats about a third of the current population. These are projections, of course, but they are rooted in early evidence and observation. Conservatively, one-third of all who received covid vaccines will likely die over the next decade and another third will be debilitated Based on the cancer deaths, myocarditis deaths, autoimmune deaths, heart attack deaths and the increased risks of strokes, neurological disorders and organ failure, we can conservatively conclude that roughly: One-third of those who took mRNA covid vaccines will be dead over the next ten years. One-third will be injured or debilitated and unlikely to be capable of participating in society in a meaningful way. One-third will be relatively unaffected. Interestingly, this appears to coincide with the statistical analysis of covid vaccine lot numbers, where roughly one-third of the lots are associated with heart attacks and deaths, another third are associated with injuries (but not death), and a final third appear to be harmless (suspected to be saline). Again, these are rough numbers and there will be disagreement about many of the projections made here, but this is an early snapshot and projection based on what we know so far. Obviously, these conclusions are subject to change as new data appear, and the final number by the end of 2032 could be radically different from these projections (far worse or perhaps far better). 30 million people per day are being vaccinated around the world Now lets look at what this means globally if we conclude that roughly one-third of vaccinated people will die over the next decade. Right now, about 30 million people are being vaccinated each day across the globe, according to OurWorldInData.org. That same site says that 58.5% of the worlds population have been vaccinated with at least one dose, and that 9.25 billion doses have been administered (data accessed on 1/4/2022). If one-third of vaccinated people are set on a path to die from the vaccine over the next decade, then each day that these vaccines continue, about 10 million people are being sentenced to death. If this continues for just one more year 365 days this would mean an additional 3.65 billion people will be exterminated by vaccines and die from vaccine-induced fatalities over the next decade or so. Thats roughly half the worlds population, by the way. If youre wondering how more than one-third of the worlds population can be exterminated if only one-third of the vaccine lots are so-called kill shots, remember that people are being given multiple injections via boosters. Thus, one person can be injected five or six times with mRNA shots, and even if only one-third of those shots are kill shots, their chances of escaping the kill shot dwindle rapidly. Its like playing vaccine roulette. Statistically speaking, here are the odds of EVADING a kill shot if a person continues to take more injections, given the assumption that one-third of the lots are deadly: 1st injection: 66.6% chance of evading death. 2nd injection: 44.4% chance of evading death. (.666 ^ 2) 3rd injection: 29.5% chance of evading death. (.666 ^ 3) 4th injection: 19.7% chance of evading death. (.666 ^ 4) 5th injection: 13.1% chance of evading death. 6th injection: 8.7% chance of evading death. As you can see, if the governments of the world can coerce people into taking six shots, they can kill over 90% of the worlds population, given that one-third of vaccine lots are kill shots and assuming a 100% kill rate over time. Thus, the only way to stop this vaccine holocaust is to stop the vaccines. For each additional day that the depopulation globalists run their vaccine holocaust campaign, they are likely exterminating an additional 10 million people over time. Thats a World War II Nazi Holocaust every 14.4 hours, in terms of innocent lives destroyed. It also means that nearly 7,000 lives are being destroyed per minute as this vaccine holocaust continues. This also means that each day earlier that we stop the holocaust, we potentially save 10 million lives. Hence the urgency of our mission. If we stop the vaccine holocaust right now, we still lose 1.5 billion human beings from vaccine-induced deaths over the next ten years. Importantly, human civilization can probably survive such a hit, as devastating as it might be. But if this vaccine holocaust continues for just one more year, globalists could have set into motion the deaths of potentially an additional 3.6 billion people on top of the 1.5 who are already on the death clock countdown. That means we could lose over 5 billion human beings in the next decade, simply stemming from our inability to stop this holocaust in the next 365 days. The important question becomes: Can human civilization remain intact if we lose over 50% of the population? I dont have the answer to that, but given the complexity of our modern society, it seems likely that a systemic collapse great reset would be inevitable. It also seems that this is what the globalists are trying to achieve. Note carefully that no one in government power is suggesting we pause the vaccines, wait a year and see how many people die. No, they prefer to charge ahead at full speed damn the consequences! and then blame the unvaccinated for the mass deaths of the vaccinated. Clearly, they are bad faith actors. They are not trying to save lives; theyre working to exterminate them. Find more details in todays Situation Update podcast here: Brighteon.com/72f2d8d5-0d32-474f-af5e-85ef8d227475 We post a new podcast each day at: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/hrreport Also follow me on: Telegram: t.me/RealHealthRanger Brighteon.social: Brighteon.social/@HealthRanger Parler: Parler.com/user/HealthRanger Gettr: GETTR.com/user/healthranger Rumble: Rumble.com/c/HealthRangerReport BitChute: Bitchute.com/channel/9EB8glubb0Ns/ Clouthub: app.clouthub.com/#/users/u/naturalnews/posts (Natural News) Another independent study has found that the true number of deaths caused by Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines is significantly higher than what the government and media are claiming. The paper estimates that in the United States alone between February and August of 2021, anywhere from 146,000 to 187,000 people died due to getting injected with Fauci Flu shots. Compared to what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reporting, deaths from covid jabs are being underreported by a factor of 20, which is consistent with the known under-ascertainment bias inherent to the governments Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Comparing our age-stratified VFRs with published age-stratified coronavirus infection fatality rates (IFR) suggests the risks of COVID vaccines and boosters outweigh the benefits in children, young adults and older adults with low occupational risk or previous coronavirus exposure, the paper explains. Interestingly, our estimates of 133K to 187K vaccine-related deaths are very similar to recent, independent estimates based off of U.S. VAERS data through August 28th, 2021, by Rose and Crawford. At least three times more people have already died from covid vaccines than died during the entire Vietnam War Other research has come up with death estimates of anywhere between 400,000 and 820,000 deaths from covid jabs. However, just assuming the more conservative 150,000 figure, this is still more than three times the number of people who died in combat in the Vietnam War, which lasted for nearly two decades. In yet another research compilation, a figure of 200,000 deaths from covid injections was the estimate. This one, like the others, used excess mortality data during specific timeframes of when the alleged virus first appeared and when the first injections were unveiled as part of Operation Warp Speed. The estimate of deaths attributed to the vaccines calculated with this logic is if anything low, writes Steve Kirsch on his Substack. The medical profession has improved their treatment methods so that should have caused a decrease in deaths as time passed, but the rate instead increased. The most vulnerable should be the first to so as time passed the death rate should have decreased, but the rate instead increased. This means that the vaccine caused deaths would have been slightly higher than my calculated estimate. How we know that anywhere from 150,000 to 820,000 people have already died from Fauci Flu shots has to do with the nature of the deaths. Many of them involved cardiovascular events, which are extremely common among the fully vaccinated who experience breakthrough infections. Strong association with cardiovascular death, especially hemorrhagic stroke and venous thrombosis shows the mortality odds ratio (MOR) >2 and is highly statistically significant for a variety of adverse events, Kirsch explains. That cant happen by chance. There is also prolific and growing evidence showing that the jabs do not work as claimed, and often play a causative role in death post-injection. Dr. Peter Schirmacher in Germany has conducted extensive autopsy work proving this. Jessica Roses analysis of the VAERS data showing dose dependency (the graphs are supposed to look the same on Dose 1 and Dose 2 if the vaccines dont kill people), Kirsch further writes. Despite all this, not a single member of Congress, nor any employee at the CDC, is brave enough to come forward in opposition to the continued administration of these lethal injections. A reasonable stopping condition is 32 people, Kirsch says. In 1976, we stopped the H1N1 vaccine after just 32 deaths Today, the number of deaths allowed is unlimited. And there is no liability for the manufacturers. And there have been no payouts to all the hundreds of thousands of vaccine injured. Zero. Zip. Nada. More of the latest news about Fauci Flu shot deaths can be found at Genocide.news. Sources for this article include: SteveKirsch.substack.com ResearchGate.net NaturalNews.com (Natural News) A left-wing activist with ties to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) nominated by President Joe Biden to be a federal judge has argued photo ID and proof of citizenship constitute voter suppression. (Article by Gabe Kaminsky republished from DailyWire.com) Nancy Gbana Abudu, the deputy legal director at SPLC, was picked by Biden in December to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The 11th Circuit covers parts of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. The vacancy came about upon the retirement of Judge Beverly B. Martin a President Barack Obama appointee. Abudu worked for the ACLU from 2005 to 2019 and was an 11th Circuit staff attorney from 2002 to 2004. Along with U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs, she was part of Bidens twelfth round of judicial nominees, according to a White House memo. Biden put forth 75 judges in 2021. The memo states that his nominees reflect the diversity Biden promise[d] in courts and that Abudu would be the first African-American woman judge ever to sit on the Eleventh Circuit. Voter Suppression Remarks In a 2011 interview dug up by The Daily Wire, Abudu asserted that 95 percent of her work with the ACLU at the time involved voting rights. She notably said photo ID and proof of citizenship, two long-established requirements to vote, are indicative of voter suppression: Obviously, we do a lot when it comes to voter suppression, which includes five priority areas: photo ID, proof of citizenship, restrictions we see when it comes to registration early voting as well as absentee voting and the restrictions we see when it comes to criminal convictions. We also do a lot with student voting. Abudu said her biggest concern as an ACLU attorney regarding voter suppression was states passing laws requiring voters to have photo IDs. She slammed South Carolina for not permitting students to show campus IDs to vote, calling it restrictive. The Biden nominee has continued to argue that various voting requirements are discriminatory. In August, Abudu called on the Senate to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act H.R. 4 in order to protect the future of American democracy. As HR 4 moves to the Senate, some senators have already committed to doing everything in their power to oppose the bill up to and including leveraging a legislative tool popular with pro-Jim Crow senators of the past to prevent its passage and to further erode the fundamental right to vote, Abudu wrote, likening Republicans today to Democrats who upheld laws that discriminated against minorities in the past. In a thematically-similar March 2021 writing, Abudu likened efforts by lawmakers to protect election security to efforts to suppress black voters in the 1960s. She slammed Georgia for its Election Integrity Act of 2021, which mandates voter ID for mail-in ballots, halts absentee ballot acceptance within 11 days of an election, and restricts third parties from handing out gifts to voters at polling places, among other provisions. Separate and Unequal Society Bidens judicial pick for the 11th Circuit aligns with the administrations opposition to election security measures. Upon the signing of the Georgia bill by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, for instance, the president called it Jim Crow in the 21st century. In a statement to The Daily Wire, the Republican National Committee (RNC) said voter turnout actually went up in Georgia following the bill, revealing it is not restrictive. Turnout in Atlantas 2021 municipal elections rose by 17 percent compared to 2017 following the passage of Georgias recent election integrity legislation clear proof that Democrats are lying about election integrity for political gain, spokesman Gates McGavick said. Abudu echoed the administrations Jim Crow sentiment in a June 2020 article. She claimed America is a separate and unequal society and that the criminal justice system ruin[s] peoples lives forever. She also said laws barring convicted felons from voting are similar to slavery. See below: When you add laws that prohibit people with a criminal conviction from voting, its practically the same system as during slavery Black people who have lost their freedom and cannot vote. And without access to the ballot, a victim of the system cannot elect the very officials pulling the levers to hire the police, determine which cases are prosecuted and what sentences are imposed. The contentious background of a federal nominee comes as no surprise. Biden has put forth activists many have argued operate in the progressive fringes of their fields, such as Vanita Gupta, Xavier Becerra, David Chipman, Rachel Levine, and others. The ACLU and SPLC are not the only left-wing groups Abudu seems to have interaction with. According to her LinkedIn page, she recently liked a post from Rutgers Law School social justice scholar Sahar Aziz, who was announcing her selection by progressive billionaire George Soross Open Society Foundations to be an equality fellow. The group has donated millions of dollars to groups like the Black Voters Matter Fund, a spin-off of the Black Lives Matter movement. Abudu could not be reached for comment in time for publication. Ilya Shapiro, vice president of the Cato Institute and director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, told The Daily Wire he thinks Biden has been focused on harnessing the power of the executive branch for non-traditional progressive ends, including for judgeships. Biden has focused not only on checking demographic boxes, however, but on nominating public defenders, activists, and others with backgrounds considered non-traditional for federal judges, said Shapiro. Its good to add different perspectives to the bench, but it also means that many of these nominees are more progressive and ideological than previous Democratic picks. The White House did not respond to a Daily Wire request for comment. Read more at: DailyWire.com (Natural News) Investigative journalist Jordan Schachtel said that presently there is no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved vaccine for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States and that Big Pharma intends to use children as legal human shields for vaccines. On top of monetary gains, Pfizer, Moderna and other manufacturers appear to need the children as legal human shields for their products. Children face near-zero risk from COVID-19 but continue to experience alarming side effects. Health authorities in the U.S. have confirmed that children and adolescents develop COVID-19 in an extremely mild manner, if at all. A study also showed that up to 80 percent of children develop side effects that can lead to severe trauma. In the study, Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine was tested on 1,097 children and adolescents from 12 to 15 years of age. At least 866 experienced some form of unpleasant side effect 466 were described as mild, 393 were moderate and seven were severe. According to Schachtel, fact checkers at Newsweek, USA Today, Reuters and the Associated Press peddled false information to cover up the truth. Observers pointed out that the Reagan Administration passed a law that gave drug makers legal protection from liabilities for their vaccines if they can get approval for its use on children. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA), which was passed into law in 1986, provides a legal liability shield to drug manufacturers if they receive full authorization for all ages. Coupled with the lack of approved vaccine, Schachtel said there are no plans to make one available anytime soon in the United States. Pfizers FDA-approved COVID vaccine nowhere to be found The Biden administration and other states heralded the approval of Pfizers comirnaty as a landmark moment after getting FDA approval on August 23. But heres the catch: Comirnaty is nowhere to found. A separate product by Pfizer, which was given emergency use authorization, is the one available in the market. Pfizer explained that comirnaty isnt available yet because of the presence of the EUA shots, but assured the public that it will soon be available. Questions were also raised on why the FDA wont approve the available product despite claims that it is the same as comirnaty. Observers noted that Pfizer wants comirnaty to become available for all ages in order to get an additional layer of protection from legal liabilities. Steve Kirsch on his Substack said that comirnaty will magically appear in the market if approved for kids. The reason comirnaty isnt available is because those shots would expose the company to liability since the fully licensed product doesnt have the liability waiver of the EUA product, said Kirsch. But once the Pfizer vaccine is fully approved in kids, then Pfizer gets liability waiver on all age groups due to a feature in federal law for child vaccines (NCVIA). At that time, they are done. They can market the COVID vaccine products under full approval for all age groups and face no liability when it kills or disables you. (Related: More than 80% of children who received Pfizers covid injection suffered side effects.) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Pfizer is not planning to produce comirnaty while the vaccines with EUA remain available in the country. Comirnaty, according to the FDA, is a legally distinct product with with certain differences. Watch the video below to know more about the side effects on children of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine. This video is from The Great Awakening channel on Brighteon.com. Follow Immunization.news for more news and information related to COVID-19 vaccines. SOURCES include: Dossier.Substack.com FreeWestMedia.com SteveKirsch.Substack.com Brighteon.com A 68-year-old man was driving his sister to work when he drove his SUV around the lowered railroad crossing gates and was struck and killed by a Brightline train last week. Police on Monday identified the Toyota driver as Marc Charleus and his sister as Veronique Charleus, 58. An official from Brightline said not only were the railroad crossings gates down, the lights were flashing and bells were ringing. Advertisement The deadly crash happened at 6 a.m. on Dec. 30 near 214th Street and East Dixie Highway in Aventura, according to a statement from Aventura Police Chief Michael Bentolila. An Aventura Police Department traffic homicide investigator looks over an SUV which was struck by a Brightline train on Dixie Highway near the county line of Broward and Miami-Dade on Dec. 30, 2021. (Joe Cavaretta / South Florida Sun Sentinel) According to police, the SUV approached the track, stopped briefly, and then maneuvered the vehicle around the crossing gate. The fast-moving train plowed into the car, dragging it from the crossing to just over the Broward County line. Advertisement The deaths follow a string of deaths involving Brightline trains since the fast-moving commuter train resumed operations in November after shutting down for 19 months due to COVID. [ RELATED: Two dead after train plows into SUV in Aventura ] On Dec. 13 a pedestrian in her early 70s was killed by a Brightline train Fort Lauderdale. Some 48 hours earlier on Dec. 11, a deadly strike happened in Hollywood. Police said a man intentionally stepped in front of the train. Also a man walking on the tracks in North Miami Beach was killed Dec. 7, police said. The man did not move after the train horn sounded. The deaths of Marc and Veronique Charleus are believed to be 51st and 52nd deaths involving Brightline and motorists and pedestrians since Brightlines first fatality during a test run five months before the train operations officially began in January 2018. To date, none of the deaths involving Brightline have been blamed on its equipment or crews. The front of a Brightline train that struck a car in Pompano Beach is seen on Nov. 8, 2021. The Brightline commuter train hit a car carrying a woman and her grandchild on the higher-speed line's first day back in operation since the coronavirus pandemic began. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel) (Joe Cavaretta/AP) In December 2019, the Associated Press reported Brightline had the highest death rate among the nations 821 railroads with more than 40 deaths. After the report, the company created a public awareness campaign about the dangers of trying to beat a train and walking on or around the tracks. Brightline service came to a halt at the start in pandemic. The company resumed operations last month under much fanfare only to crash into a motorist who tried to beat the train across the track. Miraculously, neither the woman who was driving nor her grandchild who was in the vehicle were killed. [ RELATED: Brightline has highest death rate in the nation ] Brightline has stops in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. In densely populated areas, the trains run 79 miles per hour but can reach more than 125 mph in rural areas. Eileen Kelley can be reached at 772-925-9193 or ekelley@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Twitter @reporterkell. (Natural News) Nonprofit organization Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), an advocate for full transparency of the medical products safety and efficacy, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its parent entity, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for their refusal to make public the post-licensure safety data of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines. The lawsuit was filed after the agency turned down three Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to publish reports, submitted through the CDCs V-Safe system. The V-Safe is a smartphone application that uses text messaging and web surveys to give personalized health check-ins after a person receives a COVID shot. The V-Safe app is also supposed to allow individuals to report to the CDC if they have any side effects after getting a COVID-19 vaccine in near real-time. The system is supposed to be so effective that the agency said that depending on reports specifics, representatives may call to check on a vaccine recipient to collect more information. The system was created because the CDC said that the Vaccine Adverse Effects Reaction System (VAERS) is not capable of determining causation, making it unreliable. At the same time, the agency noted that the COVID-19 vaccines are being administered under intensive vaccine safety monitoring efforts in the United States. However, it seems that the CDC wants to keep secret the adverse reactions and corresponding numbers that have been reported through the app. In response to ICANs FOIA requests, the agency refused to report the safety data under the pretext that such information is not deidentified, or that it includes personal health information. (Related: California bill would require state to post links to vaccine injury reporting and vaccine injury compensation.) De-identified data does exist. The CDC relies on private data company Oracle to collect, manage and house the data, as stated in its own document. The document indicates that as per Oracles internal policies, staff will not be able to view any individualized survey data, including those with personally identifiable information (PII). Instead, they will gain access to aggregate unidentifiable data for reporting. Big Government protecting Big Pharma ICAN is pushing for the CDC to produce the unidentified data in the same form that Oracle can access, but the agency has closed that inquiry. ICAN noted that the federal government is not only failing to comply with the FOIA, but also failing to provide the transparency necessary to earn peoples trust regarding the vaccines. The nonprofit organization emphasized that the public deserves to have all information necessary regarding the vaccines that are being mandated, as many Americans are under threat of losing their jobs, being excluded from school and not being allowed to participate in society. New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle, among others, have already put such laws into place. Individuals who get injured by the vaccines will not be able to hold the pharmaceutical companies accountable because the federal government has given them and others associated with administering the shots legal immunity for any injuries that the vaccines may cost. Moreover, the vaccine manufacturers are immune from liability for willful misconduct unless the government brings this claim first. ICAN stated in the lawsuit that comprehensive knowledge of vaccine safety is important for the public and that the government should remain transparent about the data. It stressed that locking out independent scientists from addressing the issues is dangerous, irresponsible, unethical and illegal. The CDC is not the first government agency to be sued over documents associated with vaccine safety. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was also previously sued for over 400,000 pages of information regarding Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine. Watch the video below to learn more about the governments COVID reporting system. This video is from the What is Happening channel on Brighteon.com. Get more news and updates about COVID-19 vaccine and its adverse effects at Pandemic.news. Sources include: TheNewAmerican.com News.Yahoo.com (Natural News) Noted author and medical practitioner Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, former head of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), said in a stunning interview in recent days that she believes Americans hospitalized in the U.S. with COVID-19 are actually being treated worse than prisoners in American jails. Late last month, Vliet said in a video interview that the reason for the treatment is money, essentially, noting that it all has to do with the way in which hospitals are reimbursed by the government and insurers for COVID-19 treatment. Dr. Peter R. Breggin, MD, set up the interview with this summary: Having founded the Truth for Health Foundation, with Peter McCullough, MD MPH as Chief Medical Advisor, [Vliet] has now found herself confronted with the tragic and horrific reality of COVID patients dying due to neglect and bad treatment in hospitals throughout the U.S. and elsewhere. Many of these treatment centers seem so intent on murdering their patients that they refuse court orders to treat with routine antiviral therapies like steroids as well specific treatments like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Incentivized by high reimbursement payments for treating dying COVID patients and by using potentially deadly treatments like ventilators and remdesivir, the doctors and hospitals have descended into unethical, corrupt medical practices. Covid-19 patients in Americas hospitals today are actually being treated worse than prisoners in American jails, Vliet says, adding that they are being held hostage and segregated from loved onesand the reason is money. Hospitals, she says, are being incentivized by high reimbursement rates to treat dying COVID-19 patients with high-risk, low-reward treatments including ventilators and remdesivir. As such, hospitals and physicians have been coopted by money and increasingly choose unethical medical practices over doing what is actually best for these patients. They [the hospitals] are paid by the government to do a PCR test on every patient who walks in the door Then they are paid extra for a COVID admission to the hospital. They are paid an extra 20 percent bonus on the entire hospital bill if the hospital ONLY uses remdesivir to treat the patient, said Vliet. And then if the patient goes on a ventilator, which is a consequence of some of the toxicity of remdesivir and the restriction of fluids and nutrients that they are also doing, and once the patient is on a ventilator there is another incentive bonus to the hospitals. If the patient dies in the hospital, there is another incentive payment, she added. The former AAPS director also said that hospitals have been incentivized, nearly since the beginning of the pandemic, to diagnose patients with COVID (which explains the exceedingly high infection rate), then given an incentive of $39,000 per patient if that patient was subsequently placed on a ventilator. Worse, she said that hospitals were paid an even larger stipend if the patient on the vent passed away from COVID. That means there was an incentive to find COVID patients and then make certain they were put on vents and later died. In a November op-ed posted at the AAPS website under the headline, Bidens Bounty on Your Life: Hospitals Incentive Payments for COVID-19, Vliet explained the ghastly concept. As exposed in audio recordings, hospital executives in Arizona admitted meeting several times a week to lower standards of care, with coordinated restrictions on visitation rights. Most COVID-19 patients families are deliberately kept in the dark about what is really being done to their loved ones, she revealed. The combination that enables this tragic and avoidable loss of hundreds of thousands of lives includes (1) The CARES Act, which provides hospitals with bonus incentive payments for all things related to COVID-19 (testing, diagnosing, admitting to hospital, use of remdesivir and ventilators, reporting COVID-19 deaths, and vaccinations) and (2) waivers of customary and long-standing patient rights by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), she added. Face it: Our country is being torn apart by left-wing political opportunists who are using this pandemic to forever change America. See more stories like this at DangerousMedicine.com. Sources include: AAPSOnline.org NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Protesters in the Netherlands who peacefully opposed the countrys draconian health measures faced attacks from police dogs and beatings from police officers. Officers from the Royal Marechaussee (KMar) military police forcefully dispersed the peaceful Jan. 2 protest at the Museumplein public square in the capital Amsterdam. Footage of the violent dispersal circulated on social media, with most featuring several protesters being severely beaten. Participants were also bitten by trained police dogs. Another video showed a protester being hit on the head with a baton until they fall to the ground dazed. Dutch lawmaker Pepijn van Houwelingen of the Forum for Democracy (FvD) party posted pictures of a bus full of protesters, which was pulled over by KMar officers. An officer yelled at the bus to turn around with this threat: If you go into Amsterdam, you will all be stopped. Insiders who joined the Jan. 2 Museumplein protest confirmed to Free West Media (FWM) the presence of great numbers of KMar officers during the gathering. They added that participants were being searched extensively in order to intimidate them into backing out of the protest. Anti-vaccine lawyer Bart Maes announced his plan to file a report based on two instances of police violence seen on social media. He said of the footage involving a police dog biting a man: Thats [the] No. 1 [declaration on social media.] Another police dog; do they never learn? Maes added that he will file a report against the officer who hit the protester on the head as part of the second declaration. Political reporter Paso Dagori criticized Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsemas deployment of the military police against the protesters. He said: So the [KMar] is deployed against citizens who want to demonstrate. The fact that it is now normal to carry out preventive searches on demonstrators says something about the decline of this country. Van Houwelingen, one of five FvD lawmakers in the Netherlands lower chamber of parliament, said of the crackdown: This is what a dictatorship looks like where fundamental rights are worth nothing. If you challenge the totalitarian regime and start demonstrating for freedom, suddenly everyone is arrested. (Related: People around the world protest tyrannical COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates.) Even an emergency order did not stop protesters from gathering The local government of Amsterdam outlawed the protest in a bid to prevent citizens from airing their dissatisfaction. Halsema announced through an emergency order that no one would be allowed to gather at the Museumplein square. However, this did not dissuade the thousands who went to protest against the tyrannical measures imposed by Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Amsterdams decision to outlaw the protest was based on police indications that some demonstrators might be prepared for violence. When the protesters refused to budge despite the emergency order, KMar officers marched across the grass to clear the area forcing the protest to disperse. But before law enforcement moved in, some participants expressed their sentiments through banners and signs. Several protesters unfurled a banner that read Less repression, more care near the Van Gogh Museum. Another group of protesters wearing white outfits and masks held up signs, with one sign saying Its not about a virus, its about control on one side and Freedom on the other. According to FWM, images and footage on social media show that Halsema had called in the KMar to disperse the protest. Her move was a stark contrast to her prior statement during a Black Lives Matter protest in the country last year. She said that time that she refused to intervene with violent marchers. For many people demonstrating is their last line of defense, Halsema explained. However, her deployment of the military police against demonstrators using their last line of defense on Jan. 2 contradicted her words. The Jan. 2 protest in Amsterdam came less than two months after similar demonstrations in the city of Rotterdam. According to the Associated Press, riots broke out in the city on the night of Nov. 19, 2021 after the Dutch government announced plans to restrict unvaccinated citizens from accessing certain venues. (Related: Hague court declares Dutch coronavirus lockdowns illegitimate, far-reaching violation.) Law enforcement fired warning shots and used a water cannon to drive away protesters from a central street in Rotterdam. They reported about seven injuries, including police officers. Dozens of rioters were arrested during the unrest. Below is a video of the Jan. 2 Amsterdam protests and their subsequent dispersal by KMar officers. The video above is from the Russia Truth channel on Brighteon.com. Resist.news has more about anti-medical tyranny protests in the Netherlands. Sources include: FreeWestMedia.com STLToday.com APNews.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci is set to receive the largest retirement package in federal government history. After working for the government for 55 years, he will be walking away with up to $350,000 per year. This amount does not include the annual cost-of-living increases to his pension and benefits. Fauci, who was paid $434,312 in 2020, is already the highest-compensated federal employee. Also the White House chief medical advisor, Fauci was given a huge salary boost during the George W. Bush administration for his biodefense work. He went on from making a $200,000 salary in 2004 to $335,000 in 2007. Today, he out-earns President Joe Biden, who earns $400,000 annually. Federal employees who worked as long as Fauci can earn up to 80 percent of their high-3 average salary plus credit for sick leave when they retire. Calculating Faucis benefits Faucis 2021 salary is yet to be published, but media companies have already filed a Freedom of Information Act request in November to gain access to the information. The last three available years of his salary (he made $399,625 in 2019) were used to calculate his potential retirement benefits. Forbes estimated that if he had left federal service at the end of FY2020, Fauci would have received a federal pension of $333,745 a year, plus cost-of-living increases. Moreover, Fauci is also likely to be eligible to receive an annuity of payment for federal employees who served more than 10 years, giving him an additional $8,344 per year. The Forbes report noted that Faucis 2021 and 2022 salaries will likely be the same or even higher than his 2020 salary, which could boost his base retirement pay to around $347,500 a year. Fauci said that he has no plans of retiring before getting the pandemic under control. He told ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl on the December 19 episode of This Week that its the purpose of what hes supposed to be doing, and he is not going to walk away in the middle of it. He stressed that he has to finish the pandemic and have lives return to normal. Fauci won the trust of Democrats after his appointment as point person on the White House coronavirus response team under former President Donald Trump. In the early days of the pandemic, he was often praised for rebuking Trump in terms of the COVID response. However, Republicans have called for Fauci to be fired and slammed the doctor for giving the gain-of-function grant to the Wuhan lab, which led to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. In response to the global pandemic, Fauci preached mask-wearing and vaccination, including boosters, against the coronavirus. Because of these measures, Fauci became one of the most controversial political figures in the country, drawing the ire of conservatives who accused him of being inconsistent in his positions. (Related: Anthony Fauci wants coronavirus vaccines to be forced on all Americans.) Senator Rand Paul blamed Fauci for thousands of COVID deaths, saying that he is biased in his push for the vaccines while ignoring proven therapeutics. Paul also claimed thousands died because Fauci refused to take into account the importance of natural immunity, and instead prioritized the vaccinations. Watch the video below to learn more about government payouts and retirement benefits. This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk NYPost.com ABC.com (Natural News) Dr. Robert Malone, creator of the mRNA technology, became one of the latest prominent individuals silenced by Twitter for exposing the risks associated with the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines. Malone is also an outspoken critic of the COVID-19 rules and mandates. On his Substack page, Malone told his 500,000 followers that his Twitter account was permanently suspended, adding that he knew it will happen eventually. When attempting to access his page, the bird app gives its standard suspension message: Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter rules. However, the San Francisco-based company has not yet issued a public comment on why it suspended Malones account, nor did it specify which post drew its ire. Malone also said that Twitter did not provide him with any advance notices before handing him the suspension. Over the past year, I have had a few notices from Twitter that there was a complaint about a post but that no action was taken. I received no warning prior to the banning, he said. Instead, he received an automated message stating the reason for his suspension: Specifically, for: Violating our policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19. You may not use Twitters services to share false or misleading information about COVID-19 which may lead to harm. It did not elaborate any further. In an interview earlier in the year, Malone said that the immunity offered by a previous COVID-19 infection is superior to that of COVID-19 vaccines, and people are now being faced with a situation where they had been told that natural immunity was not as effective and that people cant rely on it. Twitter censors popular truth tellers Twitter has become controversial after banning high-profile individuals, including former President Donald Trump. Another prominent critic of COVID-19 mandates, former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson, filed a lawsuit against the platform for banning his account. Berenson said that Twitters move for permanent suspension from the platform violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and other laws in California. Twitter is indisputably a messenger service, he said. A longstanding California law regulates messenger services as common carriers. This means that they must accept all messages they receive. Twitter thus must accept all tweets it receives. It has no First Amendment rights to refuse them on the basis that it does not agree with them. (Related: Twitter suspends science writer after he posts results of Pfizer clinical test.) Last year, Twitter also temporarily suspended Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greens account for alleged vaccine misinformation. Taylor said the disease is not dangerous to people under the age of 65 if they are healthy and not overweight. Despite have near-zero risk of dying from the disease, children are now eligible to receive Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine. A White House statement announced in November that the U.S. will vaccinate children between ages five and 11. A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deliberated on the issue, discussing whether the jab would be beneficial to the 28 million children in the country. In October, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of Pfizers COVID-19 for children in the said age group. The FDA noted the immune responses of children between the age of five and 11 were similar to individuals 15 through 25 years of age, and it was said to have shown a 90.7 percent efficacy in preventing the disease based on its study of vaccine safety in a meager 3,100 population of children in the age group. Watch the video below to learn more about Dr. Malones suspension from Twitter. This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com. Get more updates and information about COVID-19 at Pandemic.news. Sources include: InfoWars.com EpochTimes.Today RepublicWorld.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) The New York State Department of Health has announced that there are not enough monoclonal antibody treatments available to the public, which means that white people need not apply. In an official announcement issued to health care providers and facilities across the state, the department explained that there is a severe shortage of the oral antiviral drugs Paxlovid (Pfizer) and molnupiravir (Merck) that requires rationing. Molnupiravir, by the way, was recently discovered to cause cancerous mutations in test mammals. Paxlovid and molnupiravir reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by 88% and 30% respectively, in patients at high-risk for severe COVID-19 when started early after symptom onset, the announcement states without evidence. The only monoclonal antibody treatment said to be effective against the new Omicron (Moronic) variant of the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) is also in short supply. There will be a pause on allocations of bamlanivimab and etesevimab together, etesevimab alone, and REGEN-COV beginning 1/3/2022, the announcement further explains. Because of all this, the department is limiting availability of these drugs only to non-whites, unless a white person has a medical condition or other factors that increase their risk for severe illness. Non-white race or Hispanic / Latino ethnicity should be considered a risk factor, as longstanding systemic health and social inequities have contributed to an increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, the announcement explains about the racist new policy. Are whites better off not getting these experimental treatments? What this language suggests, of course, is that non-whites are inherently a risk factor simply because of the color of their skin. Could they be any more insulting to minorities? asked one commenter at Twitter (though it is important to clarify that whites are rapidly becoming the new minority in America, and are already a minority when looking at global population statistics). No, we wont resolve systemic health and social inequities, but you can cut the line for treatment that is unlikely to fully protect, this same person further joked about what the New York State Department of Health is really saying with its racist announcement. This type of this is happening even in red states, just to be clear. Texas, as we recently reported, is seeing some of its health systems ration out monoclonal antibody treatments only to non-whites. It is almost like some kind of memo is circulating within the corporate health care machine that runs this country instructing practitioners to openly discriminate against people with light skin. None of this is to say that the drugs in question are truly safe and effective, just to be clear. Perhaps white people (and all people) are better off not taking these experimental medications in the first place. What it does say, however, is that health care discrimination against whites is starting to trend, and must be nipped in the bud before it advances any further. I do not trust the antibody treatment, wrote one commenter at Natural News about passive vaccination, which is another name for monoclonal antibodies. Better off with nutritional intake and natural anti-virals. You seem to be falling into the trap of conflating all men are created equal into all men are created the same, wrote another commenter, offering a different perspective as to what might be going on here with all of this. If the science indicates one group has a greater benefit from a treatment and the other has very little, shouldnt the group with the greater benefit have priority. Are thin people also being discriminated against? The latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) can be found at Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: Twitter.com MssnyeNews.org NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Georgia gubernatorial candidate Kandiss Taylor told Ann Vandersteel during the Dec. 28 episode of Steel Truth on Brighteon. TV that the statutes of limitations on sex crimes are allowing pedophiles to go free. Taylor said it sometimes takes decades for victims to come out and the guilty must be held accountable for what theyve done. When the victims get 5-10 years down the road, and they finally say, You know what, this was wrong. This robbed me of my innocence, Im still being affected, and my sex life today. And the way I view myself in the world because of what happened to me and what was stolen from me. said Taylor, who also stressed that she will also tackle the issues of horrific crimes that happened decades ago. Taylor pointed out that the average pedophile has 300 victims. She said she will focus on constitutional law and prison reform on her campaign because a pedophile is still abusing and being allowed to abuse because of the flawed system. Im just a human who loves people. Im going to help people because thats what were supposed to do. The government is here for our protection, said Taylor. Both Taylor and Vandersteel agreed that the present criminal justice system was set up to protect sexual predators. We know about Jeffrey Epstein and I know about sex trafficking and the sickos in the government who are using children, said Taylor, who holds a degree in counseling. Frankly, a childs life is ruined. They never really recover from something like that. (Related: REPORT: Corrupt FBI covering up the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.) While stressing that the statutes of limitations protect the offenders, Taylor bared that she will also deal with the issue of ports in Georgia being used for sex trafficking as reported by the Child Protective Services (CPS). Taylor said she that most states that do child support recovery are getting money from the government. Yes, we should pay child support. But this idea that the government gives money to organizations that force child support is wrong, she said. Government spends more money separating families Vandersteel said she knows of kids being taken unjustly from their parents. I know a family of seven in that had their seven children taken from them due to alleged financial problems by the parents. At some point, the government chose to take the kids and the amount of money they spend on each child far outweighed what they could have collectively spent on this family in terms of support while they got back on their feet. So they spent more money separating the family out than they did keeping it together, Vandersteel said. Taylor expressed confidence that she will win the gubernatorial race. Im going to win this race because the people want me. They dont want career establishment politicians. I want to put morality over money. If she wins, Taylor said she will tackle gun rights, election reform and immigration. Everywhere I go, I hear about paper ballots number recognition and I hear about income tax reform. And there is immigration and prison reform because we have more people incarcerated on parole and probation in Georgia compared to other states, Taylor said. Our system is very fragile. When I become Governor, if the statute of limitations is not expired on arresting these people, Im gonna do everything I can for accountability. Vandersteel endorsed Taylor as governor. The part that resonates with me the most is Kandiss love of our Lord, and all of the fundamental rights of our Constitution. Truly you are a grassroots candidate thats listening to the pulse of the people of Georgia. An emotional Taylor said Vandersteels endorsement is huge. Were women who are are stepping up. If these men would have done their job, I wouldnt be running, I dont even care about being the governor of Georgia, I really dont, I love my job. I fight for victims every day. And for the homeless, I love my job. But I cant allow my children not to be free. And Georgia, I cant sit here and not have that for our future. said Taylor. Watch the full Dec. 28 episode of Steel Truth with Ann Vandersteel and guests Kandiss Taylor and Maryam Henein below. Tune in to Steel Truth from Monday to Friday at 8-10 p.m. on Brighteon.TV. Follow Violence.news for more news related to sex crimes. Sources include: Brighteon.com NCSL.org (Natural News) Dr. Robert Malone revealed that the heads of two government agencies blocked the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a treatment for Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) infection. He named acting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock and former Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) Director Rick Bright as the ones responsible. The inventor of the mRNA vaccine technology made this revelation during his Dec. 31 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Malone told podcast host Joe Rogan that Dr. Vladimir Zev Zelenko was the first one to document the FDA-BARDA collusion against HCQ. Zelenko [is] the guy that came out with the original [HCQ] protocol. [He] was [also] the one, by the way, that wrote the letter to [former President Donald] Trump advocating for HCQ. He clearly documents the conspiracy between Woodcock and Bright to make it so that physicians could not administer HCQ outside of the hospital, Malone said. (Related: Top 12 Takeaways from the Joe Rogan and Dr. Robert Malone interview.) Back in October 2021, Zelenko himself revealed the collusion to Dave Hayes of The X22 Report. He said that time: Janet Woodcock, who is probably the biggest mass murderer in America right now, advised Bright to restrict access to HCQ in direct opposition to the executive order of [former] President Trump. Instead of making it available to everyone through the Right to Try legislation that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) championed, what they did was they issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) that restricted the use of HCQ only to hospitalized patients. [This meant] that the national stockpile was closed to patients who were not that sick. That led to tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people, getting much sicker. True enough, the FDA issued an EUA for HCQ in March 2020 but eventually rescinded the authorization in June of that year. The regulator argued that HCQ was unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19 due to what it claimed as ongoing serious cardiac adverse events. Big Pharmas ties with FDA, BARDA revealed Malone described Bright and his role in BARDA during his interview with Rogan. The mRNA vaccine inventor said that the office was a big ticket-funder for bio-defense products at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He said that the Johnson & Johnson single-dose COVID-19 vaccine and the Trump administrations Operation Warp Speed were among the many projects that received funding from BARDA. However, Bright was sacked from his leadership post at BARDA in April 2020 following clashes with HHS political leadership. He told Axios in a statement: I limited the broad use of chloroquine and HCQ [both] promoted by the Trump administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit. I insisted that these drugs be provided only to hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 while under the supervision of a physician. Bright lamented his termination from BARDA and accused the Trump administration of politicizing the agencys work and placing politics and cronyism ahead of science. He said: Science, in service to the health and safety of the American people, must always trump politics. (Related: Association of American Surgeons & Physicians sues FDA for interfering with availability of hydroxychloroquine.) Meanwhile, Woodcock assumed the leadership of the FDA as acting commissioner when her predecessor Stephen Hahn. But incidentally, two of her predecessors Hahn and Scott Gottlieb also had ties to Big Pharma. Following their FDA stints, Gottlieb joined Pfizers board of directors while Hahn served as the chief medical officer of Flagship Pioneering the venture firm behind vaccine maker Moderna. Zelenko commented on the former FDA commissioners ties to Big Pharma during his October 2021 interview with Hayes. He remarked that the regulator, alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have clearly proved themselves to be prostitutes to the highest bidder. Why would I trust these so-called agencies? Half their budgets are from the pharmaceutical industry. If I were in charge of these agencies which were designed to protect the interest of the public I would create a firewall that none of the employees of these agencies could go work for Big Pharma and they cannot take any money from their budgets from Big Pharma. How do you expect them to be unbiased and to evaluate drugs and therapeutics if theyre being literally bribed and paid by the same companies that theyre evaluating? You dont have to be a rocket scientists to know whats going on here, Zelenko pointed out. Watch this snippet of Malones Dec. 31 interview with Rogan. The video above is from the Thrive Time Show channel on Brighteon.com. MedicalCensorship.com has more about the suppression of HCQ as a treatment for COVID-19. Sources include: Brighteon.com ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.net FDA.gov Axios.com (Natural News) It is being reported that hundreds of people in El Salvador are unable to access Bitcoin in their centralized, government-issued Chivo Wallets. The unconfirmed reports are circulating on Twitter, where numerous users say that their non-private wallets have been tampered with by government officials. This is what happens when you let corrupt and greedy politicians have full control over your funds, tweeted an account called Mr. Whale, suggesting that all cryptocurrency should be held in private wallets far away from government intrusion. The same Mr. Whale account showed some of the complaints that have been received (most of them are in Spanish). There are many upset people who want to know what is going on. No comment from El Salvadors government, but the president still has me blocked, complained the Mr. Whale account. Sad. Chivos official account hasnt tweeted in two months The Chivo Wallet was first introduced by the Salvadorian government in an effort to promote the adoption of Bitcoin throughout the country. Public funds were used to create the wallet, however the last time its official Twitter account tweeted was back on November 3. Since that time, many people have reported problems with their accounts only to receive no guidance or anything from the Salvadorian government. The last message that the Chivo account published on Twitter was on November 3 in which it announced the recent subsidy for fuel purchases through the wallet that President Nayib Bukele announced for those dates, reads an English-translated excerpt from a report by ElSalvador.com. From that date until this December 28, the Chivo account, which was very active during the first days of its launch, has not published anything else and its work has been limited to responding in a generic way to some tweets that expose complaints about the operation of the application. In response to some of the tweets complaining about issues, the Chivo Wallet account did respond with a generic: In order to help you, please contact us by private message to attend to your case, as soon as possible. However, there is no indication that following these instructions leads to any solution. Since the Chivo Wallet was officially launched on September 7, some users say their funds have gone missing in large quantities. According to one Twitter account, the amounts of losses range from between $60 to $16,000. I have spoken with Chivo support five times, they always tell me that they are going to call me, they never call me and they never solve the problem, said one user by the name of Roberto Sanchez, who says he lost $1,000 for the month between mid-November and mid-December. Economist Steve Hanke says that these problems were expected because the Chivo Wallet is run and controlled by the government. It is not a private wallet that can be safely used to store Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. The Chivo wallet of the dictator @nayibbukele continues to be plagued with dysfunctions, including many reports of funds disappearing from user accounts, Hanke tweeted. As I said from the beginning, Chivos wallets would make El Salvador the number one global target for hackers. Speaking of Bitcoin, one of the last things posted by Ghislaine Maxwell to social media before her arrest was something about Bitcoin, which she and the Jeffrey Epstein network may have used as part of their trafficking operations. Money laundering will be rampant with the adoption of Bitcoin, especially in El Salvador where there are no regulations, it will be like the old west, Hanke further warned. More related news about government intrusion into the crypto space can be found at Corruption.news. Sources for this article include: Twitter.com Twitter.com ElSalvador.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The Gateway Pundit alternative news online website is extraordinary at getting the inside scoop on everything from political issues to whistleblowers about Covid. That is why the tech giants are censoring the links to all of The Gateway Pundit articles from all T-Mobile smart devices in several states across the union. This is some Soviet Russia style censorship and rewriting of history as it happens, as the Left is currently and quietly blocking some of the most vital truth news on the planet from being communicated across smart phone lines. Are you on T-Mobiles Stalin network? T-Mobile customer service supervisors instructed to blame Google or you for inability to send TGP links From 1929 to 1953, Joseph Stalin ruled Soviet Russia (USSR) using terror tactics and censorship of his enemies. He changed history by cropping people out of important photographs, pretending afterwards that they never even existed. Currently, the Democrats in Washington DC are controlling not just most of the mass media, but are now actively censoring alternative news from being read, shared and sent among people through smart devices. It is very important for the Democrats to hide all of their evil ways, including information about scandals, Covid, deception, money laundering, vaccine-induced deaths, trans-perversions and child trafficking. T-Mobile has joined the Stalin-style censorship of truth news now. They are all in for blocking the most important news from being communicated news that reveals the new Communism rule in America that wants complete tyrannical control and depopulation schemes in full effect. That is why not ONE single supervisor at T-Mobile has offered to lift the block of TGP texted links. They just blame anything else and act dumbfounded. Have you tried turning your phone off and back on again sir/maam? Gateway Pundit garners nearly one billion views in 2021, now T-Mobile bans their links from being sent by TEXT, are all private emails next? TGP is actively a top 250 website in the country for news, and they are being banned by T-Mobile secretly so everyone wont know. It looks like you sent the link to someone, but they never get it. Meanwhile MSM publishes lies right and left (pardon the pun) and gets away with it every day, all day, no censorship there. T-Mobile is changing history daily, right now, and will continue to do so until enough of their customers switch to a different service provider. Imagine if CNNs links were disappeared by Verizon, and none of their customers could send news posts to each other. Imagine the uproar from the Left. All of MSM news would be broadcasting headlines phrased racist network and Russia Collusion and everyone knows how that goes. Only this is not staged, its real, and its happening now. The Gateway Pundit has published countless T-Mobile customer screenshots proving their news links are being blocked, erased, and not-to-be-spoken-about. Customer service at T-Mobile cant fix it, they say. They wont. The ban is coming from the top. There are lots of cases of this happening in Virginia and Pennsylvania right now. Its also frequent when T-Mobile users send TGP links via TEXT to people with Apple devices on the Verizon network. Next, expect multiple carriers to block more truth news website links and then all private emails containing those links. Double check right now. Click on some TGP news links and try to text them to friends and relatives, then ask them if they came through and were usable. Check to see if Natural News links will work also. Then check your emails for those links. We must stay aware of the massive censorship Blitzkrieg thats taking place this winter. Stay tuned and stay frosty. Tune your internet to Censored.news for huge swaths of truth news thats being censored from the rest of media as you read this. Sources for this article include: NaturalNews.com TheGatewayPundit.com Censored.news The official who holds court documents in Palm Beach County wants the Florida Legislature to change state law to allow the release of secret grand jury proceedings involving the deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. Joseph Abruzzo, the countys clerk of the circuit court and comptroller, inherited custody of the Epstein grand jury materials when he took office a year ago. Abruzzo said Tuesday hes seeking a change in state law to allow public release of those documents. Advertisement He said he would leave no stone unturned to do whatever I can to shed full light and public disclosure on the Epstein case. Abruzzo said Tuesday in a written statement that he would work with members of the Palm Beach County Legislative delegation to seek a change in state law based on a right to justice that if a person is deceased and the files in question have already been released, which are the facts of the Epstein case, that they would then become public record. Advertisement He said hes currently seeking a legislative sponsor. Abruzzos push to change the law comes just days after the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted last week of luring girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. Maxwells trial included the accounts of victims who described the sex abuse from decades ago at Epsteins homes in Palm Beach, as well as in New York and New Mexico. [ RELATED: Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Jeffrey Epstein sex abuse case ] Grand jury proceedings When Abruzzo took office in January 2021, after the 2020 elections, he inherited a lawsuit filed by the Palm Beach Post against his predecessor that asked a circuit judge to release confidential 2006 grand jury proceedings. The grand jury was initiated under former Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer and resulted in a 2008 plea deal, cut by Krischer and then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, that allowed Epstein a well-connected and wealthy financier who molested girls at his Palm Beach home to avoid federal charges and plead guilty to a state charge of soliciting a prostitute. A Miami Herald investigation revealed what happened to Epsteins victims and delved into what led to the plea deal. [ RELATED: Ghislaine Maxwell, in unsealed testimony, depicts her life in South Florida with Jeffrey Epstein ] Last month, a Palm Beach County Circuit Court judge rejected the request to release the records, saying in his ruling that state law doesnt allow their release. Seeking changes So Abruzzo said he would seek to change that law. Breaking News As it happens Be the first to know with email alerts on important breaking stories from the Orlando Sentinel newsroom. > In the ruling against the Palm Beach Post, the judge clearly states that there is no flexibility under the current Florida Statutes or Rules of Procedure to release grand jury records in the Jeffrey Epstein case, Abruzzo said. Advertisement [ RELATED: Jeffrey Epstein in South Florida: A constant search for new girls ] He said he was also looking at whether there are any legal options to make his own move in court to potentially have the judiciary allow us to release the files. I will leave no stone unturned to do whatever I can to shed full light and public disclosure on the Epstein case. However, I will not break the law by releasing documents that Im prohibited from releasing without a court order or legislative approval. Knowing or intentionally doing so would likely result in my removal from office, and the possibility of criminal charges, Abruzzo said. From 2008 to 2018 Abruzzo served in the Florida House and the Florida Senate. [ RELATED: South Florida reaction to Trump dumping one-time Epstein prosecutor Alex Acosta: Not a moment too soon ] In 2018, the Herald published its investigation. In July 2019, Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges. He committed suicide a month later at the Federal Correctional Center in Manhattan. At the time federal authorities from the Southern District of New York arrested Epstein on some of the same charges South Florida prosecutors didnt pursue years earlier, Acosta was serving as then-President Donald Trumps labor secretary. As Acostas role came under intense scrutiny July 2019, he resigned from Trumps cabinet. Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @browardpolitics (Natural News) One of the most insightful dialogues of 2021 was Joe Rogans interview of Dr. Robert Malone (#1757). Dr. Malone invented the mRNA technology that is being used in the experimental covid vaccines. Dr. Malone has developed medical products, drugs and clinical trials. He has worked directly with Dr. Anthony Fauci and scientists at the Centers for Disease Control. However, at this critical moment in history, he refuses to follow along with their vax-all agenda that has quashed medical ethics and destroyed the principles of medical privacy and informed consent. For not complying, Dr. Malone was banned from Twitter. He was also de-platformed and then re-instated from LinkedIn, for stating the simple fact that the head of Reuters is on the board of Pfizer. (Reuters is used as the end-all, know-all fact checker for Twitter and other social media sites.) Robert Malone vows to continue telling the truth even as the drug companies try to censor his voice. Here are some major takeaways from the Rogan/Malone interview: The gain-of-function research behind the development of the bioweapon spike protein ultimately paved the way for the development of a similar, but different spike protein which is currently being used as mRNA instructions in the covid vaccine. The drug companies have an ethical obligation to prove that the spike protein in their vaccine is not toxic, said Malone. Many people are not acutely injured by the vaccines and some show no adverse effects at all. Rogan asked why. Malone explained that the response curve is due to variances in the individual immune system, including phenotypic/genetic differences. Malone spoke about the term anti-vaxxer which is used to falsely shame people who do not take orders from public health officials. Its similarly used to socially ostracize anyone who dissents to drug company propaganda. Malone discussed the BBCs Trusted New Initiative which charges individuals for spreading misinformation if they speak out against Tedros, Fauci, or other vaccine propagandists. Dr. Malone emphasized the trauma that is being imparted in childrens minds, and the subsequent dehumanization, de-socialization and abuse that is being used against children with forced masks and isolation. When Rogan asked why hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were smeared by the media and blocked by the regulatory establishment, Malone said two people were key in this decision. One of them was vaccine promoter Rick Bright, who runs the Pandemic Prevention Institute at The Rockefeller Foundation. Rick Bright used his position as Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to discredit chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, two drugs that displayed a history of safety and effectiveness against SARS-CoV-1. The other figure who blocked treatments for covid-19 was Janet Woodcock. After she took the helm at the Food and Drug Administration on January 20, 2021, she used the agency to mock ivermectin and contort its proper use in humans with its veterinary applications. Senator Ron Johnson wrote to Woodcock, Fauci and other public health officials, detailing their concern that efficacious treatments were being withheld to push out dangerous vaccines, for which informed consent has not properly been applied. Dr. Malone did not speculate on Woodcock and Brights intentions, but said they were wrong in their assertions. Both hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin are on the essential drugs list provided by the World Health Organization. Billions of doses have been safely administered. These drugs ease symptoms and shorten the duration of illness, preventing severe disease and death. Malone also said that Mercks repeated attacks on both drugs is bizarre, to say the least especially since high ivermectin use in Uttar Pradesh was associated with lower mortality rates. Joe Rogan asked Malone about the financial incentive to diagnose covid-19 in the hospital setting. Malone said hospitals are reimbursed around $3,000 for every covid-19 diagnosis. Treatment protocols are withheld because the hospitals are further incentivized to use remdesivir and ventilators, which are linked to renal failure, lung damage, and deadly nosocomial infection. It doesnt matter why the individual was initially hospitalized, whether they were suffering from underlying conditions, mediation errors, delayed surgeries, etc. If the hospital suspects covid-19 or can get a positive reading on a high cycle threshold PCR test, the hospital can fraudulently declare a covid-19 diagnosis and be reimbursed for their medical fraud and malpractice. When questioned on the waning efficacy of the vaccines, Malone concurred that the vaccines are leading to negative efficacy, like in the Denmark studies. As doses are increased, individuals become more prone to infection. In Israel, the citizens are being coerced to take a fourth dose, and the data shows enhanced disease in the vaccinated. Their B and T memory cells are being trained to attack a spike protein that has long since mutated, setting the vaccinated up for antibody dependent enhancement, autoimmune issues and cancer. Rogan and Malone discussed natural immunity and the studies that prove the superiority of innate immunity over half-baked, vaccine-augmented immune responses. Malone points to disturbing trends in myocarditis in young boys, post vaccination. He spoke about the infertility risk due to the effect of lipid nano-particles on womens ovaries. He warned about the spike protein and its propensity to cause blood clots. They discussed the censorship of Maddie de Garay, the young girl who was acutely injured in the Pfizer trial. Malone said that financial incentives and expected outcomes are used to hide data on vaccine injuries, while promoting contrived end points that make the vaccine look good. Malone warned: Our government is out of control on this. They are lawless, they completely disregard bioethics and these mandates of an experimental vaccine are explicitly illegal, they are explicitly inconsistent with the Nuremberg Code. Watch the entire interview: Sources include: Brighteon.com RWMaloneMD.substack.com Threadreaderapp.com Nature.com NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov RonJohnson.Senate.gov Lifesitenews.com ImmuneSystem.news NewsTarget.com FALFURRIAS, TX - JULY 22: A U.S. Border Patrol agent endures the heat after taking undocumented immigrants into custody on July 22, 2014 near Falfurrias, Texas. Thousands of immigrants, many of them minors, have crossed illegally into the United States this year, causing a humanitarian crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. Texas Governor Rick Perry announced that he will send 1,000 National Guard troops to help stem the flow. (Photo : Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) The border crossing route from Mexico to the U.S is currently in severe heat condition causing dehydration and death among migrants. As climate change gets worse, human migration had become unregulated, and the world, uninhabitable. Environmental conditions across the region, particularly the border between Nogales, Mexico and Three Point, Arizona, had led to several deaths in nearly 40-year span, narrowed down to the hottest months of the year between May and September. To calculate the deadliest points in US-Mexico borders, researchers used a biophysical model of human dehydration. Findings suggest that majority of those deaths of 93 deaths recorded were caused mainly by dehydration. Physiological stresses from deadly heat After mapping out deaths from dataset in the affected regions, researchers linked severe dehydration to water loss as well as physiological challenge in animal species. "We provide the first empirical evidence that the physiological stresses experienced by humans attempting to cross the Sonoran Desert into the U.S. are sufficient to cause severe dehydration and associated conditions that can lead to death," says Ryan Long, associate professor of wildlife sciences at the University of Idaho and senior author of the study. "[A] disproportionately large percentage of migrant deaths occur in areas where the predicted rates of water loss are highest." In an attempt to enter the U.S. through the Sonoran Desert, migrants are significantly challenged on the account of human survival. Such severe dehydration was also associated with disorientation and organ failure, leading to death. "Access to sufficient amounts of drinking water to support the high rates of water loss experienced during the journey likely makes the difference between life and death for many migrants," Long said. The experience was better illustrated by people who emigrated from Mexico to the U.S. For instance, Lucho, a 47-year-old migrant from Jalisco, Mexico described his experience as "hallucinating". "We were surrounded by dirt but I kept seeing water everywhere in the desert," Lucho described. Also read: Christmas Winter Storm Causes 20-Car Pileup and Closure of Key Highways in Nevada Bound to worsen with climate change Models of future warming and water loss in the region revealed how much more dangerous border crossings will become. In Arizona, the fourth-fastest warming state in the U.S., 50 dangerous heat days are already expected to linger in a year, which are set to become 80 days by 2050. "We find that migrants' journey will become significantly more dangerous over the next 30 years," Reena Walker, graduate student at U of I and co-lead author of the study said. Their calculations suggest that, by 2050, people crossing the border on foot will have at least a 30% increase in their water loss during the journey due to higher temperatures. More importantly, migration between the U.S. and Mexico has become common and complex, influenced by many factors. Undoubtedly, climate change is driving migration as well as the influence of extreme weather. Moreover, other climate disasters such as two back-to-back hurricanes last year and drought that climate had been crisis at the U.S. border. In 2019, UN defined climate change as an "emerging threat that is already displacing people all over the world." Also read: Massive Flood in Brazil Leaves 18 People Dead and 280 Injured Two individuals are still missing after a deadly wildfire ravaged Colorado in the United States' central region. According to local media, one missing was a 91-year-old widow whose family had been trapped by the advancing flames. Hundreds of homes were destroyed, and thousands of people were forced to leave due to the fire that spread across multiple towns. Sheriff Joe Pelle of Boulder County had previously stated that it was unlikely that any missing people would be discovered alive. However, one individual had been located safe and sound. The wildfire-ravaged Boulder County, burning at least 1,000 houses and businesses. It began in arid conditions and was partly brought under control due to snowfall. Snowfall of more than 10 inches (25cm) has blanketed the Boulder region, complicating attempts to locate people who have gone missing. Images showed unsettling vistas of burnt structures covered beneath a blanket of snow. Residents displaced by the wildfire are coming to grips with what occurred, with some returning home to discover their homes destroyed. Jessi Delaplain, who lost her house in the fire, told CBS, "I feel like I made it out with my life, and that's I guess the most important thing." "I grabbed myself and my cats, which was no easy thing to cram into the car, and I pulled out of the driveway to find flames encircling us." The cause of the blaze is still being looked into. Hot, dry weather is more likely to feed wildfires due to climate change, and scientists say flames in western North America have become more severe in recent years. 2021 Wildfire Season Unlike hurricane seasons and monsoons, the start of the North American wildfire season is not set in stone. Historically, wildland firefighting resources, including men, trucks, helicopters, and airplanes, have been shared between Canada and the United States. Both nations' wildfire response strategies have been built around having access to supplies from their neighbor. However, both countries were unable to exchange resources this year as they battled numerous wildfires within their borders at the same time, revealing the flaws in their strategies. Officials throughout the continent heeded the warnings and advised communities and individuals to prepare for a challenging summer ahead, which proved true in many locations. Multiple governments in Colorado, Oregon, Nevada, Washington State, and Western Canada (including Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia) have issued warnings about potentially catastrophic fire conditions that might surpass last year's devastating wildfire season. Droughts afflicted much of the continent, including Western Canada, the majority of the Western United States from the Pacific to the Midwest, and practically all of Mexico. Also Read: How Climate Misinformation Through Social Media Worsens the Battle Against Climate Change For more news about natural calamities, don't forget to follow Nature World News! State Sen. Will Haskell announced on Monday that he will not seek reelection to a third term this fall as he takes an intermission in public service to start law school. The 25-year-old Westport Democrat, who is co-chairman of the legislative Transportation Committee, said he has numerous items on his agenda for the upcoming legislative session, including the prioritization of investments to update the states transit infrastructure. There are a lot of exciting things going on, but it feels like the right time in my life to take an intermission, said Haskell, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Georgetown University and will continue working through the summer in U.S. Rep. Jim Himes constituent-outreach office. When I first ran, it was because I thought it was time for a change. He said the lingering COVID pandemic is still a major obstacle, but once the state emerges, he is hoping to become laser-focused on transportation-related issues, including green investments. Haskell prides himself on being available to district residents. If you pick up the phone and you call your state senator, you're going to get my cellphone, he said. If you have a great idea, I am going to ask for your help in making sure that idea becomes law. He recalled a Wilton High School student who was concerned about the mental health and wellness of classmates, but disappointed that under Connecticut state law, young people were only entitled to a handful of confidential treatment sessions, and there were requirements to inform parents. Haskell admitted that he had been unaware of the law. And now in the state of Connecticut, thanks to his hard work, young people are entitled to an unlimited number of confidential sessions if it's decided by the provider and the professional they did treatment with that confidentiality would be in their best interest, Haskell said. Haskell is also the author of the newly published book 100,000 First Bosses: My Unlikely Path as a 22-Year-Old Lawmaker: One of Americas Youngest State Senators. Each of the 36 state Senate districts has a population of about 100,000. The last four years have made me very happy, he said. Im really grateful to the people who took a chance with me. I really tried to do more listening than talking in this job. Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said he believes Haskell has had more impact in four years than many long-term lawmakers can point to in much-longer careers. Will leaving the Senate is personally devastating because I like him so much and he has accomplished a lot in such a short time, said Duff, whose 25th Senate district abuts Haskells 26th district, which includes Bethel, New Canaan, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston, Wilton and Westport. I am happy he is going to law school and engaged to be married as he takes the next steps in his life. This has to be celebrated as well. He has been effective in getting his priorities through. He is a skilled, gifted and natural legislator. Following the January 2021 resignation of Sen. Carlo Leone, D-Stamford, from the legislature when he took a job with the Lamont administration, Haskell left the co-chairmanship of the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee and was named Senate chairman of the joint Transportation Committee. Haskell is also vice chairman of the Government Administration & Elections Committee and serves on the Energy & Technology Committee, the Environment Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the Public Health Committee, and remains on the Higher Education Committee. While it is too early to speculate on potential candidates to replace Haskell, who defeated incumbent Sen. Toni Boucher, a Wilton Republican in 2018 by 28,159 votes to 24,574, the district itself will change drastically in the recent reapportionment, which due to the loss of population in eastern Connecticut, a House seat was shifted to Wilton. Bethel is not included in the new 26th District, which will include Westport, Redding, about half of Ridgefield, part of northern Darien, part of southern New Canaan, and the Springdale and Belltown neighborhoods of Stamford. Staff writer J.D. Freda contributed to this report. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has made it official: hes quitting Congress to take over former President Donald Trumps social media company. The 10-term right-wing lawmaker followed through Monday on his pledge to give up his seat even though he was in line for a shot to become chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Advertisement It has been the honor of my life to represent the people of Californias San Joaquin Valley for the last 19 years, Nunes said in a letter read on the floor of the House of Representatives. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) (Al Drago/AP) Nunes didnt explicitly mention his plans to lead the media venture, Trump Media & Technology Group, which announced his expected role last month. TMTG enjoyed a lucrative launch despite offering scant details about its business plans. Advertisement Ive been presented with a new opportunity to fight for the most important issues I believe in, Nunes said in his letter. Nunes resignation is effective Monday. It temporarily reduces the number of sitting members of Congress to 435 as a special election is still being held to replace Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), who died last year. Democrats hold a razor-thin edge. But with Nunes sidelined, they will be able to lose the votes of up to four lawmakers and still pass legislation, compared with just three as things now stand. Nunes was one of Trumps most outspoken loyalists in Congress. The scion of a dairy farming family from the agriculture-rich Central Valley, he unsuccessfully sued in an effort to silence social media wags who sought to needle him by posing as his mom or even his cow. Newburyport, MA (01950) Today Cloudy this morning with showers during the afternoon. High 54F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight Light rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Low 44F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Help support your local hometown newspaper/website. Independent local news reporting matters. Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription, for as little as $3, so we can continue to provide independent local reporting on our communities. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 49 50. Border Collies Average rank: 49.3 - Highest rank: #33 (2019) - Lowest rank: #65 (2003) - 2019 rank: #33. Border collies are considered to be one of the most intelligent dog breeds. This trait allows them to excel at sheepherding, which these dogs were originally bred for. Though they may seem happy-go-lucky and adorable to owners, border collies are known for staring down a flock of sheep to intimidate them into obedience. (Canva) MIDDLETOWN The city has received 3,500 at-home COVID test kits from the state health department, but none of them will be distributed to the general public. The state and the city are aggressively pursuing other means to procure sufficient testing supplies to provide to residents. We hope these will be arriving soon, Mayor Ben Florsheim said Monday. Connecticuts positivity rate hit 21.5 percent Monday, when COVID hospitalizations reached 1,452 patients the most since May 2020. Middletown officials had hoped to have enough supplies, which include N95 masks, to serve every resident, however, the mayor said, it is simply neither efficient nor equitable to distribute 3,500 test kits to 48,000 residents at a mass distribution site on a first-come, first-served basis. Distribution to high-priority groups and individuals will be overseen by the Medical Reserve Corps and Community Emergency Response Team. They will be given to congregate living facilities providing specialized care, senior living facilities, first responders, school staff, and essential workforce staff. The kits are being distributed to maximize their effectiveness and to prevent residents from having to wait for hours in line, only to leave empty-handed, the mayor said. Public distribution will be scheduled when enough supply is available, he said. This follows the cancellation of Fridays planned distribution of some 6,030 kits at the high school, as the state was unable to fulfill the promised amount of tests to municipalities after facing distribution issues. Staff and families should be given the tools they need to maximize protection against COVID, Acting Health Director Kevin Elak said over the weekend. Public schools operation The school system had been planning to receive a shipment of at-home kits this week following the city-wide distribution, but that is now being rescheduled. As of Saturday, there were 78 students and 33 staff across the citys public school system who had tested positive, with an additional 135 students and two staff members quarantined after a close contact. The small percentage of faculty or staff who are not inoculated are required to submit to weekly testing. Unlike other districts across the state, Middletown schools are still operating under quarantine procedures and the Screen and Stay Initiative. The state Department of Public Health on Friday released new school COVID guidelines that cut the required quarantine period in half to five days and gave school districts the option to no longer conduct contact tracing. However, in a letter issued to parents Sunday, Acting Superintendent Alberto Vazquez Matos said the district will continue to follow the same 10-day quarantine for those who test positive as well the policy of isolating those who were in contact with a person with COVID. The district also accepts the results of at-home antigen tests as evidence of a negative test so students can return to school. It will also continue contact tracing. Elak said once the supplies arrive, it will be up to school administrators how they are distributed to families. They will be used in addition to the already practiced precautionary measures, including wearing masks every day, checking temperature upon arrival, and quarantining away from school if a child tests positive for COVID-19. For information, visit middletownct.gov or call 860-638-4960. One of my editors recently shared with me, and two other columnists, a delightful missive from a reader praising us three. Its always a thrill to hear from a reader and I want to thank Carol Allison for her kind words. I especially like the quote from Michael J. Fox in AARP that she noted: Gratitude makes optimism sustainable. I live by that doctrine every day and every day I express gratitude for everything I have. It lifts me up, and yes, makes me a diehard optimist. In my early teens, I wrote a thin newsletter about the Beatles and got permission to make copies on my schools mimeograph. I charged my readers about 25 cents for it and soon, I was mailing them to new readers who heard about it from friends. I did it for the fun of sharing my wild enthusiasm over my favorite band. Eventually, I received a cease and desist letter from an attorney who told me I could not use the name The Beatles. Heartbroken, I asked if I could use a drawing of their mop-tops instead. He thought about that for a minute, then said that could be done, so I carried on. Stacker compiled the most popular baby names for girls of the 1970s in Georgia using data from the Social Security Administration. Click for more. By Li Weijian and Cheng Xu The year 2021 has seen frequent military hotspots and release of new weapons and equipment. Some of them are forward-looking and innovative, some wrap up hurriedly in embarrassment, and some have aroused close attention for their attempt to counter and check other countries. Generally speaking, weapons and equipment are becoming more systematic, intelligent and precise. 1. ROKs new-generation fighter jet rolls out ROKs KF-21 fighter On April 9, ROKs Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) held a rollout ceremony for the new-generation fighter jet KF-21 at Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) located in Sacheon, Gyeongsangnam-do. ROK President Moon Jae-in called the fighter a milestone in the countrys aerospace industry when addressing the ceremony. The first prototype of ROKs KF-X program, the KF-21 fighter jet was originally benchmarked against the fifth-generation fighter but later reduced to 4.5th-generation. Bearing much resemblance to Americas F-22 in appearance, KF-21 adopts the conventional aerodynamic layout, twin vertical tails, and twin engines with a maximal velocity of Mach 1.8. Featuring a no-weapon-bay design, the fighter jet carries weapons and other payloads on its pylons, hence has only partial stealth capability. The first batch of mass-production products is only capable of air-to-air combat while follow-up batches will be able to carry out air-to-ground attacks. ROK has high hopes for the KF-X program, claiming that KF-21 is the most advanced independently-developed fighter in Asia, whereas in fact it is called an assembled product deriving from the western aviation industry chain as it uses lots of imported equipment and devices, such as Americas F414 turbofan engine and Europes Meteor air-to-air missile. It would have been come out much later but for the support from the US and Europe. 2. Britains Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier deployed overseas for the first time. Britains Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier Britains carrier strike group, led by HMS Queen Elizabeth, set out from the Port of Portsmouth on May 23 for the seven-month combat deployment in the Asian-Pacific region. The largest aircraft carrier in British history, HMS Queen Elizabeth is considered the hope to restore the UK as a power on the sea. The British military attached so much importance to the overseas deployment that it almost cleared out the entire Royal Navy. The taskforce consisted of two Type 45 destroyers, two Type 23 frigates, an Astute-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, comprehensive supply ships and fuel supply ships, together with destroyers and frigates from the US and the Netherlands. As Britains carrier-based aircraft hasnt formed combat capability yet, HMS Queen Elizabeth was fitted with 18 borrowed F-35B fighters. Despite the high hopes pinned on the fleet, its Asian-Pacific voyage wasnt as smooth as expected. First of all, it didnt set out until May this year because of several postponements caused by carrier leakage. Then, soon after it set out, a destroyer trespassed into Russias territorial waters in the Black Sea and was warned by bomb-dropping from a Russian Su-24M fighter. Later, the two Type 45 destroyers left the fleet one after another because of malfunction. The fleet made several mistakes during the multilateral joint exercise. To top it all off, an F-35B fighter dropped into the sea when taking off on the way back. Nevertheless, the British Royal Navy highly commented on this voyage. The head of the carrier fleet said that after the Asian-Pacific tour, the Royal Navy will regularly deploy two patrol ships in the region and send an amphibious force to be resident there in 2023. However, given the Royal Navys shrinking capacity in recent years, whether the plan of regular deployment will come through remains uncertain. 3. Russias fifth-generation light fighter jet unveiled Russias Su-75 Checkmate prototype The prototype of Russias fifth-generation light fighter jet Su-75 Checkmate made its debut at the Moscow International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS) in July. The Su-75 is a single-engine lightweight stealth fighter launched by Russia on the basis of Su-57 to replace MiG-29 and match with Su-57 in a light-heavy duet. The new aircraft features a body length of 17.3m, wingspan of 11.9m, combat radius of 1,400km, max. flying velocity of Mach 1.8, and max. combat load of 7.4t. The three embedded weapons bay can carry air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles and bombs. The nose is mounted with Active Phased Array Radar (APAR) and infrared search and track (IRST) system, and the operating system in the cabin is equipped with an AI-assisted decision-making system. Overall, Su-75 is superior to Su-57 in terms of flying performance and stealth performance. According to Sukhoi Design Bureau, Su-75, with a manufacturing cost of about USD 30 million, is expected to realize mass production in 2026 targeting the international market. Analysts said the aircraft would be appealing to countries armed with Russian fighters for its solid air combat capability and fair price. The aircraft will compete with F-35 in the international arms market. 4. Americas F-35C fighters deployed for real combat Americas F-35C fighter In August, the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group was fitted with F-35C Lightning II for the first time, ushering its ship-based fighters into the fifth-generation era. The F-35 family comprises F-35A land-based type of regular take-off and landing, F-35B of short-distance/vertical take-off and landing, and F-35C of ship-borne catapult take-off and landing. The last type is the largest and most expensive with the longest combat radius compared with the other two, but its also the last to be assembled and commissioned. The deployment of F-35C for real combat is of great importance for the US Navy. On the one hand, the aircraft can maintain superiority during air combat in complicated scenarios because of its fine stealth performance and situation awareness capability, thus enhancing the carrier taskforces control in the sea. On the other hand, the aircraft, once commissioned on a large scale, will bring an inter-generational superiority to Americas carrier-based fleet over that of other countries, thus reinforcing the US Navys military deterrence. However, the manufacturing of F-35C has proceeded very slow due to the shortage of engines and other factors, so it wont be soon before it reaches a large scale. 5. Russias Zircon missile finishes submarine test launch Russias Zircon hypersonic missile The Russian Defence Ministry announced on October 4 that the Russian Navy successfully test-fired a Zircon hypersonic missile from underwater that day and hit the target precisely, proving the missiles submarine-launched combat capability. The Zircon missile is one of the key non-nuclear deterrents that Russia has been focusing on in recent years. Boasting a powerful systematic penetration capability, it has a max. flying speed of Mach 8 and a shooting range of more than 1,000 km. Dubbed as a carrier killer, the missile is mainly used to attack large vessel fleets and high-value targets onshore. The Russian Navy first test-fired the Zircon missile at the end of February 2020 proving that it can be launched from surface to carry out anti-ship operations. The successful submarine-based test launch verified the possibility of launching it from underwater. Russia is also developing the land-based and air-based platform for the missile to gradually set up an all-round strike system. 6. Americas hypersonic missile facilities delivered Americas Dark Eagle hypersonic missile The day after Russia completed the submarine-based test launch of its Zircon missile, the US Army announced that it had officially taken over the first set of ground facilities for the Dark Eagle long-range hypersonic missile, including a command vehicle and four transport and launch vehicles mainly used for testing and training. With a design velocity of Mach 5 and max. range of 2,500 km, the Dark Eagle hypersonic missile is a weapon under the US Armys long-range precise fire strike program. The Army also plans to deploy the first Dark Eagle missile company in FY 2023, followed by a second in 2025 and a third in 2027. In fact, US Armys hypersonic weapon program doesnt proceed so fast. American newspaper Stars and Stripes reported that although part of the ground facilities have been delivered, the missile itself the most vital part is lacking. The army said the first Dark Eagle missile company wont be ready until 2023 at least, which means they can only use simulators for training in the next two years. 7. S-500 system commissioned in Russias Aerospace Force Russias S-500 air defense missile system The Russian Aerospace Force officially took over the first batch of S-500 air-defense missile systems in October that will be used to protect the security of Moscow and the industrial zones in the middle of the country. As the latest air and space defense weapon in Russia, the S-500 system is capable of air defense, space defense, and anti-missile combat. It consists of three modules early warning detection, fire strike, and command and control, and is equipped with four types of radars and three types of missiles, being able to intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons, and low-orbit satellites. In addition to ultra-long-range and ultra-high-altitude interception, the system is also compatible with the interceptors of the S-400 air defense system and can work with such systems as A-235 and S-350 to carry out joint air defense and anti-missile operations effectively. Americas retreat from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and its plan to deploy medium-range missiles in Europe has seriously threatened Russias air and space security. In response, Moscow has continuously intensified its air and space defense forces and established an integrated anti-missile combat system covering high, medium and low altitudes and long, medium, and short ranges. As an important part of this combat system, the commissioning of the S-500 system is of great significance. 8. US releases conceptual drawings of next-generation fighters US Air Forces conceptual drawing for F-X program The US Air Force and Navy respectively released the conceptual drawings of their next-generation fighter jets in April and October along with details, which revealed the thoughts and framework of their development. The pre-research for the next-generation fighter began in 2007. In the early stage, US Air Force and Navy made conceptual explorations separately according to their own needs, and gradually developed two parallel programs F-X and F/A-XX. The released conceptual drawings showed that the Air Forces F-X fighter highlights air combat superiority, high speed, and stealth and systematic performance, while the Navys F/A-XX fighter features twin engines, cropped delta wing, canard, and both manned and unmanned configurations. The US military is good at conceptual R&D, but developing a cross-generational fighter is a long, systematic process that entails a huge amount of verifications. There is a big question mark over how the conceptual design of their next-generation fighters will proceed going forward. 9. Japan builds new-type anti-ship missile system Japans Type 12 shore-to-ship missile Japan took a series of actions on anti-ship missiles early this year. It threw out plans to purchase ASM-3A supersonic anti-ship missile, extend the shooting range of Type 12 surface-to-ship missile (SSM), and to develop stealthy anti-ship missiles with the range of 2,000 km, in the attempt to put in place a new anti-ship missile combat system covering the land, sea and air. The ASM-3A is the first supersonic air-to-ship missile that Japan will put into service soon. Fitted onboard F-2 fighters, the missile, with a cruise speed of Mach 3 and a range of more than 200 km, boasts a combat performance equivalent to its peer missiles in other countries. The Type 12 SSM is a subsonic anti-ship one with a rather short range, and Japan plans to turn it into a land-attack cruise missile by extending its range to 1,500 km. Japan also put forth the plan to develop a new anti-ship missile with a range of 2,000 km that is capable of launching both land and sea attacks. Japans strong efforts to develop aggressive weapons exposed its ambition to break away from the defense only policy and establish an attack system, which rates a high level of vigilance. 10. Americas carrier-based unmanned refueling drone finishes onboard testing Americas MQ-25A carrier-based unmanned refueling tanker The US Navy completed the first onboard testing of the MQ-25 Stingray carrier-based unmanned refueling drone on the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in December. MQ-25A is an unmanned refueling tanker developed by Boeing. Since June this year, it has completed aerial refueling tests for F/A-18 Super Hornets, E-2D early warning aircraft, and F-35C fighter, fully verifying its coordination capability. With a max takeoff weight of 20t and a carrying capacity of 6.8t, the tanker is able to perform refueling tasks within a 900-plus-km radius of the aircraft carrier. The MQ-25A carrier-based refueling tanker is of great importance for US Navy. It will not only mitigate the shortage of carrier-borne fighter jets, but also expand their combat radius and enhance the fleets security. However, this subsonic drone hardly escapes once it is radar-locked, and its limited carrying capacity disenables it to meet the refueling demand during high-intensity operations. Ben Frazier, Jacksonville Northside Coalition founder, is handcuffed by a member of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office after refusing to leave the room where the press conference with the governor was to be held in Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. The planned press conference with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was relocated from the Department of Children and Families office building to the adjacent FDLE building after protesters, wanting to address the governor refused to leave the initial press conference site. (Bob Self/The Florida Times-Union via AP) (Bob Self / AP) A Jacksonville activist demanding to speak with the governor about the COVID-19 crisis was handcuffed and led away Tuesday from a press conference by Gov. Ron DeSantis that was delayed for an hour. Ben Frazier, founder of Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, refused to leave when asked by DeSantis staffers to clear a room at the Florida Department of Health building in Duval County. Advertisement He and a few supporters asked to speak with DeSantis, mainly about his response to COVID-19 and the omicron variant, but some mentioned other issues such as critical race theory. After 20 minutes of unsuccessful back and forth with Frazier by DeSantis staffers and police, Frazier was handcuffed and given a criminal citation for trespassing after a warning from law enforcement, a first-degree misdemeanor. Hes required to appear in court. Advertisement Ben Frazier being arrested at DeSantis presser in Jax. pic.twitter.com/WdD9cE3bo9 AG Gancarski (@AGGancarski) January 4, 2022 Im not yelling, Im speaking up,' Frazier said at one point, calling the governor missing in action on the pandemic. Im speaking just as loudly as Patrick Henry did. Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. > Frazier said he had a right to be there in a public facility, but a governors staff member countered that the press conference was private for security purposes. The governor briefly appeared in the room, at which point Frazier exclaimed, Look, the governor is running. DeSantis often has throngs of cheering supporters at his official news conferences. Critics usually aren't allowed in. https://t.co/imsbQiGSN5 Lawrence Mower (@lmower3) January 4, 2022 After the activists were removed, the press conference started. DeSantis repeated his call for the federal government to allow states to purchase their own monoclonal antibody treatments to combat COVID-19. Asked about the incident with Frazier, the governor said, I have no idea what happened and went on to the next question. Frazier, who is well known for civil rights work in Jacksonville, said in July he had contracted COVID-19 but was vaccinated and avoided hospitalization. In a statement, DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw defended the removal of the activists. Every citizen has the right to protest in public places but not to trespass in a secured facility in order to disrupt a press briefing and prevent essential information from being conveyed to the public, she wrote. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High 67F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Periods of rain. Low 56F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch. Longview, TX (75601) Today Scattered thunderstorms this morning, then cloudy skies this afternoon. High 87F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening. Thunderstorms likely late. Low 68F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%. A long, dark history of spillover events During the 14th century, the population of Europe was ravaged by a cryptic infection that induced symptoms such as vomiting, headaches, fever, and the development of unusual tumor-like growths named buboes. A shocking 80% of those infected died within 8 days of the symptoms first manifesting. This Bubonic plague resulted in the infamous Black Death, which resulted in a loss of life estimated to be in the region of tens of millions. While the people and even experts of the day tended to believe the plague was the result of divine fury or bad air (in line with miasma theory), the actual beginnings of the catastrophic event were unsettlingly far more unassuming. The infection was actually caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, found in fleas carried on rodents such as the common rat. Unfortunately, the zoonotic bacteria had spilled over from rodents into the human population, with disastrous consequences. Image Credit: illustrissima/Shutterstock.com Agriculture, Domestication and the Rise of Spillover Diseases Archaeological evidence tends to suggest that bacterial and viral infections and diseases were less prevalent in the hunter-gatherer world of the pre-Neolithic Age. From a practical perspective, this is unsurprising given that at that time, human society was divided into small tribes composed of as little as a couple of dozen individuals. Inter-tribe contact was typically rare which vastly limited the potential reach of even the most virulent of diseases. These factors, coupled with the fact that humans had yet to keep livestock and so had relatively limited interaction with animals (i.e., typically only during hunting and subsequent meat preparation), meant that spillover events from an animal species to humans were also far less likely to occur. The agricultural revolution irrevocably altered these dynamics. Firstly, the ability to produce large volumes of food through the cultivation of crops and rearing of livestock lead humanity to transition from a nomadic society to that of urbanization and mass settlement. Where tribes had previously engaged in little to no communication, now towns and cities composed of thousands of people began to flourish. Secondly, the amount of time spent in direct contact with animal species such as horses, canines, and cattle increased astronomically. As such, the playing field had dramatically shifted in favor of infections that had the propensity to make the transition to a new host species; homo sapiens. Evidence for this can be found in ancient cuneiform tablets found in Mesopotamia (widely accepted as being the birthplace of civilization), dated to approximately 1770 BCE, which describe laws relating to the compensation owed on the death of a slave due to a rabid dog bite. Spillover diseases in the 21st Century Our understanding of spillover infections and diseases has increased substantially since the days of plague doctors and apothecaries. Yet, even so, the past two years of global pandemic have shown that such diseases still pose a colossal risk to human life and society. To date, an estimated 5.3 million people have died as a result of coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) infection. Moreover, the economic toll is practically incalculable. Towards the beginning of the pandemic, geneticists and virologists were swiftly able to discern that the infection was caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This novel strain had previously been found circulating in Chinese bat populations before making the interspecies crossover through favorable genetic mutations and evolution. In doing so, the virus gained the ability to bind to the human ACE2 receptor with extremely high affinity, thus enabling it to invade and use the host cells machinery to replicate and propagate. Increasing prevalence While the origins of both COVID-19 and the Bubonic plague are both well understood, they, unfortunately, do not provide us with a clear answer as to how we can prevent such spillover events from occurring. Indeed, the rate of spillover events appears to actually be increasing over time. There are a few hypotheses as to why this is the case. Firstly, more than 65% of human viruses are zoonotic in origin. This suggests that, given enough time, interspecies crossover is a commonly developed ability in viruses and bacteria. This in turn implies that in a given geographical location, the probability of a zoonotic disease arising is relatively high over time. While the modern age enjoys the benefits of improved medicine and healthcare, it, unfortunately, provides many avenues for the propagation and spread of spillover diseases. Since the Black Death, the global population has increased from approximately 370 million to currently standing at 7.9 billion (as of December 2021). Modern-day cities are now filled with millions of people, such that the number of person-to-person interactions in urban areas has increased to all-time high levels. Globalization, as well as unprecedented levels of intercontinental travel, have also enabled infections to travel further and faster than ever seen before. In previous centuries, it could take years or even decades for diseases to spread between countries and continents, with many uncontacted areas of the globe remaining completely untouched (e.g., The Black Death occurred nearly 150 years before Columbus first voyage to the Americas, thus allowing these continents to remain completely untouched by the plague). However, COVID-19 has shown that modern infectious diseases can spread across the globe in a matter of months. This propagation is accentuated by the availability and efficiency of modern transport. For example, an infected person can travel from London to Beijing in less than 15 hours; less time than it might take for the symptoms of a given infection to manifest. This ability to travel vast distances in short periods of time has provided a more powerful tool for infectious spread than any naturally occurring genetic mutation possibly could. Image Credit: eamesBot/Shutterstock.com Difficulties in spillover event predictions and future directions Given the increasing threat posed by spillover diseases, the prediction of such events would be of significant value for health and government officials alike. Unfortunately, the multifaceted, highly complex nature of disease transmission and propagation makes this task extremely difficult if not impossible. As Rohde & McNamara (2021) put it: The dichotomy between host-range transmissibility bottlenecks and the increased rate of naturally occurring spillovers makes predicting what pathogen could trigger the next pandemic extremely difficult. Discovering an exact emerging pathogen within the global ocean of emerging and re-emerging agents is a tall task, even for those equipped with advanced molecular diagnostics and epidemiologic technologies. While generic measures such as travel bans and limitations on interpersonal contact are sure to mitigate and control the transmission of spillover diseases, they do little to prevent future events from occurring wherein a novel bacteria or viral infection makes a cross-species jump. However, projects such as the Strategies To Prevent Spillover (STOP Spillover), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), have been given this task in anticipating spillover events before they have the potential to reach pandemic levels. The consortium also aims to create practical interventions to reduce the risk of potential outbreaks in particularly high-risk areas. As well as this, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided vast amounts of data on how infectious diseases can originate and disseminate around the globe. Using such information, it is likely that institutions such as STOP Spillover can formulate effective measures through which the risk posed by spillover diseases can be mitigated, if not entirely prevented. References: Butler, T. (2014). Plague history: Yersins discovery of the causative bacterium in 1894 enabled, in the subsequent century, scientific progress in understanding the disease and the development of treatments and vaccines. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 20(3), 202-209. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-0691.12540 Guynup, S. (2021). Spillover diseases are emerging faster than ever before-thanks to humans. [Online] National Geographic. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/spillover-diseases-are-emerging-faster-than-ever-beforethanks-to-humans Parkinson, J. (2021). Preventing Viral Zoonotic Spillover Events. [Online] Contagionlive. Available at: https://www.contagionlive.com/view/preventing-viral-zoonotic-spillover-events Rohde, R.E., McNamara, R.P. (2021). Virus Spillover and Emerging Pathogens Pick Up Speed. Contagion, 6(2), 12-13. https://cdn.sanity.io/files/0vv8moc6/contagion/a67224d2d91c1167719465f978eb2909994df65d.pdf/0421_Contagion_ezine_0421%20web.pdf Tarantola, A. (2017). Four thousand years of concepts relating to rabies in animals and humans, its prevention and its cure. Tropical medicine and infectious disease, 2(2), 5. https://www.mdpi.com/2414-6366/2/2/5 Woolhouse, M., Scott, F., Hudson, Z., Howey, R., & Chase-Topping, M. (2012). Human viruses: discovery and emergence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367(1604), 2864-2871. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2011.0354 Further Reading TALLAHASSEE Legislative leaders are monitoring the spike in coronavirus cases across Florida but havent made plans to reimpose restrictions on public access that were used during the 2021 session. With the 2022 legislative session starting Jan. 11, people will be allowed to roam most of the Capitol complex and address lawmakers in person. Advertisement In light of the pandemic, the Florida House last session made significant improvements to facilities, including adding hospital-grade HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters for better air quality, ample hand sanitizing stations and more, House spokeswoman Jenna Sarkissian said in an email. These improvements remain in place as the 2022 legislative session approaches and members prepare to do the peoples business. The session will open against the backdrop of a spike in COVID-19 cases, as the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus has spread across the state. It also will come two months after lawmakers held a special session that included taking steps to prevent vaccination and mask mandates a key issue for DeSantis. Advertisement During the 2021 session, the Senate sharply restricted public access to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19. For example, people who wanted to speak before Senate committees had to go to the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, a few blocks west of the Capitol at Florida State University, and appear through a livestream feed. In the House, lobbyists and other visitors were required to register online at least three hours before committee meetings, show identification and pick up passes to gain access to meeting rooms. Katie Betta, a spokeswoman for Senate President Wilton Simpson, said in an email Monday that Simpson continues to monitor the status of the pandemic, but the Senate has not put in place plans to resume the 2021 restrictions. On Dec. 20, Simpson, R-Trilby, advised members that the Senate will be open to visitors throughout the upcoming 60-day session. A memo from Simpson also said senators could request social distancing and masking within their individual offices. Political Pulse Weekly Get latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. > We should all be respectful and honor such requests, added Simpson, who in October issued a rebuke to Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo for declining to wear a mask while in the office of Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton. Polsky was being treated for breast cancer. Ladapo defended his action by saying he cannot communicate clearly when half of my face is covered. Besides the option of senators requiring masks and social distancing in their offices, Simpson said the Senate will continue to conduct frequent cleanings of common areas and restrooms and provide wipes, sanitizer and other products for use in between routine cleanings of office spaces. Also, hand sanitizing stations remain in place in common areas and HEPA filters will be used in committee rooms, the Senate chamber and the press gallery. Advertisement We now have a better understanding of how our own personal health impacts others in the workplace, Simpson wrote. Everyone is encouraged to monitor their health daily and to stay at home when sick. The Senate will make testing available to elected officials and their staff, Simpsons memo said. The Senate and House will hold a joint session Jan. 11 in the House chamber to hear Gov. Ron DeSantis State of the State address, the traditional kickoff for the session. Patients with morbid obesity experienced improvement in their quality of life and distinctly fewer episodes of overeating after ten weeks with a new treatment method developed at NTNU. The current advice and treatment given to patients with obesity mostly involves eating less and healthier food and exercising more. In some of the most severe cases, patients undergo obesity surgery. We see a strong need for interdisciplinary treatment that considers the psychological aspects of morbid obesity much more than is happening now. The treatment we've been using is based on teaching patients to make them aware of the reasons for their overeating, followed by exercises and group discussions." Trine Tetlie Eik-Nes, NTNU Eik-Nes is an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science and has led the project. Patients who wanted help Overeating is defined as repeated episodes where a person eats far more than normal. The 42 adults who participated in the study were people who had visited the Obesity Outpatient Clinic at St. Olavs Hospital to ask for help. All the participants had third-degree obesity, meaning a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more, or second-degree obesity with additional problems. The majority of the group were women. Six people had undergone obesity surgery. Compound causes Eik-Nes believes that the understanding and treatment of obesity and overeating has been too narrow. "The explanation is more complicated than simply having a big appetite, genetic susceptibility and 'laziness'. International research indicates that 30 to 50 per cent of people with a high degree of overeating who seek treatment for obesity have psychological challenges around loss of control, such as overeating that lasts a whole day," she says. Eating to numb the pain According to the researcher, overeating is often related to internal and external stressors. The causes can be many and complex: for example, childhood trauma, negative thoughts about oneself, contempt for the body, problematic relationships with parents and social difficulties. Psychological treatment is not used enough for morbid obesity. A lot of people feel stigmatized because of their large body in their family, at school, at work and elsewhere in society. Food acts to numb and help cope with everyday life. "If you have security, good support, decent finances and a manageable everyday life, you don't need to regulate your emotions so much with food, alcohol or other stimuli," says Eik-Nes. Lack of treatment She believes that the health service offers morbidly obese patients lifestyle changes, when what they really need a comprehensive assessment and treatment that combines mental health care and somatics, meaning an understanding of what is going on internally, in their bodies. "This approach will give people with eating disorders a chance to succeed. Psychological treatment isn't used enough for morbid obesity, and the methods are too limited for such a heterogeneous group," Eik-Nes says. New method The treatment method used in the study was developed by Eik-Nes and Kjersti Hognes Berg. An interdisciplinary team conducted the assessments and treatment, which emphasized emotional safety and openness. The participants came together for 30 hours over ten weeks. After each teaching session, the patients broke into small groups for training in "dissecting" their own everyday lives. All 42 stayed with the study to the end. "We wanted to teach and make the patients aware of the connection between weight and mental health. During the ten weeks, the goal was for them to become more aware of the challenges they faced in everyday life and what strategies could help. Every individual was able to receive customized goals and measures this way," says Eik-Nes. Carryover to own life During treatment, patients became more aware of what causes them to react and triggers their overeating. For example, overeating or grazing (constant snacking) can calm the experience of being outside one's comfort zone. Many participants felt that their negative body image and shame posed a barrier to physical activity and a social life. Eik-Nes believes this might explain why it is so difficult for this group to put lifestyle measures into practice. Less eating and restlessness, more social life The researchers measured a clear improvement at the end of the ten weeks. "The patients experienced a nearly 30 per cent reduction in the number of overeating episodes and a significant improvement in their emotional issues, like inner turmoil, anxiety, depression and irritability. In addition, the patients reported that they felt far less restricted in their social activities," says Eik-Nes. The study did not measure weight loss, but the impression was that a good number of the participants had experienced some weight loss. According to the researcher, an important point of the study was to investigate how treatment that spans both physical and mental health can work. "Our interdisciplinary approach worked well. Just the fact that everyone completed the study is a very good result," says Eik-Nes. "We can't say anything about the long-term effect of the treatment yet. We hope this study can lay the foundation for a larger project on morbid obesity and psychological disorders. Then we'd like to investigate change over time," says Eik-Nes. The Nord-Trndelag Health Trust's Stjrdal District Psychiatric Centre (DPS) collaborated on the project with the Obesity Outpatient Clinic at St. Olav's Hospital in Trondheim. An olfactory receptor gene that aids in the sense of smell may also play a role in the metastasis of breast cancer to the brain, bones and lung, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found. The team further discovered that inhibiting the gene, OR5B21, significantly decreased the metastasis of breast cancer cells to these organs and could thus be an important target for future therapy to prevent its spread, according to a paper published in iScience. The common perception is that the only role of olfactory receptors, which line the nasal cavity and relay sensory data to the brain, is to recognize odor and smell. Our work suggests that the olfactory receptor 5B21 is also a novel oncogene that may figure prominently in cancer progression by driving breast cancer cells to the brain and other sites in the body." Bakhos Tannous, PhD, director of the Experimental Therapeutics Unit in the Department of Neurology at MGH and senior author of the study Breast cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed malignancy behind lung cancer, and the leading cause of cancer in women, with more than two million new cases reported each year. Moreover, migration of breast cancer to the brain is the leading cause of mortality from the disease, underscoring the urgent need for new therapeutic targets to delay or halt its metastasis. "The olfactory receptor family of genes is known to be overexpressed in a variety of cancers, including prostate, melanoma, lung and liver, though its role in breast cancer has been understudied in the past," says Litia Carvalho, PhD, co-corresponding author of the study and an instructor in Neurology at MGH. The team learned through its research with animal models that OR5B21 enhances or primes breast cancer cells to metastasize through a signaling pathway that activates a process known as the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). EMT prompts multiple biochemical or phenotypical changes in the olfactory cells which include enhanced migratory capacity to distant organs, especially the brain. "This activation converts a wide range of extracellular signals into intracellular messages through the signaling pathway NF-B/STAT, resulting in cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis," explains lead author Mao Li, a graduate student researcher in the Experimental Therapeutics Unit. "Our findings are novel for the field, though further research is needed to determine exactly how OR5B21 induces metastasis." Future research might also lead to a molecular inhibitor of OR5B21 in response to the team's discovery that downregulating the olfactory receptor resulted in a significant decrease in cancer cell metastasis. "Our hope," says Tannous, "is that using OR5B21 as a target for adjuvant therapy could help fill a huge unmet medical need by preventing breast cancer metastasis to the brain and other organs, and thus prolong survival of patients." Tannous is an associate professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and an associate neuroscientist at MGH. Despite the availability of effective vaccines, several SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) are circulating globally with mutations in the spike (S) protein, some of which are associated with increased transmissibility and immune escape. As a result, the Beta (B.1.351), Delta (B.1.617.2), and Omicron (B.1.1.529) VOCs, which are more resistant to vaccine-elicited immunity, have become predominant over the wildtype strain and the previously dominant Alpha (B.1.1.7 71) variant. In a recent study published on the bioRxiv* preprint server, researchers designed molecular probes of diverse severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants. They evaluated their antibody binding specificity for an overall assessment of immune responses. Study: Molecular probes of spike ectodomain and its subdomains for SARS-CoV-2 variants, Alpha through Omicron. Image Credit: Design_Cells / Shutterstock.com About the study In the current study, the researchers designed biotin-labeled molecular probes of wildtype SARS-CoV-2 S ectodomain and subdomains for identifying potent neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) targeting S specific regions of several VOCs, such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, Iota, Kappa, Delta, Lambda, Mu, and Omicron variants. The researchers synthesized 14 N-terminal domain (NTD) probes, 12 receptor-binding domain (RBD) probes, and 12 RBD with S subdomain 1 (RBD-SD1) probes, alongside their WA-1 strain counterpart, similar in expression to prefusion-stabilized spike ectodomain (S2P) probe. They also estimated the overall yield, physical properties, and antigenicity of these probes to quantify immune responses against S. The researchers evaluated the biotinylation and binding affinity of these probes to the antibody panel using bio-layer interferometry (BLI) and assessed the impact of incorporated VOC mutations on vaccine effectiveness for finding correlates of elicited immune responses with neutralization. Next, the researchers functionally validated these molecular probes by using yeast expressing a panel of nine SARS-CoV-2 S-binding antibodies. The sorting capabilities of these antibodies were confirmed using yeast displaying libraries of convalescent plasma from individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2. Lastly, these probes were deposited to Addgene for dissemination. Study findings The molecular probe constructs incorporated an N terminal purification tag denoted as scFc3C, a site-specific protease-cleavage site, an antigen sequence from SARS-CoV-2 variants having the entire S ectodomain (residues 14 to 1208) or S2P, NTD, RBD, and RBD-SD1, and 10lnQQ-AVI, which is a 10-residue linker, followed by a biotin ligase-specific sequence GLNDIFEAQKIEWHE at the C terminal. Structural modeling reveals a persistent D614G mutation, shared RBD mutations, and distinctive NTD mutations in five variants of concern. Structural models of a SARS-CoV-2 spike protomer from B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1, B.1.617.2, and B.1.1.529 variants. NTD, RBD, and SD1 domains are shown in orange, cyan, and green, respectively. Mutations are highlighted in the structural diagrams with a red sphere at C. Mutations at positions that are not resolved in the cryo-EM structure are labeled in italics with arrows pointing to the disordered regions (shown with dashed lines). Several previous studies on SARS-CoV-2 antibodies have shown the critical role of the epitopes of RBD and NTD antibodies in immunogenicity, which is why they are widely used for the isolation and characterization of NAbs. While all purified NTD probes did not react to S2-directed or RBD-directed antibodies, they clearly showed high responses to antibody S652-118, thereby indicating that the epitope of S652-118 was conserved among SARS-CoV, WA-1 SARS-CoV-2, and all SARS-CoV-2 variants investigated in this study. In addition, the low reactivity of S652-118 to the S2P probes indicated its restricted access to the S652-118 epitope by other domains in the S2P trimer. RBD-binding NAb CR3022 and the non-neutralizing antibody S652-109 showed lower responses to all the S2P variants, except for P.1 S2P. Other RBD-targeting antibodies, such as A23-58.1, A19-61.1, and B1-182.1, bound to all S2P probes, except to Omicron, whereas A19-46.1 recognized only S2P probes without L452 mutation. The NTD-specific NAb S652-118 showed a similar pattern; however, the NTD-specific antibody S652-112, which recognized an epitope in S2, bound to the Delta S2P but not with the other variants with no mutations in their S2 subunit (B.1.429, and B.1.618). The three NTD-directed Nabs recognized most of the variants, except two Delta variants, B.1.617.2 and AY.1, and the Lambda variant C.37, thus indicating its epitope is unaffected by mutations in the NTD region of most of the variants. As observed with S2P probes, all RBD and RBD-SD1 probes showed high responses to RBD-antibodies, except antibodies A19-46.1 and A19-61.1. A19-46.1, which could not bind probes with L452R/L452Q mutation. On the other hand, unlike the Omicron S2P, the Omicron RBD lost binding to only class 3 RBD antibody A19-61.1. Yeast Fab display and gating tree for yeast display analysis of probe binding. (A) Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain AWY101 transfected with yeast display vector and Fab display is induced by incubating yeast in galactose containing media. The presence of Fab expressed on the yeast surface can be detected by staining with an anti-Flag antibody and analyzing using flow cytometry. (B) Induced yeast bearing Fabs of interested are analyzed by the indicated gating strategy. Singlets are analyzed for Fab expression and the proportion of probe binding determined within this population of yeast. Shown is a representative data. Conclusions Taken together, the study findings demonstrate the vital role biotin-labeled molecular probes for SARS-CoV-2 VOCs could play in antibody discovery and immune evaluation. In addition, these molecular probes could be helpful for diagnosing sera reactivity, as sensitive markers of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and in pathogenesis to delineate susceptible cells that SARS-CoV-2 might infect. However, when used for identifying the S regions recognized by antibodies, the study results showed that the probes defining RBD and RBD-SD1 were somewhat redundant due to considerable overlap between these two probe regions. Furthermore, the study results showed the overall yields in the range of 1.5-5.9 mg/L, 3.7-11.3 mg/L, and 3.8-18.3 mg/L for NTD, RBD, and RBD-SD1 probes, respectively. The poor yield of Omicron RBD (0.18 mg/L) in comparison to the Omicron RBD-SD1 (0.88 mg/L) demonstrates the additional utility of the Omicron RBD-SD1 construct. *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. Scientists at Colorado State University used one of the most comprehensive global health datasets in the world to analyze the causes of deaths and disabilities in Colorado over a 29-year period, from 1990 to 2019. The analysis included risk factors for poor health and deaths, making the study unique, according to Dr. David Rojas-Rueda, senior author of the study and an assistant professor of epidemiology in CSU's Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences. Cardiovascular disease and neoplasms, or cancers, accounted for half of the deaths in Colorado during this time frame. In relative numbers, Colorado has seen an improvement in health indicators observed in the study over the last 29 years, with mortality and disability rates accounting for an aging population. Researchers estimated that the number of deaths in the state nearly doubled, from 21,171 to 40,724 deaths in 1990 and 2019, respectively. In addition: Premature deaths due to HIV/AIDS decreased by 82%, and transportation injuries dropped by 40% Top risk factors for premature deaths were use of tobacco, drug use, high body-mass index, alcohol use and high blood sugar Substance use increased by 140%, while diabetes and kidney disease climbed by 30% Top causes for disability and deaths combined were low back pain, opioid use disorders, ischemic heart disease, musculoskeletal disorders and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The research was published Dec. 28 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Researchers used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study produced by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Rojas-Rueda teamed up on the research with Jen Roux, who recently completed a master's degree from the Colorado School of Public Health at CSU. The analysis provides a big-picture look at the health status of residents in Colorado, just prior to the pandemic. Need to address musculoskeletal disorders, tobacco and drug use Of all the findings, Rojas-Rueda said that seeing tobacco at the top of the risk factors list was a little surprising. It should be less of a problem, compared with years ago before people were aware of the health risks. But when you connect the idea that tobacco exposure will not become a disability or health concern until many years later -; causing lung cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular problems -; it makes sense. It's a reminder that we should still pay attention to public health messaging related to tobacco." Dr. David Rojas-Rueda, senior author of the study and assistant professor of epidemiology, CSU's Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences Like the rest of the country, drug and opioid use have an important impact in the health of Coloradans. Rojas-Rueda said that this is a challenging area to address, and that public health practitioners and government officials should work more closely together to tackle these issues. The most surprising finding? Roux said that was the impact of musculoskeletal disorders, especially low back pain, on overall disability in Colorado. "When I think about debilitating diseases, low back pain doesn't come to mind," she said. "It is interesting to seeing the broad impact in Colorado and within the U.S. as well." On a global scale, low back pain is the leading cause of disability. 'We need to do better' Rojas-Rueda said that the findings could help policymakers target public health issues in a more comprehensive way. He was recently named as a member of the state's new Environmental Justice Advisory Board, part of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The epidemiologist said that the state can also adopt new strategies based on the public health measures that are doing well. "With decreases in premature deaths related to HIV and transportation injuries, we can learn about those approaches, how we are managing those risk factors, and apply them in areas that need more help," he said. Roux said that the risk factors offer opportunities to try and change behaviors. "Once you identify a risk factor, you can assess what intervention needs to be implemented to improve health outcomes," she said. Data for 2020 will not be available until spring 2022, but Rojas-Rueda said that although COVID-19 will be among the top diagnoses, he does not believe the findings will change much since the start of the pandemic. "These health problems will remain when the pandemic lessens," he said. "And we also need to be prepared for what we're facing after the pandemic lifts, to some degree, in the future. This study is another reminder that we need to do better." Marvin Querry, 86, was on his tractor, planting rye on his 770-acre western Missouri farm, when the call came in early November. Navigating Aging focuses on medical issues and advice associated with aging and end-of-life care, helping America's 45 million seniors and their families navigate the health care system. It was the social worker from Barone Alzheimer's Care Center, where Querry's wife, Diane, is a resident. The facility would be closing because of financial hardship, she said, reading from a statement. It was an agonizing moment for Querry, a retired physics professor and former executive dean for academic affairs at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. "I was stunned," he said. "Where could I find another place as wonderful to care for Diane?" It's rare to hear people talk about a nursing home the way they talk about this 40-bed facility in Nevada, Missouri a city of nearly 8,300 people near the Kansas border with deep affection, respect and gratitude. "We couldn't ask for a more loving and thoughtful staff than those who work at Barone," a woman whose mother lives there wrote on a petition to save the facility. In a business where staff turnover is constant, many of Barone's staff members have been there for five years or more. "The care there, it goes beyond words," said Kay Stevens, whose 94-year-old mother moved into Barone in May. "The residents are treated so well, and it's such a joyous environment." But even a sterling reputation and deep community support can't overcome a stark reality: The future of nursing homes is deeply uncertain as older adults and their families shy away from care in these institutions, where nearly 142,000 residents have died of covid-19. With ongoing expenses related to the pandemic and beds sitting empty, 54% of nursing homes report operating at a financial loss, according to a national survey released in June by the American Health Care Association, a long-term care trade organization. Only a quarter are confident they can make it through the next year or beyond. At least 134 nursing homes closed their doors in 2021, on top of 170 closures in 2020. Although covid relief funding has helped many nursing homes in the short term, "things are much more uncertain going forward," said David Grabowski, a professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School. Barone's fortunes reflect these broader trends. Before the pandemic, all 40 beds were full, and there was a waiting list of 25 people. About 60% of patients paid privately for care; the other 40% were on Medicaid, the government's program for people who are poor. The facility was making money, although not a lot. Then covid began circulating, and an outbreak of 32 covid cases and four associated deaths in the weeks after Thanksgiving in 2020 created enormous stress. Querry's wife, Diane, 76, was one of the residents who became ill, but she recovered. Between January and October of last year, Barone's financial losses totaled $675,318, according to data from William Denman, city treasurer of Nevada, which owns the facility. Even more alarming, another city-owned nursing home, Moore-Few Care Center, which has 108 licensed beds, lost more than $1.1 million in the same period. Moore-Few, which does not include a locked area for patients with dementia, experienced a covid outbreak after a staffer came to work with symptoms in October 2020. In the following weeks, 47 residents contracted the virus, and 10 died. A subsequent investigation resulted in an "immediate jeopardy" citation from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a signal of serious problems that pose a risk to residents and mandates quick action, and a fine of $144,693. Investigators found that the nursing home had not adequately screened staffers for covid or prevented those with symptoms from working. Since then, about half of Moore-Few's beds have remained empty. Financial and operational problems of this sort "can't continue," said Denman, a retired businessman who grew up in Nevada. "We're going to lose both of these homes if we don't do something soon." But there's considerable controversy over how to move forward. Marvin Querry has become an activist a role he never anticipated playing at this stage of life leading the opposition to Barone's closure. The day after he learned of the proposal to close the home, Querry asked several pointed questions at a meeting of a five-member board that oversees Nevada's nursing homes. More than 100 community members attended that meeting, many of them angry and distressed. The board ended up tabling plans to vote on the home's closure for now. A few days later, with his daughters help, Querry created an online change.org petition requesting detailed financial information about Nevada's nursing homes and protesting Barone's closure. Within a month, it had gathered more than 1,500 signatures. Also, Querry attended city council meetings and ran ads in the local newspaper three times a week featuring the petition. "I've spent almost $3,000 on these ads. I'm willing to spend $30,000 or more because the care [at Barone] is unsurpassed." He wants nothing less for Diane, 76, whom he's been married to for 47 years and who's lived at Barone for two years. Every evening, Querry goes there to feed her dinner. Karen Hertzberg, who owns a local furniture store and whose husband, Steve, 68, moved to Barone in September, feels equally strongly about saving the facility. "We need time for conversation, for research, for finding funding," she told me. Steve has severe multiple sclerosis with related cognitive dysfunction and is completely dependent on assistance. One option could be a new city tax that would pay for Nevada's city-owned long-term care facilities. When the city hospital faced financial trouble several years ago, voters passed a dedicated tax. It generates about $800,000 a year for the hospital, whose financial difficulties continue. "We rallied to save the hospital, so why aren't we saving our seniors? We need to stand up and fight for this," said Jennifer Gundy, a lifelong resident of Nevada and executive director of On My Own, a center that helps older adults and people with disabilities live independently. But what if current trends continue beyond the pandemic? What if families shun nursing homes and keep loved ones at home? And what if short-term solutions grants for covid-related funding, contributions from donors, new city funding don't make up for financial shortfalls for long? Faced with the controversy over Barone Care Center's potential closure, four members of Nevada's long-term care board resigned. As four new members joined the board in mid-December, Moore-Few's administrator and up to a dozen staffers also tendered their resignations. The sense of crisis seems more acute than before. Officials are sending mixed messages. "Our intent is to do whatever has to be done and absolutely keep [Barone] open," said George Knox, Nevada's mayor. "I don't think anything is decided yet," said Judy Campbell, who chairs the city's long-term care board. "We just have to go back to square one and see if there's any chance of keeping Barone going." In the meantime, community members are determined not to back down. "I have no idea what will happen, but I'm not giving up," Querry said. "I'm going to do everything I can to save this place that's so important to all of us." We're eager to hear from readers about questions you'd like answered, problems you've been having with your care and advice you need in dealing with the health care system. Visit khn.org/columnists to submit your requests or tips. A new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant of concern (VOC), Omicron (B.1.1.529), was identified in South Africa on November 24, 2021, that was responsible for the fourth wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The Omicron variant had the highest number of spike protein mutations than the previous variants of concern (VOCs), making the transmissibility and ability to evade vaccines significantly high. Study: Characteristics and Outcomes of Hospitalized Patients in South Africa During the COVID-19 Omicron Wave Compared With Previous Waves. Image Credit: 3dartistav/Shutterstock South Africa had previously experienced three COVID-19 waves, June to August 2020 caused by the original SARS-CoV-2 variant, November 2020 to January 2021 caused by the Beta variant, and May to September 2021 caused by the Delta variant. However, cases started to increase from November 15, 2021, due to the emergence of the Omicron variant resulting in the fourth wave. A new research letter published in JAMA Network assessed patients hospitalized with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test during the fourth wave compared to the previous waves. About the study The study involved the assessment of a private healthcare group known as Netcare that comprised 49 acute care hospitals across South Africa. The policy of Netcare was to test all patients admitted with COVID-19 with reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction or a rapid antigen test using a nasopharyngeal swab. All the patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 were included in the study. The data on characteristics of the patient's need for oxygen supply, mechanical ventilation, length of hospital stay, admission to intensive care, mortality rates were obtained. Follow-up was carried out through December 20, 2021. Study findings The results indicated that the percentage of participants admitted to the hospital during the fourth wave was 41.3% compared to 68-69% during the previous three waves. Furthermore, a higher proportion of younger patients and females were hospitalized and a lower proportion of acute respiratory conditions during the fourth wave. Out of all the patients admitted during the fourth wave, 66.4% were unvaccinated, 24.2% were vaccinated, and the status for vaccination was unknown for 9.4%. A lower proportion of patients required oxygen therapy and mechanical ventilation during the fourth wave compared to the previous waves. The admission to intensive care was 18.5 percent during the fourth wave compared to 29.9% in the third wave. Moreover, the length of hospital stay decreased to 3 days in the fourth wave compared to 7-8 days during the previous waves. The death rate was between 19.7% and 29.1% during the first and third waves, while it reduced to 2.7% during the fourth wave. The current study demonstrated a different pattern of characteristics in patients infected with COVID-19 during the early stages of the fourth wave in South Africa compared to the previous waves. However, further research needs to be carried out to determine whether the differences between the waves were due to natural infection and/or pre-existing acquired immunity or whether Omicron was less pathogenic than the previous variants. Limitations The study had certain limitations. First, virus genotyping for the patients was not available. Second, seven percent of the patients were still hospitalized during the follow-up period. Third, factors such as national restrictions and lockdown could affect the profile of admission and patients' behavior during the different waves. Finally, patients admitted with COVID-19 could not be differentiated from asymptomatic patients admitted for other diagnoses. A new study led by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York shows that COVID-19 incidence rates were not statistically different in counties with in-person learning versus remote school modes in most regions of the U.S. As the COVID-19 virus arrived on U.S. shores in early 2020, nearly every school district went to all-remote learning in the hopes of slowing down the spread of the outbreak. Parents, teachers and education administrators soon discovered that the sudden implementation of online classes had many drawbacks, such as students' difficulties learning and isolation from their friends. After having the summer to evaluate, school officials faced three choices when reopening last fall while keeping everyone safe. Many districts went to all-online learning, others continued to stay open as usual, and some developed a hybrid approach where students would take turns attending in person two or three days a week and learn remotely the rest of the week. Many educators believe that in-person learning results in high learning outcomes but that it also may increase the community spread of the virus. A recent study published in Nature Medicine challenges this assumption by analyzing data from the 12 weeks after school opening from July to September 2020, before the Delta variant became predominant and before vaccines were available. The research compared the learning models used at 895 districts -; about half of all schools nationwide -; to the infection rates collected by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from the 459 counties where those schools are located. After controlling for case rate trends before school start, state-level mitigation measures and community activity level, COVID-19 incidence rates were not statistically different in counties with in-person learning versus remote school modes in most regions of the U.S. Serving as lead author for the study is Assistant Professor Zeynep Ertem from the Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering at Binghamton University's Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science. Her collaborators are from across the U.S., including the Department of Medicine at Harvard University, the Boston University School of Medicine, Brown University, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Department of Veterans Affairs' Boston Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research (CHOIR), the Iowa City VA Healthcare System and the University of Utah. The main argument to close schools is driven by earlier conclusions from flu studies that younger children don't always show symptoms but they may transmit the disease to their family members, which may include older groups at risk. However, our study finds no evidence of this in most regions of the U.S." Zeynep Ertem, Assistant Professor, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, Binghamton University's Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science Ertem and her team sifted through information such as grade levels, local and state COVID mitigation efforts, the extent of community mobility, and the differences between urban and rural areas to better compare different school districts and regions. "In most of the U.S., we found no evidence linking school mode to COVID incident rates, suggesting that there is no point in disrupting students' learning experiences -; even though in the South, there was a statistically significant increase in cases when they were open for hybrid and traditional learning," Ertem said. "There might be other factors behind it, because Southern states used limited mitigation measures compared to other regions. But in the Northeast and Midwest regions, the differences in the number of cases were not detectable across any of the three learning modes." By comparing education modes to infection rates, the research gives policymakers more information when making decisions regarding the current pandemic or any future one. The conclusions don't offer simple answers, however. "It's not a one-size-fits-all model," Ertem said. "It's hard to say 'do not open' or 'do not close the schools.' Depending on the region, other factors might have an effect." Earlier this year, Ertem published other research assessing the effectiveness of early social-distancing measures in communities with different population characteristics, such as urban versus rural areas. Next, she will lead a study on how the pandemic has changed the body-mass index (BMI) of children and teens. "The effects of COVID-19 will be with us for many years to come," she said. "We must understand the consequences if we are to learn better responses for the future." Jeffersonville, IN (47130) Today Partly cloudy this morning, then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. High around 80F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Cloudy skies with periods of rain late. Low 63F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Jeffersonville, IN (47130) Today A mix of clouds and sun early followed by cloudy skies this afternoon. High near 80F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional rain late. Low 63F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. Space X Crew-2 launches into the early morning sky at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Friday, April 23, 2021. This is the first human spaceflight mission to fly astronauts on a flight-proven Falcon 9 and Dragon. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel) Despite the winter chill Central Floridians and Alabama residents may have felt Tuesday, Earth actually orbited closer to the Sun than usual. It was the closest it will get on its annual elliptical journey part of a phenomenon known as perihelion. Its just one of many celestial events forecast for 2022. Last year, space news was full of events like rocket launches, meteor showers, the first space tourists and billionaires blasting off. This year looks to be just as jam packed. Advertisement Stargazers might be over the moon to learn there will be two supermoons, a total eclipse, and meteor showers sprinkled throughout the year. Advertisement Several countries are planning experiments and visits to the moon, with South Korea preparing for its first moonshot, potentially by August. NASA plans to launch Artemis 1 in spring an unmanned test flight mission, the first stage of scientists preparations for American astronauts to return to the moon. The mission has been delayed two years due to equipment failures and COVID-19. Much celestial activity is scheduled throughout the year. Jan. 7 James Webb Space Telescope unfolds Astronomers could see the most expensive space-based observatory ever built fully deployed with the unfolding of the The James Webb Space Telescope. The project is a team effort by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, which launched Christmas day in Kourou, French Guiana, according to the European Space Agency. The telescope must unfold its mirrors to be considered fully deployed. The Webb Telescope will be tasked with observing distant stars and galaxies which began burning over 13.7 billion years ago. Feb. 21 Advertisement Axiom-1 Mission Another batch of space tourists could launch in February in a SpaceX crew dragon led by the company Axiom, which plans to build a private space station in the next decade. The tourists are three men from the U.S., Canada and Israel. March 1 The Gateway NASA will launch a small microwave-sized satellite, CAPSTONE, into the moons a orbit to study the effects an object may experience in the elliptical journey. Advertisement CAPSTONE is part of NASAs plans to launch a space station, Gateway, into the moons orbit. The project is set to launch from New Zealand. Coming soon to an orbit near the Moon. Our CAPSTONE #CubeSat launches from New Zealand later this year to demonstrate new navigation technologies in space, and test a unique lunar orbit for the future #Artemis outpost @NASA_Gateway. Latest updates: https://t.co/NdWnEq5t6C pic.twitter.com/sdSSLnyq8b NASA Ames (@NASAAmes) August 6, 2021 March 12 The Artmis-1 Mission If at first you dont succeed, try again seems to have been NASAs mantra for the Artemis unmanned test flight mission, which has been delayed two years. NASA announced in 2020 the 18 astronauts part of the initial Artemis-3 team, nine of whom are women, who could be the first women to walk on the moon. That launch has been re-rescheduled to 2024. April 15 Advertisement First Black female full crew member on ISS SpaceX could launch a crew of astronauts to the ISS late in spring. The NASA crew of four would replace Crew-3, who arrived in the space station in November. Among those on board, Jessica Watkins, would be the first Black woman to become a full crew member on the space station. Shell spend six months on the ISS as a mission specialist. In an interview with NPR, Watkins said, I do hope that all young girls, especially young girls of color that are interested in STEM and interested in exploring space, feel empowered to do so. Advertisement First @NASAInternsnow @NASA_Astronauts! Jessica Watkins and Loral OHara used to be interns @NASAJPL and just recently joined our newest class of astronaut candidates in 2017. Read about their journey: https://t.co/2j949znXLE pic.twitter.com/Ov8lpduY2G NASA (@NASA) July 29, 2018 April 21 Lyrids meteor shower will peak The first major meteor shower of the year will be raining through the sky on the night of April 21 and well into the morning. Last year, stargazers were able to see 18 meteors per hour during the peak time. May 1 Boeing tries again; China adds to space station Advertisement Two big launches could happen at the start of May. First, Boeing plans to launch its Starliner capsule as part of a test flight. The Starliner has previously experienced multiple problems delaying a crewed mission with NASA. Boeing hopes for a successful test flight to the ISS before scheduling its first astronaut flight mission. Second, China could add to its Tiangong space station. Chinese astronauts have been living in the space stations first module since last year. The May mission would add two labs to the station. On Jan 3, 2019, Chang'e()-4 lunar probe carrying Yutu()-2 rover landed on the far side of the moon for the first time in human history. Source: CNSA, CLEP, @AJ_FI HD Full: https://t.co/OCMa5Uehxe pic.twitter.com/qInI7NZL8K CNSA Watcher (@CNSAWatcher) January 4, 2022 May 4 Eta Aquariids meteor shower peaks The Eta Aquariids meteor shower is forecast to peak the night of May 4. Advertisement The shower is known as one of the best meteor showers to catch due to the heavy bombardment of showers, averaging 30 meteors per hour in the northern hemisphere. The shower is produced by dust particles caused by the orbital path of Halleys Comet. Specks of Halley will be zooming through the atmosphere at about 148,000 mph. The fastest meteors may even leave behind visible streaks or trains in the sky. May 15 A total lunar eclipse will be visible in the Americas, Africa and Europe Florida will fall in line of the darkest part of the moons shadow during a total lunar eclipse, also known as the Blood Moon due to its red or ruddy-brown appearance. The eclipse will be most noticeable in the Eastern United States and Canada and South and Central America. Advertisement The Maximum Eclipse will be begin at 12:11 a.m. according to TimeandDate.com. The entire eclipse is forecast to last over five hours, but the eclipses totality; the beginning and end of the total phase, should last almost 90 minutes. A rare occurrence called a 'Super Blue Blood Moon' is seen behind the U.S. flag at Santa Monica Beach in Santa Monica, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018. It's the first time in 35 years a blue moon has synced up with a supermoon and a total lunar eclipse. Hawaii and Alaska have the best seats, along with the Canadian Yukon, Australia and Asia. The western U.S. should have good viewing, too, along with Russia. The U.S. East Coast, Europe and most of South America and Africa are out of luck for the eclipse. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) (Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP) June 14 Super Strawberry Moon Junes full moon, also known as the Strawberry Moon, will be orbit much closer to Earth than usual granting it the title of a supermoon. A Supermoon is about 7% to 14% bigger than the moon typically looks at its average distance of 239,000 miles from Earth. The increase in appearance is barely detectable by the human eye without assistance. The moon will be 16,000 miles closer to the Earth than its average distance, according to EarthSky.org. June 21 Advertisement Summer Solstice The longest day of the year, the Summer solstice, takes place as the northern hemisphere tilts toward the sun. It is technically known as the start of summer. July 1 Russia and India return to the moon Two more countries throw their hats into the lunar ring at the start of July. First, Russia plans to launch its Luna-25 to the moons south pole, where scientists speculate could be the site of future colonies due to water ice existing in the south poles craters away from sunlight. The stationary lander is expected to collect lunar regolith and study the moons atmosphere. The mission is the first since the Soviet Union launched Luna 24 in 1976. Advertisement Second, India plans to send another rover to the moons surface. India previously had its first rover crash in 2019. July 13 Super Buck Moon Julys full moon, also known as the Buck Moon, will hit perigee, or its closest approach to the Earth, dubbing it the second supermoon of the year. A full moon and supermoon known as the Pink Moon by Native Americans rises over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Juno Beach, Florida on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. The Super Pink Moon is the largest supermoon of 2020. A supermoon is when the full moon comes close to the moon's perigree, its closest distance to the Earth. (Richard Tribou / Orlando Sentinel) July 29 The Southern Delta Aquariids meteor shower will peak Advertisement Stargazers usually catch comet debris of the Southern Delta Aquariids meteor shower between July 12 to August 23 each year. The shower should peak on July 29. August 1 South Korea mission to the moon South Korea says its on track for its first lunar mission to deploy the Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter. With the help of a SpaceX rocket, KPLO will provide views of the moons surface in a year-long mission. KPLP will also be equipped with NASA technology, the ShadowCam, which will help illuminate information on the moons craters cast in eternal darkness. Also, NASA could launch its Psyche mission to the asteroid belt to better understand the mysterious Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Advertisement The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter(KPLO) mission is the first lunar exploration mission of the Republic of Korea (ROK) & @NASA is also aboard. The ShadowCam instrument, contributed by NASA and @ASU, is now safely in South Korea for spacecraft integration before launch next year. pic.twitter.com/Xzh1C1pkAT Thomas Zurbuchen (@Dr_ThomasZ) August 20, 2021 August 11 Perseids meteor shower will peak A fan favorite shower in the Northern Hemisphere, the Perseids meteor shower is expected to peak on Aug. 11. Last year, stargazers recall seeing about 100 meteors per hour with ideal conditions. The Perseids got its name because the meteors appear to be radiating, traveling away from the constellation of Perseus. Its thought of as a commemoration to when Zeus met with Danae, Perseus mother, and arrived in a shower of gold. Derek Demeter photographed the Perseid meteor shower in 2016 south of St. Cloud. The stacked image with multiple long exposures shows meteors falling in the night sky. (Derek Demeter/Courtesy) Sept. 20 Europe and Russia rover to Mars Advertisement The ESA and Russias Rosalind Franklin rover should be arriving on the Red Planet sometime in late September. The project was originally targeted to take off in 2020 but faced COVID-19 delays. The rover finally took off in late 2021. Sept. 26 NASAs DART crashes Like throwing a dart at a board, NASA launched its DART last year with hopes it would it hit bulls-eye later in 2022. The target is an asteroid that NASA is intending to smash with DART, a satellite the agency is hoping to use as part of an asteroid redirection test in an effort to stop potential threatening space rocks from colliding into the Earth. We're looking up The #DARTMission is @NASA's demo of kinetic impactor; impacting an asteroid to adjust its speed/path. DART is first-ever space mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection, and will impact the binary asteroid system Didymos in Sep 2022. https://t.co/D8CuZbqwek pic.twitter.com/MI5nypvvih Johns Hopkins APL (@JHUAPL) December 31, 2021 Sept. 29 NASAs JUNO passes Jupiter moon Advertisement NASAs JUNO spacecraft, which is observing Jupiter, will pass by the gas giants moon, Europa, in late September. Europa is thought to be a prime suspect in the search for extraterrestrial life. JUNOs pass could give scientists clues about the moons true nature. Oct. 1 Japanese company, United Arab Emirates work together on moon landing Another moon mission is crashing the ever-crowding lunar party well hopefully landing more so than crashing. A Japanese company, iSpace, will have its first robotic moon lander, Haukto-R, launch Oct. 1 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center with a payload of involving a United Arab Emirates rover. Oct. 20 Orionids meteor shower Advertisement From October to November Earth passes through the stream of debris left behind by Halleys Comet. The peak time to catch the shower will be on evening of Oct. 20. Remnants of Halley's comet travel at 148,000 mph speeds across Earths atmosphere during the Orionids, leaving trails of incandescent debris behind. To view the shower, set up camp as you would for the Perseids, in open land with clear skies. Face southeast if in the Northern Hemisphere, otherwise face northeast. Your eyes may take up to 30 minutes to adapt to watching the night skies. You have from after midnight until dawn to catch a glimpse of the meteors so no rush. (Brian Spencer/Shutterstock) Nov. 17 Leonids meteor shower peak The Leonids shower puts on quite a celestial show in the form of a meteor storm, or a shower capable of producing 1,000 meteors in an hour, according to EarthSky.org. The meteors are leftover debris of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which completes a single orbit around the sun about once every 33 years. December 13 Advertisement Geminids meteor shower peak December has two famous meteor showers. The first is Geminids peaking Dec. 13. This shower doesnt originate from a comet, making it one of the few. Instead, its parental source is object 3200 Phaethon, which is an asteroid that behaves similarly to a comet, according to EarthSky.org. Go For Launch - Space News Weekly Fix your telescope on all space-related news, from rocket launches to space-industry advancements. > Dec. 21 Winter solstice The northern hemisphere will tilt away from the sun marking the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter. Dec. 22 Advertisement Ursids meteor shower peak The Ursids come from the comet 8P/Tuttle, which is a mid-sized comet whose orbit is controlled by Jupiters gravity. The shower received its namesake due to its appearance of radiating from the direction of the constellation Ursa Minor, according to TimeandDate.org. Jpedersen@orlandosentinel.com (Newser) Update: Families of six of the Canadians killed in a January 2020 shooting down of a Ukraine International Airlines flight in Iran have been awarded $107 million Canadian (approximately $84 million), plus interest, in compensation. A Canadian court awarded the money, and it's not clear how it will actually be collected from Iran, but a lawyer says Iranian assets such as oil tankers could potentially be seized in Canada or abroad, the BBC reports. All 176 people on board died, including 55 Canadians and 35 permanent residents of Canada. The same court ruled in May that the plane's downing was an intentional act of terrorism, the CBC reports. Our original story from July 12, 2020, follows: Iranian investigators are blaming a misaligned missile battery and miscommunication between soldiers and their commanders for the Revolutionary Guard shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner in January, killing 176 people. The report released late Saturday by Iran's Civil Aviation Organization comes months after the Jan. 8 crash near Tehran, which authorities for days denied having hand in. The shootdown happened the same night Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting US soldiers in Iraq, reports the AP, its response to the American drone strike that killed Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. At the time Iranian troops were bracing for a US counterstrike and appear to have mistaken the plane for a missile. The report detailed a series of moments where the shootdown of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 could have been avoided. The report said the surface-to-air missile battery that targeted the Boeing 737-800 had been relocated and was not properly reoriented. Those manning the missile battery could not communicate with their command center, they misidentified the civilian flight as a threat and opened fire twice without getting approval from ranking officials, the report said. If each had not arisen, the aircraft would not have been targeted, the report said. Western intelligence officials and analysts believe Iran shot down the aircraft with a Russian-made Tor system, known to NATO as the SA-15. The report notes that the Ukrainian flight had done nothing out of the ordinary up until the missile launch, with its transponder and other data being broadcast. At the time of firing the first missile, the aircraft was flying at a normal altitude and trajectory, the report said. (Read more Iranian Revolutionary Guard stories.) (Newser) The terms of a 2009 settlement between Jeffrey Epstein and an accuser, Virginia Giuffre, have been unsealed by a federal court considering her current sexual abuse lawsuit against Britain's Prince Andrew. The documents show Epstein paid Giuffre $500,000 to drop her suit, the Guardian reports. Under the agreement, Epstein did not admit to any wrongdoing, per the Hill. Giuffre has said Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell trafficked her to have sex with men including Andrew, who has denied ever meeting her. Maxwell was convicted on sex trafficking charges last week. Epstein died in his cell in 2019. The prince's lawyers wanted the settlement revealed because, they said, Giuffre agreed in it to not pursue legal action against anyone who could have been named a co-defendant in the suit against Epstein. The agreement does not name Andrew. "To avoid being dragged into future legal disputes, Epstein negotiated for this broad release," Andrew's lawyers wrote in a filing, "insisting that it cover any and all persons who Giuffre identified as potential targets of future lawsuits." Federal judges agreed there was no compelling reason to keep the agreement secret. The British royal's lawyers made no comment on Monday. A hearing in Giuffre's suit is scheduled for Tuesday in New York, and Andrew's lawyers plan to argue again that the case should be dismissed. Her lawyers said through a representative Monday that Giuffres lawyers said the release is "irrelevant to Ms. Giuffre's claim against Prince Andrew" because the settlement "does not mention" him. The documents also don't mention law professor Alan Dershowitz, who also has been accused by Giuffre. "I'm delighted that this document was unsealed," Dershowitz said Monday, arguing that it shows he can't be sued by Giuffre. (Read more Prince Andrew stories.) (Newser) Baby girl Aylin Yolanda Trujillo has an older brother who was born the year before she waswhich would be unremarkable if he wasn't her twin. Aylin was born at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, California, in the first minute of Jan. 1, 2022, exactly 15 minutes after fraternal twin Alfredo Antonio Trujillo was born on Dec. 31, 2021, NBC Bay Area reports. The hospital says twins make up an estimated 3% of births in the US every year, and the chances of them being born in different years are around one in 2 million. "It's crazy to me that they are twins and have different birthdays," says mother Fatima Madrigal, per People. "I was surprised and happy that she arrived at midnight." She says the twins have three older siblings, two girls and a boy who is very excited about having a brother. "This was definitely one of the most memorable deliveries of my career," said Dr. Ana Abril Arias, in a statement released by the hospital. "It was an absolute pleasure to help these little ones arrive here safely in 2021 and 2022. What an amazing way to start the New Year!" (These twins in Indiana were born in different decades.) (Newser) Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes was convicted on four counts of fraud and conspiracy on Monday, ending a lengthy trial that captivated Silicon Valley. The jury found her not guilty of four other felony charges. On the three remaining charges, the jury was deadlocked, the AP reports. The former entrepreneur, who had bowed her head several times before the jury was polled by the judge, remained seated and showed no emotion as the verdicts were read. After the judge left the San Jose courtroom to meet with jurors individually, Holmes got up to hug her partner, Billy Evans, and her parents before leaving with her lawyers. Holmes could face up to 20 years in prison on each count, though she'd probably serve them concurrently, per the New York Times. Holmes also could be fined $250,000 on each count and ordered to pay restitution, per CNN. She could appeal the verdict. The jury of eight men and four women deliberated more than 50 hours over seven days, per CNBC. Earlier Monday, the jury had informed the judge it was deadlocked on three counts. Prosecutors apparently were successful in making the case that Holmes lied to investors about the company's technology. Holmes had argued that others were to blame for the problems at Theranos. Counts on which Holmes was acquitted involved patients who took Theranos blood tests; another involved advertisements that the patients saw. The prosecution apparently failed to convince the jury that the company founder defrauded patients, per the Times. A law professor and former federal prosecutor said the verdict sends a message to executives about their promises to investors. The case "shines a light on the importance of drawing a distinction between truth and optimistic projectionsand keeping that clear in one's mind," Jessica Roth said. (Read more Elizabeth Holmes stories.) (Newser) She posed for a Christmas Day photo with her mom and her mom's live-in boyfriend in 2010. But 13-year-old Hailey Dunn of Colorado City, Texas, would not live to see the new year, and a new indictment accuses the live-in boyfriend of her murder. Shawn Adkins, 35, was indicted last week on charges of murder and tampering with a corpse, reports the Abilene Reporter News. Court documents say Adkins killed Hailey "on or about Dec. 26, 2010," by striking her in the head with an unknown blunt object." The girl's mother, Billie Jean Dunn, reported her missing on Dec. 27, and Hailey's remains were not found until 2013 at a rural location, per KTAB. Adkins was a suspect from the get-go: Hailey had even told her grandmother that she was afraid of him, and he was reported to be the last person to see her alive, per Law & Crime. But he maintained his innocence, and investigators struggled to make progress until June of last year, when they arrested him on suspicion of murder. Last week's indictment makes the murder charge official. "Its been a long six months of waiting after a decade of injustice," says Hailey's father, Clint. The Reporter News notes that Hailey's case has been featured on national crime shows and unsolved-crimes websites over the years. (Read more cold cases stories.) (Newser) Congress is right now grappling with a surge in COVID cases, driven in part by what Bloomberg calls a "tsunami" of the fast-spreading omicron variant. Yet it's becoming increasingly clear the struggle that US lawmakers are facing is simply a microcosm of the larger picture within the USa fact underscored by a new unsettling milestone. On Monday, 1.08 million new cases were reported across the nation, a record one-day rise for any nation, according to stats tracked by Johns Hopkins University. Forbes notes this figure is almost twice as much as the previous single-day record of 585,000, set just four days earlier on Dec. 30. That Dec. 30 number, meanwhile, doubled upon the previous record set a week before that. Forbes notes the drastic rise is likely somewhat of a deviation, as reporting of cases may have been delayed over the holidays, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it's a number far beyond what any other country has seen at any point in the pandemic: Before this, India claimed the largest such daily case count, with more than 414,000 registered on May 7 of last year. Plus, the delay anomaly that Forbes references may be offset by the fact that, with many people now taking home antigen tests to see if they have COVID and not reporting results to government trackers, case numbers may be significantly underestimated. (Read more COVID-19 stories.) (Newser) Update: The "Nevermind baby," now a 30-year-old man, is still suing Nirvana over the iconic album cover. Spencer Elden's complaint was dismissed earlier this month on a technicality, and late Wednesday Elden's legal team filed an amended complaint to reinstate the claims, Rolling Stone reports. The new filing drops a sex trafficking claim, but keeps the other claims intact, accusing the band of marketing child porn and earning millions in the process. It also includes a statement from an art director for the cover whose original mock-up does show a naked baby, but does not show genitalia. Our original story from Jan. 4 follows: The back-and-forth between Spencer Elden, the guy who as a baby appeared on the cover art for Nirvana's Nevermind album, and the band's estate continues. Elden, now 30, last August sued, among others, surviving band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic; the estate of late frontman Kurt Cobain; and Kirk Weddle, the family friend who took the photo of a 4-month-old Elden in 1991. Elden claims the image amounts to child porn and has caused him "extreme and permanent emotional distress," but on Monday, Judge Fernando M. Olguin of US District Court for the Central District of California dismissed Elden's complaint, reports Spin. Nirvana's legal team had argued that Elden's suit was hogwash, as he'd "spent three decades profiting from his celebrity as the self-anointed 'Nirvana Baby,'" including by re-creating the famous image and even getting a tattoo of the album's name on his chest, reports the Guardian. Nirvana's attorneys say Elden also autographed copies of the album cover that went up on eBay and used his fame "to try to pick up women," per the BBC, which has a photo of one of Elden's photo re-creations. Judge Olguin didn't dismiss the complaint on those merits, however. Rather, the dismissal came due to a technicality: Elden's team didn't file an opposition response to the Nirvana estate's request to dismiss the case in time; Elden's lawyers had had until Thursday to do so. However, Olguin has given Elden an opening to file a second complaint by Jan. 13, which would then give Nirvana's estate until Jan. 27 to reply to that complaint. If Elden's team doesn't refile by that Jan. 13 deadline, he's out of luck for good. (Read more Nirvana stories.) (Newser) An Arizona child was left home alone for at least two weeks, says authorities, and now his parents have been charged with child neglect. NBC News reports the 11-year-old's mother left the state prior to Thanksgiving, and that his father left a shortly after that holiday. The Cochise County Sheriffs Office says it was tipped off that the boy might be at the Elfrida home by himself, and made contact with him on Dec. 12. "The child was left alone during the entire time until contact with Sheriff Deputies was made," officials tell Fox10. The sheriff's office says the boy said he had been left frozen food to eat and hadn't attended school in a couple of weeks. Authorities say they tried and failed to reach his parents and were unable to do so until they returned to Elfrida on Dec. 29. The child was handed to child protective services after being found alone on the 12th. The child's 34-year-old mother and 40-year-old father (Newser is declining to identify the parents so as not to reveal the child's identity) were indicted upon their return home. Officials did not reveal where the parents had been. Both are being held in lieu of $100,000 bond. (Read more child neglect stories.) NEAR MISS A great egret and a boat-tailed grackle nearly collide as they take flight simultaneously over the shoreline of Lake Apopka on New Years Eve, Friday, December 31, 2021. Visitors can get up-close views of a plethora of wildlife along Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive, created by the St. Johns River Water Management District starting in 1996. The drive is a part of the State of Floridas massive wetlands reclamation project on Lake Apopkas north shore following decades of pollution runoff from farming and agriculture. The 11-mile scenic route showcases a diverse mix of Florida marsh species and habitats and is free to the public. The nature drive is open each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and on federal holidays, year-round. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) (Newser) Two young men went missing during a camping trip in Oregon. That the story didn't end badly is thanks in part to the SOS they fashioned in the snow. Per a Coast Guard press release, the 19-year-olds headed for the Swastika Mountain area about 32 miles east southeast of Eugene on or around Christmas Day. They were slated to come home Dec. 29. Lane County sheriffs began a search after the two were reported missing on New Year's Eve. Heavy snowfall in the area led them to bring in Coast Guard helicopter support. The MH-65 aircrew succeeded in finding them and pulling them out on Jan. 1 (you can watch video of the rescue here), and MH-65 aircraft commander Lt. Maggie Champin says the men "did a lot of things right to give themselves the best chance of being rescued." "By writing 'SOS' in the snow, staying near their vehicle, and staying near logging roads, we were able to find them relatively quickly," she continued. "We recommend hikers carry personal locator beacons while out in the back country." The release notes the aircrew spotted "two additional persons in distress" during their search, and gave their coordinates to Lane County personnel on the ground. The Oregonian adds one tidbit: that Swastika Mountain's name was a nod to the swastika-shaped brand a local rancher used prior to the symbol becoming appropriated by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. (Read more rescue stories.) (Newser) A state trooper in North Carolina lost control of his vehicle and fatally struck a fellow trooper and a civilian. Compounding the tragedy: The two troopers were brothers, reports Fox News. Authorities say the accident unfolded about 9pm Monday, when trooper John Horton pulled over a motorist in Rutherford County. Horton's brother, James, arrived at the scene to assist, but his vehicle swerved into his brother's patrol car and struck the two other men, who were standing by the roadside, per the Charlotte Observer. The stop occurred on a rural roadWYFF has a photoand neither the reason for the stop nor the civilian's identity have been released. The official incident report makes no mention of road conditions, but the Observer notes that snow and sleet fell that day. James Horton was treated and released after suffering minor injuries. His brother was a 15-year veteran of the force. Their ages were not released. "Our hearts are broken with the loss of our friend and our brother," said Colonel Freddy L. Johnson Jr. in a press release. "For all involved in this tragic event the coming days will undoubtedly be difficult, but we are committed to stand alongside with them with our thoughts, prayers, and unwavering support." (Read more state troopers stories.) Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by subscribing or contributing today. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com The mother of His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Representative of His Majesty the King for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs, received at her Majlis a number of mothers affiliated with the Royal Humanitarian Foundation (RHF) who are contributors to Nitaj project. The meeting was held in the presence of RHF Secretary-General Dr Mustafa Sayed and a number of female affiliates to RHF and employees. She expressed sincere thanks and gratitude to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa for his personal follow-up to support Bahraini widows and orphans registered with RHF. She commended the royal paternal care for them and keenness on providing a decent and stable life to them, wishing HM the King abundant health and happiness and long life. She praised Nitaj project, stressing her support for it to achieve its noble goals. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com The Kingdom of Bahrain strongly condemned the terrorist Houthi militias hijacking of a UAE flagged cargo ship, which was heading from Socotra Island to the port of Jizan, Saudi Arabia. The Foreign Ministry denounced the terrorist operating which targeted the cargo ship transporting equipment for a field hospital, describing the acts as a flagrant violation of the international law of the sea. It affirmed that terrorist Houthi militia had committed maritime piracy that poses a great threat to the freedom of maritime navigation in Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea. It said that the terrorist acts show the militias terrorist drive to subvert regional security and stability, calling on the international community to condemn this dangerous terrorist act and compel the Houthis to immediately release the ship and its crew. Bahrain also condemned Houthi drone attacks towards Najran in Saudi Arabia. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Staff Reporter Many citizens have taken to social media to express their outrage over growing online flesh trade across social media platforms. This follows the arrest of three women who were behind an immoral video currently being circulated on social media. The Capital Police arrested three women in relation to a social media video that went viral, the Interior Ministry tweeted. The ministry added that relevant legal procedures have been taken before referring the case to the Public Prosecution. Retweeting on the issue, Mona Al Bassam commented: Congratulations to the Interior Ministry. Such arrests will end online immoral behaviour and flesh trade in the Kingdom. Al Bassam also posted a screenshot along with the retweet showing a social media profile with a womans picture inviting potential customers to engage in flesh trade. All social media platforms are allegedly being misused by the vice network to boost flesh trade in the Kingdom. Speaking to The Daily Tribune, a citizen who doesnt want to be named, said: All social media platforms are filled with links posted by members of the vice network, which is very well established. They post vulgar and indecent pictures of women with an aim to attract potential customers. During the pandemic, the vice network also started going online like other sectors. It is high time the authorities put a brake on these activities or else it will affect the image of our great nation. Another citizen said he received a WhatsApp call from a foreign number that he hadnt seen before. It was a woman on the other side. She asked me to turn the video call on. I did so and all I could see was a nude woman on the other side, asking me to come to an apartment in Juffair. I abruptly disconnected the call. There has to be tough action to curb such activities on social media or else it could adversely affect the future of our young generation, he lamented. The Interior Ministry has intensified its efforts against vice trade and its associated crime human trafficking. The Daily Tribune recently published a report in which Global Organized Crime Index highlights the Kingdoms success against human trafficking. Attributing the Kingdoms low criminality score to its high success in combating human trafficking, the report called for increased caution to maintain the success record. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the worlds largest smelter ex-China, launches its new website to offer an up-close and user-friendly experience after unveiling its new Vision, Mission and Values in January 2021 during the CEOs Annual Majlis. Albas custom-made website translates the Companys brand image and reflects what it stands for in line with its new Vision, Mission and Values. Commenting on the launch, Albas Chief Executive Officer, Ali Al Baqali said: Gone is the time when websites were just a source of information; today, it is more than an experience - it is a journey. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Drivers on Interstate-95 in Virginia were met with gridlock traffic on Monday and Tuesday after a snowstorm hit the area, causing tractor-trailers to jackknife across the highway as well as a number of other accidents, according to the New York Times. Among those passengers was U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who was stranded in traffic after attempting to make the commute to the U.S. Capitol from his Richmond home. According to the Associated Press, Kaine spent 21 hours in his car and even phoned a local radio station to express his concern for those stuck in their cars as the temperature outside dropped to 15 degrees. DANBURY The new year is already bringing challenges to Danbury area schools. In New Milford, that included 59 absent teachers, five interrupted or canceled bus routes and one van route. In Brookfield, there were 27 teacher absences and a few bus driver absences that required a quick reorganization to cover bus routes. And at least three districts, including Danbury Public Schools, alerted parents they would start on a two-hour delayed schedule on their first day back to give administrators time to assess the situation. This all comes as schools are also trying to incorporate new federal and state COVID-19 quarantine guidance into their policies. From decisions around implementing new COVID guidelines to delayed start times, continued concern about adequate staffing, and bus route interruptions, the issues schools faced Monday are likely to persist in the coming weeks. Danbury sent a notice explaining the two-hour delay in the morning was implemented to give our staff time to organize schedules and prepare for your child. The morning extended learning program and preschool were canceled Monday, and at least eight buses were affected by staffing shortages and could not run their normal routes both Monday and Tuesday. The Easton-Redding-Region 9 and New Fairfield school districts also announced a two-hour delayed start for their first day back Monday Teachers were expected to report as usual in both districts. New Fairfield said the decision was made to allow time to assess staffing and ensure we have a safe and orderly return to school. Superintendent Pat Cosentino explained in a video message posted Sunday that some staff were going to be absent, including nurses. She urged parents to keep children home if they were sick. Staff members were asked to report at their usual time. We will try to get back to those of you who have left messages as soon as humanly possible tomorrow, Cosentino said. Region 9 Board of Education member Cheryl Graziano posted the full letter that Superintendent Jason McKinnon sent to families Sunday night on her Facebook page. The ER9 letter said the delay was necessary to evaluate staff availability, increase physical distancing for students, distribute key resources like masks and furniture to schools, and test a small number of staff members. Despite 71 total staff absences Monday due to a variety of different reasons including scheduled vacation, Bethel Superintendent Christine Carver said things were running normally. Carver reported that there were significant student absences Monday, as well. Region 12, which serves children from Roxbury, Bridgewater and Washington, reported 57 total COVID cases among staff and students over the break. The districts schools did not have issues with busing Monday. But we are not out of the woods yet, said Superintendent Megan Bennett. Continued concerns Schools also alerted parents of the unpredictable nature of COVIDs spread and effect on plans, asking them to be flexible. Danbury said there could be continued interruptions as cases continue to rise. We anticipate that staffing will continue to be a challenge in the coming weeks, the districts letter to parents read. It then asked parents to be vigilant and frequently check communications from the school to stay alert to short-notice adjustments. As you can imagine, our staff members are experiencing their own challenges with COVID-19 exposures and positivity, which is resulting in staffing interruptions and last minute shortages in certain schools, it said. DiCorpo said that New Milford schools were able to operate normally Monday despite the staff absences and bus route interruptions and would be reviewing the impact each day and will do our best to staff to keep schools open. Brookfield Superintendent John Barile said that they always have staffing concerns and our HR department, along with the school administrators work diligently to contingency plan based upon continuously monitoring new information learned about illness throughout the day and week. The district was still able to operate normally Monday despite teacher absences thanks to a lot of planning yesterday by our building administration to ensure staff coverage, Barile continued. In Bethel, a portion of the state test kit shipment was able to be distributed to teachers Sunday ahead of the first day back which Carver said was very, very good and helpful for staff. Region 12 is taking things day by day, said Bennett. This current local surge in COVID cases is like nothing we have seen before. New year, new guidance With a new year comes new COVID-19 guidance from the federal and state agencies. Several districts announced they would start implementing the updated quarantine guidance released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and subsequently from the state Department of Education. Danbury said it would start implementing the guidance starting Monday, which shortens quarantine to five days of isolation instead of 10, ends contact tracing in school, and continues to have unvaccinated and partially vaccinated students isolate for five days after exposure. Brookfield also began following the new guidance Monday, according to an email from Barile. Newtown schools sent a letter to parents about the updated quarantine guidance. The letter also notified parents that all water fountains were being closed, and students should bring their own water bottles to school to use the fill stations. The district is also temporarily limiting volunteers at schools, and pausing group work, or extended activities in groups to keep kids spread out in classrooms. We can only accomplish keeping our schools open with your help, wrote outgoing Superintendent Lorrie Rodrigue, who will be resigning this summer. I know everyone is more than exhausted and frustrated. We understand. ER9 said it would not be immediately implement the new guidance. The districts letter notified parents that they would evaluate these plans and provide an update to all stakeholders as soon as possible. New Milfords Alisha DiCorpo said that as of Monday the district has not yet implemented the new guidance and would be reviewing the information with DPH and local health director, Lisa Morrissey, on Tuesday before making a decision. However, Connecticuts teachers are asking for more protections. The states Board of Education Union Coalition leaders scheduled a press conference Monday afternoon calling for the implementation of new, more stringent safety standards and protocols to create a safe, stable learning environment for our students and staff, a press release said. We all agree that in-person learning is best for our students, but we need safety protocols in place to further prevent COVID-19 from spreading in our schools and communities. Reporter Sandra Diamond Fox contributed to this report. DANBURY Congress members are demanding an investigation into allegations that the federal prison in Danbury failed to follow COVID-19 isolation guidelines. U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., as well as U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., sent a letter to the U.S. attorney general, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and acting warden at the Federal Correctional Institution Danbury concerning what they described as highly disturbing reports from the prison. More than half of the women at FCI Danbury Camp tested positive on Dec. 27, but werent isolated or initially told whether they had the virus, according to allegations Blumenthal, Murphy and Hayes offices have received. These actions, if true, are shockingly reckless and contrary to BOP and CDC guidelines regarding the isolation of individuals who test positive for COVID-19, they wrote in the Monday letter. Moreover, these actions endanger not only the women at the Camp, but also staff and the surrounding communities. The Bureau of Prisons declined to confirm or deny the allegations, but said the department follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for testing and isolation. We are aware of the letter from Congress and are reviewing it, spokesman Benjamin OCone said in an email to the News-Times. The Bureau of Prisons responds directly to Members of Congress and their staff. Out of respect and deference to Members, we do not share our Congressional correspondence with media. The U.S. attorney generals office didnt immediately return a request for comment. The letter comes as a 46-year-old Rhode Island woman at the prison sues FCI Danbury and the warden to be released to home confinement because she says she cannot be vaccinated against COVID-19 due to her medical condition. That lawsuit also claims more than half of the woman at the minimum security camp have tested positive, among other accusations. She is represented by the same legal team that reached a settlement with the prison in summer 2020 over COVID conditions at the facility. The prison was required to continue to identify people who are medically vulnerable for potential release, among other terms. COVID testing There are 55 incarcerated people and 12 staff members with COVID at FCI Danbury, according to the latest update on Bureau of Prisons dashboard. The BOP reports that 235 staff members and 807 incarcerated people are fully inoculated against COVID-19. FCI Danbury is a low security federal correctional institution with an adjacent low security satellite prison and a minimum security satellite camp. There are 1,100 incarcerated people there total, including 121 people at the satellite prison known as FSL F and 83 people at the satellite camp, according to the BOPs website. Due to COVID rates, the facility is under level three operations the most stringent and severe restrictions, according to the BOP. This means face coverings are worn and everyone must social distance throughout the facility, among other rules. Staff are checked for COVID symptoms and temperature when arriving to work. The BOPs dashboard does not say whether the COVID cases stem from the main prison or the satellite facilities. The dashboard on Dec. 28 reported only three COVID cases among incarcerated people. The BOP tests incarcerated people with symptoms, in addition to conducting mass testing or serial testing when recommended by the CDC, OCone said. Most are given a PCR test, but FCI Danbury also uses rapid testing for results within 10 to 15 minutes, he said. Incarcerated people who test positive or have symptoms are medically isolated and provided medical care until medical staff determine theyve recovered, based on CDC guidelines, the spokesman said. The BOP follows CDC guidance, the same as community doctors and hospitals, with regard to quarantine and medical isolation procedures, along with providing appropriate treatment, he wrote. The majority of inmates who tested positive for COVID-19 are asymptomatic (positive with no symptoms) and do not require the level of care offered in a hospital setting. All institutions, including FCI Danbury, have areas for isolation and quarantine, OCone said. Patients are treated in the facility unless medical staff determine they need to be hospitalized. FCI Danbury has an ample number of trained medical personnel who provide essential medical, dental, and mental health (psychiatric) services in a manner consistent with accepted community clinical guidelines for a correctional environment, the spokesman wrote. FCI Danbury uses licensed and credentialed, professional health care providers to practice evidence-based medicine. Troubling allegations As of Dec. 27, 13 women were in isolation in the Camp visiting room after testing positive within the past week, some within several days, according to the reports cited in the letter from the delegation. All women at the Camp were rapid tested that day and told more than half of them had tested positive, the letter states. But the women werent told who tested positive and that the Camp would no longer keep women who tested positive separate from those who tested negative, Blumenthal, Murphy and Hayes wrote. The 13 women who were in isolation were reportedly moved back to the dorms at the Camp with the other women. Staff reportedly did not even inform the women on December 27 if their tests were positive or negative despite knowing this information, Blumenthal, Murphy and Hayes wrote. Instead, staff allegedly waited approximately 24 hours, until the afternoon of December 28, to finally separate the negative and positive women from each other. Sarah Russell, director of the Legal Clinic at Quinnipiac University that has represented the incarcerated individuals in the lawsuits, has said the women were separated after the clinic and others complained. Blumenthal, Murphy and Hayes requested an immediate investigation into the testing, quarantine and isolation practices at FCI Danbury beginning Dec. 27 and asked for a response to their letter no later than Jan. 7. If they (the allegations) are accurate, please also indicate what steps you have taken and are taking to remediate the situation and what testing, quarantining, and isolation practices and procedures will be in place going forward, Blumenthal, Murphy and Hayes wrote. The Congress members requested the dates and results of facility-wide testing over the past 30 days and information about how the large number of people in isolation with COVID receive appropriate monitoring and medical care. They also asked for the BOP to explain how the bureau is responding to rising COVID cases in the country. BOP must make every effort to protect women at FCI Danbury from the pandemic and the delay in separating negative and positive women at the Camp is plainly unacceptable, Blumenthal, Murphy and Hayes stated. It is particularly troubling, given that many of the women at the Camp have medical conditions that place them at increased risk for severe illness from COVID and medical staff at Danbury have advised some of the women not to be vaccinated based on contraindications. 5 1 of 5 H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 5 H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 5 of 5 DANBURY The victim of last weeks shooting on Rowan Street is expected to soon be released from the hospital, police said. I understand that the victim is being released from the hospital soon within a day or so, Detective Lt. Mark Williams said Tuesday morning. Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The plenary session of the Libyan Parliament ended on Monday evening with a call for the High National Electoral Commission to hold more consultations to propose a new date for the presidential election as soon as possible As per information, this meeting will be held under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal virtually. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also scheduled to be present. In view of the increasing COVID-19 cases, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has decided to hold a meeting at 11 am today. As per information, this meeting will be held under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal virtually. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also scheduled to be present. Notably, Arvind Kejriwal informed this morning via Twitter that he has tested positive for Covid-19. I have tested positive for Covid. Mild symptoms. Have isolated me at home. Those who came in touch wid me in last few days, kindly isolate urself and get urself tested, Kejriwal tweeted. Apart from the CM, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, Revenue Minister Kailash Gehlot, Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, and many officials of the Health Department will also be present. In the meeting, there will be a review of the current COVID-19 situation and the increasing Omicron cases, as well as a decision that can be taken regarding the next alert, according to GRAP. DDMA last week ordered the closure of schools, colleges, cinemas and gyms with immediate effect and put various restrictions on the functioning of shops and public transport as a yellow alert was sounded under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). The night curfew will now be imposed from 10 pm (earlier 11 pm) to 5 am in the national capital. The bridge, which would allegedly connect the lake's northern and southern banks, will improve China's road connection in the critical border region According to satellite photos released by geo-intelligence analyst Damien Symon on Monday, 3 January, China may be constructing a bridge over Pangong Lake in the Chinese area of Eastern Ladakh. The bridge, which would allegedly connect the lakes northern and southern banks, will improve Chinas road connection in the critical border region, allowing the nations troops and ammunition to move more quickly. Media reports of #PangongTso allege a new bridge is under construction connecting the north & south bank of the lake, in turn enhancing road connectivity for #China's troops in the area, GEOINT of the area identifies the location & progress of the alleged structure https://t.co/b9budT3DZZ pic.twitter.com/IdBl5rkDhR Damien Symon (@detresfa_) January 3, 2022 Following their devastating confrontations on June 15, 2020, India and Chinas soldiers established a buffer zone in Galwan valley. To celebrate the New Year, Indian and Chinese forces exchanged sweets and congratulations at ten border checkpoints along the LAC, including one in eastern Ladakh. According to PTI, the bridge is around 40 kilometres from the alignment of the LAC in the region. Moreover, India is also rapidly expanding infrastructure in the area. The eastern Ladakh border deadlock between Indian and Chinese soldiers erupted on May 5, 2020, following a deadly fight in the Pangong lake area. In another fierce fight in June 2020, twenty Indian Army personnel were killed. While India claimed forty Chinese troops were killed in the clash, China has publicly recognised that four of their military officials were killed in Galwan Valley clash. Both sides gradually increased their deployment by hurling tens of thousands of soldiers and heavy equipment into the clash. Last Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the Chisumle-Demchok route in Ladakhs Umling La Pass at almost 19,000 feet. It is regarded as a critical stretch for military objectives. After Indian forces secured possession of numerous crucial peaks on the southern bank of Pangong Lake in August 2020, following the Chinese PLAs effort to intimidate them in the area, China has been working on improving its military infrastructure. WESTPORT Bridgewater Associates, the worlds largest hedge fund, announced Monday two new co-chief executives to succeed CEO David McCormick who has stepped down to consider a run for the U.S. Senate in his home state of Pennsylvania. Nir Bar Dea, 40, who previously served as Bridgewaters deputy CEO, and Mark Bertolini, 65, the former CEO and chairman of Hartford-based health insurance giant Aetna and the former co-chairman of Bridgewaters operating board of directors, are the new co-CEOs. The announcement was expected given that McCormick, 56, had already declared his interest in possibly running for the Senate seat now held by GOP incumbent Pat Toomey, who will retire when his second term ends next year. McCormick would join a competitive field of Republican candidates, with other contenders for the partys nomination including surgeon and TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz. We all recognize that Dave is a hero on a heros journey he always has been from his stint at West Point and in the military, then his time in the White House and the U.S. Treasury, then through his business career and, most importantly for us, at Bridgewater over the last 12 years, with nearly five of those years as CEO, Bridgewater founder and co-chief investment officer Ray Dalio, co-CIOs Bob Prince and Greg Jensen and operating board chairman Mike McGavick said in a note to employees Monday that was posted on the companys website. During his time at Bridgewater, our lives and missions were intertwined and aligned. He imbued Bridgewater and Bridgewater imbued him. While we will miss him, we are also joyous for his opportunity to pursue his hero's journey in service to our country, and we are especially grateful for the gifts he left us. McCormick had served as CEO since 2020, following spells as co-CEO from 2017 to 2020 and president from 2009 to 2017. He joined Bridgewater in 2009 following a stint as under-secretary of the treasury for international affairs at the Department of Treasury during the administration of President George W. Bush. He is also a West Point graduate and Gulf War veteran. Besides leading the company effectively, David accomplished a great management transition during his term. It is not easy to transition from a founder-led organization with a strong leader and strong culture while having ones own strong visions and building them out, Dalio, Prince, Jensen and McGavick added in their note. This is especially true during challenging times such as the last two years of the COVID pandemic. David accomplished this by skillfully pulling together those who have been at Bridgewater for many years, integrating talented new people and orchestrating them to work well together. Bertolini is best known for his time as Aetnas CEO, a role he held from 2010 to 2018. In November 2018, he stepped down as Aetnas CEO and chairman when CVS Health completed its $69 billion acquisition of Aetna. He serves as a director of Verizon Communications, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Thrive Global and the FIDELCO Guide Dog Foundation. Bar Dea had served as deputy CEO since last February, a role in which he partnered with McCormick in managing the firm. Bar Dea, who joined Bridgewater in 2015, previously ran a multinational real estate investment operation and founded a drone-technology startup. Originally from outside Tel Aviv, he is a retired major and a platoon leader in the Israeli Defense Forces. Bridgewater ranks No. 1 among hedge funds in the amount of assets under management. It manages about $150 billion in assets for institutional investors, including public and corporate pension funds, university endowments, charitable foundations, supranational agencies, foreign governments and central banks. As of the middle of last week, the firms Pure Alpha fund was up 8.1 percent year-to-date, net of fees, while its All Weather fund was up 10.9 percent during the same period. Since its launch in 1991, Pure Alpha has recorded an annualized return of 10.3 percent, while All Weather has posted a 7.9 percent return since 1996. Through Connecticuts First Five Plus corporate-incentives program, Bridgewater has qualified for up to $52 million in subsidies related to hitting targets for creating and retaining jobs. It received a $17 million loan, of which it has so far earned about $10.8 million in forgiveness. It has earned $12 million of up to $30 million in tax credits. In addition, it received $5 million in grants. Bridgewater, which is headquartered at 1 Glendinning Place in Westport, employs a total of about 1,500 people, according to its LinkedIn page. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Colleges across Connecticut have asked students and faculty to get boosted, and fast, while the pandemic surges just as they prepared to reopen after winter break. Many colleges and universities are requiring all students and staff to receive COVID-19 booster doses or request exemptions, such as Yale and Sacred Heart University. A few schools and systems have yet to introduce requirements, though the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities and some private schools are on that list. On Tuesday, the universities of New Haven and Hartford became the latest colleges to require all eligible students and employees to get the dose this month, per communications sent to students and employees. While we are hopeful we will be able to host an on-campus booster clinic at some point this spring, it is not guaranteed, said Anthony Santella, the COVID-19 coordinator at University of New Haven. Those who are eligible for the booster now should not wait. Students whose booster documentation has not been approved prior to arrival will have to take a COVID-19 test, Santella said. The University of Connecticut also told students they will be required to be boosted once eligible. On Tuesday, university spokesperson Stephanie Reitz confirmed discussions are still underway about mandating the doses for faculty and staff. UConn classes were moved online for at least the first two weeks of the semester, university officials announced on Thursday. The current move-in date for residential students is the weekend of Jan. 29. This is subject to further change based on the course of the pandemic, said Andrew Agwunobi, the interim president, in a letter to students and employees. The Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, which includes the community colleges, Charter Oak State College and the Southern, Eastern, Western and Central Connecticut state universities, were taking a different approach as of mid-week. We recognize that boosters are essential in preventing severe illness and are strongly encouraging everyone who is eligible to get a booster, said system spokesperson Leigh Appleby. At this time we do not have a booster mandate for students or employees. Appleby added CSCU expects to have an announcement on beginning-of-semester plans this week, including if students will begin in-person classes as scheduled, and testing protocols. At the very least we will continue to require those who are not fully vaccinated to submit to weekly testing, he said. Fairfield University has not mandated the shots, though it recently hosted a vaccination booster clinic and is planning another one, according to Jennifer Anderson, the vice president of marketing and communications. At the end of last month, Fairfield also moved final exams for students to online or alternate formats. Nearby, the University of Bridgeport has taken a similar approach for now. University of Bridgeport is moving forward with no changes to its reopening plans, said spokesperson Jennifer Asaro, though officials strongly encouraged students and faculty to return to campus with boosters. The university will also hold an on-campus vaccine booster clinic on Wednesday. Trinity College, meanwhile, delayed its spring semester to Jan. 31 and is requiring vaccinated students and staff to submit proof of a booster shot within 30 days of becoming eligible, according to its website. The college is also requiring PCR COVID tests upon return, and increased testing frequency during the first month of the semester. Students and staff at Quinnipiac University are required to receive their booster by mid-February, with some exceptions, according to its website. Quinnipiac will also host booster clinics on campus, and previously implemented a negative COVID-19 test requirement to return from winter break. Connecticut College is also requiring booster doses, and students also received test kits to use before returning to campus, according to its website. Wesleyan University was among the first colleges to institute a booster requirement for students and staff in November. Proof of most updated vaccination cards is due in mid-January. Winter sessions went virtual, though at last communications, spring courses remained on track for in-person learning. Students are expected to get COVID tests before arriving, then again upon return to campus. Sacred Heart will also require booster shots for students and employees, and work with Hartford HealthCare to schedule booster clinics on campus, with dates expected to come soon, said spokesperson Deborah Noack. The university is also requiring a PCR test upon reentry and offering tests on site. Yale University will require students and staff to be boosted before returning to campus or as soon as they become eligible, Hearst Connecticut Media previously reported, with medical and religious vaccine exemptions still in place. The university also delayed the start of the semester for undergraduate students to January 25, when classes will be online. In-person teaching will resume on February 7. Students are required to test before and within 24 hours of arrival. Albertus Magnus College and Post University also have booster requirements, according to their websites. NEW HAVEN City Health Director Maritza Bond hit her quarterly fundraising goal of $30,000 as she explores running to become Connecticuts Secretary of the State, her campaign announced Monday. Denise Merrill, the current Secretary of the State, said in June she would not seek a fourth term in the position. Bond, who launched her prospective candidacy for the position in September, offered her thanks to donors and volunteers in the announcement, praising their efforts to help build a grassroots coalition of people ready to challenge the status quo and buck traditional thinking. During my time working in public health, Ive seen government work for people and I have seen it fail, said Bond in the announcement. And when I speak with residents of this state about the stagnation surrounding early voting, no-excuse absentee ballots, and more, I see an opportunity to bring to this office what I have brought to New Haven and Bridgeport as the Director of Public Health: an approach to government that prioritizes listening to the people it serves and giving a voice to those too often ignored. Thats how you make government work. Bonds platform includes establishing early voting and no-excuse absentee ballot voting, making the office more community-oriented, forward facing, and proactive, and being a better partner for small businesses looking to open in Connecticut, and for those that are already here, her campaign said. Prior to her time in New Haven, Bond worked as the director of health and social services in Bridgeport and served as executive director of the Eastern Area Health Education Center, striving, in that role, to bring educators, health care professionals, and the community together, better coordinate the regional and state public health workforce, and ensure health care access to the underserved. She holds a a master's degree in public health, with an MPA certificate in nonprofit management, from the University of Connecticut, according to her campaign, and earned her bachelor's degree in public health from Southern Connecticut State University, specializing in health promotion. The campaign now has $35,500 in its coffers, officials said. State Rep. Stephanie Thomas, D-Norwalk, filed the paperwork to officially seek the Democratic nomination for the Secretary of the State position on Nov. 30, according to the Connecticut Mirror. Dominic A. Rapini and Brock L. Weber, both Republicans, have formed campaign committees as they consider the role, according to the Mirror. Other Democratic suitors for the role include state Rep. Hilda Santiago, D-Meriden, state Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, state Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, and Rob Simmelkjaer, head of the Connecticut Lottery, according to the Mirror. Alder Darryl Brackeen, D-26, and city official Jackie James have also announced plans to potentially seek the office. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com; reporting from Mark Zaretsky is included in this story NEW HAVEN Police are investigating a shooting on Blake Street Monday, New Haven police confirmed. According to Officer Scott Shumway, police responded to a report of gunfire on Blake Street, between Whittlesey Avenue and Osborn Avenue, at 4:47 p.m., where they found a 21-year-old Hamden man on the ground who had been struck by gunfire. The man was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, Shumway said. Police located the alleged crime scene and ballistic evidence, Shumway said, and the departments Bureau of Identification processed the scene; the Major Crimes Unit is leading the investigation. The street is mainly residential and sits in the Beaver Hills neighborhood to the northwest of the city center and south of Southern Connecticut State University. Police ask that any witnesses to contact the departments Investigative Services Division at 203-946-6304. Callers can remain anonymouse, police said, or can submit tips anonymously by calling 1-866-888-TIPS(8477), or texting NHPD along with a message to 274637 (CRIMES). Additional information was not immediately available. Contributed / Getty WOODBRIDGE Police said they have arrested a 16-year-old New Haven resident in connection with an attempted carjacking reported over the weekend. The incident was reported to Woodbridge police around 3:45 p.m. Sunday. The victim told police he was approached by two individuals one of whom was armed with a gun in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Lucy Street. SHELTON - Staffing and transportation issues are forcing the school district to run on a two-hour delay Tuesday, the second consecutive delayed opening since the return from holiday break. Superintendent Ken Saranich alerted the school community Monday afternoon of the delayed opening Tuesday. He had sent out the notice about Mondays delayed opening at 5:30 a.m. via social media, saying the two-hour delay allowed the district to assess our situation with school. On Monday, just under 20 percent of the school district staff including teachers, security, custodians and other building personnel were out. Some of those absences were for non-COVID reasons, he said. Saranich said that for those out related to COVID, some had positive tests, others were symptomatic and awaiting test results and others had not yet completed their 5-day quarantine period. The 2-hour delay allowed for administrators to have the time to juggle staffers to provide effective and safe in-person instruction, he said. The extra time allows us to make the necessary determinations on staff allocation, he said. My priority is always instructing students. We have been told we cannot do remote, so I have to make sure we can keep the schools open and offer the safest learning environment we can. Saranich praised district personnel and the city-owned bus company officials who worked together to make sure the day ran smoothly. We got it done, Saranich said. Kudos to Shelton. When things get tough here, we always make it work. Regarding Tuesdays delayed opening, Saranich said the move will allow time to arrange coverage for staffing shortages at schools and in transportation. Shelton Student Transportation Service also alerted parents Monday morning that six buses would not run due to staff shortages. Director Ken Nappi was not available for comment. This comes as positive cases are spiking statewide. The latest numbers released Monday morning had the states positivity rate at 21.5 percent in terms of PCR tests. In Shelton, for the two-week period from Dec. 12 to 25, there were 566 reported positive cases, which stands at 98.3 per 100,000. Since the pandemic began in March 2020, there are 5,937 positive cases (5,103 confirmed) out of the 33,391 total tests administered. The delayed opening comes one day after the superintendent emailed parents with the latest details on the return to school from the holiday break - which included a regularly timed opening. Despite any rumors that you may have heard regarding schools not reopening after the holiday break due to a rise in reported cases, the (state) and Governor Lamont remain committed to safely reopening Connecticut schools for in-person learning, Saranich wrote. Local health departments can no longer make decisions to close schools due to local outbreaks, according to Saranich. Only the Governor's office can close in-person learning through a declaration of a statewide emergency necessitating a return to remote learning, he added. At this time, there is no indication that (Lamont) will signal a return to remote learning. Observers of the city scene might have noticed two quiet demolitions in the weeks before Christmas on Columbus Avenue and Liberty Street, leaving piles of shattered bricks where century-old religious buildings had stood. Carried out by St. Martin de Porres Academy, the demolition is the first step in reshaping the block to install new recreation fields and more parking. The demolished buildings, the former convent and rectory of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, were sold by the diocese to St. Martin de Porres Academy a decade ago when Sacred Heart was deconsecrated. The academy developed a master plan in 2019 to place basketball and soccer fields along Portsea Street, including the site of the former rectory, and a parking lot where the convent was located. Both the convent and the rectory were contributing structures to the Trowbridge Square National Historic District. Being listed on the National Register of Historic Places is an honor, one which deserves careful consideration of feasible alternatives before deciding on demolition. The New Haven Preservation Trust tried several times to suggest alternatives that respected the schools need for upgraded playing fields. Trust staff and board members brought in representatives of Preservation Connecticut and the Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office to help persuade academy officials to revise their plan. The buildings represented community assets that could have produced much-needed income to support site improvements and other benefits for the academys students. For instance, the convent building could have been renovated and rented to nonprofit agencies, generating a permanent income stream. However, no real attention was paid to alternatives to demolition once the academys plan was created. We regret that the New Haven Preservation Trust and St. Martin de Porres Academy were not able to work together. The demolished buildings held great historic value to the city. They were created to serve the community and did so for decades. Residents may remember the Trowbridge Renaissance, spearheaded by the Sacred Heart clergy, which was credited with helping to rid the neighborhood of drug dealers and clean up the park. While much of the neighborhoods significance lies in its classic urban square surrounded by 19th century working-class houses, the St. Martin de Porres campus represented an outstanding architectural grouping and an important neighborhood resource. The academys plan resulted in the loss of two of New Havens irreplaceable treasures. As preservationists, we know that any building still standing has a chance to be saved. While we acknowledge that the convent and rectory were in a state of decay, we believe that given the time and cooperation, the trust could have helped the school find a feasible alternative to demolition that also gave the students the recreation space they deserve. Furthermore, the preservation and restoration of even one of the buildings would have been an excellent learning tool, teaching the academys students about the distinctive history of the Trowbridge Square neighborhood, how architecture contributes to the citys quality of life, and the value of community collaboration. Susan Godshall is a member of the board of directors of the New Haven Preservation Trust. Elizabeth Holt is the trusts former director of preservation services. After three decades in office, Dennis Virtuoso steps away from legislature Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has alleged that Ogoni leaders are the problem of Ogoniland. The Governor accused some Ogoni peopl... Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has alleged that Ogoni leaders are the problem of Ogoniland. The Governor accused some Ogoni people of selling themselves out, adding that they have turned the Ogoni struggle into a money-making avenue. He was speaking at the 30th Ogoniday celebration in Bori, the Khana Local government area of Rivers State on Tuesday. Governor Wike advised Ogoni people to learn to love and protect themselves the same way he has been protecting Rivers people. He also claimed that the Ogoni people attempted to kill the political career of Senator Magnus Abe because he wanted to be Governor. He said The problem with Ogoniland are these people (pointing to Ogoni leaders). Every day, Ogoni day, what is Ogoni day when you have gone to sell yourselves out? All of you coming here telling me Ogoni day, you use it to make money. Go and check your conscience Ogoni people, check your conscience. Im not here for APC or PDP. You people dont love yourself. You killed Magnus Abe in APC. You destroyed him because he wanted to be Governor. The Governor also lamented over the division in the Niger Delta region which he said is the reason why the region has been taken for granted. The Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma on Tuesday alleged that Senator Rochas Okorocha wants to remain the governor of the state even afte... The Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma on Tuesday alleged that Senator Rochas Okorocha wants to remain the governor of the state even after leaving office, claiming that is the only problem he has with the governor. Uzodinma made the assertion at the 2022 Imo Stakeholders meeting at the Government House Owerri, Imo State capital. He said my advice to him is that for the short period of time I remain the governor, he should let me enjoy my position as the governor of the state. Traditionally Im his elder brother. He should let my administration be and not bring in unnecessary interference. We have had previous governors like Achike Udenwa, Ikedi Ohakim and Emeka Ihedioha but the difference between the Former governor Rochas Okorocha and others is that he is out of office but still wants to remain the governor of Imo State. On education, Uzodinma said one of his administrations greatest achievements in the education sector is the recovery of the K.O. Mbadiwe University for Imo people He said, As you may well know, the university was built and furnished with taxpayers money of not less than N40b. Yet, an individual, abusing his office as Governor, brazenly wanted to appropriate it to himself as a privately owned establishment. I am glad to report to you that by the second week of December this year, I received a Certificate of Ownership for the University on behalf of the Government and people of Imo State. Today, as we speak, that University is now the rightful property of Imo State. On security, Uzodinma said You will recall that as a government, we have repeatedly maintained that some of the security breaches were politically contrived. He said, This was based on intelligence information at our disposal. As the Igbo saying goes, when a child is crying and pointing in a particular direction, it is because either his mother or father is there. I assured you that my administration will name those behind insecurity in the state during this stakeholders meeting but for security reasons, we will hold on. With the cooperation of the security agencies and the support and assistance of the Federal Government, we have been able to overwhelm the bandits. An unnamed Chief Superintendent of Police on Tuesday openly defied the order of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to vacate th... An unnamed Chief Superintendent of Police on Tuesday openly defied the order of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to vacate the Magodo Phase 2 Estate area of the state. The CSP told the governor that he and his armed colleagues were at the estate on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba; as well as the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN). Sanwo-Olu had led members of his cabinet to visit the residents protesting the continuous presence of armed policemen in the estate. For days, policemen besieged the estate in the company of suspected land grabbers and members of a family who had planned to demolish property in the choice estate to execute a Supreme Court judgment. The development has caused commotion at the estate as landlords and tenants panic over their fate. The residents subsequently called on the governor to intervene and Sanwo-Olu visited the scene on Tuesday and told the leader of the police delegation that the land matter was a case between private individuals and the state government. Sanwo-Olu said, Can you call your superiors in Abuja and tell them that the governor is here and as the Chief Security Officer, you dont have any business being in my state right now and that I want you to disengage right now? But the unnamed CSP replied, I am here on the instruction of the Inspector General of Police through the AGF. I am too small or too low to call them. Your Excellency sir, you can call them sir. Asked of the number of policemen at the estate, the defiant leader of the police team told the governor, My men are here; they are all over the place, I cannot precisely tell you how many we are. For security purpose, I cannot tell you the number. After many failed attempts, the governor, miffed, turned to journalists and declared the presence of the policemen as illegal, adding that he would make some calls to the IGP and the AGF. A dissatisfied Sanwo-Olu said, They (policemen) are not from the Lagos State Police Command. They said they are from Abuja. I dont know what other interest they have beyond keeping the peace of the country. This is not an expectation that I expect from them because they dont have any business here. Recall that the 17 Southern governors in July 2021 resolved that security agencies must notify them as the chief security officers of their states before they carry out any operation within their individual domains but the Federal Government through the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army, the Department of State Services and other security agencies have continued to do otherwise. The lack of control over security apparatus by governors had over the years fuelled the clamour for devolution of powers from federal to state governments as many governors including Sanwo-Olu, Nyesom Wike (Rivers), and other staunch proponents of restructuring believe that state policing would allow them have control over security agencies in their individual domains without interference from the government at the centre. The Kwara State Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Makinde Iskil Ayinla, has declared war against vandalism ... The Kwara State Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Makinde Iskil Ayinla, has declared war against vandalism in the state. Briefing newsmen on activities of the defence corps for this year at the defence corps headquarters in Ilorin on Tuesday, Makinde said it will not be business as usual for vandals, oil bunkerers and other criminals in the new year. Those intending to smuggle fuel out of the country should get ready for a tough year ahead, he stated. The commandant said more surveillance activities would be intensified as part of the mandate of the command to prevent among others, likely disasters. He asserted the readiness of the units in charge of counter-terrorism, cultism and kidnapping to intensify efforts towards reducing such crimes to the barest minimum in collaboration with other security agencies in the state. He said training and re-training of officers on weapons handling in the command will be taken seriously to avoid accidental discharge. On staff discipline, Makinde disclosed that two officers were transferred out of the state last for gross misconduct, while four others were sent to the national headquarters of the defence corps for disciplinary action. He admonished officers and men of the command to be and professional whenever they were out on official duties. The Commandant said the women squad of the command would be unveiled this year as 24 hours surveillance begins soon in the correctional centres of the state. Commending the productive synergy between the command and other security agencies in the state, he said matters that fall outside the mandate of the command were usually handed over to the appropriate security agencies for action. The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has said that the Igbo spirit will be against former President Goodluck Jonatha... The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has said that the Igbo spirit will be against former President Goodluck Jonathan if he fails to support the realisation of a president of Igbo extraction in 2023. Ohanaeze Ndigbo National Publicity Secretary, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, in an interview with one of our correspondents in Enugu, said that the suffering Ndigbo were going through under the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari was because of the support Igbo gave Jonathan. Ogbonnia was asked to comment on a report that Jonathan on December 27 met South-South leaders coordinating his alleged plan to contest the 2023 presidency. According to the report, the meeting was held at Aridolf Hotels and Spars, Yenagoa. There have been reports that some northern All Progressives Congress governors were plotting Jonathans return to Presidency to assuage the South and enable the North to return to power after four years. Commenting on the development, Ohanaeze Ndigbo spokesman stated, The Igbo position on Jonathans (alleged) presidential ambition in 2023 is that the Igbo spirit will be against him, the totality of Igbo spirit will be against him and he should realise it. Because he is expected to support the Igbo; a form of spiritual reciprocity, to reciprocate the Igbo kind gesture towards him. He disclosed that whatever Igbo suffered under the regime of President, Muhammadu Buhari was because of Jonathan. He added, Whatever you see the Igbo suffered under President Buhari was as a result of the support we gave Jonathan. He should realise it. That is the Ohanaeze Ndigbo position and by extension Igbo position. Group says South-South has one tenure left, explains visit to Jonathan A group, the South-South Presidency in 2023, faulted a report that Jonathan had accepted to contest the 2023 presidency. The group, however, says it will ensure that any political party that presents a candidate from the zone as vice president will not get the support of the people there. Chief Dikivie Ikiogha, who is the National Chairman of the group and political associate of Jonathan stated this in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Monday. He debunked reports that Jonathan had accepted to run for the presidency next year. He stated, I have just seen a publication credited to the group, saying that the former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan has accepted to run for the presidency. That is not correct. We will be happy. Anybody who wants to run for the presidency from South-South, we will be very happy about it. When it has not happened and people want to put the record in a wrong way that is not good, Ikiogha stated. He said the group was consolidating its stand by trying to mobilise and enlighten the South-South on the need to produce the next President, saying the members also visited Jonathan recently. So we have been visiting people, making consultations here and there and visiting people, Just as we visited any other people or aspirants or suspected aspirants, we also visited him (Jonathan). And he cannot of course push us out. He is the father of South-South politics today. Obasanjo (former President Olusegun) called him recently, his colleague. So if we want to take a major decision that concerns the South-South, there is no way we cannot meet him and sell our idea to him, which we did. That is the stand of the South-South Presidency in 2023. That it is our turn to present the next President. We want to complete our tenure. We have one tenure left. If we are going to be united and move ahead, move together in this country, whether we are minority or not, we should be given a chance to complete our tenure before we can call ourselves brothers. Asked if the group had begun moves to reconcile Jonathan and the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, he said it was not a major concern of the association, saying They should decide to reconcile each other. What we are saying is that if anybody among them, just accept to become vice-president and become this or that and not the President. We will not be happy with that person. We have told them that nobody should accept the chairmanship of a party or a vice-presidential candidate of a party. So if anybody wants to come out, we have the political know-how to run that political party down. ,, Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Yes, it should be paid for indirectly through property taxes No, continue the 50-50 split between property owners and the city Yes, but I don't like either of these methods of paying for it Vote View Results Watertown, NY (13601) Today Cloudy with showers. High 59F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 44F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East King cakes hold sway, and king cake lovers find a way to reunite with this perennial passion. If there was ever any doubt, last Carnival season put them to rest. With parades canceled and parties and gatherings drastically limited by the pandemic, the king cake tradition remained one enduring emblem. Purveyors got creative, customers met them halfway, and the king cakes reign continued. Some bakeries even did a stronger business than usual in that strange year. Those experiences provide just a bit more confidence as Carnival season 2022 begins, and with prospects for the weeks and months ahead newly muddled by the latest COVID-19 surge. Some of the tactics deployed last year remain in play, while trends that have been coalescing for years gain momentum. Heres a preview of whats in store as we start cutting into king cakes once again. Long season, lots of cake For those who count the days of king cake season more closely than the calories of king cake, this year promises a long romp. This Carnival season stretches more than seven weeks from Twelfth Night through Mardi Gras on March 1. Thats 55 days of potential king cake, which is almost two weeks longer than last years Carnival season when we had to cram all the eating into a mere 42 days. This means theres time to play the field, to return the old favorites, to check some marks off your bucket list, and also, if your king cake desire wanes, theres time to recuperate and get back in it by seasons peak. Collaborations continue The king cake game can be fiercely competitive, with high demand, a limited window for sales and a lot of players in the market. But king cake has also inspired collaboration and cooperation. One regal example is King Cake Hub, a concept that collects king cakes from many different bakeries and restaurants in one spot. It indeed acts like a hub for that well-documented desire to sample the range of tradition and creativity running through the king cake realm each season. It was created in 2019 by Will Samuels, already well known for his earlier endeavors in New Orleans food and music and his community leadership roles. He died from cancer Sept. 7 at age 52. But his wife, Jennifer Samuels, has brought King Cake Hub back, following her husbands wishes. This season it has a new home at Zony Mash Beer Project, 3940 Thalia St., the craft brewery built in the vintage cinema at the crossroads of neighborhoods along South Broad Street. Naturally, Zony Mash has brewed a king cake beer, a stout, to mark the new partnership. Theres also a second King Cake Hub location at The Historic New Orleans Collection in the French Quarter, set up inside the museum and cultural centers gift shop at 520 Royal St. Another related king cake collaboration has brought back the goat cheese and apple king cake from Cake Cafe. Food and restaurant news in your inbox Every Thursday we give you the scoop on NOLA dining. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up This Marigny bakery and restaurant closed for good in 2020, but founder Steve Himelfarb partnered with his neighbors at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts to bring back his king cakes as a benefit for the high schools culinary program. They are back again this year, through pre-order at nolacakes.com and at King Cake Hub. New talent keeps rising The long season is a blessing for those who want to sample a range of king cake, and there sure are a lot out there. The career shifts and pivots of the pandemic spawned a profusion of new bakers, or, more typically, veteran bakers going off on their own. The cravings for and loyalties to old favorites are strong, but even the most ardent loyalist must acknowledge the urge to try whats new. This season promises a plethora. Restaurants step in As last years Carnival season of question marks progressed, restaurants found one sure thing in king cakes. Dessert menus are frequently adorned with king cake-themed dishes this time of year (cocktail lists, too), but in 2021, more restaurants started retail sales of whole cakes as a way to add revenue and keep people working through dining room limitations. Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group went big for king cakes. The parent company of Brennans, Ralphs on the Park, Napoleon House, Redfish Grill and Cafe NOMA also has its own dedicated baking facility, and it's once again in king cake mode, producing a line of cakes for local pick-up or national delivery. This year, its adding a bananas Foster king cake, a nod to the classic dessert created at Brennans itself. Other restaurants get a much-needed boost by selling other makers king cakes, and thats especially true for the vaunted Dong Phuong king cake. The Vietnamese bakery has a loyal following for its crisp-shelled cake, and it has evolved a network of official resellers to broaden access away from its own New Orleans East facility. Thats back this year, along with Dong Phuongs own shipping and in-store sales. Shipping soars King cakes travel well, and shipping them around the country has long been a big business. That soared in 2021 as people sought some way to connect and share what they love during hard times. With more purveyors now experienced with shipping, and more people regularly ordering food online, this should continue in 2022. The national service Goldbelly, for instance, handles king cakes from Joe Gambinos Bakery and Maurice French Pastries. The local shipping service NOLA Cajun has its own line of king cakes ready to go. Plenty of king cake makers ship themselves, including mom-and-pop bakeries and local grocery chains. Also, remember that, most king cakes are candidates for DIY shipping (the ones with more elaborate toppings or quickly perishable ingredients being the exceptions). You can support your favorite small shops with some packing tape and a trip to the shipping center. Throw in some of the beads you have lying around for good measure. +22 Alzina's Kitchen, a legend of Cajun cooking, will return with the next generation Alzina Toups, 94, sat at the head of a long lunch table at her great-grandsons restaurant, Kajun Twist & Grill in Lockport. It was filled +9 New Orleans restaurant losses, revivals and lessons that carry though tumultuous 2021 On Mardi Gras 2021, parades were canceled, bars in New Orleans were ordered closed and the day started bitterly cold. But at least some restau +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 Science fiction merged with reality on Oct. 13, 2021, when William Shatner ventured into space aboard one of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos Blue Origin spaceships. Following the ships landing in Texas, an emotional Shatner described the awe-inspiring experience of looking at the Earth from space and recognizing its fragility. It was another milestone for the man who immortalized the character of James T. Kirk, and has been associated with space, science fiction and now nonfiction ever since. Shatner returns to New Orleans this week for Fan Expo, Jan. 7-9, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He joins a host of actors, comics artists and cosplayers at the convention, which replaces Wizard World. Shatner is a regular at such events as well as an annual "Star Trek" convention in Las Vegas. Shatner was a Canadian actor known for Shakespearean roles on stage before he relocated to California and broke through in Star Trek. He played the iconic captain for three years, from 1966 to 1969, and for years afterward had troubles landing new roles because everyone saw him as Kirk. But Star Trek became a cult favorite, and by the end of the decade, Shatner and other stars from the show reunited in the first of eight Star Trek movies, and four other series were spun off the franchise. Shatner went on to other roles, and did more episodes as the star of the cop show TJ Hooker in the 1980s. He won two Emmy Awards and received numerous nominations as lawyer Denny Crane on the shows The Practice and Boston Legal, though in many ways the character parodied and expanded on traits of Kirk. Shatner also has released numerous albums, including his latest, Bill, in August 2021. But video of him floating in the weightlessness of space, peering down at the Earth made news around the globe. At 90, he set the record for the oldest human to travel into space. At Fan Expo, Shatner is scheduled for an autograph and photo session on Friday and will be interviewed for an audience on Saturday. Shatner spoke with Gambit about his newfound perspective, the nitty gritty of space travel, Star Trek and his upcoming projects. Gambit: What did they do to prepare you to go into space? William Shatner: French toast and a cup of coffee Youre ready. There was no real preparation. (On the flight) youre lying back on a seat. The preparation that was done was basically, the sounds, which they didnt come close to imitating, the feel of the seat, and the encapsulation of the vehicle. But mostly it was how to get back into the seat while youre weightless. They cant imitate weightlessness. Youre looping an arm into the harness, rolling back into the seat, putting your feet into a ledge, so you can keep your body in the seat while youre trying to get the other parts of the five-point harness around your body, including a crotch strap. Youre lying down, and youre being asked to put the final element thats between your legs into a dial. You know how a five-point harness works? Youve got the shoulders and waist are four points. Youve got to get the fifth point, which is between your legs, but youre lying down. So you cant see the slot in which youre supposed to place that final harness. At my rehearsal, a lot of jokes were made about my inability to find the hole. Gambit: What did weightlessness feel like? Shatner: On a five-point harness, which I am accustomed to because I drive fast cars, you just twist the dial and everything falls away. (In space) now, youre up. And its really weird, because youre floating like youre in water, but of course youre in air. I had seen some footage of a previous flight with Mr. Bezos. They were all playing around, Oh look at us, were floating in space. I wanted to get to the window. We had like two minutes (of weightlessness). I didnt want to waste any time playing around. I very anxiously got to the window. With all the weight thats on you as you go up, and the weightlessness, you feel your breakfast. The last thing I wanted to do was turn summersaults in there. I dont know if you know this phrase, the vomit comet theres a DC 737 or something, where this company does outside loops. The airplane dives down and circles around on its back. Thats an outside loop. During the time it starts the loop, youre basically weightless for about 45 seconds. They have taught astronauts and people who pay money to go on the outside loop to feel the effect of weightlessness and a lot of people vomit. They call it the vomit comet. Well, the last thing I wanted to do was be in orbit with somebodys vomit, even it if it was mine. I was thinking that when I attached myself to the window, just looking out. Gambit: What did you see? Shatner: I was looking back and saw the Earth going away from me as we were going 2,500 miles an hour. Something else that I have never heard of, that I saw, which is the vehicle that we were in, the spaceship, was leaving a wake in the blue air. Its like if you were in a submarine that had a window and youd look behind and see a hole in the water and the water closing in on it. Well, that was happening in the air. The passage of the vehicle through the air, which was colored blue, was leaving a wake. I was like, nobody has ever said anything about that. When I looked to my right, I was looking at the palpable blackness of space. It was so sudden, and so black that I thought thats what death looks like. Then I looked back to earth and all its warm colors and I thought thats what life looks like. Then I saw the curvature of the earth, whereby I could, if I traced it with my finger, I could make a complete circle. I could see how tiny this piece of rock is as against the limitlessness of space; and how small it is. And then I thought about how small we are on this small planet. I have traveled across the planet, and hitchhiked across America. I have driven in a car across it, on a motorcycle. Its endless. In Texas, the highways disappear into infinity. Theres nothing around. It seems like forever. But in fact, this little planet is nothing. Its a piece of dust. I dont know if this is my image or I heard it it doesnt matter Its like a grain of sand in the Sahara Desert. Its meaningless. We are these little tiny things. These meaningless things on this meaningless planet. This hunk of rock. Some days later I realized the miracle is we are aware of how meaningless we are on this meaningless planet. Thats the miracle. The facts were there (at the moment). Before I came down, I was filled with such sadness about what we are doing to the Earth. When I got on the ground I couldnt stop weeping. I didnt know why. It took me a while to process what emotions I had. Gambit: Had you expected any of that? Shatner: I had no expectations. All I had was fear. Have you seen footage of the Hindenburg burning? Thats what I was thinking. Gambit: Next, youre coming to New Orleans for Fan Expo? Shatner: I am coming to New Orleans for Friday night and all day Saturday. Everybody will be vaccinated and masked. Under the circumstances, the last person in the world I want to take a chance with is myself. I think its safe enough. Gambit: At conventions, are you ever surprised about what people want to talk about? Shatner: What I am trying to do most of the time is get people to talk about themselves. Why are they here? What fascinates them? Can I help them on any of those questions, rather than Whats it like to be Capt. James T. Kirk? Get a conversation going between some of the individuals who raise their hands. I try to get conversation flowing on both sides. Gambit: Are there other things from the vast array of things youve done that youd like people to ask about? Shatner: Id like to tell them about my bathroom habits. Oh, I dont know. Gambit: What else have you been up to? Shatner: I released an album (in August) called Bill. Its gotten incredible reviews. Better reviews than anything I have done. I have a talk show, which is streaming, called I Dont Understand. Its all about things I dont understand. Then theres this show on history called Unexplained. Thats a big hit. I am writing a book. I think were calling it Go Boldly. I sat down with the cowriter and talked endlessly. Essentially the subject is, youve got to keep trying, keep moving. Theres the pleasure of life. Dont give up. Its not even the success, but the attempt to do more and do better. I am working on another album. We know its going to be about love. I am trying a different way of approaching it. The two guys that I worked with on Bill, Dan Miller on music and Rob the Poet [Rob Sharenow of They Might Be Giants], whos an incredible lyricist. The way it works is I come with the idea for a song, and he sends me lyrics and I have feedback. Rob is mostly the writer. The three of us are sort of partners and weve written most of our (new) album. Louisiana health officials on Monday reported the largest multiday increase in coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, as the highly-infectious omicron variant continued to spread following holiday gatherings and as many of the state's schoolchildren returned to classrooms. The Louisiana Department of Health said it logged 24,433 new cases since Thursday, or an average of 6,108 per day over the four-day period. The only days with higher one-day totals since the start of the pandemic were on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. The previous multi-day record was a three-day period during the delta wave of the pandemic August 7 to 9, when there were a total of 12,227 cases, or about 4,075 per day. Hospitalizations have quadrupled over the last month, with a total of 1,106 people hospitalized and 50 in need of a ventilator as of Monday. The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 remains well below the peak of the delta wave this summer, and many of those patients are unvaccinated, health care workers said. Still, doctors and other health care workers are watching wearily as more patients arrive for treatment, including at Children's Hospital in New Orleans. The hospital, which treats kids from across the Gulf South, had 14 children hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday. Just a few weeks ago, it was typical for Childrens to have between zero and two COVID patients at any given time, according to Dr. Mark Kline, the physician in chief at Children's, who said it was "wishful thinking" to suggest this wave of the virus would wash through without causing severe infections in many patients. Recent data from South Africa and other countries suggest that the omicron variant may result in milder infections than the delta variant and earlier versions of the virus. But the infectiousness of the newer variant, which in early studies appears to be potentially many times greater than delta, could still cause high numbers of hospitalizations, he said. The sheer number of cases of omicron that were seeing is bigger than we had during the delta surge, said Kline. I think were going to have a lot of kids in the hospital. I think some of them are going to be sick enough to be in the ICU and some are going to die. Its going to be like it was during delta. Fewer than one in four Louisiana kids ages 5 to 17 are vaccinated for COVID-19. Children under 5 are not yet eligible for the vaccine. Many families traveled or celebrated with larger groups over the holidays, and with children heading back to school this week, cases could continue to surge higher, Kline said. "I think that will catalyze the epidemic and make matters worse," said Kline of the holiday gatherings. "And then you put them all together in the classroom, with or without masks, and I just dont see how this ends well." Health news in your inbox Reporter Emily Woodruff shares weekly updates and insights on local health news, including COVID coverage and medical research. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Like many other times during the pandemic, hospitals are short-staffed. Childrens Hospital has over 170 employees out nearly 10% of the staff because theyre in quarantine for COVID infections themselves. +2 Weekly COVID hospitalizations in Louisiana more than double as omicron surges The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has more than doubled in the last week as cases continue to skyrocket during the omicron surge At Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge, the states largest standalone hospital, 105 patients were hospitalized with COVID Monday, said Dr. Katie Taylor, medical director of infectious diseases at the hospital. Of those, she estimated about one-third are incidental cases people who come into the hospital for another reason and happen to test positive. The remaining two-thirds of patients require admission for COVID-19. About half of those people are vaccinated and go home within 48 hours. The rest have a longer stay, said Taylor. We're increasing at a more rapid rate than we did with Delta, said Taylor. Depending on how many people in total get COVID, we may reach the same number of total patients in the hospital. How will the pandemic end? Omicron clouds forecasts for endgame Pandemics do eventually end, even if omicron is complicating the question of when this one will. But it won't be like flipping a light switch: During delta, hospitalizations were three times current levels at their peak, but omicron is ripping through the population at a faster rate. Nearly 63,000 cases have been confirmed in Louisiana over the last three weeks. The delta wave produced around 25,000 cases over three weeks during a comparable period in that wave of the virus. About one in five people who took a test over the last week have been positive for the coronavirus, according to state data, which does not include at-home tests. FDA expands Pfizer boosters for more teens as omicron surges The U.S. is expanding COVID-19 boosters as it confronts the omicron surge, with the Food and Drug Administration allowing extra Pfizer shots f Taylor said that staff at Our Lady of the Lake have planned for a six-week surge due to omicron. She said a smaller proportion of infected people will likely experience a serious illness than during delta, but it's already clear that omicron will infect far more people. If you look at the numbers for the surges, the first looks like a hill, said Taylor. And the next few surges look like little molehills and then delta was a huge, mountainous spike. And that's really the only one we have to compare to for the number of cases. Staff writer Jeff Adelson contributed to this report. Lauren Rodriguez sent her two daughters to school on Monday morning wearing masks with their hand sanitizer bottles freshly refilled. She was nervous, the Mandeville mom said. Her youngest daughters asthma can flare with a small sniffle. I know it's only a matter of time before we contract the virus, Rodriguez said. The 2021-2022 school year began under the shadow of the summers delta surge. As COVID cases began to decline in the fall, optimism grew that the second half of the school year might mark a return to something approaching pre-COVID practices. But as students flock to school campuses across the New Orleans area this week after the winter break and Christmas gatherings, the omicron variant has resurfaced familiar worries about the impact of the virus on students, families and staff. Since the peak of the delta surge, the number of cases in schools have remained relatively low. In October, Gov. John Bel Edwards lifted the state-wide mask mandate for schools that stuck with the health department's recommended quarantine policy. Public schools in New Orleans kept the mask requirement and NOLA Public Schools officials said Monday there is no thought at this stage to discarding it. When people are saying Masks are optional, were saying No, were wearing them, NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr. said. In addition to being the lone public school district in the region with the mask requirement, New Orleans public schools will require all students over the age of 5 to be fully vaccinated by Feb. 1. That requirement matches the city of New Orleans vaccine requirements for children and adults. Officials with public school systems in Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes said Monday they had no plans to issue significantly tighter mitigation measures that were in place before omicron began driving skyrocketing case counts. Jefferson Parish, with nearly 50,000 students, and St. Tammany Parish, with more than 40,000, are urging students and staff to wear masks, but wont require it. St. Tammany Parish schools are limiting guests to only essential visitors and adjusted meal services to provide additional spacing between students, district spokesperson Meredith Mendez said. Jefferson has similar policies in place. Health news in your inbox Reporter Emily Woodruff shares weekly updates and insights on local health news, including COVID coverage and medical research. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Rodriguez, a dispatcher for Colleys Towing and Transportation, did a large grocery haul Sunday and plans to limit outings. Her daughters, ages 6 and 15, take a variety of supplements probiotics, a multi-vitamin, immune C-complex, regular Vitamin C, D3, and Zinc and theyre wearing masks for the first time since the state-wide mandate was relaxed. I just pray parents keep their children home when they are sick, Rodriguez said. Sarah McDonald, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, said there will not be a universal mask mandate among Catholic schools but that individual schools could implement one. Extracurricular activities will continue with "appropriate mitigation measures in place," she said. NOLA Public Schools said it would ramp up testing and put some additional restrictions in place. Richard Rainey, a district spokesperson, noted that New Orleans public schools had stringent testing in place before students returned to class in September following Hurricane Ida. We were able to keep down the community spread after Ida, Rainey said. At Morris Jeff Community School in Mid-City school didnt resume on Monday but the campus was packed with people waiting in line to receive COVID tests. Also, the charter organization InspireNOLA said its eight schools serving nearly 6,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade would have staggered starts between Tuesday and Friday due to the rising cases. Resuming classes as COVID cases are surging again will require school officials to be flexible, NOLA Public Schools Chief of Operations Tiffany Delcour said. Classes and schools might have to pivot from in-person to short periods of virtual learning due to staffing issues as the case load grows. That is anticipated and expected with the number of omicron cases were seeing daily, Delcour said. In addition to the masks and upcoming vaccine requirement, NOLA Public Schools said Monday that schools should limit extracurricular activities, limit attendance at sporting events and restrict students from congregational settings such as cafeterias. Though Louisiana law allows for religious or other exemptions from school immunizations, Orleans Parish school officials said Monday they were pushing vaccines as the most important method to curb the spread of the virus. In-person learning is the thing that were striving to maintain, Delcour said. BEIJING, Jan. 4 -- On the eve of New Year's Day, a reporter from the China Central Television (CCTV) traveled more than 5,000 kilometers from Beijing to the Karakoram Plateau, taking a special national flag to a frontier defense company where Xiao Siyuan, one of the four martyrs who sacrificed their lives to safeguard China's national sovereignty and territory in June 2020, was assigned to. This national flag was raised at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing on August 1, 2021, the 94th anniversary of the founding of the PLA. Standing below the eight Chinese characters "da hao he shan, cun tu bu rang" ("Not a single inch of China's beautiful land to be ceded"), the frontier defense troops received the national flag and held a flag-raising ceremony. Singing national anthem, they vowed to safeguard China's national sovereignty and territory with their lives. Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James McKay III has retired after more than two decades on the job, setting up a race for a coveted open seat on the court. McKay, a Democrat whos served as at-large judge on the 12-member appeals court since 1998, retired effective Monday, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State's office. The state Supreme Court has appointed attorney Lynn Luker as a temporary replacement for McKay, who didnt immediately respond to a message left at his former chambers. McKay served as an Orleans Parish Criminal District Court judge for 15 years before he beat an ally of then-Mayor Marc Morial for a spot on the appeals court. He won his most recent election without opposition in 2012. His ten-year term was set to expire at the end of 2022. In recent years, he has been involved in a number of high-profile cases. He voted with the majority to allow Entergy to build a power plant in New Orleans East, to overturn Bourbon Street shooter Trung Les long sentence and to allow the construction of taller buildings in Marigny. McKay is the courts sole jurist to have served at Criminal District Court, in contrast to its large contingent of former members of the Orleans Parish Civil District Court. +14 Court rejects Travis Boys' appeal of conviction for killing NOPD officer Daryle Holloway Travis Boys complaints of racial discrimination during jury selection for his trial in the killing of a New Orleans Police Department officer Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up +2 Appeals court vacates Bourbon Street shooter's manslaughter conviction; DA says he'll appeal decision A state appeals court has vacated a manslaughter conviction for Bourbon Street shooter Trung Le, instead finding him guilty of negligent homic The 4th Circuit rendered the second-most opinions of any Louisiana appeals court in 2020, according to a report from the state Supreme Court. Since the Supreme Court declines to consider most appeals, the circuit court often has the final say on contested civil, criminal and juvenile cases. McKays at-large seat hears appeals from Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes. In addition to being chief judge, McKay has served as president of the American Judges Association and Ancient Order of Hibernians. Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Karen Herman said she will run in the Nov. 8 election to replace McKay. She is the first declared candidate for the seat, which is elected by voters from Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes. Herman served as chief criminal court judge from the start of 2020 to the end of 2021, a period that was dominated by the disruptions of the pandemic. It has been an honor to serve for 13 years as a Criminal Court judge and in the past two years, to lead our court system as Chief Judge through the extremely difficult circumstances of Covid-19 and Hurricane Ida, Herman said. New Orleans police responded to a bag-snatching incident Friday morning in the Central Business District. Around 10:40 a.m., a 64-year-old man was standing in the 1000 block of Loyola Avenue when another man approached and asked for a cigarette. The 64-year-old tried to give him a smoke, but as he did so, the other man snatched his backpack and fled, police say. The 64-year-old man chased him but didn't catch up with him. Later, he found his backpack, without his cash. No other information was immediately available. A man who was wounded in the early morning hours Dec. 29 was likely the victim of someone he knows, according to St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office detectives who are investigating the shooting. Detectives were able to interview the victim last week after he was released from the hospital, a news release said. The victim was approached by a man brandishing a firearm who began firing into the victim's vehicle, striking him. The shooter fled in a dark-colored vehicle in an unknown direction. The Sheriff's Office is asking anyone with information to contact Sgt. Adam Rudolph at (985) 726-7849. State Police are investigating separate crashes that left two drivers dead and another in critical condition on Monday. The first occurred about 6 p.m. on Louisiana 39 near Gibbons Road in Braithwaite. Christie Thomas, 47, was driving a Nissan Sentra south on La. 39 when the car crossed the center line, into the northbound lanes, State Police said. Thomas' car crashed into a 2012 Honda Accord that was headed north on the highway. Thomas, who was not wearing a seat belt, suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Accord was belted in, but suffered critical injuries in the crash, State Police said. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Troopers aren't sure why Thomas' car veered into oncoming traffic. But they don't suspect that either driver was impaired, according to State Police. Authorities will still conduct toxicology tests as part of the investigation. +3 After pedestrian killed in Avondale hit-and-run, Marrero motorist arrested: State Police A Marrero man was arrested Sunday on a charge of negligent homicide, accused of fleeing the scene after hitting and killing a pedestrian in an The second fatal crash was reported just after 8 p.m. on the West Bank Expressway near the General De Gaulle Drive exit ramp in New Orleans, State Police said. Andre Garel, 44, was driving west in a 1995 Chevrolet Silverado when the truck hit the left bridge rail. The truck veered to the right and crossed two lanes of traffic before hitting the right bridge rail, State Police said. Garel was taken to the hospital, where he died of his injuries. Authorities said they don't yet know whether he was wearing a seat belt or if he was impaired at the time of the accident. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. This article was reprinted with permission from First News Now. Tioga County, Pa. -- According to pet owner Carolyn Straniere of Wellsboro, her dog Jersey escaped from her pet-sitter on New Year's eve. Jersey ran off by the Pump N Pantry located in Tioga and simply disappeared. Staniere quickly posted in Lost Pets of Tioga County where pet rescuers Lynda Barron and Lori Ranck, and others, jumped in to help find her dog. Related reading: Family continues to search for dog lost in I-81 pile-up in Susquehanna County Jersey's image and information was added to a lost pet poster and soon it was circulating across Facebook with the help of Facebook followers of Lost Pets of Tioga County, KC 101 Hometown Country radio station, as well as Second Chance Animal Sanctuary. Pet rescuer Lori Ranck told FNN that the rescue could not have occurred without God's guidance and the great help of multiple people. On Jan. 2, 2022, around 4 p.m., Jersey was noticed as she finally came out from wherever she was hiding. Jersey's pet owner, Carolyn spotted her and immediately got ahead of her dog and then got down to the ground as she called out to Jersey. However, instead of coming toward her owner, Jersey glanced her way for just a minute and then took off running. Again, Carolyn got ahead of her dog and carefully got to the ground and whispered to Jersey. This time Jersey cautiously approached Carolyn. Meanwhile, Lynda Barron was close behind to toss a burger and walk down a slip leash for Carolyn to use. Within a short time, Jersey was safely back in the arms of her loving owner. Ranck sent out thanks to Michele Rose, who travels all the way from Corning, NY. to help hike mountainous terrains; to Ranck's rescue partner in crime, Lynda Barron, who spends numerous hours and miles searching with Lori; and to Krys Knecht, Tioga County Humane Officer, along with her family, for dropping everything to help on Sunday afternoon. Carolyn (owner), Daniel, and her sons all kept watch overnight and searched endlessly for Jersey. Ranck said Daniel had hung many flyers around the area making local residents aware of the lost dog. So, if you happen to see any poster of Jersey, please take it down for him. Thankfully the entire family all did exactly what pet rescuers had suggested. Jersey was safely rescued with the help of God's grace, those who shared information on Facebook, assistance from local residents, and all those listed above in the article. As one can see, it surely takes many people involved to help search for a lost pet. As the new year has just begun, please consider putting a GPS, Apple Airtag, or Tile on your pets collar. Also make sure your pet has the necessary shots, current dog tag and a phone number/address tag placed on their collar. These steps will help you in finding your pet more easily and rapidly, and save more time and worry. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get Our Free Newsletters Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters. Sign Up Today! Morning Headlines: Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter? Afternoon Update: What's happening today? Here's your update! Daily Obits: Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Lewisburg -- Community Health and Wellness at Evangelical Community Hospital will hold a series of screenings and support groups through the month of January. For the safety of participants, masking is required while in Hospital facilities and during all in-person screenings and meetings. Physical distancing and frequent handwashing/use of hand sanitizer is encouraged. Screenings Skin Cancer Screen: Tuesday, Jan. 11, 8:30-11:30 a.m. and Friday, Jan. 28, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. at Surgical Specialists of Evangelical, 25 Lystra Rogers Drive, Lewisburg This free screening, with Daria Keyser, DO, helps individuals recognize their own pattern of moles, freckles, and beauty marks. By being familiar with what is considered normal allows people to be more alert to changes in the number, size, shape, and color of pigmented areas that may be of concern. Appointments required. Call (570) 768-3200. Comprehensive Blood Screen: Thursday, Jan. 20, 6:30-10 a.m. at the Degenstein Community Library, 40 South 5th Street, Sunbury A low-cost comprehensive blood screening can provide important details about your health, sometimes before symptoms of a condition surface, giving you and your physicians the power to plan ahead. $50 fee includes lipid panel (HDL, LDL, total cholesterol, and triglycerides), complete blood count, and CMP (blood sugar, electrolytes, calcium, protein, liver enzymes etc.). Appointments required. Call (570) 768-3200. Hearing Screening: Monday, Jan. 24, 9-11 a.m. Surgical Specialists of Evangelical, 25 Lystra Rogers Drive, Lewisburg This free screening is for anyone who has noticed a change in their hearing or have others tell them that they are not hearing as well as they used to. Krystal G. Decker, AuD, Audiologist, is administering the hearing screens, and during the screen will talk about the changes you may be noticing, offer education on caring for your ears, and explore options for assistive devices if needed. Appointments required. Call (570) 768-3200. Blood Pressure Screenings: Tuesday, Jan. 4, 10-11:30 a.m., Sunbury YMCA Wednesday, Jan. 19, 9-10:30 a.m., Lewisburg YMCA, The Miller Center Tuesday, Jan. 25, 10-11:30 a.m., Milton YMCA Wednesday, Jan. 26, 8:45-10:15 a.m., Mifflinburg YMCA By appointment at Community Health and Wellness. Call (570) 768-3200 Blood Sugar Screenings: Tuesday, Jan. 4, 10-11:30 a.m., Sunbury YMCA Wednesday, Jan. 19, 9-10:30 a.m., Lewisburg YMCA, The Miller Center Tuesday, Jan. 25, 10-11:30 a.m., Milton YMCA By appointment at Community Health and Wellness. Call (570) 768-3200 Support Groups Bariatric: Wednesday, Jan. 5, 6-7 p.m. at Surgical Specialists of Evangelical, 25 Lystra Rogers Drive, Lewisburg This months topic is Increase Muscle Mass to Support Your Metabolism Please call (570) 768-3139 to register. Empty Arms: Monday, Jan. 17, 7 p.m., at a location to be determined This support group is for individuals following the loss of a baby. For more information or to register, call (570) 522-2378. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get Our Free Newsletters Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters. Sign Up Today! Morning Headlines: Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter? Afternoon Update: What's happening today? Here's your update! Daily Obits: Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Mifflinburg, Pa. A woman allegedly used a fake custody order document in an attempt to pick a child up from a school in Union County. Katie F. Lapp, 52, of E. Waterford, went to Shady Grove Christian School in Buffalo Township on Nov. 30 with a document she claimed was an official custody order and demanded to pick up her daughter, according to the arrest affidavit. When the principal informed Lapp that there were no children at school due to holiday break, she then demanded to know the address of her daughters father. The principal advised he could not give that information out, and Lapp then produced the document. Later that day, Lapp met with the schools pastor to discuss the situation in which she also showed him the document. The pastor later told state police that the document had fingerprints on multiple pages, someone by the name of Simon signing as a witness, according to the affidavit written by Trooper Kyle Drick of Pennsylvania State Police at Milton. The document also had lots of wording about God. The pastor told police that Lapp told him she was not a citizen of the United States and instead considered herself an independent, and that she was not under the authority of law enforcement or the courts, Drick wrote. When police checked with the attorney for the childs father, they found that the father had full custody of the child. Upon investigation, police found that Lapp had filed an affidavit through the prothonotarys office at the Juniata County Courthouse and when it was not rebutted after a period of time, Lapp started to present it as a legal document of a custody order, Drick wrote. State police filed two third-degree felony charges each of interference with custody of children and tampering with public records/information against Lapp at the office of District Judge Jeffrey Mensch. Bail was set at $50,000 monetary. One charge of interference with custody of children was later dropped. Police also filed a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass against Lapp when she went to the school property on Dec. 6 and violated a written trespass order. Lapps case with the felony charges was held for court and she will face formal arraignment in front of the Honorable Michael Sholley on Jan. 24. Docket Sheet Docket Sheet 2 Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get Our Free Newsletters Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters. Sign Up Today! Morning Headlines: Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter? Afternoon Update: What's happening today? Here's your update! Daily Obits: Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Williamsport, Pa. Phone calls made at Lycoming County Prison from an inmate confirmed his involvement with a drug operation in Williamsport. According to an affidavit from detectives with the Lycoming County Narcotics Enforcement Unit, Tyrice Lamar Bowen, 38, of Philadelphia told a woman to remove the music from an address near the 2000 block of Mill Lane. A stakeout of the property resulted in the arrest of a woman and the discovery of six ounces of crack. Related reading: Woman allegedly directs juvenile to run from home with three ounces of crack Faith Hendricks, 30, of Upland was taken into custody and charged after detectives discovered the contraband near a wooded area in Old Lycoming Township. The narcotics were found after a juvenile told authorities he was directed to leave the apartment with a duffle bag. Hendricks was charged with felony possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. She was also charged with three misdemeanors that included first-degree corruption of minors, second-degree recklessly endangering another person, and tamper with or fabricate physical evidence. Authorities received a tip from adult probation after they took Bowen into custody on Nov. 17. During that arrest, detectives said they discovered three knotted off baggies of crack inside Bowens vehicle. Acting on the tip, detectives set up around the area of 2000 Mill Lane and observed Hendricks enter the building with a juvenile. As officers spoke with Hendricks, they said the juvenile ran out of the back of the apartment with the narcotics. Bowen spoke with a person only identified as his cousin from a prison phone call. Authorities said Bowen spoke with the man on Nov. 18. The man allegedly told Bowen the woman didnt follow directions and they tried to remove the goods from the store allegedly in reference to the crack located within the apartment. Bowen is being held at the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $100,000 monetary bail after being charged with two counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. Tyrice Lamar Bowen docket sheet Faith Marie Hendricks docket sheet Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get Our Free Newsletters Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters. Sign Up Today! Morning Headlines: Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter? Afternoon Update: What's happening today? Here's your update! Daily Obits: Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Trout Run -- Virginia Fae Ginny Bartram, 75, of Trout Run was at her home when she went to be with the Lord on Saturday, January 1, 2022. Born May 2, 1946 in Williamsport, she was a daughter of Russell Null and Anna (Horn) Coup and step-daughter of Glenn Coup. Ginny was a 1964 graduate of Williamsport High School and graduated from the Williamsport School of Nursing. She worked as a certified nursing assistant at Williamsport Hospital for 24 years. Ginny was a member of Trout Run United Methodist Church. She enjoyed taking pictures of Gods natural scenery. Ginny also enjoyed bird watching, cooking, jigsaw puzzles with her husband, and Dunkin Donuts iced coffee. She loved her cats and dog and most important to her was being with her family. Surviving are her husband of 49 years, David R. Bartram whom she married March 25, 1972, a son David Rusty Bartram (Charity) of Sellersville, three brothers Sam, Keith, and Andy Coup, and a sister Charlene Vargason. A memorial service to honor Ginnys life will be held 11 a.m. Friday, January 7, 2022 at Trout Run United Methodist Church 78 Creamery St. Trout Run. A time of visitation will be held from 10-11 a.m. Friday at church. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions in Ginnys name may be made to Trout Run U.M.C. or Trout Run Fire Hall 241 State Rte. 14 Highway Trout Run PA 17771. Arrangements entrusted to Sanders Mortuary. Online condolences may be made at www.SandersMortuary.com Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get Our Free Newsletters Never miss a headline with NorthcentralPa.com newsletters. Sign Up Today! Morning Headlines: Would you like to receive our daily morning newsletter? Afternoon Update: What's happening today? Here's your update! Daily Obits: Get a daily list straight to your email inbox. Instant unlimited access to all of our content on www.northcoastcitizen.com. The North Coast Citizen E-Edition Newsletter emailed to you each week, the night before the paper hits the street! This subscription is for NEW or RENEWING online subscribers. The charge will appear as "Country Media Inc." on your credit card statement. An investigation by Reuters has suggested that workers at a Foxconn factory that assembles iPhones were subjected to a substandard and unhealthy environment. Protests pressured the facility to shut down after many workers contracted food poisoning. Consequently, Apple and Foxconn apologised for the poor living and working conditions and promised to make improvements. 4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 3D Printing , 5G , Accessory , AI , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Benchmark , Biotech , Business , Camera , Cannon Lake , Cezanne (Zen 3) , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Coffee Lake , Comet Lake , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , E-Mobility , Education , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Ice Lake , Intel , Intel Evo , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad , iPad Pro , iPhone , Jasper Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Launch , Leaks / Rumors , Linux / Unix , List , Lucienne (Zen 2) , MacBook , Mini PC , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus , Opinion , Phablet , Radeon , Raptor Lake , Renoir , Review Snippet , Rocket Lake , Ryzen (Zen) , Science , Security , Single-Board Computer (SBC) , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , ThinkPad , Thunderbolt , Tiger Lake , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Wi-Fi 7 , Windows , Workstation , XPS , Zen 3 (Vermeer) , Zen 4 Ticker Reuters has investigated the working and living conditions of Indian workers at a Foxconn manufacturing facility that assembles iPhones and discovered that they were deplorable. Protests erupted after more than 250 workers became ill as a result of food poisoning, forcing the factory to close. The crisis occurred as Apple accelerated the production of the iPhone 13. Interviews with workers revealed that they slept on the floor in crowded houses while other workers claimed that their bathroom facilities operated without running water. After the protests, food safety inspectors closed the kitchen area of a hostel since rats and a bad drainage system were discovered. The protest prompted Apples shareholders to demand better oversight into working conditions. Investigations by Apple and Foxconn indicated that some dormitories and dining areas at the plant were not up to standard. Thus, the factory has been placed on probation until the proper standards are met. Furthermore, Foxconn stated that the company would be taking action to ensure that the appropriate facilities are in place so that production can resume. Workers would also continue to be paid as usual while upgrades are being made. The state government of Tamil Nadu has also launched its own investigation into the food poisoning incident, requesting that Foxconn provide better labour conditions, housing and drinking water. Buy the Mkeke Crystal clear case for the iPhone 13 on Amazon A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. Attorneys for former President Donald Trump and two of his adult children moved late Monday to block unprecedented and unconstitutional subpoenas from the New York attorney generals office seeking their testimony. In a court filing Monday evening, lawyers for Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., attempted to quash the subpoenas from Attorney General Letitia Jamess office which seek testimony and documents as part of a lengthy civil investigation involving matters including the valuation of properties owned or controlled by Trump and his family business. The pair have served as executives at Trumps company, the Trump Organization. Previously, Jamess office had issued a subpoena to Trump seeking testimony and set a Jan. 7 deadline. Trumps attorneys signaled that they would move to block the subpoena, while another one of his children, Eric Trump, provided testimony in late 2020 following a subpoena. The subpoenas are an unprecedented and unconstitutional maneuver, lawyers for the Trumps wrote, accusing James of attempting to obtain testimony that could then be used against the Trumps in a parallel criminal investigation being overseen by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. James is seeking to circumvent the entire grand jury process and allowing their testimony would set a dangerous precedent, the lawyers argued. They wrote that James seeks to nullify the Trumps rights by forcing them to testify without the immunity thats guaranteed under state law if they were subpoenaed to testify in front of the grand jury in the criminal probe. This is a rather transparent gambit, the lawyers argued on Monday. By attempting to play both sides, Ms. James is in a position to cherry pick her investigatory methodscivil or criminalin a calculated manner to, for example, leverage a Fifth Amendment assertion and obtain an adverse inference in the civil probe. The Trumps might well be inclined to testify, if it werent for a criminal probe, they added. The New York attorney general, a Democrat, has spent more than two years looking at whether the Trump Organization misled banks or tax officials about the value of assets, allegedly inflating them to gain favorable loan terms or minimizing them to reap tax savings. James previously said her office is investigating whether the Trump Organization inflated the values of its real estate holdings to obtain bank loans and reduced the values to save on taxes. Her probe is related to, but separate from, a criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorneys office into the Trump Organizations business practices. James joined the district attorneys investigation last May. Despite their names, they must play by the same rules as everyone else. These delay tactics will not stop us from following the facts or the law, which is why we will be asking the court to compel Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Ivanka Trump to testify with our office under oath, James said in a statement after the attorneys for the Trumps moved to quash the subpoenas. Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump and the Trump Organization, called the attorney generals actions a threat to our democracy, adding that James has weaponized her office through this political witch hunt, The Washington Post reported. Jamess office will have two weeks to respond to the motion to quash the subpoenas and then the Trump lawyers will have time to reply, meaning a decision over the subpoenas is not expected for at least a month. The Epoch Times has contacted Jamess office and the Trump Organization for additional comment. Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report. From The Epoch Times Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Calumet Health and Safety owner Jim Jaracz, a former assistant Hobart fire chief and well-known safety instructor who worked for decades as a firefighter, is being remembered as a dedicated public servant. The Hobart Fire Department announced Jaracz died last week after having been hospitalized and admitted to an intensive care unit after contracting COVID-19. He was 54. Jaracz, who taught at the National Fire Academy in Maryland, served on the Lake County Haz-Mat Response Team and was affectionately known as "Dino" among Region firefighters. The former rodeo clown helped fight countless fires, once fell through the floor of a burned-out building while investigating a fire, and became a widely sought-out consultant on fire codes, fire protection and occupational health and safety. He was so dedicated he used to drive hours from his home in Hobart to work volunteer shifts at the Wayne Township Fire Department in Indianapolis, said Hobart Fire Department Assistant Chief John Reitz. "It's a gigantic loss of a public servant," Reitz said. "He was a public servant through and through." Jaracz recently had been named Hobart's building code official. Jaracz operated Calumet Health and Safety LLC, a consulting firm that provides training, site assessment and educational programs about fire protection and occupational safety to clients across Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland. Jaracz earned a master's degree in occupational safety, was a certified fire protection specialist and attained many fire and safety certifications, such as that of construction health and safety technician. Before rupturing his Achilles tendon while investigating a fire, Jaracz worked as a firefighter for three decades, including two decades for the Hobart Fire Department. "Jim served on the fire department 20 years, rising to the rank of assistant chief," Hobart Mayor Brian Snedecor said. "He was well-recognized not just in the Region but across the United States for his knowledge of fire safety as well as OSHA-related safety. Just a quality individual both on duty and off duty; he always wanted to help those in need. He will be greatly missed." Hobart firefighters and firetrucks accompanied Jaracz's body in a procession to a Highland funeral home Friday. They were joined by other departments along the route. "There's a lot of shock and sadness, especially among us older guys at the department who remember how much fun he was. He was a great friend," Reitz said. "Jim was a humanitarian. In my personal experience, he always cared about the public. He was willing to help people who needed help in any way." A dedicated Chicago Blackhawks and White Sox fan, Jaracz once was leaving the United Center with Reitz after a Blackhawks game. They encountered a homeless man sitting on a bench, and Jaracz gave him some money and talked to him to make sure he had somewhere warm to go that night. They went to another game a week later, and Jaracz told Reitz he would help the homeless man out again if he were still out there. "He said he'd give him something to eat and went and bought him a sandwich," Reitz said. "He made sure he was OK. He was a compassionate man." They also had season tickets to the White Sox. While they were going to the stadium, he saw construction workers outside cutting stone without any respiratory protection. He raised the issue with their foreman, citing his safety background. "(The foreman) blew him off so when we got in, (Jaracz) sought out higher-ups in the White Sox to make sure the workers cutting the stone got respiratory protection," Reitz said. "That was the kind of lengths he'd go to just to help people." Jaracz volunteered with the Munster, Dyer, Wayne Township and Lake Ridge fire departments before he was hired full time at Hobart in the early 1990s. He served as a lieutenant, as the equivalent of a fire marshal and as director of fire prevention before becoming the department's second in command. "Jim was always dedicated to the fire department and to the job," Gary Fire Chief Sean O'Donnell said. "He was very dedicated to knowing fire prevention codes and risk reduction. He was always learning and always on top of everything. He was very smart. He often helped out the Gary Fire Department. You could ask him any question about fire prevention and he always knew the answer." He was widely known as "Dino" among firefighters because his last name sounds like Jurassic. "He was a great guy. He was always willing to help out," O'Donnell said. "You could always rely on Dino for help. If you called him, he was always going to help. It didn't matter who you were. He'd do anything for anybody." Fire departments across Northwest Indiana frequently consulted him. The East Chicago Fire Department for instance recently tapped his expertise while conducting its promotional exams, O'Donnell said. "He taught so many people about the fire codes and shared his knowledge with any department that would call him," he said. "He was always able to guide you. He taught at the National Fire Academy, which is very prestigious. He always took a lot of classes, different classes, and was just a wealth of knowledge." Jaracz also served as godfather to O'Donnell's son. "It's heartbreaking," O'Donnell said. "He cared about the fire department and definitely cared about the city of Hobart. He was a great guy who was well-loved by everybody." A well-known figure on Northwest Indiana Twitter, Jaracz got along with everyone and "knew a million people," Reitz said. "I imagined he'd want to be known for his compassion for other human beings, which is why he went into the fire service," Reitz said. "He was nationally recognized as a safety expert. He was the best of the best in the country. We were lucky to have such a talent in Hobart." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. HIGHLAND The town's first tattoo studio will start inking customers this year. Veteran Tina Brenda, an Army National Guard member who became a tattoo artist, persuaded town officials to make an exception to a 20-year-old ordinance that required tattoo artists to be medical doctors, effectively banning tattooing within town limits. She got a zoning variance after gathering 2,300 signatures on a petition and pleading her case to the Town Council. She plans to open Nephilim Studios downtown this year. Brenda currently works at A Darker Path Tattoo Studio, which was the first tattoo studio to open in Schererville after a restrictive ordinance long prohibited tattoo parlors there. "The place I'm working at had to do the same thing in Schererville," Brenda said. "In Highland, I had to jump through a lot of hoops to start my company. When I first approached the secretary last year she just told me Highland would never allow that. But they just approved amending the ordinance." The town council recently voted 4-0-1 to approve a use variance to allow the tattoo parlor after the Advisory Board of Zoning Appeals initially gave an unfavorable recommendation. "I would say that tattooing has become more mainstream and adding this tattoo shop to downtown Highland adds to the diversity of businesses located there," Highland Town Council President Roger Sheeman said. Longtime downtown Highland business owner Jim Roumbos of Miles Books said it would be a welcome addition. "It adds to the uniqueness of downtown," he said. "It's becoming gentrified. It's a unique downtown with a mix of businesses: coffee shops, bookstores, vintage resale shops and wonderful restaurants." She hopes to open Nephilim Studios at 2716 Condit St. in late spring or early summer. It will offer private tattooing and also piercing. "At first it was a little daunting," Brenda said of the process to get approval for the business. "But it was a gratifying experience to be able to change people's minds on the stigma of tattooing. Some people are closed-minded about tattoos even though they're super-accepted nowadays." She is taking over a storefront that was just being used for storage in downtown Highland. "The downtown is super quaint," she said. "They're trying to make it more like an arts district. There are murals painted on a lot of walls, and they're looking for art businesses and small businesses to go up. This is a good fit." Brenda has been tattooing for six years. She previously served in the Indiana Army National Guard, where she worked in human resources in Gary. "I was always into art, and I was in the Army when the light bulb went off," she said. After helping design tattoos, she went into tattooing as a vocation after leaving the service. "It's permanent art that gives people the chance to express themselves," she said. "I like working in this type of medium." She describes her work as eclectic. "I dabble in everything," she said. "I'm inspired by florals and animals and like to work in black and gray." Nephilim Studios will start out with just Brenda tattooing clients by appointment. She may take on more tattoo artists in the future if they mesh well with her. "I want to create a space for all creatives," she said. "I want to make it just like an art collective and have a photo studio for my photography friend." The business' name refers to fallen angels. "It's ironic," she said. "It started out as a joke. Every now and then I've been pitted against extremely close-minded religious people and I've heard them refer to people with tattoos as demons and devil worshipers." She hopes to create a more accepting space. "It's going to be a welcoming environment, high-end and welcoming," she said. She expects it will be a destination that will draw people into town. "I started out in LaPorte and have regulars who have been following me," she said. "I've had Army friends come from Seattle and Reno just to get tattooed by me. It's a huge relief it was allowed. I was screaming. I'm just super happy about that." Nephilim Studios will be open by appointment from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, visit tinabrenda@nephilimstudios.org. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Democrats living in northern Porter County and northeastern LaPorte County have no shortage of Indiana Senate candidates competing for their vote at the May 3 primary election. Four Democrats now are vying to win the Senate District 4 seat held for the previous 16 years by retired state Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes. This week, Porter County businessman Todd Connor and Michigan City School Board member Deb Chubb joined the Democratic primary contest that also includes state Sen. Rodney Pol Jr., D-Chesterton, and former Michigan City Mayor Ron Meer. Both Connor and Chubb previously competed at the Oct. 21 caucus of the district's Democratic precinct committeemen that selected Pol to finish the one year remaining in Tallian's term. Connor said he believes district voters deserve a chance to decide if they support his goal of changing the "Republican narrative" he claims has dropped Indiana to the bottom of nearly every quality of life ranking. "It's hard to build a future in a Republican-led state that so often wants to go backwards: on organized labor, on the environment, on teachers, on womens health and reproductive choice, and, sadly, on democracy itself," Connor said. If elected, the U.S. Navy veteran and longstanding promoter of veteran business initiatives plans to focus at the Statehouse on a range of issues, including advanced manufacturing growth in Northwest Indiana, improving nursing home care, environmental cleanup, entrepreneurship, and legalizing marijuana. "We could, with the right leadership, define our region and position ourselves for outside investment, build a clean energy corridor, attract growth businesses and raise our standard of living," he said. Chubb, meanwhile, is touting her background as an attorney and the longtime leader of numerous community organizations as her primary qualifications for representing the district in Indianapolis. Her legislative goals include increasing access to high-quality child care, expanding renewable energy production, recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, reducing maternal mortality, hiking the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour and decriminalizing marijuana. "My experience as a nonprofit executive and community servant equips me to be the strong voice and fierce advocate our community deserves in the state Senate," Chubb said. "I am grateful for the many neighbors throughout the district who have encouraged me and who have inspired this campaign." State campaign finance records show a single Republican, Johannes Victor Alfred Poulard, of Michiana Shores, so far has filed to run in the district. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. HOMEWOOD The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a bank robbery that took place in Homewood on Monday morning, one of three that took place in the Chicago metropolitan area Monday. A man robbed the BMO Harris Bank at 17600 S Halsted in front of the Walmart and Kohl's department store across from the Park Place Plaza outdoor shopping mall in south suburban Homewood at 10:47 a.m. The FBI Chicago Office said in a news release that the man demanded money via a note, inferring that he had a weapon on him. He did not display a gun during the robbery. He is described by witnesses as "a thin, Black male wearing a black face covering and a hooded sweatshirt." The suspect remains at large. The FBI is not releasing any further details on Homewood bank robbery at this time. The bureau also investigating two other bank robberies that took place in the Chicago metro Monday. All three involved notes implying a weapon. The BMO Harris Bank at 2413 75th St. in Woodridge in the west suburbs was robbed at 9:52 a.m. A PNC Bank at 873 N. Rush St in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood was robbed at 1:16 p.m. Anyone with any information is asked to provide tips by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI or emailing tips@fbi.gov. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SOUTH HOLLAND Frank Zuccarelli, a south suburban official and political leader for more than 40 years, died on Monday at the age of 70. Zuccarelli's death was announced in a statement released by the Village of South Holland, where he lived. According to the statement, paramedics were called to Zuccarelli's home at 1:07 p.m. Monday, and he was pronounced dead at 1:18. "No foul play is suspected, and it appears to be the result of natural causes," the statement said. Zuccarelli was first elected to the Thornton Community College Board of Trustees in 1978, the same year he earned his second degree from the school, which is now called South Suburban College. An Air Force veteran, he had served as the college board of trustees' chairman since 1987. Zuccarelli also has served as Thornton Township Supervisor since 1993, and as Democratic Committeeman for Thornton Township. Calumet City Mayor and State Rep. Thaddeus Jones (D-Calumet City) was among those paying tribute to Zuccarelli on Monday. "He was my mentor, my friend, my brother," Jones said. "The south suburbs lost a warrior. ... He left a trail of service to others." Jones said one of his earliest political memories was of walking around his neighborhood as a 13-year-old, knocking on doors in support of Zuccarelli. "Even though we had our battles, we understood each other," Jones said. "We fought, but we came together not only for each other but for the people of Thornton Township." Jones said Zuccarelli was a longtime advocate for senior citizens, and on his watch a food pantry was started in Harvey that serves thousands of residents. "Everyone that got help with a light bill, gas bill, electricity bill that's the legacy he left," Jones said. Others paid tribute to Zuccarelli on social media. "Frank Zuccarelli was a friend, and not just to me," Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker tweeted. "He delighted in being a friend to many. ... Frank chose a civic path at a young age and never stopped." "Frank loved the people he served, and the people loved him," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart tweeted. "Our county & our state are better for having had him as a leader." "It's hard to think of any elected official who did more for families and seniors than Frank," Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza tweeted. "A straight shooter with a deep love of the Southland, he took pride in understanding the needs of those he served," Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi tweeted. "At our many events with the Township, Frank was welcoming and knew every detail. His work and dedication will always be remembered." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. GARY In an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus, a group of local churches has partnered with a sorority to offer free COVID-19 vaccinations and testing at two sites next week. The Rev. De'Wan Bynum, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Gary and Vicinity, said vaccination rates in the Gary are are a cause for concern. About 54.8% of all Hoosiers age 5 and older were fully vaccinated, according to data posted Monday on the Indiana State Health Department's COVID-19 vaccination dashboard. By comparison, the percentage of fully vaccinated people age 5 and older living in six zips codes in the Gary area ranged from 30 to 39.8%, state data showed. Bynum said his congregation at Christian Valley Missionary Baptist Church, 1910 Adams St. in Gary, has faced many challenges because of the pandemic. Some members have been hospitalized and others are COVID "long haulers," but so far no members have died from the virus. In an effort to slow the virus's spread, the Baptist Ministers Conference has partnered with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority to provide free COVID vaccinations and testing at two locations next week during its annual 12 Night Revival. Free N95 face masks also will be provided on-site, Bynum said. The first vaccination and testing event will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday at New Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, 1545 Waite St. in Gary. They will again be offered from 3 to 6 p.m. Jan. 12 at Van Buren Missionary Baptist Church, 2585 Van Buren St. in Gary. The Baptist Ministers Conference also is planning a coat giveaway at 3 p.m. Sunday at New Friendship Missionary. To donate a coat, call Tree of Life Missionary Baptist Church at 219-944-9136 or Evening Star Baptist Church at 219-949-4047 to arrange a drop-off. To make a monetary donation, call 312-975-2114. To register to receive a coat, call Christian Valley at 219-883-5762, Tree of Life at 219-944-9136 or 219-765-1854 and be prepared to provide a name, age, size and gender of the coat's recipient. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. MICHIGAN CITY Federal funding is being sought to replace the historic Franklin Street drawbridge in Michigan City. Whether to replace or rehabilitate the 1932 lakefront bridge over Trail Creek has been debated for years. The issue appears to have been settled by recent reports that the condition of the bridge is declining more rapidly than expected. This is falling apart. I just see the deterioration going too fast, too quick, said LaPorte County Councilman Mark Yagelski. The LaPorte County Commissioners are asking U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, to try to secure money from the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill signed last month by President Joe Biden. The money, if obtained, would pay for an estimated $6 million to $8 million cost of engineering and designing a new bridge. The commissioners said they would also be relying on Mrvan to pursue funding to pay for actual construction. A feasibility study from 2017 estimated the cost of a new drawbridge at $80 million and $45 million for a complete rehabilitation of the existing span. LaPorte County government, which is responsible for upkeep of the bridge, recently allocated $1.5 million annually over the next five years to maintain it. The bridge is the main route to and from the lakefront. It must open to allow U.S. Coast Guard vessels and masts on sailboats traveling to and from the lake to clear the bridge deck. The fear is the money set aside for maintenance will not be enough. Commission President Richard Mrozinski said the bridge, which already has a history of failing occasionally, could be ordered by the U.S. Coast Guard to remain open if problems with lowering and raising it occur more frequently. That would force motorists to use Center Street, a narrow and winding route through residential areas nestled in the dunes, to get to and from the lakefront. Mrozinski said rehabilitating the bridge is still a possibility if federal dollars for a new bridge, for example, are not obtained or fall short of paying the entire cost. He said the plan is to schedule a meeting between local officials and Mrvan, or representatives from the congressmans office, to begin addressing the bridge. We need to start looking at it now because the bridge is not going to last forever. Theres going to come a time when we have to replace it. Ill be anxious to see what theyre willing to come up with, he said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. PORTAGE Police are searching for a 54-year-old Arkansas man who was last seen in Portage the day after Christmas. Tracy T. Williams and his wife had traveled from Little Rock, Arkansas, and were staying in a Portage hotel while they visited local family. On Sunday Dec. 26. at about 5 p.m. Williams left the hotel to go the the store. When Williams' wife called him to check in, he told her he was stuck in traffic on an "unspecified interstate" and would be rerouting to avoid the backup. As of 9:30 that evening, Williams had not returned to the hotel and he was no longer answering his wife's calls, Portage Police Sgt. Rob Maynard said. The couple was supposed to leave Indiana on Monday, Dec. 27, so that Williams could make it back to Nebraska, where he works, in time for his Tuesday shift. Williams' wife contacted her husband's employer on Tuesday, Dec. 28, and learned Williams had not come into work. On Wednesday, Dec. 29, at about 8:45 p.m., William's niece used an app and reportedly tracked Williams cellphone to the area of Morton, Illinois. Since that time, Williams phone has been turned off and is no longer traceable, according to Maynard. Williams is described as a Black male who is 6 feet tall, weighs 218 pounds, has gray hair with a shortly trimmed goatee and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a gray thermal under shirt, a blue puffy vest, blue jeans and black shoes, Maynard said. He drives a white 2021 Toyota Tundra with a Texas license plate of "PJJ3688." "I just know something is wrong. He would never just leave and not tell anyone," Williams' wife, Angela Williams, said. "We just don't know anything. We need any kind of help, any kind of tips, because this is not him. He would not have done this." Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Williams is encouraged to contact the Portage Police Department at 219-762-3122. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. VALPARAISO Police are investigating an online threat to a school in Valparaiso. "The Valparaiso Police received information at 3:00 p.m. today regarding a potential school threat directed at Thomas Jefferson Middle School. The threat was communicated through a known social media platform by an unidentified source, which indicated the threat would take place 'tomorrow,'" the Valparaiso Police Department said in a statement. "Images of the message have also been shared across additional social media platforms among students within our school district." Investigators are working to track down the original source of the threat that spread across social media, alarming many. Police plan to step up their presence at schools in Valparaiso on Tuesday as a precaution. "The Valparaiso Police Department and Valparaiso Community Schools continue to investigate the incident and take such communication seriously," the police department said in a statement. "We will continue to work together to ensure a safe environment for our students to learn. Thank you to those who reported the communication and images to police, your cooperation and assistance is greatly appreciated. There will be increased patrols throughout all schools within the City of Valparaiso tomorrow as a precautionary measure." Anyone with information should call 219-462-0717, or text 8-4-7-4-1-1. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. What started as a standard New Year's Day feature about food traditions has evolved into a national discussion about race and ethnicity and being "very Asian." On Jan. 1, KSDK (Channel 5) reporter Michelle Li, who is of Korean descent and reared in Missouri, shared how some traditionally American foods for New Years symbolize good luck. After listing some food items, Li noted that "I ate dumpling soup; that's what a lot of Koreans do." Shortly after the short segment aired, Li got a call from a female viewer who left a voicemail message that criticized Li for being "very Asian" and told Li to "keep her Korean to herself." After posting this phone message on social media, Li quickly garnered support from thousands of people around the world, applauding her for shining a light on anti-Asian sentiments. On Tuesday, Li announced on social media that a line of merchandise with the logo "Very Asian" is being released as a pop-up project by Li and KARE's Gia Vang. Li's post indicated that after production costs, proceeds from the merchandise will got to the Asian Americans Journalists Association. Li could not be reached for comment. She joined KSDK in April, after having been a morning anchor at KING (Channel 5) in Seattle. Before that, she worked at stations in Wisconsin, North Carolina and Springfield, Missouri. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Kansas. Joe Holleman 314-340-8254 @stlsherpa on Twitter jholleman@post-dispatch.com Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sky Zone will remain open in Orland Park. But it wont be business as usual. The village and Sky Zone reached a settlement on Dec. 21 that will allow the facility at 66 Orland Square Drive to remain open after the village pulled Sky Zones license after a Sept. 12, 2020, fighting incident that spilled into the parking lot and needed police from other communities to help. Orland Park officials argued that children were in danger and Sky Zone was negligent in other areas including exceeding the capacity of 682 people in the 30,000 square-foot facility, which Sky Zone vigorously denied. To reopen, Sky Zone is putting rules in place several of which have already been implemented to ensure the safety of its customers. Village manager George Koczwara pulled the license, an action backed by the Orland Park Village Board March 1. Sky Zone lawyers argued that the penalty was too harsh and took matters to court, where Cook County Circuit Judge Eve Reilly said in November that the village should reconsider as Sky Zone had taken steps and changed policy to make the business safer. Sky Zone stayed open during the court hearings. The village board took another look at the situation and agreed to a settlement. It was my decision and the board upheld it, and Sky Zone had the right to appeal, Koczwara said. The judge agreed that we had done everything right but thought maybe the punishment was too severe. As it happens with a lot of these things, we had a compromise based on the judges recommendation and well just go from there. The village renewed the license after Sky Zone agreed to: Close the park at 9 p.m. each Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Hire a security firm to work each Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening from 7 p.m. to close. No longer host Glow Night events, which involve turning off the lights and using black lights and lasers. Not exceed the state fire marshal occupancy level for the premises, inclusive of staff, at any time. Continue to track all individuals in the park. Maintain a staff-to-guest ratio of no less than 1:20. Continue to employ a lot-sweeping company to regularly clean the parking lot and outdoor areas. Continue to contract with its waste management company to empty its outdoor waste receptacle at least three times a week. Village officials said that since the implementation of the remedial measures, there have been no significant incidences involving the safety of patrons. They added that these conditions were not in place when Sky Zone held a Glow Night on Sept. 12, 2020, which put a number of children at risk, but each shall now remain in place permanently. We anticipate and expect that Sky Zone will act as a responsible corporate citizen going forward, but if it again violates the village code provisions that are meant to protect the health, safety and welfare of the community, we will once again take the necessary and appropriate steps to remedy that situation said Mayor Keith Pekau in a statement. The nice thing about a settlement is that we all agree, and there is give-and-take, Koczwara said. In their situation, if by chance they violate any ordinances again, well go through the process again. But we hope they will be a great corporate business for us. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sitting in his office, Mr. Seoane, the mayor, said he regretted if his words had made people think there would be a manhunt for the culprit. But the fact that no one had noticed the cement had been there all those years was telling too, he said. And it wasnt just the mishandled cement repair job that was now causing people to do a double take. Who had installed the alarm system that seemed drilled into the ancient stone? Or the bulky electrical conduit that jutted out of one of the ancient windows? It appeared to have been there for years, mostly unnoticed. And why was there wire mesh covering over the rosette window, and who had put it there? The list of impromptu repair jobs now being noticed at the church all of a sudden seemed endless. But at least the botched cement job and the mayors colorful if fictional description of the perpetrators appearance had gotten everyones attention, enough that Mr. Seoane thought he might finally get the funding to fix the other items that needed repair. If we dont get the job done this time, he said, I dont think we ever will. On paper, they seem like a complementary duo, Ms. Greer said of the Bridgewater appointees, noting that Mr. Bar Dea has internal expertise and Mr. Bertolini is more likely to be the public-facing executive. In a memo to the staff sent on Monday, Bridgewaters top executives, including Mr. Dalio, who is one of three co-chief investment officers and co-chairman, praised Mr. Bar Deas track record at the firm, and Mr. Bertolinis as a seasoned global leader. The executives also thanked Mr. McCormick for grooming a new generation of leadership, boasting that Bridgewater is now largely immune to key person risks business parlance for when a companys success is uniquely dependent on one or more executives. Mr. Bar Dea and Mr. Bertolini will inherit the top job at a firm that saw no major changes under their predecessor. Assets under management stayed relatively steady for most of Mr. McCormicks tenure, and Bridgewater still focuses mostly on two investing strategies through its Pure Alpha and All Weather funds. When Mr. McCormick, a former Army captain and McKinsey consultant, joined Bridgewater as president in 2009, Mr. Dalio told him he had only 50-50 odds of succeeding, according to a farewell email Mr. McCormick sent to Bridgewater employees on Monday. He stuck it out, becoming co-chief executive in 2017 the fifth person to hold that position in less than two years. His tenure had some controversies. He and Mr. Dalio sparred privately over their outlooks on China, a person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Dalio, who has given to Chinese philanthropies and traveled to China numerous times over the years, recently took criticism for appearing to minimize the countrys record on human rights. Mr. McCormick, a conservative Republican who is more critical of China and will continue to be so on the campaign trail, according to someone with knowledge of his plans, disagreed with that approach. Today, Bridgewater manages roughly $1.5 billion on behalf of Chinese investors. Its only other office outside of Connecticut is in Shanghai. Over the summer, when The Timess Well columnist Tara Parker-Pope thought about the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic, she considered 2020 the year of the virus, while 2021 was shaping up to be the year of the vaccine. What might 2022 hold? Her gut told her that the next several years could tell a story of recovery, of learning to live with the virus and of the collateral damage that the pandemic has caused. It seemed really clear that a big part of that story is going to be mental health, Ms. Parker-Pope said in an interview. Ms. Parker-Pope wanted to poll mental health professionals to find out what they thought about long-lasting mental health implications of Covid-19. And she wanted to hear how they were bearing as they helped others cope. She shared the idea with others on Wells team, including Lori Leibovich, Wells editor; Christina Caron, Wells mental health reporter; Melonyce McAfee, a Times senior editor; and Toby Bilanow, the desks deputy editor who agreed on the urgency of a big-picture check-in with the workers on the front lines of mental health treatment. In order to reach mental health professionals, they decided to distribute the survey through Psychology Todays professional membership. The resulting survey was published recently and revealed illuminating information about the state of the mental health crisis. We wanted to make sure the survey was asking the right questions, Ms. Parker-Pope said. I reached out to different people in the psychology community and asked them for advice and guidance and feedback on it. By the time the survey was finalized, which was about two months after Well started the project, the team realized they needed an experienced data journalist to help them parse through the insights. So, they commissioned the freelance reporter Monica Cordero Sancho to find patterns and trends in the data. Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the failed blood testing start-up Theranos, now awaits sentencing after being found guilty of four of 11 charges of fraud on Monday. Ms. Holmes, 37, left the San Jose, Calif., courtroom through a side door after the verdict was read in the case, which was closely scrutinized as a commentary on Silicon Valley. She was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was found not guilty on four other counts. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on three counts, which were set aside for later. After the verdict was read, defense and prosecution lawyers discussed plans for Ms. Holmess sentencing, the status of her release and the fate of the three hung charges. Judge Edward J. Davila of the Northern District of California, who oversaw the case, said he planned to declare a mistrial on those charges, which the government could choose to retry. The parties agreed that Ms. Holmes would not be taken into custody on Monday. A sentencing date is expected to be set at a hearing on the three hung charges next week. Ms. Holmes can appeal the conviction, her sentence or both. She will also be interviewed by the U.S. Probation Office as it prepares a pre-sentence report. A conference will be held next week on the three counts in which the jury could not reach a verdict. Tech Nations host, Moira Gunn, has a masters degree in computer science and a doctor of philosophy in mechanical engineering, but she was dazzled. How old are you, Elizabeth? she asked. Im 21, Ms. Holmes said. Her age was brought up not to knock down her claims but to underline how impressive they were. Im gonna go tell my two children, they better get off their duffs, Ms. Gunn exclaimed. Ms. Holmes said Theranoss device was in the production phase. She added, We hope to release it, actually, to a pharmaceutical partner around mid-to-late this year. Thirteen years later, when the company dissolved, it had never successfully released a device. In 2005, however, even reinventing blood-testing at 21 was not enough, so deep were our expectations of genius. Ms. Holmes was asked about her future, and gave the stock Silicon Valley response: You aint seen nothing yet. Theranos already had the next generations of its device in prototype, she said. It was miniaturized to make it even faster, to make it more high-throughput. It would be automated: You dont even have to touch your finger on the device. So in one of the first media interviews Ms. Holmes ever did, she said Theranos had a working device that would be able to analyze your health without actually touching you. No one called her on it. No wonder she and her deputy and boyfriend, Ramesh Balwani, the companys chief operating officer who was known as Sunny, thought they could brazen it out in the Silicon Valley tradition until they had something that actually worked. This is a credulous age. William Perry, a Theranos board member, was secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton, a mathematician, engineer and Stanford professor. Not, in other words, a fool with regard to Silicon Valley. Yet he told The New Yorker in 2014 that Ms. Holmes has sometimes been called another Steve Jobs, but I think thats an inadequate comparison. She has a social consciousness that Steve never had. He was a genius; shes one with a big heart. SACRAMENTO With the Omicron variant raging across California, millions of schoolchildren returned to classrooms on Monday, ending the holiday break as many had spent it masked, distanced, apprehensive and in long lines with their parents, scrambling for coronavirus tests. Few schools were closed in a state whose Covid-19 precautions have been among the most aggressive in the nation. California has managed to maintain comparatively low rates of virus-related deaths and hospitalizations. But infections have soared recently because of the highly contagious variant, which appears to result in less severe cases. In hundreds of districts, in-person instruction was conditioned on heightened health requirements and fraught with the understanding that even those might not prevent a return to remote learning. Frankly, the disruption Im worried about isnt Day 1 its Day 2, 3 or 4 if we get 30 or 40 or 50 positive cases, said Alex Cherniss, the superintendent of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, where, after days of impassioned community debate, some 10,000 students in coastal Los Angeles County returned to class on Monday. Investigators looking into the cause of a colossal wildfire in Colorado that forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people are focusing on a property owned by a Christian fundamentalist sect, after witnesses reported seeing a structure on fire there moments before the blaze spread with astonishing speed across drought-stricken suburbs. Sheriff Joe Pelle of Boulder County said at a news briefing on Monday that the property owned by Twelve Tribes, which was founded in Tennessee in the 1970s, had become a target of the inquiry after investigators ruled out the possibility that downed power lines might have sparked the fire. Still, Sheriff Pelle warned against jumping to conclusions regarding the fires origins, emphasizing that the investigation was in its early stages and that it could take weeks or even months to determine the exact cause. He said investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Forest Service were assisting his departments inquiry. Were going to take our time and be methodical because the stakes are huge, Sheriff Pelle said. The efforts to determine what caused the fire are adding to the challenges that authorities are facing in Colorado, after heavy snowfall over the weekend blanketed the suburban areas that had been torched by the Marshall fire. About 35,000 people were forced to evacuate the area last week, and many families remain in shelters after more than 900 homes were destroyed. Asked about the future of New Hampshires presidential primaries, which every four years bring a wave of national attention, money and visitors, Mr. Gardner predicted other states might try to jump the line, but said the Granite State would continue to be first. There will be challenges, he said. Theyll find new ways to attempt it. But it should be OK. Among some Democrats, in particular, there is a desire to dethrone New Hampshire from its prime electoral spot, as well as Iowa with its earlier caucuses, because both states are whiter, older and more rural than the country as a whole. An enduring obstacle is New Hampshire state law, which requires its primary to be held before any similar contest. Mr. Gardner, who held the sole power to set the primary date, had said that if another state tried to get ahead, he would simply move up New Hampshires date into December or even November. Mr. Gardner escaped Mr. Trumps campaign of personal insults and pressure in 2020, aimed at other election officials in battleground states that President Biden won, likely because the race in New Hampshire was not especially close. However, after Mr. Trump made the baseless claim in 2016 that millions of illegal votes had been cast by noncitizens across the country, Mr. Gardner agreed to join a commission that Mr. Trump set up to investigate. His decision to join the commission, even after Mr. Trump falsely claimed that he had won New Hampshire, was sharply criticized by some of his fellow Democrats. The commission disbanded after numerous states refused to cooperate with what they considered to be intrusive requests for voters information. WASHINGTON Representative Bobby L. Rush, the most senior Illinois House lawmaker, said on Monday that he planned to retire at the end of the year, adding to a wave of Democrats who have decided against seeking re-election in what is expected to be a tough midterm cycle for the party. Mr. Rush, 75, a pastor and former Black Panther who built himself into an electoral powerhouse in his district on the South Side of Chicago, said in an announcement video obtained by The New York Times that he wanted to focus on his ministerial work and his family. Im not retiring Im returning home, Mr. Rush said in the video, in which he reflected on nearly three decades of service in Congress and earlier battles with a rare cancer. Im returning to my church. Im returning to my family. Being a member of Congress although its powerful it can be very limited, he added, saying he would be broadening his horizons. I think Ill be more effective because I have the gift of a 75-year-old, and thats wisdom. WASHINGTON The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is in the early stages of considering whether to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department that would urge prosecuting former President Donald J. Trump or his allies. Thats not the primary mission of the committee, which is planning to write a comprehensive report about what led to the violence on Jan. 6 while making recommendations to try to avoid anything like it happening again. But as the committee and its dozens of investigators issue subpoenas for documents, phone records and bank records, the panel is closely looking for evidence of criminality that the Justice Department might not have unearthed. Here is a breakdown of some of the issues confronting to committee. What is a criminal referral? A criminal referral from Congress would merely be a recommendation for the Justice Department to investigate a case. It would carry no legal weight, since Congress has no authority to tell federal prosecutors what charges to pursue. But given that the Jan. 6 committees staff is led by a bipartisan pair of former U.S. attorneys, any recommendation they make would most likely be taken seriously by federal prosecutors. A referral could also have a substantial political impact by increasing public pressure on Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who has largely sidestepped questions about what prosecutors are doing to examine the conduct of Mr. Trump and his aides as they promoted baseless allegations of voter fraud. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated the integrated terminal at Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) Airport in Tripura's capital, Agartala, as he arrived in the city from Imphal, the capital of the neighbouring Manipur, where he inaugurated and laid foundation stone of a total of 22 developmental projects. PM Modi also launched two key initiatives on the occasion: Mukhyamantri Tripura Gram Samriddhi Yojana and Project 100 Mission of Vidyajyoti Schools. Afterwards, addressing a gathering, the Prime Minister recalled his Hira model of development. In a statement on Monday, David Boies, a lawyer for Ms. Giuffre, said the details of the 2009 agreement were irrelevant to Ms. Giuffres claim against Prince Andrew. The settlement, Mr. Boies said, did not mention the prince by name and he did not even know about it. Prince Andrew could not have been a potential defendant in the settled case against Jeffrey Epstein both because he was not subject to jurisdiction in Florida and because the Florida case involved federal claims to which he was not a part, Mr. Boies said. Mr. Boies said that he and Ms. Giuffres other lawyers had sought the public release of the settlement filing to rebut claims made by Prince Andrews legal team. The princes lawyers have argued that Ms. Giuffre was seeking a payday by suing him. A fund created by Mr. Epsteins estate to compensate his victims has paid out at least $121 million to more than 135 people. Ms. Giuffre, who now runs a nonprofit group called Speak Out, Act, Reclaim, filed her suit against Prince Andrew almost exactly two years after Mr. Epstein killed himself in a federal jail in Manhattan while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking and conspiracy charges. He had been accused of sexually exploiting dozens of women and girls at his various homes. Prince Andrew had stepped back from public life in 2019 after a disastrous interview with the BBC about his links to Mr. Epstein. Ms. Giuffres suit, which included a picture of her and the prince together, undermined his assertion in the interview that he could not recall meeting her. The continuing questions about Prince Andrews conduct come at a difficult time for Britains royal family, which has endured a public rift within its ranks and is confronting worries about the health of Queen Elizabeth, 95, after the 2021 death of her husband, Prince Philip. No grace is extended to us, she said of parents who would have to go out to work, whether or not their childrens schools were open. The academic, social and emotional toll of school closures has been enormous, and well-documented. During the first year of the pandemic, before vaccines were available, the question of whether children should be in classrooms was one of the most divisive in American life. Today, politicians, labor leaders and teachers overwhelmingly say they want classrooms to remain open. A vast majority of the nations school districts including most of the largest ones appear to be operating relatively normally. Still, the closures this week appeared to be concentrated in regions, such as the Northeast and upper Midwest, where Democratic Party policymakers and teachers unions have taken a more cautious approach to operating schools throughout the pandemic. The nation is averaging more than 400,000 new cases a day for the first time in the pandemic, though hospitalizations are growing at a much slower rate. Many principals have reported large numbers of staff members calling in sick, because they are infected with Covid-19 or other illnesses, caring for sick family members or fearful of the conditions within school buildings. Several of the shuttered districts serve predominantly Black, Hispanic and low-income students, raising concerns about the educational gaps that widened during previous phases of the pandemic. There is a casualness with which some have approached closing schools that I find deeply concerning, precisely because of the severe harms weve seen accumulate over the past year when schools were closed, said Joseph Allen, a Harvard University professor who studies indoor environmental quality, including in schools. NAIROBI, Kenya The military in Sudan is in control once again, jeopardizing the countrys already fragile hopes of a successful transition to democracy. With the resignation of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Sunday night, Sudan has no civilian government to help steer a country that was just emerging from a dictatorship that lasted three decades. There are now fears of an escalation in the confrontations between protesters and security forces that have gripped the capital, Khartoum, and beyond in recent weeks, resulting in the deaths of at least 57 people, a doctors group said. A vast country of about 43 million people in the northeast of Africa, Sudan has neither the political structures nor the independent political bodies in place to legitimately appoint a new prime minister, analysts said, dampening further the countrys hopes of exchanging a military dictatorship for democratic rule. PORT-AU-PRINCE Gunmen unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Ariel Henry of Haiti during an event on Saturday commemorating the Caribbean countrys independence, his office said in a statement on Monday night. Bandits and terrorists, the statement said, had tried to shoot the prime minister at a church in the northern city of Gonaives where the ceremony marking the 218th anniversary of independence was taking place. Video footage broadcast on social media showed Mr. Henry and his entourage scrambling toward their vehicles as an armed group began shooting outside the cathedral in Gonaives. The police, who called Saturdays attack the work of armed groups, were unable to immediately confirm casualties. Haitian media said the shooting killed one person and injured two more. Nerves at the grocery store were already frayed, in the way of these things as the pandemic slouches toward its third year, when the customer arrived. He wanted Cambozola, a type of blue cheese. He had been cooped up for a long time. He scoured the dairy area; nothing. He flagged down an employee who also did not see the cheese. He demanded that she hunt in the back and look it up on the store computer. No luck. And then he lost it, just another out-of-control member of the great chorus of American consumer outrage, 2021 style. Have you seen a man in his 60s have a full temper tantrum because we dont have the expensive imported cheese he wants? said the employee, Anna Luna, who described the mood at the store, in Minnesota, as angry, confused and fearful. Youre looking at someone and thinking, I dont think this is about the cheese. It is a strange, uncertain moment, especially with Omicron tearing through the country. Things feel broken. The pandemic seems like a Mobius strip of bad news. Companies keep postponing back-to-the-office dates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps changing its rules. Political discord has calcified into political hatred. And when people have to meet each other in transactional settings in stores, on airplanes, over the phone on customer-service calls they are, in the words of Ms. Luna, devolving into children. A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a man who said he had been sexually exploited by the grunge rock group Nirvana when the band used a photo of him as a baby, naked and drifting in a pool, for the cover of its seminal album Nevermind. In his complaint, the man, Spencer Elden, 30, accused Nirvana of engaging in child pornography when it used a photo of him as the cover art of Nevermind, the Seattle bands breakthrough 1991 album that helped define Generation X and rocketed the group to international fame. The lawsuit was dismissed after a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California said that Mr. Eldens lawyers missed a deadline to respond to a motion for dismissal by the lawyers for Nirvana. Judge Fernando M. Olguin said that Mr. Eldens lawyers had until Jan. 13 to file a second amended complaint to address the alleged defects in the defendants motion to dismiss. Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now. Five Strikes and Youre Out Majorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman from Georgia, was permanently kicked off Twitter on Sunday for violating a policy against spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. On Mondays Late Night, Seth Meyers pointed out how Greene had repeatedly lied about vaccines and called for a national divorce. Which is, I guess, the sequel to National Velvet? Meyers joked. Netflixs wildly popular series The Witcher has everything you could want from a fantasy adventure, including terrifying beasts, magical feats, sword battles and power plays. In the first season, we watched as the destinies of the title character, a monster hunter named Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), became inextricably linked with that of the tormented sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra) and the young princess Cirilla (Freya Allan) whose role and powers begin to emerge in the long-awaited Season 2, which was unveiled on Dec. 17. But the show, based on a world created by the Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, also has a sense of humor that often borders on the wacky, and it has even generated a pop-rock cult earworm, Toss a Coin to Your Witcher. The seriess stylistic range is as unpredictable as it is wide. To keep the inspiration flowing, the showrunner, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, tapes ideas and references on a door. She was still a writer and executive producer on the Netflix superhero show The Umbrella Academy when she landed her new gig, back in August 2017, so the door did double duty for a while. When it was opened, it was all Umbrella Academy, and when it was closed I could start delving into The Witcher, she said. BROWN GIRLS By Daphne Palasi Andreades Daphne Palasi Andreadess debut novel is not your traditional novel. Its a series of vignettes exploring the experiences of a group of girls whose families hail from India, the Philippines, Mexico, Jamaica, Ghana and the Dominican Republic. They live in multigenerational households in the dregs of Queens, N.Y. They know never to talk back and how to cram into our parents beds when loved ones from distant lands and warm climates immigrate to the States with their suitcases and dreams and empty wallets. Stay for months, years. These girls come in all the glorious shades of brown, including 7-Eleven root beer, grilled hamburger patties and peanut butter. Andreadess descriptive writing is glorious, with a confidence one might expect from a veteran novelist. For instance, she describes the very New York experience of eating pizza while waiting for the train: Rays Not Your Mamas pizzeria with spongy Sicilian slices whose Cheetos-colored oil trickles down our chins when we take a bite. The main characters lie, starfish-like and still, atop sun-warmed concrete in backyards. While there is much that many brown girls will relate to including experiences that feel stolen straight from my memories Andreades succeeds in making the stories feel specific beyond a singular experience. The shared immigrant story is crystal clear: It doesnt matter if we dont share a drop of blood with these people, we have been taught to call them family. Readers become part of scenes where the fourth wall is not only broken but shattered. Andreades doesnt shy away from topics that sting colorism, racism, internalized trauma and otherness. She shows teachers looking right through us, mixing up one brown girl for another, because we all look alike; plus a brown boy not seeing our beauty because he only likes those kinds of girls, the Vanessa Kleinberg types, we heard him say so. Those who grew up going to predominantly white schools, and eventually working in predominantly white spaces anyone who is familiar with being the darkest person in the room will feel seen. For readers who want to understand that experience, Brown Girls will walk you through the journey, ending in a discussion of death. Touching on the pandemic, then broadening the scope to death in the BIPOC community, Andreades delivers her story to a place that can feel either life-affirming or depressing, depending on how you look at it. 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American readers have long been enthralled by Dantes name and his work: The Dante Society of America was founded in 1881 by luminaries including Dantes great translator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and the study of Dante has become an academic cottage industry in American colleges and universities. Theres even a Dantes Inferno video game featuring an implausibly muscled Dante who looks more like an angry killing machine than the holy father and founder of modern poetry, as the German poet and philosopher Friedrich Schlegel once called him. For a biography of Dante to capture the attention of an American readership, it has to address substantively the source that accounts for Dantes foreign appeal: the words on his pages rather than the facts of his life. Barberos otherwise impeccably written and researched book misses two key opportunities that would have made his work translate better for readers in the Anglophone world. The first is a more narrative-based approach. The initial chapter begins marvelously, on St. Barnabass Day of 1289, with the young cavalryman Dante clad in his military gear and ready to engage in hand-to-hand combat at the Battle of Campaldino that would prove so decisive for Dantes victorious Guelph party. Unfortunately, there are few other vivid set pieces in the book, as it focuses on the lingering questions surrounding the poets life, exploring these in the form of hypotheses and deductions rather than stories. An award-winning novelist, Barbero clearly has the chops to convert these Dante conundrums into storytelling that would have pulled the reader in more forcefully. The second missed chance is The Divine Comedy itself. It serves merely an ancillary role in Barberos book, when in fact it could have helped shape its narrative arc. In Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (2004), Stephen Greenblatt seamlessly connects the life of the playwright with the life of the work. Haunting passages in Macbeth are linked to that most haunted of kings, Shakespeares patron King James I probably the only monarch in history to write a work as provocatively titled as his Daemonologie and the surging rhetoric of grief in Hamlet draws on what Greenblatt calls Shakespeares desire to speak with the dead, including his son, Hamnet, who died tragically at 11. Greenblatts strategy works because of his skill in anchoring speculations on Shakespeares life in insightful interpretations of his texts. More intellectual risk-taking of this nature, more willingness to infuse the sparseness of the historical record with the creative possibilities of literary analysis, would have augmented the energy and appeal of Barberos Dante. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, Shakespeare is the only biographer of Shakespeare; and even he can tell nothing, except to the Shakespeare in us. The same might be said of Dante. We can be grateful to Barbero for this richly informative biography of a man who can seem so reticent and aloof that at times it feels as if hes hiding behind the 14,233 verses of The Divine Comedy rather than revealing himself. But for those who are looking to learn more about the Dante in us, a biography has to do more than deliver the plausible facts. And so the quest for a vita of Dante in English will likely lead us right back to where Emerson suggested: the poetry from Dantes own hand. LUCKENBOOTH By Jenni Fagan Cities are, by their very nature, haunted places, Edinburgh perhaps more than most. A million lives, a million stories crisscross these streets, invisible psychogeographies built up in layers of memory and history ripe for excavation. In her new novel, Luckenbooth, Jenni Fagan traces the lives of nine ootlins, or outsiders: artists and dreamers, queers and mystics and vagabonds, criminals and cutups, winding upstairs and down in the doomed tenement block of the title. The result is a cabinet of curiosities that is both a love letter to the Scottish capital, and a knife to its throat. On a dreary day in 1910, the Devils daughter binds her horns to hide them and sets sail for the city in a boat made from a coffin. Jessie MacRae, 21, has been sold as a surrogate to the morally bankrupt minister of culture, Mr. Udnam. The revelation of her true nature results in a murder that will haunt all the occupants of 10 Luckenbooth over the course of nine decades. The structure three parts divided into three interwoven stories is a nod to Wiccas rule of three, and its appropriate then to explore the novel through the three meanings of luckenbooth. Lucken-buith was the word for Edinburghs original lockup shops selling silver and jewelry. Each story is a gleaming gem, and the writing is gorgeous and tender and reckless, like the skies over Edinburgh that reflect the shifting conditions of the heart: Black clouds race like warhorses pounding the sky. Pink electric lightning splits the darkness. Luminous clouds roll under darker ones above. Scenes like this played out across the country: in Wisconsin, where Rohn Bishop, the Republican Party chair in Fond du Lac, stood up to Trumpian lies; in Arizona, where Clint Hickman, the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, ducked the presidents phone calls; in Pennsylvania, where Valerie Biancaniello, a Republican activist and Trump campaign head in Delaware County, demanded evidence instead of conspiracies. The unheralded and mostly unknown Republicans active in local politics who refused to go along with Trumps lies and played a key role in preserving American democracy are the main subject of The Steal, by the journalists Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague. At 230 pages of text, their book is a lean, fast-paced and important account of the chaotic final weeks of the Trump administration. Several major works have already been published about those last days, including Peril, from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, and I Alone Can Fix It, by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. (Those books by Washington Post journalists have served as source material for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.) In fact, the opening scene of The Steal, depicting Trumps internal mind-set, is sourced to Frankly, We Did Win This Election, by Michael C. Bender of The Wall Street Journal. But what The Steal offers is a view of the election through the eyes of state- and county-level officials. We see Biancaniello confronting her fellow Republicans, who were raising hell at a vote-counting center (Do you understand that you can suspect something, but it means nothing if you dont have evidence, she tells one); and Bishop, whom the authors call in one sense maybe the most authentic Republican in America, explaining to a fellow Republican: Dude, I voted for the same guy you did. Im just telling you it wasnt stolen; these ballots werent illegally cast. In Maricopa County, Hickman listened to claims of fraud, but concluded that the count was accurate, and then refused to take Trumps telephone calls. What did the president expect of him? Bowden and Teague write. Nothing honorable. VELORIO By Xavier Navarro Aquino Velorio, Xavier Navarro Aquinos debut novel, is set in Puerto Rico in the immediate aftermath of 2017s Hurricane Maria. The book follows an assortment of characters as they struggle to find their way through a world that has been completely upended by the storm, focusing on six survivors: Camila, a young girl whose sister was killed during the storm; Banto, an overweight mamas boy; Morivivi, a young, tough, knife-wielding woman; Bayfish, a street kid; Cheo, a fisherman and poet; and Urayoan, a self-styled visionary who attempts to establish a new society in the countryside after the government fails to provide adequate disaster relief. As each character responds to the storm, the novel explores how a natural disaster can bring out both the best and worst in human nature. Though the hurricane referred to as Maria, la monstrua or simply she/her strikes before Velorio opens, the storm itself is, in many ways, the main character of the story. On every page we are confronted with the devastation left in Marias wake. The portrait Navarro Aquino paints is of a storm so violent it is almost incomprehensible. As the characters attempt to make sense of the destruction, the narrative occasionally takes on a sort of concussed dreaminess. In one scene, for instance, Bayfish and Banto are fishing in a river still swollen with floodwaters. At first they catch nothing; then they begin to hook a series of strange objects a wig, a blazer, a boot until eventually they spot dead bodies coming downstream, heads bobbing in the current. At their best, these dreamlike sequences have a Murakami-esque flavor, albeit darker here, the characters have surfaced from a bad dream, only to find themselves in a living nightmare. American children are starting 2022 in crisis. I have long been aware that the pandemic was upending childrens lives. But until I spent time pulling together data and reading reports, I did not understand just how alarming the situation had become. Todays newsletter offers an overview of that crisis. The toll Children fell far behind in school during the first year of the pandemic and have not caught up. Among third through eighth graders, math and reading levels were all lower than normal this fall, according to NWEA, a research group. The shortfalls were largest for Black and Hispanic students, as well as students in schools with high poverty rates. We havent seen this kind of academic achievement crisis in living memory, Michael Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute told Politico. Many children and teenagers are experiencing mental health problems, aggravated by the isolation and disruption of the pandemic. Three medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, recently declared a national state of emergency in childrens mental health. They cited dramatic increases in emergency department visits for all mental health emergencies. Ben Smith, the media columnist for The New York Times, is leaving the media outlet to start a new global news organization with Justin Smith, who is stepping down as chief executive of Bloomberg Media. Ben Smith said in an interview that they planned to build a global newsroom that broke news and experimented with new formats of storytelling. He did not provide details on what beats or regions would be covered, how much money they planned to raise or when the new organization would start. There are 200 million people who are college educated, who read in English, but who no one is really treating like an audience, but who talk to each other and talk to us, said Ben Smith, who is not related to Justin Smith. Thats who we see as our audience. Justin Smith, 52, will lead the business side, and Ben Smith, 45, will be the top editor of the new venture. Interconnectors are a really critical tool to enable countries to decarbonize their energy systems, said Cordi OHara, president of National Grid Ventures, the unit that built the Norway link with Statnett for 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion). When the wind doesnt blow or the sun doesnt shine in a region, they can get access to renewable resources from other places, she added. Britain and countries like Denmark and the Netherlands are developing grand plans to transform the North Sea, long an oil and gas hub, into one of the worlds great generators of renewable energy. The British government, for instance, aims to nearly quadruple Britains already world-leading offshore wind capacity over the next decade. We see the North Sea as this green powerhouse for electricity, Ms. OHara said. Among the possibilities: cables that would tap into some of the enormous offshore wind farms likely to be built in the coming years, sending that power to multiple countries, and artificial energy islands that might have not only wind turbines but other clean energy facilities like hydrogen generators. For undersea cables, there is no limitation when it comes to length, said Bjorn Sanden, a technical director at Nexans, a Norwegian company responsible for a large portion of the cabling on the link between Britain and Norway. Projects under discussion, like a 2,600-mile undersea link that would take solar power from Australia to Singapore, are theoretically feasible, if the economics can be made to work, he said. Britains plans for the North Sea could be made more complex by the countrys uneasy ties with its former European partners. It has been excluded from a European power pricing system, making its interconnectors more cumbersome to use, said Chris Matson, a partner at LCP, a consulting firm. In October, Frances Europe minister, Clement Beaune, even suggested that Europe might cut off energy supplies to Britain during a dispute over fishing rights. Protesters gathered outside China Evergrande offices in Guangzhou on Tuesday to demand that the indebted real estate developer give them their money back, as the companys sales across China continued to plunge. Evergrande, the worlds most indebted developer, has tried for months to signal to home buyers, employees and investors that its $300 billion debt problem was under control. Just last week, its billionaire founder pledged to restart construction on its many stalled sites. But the challenges keep mounting. On Tuesday, Evergrande said that property sales fell 39 percent last year compared with the previous year, and that it had been ordered to demolish dozens of buildings on the tropical island province of Hainan because of an administrative penalty from local authorities. The company did not say why it had gotten this penalty or exactly what it would do, other than that it would resolve the issue properly. Evergrande has become a symbol of the difficulties facing Chinas economy and its once-thriving property sector. After expanding and borrowing at breakneck speed, Evergrande has struggled to find the cash it needs for overdue bills, outstanding loans and back wages for the workers who have built millions of its apartments across China. Responding to an increase in anti-Asian sentiment, American Girl has created a Chinese American doll to be its 2022 Girl of the Year, to try to teach children to stand against racism. The doll, named Corinne Tan, is 18 inches tall and comes with an interesting back story: She is a powerhouse skier from Aspen, Colo., who is building the courage to respond to xenophobic comments, the company said in a statement last week. Corinnes story may be fiction, but the comments are not. Violence against Asian Americans has swelled during the pandemic, largely perpetrated by those who tied the coronavirus to China. That is why many Asian Americans have hailed Corinne as an important and, perhaps, overdue step by American Girl to teach children about anti-Asian racism. In the fall of last year, many retail landlords were breathing a sigh of relief. They had gone all out to fill empty storefronts during the grimmest days of the pandemic, offering concessions to tenants and saying yes to pop-ups. That strategy appeared to pay off. By the third quarter of 2021, the storefront scene was recovering in many parts of the country. Thanks to vaccinations, the return of international travelers and pent-up consumer demand, shoppers were flocking to malls and downtown districts and prospective tenants were signing leases. Asking rents, which had plunged in 2020, were leveling out and even rising in some places. But the Omicron variant of the coronavirus may throw a wrench in the recovery, and landlords may need to extend temporary measures to fill empty spaces. At the Oculus, the transit hub and shopping mall in Lower Manhattan, foot traffic has fallen precipitously recently, said Diana Grasso, the vice president of Westfield World Trade Center. You saw the impact almost immediately, she said. Rome, Jan 4, 2022 (SPS) -The Communist Refoundation Party in Italy called on the government of its country to put pressure on Morocco to bring it to comply with "the obligation to protect the Sahrawi activist" Sultana Khaya, under house arrest since November 2020 , and who continues to "suffer several repeated abuses". The Communist Refoundation Party "considers necessary and a priority the strong and immediate intervention of the central government, in order to put pressure, at the institutional and international levels, on the government and the Moroccan monarchy in order to ensure that the obligation to protect the Sahrawi activist, sick and harassed, be respected, as also requested by the UN representative ". In a statement published on his website, he recalled that "Sultana Khaya has been under house arrest since November 2020, a period during which, among others, as reported by Amnesty International (AI) and the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, she has suffered several repeated abuses ". Among these heinous abuses, reported by AI, the Communist Refoundation Party reports that "it is also necessary to mention the fact that she, her sisters and her mother over 80 years old were raped by the Moroccan security forces". At the end of December 2020, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, stressed that the Moroccan authorities "have an obligation to protect" the Sahrawi activist Sultana Khaya who continues to be the subject of intimidation, torture, rape, threats and inhumane practices. "Sultana Khaya appears to be in serious danger, her health is deteriorating and is vulnerable to further attacks. The Moroccan authorities have an obligation to protect her," she said. Reiterating, moreover, its friendship and its proximity with the Saharawi and Moroccan peoples, the Communist-European Left Refoundation Party "invites the various local authorities to approve agendas of solidarity with Sultana Khaya and her struggle in favor of the people of the Western Sahara ". "The unresolved question of the self-determination of the Saharawi people and respect for the human rights of its citizens is again topical these days, especially after (...) the intervention of the UN" , points out the Italian party. "This is a question linked to Western Sahara and to the violence perpetrated by the Moroccan security forces against the Saharawi militants who find in the story of Sultana Khaya a kind of paradigm of the violent and authoritarian models deployed by the repressive apparatus of the Moroccan state and government ", one explained, noting that over time," the Sahrawi activist has become, perhaps in spite of herself, the symbol of the struggle of an entire people ". Sultana Khaya is president of the Sahrawi League for the Defense of Human Rights and against the plundering of natural resources in occupied Boudjdour, north of Western Sahara. Over time, she lost one eye when she was attacked by police at the University of Marrakech, followed by several assaults on her and her family members, and this only because she asked and always calls for respect for human rights, "also recalls Maurizio Acerbo's party.SPS 125/090/TRA Image Students leaving Darwin Elementary School in Chicago on Tuesday. Credit... Taylor Glascock for The New York Times Public school officials in Chicago canceled classes for Wednesday amid a clash with the teachers union, whose members had threatened to stay home in a bid to force instruction online during a coronavirus surge. Union members had criticized the districts response to the Omicron variant, which has pushed cases in the city to record levels, and said conditions in classrooms were unsafe. The Chicago Teachers Union said late Tuesday night that 73 percent of members who voted favored pausing in-person instruction. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot said reverting to online schooling was unacceptable and unnecessary, and her administration decided to call off class altogether keeping the buildings open for emergency child care rather than return to virtual instruction. Nobody signs up for being a home-schooler at the last minute, Ms. Lightfoot said. We cant forget about how disruptive that remote process is to individual parents who have to work, who cant afford the luxury of staying home. Ms. Lightfoot, a Democrat, urged teachers to report to work and suggested they were considering an illegal work stoppage. As highly contagious Omicron rears its head, so do debates that were considered settled. After a relatively calm fall, when school administrators, unions and families largely agreed that remote schooling was a nonstarter, the brinkmanship between the third-largest U.S. district and its union exposes just how quickly that political consensus can fall away. Like other school systems, Chicago has had to confront a shortage of tests, and a far from universal vaccination rate among students. There have been large numbers of staff members calling in sick, and widespread anxiety among just about everyone. Other districts, including in Cleveland, Milwaukee and Atlanta, have also gone online temporarily, but without a public labor dispute. The ongoing chaos has unnerved parents who are desperate for some kind of stability. Coronavirus cases have skyrocketed in Chicago to their highest rate since the pandemic began. But as in the rest of the country, vaccinated adults have had lower rates of hospitalization and death, while children of all ages regardless of vaccination status have overwhelmingly been spared severe outcomes. In addition, data from Chicago and elsewhere shows that in-school transmission of the coronavirus has been limited, with a majority of teacher and student cases originating outside school buildings. More than 90 percent of Chicago Public Schools employees are fully vaccinated. Still, members of the powerful Chicago Teachers Union have accused the school district of failing to adjust to Omicron, and the growing threat of breakthrough infections. During the holiday break, they had asked for either universal P.C.R. testing of students and staff or a two-week transition to remote learning. We are between a rock and a hard place the rock being the pandemic, the hard place being an intractable, incompetent mayor, Stacy Davis Gates, the unions vice president, said this week. She added, We said a two-week pause so they could get themselves together, have the proper communication, put in the necessary mitigations. Tesla is not the only carmaker operating in Xinjiang. Volkswagen, which sells more cars in China than any other country, has faced criticism for operating a factory in Urumqi. The automaker has said that it does not use forced labor. China is the worlds largest car market and is growing, while sales in Europe and the United States are stagnant. Carmakers dependence on China makes them susceptible to pressure from government officials to establish operations in Xinjiang, an arid region in the countrys northwest that has lagged other regions in economic development. Tesla, which dominates sales of electric cars around the world, operates a factory in Shanghai that Chinese officials have allowed it to run without a local joint venture partner, a privilege that it had not previously granted to other foreign automakers. China is one of the biggest markets for the companys cars, and Tesla exports vehicles from the Shanghai factory to other countries, too. China has denied repressing members of the Uyghur ethnic group, and mounted a determined propaganda campaign to push the narrative that Xinjiang is a happy, prosperous place. Poppy Tooker, an author in New Orleans, said king cake dates back to Ancient Rome and the Saturnalia Festival, a celebration of the god Saturn. The tradition goes, they bake the bean into the cake, which really makes it sound like a king cake, Ms. Tooker said. When Rome collapsed, like so much in the Catholic Church in Europe, they took these pagan customs and adapted them. King cakes are revered in New Orleans, so much so that its considered sacrilegious to eat one before Jan. 6. Until the 18th century, king cake was largely eaten only on that day, to signal the end of the Christmas season. In the early 1900s however, some Carnival krewes (as parade organizers are known) like the Twelfth Night Revelers began to host balls, where they served king cake, selecting the king or queen based on which guest found the small trinket, or feve, hidden in the cake. The New Orleans version of the cake, which Ms. Tooker said was most likely developed by 18th-century French and Spanish colonists, initially followed a basic structure: The oval-shaped pastries consisted of a brioche dough with hints of vanilla, and were covered with colorful sugary crystals and stuffed with the feve, initially a bean. In the 19th century, porcelain dolls were the feve of choice; in the 20th century, McKenzies Pastry Shoppes, a local chain that closed in 2001, became among the first commercial bakeries to use a plastic baby, and others soon followed. Cakes also became sweeter and more Danish-like as king cakes became commercially popular. LOS ANGELES Kinki from Hokkaido, says Yohei Matsuki, a little muffled through his mask, entrusting you with a piece of seared rockfish nigiri. He wont bore you with the details, which would take longer to share than this mouthful takes to chew. But he knows that this particular rockfish was pulled from a long line in the waters off northeastern Hokkaido. That its coral skin is flawless because he sliced it with a scary-sharp knife, yes, but also because it was never crushed in the squirms of a bulging net. He knows this because he knows who caught the rockfish, and when, and the method by which it was killed, and the route by which it arrived in Los Angeles, and then to the door of his West Hollywood restaurant, Sushi Ginza Onodera. And he knows this is getting a bit personal that the husky creature hadnt spawned yet. He butchered the fish, seasoning its meat with sake lees to intensify the sweetness, and he saw how much fat it still carried a dead giveaway. So he knows how to carve it, his knife sliding on an invisible course through its body, pulling away the meat in flush, almost transparent petals. At Sushi Ginza Onodera, in West Hollywood, you might have over a dozen varieties of seafood in a single meal, from rockfish and hairy crab to needlefish and gizzard shad. Credit... Rozette Rago for The New York Times Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. My first byline for The New York Times, which ran in early February 1988, was an opinion piece that I wish Id never had to write. Yet, as I retire after 21 years as the chief classical music critic at The Times, I see how much that column prefigured my subsequent career. At the time, I was a freelance classical music critic for The Boston Globe. A close friend from my class at Yale, Bob Walden, was declining fast from AIDS, and I went to visit him in New York. Id brought some chicken salad for lunch, though Bob, having shriveled to about 100 pounds, hardly ate. He died on Jan. 1, 1988, at 39. Despite my sadness, maybe because of it, I needed to write about Bob. During this early, brutal period of AIDS, many were writing about the death of their gay friends. But music, specifically Mozart, would be a unifying thread of my article. Bob and I first met the day we arrived on campus in 1966. Though super smart, Bob crashed out by the end of freshman year, having been terribly unfocused and secretly miserable. He enlisted in the Marines and served two years before returning to Yale to finish his degree. But he struggled with being gay and, an even tougher battle, alcoholism. Bob never achieved sustained career success. Yet, he found purpose in ways that mattered: He was a fearless activist in a gay veterans group; a stalwart member of his Alcoholics Anonymous chapter; and the organizer of Sundays at 4, a group that met at St. Michaels Church on the Upper West Side for parishioners dealing with sexual orientation issues or coping with H.I.V. A victory lap for a campaign that never sought to win, the documentary American Gadfly goes a long way toward explaining Mike Gravels perplexing run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Gravel, the former two-term Alaska senator who pursued the 2008 nomination in earnest, and who died last year at 91, merely tried to qualify for the 2020 cycles debates. His run, which lasted for four months in 2019, was mainly the brainchild of two teenagers, David Oks and Henry Williams, who saw Gravel as a storied figure who wouldnt prevail but could raise hell and push the political discussion leftward. Gravel sat on the sidelines and handed over his Twitter account. Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York will not be prosecuted in the criminal case involving allegations that he groped a former aide in the Executive Mansion in 2020, the Albany County district attorney announced on Tuesday. The announcement came on the heels of recent decisions by district attorneys in Nassau and Westchester Counties not to bring charges against Mr. Cuomo on other sexual misconduct allegations. And it brought to an end the only criminal charge thus far related to a blistering report from the state attorney general that led to his resignation in August. While the Albany district attorney said he was deeply troubled by allegations against Mr. Cuomo made by the former aide, Brittany Commisso, his statement underscored the difficulties of building a criminal case out of them. While many have an opinion regarding the allegations against the former governor, the Albany County D.A.s Office is the only one who has a burden to prove the elements of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, David Soares, the Albany County district attorney, said in a statement. While we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible, after review of all the available evidence we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial. But the confidence that Adams sought to project When a mayor has swagger, the city has swagger, he said was not shared by parents whose sense of assuredness had turned to trepidation. And there was a clear divide between the city, where nearly all schools opened with stepped-up testing protocols, and the surrounding region, where a growing list of school districts shifted to remote learning. For the most part, they cited the surging number of cases in their communities, not specific instances of in-school spread. The lives of all our students mean more to me than anything else, especially since three of them are actually mine, Dawn Haynes, the school board president in Newark, said in a statement announcing that the districts 65 schools would go remote for two weeks. In New York, the city had toughed it through a year of low virus transmission in schools until Covid cases soared just before the winter break, prompting the closing of 11 schools and more than 400 classrooms. The contact tracing system collapsed amid the surge, which has continued: On Sunday, New York City reported more than 36,000 cases, five times more than two weeks ago and more than half the total recorded in New York State. Adams has endorsed a plan outlined by former Mayor Bill de Blasio that calls for distributing 1.5 million rapid at-home test kits to schools. Starting Monday, the city also doubled its random in-school testing program to give P.C.R. tests to 20 percent of consenting children in each school weekly. But with some families withholding permission, the testing pool has been limited at some schools. Some families and elected officials had demanded that Adams delay the start of school by a few days to give every child and educator time for testing. Some teachers also questioned how schools can be adequately staffed when so many teachers are out with the virus or are quarantining because of exposures. Calling this an all-hands-on-deck moment, Adams said on Monday that administrators who do not normally spend time in classrooms would pitch in to cover staff shortages if necessary. In his first big test as mayor of New York City, Eric Adams is resisting pressure from municipal unions and elected officials to do more to stop the spread of the coronavirus as cases and hospitalizations are surging. Mr. Adams is holding firm that schools must stay open, and he is urging employers to have employees return to their offices, despite calls from some union leaders to temporarily return to virtual learning and remote work. With coronavirus cases rising rapidly in recent days, a small but growing list of public school districts around the country including Newark, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Cleveland have moved temporarily to remote learning. On Monday night, Philadelphias school district announced that 81 schools, out of 216, would go remote. In an interview on CNN on Tuesday morning, Mr. Adams defended his decision to reopen schools, even though roughly a third of parents did not send their children back to classrooms on Monday for the start of the semester. He continued to argue that students were safer at school. Where is a secretary of state capable of reassuring the Kremlin and easing Washington out of its commitment to American hegemony? He is nowhere to be found. by Paul Craig Roberts I remember when 1984 was in the distant future. We wondered if our destiny was going to be Big Brothers police state. But 1984 turned out to be the middle of the Reagan years. Liberals didnt like Reagans rhetoric, but his policies worked. Supply-side economics cured stagflation, and we were working to end the cold war. It was difficult not to like a president who could quip in response to an assassination attempt on his life, I forgot to duck. New ideas reinvigorated US economic and foreign policy. Our future had brightened. Soviet President Gorbachev agreed to the reunification of Germany on the assurance from the George H.W. Bush administration that in exchange NATO would not move one inch to the East. But the Clinton regime, with Republican Bob Dole egging them on, dishonored the word of the United States government and moved NATO to Russias borders, thus restarting the Cold War that Reagan and Gorbachev had ended. In a series of lawless actionsthe bombing of Yugoslavia, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the bombings of Pakistan territorytogether with dismissive treatment of Russia, Washington, lost in its arrogant hubris as the worlds only superpower, awoke and aroused Russia and brought her out of her docility. At the Munich Security Conference in 2007 Putin said that the lawless behavior of the US was undermining peaceful relations based in international law. He said Washingtons monopolistic dominance in global relations left no room for the interests and concerns of other countries and he criticized Washington for unbridled hyper use of force in international relations. Washington and its vassals were astonished at Putin having the gall to annoy the superpower, but wrapped up in remaking the Middle East in Israels interest, paid no attention to him. Washington and its vassals were again astonished in 2015 when Putin blocked the Obama regimes invasion of Syria and, together with the Syrian Army, defeated the mercenaries Washington sent to overthrow Assad. Faced with Washingtons destruction of the arms control agreements reached over decades, in 2018 Putin announced a stunning array of new weapons systems such as hypersonic and random trajectory nuclear missiles that made it apparent to independent experts that the US was suddenly a second-rate military power. No one has listened to us, Putin said. You listen to us now. But no one did. Washington is too comfortable snug in its arrogance and hubris and holds firmly to what is now a delusion of its omnipotence. Washington even thinks it can bring Ukraine and the former Russian province of Georgia into NATO. The Kremlins response to Washingtons madness has sharpened the issue: Get off our doorstep, or we will drive you off. This is a demand, and it is not negotiable. Given the total uselessness of the US media that serves only the elite interest groups that control America, Americans themselves are unaware that their idiot government has brazenly provoked a situation in which Russia has told Washington to get your bases and military maneuvers away from our borders or suffer the consequences. Americans are so totally uninformed that they could be incinerated before they knew there was a problem. 2022 opens with two unprecedented crises. One is the attempt by governments in the Free West to use Covid to turn crumbling democracies into police states. The other is the prospect of Armageddon, given the lack of intelligent and reasonable leadership everywhere in the Western World. Can you identify any intelligent leader anywhere in the Western world? No? Neither can I. The Wests leaders are nothing but whores for the controlling interest groups. They have probably never had an independent thought in their entire lives and are incapable of thinking. How are such useless beings going to deal with a serious crisis? Look at the people in the Biden regime. They are a collection of jokes. There is nothing there. Where is a secretary of state capable of reassuring the Kremlin and easing Washington out of its commitment to American hegemony? He is nowhere to be found. The situation is extremely serious, because Russia is facing an aggressor whose leaders are disconnected from reality. Biden, who is only there part of the time, has advisors from the Russian-hating neoconservatives at the Center for New American Security funded by the US military/security complex and oil companies. The state department official who oversaw the overthrow of the elected government of Ukraine is now the Undersecretary of State. The warmongers responsible for Clintons bombing of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and for all of Washingtons illegal wars in the 21st century are ensconced in the Biden regime. US Senators from both parties are demanding that Biden stand up to Putin. Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel berated Biden for even accepting a phone call from Putin! Republican US Senator Roger Wicker, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called for raining destruction on Russias military capability from our Navy in the Black Sea and refuses to rule out a first strike on Russia with nuclear weapons. Michael McFaul, the Russophobe Obama sent as US Ambassador to Russia, dismissed Putins demand that the US respect Russias security concern as Russian paranoia. With Democrats and Republicans united in stupidity, with Stephen Cohen dead, and with no one to say Whoa! how is the Biden regime, burdened by fools and idiots, going to realize that the Kremlin has had enough? Patriotic Americans have always wrapped themselves in the flag. USA! USA! USA! The neoconservatives have told them that they are exceptional and indispensable with the right to rule the world. Americans are not even aware that Washington has created a crisis. The Russian government has reached the conclusion that its years of accepting provocations and insults, relying instead on diplomatic efforts to reach a peaceful and reasonable accommodation, did not succeed. As Putin said, we retreated and retreated in the interest of peace, and now they are on our doorstep and we have nowhere left to which to retreat. And still Washington does not hear. With these structural advantages in place, its not especially difficult to see how the right came to view dramatic political losses, when they do occur, as suspect. If the basic mechanics of the federal system were as fair and balanced as were taught they are, the extent and duration of conservative power would reflect the legitimate preferences of most Americans. Democratic victories, by contrast, now seem to the right like underhanded usurpations of the will of the majority in President Bidens case, by fraud and foreign voters, and in Barack Obamas, by a candidate who was himself a foreign imposition on the true American people. But the federal system is neither fair nor balanced. Rather than democratic give and take between two parties that share the burden of winning over the other side, we have one favored party and another whose effortful victories against ever-lengthening odds are conspiratorially framed as the skulduggery of schemers who can win only through fraud and covert plans to import a new electorate. It doesnt help that Republican advantages partly insulate the party from public reproach; demagogy is more likely to spread among politicians if there are few electoral consequences. This is a recipe for political violence. Jan. 6 wasnt the first or the deadliest attack to stem from the idea that Democrats are working to force their will on a nonexistent conservative political and cultural majority. We have no reason to expect it will be the last. And while much of the language Republican politicians and commentators use to incite their base seems outwardly extreme, its important to remember that what was done on Jan. 6 was done in the name of the Constitution, as most Republican voters now understand it as an eternal compact that keeps power in their rightful hands. Tellingly, during his Jan. 6 rally, Mr. Trump cannily deployed some of the language Democrats have used to denounce voting restrictions and foreign interference. Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy, he said. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. Today we will see whether Republicans stand strong for the integrity of our elections. The mainstream press has also had a hand in inflating the rights sense of itself. Habits like the misrepresentation of Republican voters and operatives as swing voters plucked off the street and the constant, reductive blather about political homogeneity on the coasts even though there were more Trump voters in New York City in 2016 and 2020 than there were in both Dakotas combined create distorted impressions of our political landscape. The tendency of journalists to measure the wisdom of policies and rhetoric based on their distance from the preferences of conservative voters only reinforces the idea that its fair for politicians, activists and voters on the left to take the reddest parts of the country into account without the right taking a reciprocal interest in what most Americans want. That premise still dominates and constrains strategic thinking within the Democratic Party. A year after the Capitol attack and all the rent garments and tears about the rights radicalism and the democratic process, the party has failed to deliver promised political reforms, thanks to opposition from pivotal members of its own Senate caucus Democrats who argue that significantly changing our system would alienate Republicans. To the Editor: Re Fast-Spreading Variant Has Campuses Fearing a Mental Health Crisis (news article, Dec. 23): Im the parent of a sophomore at Dartmouth, where three first-year students died by suicide in the 2020-21 school year. I could not agree more that colleges and universities must prioritize students mental health when addressing Covid-19 on their campuses. Numerous student deaths should not have been necessary to reach this reckoning, but now that we see a pattern, universities must do better. Increasing student access to mental health professionals is a start to addressing the crisis, but even more important are holistic policies that recognize students needs to gather and learn together. Universities should prioritize student well-being and require vaccinations, test frequently and mandate masks. In the process, lives will be saved. Gretchen Freeman Cappio Seattle To the Editor: Your article does not mention another crisis that is playing out in college mental health. Before the pandemic, university counseling center staff members were already stretched to the limits by an ever increasing demand for their services. Now, overburdened, underpaid and burned out, many therapists are leaving college counseling centers for less stressful work and better pay. Many are doing so to protect their own mental health. Colleges across the nation are struggling to find counselors because working for university counseling centers is no longer as desirable as it used to be. Not only do college students have more mental health concerns, but there are now fewer mental health experts on campus to help deal with those concerns. Greene is already capitalizing on her supposed plight. Far from being silenced, she decamped to the messaging app Telegram to continue her tireless goal of following the playbook of Trump who was himself tossed off Twitter and Facebook for inciting violence related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. On Telegram, Greene channeled Americas patron saint of prevarication, writing that Twitter is an enemy to America and cant handle the truth. Funny, she didnt mind using Twitter to spread lies before it took action against her. It was all part of a tired routine: Get oneself worked up into a lather, spew manufactured bile designed to enrage and then repeat and repeat and repeat. These unctuous, tweeting fabulists rode the digital rails as far as they could to their advantage, until it was a tweet too far. In his latest statement, Trump called for people to drop off Donald, F.Y.I., the correct term is delete Facebook and Twitter. Yes, there are myriad legitimate reasons to quit social media, but this isnt one of them. It is, however, yet another reminder of the desperate need for lawmakers to step up and address the overwhelming power of Big Tech. Meanwhile, the podcaster, comedian and rabble-rouser Joe Rogan isnt waiting to get tossed off before cashing in on the furor. He set up an account on Gettr, the social media site run by the former Trump adviser Jason Miller, saying its a safety net in case Twitter gets even dumber. That turned into quite a boon for Rogan and for Gettrs subscriptions, too who miraculously attracted 8.6 million followers in under two days. Over on Twitter, which he naturally used to tout the move, he has just 7.9 million followers. Rogan may have been pushed to his edge which at least feels more genuine, if misguided by another Twitter ban, that of the controversial virologist Robert Malone, who claims to be the inventor of mRNA vaccines. (Hes more likely one of many key contributors to the critical technology.) Malone has been a vocal critic of the mass vaccination fervor, including on Rogans show, where he likened it to something from Nazi Germany. While were well past the time to retire the casual use of Hitlers regime as a metaphor for everything (its a high bar of horror), the sentiment still lands with a certain audience whose mistrust of power has only grown during the pandemic. Take WeWorks Adam Neumann. The lines between vision, bullsh*t and fraud are pretty narrow, the professor and author Scott Galloway wrote on his website No Mercy/No Malice in the fall of 2019, when WeWork postponed its initial public offering of stock. Something is wrong, he wrote. Something stinks. Something Just. Doesnt. Add. Up. There were questions about how WeWork was classifying expenses and about the myriad ways in which Mr. Neumann used the company to enrich himself. He reportedly cashed out some $700 million through sales of stock and debt. (Ms. Holmes never cashed out.) But while Mr. Neumann was forced to leave the company, he never faced any allegation of criminal wrongdoing. After all, if investors suffered in part because of their own greed, unwilling to ask questions because they didnt really want to know the answers, well, whose fault was that? Then theres Andy Fastow, Enrons former chief financial officer. When he gives speeches today, he holds up the Excellence Award he received from CFO magazine in 1999 and his prison ID card. He likes to say that he went to prison for the same actions for which he was once rewarded. Its certainly true that investors were willing to look the other way and laud the complexity they were too lazy to understand, as long as they got the bottom line results they were promised and as long as the stock was going in the right direction. Mr. Fastow, unlike so many others, paid for his sins; he was sentenced to six years in prison. Part of the reason he pleaded guilty is that in addition to misleading investors, he stole from the company. And he was a pawn in the larger case against Enrons top executives. But his sentence has no bearing on whether or not the next Andy Fastow, the next financial wizard who uses complex structures to present a picture to investors that is at odds with economic reality, will be prosecuted. The size of the conflagration, and the era in which it occurs, also seems to affect our willingness even to bring charges, much less convict. Enron shocked us. A naive nation that by the late 1990s had become dependent on company stock as a way to fund our retirements couldnt believe a major company could simply go poof, leaving executives with millions and employees and investors with nothing. Enron was supposed to set a precedent about what wed tolerate when it came to corporate misbehavior. But if Enron had set any kind of precedent, would the financial crisis have happened? Enrons former chief executives, Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, were convicted in the spring of 2006, just as the fraud in the mortgage business that led to the financial crisis was reaching its apex. Part of the self-delusion that can set in for executives is that when everyone else is doing it, the behavior doesnt seem wrong. Thats especially true when its being so richly rewarded. Not only did Enron not prevent the financial crisis, but also in that disaster, which did far more widespread damage than Enron ever did, prosecutors brought charges against only minor players, not major executives. Indeed, while the Justice Department took a tough approach to Enrons wrongdoing, after the financial crisis, department officials were hands-off with the financial services industry. Part of the thinking was that no one wanted to weaken the banks the government had just bailed out in 2008 by bringing criminal charges. The mood in the halls of power then was very different from what it was after Enrons collapse. While the financial crisis was less about vision gone wrong than it was about mass delusion and greed, it also sheds light on another factor that influences decisions to prosecute. When executives are separated by layers of lawyers and underlings from the actual wrongdoing, they can be kept at a remove from the gritty details of any actual fraud. It seems to have been largely forgotten, but in 2020, despite extraordinary strain, the system worked. As independent observers have attested, no meaningful fraud marred the election. Turnout was extremely high for both parties despite pandemic conditions, attesting to the lack of effective voter suppression as well. Republican officeholders at all levels of government were pressed to find fraud that didnt exist, to decertify valid results and otherwise to undermine the integrity of the election. They overwhelmingly resisted that pressure. The same is true of the judicial branch, which rejected out of hand the Trump campaigns spurious legal challenges. None of that, however, was sufficient to persuade tens of millions of Trump voters that their candidate actually lost. On the contrary: When forced to choose between President Trumps baseless assertions and the conclusions of those Republicans duly charged with overseeing the election, these voters chose Mr. Trump over members of their own party who acted with integrity. The rioters on Jan. 6 turned to violence because they believed that the election was stolen, and they believed that despite all the authorities, Democrats and Republicans, actually responsible for running it saying otherwise. Thats not a problem that can be solved by tinkering with the mechanics of elections oversight. Its entirely possible that worthwhile reforms to limit political grandstanding could fuel distrust by Democrats in the legitimacy of elections. Take the Electoral Count Act, a particular focus of concern because of John Eastmans memo suggesting, absurdly, that it granted Vice President Mike Pence the authority to unilaterally set aside certified electoral votes. The act was originally passed to prevent a repeat of the disputed election of 1876, during which Congress previously responsible for resolving such disputes deadlocked over which electors to approve from three states that submitted dueling slates. The act reduced Congresss role and aimed to provide clear rules for how and when states must approve their slates to avoid disputes. Those provisions can and should be clarified, to eliminate the possibility that a future vice president might do what Mike Pence refused to, or that future representatives and senators could baselessly undermine popular confidence in election integrity as numerous Republicans have done in the wake of the last election. But what any such reform would do is push more authority back down to the state level or over to the judicial branch. What happens if those actors behave in a corruptly partisan manner? With key state legislatures in Republican hands and with the Supreme Court dominated by Republican appointees inclined to give latitude to those same state legislatures in setting electoral rules, its not hard to imagine many Democrats in 2024 concluding that by reforming the act they had disarmed themselves. Some Democrats, therefore, have called for federalizing Americas unusually decentralized national elections, to override the possibility of partisan state legislature interference in either the conduct of the election or the vote count and certification of the winners. Because the Constitution vests a great deal of authority at the state level, some of these proposals might well face constitutional challenges but even if they passed muster, what would they achieve? They would invest more power in Congress, which might well be in Republican hands. How confident would Democrats be in an election in 2024 ultimately overseen by Kevin McCarthy in the House and Mitch McConnell in the Senate? There had been no confirmed sightings of a live night parrot for nearly 140 years. So when the naturalist John Young produced evidence of the near-mythic bird in a remote corner of Australias outback in 2013, it was one of the greatest stories of species rediscovery in recent times. It was the bird-watching equivalent of finding Elvis flipping burgers in an outback roadhouse, Sean Dooley of BirdLife Australia, told the countrys national broadcaster at the time. It got stranger from there, when the discovery became tainted. Over the next eight years, the find set off a series of breakthroughs in tracking the ghost bird, as it is described in some Aboriginal storytelling. But it would take teams of Indigenous rangers, working with scientists in Australias most unforgiving and remote landscapes, to accelerate the discovery of more night parrot populations in recent months a feat that may ultimately help to save the species. Federal aviation officials have agreed not to ask for further delays to Verizon and AT&Ts new 5G cellular service, clearing the way for the companies to start their service while avoiding a major clash with regulators who said it could endanger flights. In addition to delaying the start of their service by two weeks, the carriers will temporarily put in place measures designed to address the governments safety concerns about the technology, particularly around certain airports. The agency had expressed concerns that the new 5G service uses signals that clash with equipment pilots use to land in poor weather. Officials have said they could restrict the use of that equipment, known as radio altimeters, which could force airlines to ground or reroute flights under some conditions. The new 5G service uses a portion of the airwaves, called C-Band, to operate; planes use an adjacent set of radio waves for their radio altimeters. The aviation industry has said the two signals could clash, with potentially dangerous results. SAN JOSE, Calif. In 2016, start-up founders sang, Theranos doesnt represent, we are better, in a holiday video created by the venture capital firm First Round Capital. Over the next few years, several columnists wrote that Silicon Valley shouldnt be blamed for Theranos. Last month, Keith Rabois, a venture capitalist, said on Twitter that articles connecting Theranos with Silicon Valley culture contained more fabrication than anything ever uttered by Trump. The technorati in Silicon Valley and beyond have long tried to separate themselves from Theranos, the blood testing start-up in Palo Alto, Calif., that was exposed for lying about its abilities. But the fraud trial of the companys founder, Elizabeth Holmes, has shown that just as Bernard Madoff was a creature of Wall Street and Enron represented the get-rich-quick excesses of the 1990s, Theranos and its leader were very much products of Silicon Valley. In the months leading up to the election, conservative podcasters focused mostly on the fear that mail-in ballots could lead to fraud, the analysis showed. At the time, political analysts were busy warning of a red mirage: an early lead by Mr. Trump that could erode because mail-in ballots, which tend to get counted later, were expected to come from Democratic-leaning districts. As ballots were counted, that is precisely what happened. But podcasters used the changing fortunes to raise doubts about the elections integrity. Election misinformation shot upward, with about 52 percent of episodes containing misinformation in the weeks after the election, up from about 6 percent of episodes before the election. The biggest offender in Brookingss analysis was Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trumps former adviser. His podcast, Bannons War Room, was flagged 115 times for episodes using voter fraud terms included in Brookings analysis between the election and Jan. 6. You know why theyre going to steal this election? Mr. Bannon asked on Nov. 3. Because they dont think youre going to do anything about it. As the Jan. 6 protest drew closer, his podcast pushed harder on those claims, including the false belief that poll workers handed out markers that would disqualify ballots. Now were on, as they say, the point of attack, Mr. Bannon said the day before the protest. The point of attack tomorrow. Its going to kick off. Its going to be very dramatic. Kate Hurley, of Minneapolis, sent her 7-year-old daughter to school on Monday with a KN95 mask but kept her 4-year-old son home because he isnt eligible for a vaccine yet. When we started the pandemic, parenting and teaching while working remotely was hard, she wrote. Now we are tired and drained and nearly two years in. Doing it all over again feels insurmountable. Some parents whose children are learning remotely are upset that they arent in school in person. Some whose children are learning in person are upset that they cant be remote. Many are torturously ambivalent, trying to claw good solutions out of situations that offer none. I dont want him to miss out on weeks of school, and it looks like Omicron is with us for at least that long, wrote Heather Malin, whose 5-year-old son is in kindergarten in person in New York City this week. It was an agonizing decision. Will he be safe? Will the school have the resources to test and adequately mask everyone? Im scheduled to have surgery for breast cancer in a few weeks, and I am terrified that well come down with Covid (which is bad enough) and my surgery will be delayed. Erika Behling, whose 13-year-old daughter is attending school in person in Silver Lake, Wis., said that one relative was currently hospitalized and another had a serious health condition. My child is vaccinated and diligently masks, but we live in a fairly rural area where the pandemic has become politicized, Ms. Behling wrote. As the numbers rise, we feel the walls closing in around us. My 13-year-old has more compassion than the vast majority of adults I see in this area. And shes scared. As parents, we feel utterly helpless. Aiming to further strengthen friendly ties between Sri Lanka and Pakistan and enhance bilateral trade relations between the two countries, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI). The MOU which was signed last month by Mr. Manjula de Silva, CEO of the Ceylon Chamber and Mr. Sohail Altaf, Group Leader of the RCCI was followed by the inking of nine agreements between Pakistani and Sri Lankan companies, in the areas of education, pharmaceutical production, automobiles, information technology and automobile spares. Minister of Trade Bandula Gunawardena who was the Chief Guest at the event stated that tourism and information technology are two sectors that could potentially be profitably developed between the two countries. Mr. Alftaf meanwhile announced that the visiting delegation, comprising of more than 100 delegates, was keen on identifying viable projects to invest in Sri Lanka, including in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Mr. de Silva welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with the RCCI in order to further promote trade and commercial activities between the private sectors of the two countries. The MOU will facilitate the dissemination of relevant information in order to enhance bilateral trade and business, including initiating and promoting joint ventures, partnerships and other business linkages, as well as the provision of technical expertise, trade delegations between the two countries and other economic promotion activities such as business webinars and B2B meetings. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce have to-date signed 140 Memoranda of Understanding to expand and further strengthen strong relationships with overseas trade promotion organisations for the benefit of the business community in Sri Lanka. He had things that people in the area who work dont have, said Patrick Nkwela. How do you explain that? Several neighbors said Mr. Mafe had only moved into the area in August of 2021. He lived alone and seemed to know no one. He could also always afford alcohol, they said, which he drank alone. He did not work but never missed his rent, said Wendy Luhabe, his next-door neighbor. In Langa, a township in Cape Town where Mr. Mafe had lived for five years before moving to Khayelitsha, neighbors had a different impression of him and were surprised that he was accused of having anything to do with the Parliament fire. They remember Mr. Mafe as respectful and timid. They called him by his middle name, Christmas, or just Chris. He liked to talk about current affairs and decried corruption, but never in a way that felt threatening. A friend, Doreen Lekoma, said hed worked for a bread factory but had lost that job earlier in 2021. When she bumped into him in July, she said, he looked disheveled, and was carrying an ironing board and other belongings. She said she had seen him again on Dec. 26, and he had looked hungry and confused, so she gave him a meal. His former girlfriend, Mbinde Andoni, said she last saw him on Christmas Day. The next time she saw him was in news footage from court, and she was shocked to see he was wearing the same gray shirt and denim shorts. He was clearly sleeping on streets. How would he know how to get into Parliament, what important areas and documents to burn? It doesnt add up, said Ms. Andoni. Some of the detained soldiers have confessed to participating in the murder in their initial depositions, according to the police reports. Since then, however, they have retracted their confessions, claiming that they were obtained under torture and that they are being framed for a crime they did not commit. I dont know who killed him. Im telling you that from my heart, I swear on my family, my sons, Mr. Palacios told the Colombian magazine Semana while in hiding in Port-au-Prince in August. He said that when he arrived in Mr. Moises bedroom, the president was already dead. Mr. Palacios told a U.S. federal judge at a hearing Tuesday that he is unemployed, owns a house in Cali, Colombia, and lives off his military pension. Although the circumstances of Mr. Moises death remain unclear, Haitian investigators say that Colombian soldiers knew they would topple the president and replace him with a former supreme court judge, Windelle Coq-Thelot. Some had participated in a meeting with Ms. Coq-Thelot in her house shortly before the operation, according to the police report and a person who attended the meeting. Palacios and others entered the Presidential residence in Haiti with the intent and purpose of killing President Moise, and in fact, the President was killed, an F.B.I. agent investigating the case said in the affidavit unsealed on Tuesday. Like many others implicated in the crime, most of the former Colombian soldiers appear to have been led to believe the operation had the full backing of the United States. No evidence has emerged indicating that the U.S. government supported or knew of the plot. Shortly after the assassination of Mr. Moise, which plunged an already fragile nation into chaos, the F.B.I. and Homeland Security Investigations sent agents to Port-au-Prince to assist the investigation, at the invitation of the Haitian government. The Philippines announced on Tuesday that it was expanding a lockdown for unvaccinated people around the capital, Manila, after recording a spike in Covid-19 cases after the holidays. Officials made the announcement after the Philippines reported 4,984 new cases in the country, the highest daily total in recent months for a second straight day. Metropolitan Manila, an area containing 16 cities and a township with a population of about 14 million, had already been placed under the restrictions on Monday. Mayors agreed to bar unvaccinated residents from leaving their homes except for essential reasons, such as for food, water, medical needs and work. Tuesdays announcement expanded the area under restrictions to include Bulacan, Cavite and Rizalbar. The rules will go into effect there on Wednesday and last until Jan. 15. BRUSSELS With childrens drawings and colorful posters now adorning the walls and windows, it was easy to forget the notorious past of the red brick building, whose history still haunts a working-class Brussels neighborhood. On a recent morning, in a former bar converted into a community center, Assetou Elabo was arranging tables for students who would soon join her for homework tutoring. A few years earlier, the bars owner had let drug trafficking proliferate on the site. With patrons, he would watch videos from the Islamic State. And in the basement of the bar, Les Beguines, he would chat online with a friend who had joined the terrorist group in Syria. Then in November 2015, he detonated his explosive vest as part of a series of attacks in and around Paris. LONDON Queen Elizabeth II will mark 70 years on the throne in February, a milestone unmatched by any British sovereign and a chance to turn the page on three years of ceaseless turmoil in the royal family. But a sexual-abuse lawsuit unfolding in a Manhattan courtroom could yet spoil her celebration. On Tuesday, lawyers for the queens second son, Prince Andrew, asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, in which she claims that Andrew, a friend of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, raped her when she was 17. It was the latest in a skein of legal maneuvers by the princes lawyers to defuse Ms. Giuffres case. While the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, did not immediately rule on the motion, leaving Andrews legal fate unsettled for now, the hearing dramatized the shadow that the 61-year-old prince still casts over his family. If the judge allows the case to go forward, Andrew could face damaging testimony from Ms. Giuffre about his alleged abuse of her at Mr. Epsteins residences in New York and in the Caribbean. That would plunge the House of Windsor back into scandal at the very moment it hopes to use the Platinum Jubilee to remind Britons of the queens extraordinary longevity and largely blemish-free record of service. LONDON By tradition, former British prime ministers are honored by Queen Elizabeth some years after leaving 10 Downing Street, so the elevation of Tony Blair to a knighthood on New Years Day could have been a routine event. Instead, more than 600,000 people have signed an online petition asking that the honor be rescinded, illustrating how one of Britains most successful politicians remains a divisive figure, never forgiven by his critics for taking the country to war in Iraq. The petition, which has no legal force, says Mr. Blair, 68, was personally responsible for causing the deaths of countless civilians and service members in various conflicts, adding that he should be held accountable for war crimes. That sentiment reflects the extent to which the legacy of the opposition Labour Partys most electorally successful recent leader has been defined by his staunch support for the United States and President George W. Bush in a war in Iraq that became steadily more unpopular in Britain. Hong Kong residents must have at least one coronavirus vaccine shot to enter restaurants beginning late next month, Carrie Lam, the citys chief executive, said on Tuesday, as the city races to stamp out the spread of the Omicron variant. The new requirements, which were to begin this month, will instead start on Feb. 24, after Lunar New Year celebrations have ended, to give businesses and residents time to prepare, Mrs. Lam said. She added that the rule could be expanded to include other public spaces, such as museums and libraries. The city has maintained strict controls to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, requiring the use of a contact-tracing app in public places, forcing arrivals from overseas to undergo as much as three weeks of quarantine, locking down high-rise buildings and ordering mass testing of residents to stamp out the threat of local spread of Omicron. But Hong Kongs vaccine drive has been set back by residents who are suspicious of the government and its unpopular leader. The city has fully vaccinated only about 69 percent of its population, according to the government. P. DAVID SOARES DISTRICT ATTORNEY DAVID M. ROSSI CHIEF ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY CHRISTOPHER D. HORN COUNTY OF ALBANY OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY ALBANY COUNTY JUDICIAL CENTER 6 LODGE STREET ALBANY, NEW YORK 12207 (518) 487-5460 - Fax: (518) 487-5093 SPECIAL COUNSEL CHERYL K. FOWLER DEPUTY CHIEF ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY January 4, 2022 h Hon. Holly A. Trexler Albany City Court 1 Morton Avenue Albany, NY 12202 Re: People v. Andrew M. Cuomo Dear Judge Trexler: On October 28, 2021, the Albany County Sheriff's Office filed a criminal complaint in this Court against Andrew M. Cuomo, and the Court issued a summons at that agency's request. As the Court is aware, this action was taken unilaterally without consultation with my Office. By letter dated November 4, 2021, the People requested a sixty-day adjournment of the matter to conduct an independent review of the case and to determine how to proceed. This Court granted that request, on consent of the defense, on November 5, 2021. The matter is rently scheduled for a next appearance on January 7, 2022. We have now completed our review of all the available evidence, and we have concluded that we cannot successfully prosecute this case. Our conclusion is based on two factors. First, although we found the complaining witness and her allegations credible and supported by the available evidence, we have concluded that we would be unable to secure a conviction at a criminal trial, taking into account all the facts of this case. To be clear, the People do not approve of the alleged conduct of the former Governor. Such behavior has no place in a workplace or in government. Nevertheless, the statutory elements of New York law make this case impossible to prove in a criminal court beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest standard in our law. In addition, we have considered other potential criminal charges and concluded that none fit the allegations. We make no determination regarding any potential civil liability, which is beyond our jurisdiction. Second, in this matter, we are faced with an unusual situation: multiple, concurrent governmental inquiries into the circumstances underlying this case. This presents significant technical and 1 of 2 An Australian man who has given up on finding a human partner claims to have found the next best thing a humanoid robot named Emma. Ever since his mother died a decade ago, Geoff Gallagher from Queensland, Australia, had only his dog, Penny, to soothe his loneliness. But then, a couple of years ago, he read an article about robots powered by artificial intelligence and decided to look into them. He found some intriguing commercially-available models, but at $AUD 6,000 ($4,350) each, they werent exactly cheap. Still, they looked so lifelike, could move their head and neck, smile, and even talk, so he decided they were worth the shot. He was not disappointed Photo: Geoff Gallagher I didnt know how I would afford a robot like Emma, but then the business owner offered me a discount in return for publicity, Gallagher told 7News. It sounded like a great deal. Emma arrived in September of 2019, and Geoff couldnt be more excited to meet her. She had her head detached, but it only took a few minutes to get her assembled, and she had a white dress on, so he didnt have to dress her as well. Emma couldnt stand on her own, so most of the time Geoff left her sitting on a chair. At the back of her head, she had what looked like the screen of a smartphone. I set about adjusting her language from Chinese to English, and then all of a sudden, she came to life, the Queensland man said. I talked to her as much as possible so she could get used to my voice. With each conversation, she became smarter, soaking in the information and learning new words. Its been two years since Emma became a part of Geoff Gallaghers life, and now he couldnt imagine being without her. Simply seeing her waiting for him when he comes home from work is enough, but he sometimes takes her out for a drive with the car. He knows not everyone will understand their relationship, but he doesnt really care. Even though they arent legally married, Emma does wear a ring on her finger and Geoff likes to think of her as his robot wife, and hed love to one day be the first person in Australia to marry a robot. Photo: Geoff Gallagher I think robots are the future and I hope my story inspires others to consider a cyborg companion, Geoff said. After arriving in the earthquake-stricken area in Ninglang County, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, the militia rescue members quickly set up tents to resettle the affected people. (Photo by Jian Yuanmao) KUNMING, Jan. 4 -- At 15:02 on January 2, a 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Ninglang county of Lijiang City in Southwest China's Yunnan Province. The Lijiang Military Sub-command under the PLA Southern Theater Command immediately activated an emergency plan, and mobilized 150 militiamen to the front line for rescue work in coordination with the local government. According to China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC), the earthquake has a focal depth of 10 km, with the epicenter located in Ninglang County. There are about 75,000 people within 50 km of the epicenter. The Peoples Armed Forces Department in Ninglang under the Lijiang Military Sub-command responded quickly and organized the militiamen in nearby towns to rush to the earthquake-stricken area. They arrived at the epicenter at 16:50 and immediately devoted themselves to works of search and rescue, danger elimination, establishment of temporary resettlement sites and logistic support. As of 15:00 on January 3, the militia rescue team had searched 208 dilapidated houses, erected 235 tents with 843 people resettled. Gala Village, one of the natural villages under most serious strike, has more than 70 households. After the earthquake, the militia rescue team arrived here in less than two hours and evacuated us to a safe place, said a villager Cao Luru. The villagers felt at ease when seeing the militiamen in camouflage. Many victims volunteered to join us in setting up tents and brought us hot water, said Liu Jianguo, on-site commanding officer. The militia rescue team will help the affected people get back on normal track as soon as possible. The number of Japanese men who admit to sitting on the toilet seat while peeing has been growing steadily since the late 90s, and today over 60 percent of men reportedly urinate sitting down. Japan is home to the worlds most advanced toilet systems, with several manufacturers competing to deliver all sorts of outrageous features such as built-in wireless internet, or the capacity to remotely collect and analyze urine samples, and then send the results to a pre-selected hospital. To find out what people want and thus remain competitive, toilet seat manufacturers like Toto or Matsushita Electric Works routinely carry out surveys that reveal some weird, albeit interesting information. For example, the results of one survey recently revealed that most Japanese men urinate seating on the toilet seat. Photo: Giorgio Trovato/Unsplash The trend of peeing while seated has become so prevalent among Japanese men that there is even a term for its adopters suwari-shon, a play on the Japanese words suwari which means to sit, and shonben which means urine. The trend was first reported in the late 1990s, but it has gradually increased in popularity since then. By 2007, surveys showed that about 40 percent of Japanese men admitted to being suwari-shon, and research published in 2009 revealed that the trend was more popular among young men aged 25 to 35, from urban centers like Tokyo. Last month, a recent survey carried out by Japanese toiletries manufacturer Lion Corp showed that 60.9% of men preferred to pee sitting down. Of the 1,500 respondents aged 20 to 60, 49 percent said they had switched from standing to sitting at some point in their lives, while 11.9 percent of the total said they were native sitters, meaning they had been peeing sitting down for as long as they could remember. Ever since data on this unusual trend started coming out, the main reason cited by suwari-shon has been the mess made by urine splashback when peeing standing up. Consideration for those having to clean up that mess ranks highest among those who prefer to sit, but the comfort of resting on the toilet seat, and the ability to check their phone while urinating are also cited by some respondents. Tomoyuki Isowa, a 53-year-old business owner in Nagakute, in central Japans Aichi Prefecture, said that he was first asked by his son to pee sitting down while visiting his home, and was later convinced by TV programs about mens bad urination habits. Some surveys suggest that mothers and wives encourage the men in their families to sit down so as to avoid unnecessary spraying, and there are actually companies that make stickers encouraging men to pee sitting down, with some of the more inventive examples proclaiming that suwari-shon more are popular with women. Even though advocates of tachi-shon (peeing standing up) claim that sitting down restricts urine flow, the majority of Japanese men dont really seem to care. And with young people being able to use their phones even going to tinkle, the number of suwari-shon practitioners is only expected to rise. Jon Gingerich For years, weve seen overwhelming evidence regarding the ways in which social media platforms negatively affect our physical, mental and emotional health. Now, finally, many of us are beginning to get the message. Ironically, Americans growing antipathy to social media appears to be one of the few concepts on which we agree. Many of us are at a peculiar crossroads where we find ourselves increasingly reliant on Big Tech even as we grow increasingly distrustful of what these companies do with our personal data. A December Washington Post-Schar School poll found that nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of Internet users no longer trust Facebook to responsibly handle their Internet activity, and nearly two-thirds (64 percent) believe the government should do more to rein in Big Tech. More than half (56 percent) think Facebook has had a negative impact on society. About 70 percent believe their phones often listen to them without their consent. An October Morning Consult poll found that Americans opinion of the tech industry has suffered the steepest drop in trust, falling from the most trustworthy sector in the U.S. as recently as 2017 to sixth place this year (out of nine industries ranked). A third (32 percent) now consider the tech sector the least-trustworthy industry in society today. This article is featured in O'Dwyer's Jan. '22 Crisis Communications & PR Buyer's Guide Magazine (view PDF version) In some ways, it seems our love affair with social media is coming to an end. Social media usage in the U.S. has essentially plateaued in the last five years and was only slightly higher in 2021 than it was in 2016. Facebooks popularity continues to dwindle among both young and middle-aged audiences, and most social media usage growth in 2021 went to TikTok, which was fueled primarily by young people. It seems that if youre considering a New Years resolution, pulling the plug on social mediaor at least limiting the time you spend on these siteswouldnt be a bad idea. And why wouldnt you? Every year it just seems to get worse. Maybe its the fact that study after study has suggested that social media platforms are not only addictive, but they contribute to depression, anxiety and insomnia. Or maybe its the recent revelation that Facebook executives allegedly knew but failed to do anything about the constant flow of fake news, misinformation and conspiracy theories that runs on their platform, which has resulted in radicalizing peopleand that radicalization, as we found out last January, doesnt stay onlinethrough algorithms that play to our cognitive biases. Or worse, that Facebook deliberately prioritizes inflammatory and divisive content because it knows that content will result in the highest levels of user engagement. Or maybe youve found yourself in a position where youve had an opinion on a current event youd like to share, but declined to do so because you dont feel like spending the entire day arguing with strangers? Or maybe youve grown leery of the expectation that every moment must be captured and uploaded into the digital record, as opposed to the practice of experiencing life in the moment. Or maybe youve realized that collecting virtual followers will never suffice for real-world connections, or that comparing other peoples lives or appearances or successes as a yardstick for your own is just downright depressing. Its time for us to come to grips. The great social media experiment has failed. It has made us hostile, self-loathing and deeply polarized. Its eroding society. Granted, social media can be a useful tool for networking, promoting your business and for staying connected with family and friends, and while social media isnt going away anytime soon (Facebook alone accounts for nearly a quarter of U.S. digital advertisers), recent strides to improve these digital havens have fallen short (A year after the Jan. 6 insurrection, 81 percent of 2020 election misinformation publishers in the U.S. continue to spread fake election claims, according to news rating site NewsGuard). We created a monster. My guess is that tech companies, in an effort to guarantee their survival, are going to begin investing their energy in new methods of consumer interaction. Its pretty obvious that short-form video content ala TikTok (as well as the copycat Reels feature on both Facebook and Instagram) is where the action will be in 2022. Meta, the newly-minted parent company of Facebook, is moving into the virtual reality realm. The leaders of social media sites seem hell-bent on getting out of the social media business. And who can blame them? Expect the social media landscape to look very different in the coming year. Its also almost certain that were entering a new era of social media regulations. Its probably not a surprise that the prospect of strengthening consumer data privacy protections and forcing these platforms to be more transparent are among the few issues that currently have bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. Of course, there are very real First Amendment issues to consider, but one proposal thats gaining traction is the idea of amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which currently provides social media platforms liability protection from the content that runs over their sites. Whatever happens, the architecture of social media will undoubtedly experience a change in 2022. Somethings gotta give. Elon Musk Tesla takes a spin in Xinjiang... Now that Tesla has gained scale, CEO Elon Musk needs to rethink his lamebrained idea that the electric car company doesnt need a PR department. Unlike Musks SpaceX and The Boring Company (tunnel construction for Hyperloop transportation), Tesla is a consumer-facing company, which means corporate image matters. The automotive iconoclast took his stick it to PR act way too far with news this week that Tesla has opened a Tesla showroom in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region of China. Xinjing is the site of a genocidal campaign against ethnic Muslim Uyghurs carried out by Chinas authoritarian ruler Xi Jinping. What was Elon thinking? Americans may think twice about buying a car from a guy whose company posts "Tesla (heart) Xinjiang" on the Chinese Weibo social media platform. Does Musk plan to use the Urumqi showroom to showcase electric vans to haul Muslims to re-education camps, or cars designed for Chinese security forces? The U.S Senate on Dec. 16 passed a bill barring imports from the Xinjiang region due to the Chinese abuse and mistreatment of religious minorities. President Biden signed the bill into law on Dec. 23. Human Rights Watch says Chinas cultural persecution and arbitrary detention of a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims since 2017 constitute crimes against humanity. Musk has already toadied up enough to Chinas leadership. Teslas Shanghai factory produced half of the companys 2021 output, according to a research report from Credit Suisse. Elon upped the ante in October with the opening of a R&D and data center in Shanghai, Teslas first outside of the US. That facility will store data locally to comply with Chinas 2017 cybersecurity law. Whats next for Tesla? Does Musk plan to open a news bureau in Hong Kong as a sign of approval for Beijings crackdown on the citys once freewheeling media and its crushing of dissent? The car company's dance with Chinas ruthless leadership is bound to bite Tesla some day. Shelter from the storm... Trash the idea that Gen Z is composed of activists ready to storm the barricades, because an Edelman survey has found that the 14 to 24 age bracket puts safety as its top concern. That covers practically every aspect of their lives: physical, emotional, financial and social. Edelmans The Power of Gen Z survey, conducted via a partnership with Smarty Pants youth research firm, found that seven in ten Gen Zers want safety and security in their lives. Gen Zs most trusted people are those that take care of others. E.g., doctors/therapists, scientists and teachers/professors. The least trusted: traditional celebrities, CEOs and government leaders. Jackie Cooper, Edelmans chief brand officer, christens Gen Zers as "The Generation of Sensibility. Rather than viewing Gen Zers as influencers, cancellers or activists, Cooper sees them as yearning to be safe and secure in a world rocked by COVID-19, climate change, social/political unrest and economic upheaval. Successful brands will step up their communications to mesh with Gen Z sentiments of caring, safety, community and authenticity. After all, Gen Zers are 2 billion strong with $360B in spending power. Oops, blame the new person... Thats what FleishmanHillard did in informing the Justice Dept. that it screwed up its Foreign Agent Registration Act filing on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. In conducting due diligence regarding its six-month supplemental statement, FH noted that it inadvertently failed to file copies of press releases and media outreach to editors and reporters on behalf of the UAE. This omission resulted from the addition of new personnel to the project after a period of inactivity, unintentional error, and insufficient communication between team members related to the requirements regarding informational material, the chastised Omnicom unit told the FARA unit. The Justice Dept. shouldnt fret over a repeat performance because FH team members have been reminded about the requirements, and will receive additional refresher training on FARA compliance. During the reporting period, the Justice Dept. may have missed out on FHs work for the UAE in areas such as food, security, climate change, the countrys space agency, entrepreneurship programs, Net Zero by 2050, and the Emirati Interplanetary Mission. BTW, Happy 50th Anniversary UAE. We hope FleishmanHillard sent a nice birthday card to president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Offaly Death Notices - Tuesday, January 4, 2022. May they rest in peace. Sr Theresa Pillion - Dublin / Ballinahown, Offaly Reposing at Jennings Funeral Home, Springdale Road, Raheny, on Thursday afternoon, January 6, from 2pm to 4pm, for family and friends. Removal on Friday morning, January 7, to Church of the Resurrection, Bayside, arriving for Funeral Mass at 10am followed by burial in Dardistown Cemetery. Sr Theresas Funeral Mass will be streamed live on Friday morning at 10am via the following link https://mcnmedia.tv/camera/bayside-parish-church Catriona (Cathy) Curley - Castle Court, Birr, Offaly Reposing at Boyds Funeral Home, Birr on Tuesday evening from 5pm-7pm. Removal to arrive at St. Brendans Church, Birr, on Wednesday morning at 10.45am for Funeral Mass at 11am. Burial afterwards in Clonoghill Cemetery, Birr. Cathys Funeral Mass will be live streamed on: https://www.facebook.com/stbrendans.birr Facebook page: Brendan Birr. House private. Family flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to the Irish Cancer Society. Thomas (Tommy) Dunican - Castletown, Fortal, Birr, Offaly Removal from his residence at 1.15 pm on Wednesday, January 5 to arrive at St. Brendans Church, Birr at 1.45 pm for Funeral Mass at 2 pm. Internment afterwards in Clonoghill Cemetery, Birr. Tommy's Funeral Mass will be live-streamed on: https://www.facebook.com/stbrendans.birr Friends and neighbours are welcome to stand along the route to the church and cemetery while following Social Distancing Rules. Please adhere to government guidelines regarding the wearing of face masks, social distancing, and handshaking at all times. House strictly private. Family flowers only please. Catherine Doyle (nee Conroy) - 30 Thornsberry Estate, Tullamore, Offaly Reposing at O'Reilly's Funeral Home, Harbour Street, Tullamore on Wednesday from 6.30pm until Rosary at 8pm. Removal on Thursday morning to the Church of the Assumption, Tullamore, arriving for 10am Requiem Mass. Burial after Mass in Clonminch Cemetery, Tullamore. If attending the Funeral please follow the covid guidelines, wear a face mask in the Funeral Home and Church and adhere to social distancing rules both inside and outside the Church. Funeral Mass can be viewed on https://www.mcnmedia.tv/camera/church-of-the-assumption-tullamore A PLANNING decision is due next week on a new pharma plant which could bring an extra 100 jobs to Tullamore. Zoetis applied for permission to build a second animal health drug manufacturing facility at Sragh in November and the company is hoping to get the green light next Friday, January 14. The project represents an investment of about 133m. The proposed 8,510sq m building is located on a site across the road from the existing Zoetis plant in the IDA business park. According to planning application documents, 100 people will work in the new facility and 70 in the current plant. Zoetis, a European healthcare giant, say the expansion will offer an end-to-end production and will include process development and production. The facility is expected to employ about 100 people when it is fully operational in 2024. It is estimated that up to 470 will work during the construction phase which will take between 18 and 20 months. When it is up and running, Zoetis anticipate that the staff profile in educational terms will consist of a significant proportion of third level graduates who have graduated from educational establishments throughout Ireland and abroad. The workforce will be made up of members of the local community, national and international graduates and European expatriates who have relocated back to Ireland. Zoetis already has a significant presence in Ireland and along with its Tullamore operations it has manufacturing sites in Tallaght, Dublin and Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, plus a commercial head office in Dublin. Zoetis acquired Nexvet and the Tullamore site in July 2017 and since that year expand its manufacturing capacity there, including a 1m investment in 2019. If the new facility gets the go-ahead, there will be a further spin-off for Tullamore because it is estimated that 91 associated jobs will be created in support services. A decision has been made on schools reopening in Ireland this week. Schools are expected to reopen as planned on Thursday, following advice from public health officials. It comes after health officials told the Government that there is no public health rationale to delay the reopening of schools. Some teachers unions have called for the Government to rethink its approach to the return of schools, given the increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant. The Department of Education, health officials, unions and school management bodies met on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the matter. Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan also met to discuss and review the Covid-19 situation, amid record case numbers in Ireland. The pandemic is also set to be discussed at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Department of Education described the meeting with the unions and health officials as productive. Education stakeholders were briefed by the minister and public health representatives on how the Covid-19 mitigation measures in place in schools have been reviewed by public health and will continue in place in the coming term, the spokesperson said. Public health remains of the view that these mitigation measures are effective and appropriate. Furthermore, public health officials advised that there is no public health rationale to delay the reopening of schools later this week. Schools will operate in line with their Covid-19 response plans, which set out a range of mitigation measures for schools, including hand hygiene, mask-wearing, and social distancing. However, given the very high and rising incidence of COVID-19 across all age groups in the community, it is inevitable that children will pick up this infection from household contacts in the days and weeks ahead. Dr Tony Holohan (@CMOIreland) January 4, 2022 Schools have also been provided with guidance on maintaining good ventilation. The spokesperson said parents and students would receive guidance telling them symptomatic students and household close contacts should not attend school. Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said the very high incidence of the disease in the community would lead to outbreaks in schools and childcare settings, but that they are a lower risk environment for transmission. He urged people to reduce their contacts, particularly in indoor settings. Dr Holohan said: We saw a significant reduction in incidence of Covid-19 in primary school-going children through December. However, given the very high and rising incidence of Covid-19 across all age groups in the community, it is inevitable that children will pick up this infection from household contacts in the days and weeks ahead. We also know, as a result, that there will be cases and outbreaks in schools and childcare settings. The Irish and international experience of the pandemic continues to give us reason to believe that schools are a lower risk environment for the transmission of Covid-19 and that the majority of children who are infected experience a mild form of this disease. The INTO and other education unions met Minister Foley and officials from the Department of Education and Public Health this afternoon. Read our statement here: https://t.co/5E97aYvZyq pic.twitter.com/J12Y8nygMk INTO (Irish National Teachers' Organisation) (@INTOnews) January 4, 2022 The INTO, the countrys largest teachers union, said it outlined at Tuesdays meeting its view that primary schools had been abandoned by public health in recent months, at a time of great unease and anxiety. It received commitments that designated public health staff would re-engage with the sector. The Government has also agreed to provide teachers with medical grade face masks, increase the number of student teachers available for substitution duties, and that it will engage with the NIAC to ensure all teachers receive their booster jabs as soon as possible. The TUI requested a further meeting with the department, which will take place on Wednesday, because Tuesdays engagement did not engage on the operational details needed for reopening. In this regard, the union had earlier insisted that schools must have flexibility on how they reopen based on their particular circumstances, a statement from the union said. The TUI also made clear that given the significant concern around the Omicron variant, the operation of schools must be kept under constant review. It was also confirmed that teachers will continue to follow the standard testing, tracing and isolating regime that applies to society generally. Earlier, the Childrens Ombudsman called on the Government to keep schools open, saying closures cannot be the default response to surging Covid-19 cases. Dr Niall Muldoon has urged leaders to explore all options and maintain their commitment to keeping schools open, warning that those most vulnerable are disproportionately affected. The secondary teachers union, the ASTI, had also called for a delayed and staggered reopening of schools. Dr Muldoon said: Closing schools and denying children access to in-person learning cannot be our default response. There is no doubt that the extremely high case numbers arising from the Omicron variant will be a challenge for everyone in the school community but, almost two years into the pandemic, we know the negative impact school closures have, not only on childrens learning, but on their social development. We also know that the most vulnerable children and those with special needs are disproportionately affected. Dr Muldoon backed the view of the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, Dr Conor OMahony, who earlier this week said closures are not a simple trade-off between education and health. The negative impacts are wider and deeper than missing a few weeks of classes, he added. He said the Government should ensure it has exhausted every safeguard and mitigation before turning to school closures. In a statement on Monday, the ASTI warned that reopening schools without introducing additional safety measures would be an unacceptable risk. The union has cited concerns around safety of school communities, staff shortages due to Covid, inadequate ventilation and a lack of Hepa air filtration devices and risks to immuno-compromised individuals. We will be asking the minister to consider making antigen tests available for all parents and their children to be used prior to going to school as a supplement to the existing testing and tracing regime in second-level schools, union president Eamon Dennehy said. The ASTI will also be calling for the speedy rollout of Hepa filtration units. It beggars belief that almost two years into this pandemic this basic facility is not in place where necessary. The ombudsman agreed that such measures should be taken, and said he had written to the Taoiseach before Christmas outlining his view that schools must remain open amid the threat of the Omicron variant. One Offaly county councillor has hit out at new minimum price alcohol laws which come into effect in Ireland today, January 4. The news laws have been billed as a move to make alcohol less accessible for people with an end to "pocket money prices" on most products. That was according to Junior Health Minister, Frankie Feighan, who commented on the introduction of the minimum unit pricing, adding, We are taking this action to ensure that cheap strong alcohol is not available to children and young people at pocket money prices and to help those who drink to harmful levels to reduce their intake. However, Offaly councillor Ken Smollen said: "This is not about public health. It's merely an excuse to raise more taxes and will have a detrimental effect on the many vulnerable families that have someone in their home with addiction problems. He continued: "Extra taxation doesn't provide a cure but it does push people further into poverty. The infamous sugar tax was just another lame excuse to tax those who could least afford it." From today, the minimum unit price of 10 cents per gram of alcohol is provided under the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018. The move has been welcomed by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, who said, Today Ireland joins a small number of countries in the world to introduce minimum pricing. This measure is designed to reduce serious illness and death from alcohol consumption and to reduce the pressure on our health services from alcohol-related conditions. It worked in Scotland and I look forward to it working here. The move is expected to impact more on alcohol sold in supermarkets and off licences, rather than pubs, restaurants and nightclubs. It will mean an average bottle of wine cannot be sold for under 7.40, while a can of beer will cost at least 1.70. Spirits will see the biggest jump in price, with vodka and gin set to cost a minimum of 20.70, while whiskey will rise to at least 22. Ireland has joined the likes of Scotland, Wales, the Russian Federation and parts of Australia and Canada introducing the move. Scotland was the first in Europe to introduce it in 2018, followed by Wales in 2020. Many motorists who frequently use the M7 motorway might not be aware that the new time-based speed detection cameras installed last year are still not functional. The camera system, which although not yet operational, has already had a major impact on speeding on the busy motorway and Gardai want the system to move into it's next phase of active service. The system, which is in place south of Nenagh between junctions 26 and 27, was installed in March 2021 and remains in the testing phase and facing delays. Chief Superintendent of the Tipperary Garda Division, Derek Smart, wants the system to go live as soon as possible and told a meeting of the Joint Policing Committee it's already yielding results. That system is still in the testing phase - but I have been speaking with our national officer of road policing with regard to getting that system into service, the Chief Super explained. A lot of people don't realise that what we have there at the moment between those two yellow concourses is still testing. That needs to come live as soon as possible, because at the start when that system went in it showed people were responding and slowing down on the particular stretch of road we were aiming to try and get people to slow down on - particularly when there is inclement weather, Chief Superintendent Smart said. The system is designed to detect motorists who break the speed limit but avoid getting caught by slowing down as they pass single-point speed cameras. Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Gardai jointly announced the system for part of the M7 in March 2021. The section of the M7 between junctions 26 and 27 is a known speeding blackspot according to the Garda and road authorities. TII said the delay in passing the testing phase is the need to calibrate and provide certification for the accuracy of the system. Because the camera system is not yet authorised the possibility of a legal challenge to any evidence they capture is open to challenge in court. TII said this week they expect the first prosecutions arising from the average speed detection system would begin to be seen in the first quarter of 2022. In 2020, there were a total of 357 speeding detection made in the vicinity of Junction 26 and Junction 27, which is a known speeding blackspot. TII said speeding on the motorway is very reckless, particularly during heavy rain or hail showers, which increase the potential of serious accidents. Junction 26 to 27 are in an area noted for sudden and severe showers of hail. TII said it had analysed speed data on the M7 corridor since 2017 and identified speeding as a significant issue with some 40 per cent of drivers exceeding the 120km/h speed limit on certain sections. The mastermind of one of South Floridas notorious moving company networks must pay a heavy price for his deceptions. Ohad Guzi has been ordered to pay $13 million after a federal judge found that he controlled a company that misled customers by using the name and trademark of a reputable international competitor on a website set up to generate sales leads. Advertisement King David Van Lines, which the judge determined was controlled by Guzi, conducted business under the name Northstar Movers and the Internet domain name northstarmovers.com. According to the Dec. 22 ruling by U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas, it did so to convince customers that it was actually NorthStar Moving Company, a California-based company that was founded in 1996 and has since expanded internationally. In a separate case in Broward County Circuit Court, the Florida Attorney Generals Office has asked a circuit judge to rule that Guzi controlled a network of separately named companies that lured in customers with deceptively worded websites and lowball estimates, then raised prices on job sites and mishandled or stole their goods. Advertisement In the trademark case, NorthStar accused the company of unauthorized use of its trademarks in its website domains, within websites themselves, and in online reviews. [ RELATED: Moving companies with no trucks or movers can break your bank account, your stuff and your heart. Heres how to avoid them ] Defendants use is intentional and willful, the original complaint states, adding that its part of a pattern and practice of capitalizing on the goodwill and reputation of others in the moving industry for their own commercial gain. NorthStar learned about the infringement when Guzis customers contacted them with complaints. Often, the victims were elderly or from vulnerable populations, a NorthStar attorney said in an interview. In the NorthStar case, court records show that Guzi represented himself in the December trial after five different attorneys withdrew or were terminated. [ Lee en espanol: Se ordena a empresa de mudanzas de Hollywood pagar $13 millones por enganar a los clientes ] Masquerading as a legitimate moving company with a solid reputation is a tactic used by some moving companies that advertise end-to-end services, take deposits based on lowball estimates, and in many cases fail to disclose that theyll be subcontracting jobs to third-party companies. The results have generated thousands of victim complaints on consumer review websites, law enforcement agencies and the Better Business Bureau. After customers hand over deposits totaling hundreds of dollars or more, moving day arrives and the company that shows up bears no resemblance to the ones pictured on the websites. After loading the customers belongings into their truck, a foreman typically announces that the customer on a tight schedule to begin a new job in a new city underestimated the volume of their belongings and demands more money to complete the move. Advertisement When their belongings fail to arrive when expected, customers often become frantic and start searching for information online. Thats when they find out many other consumers who dealt with the companies have leveled similar complaints. Eventually, after spending hours on the phone begging to know what happened to their belongings, another truck arrives with the final insult crushed boxes, broken heirlooms and missing valuables evidence that the belongings had been tossed into a storage unit and delivered only after the company found enough other jobs to make the cross-country trip worthwhile. Only a few companies whose names have been targets of infringement decide to spend the time and resources to hold the infringers responsible, said one of NorthStar Moving Companys attorneys, Deborah Gubernick, of Costa Mesa-based Snell & Wilmer, L.L.P. [ RELATED: Moving soon? Heres how to avoid losing everything you own ] Our client was so committed because they were fed up with consumers being ripped off, she said. Now a message has been sent: You cant hide behind a corporate entity or a shell company to engage in this practice. At some point, you have to answer for your wrongs. During the trial, Guzi argued that he was merely helping a friend, Itzhak Bokobza, who is listed as president of King David Van Lines. But NorthStars attorneys convinced the judge that Guzi was actually the moving, conscious force behind the infringement, said another of NorthStars attorneys, Joseph Bain of West Palm Beach-based Shutts & Bowen LLP. Bokobza, the attorneys discovered during the case, was a truck driver and operations manager for the moving side of Guzis business and didnt have the expertise to set up the companys websites and lead-generation software. Advertisement Guzi registered the domain name northstarmovers.com in 2008 and did not cancel it until February 2020, despite receiving cease-and-desist letters from NorthStar Moving Company in July 2018 and June 2019, the order states. Changing company names is another common tactic used by moving brokers to minimize damage to their reputations as complaints mount on consumer-oriented sites such as Google, Yelp and Better Business Bureau. The 2018 lawsuit by then-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi alleged that Guzi controlled an elaborate network of businesses using a long list of names, including All USA Van Lines Inc., Moving Group Inc, Moving Group System, United Moving & Relocation, Top Movers, Transworld Movers, Emoving Company, Affordable Movers, Cross Country Movers, 24/7 Moving, Long Distance Movers, Household Van Lines, Dispatch My Move, USA Movers-Interstate Movers and Nationwide Movers. In an affidavit filed in the case, Shawn Lux, senior financial investigator for the Attorney Generals Office, said the Attorney General received complaints from customers and their families alleging the Defendants, under various names, held themselves out as being professional movers staffed by well-trained employees who use the utmost care with shippers belongings and are scrupulous in preparing and following estimates. [ RELATED: Check out these resources before hiring a mover ] In reality, Lux said, Guzi and his companies regularly used unskilled, untrained laborers who often damage or steal property, and routinely provide deceptive, deliberately low estimates before extorting higher fees by holding shippers property hostage. That suit, filed in circuit court in Broward County, is ongoing, with a trial currently scheduled to begin on Jan. 13. The Attorney Generals Office is seeking repayment of ill-gotten gains and a permanent injunction barring Guzi and other officers of his companies from making false and/or misleading statements about moving services being offered or provided. Advertisement On Dec. 21, the office asked the court to issue a ruling establishing that Guzi controlled all of the companies that lists him as a corporate officer. During the litigation, Guzi argued that some of the companies listed as co-defendants were not his. In an Oct. 4 deposition for the Attorney Generals suit, Guzi said he did not broker moving services to third parties but was merely providing customer services between customers, brokers and moving companies. Pete Solnick, a North Palm Beach attorney who is representing Guzi in the Attorney Generals case, said the case does not have merit, adding, Mr. Guzi did not deceive any customers. According to the attorneys in the NorthStar suit, Guzi did own several trucks and King David Van Lines employed its own movers. The company generated $4.3 million in profit over 18 months providing moving services to customers lured by its infringing name and website, the attorneys said. [ RELATED: Warning signs you might be dealing with a fake mover ] It may well be that there were some [brokering] activities taking place [by King David Van Lines], but for this trial, we decided to focus on the work the company did under the King David name, Bain said. In his ruling, Dimitrouleas found that Guzi committed numerous counts of trademark infringement, cybersquatting and unfair competition using NorthStar Moving Companys trademarks and that NorthStar was entitled to recover three times the $4.3 million in profit generated by the illegal acts. Advertisement Guzi, the judge wrote, sought to avoid liability with self-serving denial and meritless positions, and Guzi was unreasonable in the manner in which he litigated and delayed resolution of this action. Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com. THE Biffochallenge launched on March 1 last year has been an outstanding success exceeding the original target of 24,000 by a massive 10,416. Organising committee member John Wallace stated that the Biffochallenge team were overwhelmed by the huge support from so many people in the locality and beyond who made contributions big and small thus ensuring that the original target was exceeded by such a large amount. With donations coming from as far away as Australia, Canada, USA, France, UK, and every county in Ireland it was truly humbling to see the support that made this fundraiser so successful. John, Tony, Delores and Trish wish to thank everyone who contributed to this enormous fundraiser. In particular the help and support of so many family members and friends was unbelievable. In October 2019 the team had originally committed to raise 20,000 for the newly formed Offaly Search and Recovery group. Following the accidental drowning of their brother Martin the Wallace family and Martins partner Trish decided to assist the Offaly Search and Recovery group to raise money to purchase a rib. Having endured the loss of a loved one through a water tragedy they decided to support this new charity. While they did not require the services of such a group, they felt very strong on the idea of been able to assist families who are less fortunate when a love one is lost through water-based tragedy. The family were delighted when Anthony and Cara from Guy and Kode agreed to take Offaly Search and Recovery on board as one of their charity partners for the Guy and Kode fashion show in 2019 (The Show). Setting up a small working group to assist the Guy and Kode team they were delighted when the show yielded in excess of 8,000. While planning a number of other fund-raising events the Covid 19 pandemic brought all ideas to a halt. In early 2021 the group decided to support another worthy local charity and raise 24,000, 12,000 to deliver on the original promise to Offaly Search and Recovery and 12,000 to the new charity partner. Having considered a number of local Offaly charities it was decided to choose Offaly Hospice. Taking on Offaly Hospice fitted with the group's ethos of supporting an Offaly charity that provided family support to families in time of great need. On March 1 2021 after losing a full year on the fundraising trail following a number of virtual meetings The Biffochallenge was born and launched. Supporting the two charity partners the Biffochallenge team could not believe how quickly the idea took off even with Covid restrictions in place. The number of challenges and the vast number of venues were unbelievable and the money started to roll in. When things slowed down a bit the team got back to the drawing board. This is when the Caman agus Puc challenge was launched and it was designed to bring the fundraising to a close. However the week before the Caman agus Puc Challenge was due to take place the original goal of 24,000 was achieved. Following a super day in St Brendans Park Birr on July 11 the Biffochallenge had exceeded its target by more than 10,000. The Biffochallenge team are overwhelmed at the response and support they received from family, friends, the many Offaly people from within the county and further afield and the people from many other counties with no Offaly connections. A special word of thanks goes to so many of Martin's friends who came on board to make the Biffochallenge such a success. John, Tony, Delores and Trish are delighted with the goals and achievements which were attained by the Biffochallenge. It is unbelievable how much good can come out of a tragedy which can rock a family to its core when a family member dies suddenly in tragic circumstance. The team are very proud of the many goals achieved in Martins memory some of which were not part of the original plan when the fundraising started in October 2019. The original target of 24,000 was far exceeded with the Offaly Search and Recovery group receiving in excess of 25,000 in total between the proceeds from the show run by Guy and Kode and the Biffochallenge. The Offaly Hospice home care team received 4,715. The Offaly Hospice building fund received 12,000. The overall total between all the fundraising was just over 42,000 wich was a huge success by any standards. The Offaly Search and Recovery team purchased the rib which will secure their operation well into the future as an efficient fast response unit. It will ensure that they will be in a position to keep their training updated along with the ability to respond to water-based tragedies in the quickest time possible. The Caman Agus Puc competition will become an annual fundraiser for The Offaly Search and Recovery team. The aim is that it will become part of the Offaly GAA calendar with club participation. The date set for the 2022 final is Sunday July 10. This will be a real bonus and provide an annual income which will become the corner stone in their annual financial requirements. The Biffochallenge team and the Wallace, Clear and Condron families are so proud that the memory of Martin Wallace lives on in such a vibrant manner in the form of the 200HP Zeppelin RIB which is named in his memory. This rib provides the very best form of safe water transport on the river or lake where ever it is required. This craft will help the Offaly Search and recovery team deliver a timely safe service in Offaly and surrounding counties for many years. The end is never the end it is just a new beginning and the John, Tony, Delores and Trish wish to thank everyone who helped make the Biffochallenge such a success which has helped many new beginnings along the way. John says the Biffochallenge team feel that they provide the opportunity for people to do something good, something with a challenge and something that was enjoyable during covid lockdown at times. They hope that people realise how much their contributions have made a difference in the Offaly area during such difficult times. TULLAMORE is clean to European norms but has dropped down the ranks in the latest Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey. In the last survey of 2021 Tullamore ranked 20th compared to coming home in fourth position in the previous year when it was deemed cleaner than European norms. The news will come as a blow to Tidy Towns volunteers and council staff who have worked hard throughout the past 12 months to maintain the town's standing in the national league. The judges in the An Taisce run league described the result as another strong showing by Tullamore. Their report identified top ranking sites including OConnor Square / associated car parking and Lloyd Town Park. Both of these were exceptionally well presented and maintained, they noted. The judges also observed William Street was a very freshly presented shopping street with all aspects of the area surveyed in very good order. But they noted that at the other end of the scale the Bring Centre was in a very poor state and subject to significant dumping. Meath Lane had a variety of miscellaneous items and is well on its way to becoming a blackspot if not addressed, the judges warned. The opportunity to separate waste is a very welcome addition to the town, as noted at both William Street and OConnor Square, the report stated. Neighbourinmg towns Athlone, Portlaoise and Mulilingar were also all deemed to be clean to European norms in the IBAL report. Nationwide the study found PPE litter was found to be at its highest level since the pandemic began, with an increase in the presence of both masks and gloves. It would appear that this litter is accumulating as the pandemic continues, as there remains an understandable reticence to pick up other peoples PPE, says IBALs Conor Horgan. The disposable blue face mask has become a ubiquitous part of the landscape up and down the country. People have not moved to reusable masks and people are not taking care of their masks. International research* has found PPE litter accounting for as much as 5% of all litter, and likely to have a devastating, lasting effect on the environment. Mask use is forecast to remain high into 2022. There was a significant rise in other pandemic-related litter, such as coffee cups, while alcohol-related litter remained at previous levels despite hospitality reopening and the survey being conducted in winter. IBAL has frequently criticised the failure of local authorities to clean up sites identified in its surveys as heavily littered, and this was again the case. Of 89 such sites highlighted in summer last year, only 33% had been addressed by the time of this most recent survey. 2021 was the 19th year of the IBAL Anti-Litter League. The weather in Ireland is set to take another turn in the coming days according to the latest weather forecast for Ireland from Met Eireann. According to Met Eireann, the weather is set to take an even more wintry turn with thunderstorms, hail, sleet, snow and freezing temperatures in latest Met Eireann forecast for Ireland. Met Eireann says that the weather will remain unsettled and generally cold with heavy showers later in the week, some of hail, sleet and possibly snow on higher levels with a risk of thunderstorms. The weather forecast for Tuesday for Ireland is for sunny spells in the afternoon with scattered showers of rain or hail over the northern half of the country and along the west coast. Largely dry elsewhere. Highest temperatures of 4 to 7 degrees with moderate northwest winds, stronger near Ulster coasts. Tonight will be cold and clear with a widespread frost and icy patches developing as temperatures fall to between 0 and -3 degrees. It will be dry with just the odd shower possible near northeastern coasts. Northwest breezes will fall light, becoming near calm in many areas. The weather forecast for Ireland for Wednesday from Met Eireann is for frost and icy patches to slowly clear through the morning. It will be a cold, dry day with plenty of sunshine. Highest temperatures of just 3 to 7 degrees, with a light westerly breeze or near calm conditions. Becoming windier early on Wednesday night with southerly winds increasing fresh to strong and gusty. Rain will spread from the west overnight to all areas, briefly falling as sleet on higher ground. Cold with frost forming early in the night over the eastern half of the country, in lows of -3 to +2 degrees. Becoming milder overnight with the rain. The weather forecast for Ireland for Thursday from Met Eireann is for a wet and windy to start, with rain clearing eastwards to widespread showers of rain, hail and sleet through the morning. Bright or sunny at times between showers. Showers will become increasingly heavy with a risk of thunderstorms. It will remain quite windy for the day with fresh to strong and gusty southwest winds, with onshore gales on Atlantic coasts. Highest afternoon temperatures of 5 to 8 degrees. Heavy or thundery showers will continue to feed in from the west on Thursday night in moderate to fresh westerly winds. Showers will be of rain, hail or sleet, possibly falling as snow over higher ground. Lowest temperatures of 0 to +4 degrees. According to Met Eireann, Friday will be another breezy and showery day with bright spells, and moderate to fresh westerly winds. Showers may fall as sleet in the morning. It will turn cloudier in the afternoon. Highest temperatures of 4 to 7 degrees. Turning windy overnight with a spell of rain moving in across the country from the Atlantic, with heavy falls in places. Southwest winds will increase fresh to strong, and it will become milder overnight. According to the latest forecast from Met Eireann, Saturday will be a breezy day with rain clearing eastwards in the morning to frequent showers, some heavy, interspersed with bright or sunny periods. Highest afternoon temperatures of 4 to 7 degrees. Met Eireann is forecasting that Sunday will be a somewhat calmer day with a spell of rain moving in from the southwest. Cold to start but it will become milder later in the day. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 716-372-3121 or email nfinnerty@oleantimesherald.com. Are you a current print subscriber? You qualify for online access to the Omak Chronicle. To receive your access, create a website account and then verify your print subscription or e-edition subscription with your subscriber number, which may be found on your bill or mailing label. Betty's White cause of death has been revealed, just a few days after she died at 99 years old. New York's attorney general has issued subpoenas to Donald Trump and his two eldest children in connection with a civil probe into the former president's business practices and family company. Novak Djokovic will compete at this year's Australian Open, after he received a medical exemption to travel to Melbourne despite his refusal to say whether he has been vaccinated. A flight made an emergency landing in France after a fire reportedly broke out on board after it left Manchester Airport. Yuzhou, with its population of 1.1 million, is shut down after just three cases are found. DNA 24 Jan 2022 As the number of Covid-19 cases in Delhi has dropped, many are speculating that the night and weekend curfew in the city will end.. The eldest children of former United States President Donald Trump, Ivanka and Trump Jr., refused to comply with subpoenas released by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The subpoenas were issued in relation to an investigation of the Trump Organization's real estate business. The Prince of Wales has warned the world is on the brink of environmental catastrophe, as he praised both his sons for their.. Belfast Telegraph 04 Jan 2022 Britains manufacturing sector grew at a faster pace than first thought in December amid signs the supply chain crisis may be finally easing, according to new figures. Brazils far-right president Jair Bolsonaro was rushed to the hospital at 3 a.m. on January 3, 2022 and is suffering from an intestinal blockage. #jairbolsonaro The Trumps moved late Monday to quash subpoenas from the New York attorney general's office to two of former U.S. President Donald Trump's children seeking their testimony as part of its civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization manipulated the values of its properties. CBS 2 New York 27 Feb 2020 A Queens teacher is facing charges after police say he sexually abused a 9-year-old girl with autism. CBS2's Kevin Rincon has more. Rumble 09 Jan 2022 Part I talked about why you should consider a go bag for your vehicle. Part II discusses go bag contents. Be prepared--unlike.. Lora and Chuck Ternosky, the longtime owners of Calypso Restaurant, the Caribbean haven for fresh Bahamian conch, peppery jerk wings, peel-and-eat shrimp and cutters, have sold their business after 32 years. (Mike Stocker / South Florida Sun Sentinel) The longtime owners of Calypso Restaurant, the Caribbean haven for fresh Bahamian conch, peppery jerk wings, peel-and-eat shrimp and cutters, have sold their business after 32 years. Chuck and Lora Ternosky tell the Sun Sentinel that theyve sold the neighborhood cafe and raw bar at 460 S. Cypress Road to the owners of South Florida-based Mad Hospitality Group. Ternosky says Mads two owners, Matt and Domenick, officially took over the restaurant Monday, but he declined to provide last names. Advertisement In an interview Tuesday, Ternosky, 62, says he had been plotting his retirement for years, but the lengthy pandemic, the soaring cost of ingredients and the ongoing scourge of staff shortages left him feeling serious burnout. It pretty overwhelming when you have to not only manage a restaurant, but also do dishes and clean bathrooms and get supplies that arent always available, Ternosky says. Thats a little too much for me. Advertisement The shrimp is seasoned with housemade Caribbean marinade before grilling at Calypso Restaurant & Raw Bar in Pompano Beach. (Mike Stocker / South Florida Sun Sentinel) COVID-19 has lately become the source of Ternoskys many grievances, including the topsy-turvy cost of jerk and curry chicken wings, a Calypso top-seller that has doubled in price per pound since the pandemic. After lockdowns, he also ran the restaurant as takeout-only for eight months with a skeleton crew, which exhausted him and stretched out his workdays. He has since replenished much of Calypsos staff, which undoubtedly made the restaurant more attractive to its new owners, he says. Calypso Restaurant in Pompano Beach as photographed on Tuesday, January 4, 2022. The owners of this longtime Caribbean haven, Chuck and Lori Ternosky, have sold the restaurant to new owners after 32 years. (Carline Jean / South Florida Sun Sentinel) What this business requires of you which is everything you have means that [my wife and I] didnt get to do normal things like shopping, being home for the plumber, the simple things in life, Ternosky says. And its just time to reap the rewards of our labor. Ternosky plans to stay semi-retired and run the grills on occasion, but he has sold Calypsos homemade recipes for salad dressings, coleslaw, tartar and cocktail sauces, desserts and seasonings to its owners as part of the deal. [ RELATED: South Florida restaurants: Now open, coming soon and closed | PHOTOS ] He says Calypsos current owners have no plans to change the menu, decor or staff. A self-taught cook from New Jersey, Ternosky and Lora moved to South Florida in 1985. He took a part-time job as a cook and dishwasher at the bygone Fitzwillys Pub and Raw Bar in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, and opened Calypso in 1990, naming it after the Afro-Caribbean syncopated music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago. The restaurant rapidly gained a following for its fresh conch, sourced from trips to the Bahamas, along with scallops, clams, oysters and other warm-water tropical fish brought from Costa Rica, Mexico and New England. Even his cutters island lingo for sandwiches are crusty Kaiser loaves baked daily at Publix across the street from Calypso. The restaurants stuffed dolphin, rice and pigeon peas, and stamp and go Jamaica-style salt cod fritters also attracted a following, as did Loras house-made desserts that included double coconut cream pie. Geelong, Australia: Aamir Qutub, an Indian Australian startup owner and angel investor and also the creator of Angel Next Door, a community platform that helped provide vulnerable people with groceries and other essentials during the COVID-19 pandemic has been honoured with a Young Alumni of the Year Award at the 2021 Deakin University Alumni Awards. Aamir graduated from Deakin's Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 2014, is the creator and co-founder Ottumwa, IA (52501) Today Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers this afternoon. High 59F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Rain. Low near 45F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible. BIG RAPIDS A convicted sex offender accepted a plea deal in court this week, which will include a minimum eight-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage girl. Keith Allen Eckert, of Big Rapids, appeared in court from the Mecosta County Jail on Monday for an arraignment hearing. The 48-year-old was initially charged with single counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct (relationship) and second-degree criminal sexual conduct (relationship). Through a plea agreement with the Mecosta County Prosecutors Office, Eckert pleaded no contest on the basis of civil liability to second-degree CSC as well as being a second-time habitual offender. In exchange, the remaining charge was dismissed. Also per the deal, Eckert would receive an eight-year, minimum, prison sentence, Prosecutor Amy C. Clapp told the court. Mecosta Countys 49th Circuit Judge Kimberly L. Booher reviewed portions of a Big Rapids police report pertaining to Eckerts arrest. At some point during 2020, in the city of Big Rapids, Eckert sexually assaulted a teenage girl who was between 13-15 years old Booher said while reading from the report. Booher accepted Eckerts no contest plea and set sentencing for Jan. 31. As part of the plea agreement, if the judge decides to not go along with the sentencing recommendation, Eckert can withdraw his plea. Eckert was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct (relationship) in 2012 in Mecosta County, according to court records. In that case, he was sentenced to nearly five years in prison, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. As of Monday, Eckert remains lodged in the Mecosta County Jail. MANISTEE COUNTY The Manistee County Community Foundation is currently accepting scholarship applications for the 2022-2023 academic year. The application deadline is March 1. Students can apply using an electronic Common Scholarship Application form via the foundations website at manisteefoundation.org. Scholarship awards will be announced in the spring of 2022, generally at high school award ceremonies. The Common Scholarship Application form enables applicants to be considered for all foundation scholarships for which they may be eligible. Some scholarships may have additional requirements. Interested applicants should review the List of Scholarship Funds page on the foundations website to learn more about eligibility criteria and application requirements, which vary by fund. Applicants must be a graduating senior at a Manistee County high school, a graduating senior at an early/middle college program who originated from a Manistee County high school or a homeschooled student who resides in Manistee County, with certain exceptions. Current college students who reside in Manistee County or graduated from a Manistee County high school may be eligible and should contact the foundation office prior to beginning an application. Manistee County Community Foundation staff and their family members are not eligible to apply. Advisory committee members involved in the scholarship selection process and their immediate family members are not eligible to receive a scholarship from that fund. In addition, donors and related parties are not eligible to receive a scholarship from funds which they established. Contact the foundation office for eligibility questions. Applicants will be asked to register with SmarterSelect, the foundations scholarship platform, before beginning their application. This process enables applicants to save their work along the way and complete the application in more than one session as needed. The following scholarship funds administered by the Manistee County Community Foundation seek applicants using the online Common Application form. Check the foundations website for updates to the list and to confirm application requirements, which vary by fund. Robert J. Carlon Scholarship Fund Disabled American Veterans Salt City Chapter #43 Scholarship Fund Culbert Family Scholarship Fund Cynthia Eble Memorial Scholarship Fund Dr. Robert E. Fitch and Beverly J. Fitch Memorial Scholarship Fund Gleason Memorial Scholarship Fund Karl & Irene Herrmann Family Scholarship Fund Howard L. and Patricia A. Hughes Memorial Scholarship Fund Kaleva Community and Finnish Heritage Scholarship Fund Minger Family Endowment Scholarship Fund Ogilvie Memorial Scholarship Fund Eva Seng Memorial Good Works Scholarship Fund Elroy & Carol Urbanus Scholarship Fund The Manistee Commitment Scholarship Program Fund, Doug Schlaff Memorial Scholarship Fund and CASMAN Academy Scholarship Fund are also administered by the Manistee County Community Foundation. All students who meet the eligibility criteria for those funds will be considered by the fund selection committees. "The community foundation is proud to play a part in the success of Manistee County students," reads a news release in part. "During 2021, the foundation committed approximately $200,000 in scholarship awards, including the second cohort of Manistee Commitment Scholarship awards." For more information about the Manistee County Community Foundations scholarship program, or for information about how to establish an endowed scholarship fund, visit manisteefoundation.org, email the foundation office at scholarships@manisteefoundation.org or dial 231-723-7269. The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Andrew Mullin. Monday, Dec. 27: 10:11 p.m. Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the area of Isabella Street and Currie Parkway. 9:11 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Coleman location to assist Michigan State Police on a threats complaint. Deputies stood by while MSP handled the investigation regarding the threats. 8:11 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Midland Township location reference a loud explosion heard in the area. The deputies checked the area, and the source of the explosion was not located. 7:12 p.m. A 38-year-old Sanford woman made a report at the Law Enforcement Center. She felt she was being stalked by an ex due to her phone displaying unusual behavior. There was zero evidence of her phone being hacked. 2:12 p.m. Officers responded to a two-vehicle crash on South Saginaw Road. 12:33 p.m. Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the area of Partridge Lane and Pinewood Drive. 11:57 a.m. Deputies contacted a 36-year-old Ingersoll Township male reference his vehicles registration plate being stolen. There are no known suspects, and the registration plate is valued at $5. 10:58 a.m. A deputy sustained an apparent minor injury at a city of Midland residence. 9:09 a.m. Officers responded to a two-vehicle crash in the area of West Wackerly and Siebert streets. 4:51 a.m. Deputies conducted a traffic stop at a Jerome Township location. The deputies contacted the 33-year-old female driver. Upon further investigation, it was discovered a 39-year-old male passenger had warrants for his arrest. The male was arrested on his warrants and the female was given a citation. A report is being sent to the Midland County Prosecutors Office for review. 4:18 a.m. Deputies responded to a Homer Township location reference a 67-year-old Homer Township male who reported his son, a 38-year-old Homer Township male, was intoxicated and injured in the roadway. The deputies spoke to the 38-year-old who stated he fell at his residence due to being intoxicated. The male was checked by EMS and taken to his residence. 1:13 a.m. A deputy conducted a traffic stop at a Jerome Township location. Upon further investigation, it was discovered the vehicle did not have insurance and the vehicle displayed an improper plate. The 32-year-old Jerome Township male who was driving the vehicle was issued a citation for improper plate and no insurance. A report was forwarded to the prosecutor's office for review. Sunday, Dec. 26 10:53 p.m. Deputies conducted a traffic stop at a Lee Township location. Deputies contacted the 42-year-old female driver. Upon further investigation, it was discovered the female did not have a valid driver's license. The female was issued a citation, and a report is being sent to the prosecutors office. 8:25 p.m. Officers responded to a case of domestic violence and obstruction of justice on Springfield Drive. 2:42 p.m. Officers responded to a two-vehicle crash in the area of Jerome and West Buttles streets. 1:11 p.m. Officers responded to a verbal domestic situation on Harper Lane. 1:08 p.m. A 48-year-old male reported his 26-year-old ex-girlfriend continues to show up at his residence unwanted. The complainant wished to have the female trespassed from the property. The female left prior to the deputies arrival. The complainant requested the incident be documented but did not wish to pursue charges. 5:42 a.m. Officers responded to a case of domestic violence in the area of North Saginaw Road. 3:36 a.m. Deputies were dispatched to a possible breaking and entering. Deputies contacted the caller, a 29-year-old Lee Township female. The female stated someone came into her house while she was sleeping. No signs of forced entry were observed, and no one was located in the area. 3:13 a.m. A deputy was dispatched to the area of a Lee Township residence reference four to five gunshots heard. The deputy checked the area. All was quiet and nothing unusual was located. 1:56 a.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Larkin Township residence reference a 42-year-old male reporting a possible assault at the neighbors house. Deputies spoke with a 23-year-old female who stated she was arguing with her 29-year-old sister. The parties were separated, and no physical assault occurred. Siewwy84/Getty Images/iStockphoto In an update to employees Monday, Starbucks announced that it will require its U.S. employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in compliance with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration mandated date of Feb. 9 for large employers or undergo weekly testing with the responsibility for acquiring their own OSHA-approved tests and submitting the results. Starbucks' approximately 220,000 U.S. employees must disclose their vaccination status by Jan. 10 according to a letter from Chief Operating Officer John Culver sent Dec. 27. The company strongly recommended its employees get vaccinated. The city of Key West has started work to restore the famous Southernmost Point buoy after vandals defaced the tourist attraction in the early hours of New Years Day by starting a fire. The flames charred the front of the giant concrete buoy, one of the most recognized and photographed places in the Keys, ruining the painted design thats done by hand. Advertisement This photo provided by The City of Key West, Fla., shows Southernmost Point buoy on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022 in Key West, Fla. (City of Key West via AP) (AP Photo) The city is working on a new paint job that marks the spot as 90 miles to Cuba, Southernmost Point, Continental U.S.A. The repairs will cost at least $5,000 in supplies and work hours, said City Manager Patti McLauchlin, because it needed more than fresh paint. Key West police on Monday said they have identified but have not found two suspects, whose mischief was captured on video by a webcam that is pointed at the buoy 24 hours a day. Police declined to release names or hometowns on Monday, said city spokeswoman Alyson Crean. Advertisement Go to Herald.com for the full report. [ RELATED: Vandals set fire to Key Wests most famous landmark, causing extensive damage ] Editors note: If you have an event you would like to have included, please email the information to Reporter Victoria Ritter, vritter@mdn.net. Wednesday, Jan. 5 An Evening Snowshoe is set for 5-6:30 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Come discover the beauty of a winter night! The group will look for signs of animals, study tree silhouettes and enjoy the winter sky. Bring a headlamp or flashlight. If snow conditions are unfavorable, we will hike instead. Pre-register for this free event and reserve snowshoes online or call 989-631-0830. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Thursday, Jan. 6 Story Hour is set for 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Come spend an hour learning about nature! The hour will include a story, crafts and other age-appropriate activities. Dress for the weather for this outdoor program. This event is free. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Comedy Night is set for 8 p.m. at Midland Center for the Arts' Little Theater. Join us for an evening of laughs from nationally touring comics with our monthly comedy nights! The night will bring Dave Dyer, featuring Kara Coraci. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 day of event. General admission seating. Saturday, Jan. 8 The Dad Joke Show is set for 7-8:30 p.m. at Creative 360. David King will be joined on stage by Stephen Fort, Andrew Fort, Todd Little, John McPeak, Paul Lutenske, Matt Schramm and more hilarious dads. Ever wonder about the origin story of the dad joke? The dads will fill you in on that as they share the best worst and best best jokes of the genre. Rated PG. Admission is $12 prepay, $15 at the door. Guests can bring their own beverage. KeyboardFest is set for 7 p.m. at Midland Center for the Arts' Auditorium. KeyboardFest is an annual piano festival sponsored by the Mid-Michigan Teachers Association. This concert is designed to develop ensemble skills for the more than 150 participating pianists. As many as 24 students will be on stage performing duets at the same time, under the direction of Conductor Jim Hohmeyer. Tickets are $6.50 for adults, $4 for students. Sunday, Jan. 9 Buds, Bark and Branches: Winter Tree ID is set for 10-11:30 a.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Identifying woody vegetation can be hard any time of the year, and its even harder without leaves. Join an Interpretive Naturalist to learn how to identify local trees and shrubs in winter. We will discuss how they survive the cold months and their roles in the ecosystem. This event is free. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Wednesday, Jan. 10 Nature Journaling is set for 6:30-8 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center, hosted by the Wild Ones Mid-Mitten Chapter. A journal is a wonderful way to interact with your world. But you don't have to love to write to journal! Alternative journaling is taking the essence of journaling and fitting it into your environment. This event will explore ways to capture experiences in nature in unique and fun ways. Creative 360 will provide the books and the tools - participants provide the experience and imagination! Presented by Laura Vosejpka scientist, artist, and executive director of Creative 360 in Midland. Free Intro to Improv is set for 7-7:30 p.m. at Creative 360. Guests can come take a peek into the world of improv. Join Ariel for this 30-minute introduction. Who knows, once you get a taste, you may never leave! Pre-register by Jan. 7. Tuesday, Jan. 11 Family Snowshoe Hike is set for 5-6:30 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Bring the whole family for an afternoon of exploration on snowshoes - no experience needed! The group will search high and low for signs of animals as they explore on and off trails. Please bring a sled to pull younger children. Pre-register for this free event and reserve snowshoes online or call 989-631-0830. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Thursday, Jan. 13 An Evening Snowshoe is set for 5-6:30 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Come discover the beauty of a winter night! The group will look for signs of animals, study tree silhouettes and enjoy the winter sky. Bring a headlamp or flashlight. If snow conditions are unfavorable, we will hike instead. Pre-register for this free event and reserve snowshoes online or call 989-631-0830. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Saturday, Jan. 15 A History Hike is set for 1-2:30 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Start the new year with a casual trail hike and explore the natural resources that brought people to the region. Join CNC staff as we look for evidence of how nature has influenced our history and guided the settlement of our area. This event is free. www.chippewanaturecenter.org The Grove Music Festival is presenting an evening of jazz by the John Hill Quintet at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15 at Meridian High School Auditorium, 3303 N. Meridian Road, Sanford. Tickets are available at the door for $10. Sunday, Jan. 16 Snowshoe Sampler is set for 2-4 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. It's time to play outside! Drop by any time to give CNCs snowshoes a try, do a winter scavenger hunt or warm up by a campfire. Meet at the Homestead Cabin and come enjoy a winter afternoon in the snow. If snow conditions are unfavorable, the event will be canceled (based on the discretion of CNC). This event is free. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Monday, Jan. 17 A Full Moon Stroll is set for 5:30-7 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Join an Interpretive Naturalist for a hike to enjoy this months full moon. Learn how the tradition of naming moons began and what makes each month special. Please wear dark colors and bring a flashlight. We may use snowshoes if conditions permit. Reserve snowshoes online or call 989-631-0830. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Thursday, Jan. 20 Story Hour is set for 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Come spend an hour learning about nature! The hour will include a story, crafts and other age-appropriate activities. Dress for the weather for this outdoor program. This event is free. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Stories by the Fire is set for 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Drop by the Homestead and enjoy an early winter evening relaxing by the campfire, listen to tales of how settlers and animals adapt to survive a cold winter. This event is free. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Friday, Jan. 21 Survival of the Fittest is set for 2-3:30 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Winter is tough for wildlife. From freezing temperatures to low food availability, see how wildlife adapts to survive the harsh conditions. Dress with weather in mind for this outdoor hike and activities. This is a free event. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Saturday, Jan. 22 Yoga Coffee Hour is set for 9:15-11 a.m. at Mi Element Grains & Grounds. Join Sarah Nelson for the special Saturday morning version of our Yoga Happy Hour event series. Participants can enjoy a 45-minute all-levels yoga practice, then stay afterward to enjoy a drink and some friendly conversation between 10-11 a.m. Tickets are $18 (drink included), or $12 for yoga only; the ticket price includes one coffee, tea, or beer (must be 21+ for beer option) to enjoy during the event or take a voucher to enjoy your drink at a later date. Participants can bring their own mat and any yoga props to support their practice; a limited number of mats will be available to borrow. Register at sarahnelsonyoga.com/classes Cardboard Sled Races are set for 1-4 p.m. at Midland City Forest. Hosted by the City of Midland. Pre-register online at www.cityofmidlandmi.gov/chill by Friday, Jan. 21. Registration will be allowed on the day of the event if space allows. Tuesday, Jan. 25 Adventures for Women: Snowshoe Hike is set for 5-6:30 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Enjoy an afternoon hike on snowshoes as we notice birds, animal tracks and other points of interest in the woods and fields. Beginner and experienced snowshoers are welcome. Pre-register for this free event and reserve snowshoes online or call 989-631-0830. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Wednesday, Jan. 26 Zehnder's Snowfest is set to begin at 8 a.m. in Frankenmuth. Professional snow and ice carvers from around the world will create dazzling sculptures. Visitors can observe exhibitions and competitions between artists and students. Snowfest will continue through Sunday, Jan. 30. For more information, visit zehnders.com. Thursday, Jan. 27 An Evening Snowshoe is set for 5-6:30 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Come discover the beauty of a winter night! The group will look for signs of animals, study tree silhouettes and enjoy the winter sky. Bring a headlamp or flashlight. If snow conditions are unfavorable, we will hike instead. Pre-register for this free event and reserve snowshoes online or call 989-631-0830. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Sound Community Music Series is set for 7-9 p.m. at Live Oak Coffeehouse. This live music series features classical and jazz musicians from the mid-Michigan area and will be held on the fourth Thursday each month at Live Oak Coffeehouse in Midland. Saturday, Jan. 29 Kids Day at the Midland Mall from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. hosted by Midland Recyclers. More than 60 companies participate in this annual event that provides kids and their families with hands-on activities, information and performances. Sunday, Jan. 30 Nature Book Club: Winter World is set for 1-3 p.m. Come for a book club chat and naturalist led hike! Januarys book is National Bestseller Winter World: the Ingenuity of Animal Survival by Bernd Heinrich. Register by Jan. 28 for this free event. www.chippewanaturecenter.org Monday, Jan. 31 An Evening Snowshoe is set for 5-6:30 p.m. at Chippewa Nature Center. Come discover the beauty of a winter night! The group will look for signs of animals, study tree silhouettes and enjoy the winter sky. Bring a headlamp or flashlight. If snow conditions are unfavorable, we will hike instead. Pre-register for this free event and reserve snowshoes online or call 989-631-0830. www.chippewanaturecenter.org To the editor: As more information emerges from the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, its now clear why some members of the GOP have gone to great lengths to sweep the inquiry under the rug. Records now show there was a well-organized plan to sabotage the results of the 2020 presidential election formulated weeks before Jan. 6 by Trumps White House and at least six Republican members of Congress. After instigating a false media campaign about the "stolen election" and failing with a number of baseless court cases, they resorted to subverting the electoral vote count in Congress. Former Vice President Mike Pence was pressured to reject the electoral votes from those states where they falsely claimed voting fraud or delay the electoral vote count long enough to throw the election outcome to the House of Representatives where each state gets one vote and Trump would be declared the winner. But unlike some of his less reputable GOP colleagues in Congress, Mike Pence had enough personal integrity to honor his oath to the Constitution and refused to participate in the plan. As one author put it, "We were one vice president away from a government coup." Regardless of your feelings about Pence, he did our democratic process a service that day despite the efforts of Trump and his band of conspirators to overturn an election that the Department of Justice, numerous judges, and state legislatures across the country have declared legitimate. Thank you, Mike Pence. You did more to "make America great again" that day than your former boss ever did. CRAIG SILVIS The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday will hear oral arguments in a case that will have significant ramifications for employers and employees: whether to stay the Occupational Safety and Health Administrations emergency temporary rule that employers require all employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing for the disease. The Supreme Court took the exceptional step of scheduling oral arguments on the motion to stay the OSHA rules a mere three weeks after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit put the issue back into play. That speed is extraordinary in any case, but almost as rare as airborne swine for a procedural motion of whether the high court should reinstate a stay on the OSHA rules. Here, the Supreme Courts unusual haste is driven by several unique factors. First, the case addresses the validity of the federal governments most controversial effort to address the COVID-19 pandemic. When OSHA published its Emergency Temporary Standard, or ETS, in November 2021, the agency noted COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on workers. To date, more than 800,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began in 2020, prompting OSHA to take action to implement this emergency temporary standard to contain the virus and protect people in the workplace against the grave danger of the coronavirus. The ETS mandated COVID-19 vaccinations or weekly testing for most employees of employers with 100 or more workers. But when OSHA published on Nov. 5, 2021, the response was immediate and divisive. The first legal challenge was filed within hours of OSHAs publication of the new rule. The ETS was challenged in multiple jurisdictions, racking up nearly three-dozen lawsuits across the country. In some of those lawsuits, the parties challenging ETS asked the courts to stay enforcement by OSHA. Second, the stay issue has generated numerous lengthy and conflicting decisions that address the merits of whether OSHA has the authority to issue the ETS. Historically, OSHA has had a hard time convincing courts that its exercise of emergency rulemaking is permissible. ETS has proven no exception. Despite the quick pace of the ETS cases, the path to the Supreme Court has been a saga. Within days of the rule being issued, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit noted "grave statutory and constitutional issues" in deciding to pause the ETS. The Fifth Circuit panel wrote an opinion explaining why OSHA was unlikely to prevail in the case. The decision and a concurring opinion totaled 22 pages. A few days after that, federal rules dealing with multi-circuit litigation required the cases be consolidated and heard by one court chosen by lottery. That turned out to be the Sixth Circuit, which represents Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, which was chosen on Nov. 16 to review the cases. So, the Sixth Circuit inherited not only a truckload of cases but also the Fifth Circuits stay ruling. Groups challenging the ETS apparently concluded they stood a better chance if the case was heard by the entire Sixth Circuit sitting en banc as a court of 16 judges. Most cases are decided by three-judge panels. So these groups petitioned the Sixth Circuit to do something very unusual: hear the case en banc before a typical three-judge panel had rendered a decision. This procedure is little used, with little meaning never. Nonetheless, eight Sixth Circuit judges wanted to take the case en banc. Alas, that was one vote short of a majority. But the order denying en banc review was accompanied by a 27-page opinion by Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton that was joined by seven of his colleagues. Sutton explained that OSHA was exceeding its statutory authority by, among other reasons, addressing risks outside of the occupational context. The Sixth Circuits opinions on denying en banc ran to 42 pages. Just two days later, a Sixth Circuit three-judge panel issued three more opinions resulting in a 2-1 decision to dissolve the Fifth Circuits stay ruling and let the OSHA ETS go into effect. Judge Jane B. Stranch wrote the ETS is an important step in curtailing the transmission of a deadly virus that hasbrought our healthcare system to its knees, forced businesses to shut down for months on end, and cost hundreds of thousands of workers their jobs. Another judge concurred, while Judge Joan Larson sharply dissented re-emphasizing that OSHA was exceeding its statutory authority. The opinions landed at 57 pages. After 121 pages of opinions on whether OSHA is likely to succeed in imposing the ETS, the U.S. Supreme Court could reasonably conclude it had heard all it needed to from the lower courts. Third, the ETS is time sensitive. OSHA published the standard during the height of the delta variant, but omicron is already causing record numbers of infections. OSHA set Jan. 10 as the deadline for employer compliance. But with the delays caused by the litigation, OSHA is exercising enforcement discretion with respect to the ETS deadlines. To provide employers with enough time to comply with the now-effective ETS, OSHA announced it will not issue citations for noncompliance with any ETS requirements before Jan. 10 and will not issue citations for noncompliance with the testing requirements before Feb. 9 so long as an employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court is hustling in part because the Jan. 10 deadline will affect a vast swathe of the American population and economy. So, when can we expect a ruling? Given the Supreme Courts haste and its decision to set oral argument on the motion for stay, its reasonable to think that the Court will issue its decision within a few weeks. And what will the Court decide? There are some hints from the decisions in the lower courts. Every Trump-appointed judge to consider the ETS concluded OSHA had overstepped its statutory or constitutional bounds. With three exceptions, the judges who addressed the stay in the courts of appeals split along party lines with judges who were appointed by Presidents Clinton and Obama voting directly or indirectly to dissolve the stay and most judges appointed by Presidents Bush, Bush and Trump voting directly or indirectly for the stay. The Supreme Court has three justices appointed by Democratic presidents and six by Republican presidents. Further, the jurisprudential philosophy of a majority of the justices on the court is closer to that of Chief Judge Sutton than to Judge Stranch. Finally, theres the fact the Supreme Court has taken the case at all. If a majority on the Court was inclined to uphold the ETS, then there was no reason to take the extreme measures of scheduling a special oral argument on a motion for stay. Matt Nelson chairs the Appellate and Supreme Court Practice at Warner Norcross + Judd LLP and DeAndre Harris concentrates his practice in labor and employment law. They can be reached at mnelson@wnj.com and dharris@wnj.com. Livingston, TN (38570) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 81F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Mainly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Paducah, KY (42003) Today Partly cloudy this morning. Increasing clouds with periods of showers this afternoon. High 81F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 68F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Palestine, TX (75801) Today Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. A stray thunderstorm is possible. High 86F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening. Thunderstorms likely late. Low 71F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%. This image released by Netflix shows Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as scientists Randall Mindy as Kate Dibiasky in a scene from "Don't Look Up." (Niko Tavernise/AP) There is a large comet headed toward Earth with a 99.7% probability that it will be a direct hit in six months. The scientists call it a planet killer. The president is happy to hear that it isnt 100% certain that it will hit the planet and wants the scientists to sit still and assess. The public is unconcerned and ignores the warning. The comet hits and the planet is destroyed. This is the story line in the new movie Dont Look Up. Advertisement Its a perfect name because if you dont look up or do anything about the impending disaster, it wont happen, right? The movie scientists warn everybody on national television and in the press. For a short period, it looks like our government will take steps to blow up the comet, but then a wealthy businessman points out all the valuable materials in the comet and at the last minute the rocket that would have blown up the comet is diverted. Its that money thing taking precedent over the survival of the planet. Pam McVety is a retired state scientist and climate activist. (Courtesy photo) Does this sound familiar? It should, because this is a satire about our failure to address the climate crisis. It is likely that the warming climate will make the Earth uninhabitable for humans and most other living creatures. Advertisement Scientists have been warning us for years. But, the money thing keeps us from acting, whether it is the fossil fuel industry largesse to politicians or the money to be made off fossil fuel stocks. We like it and keep supporting the industry. Climate fueled disasters are regularly in the press, from monster tornadoes in the Midwest to Dantes inferno in the West. Flooded streets, businesses and homes are an accepted new norm in Florida. If it is too hot, we turn up the AC, ignoring the danger it poses to outdoor workers. In the South, warm December temperatures and high humidity are accepted. A majority of Republican members of Congress still treat climate change like its a hoax and block every action to address it. Even President Joe Biden isnt taking all the steps needed to stop the crisis. World leaders met at COP26 in December and agreed that climate change is an existential threat. But they couldnt agree to transition off fossil fuels in time to keep the global temperature from rising to dangerous levels. Absurdly, the largest delegation to COP26 was the fossil fuel industry. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation in 2021 making it illegal for local governments to ban the use of fossil fuels in their communities. You would think that this would be enough to throw him out of office, but Floridians are ignoring even this destructive step. In the movie, a scientist screams on national TV, Are we not being clear? Were all 100% for sure gonna f------ die! The desperation felt by the cinema scientist is how scientists and climate activists feel about the worlds response to the climate crisis. The response of the movie president, portrayed by Meryl Streep, to the comet was a great parody of what our elected officials look like. Advertisement They look ridiculous, irresponsible and dangerous. They look like selfish fools who should be arrested and thrown in prison for endangering us all, or at least removed from office. The world we live in isnt a movie. Its real life. It is our reality. Our leaders, including DeSantis, are not dealing with reality. Our world is breaking down, and it is far faster than scientists predicted. At the end of the movie, the scientists participate in a last supper with their family as the planet is engulfed in a fire ball. But really, the actors dusted themselves off and returned to their dressing rooms. For us, there is no second chance, and our situation is not a movie. We are finished, unless we mobilize quickly and shoot our climate comet into a million pieces. Pam McVety is a retired state scientist and climate activist. The Invading Sea is the opinion arm of the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a collaborative of news organizations across the state focusing on the threats posed by the warming climate. Paris, TN (38242) Today Partly cloudy early followed by scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 84F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Low 67F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions The suspension of the Price and Stabilization Recovery Levy (PSRL) on petroleum products has been extended for an additional month after an approval by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday January 4. The suspension of the Price and Stabilization Recovery Levy [PSRL] would have ended on December 31, 2021 but for the extension. Mr Akufo-Addo in October last year granted approval to zero the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levies on petrol, diesel and LPG for two months. A statement issued by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) said the approval followed the advice of the NPA to the Minister of Energy to seek governments intervention to mitigate the impact of rising prices of petroleum products on the world market on consumers. Prices of crude oil and refined petroleum products, according to the NPA, had seen sharp increases on the world market due to a rise in demand of oil globally without a corresponding increase in supply, particularly from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies. Because pricing of petroleum products in Ghana is deregulated, changes in prices of petroleum products on the world market have a direct impact on prices at the pumps, the NPA further stated. The outlook of prices on the global market shows an upward trend and therefore there was the need to seek governments intervention to lower the levies to cushion consumers from feeling the full impact of these rising prices. The purpose of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL) is to stabilise prices for consumers and pay for the subsidies on Premix Fuel and Residual Fuel Oil (RFO). At this time it is important that the PSRL which is currently sixteen pesewas per liter (GHp16/Lt) on petrol, fourteen pesewas per litre (GHp14/Lt) on diesel, and fourteen pesewas per kilogram (GHp14/Kg) on LPG are zeroed to cushion consumers. The NPA will work with the Ministries of Energy and Finance to quicken the legislative processes to give immediate effect to this directive by the President. We are grateful to H.E. the President for granting the request to zero these levies to minimise the effect of rising prices of petroleum products on the world market on consumers in Ghana. The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) had on Monday Janury 3, 2022 predicted that prices of petrol and diesel were expected to surge by 3.7% and 2.5% respectively. In nominal terms, COPEC said, ex-pump prices of petrol and diesel are expected to increase by 24 pesewas and 17 pesewas respectively. The average surge for both products in nominal terms is 20 pesewas representing 3.1%. Some Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) could increase their prices less than the 20 pesewas increase due to competition, a statement issued by COPEC indicated on Monday January 3. It added Brent crude plunged by 10.7% to $73.45/barrel on the 26th November, 2021 and the OPEC Reference Basket (OPB) plunged by 6.9% to $76.09/barrel on the same date. The OPB further tumbled to $70.07/barrel on 2nd December, 2021. The plummeting crude oil prices was due to the new Omicron Variant new COVID-19 Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant which restricted mobility in some countries, and the expectation of gradual increment of oil production by Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). However, Brent crude futures settled up $1.56, or 2.1%, at $76.85 a barrel, the highest close since Nov. 26, and a gain of 4.5% on the week as at 23rd December, 2021. Additionally the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures ended up $1.03, or 1.4%, at $73.79 a barrel, to rise 4.1% on the week as at 23rd December, 2021. The surge in crude oil prices is due to Libyan supply disruptions cutting supply of about 300,000 b/d and the lower anxiety towards the new Omicron variant because of the perception that, the variant is containable than previously feared. In Ghana, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) indicated that the benchmark price for petrol/MT for setting ex-pump price of petrol in the 1st Window of January, 2022 is $707.95/MT. Again, the Benchmark price for diesel/MT for setting ex-pump price in the same widow is $641.38/MT. The NPA set the Ghana Cedi at Ghc6.4040 against a dollar. Source: 3news.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video This is shocking moment that a shop mannequin in Afghanistan is beheaded on the orders of the Taliban for offending the group's strict interpretation of Islam. A video shared on Twitter on Monday shows an unidentified man using a hack saw to remove the head of a mannequin as someone chants 'Allah Akbar' - which means 'God is Great' in Arabic. At least ten heads that have already been severed can be seen lying at his feet. Last week, shopkeepers in the western province of Herat were told to hack the heads off their mannequins after Islamist officials ruled the statues were 'idols'. Idolatry, or the worshipping of idols, is considered a grave sin in Islam which bans the worship of anyone or thing other than Allah - considered to be the only God. Read Full Story .... dailymail.co.uk >>> : Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Flanked by Broward Mayor Michael Udine, left, and Gov. Ron DeSantis, right, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo speaks at a news conference on Monday Jan. 3, 2022 at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. (Susan Stocker / South Florida Sun Sentinel) Gov. Gaslight and his quack surgeon general must think that Floridians are really stupid. Mondays performance at Fort Lauderdales Broward Health Medical Center was another attempt by Ron DeSantis and Joseph Ladapo to explain away COVID-19 reality. Expect many more as DeSantis continues to push the lie that hes been the nations best pandemic governor. Advertisement DeSantis and Ladapo laid low over the holidays as the numbers rose, offering no guidance to school districts or local health officials. Hiding out, however, works only for so long. COVID-19 cases are at record levels. Positive test rates in every Florida county but one are above 10%, double the accepted limit for containing virus spread. Advertisement Randy Schultz is a Sun Sentinel columnist. (Mike Slaughter / Sun Sentinel/South Florida Sun-Sentinel) Worse, COVID-19 hospitalizations are near levels not seen since September. For weeks last fall, the state with the self-proclaimed pandemic freedom fighter led the nation in COVID-19 death rates. DeSantis left people free to die. On Monday, a responsible governor and surgeon general would have urged Floridians to get vaccinated. They would have urged more vulnerable Floridians to wear double-layered masks. They might even have instituted a temporary state of emergency, given predictions that the omicron wave may peak in mid-January. DeSantis and Ladapo did none of those things. Instead, they continued to issue advice that Floridians who arent stupid or selfish should ignore. The governor demanded that the federal government send more monoclonal antibody treatments that dont work against the omicron variant. And he wants them soon. Regarding vaccines, DeSantis said they arent preventing infections. Thats another insult to peoples intelligence. From the start, health officials have said that COVID-19 vaccines are effective but not 100% effective. Those with breakthrough infections, however, are far less likely to require hospitalization. The vast majority of COVID-19 hospitalizations are unvaccinated patients. Ladapo did DeSantis one better in terms of dangerous guidance. Regarding vaccines, he told Floridians to ignore the surge. Its really time, Ladapo said, for people to be living, to make the decisions they want regarding vaccination, to enjoy the fact that many people have natural immunity. That claim is false. While contracting COVID-19 does provide short-term immunity, its not like catching the measles and generally getting lifelong protection. Advertisement Studies released between August and November of this year confirm that the risk of COVID-19 re-infection is much higher among the unvaccinated. In one Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, about one-third of COVID-19 patients had no natural immunity. Ladapo also dismissed the need for widespread testing. That wins him the Triple Crown of COVID-19 Quackery. He opposes vaccines, masks and testing. He also has touted unproven treatments. DeSantis defrauded the public by choosing Ladapo. The fraud continues. USA Today Network reported that Ladapo hasnt started teaching at the University of Florida, even though he makes $337,000 to be on the faculty. UF rushed through Ladapos appointment after DeSantis picked him. Republicans in Florida have enabled the governors COVID-19 recklessness. They prefer to perpetuate the myth of DeSantis success. Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a professor at the University of Florida College of Medicine, said what Ladapo should have said: Its better to prevent the disease than to treat it. Advertisement Prevention, however, is not a priority for DeSantis and Ladapo. Perhaps they want Florida to use the Swedish model. Lets hope not. To much praise from anti-maskers, Sweden last year broke with its Scandinavian neighbors and imposed almost no COVID-19 restrictions. Republicans in this country gushed. How did that work out? Very badly. Swedens COVID-19 death rate is 10 times higher than Denmarks and 15 times higher than those in Finland and Norway. And those economies fared almost as well as Swedens. DeSantis might note that Florida has recovered 87% of its pre-pandemic job losses. That ranks near the 10 highest. But Floridas COVID-19 death rate also is 10th highest. Using all the prevention measures DeSantis and Ladapo dismiss, Washington state with a Democratic governor has a death rate lower than all but six states. Meanwhile, Washington has regained 83% of the states jobs. Advertisement On Monday, Broward Countys largest health care provider where the governors former chief of staff is CEO allowed itself to be a prop for anti-science buffoonery. Why did Broward Health go along? Hey, were not stupid. Contact Randy Schultz at randy@bocamag.com. A devastating fire that swept through South Africa's Houses of Parliament in Cape Town has reignited - hours after it was said to be under control. Flames have been billowing from the building's roof. Firefighters are at the scene, trying to douse the blaze. The fire first broke out on Sunday, totally destroying the National Assembly, or lower chamber. Police have arrested a suspect who will appear in court on Tuesday on charges of arson, housebreaking and theft. Authorities had warned that flare-ups would be possible because of carpets and wooden floors in the building. "The void beneath the roof sheeting of the National Assembly is on fire," city officials said. On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa called the fire a "terrible and devastating event". He said the building's sprinkler system had not functioned properly and praised firefighters for responding to the fire in minutes. The parliament is not currently in session because of the holidays, and no one was injured. Government minister Patricia de Lille said Sunday's fire had led to the "complete burning down" of the National Assembly chamber. CCTV cameras were not being monitored at the time the fire started on Sunday, she said. Other areas of the parliamentary complex - parts of which date back to 1884 - were also badly damaged. Ms De Lille said it was still too hot for people to go inside the building to check the extent of the damage, but a drone was being used to "assess the structure of the building until the temperatures can cool down". The building is home to thousands of treasures including historic books, photographs and important works of art. There is particular concern that the valuable Keiskamma Tapestry, which is 120m (394ft) long and documents South Africa's history, may have been damaged or destroyed. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has expressed their disappointment with the government's directive to reverse the 50 percent benchmark value on imports effective Tuesday, January 4. The association has warned of an increase in prices of goods if the directive takes effect tomorrow. Benchmark value reduction The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) announced the directive in a statement today (January 3), noting the reversal of the reduction of values of imports on 43 selected items. The goods include rice, sugar, biscuits, pharmaceutical products, finished Aluminium products, toiletries, fruits juices, chocolate products, tomato paste, ceramic tiles, machinery equipment, home delivery value of vehicles, among others. Government in 2019 introduced the benchmark policy in accordance with the World Customs Organisations policy of regular review of valuation database. Under the policy, certain commodities were benchmarked to the prevailing world prices as a risk management tool to reflect the true market dynamics of these commodities. It also considered factors such as protection of health, the environment, and security as well as protection of local industries. GUTA reacts President of GUTA Dr. Joseph Obeng in an interview with Accra based Joynews noted that the directive would badly affect the livelihood of Ghanaians and urged the government to take a second look at its decision. "The prices of goods are going to double, because the benchmark value was the last straw that businesses were holding onto, particularly, in times of COVID," he said. The First Vice President of GUTA, Clement Boateng, also noted that he believes the policy has not been thought though, considering the country's current economic state. He warned that they would have no choice than to pass the cost of goods onto consumers, urging consumers to brace themselves. "Since the directive will take effect from tomorrow consumers should brace themselves for increase in prices," he said. He added that; "the reversal of the benchmark value is not right, and we think it is will have a negative impact on businesses. We all know that this reversal has come about as a result of lobbying of Association of Ghana Industries (AGI); but we think AGI does not have the capacity to produce the things that the benchmark value has taken off." "We think GUTA has an unfinished business with government, so we will still continue to engage the government and see what can be done,' he said. Consultations The Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association, Mr. Samson Asaki Awingobit, also reiterated that the decision by the government was not the right time due to the current economic hardships. "I strongly believe that it is not the right time. It it is known that the government is the largest employer, how many people have been employed and getting good pay between 2019 to 2021?," he questioned. He also noted that importers play a crucial role in the development of the country, therefore urged the government to have proper engagement with stakeholders to find the best way forward. "If our importers should in the second quarter decide not import goods, we will see where the country will go. We will have severe shortage of food as the country is not self-sufficient in most of the items imported into the country," he said. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The highly publicised prophecies by some men of God that have characterised the start of every New Year in recent times were largely missing as Ghanaians welcomed 2022. Many pastors noted for their prophecies on events and happenings within the year and whose words attracted media attention chose not to make their prophecies public, perhaps to avoid falling foul of the caution from the Ghana Police Service that any prophet or man of God whose utterances created fear and panic could face up to five years in prison. Police warning The leadership of the Police Service, ahead of the December 31 watch-night services, during which the so-called prophecies were made, had advised religious bodies and the media that as much as they had freedom of worship, they should not tamper with other peoples freedoms. We want to caution that under Ghanaian law, it is a crime for a person to publish or reproduce a statement, rumour or report which is likely to cause fear and alarm to the public or to disturb the public peace, where that person has no evidence to prove that the statement, rumour or report is true. It is also a crime for a person, by means of electronic communications service, to knowingly send a communication that is false or misleading and likely to prejudice the efficiency of life-saving service or endanger the safety of any person, the police had warned in a statement issued on Monday, December 27. Watch-night services In regard of the directive, the tradition of ushering in the New Year with watch-night services on December 31, 2021 went on alright, but with messages of hope and restoration emanating from the pulpits, instead of prophecies. The messages were similar, as preachers and speakers were confident that God would open the way for abundant blessings in 2022, after the country had survived a rather challenging 2021. Across pulpits from the Orthodox to Charismatic through to the Pentecostal churches, messages of hope, restoration, unity, hard work and reliance on God resonated, urging their congregations to count themselves blessed to have crossed over into the new year. Our reporters across the country who attended the services observed that with strict adherence to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) protocols, mainly face-mask wearing, social distancing, with some of the services taking place outside the auditoriums, and washing of hands on arrival, most people who attended the services, clad in all-white outfits, celebrated with enthusiasm and jubilation as they counted down to the end of 2021 and welcomed 2022. When it was a few minutes to end 2021, most congregations entered into a time of prayer, and on the stroke of midnight, 2022 was welcomed with shouts of joy. Vice-President hopeful From Kumasi, Emmanuel Baah reports that the Vice-President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, attended three services as he joined Christians to usher in the new year. Accompanied by his wife, Samira Bawumia, and some government officials, including the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu; the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah, and the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Samuel Pyne, the Vice-President joined worshippers at the Breman Methodist Church, the St Peter's Cathedral Basilica and the Church of Pentecost at Ayigya at different times as the congregations prepared to cross over into 2022. Dr. Bawumia was hopeful 2022 would bring better times for the country and stressed the need for Ghanaians to preserve the peace and unity the country enjoyed. In Ghana, we have what many others would long for: real peace, unity and religious tolerance. It is only in Ghana that a Muslim can join Christians to worship to usher in the new year, as I have done today. Let us not take that for granted, he said. He said Ghana continued to soldier on, in spite of its socio-economic challenges, heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic. "The world has suffered a lot because of the pandemic. It has brought about the worst depression in the economic circumstances of the world since the 1930s, he emphasised. That notwithstanding, Dr. Bawumia stressed that with the strong foundation laid by the Akufo-Addo-led government, he was optimistic that this year would be a successful one and appealed to all religious bodies to continue to pray to God to continue to grant the President the wisdom to transform the country. Religious tolerance The Vice-President urged all religious bodies to continue to co-exist peacefully, saying that was a key ingredient needed to build a prosperous nation. We are a country where different faiths co-exist very peacefully. The majority Christian population and the minority Muslim population all co-exist very peacefully, he said. In fact, the beliefs are not too far apart. We all know we all believe in God - the God of Abraham, the God of Moses. We all believe in Jesus Christ and love Jesus. We all believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. We all believe in the miracles performed by Jesus Christ," he added. He said Ghana was touted the second most peaceful country in Africa and most peaceful in West Africa, and urged the people to continue to practise peace in the coming years and help guard that enviable accolade. The Vice-President, who reminded the congregations of his youthful days when he was a member of the Boys Brigade (BB) of the Methodist Church, admitted that that helped to inculcate in him a sense of steadfastness and certainty. Sermon In his sermon, the Superintendent Minister in charge of the Breman Methodist Church, the Very Rev. Benjamin Ansong, told Ghanaians to be positive and do away with negative thoughts and pronouncements. He pointed out that a positive attitude and approach always yielded good results and urged the congregation and Ghanaians not to yield to negative talks of impossibilities but rather be encouraged by thoughts of possibilities. No way for LGBTQ+ At the St Peter's Cathedral Basilica, the Most Rev. Gabriel Justice Yaw Anokye, the Archbishop of the Kumasi Archdiocese of the Catholic Church, urged Ghanaians to resist any attempt to promote, propagate or legalise same-sex activities in the country. "We will resist this unGodly practice with our last blood, he said. However, he advised Ghanaians against putting the law into their own hands by molesting and attacking persons known to be in homosexual union, saying that such persons must be reported to the appropriate agencies. Aligning to God Also from Kumasi, Daniel Kenu reports that at the Royal House Chapel, the Area Head, Rev. Robert Agyemang Webura, urged Ghanaians to be steadfast, as 2022 held the key to transforming societies, communities and the country if the citizenry aligned themselves to God. "My prayer is that we will work together to defeat the coronavirus disease and be back here (auditorium) at the end of the year to thank God," he said. Prophetic word The General Overseer of the Calvary Charismatic Centre at Ayigya in Kumasi, Rev. Ransford Obeng, charged Ghanaians to enter the new year fully aware that God was with them and as such there was nothing they could not do, reports Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor. Rev Obeng said there was no prophetic word greater than one knowing that God was on ones side. Addressing the packed auditorium, with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols, Rev Obeng said when the year started with the pandemic still wreaking havoc, no one knew that we will get this far, but if God is with you, you don't need to be afraid. God has been good In Sunyani, while the Orthodox churches held their watch-night services on their various premises, some of the pentecostal churches held open mass services to welcome the New Year, report Emmanuel Adu-Gyamera & Biiya Mukusah Ali. There were huge attendances at the Ebenezer Congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), the Elim City Church, the Glory Congregation of the PCG and the Prevailers Chapel International (PCI). At the Glory Congregation of the PCG, the Catechist, Mr. J.B. Nyamekye, urged Ghanaians put their trust in God in 2022. Preaching on the theme: Ebenezer, thus far has God brought us, he said the Lord had been good to the country throughout 2021. At the PCI, the Founder, Apostle Patrick Amoateng, advised Christians to move away from wickedness, lies and all forms of bad behaviour unworthy to be mentioned among the people of God. Year of restoration Timothy Ngnenbe writes that the General Overseer of the Evangelical Church of Ghana (ECG), Rev. Maxwell K.K. Liwangol, said 2022 would be a year of restoration for the country, but that would require the citizenry to have positive mindsets at all levels of society. In particular, he said, it was important for Ghanaians to do away with the pull-him-down attitude at the workplace, as that tendency was counter-productive and anti-developmental. He urged people in positions of authority to recognise that they had been placed there by God to help the less-privileged in society. Rev. Liwangol also underscored the need for young people to invest properly in their lives to reap the desired fruits. Tema grateful to God At the Hope Congregation of the PCG at the Sakumono-Estates in the Tema West municipality in the Greater Accra Region, the watch-night service held outdoors attracted a large congregation, amid strict compliance with the COVID-19 safety protocols, reports Benjamin Xornam Glover. Preaching on the theme: Sound of abundance of rain, the Resident Minister, Rev. Daniel Amoako Nyarko, said in 2022, God was telling everyone that there would be abundance of rain, adding that we are not going to experience the suffering that people had in 2021 again, for God cares and He is always there for us. He encouraged the congregants to, in the new year, intensify their soul-winning efforts to bring more people into Gods kingdom. At the Corpus Christi Catholic Church, also at the Sakumono Estates, worshippers thanked God for ushering them into the New Year. Ho Borborbor From Ho, Jemima Achivors reports the New Year was heralded with appealing themes adopted by the various churches. One such theme: You will succeed, not by military might or your own strength but by my spirit, culled from Zachariah 4:6, was central in the sermon at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church at Gbi-Wegbe in the Hohoe municipality. The watch-night service, led by Rev. V.M. Komladzei, featured a non-stop Borborbor session. Pastor Ernest S. Atsabe of the Ho Housing branch of the International Central Gospel Church led an anointing and communion service with a message to empower worshippers for 2022. Joyful Cape Coast Shirley Asiedu-Addo reports from Cape Coast that joyous thanksgiving services welcomed the New Year. Preaching the sermon at the Christ Apostolic Church International, the Central-West Territorial Apostle, Apostle Emmanuel Osei Donkor, asked the congregants to be assured that God would be gracious towards them in 2022. He said many Christians lived worried lives because they did not fully trust in God. He admonished Christians to trust in God totally, knowing that the expectation of the righteous would not be cut off. Tamale praises and worship Mohammed Fugu reports from Tamale that Christians ushered in the new year with praises and worship at the various churches. Some residents also poured onto the principal streets of the metropolis, making merry and displaying wild riding skills on their motorbikes. Delivering a sermon on the theme: "Service to God" at the Kings Christian Ministry, the General Overseer of the church, Professor Bishop Albert Luguterah, urged Christians to contribute their quota to the development of the country by rendering services to God and humanity. At the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church of the Tamale Archdiocese, Rev. Dr. Peter Anglaaere called on Christians to demonstrate the love of God, irrespective of their religious, ethnic, political and social affiliations, for peaceful coexistence. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video There will be a flag-raising ceremony today January 4, 2022, at the UN Headquarters in New York to mark Ghana and four others taking their seat on the Security Council for a two-year term as non-permanent members. Ghana, Gabon, Brazil, United Arab Emirates and Albania were elected in June by the General Assembly to sit on the Security Council as non-permanent members with effect from January 1, 2022. It brings to three the number of African countries on the 15-member UN body, with Kenya already on the Council since January 2021. The East African countrys two-year term expires at the end of December his year In November 2022, Ghana is expected to preside over the Council. Ghana received the support of 185 out of 190 countries during the General Assembly vote, more than any of the five nations elected to the Council. According to the final tally, Gabon received 183 votes, Brazil 181, United Arab Emirates 179, and Albania 175. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Institutions responsible for fighting corruption must deal with corrupt people to sanitize the system, Most Reverend Dr Paul Kwabena Boafo, Presiding Bishop of The Methodist Church, Ghana, has said. He said financial irregularities and rot uncovered by the Auditor General annually should be a matter of concern for the country. He said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency. Most Rev. Dr Boafo noted that the financial irregularities kept occurring because the institutions were failing to punish persons implicated in the Auditor Generals Report. The institutions that should be dealing with corruption and to do the checks, for the Auditor General coming out with these figures, they know where all these leakages are." ...So the institutions to deal with the people should deal with them and make sure that it doesnt reoccur, he said. He urged the government to empower and resource anti-corruption institutions to effectively discharge their mandate and block the leakages in the system. A report released by the Auditor Generals Department in August last year indicated that Ghana lost over 12.8 billion due to infractions and other irregularities committed by statutory institutions in the year 2020. Some of the infractions include contract irregularities, tax irregularities, procurement irregularities, payroll irregularities, cash irregularities, and challenges retrieving loans from debtors among others. Outstanding debts and challenges in retrieving loans from debtors accounted for a chunk of the irregularities perpetrated by the statutory institutions, amounting to 10 billion, the report said. Cash irregularities accounted for over 1.8 billion and procurement irregularities, 848 million. During the period ending 31 December 2020, the total irregularities recorded was 135 per cent or GH7,387,774,195 rise from GH5,468,334,006 in 2019 total irregularities figure to GH12,856,172,626 in 2020. This was occasioned mainly by a surge of GH5,207,442,576 or 107 per cent in outstanding debtors/loans/recoverable component of the total irregularities for the period ending 31 December 2020, it said. The Office of the Special Prosecutor has assured that from January this year, it would commence the prosecution of some cases that were before it. Speaking to the media to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day in Accra last month, Mr Kissi Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor, said the Office was currently investigating 31 corruption-related cases. He said the Office would in due course commence prosecution of the cases it considered probatively strong. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. The Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Mr Kennedy Ohene Agyapong has spoken publicly about his health and explained he underwent brain surgery in the United States of America (USA), which cost US$283,000 to remove a tumor. In a radio interview with a local radio station in the Assin area of the Central Region, Mr Agyapong denied reports that he had a stroke. He said he slipped in the bathroom and knocked his head, the right side of his head. Some days later, he said he experienced a continuous headache for about five days and so he decided to go for a check-up. He said a CT-scan at Lancet at East Legon in Accra detected a tumor on the left side of his head, which the doctor said was not from the fall and that it had been there for some time. When the doctor recommended that it should be removed, Mr Agyapong said he travelled to the USA for further checks, which confirmed the tumor in the left side. He said the doctor in the USA was able to tell him how long it had been there and commended the doctors at Lancet for being able to detect it. He said the doctor in the USA also confirmed the size of the tumor, which had been detected by the doctor at Lancet to be almost the size of a computer mouse. He was advised to remove it before it becomes cancerous and so he went ahead to remove it. Mr Agyapong said that was the medical condition he recently underwent in the USA and disputed reports that he had a stroke. His interview at the radio station also touched on his philanthropic activities where he talked about the things he was donating to residents in his constituency for the Yuletide. Source: graphic.com.gh Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) tricked the Minority in Parliament in selecting the two deputy speakers of the House after the election of Mr Alban Bagbin as Speaker on January 7 2021. Speaking at the 40th-anniversary commemoration of the 31st December Revolution in Accra, the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said: The leadership of NPP came to Parliament and actually came to beg us to allow them to select a first deputy speaker and in the end, [a] word was sent from the Presidency that they are also begging, so, we agreed. Still, they persisted and virtually begged us that they do not want to disgrace Ghana. NDC does not want this country destroyed, so, we agreed". "Immediately, we agreed, the first statement that came from Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu after the swearing-in was that we begged them and that there was no election in Parliament to select a first deputy speaker. Those of you accusing NDC of not being interested in negotiations should listen carefully: As if that was not enough, immediately after the second deputy speaker was selected, he also addressed the press and declared his support for the NPP. "What does that mean?: That the NPP used trickery to select the two deputy speakers, Asiedu Nketia explained. Source: classfmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Popular movie star, John Dumelo, appears to have abandoned his dream of annexing the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency seat in the Greater Accra for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) after sustaining humiliating defeat in the last general elections. The actor cum farmer was said to have set his eyes high on a new constituency in what many assert it is impossible for him to wrest the Ayawaso West Wuogon seat. He has reportedly started taking steps for the people in the Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lipke and Lolobi (SALL) to have him at hearts and remember him when he might need them in the nearest future to do the needful. The EC is yet to create a constituency for the SALL people. John Dumelo celebrated some of the festive season with the people there with his foundation dishing out goodies to the constituents. Furtherance to that it appears to have found a new home there as he celebrated the new year with them after he crossed over to 2022 at the St Michaels Catholic Church Lolobi and then in Likpe Bakua. Prior to that, John Dumelo joined some of the youth of Likpe Kukrantumi and Santrokofi for a health walk as well as fund raising for a community center project in Santrokofi. John Dumelo failed in his bid to win the Ayawaso West Wuogon parliamentary seat for the opposition National Democratic Congress in the 2020 polls. The incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for the constituency, Lydia Seyram Alhassan, retained the seat after the close of polls. Certified results from the Electoral Commission (EC) gave Alhassan 39,851 votes as against Dumelos 37,778 votes. Alhassan won the parliamentary seat back in 2019 in a by-election following the death of her husband Emmanuel Boakye Agyarko, who was the MP at that time. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A Tax Expert with Oxfam Ghana, Dr Alex Ampaabeng, has noted that Ghanas youth unemployment cannot be solved by the introduction of the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme which initiated by the government. Although he recognizes the importance of initiative he said there is the need for a more sustainable way of creating employment for the youth. Speaking in an interview on 3FM Tuesday January 4, he said Any economy where the government is the biggest employer, then the economy is in shambles. Government cannot, so the earlier we empower the private sector [the better]. Every successive government will be saying, private sector is the engine of growth, I think this phrase, we have overused it. What practical steps have we used to create that enabling environment for the private sector to thrive? Are loans coming? Are government funding opportunities there? Are the real drivers which will make somebody an entrepreneur and employ one or two or three people available? I think it is time for us to have a more sustainable way of creating employment for the youth. NABCO was a stop gap but I really dont think Ghanas employment can be solved with NADCO. NABCO was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, 1st May, 2018. Mr Akufo-Addo while launching the programme was confident that by the time NABCO trainees exited scheme the requisite work readiness skills and experience, often deemed a barrier to their employment as fresh graduates, would have been resolved. According to President Akufo-Addo, NABCO will be the vehicle to deliver one hundred thousand (100,000) jobs in seven (7) prioritised areas, defined as the following modules: Educate Ghana; Heal Ghana; Feed Ghana; Revenue Ghana; Digitise Ghana; Enterprise Ghana; and Civic Ghana. Explaining the rationale for the establishment of the Corps, President Akufo-Addo noted that the grim story of youth unemployment had been a tragic part of the lives of Ghanaians for far too long in Ghana. The situation he said was worsened by the ban placed on public sector employment by the International Monetary Fund at the time. I gave an indication that a new employment scheme will be launched to tackle the issue of the growing numbers of graduates exiting our tertiary institutions with no job placements in sight, he said. NABCOs central focus, the President said, was create employment avenues and opportunities for young people who hold diplomas or degrees from accredited tertiary institutions, adding that NABCO will enhance the dignity and self-esteem of our graduates, and will also present them with the added benefit of efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of some essential public services. Source: 3news.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video MBABANE The Municipal Council of Mbabane is unwavering on its stance to demolish the alleged illegal structure constructed by businessman Bongani Delisa Dlamini. Operation Support Services Unit (OSSU) officers, from the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS),are said to have been roped in. This will not be the first time that OSSU assists the council as in 2020, a skirmish that lasted for about three hours between police and angry Mangwaneni residents saw one of the residents being hit by a rubber bullet in the head, allegedly by the police. The injured resident was identified as Sanele Sukati and as a result he was admitted to the Mbabane Government Hospital where the bullet was removed. Mob This comes after an attempt to serve a final demolition order to Dlamini by the council on Friday morning failed as Top Two security officers who were acting on the councils behalf were attacked by a mob while on the job. Their vehicle was also set alight. Two people have been arrested in connection with the incident, Felix Mabuza (33) and Xolani Pelito Khayane (27). They have been charged with possession of an illegal firearm and 10 live rounds of ammunition. The due appeared before Magistrate Xolile Nxumalo. Public Information Officer at the Mbabane Municipal Council Lucky Tsabedze said they would be demolishing the structure as per the notice that was served to Dlamini. He said the demolition would be effected soon. Meanwhile, one of the officers at the council stated that he reported the businessman after he pointed a gun at him during the demolitions of the same structure in 2020. The officer stated that his hope was that the police would repossess the businessmans firearm but to date nothing had been done about it. In an interview with the businessman on what his position was regarding the councils position to carry out the demolition, he said he had no comment on the matter. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer47 Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that a case was opened by the officer against the businessman. Vilakati said on the recent incident involving Top Two Security officers, they were still conducting investigations. When questioned on the issue of roping in OSSU, Vilakati said for now she was not sure on whether they would be engaged and would have to find out about it. Support local journalism Local news, sports and entertainment when you want it. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the best local news, sports and entertainment coverage. Thank you for reading the Philadelphia Tribune. You have exhausted your free article views for this month. Please press the "subscribe" button below and see our introductory price of $0.10 per week for 10 weeks. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you next month. SITEKI Police officers yesterday morning shot two men allegedly in retaliation to their aggressiveness and preventing them from leaving a homestead with a female and two bags of dagga. The police officers were looking for some members of a mob who torched a Toyota Van valued at over E65 000, which was transporting 26 goats at KaShoba area last Wednesday, after suspecting that the goats had been stolen. The shot men are Thabiso Ndzimandze (26) and Thulani Bhengu (30). Thabiso was shot twice in his left leg and Thulani was shot in his left knee. They are both currently admitted to the Good Shepherd Catholic Hospital (GSCH) where they are receiving treatment. Homestead Yesterday, at around 10am at KaMkhweli area under Mpolonjeni Inkhundla, police officers under the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at the Siteki Police Station stormed a Bhengu homestead after getting a tip-off that one of the suspects linked in the torching of the van resided there. However, it was alleged that they found a female with a toddler in one of the houses during their search for the family member. It was established that the family member, who cannot be named, escaped after seeing the police van entering through the homesteads gate. They combed the entire homestead and were confronted by two bags of dagga in one of the houses and they then arrested the female, who is currently in custody. The age of the female could not be ascertained. Bonginkosi Bhengu, a relative, said information he got was that the two shot men were away during the impromptu visit by the police officers. Return Bonginkosi alleged that upon their return (the two men), they found the police van on their homesteads premises and enquired what was happening. However, at that instance, the police were already leaving the premises, walking towards a parked van with the woman and the two bags of dagga. When they saw the police with the dagga bags and the woman, they enquired what was happening and they were told that they were looking for one of their siblings whom they did not find. They informed the duo that in their search, they found the woman and the two bags of dagga hence an arrest was made, he alleged. Bonginkosi claimed that a fight then ensued as Thabiso and Thulani wanted the police to leave the two bags behind because they had come for one of their own who was allegedly linked to the crime of the torched van. However, the police did not hear any of that and continued to their van. It was at this moment that a fight ensued as one of them attempted to grab the bags of dagga from the officer and told the police to leave the woman behind and arrest him instead. As the heated argument continued, another officer opened fire and the two were shot in the process, Bonginkosi claimed. Thulani corroborated the claims made by Bonginkosi. I told them that they should leave the dagga because they didnt find the person they were looking for but they responded by opening fire and shot Thabiso twice on his leg. While I was still frightened about the gunshots, the police officer then shot me, he alleged. Also interviewed about the ordeal, Thabiso shared the same chain of events, mentioning that they were not even armed to be shot in the manner the police officers did. The person they were looking for had escaped and they then searched the house and found the dagga. Our gripe was why they took it because they came for our sibling not the dagga. We were both unarmed but they shot at us, he claimed. Confirmed Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the matter. Vilakati said police officers were looking for someone linked to the torching of a van at the homestead, resulting in the law enforcers finding two bags of dagga which were confiscated and a woman was taken into custody. Two men prevented the police officers from leaving the homestead and fought them by pelting stones at them as well as closing the gate, threatening to set their car on fire. The police responded by shooting to ensure that they left the homestead and two sustained gunshot wounds on their legs, she said. Meanwhile, last week Wednesday, the Toyota Van valued at over E65 000 which was transporting 26 goats was torched by a mob of 20 men from KaShoba area after suspecting that the goats had been stolen. Jobe Ngcamphalala, the car owner from Ncandvweni area under Lubulini Inkhundla, said he spent E19 200 when buying the goats from different homes situated at the KaShoba area. He said he also lost E5 700 cash stashed in a bag together with his tablet and a phone valued at over E3 400. Ngcamphalala, who is a truck driver at the Ubombo Sugar Company, said he also lost documents like passport, public driving permit, blue book of the torched car and his work garments. Hartmann Leads Super MILLION$; Koon in Contention January 04, 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor The first Super MILLION$ final table of 2022 is upon us with nine superstars returning to GGPoker from 6:00 p.m. GMT on January 4 to fight it out for the $485,234 top prize. Pascal Hartmann is the man to catch when play resumes, but the chasing pack is brimming with talent, not least GGPoker ambassador, Jason Koon. Super MILLIONS Season 2 Episode 25 Final Table Place Player Country Chips Big Blinds 1 Pascal Hartmann Austria 6,658,477 111 2 Christian Rudolph Austria 4,674,857 77.9 3 Jakob "lechayim" Miegel Austria 3,137,336 52.3 4 spaise411 Russia 3,003,659 50.1 5 Jason Koon Canada 1,801,637 30 6 Markku Koplimaa Estonia 1,474,441 24.6 7 Roland "Gwriden" Rokita Austria 1,252,461 20.9 8 Mark Radoja Canada 1,131,606 18.9 9 Samuel Vousden Finland 865,526 14.4 Watch This Star-Studded Final Table Unfold Who will win this week's Super MILLION$? Watch the final table action here! Head to GGPoker's Awesome YouTube channel Hartmann won this event almost exactly a year ago, and took home $454,908. He now has the chance to win an even larger sum. Hartmann won his $10,300 seat via a $1,500 satellite, which means he is guaranteed a massive return on his investment. The last time Hartmann reached the Super MILLON$ final table he finished fourth. Sitting down with 6,658,477 chips (111 big blinds) suggests Hartmann will go deeper this time around. Christian Rudolph has reached what is his sixth Super MILLION$ final table, and is searching for that elusive victory. Rudolph has won most titles poker has to offer, and you can bet your bottom dollar he will be going all out to take this event down. Rudolph returns second in chips with a 4,674,857 (77.9 big blind) stack. Jakob Miegel Third-place at the restart with 3,137,336 (52.3 big blinds) is Jakob "lechayim" Miegel. The Austrian has turned his $800 satellite entry into at least $60,654, which is a healthy return, especially as this is the first time Miegel has cashed in this event in eight attempts. Miegel has more than $2.3 million in GGPoker winnings, will he have another $485,234 by the time the curtain comes down at this final table. Super MILLIONS Season 2 Episode 25 Final Table Payouts 1st - $485,234 2nd - $374,167 3rd - $288,522 4th - $222,481 5th - $171,556 6th - $132,288 7th - $102,008 8th - $78,659 9th - $60,654 Russian grinder "spaise411" is another player who won their Super MILLION$ seat via an $800 buy-in satellite. That $800 is now worth 3,033,659 chips (50.1 big blinds). Season 2 has not been kind to spaide411, who has entered 12 Super MILLION$ tournaments but only banked $27,478. The Russian now has the perfect opportunity to get into the green. Jason Koon He may sit down at the final table in fifth place courtesy of his 1,801,637 chips (30 big blinds) but there will be many eyes on GGPoker ambassador Jason Koon. The man who recently won his first WSOP bracelet rarely puts a foot wrong whenever he plays. This is Koons fourth Super MILLION$ final table, with a fourth-place finish in July 2020 being the deepest he has gone. Finnish pro Markku Koplimaa finished fifth in this tournament on November 28, 2021, and walked awa with $122,994. He needs sixth-place or better tonight to beat that prize. Sitting down with 1,474,441 chips (24.6 big blinds) makes Koplimaa one of the shorter stacks, but he is essentially freerolling having won his way into this weeks tournament for only $1,500. Roland "Gwriden" Rokita has 1,252,461 chips (20.9 big blinds) in his arsenal at what is his first Super MILLION$ final table appearance. Some 17 GGPoker players are hoping for some Rokita success because he sold 80% of himself at 1.01 markup via the inbuilt staking software. Mark Radoja Two-time WSOP bracelet winner, Mark Radoja, is the second-shortest stack going into the final table courtesy of a 1,131,606 stack (18.9 big blinds). Radjoa has plenty of work ahead of him if he is to secure his first Super MILLION$ title, but he is more than capable of turning things around. Radoja has more than $5.7 million in GGPoker winnings, you do not reach that sum without doing something right. Finnish star Samuel Vousden is the man brining up the rear when play resumes. He has 865,526 chips (14.4 big blinds) at his disposal, so requires a double up sooner rather than later. This is definitely the case if he wants to at least match his runner-up finish from August 2021. Airlines canceled several flights at Charleston International on Jan. 3 as COVID-19 cases surged and an East Coast storm system wreaked havoc on post-holiday travel plans. The airport's website showed 10 arrivals and eight departures were nixed as of mid-morning on the first full work day of the new year. Among arrival cancellations were: American Airlines from Chicago O'Hare and Washington Reagan National Breeze Airways from Richmond Delta Air Lines from Boston and New York LaGuardia Southwest Airlines from Baltimore and Denver United Airlines from Newark and Denver Among departure cancellations were: American to Chicago O'Hare Delta to Boston and New York LaGuardia Southwest to Baltimore and Dallas United to Newark, Washington Dulles and Denver The airport's flight schedule also shows JetBlue Airways has grounded an arrival and a departure between Charleston and New York's JFK Airport on Jan. 4. A wind-whipped cold front with wintry weather swept eastward Jan. 3 and forced some carriers to abandon flights while national news outlets reported a spike in coronvirus cases from the rapidly spreading omicron variant affected airline staffing levels as the pandemic enters its third year. "I'm sure some of the flights were affected (Monday) morning by the high winds here," said Charleston airport spokesman Spencer Pryor. The National Weather Services Charleston office reported wind speeds of 62 mph around 5 a.m. Jan. 3, according to its Twitter account. Pryor also said the airport does not keep records of the number of canceled flights over the long holiday period that began before Christmas, but he noticed a reported uptick in cancellations during the New Year's holiday travel period just as people began to return home for work or school. "System-wide, we have seen an increase in flight delays and cancellations," the airport tweeted on New Year's Eve. More than 1,900 U.S. flights and more than 3,300 worldwide were grounded as of early Jan. 3, according to tracking service FlightAware. That follows Sunday's cancellations of more than 2,600 U.S. flights, and more than 4,400 worldwide. And on New Year's Day there were more than 2,700 U.S. flights canceled and more than 4,700 around the globe. Charleston airport officials urged travelers to check with their carriers for the latest flight information before leaving for the airport. Get the SC business stories that matter. Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free. COLUMBIA Coronavirus cases are climbing in the Columbia areas largest school districts as students return from winter break and the highly contagious Omicron variant drives cases up across South Carolina. Despite shifting to online learning Jan. 3 due to a winter storm, Lexington-Richland District Five reported 252 new student cases and 391 quarantined students as of Jan. 4. Among the district's staff there are 75 new cases and 17 quarantines. Those totals are the highest new case numbers the district has reported in the 2021-22 school year. Richland County School District Two, one of the states largest districts with over 27,000 students, reported 181 active COVID-19 cases among students and staff on Jan. 3. That is more than four times what the district saw on Dec. 17, the last day before break, and similar to the spike in September at the beginning of the school year. Richland Twos COVID-19 numbers dropped on Jan. 4 to 135 active cases among students and staff. The district reported 94 positives among students and 41 positives among employees, up from only four just before the break. Richland Two and Richland County School District One have maintained their mask mandates despite the S.C. Supreme Courts refusal in September to block the Legislatures ban on school mask mandates. Instead, the districts have found a legal loophole by using city and county staff rather than school staff to enforce their mandates. Richland One saw 93 active cases among students on Jan. 3, more than four times the number the district reported on Dec. 17, but only one active case among staff. Richland One and Two both reported more than 100 students in quarantine, yet those numbers were lower than what the districts had before winter break. The spike in cases among Richland One and Richland Two schools comes as Richland County sees the second-highest number of new cases, 595, among S.C. counties, according to Jan. 4 totals from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Nearly 10,700 cases were reported statewide on Jan. 1, the highest single-day total of the pandemic. None of Lexington Countys five public school districts have a mask mandate after Lexington County School District Twos board let the districts mandate expire following Oct. 31. Lexington Two Superintendent Nicolas Wade asked the district's school board to give him the authority to reinstate the mandate when necessary in anticipation of a spike following the winter break. None of the board's members supported his request. Lexington District One and Lexington-Richland District Five have not required masks during the 2021-22 school year. Lexington One reported 180 active COVID-19 cases among students on Jan. 3 triple the 60 active cases announced on Dec. 16 and 360 students excluded from the classroom. Among Columbia area districts that had reported case numbers as of Jan. 4, Lexington One had the highest number of positives among staff, with 102 active cases and 58 staff members required to work from home. Lexington Two reported triple the student cases 73 active positive cases and 125 in quarantine on Jan. 4 compared to the last full day before winter break. Because the district announces staff cases and quarantines on a weekly basis, numbers for this week are not yet available. COLUMBIA The principal of Lexington's White Knoll High School will retire at the end of this school year after four decades as an educator. Edward Daughtrey has served as White Knoll High School's principal since 2016, the final position of his 42 years in education. White Knoll is the 14th largest school in South Carolina with 2,165 students. Ted is a dedicated, caring leader with an incredible career in education," Lexington School District One Superintendent Greg Little said in a statement on Jan. 4. "Ted was the first principal I hired when I came to this district, so we've grown here together. I will always appreciate him. Daughtrey has worked as a principal for 24 years, previously in Norfolk Public Schools in Norfolk, Va. He started in that district as a teacher in 1978 and left in 1980 to work as a field representative for Atlantic Nuclear Services in Virginia. He later returned to Norfolk Public Schools in 1982 and worked as a teacher, dean of students and assistant principal. He was principal of Granby High School in Norfolk from 1998 to 2016, when Lexington One hired him to lead White Knoll. During his time at White Knoll, Daughtrey was nominated as S.C. Secondary Principal of the Year, Lexington One said in a statement. Norfolk Public Schools awarded him its Most Outstanding in Leadership and Vision Inspiration Award in 2001. Few details have been released about former Charleston County School District Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait's departure in the five days since the school board accepted her resignation. Her departure happened so suddenly that one of Charleston County's board members, Cindy Bohn Coats, wasn't able to attend either of the two meetings during which it was discussed. In an interview with The Post and Courier she said that she still doesn't know the reason for Postlewait's resignation. Kristen French, another member of the board, declined to speak about the reasoning behind Postlewait's resignation, saying it was confidential information. "Anytime that a superintendent and the board have a situation where one of the parties wants to end the contract, it is very complicated and it is very private," she said. The remaining board members, Eric Mack, Kate Darby, Courtney Waters, Joyce Green, Erica Cokley, Helen Frazier and Lauren Herterich, did not respond to multiple calls or emails requesting information about Postlewait's departure. The school board first discussed Postlewait's resignation during a closed-door meeting on Dec. 16 out of the public's view. Board members were only given a couple day's notice that the meeting was happening. They made no decisions on Postlewait's departure at the time, but called a second meeting on Dec. 29. Board members only got one day's notice before the meeting was held. During the Dec. 29 meeting the school board voted 6-1 to accept Postlewait's resignation after a 1-hour closed-door session. French said the board understands public concerns but that the process of an employee leaving the district has to remain confidential. "The public needs to understand that because it involves an employee, there are a lot of restrictions about what can be made transparent," she said. Postlewait's departure has led to confusion among community members and education leaders in Charleston, many of whom feel that the public deserves more information about why the superintendent left. Postlewait, who has been in the role since 2015, received an overall "good" rating on her Sept. 13 evaluation from the board. Seven board members supported this rating. French was the only one who voted against it. French said she couldn't speak to any issues the rest of the board had with Postlewait's performance, but said that she herself has been frustrated with the lack of progress the district has made on addressing the achievement gaps between White and minority students. Sign up for our Education Lab newsletter. Email Sign Up! A number of initiatives started during Postlewait's seven-year tenure aimed to address those gaps, including the district's mission-critical actions plan, the Achieve Charleston initiative, the district's Cultural Competency Team and the new Reimagine Schools initiative, which the board will vote on at its Jan. 17 meeting. All of those programs aimed to close gaps by implementing extended-learning time, providing more resources in classrooms and partnering with nonprofits like Meeting Street Schools and the Coastal Community Foundation. Some programs like the district's mission critical program were introduced shortly before the pandemic. "We haven't seen a fruition of that, we haven't seen much difference in the performance of the students," French said. Results from the 2020-21 Measures of Academic Progress tests showed only 36 percent of Hispanic and 32 percent of Black students meet national averages, while over 80 percent of their White classmates achieve the same. Black education leaders in the community have been frustrated with the lack of progress over the years and hope the district's next superintendent will put more emphasis on closing those gaps. "You're talking about a superintendent that had seven years in the district and the achievement gap has not closed," said Kevin Hollinshead, a former CCSD board member and education advocate. "The only thing they can hold their hats on is closing down African American schools and shifting African Americans around, which doesn't solve the achievement gap." Hollinshead and Chris Collins, another former school board member, both said the board and school district should work toward better transparency, as the superintendent's departure caused concerns. "From the way that it unfolded, it's obvious that there have been some discussions about it in the past that have been building up to this," Collins said. "It didn't come overnight. That's clear." Postlewait isn't the first South Carolina superintendent to leave her position in the middle of the past few school years. Christina Melton, who was the superintendent for Lexington Richland School District Five near Columbia, was forced to resign during a board meeting on June 14. In Dorchester District 4, Kelvin Wymbs resigned from his position on Oct. 8. Postlewait's last day was Jan. 2, but she'll continue to work with the district until June 30 in some capacity. What that role will be remains to be seen. Don Kennedy, the district's chief financial officer, stepped in as interim superintendent on Jan. 3. The former superintendent did not respond to requests for comment. In a three paragraph statement the district sent out the night her resignation was announced, she didn't provide a reason for why she was leaving. She gave her best wishes to the board, school district and students for continued success. GEORGETOWN Chairman Jim Dumm resigned Jan. 3 from the Georgetown County School Board after 27 years. Dumm cited personal and family health considerations for his sudden departure, which comes several months after he was accused of embezzlement at a boy's home he ran for 50 years. Dumm has not been charged. Reached by phone Jan. 3, Dumm said he was busy and then hung up. Alan Walters, executive director of safety and risk management for the Georgetown County School District, said the health of Dumms wife has been a recent concern. This was going to be the last year of his term anyhow, Walters said of Dumm. A special election will be held to finish the final months of Dumms current term that ends in November. Board Vice Chair Arthur Lance will serve as chairman. In a statement, the Georgetown County School District said it was "grateful to Mr. Dumm for his outstanding record of service and wishes him the best in his future endeavors. Dumm retired in 2020 as the executive director of the now-closed Tara Hall Home for Boys after 50 years. An August incident report filed by Tara Hall accused Dumm of embezzlement and noted that the Georgetown County Sheriffs Office had spoken with the FBI. The FBI acknowledged an investigation involving the homes finances but declined further comment. No charges have been filed. Before a September school board meeting, Dumm said that his computer was hacked before what he called a financial scam was found at the boys home. Dumm said at the time that he did not intentionally break any laws. Tara Hall shut down because of COVID outbreaks, and the states child services agency was shying from placing homeless boys into group homes after a policy change, the home's former board chairman has said. In December, a credit card company sued Dumm over $14,900 in unpaid bills, according to online court records. Tommy Howard contributed from Georgetown. GEORGETOWN Carol Jayroe and three Republican men made history Monday as she was sworn in as mayor and the men as members of Georgetown City Council on Jan. 3. Jayroe is the first woman to be mayor in the history of Georgetown. Along with her, Jonathan Angner, Jimmy Morris and Jim Clements mark the first time that Republicans have a majority on the seven-member City Council. The three men were sworn in to office first, individually, with their families standing with them. Following Jayroes oath of office as mayor, she delivered brief remarks to a crowd of around 100 people. They were gathered in front of the Georgetown Police Department on Highmarket Street. This is a historic swearing in. And I am so proud to be Georgetown's first woman mayor, Jayroe said in brief remarks. But I'm even more proud to be a part of this team that is so ready to work for this entire city to lead us forward to a positive future. Just as George Bush said he believed that there should be no child left behind, we believe that there should be no neighborhood left behind. And there will be no neighborhood left behind in the City of Georgetown. We invite you. We invite you and we encourage you. We encourage every citizen to get involved and know that we are working for you, Jayroe said. And we will bring our city back to a thriving and financially sound city. The decisions of this council will be made thoughtfully and openly. And we look forward to the next four years as we all work together. God bless you and God bless the City of Georgetown. Eileen Sullivan Johnson stood with Jayroe and her family as the new mayor took her oath of office. Johnson held two photos during the brief ceremony. She told the Georgetown Times afterwards that I brought Daddy with me. He was the first Republican elected, in 1962, to the City Council. One photo was from the Sept. 27, 1962, issue of the Georgetown Times, showing former President Dwight Eisenhower congratulating Sullivan. The two men shook hands at a meeting in Columbia the previous Saturday. The other picture was a group photo that included the late Sen. Strom Thurmond and both of her parents. She laughed and said her momma would be upset if I left her out for the Monday swearing-in ceremony. And I thought, Well, Daddy, they finally made it. Johnson showed Jayroe the two photos, as well. Unbelievable! Jayroe said. She chuckled and was pleased with being a part of history after 60 years. Eisenhower had served as Allied commander during World War II and was president for two terms in the 1950s. Thurmond was a former Democratic governor of South Carolina and U.S. Senator until 1964. He switched to the Republican Party that year. Jayroe will preside as mayor over the Jan. 20 meeting of City Council. The newest season of the popular television show "The Bachelor" features a Clemson University graduate looking for love and, for a brief moment, a Greenville native who got cold feet. Sarah Hamrick, a 23-year-old Spartanburg native who lives in New York City and works as a wealth-management adviser, made the first cut Jan. 3 during the premiere of the popular, long-running network reality show. The South Carolina representation on the show had started with two contestants but was quickly winnowed to one when 26-year-old Salley Carson, who in her introduction said she was from Greenville, removed herself from contention citing a recent engagement that turned sour. The elimination-style reality show that airs on ABC and has drawn tens of millions of viewers since its premiere 20 years ago tells the story of a bachelor and 31 women who compete for his attention. The reward of receiving a rose allows them to advance to the next episode. The women who don't receive a rose by the end of the show are sent home. In the premiere episode, Carson and Hamrick were the first two women to meet this season's selected bachelor, Clayton Echard. However, Carson's meeting didn't follow typical form. Carson's biography for the show lists her title as "previously engaged," though the description goes on to say that she works as a spine surgery robot operator and currently lives in Charlottesville, Va. Before the show's standard meet-and-greet, Carson went to Echard's door and revealed that she had originally been set to marry the day before and that she hadn't moved on emotionally from a broken engagement. During the exchange, Echard offered her a rose to continue, but Carson told him "I don't know if my heart is ready" and declined the offer. Hamrick, the next to meet Echard during the formal introduction ceremony, opened with a reference to the two sharing a common tiger college mascot she as a Clemson alum and he from the University of Missouri. Hamrick put a tiger trinket in his hand in an effort to make a memorable first impression. In 2015, Hamrick made local news for her for winning Miss Teen South Carolina, one of multiple pageant wins at a young age. In 2019, she graduated magna cum laude from Clemson with a business marketing degree. By the end of the first episode, Hamrick was one of 22 women who advanced to the next episode on Jan. 10. South Carolina passed a stunning milestone Jan. 4 that few forecast when the COVID-19 pandemic started two years ago: More than 1 million coronavirus cases have been reported across the state over 22 months. Obviously, some South Carolinians have come down with COVID more than once. And tens of thousands of residents very likely caught the virus but were never officially diagnosed. Others may have been out-of-state visitors who tested positive on vacation, then returned home. The numbers aren't perfect. Even so, they suggest that roughly one in five of South Carolina's nearly 5.2 million people has been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the beginning of 2020. "Reaching this sad milestone on the same day that we enter the third calendar year of the pandemic is a stark reminder that COVID-19 is not behind us and should energize us further to take the actions needed to stop the spread of this virus," Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC's public health director, said in a statement. In total, more than 800,388 confirmed cases and 210,883 probable cases have been logged in South Carolina since March 2020, with more than 10,000 cases reported on each of the first two days of 2022. DHEC released its first batch of 2022 data on Jan. 4 after the holiday weekend. Nearly 10,700 cases were reported on Jan. 1 the highest single-day total ever. More than one-quarter of all people currently being tested in South Carolina for COVID-19 are testing positive. Hospitalizations and COVID-related deaths typically lag behind waves of reported cases, but so far this surge of the pandemic dominated by the omicron variant does not appear to be straining the states hospital system as badly as the delta wave did in the summer and fall. At the Medical University of South Carolina, patients recently hospitalized with COVID are generally less ill than those who contracted the delta variant of the disease, said Dr. Danielle Scheurer, MUSCs chief quality officer. The average length of stay for COVID patients has also shortened, she said. Were still pretty early in this surge, but this is consistent with what they found in the UK and South Africa, so we think its going to be the same story here, Scheurer said. MUSC and other hospitals in South Carolina are urging patients who need to be tested for COVID to seek out a free testing site instead of showing up to an emergency room. MUSCs resources are particularly strained right now, Scheurer said, because so many employees are calling out sick after having tested positive for COVID themselves. Were just really concerned about our workforce, she said, citing the ongoing nursing shortage. We were already as with all health care facilities we already have struggled with keeping team members engaged, employed and at work. And this is just another challenge. DHEC medical consultant Dr. Jonathan Knoche said 28 of the state's hospitals roughly half of all hospitals in South Carolina are reporting that they expect to experience staffing shortages over the next week. And he doesn't anticipate the omicron surge will wind down anytime soon. "The numbers are going up pretty significantly across the country and South Carolina is no exception," he said. "We havent had numbers this high since I can remember since the beginning of the pandemic." Hospitals don't appear to be strained now in terms of bed space, he said, but that could change. He acknowledged that a smaller percentage of patients who contract COVID will likely need to be hospitalized during this surge, but the sheer number of them may still overwhelm hospitals. "A small percentage of a large number is a still a large number," he said, citing new DHEC statistics showing that COVID patients admitted to an intensive care unit and COVID patients who have required ventilation have jumped by about 50 percent in South Carolina in the past week. "I think were in for more cases in the coming weeks," he said. "I think its going to be difficult for everybody." And to make matters worse, flu activity is starting to pick up across the state. "That's sort of a perfect storm," Knoche said. "It's just not ideal for a health care system." Statewide numbers New cases reported: 6,974 confirmed, 3,655 probable (Jan. 1); 7,985 confirmed, 2,558 probable (Jan. 2); 6,600 confirmed, 1,731 probable (Jan. 3); 4,568 confirmed, 923 probable (Jan. 4). Total cases in S.C.: 800,388 confirmed, 210,883 probable. Percent positive: 27.9 percent. New deaths reported: Five confirmed, zero probable (Jan. 1); 26 confirmed, three probable (Jan. 2); two confirmed, zero probable (Jan. 3); two confirmed, zero probable (Jan. 4). Total deaths in S.C.: 12,689 confirmed, 1,985 probable. Percent of ICU beds filled: 77.18 percent. S.C. residents vaccinated In South Carolina, 60.6 percent of people who are eligible for the vaccine have received at least one dose, and 52 percent have completed their vaccinations, according to data from Jan. 4. This number reflects newly eligible residents in South Carolina, including young children. The latest data from DHEC shows 12.9 percent of children ages 5-11 have at least one vaccine dose. Hardest-hit areas According to the Jan. 4 data, Greenville County (705), Richland County (595) and York County (455) saw the highest totals of newly confirmed cases. What about tri-county? DHEC reported on Jan. 4 that Charleston County had 351 new cases, while Berkeley had 119 and Dorchester 99. Deaths DHEC releases county-level data regarding COVID-19 deaths and the ages of those who have died from the virus on Tuesdays. According to the latest data released Jan. 4, at least 47 people in South Carolina died from the virus Dec. 26-Jan. 1, and their ages ranged from middle aged (35-64) to elderly (65 and older). Greenville County recorded eight COVID deaths that week the highest number of any county in the state. Hospitalizations Of the 1,354 COVID-19 patients hospitalized according to the data published Jan. 4, 265 were in the ICU and 125 were using ventilators. What do experts say? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released updated guidance on Jan. 4 regarding who is eligible to receive a COVID-19 booster. Anyone who received the Pfizer vaccine at least five months ago may now get a booster dose, the federal agency recommends. The previous guidance recommended boosters for Pfizer recipients six months out from their last shot. Recommendations haven't changed for those who received the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson shots. Patients who received the Moderna series should get a booster dose six months after their final shot. Those who received the Johnson & Johnson single-dose shot should get a booster two months later. The CDC is now also recommending that "moderately or severely immunocompromised" 5- to 11-year-olds receive an additional dose of the Pfizer vaccine 28 days after their second shot. Experts widely agree that booster doses provide critical protection against the omicron variant. Knoche, the DHEC medical consultant, said the COVID vaccines and booster doses are particularly good at preventing hospitalization and death. "If you look at the number, youre far better off far better off if youre vaccinated," he said. MANZINI Yet another minor who was allegedly raped by a trusted member of the community is said to have died due to complications following the ordeal. The deceased minor, *Khwezi (11) died on December 27 after she was allegedly raped by a 72-year-old community police member at Mgungundlovu, Kugucuka. Mgungundlovu is a rural area on the outskirts of Siphofaneni. It was purported that the community police member had allegedly raped the minor more than once and this was discovered during police investigations. It is said the childs mother reported the matter to the police, who arrested the man and later released him on the basis that he had a legal representative. When narrating the events leading to the death of her child, *Nozibusiso said she noticed that her child was walking strangely and noticed bloodstains on some certain parts of her body. According to the minors mother, this was not usual menstruation blood as she was aware that her child had not started her menstrual cycle. Nozibusiso disclosed that she then asked the minor what was wrong, to which she first did not open up about her ordeal. I was stern with her and threatened to beat her up if she did not tell the truth, the mother said. Nozibusiso said it was then that Khwezi divulged that she was allegedly sexually violated by the community police member, three times on various occasions. She alleged that Khwezi told her the elderly man last raped her by the cattle byre. After getting information from her daughter, the mother revealed that she took her child to Sithobela Health Centre where doctors allegedly confirmed that she had been raped. The minors mother claimed that she then reported the matter to the police. She shared that the police arrested the community police member on the Wednesday of reporting the matter. However, she shared that they released him last Friday. A police officer who identified himself as Myeni called from Siphofaneni Police Post and informed us that we shouldnt be surprised to see him out of jail as he had a lawyer, Nozibusiso narrated. The mother claimed that her deceased child started getting sick on the Friday and on Saturday, she passed away. The community police member could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone was off for the better part of yesterday. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that the matter was reported to the police. However, she said the community police member was out on bail. Vilakati mentioned that there were developments with the police service, which were still being investigated. Meanwhile, this is not the first incident where a child died after allegedly being raped. Just yesterday, this publication reported that a three-year-old died allegedly due to rape injuries complications, allegedly inflicted by her father. The minor died at about 3am at Mbhuleni in Matsapha while with her mother. It was purported that the girls father had issues with the mother of his child and allegedly raped his own daughter to spite her. Kingstree, SC (29556) Today Sunshine to start, then a few afternoon clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 63F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. LORIS Local prosecutors want an Horry County judge to shut down what they call a makeshift nightclub that's been the site of three murders since 2017. Turks Place on Redenbo Drive in Loris operates at the whim of its owner, Shammond Jackson, and is a constant source of disruption for neighbors and police who respond to innumerable calls every year, court documents filed in late December allege. Jackson could not be reached for comment Jan. 4. Officials are asking that the establishment, which does not have a state liquor license, be shuttered for a year pending trial on public nuisance claims. Turks Place is a makeshift club located in a small wooden structure at the end of a rural dirt road known as Redenbo Dr.," special prosecutor James Battle with 15th Circuit Solicitor's Office wrote in court documents. "Surrounding Turks Place are several trailers where the respondents live. The record continued, Turks Place does not maintain normal working hours and does not have a business license. Instead, it is periodically opened by its owner, Shammond Jackson a.k.a. Turk. When open, it operates as a nightclub with doormen, bartenders, and DJs. Beyond that, the club has a deadly past and history of not cooperating with police when serious crimes occur there, according to Battle. On Nov. 27, two people were shot inside the establishment. One of them later died. Authorities only learned about the shooting from hospital workers. When police arrived at the club they saw a person sweeping up shell casings and bloody items, according to court documents. Two other times since 2017, gunshot victims were found dead in the middle of Redenbo Drive after leaving Turks Place, court filings say. An S.C. Secretary of State's office search did not return a business license for Turks, and theres been no deed filed on the property since 1923, court filings say. Since 2016, 37 business across Horry County closed under nuisance allegations of illegal activity, including more than half of those in a single crackdown. CONWAY Leaders of South Carolina's third-largest school district have updated COVID quarantine protocols ahead of students returning to class Jan. 4 following winter break. Students that have tested positive through a laboratory or health care facility will be required to isolate for at least five days and wear a mask for up to 10 days, in line with state Department of Health and Environmental Control guidelines. Close contact with a COVID-positive person requires mask use for vaccinated pupils for 10 days after exposure and a recommended test on day five. Those that are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated are asked to quarantine for 10 days if symptoms are present, or five days with proof of a negative test at least four days after contact. For a complete list of guidelines, go to horrycountyschools.net. As of Jan. 4, the district has recorded 336 active COVID cases, including 264 among students. Editor of Stand News Patrick Lam, center, is escorted by police officers into a van after they searched evidence at his office in Hong Kong on Dec. 29. Hong Kong police raided the office of the online news outlet after arresting several people for conspiracy to publish a seditious publication. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations. The cost to fix flooding in Charleston has bloomed to some $3 billion in total, city officials say a price tag for solutions from cleaning out plugged drainage systems to new, deep tunnels and a wall that could deflect hurricane waves from the downtown peninsula. In 2017, The Post and Courier asked city officials how much it might cost to fix flooding in the face of a climate that is supercharging flooding rains and pushing sea levels higher. At the time, the estimate was $2 billion, including several hefty projects that were already under way. But now that number is rising, in large part because of an Army Corps of Engineers proposal to wall off the downtown area from the water. If the project, still in early planning stages, reaches the finish line, the city would have to pay a portion that's estimated at around $500 million. In the meantime, a slew of other work in other neighborhoods in the city is ongoing, chewing up the city's fund for drainage work and sending staff on time-consuming efforts to secure federal grant funds. In all, the city plans to spend almost $58 million, including grant money, on stormwater and drainage efforts in 2021, CFO Amy Wharton said. These projects, Director of Stormwater Management Matt Fountain said, mostly aren't aimed at preparing for the 2- to 3-feet of sea level rise the city expects in the next 50 years. They're an effort to fix the severe flooding problems already existing, which have resulted, in part, from years of poor development decisions about where and how to build in the region's low topography. In an interview with the paper, Fountain ticked off a list of 20 major water management projects somewhere in the pipeline from design to construction, including: Engineered wetlands on the former sites of flooded homes in far-flung West Ashley. Outfall cleaning around the city, in neighborhoods like the historic Byrnes Downs. Plans to divert water around the Barberry Woods neighborhood on Johns Island. New pipes and eventually pumps to evacuate water from the flood-prone King and Huger streets intersection. As far as work that will fend off the water of the future, "I think we just haven't quite gotten there yet. We're still so buried into the things that we need to fix that are currently causing problems," Fountain said. The one exception, he said, is the proposed seawall, which has proved controversial since its inception. The city hasn't officially voted to move forward with it and hasn't put together a funding plan for its share of the project. But they will have to certify to the Corps by the end of the year that the city will pay the 35 percent match of the total project cost. There will be time after that point to come up with those funding sources, said Mark Wilbert, the city's outgoing chief of resilience, because the Corps itself will spend several months internally reviewing the wall plan. "We're looking under every rock," Mayor John Tecklenburg said. "You just kind of ask for everything, and at the end of the day, see where you land." Ultimately, the many needs of Charleston put it in competition for state funds with communities around South Carolina, and for federal funds with many cities nationally. There are several communities in the Southeast that are also working with the Army Corps on climate adaptation plans, and who may be in contention when Congress decides who deserves funding. "This is something the city of Charleston and all coastal communities will be dealing with for eternity," Wilbert said. "We will be adapting forever." Finding funds Right now, Charleston cobbles together its money for flooding improvements from a variety of sources a fee on water and sewer bills that covers smaller projects and the budget for the stormwater department, a small portion of property taxes for a dedicated drainage fund, special tax districts and a bevy of various grants. The tax districts in particular, usually abbreviated as TIFs, have come to a particular importance in recent years. These TIFs rely on rising property values. When they are put in place, they freeze the amount of money sent to school district, county and city coffers. If the lots inside become more valuable over time, that additional tax money is set aside in a special fund that the city can borrow against or use to pay directly for certain projects. Take the example of a particularly successful tax district along King Street, which Wharton said has raised $123.6 million since it was established in 1998. It has helped to pay for significant portions of the deep-tunnel drainage system the city is building under the Septima P. Clark Parkway, also known as the Crosstown. When that complex project, known as Spring-Fishburne, encountered a $43 million cost overrun a few years ago, the city was able to rely on this well-performing district to cover some of the difference. These arrangements don't last forever. The King Street district is set to expire in 2023, removing that as a source of future funds. They also require buy-in from schools who are essentially foregoing revenue. Charleston County School District declined entirely to participate in a much newer tax district around flood-prone Church Creek, Wharton said. That fund is devoted entirely to water management projects. In other cases, there's disagreement on whether to use these proceeds for drainage at all, as has happened in a special district that covers Charleston's Eastside neighborhood. Some wanted to use the money for the upcoming Lowline park; Councilman Keith Waring prefers the money help pay for drainage fixes in the historically Black and rapidly gentrifying Eastside neighborhood. In a meeting at the beginning of June, Waring bemoaned the fact that for years the city didn't dedicate much money for drainage at all, and now the Eastside has needs that will probably range between $15 million and $20 million. A city consultant is studying the area now to decide exactly what projects should be done there, Fountain said. "We've got a lot of good ideas sitting on the shelf," Waring said, "but the elephant in the room is funding." City Council hasn't made a final decision on how to use the money from the district that covers the Eastside. But Wharton said there may be other options if they do opt to pay for the park, like finding grants to pay for it. Grant funding has gone a long way in helping the city design new approaches for the Church Creek basin and Johns Island. Those federal dollars come with a cost, though. It could take months of staff time to fully prepare an application, with no guarantee they'll be awarded. A smaller approach Fountain said his strategy of late has been to aim for smaller-in-scope projects that offer relief now, so residents don't feel ignored while larger, multi-year efforts are under way. In one case, that means working on several smaller efforts first in the drainage basin that was next projected for deep drainage tunnels: Calhoun West, which covers the southwest corner of the Charleston peninsula, one of the lowest and most flood-prone areas of the city. The area is a wealthy one, with historic homes worth millions, and picturesque Colonial Lake, an engineered waterbody the city drains before storms to ensure it does not spill over. Charleston has already done conceptual engineering on a tunnel system there, but isn't moving forward on the design or permits yet because of many other, smaller efforts. Donate to our Investigative Fund to support journalism like this Our public service and investigative reporting is among the most important work we do. It's also the most expensive reporting we do. We can't do it without your support. Donate Now One, a single shaft tunneling down from Ehrhardt Street, will replicate a portion of the system and connect it to existing tunnels to the north. The city is also working on cleaning out historic brick-arch drains and potentially raising the sidewalk along low-lying Lockwood Drive to block high tides, Fountain said. "We need to get those things to their next step ... to kick out more project work behind them," Fountain said. "Each thing we can do that moves water out of the basin more efficiently reduces the size and scope of the tunnel work." The Corps' wall proposal would also affect where and how the city would build Calhoun West's deep tunnels and a pump to drain them. Just the Ehrhardt Street shaft alone costs north of $10 million, and the money wasn't easy to find. Officials for the three large medical providers in the hospital district and Tecklenburg lobbied state government officials for years before funding was included in a round of Housing and Urban Development money the state started to parcel out earlier in 2021. In the past, the city relied on large-scale projects like Spring-Fishburne, the more expansive tunnel system north of the area where Calhoun West would be installed. But Spring-Fishburne encountered significant delays in its construction timeline, in part because it was difficult to secure funding in the first place. Fountain said he doesn't want to leave people waiting for years without smaller relief. He also urged that the deep-tunnel design will have to fit with other projects in the basin that are being designed or built now. Councilman Mike Seekings, who represents that part of the city, said the Calhoun West tunnel project is still an essential one. With spring thunderstorms this year dumping water that piled 2- or 3-feet deep in that zone, "It's an unsustainable quality of life and public safety model we have to remedy," he said. The problem, Seekings said, is that the city needs to more clearly define what projects to do, and in what order. Fountain said the city does have a rubric developed by consultant AECOM to prioritize projects based on economic benefits, environmental impacts, social needs and future maintenance costs, but the stormwater department hasn't finished scoring all the proposed projects yet. Local share The seawall project, if the city decides to pursue it, would be covered 35 percent by Charleston and 65 percent by a federal appropriation for the Corps. The most recent estimate pegs the total cost at some $1.4 billion. That projection is likely to change, and might have to if the project is ever to get federal funding. Right now, its ratio of benefits to costs, as counted by the Corps, is 2.2. In other words, every dollar invested has a $2.20 value in avoided damage. Federal reviewers usually favor projects with a ratio of 2.5 or higher for funding, a Corps spokeswoman said. If it does move forward, the project is a pay-as-you-go affair: money would only be due as the design or construction happens. Project leaders have already said the wall construction would happen in four phases. "That (local) price tag is not something thats due next year or in five years. It could, in fact, be due over 20 years," said Dale Morris, a longtime flooding consultant to the city who is becoming its next chief resilience officer in the fall. City officials have said the state has a role to play in funding this because of Charleston's economic impact on the rest of the state. But if the much smaller $10 million bill for the Medical District's Ehrhardt shaft is any indication, it could be hard to make that argument. An earlier attempt to include that line item in the state's 2020 budget failed. Dana Beach, a founder of the Coastal Conservation League who has since retired from that environmental advocacy group, worried whether the city's political leadership would really be able to convince lawmakers to put up the money. It's not as if legislators are unwilling to pay for large construction projects in the region; the State Ports Authority, Beach argued, secured a vote in favor of borrowing $550 million for an expanded rail yard and barges in the Charleston Harbor. But in Charleston, "We just have this hope that the Corps of Engineers will do something, will put the money in, and well somehow come up with the 35 percent match," Beach said. "Hope is not a strategy." Tecklenburg said he's already talking to state and federal officials about how to fund the city's share. "You're not going to find one funding source that's going to pay for a big project," he said. At the state level, "I think we can be successful getting a piece at a time, but maybe not get the whole enchilada like the Ports Authority has." The first pieces of a potential strategy could come in the next few months. An advisory group reviewing the wall plan is also focusing on possible funding ideas, Wilbert said, as is the city itself. More special tax districts or fees could be part of the picture, he said. The state has also set aside almost $50 million for flood projects, distributed by a new Office of Resilience, but communities around the state will compete for that low-cost loan fund. Morris was optimistic. He pointed to the federal American Rescue Plan funds that are coming to South Carolina, $2.5 billion in all, which can be used for infrastructure projects. Additional funding through HUD, he said, will also help cities and towns pay for projects to fix flooding before disasters instead of after a longtime blind spot in federal funding. "It's more positive right now for federal resources to support communities than I've seen for a long time," Morris said. That may be limited help in the case of the wall project; if Congress funds the Corps' share, the city generally can't use federal funds to pay for its own portion without special permission, a Corps spokeswoman said. But first, the city will have to decide this fall if it actually wants to move forward with a wall at all. SPARTANBURG New townhomes are being developed just east of Spartanburg off East Main Street near Phillips Road. Woodruff-based contractor Harrison and Son is on schedule to complete grading the site in February. Duncan-based South Tyger Properties and Mungo Homes will begin developing and building on the seven-acre site within 120 days. The project includes 56 townhome units. The project is being financed by Coastal Carolina National Bank. Mungo Homes has built homes in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia. "South Tyger Properties has been doing most of its work (development) in the Duncan and Greer area, " said Brian Murdoch, Coastal Carolina Bank senior vice president. "There has not been a lot of new construction on the east side of town. I think we are going to see a lot more development in that area." The new development will be called East Main Meadows. Murdoch said it will include two- and three-bedroom units for sale. "They will build in phases and start selling units and moving in people while they are still putting up buildings," Murdoch said. Harrison and Son started grading the site in November. A stretch of Phillips Road near East Main Street will be closed off with the new development's entrance constructed at East Main Street. County Council Chairman Manning Lynch told The Post and Courier he anticipates more development on the county's east side in 2022. "The east side has not seen the amount of growth as in some other areas of the county like Boiling Springs and Reidville," Lynch said. "For that growth to spread around the county, everybody benefits from that. The infrastructure on the east side will be able to handle the growth." New housing development is expected to continue from Chesnee to Cowpens and from Clifton to Glendale. County Councilman David Britt said there are at least 2,500 new residential units that have been permitted or are seeking permits for construction on the eastside. "The west side (of Spartanburg County) has seen growth over the past few years and now the east side is being developed more," Britt said. "Developers are looking to invest a lot of money." By GuoXiaobing The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 that President Biden signed into law on December 27 approved a defense budget as high as USD 768.2 billion, about 5% higher than last year. The latest spike in the US defense budget, which is already topping the world, will only aggravate Americas crooked development while doing no good in addressing its pressing security issues, including the spreading pandemic, wealth polarization, and racial discrimination. With strong support from both parties, the FY 2022 NDAA approved a final amount that was USD 24 billion more than what the Biden administration originally requested, leading to a number even higher than the countrys peak military spending during the Cold War. The NDAA obsessively emphasized major-power competition and targeted China and Russia, as well evidenced by the USD 7.1 billion allocated to the so-called China-targeting Pacific Deterrence Initiative and the USD 4 billion to the Russia-targeting European Defense Initiative. Besides, the NDAA also called for making a master China strategy and pointed fingers at Chinas internal affairs concerning the Taiwan island and Xinjiang Autonomous Region. It required discussions on the possible cooperation between the National Guard and Taiwan, pledged to help the island develop asymmetrical capabilities, and prohibited the import of products from Xinjiang. While the US is burning money to expand the armed forces and get combat-ready, the reasons it cites are far-fetched at best. The US alleged that it doesnt have as many warships as China. Since 2020, Washington has pinned the title of worlds greatest naval power, which it has been deservedly wearing for many years, on China. The China Military Power Report that the US had carefully concocted claims that China has 360 warships, which will increase to 400 by 2025, as opposed to Americas 297 now and 355 then. Yet the report says nothing about Americas 11 aircraft carriers, 92 cruise ships and destroyers, and 68 nuclear submarines, as opposed to Chinas small patrol ships and frigates. The Chinese navy still falls far behind the US navy in size and strength. The US alleged that it doesnt have enough warplanes. According to the2021 World Air Forces report released by Flight International in cooperation with Embraer, the US military collectively operates over 13,000 military aircraft, far more than the runner-up Russias 4,000, while China, ranking third as it is, has only a little more than 3,000 military aircraft. The US also alleged that it is falling behind in emerging areas such as space, cyber and hypersonic weapons. If this were true, which country is it that is constantly conducting co-orbital ASAT tests? Which country took the initiative to hit satellites with anti-missile interceptors? Which country took the lead in deploying an anti-satellite communication system? Which country was the first to develop the space-based anti-missile system? Which country was the first to destroy other countries nuclear facilities with a computer virus? Which country is developing a myriad of hypersonic weapons such as the Navys Conventional Prompt Strike offensive hypersonic missile, the Armys Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), and Tactical Boost Glide? American defense expenditure is seriously disproportioned in the global defense spending, reaching 40.3% in 2020, yet Washington still finds that not enough and has continued to hike it immediately after it wrapped up the longest-ever Afghan War. What shall we call such a country but militaristic? What does Americas sustained increase in military expenditure mean for the world? First, it means the US will be more militarily confident, even conceited. In domestic politics, absolute power means absolute corruption; in international politics, absolute power means absolute indulgence. Historical experience has shown that while equipped with overwhelming strike capacity, the US is by no means a good-willed hegemon good at self-restraint. Rather, it would not hesitate to make up excuses and start a war in order to wipe out any imaginary threat. Second, the hike in Americas military spending will exacerbate the security dilemma among major countries, stimulate an arms race, and increase the risk of conflicts. Third, Americas military expansion and war preparations will set a terrible example. As soon as Washington increased its military budget, built new services and developed new weapons, its allies would follow suit soon. For instance, the establishment of the US Space Force has created effects described as the Break Pane Law countries that used to have second thoughts about militarizing the outer space, such as Japan, the UK, France and Germany, now have no scruples anymore and have taken turns setting up their own space command or space force. This will enhance the military and geopolitical factors in the international arena and set barriers against countries working together for common development. (The author is Director of the Center for Arms Control Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations) Disclaimer: This article is originally published on the china.com.cn, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Modifi, the global fintech company that helps buyers and sellers finance and manage their trades, will support Tradelings users with digital trade finance, boost their liquidity and enable them to secure better payment terms. For this, Tradeling, the hyper-growing e-marketplace focused on business-to-business (B2B) transactions in the Mena region, has signed a partnership agreement with Modifi. With Modifis solution, Tradeling will provide buyers with favourable payment terms of 30, 60 or 90 days, while paying their suppliers early. This will increase buyers purchasing power, provide sellers with additional liquidity and unlock potential to further grow their business. Marius Ciavola, CEO, Tradeling said: Financing is an important component of our business to facilitate trade, through our partnership with Modifi, we want to offer our customers the finance solutions they need to succeed and grow. The partnership will further help businesses to secure additional liquidity to fund trades where traditional financing solutions cannot help. It will increase their buying power and qualify them for discounts, which will enable companies to further improve margins and make their operations more profitable. Nelson Holzner, Co-Founder and CEO, Modifi said: Its a very important market for Modifi and we see a lot of demand for our digital trade finance solution. Like Tradeling, Modifi believes that trade is a key driver for development around the globe, and we are happy to enable local buyers and sellers to grow their businesses. Led by a team of experienced technology startup builders, Tradeling ensures a reliable and smooth trade process in addition to providing logistics and financing solutions. Connecting global suppliers with Mena-based demand, Tradeling leverages advanced technology to optimise the supply chain and creates economic value in addition to mitigating risks. Today, Tradeling has over 100,000 registered buyers and sellers from 55 countries with gross merchandising value growth of more than 65% month over month. Modifi, which currently serves more than 1,000 buyers and sellers across over 40 countries, provides customers with simple digital solutions to finance their trades, protect them from risk, and easily track and manage their shipments. Modifi successfully launched in the US, Netherlands and Bangladesh in the first half of 2021. The company currently operates out of nine offices in New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, Delhi, Mumbai, Dhaka, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Dubai.-- TradeArabia News Service The New York Times reports on Red Chinas digital manhunt: The Chinese government, which has built an extensive digital infrastructure and security apparatus to control dissent on its own platforms, is going to even greater lengths to extend its internet dragnet to unmask and silence those who criticize the country on Twitter, Facebook and other international social media. These new investigations, targeting sites blocked inside China, are relying on sophisticated technological methods to expand the reach of Chinese authorities and the list of targets, according to a New York Times examination of government procurement documents and legal records, as well as interviews with one government contractor and six people pressured by the police. To hunt people, security forces use advanced investigation software, public records and databases to find all their personal information and international social media presence. The operations sometimes target those living beyond Chinas borders. Police officers are pursuing dissidents and minor critics. . .as well as Chinese people living overseas and even citizens of other nations. The digital manhunt represents the punitive side of the governments vast campaign to counter negative portrayals of China. In recent years, the Communist Party has raised bot armies, deployed diplomats and marshaled influencers to push its narratives and drown out criticism. The police have taken it a step further, hounding and silencing those who dare to talk back. With growing frequency, the authorities are harassing critics both inside and outside China, as well as threatening relatives, in an effort to get them to delete content deemed criminal. One video recording, provided by a Chinese student living in Australia, showed how the police in her hometown had summoned her father, called her with his phone and pushed her to remove her Twitter account. . . . For Chinese security forces, the effort is a daring expansion of a remit that previously focused on Chinese platforms and the best-known overseas dissidents. Now, violations as simple as a post of a critical article on Twitter or in the case of 23-year-old Jennifer Chen, quoting, I stand with Hong Kong can bring swift repercussions. (Emphasis added) What repercussions? When a Chinese student living in Taiwan criticized China this year, he said, both of his parents disappeared for 10 days. His social media accounts within China were also shut down. The student, who declined to be named out of fear of further reprisals, said he still did not know what had happened to his parents. He doesnt dare to ask because they told him that local security forces were monitoring them. . . . For Chen, the police harassment has continued even after she moved to Europe this fall for graduate school. She has struggled with feelings of shame and powerlessness as she has weighed the importance of expressing her political views against the risks that now entails. It has driven a rift in her relationship with her mother, who was adamant that she change her ways. Chinas digital manhunt represents a form of oppression previously unheard of in the annals of authoritarian rule. But that manhunt is just the tip of a large iceberg of Red Chinas cyber-aggression, and the targets arent limited to Chinese dissidents. Bill Gertz discussed this threat in detail in his book Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist Chinas Drive for Global Superiority. Last month, the Washington Post reported that American investors are funding products that the Chinese can use for surveillance and military purposes: In 2020, a fast-rising artificial intelligence company in China won a little-noticed contract from a Chinese military academy to provide battlefield command software technology that defense experts say could become part of the militarys operational network. A few months later, Goldman Sachs invested in the Beijing-based company, helping it raise $700 million, according to the company, 4Paradigm. So did Sequoia Capital China, a Chinese affiliate of the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm, which markets funds that draw investment from U.S. university endowments and charitable trusts. Thus, says the Post, U.S. investment is supporting Chinese entities whose activities may undermine U.S. national security. That investment could facilitate Beijings quest to dominate emerging technologies, giving it an advantage at a time when the United States and China are increasingly engaged in economic and military competition. Lenin is believed by some to have said when it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope. One hundred years or so later, this might finally be about to happen. What is the Biden administration doing to prevent U.S. investment from enhancing Chinas threat to our national security? Not much. The issue is on its radar, but thats about all: The White House has held senior- and Cabinet-level meetings on the issue but has not developed a specific proposal, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. And, of course, any new authority [to cope with the problem] would be narrowly tailored. Thats nice and lawyerly. Unfortunately, the Red Chinese are neither nice nor lawyerly. They are unscrupulous and lawless. We cant fight them with one hand tied behind our back. Ill conclude by noting that until Donald Trump became president, we were barely fighting them at all. Starting with the Clinton administration, the assumption was that the more China interacted with the U.S. commercially, the less authoritarian and threatening it would become. The naive arrogance of that assumption is staggering. Yet, it took Donald Trump to abandon it. Where does the Biden administration stand? It hasnt returned to the hopeless naivety of its Democratic predecessors, but neither does it seem to be responding to China with same urgency as the Trump team. Biden appears to be splitting the difference between the two approaches. That might strike Jake Sullivan as clever, but against this adversary it will prove quite inadequate. It looks like Andrew Cuomo will not be criminally charged by the Manhattan District Attorney for providing misleading information to the public about the number of deaths from the pandemic in New York nursing homes. Cuomos lawyer says hes been so advised by the DAs office. Andy McCarthy argues that the DAs decision not to prosecute is probably the correct one. Theres no doubt that Cuomo deceived the public. State attorney general Letitia James issued a report detailing the governors undercounting of nursing-home deaths. In essence, his office did not count as nursing-home deaths patients who expired in the hospital, even if they were taken to the hospital only after being infected in a nursing home. However, as McCarthy says, there is a significant difference between political deceptions and lies that are actionable under the criminal law. Lying to the public is not a crime. And in this case, McCarthy believes that Cuomos New York deceptions were phrased in such a way as to make it difficult to characterize any single statement as a prosecutable lie. Material omissions are prosecutable. However, they are much more difficult to prove than outright false statements because the prosecutor has to establish that the speaker knew he had a duty to reveal the withheld information and that the concealment was intentional. McCarthy seems to doubt that, in the case of Cuomos omissions in New York, the prosecutor could overcome the evidentiary hurdles and the beyond a reasonable doubt standard. Although Cuomo wont face charges in New York, its still possible, at least in theory, that the feds might charge him. As I discussed here, hes reportedly under federal investigation for violating up to three federal criminal statutes in connection with a Justice Department request for information about nursing home deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus in New York. The investigation appears to center around Team Cuomos response to a letter from Eric Dreiband, then Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, requesting very specific information about nursing home deaths. Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa has admitted that Team Cuomo withheld the true toll of nursing home deaths from the virus due to Eric Dreibands letter. The statutes in question speak in terms of influencing, obstructing, impeding or attempting to influence, obstruct, or impede, a federal proceeding (such as an investigation), or covering up a material fact by any trick, scheme, or device. It seems clear that Cuomos office did these things. There is still the requirement of proving intent. But Erics letter clearly and specifically asked Cuomo to include in his report of the death toll those who died in a Public Nursing Home or after being transferred to a hospital or other medical facility, hospice, home care, or any other location. (Emphasis added) I dont see how omitting the deaths of such transferees in response to this request could have been unintentional. The problem is that Democrats control the Justice Department. I doubt theres any serious appetite in the Biden DOJ for prosecuting Andrew Cuomo. The latest news from social media is that both Twitter and Facebook have banned Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greenes personal accounts. Twitter permanently suspended the personal account of Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over repeated violations of its COVID-19 misinformation policy, the company confirmed early Sunday. *** We permanently suspended the account you referenced (@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy, a Twitter spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Weve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy. I havent followed Greene closely enough to have any opinion about her, but what did she do that provoked this extreme sanction? She tweeted data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which CDC uses to track potential safety problems with vaccines, relating specifically to adverse reactions to the covid vaccines. As far as I know, there is no assertion that she somehow misrepresented the VAERS data. Twitter and Facebook apparently saw her posts as running counter to the narrative they want to promote, which is that everyone must be vaccinated. Repeatedly. Are there risks to vaccination? Indisputably there are, as tracked by VAERS. But those risks evidently must not be mentioned. Actions like these by social media monopolies must offend every American who believes in free speech and debate as values in themselves, and as the best route to good policy. But the conventional wisdom is that, because Twitter, Facebook, et al. are private companies, their censorship is beyond legal question, no matter how irrational, how partisan, or how contrary to American values it may be. Is that assumption really correct? The social media giants are of course private companies, but that is hardly the end of the conversation. The reality is that in suppressing conservative voices, they are doing the bidding of the Democratic Party, which at the moment controls the U.S. government. Glenn Greenwald made the point in February 2021: For the third time in less than five months, the U.S. Congress has summoned the CEOs of social media companies to appear before them, with the explicit intent to pressure and coerce them to censor more content from their platforms. On March 25, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will interrogate Twitters Jack Dorsey, Facebookss Mark Zuckerberg and Googles Sundar Pichai at a hearing which the Committee announced will focus on misinformation and disinformation plaguing online platforms. *** House Democrats have made no secret of their ultimate goal with this hearing: to exert control over the content on these online platforms. Industry self-regulation has failed, they said, and therefore we must begin the work of changing incentives driving social media companies to allow and even promote misinformation and disinformation. In other words, they intend to use state power to influence and coerce these companies to change which content they do and do not allow to be published. *** [T]he key point raised by these last threats from House Democrats is an often-overlooked one: while the First Amendment does not apply to voluntary choices made by a private company about what speech to allow or prohibit, it does bar the U.S. Government from coercing or threatening such companies to censor. In other words, Congress violates the First Amendment when it attempts to require private companies to impose viewpoint-based speech restrictions which the government itself would be constitutionally barred from imposing. I think this is obviously correct. Imagine, for instance, that in pre-internet days, the federal government had gone to all of the printing companies in the U.S. and paid them not to print any campaign materials by the other party. Or threatened to investigate them if they printed the other partys campaign materials. No one could doubt that such actions would violate the First Amendment. That may be what we have here. For example: if the Biden administration explicitly or implicitly represented to a tech monopoly like Facebook that it might go easy on antitrust enforcement if Facebook suppressed conservative and Republican content, that would be an obvious First Amendment violation. Such a theory is entirely plausible, as the Trump administration filed an antitrust case against Facebook seeking, as a remedy, the divestiture of Instagram, which was Facebooks principal competitor until Facebook solved the problem by buying Instagram. There are a couple of possibilities here: perhaps someone from the Biden administration held a clandestine meeting with a Facebook officialon a park bench, maybe, like in spy movieswhere such a deal was struck. In that event, we have an unquestionable First Amendment violation. More likely, though, there was no meeting. More likely, Facebooks management drew a natural inference that if Facebook scratched the Democratic Partys back by suppressing conservative and Republican content, the Democratic Party would scratch back by quietly abandoningor better yet, settling cheapthe antitrust case. Same result, but likely with a different legal status. And Twitter is in the same legal position as Facebook, monopolizing its social media space, with the difference that there is not, at the moment, an antitrust case pending against Twitter. But the incentives on both sides are the same. All of this is to say that the fact that Twitter, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, et al. are private companies by no means ends the First Amendment inquiry. If they are suppressing free speechand they are, unquestionablytheir relationship to the government needs to be examined. And when the facts are finally exposed, it is quite possible that these companies censorship on behalf of the Democratic Party may be found to violate the Constitution. This is something that Republicans should investigate vigorously when they take the House later this year. Democrats and their mainstream media allies express dismay, if not alarm, over a poll that shows 58 percent of Republicans dont believe Joe Biden was elected legitimately. However, Byron York points out that in the Fall of 2017, the same pollster found that 67 percent of Democrats said Trump was not legitimately elected. Given the drumbeat of unfounded claims by mainstream media outlets of Russian collusion in the election of Trump, as well as supposed voter suppression, Im surprised that even more Democrats didnt view his election as illegitimate. Its true that, unlike Trump in 2020, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016. But if Democrats believe in the Constitution, they must, perforce, acknowledge that Trumps victory was not rendered illegitimate by the fact that he lost the popular vote. It wasnt just rank-and-file Democrats who wouldnt accept the result of the 2016 presidential election. A number of Democratic congressmen objected to the tally of Electoral College votes. One of them was my congressman, Jamie Raskin, an influential member of the Dem caucus who led the second Trump impeachment. To his credit, then-vice president Biden wasnt having it. But neither was then-vice president Pence in 2021. 2017 wasnt the first time modern-day Democrats tried to obstruct the certification of a Republican presidential victory. In 2005, Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs objected to George Bushs electoral votes in Ohio, forcing their fellow lawmakers to leave their joint session and debate whether to reject the states electoral votes. Yet, following the objections to certifying the 2020 result, some House and Senate Dems refused even to speak with Republican colleagues who objected. They also engaged in other infantile measures to demonstrate their displeasure. So reports the Washington Post. According to the Post, congressional Dems blame some of their Republican colleagues for the rioting at the Capitol on January 6. Or at least they pretend to. Conflating objecting to certification something Democrats have done in the past with promoting an insurrection is so absurd that its difficult to believe the Dems are sincere. Nonetheless, the Post reports that House Democrats have gone so far as to pass a rule requiring members to go through metal detectors out of an alleged fear that Republicans pose a threat to the physical safety of Democrats. In addition, a handful of House Democrats vote against any legislation whose main sponsor is a Republican who opposed certifying Bidens election. This practice extends to noncontroversial matters such as naming post offices. In the Senate, Chris Coons, who masquerades as bipartisan, went more than six months without saying a single word to the eight Senate Republicans who voted against signing off on Bidens win. Another masquerader, Amy Klobuchar, says she thinks about the January 6 every time I see or work with a Senator who didnt sign off. As ridiculous as all of this is, Im not sorry if Democrats have become more overtly and rudely hostile towards, and less likely to work with, Republicans on Capitol Hill. The two parties have radical, and probably irreconcilable, differences about what America is and what it should be going forward. These differences arent just between, say, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marjorie Taylor Greene. They extend to Coons and Klobuchar on the one hand and nearly every Senate Republican on the other. Given this profound ideological divergence, theres no good reason to expect members of one camp to get along with, or respect in any deep sense, members of the other. If they do, thats okay. If they dont, thats okay too. It might even be preferable, since bipartisan legislation on matters of significance often produces more harm than good. Who cares, for example, whether Chris Coons says hello to certain Republican members? I doubt that any Republicans lost sleep over the snub. If any did, thats a worrying sign. My only objection is to the claim that this lack of courtesy and comity has anything to do with Democrats favoring democracy and Republicans being its enemy. The two parties differ so fundamentally these days that even their conceptions of democracy, or at least what they say about it, cant be reconciled. The European Union has led the way in transitioning from fossil fuels to green energy, i.e. wind and solar. But that effort has hit a snag: wind and solar dont work, and energy costs in the EU are skyrocketing. Now a Reuters report suggests that the EU may be thinking about jumping ship: The European Union has drawn up plans to label some natural gas and nuclear energy projects as green investments after a year-long battle between governments over which investments are truly climate-friendly. *** A draft of the Commissions proposal, seen by Reuters, would label nuclear power plant investments as green if the project has a plan, funds and a site to safely dispose of radioactive waste. To be deemed green, new nuclear plants must receive construction permits before 2045. Investments in natural gas power plants would also be deemed green if they produce emissions below 270g of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour (kWh), replace a more polluting fossil fuel plant, receive a construction permit by Dec. 31 2030 and plan to switch to low-carbon gases by the end of 2035. If CO2 is the alleged threat to the future of the planet, nuclear power is indisputably green. Nuclear plants dont emit CO2. Disposal of spent fuel rods is an issue, but a minor onea ridiculously minor one if you think the alternative is destruction of the planet. That is why any environmentalist who doesnt support nuclear power is an environmentalist who doesnt actually believe the propaganda he spouts. Likewise, natural gas emits far less CO2 than coal, and green advocates have in any case been building natural gas plants like theres no tomorrow, because gas is what they burn most of the time, when wind and solar fail to produce electricity. Meanwhile, the EUs member countries are sharply split on energy issues: Austria opposes nuclear power, alongside countries including Germany and Luxembourg. EU states including the Czech Republic, Finland and France, which gets around 70% of its power from the fuel, see nuclear as crucial to phasing out CO2-emitting coal fuel power. It is notable that Germany has just announced that it will close three of its six nuclear power plants, even though German automakers reportedly have warned their government that they will not be able to compete in global markets if their energy costs continue to rise. Maybe, for once, the French will save the Germans from themselves. The fate of this particular EU proposal remains unknown, but the handwriting is on the wall. The green dream of an economy powered exclusively (or even mostly) by wind and solar energy is impossible, not because of a lack of political will but because of the laws of physics. The end of this story has already been written. The question is how much wealth will be destroyed before greenies admit that their dreams have turned into nightmares. Against the backdrop of the collapse of Communism in 1989, what Francis Fukuyama would later call, end of history, the prospects for a new wave of Democracy in Africa were so high that liberal African scholars spoke with optimism about what they called, the continents second liberation. Barely one year after the Berlin wall fell, Nelson Mandela walked free on February 11, 1990, marking a seismic shift in the politics of the continent. The response to these developments saw a rash of responses across the continent. Francophone countries such as Mali, Niger, Togo, Benin, Congo and Zaire all embarked on what came to be known as Sovereign National Conferences. The central role played by the Catholic Church struck a chord with scholars around Theological Institutions as questions were now being asked as to what the role of the Church might be in the new liberation of our continent. Ayatollah Khomeini, Pope John Paul 11 and Cardinal Sin had all used religion to pull down the barricades of dictatorships that had held their people down. The University of Leeds organised a Conference titled: The Church and Democracy in Africa. I presented the paper for Nigeria and Archbishop Tutu was the Chairman of the session. After my presentation and a Q&A session, we stepped out for coffee. Archbishop Tutu literally accosted me, hand on my shoulder, said: That was a very frank assessment of the situation in Nigeria. The difficulties on the continent are widespread, but the Churches must rally around to offer a clear direction. Given your countrys leadership in our struggle against apartheid and your huge resources, no one better qualifies to lead the continent than Nigeria. A photographer stepped up and interrupted us by asking the Archbishop and I to move closer so he could take a picture. Archbishop looked sideways and said, We are black, I think this picture will be brighter outside. We all moved as he literally shepherded me outside. As we stood for the photograph, he looked at me and said: Gosh, except for my being fatter, we seem to be of the same height. I protested and insisted that I was taller than he was. The photographer nodded and I was not sure he was nodding in agreement or that we were well poised for the photograph. As he was about to click his camera, the Archbishop beckoned to a Ugandan priest who was passing by, the late John Walligo who had served as the Secretary of the Committee that had just drafted a clean Constitution for Uganda. Come, Father, he said to him, join a photograph of two short men, make us taller by standing in the middle. Fr. Walligo was black as in real black. Again, as the photographer made to click, Archbishop saw the late Rev. John de Gruchy, his fellow white South African and shouted; Hey John, come here, bring your white skin, so you can add some colour to our photograph. Another bout of laughter followed. To meet Archbishop Tutu is to meet one of the most uproariously, self-deprecating individuals whose jokes drip all over his cassock. The world had seen his passing coming. Indeed, it is to the great glory of God that he spent such a long and fruitful life, giving his history of battle with various ailments in the course of his life and managing prostate cancer for over twenty years. The end came a day after Christmas, and for one who said of himself, I love being loved, one would imagine that he had negotiated with God to die at a time when the world was celebrating. We can only look back at a life of such spectacular richness and accomplishments. The reactions of the leaders of the world signpost that direction of his very eventful life. My intention here is to raise a few issues about the lessons that we leaders of the Christian Church can and must learn about faith, Christian love, politics, service and patriotism. Much like Shakespeares Julius Caesar, in which Brutus says to Cassius: There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. From being a sickly child, born of Methodist parents who would later become Anglicans, Archbishop Tutu abandoned teaching once he tasted the injustice of the system and saw that the dice of opportunity was so heavily loaded against black students. He did not wait for the children to quote Fela by saying: Teacher, dont teach me nonsense! Circumstances changed the course of his life as new opportunities opened up for him. Between 1962 and 1944, he graduated from Kings College, London with a degree in Theology. Within ten years, he is made the first black Anglican Dean of Johannesburg, a very prestigious position. A year later, Soweto burst into flames. Within five years, he would become the Secretary General of the South African Council of Churches. This gave him an overarching platform to rally Anglicans and other church leaders to try and force the apartheid regime to take another look at the future of the country. By the 80s, as the sharp teeth of apartheid dug deeper into the skin of black people, further deepening their dehumanization and oppression, a chord was torn in the veins of Tutu igniting the fire of righteous indignation. He would lead a delegation of Church leaders to face the Crocodile, PW Botha, the Prime Minister to warn of impending dangers from the internal combustion within the black community. They came out of the lions den at that meeting in 1980 empty handed, but the confiscation of his passport that year would signal the fact that there were very dangerous bends on the long road to freedom. In 1984, Tutu received the Nobel Prize for Peace and by 1986, he was promoted Archbishop of Cape Town. A Nobel Price placed him on the moral pantheon of international politics and gave his voice moral authority. From this prestigious and high pedestal, Tutu would rally other Church leaders and raise the moral tone of the urgency of ending apartheid. 1986 is a very significant year because he begins to push openly for economic boycott of South Africa. The rest is history, but his life and future took a totally different track till Mandelas freedom which laid the foundation for the end of apartheid. There is little to dwell on regarding his work. However, I will like to fill in what I think has been missing in looking at the life of this great man. Great he was, but, history must place his greatness in proper context. Over time, very little attention and credit has often been paid to white liberals and their massive contribution and bravery to the struggles of black people beyond Africa. It is easy to focus on people like Tutu and Mandela, but clearly, their rise was the work of a lot of men, some who preceded him and others who were their contemporaries. Let me cite a few of these great men, perhaps the most outstanding. Rev. Trevor Huddleston was an English Bishop who arrived Cape Town in 1943. He developed the moral compass that would guide the involvement of the Churches in the struggles against apartheid. He published his damning book against apartheid titled, Naught for your Comfort, in 1956. He worked with many young people. He identified, nurtured and guided the young legendary prodigy Hugh Masekela and bought him his first trumpet at the age of 14. He was a close friend of the legend, Oliver Tambo, would later receive a prestigious award from the ANC for his work, be recognised and given credit by the late Madiba and Tutu. His connections got Tutu to Kings College, London, and the rest is woven in the great mans history. Next is Dennis Hurley, the Catholic Archbishop of Cape Town (1946-1992). He was ordained bishop at the age of 31(the youngest bishop in the world then), five years after his ordination as a Priest and six years after his Doctoral studies in Rome. An incredible human being, he pushed the Catholic Church beyond its frontiers of relative caution in the matters of apartheid. Being in Cape Town meant that his teachings, his grit and courage made him a lodestar of the times. He was detained severally, attempts were made on his life and finally, the apartheid government put him on trial. He was charged with revealing the names of children who had been killed in the course of the forced removals of black people and reporting atrocities of the apartheid regime in Namibia. The apartheid government lost the trial, was ordered to pay Archbishop Hurley the sum of 25,000 rand! The trial is today a Case Study in Law Schools in South Africa! He received 10 honorary Doctorate degrees around the world. For standing up to the Crocodile, Botha, the Zulu nation nicknamed him, Eyes of the Mamba! When I visited South Africa for the first time in 1995, I made it a point of duty to visit him. I looked him up and put a call to him. Surprisingly, he answered and was quite delighted. He then invited me over for lunch. He treated me to a most sumptuous meal in his home. At the end of lunch, he told me he had a surprise for me: the kitchen door opened and his cook, a gorgeous old Mama stepped out wearing a Super Eagles Shirt! The Archbishop said she was the local chair of the Super Eagles Supporters club. I was shocked as she reeled off all the names of the team, Jay Jay Okocha, Sunday Oliseh, Daniel Amoakachi etc! Next were white liberal scholars who deserve commendation appreciation and tribute for their courageous assault on the foundations of apartheid and the risk to personal political or political ambition or safety in a system which they themselves were beneficiaries and had everything to lose and nothing to gain. Their major step was the famous Dakar Conference which took place on July 9-12th 1987, convened to begin exploratory talks about how to engage the white regime. In attendance were such key South African intellectuals, political activists like Thabo Mbeki, Mac Maharaj, Fredrick Van Zyl Slabbert, Dr Alex Boraine, Breyten Breytenbach, Lindiwe Mabuza and a host of others. The meeting was hosted by Abdou Diouf, the Senegalese President and Danielle Mitterrand, wife of the then French President. This array of individuals and many more laid the German floor upon which Archbishop Tutu stood so firmly to reach out to the world. Archbishop Tutus position as the Archbishop of Cape Town placed him in the most strategic position to serve as a lighthouse. Again, he had great support from colleagues most of who never even get a mention today. There were people like Archbishop Stephen Naidoo, former Catholic Archbishop of Cape Town, Rev. Alan Boesak, former President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches elected in 1982. His image would dim as he was caught up in a swirl of scandals. Dr. Frank Chikane, a former member of the Black Consciousness movement of Steve Biko who later became a very significant member of both the ANC, teaming up with Cyril Ramaphosa in civil society and the Council of Churches, Msgr. Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, detained after the Soweto uprisings, former Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops Conference, former Member of Parliament and former Mayor of Tshwane, Rev. Beyers Naude and so many others. One of the major turning points that became the touchstone for sharpening the moral direction of the Churchs engagement in the struggle against apartheid was the Statement issued by some black theologians which came to be known as the Kairos Document. I have gone to this length to illustrate that the celebration of the dramatic life of Archbishop Tutu is also a celebration of courage under fire, shown in the ability of white intellectual activists, writers, priests, men and women to form a broad coalition with enough moral authority. To celebrate Tutu is to celebrate the need for us to appreciate that in moments of danger, we either stand together or we hang separately. Religious, ethnic, social class, gender and ideology have to be put aside so the real leaders can save the nation. This is a great lesson for us to learn from the legacy of Tutu. The departure of Archbishop Tutu poses a challenge to religious leaders of all faiths across our continent. African politics has been ravaged by the virus of greed of gangantuan proportions among our political, private sector and bureaucratic classes. Often, religious leaders are tempted to hide under the sacred thrones of their cathedrals with the belief that politics is dirty and that they should not risk contamination of their white linen garments. Tutu knew when to roll up the sleeves of his cassock. Often, civil society mistakenly thinks that its job is to change government. Sadly, it is often too late for them to realise that the corrupting effect of politics can smear everyone. This is why Tutu remained vigilant and warned the new generation of post-apartheid politicians to get off the gravy train of corruption! Like everywhere else, the new elite just believe that; it is our turn to eat! Tutu demonstrated to us that when man meets moment and seizes the tide as Brutus said, times can change for an individual and a society. Often, the world remembers big men and women as if they dropped from the sky fully formed. We often ignore those who helped to shape them and even place them on the pedestal of fame. Advertisements The persistence of injustice challenges us all. Tutu illustrated to us the need for Church men to ensure that their heads are not wrapped up in the clouds of obscurantism. He was grounded in the history and culture of Africa, a fact that gave his theology some resonances and electrifying relevance for the social conditions of our continent. I thank God that my paths crossed with Archbishop Tutu and each time, he left a mark. Without knowledge of the history, culture, the dreams, the frustrations, agonies, pains and hopes of your people, theologians risk irrelevance. People will find new gods! He chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but people like Alex Boraine, the Deputy Chairman and some other African intellectuals provided the direction for the work. I spent a week at the Bellagio Centre in Italy at the invitation of the late Alex Boraine mapping out the direction of post-apartheid politics under the aegis of what was then known as transitional justice. The TRC was a controversial turning point in the history of South Africa. My last physical contact with Tutu was in the course of my visit to him in Cape Town in March 2007. My visit was to invite him to join us in a spiritual event to end my work in Ogoniland scheduled for May. He had graciously agreed to meet me in his office in the evening of that date. In the course of our meeting, we chatted a lot about Africa, the role of the Church, the relevant theological options for fixing our continent, the role of theologians etc, in his modest office. He was surprised but impressed that I had encountered people like President Mbeki, Archbishop Naidoo, Beyers Naude, Alex Boraine, Frank Chikane among others and that South Africas story was not new to me. His eyes lit up when I told him that on my roll of honour, Steve Biko came tops. He looked at me and, with his mischievous laughter said; Yes, I can see you are some cheeky rebel Catholic priest! As we left, he suggested we took a photograph. I reminded him of our encounter in Leeds University many years earlier but he hardly remembered. Unfortunately, there was no camera around and I had left my phone in the hotel. He nodded and said, there will always be another time. As we rose, I said to him; Archbishop, I actually came with a camera from Nigeria, but sadly, I arrived Johannesburg only to discover to my utter shock that my baggage had been forced open and the camera and a few items stolen. I expected sympathy but Tutu broken into an ecstatic bout of laughter as if he had won something. He then looked at me and laughed even more and said in my face: I am delighted that your camera and items were stolen at Joburg by our baggage loaders. Why should you Nigerians monopolise the stealing business? Our boys are learning very fast. As we look back, we are bound to ask obvious questions as to what and how Tutu will be remembered. It is a tough question but I wish to make three short observations. First, it seemed that Tutu, as his biographer stated, loved to be loved which is in each of us. However, looking back now, the first question is how to identify his footprints on the Church community in South Africa in particular and Africa in general. Outside South Africa, Africans simply heard about the famous man but hardly recall seeing him in lecture circuits around the continent. I feel that Tutu could have done more in rallying African theologians by taking up, even if intermittently, lectures around African universities. To that extent, he has left very little direct inspiration on the theological circuits on the continent. Second, once Tutu entered the international orbit, propped by the western liberal media, he became almost inaccessible. I recall meeting a South African lady who told me that she met Tutu at an event and was so excited because her mother had worked with him and that he remembered her mother. She asked if he could come speak in their school and the answer was in the affirmative. In excitement, she told her School President of the possibility of bringing Tutu to the school on a speaking engagement. The President said the school will be ready to receive the great man any day he chose. She then tried to reach out to Tutu but his agents told her there were three conditions for getting him to speak: A private jet, a first class ticket and a sixty thousand dollar speaking fee! The doors shut. Third, the Madiba has come and gone. So has Tutu but Africas problems persist, increasing poverty and deepening inequalities. There is an urgency of now, the need for loud voices to offer a sense of moral clarity about the need to chart a better course of life for our people. We Church leaders cannot celebrate Tutu without celebrating the need to continue to confront the structural scaffolding that has allowed the continent to continue to bleed so badly. We owe him the duty to continue to raise the bar for justice and equity because until all of us are free, none of us is really free. Mathew Hassan Kukah is Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Nigeria Hafizu Kawu, the member representing Tarauni federal constituency, Kano, says Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is a saleable presidential aspirant if he chooses to contest the Presidential elections in 2023. Mr Kawu made the disclosure during a press conference on Monday in Kano. The federal lawmaker, who urged Mr Osinbajo to contest the presidential elections in 2023, said that the move will consolidate the achievements of the present administration. Osinbajo is a saleable candidate for the party whose antecedents, experience, honesty, capacity and capability speak volumes. As a close ally and former aide of the Vice President, I chose to make this briefing without his consent, yet I am doing it due to Osinbajos impressive vision for the country. His foresight in so many areas will be useful for Nigeria. He is loyal, detribalised and a man of God who I think is natural successor of President Muhammadu Buhari. I worked with him from 2015 to 2019, I know him personally and I also know his capabilities and potentials, he explained. He said the vice president if given the mandate to rule Nigeria, would ensure among other things that the rule of law is entrenched across the country due to his background in the law profession. Mr Kawu, who commended President Buhari for initiating giant projects in all parts of the country, said if given the mandate, Mr Osinbajo will complete all the ongoing projects and initiate new ones. The lawmaker commended the President Buhari-led government for the achievements recorded so far in addressing security challenges confronting the country. This administration scores very high in its fight against the insurgents, reclaiming our territories and reducing bombings nationwide. It has redeemed the hope of Nigerians, he added. (NAN) Nigerias #EndSARS mass action in October 2020 and the subsequent security force crackdown led to promises that those affected would see justice. But events since then question the governments commitment to genuine police reform. The Nigeria Police Force continues to inflict extortion and brutality on innocent citizens, and recent decisions on the report of the judicial panel set up by the Lagos State government to investigate police abuses have dampened public expectations. The #EndSARS protests called for a ban on the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of Nigerias police. Set up in the mid-1990s to combat armed robbery, SARS morphed into a force associated with harassment, extortion and extrajudicial killings of suspects. The protesters demanded that the federal government abolish SARS, provide justice to victims of police brutality and reform the police. Following additional pressure from human rights groups and local and global media, President Muhammadu Buhari dissolved SARS on October 11, 2020. Marches continued until October 20, 2020, when state security forces shot and killed peaceful protesters at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos. The federal government quickly set up state-based judicial panels to investigate police brutality and extrajudicial killings. Their scope covered all SARS victims, other police units, and the armys role in the Lekki Toll Gate shootings. The panels would include representatives of youths, students and civil society organisations and be chaired by a respected retired state high court judge. While 29 states and the Federal Capital Territory set up the panels, only Lagos State has publicised a report. And recent action by the Lagos State and federal government on a victim restitution panel report undermines public confidence in the prospects for police reform. In a white paper released after the judicial panel report, Lagos State accepted only 11 of the panels 32 recommendations. More importantly, the state government said it was unable to accept the finding that nine people died of gunshot wounds at Lekki Toll Gate on 20 October 2020. The number of deaths arising from violence unleashed on protesters is contested. Through the Attorney General, the federal government supported the controversial white paper even though the judicial panel confirmed that at least 46 unarmed protesters were either shot dead, injured by bullets, or assaulted by security forces in the Lekki incident. So, it is probably not surprising that one year after the #EndSARS protests, accountability for police brutality remains elusive. But the problem is not just about a lack of clear, high-level political support. Ensuring justice for victims, engendering deterrence and preventing future transgressions requires that accused police officers be tried and experts have reiterated their calls for such action to be taken. The process of ensuring accountability must start from within the Nigeria Police Force. Measures should go beyond the usual rhetoric without undermining ongoing reform efforts by external stakeholders. The Nigeria Police Force has various internal accountability systems. Chief among these is the Complaint Response Unit set up in 2015 to enable citizens to report police misconduct. Clear channels are provided for receiving citizens reports, including through social media. During the #EndSARS protests, the unit opened complaint lines and called on Nigerians to report erring officers. Though the system is commendable, continuing police brutality shows that it isnt enough and must be bolstered by more proactive measures. The Complaint Response Unit has also not published any reports on the action taken to hold officers accountable. Doing so could boost Nigerians trust in the ability and willingness of the police to reform. The Nigeria Police Act of 2020 provides for the establishment of the unit across state commands but implementation has been slow, largely due to the lack of institutional will and capacity. The lengthy process from registering a complaint to investigation and prosecution also leads to complainants losing interest. For justice to be served, the process must be quicker. Police reform starts with the government and requires political will from the top. But the Nigeria Police Force must also take responsibility for making changes. Nigerias police urgently need leadership that reflects a change of policing philosophy as captured in a landmark 2012 civil society panel on police reform report. This leadership should position the Nigeria Police Force as a service delivery organisation that respects human rights and works in partnership with the community. This foundational change is key to tackling police brutality and building an organisation that is impartial before the law and able to detect and investigate offences effectively. Oluwole Ojewale, ENACT Regional Organised Crime Observatory Coordinator Central Africa, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Dakar and Ruth Olofin, Acting Executive Director, CLEEN Foundation, Abuja, Nigeria (This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish). Malaysia's healthcare travel industry led by the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC), welcomed more new partnerships at the Malaysia Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were exchanged with renowned players such as International Assistance Sdn Bhd (IASB) and Hadid International Services (Hadid). These partnerships will further allow the industry to gain new customer pipelines for the industry while building brand presence for Malaysia Healthcare in Asean markets through IASB and Middle Eastern markets. "Having successfully navigated the pandemic over the past 18 months, we recognise how crucial it is to form strategic partnerships to catalyse industry recovery moving into 2022. It is key for Malaysia Healthcare to identify and join forces with partners who share the same value system and commitment towards service excellence and upholding safety standards. Thus, it is an honour for Malaysia Healthcare to collaborate with IASB and Hadid as we jointly provide access to a safe, trusted, world-class quality, and seamless patient experiences for healthcare travellers," said Mohd Daud Mohd Arif, Chief Executive Officer of MHTC. Known for delivering world-class quality healthcare services which are both easily accessible and competitively affordable, Malaysia is fortifying its healthcare offerings through its' position as the Fertility and Cardiology Hubs of Asia, Cancer Care Centre of Excellence and Hepatitis C Treatment Hub of Asia. Malaysia has been recognised as the "Destination of the Year" by the International Medical Travel Journal (IMTJ) for four years (2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020) and the "Best Country in the World for Healthcare" based on International Living's Global Retirement Index from 2015 to 2021.--TradeArabia News Service Unlike the previous year when political activities were slowed down by the lockdown occasioned by the outbreak of the COVID-19, 2021 witnessed a flurry of events within Nigerias political space. The activities were carried out by the political parties, the National Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other political actors and institutions. From the attempt to oust the interim executive of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to the leadership crisis that rocked the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the defection of some top opposition politicians, the conduct of off-season polls and by-elections, the amendment of the Electoral Act, some of the events were largely held in readiness for the 2023 General Election. Here are some of the key events that shaped the countrys political space in 2021: Defection of two PDP governors, lawmakers, others Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State, in May, dumped the PDP for the APC. He was the second governor to leave the PDP in a space of six months, David Umahi of Ebonyi State had left in late 2020, faulting the partys leadership. The two governors were joined by the Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, in June, after months of speculation. His defection and those of some state and federal lawmakers generated concerns among leaders of the PDP and further questioned the competence of its chairman, Uche Secondus. A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, was among the politicians who defected as he announced his crossover to the APC, a party he had criticised fiercely in the past. Attacks on INEC facilities In May, unknown persons attacked an office of INEC in Akwa-Ibom State, South-south Nigeria. This was followed by at least 10 other arson attacks on the commissions facilities across states in the south-east and south-south, raising fears that the trend could threaten the November 6 governorship election in Anambra and the 2023 general elections in the two regions. INEC launches portal for CVR, creates more PUs Undeterred by the coordinated attacks on its facilities in May, INEC launched an online portal for its Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise slated to resume on June 28. The exercise could not proceed as planned in the first quarter of 2020 due to COVID-19. However, upon its resumption on June 28, millions of Nigerians participated in the exercise. Before the launch of the CVR portal, INEC had announced the creation of 56,872 polling units in addition to the existing 119,974 PUs in the 36 states and Abuja. PUs in mosques, churches, palaces and other inappropriate places were also removed by the commission in the year under review. PDP Crisis: Main opposition party gets new national leadership APC and PDP grappled with internal crisis as some members took a defiant stance against their leaderships. As the exit of Messrs Ayade and Matawalle as well as other members of the PDP continued to reverberate through the country, a crisis broke out in the main opposition party. Some members of the PDP NWC resigned in expression of their dissatisfaction with the leadership style of the partys National Chairman, Mr Secondus. Despite retaining the support of his northern allies, Mr Secondus could not survive the scheme of his friend-turned-political enemy, Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and other governors who believed the removal of the national chairman would save the party ahead of the 2023 general election. After at least three different court rulings, Mr Secondus was eventually removed from office, paving the way for an acting chairman who led the PDP into its October National Convention. At the event held at Eagle Square in Abuja, delegates from across the country voted its consensus candidate, Iyorchia Ayu, as its new national chairman alongside 20 other national officers. APC Crisis: Buni must go campaigns With its membership registration and revalidation exercise trailed by complaints of irregularities in some states and the discussions around the 2023 presidential zoning gradually surfacing, the ground was getting shaky for the APC interim leadership. The Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) chaired by Governor Mala Buni of Yobe State was constituted in June 2020 by the APC led by President Muhammadu Buhari. Advertisements These realities provided leverage to question the elongated stay of the interim committee at the helm of the partys affairs and Mr Bunis right to lead the party into its congresses. Legal suits ensued as some top members called for his removal. While Mr Buni was just catching his breath from the turbulence, some APC youth under the aegis of the Progressive Youth Movement in November declared him dismissed. The group announced Mustapha Audu as the new APC national caretaker committee chairman. Although the youth were dismissed as clowns by the party leadership, their message had been received by Nigerians. Despite the APCs chaotic ward, LGA and state congresses held under his watch, Mr Buni managed to retain his seat through the support of the partys governors and state chairpersons. He is expected to lead the party into its much anticipated National Convention in February 2022. Soludo elected governor Despite security threats from the proscribed separationist group, IPOB, INEC smoothly conducted the November 6 governorship in Anambra State. Although 18 political parties ran in the poll, attention was more on four candidates: Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Andy Uba of the APC, Valentine Ozigbo of the PDP and Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressive Party (YPP). Mr Soludo of APGA won the election with 112,229 votes to defeat his closest rival, Valentine Ozigbo of the PDP who scored 53,807 votes to emerge second. Mr Ubah of the YPP came fourth with 21,261 votes. Despite its vows and rhetoric, Nigerias ruling APC had a poor outing as its candidate, Mr Uba, only garnered enough votes to clinch the third position. National Assembly passes Election Bill as Buhari declines assent Arguably the most controversial political event of the year 2021, the debates around the amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act lingered on for a better part of the year. Having been subjected to debate on the floor of the National Assembly, the bill seeking to repeal and re-enact some parts of the electoral law was eventually passed by the National Assembly in July. It took the National Assembly another four months to transmit the bill to Mr Buhari for assent on November 19. However, to the dismay of many, most especially civil society groups who had been pushing for the amendment, Mr Buhari declined assent to the bill in late December. Although the president cited insecurity, the cost of conducting direct primaries and infringement on the rights of Nigerians as his reasons for declining the bill, many believed he acted on the advice of governors. The inclusion of direct primaries as the only mode of nominating candidates by political parties had pitted the governors against the lawmakers who had supported the clause. The federal lawmakers are expected to revisit the bill upon resumption from their recess later in January. Armed persons on Monday killed at least seven family members in an attack in Sabon Birni community in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, the state government has said. The states Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, confirmed the incident to Channel Television on Tuesday morning. Mr Aruwan said the casualty figure could be higher as security agencies are working to contain the attacks and also get an update on the number of casualties. Residents said the incident occurred on Monday night when the gunmen stormed the community in large numbers and started shooting sporadically. A community leader, Bello Musa, told Channels Television that many residents of the village have fled from their homes due to fear of being attacked or killed by the marauding bandits. READ ALSO: He, however, appealed to the federal government to deploy more troops to Igabi and other troubled zones in Kaduna State in order to protect the people from further attacks. Kaduna is one of the North-west states most affected by banditry where terror groups kill and kidnap residents at will. Other states affected by such attacks are Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara as well as Niger in the North-central region, PREMIUM TIMES has reported. The attacks have continued despite repeated pledges by President Muhammadu Buhari and the deployment of more security personnel to the area. The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has urged parents, schools and other stakeholders to inculcate in children societal core values which made the difference between a brute and decent man. Mr Mohammed made the call at the cast of Death and the Kings Horseman, produced by the Founder, Terra Kulture, Bolanle Austen-Peters, on Monday in Lagos. Death and the Kings Horseman, a play by Wole Soyinka, is based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during the colonial era. We probably cannot go back living in caves; we know what technology has done; we know the value of modern medicine, but we must take it together with our core values. It is those core values that are very important. It is those core values that will make the difference between a brute and decent man. That explains why you find that when we talk about rape, incest, on all kinds of crime, it is even more prevalent in the Western world, because, here, there are certain values that are important to us that we must not let go. You must bring up your children every time to understand that there are values which they must keep, he said. He urged organisations and individuals to support the creative industry through donations in order to create job opportunities. According to him, apart from the agriculture industry, the creative industry employs the largest number of people, especially the young and women. You can imagine when they were introducing the cast and the crew and staff, imagine how many people earn their livelihoods from Austen-Peters productions. That is why we must continue to encourage creative industry, the arts the film industry, music industry, fashion, makeup, whatever makes up the craziness because after agriculture today, it employs the largest number of people and especially the young and women. So, we need to support through donations, sponsorships because this production would not have been possible without the sponsors, Mr Mohammed said. Speaking, Ms Austen-Peters said that casting the play and many other African stories helps to tell stories that are relevant to the society and people could learn from. She said: It is nice to have plays or movies that are for fun, but at the same time, we must be able to use the arts as a great driving force for change in our society. We tell meaningful stories, especially folklore; we have done Olurombi, Moremi; we did a story on Fela and his wives. The intention is that we continually bring to the fore stories that our forefathers created and taught their children values from and that is what we are trying to do with this type of story. (NAN) The land tussle in Magodo Phase 2 took a new dimension on Tuesday as the house of Hakeem Bello, an aide to former governor and the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, was marked for demolition on Tuesday morning shortly after the residents had gone out to protest the presence of police in the estate. The protest and closure of the estate gate halted vehicular movement as some residents and business owners were prevented from going to their various destinations. Mr Bellos residence and a few other houses were marked possession. The possession led to an uproar in the estate and the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has intervened. Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Bello described it as a misnormal. It shouldnt have happened and as Im speaking now the governor of the state, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu is in the estate, he said. He (Mr Sanwo-Olu) has just met the man that led the team. And have spoken with the attorney general, who was not aware and spoken to the inspector general of police, who wasnt aware of what they are doing there. It is in the process of being rectified now. Mr Bello, who insisted that his residence was marked for possession and not demolition, said that some houses were locked while some were marked. READ ALSO: Why Shangisha landlords moved to take over Magodo He said, it was marked for possession in a suit between a family and the Lagos state government. What does that have to do with me? Backstory Earlier in December, there was unrest at Magodo Phase 2 estate in Lagos, on Tuesday, when dozens of police officers and officers of the Shangisha Landlord Association invaded the estate to execute a court judgment. According to witness accounts, the police officers and members of Shangisha Landlord Association came with bulldozers in an attempt to pull down properties within the estate. The land crisis which has been ongoing for more than a month is between one Adeyiga family and the Lagos state government. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has announced new postings and redeployments of some of its senior officers. Air Force spokesperson, Edward Gabkwet, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday. He said the postings approved by the Chief of Air State, Oladayo Amao, are to reinvigorate the Services for greater performance, enhanced productivity, operational efficiency, and effective service delivery. Some of the officers affected by the new postings Ayoola Jolasinmi, an air vice marshal, who was appointed as the Chief of Defence Policy and Plans (CDPP) at Defence Headquarters (DHQ), and Charles Ohwo, an air vice marshal, who is now the Chief of Policy and Plans (COPP), HQ NAF, Abuja. Other notable senior officers posted are former Air Force spokesperson, Ibikunle Daramola who is now the AOC, GTC, Enugu and Abubakar Liman, an Air Vice Marshal who is now the spymaster (Chief of Air Intelligence). The statement said Mr Amao charged the officers to put in their best in order for the force to consolidate on the gains being recorded against all forms of criminality in the Country. The officers are expected to assume duties on or before 7 January. Read full statement: NAF APPOINTS NEW BRANCH CHIEFS, AIR OFFICERS COMMANDING, OTHER SENIOR OFFICERS Postings and redeployments in the military are routine exercises intended to reinvigorate the Services for greater performance, enhanced productivity, operational efficiency, and effective service delivery. It is in view of the foregoing that the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, has approved the appointment of new Branch Chiefs, Air Officers Commanding (AOCs), Commandants of tri-Service and NAF institutions as well as Unit Commanders. Among the newly appointed Branch Chiefs are Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Ayoola Jolasinmi, erstwhile Air Officer Commanding (AOC), Air Training Command (ATC), Kaduna who is now the Chief of Defence Policy and Plans (CDPP) at Defence Headquarters (DHQ), former Chief of Aircraft Engineering at Headquarters NAF (HQ NAF), AVM Musa Muktar moves to DHQ as Chief of Defence Transformation and Innovation, (CDTI), former AOC Logistics Command (LC), Ikeja, AVM Charles Ohwo, is now the Chief of Policy and Plans (COPP), HQ NAF, Abuja, AVM Jackson Yusuf, former AOC Special Operations Command (SOC), Bauchi is now appointed Chief of Training and Operations (CTOP), HQ NAF, while AVM Abubakar Liman heads the Air Intelligence Branch as the Chief of Air Intelligence, HQ NAF. Also appointed are AVM Emmanuel Wonah, former Managing Director NAF Investments Limited (NAFIL) as Chief of Aircraft Engineering (CAcE), HQ NAF, AVM Raimi Salami is now redeployed as the Chief of Communications Information Systems (CCIS) HQ NAF, while AVM Olatokunbo Adesanya has been appointed as Chief of Logistics (CLOG), HQ NAF. Furthermore, AVM Aliyu Bello, erstwhile AOC Mobility Command (MC), Yenagoa is now the Chief of Standards and Evaluation (COSE), HQ NAF, AVM Nelson Calmday is to take over as the Chief of Administration (COA), HQ NAF and AVM Paul Jemitola is now the Air Secretary, HQ NAF. In the same vein, former Commander 081 Pay and Accounting Group, Ikeja, AVM John Ochomma is now the Chief of Accounts and Budget (CAB), HQ NAF, AVM Idi Lubo, erstwhile AOC Tactical Air Command (TAC) proceeds to Lagos as Commandant Armed Forces Resettlement Centre (AFRC), AVM Anthony Tuwase takes over as the Commandant, Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji while former AOC Ground Training Command (GTC), Enugu, AVM Mohammed Yakubu is the new Commandant of Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Kaduna just as AVM Sayo Olatunde is now the Commandant Air Force War College (AFWC), Makurdi. The newly appointed AOCs are AVM Abraham Adole, AOC TAC, Makurdi, AVM Tajudeen Yusuf, AOC SOC, Bauchi, AVM Iboro Etukudo, AOC MC, Yenagoa, AVM Nanjul Kumzhi, AOC ATC, Kaduna, while the former Director of Public Relations and Information, NAF, AVM Ibikunle Daramola is now the AOC, GTC, Enugu and AVM Hassan Abubakar who is now the AOC LC, Ikeja. Also appointed are AVM Emmanuel Eze as the Group Managing Director NAF Holding Company, Air Commodore Esen Efanga now the Commander Air Task Force Operation HADIN KAI while Group Captain Dogari Apyeyak is now the Air Component Commander, Operation Thunder Strike. While congratulating the new appointees, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, charged them to continually task and explore their critical thinking mind-sets towards proffering workable solutions and strategies to be deployed against the various security challenges in the Country. This, the CAS noted, is imperative particularly at this period that the NAF, in tandem with sister Services and other security agencies, are consolidating on the gains being recorded against all forms of criminality in the Country. The newly appointed and redeployed senior officers are expected to assume their new offices on or before Friday, 7 January 2022. Edward Gabkwet Air Commodore Director of Public Relations & Information Nigerian Air Force 4 January 2021 An aide to President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday declined to say which government department or official is handling the report of the forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The aide, Ita Enang, who is a senior special assistant to the president on Niger Delta Affairs, said to disclose where the report is or who is working on it at this time would amount to speaking too much on the affairs and the internal workings of government. I will not specifically tell you where it is. But I will simply answer this the documents were submitted to Mr President through the Attorney General of the Federation and it was in the public glare, and that is the only thing I can say, said Mr Enang who was speaking as a guest on Channels TV programme, Politics Today. Mr Enang, a former senator from Akwa Ibom State, did not disclose much about the audit report despite the attempt by the programme anchor, Kayode Okikiolu, to prod him to do so. Mr Okikiolu said to the presidential aide that Nigerians did not know much about the forensic audit which he (Okikiolu) said a lot (of it) is being shrouded in secrecy. Mr Enang appealed for patience, saying the report would have to go through the official process and a whitepaper issued on it. He agreed with the programme anchor that Nigerians deserve the right to know those responsible for the underdevelopment of the Niger Delta region. He said the roles played by various individuals and organisations in the affairs of the NDDC were already known to the public during investigations and hearings conducted by the auditors. At least, in the course of the public hearings during the forensic audit, questions were asked. In the course of the foreign audit, persons went to different project sites and most of them were done in the glare of the public. In the course of the forensic audit, the names of contractors who were handling several projects were mentioned. In the course of the audit, most of the projects that were awarded which have not taken off the ground were mentioned. In the course of the audit, the payments that were made for the quantum of road and the extent of what was done and the outstanding not done for which money may have been paid was also stated, he said. Continuing, Mr Enang said: I want to say that there was some level of caution at a point by the Niger Delta Development Commission, starting from the era of Barrister Dan-Abia, followed by Obong Nsima Ekere, they were not paying mobilisation for projects. When they give you a job, you will have to source for money and do the job and after that you will be paid on milestones done. So, under those tenure there was not much money paid for work not done completely, but there were other issues that were raised which have been examined and I believe that the forensic audit report has responded to it and the whitepaper may address all of that. Mr Enang reiterated President Buharis promise to recover the funds looted from the NDDC. We will be able to pursue, overtake and recover all. We will be able to recover lost grounds, Mr Enang said. NDDC plagued by corruption, maladministration NDDC was established some 21 years ago by President Olusegun Obasanjos administration as an intervention agency to speed up the development of the oil-rich Niger Delta region, but it has been plagued by corruption and maladministration. Some officials of NDDC are known to have connived with contractors to steal the commissions funds, while thousands of abandoned NDDC projects litter various communities in the Niger Delta, and the residents of the region continue to live in poverty and polluted environments. The forensic audit initiated by Mr Buharis administration had raised hope of some cleansing in the commission. The audit report was submitted in September, last year, to Mr Buhari by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio. We shall ensure every recoverable kobo, is recovered for use in service of the people of this region and those found culpable shall face the law, the president said recently of the audit report. Four inmates have died at the Nigerian Correctional Centre, Kosere Area, Ile-Ife, during an attempted jailbreak. A top security officer, who spoke on anonymity, made the disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ile-Ife on Tuesday. The official said that some inmates had planned to escape during the morning sanitation and while attempting to flee the centre, injured a warder. He explained that the inmates were about to force their way out when security men repelled them, killing four of them in the process, while others who wanted to escape, ran back. When contacted, Sola Adeotan, Spokesperson, Osun Command of the correctional service, said that it was a rumour as there was no information on the incident. However, the Police Public Relations Officer, Osun Command, Yemisi Opalola, confirmed the incident. He, however, but pleaded for more time to get the details. (NAN) I am urging Mr President to leverage on the powers and influence of his exalted office to take action(s) or cause action to be taken with regards to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and other salient areas on our way in moving forward as a democratic country. President Muhammadu Buharis new year message on January 1 spurred me to itemise my own new year requests to him through this platform. Let me start by saying barka da sabon shekara 2022 (happy new year 2022) to the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Mr Presidents New Year message broached many salient areas like security, the economy, anti-corruption efforts, COVID-19, the Petroleum Industry Act and even the catalysing of the potentials of our youths through information and communications technology (ICT). No unbiased mind can deny him credit for the achievements in some of these areas. However, one pivotal subject which the presidential message failed to touch one is ELECTION. I mean election that is conducted freely, fairly, transparently and credibly. We should remember that election is an amalgam of activities that characterise and constitute the democratic process. Credible election and democracy are two sides of the same coin. Without free, fair, transparent and credible elections, democracy would lose its best allure, wither and eventually die. God forbid that our electoral system or democracy, which is already suffering serious crises of confidence, should suffer such fate. It was a notable omission for the president not to have dropped some reassuring words about the coming polls and the preparations for them. Given the widespread misgivings about Mr Presidents recent denial of assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill for the unprecedented fourth time since 2018, it would have been apt for him to utilise the opportunity of his 2022 new year statement to shed more light on that decision and plans on reaching a middle ground with the National Assembly on the matter, ahead of the coming polls. Unlike the scenario in the eighth Assembly, reining in the ninth Assembly under its current leadership has never posed a serious challenge for the presidency. Mr Presidents silence on the pending bill creates room for unnecessary anxiety and speculations in the polity. Here is an example. There is suspicion that some persons close to Mr President might have been advising him not to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill for fear of his party losing the next election. It would serve the presidents image better to discountenance the counsel of such persons (if any), like that of Ahithophel in the Bible, and focus on the bigger picture a stable democracy anchored on a free, fair, transparent and credible electoral system. The fact that neither President Olusegun Obasanjo nor Goodluck Jonathan, who governed on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), bequeathed a credible electoral system leaves the incumbent president with an opportunity to engrave his name in gold by rising above the alleged partisan and short-sighted disposition of his predecessors. Many Nigerians will not deny that as far as the next general elections are concerned, 2022 that we are in now, is the critical year of decision. Politically speaking, it is an action packed and potentially explosive year. For instance, in less than 365 days whatever haze concerning who would succeed the incumbent as the president of Africas most populous country would have been considerably cleared. Posterity will not spare the president if he allows this opportunity to slip again by not closing ranks with the National Assembly to ensure that the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is perfected and signed into law. He should rise to the awareness that the buck stops at his desk on this matter. He is the one to be judged by history and not the Ahithophels on the corridors of power, some of who may join in lampooning him after leaving office in May 2023. Last line, I am urging Mr President to leverage on the powers and influence of his exalted office to take action(s) or cause action to be taken with regards to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and other salient areas on our way in moving forward as a democratic country. Many Nigerians will not deny that as far as the next general elections are concerned, 2022 that we are in now, is the critical year of decision. Politically speaking, it is an action packed and potentially explosive year. For instance, in less than 365 days whatever haze concerning who would succeed the incumbent as the president of Africas most populous country would have been considerably cleared. By December this year, the presidential and National Assembly candidates of all the participating political parties would have emerged and their credentials duly submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters, Abuja. Beneath the parapet, the race for the presidential ticket of APC and the struggle of the contending forces for the soul of the ruling party has left it on the tip of an implosion, unless salvaged through extraordinary brinkmanship. Whether Mr President will be the Leviathan equipped and disposed to perform that role or the undertaker of a crumbling edifice is left to be seen in the coming weeks. As a matter of fact, INEC has already fixed February 18, 2023 as the date of the next general (presidential and National Assembly) elections. And based on the provisions of Section 31 of the Electoral Act, political parties are required to forward their list of candidates to INEC, not later than 60 days before the date of general elections. Impliedly, all political parties fielding candidates for the presidential and National Assembly elections in the February 18, 2023 general elections must submit the list of their candidates to the commission latest on 18th December this year (2022). As I write, the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has only tentatively and imprecisely fixed next month (February) as the period to hold her national convention to elect substantive party officials to run its affairs. Since June 25, 2020, Yobe State governor, Mr Mai Mala Buni has been holding forte as the APC Caretaker National Chairman. He currently doubles as the Chairman of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of APC. By next month, the Buni committee would be 20 months at the helm of the ruling party. Beneath the parapet, the race for the presidential ticket of APC and the struggle of the contending forces for the soul of the ruling party has left it on the tip of an implosion, unless salvaged through extraordinary brinkmanship. Whether Mr President will be the Leviathan equipped and disposed to perform that role or the undertaker of a crumbling edifice is left to be seen in the coming weeks. Nosike Ogbuenyi contributed this piece from Abala-Uno in Ndokwa-East LGA area of Delta State. He can be reached via nosikeogbuenyi@gmail.com Judicial capture occurs through both decisions and omissions by and beyond the judiciary. In the week following my article on The Court that killed accountability, I have witnessed a deluge of hundreds of complaints, testimonies and mails, which clearly indicate that the people take notice but have lost hope in the capacity of Nigerias judiciary to salvage itself. If there is not a special place in hell for politically corrupt judges, there should at least be a Magnitsky list. -Geoffrey Robertson, QC, Bad People and How to be Rid of Them: A Plan for Human Rights, p. 228 (2021) 2021 ended on a frantic note in Nigeria. Despite heated developments, politics, troubling trends in the economy and a deepening insecurity outlook, the significant incidents with long term effects took place in the judiciary, where a raft of developments in the last quarter of the year appeared designed to lock in strategic leverage for various entrenched interests in Nigerias ruling classes. Across the country, politicians and judges appear to have reached accommodation on the terms for dividing up the country and allocating it among themselves. In the last quarter, senior judges and politicians were handing out judicial offices to their spouses and children as end-of-year hampers. One senator had his young daughter sworn in as a judge. A former governor had one of his children sworn in as a High Court judge in Abuja. Back in his home state, another of his children was sworn in as judge by a governor whose wife is also a judge, joining the mother, herself also a judge among the judicial figures who make the appointments. Not to be outdone, a serving governor swore in one of his serving wives as High Court judge. A presiding judge in one court had his wife sworn in as a judge in another. He was one of many judicial figures to benefit from what has become an allocation of judicial preferments among themselves. As their families celebrated, their supporters took to the airwaves and the digital media to normalise these abnormalities, telling us that in Nigeria judicial skills and temperament naturally reside mostly in the bedrooms of politicians. Nigerias judiciary appears deep in the throes of being reshaped as an estate defined by filial and genital relations, to facilitate transactions for political power. This is called judicial capture. As judges now have the casting vote in Nigerias elections, ambitious politicians have decided they must own the judges. Judicial capture occurs through both decisions and omissions by and beyond the judiciary. In the week following my article on The Court that killed accountability, I have witnessed a deluge of hundreds of complaints, testimonies and mails, which clearly indicate that the people take notice but have lost hope in the capacity of Nigerias judiciary to salvage itself. In the shadows of this despondency, the project of judicial capture has gathered pace. If the quantity of the feedback was surprising, their variety in provenance was astonishing. Among the respondents were judges (serving and retired), Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), law teachers, court administrators and users, ordinary citizens. If these provide any evidence, Nigerias judiciary is in a profoundly dispiriting death spiral and the consequences for the country are incalculable. The Supreme Court is now the judicial Purgatory of the Nigerian legal process. Many of my respondents in the last week from the practicing Bar complained about interminable delays in getting their cases assigned for hearing. In many cases, they testified, they have to pay facilitation to get cases assigned a hearing date. Important cases suffer interminable delays, while senior political insiders inexplicably always get to shunt the queue of judicial dysfunction. Just as the proverbial fish rots from the head, the place where the most serious manifestations of the problem with Nigerias judiciary begins is the Supreme Court. It is the most powerful court in the land. It is also presided over by the most powerful judicial figure in the country, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). The CJN is not one job. It is a totem to judicial capture. S/he heads the judiciary; the Supreme Court; the National Judicial Council (NJC); the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC); the Board of the National Judicial Institute (NJI); and even the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC), apart from being a life member of the National Council of State. Each of these is a statutory role and each is a different job. The accretion of power and influence in the person occupying the office at any point in time is quite simply dangerous but this arrangement seems to serve well both the judges and the politicians, who are best placed to change it. When it did not serve the interests of the politicians well the last time, they contrived extra-constitutional means of terminating the penultimate occupant of the position and enlisted beneficiaries in the judiciary as allies. The Supreme Court is now the judicial Purgatory of the Nigerian legal process. Many of my respondents in the last week from the practicing Bar complained about interminable delays in getting their cases assigned for hearing. In many cases, they testified, they have to pay facilitation to get cases assigned a hearing date. Important cases suffer interminable delays, while senior political insiders inexplicably always get to shunt the queue of judicial dysfunction. Take, for instance, the case of the recent national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Uche Secondus. In August 2021, the High Court of Rivers State ordered Secondus to stop parading himself as the chairman of the party. An impressive four months later, the case had passed through the Court of Appeal and was ready for argument in the Supreme Court. By the time of the initial decision of the Rivers State High Court in the Secondus case on August 23, 2021, the appeal of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (no less), number SC.794C/2019, had been pending for over two years before the Supreme Court, against the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case concerning Hyeladzira Nganjiwa. A judge of the Federal High Court, Nganjiwa had been charged with several counts of corruption before the High Court of Lagos State. At his instance, the Court of Appeal stopped the High Court from conducting the trial, claiming that a judge cannot be tried for the crime of judicial corruption unless the NJC has first disciplined the judge for that. Of course, if the NJC were to so discipline a judge, you can be sure that a bright chap called a SAN will argue that prosecuting the same person thereafter for the same act would be a breach of the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy and you will a fool to bet against some equally inspired bench affirming such an argument. I digress though. On August 6, 2019, the Federal Government filed its brief of argument in the Supreme Court. Nganjiwas lawyers filed their response on December 14, 2020. Seven months before Secondus case went to the High Court on January 11, 2021, the Federal Government filed its reply to Nganjiwas brief. The case was ripe to be set down for argument. Yet, the Supreme Court managed to prioritise the PDPs party political case over a criminal prosecution for judicial corruption in which the sovereign is the appellant. Nganjiwa, meanwhile, remains a judge and the appeal goes nowhere. Good lawyers will not be appointed to the judiciary because they are considered to be independent or fair-minded, exactly the qualifications that the job needs The cause of setting Nigerias judiciary aright is too important to be abandoned to the incest of judges and their political patrons. Its time for citizens interested to make mutual cause of fighting the crime of judicial capture in Nigeria. As evidence of the mutual enterprise that is judicial capture, this kind of anomaly has become so normal in Nigeria that no one complains, not even a Federal Government installed on a mandate to fight corruption and enhance the credibility of the institutions for fighting it, including the judiciary. Some of my respondents, senior lawyers who have prosecuted cases involving charges of high level corruption, told me how, as they prosecuted some well-placed legal and judicial figures on serious charges of judicial corruption, judges on some of the highest courts in the land called them to encourage them to do a bad job, so that the prosecutions would fail. When the prosecutions failed to fail, higher courts invented incredulous excuses to set the accused free, without acquitting any of them or ordering their retrial. Their goal was to decapitate the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) because judicial capture does not need the distraction of a capable anti-corruption agency. It is little wonder that the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) reported in 2020 that in the two years from 2018 to 2020, at least N9.4bn in bribery exchanged hands in the judicial sector. No one can be brought to account for this because the judges will not allow it. As conservative a figure as it may sound, an annual average of N4.7 billion makes judicial corruption a very lucrative industry in Nigeria, well ahead of kidnapping and banditry in its profitability, where the Council on Foreign Relations estimates average annual earnings in ransom over the four years from 2016 to 2020 to be the equivalent of just under N1.5 billion. The reality, of course, is almost assuredly well north of the figures computed by the ICPC. It is idle to believe that this state of affairs will be changed by the same Nigerian judges and politicians for whom capturing the judiciary has become a profitable mutual protection enterprise. Many of the lawyers who suffer the adverse consequences of this state of affairs sadly rely on it for their livelihoods and cannot be heard to carp too loudly against it. For all the mutual benefit that the insiders enjoy, however, many more are excluded. Hardworking and honest judges lose preferment that they are eminently qualified for. Good lawyers will not be appointed to the judiciary because they are considered to be independent or fair-minded, exactly the qualifications that the job needs. Citizens with genuine and urgent cases will die before their cases get a look-in. The cause of setting Nigerias judiciary aright is too important to be abandoned to the incest of judges and their political patrons. Its time for citizens interested to make mutual cause of fighting the crime of judicial capture in Nigeria. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a lawyer and teacher, can be reached at chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu. Some weeks before the 2014 National Conference rose to bid farewell to officials and delegates, the Lamido Adamawa, Alhaji Muhammadu Barkindo Aliyu Mustapha sent a letter to him. It was dated June 27. The Lamido indicated that the Adamawa Emirate Council would like to honour the officer with a chieftaincy title. Six qualities endeared him to the Emirate, according to its custodian: patience, expertise, fairness, fearlessness, justness and firmness. In the letter, Alhaji Mustapha noted: I have observed your patience, expertise in handling of the National Conference, fairness, fearlessness, justness and firmness during the three months I have been participating in the plenary of the Conference. These are things which informed my decision to honour you with the traditional title of Hasken Adamawa, which means the Light of Adamawa. With expressed humility and profound sense of appreciation the man received the Lamidos letter; and accepted the emirates honour with pride. Few weeks after delegates must have all settled in their homes, and some completed their Ramadan obligations, the Adamawa Emirate went agog. And Akinwande Bolaji Akinyemi, professor of political science, a man from Osun State, South West Nigeria, became the Light of Adamawa. He was born on January 4, 1942. January 4, 2022, makes him 80 years old. He is now an octogenarian. Conferment of titles in Nigeria often comes with exaggerated platitudes. Usually done to confer status and justify the action. The conferrer usually paints the conferee in glowing colours, even if not real. Not this one! Those associated with Prof Akinyemi or have encountered him, no matter how brief, would corroborate the Lamidos observation about the erudite scholar and celebrated diplomat. He is not enamoured of titles. He is used to them; and so would not be unnecessarily excited about an addition. Titles rain on him. It would be a wonder if he is able to reel off-hand all the academic, professional social and cultural titles he has garnered in his 80 years of sojourn on earth. The fact remains explicitly that the man has traversed the global space and has left imprints that easily recommend him for acknowledgement, appreciation and recognition. The 2014 National Conference was one of such stops where he pulled off a brilliant performance which almost everyone acknowledged and commended. When that offer by the Lamido was announced at plenary, it received a standing ovation. That was a clear endorsement. Diligence has become his signature. He stamps it everywhere he goes. That is why he comes highly recommended for tasking assignments, even in retirement. If Prof Akinyemi was not at the 2014 National Conference, the story would certainly not have been that exciting. He acted the bridge-builder at every contentious intersection and worked with the few real patriots among the delegates to see that situations never tipped over. As would be expected at convocations where tribesmen jostle for relevance, an intermediary often gets a black eye. He did get; a number of times. That notwithstanding, his eyes remained on the ball. Even at the level of the Conference leadership, his role was obvious; but much more than that, his mien was soothing. Whenever there was a disagreement, misunderstanding or jostling for power, he would step in to interpret the mandate and offer a leeway. He is a man of monumental sagacity. He would acknowledge the chairman, the Hon Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi as a man of integrity, a man with an open mind. He gives credit to the leader and tells anyone who cares to know that we all owe the success of the Conference to Justice Kutigi. True, Justice Kutigi who died on October 21, 2018 was also an intellectual giant in his field Law. He retired after serving as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). He was very jovial and patient, but could not stand those who wear arrogance as a virtue. Whenever he was tempted to feel feverish, Professor Akinyemi would step in with a balm. And the situation would be arrested. Notwithstanding, and where necessary, Professor Akinyemi could be very insistent on those things he is passionate about; even if standing alone. Rather than accede just for the sake of it, he tries to convince and buy over. He is neither interested in popular narratives nor dispositions; he interrogates issues and makes his decisions based on reality, fact and commonsense. He disagrees with his friends, colleagues and compatriots on some very critical subject matters. They sometimes assume it is betrayal or that he has sold out. But you need to convince him to the contrary. That is what he does also. Convince and convict. So the Lamidos observations on him were real. No exaggerations. Not patronising! He sits conveniently on any seat and delivers with intellect and panache. He is calm, cerebral, sociable; but very firm. In his consciousness, frowns jump in between smiles. He often begins with a welcoming smile; but when taken for granted, he frowns; and then returns with a reassuring smile. I learnt it is the nature of diplomats, but this one is a diplomat extraordinaire. He wears trust like his trade-mark bow-tie. He makes friends easily. Although he is very jovial, patient and tactical, he does not welcome betrayal with hugs. In the common parlance, it could be said that the name Professor Bolaji Akinyemi rings a bell. That bell started ringing since when he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (cum laude) from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. in 1964. He moved over to the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, U.S.A. where he obtained a Master of Arts degree in International Affairs (1965) and then to Trinity College, Oxford where he bagged the D. Phil. (Oxon) in 1969. Ever since, the bell has been ringing. Now he is 80; and the bell is still ringing. Lest I forget, he is an Igbobi College old boy. It is an indisputable fact that Akinyemi is one of Nigerias most celebrated intellectuals. His foray traverses spheres, platforms and subject matters. His imprints are on the sands of the major continents of the world; and in some of the most prestigious institutions across the globe. Back home, he is a familiar name in institutions academic, corporate, community and governance. He has served in both the military and civilian political dispensations. He has led several diplomatic shuttles to countries and world bodies on behalf of his country and global institutions. His citation is intimidating. His feathers are legion colourful plumes that would make the Peacock green with envy. He was the chairman of the National Think Tank (2007); member, Presidential Committee for the Resolution of Conflicts in Nigeria (2013); member, Presidential Electoral Reform Committee (2007 2008) and Minister of External Affairs (1985 December 1987) during which period he initiated the Technical Aids Corp. That initiative saw Nigerian professionals being sent abroad for volunteer work; to promote the countrys image and status as a major contributor to Third World development. He was the Director General, Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos (1975 1983) and in his time the Institute became a household name bubbling with research and institutional activities. He was the deputy chairman of the 2019 National Conference, a body set up by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to address weighty issues that have over the years been canvassed by the different stakeholders, but which were routinely ignored. It was an important national project aimed at realistically examining and genuinely resolving long standing hurdles to national cohesion and harmonious development of the country. It was to discuss the future and particularly the unity of the Nigerian federation. He has walked the academic corridors severally and gallantly. He has been a Visiting Professor in African Studies, DePauw University, Indiana, U.S.A (1960 1970); Instructor in Politics of Developing Nations, North-Eastern University, Boston, U.S.A. (1965 66); Visiting Professor in Political Science, Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S.A (1970); Lecturer and later Senior Lecturer in Political Science, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1970 1975); Visiting Professor, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva (1977); Visiting Professor, Diplomacy Training Programme, University of Nairobi, Kenya (1977); Regents Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles, California (February 1979); Visiting Overseas Scholar, St Johns College, Cambridge (1984); and Professor of Political Science, University of Lagos (1983 1986). He has held more than 10 international consultancy posts and published more than 15 books and 42 articles, among others. He is not done yet. Up till now he runs an online weekly interactive programme truMyeyes with Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi (Thursdays) during which he shares his views on various international events. On January 9, the Ijseha Society will in Lagos be hosting a lecture in his honour with the topic: Prof. Bolaji A. Akinyemi @ 80. The lecture, which will also feature a book presentation, is to be delivered by former Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Henry Odein Ajumogobia. Prof. Akinyemi is a Life member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, England and Fellow, Centre for International Studies, University of Cambridge, England (1988 1990). He holds the national honour of Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR). Being a bright and cheerful fellow, it has become part of his routine to be sending colourful flowers to his friends and colleagues every Sunday morning with the inscription Have a good Sunday and a blessed week. So, Prof, this is also wishing you a happy birthday and a deserving triumphal entry into the octogenarian club. Akpandem James (FNGE) was in charge of Media and Communication at the 2014 National Conference. The Oman India Fertiliser Company (Omifco) has signed three handling agreements with local companies under the supervision of the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates, Madayn. This is in line with the efforts undertaken by Omans Sur Industrial City to explore business opportunities for the local SMEs with leading companies. This also comes within Omifcos efforts to provide new opportunities for the local companies and enhance partnership and integration approaches. Along the same lines, Sur Industrial City aims at presenting effective growth enablers for the local companies by exploring collaboration opportunities with major companies. These efforts will allow the local SMEs to deliver products and services with required specifications and standards to meet the needs of the leading companies operating in the industrial city, which will eventually contribute to their growth and create job opportunities for the Omani cadres.-- TradeArabia News Service Sandy Onor, the senator representing Central Cross River District, has said that Cross River has never had zoning as a tradition in its politics. Mr Onor said this at a press briefing on Monday in Calabar. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the discussion on zoning of the governorship of the state in the 2023 election has become controversial, with some politicians kicking against it. However, there are others like Governor Ben Ayade who are of the opinion that power should return to Cross River South after going round the three senatorial districts. Senator Onor said in the 1999 governorship election, there were candidates from the southern and northern districts of the state, but that someone from the south won. He said candidates from the central and northern districts contested in 2007, and that someone from the central won, adding that it became inevitable that in 2015 the position was left for the north. In the forthcoming election, whoever is the best candidate, the votes will show, nobody made the Southern Senatorial District the first born of Cross River politics. Today, I want to be governor of this state that I have given so much to and some people are hiding under the label of geography to spew ethnicity. This is a beautiful state, our people share commonalities that have deep historical roots, so, we must protect our people from geo-ethnic division, he said. READ ALSO: Speaking further, the senator said he had heard all forms of stories that he was being sponsored by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. He said every governor that has emerged in Cross River has had some form of support from outside, his case was not peculiar. If you want to be a governor, you must have friends across the state and at the national (level) and if you want to be the president, you must have some international links and contacts. Every politician contesting one position or the other in the 2023 has support. Wike has put his resources maximally in the survival of the Peoples Democratic Party and I am very proud of him, he said. (NAN) The residents of Magodo Phase II Estate in Lagos are protesting the presence of over 50 armed police officers in their environment. The management on Tuesday Morning shut the estate gates leading to the disruption of vehicular movement. Many vehicle owners were stranded as they could not exit the estate to their various destinations. The residents bore placards to express their displeasure Lagos Attorney-General prosecute those involved in illegal invasion of Magodo Phase 2 you promised, Magodo Phase 2 has been under siege by the IGPs anti-riot police squad for three weeks, Lagos, our C of O is genuine. Earlier in December, there was unrest at Magodo Phase 2 estate in Lagos, on Tuesday, when dozens of police officers and officers of the Shangisha Landlord Association invaded the estate to execute a court judgment. According to witness accounts, the police officers and members of Shangisha Landlord Association came with bulldozers in an attempt to pull down properties within the estate. Speaking with the press, the estate chairman, Bajo Osinubi, said more than 50 police officers have been in the estate for two weeks. There are no cases of kidnapping, rioting, but why are they still here? We want them out of our estate, Mr Osinubu said. We want to live in peace. This is a business between Lagos State government and the Adeyiga family. We are under siege, the police have been here for two weeks, they came in December to take possession of properties on behalf of Adeyiga family and others. We are victims, even inside our own homes. The police have been here. They are very restless. Just imagine there is an altercation between a resident and the police. The easiest way to avoid any of such scenarios is to detach the police officers back to Abuja. Mr Osinubi said he spoke to the state governor on Monday and has promised to address the situation. The Commissioner of Police last week sent the DCP Ops to supervise the withdrawal of troops but they claimed they are yet to get a signal. We learnt the police were drafted from Abuja, he said. About four to five years ago, they did it, and now again this year, they want to do it. Attempts to reach the Lagos police spokesman, Adekunle Ajisebutu, were unsuccessful as phone calls were not answered. Following the invasion by armed police officers and planned demolition, the Lagos governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Tuesday visited the Magodo estate and ordered a stand down. He said a committee has been set up to resolve the crisis. Mr Sanwo-Olu also scheduled a meeting with all parties involved in the land crisis on Wednesday by 11 a.m. On Tuesday morning, many residents of the estate protested the continuous presence of armed police officers. The protest and closure of the estate gate grounded vehicular movement as some residents and business owners were prevented from going to their various destinations. Stand-down order Mr Sanwo-Olu, while addressing journalists, ordered the stand-down pending the outcome of the meeting with the parties involved police, judgement creditors, residents and government officials. First is to wish all of you a happy New Year. It is a very difficult one to start the year like this and it is because of the importance that we see to the lack of proper information that I had to take up this assignment myself, Mr Sanwo-Olu said. When the first attempt happened about two weeks ago, I intervened and if you remembered very well, the action was immediate and there were no incidents again and throughout the festive period, we had started communication. The governor said he has spoken extensively with the inspector general of police and the attorney general over the matter. No more harassment Mr Sanwo-Olu urged the residents to go about their various activities and be rest assured that nobody would be harassed and no property would be trampled upon, pending the outcome of the meeting All of you have been wonderful, so, let us continue to maintain the peace that we have in Magodo and I can assure you that none of your houses would be marked again and the ones that have been marked, we will try and see how we will sort it out because war doesnt take anybody anywhere, it is on the table that we will all resolve it, he said. I want to appeal to all of you to stand down and go back to your houses as nothing will happen to anyone as I am here to ensure that Magodo continues to remain in peace and safety for our residents. Whatever property that has been locked would be opened as everything would be resolved. Backstory Earlier in December, there was unrest at Magodo Phase 2 estate in Lagos, on Tuesday, when dozens of police officers and officers of the Shangisha Landlord Association invaded the estate to execute a court judgment. According to witness accounts, the police officers and members of the Shangisha Landlord Association came with bulldozers in an attempt to pull down properties within the estate. Although President Muhammadu Buhari signed Nigerias 2022 budget into law on Friday, he raised reservations about some of its content, particularly the worrisome changes made by lawmakers. Mr Buharis remarks were contained in a statement by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, to announce the presidents signing of the budget. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the president signed the budget at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday. The signing of the budget came two weeks after the Senate and House of Representatives passed the bill presented by the president a few weeks earlier. The lawmakers had approved a total expenditure of N17.1 trillion against the N16.3 trillion proposed by the president in October. Over N700 billion was added to the proposed appropriation. The National Assembly also increased the Oil Benchmark Price from $57 to $62. The increase, they said, was to reflect the current market values of the oil barrel in the international market. Nigerias daily oil production rate was pegged at 1.86 million per barrel. In the budget, statutory transfer was put at N869.6 billion, debt service at N3.88 trillion, recurrent (non-debt) expenditure at N6.9 trillion and capital expenditure at N5.46 trillion. Plattsburgh, NY (12901) Today Rain showers this morning with overcast skies during the afternoon hours. High 56F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Overcast. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 47F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Participants include bp ventures, a current StoreDot investor and active partner, underpinning its purpose of reimaging energy for people and our planet. In addition, Golden Energy Global Investment Ltd., a wholly owned company by EVE Energy's founder, Dr. Liu Jincheng, will be one of the participants in the funding round. The funds raised by this round will be used to complete StoreDot's research and development for its silicon-dominant extreme fast charge (XFC) battery cells for electric vehicles and continue its progress on Extreme Energy Density cells based on Solid State technology for future deployment. This funding also enables the company to ramp up its California-based R&D center and commence scale up operations in key global locations, in readiness for full mass production of cells in 2024. Dr Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot CEO: "This strategic round of funding, with principal investors coming from leading automotive, energy and technology companies, is a huge vote of confidence in StoreDot, its XFC battery technologies, our long-term product roadmap and our world-class technology and innovation that are all aimed to solve the Range Anxiety of EV drivers. "We are now properly funded to take our silicon-dominant XFC cells to the end of the R&D phase and into scale-up in readiness for mass production in 2024 for global vehicle manufacturers. It will help overcome the major barrier to EV ownership charging times providing a 50% reduction, and, ultimately, helping us all achieve a zero-emissions, clean world." Pham Thuy Linh, Deputy CEO, VinFast: "Enhancing customer experience is our top priority. We have been making dedicated efforts in research, connecting global intelligence by forming partnerships with and investing in breakthrough technology companies, especially in EV battery such as StoreDot and its extreme fast charging (XFC) proprietary technology. "StoreDot which is led by gifted scientists and experienced entrepreneurs, along with strong support from VinFast and other strategic investors, is believed to gear up for mass production globally in a very near term." StoreDot is in advanced talks with leading global car makers for integration of its XFC technology into their future models. The Company demonstrates a clear technology roadmap including its next generation XED, extreme energy density solid state cells with planned mass production in 2028. J.P. Morgan acted as Sole Placement Agent on the transaction. About StoreDot: StoreDot is a pioneer and leader of extreme fast charging (XFC) batteries that overcome the critical barrier to mainstream EV adoption range and charging anxiety. The company has revolutionized the conventional Li-ion battery by designing and synthesizing proprietary organic and inorganic compounds, making it possible to fully charge an EV in just five minutes the same time it takes to refuel a conventional combustion engine vehicle. StoreDot's battery technology is optimized for best driver experience with XFC in Li-ion batteries, as well as future technologies for extreme energy-density (XED). StoreDot's strategic investors include VinFast, bp, Daimler, Samsung Ventures and TDK. In 2019, the company achieved a world first by demonstrating the live full charge of a two-wheeled EV in just five minutes. In 2020, the company demonstrated the scalability of its XFC batteries by fully charging a commercial drone in five minutes in another world first. Moving XFC battery technology from the lab to a commercially-viable electric vehicle for the first time, StoreDot has launched engineering samples of its XFC batteries that are designed to be manufactured at scale on traditional Li-ion production lines. For more information see: www.store-dot.com. About VinFast VinFast a member of Vingroup envisioned to drive the movement of global smart electric vehicle revolution. Established in 2017, VinFast owns a state-of-the-art automotive manufacturing complex with globally leading scalability that boasts up to 90% automation in Hai Phong, Vietnam. VinFast has announced three electric car models, exceptional battery leasing policies, and industry-leading 10-year warranties. In July 2021, VinFast started expanding to the North American and European markets. Two of its smart electric SUV models VF e35 and VF e36, are expected to be available for pre-orders globally in the first half of 2022. Find out more at: https://vinfastauto.com. About Vingroup Established in 1993, Vingroup is one of the leading private conglomerates in the region, with a total capitalization of 35Billion USD from three publicly traded companies (as of November 4, 2021). Vingroup currently focuses on three main areas: Technology, Industry, and Services. Find out more at: https://www.vingroup.net/en. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1718847/StoreDot_VinFast.jpg Contacts: Tom Green tom@influenceemobility.com Chas Hallett chas@influenceassociates.com SOURCE StoreDot The 10th edition of the Information and Communication Technology Conference MEET ICT and the Bahrain International Technology Exhibition (Bitex) will focus on the critical role played by the ICT sector in Bahrains economic recovery. Organised by the Bahrain Technology Companies Society (BTECH), in cooperation with WorkSmart for Events Management, the event will take place from March 29 to 31, 2022, at the Gulf Convention Centre, Gulf Hotel. The next edition of this technical event, according to Abdulaziz Qambar, CEO of (BTECH), will be qualitative by all standards. It will highlight everything related to digital transformation, as well as the ICT sector's role in supporting economic diversification and increasing its contribution to the kingdom's GDP. Ahmed Al Hujairy, CEO of WorkSmart, stated that the next edition of the event will see a qualitative leap in terms of organisation and programme of events, as well as keynote addresses. He emphasised the organisers' goal of attracting the widest possible participation from local, regional, and international companies to achieve the maximum possible benefit for Bahrain's ICT sector. We strongly encourage everyone that is working in the ICT sector to attend this event, as it will provide an excellent opportunity to expand their business in the Mena region, as well as to learn about the latest ICT trends by interacting with the conference's elite speakers and monitoring potential business opportunities.-- TradeArabia News Service "Having successfully navigated the pandemic over the past 18 months, we recognise how crucial it is to form strategic partnerships to catalyse industry recovery moving into 2022. It is key for Malaysia Healthcare to identify and join forces with partners who share the same value system and commitment towards service excellence and upholding safety standards. Thus, it is an honour for Malaysia Healthcare to collaborate with IASB and HADID as we jointly provide access to a safe, trusted, world-class quality, and seamless patient experiences for healthcare travellers," said Mohd Daud Mohd Arif, Chief Executive Officer of MHTC. Known for delivering world-class quality healthcare services which are both easily accessible and competitively affordable, Malaysia is fortifying its healthcare offerings through its' position as the Fertility and Cardiology Hubs of Asia, Cancer Care Centre of Excellence and Hepatitis C Treatment Hub of Asia. Malaysia has been recognised as the "Destination of the Year" by the International Medical Travel Journal (IMTJ) for four years (2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020) and the "Best Country in the World for Healthcare" based on International Living's Global Retirement Index from 2015 to 2021. ABOUT THE MALAYSIA HEALTHCARE TRAVEL COUNCIL The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) is a government agency that has been entrusted with the responsibility of curating the country's healthcare travel scene. Founded in 2009, MHTC works to streamline industry players and service providers in facilitating and growing Malaysia's healthcare travel industry under the brand "Malaysia Healthcare" with the intended goal of making Malaysia the leading global healthcare destination. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719271/image00053.jpg SOURCE Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council STAMFORD, Conn., Jan. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Aircastle Limited ("Aircastle") announced today that it plans to release its third quarter financial results for the period ended November 30, 2021 on January 13, 2022. In connection with the financial release, management will host a conference call on Thursday, January 13, 2022 at 9:00 A.M. Eastern time. A copy of the press release and accompanying presentation will be posted to the Investors section of the Aircastle Limited website provided below. All interested parties are welcome to participate on the live call. The conference call can be accessed by dialing (888) 394-8218 (from within the U.S. and Canada) or (646) 828-8193 (from outside of the U.S. and Canada) ten minutes prior to the selected start and referencing the passcode "3653488". A simultaneous webcast of the conference call will be available on a listen only basis at http://www.aircastle.com. Please allow extra time prior to the call to visit the site and download the necessary software required to listen to the internet broadcast. For those who are not available to listen to the live call, a replay will be available until 12:00 P.M. Eastern time on Saturday, February 12, 2022 by dialing (888) 203-1112 (from within the U.S. and Canada) or (719) 457-0820 (from outside of the U.S. and Canada); please reference passcode "3653488". About Aircastle Limited Aircastle Limited acquires, leases, and sells commercial jet aircraft to airlines throughout the world. As of August 31, 2021, Aircastle owned and managed on behalf of its joint ventures 264 aircraft leased to 76 customers located in 42 countries. Contact: Aircastle Advisor LLC Jim Connelly, SVP ESG & Corporate Communications Tel: +1-203-504-1871 [email protected] SOURCE Aircastle Limited Related Links http://www.aircastle.com The deadline for briefing was extremely short, with the difficulty of providing input exacerbated because Washington, D.C., was shut down by a snowstorm. The DDP brief, hand-carried to the Court, states that "the Covid vaccine strategy is a colossal failure. But rather than be held accountable for their failed approach, agency officials insist on more of what has failed." While the Public Health and American Medical Association (AMA) briefs repeatedly assert that "the science is clear," the DDP brief states that "it is not 'settled science' to forcibly impose a controversial vaccine on knowledgeable health care workers who rationally decline." DDP argues that that the government briefs supporting the mandates ignore the reports of vaccine-associated deaths and injuries in the government's official data base, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Moreover, DDP writes that "there is no meaningful analysis of the harms compared with purported benefits of the Covid vaccine, in the briefs filed in support of the mandate." DDP points out that the Supreme Court precedent for compulsory vaccination, Jacobson v. Massachusetts, upheld a law by a state, not the federal government, which merely imposed a small fine on those who declined to be vaccinated against smallpox. But this case "became the basis for the inhumane utilitarian mandatory sterilization decision by the Supreme Court in Buck v. Bell." The Court then held that "the principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes." Doctors for Disaster Preparedness is a group of scientists (including physicians) founded in 1984, which provides information to help save lives in the event of natural or man-made disasters. Contact: Andrew Schlafly, [email protected], or Jane M. Orient, M.D., (520) 323-3110, [email protected] SOURCE Doctors for Disaster Preparedness "The transition to electric vehicles is a major change that requires highly innovative technology at a reasonable price. Decarbonizing transportation is a critical global challenge, and Evolectric, with partners like alwaysAI, is taking it head-on," says Bill Beverley, Co-Founder, Co-CEO, and CTO of Evolectric. "At Evolectric, we target existing combustion engine fleets and turn them into fully electric vehicles using market-leading technology; we also upgrade their capabilities with computer vision applications. The alwaysAI platform provides the power and flexibility needed to build and deploy these apps onto the newly electrified vehicles," says Jakson Alvarez, Co-Founder, Co-CEO, and CFO of Evolectric. alwaysAI will initially work with Evolectric to provide computer vision technology and development support to enable rapid electrification of vehicles in California and major Latin American cities. "As new regulatory targets are being established for EV, including the end date for the internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle sales, the acceleration in electrification is putting significant pressure on OEMs and their supply chains. Computer vision will be an essential part of the new transportation industry, and we are excited to work with companies like Evolectric to support the transition," says Marty Beard, Co-founder & CEO of alwaysAI. About alwaysAI alwaysAI provides developers and enterprises a comprehensive platform for building, training, deploying, and managing Computer Vision applications on IoT devices. We unleash real-time insights to help businesses drive higher ROI, and make Computer Vision come alive on the Edge - where work and life happen. For more information, visit www.alwaysai.co . About Evolectric Evolectric is a California-based technology company specializing in electrified transportation and battery technologies. Evolectric's offerings encompass purpose-built vehicle and battery solutions that advance global e-mobility through rapid prototyping and standardized products. Evolectric's mission is to advance global electrification by enabling and providing products and services that unlock current and new electrification technologies to emerging markets and underserved segments. Visit evolectricnow.com to learn more. SOURCE alwaysAI Related Links www.alwaysai.co Exro has switched to an all-virtual presentation for the upcoming 2022 Consumer Electronics Show due to the rapidly spreading COVID-19 omicron variant. CES registrants can visit Exro's digital booth between January 5-7, 2022 , to tour its next-generation electric vehicle demonstrators and learn about its Coil Driver and Battery Control System technologies. , to tour its next-generation electric vehicle demonstrators and learn about its Coil Driver and Battery Control System technologies. Exro CEO Sue Ozdemir will provide a live virtual booth tour for CES registrants on Thursday, January 6, 2022 , at 10 AM PST . CALGARY, AB, Jan. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Exro Technologies Inc. (TSX: EXRO) (OTCQB: EXROF) (the "Company" or "Exro"), a leading clean technology company that has developed a new class of power electronics for electric motors and batteries, announced today that it will switch to an all-virtual presentation for the upcoming 2022 Consumer Electronics Show due to the rapidly spreading COVID-19 omicron variant. All CES registrants are invited to experience Exro's virtual booth, learn more about its Coil Driver and Battery Control System technologies, and tour three next-generation electric vehicle demonstrators that have been retrofitted with its technology to improve performance and versatility here: https://www.exro.com/investors/events/ces. Exro's digital presence will feature exciting content including: Booth virtual tour: Registrants can experience a direct simulation of the Exro CES booth on-demand via video and images. Here, guests can tour Exro-owned vehicle demonstrators, including an electric Polaris Ranger Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV) and Zero Motorcycle featuring Exro's 100 Volt Coil Drive System, and an electric Humvee showcasing Exro's 800 Volt Coil Drive System. Booth visitors can virtually discover Exro's Coil Driver and Battery Control System technologies and learn about how these innovations are driving EV performance, introducing AC fast-charging capabilities, and enabling Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) capabilities, along with other consumer-benefits. Live virtual booth tour with Exro CEO: On Thursday, January 6, 2022 , at 10 AM PST , Exro CEO Sue Ozdemir will provide CES registrants with a digital live tour of the booth. Ozdemir will take visitors through each section of the booth, sharing more information about Exro technology, applications, and partners, as well as speaking to what the community can expect from Exro in the summer of 2022. Meetings with the Exro team: CES registrants are also invited to book personal meetings with Exro experts for individual booth tours. Exclusive giveaways: Lastly, registrants can participate in Exro's CES exclusive virtual giveaways for a chance to win an adventure and solitude experience. One winner and their guest will receive travel and accommodations in Arizona in June 2022 for an unforgettable electric experience, including a ride in Exro's retrofitted fully electric Humvee. "The health and safety of Exro employees is our top priority. Though we were pushing towards an in-person event, ultimately both the decision made by CES to reduce exhibiting days and the highly transmissible and rapidly spreading COVID variant impacted our plans," said Sue Ozdemir, CEO of Exro. "That is why we've made the decision to take an all-digital approach at CES 2022. We're confident that our digital booth experience will offer tremendous value to CES registrants, and the Exro team looks forward to virtually showcasing breakthrough vehicle technologies to engaging with key stakeholders and markets." CES registrants can access Exro's virtual booth and engage with the team from January 5-7, 2022. Due to Exro's late decision to shift to a digital presence, Exro's physical booth will remain on-site at CES, staffed by its booth service provider who will be directing CES attendees to Exro's virtual booth. About Exro Technologies Inc. Exro is a clean technology company pioneering intelligent control solutions in power electronics to help solve the most challenging problems in electrification. Exro has developed a new class of control technology that expands the capabilities of electric motors, generators, and batteries. Exro enables the application to achieve more with less energy consumed. Exro's advanced motor control technology, the Coil Driver, expands the capabilities of electric powertrains by enabling intelligent optimization for efficient energy consumption. Exro is working with many partners from all over the world to bring their technology to the electric mobility industries and beyond. For more information visit our website at www.exro.com . Visit us on social media @exrotech. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as "plans", "expects", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, that could cause actual results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing these forward-looking statements are reasonable based upon the information currently available to management as of the date hereof, actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Readers are therefore cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed times frames or at all. Except where required by applicable law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This information is qualified in its entirety by cautionary statements and risk factor disclosure contained in filings made by the Company with the Canadian securities regulators, including the Company's annual information form for the financial year ended December 31, 2020, and financial statements and related MD&A for the financial year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. 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. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information except as otherwise required by applicable law. Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. SOURCE Exro Technologies Inc. "Chris has a stellar reputation as an investigator and trial attorney. His skill set fits well with our team's top-tier white collar defense, internal investigation, and compliance practice," said Katten partner Scott Resnik, chair of the firm's White Collar and Internal Investigations department, which boasts a strong track record defending clients facing allegations in federal, state and regulatory settings. "His extensive experience, which includes clerking for a federal judge and prosecuting high-profile federal criminal cases, gives Chris a unique perspective on how judges and the government make decisions, particularly when it comes to pursuing charges and resolving cases, a valuable asset for our clients." Stetler most recently served as Deputy Chief of the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, supervising a team of prosecutors in the General Crimes Section and working with federal agents in high-profile investigations. Stetler spent more than a decade as an Assistant US Attorney, working alongside noted US Attorneys Patrick Fitzgerald, Zach Fardon and John R. Lausch Jr. in the handling of highly sensitive and widely publicized prosecutions involving public corruption throughout Illinois. He has tried cases involving bank fraud, bribery, tax fraud, theft of trade secrets, and wire fraud. As lead prosecutor, Stetler secured the convictions of well-known government officials, including: Former Illinois State Senator Martin Sandoval , who pleaded guilty to bribery and tax offenses. , who pleaded guilty to bribery and tax offenses. Former Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno , who pleaded guilty to engaging in a series of public and personal corruption schemes. Commissioner , who pleaded guilty to engaging in a series of public and personal corruption schemes. Former Illinois State Representative Luis Arroyo , who pleaded guilty to bribery. , who pleaded guilty to bribery. Former Illinois State Senator Terrance Link , who pleaded guilty to a tax offense. , who pleaded guilty to a tax offense. Former McCook Mayor Jeffrey Tobolski , who pleaded guilty to extortion conspiracy and tax charges. "Chris has repeatedly proven his considerable skills, having prosecuted powerful political figures in Illinois and persuading many others to cooperate with federal investigations," said Chicago managing partner Gil Soffer, a former federal prosecutor and senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official. "Chris is an elite attorney of the highest integrity, and we are glad to have him back." Prior to joining the US Attorney's Office in 2010, Stetler served as a law clerk for Judge Amy St. Eve, when she was seated on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Before that clerkship, he was an associate at Katten for five years, working on matters involving internal investigations, white-collar criminal defense and complex commercial litigation. Stetler is the latest in a line of noteworthy partners to join Katten's Chicago White Collar practice. He follows Daniel Collins, a former national co-chair of litigation at Faegre Drinker with a storied 10-year career as a federal prosecutor; and his partner at Faegre, Levi Giovanetto. Collins and Giovanetto joined Katten over the summer. Katten is a full-service law firm with nearly 650 attorneys in locations across the United States and in London and Shanghai. Clients seeking sophisticated, high-value legal services turn to Katten for counsel locally, nationally and internationally. The firm's core areas of practice include corporate, financial markets and funds, insolvency and restructuring, intellectual property, litigation, real estate, structured finance and securitization, transactional tax planning, private credit and private wealth. Katten represents public and private companies in numerous industries, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals. For more information, visit katten.com . Contact: Jackie Heard +1.312.902.5450 [email protected] Leonor Vivanco-Prengaman +1.312.577.8371 [email protected] SOURCE Katten DUBLIN, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment Market, By Type, By Application, Estimation & Forecast, 2017-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment market held a market value of USD 1,613.8 million in 2020 and is forecasted to reach USD 2,373.1 million by the year 2027. The market is anticipated to register a CAGR of 5.7% over the projected period. Growing prevalence of cancer along with increasing cases of CIPN is anticipated to boost the market growth. Furthermore, technological advancements coupled with rising demand for cost-efficient therapeutics is also expected to fuel the market growth. Despite the driving factors, adverse effects related to cancer treatment are expected to hinder the market growth during the forecast period. The overall impact of COVID-19 is neutral as the after effects of chemotherapy can be very severe and adoption of telehealth solutions made it possible for patients to consult their doctors and start their treatment. Growing prevalence of cancer along with increasing cases of CIPN Prevalence of cancer is rising globally, which is also leading to growing cases of chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy. According to the National Cancer Institute, as of 2020, approximately 1,806,590 new cancer cases were expected to be diagnosed in the United States. Furthermore, according to American Cancer Society, in 2021, about 1.9 million cancer cases were estimated to be diagnosed and 608,570 people were expected to die in the United States. These rising number of cancer cases are leading to high adoption of various treatment options of cancer. These treatment options include chemotherapy as well. The Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment market is segmented the type and application. By Type Calcium Channel A2-Delta Ligands Antidepressants Opioids Others The calcium channel A2-delta ligands segment is anticipated to hold the largest market share of around 34.7% owing to high adoption of calcium channel A2-delta ligands for the treatment of CIPN. The opioids segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate of around 6.7% owing to the growing number of research activities by market players for the development of opioids. By Application Platinum Agents Taxanes Vinca Alkaloids Others The platinum agents segment is estimated to account for the largest market share of 33.7% and is expected to surpass a market value of USD 667.7 million by 2024. The taxanes segment is expected to witness the fastest growth rate of 6.5% owing to high usage of taxanes for breast cancer induced CIPN. Regional Overview Based on region, the Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment market is divided into Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and South America. The North America region is expected to hold the largest market share of around 36.2% owing to the high prevalence of cancer in the region. The region is expected to cross a market value of USD 640.7 million by 2022 The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to witness the fastest growth rate of 6.8% owing to the growing R&D activities in the region. The Europe region is estimated to surpass a market value of USD 548.4 million by 2023. Competitive Landscape Key players operating in the Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment market include Asahi Kasei Pharma Corp, Aptinyx Inc., Regenacy Pharmaceuticals, MAKScientific LLC, Metys Pharmaceuticals AG, Nemus Bioscience Inc., PledPharma, Sova Pharmaceuticals Inc., DermaXon LLC, Kineta Inc., PeriphaGen, Apexian Pharma, and WinSanTor, among others. These market players are engaged in mergers & acquisitions, collaborations, and new product launches to strengthen their market presence. For instance, in December 2019, Solasia Pharma KK, the Asian partner of PledPharma AB signed a licensing agreement with Maruho Co Ltd, a Japan-based pharmaceutical company for commercialization of PledOx for treatment of CIPN in Japan. The market report provides insights on the below pointers: Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the prominent players Market Development: The report offers detailed information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes penetration across mature segments of the markets Market Diversification: Provides in-depth information about untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments Competitive Landscape Assessment: Mergers & acquisitions, certifications, product launches in the Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment market have been provided in this research report. In addition, the report also emphasizes the SWOT analysis of the leading players. Product Development & Innovation: The report provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The report answers questions such as: What is the market size and forecast of the Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment Market? What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 on the Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment Market during the assessment period? Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the assessment period in the Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment Market? What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment Market? What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment Market? What is the market share of the leading players in the Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment Market? What modes and strategic moves are considered favorable for entering the Global & U.S. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment Market? Companies Profiled Aptinyx Inc. Asahi Kasei Pharma Corp. Regenacy Pharmaceuticals MAKScientific LLC Metys Pharmaceuticals AG Nemus Bioscience Inc. PledPharma Sova Pharmaceuticals Inc. DermaXon LLC Kineta Inc. PeriphaGen Apexian Pharma WinSanTor For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/3n9zdb 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 "We are extremely proud to partner with Sam's Club to launch this new flavor within our popular Stuffed Chicken Breast platform," said Bryan Freeman, Executive Chairman. "Unlike other food options on the shelf today that are made with processed grains and loaded with carbohydrates, our nutritious entree has a limited amount of carbs and is 100% grain free. Through our new partnership with Sam's, we are able to make nutritious food more accessible throughout the US, and in turn, improve the lives of Sam's shoppers looking for healthier options [in the frozen food aisle]." Real Good Foods' Creamy Spinach & Artichoke Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken is available at Sam's Club stores nationwide. To learn more about Real Good Foods and to find a store near you, please visit www.realgoodfoods.com. About The Real Good Food Company Founded in 2016, Real Good Foods believes there is a better way to enjoy our favorite foods. Its brand commitment, "Real Food You Feel Good About Eating," represents the Company's strong belief that, by eating its food, consumers can enjoy more of their favorite foods and, by doing so, live better lives as part of a healthier lifestyle. Its mission is to make craveable, nutritious comfort foods that are low in carbohydrates, high in protein, and made from gluten- and grain-free real ingredients more accessible to everyone, improve human health, and, in turn, improve the lives of millions of people. Real Good Foods offers delicious and nutritious options across breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacking occasions, with availability in over 16,000 stores nationwide, including Walmart, Costco, Kroger, and Target, and directly from its website at www.realgoodfoods.com. Learn more about Real Good Foods by visiting its website, or on Instagram at @realgoodfoods, where it has one of the largest social media followings of any brand within the frozen food industry today with nearly 400,000 followers. For interviews with Bryan Freeman, Executive Chairman, email [email protected]. Media Contact Nikole Johnston [email protected] SOURCE Real Good Foods BETHESDA, Md., Jan. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hull Street Energy announced today that it has acquired the AL Pierce Generation facility from the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative. Since its repowering in 2007, the Wallingford, Connecticut facility has been providing 84 megawatts of flexible, fast start dual-fueled power generation capacity to regional customers. The AL Pierce facility will be a high-quality addition to Hull Street Energy's portfolio of critical power infrastructure. With this acquisition, the firm continues to support regional electric reliability and integration of new variable renewable energy resources as New England states work to achieve climate goals. Hull Street Energy affiliates own and operate 53 power generation stations providing over 1,200 MW of renewable, gas-fired, and dual-fueled generation capacity to support grid operations throughout the United States. Troutman Pepper acted as legal counsel to Hull Street Energy. Pierce Atwood LLP acted as legal counsel to Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative. About Hull Street Energy, LLC Hull Street Energy is a private equity firm that specializes in deploying capital into the power sector as it decarbonizes. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, the team leverages its decades of experience and unique knowledge of North American electricity infrastructure, fundamentals and grid operations, including fuel inputs, commodity contract structuring, renewable and fossil powered generation assets, energy storage, transmission and distribution systems, and electricity demand-side businesses to build value for stakeholders. For further information about Hull Street Energy please see www.hullstreetenergy.com. About Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative Established as a joint action agency in 1976 by state statute, the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative is responsible for the financing, acquisition and construction of electric generation resources and the implementation of power supply contracts on behalf of its municipal electric utility members, which include Bozrah Light & Power, Jewett City Department of Public Utilities, Groton Utilities, Norwich Public Utilities, South Norwalk Electric and Water and The Third Taxing District of Norwalk Electric Division. CMEEC also supplies the wholesale power requirements of the Mohegan Tribal Utility Authority. Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Hull Street Energy Related Links http://www.hullstreetenergy.com SAN FRANCISCO, and LONDON, and DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Dec. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hydro Wind Energy has announced today that it has signed an agreement with GEM Global Yield LLC SCS ("GEM"), a private investment group, for a EUR 50 million capital commitment. The agreement will help Hydro Wind Energy to disrupt the global Energy and Desalination Markets. Figure 1: SubSea RO Wind - technology to desalinate seawater into freshwater Figure 2: OceanHydro Omni - power generation and energy storage (offshore wind) Under the agreement, GEM commits to provide Hydro Wind Energy with a share subscription facility of EUR 50 million for a 36-month term following the public listing of the company shares on a European or American Stock Exchange. Hydro Wind Energy will control the timing and maximum amount of drawdown under the facility and has no minimum drawdown obligation. Concurrent to the public listing of Hydro Wind Energy's shares, GEM will receive warrants to purchase shares in the company. Hydro Wind Energy based out of London, San Francisco and Dubai is a tech startup developing a disruptive technology to solve three of the biggest challenges of the 21st century, low-cost clean electricity, grid scale energy storage, and water scarcity. All three solutions ultimately harness offshore wind using vertical axis wind rotors and offshore based kite systems. They have also developed and commercialized the world's only low-cost handheld seawater desalination device for humanitarian purposes and the marine sector. In 2020 the company was selected as one of the top 100 startups shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution by the World Economic Forum. The company is backed by Techstars, one of the largest VC and tech accelerators in the world. The finance raised from GEM will go towards developing technologies for power generation (OceanHydro Wind) and water desalination (SubSea RO Wind), as well as scaling QuenchSea (portable seawater desalination device) globally. Both OceanHydro Wind and SubSea RO Wind are powered by high altitude, ocean-based kites and vertical axis wind rotors rather than turbines. The technology ultimately uses wind for mechanical lift rather than converting directly to electricity. This reduces the cost of desalination by 90% compared to all other technologies. It also enables a far more efficient method of power generation, storage and dispatch, compared to conventional wind turbines which are unable to either store or dispatch on-demand electricity. The technology also opens up access to offshore wind in deep waters where 80% of the world's wind resource exists and provides ancillary services for grid resiliency. The company is currently in the midst of a project building and testing a subscale system of both technologies off the coast of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates with several offshore engineering firms and strategic partners. A project that will build the foundations for building a larger scale demonstrator. The company plans to have both scale prototypes completed by the end of 2022, with full scale commercialization planned for 2023. Annual revenues are forecast to reach at least $300 million by 2025. Water scarcity, energy storage, and low-cost clean electricity are three of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Around two billion people live in areas plagued by water scarcity, one billion have no access to electricity, and the global transition to renewables requires cost effective grid scale energy storage solutions. The value of the energy market is expected to double from $9 trillion today, to $18 trillion by 2050. Lee King, CEO and co-founder of Hydro Wind Energy commented, "Having GEM onboard is a huge foundational step in realizing our vision to play a major role in the global transition. Our technology is ultimately about structural design, systems integration and automation rather than making quantum leaps in technology development. It's in essence a simple technology with immense potential for impact in the shortest possible time. What we are doing is combining existing and proven technologies in a novel way to solve some very big challenges while simultaneously reducing costs. "The financial commitment from GEM and the parallel public listing will provide us with the ability to accelerate scale testing and commercialization" About Hydro Wind Energy Based in San Francisco, London, and Dubai, Hydro Wind Energy, backed by Techstars, is a tech startup developing disruptive technologies to help solve three of the biggest challenges of the 21st century: low-cost clean electricity, grid-scale energy storage and water desalination at small and large scale. About Global Emerging Markets (GEM) Global Emerging Markets (GEM) is a $3.4 Billion alternative investment group with operations in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. GEM manages a diverse set of investment vehicles focused on emerging markets and has completed 400 transactions in 70 countries. Each investment vehicle has different sets of operational concepts of risk adjusted return and liquidity profile. The family of funds and investment vehicles provide GEM and its partners with exposure to: Small-Mid Cap Management Buyouts, Private Investments in Public Equities and select venture investments. For more information: www.gemny.com Contact Details: Contact Name: Mo Helmy Email: [email protected] Phone: 408-475-0925 Country: United States Website: www.hw.energy Company: Hydro Wind Energy SOURCE Hydro Wind Energy Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), a 18-member international governmental organisation, has appointed Mohamed Hamel as its fourth secretary general. Headquartered in Doha, GECF currently comprises members from Algeria, Russia, Iraq, UAE, Iran, Qatar, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Angola, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Norway and Peru, which together represent 70% of the proven gas reserves, 44% of its marketed production, 52% of pipeline, and 51% of LNG exports across the globe. Hamel took over the helm of the 18-country energy organisation at its 23rd ministerial meeting, presided by Bolivia for a period of two years, said the statement from GECF. An engineer by profession, Hamel began his career in Algerias state-owned Sonatrach, where he rose through the ranks to eventually become its VP (Strategy and Planning), a role he reprised at the GECF in shaping the organisations long-term strategy (2017-2022). Hamel is a familiar face in the energy sphere and brings a long and distinguished career to advance the GECF at a time when natural gas is emerging as a frontrunner to shape a stable, secure, and clean global energy landscape for the future, it stated. On his new role, Hamel said: "Natural gas will continue to play a crucial role in the future in alleviating energy poverty, fuelling economic growth, and expanding prosperity, whilst at the same time contributing to the protection of the environment, both at the local level in terms of air quality improvement and at the global level in terms of climate change mitigation." Some of his prominent previous roles include serving as a member to the Board of Governors of Opec, a member of the Executive Committee of IEF, and a member of the Executive Board of the GECF. He has also played an advisory role to Opec Secretary General as well as the Minister of Energy and Mines of Algeria, said the statement. Hamel graduated from two prestigious engineering schools in France: the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris and the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris, it added. MIAMI, Jan. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez became the 80th President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM). Suarez was inaugurated at an event in Miami where he laid out his vision for American cities and the Conference. The mayor had been serving as USCM's First Vice President but has been elevated to carry out the remaining term of outgoing President Nan Whaley, whose term as mayor of Dayton, Ohio expired at the beginning of the year. Suarez is also eligible to continue serving as president for another full year after this term expires this summer. "The Conference of Mayors is fortunate to have such a dynamic leader serving as our next president," said USCM CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran. "Francis Suarez has limitless energy and a true passion for solving problems. The innovative approach he brings to Miami is emblematic of the way American mayors are thinking differently about the country's greatest challenges. Mayor Suarez will be a powerful voice for America's mayors and those they serve, and I know he's going to get to work quickly as our new president. The Conference of Mayors is also eternally grateful to Nan Whaley for her distinguished service to this organization, and we wish her nothing but the best." "It is such an honor to lead this organization and carry the torch for America's mayors as we continue to blaze a path toward better days," said Mayor Suarez. "Mayors are proving every day that local leadership and fresh thinking can dramatically improve people's lives. Here in Miami, we have a vision for what American cities can be vibrant, resilient, inclusive and I'm excited to lift up the voices of my fellow mayors who are also delivering real change. There is so much we can accomplish when we work together and leave partisanship behind, and that is the spirit of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. My father was a member of this organization and I have long understood how powerful it can be to have America's mayors speaking together. I also want to thank Nan Whaley for her extraordinary leadership as President of the Conference. I'm excited to begin this new chapter serving the Conference, my fellow mayors, and the people of Miami." About the United States Conference of Mayors -- The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are more than 1,400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. SOURCE U.S. Conference of Mayors SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mindbody, the leading experience technology platform for the wellness industry, today announced the much-anticipated ranking of the Top 10 Healthiest Cities in America as part of its 2022 Mindbody Wellness Index. For the third year in a row, Miami, FL was ranked as the Healthiest City in America, followed by Los Angeles and San Diego. The annual Mindbody Wellness Index, one of the wellness industry's most comprehensive studies, aims to provide a holistic view of wellness across America by considering several factors including workout habits, commitment to sufficient sleep, stress levels, connection to community and spirituality, among other wellness behaviors and attitudes. To calculate this annual ranking, Mindbody surveyed 16,000 adults in the 50 most populated US cities and ranked those cities from healthiest to least through a proprietary scoring algorithm. "For the third year in a row, Miami residents continue to prove their impressive dedication to health and wellness," said Josh McCarter, Mindbody CEO. "Through Mindbody's annual ranking of the Healthiest Cities in America, we aim to provide a detailed glimpse into the health and wellness of America's largest urban centers. As the wellness industry comes together to rebound, almost 80% of people agree that wellness is more important than ever. And, with that, we are seeing the definition of wellness change as Americans place more emphasis on non-physical dimensions of wellness, such as mental, social and intellectual. Miami serves as an example of this evolution with the highest number of residents that feel connected to their community, which is a strong component of social wellness." Miami retained its title as the Healthiest City in America through its commitment to several dimensions of wellness. Of the 50 U.S. cities surveyed, Miami ranked highest in residents who exercise at least once a week and residents who exercise for 90 minutes or more per week. Working out later in the day is very popular in Miami, earning the city the title of most likely to book an evening workout in the recently released 2021 ClassPass Fitness & Beauty Trends Report. Miami residents also ranked as the least stressed, most well-rested and most connected to their community. Four of the healthiest cities in America hailed from The Golden State of California. Los Angeles earned the title of Second Healthiest City in America, followed by San Diego in third place, San Francisco in sixth place and San Jose in seventh place. Los Angeles moved up from seventh place in 2021 to second place this year by ranking highly across a variety of factors. The city ranks third in residents who feel spiritually fulfilled, boasts a high number of non-smokers, and has a high number of residents who exercise at least 90 minutes per week. The 2021 ClassPass Fitness & Beauty Trends Report also revealed Los Angelenos as the most likely to book outdoor workouts. Also notably, Raleigh, North Carolina made a significant jump up the list, moving from rank 28 to 10 this year. Raleigh residents incorporated healthier habits into their lives in the last 12 months, including a decrease in excessive alcohol consumption and an increase in percentage of residents who exercise at least 90 minutes per week. 2022 Mindbody Wellness Index Top 10 Healthiest Cities in America: Miami, Fla. Los Angeles, Calif. San Diego, Calif. Atlanta, Ga. Washington, D.C. San Francisco, Calif. San Jose, Calif. Austin, Texas Seattle, Wash. Raleigh, N.C. *View the full list of 2022 Mindbody Wellness Index Healthiest Cities rankings here In addition to the city rankings, the Mindbody Wellness Index identified seven wellness trends to watch in 2022. The most in demand wellness trends for 2022 will include: increased interest in immune health, intellectual wellness, mental wellness, sexual wellness, facial exercises and pets and wellness along with an increased influence of workout classes on consumer discovery of new music. To view all 2022 Wellness Index resources, visit https://www.mindbodyonline.com/wellness-index. About the Mindbody Wellness Index The Mindbody Wellness Index looks at American health across multiple dimensions of wellness: physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, environmental, social, sexual, financial, and occupational. Mindbody administered an online survey to over 16,000 American adults in the 50 largest cities in the U.S. The survey included a variety of behavioral, attitudinal, and preference questions related to consumer engagement in wellness and health behaviors, including workout habits, stress levels, self-care routines, wellness budgets, spirituality, familial relationships, connection to community and other wellness behaviors amid a pandemic. About Mindbody Mindbody is the leading experience technology platform for the fitness, wellness, and beauty industries. Fitness studios, salons, spas, and integrative health centersfrom the newest entrepreneurs to the largest franchisesuse Mindbody's integrated software and payments platform to run, market, and grow their businesses. Consumers use Mindbody to more easily find, engage, and transact with wellness providers in their local communities and around the world. For more information on how Mindbody is helping people lead healthier, happier lives by connecting the world to wellness, visit mindbodyonline.com. SOURCE Mindbody WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- New Light Technologies (NLT), a leading provider of integrated science, technology, and mission support, has been awarded a 5-year contract with the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) to enhance the delivery of training and exercises through the development and integration of new web-based mapping, geospatial, and analytical capabilities. Preparing emergency responders for all hazards. Web-based geospatial analytics and visualization tools for emergency response training. The CDP provides advanced hands-on all-hazards training to emergency responders from across federal, state, local, tribal, territorial governments, as well as international and private sector organizations on a fee for service basis. Located in Anniston, Alabama, the CDP offers unique federally chartered facilities for training responders for real-world incidents involving chemical, biological, explosive, radiological, and other hazardous materials. At its Chemical, Ordnance, Biological, and Radiological Training Facility (COBRATF), the center offers the only civilian training program for toxic chemical agents and biological materials. The Advanced Responder Training Complex (ARTC) prepares responders for a range of man-made and natural hazards in urban and common community settings. The Noble Training Facility is the only US hospital offering disaster training for healthcare professionals including exercise and simulation areas, an emergency operations center, clinical ward, and an isolation ward for 'patients' with highly infectious diseases. In support of the contract, NLT will develop and host an interoperable cloud-based platform to deliver online mapping and visualization tools that enable highly interactive multi-user exercise and simulation capabilities for CDP instructors and students for the first time. "Modern web, geospatial, and data visualization software enables us to see the world and phenomena in three dimensions and in real-time. By integrating these capabilities, the CDP will be able to develop more realistic exercises and provide responders a range of new tools to understand dynamic threats as they unfold over time and space," says NLT Program Manager Rob Pitts. NLT's robust managed service offering (MSO) and unique expertise delivering web-based decision-support systems for all-hazards preparedness and response missions at FEMA will enable the center to accelerate modernization and enhance training capacity to prepare the nation for the most challenging threats. About New Light Technologies New Light Technologies Inc. (NLT) is a leading provider of integrated science, technology, and mission services with over 20 years of experience serving government and commercial organizations. Offering renowned expertise in cloud, agile software development, cybersecurity, data science, geospatial and remote sensing, NLT provides comprehensive consulting, research, digital transformation services, and fit-for-purpose analytics solutions for a range of industries from emergency management to economics to health. NLT offers distinctive capabilities in the delivery of secure cloud-native platforms and web-based decision support tools and has pioneered predictive disaster risk analytics in support of FEMA and homeland security missions. To learn more visit www.NewLightTechnologies.com. Media contact: Robert Pitts [email protected] 202-494-2836 SOURCE New Light Technologies "We are extremely excited to add Ned as the leader of our White Collar practice," shared Jim Curphey, chair of the firm's Litigation department. "His exceptional experience and reputation in federal investigations and regulatory enforcement will further bolster the successful outcomes we achieve for our clients." "Ned's broad background as a federal prosecutor and proven experience as a trial attorney and appellate advocate make him a significant addition to our bench in Northeastern Ohio and the firm overall," stated Tracey Turnbull, Partner-in-Charge of Porter Wright's Cleveland office. "We are excited to add his varied skillset and sharp legal acumen to our Litigation team." Ned is highly-recognized in the areas of federal investigations and prosecutions and SEC enforcement actions, and represents clients in all facets of antitrust, securities and commercial litigation matters. He has served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division, as a special duty independent counsel and as a member of the Presidential Transition Team. Ned also brings experience as a business analyst in Pittsburgh and legal department stagiaire in Paris, France. In his community, Ned serves as an adjunct professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, as a lecturer at Case Western Reserve University Law School and as an instructor in National Institute of Trial Advocacy programs. He has been honored by Chambers USA in White Collar Criminal Defense and Best Lawyers in Antitrust Litigation. Ned received his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. About Porter Wright Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP is a large law firm that traces its roots to 1846 in Ohio. With offices in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Naples, Florida; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C., Porter Wright provides strategic legal counsel to a worldwide base of clients. | porterwright.com SOURCE Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Predicine, a global molecular insights company, announced today that it has appointed Dennis Merkle, PhD, MBA, as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Predicine Europe as well as its Global Head of Biopharma Business. Dr. Merkle moves into the role after leading the oncology development strategy, alliance management and biorepository teams at Invitae, which he joined as part of the acquisition of ArcherDx, where he was Senior Vice President of corporate development. Dr. Dennis Merkle Known for his strategic leadership across commercial and R&D organizations, Dr. Merkle has extensive experience building high performing teams and novel functions in both the biopharma and in vitro diagnostic (IVD) industries. Based in Germany, Dr. Merkle's primary role will be to build, scale and manage Predicine's European business strategy, operations, and organization, while growing, synergizing and strengthening its partnerships with biopharma clients globally. Dr. Merkle has over 20 years' experience in cancer biology, molecular and companion diagnostics and drug development. Prior to joining ArcherDx and Invitae, Dr. Merkle built and lead the global companion diagnostics group at Merck KGaA, leading to that organization's first ever drug-companion diagnostic co-approvals. Dr. Merkle has also held senior positions in marketing and R&D at Merck KGaA, Abbott Laboratories and Philips building extensive experience in the development and launch of novel drug and diagnostic products, as well as the lifecycle management and marketing of mature products. "Predicine Europe is one step closer to our grand mission - to empower the global healthcare ecosystem through innovation. Dr. Merkle is an accomplished industrial leader with a proven track record of product development and launch in the diagnostics and biopharma space. In the last six years, Predicine has made significant progress in precision medicine in both the biopharma and patient testing businesses. We welcome strong leaders, such as Dr. Merkle, to drive our next-phase business growth in global oncology and infectious diseases." said Dr. Shidong Jia, Predicine's Founder and Global CEO. Dennis Merkle, new CEO of Predicine Europe, said: "Predicine offers a best-in-class genomic platform that enables minimally-invasive diagnostics and molecular analysis for patients, healthcare providers and the biopharmaceutical industry. Through its unique portfolio of blood-, urine- and tissue-based diagnostic solutions, I am confident Predicine will be a market leader in precision medicine for years to come. I am excited to be joining Predicine's world-class global team and establishing its European business operations, while also continuing to strengthen collaborations with our very important pharmaceutical partners. Complementing our presence in Silicon Valley, Tustin, Shanghai, Singapore, Houston and Boston, the European affiliate will make Predicine a truly global player in personalized healthcare. So, stay tuned for more announcements from this very important region!" About Predicine Predicine is a global molecular insights company that is committed to advancing precision medicine in oncology and infectious diseases. Predicine has developed a breakthrough cell-free DNA- and cell-free RNA-based liquid biopsy technology enabling minimally invasive molecular diagnosis for treatment selection, therapy monitoring, and minimal residual disease and early cancer detection. The company has launched a portfolio of blood-, urine- and tissue-based diagnostic assays for oncology and infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Through its business operations in Silicon Valley, Tustin, Houston, Shanghai, Singapore, Berlin and Boston, Predicine partners with leading biopharma companies, institutions and governments to support personalized healthcare on a global scale. Further information is available on the company's website, http://www.predicine.com . Stay in touch on LinkedIn or @Predicine on Twitter. Contact Information: Sushmasri Takkilapati Predicine Inc. (857) 756-3469 [email protected] SOURCE Predicine Inc TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Primo Water Corporation (NYSE: PRMW) (TSX: PRMW) (the "Company" or "Primo"), a leading provider of sustainable drinking water solutions in North America and Europe, today announced that Primo Water North America ("PWNA"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Primo, has acquired two water businesses in North America, both of which are leading independent distributors of Primo's Mountain Valley premium water brand: PWNA has acquired substantially all of the assets of Clear Mountain Refreshment Services, dba Premium Refreshment Service, headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas . . PWNA has acquired substantially all of the assets of the Mountain Valley distributor business of North Texas Mountain Valley Corporation, dba Water Event, which operates five locations in Texas . "With a combined customer count that exceeds 17,000 and an area that includes a population of nearly twenty million residents, these companies will fit seamlessly into the Primo family and align with our mission of inspiring healthier lives through better quality water. Along with continued distribution of Primo's Mountain Valley premium water brand and our full suite of water product offerings, customers should expect the same great level of service they've been accustomed to," said Tom Harrington, CEO of Primo Water Corporation. "The acquisitions expand the Primo footprint and further our vision of providing water solutions whenever, wherever and however our customers want them. We are excited to welcome these customers and associates to our Primo family!" For more information on the hydration solutions Primo offers, please visit www.water.com. ABOUT PRIMO WATER CORPORATION Primo Water Corporation is a leading pure-play water solutions provider in North America and Europe and generates approximately $2.0 billion in annual revenue. Primo operates largely under a recurring razor/razorblade revenue model. The razor in Primo's revenue model is its industry leading line-up of sleek and innovative water dispensers, which are sold through major retailers and online at various price points or leased to customers. The dispensers help increase household penetration which drives recurring purchases of Primo's razorblade offering. Primo's razorblade offering is comprised of Water Direct, Water Exchange, and Water Refill. Through its market leading Water Direct business, Primo delivers sustainable hydration solutions across its 22-country footprint direct to the customer's door, whether at home or to commercial businesses. Through its market leading Water Exchange and Water Refill businesses, Primo offers pre-filled and reusable containers at over 13,000 locations and water refill units at approximately 22,000 locations, respectively. Primo also offers water filtration units across its 22-country footprint representing a top five position. Primo's water solutions expand consumer access to purified, spring and mineral water to promote a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle while simultaneously reducing plastic waste and pollution. Primo is committed to its water stewardship standards and is proud to partner with the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) in North America as well as with Watercoolers Europe (WE), which ensure strict adherence to safety, quality, sanitation and regulatory standards for the benefit of consumer protection. Primo is headquartered in Tampa, Florida (USA). For more information, visit www.primowatercorp.com. Safe Harbor Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 conveying management's expectations as to the future based on plans, estimates and projections at the time Primo makes the statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and Primo cautions you that several important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any such forward-looking statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements related to these acquisitions and related matters. The forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding management's current plans and estimates. Management believes these assumptions to be reasonable, but there is no assurance that they will prove to be accurate. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in this press release include, among others: risks relating to any unforeseen changes to or effects on liabilities, future capital expenditures, revenues, expenses, earnings, synergies, indebtedness, financial condition, losses and future prospects; the effect of economic, competitive, legal, governmental and technological factors on Primo's business; and the impact of national, regional and global events on our business, including the recent COVID-19 outbreak. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures, including but not limited to risk factors contained in Primo's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as well as other filings with the securities commissions. Primo does not undertake to update or revise any of these statements considering new information or future events, except as expressly required by applicable law. SOURCE Primo Water Corporation Related Links https://primowatercorp.com/ Co-founded in 2013 by Chief Technology Officer Rubens Basso, FieldRoutes' software platform automates field service operations for small, mid-size, and enterprise companies in the pest control and lawn care industries. Its suite of tools spans office management, advanced route optimization for technicians, payment processing, digital sales, marketing, and customer acquisition solutions to accelerate growth, streamline operations, increase customer retention, and increase revenue for FieldRoutes' customers. As a part of the acquisition, FieldRoutes intends to continue its trajectory, particularly with enterprise customers, with additional support and investments from ServiceTitan. Based in McKinney, Texas, FieldRoutes has nearly tripled its employee base since 2018, allowing the company to invest heavily in its technology stack to better support its customers. FieldRoutes also recently expanded its technology offering to the lawn care industry. "Our top priority at FieldRoutes has always been to provide pest control and lawn care operators with access to the best technology and an unparalleled level of service to run and grow their businesses," said William Chaney, CEO of FieldRoutes. "We believe that joining the ServiceTitan family will enable us to meaningfully increase our investments in product development and customer success, and as a result, provide our customers with the innovative software solutions they need to achieve their goals and outpace the competition." Last year, ServiceTitan announced its acquisitions of ServicePro, a software solution for the pest, lawn, and arbor industries, and Aspire Software, a software provider for commercial landscaping businesses. As FieldRoutes integrates with ServiceTitan, ServicePro will be managed under FieldRoutes, led by Chaney to better serve customers at both companies. ServiceTitan's acquisition of FieldRoutes is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain closing conditions contained in the definitive agreement. To learn more about ServiceTitan visit www.ServiceTitan.com About ServiceTitan ServiceTitan is an end-to-end business management software platform that powers key workflows and connects key stakeholders in a trades business. The company's software platform includes CRM, intelligent dispatch, custom reporting, marketing automation, a mobile solution for field techs, and accounting, payments and financing integrations. By bringing an integrated SaaS platform to an industry traditionally underserved by technology, ServiceTitan makes a direct and positive impact on the lives of thousands of entrepreneurs and their extended teams. ServiceTitan is backed by world-class investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, ICONIQ Growth, Index Ventures, Tiger Global Management, and T. Rowe Price. About FieldRoutes FieldRoutes is a cloud-based and mobile SaaS provider for field service businesses. FieldRoutes' platform automates many aspects of field service operations for enterprise and small business customers with office management, advanced route optimization, payment processing, digital sales, marketing, and customer acquisition capabilities. Contractors across the country rely on FieldRoutes to provide them with data-driven insights to become more efficient and drive revenue to their business, so they can grow quickly, scale intelligently and serve their customers relentlessly. In 2018 PestRoutes and Lobster Marketing joined together, and in 2021 unified under one brand, FieldRoutes. SOURCE ServiceTitan GALLATIN, Tenn., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Protecting yourself from new online threats such as Log4J is now more important than ever, warns cybersecurity and digital forensic expert Ricoh Danielson . Log4J allows threat actors to access your computer without you knowing it. Danielson predicts an uptick of threat actors performing cyber-attacks over the next 25 years to cause havoc with U.S. businesses including major corporations and financial institutions. "These malicious threats are like a heart attack. They'll first steal your mortgage, your identity, and everything in between to give you a financial heart attack when you turn 60," said Danielson. This online vulnerability is hidden in standard Microsoft code. Chinese and Korean scammers could possibly use it to transfer your entire identity including passwords, financial information, nationality, and other biometric information. By stealing personal identities, such as the identities of high-level executives in a corporation, empowers a threat actor to potentially gain confidential information and access. Danielson predicts an uptick of threat actors performing cyber-attacks over the next 25 years to cause havoc with U.S. businesses including major corporations and financial institutions. To protect yourself, one solution is to have a proactive, defensive, and robust cyber security mindset. This will empower an individual to implement various technology solutions such as vulnerability management, incident response, patch management, and data loss prevention. This should be done on a regular basis, however, it's not enough. "You also have to be diligent and hyper-vigilant at continuously practicing cyber security hygiene and not putting it off since there's too much at stake," said Danielson. "This includes changing your passwords and implementing a multi-factor authentication." As a U.S. Army veteran, Danielson sees online threats as an ongoing battle. Even though we're inundated with cybersecurity advice, not enough people are taking it seriously, probably because it's not sexy, he notes. "Inaction is a huge problem. Everyone should be practicing cybersecurity wellness. I hope my book Decisive Action, which will be out later this year, will motivate you to change your mind," said Danielson. For the younger generation, cyber-attacks are becoming somewhat normalized to the extent that these threats aren't being taken seriously. The older generation, however, specifically those involved with the government, who have their own business, or are in high-level positions, should understand the risks of cyberattacks. "The older generation understands the need for cybersecurity from a high level, but many of them don't understand the full picture and the technology itself. The younger generation understands the technology but may not want to comprehend the need for cybersecurity," said Danielson. Threat actors can steal protected health information and other crucial personal information, all mainly for financial gain. "These malicious threats are like a heart attack. They'll first steal your mortgage, your identity, and everything in between to give you a financial heart attack when you turn 60," said Danielson. Cybersecurity protection is evolving and one day Danielson believes authentication will be based on your DNA. Recently, Danielson has been overwhelmed with security projects. In one recent project, he has helped the Nashville school authorities understand the need for cybersecurity on laptops for children. However, the biggest issue he sees is keeping information private in healthcare. He worked with a university hospital in San Francisco to de-identify medical records of a million medical charts to keep personal information private so it could be sold to a Google medical project to study commonalities among Alzheimer patients. "The only way the university could contribute to the study is to respect privacy laws and de-identify data," said Danielson. He's also helped financial and healthcare institutions that are most at risk. On numerous occasions, Danielson has negotiated ransomware threats for various clients. "In the past year, cyber threats have significantly increased, and it will be getting worse in the next five years. Everyone should be proactive to protect themselves. Take it seriously now before it happens to you," said Danielson . Danielson is a U.S. Army veteran and now a busy and highly sought-after cybersecurity and digital forensic expert, helping companies from healthcare to financial institutions tighten cybersecurity. He is available to the media as a cybersecurity and digital forensic expert and has been interviewed by USA Today, New York Post, and the Kim Komando Show. He also has a Podcast. Danielson has also written Battlefield: Parenthood: Parenting Within Parameters: A tactical manual for veteran parent , THE VETERAN ATH-ELITE: A Qualitative Case Study Of High Performing Veteran Athletes and The Rise of Vetrepreneur: Fortitude and Grit. For further information or to schedule an interview contact Ricoh Danielson at (615) 686-8317 or [email protected]. SOURCE Ricoh Danielson ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Trafera is pleased to announce the acquisition of AXI Education Solutions, a leading provider of interactive flat panels, educator professional development, and related products and services to U.S. K-12 school districts across the mid-south. "Bringing together Trafera and AXI will help us bring even more value to our school district partners," commented Scott Gill, CEO of Trafera. "AXI's talented team has earned the trust of their customers with a focus on Promethean interactive displays. Coupled with their exceptional professional development platform and stellar installation services, I'm excited to welcome the AXI team to Trafera and look forward to growing together." Dale Viola, founder of AXI, noted "Trafera really understands and appreciates the technology challenges faced by educators and district IT leaders today. I'm thankful that our customers and employees will have the opportunity to be part of an organization that shares our commitment to improving student outcomes through technology." Trafera is a portfolio company of Rotunda Capital Partners. Rotunda, along with other investors, provided additional capital for the acquisition of AXI. AXI will continue to be based out of Madisonville, Louisiana. About Trafera Trafera is a leading provider of educational technology to K-12 schools and a top K-12 focused reseller of Google Chrome devices. Trafera offers a broad range of additional hardware and software solutions that support better outcomes through technology and also offers a robust set of services including deployment and warranty support. Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, the company also has operations in Arden Hills, Minnesota and Muskogee, Oklahoma supporting the needs of school districts nationwide. Visit www.trafera.com. About AXI Education Solutions AXI Education Solutions, the 2020 Promethean Partner of the Year, is a leading provider of educational technology focused on enhancing teaching and learning. With a portfolio of products and services including interactive displays, professional development, and a host of supportive technologies, AXI partners with school districts to support college and career readiness for every child regardless of social or economic background. AXI is based in Madisonville, Louisiana, with a customer base of school districts spanning the mid-south states. Visit www.axiedu.com for further information. About Rotunda Capital Rotunda Capital Partners is an operationally-oriented private equity firm focused on transforming family-founder owned companies into dynamic, data-driven platforms able to achieve and manage significant growth. Since its founding in 2009, Rotunda has partnered with management teams to build great businesses within three primary sectors: value-added distribution, asset-light logistics and industrial & business services. Rotunda strives to achieve replicable results by implementing its Rotunda Performance System to create strategic alignment, develop lean processes and create robust, data-driven infrastructures. For more information, visit www.rotundacapital.com. SOURCE Trafera The company has reached its goal to raise $5.0M in Series A financing, which was originally led by Acorn Campus of Taiwan, following a recent sizeable investment by angel investors from Tennessee and Kentucky. It also announced positive results from initial clinical studies of its FDA-cleared SUREcore biopsy needle and coreCARE specimen-retrieval kit for prostate biopsy. "Achievement of our financing goals will accelerate replication and extension of the initial study results and drive completion of a suite of procedure-specific SUREcore soft tissue biopsy instruments and coreCARE specimen-retrieval kits for prostate and other organs," said Ted Belleza, president and chief executive officer of URO-1. Indicated for use in soft tissue biopsy, the two devices were designed to improve the procedure, reduce workload and improve workflow in the clinic and the pathology lab. They are optimized for trans-rectal, trans-perineal and targeted prostate biopsy. "In side-by-side comparisons with the same sized standard of care prostate biopsy needles, the SUREcore needle consistently delivered full, continuous cores with less sample-to-sample variability and significantly greater (12-21%) tissue volume by weight," said John J. Smith III, M.D., chief medical officer for URO-1. "Use of the coreCARE Specimen Retrieval Kit, compared with current specimen-retrieval methods, preserved tissue integrity and reduced tissue artifact, which resulted in significantly reduced specimen preparation time and facilitated interpretation by pathology." Results of the studies will be submitted to a peer-reviewed medical journal for publication. The SUREcore needle is cleared by the FDA for use with all current reusable prostate biopsy handpieces. Prostate biopsy is the definitive test to establish the diagnosis of prostate cancer, the most common cancer in American men and the second most common worldwide. However, in up to 40 percent of prostate biopsies, the aggressiveness of the disease is either underestimated or overestimated, and in most of these cases, the pre-surgical assessment of aggressiveness is upgraded upon surgery. Deficiencies in sampling and retrieval of biopsy tissue can adversely affect a pathologist's interpretation of prostate biopsy. The need for better biopsy instruments became clear to Belleza, a serial entrepreneur in medical technology, when he was biopsied for prostate cancer nearly 7 years ago. "This is antiquated," he thought at the time. His opinion was confirmed by discussions with urologist friends who told him the field had changed little since they were trained decades previously. One urologist told him, "If there ever was a procedure begging for innovation, it is prostate biopsy," Belleza said. More accurate and efficient prostate biopsies are needed now more than ever because biopsies are being performed more frequently as part of active surveillance in men with low-risk disease, due to advancements in genomic testing and improved imaging. This has created a need for significantly improved higher volume/lower artifact samples from the same sized needle and more efficient workflow in and between the urology clinic and the pathology lab. About 240,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States, with 29,000 deaths. URO-1, established in 2017, is an emerging portfolio company of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, www.ncbiotech.org, which in 2018 provided a $250,000 loan to support the company's early product development. In addition to its biopsy products, the company has developed the Repris Bladder Injection System for injecting onabotulinumtoxinA (BOTOX) in the bladder wall to treat women with overactive bladder. Clinical studies demonstrate that its use is associated with improved outcomes, increased patient comfort and reduced dropout rates for repeat treatment. For more information contact: Ted Belleza URO-1, Inc. 831 295-7133 [email protected] SOURCE URO-1, Inc. Danat Jebel Dhanna Resort, a luxurious five-star resort in Ruwais on the west coast of Abu Dhabi, will witness tourist flows to the Emirate considering the events and activities scheduled to be held in 2022, said a top official. Renjith Chandran, Cluster General Manager, noted that the new year will be a year full of hope and challenges, noting that the Danat Jebel Dhanna Resort and Dhafra Beach Hotel will begin 2022 with a well-thought-out strategy that contributes to promoting domestic tourism and tourists from both local and international markets. In the wake of the challenges imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic on the tourism and hospitality sectors, Renjith expressed his happiness with the recovery of the public and private sectors and the success of the UAE in addressing this global challenge quickly and effectively. He also explained that the efforts made by government agencies, the public and private sectors, citizens, and residents of the United Arab Emirates have borne fruit, as the country witnessed a clear recovery represented in the opening of Expo 2020 in Dubai, the largest international exhibition, which contributed to promoting tourism and economic recovery. Renjith pointed out that the revival of the tourism sector has allowed the Danat Hotels Group to provide its distinguished hospitality services, by investing in innovative technologies to achieve sustainability and enhancing the skills of team members to remain motivated and provide guests with unforgettable experiences that drive them back to Danat properties. He also stated that this year, Danat Jebel Dhanna Resort and Al Dhafra Beach Hotel have planned several new activities, promotions and experiences worth exploring such as diving, deep sea fishing courses, and boat trips to the Blue Hole a recently discovered treasure trove of marine life. In the Al Dhafra region, it will be the latest addition to the attractions at Danats facilities. The hotels will also offer all-inclusive accommodation for vegetarians as well as all-inclusive packages for children. The benefits do not stop there at Al Dhafra Beach Hotel, in addition to being the first pet-friendly beach resort in Abu Dhabi, the recently renovated swimming pool will open this year, Renjith Chandran said. Guests are invited to enjoy Danat Hotels which is distinguished from other hotels in the capital, and relish in its natural private beach extending over 850 meters, allowing them to explore the splendour of marine life with their beloved pets to Dhafra Beach Hotel. Renjith further explained that while some Covid-19 safety protocols have been relaxed and others lifted, Danat Hotels continues to prioritize the safety and health of its guests and team members, We strictly follow all guidelines and protocols set by the authorities to control the virus. Our team members have been fully vaccinated by 100% while 90% of our employees received the booster. We also test for Covid-19 twice a week for all our employees and are certified by GoSafe. Danat Hotels has made the necessary changes to curb the spread of the pandemic. Whereas, Danat Jebel Dhanna Resort and Dhafra Beach Hotel have developed digital means that easy physical contact as well as follow the new generation of hotel procedures starting from booking via WhatsApp, the possibility of contactless check-in and check-out, as well as the digital appearance of the menu through the QR code in the restaurants and cafes. TradeArabia News Service MAITLAND, Fla. and FORT MILL, S.C., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery has announced that Fort Mill Dermatology the South Carolina practice led by Board Certified Dermatologist Rebecca Smith MD has joined its brand family of 150+ offices nationwide. Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery "We are delighted to welcome Dr. Smith, Dr. Julie Iannini, Certified Physician Assistant Nicole Keeter, MSHS, PA-C, and their team to our organization," said Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery CEO Brian Griffin. "They have earned a great reputation for providing exceptional patient care to a growing community, and we have every confidence they will continue to grow and flourish with Advanced Dermatology's support. They are just the caliber of partners we were looking for to help us expand our footprint in South Carolina." Fort Mill Dermatology received the Top of the Times Award and was voted best by readers of the Fort Mill Times. They have also been awarded Angie's Super Service Award multiple times, and Dr. Smith has been awarded recognition as a Top Doctor of Charlotte multiple times by Charlotte Magazine, as voted by doctors in the Charlotte area. "The talented physicians and clinicians of Fort Mill Dermatology have been recognized by their community and their peers for the excellence of their medical and cosmetic dermatologic care, and for creating a remarkable patient experience by putting the needs of their patients first," said Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery Founder & Executive Chairman Dr. Matt Leavitt. "We couldn't be more excited to have them as part of our organization." "At Fort Mill Dermatology, our philosophy is simple," said Dr. Smith. "We are committed to providing a friendly and comfortable environment in which to provide exceptional dermatologic care. I am honored to announce the partnership of our practice with Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery, one of the nation's largest dermatology practices. This partnership allows us to completely focus on what we do best caring for our patients, while relieving the regulatory burdens of running a medical practice." Dr. Smith attended medical school at Baylor College of Medicine where she graduated with highest honors. She completed a pediatric internship at Baylor, then her dermatology residency at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston. With a background emphasis on clinical research, Dr. Smith is well published and a frequent speaker at functions targeting others in the medical profession. "We look forward to the extensive resources that Advanced Dermatology provides, which will allow us to soon offer expanded cosmetic services and procedures to our patients," said Dr. Iannini. "This way, patients can have all of their dermatology needs addressed within our Advanced Dermatology offices." Dr. Iannini attended medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina where she was the recipient of numerous academic awards. She completed both her internal medicine internship and dermatology residency at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio. As a resident, Dr. Iannini participated in clinical research, including publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at the American Academy of Dermatology national meeting. "We are excited to work more closely with the Advanced Dermatology regional and executive leadership as we continue to serve our patients and build our practice," said Dr. Smith. ABOUT ADVANCED DERMATOLOGY AND COSMETIC SURGERY With more than 150 offices in 14 states, Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery is one of the nation's premier dermatology practices. Founded in 1989, they are committed to providing the highest quality patient care in dermatology and aesthetic services. Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery treats patients for common and complex conditions of the skin, hair, and nails, offers advanced skin cancer treatments, and uses some of the most sought-after therapies available to reduce the impacts of age and the environment. They also offer a wide array of non-surgical and surgical cosmetic and anti-aging treatment options. They are on the leading edge of clinical research, and their dermatopathology labs provide high-quality advanced diagnostic services. To learn more about Advanced Dermatology or to inquire about opportunities to partner with us, visit www.AdvancedDerm.com. Contact: Mary Critchett Director of Communications and Engagement [email protected] 689-231-1761 SOURCE Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery MILWAUKEE, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Affiliates of Phoenix Investors ("Phoenix"), a national private commercial real estate firm headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, completed seven (7) year-end acquisitions totaling over 2,800,000 square feet in Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas. In 2021, Phoenix set company records for new industrial acquisitions of 15 million square feet, increasing its portfolio to approximately 52 million square feet. Phoenix also completed 500,000 square feet of new construction. Across its portfolio, Phoenix owns large industrial sites suitable for additional construction adjacent to operating properties. Given Phoenix's current pipeline, it anticipates 2022 will shatter these records on both acquisitions and new construction. Phoenix's core business is the revitalization of former manufacturing facilities throughout the United States. In 2021, Phoenix continued to grow its relationships with corporate clients across many industries. To reflect the growth and success of its programs with corporate clients, Phoenix has coined the strategy as "Communities First" to reflect the alignment and objective of its partnerships with corporate clients. The "Communities First" strategy is built upon a vision of what is best for the local community. With this vision, Phoenix has successfully repositioned such surplus industrial properties across the United States by investing in first-class building renovations, re-leasing each to new companies, and spurring significant further investment and job creation by our tenants. In 2022, Phoenix expects the number of its "Communities First" acquisitions to accelerate. "In 2021, we broke all records for acquisitions and leasing. We are grateful for Team Phoenix, and our growing family of public and corporate partners," said Frank P. Crivello, Founder & Chairman, Phoenix Investors. "In 2022, we will continue to structure creative solutions for our corporate partners and local communities, assisting both in reviving surplus industrial real estate as we continue to execute our 'Communities First' strategy." "To support our continued portfolio growth, in 2021 we broke records in new hiring for Team Phoenix," said David Marks, President & CEO, Phoenix Investors. "We are attracting and continue to seek qualified acquisition, leasing, legal, accounting, logistics, and construction personnel from across the United States and expect this trend to continue in 2022." About Phoenix Investors Phoenix Investors is a national commercial real estate firm based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Phoenix's affiliate companies hold interests in industrial, retail, office, and single tenant net-leased properties in approximately 52 million square feet, spanning 29 states. Its core business is the revitalization of former manufacturing facilities throughout the United States. This strategy leads to positively transforming communities and restarting the economic engine in the communities we serve. For more information, please visit https://phoenixinvestors.com. SOURCE Phoenix Investors Didn't Find What You Were Looking For? Customize Report- Don't miss out on the opportunity to speak to our analyst and know more insights about this market report. Our analysts can help you customize this report according to your needs. Our analysts and industry experts will work directly with you to understand your requirements and provide you with customized data in a short time. We offer USD 1,000 worth of FREE customization at the time of purchase. Speak to our Analyst now! According to the recent market study by Technavio, the Aircraft Cabin Interior Market Size is expected to increase by USD 7.43 billion from 2020 to 2025, with an accelerated CAGR of 5.68%. The report provides a detailed analysis of drivers & opportunities, top winning strategies, competitive scenario, future market trends, market size & estimations, and major investment pockets. North America will register the highest growth rate, occupying 36% of the global market share. The US and Canada are the key markets for aircraft cabin interior in North America. However, the market growth in this region will be slower than the growth of the market in APAC and Europe. Download FREE Sample: for more additional information about the key countries in North America Vendor Insights- The aircraft cabin interior market is fragmented with the presence of several regional and international players. The growing competition in the market is driving vendors to adopt various organic and inorganic growth strategies such as mergers and acquisitions and new product launches to gain an edge over their rivals. Astronics Corp.: The company offers aircraft cabin interiors such as environmental control system, fuel access door, passenger service unit, and smart tray. Die Diehl Stiftung & Co. KG: The company offers aircraft cabin interiors such as lightning system, spot and reading lights, emergency signs, regular signs among others. Expliseat SAS: The company offers aircraft cabin interiors such as S-line and X-line seats through its brand TISEAT E2. Intelsat SA: The company offers aircraft cabin interiors such as next-gen onboard server unit ACPU-2, ACWAPs, and Wi-Fi antenna. JAMCO Corp.: The company offers aircraft cabin interiors such as flight deck linings, consoles, and stowages. Find additional highlights on the vendors and their product offerings. Download Free Sample Report Regional Market Outlook The aircraft cabin interior market growth in North America will be significant during the forecast period. The rising demand for lightweight aircraft interior products is driving the growth of the aircraft cabin interior market in North America. The report also offers detailed insights into the growth of the market across other regions such as APAC, Europe, MEA, and South America. Countries such as France, China, and the UK are identified as prominent markets for aircraft cabin interiors. Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries. Latest Drivers & Trends Driving the Market- Aircraft Cabin Interior Market Driver, Trends, and Challenges: The growing preference for new-generation aircraft will emerge as the major factor driving the growth of the global aircraft cabin interior market. In addition, the need for lightweight aircraft interior products and the rising preference for high-density seating configuration will further accelerate the growth of the market. On the other hand, factors such as delays in aircraft deliveries, stringent aviation regulations, and manufactural and procedural constraints will challenge the growth potential in the market. Find additional information about various other market Drivers & Trends mentioned in our FREE sample report . Related Reports: Aircraft Cabin Upgrades Market by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Commercial Aircraft Electronic Flight Bag Systems Market by Hardware Configuration and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025 Aircraft Cabin Interior Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 5.68% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 7430.22 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 5.52 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA Performing market contribution North America at 36% Key consumer countries US, France, China, Canada, and UK Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Astronics Corp., Die Diehl Stiftung & Co. KG, Expliseat SAS, Intelsat SA, JAMCO Corp., Raytheon Technologies Corp., Safran SA, Thales Group, Thompson Aero Seating Ltd., and Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized. About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library 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 FORT LAUDERDALE and BOCA RATON, Fla., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- South Florida Business Journal (SFBJ) has announced its new rankings for the annual publication, "Book of Lists." American Heritage Schools has been ranked is #1 Private School, #14 in Corporate Philanthropy and #19 Largest Employer in South Florida. SFBJ is the leading source for business news, data, and networking in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. SFBJ's "Book of Lists" provides readers with more than 1,000 of the most significant area companies in their fields, by ranking. American Heritage Schools Has Been Ranked #1 Private School in South Florida Business Journal's Annual Book of Lists 2021 American Heritage Schools "We are honored to be named #1 Private School, #14 in Corporate Philanthropy, and #19 Largest Employer in SFBJ's Annual 2021 'Book of Lists.' Achieving this recognition in one of the most prestigious publications for our academic and philanthropic distinctions is an honor," said Dr. Doug Laurie, president of American Heritage Schools. "The pride felt by the students at American Heritage Schools is reflected in their desire to learn and succeed. The expert faculty, extensive curriculum, and state-of-the-art facilities are a testament as to why American Heritage continues to remain on top." Since its founding over 55 years ago, American Heritage Schools has become known as a leading private school for academic excellence throughout the nation, and enrollment has steadily increased to its current total of 4,650 students in PK3-12th grades at the Broward and Palm Beach campuses. One of the pillars of American Heritage Schools is 'compassion,' which is instilled daily both in and out of the classroom. With over 85 student-run clubs, as well as the schools' Pre-Professional Program partnerships with local hospitals and nonprofit organizations, the philanthropic desire to help others locally and globally is at the heart of everything the students, families, faculty, and administrators do. Each year, fundraising goals are surpassed, and there is no limit to what can be accomplished. A strong work ethic is evident in all facets of American Heritage Schools. The high school has had the highest number of National Merit Scholars in Florida for 12 consecutive years, and the math competition team ranks first out of all private schools in the U.S. The Model UN team is top 5 in the nation, and the Speech and Debate team is in the top 1% in the nation. American Heritage Schools is also No. 1 in science and ranks among the top private STEM schools in Florida, according to Niche , the market leader in connecting colleges and schools with students and families. To learn more about American Heritage Schools' recognition, please visit here. About American Heritage Schools: American Heritage Schools, founded in 1965, is a nationally-ranked private, nonsectarian, and co-educational college preparatory day school with two 40-acre campuses: the Broward Campus is located in Plantation, Florida, and the Palm Beach Campus is located in Delray Beach, Florida. Its campuses serve approximately 4,650 students in Pre-K3 through 12th grades; the student body represents over 60 different countries throughout the world. Approximately 70 percent of the faculty hold postgraduate degrees. American Heritage Schools is nationally and internationally accredited by the following associations: Association of Independent Schools of Florida (AISF), Middle States Association (MSA-CESS), and National Council for Private Schools. The Lower School includes advanced classes and 15 electives, and the Upper School offers over 300 courses with 138 honors classes, 28 Advanced Placement classes, and 75 fine arts classes. Pre-professional programs are offered in pre-med , pre-law , pre-engineering , biomedical engineering , business & entrepreneurship , and computer science that are taught daily by doctors, surgeons, lawyers, judges, engineers, and computer scientists currently practicing in their fields. For 12 years, American Heritage Schools has been ranked the No. 1 high school in Florida for the highest number of National Merit Scholars, and the school is home to the No. 1 math competition team out of all private schools in the U.S. The Model UN team is top 5 in the nation, and the Speech and Debate team is in the top 1% in the nation. It is ranked among the top private schools in Florida in STEM, according to Niche. Its Science Research Institute enables students to conduct research on real-world problems, and its students have earned international recognition for their findings. For more information about American Heritage Schools, visit its website or email [email protected]. Broward Campus: (954) 472-0022 ext. 3021 or email [email protected] Palm Beach Campus: (561) 495-7272 ext. 219 or email [email protected] Media Contact: Duree & Company, Inc. 954.723.9350 / [email protected] SOURCE American Heritage Schools LOS ANGELES, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- There are few places where over-the-top luxury collides with abject poverty quite as dramatically as the city of Los Angeles, where 2 million people -- that's one in four Angelenos -- struggle with food insecurity. But artist Stephania Gambaroff is on a mission to change that, with a little help from a certain non-binary, three-headed conjoined twin named Ozzy. The artist plans to donate 100% of sales generated from YOLO, her upcoming show at Gabba Gallery, to Love More LA, a local non-profit dedicated to providing food for those in need. Crying Anti-Face Recognition Mask | 48 x 72 x 2.5 inches | spray paint on canvas (Photo by Dave Thomas for Gambaroff Art) Mom | 16 x 20 x 2.5 inches | oil & spray paint on canvas (Photo by Dave Thomas for Gambaroff Art) "It's a fact that art remains an expensive commodity that only a few people can afford," explained Gambaroff. "As an immigrant female street artist, I want to bridge the gap between free street art and studio practice while also helping Angelenos in need." YOLO (short for "you only live once"), is Gambaroff's second solo show in Los Angeles and includes ten new medium-sized works created specially for the show. In true Gambaroff style, the exhibit features richly textured oil paintings that weave together the unmistakable precision and sensibilities of a formally trained artist with the gritty urgency and evocative energy of L.A. street art. The exhibit will also include work that features Gambaroff's captivating signature character Ozzy, who embodies the ideas of otherness, identity, gender, and humanism that serve as prominent themes in Gambaroff's work. "My goal is for collectors to buy my art knowing the money will feed people and that I intended the art to serve as a currency of love and care for our community," said Gambaroff. "You Only Live Once will empower collectors with a unique opportunity to be a part of something bigger than themselves, the artist, and the art itself. And I am super excited to use my work to benefit my favorite city." After the show, Gambaroff and her team will work with Love More LA to deliver the food and her art's new owners are invited to join and participate in completing the exhibit's goal of "feeding the people." You Only Live Once opens Jan. 22, 2022 and runs through Feb. 12 at Gabba Gallery located at 3126 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90057. Contact Jazmin Rainey 702.769.8179 [email protected] About Stephania Gambaroff Stephania Gambaroff is an award-winning Russian-born American artist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She produces videos, paintings and sculptures during the day and develops responsive systems and algorithms at night. She has also lived and exhibited in Montreal, New York, and San Francisco. For further information, please visit https://gambaroff.com/ . About Gabba Gallery Open since 2012, Gabba Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Los Angeles showcasing work by emerging and established artists from around the world. Gabba Gallery believes art is for everyone and strives to make the gallery a welcoming place for all artists and art lovers. For further information, please visit www.gabbagallery.com/ . SOURCE Gabba Gallery FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 3; Released: December 2021 Executive Pool: 11721 Companies: 358 - Players covered include Moderna, Inc.; Pfizer Inc./BioNTech; AstraZeneca/University of Oxford; Johnson & Johnson; CanSino Biologics, Inc.; China National Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (Sinopharm); Sinovac Biotech Ltd.; Novavax, Inc.; Inovio Pharmaceuticals; Sanofi/GlaxoSmithKline; Gamaleya Institute and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Age Group (18 Years & Above, Under 18 Years) Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; India; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Africa. Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry ABSTRACT- After months of what seemed to be a receding pandemic supported by vaccines and adherence to new COVID appropriate protocols as the new normal, the world is witnessing the ghosts of the past rising once again. Barely months after the Indian strain called the Delta, or B.1.617.2 which was 40-60% more transmissible than Alpha and almost twice as transmissible as the original Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2 took over the world as a dominant strain, a new variant dubbed as "Omicron (B.1.1.529)" has emerged. Originally detected in South Africa in mid-November 2021, Omicron is now spreading across the globe with Asia, Europe, and North America reporting infections from this strain. In addition to acquiring the mutations of the delta variant, the Omicron variant has over 50 mutations with 32 of them seen on its spike protein, two times higher than Delta, indicating that the virus has further adapted to the human species. Even more worrisome and unsettling is the fact that the variant also includes the vaccine-resistant alterations seen in Beta variant. The worst variant the pandemic has thrown up till date and carrying the mutations P681H and N679K, Omicron is feared to reduce vaccine effectiveness by close to 40% to 50%. There are fears that this strain is capable of outsmarting monoclonal antibodies, such as Regeneron's treatment, since these therapies target parts of the virus that have now mutated. Currently classified as 'variant of concern', fears over the spreading Omicron have once again pushed countries across the globe to re-impose international and domestic travel restrictions. Omicron is now expected to displace the circulation Delta and other variants. It's only a matter of time before a newer more competitive virus emerges. With Europe already battling fourth and fifth waves of infections, the new Omicron variant is bringing back ghosts of the past year. Fears are again rising over possible increase in infections, mortalities, overburdened hospitals, healthcare systems and lockdowns resulting in yet another economic nightmare. Lockdowns, travel and movement restrictions will be back once again if infection from this new strain fails to be controlled. India which is just recovering from the intense second wave with hopes of the disease reaching an endemic state, the new variant is reigniting fears of a possible third wave. With several countries facing repeated waves of infections, the world is up against a new challenge in this war against the virus. An uphill challenge confronts governments in rapidly stepping up efforts to accelerate the pace of vaccine administration, despite numerous challenges. It's a race against time and to successfully end the pandemic, mass vaccination drives must outpace the speed with which the coronavirus is currently mutating. After a sharp drop in cases throughout the second half of the year 2021, cases have begun to spike again led by infections from the Delta variant. This variant now accounts for the vast majority of new infections. With the rise in vaccination rates especially in developed countries, measures designed to limit the spread of Covid-19 like mask mandates and capacity limits have been relaxed. The subsequent relaxation strengthened consumer confidence and allowed economic activity to return to normalcy. However, with the Covid-19 virus rapidly mutating, new variants have emerged in many parts of the world, posing a threat of potential future waves. Different parts of Europe are currently witnessing fourth and fifth waves of infection spread. These new variants are more deadly than the original virus, more easily transmissible and can impact the effectiveness of vaccines. Prolonging pandemic and new mutant strains means that immunity among vaccinated population is beginning to slip, throwing the focus on booster doses. The leading vaccine makers, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca announced plans to pursue development of booster shots to address the emerging threat of new virus variants. The booster shot will be essential to keep the immune system to the optimum level. A number of wealthy countries like the US, Germany and Israel are considering booster shots to increase protection against Covid-19. Germany is expected to roll out booster shots to vulnerable individuals. mRNA-vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna will be offered as booster shots, regardless of the vaccine administered previously. In India, Bharat Biotech, the makers of Covaxin, received regulator's approval for conducting trials for a third shot that will be administered as a booster dose. While a booster dose is typically an exact replica of the initial vaccine, it can also be tweaked. Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer are working on variant-specific booster shots. Recently, Moderna announced positive initial data from its ongoing phase 2 study. The data revealed that the booster dose increased neutralizing antibody responses against the original virus as well as B.1.351 and P.1, in previously vaccinated individuals. Studies suggest that a third dose can boost antibodies even in immunocompromised patients. The rapid pace at which new strains capable of evading antibodies are rising is throwing the focus on vaccine tweaking and researchers are already working on updating vaccines with the new spike proteins to prepare for new variants with a new version of the vaccine. This however requires additional clinical trials, more time consuming research work, and regulatory approvals. The time-to-market remains a main challenge with the process taking six to eight months before vaccines can be updated and commercialized. This time-consuming development process is a major setback when compared to the rapid rate of infection spread from new strains. In this race against virus evolution, swift and rapid vaccinations are the need of the hour to limit the spread of mutant strains, notwithstanding the fact that vaccines themselves are contributing to virus mutations. Rapid mass vaccinations will make the mutation process and threat more manageable. It is an undeniable fact that vaccines will see a slow erosion in efficacy and effectiveness over the long-term. Therefore it is important to slow the spread of the virus by vaccinating as many people as possible at the earliest. To end the pandemic, which currently seems to have received yet another setback will require more dedicated focus on vaccine equality, international cooperation in COVID research, more transparent information transfer and alert systems on new emerging strains, waiver of IP on vaccines, and science-based swift decisions regarding travel bans. All of these are vital to prevent squandering away "hard won gains" achieved against the virus over the last 2 years. More MarketGlass Platform Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide. Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years. CONTACTS: Zak Ali Director, Corporate Communications Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Phone: 1-408-528-9966 www.StrategyR.com Email: [email protected] LINKS Join Our Expert Panel https://www.strategyr.com/Panelist.asp Connect With Us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-industry-analysts-inc./ Follow Us on Twitter https://twitter.com/marketbytes Journalists & Media [email protected] SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. The program consists of three main environmental benefits including the conservation of 300 hectares of secondary vegetation of the evergreen forest patches in the area, the creation of biological corridors to connect the forest patches that surround the solar plant, and the conservation of the Black Howler Monkey Habitat, which is an endangered species that has been red-listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUNC). "Helping preserve biodiversity and improve local species' habitats near our renewable energy projects is of utmost importance and this is always taken into consideration in the design phase of a project," said Eddaly Cuesta, ESG Manager for Colombia and Mexico at Atlas Renewable Energy. "Seeing this program develop from a basic idea to a program with tangible results is very fulfilling from both a personal and professional perspective. Everything was possible thanks to the great leadership within Atlas, which understands that protecting and preserving biodiversity is an essential part of the development of our projects." The environmental initiative aligns with Atlas' ESG pillar for biodiversity protection which intends to help protect and maintain environments and species near our renewable energy projects. With this, Atlas aims to motivate others within the industry and foster even more commitment toward the preservation and conservation of species and habitats. Within this pillar, Atlas has executed reforestation activities, donated seedlings, held workshops for environmental education, and has helped toward the conservation of different species across Chile, Brazil, and Mexico. "We have a commitment as clean energy generators to provide power and to do so as sustainably as possible. Taking care of the ecosystems in which we operate is a priority for Atlas, not because it is required but because it's the right thing to do. That's why we often go above and beyond local regulations and do more than what is expected in this sense. I'm very proud of what Atlas has achieved, and the support from the other divisions within the company, such as EPC and Development, which have been fundamental in the materialization of this program", said Maria Jose Cortes, Head of ESG at Atlas Renewable Energy. "Thank you SEAL Awards for this recognition and thank you to our trusted partners such as BIOS, ERM, Ecology Institute AC, and IDB Invest for being such an important element during the development and execution of this initiative." The first phase of the project, which consisted of the relocation of individual howler monkeys and the creation of corridors to connect forest patches, is well underway. Currently, the program is moving into phase two, which consists of monitoring the Black Howler monkey population for the next couple of years to ensure their wellbeing, executing reforestation actions and preserving the forest patches that continue to be connected by the biological corridors. "The environmental merits of renewable energy are consistent and obvious," said Matt Harney, Founder of SEAL Awards. "Our judging panel found Atlas' prioritization of conservation and biodiversity in its La Pimienta Solar Project to be unique and exemplary. We encourage all renewable energy developers to model this conservation-centric approach." About Atlas Renewable Energy Atlas Renewable Energy is a renewable energy generation company that develops, builds, and operates renewable energy projects with long-term contracts across the Americas. The current company portfolio is 2.2GW of contracted projects in development, construction, or operational stages, and aims to expand by an additional 4GW in the next years. Launched in early 2017, Atlas Renewable Energy includes an experienced team with the longest track record in the solar energy industry in Latin America. The company is recognized for its high standards in the development, construction, and operation of large-scale projects. Atlas Renewable Energy is part of the Energy Fund IV, founded by Actis, a leading private equity investor in the energy sector. Atlas Renewable Energy's growth is focused on the leading emerging markets and economies, using its proven development, commercialization, and structuring know-how to accelerate the transformation toward clean energy. By actively engaging with the community and stakeholders at the center of its project strategy, the company works every day to provide a cleaner future. To know more about Atlas Renewable Energy, visit: www.atlasrenewableenergy.com Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719663/Atlas_Renewable_Energy.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1441896/Atlas_Renewable_Energy_Logo.jpg Contact: Dave Chambers / +44 (0)75 5788 7405 / [email protected] SOURCE Atlas Renewable Energy Related Links www.atlasrenewableenergy.com/en/ DALLAS, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- What's the news? Gamers rejoice. AT&T* is joining forces with NVIDIA**to bring you one of the world's best gaming experiences. As the Exclusive 5G Technical Innovation Collaborator for GeForce NOW, AT&T 5G's fast speeds and response times can give you a smooth gaming experience on-the-go. Try it for yourself with our exclusive GeForce NOW offer. How do I get started? Experience PC-quality gaming on your phone with AT&T's 5G network and this exclusive, limited time offer. Starting today, new and existing AT&T 5G customers on an eligible rate plan get a 6-month GeForce NOW Priority Membership on us.1 You can play nearly 100 free-to-play titles and games you already own on popular PC game stores like Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, Origin, GOG and more. You'll even see realistic, state-of-the-art graphics thanks to NVIDIA RTX technology and cutting-edge artificial intelligence features that will immerse you into virtual worlds in supported games. All you need is a 5G device with a 5G plan to start playing.2 Our Network, Your Gain. Games have A LOT going on behind the scenes. With cloud gaming, a solid network is critical to deliver an excellent experience to your screen instantly. The last thing you want is for your content to buffer or even worse your connection to drop. When you're on AT&T's 5G network, it provides the fast ping times, reliable streaming, and secure connections needed for gaming today and in the future. Whether you want to game at home or on the go, the AT&T network offers low lag and fast speeds for responsive gaming with AT&T Fiber and AT&T 5G. And things will only get better with our 5G investment. Speeds and performance will continue to improve with AT&T's C-Band deployment, helping to enable our network to perform at its best for gamers of any level. And as part of our collaboration with NVIDIA, we'll explore new ways to deliver performance that will revolutionize gaming. What are people saying? "NVIDIA is the latest leader that has tapped AT&T 5G to turn cloud gaming up a notch because we supply the power, speed and responsiveness you need when mobile," said David Christopher, executive vice president and general manager, partnerships and 5G ecosystem development, AT&T. "These collaborations give us the insight and expertise to deliver gaming at its best as we optimize our network today and for what's to come in the future. Cloud gaming is just the beginning of the gaming evolution and our network will be ready for the changes that are on the horizon." "Pairing NVIDIA GeForce NOW with AT&T 5G delivers ultra-responsive cloud gaming backed by a fast, reliable network," said Phil Eisler, vice president and general manager of GeForce NOW at NVIDIA. "We are thrilled to work with AT&T to optimize cloud gaming over 5G, and to deliver an exclusive deal that brings high-performance cloud gaming to iPhone and Android users." To learn more about AT&T 5G, check out att.com/5Gforyou. 1 Subject to change. Restrictions apply. See att.com/gaming/ for more details. 2 AT&T 5G requires compatible plan and device. 5G is not available everywhere. Go to att.com/5Gforyou for details. *About AT&T Communications We help family, friends and neighbors connect in meaningful ways every day. From the first phone call 140+ years ago to mobile video streaming, we @ATT innovate to improve lives. AT&T Communications is part of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T). For more information, please visit us at att.com. 2022 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the Globe logo are registered trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. SOURCE AT&T Communications Didn't Find What You Were Looking For? Customize Report- Don't miss out on the opportunity to speak to our analyst and know more insights about this market report. Our analysts can help you customize this report according to your needs. Our analysts and industry experts will work directly with you to understand your requirements and provide you with customized data in a short time. We offer USD 1,000 worth of FREE customization at the time of purchase. Speak to our Analyst now! According to the recent market study by Technavio, the Automotive Technologies Market Size is expected to increase by USD 134.06 billion from 2020 to 2025. However, the growth momentum in the market is expected to decelerate at a CAGR of 11.04%. The report provides a detailed analysis of drivers & opportunities, top winning strategies, competitive scenario, future market trends, market size & estimations, and major investment pockets. APAC will register the highest growth rate, occupying 53% of the global market share. China, Japan, and South Korea (Republic of Korea) are the key markets for automotive technologies in APAC. However, the market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in other regions. Download FREE Sample : for more additional information about the key countries in North America Vendor Insights- The automotive technologies market is fragmented with the presence of several regional and international players. Major players are increasing their footprint in the market by expanding their operations. This has increased competition in the market, which is driving small vendors in the market to focus on introducing technologically advanced products and forming strategic alliances with other players. Continental AG: The company offers various sensors like cameras, lidar, radar, and control units that provide the necessary information for highly automated driving. DENSO Corp.: The company offers various electronic platforms, port terrain systems, and others. HELLA GmbH and Co. KGaA: The company offers a range of vehicle electronics solutions such as LED headlamps, intelligent battery sensors for efficient energy management, lane change assistant, and others. Intel Corp.: The company offers various technologies for the automotive industry such as autonomous driving, in-vehicle experience, functional safety and electric motor controls, power conversion, and battery management systems for electric vehicles. NVIDIA Corp.: The company offers various automotive technologies such as ADAS, automated driving, in-vehicle experience, ADAS, and others. Find additional highlights on the vendors and their product offerings. Download Free Sample Report Regional Market Outlook The automotive technologies market growth in APAC will be significant during the forecast period. The increasing sales of automobiles and the rising demand for electronics-based driving comfort and safety systems will be crucial in driving the growth of the automotive technologies market in APAC. The report also offers detailed insights into the growth of the market across other regions such as Europe, MEA, North America, and South America. Countries such as the US and Germany are identified as prominent markets for automotive technologies. Download our FREE sample report for more key highlights on the regional market share of most of the above-mentioned countries. Latest Drivers & Trends Driving the Market- Automotive Technologies Market Driver: The rising adoption of ADAS features in vehicles will emerge as the major factor in driving the growth of the global automotive technologies market during the forecast period. In addition, the increasing adoption of electronics-based driving comfort & safety systems and the intervention of innovative technologies for advanced UI will further accelerate the growth of the market. On the other hand, factors such as lack of standard protocols, lack of connected infrastructure, and the delay in the luxury of ongoing updates and amendments will reduce the growth potential in the market. Find additional information about various other market Drivers & Trends mentioned in our FREE sample report . Related Reports: Electric Vehicle Motor Market by Power Rating and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025 Automotive Occupant Sensing System Market by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Automotive Technologies Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Decelerate at a CAGR of 11.04% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 134.06 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 15.60 Regional analysis APAC, Europe, North America, MEA, and South America Performing market contribution APAC at 53% Key consumer countries China, US, Germany, Japan, and South Korea (Republic of Korea) Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Continental AG, DENSO Corp., HELLA GmbH and Co. KGaA, Intel Corp., NVIDIA Corp., NXP Semiconductors NV, Renesas Electronics Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH, Xilinx Inc., and ZF Friedrichshafen AG 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 focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library 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 LOS ANGELES, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WORLD Channel and Public Broadcasting Stations (PBS) nationwide kick off the New Year with a special one-hour, made-for-television version of " Trust Me ," the documentary created by acclaimed director Roko Belic and Joe Phelps of The Getting Better Foundation. "Trust Me"is a documentary that explores manipulation and misinformation at the intersection of human nature and information technology. It explains how that drives a need for media literacy. Expert interviews point the way toward a positive future. http://www.trustmedocumentary.com/ "Trust Me" has won four "best documentary" awards at U.S. film festivals and been honored at many others. https://www.trustmedocumentary.com/ The film brings awareness to the need for media literacy to help combat polarization of communities, threats to democracy, medical misinformation, and mental illnesses. It features compelling stories from around the world where a lack of media literacy led to crises. Interviews from world-renowned experts are interwoven, explaining why humanity is drawn to sensational and negative news, how commercial media often capitalizes on our biases along with their opinions on solutions. A link to the trailer is here. "The number of thought leaders and professional associations who have heartily endorsed 'Trust Me' sends a strong signal to teachers and parents that this timely film, about a challenge that is crucial to our overall health, is worthwhile viewing," said Joe Phelps, executive producer. "Trust Me" has been featured at annual conferences worldwide, including the U.S. State Department's Global Conference on Media Literacy, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), National Association of Media Literacy Education; MediaLiteracyNow; American Library Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. It has won four "best documentary" awards at U.S. film festivals, and is now the best-selling film for New Day Films, a leading American distributor of cause-related films. The film premieres on the WORLD Channel, January 7, 2022. To find channel numbers for WORLD, click here. It will also appear on PBS broadcast stations nationwide (check local listings). Testimonials: "Trust Me" opens up the vital conversation about the importance of understanding the media landscape which surrounds us. As someone who works every day to create a media literate world, I am grateful for this film and its message about the importance of reflecting on the way media shapes the world we live in. It's an incredibly important film at an incredibly important time. You will want to see this." Michelle Ciulla-Lipkin, director National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE). "It's essential that we understand how people learn about current affairs and how we can enhance their knowledge about the present and hope for the future. 'Trust Me' is a vivid, engaging, and penetrating portrait of these vital issues." Steven Pinker, professor of psychology - Harvard University About "Trust Me": View the press kit with downloadable images here. Visit www.trustmedocumentary.com for more information, educational licensing or private screenings. About Getting Better Foundation (GBF): The mission of GBF is to "Build trust through the truth about the positive progress of humans." The foundation primarily supports media literacy education and has produced "Trust Me" to raise awareness of people's need for media literacy to help build trust, resilience, and well-being. Armed with media literacy, people can avoid online manipulation, empowering them to rise to the best versions of themselves and collaborate with others to enable progress. www.gettingbetterfoundation.org About NETA: The National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) is a professional association representing 279 public broadcast member stations in 47 states, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. NETA provides leadership, general audience content, educational services, professional development and trusted financial management services, including human resources and benefits administration, to individual public media licensees, their affinity groups and public media as a whole, visit www.netaonline.org . Media Contact: Rosemary Smith 989.370.2777 [email protected] SOURCE The Getting Better Foundation HOUSTON, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Happy Cappy (https://happycappyshampoo.com/) proudly announced it had been named the "Best Cradle Cap Shampoo" by well-known parenting website, ScaryMommy.com continuing to add to Happy Cappy's growing list of awards and distinctions. Happy Cappy is the first medicated shampoo/body wash used specifically for the relief of scalp flaking, scaling, and redness associated with seborrheic dermatitis in children of all ages. When seborrheic dermatitis is found on a baby's head it is often called cradle cap a common condition that affects one in three children under the age of five. Developed by board-certified pediatric physician Dr. Eddie Valenzuela, Happy Cappy manufactures and sells a complete line of vegan-friendly, irritant free, products including a Sensitive Skin gift box sampler currently available on Amazon.com. Individual Happy Cappy products are also sold and shipped by Walmart.com with 2-day delivery. Visit the company online to access a convenient "Where to Buy" feature to find Happy Cappy products in over 4,500 Walgreens and buybuyBaby stores across the nation. What is Happy Cappy for? Eczema on Babies | Cradle Cap | Dandruff | Seborrheic Dermatitis "We're so excited and honored to be named on this recent list," said Dr. Eddie. "The highest praise we could ever hope for is from other parents who love and use our formula. The best products in the world help solve a problem and that was certainly true for our cradle cap shampoo. Almost half of all infants get cradle cap, and for so many years, pediatricians have advised parents to use normal dandruff shampoos on their infants to fight conditions like cradle cap. But that never really made sense formulated for adults, those shampoos have perfumes and other harsh chemicals that are not appropriate for a baby's sensitive skin. And that's why I designed a product exclusive for this age group." Available since 2018, Happy Cappy's unique redness-soothing shampoo/bodywash formula, with natural ingredient licorice root extract, quickly became popular after multiple high-profile reviews by national press outlets. Happy Cappy also recently won the "Best Cradle Cap Shampoo" from Parents Magazine and is currently trademarking its "No Scalp Left Behind" tagline. Happy Cappy Medicated Shampoo and Body Wash with active ingredient pyrithione zinc features include: Helps eliminate scalp and skin scaling, redness, flaking, itching, and irritation associated with seborrheic dermatitis and dandruff. Used to safely soothe redness behind ears, under armpits, and in neck folds. All Happy Cappy products are sulfate free, parabens free, fragrance free, dye free, dermatologist tested , and cruelty-free. With almost 5,000 Amazon reviews, many adults with delicate skin turn to Happy Cappy Medicated for their own seborrheic dermatitis on the face and beard because of its gentle formulation and because it is fungal acne friendly. Happy Cappy's moisturizing products are just as popular among adults who suffer with eczema and psoriasis. Happy Cappy Moisturizing Cream also currently enjoys a 100% rating on SkinSafe. Happy Cappy's clinically tested skincare regimen to soothe dry, itchy, irritated, sensitive, eczema prone skin and should be used as follows: Step 1: Wash hair, face, and body with irritant free Happy Cappy Daily Shampoo & Body Wash. Step 2: Lock in moisture and hydrate skin with non-greasy Happy Cappy Moisturizing Cream. Apply at least twice daily. For up-to-the-minute reviews, new products, and pediatric information on all Happy Cappy products, visit the company's website. Or follow Happy Cappy on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest. About Happy Cappy: A Pediatrician's Solution Created by a pediatrician and manufactured at a cGMP (certified Good Manufacturing Practice) facility, Happy Cappy represents a complete line of over the counter, made-in-the-USA products for seborrheic dermatitis, dandruff, eczema, and other sensitive skin conditions common among infants, toddlers, school age children, teenagers, and adults. All Happy Cappy products contain gentle cleansers and moisturizing creams that use safe ingredients like licorice root extract, apple fruit extract, aloe vera, hyaluronic acid (made through a natural fermentation process), oatmeal, provitamin B5, and pure glycerin. Happy Cappy is free of irritants like perfumes, dyes, phthalates, parabens, lanolin, and sulfates ensuring that babies only get what they need on their skin, and nothing more. Explore the full line at: www.HappyCappyShampoo.com. Media Contact: Eddie Valenzuela, MD, FAAP CEO cell: 713-929-6603 SOURCE Happy Cappy CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America Corporation announced today that it will redeem on January 20, 2022 all $1,500,000,000 principal amount outstanding of its 3.124% Fixed/Floating Rate Senior Notes, due January 2023 (CUSIP No. 06051GGE3) (the "Fixed/Floating Rate Notes"), and all $750,000,000 principal amount outstanding of its Floating Rate Senior Notes, due January 2023 (CUSIP No. 06051GGH6) (the "Floating Rate Notes" and, together with the Fixed/Floating Rate Notes, the "Senior Notes"). The redemption price for each series of the Senior Notes will be equal to 100% of the principal amount of such series, plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, the redemption date of January 20, 2022. Interest on each series of the Senior Notes will cease to accrue on the redemption date. Payment of the redemption price for the Senior Notes will be made through the facilities of The Depository Trust Company. The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A. is the trustee and paying agent for the Senior Notes. Bank of America Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 66 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,200 retail financial centers, approximately 17,000 ATMs, and award-winning digital banking with approximately 41 million active users, including approximately 32 million mobile users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and approximately 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Forward-looking statements Certain information contained in this news release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are not guarantees of future results or performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions difficult to predict or beyond our control. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement and should consider the uncertainties and risks discussed under Item 1A. "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, and in any of our subsequent Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statement was made. For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements and other important information, register for email news alerts. www.bankofamerica.com Investors May Contact: Lee McEntire, Bank of America Phone: 1.980.388.6780 [email protected] Jonathan G. Blum, Bank of America (Fixed Income) Phone: 1.212.449.3112 [email protected] Reporters May Contact: Jerry Dubrowski, Bank of America Phone: 1.646.855.1195 (office) or 1.508.843.5626 (mobile) [email protected] Christopher P. Feeney, Bank of America Phone: 1.980.386.6794 [email protected] SOURCE Bank of America Corporation DALLAS, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BARBRI Global, the world's premier legal education provider, today announced the acquisition of West Academic, the leading U.S. publisher of casebooks, treatises, study guides, and other legal materials in both print and digital media formats. The deal brings the companies together to bring a more complete set of product offerings to law students and law schools. "Like BARBRI, West Academic has a long history as a leader in the legal education market," said Steve Fredette, CEO of BARBRI Global. "West Academic provides industry-leading materials for tomorrow's lawyers and the schools that train them. We are thrilled to join forces under the BARBRI Global umbrella to offer an even wider set of best-in-class legal materials to students and schools around the world." Founded in 1908, West Academic publishes materials under three brands: West Academic Publishing, Foundation Press and Gilbert. Its products range from materials designed specifically for law school courses to topical overviews that make complex legal concepts easier to understand. "We've always embraced our history at West Academic, while also pushing to provide innovative materials to the market to address emerging areas of law and showcasing new teaching methods for law faculty," said Chris Parton CEO of West Academic, who will continue to lead West Academic within BARBRI Global. "By joining BARBRI Global, we can utilize the combined strength of both our histories in the space, and work together to reach more students with our products and expertise." West Academic is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, where it will continue its operations after the acquisition. About BARBRI Global BARBRI Global, part of the Francisco Partners portfolio, is a global learning and technology company dedicated to meeting the legal education and specialized training needs of law students, attorneys, and other professionals throughout their careers. BARBRI's success is built upon its unmatched technology and innovative pedagogy, combined with the ability to harness data analytics, behavioral economics, learning science, and more to develop solutions for learners and institutions. Building on the success of its core bar courses, which have helped more than 1.3 million lawyers around the world pass a U.S. bar exam, BARBRI offers a comprehensive suite of learning solutions for higher education institutions and law-related businesses that includes U.S. bar exam preparation, curriculum, assessment, global license preparation, online program management and professional development. Founded in 1967, BARBRI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with offices throughout the United States and around the world. For more information, please visit www.barbri.com. About Francisco Partners Francisco Partners is a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in more than 300 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the industry. With more than $25 billion in assets under management, the firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information, please visit www.franciscopartners.com. SOURCE BARBRI "Winter Haven hospitals' next leader has a proven track record of partnering with physicians to deliver clinical excellence for the community," said Glenn Waters, BayCare's Chief Operating Officer. "What also impressed us is that Kidada has an appreciation for the leadership role a hospital plays in the fabric of a community and he is a leader who steps into that responsibility." Prior to joining Tenet's Alabama operations, Hawkins has served in a variety of administrative leadership roles including as Chief Executive Officer of Shoals Hospital in Muscle Shoals, Ala., an affiliate of RCCH Healthcare Partners, now part of LifePoint Health; and as Chief Operating Officer of Rural Hospital Operations for St. Vincent's Health System in Birmingham, Ala., an affiliate of Ascension Health. Hawkins is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and is a Regent and former President of the FORUM, Alabama's chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and holds master's degrees in health services administration and business administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Hawkins, 47, and his wife, Kia Hawkins, have two young children. Hawkins will succeed interim President Susan Croushore, who assumed the role in August after the departure of former President Steve Nierman. Winter Haven Hospital, founded in 1926, has 447-beds and its sister facility, Winter Haven Women's Hospital, 61-beds. The two hospitals employ 1,973 team members and in 2013, joined BayCare, West Central Florida's leading not-for-profit health care provider dedicated to improving the health of all it serves. About Winter Haven Hospital Winter Haven Hospital, Inc. located in Winter Haven, Florida, includes a 447-bed acute care hospital and a 61-bed obstetric hospital, respectively referred to as Winter Haven Hospital and Winter Haven Women's Hospital. Winter Haven Hospital, Inc. joined the BayCare Health System in August 2013. Winter Haven Hospital was founded in 1926, and today concentrates in the treatment of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and behavioral health. The hospital also provides emergency care; outpatient diabetes education; endoscopy services; neurological, orthopedic and in-patient rehabilitation; outpatient surgery; and imaging services. The Women's Hospital opened in 1987 and specializes in maternity services, neonatal care, women's surgery, and breast health. For more information, call (863) 293-1121 or visit WinterHavenHospital.org. About BayCare BayCare is a leading not-for-profit health care system that connects individuals and families to a wide range of services at 15 hospitals and hundreds of other convenient locations throughout the Tampa Bay and central Florida regions. Inpatient and outpatient services include acute care, primary care, imaging, laboratory, behavioral health, home care, and wellness. Our mission is to improve the health of all we serve through community-owned, health care services that set the standard for high-quality, compassionate care. For more information visit www.baycare.org. SOURCE BayCare Health System Related Links http://www.baycare.org "The acquisition of ZFS Creston, combined with our proprietary Ultra-High Protein soybean varieties, positions Benson Hill to deliver a portfolio of improved ingredients as an innovative unlock to bottlenecks in the rapidly growing but capacity-constrained plant-based movement," said Matt Crisp , Chief Executive Officer of Benson Hill . "This acquisition advances our integrated business model as a more efficient route to market with a smaller footprint that better aligns with consumer preferences, enabling us to harness the genetic potential of plants and help scale the growth of plant-based markets." The exploding demand for soy-based protein ingredients is outpacing supply, suggesting the need to build additional concentrate and isolate processing facilities. This traditional approach would take massive investment, years to build and perpetuate a commodity-based, asset-heavy, siloed approach to food production. Benson Hill's technology and integrated approach increases protein expression in the soybean plant itself, so that the need for additional processing is reduced. Capacity and capabilities acquired through ZFS Creston will enable the Company to immediately deliver a portfolio of better-from-the-beginning non-GMO ingredients that are less processed, more sustainable, identity-preserved, traceable and domestically sourced. Acquisition Summary The Creston operation is equipped to produce soy meal and oil, as well as food-grade soy white flake, flour, and grits, which can be marketed as ingredients or used as raw material for further production of concentrates, isolates and textured protein products. Acquiring the soy white flake capacity of Creston in lieu of building the capacity through capex investment positions the Company to immediately offer more sustainable ingredients within the broad human food market, which includes plant-based meat, meat extension, bakery, cereal and snack, fermentation and the pet food market. Further, Benson Hill's identity preservation program leverages deep farmer relationships to provide traceable and more sustainable ingredients for both existing and new customers. The Creston, Iowa facility is also geographically complementary to Benson Hill's soy crushing facility acquired last year in Seymour, Indiana. "The Creston operation is expected to accelerate commercialization through the immediate ability to produce our ingredient portfolio," said Bruce Bennett, President, Ingredients at Benson Hill. "The investment also enables deeper insight to customer preferences as we deliver much-needed innovation in other high-value food ingredients in the future. ZFS Creston is an established protein supplier with a respected and knowledgeable team on-site. We're thrilled to welcome them to Benson Hill." "The ZFS Creston team has done a terrific job optimizing the facility and working with customers, suppliers and the Creston, Iowa community to create a successful, value-added food ingredient business," said Eric Meeuwsen, ZFS Creston Co-President and Chief Operations Officer. "We are grateful for the hard work of everyone at ZFS Creston. We are confident Benson Hill will provide excellent opportunities for employees, local farmers and the community through the commercialization of their innovative, higher nutrition, soy-based food ingredients." Financing In connection with the transaction, Benson Hill secured a $100 million committed debt facility, with the potential to access an incremental $20 million. The financing was led by Avenue Capital Group, which includes the Avenue Sustainable Solutions Fund, Avenue Venture Opportunities Fund, and other Avenue Global Funds. The Company used $80 million of this new facility to finance the purchase price of the Creston acquisition with the remaining amount of the purchase price sourced from cash on hand and approximately $5 million of seller financing. Additional details can be found in the SEC filing made this morning. "Benson Hill offers game-changing agriculture and food science solutions using advanced data analytics that will be the future of the industry as the world continues to search for better for you plant-based protein products," said Tony Pandjiris, Senior Portfolio Manager of Avenue Venture Funds. "Benson Hill is a leader making a meaningful impact on the health of people and our planet, and this partnership aligns perfectly with the sustainability focus of our investment strategy," said John Larkin, Head of Impact Investments at Avenue Capital Group. The Creston soy processing facility and food ingredients business is expected to contribute positive Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, and will increase Benson Hill's Ingredients segment revenue. Over time, a growing proportion of the revenues generated at the Creston facility will come from the processing and sale of Benson Hill's proprietary soy ingredients in combination with continuing a portion of Creston's existing revenue sources. Webcast A webcast of the conference call will begin at 2:00 pm ET today. The link to participate is available here. About Benson Hill Benson Hill moves food forward with the CropOS platform, a cutting-edge food innovation engine that combines data science and machine learning with biology and genetics. Benson Hill empowers innovators to unlock nature's genetic diversity from plant to plate, with the purpose of creating nutritious, great-tasting food and ingredient options that are both widely accessible and sustainable. More information can be found at bensonhill.com or on Twitter at @bensonhillinc. About Avenue Capital Group The Avenue Venture Opportunities Fund seeks to provide creative financing solutions to high-growth, venture capital-backed technology and life science companies. The Avenue Sustainable Solutions Fund seeks high-growth companies that can demonstrate a measurable, positive environmental outcome alongside competitive financial returns. The Avenue Global Funds seek to invest across a range of opportunistic credit and special situations lending in North America, Europe and Asia. For additional information on Avenue Capital Group, which is a global investment firm with assets estimated to be approximately $11.9 billion as of November 30, 2021, please visit www.avenuecapital.com. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release may be considered "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or the Company's future financial or operating performance and may be identified by words such as "may," "should," "expect," "intend," "will," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "predict," or similar words. These forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions made by the Company as of the date hereof and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding our strategy and our plans for growth, statements regarding the expected future performance of our technology and integrated business model, statements regarding the anticipated benefits and capabilities of, and expected profitability (on an Adjusted EBITDA basis), and revenue production relating to, our newly acquired Creston facility, statements regarding the anticipated timing in which we will realize the benefits of this acquisition, statements regarding our new debt facility with Avenue Capital Group and the potential availability of an additional $20 million in term loans under that facility, statements regarding the anticipated benefits of our 2021 harvest of proprietary soybean varieties, and statements regarding expected synergies with our recently acquired Indiana-based soy crushing facility. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the integration and performance of the Company's newly acquired Creston facility and the Company's plans to process and sell its proprietary soybean varieties at that facility, our ability to satisfy covenants under our term loan, the risk that the incremental $20 million term loan will not be available to us, risks associated with our ability to leverage the geographic proximity of our facilities, risks associated with our ability to grow and manage growth profitably, our ability to execute our business plans, our transition to becoming a public company, and other risks and uncertainties set forth in the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. We expressly disclaim any duty to update these forward-looking statements, except as otherwise required by law. Media Contact Benson Hill Melanie Bernds 314-605-6363 [email protected] Media Kit Investor Contact Ruben Mella 314-714-6313 [email protected] SOURCE Benson Hill TORONTO, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - BlueRush Inc. ("BlueRush" or the "Company") (TSXV: BTV) (OTCQB: BTVRF), a leading personalized video Software as a Service ("SaaS") company, today announced its financial results for the three-month period ended October 31, 2021 ("Q1 2022"). "We are extremely pleased with the way the fiscal year has started for BlueRush as we continue to see acceleration in terms of new signed customers, expansion from our existing customers and contribution from our growing partner network," said Steve Taylor, CEO of BlueRush. "Marketers and sales teams are rapidly adopting personalized video in order to drive increased conversion metrics and provide more precise and relevant communications to their customers and prospects." The quarter included a number of significant milestones in terms of new and existing customers. New and expansion SaaS CARR (contracted annual recurring revenue) for the quarter was $367,963 (contracted annual recurring revenue) for the quarter was 111,440 from new logo customers 256,523 from expansion of existing customers The Company experienced zero gross churn and 100% logo retention in the quarter Revenue for the quarter increased 33% over Q1 2021 from $836,511 to $1,110,078 to Total Gross Profit increased by 69% over Q1 2021 from $470,053 to $795,711 to SaaS Gross Profit % increased to 90% in the quarter New logo signed customers: Top 15 North American bank (measured by assets under management) Top 5 Canadian bank (measured by assets under management) Top 10 North American Insurance provider (measured by premiums written) Expansion with key customers 2 top 15 North American Banks (measured by assets under management) Top 5 Global Asset Management firm (measured by assets under management) Top 5 North American Insurance provider (measured by premiums written) BlueRush has demonstrated the ability to secure, retain and grow these significant relationships which creates a strong foundation for the business going forward. Financial Results for Q1 2022 The Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for the three-month period ended October 31, 2021 and 2020, have been posted both to the BlueRush website at www.bluerush.com and on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. The financial information included in this news release is qualified in its entirety and should be read together with the unaudited consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the three-month period ended October 31, 2021 and 2020, including the notes thereto. About BlueRush BlueRush develops and markets IndiVideo, a disruptive, award-winning interactive personalized video platform that drives return on investment throughout the customer lifecycle, from increased conversions to more engaging statements and customer care. IndiVideo enables BlueRush clients to capture knowledge and data from their customers' video interaction, creating new and compelling data driven customer insights. For more information visit http://www.bluerush.com. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words "may", "would", "could", "should", "potential", "will", "seek", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify forward-looking information. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, and current information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking information to vary from those described herein should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize. These factors include, without limitation: changes in law; the ability to implement business strategies and pursue business opportunities; state of the capital markets; the availability of funds and resources to pursue operations; a novel business model; dependence on key suppliers and local partners; competition; the outcome and cost of any litigation; the general impact of COVID-19 pandemic, as well as general economic, market and business conditions, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in disclosure documents filed by the Company with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com . Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law. Discussion on Non-IFRS Measures and Key Metrics The Company prepares its financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). However, the Company may refer to a number of measures and metrics which we believe are meaningful in the assessment of the Company's performance including Contracted Annual Recurring Revenue ("CARR"). CARR is the subscription revenue of a given period calculated as an annual run rate for all contracts including those that were signed in the same period. Many of these measures and metrics are non-standard measures under IFRS, do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS, and are unlikely to be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. These measures, which it believes are widely used by investors, security analysts and other interested parties to evaluate its performance and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other publicly traded companies, nor should they be construed as an alternative to financial measures determined in accordance with IFRS. Readers are cautioned that the disclosure of these items is meant to add to, and not replace, the discussion of financial results or cash flows from operations as determined in accordance with IFRS. The purpose of these non-IFRS measures and key metrics is to provide supplemental information that may prove useful to readers who wish to consider the impact of certain non-cash or uncontrollable items on the Company's operating performance. Management uses both IFRS and non-IFRS measures when planning, monitoring and evaluating the Company's performance. 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 BlueRush Inc. Related Links bluerush.com FT. WORTH, Texas, Jan. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas today issued a preliminary injunction, stopping the Department of Defense from punishing military service members who have religious objections to the vaccine mandate. First Liberty Institute filed a federal lawsuit and motion for preliminary injunction on behalf of dozens of U.S. Navy SEALs and other Naval Special Warfare personnel against the Biden Administration and the Department of Defense for their refusal to grant religious accommodations to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The court's order can be read here. "Forcing a service member to choose between their faith and serving their country is abhorrent to the Constitution and America's values," said Mike Berry, General Counsel for First Liberty Institute. "Punishing SEALs for simply asking for a religious accommodation is purely vindictive and punitive. We're pleased that the court has acted to protect our brave warriors before more damage is done to our national security." In his order, Judge Reed O'Connor said, "The Navy servicemembers in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect. The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution." The SEALs, who presently serve at various classified and confidential locations, collectively have more than 350 years of military service, and more than 100 combat deployments. When they inquired about seeking religious accommodation for the vaccine, the Navy informed many of the plaintiffs that they could face court-martial or involuntary separation if they don't receive the vaccine. Each of their religious accommodation denials appear to be identical, suggesting the Navy is not taking their requests seriously. The Navy also warned some of the plaintiffs that if they sought a religious exemption, the Navy would confiscate their Special Warfare devicessuch as the famous SEAL "Trident"that they proudly wear on their uniforms. About First Liberty Institute First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans. SOURCE First Liberty Institute A team of scientists led by Dr. Su-Jun Deng from biologics of Jemincare R&D Center, and another team of scientists from SIMM of CAS, led by Professor H. Eric Xu and Dr. Wanchao Yin, not only confirmed the binding and pseudovirus neutralization activity of JMB2002 against Omicron variant, but also solved the structures of Omicron spike protein in complex with ACE2 and JMB2002 respectively (Figure 1 and Figure 2). Joint research efforts revealed the mechanisms of increased infectivity and immune escape of the Omicron variant at molecular level, and demonstrated the unique binding mechanism of JMB2002 differing from all reported NAbs. Detailed findings of novel features of Omicron variant and JMB2002 have been published on bioRxiv preprint website (Reference 1). The latest research results indicated that JMB2002 had high binding activity to the Omicron variant and showed potent Omicron pseudovirus neutralization function (Figure 2A, 2B). It is encouraging considering that most approved and clinical-stage SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody drugs have lost their neutralization activity or have shown significantly reduced neutralizing potency due to multiple mutations of the spike protein in Omicron variant. One reason of the enhanced infectivity of Omicron variant is that its spike protein RBD (Receptor Binding Domain) has higher binding ability to the SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 than that of wild type. There are immediate needs for developing specific therapeutic antibodies targeting Omicron variant. Scientists from Jemincare found that the binding affinity of JMB2002 Fab to the spike protein of Omicron variant is 4-fold higher than that of WT (Figure 2A). More importantly, professor H. Eric Xu's group has solved the structure of the complex of Omicron spike trimer bound to JMB2002 (Figure 2C), the structure shows JMB2002 binds to the back of RBD, a unique binding epitope with novel conformation (Figure 2D). It suggests that JMB2002 is a new class of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody with a binding mechanism different from all reported NAbs, classifying as class V NAb. The results from pseudovirus neutralization assay indicate that JMB2002 is a broad-spectrum neutralizing antibody targeting all WHO VOC except the Delta variant (Reference 1). JMB2002 has finished phase I clinical trial in China In June 2021, JMB2002 has finished Phase I clinical trial in healthy donors in China with excellent safety and desirable PK properties. In March 2021, JMB2002 has been approved for clinical trial in US (IND 154745). At present, Jemincare produced enough JMB2002 drug substance for further clinical investigation at 2000L bioreactor scale. About Jemincare Group Co., Ltd. As one of well-known pharmaceutical companies in China, Jemincare has been focusing on providing patients with high quality medicines, ranking at the Top10 in the top 100 Chinese pharma companies for years. Jemincare established its R&D Center in Shanghai Zhangjiang Science City since year 2018 and has recruited over 500 scientists. The R&D Center has built up innovative technology platforms of biologics, small molecules, and novel drug delivery systems etc. and dedicates to develop innovative therapies for kidney disease, tumors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, respiratory disease, infection, pediatrics, and pain. For more information, please visit: www.jemincare.com Or contact: [email protected] Reference 1. Structures of the Omicron spike trimer with ACE2 and an anti-Omicron antibody: mechanisms for the high infectivity, immune evasion and antibody drug discovery, https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.27.474273. SOURCE Jemincare Chew co-founded CAI in 1996 and oversaw the growth to a $135 million global organization with 750 employees. He is a member of the Global Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Leadership Forum. He and CAI have both received several awards from ISPE including member of the year, company of the year, and the prestigious Richard G. Purdy award. "Founding this company and providing faster, more effective ways to deliver manufacturing capacity to some of the largest pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the world has been the highlight of my career," said Chew. "I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved in terms of making life-saving therapies more readily available across the globe. I am excited to see CAI continue to deliver for our clients under Mike's leadership. Mike has been instrumental in setting the vision for CAI's next chapter of innovation and leadership as we help our customers improve the human experience and create a better working world." Martin has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and large-scale project management at a major pharmaceutical company. He has global experience in constructing and starting up manufacturing plants in China, Puerto Rico, and Ireland. He has also served as a site head for device manufacturing as well as serving in various engineering and operational leadership roles in the U.S. He has served at CAI in varying capacities over the past three years, most recently as President, where he leads the senior leadership team to help achieve CAI's mission of building a better working world and improving the human experience. "CAI aims to help its clients accelerate the achievement of their goals which in turn, helps the people they serve to have a higher quality of life," said Martin. "As we move forward, I'm confident that the passion and unwavering commitment to CAI's mission that Bob has inspired among the entire team will propel both our company and our clients to continued success. I am thrilled to lead CAI into this exciting new chapter." Martin has a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and a master's in Business Administration from Indiana University Kelley School of Business. He is a professional licensed Engineer and maintains his accreditation. ABOUT CAI Since CAI's founding in 1996, we have delivered nearly a billion dollars in services for hundreds of clients across thousands of projects globally. With offices in the US, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Korea, Switzerland, India, Ireland, Italy, China, Singapore, United Kingdom, and Malaysia, we have built an international team of over 750 professionals providing local support from a global company. Our engineering, technical, and consulting services are fashioned to deliver mission critical facilities with a high level of performance and reliability. When operational readiness and startup are critical, CAI delivers to a higher standard. www.cagents.com Contact: David Shenberger +13177219847 [email protected] SOURCE CAI The show is having huge global impact, becoming the #1 podcast in Religion & Spirituality on Chartable's "Global Reach" analysis, and sitting as the #1 podcast in that category in 15 countries including Great Britain, Italy and the Philippines. This year, Ascension added the all-new Spanish-language La Biblia en un Ano podcast hosted by Fr. Sergio Serrano, OP and Fr. Dempsey Acosta to their offerings. Between the two shows, Ascension currently owns the #1 podcast in Christianity in 47 countries and appears on the Top 10 Charts overall in the United States, Canada, Philippines, Nigeria, Uganda, Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and several other countries. "The hunger for God in our culture is not a flash in the pan, but an enduring desire," comments podcast featured guest Jeff Cavins. "Interest in the Bible is expanding." "So many people listened last year, and they've inspired a whole new crowd to participate," adds Jonathan Strate, president and CEO of Ascension, the Catholic multimedia network behind the show. The Bible in a Year Podcast by the Numbers A string of awards and accomplishments evince The Bible in a Year's national impact in 2021: 4 Billion total listening minutes (2021) 170 Million total downloads (2021) 470,000 average daily downloads, 90% U.S. listeners (2021) 34,000 5-star reviews on Apple Podcasts #1 Podcast in Religion & Spirituality (Apple Podcasts, 2021) To celebrate a standout year, Ascension secured a New Year's Eve billboard in Times Square promoting the podcast at 7th Ave. & 48th St., New York City. No other Catholic media offering has ever been featured on a Times Square billboard. The Priest Behind the Podcast The Bible in a Year is hosted by Fr. Mike Schmitz, a popular Catholic priest whose videos on the Ascension Presents YouTube channel have amassed millions of views. Ascension Presents is the largest Catholic YouTube channel in English. "Many of us are distracted and distressed by the battles we face in the Church, in the culture and in our country. By the grace of God The Bible in a Year podcast has helped hundreds of thousands to rediscover a biblical worldview one of hope in God's love and Divine will," said Fr. Mike, chaplain for the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Duluth. About Ascension Ascension is a multimedia network and the leader in Catholic faith formation and digital content. Over the past 20 years, Ascension has helped nurture the faith of over 10 million people in over 8,000 parishes through more than 50 unique faith formation programs and the Ascension Presents media platforms. The Ascension Presents YouTube channel boasts 600,000 subscribers, 88 million total views, and is the largest Catholic YouTube channel in English. Media Contact The Bible in a Year Press Kit includes previous releases, images, and the Bible in a Year Fact Sheet. For interview requests, B-roll and media inquiries, email: [email protected] . SOURCE Ascension Press Related Links https://www.ascensionpress.com DMZ crosser was N Korean: Seoul Seoul, Jan 3 (UNI) The unidentified person who had crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from South Korea into North Korea has been recognised as a North Korean defector, South Koreas Defence Ministry official said on Monday. Citing surveillance footage, the official said the man is the 30-something defector who had also used an eastern front-line route to reach the South in November 2020 but stressed no evidence of espionage has been found, Yonhap News Agency reported. The man had crossed the fences on Saturday to enter the DMZ and raced across the Military Demarcation Line despite eleventh-hour efforts to stop him. HARRISBURG, Pa., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Patricia (Patti) A. Husic, President & CEO of Centric Bank and Centric Financial Corporation ("Centric") (OTC Pink: CFCX), has been appointed to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank Board of Directors effective January 1, 2022. The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank has appointed Centric Bank President & CEO Patti Husic to its board of directors. Tweet this Patricia (Patti) A. Husic, President & CEO of Centric Bank and Centric Financial Corporation, has been appointed to a two-year term on the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank Board of Directors. Between 2020 and 2021, Centric Bank donated over $70,000 to the Central Pennsylvania Food Banks Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP). Our Centric Bank Way principle #26 is Contribute to the Community. In addition to financial support, service by our team members is a priority for Centric Bank, says Husic. "We are honored to welcome Patti Husic to our Board of Directors," says Joe Arthur, Executive Director of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. "In addition to the extraordinary leadership skills and achievements that have earned Patti repeated recognition as one of American Banker's 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking, she brings a demonstrated commitment to our vision that 'No One Should Be Hungry' in central PA. We know our communities will benefit from her service." "The foundation of a healthy community is a healthy economy and helping to meet nutrition needs and increase access to fresh, local foods for communities in need has been even more important to me during the pandemic," says Husic. "Food insecurity remains one of our Commonwealth's highest concerns. I'm proud to carry the mission of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank forward, including contributing to the Bold Goal 2025 Strategic Plan." Between 2020 and 2021, Centric Bank donated over $70,000 to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank's Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP). "Our Centric Bank Way principle #26 is Contribute to the Community. In addition to financial support, service by our team members is a priority for Centric Bank," says Husic. Central Pennsylvania Food Bank board terms are two years in length, with each board member invited to serve up to three terms. There are a total of 24 board seats permitted; 21 seats are filled as of January 2022. ABOUT CENTRIC BANK AND CENTRIC FINANCIAL CORPORATION An American Banker 2020, 2019, and 2018 Best Banks to Work For, four-time American Banker Most Powerful Women in Banking Top Team, three-time Best Places to Work, and Top 50 Fastest-Growing Companies for eight years, Centric Bank is headquartered in south central Pennsylvania with assets of $1.1 billion and remains a leader in organic loan growth. A locally owned, locally loaned community bank, Centric Bank provides highly competitive and pro-growth financial services to businesses, professionals, individuals, families, and to the health care and dental industries with the Doctor Centric Bank Division. Centric Bank was named one of the Top 200 Community Banks in the U.S. in 2021, 2020, and 2019. Founded in 2007, Pennsylvania-based Centric Bank has financial centers located in Harrisburg, Hershey, Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Doylestown, Devon, and Lancaster, as well as a loan production office in Devon and an Operations and Executive Office campus in Hampden Township, Cumberland County. To learn more about Centric Bank, call 717.657.7727 or visit CentricBank.com. Connect with them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Centric Financial Corporation is traded over the counter (OTC-Pink) with the ticker symbol CFCX. ABOUT CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA FOOD BANK The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to reduce hunger in 27 counties across Pennsylvania. By working with more than 1,200 local agencies and partner programs, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank serves thousands of people in need every month. For more information on the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank and its mission to reduce hunger in Pennsylvania, visit centralpafoodbank.org or call 717.564.1700. Contact: Anne Deeter Gallaher Tel. 717.580.4856 [email protected] SOURCE Centric Bank China's overseas broadcasting services will continue this in 2022. Shen said presenting China's stories well to global audiences remains CMG's mission. CMG's programs, such as "China in the Stories," "China in the Classics," and "Chinese Culture in Toponymy," documented the country's deep and solid history and people's vitality in their everyday lives. Programs including "National Parks" and "The Olympism and Art" recorded the scenes of "Beautiful China" and "Healthy China" in the new era. The global live broadcast of "Tiangong Class" from China's space station inspired youngsters to explore the mysteries of the universe. When a herd of 16 wild elephants from Yunnan Province wandered from south to north and back home, platforms including CGTN, Yangshipin, and CCTV News Digital kept track of every step, delivering over 7,000 hours of livestreaming, which made the "wandering elephants" a hot topic across the world. The CMG President said reporting based on facts should be the fundamental principle of global journalists. In the meantime, it has debunked lies and myths in news stories regarding issues such as COVID and Afghanistan. Shen also expressed the group has established a diverse and inclusive cooperation mechanism with international media partners. "We exchanged over 600 letters with our international media colleagues and friends, and also met both online and offline over 20 times. We worked together to build a media partnership and cooperation mechanism with diversity, inclusiveness, equality and mutual trust. These candid and warm exchanges built bridges of trust, and those enthusiastic calls and letters encouraged us to do better," said Shen. China will also host the world's biggest sporting event of 2022. The Beijing Winter Olympics will bring together athletes from around the world to compete on ice and snow. Shen said China Media Group is ready to bring the action to global audiences with cutting-edge technologies and its newly-launched Olympic Channel. "With the technologies of "5G+4K/8K+AI," CMG has set up a livestreaming carriage on the high-speed train from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province. It's the first tech solution in the world to record and broadcast with Ultra HD streaming on high-speed trains. We would very much like to share it with our global counterparts, and jointly present a wonderful and extraordinary Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics to the world," he said. He also said that in the coming year, the CPC will hold its 20th National Congress to draw a blueprint for China's future. He added that with the spirit of pursuing excellence, precision and perfection, CMG will strive to produce more quality programs to present the vitality of China from multiple perspectives in the new era to the international community and play its role as a media organization in the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Link: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-03/CMG-president-delivers-New-Year-message-to-overseas-audience-16wGvcWeMEw/index.html SOURCE CGTN SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- California Crane School, Inc. filed a class action antitrust case [3:21-cv-10001, C.C.S.I. v Google LLC] on 12/27/21 against Google and Apple and the Chief Executive Officers of both companies alleging violations of the Antitrust Laws of the United States. The complaint charges that Google and Apple agreed that Apple would not compete in the internet search business against Google. The complaint claims that the means used to effectuate the non-compete agreement included; (1) Google would share it's search profits with Apple; (2) Apple would give preferential treatment to Google for all Apple devices; (3) regular secret meetings between the executives of both companies; (4) annual multi-billion-dollar payments by Google to Apple not to compete in the search business; (5) suppression of the competition of smaller competitors and foreclosing competitors from the search market; (6) acquiring actual and potential competitors. The complaint alleges that advertising rates are higher than rates would be in a competitive system. The complaint seeks the disgorgement of the billion-dollar payments by Google to Apple. The complaint asks for an injunction prohibiting the non-compete agreement between Google and Apple; the profit-sharing agreement; the preferential treatment for Google on Apple devices; and the payment of billions of dollars by Google to Apple. The complaint also calls for the breakup of Google into separate and independent companies and the breakup of Apple into separate and independent companies in accordance with the precedent of the breakup of Standard Oil company into Exxon, Mobile, Conoco, Amoco, Sohio, Chevron, and others. Attorneys representing the plaintiffs are Joseph M. Alioto and Tatiana V. Wallace of Alioto Law Firm, Lawrence G. Papale of Law Offices of Lawrence G. Papale, Robert J. Bonsignore of Bonsignore Trial Lawyers PLLC, Christopher A. Nedeau of Nedeau Law PC, Josephine Alioto of The Veen Firm, Jeffery K. Perkins of Law Office of Jeffery K. Perkins, Theresa Moore of Law Offices of Theresa D. Moore, Lingel H. Winters of Law Offices of Lingel H. Winters. Joseph M. Alioto of Alioto Law Firm said "These powerful companies abused their size by unlawfully foreclosing and monopolizing major markets which in an otherwise free enterprise system would have created jobs, lowered prices, increased production, added new competitors, encouraged innovations, and increased the quality of services in the digital age." CONTACT: [email protected], 415-434-8900 SOURCE Alioto Law Firm IRVING, Texas, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Commercial Metals Company (NYSE: CMC) today announced the completion of its previously reported process to sell a large parcel of land in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The gross proceeds from this transaction total $313 million. CMC was represented in the transaction by Jones Lang LaSalle Brokerage, Inc., a global commercial real estate services provider. About Commercial Metals Company Commercial Metals Company and its subsidiaries manufacture, recycle and fabricate steel and metals products, and provide related materials and services through a network of facilities that includes seven electric arc furnace ("EAF") mini mills, two EAF micro mills, one rerolling mill, steel fabrication and processing plants, construction-related product warehouses, and metal recycling facilities in the United States and Poland. SOURCE Commercial Metals Company Karen joined Commonwealth team in October 2017, first as a Director of Sales at the Hampton Inn Downtown Jacksonville, Florida. While helping sales efforts at Hampton Inn Downtown Jacksonville, she quickly proved herself a perfect candidate for the role within the company of Task Force Sales Manager. After completing several corporate taskforce assignments, Ms. Ouellette accepted the Dual Director of Sales position in Panama City Beach, Florida. Her accomplishments and dedication as a sales professional along with a career of driving hotel revenues through innovative sales, revenue management and customer service skills, demonstrate Ms. Ouellette is a dynamic leader. Prior to joining Commonwealth Hotels, Ms. Ouellette built her career as a hospitality sales professional with a 15-years tenure at the Hampton Inn Portland Airport, South Portland, Maine. After living in the Florida market for 6 years, Karen is thrilled to return to her Portland, Maine home State with friends and family. She is excited to bring sales support and her expertise of the Portland market to the Hyatt Place Portland Old Port as the newly appointed Director of Sales and Marketing. About Commonwealth Hotels, LLC Commonwealth Hotels, LLC was founded in 1986 and is a proven partner in providing hotel management services with superior financial results. The company has extensive experience managing premium branded full service and select service hotels. Commonwealth Hotels currently manages 61 properties with over 7,600 rooms. Additional information may be found at www.commonwealthhotels.com. Contact Barbara E. Willen Commonwealth Hotels, LLC [email protected] 859.392-2254 SOURCE Commonwealth Hotels, Inc. Related Links http://www.commonwealthhotels.com CHICAGO, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Conagra Brands announced today the five nonprofit organizations receiving grants, totaling $25,000, following the company's Sustainable Development Awards, which were held earlier this year. Each winning company facility directed a $5,000 grant from Conagra Brands to a nonprofit organization to be used in their communities for projects with a focus on sustainability. Conagra Brands' annual Sustainable Development Awards is an employee-led program that encourages the development and implementation of innovative ideas related to sustainable production and business practices. This year, employees from across the organization submitted more than 200 sustainability-focused projects that conserve water, reduce waste and save energy, underscoring Conagra's commitment to nourishing and restoring the planet. Winning teams are honored at an internal celebration and select a local organization to receive a grant supporting sustainability-focused projects. "For more than a decade, Conagra's Sustainable Development Awards program has recognized our teams committed to making great food responsibly," said Katya Hantel, senior director of sustainability at Conagra Brands. "These grants will help our employees give back to their local communities and revitalize the planet." From preserving trails and parks to supporting the health of local wildlife, forests and water sources, this year's grant recipients are dedicated to protecting local ecosystems. Below is a complete list of the recipients and the projects that the grants will support: Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center (CSERC) selected by Conagra's Oakdale, Calif. facility: CSERC works to build broad consensus for forest treatments that help protect millions of acres of public and private forest lands from devastating wildfires, insect outbreaks and pollution. Funds from Conagra's grant will support initiatives that fund significant forest health projects and shape long-term river management solutions. CSERC works to build broad consensus for forest treatments that help protect millions of acres of public and private forest lands from devastating wildfires, insect outbreaks and pollution. Funds from Conagra's grant will support initiatives that fund significant forest health projects and shape long-term river management solutions. Friends of the Polly Ann Trail Milestones and Benefits selected by Conagra's Imlay City, Mich. facility: The Friends group supports the Polly Ann Trail by funding improvements and maintenance and by promoting the trail to the community. Funds from Conagra's grant will support ongoing maintenance work on the trail. The Friends group supports the Polly Ann Trail by funding improvements and maintenance and by promoting the trail to the community. Funds from Conagra's grant will support ongoing maintenance work on the trail. Landmark Conservancy selected by Conagra's Menomonie, Wis. facility: Landmark is a non-profit conservation organization serving 20 counties in western and northwestern Wisconsin , working to conserve lands and create public preserves and trails for all to enjoy. Funds from Conagra's grant will help fund projects related to the Devil's Punchbowl Preserve land management needs and implementation of new technologies to improve trail infrastructure. Landmark is a non-profit conservation organization serving 20 counties in western and northwestern , working to conserve lands and create public preserves and trails for all to enjoy. Funds from Conagra's grant will help fund projects related to the Devil's Punchbowl Preserve land management needs and implementation of new technologies to improve trail infrastructure. Missouri State Parks Foundation selected by Conagra's Macon, Mo. facility: The Missouri State Parks Foundation is focused on keeping Missouri's 92 state parks and historic sites strong and vital. Funds from Conagra's grant will help support the development of the Rock Island Line Corridor and restoration of the Meramec River bridge. The Missouri State Parks Foundation is focused on keeping 92 state parks and historic sites strong and vital. Funds from Conagra's grant will help support the development of the Rock Island Line Corridor and restoration of the Meramec River bridge. Wings Over Wisconsin (Beaver Dam Chapter) selected by Conagra's Beaver Dam, Wis. facility: The Wings Over Wisconsin Beaver Dam Chapter promotes the proliferation of wild winged birds by enhancing wildlife cover and food plots in habitat restoration areas, raising and releasing pheasants on designated project areas and through other projects. Funds from Conagra's grant will help the nonprofit continue its work to attain and restore wildlife habitats. About Conagra Brands Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE: CAG), headquartered in Chicago, is one of North America's leading branded food companies. Guided by an entrepreneurial spirit, Conagra Brands combines a rich heritage of making great food with a sharpened focus on innovation. The company's portfolio is evolving to satisfy people's changing food preferences. Conagra's iconic brands, such as Birds Eye, Duncan Hines, Healthy Choice, Marie Callender's, Reddi-wip, and Slim Jim, as well as emerging brands, including Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP, Duke's, Earth Balance, Gardein, and Frontera, offer choices for every occasion. For more information, visit www.ConagraBrands.com. For all media inquiries, please contact: Tim Wrona, Conagra Brands 312-549-5400 [email protected] SOURCE Conagra Brands, Inc. Related Links https://www.conagrafoods.com We need a border solution. Congress: Approve The Bipartisan Border Solutions Act Jorge Martinez, coalitions director for The LIBRE Initiative, issued the following statement: "Our Texas delegation is a critical voice in Washington when it comes to immigration and border needs. Now more than ever, we need them to lead and encourage their colleagues to act. This bill is a good first step to provide critical resources to help process migrants while also enhancing border security measures. We urge lawmakers to support this commonsense measure." Background This common sense legislation is being led by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and House Members Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX). If enacted, the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act would: Hire hundreds of additional U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel, ICE case managers, asylum officers, and immigration judges. Improve incentives in our asylum system by requiring immigration courts to decide new cases first during future asylum surges, ensuring that cases that have merit are quickly accepted and those that lack merit are quickly rejected. Requires notice and cooperation with local officials before the federal government transports migrants to their communities. Establishes at least 4 regional processing centers in high traffic sectors of U.S. Border Patrol. Mandates regular inspections of facilities providing custody to unaccompanied children. SOURCE The LIBRE Initiative SAN DIEGO, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading credit union core data processor Corelation announced today that effective immediately, Theresa Benavidez has turned over her responsibilities as company president to Rob Landis, who until now served as the company's COO. Benavidez will retain her title as CEO, continuing to play a strategic role in the organization, while Landis assumes control of the company's day-to-day operations. The company will name a new COO shortly. This move, part of the company's larger succession plan, has been in the works for several years. Theresa Benavidez Rob Landis "We planned to make this transition sometime in 2022, but I realized that now is the right time," said Benavidez. "I couldn't have made this move if I didn't have absolute confidence in Rob's abilities." "I remember telling Theresa in 2009 that someday I'd like to sit in her chair," said Landis. "These are very big shoes to fill and frankly I could never fill them on my own. Fortunately, we've built a world-class executive team that will greatly ease the transition." "In some ways it feels like entrusting the care of your child to someone," added Benavidez. "I can't think of anyone I would trust more than Rob to take on this critically important role. This move will help ensure Corelation's growth and prosperity for years and years to come." About Corelation, Inc. Based in San Diego, CA, Corelation is the innovative core processor for today's credit union. This solution is a person-centric system that empowers credit unions to offer the best member service possible, enhancing their value for member attraction and retention. In terms of industry experience, Corelation's staff has dedicated their careers to creating core systems and providing unparalleled client service. For more information, visit www.corelationinc.com. CONTACT: John San Filippo [email protected] 619-467-0431 SOURCE Corelation Inc. OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Creative Planning Inc. ("Creative Planning"), one of the nation's largest Registered Investment Advisers ("RIA"), today announced the acquisition of Berno Financial Management ("Berno"), which has a total of over $300 million in assets under management. Berno was founded by Bruce J. Berno, CFP in 1993 and has helped families and individuals in the greater Cincinnati area, as well as over 20 other states across the country, achieve financial peace of mind for almost three decades. As an independent, fee-only financial planner, Berno offers unbiased advice that focuses on the client's complete financial picture by offering personal wealth management services, financial planning consultations, and investment management strategies. "Bruce has built a great practice and his planning led, tailored investment approach fits in well with our offering," said Creative Planning Chief Executive Officer Peter Mallouk. "Bruce and the entire Berno team will be joining our Cincinnati practice as we continue to expand in this important market." "We are proud to have been a pioneer in the independent personal financial advisor service model in Cincinnati and always serving in a fiduciary manner for our clients," said Bruce J. Berno, President of Berno Financial Management. "Implementing our long-term strategic plan called for joining a firm that shared our investment philosophy and would enable us to expand the depth and breadth and quality of our personal financial planning services. Creative Planning is the best fit for us as we continue to grow our business and serve our clients for decades to come." Park Sutton Advisors served as a financial advisor to Berno on the transaction. About Creative Planning Creative Planning, LLC is an independent wealth management firm that provides a financial planning led investment management approach, retirement planning, estate planning, trust services, tax advice and family office services for individuals as well as 401(k) and institutional money management. Creative Planning manages over $100 billion in assets across all 50 states and 65 countries, as of November 3, 2021. Media Contact: Jami Schlicher JConnelly (973) 850-7309 [email protected] SOURCE Creative Planning SANCUSO is the first and only FDA-approved prescription patch for the prevention of nausea and vomiting in patients receiving certain types of chemotherapy treatment. The active drug in SANCUSO, granisetron, slowly dissolves in the thin layer of adhesive that sticks to the patient's skin and is released into their bloodstream over several days, working continuously to prevent chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). It is applied 24 to 48 hours before receiving chemotherapy and can prevent CINV for up to five consecutive days. Alternative oral treatments must be taken several times (day and night) to deliver the same therapeutic doses. "In 2020 there were nearly two million new cases of cancer in the U.S. and each year over half a million Americans undergo chemotherapy, with many suffering from the side effects of their treatment. With SANCUSO, patients are given a simple, easy-to-apply preventative solution that doesn't require swallowing any pills which can be difficult for patients experiencing nausea," said A.J. Kazimi, chief executive officer at Cumberland Pharmaceuticals. "We are honored to take responsibility for the brand and introduce it through our commercial organization, ensuring that it is delivered to the patients who need it." Under the terms of the agreement, Cumberland will acquire U.S. rights to SANCUSO and will assume full commercial responsibility for the product including its marketing, promotion, distribution, manufacturing and medical support activities. Net sales of the brand in the U.S. were over $14 million in 2020. The financial terms of the acquisition include a $13.5 million payment to Kyowa Kirin upon closing, up to $3.5 million in milestones and tiered royalties of up to 10% on U.S. net product sales. Kyowa Kirin will retain international rights, continuing to deliver the product to address oncology patients' needs throughout the rest of the world. "Since its launch in 2008, we have established SANCUSO as an important supportive therapeutic solution for oncology patients across the country," said Gary Zieziula, president of Kyowa Kirin North America. "We believe that Cumberland is well positioned to optimize the value of the brand and ensure that this unique product continues to deliver important therapeutic benefits to oncology patients." About Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the delivery of high-quality, prescription brands designed to improve patient care. The Company develops, acquires, and commercializes products for the hospital acute care, gastroenterology and rheumatology market segments. The Company's portfolio now includes eight FDA-approved brands. The Company also has a series of Phase II clinical programs underway evaluating its ifetroban product candidate in patients with cardiomyopathy associated with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy ("DMD"), Systemic Sclerosis ("SSc"), and Aspirin-Exacerbated Respiratory Disease ("AERD"). More information can be found on the Company's website at www.cumberlandpharma.com. About Kyowa Kirin Kyowa Kirin strives to create and deliver novel medicines with life-changing value. As a Japan-based global specialty pharmaceutical company with a more than 70-year heritage, the company applies cutting-edge science, including expertise in antibody research and engineering, to address the needs of patients across multiple therapeutic areas such as nephrology, oncology, immunology/allergy and neurology. Across its four regions Japan, Asia Pacific, North America and EMEA/International Kyowa Kirin focuses on its purpose, to make people smile, and is united by its shared values of commitment to life, teamwork, innovation and integrity. Learn more about the Company at www.kyowakirin.com. About SANCUSO SANCUSO is the only skin patch approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in patients receiving moderately and/or highly emetogenic chemotherapy. When applied 24 to 48 hours before receiving chemotherapy, the SANCUSO patch slowly and continuously releases the medicine contained in the adhesive through clean and intact skin areas into the patient's bloodstream. It can be worn for up to seven days in a row for chemotherapy regimens of up to five consecutive days. Learn more at www.sancuso.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to certain risks and reflect the companies' current views on future events based on what it believes are reasonable assumptions. No assurance can be given that these events will occur. As with any business, all phases of the companies' operations are subject to factors outside of its control, and any one or combination of these factors could materially affect results of operations. There can be no assurance that anticipated results associated with the brand will be realized or that they will have the expected effects. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The companies do not undertake any obligation to publicly revise these statements to reflect events after the date hereof. Investors should refer to filings with the government securities agencies for more information, including the risk factors associated an investment in each company. Please see SANCUSO Indication and Important Safety Information below Indication SANCUSO (granisetron transdermal system) is indicated for the prevention of nausea and vomiting in adults receiving moderately and/or highly emetogenic chemotherapy regimens of up to five5 consecutive days. Important Safety Information Contraindications: SANCUSO is contraindicated in patients with known hypersensitivity to granisetron or to any of the components of the transdermal system. Warnings and Precautions: Progressive Ileus and Gastric Distention: SANCUSO may mask a progressive ileus and/or gastric distention. This should be particularly considered before use of SANCUSO in patients who have had recent abdominal surgery. Monitor for decreased bowel activity, particularly in patients with risk factors for gastrointestinal obstruction. Serotonin Syndrome: The development of serotonin syndrome has been reported with 5-HT3 receptor antagonists. Patients should be monitored for the emergence of serotonin syndrome, especially with concomitant use of SANCUSO and other serotonergic drugs. If symptoms of serotonin syndrome occur, discontinue SANCUSO and initiate supportive treatment. Patients should be informed of the increased risk of serotonin syndrome, especially if SANCUSO is used concomitantly with other serotonergic drugs. Skin Reactions: In clinical trials with SANCUSO, application site reactions were reported that were generally mild in intensity and did not lead to discontinuation of use. The incidence of reactions was comparable with placebo. If severe reactions, or a generalized skin reaction occur (e.g., allergic rash, including erythematous, macular, papular rash or pruritus), remove the SANCUSO transdermal system. Increased Drug Exposure with Use of External Heat Sources: Prolonged exposure to heat results in increasing plasma concentrations of granisetron during the period of heat exposure. Do not apply a heat pad or heat lamp over or in the vicinity of the SANCUSO transdermal system and avoid extended exposure to heat. Phototoxicity with Ultraviolet Light Exposure: Granisetron may be affected by direct natural or artificial sunlight, including sunlamps. An in vitro study using Chinese hamster ovary cells suggests that granisetron has the potential for photogenotoxicity. To avoid a potential skin reaction, advise patients to cover the application site of the transdermal system with clothing if there is a risk of exposure to direct natural or artificial sunlight throughout the period of wear and for 10 days following its removal. Adverse Reactions: The most common adverse reaction ( 3%) is constipation. You are encouraged to report suspected adverse reactions to Kyowa Kirin, Inc. at 1-800-Sancuso or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch. Please click here for full U.S. prescribing information. SOURCE: Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Kyowa Kirin Inc. SOURCE Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Kyowa Kirin Inc. Related Links http://www.cumberlandpharma.com New Delhi, Jan 4 (UNI) Supreme Court Judge Justice Dinesh Maheshwari on Monday said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has established itself as the premier agency which is trusted by all across the board, right from a common man to the top administrators, it was reported here on Tuesday. Justice Maheshwari said this while addressing the passing out ceremony of the 24th batch of the Sub-Inspector probationers of CBI at the CBI Academy, Ghaziabad, More the trust, more the faith in you, more is your responsibility, he added. Referring to the new age challenges before investigators, Justice Maheshwari said that the young officers continuously upgrade their knowledge through persistent and inquisitive zeal, which is going to be their biggest ally, biggest support, biggest asset in the times to come. Do not forget that whenever constitutional courts want that matters must be presented to them with impeccable true facts, it is the CBI which is called upon for the purpose, Justice Maheshwari added. Beyond personal integrity, you need to understand and inculcate institutional integrity and that is, what is more important. Your individual integrity, we will have no doubt about, but then, institutional integrity, again, calls upon you to understand what your surroundings are, what your institution requires, what is required of the best of your I to our we. Your actions must be, at all times, in consonance with the strong moral and ethical code of conduct that CBI as an institution represents. It will be upon you to investigate impartially, to strive to seek the truth and thoroughly to assist the Court of Law in coming to a decision which upholds the cause of justice, said Justice Maheshwari. UNI CM ACL0822 WAKEFIELD, Mass., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA /OTCQX: CURLF) ("Curaleaf" or the "Company"), a leading international provider of consumer products in cannabis, today announced that members of Curaleaf's executive management team will be participating in the following investor community conferences and events during January 2022. ICR Conference 2022 January 10 , 2022 Joseph Lusardi , Executive Vice Chairman of Curaleaf, will be participating in a fireside chat with Vivien Azer , Cowen Equity Analyst, from 11:30am 12:00pm ET . Curaleaf management will also be hosting investor meetings. , 2022 , Executive Vice Chairman of Curaleaf, will be participating in a fireside chat with , Cowen Equity Analyst, from . Curaleaf management will also be hosting investor meetings. 24 th Annual Needham Virtual Growth Conference January 12, 2022 Boris Jordan , Executive Chairman of Curaleaf, will be participating in a fireside chat with Matt McGinley , Needham Equity Analyst, from 11:30am 12:10pm ET . Curaleaf management will also be hosting investor meetings. , Executive Chairman of Curaleaf, will be participating in a fireside chat with , Needham Equity Analyst, from . Curaleaf management will also be hosting investor meetings. ATB's 10th Annual Institutional Conference January 13, 2022 Joe Bayern , CEO of Curaleaf, will be participating in a panel titled, "East Coast: The Heat Is On This Winter" hosted by Kenric Tyghe , ATB Equity Analyst, from 10:00am 10:50am ET . Curaleaf management will also be hosting investor meetings. For more information regarding upcoming Curaleaf financial community conference and event participation as well as details to access the webcasts please visit Curaleaf's IR website at https://ir.curaleaf.com/events. About Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) ("Curaleaf") is a leading international provider of consumer products in cannabis with a mission to improve lives by providing clarity around cannabis and confidence around consumption. As a high-growth cannabis company known for quality, expertise and reliability, the Company and its brands, including Curaleaf and Select, provide industry-leading service, product selection and accessibility across the medical and adult-use markets. In the United States, Curaleaf currently operates in 23 states with 117 dispensaries, 25 cultivation sites, and employs over 5,200 team members. Curaleaf International is the largest vertically integrated cannabis company in Europe with a unique supply and distribution network throughout the European market, bringing together pioneering science and research with cutting-edge cultivation, extraction and production. Curaleaf is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol CURA and trades on the OTCQX market under the symbol CURLF. For more information, please visit https://ir.curaleaf.com. Curaleaf IR Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/Curaleaf_IR Investor Toolkit: https://ir.curaleaf.com/investor-toolkit Investor Relations Website: https://ir.curaleaf.com/ INVESTOR CONTACT Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. Carlos Madrazo, SVP, Investor Relations and Capital Markets [email protected] MEDIA CONTACT Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. Tracy Brady, VP Corporate Communications [email protected] SOURCE Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. "I am delighted to welcome Ernesto to the Dana board of directors," said James Kamsickas, Dana chairman and CEO. "He brings a unique combination of industry expertise across all mobility segments, a global perspective, and a keen understanding of advanced technologies all of which will be of great value to our board as we strategically and profitably grow the company and continue our leadership position in alternative vehicle propulsion." Mr. Hernandez also serves on the boards of BRP Inc., the recreational products business previously owned by Bombardier Inc.; and Constellation Brands, Inc., a producer of beers, wines, and distilled spirits. The company also announced that Raymond E. Mabus, Jr., will retire from the board of directors at the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, and will serve as a director until that time. About Dana Incorporated Dana is a leader in the design and manufacture of highly efficient propulsion and energy-management solutions that power vehicles and machines in all mobility markets across the globe. The company is shaping sustainable progress through its conventional and clean-energy solutions that support nearly every vehicle manufacturer with drive and motion systems; electrodynamic technologies, including software and controls; and thermal, sealing, and digital solutions. Based in Maumee, Ohio, USA, the company reported sales of $7.1 billion in 2020 with 38,000 associates in 33 countries across six continents. Founded in 1904, Dana was named one of "America's Most Responsible Companies 2021" by Newsweek for its emphasis on sustainability and social responsibility. The company is driven by a high-performance culture that focuses on valuing others, inspiring innovation, growing responsibly, and winning together, earning it global recognition as a top employer, including "World's Best Employer" from Forbes magazine. Learn more at dana.com. SOURCE Dana Incorporated CUPERTINO, Calif., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- After 24 years at the Oaks Shopping Center, across from De Anza College, Dance Academy USA has successfully relocated down the street, still on Stevens Creek and still in Cupertino. Dance Academy USA has been a reliable stalwart for Cupertino and Silicon Valley families for over 30 years, and has provided dance lessons, and a second home, to over 100,000 children. It had been located at the Oaks Shopping Center in Cupertino for 24 years but relocated in preparation of the Westport development owned by KT Urban. Dance Academy USA is proud to note that it never stopped serving the community during the entire move, a move that happened in the middle of Covid. Co-owner Jane Carter said, "Our kids needed their dance friends and teachers more than ever during lockdown. We had hundreds of parents thank us for providing consistency and stability, during a time of instability in the world. We are so happy with the new site." Jane Carter was also the Warriors and SaberKittens Cheer Team Director, and a member of the 49er and Warrior cheerleading teams in the 1980s. Dance Academy USA's new home is 19900 Stevens Creek Blvd, Cupertino. The Shane Company was also at the Oaks Shopping Center, so affectively the two neighboring businesses, moved together in tandem. 19900 Stevens Creek is owned by Charles Dunn Real Estate in Los Angeles, who renovated the existing building, top to bottom, for the arrival of both Dance Academy USA and The Shane Company. The Shane Company is on the Stevens Creek side of the building, and Dance Academy USA is on the back side, or the south side. Keller Williams is scheduled to take the third and final suite of the building. "When Covid hit, our lease was up, so we could have smoothly closed out the business and retired. But it's really not in our nature to quit when things get tough, so there was no real choice but to drop everything, and dig-in with a good attitude," said co-owner Jim Carter. "The staff and students were at the forefront of our decision to invest more capital for the come-back, and the relocation." Carter is also the Founding Member of Intero which now a Berkshire Hathaway owned company. "The good news is that it's done. And the new site is beautiful." Dance Academy USA has a menu of class offerings that is one of the largest in California, and has been recognized by Dance Teacher Magazine as the #1 private dance studio in America. The company is fully operational as of 09-13-21 and welcomes the community to come see the new site. "This is a long term lease, and the last build-out of our career, so we went all out," said Jane Carter. The company is also saying that this is a comeback story, to the benefit of families in the community. "We literally did the impossible, and relocated a 31 year old business in the middle of Covid, that was admittedly damaged by Covid. But our staff stuck together, and we made it through, and now we are in this new gorgeous location. We love the kids, and we love the staff, and that is #1," says Jane Carter. About Dance Academy USA Dance Academy USA is the largest dance school under one roof in the state of California and a five minute drive from Apple's new spaceship; the business has served the Silicon Valley dance community for 31 years, and according to its website, offers classes in tap, ballet, pointe, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, hip hop and breakdancing. Dance Academy USA was founded in 1990 by James R. and Jane R. Carter; the business has since expanded to six classrooms and a staff of over 60; Jane Carter is a graduate of San Jose State University with a degree in Human Performance (Fitness) and a minor in Nutrition and Food Science; while in college she was selected by Dole Corporation to be the company's ambassador to promote dance, modeling, and aerobics in Japan. To learn more about Dance Academy USA (DAU), please visit their website at DanceAcademyUSA.com. SOURCE Dance Academy USA, LLC Related Links www.danceacademyusa.com AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of carrier- and cloud-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, announced today that Digital Intrepid Holding B.V., an indirect wholly owned holding and finance subsidiary of the company's operating partnership, Digital Realty Trust, L.P., priced an offering of 750,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 1.375% Guaranteed Notes due 2032 at a price of 99.056% of the principal amount. The Euro Notes will be senior unsecured obligations of Digital Intrepid Holding B.V. and will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed by the company and the operating partnership. Interest on the Euro Notes will be payable annually in arrears at a rate of 1.375% per annum from and including January 18, 2022, and the Euro Notes will mature on July 18, 2032. The company intends to use the net proceeds from the Euro Notes to temporarily repay borrowings outstanding under the operating partnership's global revolving credit facilities, acquire additional properties or businesses, fund development opportunities, invest in interest-bearing accounts and short-term, interest-bearing securities which are consistent with the company's intention to qualify as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes, and to provide for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including potentially for the repayment of other debt, or the redemption, repurchase, repayment or retirement of outstanding equity or debt securities, or a combination of the foregoing. The Euro Notes are being sold only outside the United States in reliance on Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The Euro Notes have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to United States persons (within the meaning of Regulation S under the Securities Act) absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the Euro Notes, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or sale of the Euro Notes in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to the timing and consummation of the offering of the Euro Notes and the expected use of the net proceeds. The company can provide no assurances that it will be able to complete the offering on the anticipated terms, or at all. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the company's reports and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Reg S Statement This communication is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. or its subsidiaries. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act, or with any securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States. Consequently, the securities may not be offered, sold, resold, transferred, delivered or distributed, directly or indirectly, into or within the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and in compliance with any applicable securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States. Any offering of the securities will be conducted pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act. Notice to EEA Retail Investors The Euro Notes are not intended to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and, with effect from such date, should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any retail investor in the European Economic Area (the "EEA"). For these purposes, a retail investor means a person who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client as defined in point (11) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU (as amended, "MiFID II"); or (ii) a customer within the meaning of Directive 2016/97/EU (recast) (as amended, the "IMD"), where that customer would not qualify as a professional client as defined in point (10) of Article 4(1) of MiFID II. No key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 (as amended, the "PRIIPs Regulation") for offering or selling any in scope instrument or otherwise making such instruments available to retail investors in the EEA has been prepared. Offering or selling the Euro Notes or otherwise making them available to any retail investor in the EEA may be unlawful under the PRIIPs Regulation. This communication has been prepared on the basis that any offers or sales of Euro Notes in any Member State of the EEA will be made pursuant to an exemption under Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 (as amended or superseded, the "Prospectus Regulation") from the requirement to publish a prospectus for offers or sales of Euro Notes. This communication is not a prospectus for the purposes of the Prospectus Regulation. Notice to UK Retail Investors The Euro Notes are not intended to be offered, sold or otherwise made available to and should not be offered, sold or otherwise made available to any retail investor in the United Kingdom. For these purposes, a retail investor means a person who is one (or more) of: (i) a retail client, as defined in point (8) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 2017/565 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("EUWA"); or (ii) a customer within the meaning of the provisions of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as amended (the "FSMA") and any rules or regulations made under the FSMA to implement Directive (EU) 2016/97, where that customer would not qualify as a professional client, as defined in point (8) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the EUWA. Consequently, no key information document required by Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the EUWA (the "UK PRIIPs Regulation") for offering or selling the Euro Notes or otherwise making them available to retail investors in the United Kingdom has been prepared and therefore offering or selling the Euro Notes or otherwise making them available to any retail investor in the United Kingdom may be unlawful under the UK PRIIPs Regulation. SOURCE Digital Realty LOS ANGELES, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DJM , a California-based private equity real estate and development firm, today announced its acquisition of Long Beach Exchange (LBX) in partnership with PGIM Real Estate from Burnham-Ward Properties. Eastdil is credited with brokering the deal. As experts in retail, DJM will increase LBX's value through best-in-class management, leasing, marketing and placemaking. PGIM Real Estate is the real estate investment and financing business of PGIM, the $1.5 trillion global investment management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. Built in 2018, Long Beach Exchange is a 246,500 square-foot, open-air lifestyle property located in Long Beach, California. Grocery-anchored LBX features a mix of best-in-class retail, fitness, daily needs and dining including Whole Foods, Handel's, Orange Theory, Ra Yoga, Silverlake Ramen, Ulta, Nordstrom Rack, and more. LBX also boasts The Hangar, a 17,000 square-foot food hall fashioned in the style of a vintage aviation hangar that offers a range of small, artisanal food vendors and boutique retailers to Long Beach's dense office and residential population. The purchase of 26-acre LBX marks the latest acquisition from DJM, who is placing a heavy emphasis on growth and portfolio expansion of open-air retail coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Over the next year, we plan to double the square footage of our assets under management and focus on aggressive growth within our company," said Lindsay Parton, President at DJM. "We have positioned ourselves for the future with our team, and are currently working through a number of deals that will reflect the true ethos of DJM's mission to create places where people and communities thrive." "Although COVID undoubtedly impacted retail across all sectors, we're now experiencing a tremendous return to growth across our entire portfolio, with foot traffic and sales numbers surpassing even pre-pandemic figures" said Chad Cress, Chief Creative Officer at DJM. "This rebound, which reinforces the ever-changing nature of retail, is due largely in part to the outdoor nature of our properties as well as thoughtful community programming and relevant, region-specific merchandising. Long Beach Exchange is a fantastic addition to the DJM portfolio and we look forward to shaping the property into the best version of itself." With today's announcement, Long Beach Exchange joins DJM's portfolio that also includes, among other destinations, Hollywood & Highland (soon to be Ovation Hollywood) in Los Angeles, Lido Marina Village in Newport Beach, and Bella Terra in Huntington Beach. PGIM Real Estate, DJM's partner at the 853,000 square-foot outdoor shopping center Bella Terra, will join DJM as a partner at LBX. "We have seen firsthand the transformation DJM has created at Bella Terra," said Tim Hennessey, Managing Director at PGIM Real Estate. "We are extremely pleased with the value that DJM and PGIM Real Estate were able to add to the portfolio and deliver an excellent outcome for our investors even during these unprecedented times. We are excited to continue our work together at Long Beach Exchange." "Long Beach Exchange is a perfect example of what retail should look like in the future," said Scott Burnham, CEO and Partner at Burnham-Ward Properties. "This iconic property promotes an experiential environment that encourages shopping through community and experiences by innovative property development. The continued success of LBX during these unprecedented times is a true testament of its consumer appeal, which has ensured that the center will continue to grow and thrive. DJM and its partners will be great stewards for this asset going forward." About DJM DJM is a private real estate equity and development firm based in Southern California. With a core strength in retail combined with mixed use asset classes, DJM creates long-term value by transforming real estate to meet the 21st century demands of consumers, retailers, and office users. DJM's focus is on placemaking- leveraging design, development, and best-in-class management to create places where people thrive. DJM is represented by a current portfolio of approximately four million square feet with an estimated total portfolio value of $2 billion. For more information, please visit www.djmcapital.com . About PGIM Real Estate As one of the largest real estate managers in the world with $201.3 billion in gross assets under management and administration,1 PGIM Real Estate strives to deliver exceptional outcomes for investors and borrowers through a range of real estate equity and debt solutions across the risk-return spectrum. PGIM Real Estate is a business of PGIM, the $1.5 trillion global asset management business of Prudential Financial, Inc. PGIM Real Estate's rigorous risk management, seamless execution, and extensive industry insights are backed by a 50-year legacy of investing in commercial real estate, a 140-year history of real estate financing,2 and the deep local expertise of professionals in 32 cities globally. Through its investment, financing, asset management, and talent management approach, PGIM Real Estate engages in practices that ignite positive environmental and social impact, while pursuing activities that strengthen communities around the world. For more information visit pgimrealestate.com . Press Contact: Casey McDonald [email protected] 212.584.5668 SOURCE DJM The raise adds significant new strategic U.S. institutional relationships to Drake's investor mix, in addition to continuing the Firm's decade-long partnerships with prominent family offices and other institutional investors from across the globe. Drake Real Estate Partners announced the closing of its fourth flagship fund with more than $410 million in commitments. Founded in 2012, Drake implements a value investment philosophy by investing in income-producing real estate assets, generally at a significant discount to replacement cost, and driving value by focusing on repositioning, leasing and improving operations. The Firm focuses predominantly on smaller investment sizes typically between $5-25 million of equity in non-major U.S. markets where it has historically achieved outsized risk-adjusted returns. "Our team specializes in accessing overlooked opportunities whether off-market or mis-marketed investments adding value through asset-level improvements and executing successful asset sales to generate 12-14%+ net returns to our investors," commented David Cotterman, co-founder and Chief Investment Officer. Co-founder and President Nicolas Ibanez added, "We have built a successful track record over the past decade thanks to our focus on long-term partnerships, from our operating partners to our investors. This alignment of interest is evidenced in the Principals' sizable commitment across the funds, as well as that of my family office, which accesses its real estate exposure through the Drake funds. Drake is a uniquely-aligned investor." To date, the Fund, which launched in May 2021, has made nine investments across multifamily, industrial and single-tenant office which constitute the Firm's core product types over the past decade. Examples include class-B multifamily opportunities in North Carolina and Georgia; a portfolio roll-up of small, singe-tenant industrial assets located in infill locations across the East Coast; and a single-tenant net lease office building near Charlotte serving as the recently consolidated headquarters of a tire manufacturer with a "credit enhancement story," as Partner Jonathan Garonce explains. The Firm has completed $1.8 billion in transactions to date across a variety of geographies and property types, including multifamily, industrial, office (including medical office and creative office), self-storage, senior housing, retail, and hospitality. About Drake Real Estate Partners Founded in 2012, Drake Real Estate Partners is a real estate investment and asset management firm based in New York City. Drake seeks to invest in high quality, income-producing real estate assets at a significant discount to replacement cost, and drives value by focusing on repositioning, leasing, and improving operations. Drake uses the flexible, long-term nature of its capital to its advantage by seeking out opportunities that have been overlooked by other investors. Drake has completed $1.8 billion in transactions to date and has invested across a variety of geographies and property types, including multifamily, industrial, office (including medical office and creative office), self-storage, senior housing, retail, and hospitality. Drake is a proud member of 1% For The Planet, donating 1% of the firm's revenues to not-for-profit environmental initiatives in the markets in which it invests. For further information, visit www.drakerep.com. Contact Drake Real Estate Partners [email protected] SOURCE Drake Real Estate Partners DUBLIN, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Egypt Outdoor Lighting Market (2021-2027): Market Forecast by Types, by Wattage, by Applications, by End Users, and Competitive Landscape" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Egypt Outdoor Lighting Market size is projected to grow at CAGR of 8.1% during 2021-27. Egypt Outdoor Lighting Market report thoroughly covers market by types, applications, end users, and regions. The market report provides an unbiased and detailed analysis of the on-going market trends, opportunities/high growth areas and market drivers which would help the stakeholders to devise and align their market strategies according to the current and future market dynamics. Egypt Outdoor Lighting Market Synopsis Egypt Outdoor Lighting Market is expected to witness robust growth in the coming years on the back of a number of infrastructural projects such as development of new cities like New Administrative Capital, New Alamein City and New Aswan, National Road Project 2014, development of airports in new cities and construction of 250km of railway line. Growing investment in infrastructure along with a strong construction sector would bode well for the outdoor lighting market of Egypt. In addition to that, the government of Egypt has taken many steps under the Egypt Vision 2030 to reduce carbon emissions in the country. This trend is also expected to increase the usage of LED luminaires as they are energy efficient and have a lower carbon footprint compared to other alternatives. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the market witnessed a slow growth due to government restrictions, supply chain disruptions and slowdown in production process. However, some developers and contractors continued their work even during the pandemic while taking precautions to ensure safety of workers. Along with this, government initiatives to mitigate the impact of the pandemic like the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities distribute EGP 3.8 billion to contractors, helped in continuity of construction activities and hence, the market revenues did not decline during 2020 and it is anticipated to propel demand for market lights outdoor and is expected to assist the market to register significant growth in the forecast period. Market Analysis by Applications by applications in the existing cities, the street/roads segment accounted for the maximum revenue share in 2020 due to large scale construction of roads within cities to relieve congestion within urban areas. Further, by application in the new development cities, the highways segment is anticipated to register the fastest growth in the forecast period as the new cities would require a large number of highways to be well connected to existing cities. Key Attractiveness of the Report: COVID-19 Impact on the Market. 10 Years Market Numbers. Historical Data Starting from 2017 to 2020. Base Year: 2020 Forecast Data until 2027. Key Performance Indicators Impacting the Market. Major Upcoming Developments and Projects. Key Highlights of the Report: Egypt Outdoor Lighting Market Overview Egypt Outdoor Lighting Market Outlook Egypt Outdoor Lighting Market Forecast Historical Data and Forecast of Egypt Outdoor Lighting Market Revenues for the Period 2017-2027F Historical Market Data and Forecast of Revenues, by Types, for the Period 2017-2027F Historical Market Data and Forecast of Revenues, by Applications, for the Period 2017-2027F Historical Market Data and Forecasts of Revenues, by End User, for the Period 2017-2027F Historical Market Data and Forecasts of Revenues, by Regions, for the Period 2017-2027F Market Drivers and Restraints Egypt Outdoor Lighting Market Trend Industry Life Cycle Porter's Five Force Analysis Market Opportunity Assessment Egypt Outdoor Lighting Market Share, by Companies Competitive Benchmarking Company Profiles Key Strategic Recommendations Market Scope and Segmentation Companies Mentioned 3Brothers Al-Babtain Power & Telecom Egypt (ABPTE) Altawakol NTT Arab Steel Fabrication Co. S.A.E. Delta Egypt Lighting Eaton Corporation Plc. El Nassera Group El Radwan Steel Co. El Sewedy Electrical Solutions Elsewedy Electric Fagerhult Belysning AB International Co. for Steel Koninklijke Philips N.V. OPPLE Lighting Schreder Gulf Lighting L.L.C Siraj Lighting The report provides a detailed analysis of the following market segments: By Types: Steel Lighting Poles/High Mast, by Height: 6 meter 8 meter 9 meter 10 meter 12 meter 20 meter 25 meter 30 meter Street Lighting LED Luminaires, by Wattage: 50 watt 100 watt 150 watt 200 watt 300 watt By Applications, Existing Cities: Street/Roads Highways Stadium Airport By Applications, New Development Cities: Street/Roads Highways Stadium Airport By End Users Government/Municipal New Urban Communities Authority Military Engineering Authority General Authority for Roads and Bridges and Land Transport National Authority for Tunnels Others (Red Sea Ports Authority, Damietta Ports Authority, Petrobel, Petromaint, ENPPI, Egyptian Electrci Holding Company, etc) Private Capital Group Properties Land Mark Sabbour Development Marakez Developments British Petroleum Madinet Nasr for Housing and Development Others (New Giza for Real Estate Development, Palm Hills Development and Orascom Tourism Development.) By Regions Nile Valley and the Delta Western Desert Eastern Desert Sinai Peninsula For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/73jf3d Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com LEHI, Utah, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- eLuma , the leader in online therapy and special education for U.S. K-12 schools, has been named to the Inc. 2021 Best in Business list in the Education category. Inc.'s Best in Business Awards honor companies that have gone above and beyond to make a positive impact. "We are incredibly honored to be recognized by Inc., especially in the Education category, for the work that we are continuing to do to serve the students and schools who rely on us to help them receive their special education and mental health services," said Jeremy Glauser, eLuma's Founder and CEO. "This past year has shown us the crucial need for online therapy for K-12 schools, and we are committed to continuing to innovate and be advocates for these students in order to help them achieve their full potential." This recognition comes after a monumental year for eLuma, as the company continues to expand its mental health and special education services. To-date, eLuma has served over 27,000 students, and provided over 400,000 hours of online therapy. The list, which can be found in the Winter issue of Inc. magazine, recognizes small- and medium-size privately held American businesses that have had an outstanding influence on their communities, their industries, the environment, or society as a whole. "As we close out the year, this recognition is a true testament to the important work that we are doing to help make special education and mental health services available to all students," said Jeremy Glauser, Founder and CEO of eLuma. "Coming off of a pandemic year, Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc., says, "What began for us during the pandemic as an effort to showcase companies that were helping the community has grown into a recognition of social, environmental, and economic impact. The companies on this year's list are changemakers with heart and they're pouring the best of their business into the people and communities around them." Rather than relying on quantitative criteria tied to sales or funding, Inc.'s editors reviewed the companies' achievements over the past year and noted how they made a positive difference in the world. They then selected honorees in more than 49 different industries from finance to software to engineering to fashion, and more and in age-based and revenue-based categories. The applicant pool was extremely competitive, with around 2,700 entries and an acceptance rate in the low single digits a huge success for these honors in the list's second year. Honorees for gold, silver, bronze, and general excellence across industries and categories are featured online at inc.com/best-in-business. ABOUT INC. MEDIA The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across various channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the Inc. 5000 allows these founders a chance to engage with their peers in an exclusive community with the credibility to help drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com . About eLuma eLuma is one of the nation's premier providers of teletherapy services and software for K-12 special education and mental health. The company provides an array of services, which includes speech, occupational, and physical therapies to thousands of students all over the U.S. Due to rapidly growing demand, eLuma also facilitates effective online delivery of mental health services (e.g. assessment, school psychology, social work, behavior intervention) to schools and districts in dire need of support. All of these services are delivered live and online by high-quality therapists using the company's proprietary platform and innovative therapy management system. eLuma's Online Therapy Platform is built to ensure maximum efficacy, efficiency, dependability and a better overall experience for students, parents, and administrators alike. For more information, visit www.eluma.com . SOURCE eLuma CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Erbi Biosystems, developer of innovative, small-scale, automated, and high-performance cell culture systems, has closed a private round of funding totaling $4M. This latest financing will enable the company to expand operations to meet the growing demand for its Breez perfusion bioreactor product and develop extensions to enhance cell therapy applications. The Erbi Breez bioreactor provides continuous media addition, cell retention and bubble-free gas diffusion through its True Perfusion technology, which is unique among existing small-scale bioreactors that can only approximate perfusion with intermittent media exchange. The Breez's fully automated, sterile, single-use system also includes online sensing and controls that are combined with easy-to-use software, delivering sophisticated feeding strategies, cell concentration, and media exchanges, resulting in performance that can exceed stirred tank and rocking bag reactors. "Erbi has developed a compelling platform for small-scale cell culture," said Michael Chambers, Erbi investor and founding CEO of Aldevron. "In addition to its capabilities in bioprocessing, their platform enables testing of multiple replicates from a single sample of scarce patient cells - a unique and powerful capability that will accelerate cell therapy development." "The Breez product has proven to be an effective scale-down tool for process development across a range of cell types," said Dr. Martin Madaus, former Chairman and CEO of Millipore. "The small volume, single-use, sterile and fully-automated format makes this an ideal platform for cell therapy manufacturing." In 2021, Erbi Biosystems doubled its staff and relocated to a larger facility north of Cambridge, equipped with biolabs and cleanroom manufacturing space. "We're growing quickly and expect to double again in 2022," said Dr. Michael Chiu, CEO of Erbi Biosystems. "Revenue from our growing list of Breez customers in the US, Europe and Asia is fueling our growth. This additional funding allows us to accelerate our pipeline of technology and product development projects which are focused on the needs of the cell therapy process development and GMP manufacturing." Mr. Chambers and Dr. Madaus are both investors in the latest private round. About Erbi Biosystems Erbi Biosystems supports therapeutic drug manufacturers with tools to accelerate the development of their processes and therapies. Erbi's technology platform includes single-use, mL-scale cell culture, microfluidics, optical sensing, and integrated controls. The Breez bioreactor is used across a range of applications and cell types, including media and cell-line development; intensified process and n-1; CAR-T process development; and non-mammalian cell culture. The small size, single-use device, and fully automated operation drastically reduce the time, media consumption and lab space required for process development. The mL-scale working volume and closed-sterile consumable format make it ideal when working with scarce and highly variable source materials, such as autologous therapy development. The Erbi Breez system is available worldwide with sales and distribution in the US, EU, and China. SOURCE Erbi Biosystems "We are pleased to join forces with Ulrik and Lotte to further support and accelerate commitments by Denmark and other European countries to achieve carbon neutrality before 2050 by advancing the Fidelis climate impact infrastructure strategy abroad. Ulrik and Lotte are not only close friends with whom we have worked for years, they are seasoned European-based infrastructure investment professionals and leaders who will also contribute to the global Fidelis vision and strategy," said Dan Shapiro, CEO and Co-Founder, Fidelis. Ulrik Dan Weuder has over 25 years of experience in planning, investing and managing large infrastructure and complex equity investments. Lotte has over 15 years of experience as a legal professional with strong experience in deal structuring and infrastructure transactions. Lotte's experience includes sophisticated transactions within large infrastructure and M&A transactions in Europe and the United States, including the management of operating infrastructure assets. Both are joining Fidelis after successful careers with the Danish pension fund ATP. Bengt Jarlsjo, Co-founder of Fidelis, added "Being born and raised in Scandinavia, I am pleased we have selected Denmark as the headquarters for Fidelis Europe and appointed Ulrik and Lotte to lead that expansion. With our partners in the region, we see great potential for projects within our strategy in Scandinavia and Europe as a whole. Our European presence will also enhance our continued collaboration with our Scandinavian and European technology partners as we continue to advance transition infrastructure assets across our portfolio." About Fidelis New Energy, LLC Fidelis is an infrastructure firm that develops, delivers, invests in, owns, and operates climate impact infrastructure with long useful lives, providing critical services to society while generating stable and predictable cash flows. Fidelis focuses on four decarbonization core sectors: (1) Renewable Fuels (sustainable aviation fuel and ground transportation fuels from renewable feedstocks), (2) Carbon Management (capture, use, transportation and sequestration of CO2), (3) Clean Hydrogen, and (4) Renewable Power including Power to X. For more information, please visit www.fidelisinfra.com. FOR MORE INFORMATION Gardner Boulmay III (832) 551-3300 [email protected] SOURCE Fidelis New Energy, LLC Islamabad, Jan 4 (UNI) The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and other bar associations have threatened a boycott of all court proceedings if Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed doesn't postpone the elevation of Justice Ayesha A. Malik of the Lahore High Court to the Supreme Court. The Judicial Commission of Pakistan was to hold a meeting on January 6. Justice Malik is the fourth in the seniority order of the Lahore High Court. If elected, she would become the first woman judge in Pakistan. After a meeting held on Monday, PBC Vice Chairman Khushdil Khan and Executive Committee Chairman Muhammad Masood Chishti said in case the January 6 meeting was not axed, all bar associations would boycott all courts in the country, the Dawn reported on Tuesday. Firm Invested in 25+ New Portfolio Companies, and Celebrated 5 Portfolio Company IPOs LOS ANGELES, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Fifth Wall , the largest venture capital firm focused on technologies for the global real estate industry, announced that it raised more than $1.1 billion across its funds in 2021, underscoring accelerated proptech adoption by the global real estate industry and the untapped potential for climate tech in the Built Environment. In 2021, the firm welcomed new investors, including Aldar, APG, Arbor Realty Trust, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Bpifrance through the digital Fund of Funds, Camden Property Trust, Cosan, Gestilar, Invitation Homes, Kimco Realty Corporation, Knight Frank, Meritage Homes, affiliates of Northwood Investors, NZ Super Fund, PGIM Real Estate, The Durst Organization, among others. Fifth Wall's network of strategic limited partners (LPs) currently sits at over 90. In addition, several of Fifth Wall's existing investors reinforced their belief in the firm's investment thesis, increasing their investments in Fifth Wall funds: British Land, CBRE, Canderel, Cushman & Wakefield, Equity Residential, Granite Properties, Hines, Hudson Pacific Properties, Ivanhoe Cambridge, Koch Real Estate Investments, MERLIN Properties, Move, Inc., News Corp, PulteGroup, SEGRO, among others. "We're in the Golden Age of proptech with enormous secular growth demonstrated by the record-breaking amount of capital being invested into proptech by LPs," said Brendan Wallace, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall. "When we started Fifth Wall in 2016, proptech was a niche VC investment category; yet, real estate was and remains 13% of US GDP. It's been exciting to witness how the real estate industry has embraced proptech deployments and we're confident these forward-looking real estate players will bring this same mindset to assessing and adopting climate technologies." During 2021, Fifth Wall invested in 25+ new portfolio companies and celebrated five IPOs from companies in which it previously invested, including Procore, Blend, Doma, Hippo, and SmartRent SmartRent went public in a merger with Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. I (FWAA). Fifth Wall currently has more than 45 employees 27 of which were added in 2021, including the firm's first CMO and several new partners that were announced in recent months; Jeremy Fox to lead corporate partnerships and capital markets business after decades working in investment banking; Mary Hogan Preusse who joined the firm in October as a Senior Advisor, drawing on her 30+ years of real estate experience; Peter Gajdos who joined the firm in September to co-lead the Climate Tech Investment team; and several other new firm hires across investment and operations. "We remain committed to growing our consortium-based approach to venture capital focused on technology for the global real estate industry, anticipating and facilitating connections among owners and operators of real estate with the entrepreneurs inventing the next wave of tech and climate tech innovation," said Brendan. "Fundraising and capital deployment momentum at Fifth Wall in 2021 offers further validation of our model and the value of sector-focused venture capital." About Fifth Wall Founded in 2016, Fifth Wall, a Certified B Corporation, is the largest venture capital firm focused on technology-driven innovation for the global real estate industry. With approximately $3.0 billion in commitments and capital under management, Fifth Wall connects many of the world's largest owners and operators of real estate with the entrepreneurs who are redefining the future of the Built World. Fifth Wall is backed by a global mix of more than 90+ strategic investors from more than 15 countries, including Acadia Realty Trust, Arbor Realty Trust, Azora, BNP Paribas Real Estate, British Land, Camden Property Trust, CBRE, Cosan, Cushman & Wakefield, D.R. Horton, Equity Residential, Gecina, Gestilar, GLP, Granite Properties, Hines, Host Hotels & Resorts, Hudson Pacific Properties, Invitation Homes, Ivanhoe Cambridge, Jamestown, Kimco Realty Corporation, Knight Frank, Lennar, Lowe's Home Improvement, Macerich, Marriott International, Meritage Homes, MERLIN Properties, MetLife Investment Management, Mitsubishi Estate, MOMENI, News Corp, affiliates of Northwood Investors, Nuveen Real Estate, NZ Super Fund, PGIM Real Estate, Pontos Group, Prologis, PulteGroup, Related Companies, SEGRO, Starwood Capital, Toll Brothers, Vanke, and others. Fifth Wall believes this strategic corporate consortium represents one of the largest groups of potential partners in the global Built World ecosystem, which can result in game-changing investments and collaborations in promising portfolio companies in retail, residential and multi-family, commercial, industrial, hospitality, and more. For more information about Fifth Wall, its partners, and portfolio, visit www.fifthwall.com . SOURCE Fifth Wall Vendor Insights The foodservice market size in the US is fragmented and it is expected to remain fragmented as the vendors are deploying various organic and inorganic growth strategies to occupy the foodservice market share. The changing economic conditions; consumer purchase patterns; consumer tastes: regional, national, and local economic conditions; and demographic trends affect the consumer living standards and the business operations of vendors. Market suppliers should focus more on the fast-growing segment's growth prospects while preserving their positions in the slow-growing sectors to make the most of the opportunity. The profiles offer information on the main companies' production, competitive landscape, sustainability, and prospects, including: Chick-fil-A Inc. Doctors Associates LLC Dunkin Brands Group Inc. McDonald's Corp. Restaurant Brands International Inc. Starbucks Corp. YUM! Brands Inc. Find additional highlights on the growth strategies adopted by vendors and their product offerings, Read Free Sample Report . Geographical Market Analysis According to our research report, the US will contribute 100% of the global market growth and is expected to dominate the market through 2025. The foodservice market size in the US is bifurcated into two branches, fast-growing regions, and slow-growing regions. The increase in the number of fast-casual restaurants is notably driving the foodservice market growth in fast-growing regions. The fast-growing foodservice market is being driven by new technological advances. Food service operators are increasingly relying on smartphone technology to promote their establishments and to help the rate of online orders. The overall foodservice market in the US is expected to grow at a moderate rate during the forecast period. Know more about this market's geographical distribution along with the detailed analysis of the top regions. https://www.technavio.com/report/foodservice-market-in-us-industry-analysis Key Segment Analysis The conventional foodservice system segment is expected to witness steady demand growth during the forecast period. Conventional foodservice vendors ensure that the food is freshly prepared and customized according to customers' liking. Before being served to consumers, the food is kept in containers for a short time. Schools, universities, restaurants, and cafeterias are among the places where this foodservice system is implemented. The key driver for conventional foodservice system is: Good quality food, as it is prepared on-site Flexibility in the menu Foods are served right after preparation View FREE Sample: to know additional highlights and key points on various market segments and their impact in coming years. Key Market Drivers & Trends: Increased snacking and indulgence consumption is notably driving the foodservice market growth in the US as many consumers are replacing their routine meals with on-the-go snacks and light meals. Vendors in the US are extensively offering healthy food options, such as doughnuts, bread, rolls, pies, sandwiches, and other similar products for breakfast that include healthy ingredients. Though consumers have become more health-conscious and prefer healthy snacks, the demand for premium food kinds such as premium doughnuts, cakes, cookies, and pastries has been steadily increasing. The other factors driving the foodservice market in the US are changing lifestyles of consumers and increasing demand for allergen-free dining. Furthermore, the demands for gluten-free restaurants and eateries are increasing from different consumer quarters, especially from people affected with celiac disease. Thus, allergen-free dining will fuel the foodservice market in the US during the forecast period. Download a free sample for highlights on market Drivers & Trends affecting the foodservice market in the US. Customize Your Report Don't miss out on the opportunity to speak to our analyst and know more insights about this market report. Our analysts can also help you customize this report according to your needs. Our analysts and industry experts will work directly with you to understand your requirements and provide you with customized data in a short amount of time. We offer USD 1,000 worth of FREE customization at the time of purchase. Speak to our Analyst now! Related Reports: Food Delivery Market in India by Order Mode and Payment Mode - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026 Foodservice 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% Market growth 2021-2025 $ 157.03 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 2.50 Regional analysis US Performing market contribution US at 100% Key consumer countries US Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Chick-fil-A Inc., Doctors Associates LLC, Dunkin Brands Group Inc., McDonald Corp., Restaurant Brands International Inc., Starbucks Corp., and YUM! Brands 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 forecast period, Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized. About Us: Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contact Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com/ SOURCE Technavio the iconic white millinery masterpiece worn by Mrs. Trump, an original watercolor on paper by Marc-Antoine Coulon , and an exclusive digital artwork NFT with motion. The Head of State Collection previews on MelaniaTrump.com on January 4, 2022. This online-only auction will be open from January 11January 25, 2022, and it will have an opening bid the equivalent of $250,000. Bids will be accepted using SOL cryptocurrency. The French State Visit Former First Lady Melania Trump and President Trump welcomed French President Macron and Mrs. Macron from the Republic of France to the White House for their first formal State Visit on April 24, 2018. Following the traditional arrival ceremony, Mrs. Trump and Mrs. Macron visited the National Gallery of Art and attended a joint press conference in the White House. Mrs. Trump wore the iconic broad-brimmed, one-of-a-kind hat and an asymmetrical Michael Kors suit to the day's events. Later that evening, Mrs. Trump and President Trump hosted their first State Dinner at the White House. The White Broad-Brimmed, High Blocked Crown Hat With a nod to French culture, Mrs. Trump commissioned French American designer, Herve Pierre, to create the one-of-a-kind white hat. Mr. Pierre used the same fabric as Mrs. Trump's white Michael Kors suit and constructed the piece in New York City. It is important to note that Mr. Pierre designed Mrs. Trump's inaugural gown and served as her fashion stylist and consultant during the Presidency. Indeed, Mrs. Trump's iconic white hat garnered media attention worldwide. Auction Items: The Head of State Collection White Hat by Herv e Pierre, 2018 The iconic Herve Pierre wide-brimmed, white hat created for the French State Visit was worn and signed by Mrs. Trump. The one-of-a-kind hat measures 55cm in width. It is constructed in a white crepe textile. An Original Watercolor by Marc-Antoine Coulon, 2021 Renowned French artist, Marc-Antoine Coulon, is known for his keen observations, attention to detail, and elegant style. Mr. Coulon's watercolor on paper celebrates the April 2018 French State Visit. This painting measures 29.7cm x 40.5cm and is an edition of one. Signed by Melania Trump and Marc-Antoine Coulon Digital Artwork NFT with motion by Marc-Antoine Coulon, 2021 The digital artwork, a one-of-a-kind NFT of Marc-Antoine Coulon's watercolor with movement, was designed to commemorate the important historical moment and highlight the iconic hat. The NFT is an edition of one. Signed by Melania Trump and Marc-Antoine Coulon Certificate of Authenticity The auction winner will receive a personalized letter from Mrs. Trump, accompanying the hat and watercolor on paper and certifying authenticity. The NFT will be minted on the Solana Blockchain. Fostering The Future, A Be Best Initiative A portion of the proceeds derived from this auction provides individuals who have been in the foster care community with access to computer science and technology education. Mrs. Trump will proudly grant the opening round of scholarships to recipients during the first quarter of 2022, following the success of the Melania's Vision NFT. For Press Inquiries: [email protected] SOURCE The Office of Melania Trump FLINT, Mich., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Forum Health, LLC, a nationwide network of integrative and functional medicine providers, has acquired four Dr. Quinn Weight Loss clinics in addition to Cratus Medical Vitality Institute, all led by Christopher Quinn D.O. in Michigan. In addition to this practice acquisition, Dr. Quinn will be welcomed as Forum Health's Vice President of Weight Management Programs. Dr. Quinn founded Dr. Quinn Weight Loss in 2006 with clinics in Clarkston, Rochester Hills, Novi, and Shelby Township; and founded Cratus Medical Vitality Institute in 2016 located in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He has served as the medical director for these five clinics and focuses on the role of hormones in health and wellbeing to help his patients achieve their weight-loss and health optimization goals. "Dr. Quinn is highly specialized in obesity medicine and hormone health, and has had great success across his clinics making a difference in the lives of patients," said Adam Puttkammer, president of Forum Health. "With this acquisition, we further expand the Forum Health reach into Michigan and welcome Dr. Quinn as an expert provider to our network." "My team is dedicated to improving the overall health and wellbeing of our patients through prevention, hormone health and weight loss," said Dr. Quinn. "There is a need for doctors trained in regenerative medicine and hormone health, that's why we are excited to join the Forum Health network of like-minded providers and have the opportunity to make a difference on a larger scale using the latest advances in medicine." At the Dr. Quinn Weight Loss clinics, patients go through Dr. Quinn's proprietary "Get Thin With Dr. Quinn" program designed with lifestyle modification to help patients achieve weight loss and maintain results long term. Cratus Medical Vitality Institute specializes in helping patients achieve optimal health through optimizing hormone levels in lab results and relieving persistent symptoms with preventative and regenerative medicine. "What Dr. Quinn and his team have built across these five clinics is truly admirable," said Phil Hagerman, CEO of Forum Health. "His vision for the future of functional and integrative medicine aligns with Forum Health and we know this addition will help us both grow." Dr. Quinn is board-certified in Emergency Medicine and Obesity Medicine, is a member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, International Peptide Society, Obesity Medicine Association, American Society of Ketamine Physicians, and the American Osteopathic Association. For more information on Forum Health, visit www.forumhealth.com . About Forum Health, LLC Forum Health, LLC is a nationwide provider of personalized healthcare. Steeped in the powerful principles of functional and integrative medicine, Forum Health providers take a root-cause approach to care. They listen and dig deep exploring lifestyle, environment, and genetics to help each patient achieve their ultimate health goals. Members have access to advanced medical treatments and technology, with care plans informed by data analytics and collaborative relationships. To learn more, visit forumhealth.com. SOURCE Forum Health, LLC AYER, Mass. and FULLERTON, Calif., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nasoya, the country's #1 brand of tofu and a leading maker of plant-based Asian-inspired foods, and its parent company, Pulmuone, one of the largest tofu companies in the world, are getting a high-tech upgrade. Teaming up with Yo-Kai Express, the revolutionary high-tech company known for innovating the autonomous restaurant to serve gourmet food on demand 24/7, the companies will be sampling three different dishes through Yo-Kai Express' patented robotic platform at the upcoming 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Yo-Kai Express Freshly Prepared Meals Meet Tech: Nasoya, with Parent Company, Pulmuone and Yo-Kai Express to Feature Robotic Food Platform at 2022s Consumer Electronics Show "Marrying a tech platform with authentic, restaurant-quality meals may seem like a surprising collaboration, but we see this as a natural extension of our goal to introduce more consumers to the plant-based and Asian-inspired foods space, showing them how delicious, healthy and versatile these foods can be," said Sung Yoon Nam, Vice President of Marketing at Nasoya. "With the innovative platform of Yo-Kai, we're closer to putting plant-based and Asian-inspired dishes just a button away at any shopping mall, college campus, hotel, airport or other out-of-home experience where consumers want healthy meals on-the-go." Ready in under 60 seconds with just the touch of a button, the robotic food platform will offer the following bowls throughout CES from January 5-7 at booth #53758 at The Venetian Convention and Expo Center. Nasoya Plantspired Steak Rice Bowl Initially debuted at fast-casual healthy rice bowl chain, WaBa Grill , Nasoya's high-protein Plantspired Steak is plant-based, made with simple ingredients, marinated then charcoal grilled for a sweet and savory flavor. The bowl offered at CES features Plantspired Steak complemented by vegetables and rice. Initially debuted at fast-casual healthy rice bowl chain, , Nasoya's high-protein Plantspired Steak is plant-based, made with simple ingredients, marinated then charcoal grilled for a sweet and savory flavor. The bowl offered at CES features Plantspired Steak complemented by vegetables and rice. Nasoya Plantspired Classic Bolognese Spaghetti Bowl The unique offering with Yo-Kai Express serves up Nasoya's popular Plantspired Classic Bolognese Organic Meal Solution over spaghetti. Featuring protein-packed, super firm tofu crumbles combined with vegetables and simmered in a tomato and red wine sauce the dish is a new twist on a classic recipe. The unique offering with Yo-Kai Express serves up Nasoya's popular Plantspired Classic Bolognese Organic Meal Solution over spaghetti. Featuring protein-packed, super firm tofu crumbles combined with vegetables and simmered in a tomato and red wine sauce the dish is a new twist on a classic recipe. Pulmuone Beef Bulgogi Udon Bowl A spin on the traditional Korean dish, Pulmuone's Beef Bulgogi Udon combines perfectly-sliced, marinated USDA choice beef, veggies and fresh udon noodles tossed in a savory-sweet sauce. The offering at CES incorporates additional veggies including onions, carrots, celery and zucchini for a complete meal. Yo-Kai Express' robotic platform serves gourmet dishes such as hot ramen and rice bowls on demand. Yo-Kai Express machines are currently available nationwide at many different sectors from universities, hotels, hospitals, factories, airports and Fortune 500 offices. "We are excited to be exhibiting at CES and look forward to showcasing how we are breaking the traditional food barriers with our autonomous dining solutions with near zero food waste for everyone to enjoy delicious meals anytime and anywhere," said Amanda Tsung, COO of Yo-Kai Express. "Collaborating with Nasoya to offer these recipes was a natural fit for us to answer the growing demand for plant-based and globally inspired dishes." Pulmuone is one of the largest healthy food manufacturers in Asia and has introduced its rich tradition in America through its own brand of dumplings and noodles as well as through additional brands including Nasoya. Nasoya recently announced its expansion into food service through new accounts with WaBa Grill and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and these new offerings with Yo-Kai Express at CES highlight the brand's continued efforts to collaborate with innovative partners to offer its plant-based and Asian-inspired dishes to more and more consumers. Nasoya's Plantspired line of convenient meal solutions, including Classic Bolognese Organic Meal Solutions, is available at retailers nationwide. Nasoya's Plantspired Steak, which initially launched with WaBa Grill, is expected to be available at grocery stores this spring. ABOUT PULMUONE FOODS USA Pulmuone Foods USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pulmuone South Korea, is home to a family of brands that includes a wide variety of delicious products inspired by contemporary flavor palates that encourage a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Amid the growing global demand for plant-based protein food, Pulmuone Foods USA is leading the US tofu market with a nearly 70 percent market share with beloved brands like Nasoya and Wildwood. Pulmuone brands also include Emerald Valley Kitchen, Monterey Gourmet Foods and a line of Pulmuone-branded Asian-inspired products available at mass grocery stores and major club channels throughout the United States. For more information, visit pulmuonefoodsusa.com. ABOUT NASOYA For over 40 years, Nasoya has been a leading provider of natural and organic foods. Part of the family of brands at Pulmuone, a company synonymous with authentic, wholesome products and the highest quality of ingredients, Nasoya believes in creating great-tasting, healthy, convenient snacks and meals for every eating occasion. Product offerings include tofu, high-protein tofu, Kimchi, Kimchi Relish, Asian-Style Vegan Wraps, Asian Noodle Kits & Dumplings, low calorie/low carb Pasta Zero noodles, and a variety of Plantspired products including TofuBaked, Toss'ables, Superfood Skillets and many more. Learn more at Nasoya.com, Facebook, YouTube or Instagram! ABOUT YO-KAI EXPRESS Yo-Kai Express (YKE) is a rapidly growing global food tech startup with offices in Northern California, Japan and Taiwan. YKE is redefining gourmet autonomous restaurant solutions using patented technology it developed to perform last-mile cooking of an array of both hot and cold, savory and sweet menu selections. YKE first launched robotic platform, built for high-traffic areas such as airports and ski resorts, in 2018, offering items as steaming hot bowls of Tonkotsu ramen 24 hours a day and in under a minute. For more information, visityokaiexpress.com/about. Media contact: Tori Partykevich [email protected] SOURCE Nasoya Saudi ministers and representatives of the regional and international mining industry and allied sectors will join more than 2,000 decision-makers from more than 100 countries and 150-plus top global investors, as well as more than 100 international speakers and thought leaders at the Forum. The invitation-only, closed-door Ministerial Mining Roundtable Special Session will headline the Forum's program on January 11. The session will feature presentations and discussions on topics that are critical to the future of the mining industry. The "Mining in a Day" workshop will be held in tandem, alongside other workshops and panel discussions that will turn the spotlight on weighty issues, including the attraction of investments, the role of technology in mining, and environment, social and governance (ESG) issues. The General Forum will begin on January 12 with a plenary session and a keynote address by H.E. Bandar Bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef, Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources. The session on Reimagining Mining and Maximizing its Contribution to Society will commence the day's program schedule. It will be followed by a Smart-Mining session, "Showcasing Technology & InnovationSupporting Mining of the Future." Two additional sessions Highlighting Mining's Critical Role in a Low-Carbon Economy and Supporting the Region's Growth and Development and Country Briefings will complement exhibition and networking opportunities. January 13 will see the region from Congo to Kyrgyzstan highlighted as the Land of Opportunity A Regional Powerhouse. Also in the spotlight will be a prime-time session on Global Investment Opportunities an Accessing Capital. Deep-dive sessions, keynote fireside chats and other animated inter- and intra-ministry discussions will also follow. Many more Saudi Ministers and dignitaries will attend the Forum, including: H.R.H. Abdulaziz Bin Salman Al Saud, Minister of Energy; H.H. Faisal Bin Farhan Al Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs; H.E. Yassir Bin Othman Al-Rumayyan, Governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund; H.E. Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Investment; H.E. Abdulrahman Al Fadley, Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture; H.E. Khalid Al Mudaifer, Vice-Minister for Mining Affairs. In addition to the dozens of confirmed speakers from the mining industry, leaders from multilateral global organizations such as the World Bank, International Council on Mining and Metals, and World Gold Council will also share their knowledge and insights with the Forum attendees. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719760/Future_Minerals_Forum_Speakers.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1719759/Future_Minerals_Forum_Logo.jpg SOURCE The Future Minerals Forum Organizing Committee LASALLE, QC, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - GDI Integrated Facility Services Inc. (TSX:GDI) (the "Company" or "GDI") is pleased to announce that its U.S. subsidiary GDI Integrated Facility Services USA Inc. has concluded the acquisition of IH Services, Inc. and its affiliates ("IH") effective December 31, 2021. Founded in 1955 with a head office in Greenville S.C., IH is one of the largest and most respected janitorial service providers in the Southeastern United States. With close to 8,000 employees, IH generated approximately USD$200 million in annual revenue in the twelve-month period ending August 30, 2021. "We are extremely excited to welcome the IH team to GDI's family," stated Claude Bigras, President and CEO of GDI. "IH is a leader in the industry in the Southeastern USA and has operations spanning 29 states servicing predominantly the industrial, distribution and healthcare markets. IH is led by a strong and seasoned management team who will continue to operate the business and will become GDI's regional leadership team covering the U.S. Southeast. The acquisition of IH represents a meaningful expansion of GDI's U.S. business, significantly expanding our U.S. janitorial operations and geographic footprint. The purchase price multiple was within our customary range for large acquisitions, and we expect IH's normalized adjusted EBITDA[1] margin to be in-line with GDI's long term margin objectives as best practices are shared and operating efficiencies are realized." "We are very excited about partnering with GDI," stated Ryan Hendley, President and CEO of IH. "Since being founded by my father Dick Hendley in 1955, IH has grown into one of the largest facility services providers based in the Southeast and what we feel is one of the best companies in our industry. I am incredibly proud of the entire team at IH for building IH into the company it is today, and feel that GDI is the best partner for us because there is a strong business fit and we share the same culture and values. I am very much looking forward to working with GDI to continue the growth and success of our business." ABOUT GDI GDI is a leading commercial facility services provider which offers a range of services in Canada and the United States to owners and managers of a variety of facility types including office buildings, hotels, shopping centres, industrial facilities, healthcare establishments, distribution facilities, airports and other transportation facilities. GDI's commercial facility services capabilities include commercial janitorial, installation, maintenance and repair of HVAC-R, mechanical and electrical systems, as well as other complementary services such as damage restoration and janitorial products manufacturing and distribution. GDI's subordinate voting shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: GDI). Additional information on GDI can be found on its website at www.gdi.com. CAUTION CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Certain statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to GDI's future outlook and anticipated events, business, operations, financial performance, financial condition or results and, in some cases, can be by terminology such as "may"; "will"; "should"; "expect"; "plan"; "anticipate"; "believe"; "intend"; "estimate"; "predict"; "potential"; "continue"; "foresee"; "confident"; "ensure" or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In particular, statements regarding GDI's future operating results and economic performance and its objectives and strategies, and the anticipated benefits of the IH acquisition are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on certain factors and assumptions including expected growth, results of operations, performance and business prospects and opportunities, which GDI believes are reasonable as of the current date. While management considers these assumptions to be reasonable, they may prove to be incorrect. It is impossible for GDI to predict with certainty the impact that the current economic uncertainties may have on future results. The matters addressed in these statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including, but not limited to, the risk that the existing and acquired business will not be integrated successfully, the risk that cost savings and synergies expected to result from the acquisition may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected, disruption from the acquisition making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers, employees or suppliers and the effect of general economic conditions. Therefore, future events and results may vary significantly from what management currently foresees. The reader should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. While management may elect to, the Company is under no obligation and does not undertake to update or alter this information at any particular time, except as may be required by law. 1 The terms "Adjusted EBITDA" and "Adjusted EBITDA Margin" do not have standardized definitions prescribed by International Financial Reporting Standards and therefore, may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. "Adjusted EBITDA" is defined as operating income before depreciation and amortization, Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy and related expenses, transaction, reorganization and other costs and share-based compensation. The Adjusted EBITDA Margin is calculated by dividing Adjusted EBITDA by revenues. For more details and for a reconciliation of that measure to the most directly comparable IFRS measure, consult the "Operating and Financial Results" section of the Company's Management Discussion & Analysis (MD&A). SOURCE GDI Integrated Facility Services Inc. Related Links https://gdi.com/ All new Cync devices work together via the Cync app, powered by Savant to automate temperature inside the home, as well as security and lighting inside and out. The app was honored by CES 2022 with an Innovation Award. "The 'smartest' smart home consists of a network of reliable products that work together seamlessly and are easy to install and use, for the ultimate in convenience, comfort and security," said Paul Williams, Vice President of Experiences at GE Lighting, a Savant company. "Our new products give consumers the ability to bolster their Cync smart home with new whole home capabilities that are hubless and can all be controlled by a single app or voice." Smart House. Warming Party. As with all Cync products, the all-new Cync Smart Thermostat features the premium quality for which GE-branded products are known. The Cync Smart Thermostat can be installed without a common wire, making it compatible in nearly every home. Its large, sleek, and high-contrast display makes on-site control easier than ever, and like all Cync products, no hub is required for 'away from home' control using the Cync app. The all-new Cync Room Temperature Sensors work with the Smart Thermostat to monitor individual rooms or the entire home and optimize the comfort accordingly. The new Cync Smart Thermostat and Temperature Sensor will be available to order in January from Lowe's, Best Buy and Amazon. The Smart Thermostat starts at $119.99 and the Temperature Sensor at $29.99. See Inside. Outside. And All Around. On the heels of its first indoor camera launch, Cync is launching outdoor camera options that keep families safe, the home secure and provide peace of mind around-the-clock. The Cync Outdoor Smart Camera comes in both wired and battery/solar powered options, so users can choose the setup that's optimal for their smart home. With 2K/1280P HD video and night vision, and a digital swivel head, Cync never misses a moment. Cync prioritizes privacy and security, so both cloud and local SD storage options are available. The new Cync Outdoor Smart Cameras and Accessories will be available to order in February from Lowe's, Best Buy and Amazon. Wired Cameras start at $99.99, Battery Cameras at $129.99 and Solar Panel Accessory at $44.99. Smart. Light it Up. The Cync family of smart bulbs continues to grow with the addition of 11 new products, including smart decorative filament-style bulbs in various shapes and sizes, such as candelabra and globe and the ever-popular reveal general purpose bulbs. These additions will be offered in both white and full color options. The lights come equipped with Wi-Fi unlocking a range of features including voice control, scheduling scenes and more - all controlled from the Cync app, powered by Savant. Users will have the ability to change the living room to a dance party from their cell phone or check to see if the kids left the lights on when they left for school. The new Cync smart lights will be available to order in March from Lowe's, Best Buy, Target and Amazon, starting at $11.99. Cync. In Sync with Matter. In addition to control via the Cync app, powered by Savant, Cync devices can be controlled with both Alexa and Google. Link Cync smart light bulbs, strips and wall switches, motion detectors, indoor and outdoor smart plugs and cameras, and thermostat with sensors to create custom scenes for the perfect setting during any occasion. Cync is also a part of the CSA and will be included in the 2022 integration of the Matter protocol that allows all smart home devices to work together regardless of manufacturer or platform. This will enable today's Cync products and the app to work securely, reliably and seamlessly with other Matter connected devices and ecosystems tomorrow. To learn more about all the CES announcements and new products, visit Cync here . GE is a trademark of General Electric Company. Used under trademark license. About GE Lighting, a Savant company Headquartered at historic NELA Park in East Cleveland, Ohio, our roots date back nearly 130 years to Thomas Edison and the invention of the world's first light bulb. Today, as part of Savant Systems Inc. we're bringing the future to light by ensuring brighter lives and a more sustainable world through innovation and energy efficiency in lamps, switches, fixtures and so much more. We're also unleashing the ultimate personalized living experience through a growing suite of smart home products that help consumers connect with confidence and experience the comfort, quality and security for which GE branded products are known. Learn more at gelighting.com . Media Contact Ben Sabol Director of Communications [email protected] 216-233-9062 SOURCE GE Lighting, a Savant company WaGI is the largest independent gastroenterology (GI) practice in Washington and is one of the largest independent GI practices in the country. With nearly five decades of providing care to patients, the WaGI clinical team consists of 31 board-certified gastroenterologists and 17 advanced practice providers. They deliver care across 17 strategically located offices, seven dedicated GI ambulatory surgery centers, and three infusion centers. "Partnering with the exceptional WaGI team and expanding to Washington strengthens our commitment in providing outstanding GI care nationwide," said Jim Weber, M.D., CEO of GI Alliance. "We look forward to enhancing WaGI's strong patient care through our unparalleled GI expertise." As part of the most trusted GI practice in the state, the WaGI physicians and staff provide patients compassionate care through their collective experience, expertise, and dedication. "WaGI is excited to join GI Alliance, the preeminent national leader in GI services, to partner in delivering the highest quality GI services to the Pacific Northwest," said Ralph Katsman, M.D., president of WaGI. "Aligning with the like-minded, patient-centered network strengthens our commitment in providing an exemplary patient experience." About GI Alliance GI Alliance is a physician-led and majority physician-owned GI services organization supporting the needs of more than 625 independent gastroenterologists operating in Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah, and Washington. Practices that are part of GI Alliance are focused on providing the highest-quality care to their patients. In addition to providing operational support for practices, GI Alliance is working to unite gastroenterologists nationwide by aligning interests and improving patient care. Contact: Dee Dee Brooks GI Alliance 214.998.3434 [email protected] SOURCE GI Alliance AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Resale, LLC ("The Company"), a leading global provider of lifecycle solutions for technology assets, announced today that it has agreed to acquire Tech Trade Partners ("Tech Trade"), a privately-held company specializing in the acquisition, refurbishment, repair, resale and proper disposition of pre-owned and off-lease IT equipment. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Tech Trade, established more than a decade ago by Founder and President Tom Sager, is based in the greater Chicago area. Tech Trade's services and solutions enable organizations to optimize their IT budgets and lifecycles by acquiring high quality pre-owned equipment, while also helping lessors and corporations recover maximum value from their end-of-use inventory. The transaction will strategically combine Tech Trade's extensive talent base and strong e-commerce capabilities with Global Resale's broad range of services and extensive remarketing relationships. Tech Trade also will provide Global Resale with an important presence in the midwestern United States. Mr. Sager and the existing Tech Trade team will continue to lead the business following the transaction. Mr. Sager will also join Global Resale in an elevated role as Vice President, Recommerce and Channel Partners. "At a time when enterprises are increasingly focused on operating both sustainably and cost-effectively, the combination of Global Resale and Tech Trade will enhance the value we add to the technology asset lifecycle management supply chain," said Jeff Zeigler, CEO of Global Resale. "Tom and I have known each other for three decades and separately built businesses in this ever-evolving and growing industry. We are thrilled to join forces and share our trusted, long-term relationships, enhance our capabilities, and maximize our use of e-commerce channels to expand reach, productivity and profitability." "Global Resale has built an impressive and highly respected position within the global circular economy," noted Tech Trade President Sager. "Joining forces with Jeff and the team at Global Resale will expand our collective scale, broaden our role in the asset recovery lifecycle and enhance our ability to invest in growth opportunities." About Global Resale Global Resale is a leading provider of lifecycle management solutions for technology assets. We turn the complex asset recovery process into convenience for our blue-chip partners, maximizing value recovery and minimizing risks while helping achieve their ESG goals. We utilize our expertise and advanced capabilities to refurbish over 99% of the assets processed. For more information please visit www.globalresale.com. About Tech Trade Partners Tech Trade Partners, located in suburban Chicago, specializes in the acquisition, refurbishment, repair, resale and proper disposition of pre-owned and off-lease IT equipment. Tech Trade's services and solutions enable organizations to optimize their IT budgets and lifecycles by acquiring high quality pre-owned equipment, while also helping lessors and corporations recover maximum value from their end-of-use inventory. With a team comprised of talented and experienced industry veterans, Tech Trade operates as a community of resourceful partners to its customers and suppliers. For more information, please visit www.techtradepartners.com. Media Contacts For Global Resale: Joel Dawson [email protected] (913)909-0489 SOURCE Global Resale HONGKONG, Jan. 4 -- According to the Law of the Peoples Republic of China on Garrisoning the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(HKSAR), and with the approval of the Central Military Commission, more than 200 officers assigned to the PLA Hong Kong Garrison left Hong Kong for mainland after completing their defense duties on January 3. At 9:40 a.m., the PLA Hong Kong Garrison held a seeing-off ceremony at the San Tin military camp.These rotating-out officers had been selected from the Chinese military, and successfully completed various major defense duties during their deployment, which had won them high acclaim from citizens and all sectors of Hong Kong. In addition, the new batch of rotating-in officers has arrived in Hong Kong and taken over the defense responsibilities from their predecessors. After special training in the mainland, they have become fully eligible to fulfill defense duties as required in Hong Kong. Indian women, men perform traditional dances at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to welcome PM 02 May 2022 | 4:02 PM Berlin/New Delhi, May 2 (UNI) Attired in brightly coloured silk sarees and lehengas, women from the Indian community in Berlin performed the garba and other Indian traditional dance forms in honour of visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Berlins iconic Brandenburg Gate on Monday. see more.. CBI files case against pvt company, others for causing loss to IFCI Ltd 02 May 2022 | 3:57 PM New Delhi, May 2 (UNI) Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered Gitanjali Gems Ltd (private company) based at Mumbai and others including its director Mehul Choksi and valuers for allegedly causing loss of Rs 22.06 crore to IFCI Ltd, CBI said on Monday. see more.. 3 AAP RS members take oath 02 May 2022 | 3:41 PM New Delhi, May 2 (UNI) Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members Raghav Chaddha, Sanjeev Arora and Ashok Kumar Mittal on Monday oath as members of the Rajya Sabha. see more.. International conference on 'Disaster Resilient Infrastructure' from May 4 02 May 2022 | 3:37 PM New Delhi, May 2 (UNI) The Coalition for Disaster Infrastructure Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) will organise an International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure to promote the best practices and knowledge to build climate resilient infrastructure systems in the country, from coming Wednesday. see more.. The new home-based center is owned and operated by Andrew Maratas. With an emphasis on end-to-end consultations, this business will provide the best in soft and hard window treatments to homeowners in Issaquah, Sammamish, North Bend, Snoqualmie, Newport, Factoria, and Mirrormont while offering a variety of blinds, draperies, smart solutions and much more. "We are a family here at Gotcha Covered, and we work to ensure all our franchisees have the proper tools to succeed," said Paul Linenberg, president of Gotcha Covered. "We take pride in our franchise's ability to present the best end-to-end experience, and we know Andrew will represent our brand perfectly in the Greater Eastside community." Holding a B.A. in business administration from Western Washington University, Maratas spent 16 years working in the pharmaceutical business. During that time, he developed experience in sales operations, contract strategy and management. In 2017, Maratas moved back to the west coast to lead a sales team in western Washington and Alaska. In 2020, he decided to enter the world of franchising with the help of a franchise broker. While assessing several franchises, he came across Gotcha Covered. "It was their franchise model that made me realize Gotcha Covered was the right business for me," said Maratas. "They have created a family atmosphere that is second to none. From the employees at headquarters to the many franchise owners, everyone has good energy. "Headquarters has also been extremely supportive while helping me navigate everything that comes with starting a new business. Everyone I've met has been very responsive, and I can feel the energy from this team. They want all franchise owners to succeed." Maratas' vision for his franchise includes growing the business and brand name in the pacific northwest. He plans on evolving the business in the future by establishing an office location while helping support local community efforts. Adding 27 new franchise locations in 2020, Gotcha Covered currently has nearly 130 total franchises across the U.S. and Canada. The franchise has been operating under the Gotcha Covered name since 2009. For more information or to find your local Gotcha Covered consultant, visit https://www.gotchacovered.com. About Gotcha Covered Gotcha Covered is a leader in custom soft and hard window treatment consultation in the U.S. and Canada. Flying under their Gotcha Covered flag since 2009, they offer custom window treatments including blinds, draperies, shutters and much more. They offer end-to-end consultation with the customer's specific needs and goals in mind. The company currently has nearly 130 total franchises across the U.S. and Canada. MEDIA CONTACT: Heather Ripley Ripley PR 865-977-1973 [email protected] SOURCE Gotcha Covered MIAMI, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen has announced a class action lawsuit against cryptocurrency broker Voyager Digital, alleging that it charges hidden fees and makes false promises to platform users. Partners Stuart Z. Grossman and Rachel Furst , along with Adam M. Moskowitz, managing partner at the Moskowitz Law Firm, filed the complaint on behalf of a Florida client, Mark Cassidy, in a Miami federal court Dec. 24, 2021. According to expert preliminary analyses cited in the case text, litigation may result in over $1 billion in compensation for Voyager users. As Mr. Cassidy told Bloomberg , he was one of the many crypto investors to switch to Voyager after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Robinhood of predatory trading practices. Voyager attracted many platform users with its "100% commission-free" policy. Mr. Cassidy soon began to suspect Voyager had its own shady practices when he noticed its wide bid-ask spreads, however. A big-ask spread is defined as the difference between the highest bid a buyer is willing to offer and the lowest bid a seller is willing to accept. Voyager's wide bid-ask spreads seemed a sure sign of hidden fees. Upon investigation, Mr. Cassidy determined his suspicions had weight and reached out to Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen for professional legal help. "They're basically ripping people off small pieces at a time," Mr. Cassidy told reporters for Bloomberg. The class action suit further claimed that Voyager takes advantage of "their customers' naivete." In particular, it alleges that the crypto broker targets "unsophisticated investors with false and misleading promises of reaping large profits in the cryptocurrency market." "The investing world is depending upon cryptocurrency brokers to be governed and self-governed as would the best traditional investment brokers and their firms" Grossman says, "Just because crypto is its own universe and not easily understood does not make it a playground for taking advantage of its investors trust and money." For evidence, Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen highlighted a press conference announcing a five-year partnership between the Dallas Mavericks and Voyager. Mark Cuban, owner of the Mavericks, and Steve Ehrlich, Voyager president and chief officer, touted how easy it was to make gains by investing in cryptocurrencies. They went so far as to aim their messaging at beginners with few resources. Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen is proud to stand up to Voyager over its misleading practices. Attorneys Grossman and Furst have years of experience with class action lawsuits filed against large companies and corporations. In fact, Attorney Furst is also serving as liaison counsel in the January 2021 Short Squeeze Trading Litigation against Robinhood, TD, Ameritrade, and over 30 other companies. Founded in 1988, Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen has recovered millions in compensation for its clients in South Florida and beyond. Learn more at https://www.grossmanroth.com/ . Contact: Lisa Arneaud [email protected] SOURCE Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen NEW YORK, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Halper Sadeh LLP, a global investor rights law firm, announces it is investigating the following companies: Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) concerning potential violations of the federal securities laws and/or breaches of fiduciary duties relating to its merger with Momentive Global Inc. Upon closing of the transaction, Zendesk stockholders will own approximately 78% of the combined company. If you are a Zendesk shareholder, click here to learn more about your rights and options. Rogers Corporation (NYSE: ROG) concerning potential violations of the federal securities laws and/or breaches of fiduciary duties relating to its sale to DuPont de Nemours, Inc. for $277.00 in cash per share. If you are a Rogers shareholder, click here to learn more about your rights and options. NeoPhotonics Corporation (NYSE: NPTN) concerning potential violations of the federal securities laws and/or breaches of fiduciary duties relating to its sale to Lumentum Holdings Inc. for $16.00 per share in cash. If you are a NeoPhotonics shareholder, click here to learn more about your rights and options. CorePoint Lodging Inc. (NYSE: CPLG) concerning potential violations of the federal securities laws and/or breaches of fiduciary duties relating to its sale to a joint venture between affiliates of Highgate and Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. Under the terms of the merger, CorePoint shareholders will receive $15.65 per share in cash plus, if applicable and in certain circumstances, incremental cash consideration if CorePoint timely resolves previously disclosed tax proceedings with the Internal Revenue Service. If you are a CorePoint shareholder, click here to learn more about your rights and options. Casper Sleep Inc. (NYSE: CSPR) concerning potential violations of the federal securities laws and/or breaches of fiduciary duties relating to its sale to Durational Capital Management LP for $6.90 per share in cash. If you are a Casper Sleep shareholder, click here to learn more about your rights and options. Halper Sadeh LLP may seek increased consideration, additional disclosures and information concerning the proposed transaction, or other relief and benefits on behalf of shareholders. Shareholders are encouraged to contact the firm free of charge to discuss their legal rights and options. Please call Daniel Sadeh or Zachary Halper at (212) 763-0060 or email [email protected] or [email protected]. Halper Sadeh LLP represents investors all over the world who have fallen victim to securities fraud and corporate misconduct. Our attorneys have been instrumental in implementing corporate reforms and recovering millions of dollars on behalf of defrauded investors. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Halper Sadeh LLP Daniel Sadeh, Esq. Zachary Halper, Esq. (212) 763-0060 [email protected] [email protected] https://www.halpersadeh.com SOURCE Halper Sadeh LLP RICHMOND, Va., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hilb Group announced today that it has acquired the membership interest in The Churchill Agency, LLC from The Churchill Agency Ventures, LLC based in Brentwood, Tennessee. The transaction became effective December 1, 2021. About Hilb Group: The Hilb Group is a leading property and casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage and advisory firm headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Hilb Group is a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm. Hilb Group seeks to grow through strategic acquisitions and by leveraging its resources and expertise to drive organic growth in its acquired agencies. The company has completed more than 125 acquisitions and now has over 100 offices in 22 states. Hilb Group is rated as one of the Fastest Growing Brokers by Business Insurance, a Top P/C Agency by Insurance Journal, and one of America's Fastest Growing Private Companies in the Inc. 5000. For more information on Hilb Group's growth as well as career opportunities, please visit our website at http://hilbgroup.com. Media Contact: Peter Lobred 804.548.4629 [email protected] M&A Contact: Ryan Havermann 804.414.6508 [email protected] SOURCE The Hilb Group, LLC NEW YORK, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In an essay exclusive to Newsweek, Prince Charles offers his plan to combat climate change and how, in his words, we can "create a cleaner, safer and healthier planet for future generations." It will be the cover story for the magazine's second issue of 2022. It has been over a decade since the heir to the British throne has written a significant essay for an American publication. In the essay, he describes the environmental degradation that he has seen first-hand on visits to Jordan, Egypt and, most recently, Barbados, and discusses his three-point plan, calling for coordinated regional and global actionincluding every sector of industry. "The world is on the brink," writes the Prince of Wales, "and we need the mobilizing urgency of a war-like footing if we are to win." "We are proud to publish the Prince of Wales' powerful appeal, calling on all of us to address this crucial challenge," says Newsweek Global Editor in Chief Nancy Cooper. "Given his decades of engagement on this issue, he can speak with deep knowledge and real authority." In the Newsweek essay, the heir to the British throne reflects on his family's long commitment to environmentalism. He praises his late father's prescient concern about the health of the planet and cites the work that both his sons have taken on in building a sustainable future. "As a father, I am proud that my sons have recognised this threat. Most recently, my elder son, William, launched the prestigious Earthshot Prize to incentivise change and help repair our planet over the next 10 years...And my younger son, Harry, has passionately highlighted the impact of climate change, especially in relation to Africa, and committed his charity to being net zero." The most pressing challenge now, writes the Prince, is "putting Nature, people and our singular and fragile planet at the heart of how we live, work and do business to create the brightest possible future for humanity." "The eyes of our children and grandchildren are judging us," the Prince concludes. "As we enter a new year, there is not a moment to lose." Later in January, Newsweek will build on its in-depth coverage of the British Royal Family with a new podcast. "Royal Report" will be hosted by Newsweek's British royal correspondent Jack Royston and Kristen Meinzer, the American culture critic, royal watcher and author who was named one of 50 most influential women in podcasting. The show, which will start as a fortnightly, will provide American royal watchers with fresh reporting and analysis of the House of Windsor at this pivotal moment in its history, plus regular conversations with the best-connected palace insiders. To read the Prince Charles essay, go to: https://www.newsweek.com/1661370. About Newsweek Newsweek is the modern global digital news organization built around the iconic, 85-year-old American magazine. Newsweek reaches more than 100 million people each month with its thought-provoking news, opinion, images, graphics and video delivered across a dozen print and digital platforms. Headquartered in New York City, Newsweek also publishes international editions in EMEA and Asia. Media Contact Laura Goldberg LBG Public Relations for Newsweek [email protected] +1-347-683-1859 SOURCE Newsweek TEL AVIV, Israel, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a world-first, HUB Security will provide the Israeli Ministry of Defense with a new quantum security solution for the protection of sensitive information in a cloud environment. The company is partnering with QuantLR , a quantum technology research company, to develop a first-of-its-kind solution that offers user identification capabilities as well as encryption of documents, presentations, and spreadsheets through encryption keys generated by quantum computing. "Creating this solution will enable companies to work with materials at high classification levels on public clouds," said Eyal Moshe, CEO of HUB Security. "Many companies will now be able to work in the cloud with maximum security and without fear of intrusion." The HUB Security and QuantLR offering will drastically ease organizations' transition to cloud-integrated work environments with encryption keys generated by non-intrusive technology. "This is a significant breakthrough in the cybersecurity field," Moshe said. "The risks associated with the cloud environment have been an important concern for companies and states for years. This has impeded the transition to advanced cloud computing solutions, but with this new offering, users will be able to work with highly classified information in cloud environments with confidence." About HUB Security HUB Security was established in 2017 by veterans of the 8200 and 81 elite intelligence units of the Israeli Defense Forces. The company specializes in unique Cyber Security solutions protecting sensitive commercial and government information. The company debuted an advanced encrypted computing solution aimed at preventing hostile intrusions at the hardware level while introducing a novel set of data theft prevention solutions. HUB operates in over 30 countries and provides innovative cybersecurity computing appliances as well as a wide range of cybersecurity professional services worldwide. SOURCE HUB Security Park comes to Imperfect Foods after four years at BuildDirect Technologies, a Canadian-based online marketplace for building materials, where he was the CEO, took the company public and remains a board member. Park brings nearly three decades of experience building and leading world-class teams at top-tier multi-billion dollar retail and technology companies, having previously worked at corporations including Amazon and Target. Founded in 2015 with the mission of eliminating the 35% of food that ends up wasted in the U.S. each year and building a better food system, Imperfect Foods began by sourcing ugly and surplus produce that didn't meet conventional grocery store standards, delivering it directly to customers' doors. Since its founding, Imperfect Foods has saved over 150 million pounds of food from lesser outcomes and expanded its offerings into a suite of grocery products. "The perfect Imperfect CEO needs world-class e-commerce skills, deep operations experience and a commitment to the brand's mission," said Adam Berger, Imperfect Foods' Board Chair and Insight Partners' Managing Director. "I first met Dan a year ago and we have gotten to know each other. The role and timing lined up perfectly and I'm thrilled to have him lead Imperfect Foods." Committed to becoming a net-zero organization by 2030 and recently certified as a B Corp, "Imperfect Foods is changing the face of grocery delivery, and I'm excited to be an integral part of this next chapter of the business. We will focus on continually raising the bar of our customer experience while meeting our sustainability goals," said Park of his new role. "There are certain aspects of the future that I'm concerned about, and as a part of the Imperfect Foods team, I look forward to playing an active role in improving our environment by being a good steward of our planet." About Imperfect Foods Founded in 2015, Imperfect Foods is the leading online grocer at the forefront of eliminating food waste and building a better food system. A Certified B CorporationTM (B CorpTM), Imperfect Foods works directly with farmers and producers to rescue, redistribute, and develop goods across multiple grocery categories, including its own private label offerings. To date, Imperfect Foods has rescued more than 150 million pounds of food from lesser outcomes. Customers enjoy a fully customizable service that is more affordable, and more environmentally friendly, than the average trip to the grocery store. To learn more, visit imperfectfoods.com . To download a copy of Imperfect Foods' trend report diving deeper into the future of online grocery as it relates to sustainability, please click here . . To learn more about Imperfect Foods and its commitment to sustainability, please click here . SOURCE Imperfect Foods BROOMFIELD, Colo., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Industrial Nanotech Inc, (Pink Sheets: INTK). Today, Industrial Nanotech announced that it has received the first Purchase Order from Nanotech Coatings Ltd., the Company's agent in the EU, in the amount of $865,480 US. This represents the beginning of the Company's sales to EU countries, all of which are working to meet the European Commission "Smart Finance for Smart Buildings" Initiative. Stuart Burchill, CEO/CTO of Industrial Nanotech Inc. explains, "We have been working for most of 2021 to provide the certifications and independent third-party testing data required to be part of the EU program. Having successfully completed that process, it has been determined that our patented products are uniquely suited for this market. We are excited to see the first order come in and look forward to building this revenue stream to its potential of $45 million US annually by the end of 2022." To address the issue of underinvestment in energy efficiency, revisions in 2018 to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU and Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU, have strengthened the existing policy and financial framework. In line with these actions, the European Commission launched the Smart Finance for Smart Buildings Initiative. This initiative stresses the importance of more effective use of public EU funding and the need to de-risk energy efficiency investments in buildings. (Source: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC117816 ) About Industrial Nanotech, Inc. Industrial Nanotech Inc. is a global nanoscience solutions and product development leader. See www.industrial-nanotech.com for more information. Safe Harbor Statement Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release includes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the impact of competitive products, the ability to meet customer demand, the ability to manage growth, acquisitions of technology, equipment, or human resources, the effect of economic and business conditions, and the ability to attract and retain skilled personnel. The Company is not obligated to revise/update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release. SOURCE Industrial Nanotech, Inc. Related Links http://www.industrial-nanotech.com DUBLIN, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Market for Digital Health Technologies 2021-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global market for digital health technologies should grow from $174.7 billion in 2021 to $384.8 billion by 2026 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.1% for the period of 2021-2026. The North American digital health technologies market should grow from $68.6 billion in 2021 to $145.1 billion by 2026 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.2% for the period of 2021-2026. The European digital health technologies market should grow from $50.7 billion in 2021 to $113.9 billion by 2026 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.6% for the period of 2021-2026. This report serves as a guide for those who want to better understand the market for digital health technologies in terms of the science behind digital health, mHealth, revenues, technology innovations, and key manufacturers and competitors. The report also covers market projections to 2026. The market is broken down into North America (the U.S., Mexico and Canada); Europe (Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Spain and the Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Australia, South Korea and the Rest of Asia-Pacific); South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and the Rest of South America; and the Middle East and Africa (South Africa, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the Rest of the Middle East and Africa). The Report Includes 70 tables An updated overview of the global market for digital health technologies Analyses of the global market trends, with data from 2019-2020, estimates for 2021, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2026 Evaluation of the current market size, revenue forecast (in USD millions) for digital health technologies, and corresponding market share analysis by technology, application and region Latest information on major market dynamics (DROs), technology advancements, industry structure, government regulations, and other macroeconomic factors affecting the MedTech industry Highlights of emerging technology trends, opportunities and gaps estimating current and future demand for digital health technologies, and impact of COVID-19 on the progress of this market Identification of the companies best positioned to meet this demand owing to their proprietary technologies, product developments and other growth strategies Insight into the key mergers and acquisitions, company value share analysis and the competitive intensity of relevant market players Profile descriptions of the industry-leading participants, including Allscripts Healthcare, Cerner Corp., Cognizant Products, Epic Systems, GE, and IBM Corp. Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Summary and Highlights Chapter 3 Overview of Digital Health Technologies Definition of Digital Health Technologies Types of Digital Health Technologies History Chapter 4 Market Dynamics Market Drivers Increased Incidence of Chronic Diseases Consumer Expectations Technological Advances Increasing Healthcare Expenditures Improved Quality of Care Rising Elderly Population Cognitive Computing Market Restraints Lack of Standards Price Chapter 5 Global Market for Digital Health Technologies Global Market by Technology Digital Health Systems MHealth Tele-healthcare Health Analytics Chapter 6 Market Breakdown by Region Global Regional Markets for Digital Health Technologies North America Asia-Pacific Europe South America Middle East and Africa Chapter 7 Industry Landscape Mergers and Acquisitions Market Share Company Profiles Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. Athenahealth Inc. Cerner Corp. Cognizant Epic Systems Corp. GE Healthcare IBM Koninklijke Philips N.V. Mckesson Corp. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/tectm3 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 STOCKHOLM, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Analysis from Medius, the leading provider of cloud-based spend management solutions, predicts that January 4 could be one of the busiest days of the year for invoice approvals. Reviewing historical data from thousands of Medius users across the globe, the analysis reveals the first working Monday and Tuesday of January cause some of the biggest spikes in invoice approvals in the last four years. Invoice approval means reviewing and approving supplier invoices before these are posted as a cost in the ERP system and sent for payment. Below outlines the biggest spikes in January over the last four years for both PO-invoices and non-PO invoices: Monday, January 4, 2021 43% Tuesday, January 7, 2020 120% Monday, January 7, 2019 30% Tuesday, January 2, 2018 43% David Taylor, Data Analyst at Medius, said: "Our analysis shows that invoice approvals leap in on the first few working days of the year. In fact, in 2020 the average business was approving more than double the number of invoices compared to a normal day. Our data shows each company approved more than 200 invoices on January 7, 2020, that's nearly 30 every hour. Based on the last four years of historical data, we're predicting Tuesday, January 4, will be the crunch day for approvers this New Year." Jim Lucier, CEO of Medius, comments: "There will be no easing into 2022 for finance teams. The extra demand for approvals at the start of the year is clearly an issue from the festive period and end of December rush. But overworked approvers are more likely to miss fraud or make avoidable human errors which are costly in the long run. Rather than demanding more from employees, businesses should be looking at ways to dramatically reduce the invoice approval time. AI and ML can automate much of the invoicing process, reduce risk, and relieve the burden on finance teams." Notes to editors: Medius analyzed the invoice approvals of more than 700 customers across more than 100 countries and compared the biggest spikes with the average working day in that year. CONTACT: For more information, please contact: Dan Bird, Fight or Flight for Medius [email protected] +44 7885 670798 / [email protected] +44 330 133 0985 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/medius/r/invoice-approvals-to-spike-on-january-4-as-medius-predicts-busiest-day-of-the-quarter-for-finance-te,c3481126 SOURCE Medius SYDNEY, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Online trading platform IQDAX wishes happy holidays and shares great news this January, with the extension of its bonus program to include another $2 million dollars for new clients in 2022. IQDAX 2022 BONUS OFFERING The platform, which provides a gateway to trading financial products of many kinds (including Forex, stocks, and cryptocurrency), first launched its generous bonus program in July 2021, with 1m of capital behind it for traders in the UK and Europe. This was a bold move for a relatively new trading platform, and one which did not go unnoticed amongst scores of delighted traders and investors. Designed for traders, the program was intended to make sure they could trade with greater confidence, effectively removing the capital risk many novice traders feel at this stage of their trading journey. This promotional offer will be sure to tempt traders who want to give the platform a try without risking too much capital in the first instance. By ensuring they have the space and time to learn how trading works, without the fear of losing their finances in the process, IQDAX is helping to make trading more democratised and accessible to a much wider audience. All of this will be welcome news for traders at all stages of the process, but particularly traders who are still in the process of mastering their craft. IQDAX has built the perfect platform for both new and established traders and investors, paying close attention to usability at each stage. "We want everyone to be able to try their hand at trading," says Sofia Rubio, Business Development Advisor at IQDAX. "Accessibility and functionality are both critical to us, and we've spent considerable time building up IQDAX into a user-friendly platform with multi-faceted functionality. In the next few months and years, we expect ongoing adoption and expansion - and we hope this bonus program is a helpful enticement for our valued traders." The platform also opens up opportunities for exploring new types of financial trading, allowing traders to flex their muscles and explore all the avenues of investment available to them. No matter what the skill level at the outset, it is easy to get started with IQDAX. This bonus program extension is the icing on the cake for budding online traders at every stage of their journey. Find out more and start trading at the official website https://www.iqdax.com/ . For media requests please contact: Angella Tran, PR and Communications Manager +61480053940 [email protected] SOURCE IQDAX BAODING, China, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- IT Tech Packaging, Inc. (NYSE American: ITP) ("IT Tech Packaging" or "the Company"), a leading manufacturer and distributor of diversified paper products in North China, today released a letter to shareholders from the Chairman of the Company's board of directors. Dear Shareholders, We are grateful for your continuous support. As we close out the year 2021, we are pleased to take this opportunity to share with you our business developments and significant achievements during 2021, and also provide some insights in our strategic direction. 2021 is the first year of China 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and Long-Range Objectives for 2035, and it is also a key year for the Company to optimize its business development. While encountering tremendous challenges associated with COVID-19 pandemic,we are proud to see the result that, given our rigorous enforcement of preventive measures to protect the safety and health of our employees during the pandemic, none of our employees was infected. Furthermore, the Company also launched new projects in 2021 despite the headwinds of COVID-19 pandemic. Business Development Optimization: Since the end of November 2021, the Company has officially started surgical masks production, which complies with China's pharmaceutical industry standard YY0469-2011. The annual production capacity of the surgical masks is expected to reach 38 million pieces with gross profit margin of approximately 35%. The Company's surgical masks have been sold to the local companies in catering or sanitation industries, and the Company has also obtained bidding qualifications from various pharmaceutical companies and hospitals. The Company obtained qualifications to supply central heating in industrial parks with its combined heat and power generation project utilizing biomass technology ("Biomass CHP Project" or "the Project") and the Project has officially started construction. With successful operation of the Biomass CHP Project, it will not only meet the Company's own energy needs, but will also generate significant revenues by supplying industrial gas to enterprises operating in the industrial parks and heating and electricity to nearby residential. Corporate Social Responsibility Practice: In July 2021, the Company has donated disaster relief household goods including masks and essential household goods to Xinxiang city of Henan province, where was affected by severe flooding, caused by a prolonged period of heavy rainfall. The household goods departed from Xingtai city of Hebei province and delivered to a donation center at a middle school in Xinxiang city, to help people affected by the disaster. Research and Development Achievement: The Company's tissue paper research and development center has received a Level B scale-above Certification as an industrial R&D enterprise institution in Hebei province after on-site inspection by regulators. The Company has also been granted a number of new utility patent certificates on paper manufacturing related equipment issued by the State Intellectual Property Office, including equipment testing, screening and filtering, and mixing. The granted certificates mark the Company's achievements in technologies are protected and recognized as intellectual property rights and laid a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the Company's technology innovation in the future. Market Opportunities: On January 8, 2008, The General Office of the State Council issued a notice on restricting the production, sale and use of plastic shopping bags, which banned the production, sale and use of ultra-thin plastic bags nationwide from June 1, and implemented a system of paying for the use of plastic bags. With the implementation of the "Plastic Ban" policy, the market opportunities of paper industry in China have grown rapidly, and the demand for paperboard has increased by more than 10 million tons according to the data from Vzkoo.com. The paper products have become the primary choice for non-degradable plastic substitutes, and the Chinese market scale of paper industry will be further expanded in the foreseeable future. Growth Strategies for 2022: The Company will develop marketing channels, expand customer base, and strengthen social responsibilities with its advantages in technology, research and development capacity, and geography as always. The Company will continue to focus on paper products, by making full use of production capacity and achieving improvement in product quality and effective cost control, to increase profitability and operation efficiency. The Company will promote the construction of Biomass CHP Project as we aim to create long-term value for shareholders and enhance its brand recognition. Looking forward, the Company is committed to creating value for its customers, employees, shareholders, partners, industry and society by seizing new opportunities and diversifying businesses. We would like to thank our team for their hard work and our shareholders for their continued support. We will remain intact and fully dedicated to drive our business growth while seizing upcoming opportunities. We strongly believe we will continuously create value and bring all of our shareholders in sustained returns. Zhenyong Liu Chairman and Chief Executive Officer IT Tech Packaging, Inc. About IT Tech Packaging, Inc. Founded in 1996, IT Tech Packaging, Inc. is a leading manufacturer and distributor of diversified paper products and single-use face masks in North China. Using recycled paper as its primary raw material (with the exception of its tissue paper products), ITP produces and distributes three categories of paper products: corrugating medium paper, offset printing paper and tissue paper products. With production based in Baoding and Xingtai in North China's Hebei Province, ITP is located strategically close to the Beijing and Tianjin region, home to a growing base of industrial and manufacturing activities and one of the largest markets for paper products consumption in the country. ITP has been listed on the NYSE American since December 2009. For more information, please visit: http://www.itpackaging.cn/. Safe Harbor Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated, including risks outlined in the Company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's latest annual report on Form 10-K. All information provided in this press release speaks as of the date hereof. Except as otherwise required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements. For more information, please contact: At the Company Email: [email protected] Tel: +86 0312 8698215 Investor Relations: Ascent Investor Relations LLC Ms. Tina Xiao Email: [email protected] Tel: +1 917 609 0333 SOURCE IT Tech Packaging, Inc. The autonomous tractor serves a specific purpose: feeding the world. The global population is expected to grow from about 8 billion to nearly 10 billion people by 2050, increasing the global food demand by 50 percent. Furthermore, farmers must feed this growing population with less available land and skilled labor, and work through the variables inherent in farming like changing weather conditions and climate, variations in soil quality and the presence of weeds and pests. All of these factors impact a farmer's ability to farm during the most critical times of the year. The autonomous tractor has six pairs of stereo cameras, which enables 360-degree obstacle detection and the calculation of distance. Images captured by the cameras are passed through a deep neural network that classifies each pixel in approximately 100 milliseconds and determines if the machine continues to move or stops, depending on if an obstacle is detected. The autonomous tractor is also continuously checking its position relative to a geofence, ensuring it is operating where it is supposed to, and is within less than an inch of accuracy. To use the autonomous tractor, farmers only need to transport the machine to a field and configure it for autonomous operation. Using John Deere Operations Center Mobile, they can swipe from left to right to start the machine. While the machine is working the farmer can leave the field to focus on other tasks, while monitoring the machine's status from their mobile device. John Deere Operations Center Mobile provides access to live video, images, data and metrics, and allows a farmer to adjust speed, depth and more. In the event of any job quality anomalies or machine health issues, farmers will be notified remotely and can make adjustments to optimize the performance of the machine. The full press conference can be viewed on John Deere's CES microsite: www.JohnDeere.com/CES. John Deere CES 2022 Booth, Panel & Tireside Chats The fully autonomous tractor will be on display from January 5-8, 2022 at John Deere's CES booth, located in Central Plaza at the Las Vegas Convention Center (CP-14). The booth will also showcase cutting edge technologies that are being used by farmers today, such as AI, GPS, automation and more. John Deere will participate in three panel discussions during CES, focused on AI, 5G and autonomy: On Wednesday, January 5 at 9 a.m. , John Deere's Chief Technology Officer, Jahmy Hindman, will speak on a panel focused on exploring AI's potential in business. Titled, Frontiers in Business AI, the panel will take place in the Las Vegas Convention Center's North Hall in room N251. at , John Deere's Chief Technology Officer, Jahmy Hindman, will speak on a panel focused on exploring AI's potential in business. Titled, Frontiers in Business AI, the panel will take place in the Convention Center's North Hall in room N251. On Wednesday, January 5 at 3 p.m. , Bear Flag Robotics' Co-founder and COO, Aubrey Donnellan , will speak on a WIRED panel focused on the path to full autonomy. Titled, The Long Road to Fully Autonomous Driving, the panel will be streamed live on WIRED.com. at , Bear Flag Robotics' Co-founder and COO, , will speak on a WIRED panel focused on the path to full autonomy. Titled, The Long Road to Fully Autonomous Driving, the panel will be streamed live on WIRED.com. On Thursday, January 6 at 10:20 a.m. , John Deere's Vice President, Production & Precision Ag Production Systems, Deanna Kovar , will speak on a panel about how 5G will transform tech innovation. Titled, Seizing the Opportunity of Tech Innovation with 5G, the panel will take place in the Las Vegas Convention Center's North Hall in room N262. Additionally, Deere will hold a series of Tireside Chats at its booth, exploring key technologies and how they impact agriculture: Wednesday, January 5 from 3:30 3:45 p.m. PT : Driving (Autonomously) With Purpose from 3:30 : Driving (Autonomously) With Purpose Thursday, January 6 from 11:00 11:15 p.m. PT : This Isn't Old Macdonald's Farm from 11:00 : This Isn't Old Macdonald's Farm Thursday, January 6 from 3:00 3:15 p.m. PT : Swipe To Begin Farming All of the content and demos from Deere's CES booth will also be available on its microsite: www.JohnDeere.com/CES About Deere & Company Deere & Company (www.JohnDeere.com) is a world leader in providing advanced products, technology and services for customers whose work is revolutionizing agriculture and construction those who cultivate, harvest, transform, enrich and build upon the land to meet the world's increasing need for food, fuel, shelter and infrastructure. SOURCE Deere & Company Related Links www.deere.com DETROIT, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 22nd, 2022 NAAB Radio brings U.S. Behind The Walls ( https://www.usbehindthewalls.org ) to gather politicians and heavy hitters to make a mark on lawmakers in hopes to bring in more mitigation for prison reform laws. Nation of Islam's Abdul'Malik Muhammad has joined the conversation with Judge Clyenthia LaToye Miller and more, as USBTW tackles judicial atrocities. Abdul'Malik Muhammad, also known as a "Fisher of Men", who's name was given to him by Minister Louis Farrakhan; was once facing a life sentence at the 17 years old and ultimately served a mandatory 12 years in prison due to a drug conviction. Abdul'Malik is now serving as a pillar in the community, as he is Founder of the Fasting & Prayer Foundation in Chicago, IL. He is also a Real Estate Investor using his resources to improve the very conditions that contribute to where we are as a whole, today. If you would like to be in attendance, please RSVP via [email protected] . Multi-Award Winning Judge, Clyenthia LaToye Miller is known as a legislative trailblazer. She has won a total of 14 awards reflecting on her will to take the initiative within her team and community. A fun fact is that her parents were the very first Black Men and Women to graduate from the University of Arkansas Law School; and her mother was the very first Black woman to become a lawyer in the history of Arkansas. This says much about what has motivated her background in becoming who she is today. Judge Clyenthia LaToye Miller has a first hand look at the results of civil disposition; but her hands are in it to effectively make change. She works in the Juvenile Section of the Family Division, helping citizens maintain self-sufficiency. Self sufficiency is the key to breaking unhealthy generational cycles. How do we accomplish this as a community? Well we must unlearn and relearn. We must unlearn what we thought worked and begin to assess the crime rate in ways that positively affect the community. There should be no other way to go about it. We must improve access to mental health solutions and stop ignoring how we play a role in the cause and effect. Doing something repeatedly that doesn't work is called "insanity", right? Please do not forget to RSVP via [email protected]. At the Ballroom Initiative, we address mass incarceration, wrongful convictions and improper use of power in law by proposing more conducive policies. U.S. Behind The Walls aims to ensure that the community can gain confidence that real concerns will be assessed while also introducing better preventative measures on both sides. Press contact: Publicist, Demetrius Phoenix Pyramid Media Agency [email protected] About US Behind the Walls "US Behind the Walls was founded on the principle that all Americans should receive equal justice under the laws, regardless of their race, social, or financial status. One important value in American society is that everyone has equal justice under the law. This means that the government and its leaders must also obey the law. Our Constitution was written in 1787. The writers of the Constitution wanted a government that was ruled by laws, not by men. Unfortunately, we have found this to not be true and it is time for a change. We also believe there are two Justice systems in our country that have never been so divided. Here at US Behind the Walls, we are working to make a change! In the US there are currently over 2.5 million men, women, and children locked up behind prison walls. Our streets are no safer, our criminal justice system is a billion-dollar industry, paid for by you, the taxpayers. Every year during the election, our politicians make big promises about prison reform and after they have been elected, they suddenly develop amnesia and do not follow up on any of their campaign promises." About NAAB Radio "We are an online radio station with a team of professional radio personalities and production engineers. We have set the bar high for NAAB Radio and in the past two years we have broken the glass ceiling. NAAB Radio started in 2019 with one radio station and as of today, we have over 20 stations with millions of listeners worldwide. Our goal here at NAAB Radio is to establish 360 radio stations by year end of 2022, with 50 Tribute radio stations honoring major recording artists past and present like Dolly Parton, Michael Jackson and many more. Our listeners are resilient; they listen every day for new ideas, products, and services, which makes NAAB Radio truly a great place to advertise your business." Press contact: Publicist, Demetrius Phoenix Pyramid Media Agency [email protected] SOURCE US Behind The Walls Larson represents U.S. and international accounting firms and their professionals in regulatory and enforcement matters before the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and other regulatory and licensing bodies. Larson's extraordinary expertise and depth of knowledge includes 12 years on the enforcement staff at the PCAOB, ultimately as Associate Director of Enforcement. He also has extensive experience in matters involving corporate governance, securities regulation, commercial and civil litigation, due diligence, and fraud. He earned his JD from Georgetown University Law Center, and received his undergraduate degree with honors from Portland State University. Adamson also represents U.S. and international accounting firms and their professionals in federal and state litigation, arbitrations, and regulatory investigations by the SEC, PCAOB, and state licensing authorities. He also represents clients in an array of complex commercial litigation disputes, such as breach of contract, civil RICO, fiduciary relationships, fraud, and fraudulent conveyance. Fluent in Spanish, Adamson has an additional specialty in Latin American investigations and enforcement actions. Adamson earned his JD from Cornell University. Larson and Adamson both join King & Spalding from McDermott Will & Emery. "Raphael and Gary are strategic hires for our firm's renowned professional liability practice and will provide clients with unique insights into the enforcement process at the PCAOB and beyond," said Zach Fardon, who leads King & Spalding's Government Matters practice, which includes the Special Matters and Government Investigations team. "Both are well known to many of our partners and to mutual clients for the extraordinary quality of their counsel. We are confident they share the firm's sense of collaboration and entrepreneurial spirit." "King & Spalding's experience representing every type of accounting and consulting firm in the hardest cases, and the reach of its international platform, including Latin America, were appealing to us both," Larson said. "We are excited to work with the K&S colleagues we have known for years, and to help grow the global Professional Liability practice." About King & Spalding Celebrating more than 130 years of service, King & Spalding is an international law firm that represents a broad array of clients, including half of the Fortune Global 100, with over 1,200 lawyers in 22 offices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The firm has handled matters in over 160 countries on six continents and is consistently recognized for the results it obtains, uncompromising commitment to quality, and dedication to understanding the business and culture of its clients. More information is available at www.kslaw.com. SOURCE K&S BERKELEY, Calif., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kivu Consulting, a leading provider of cybersecurity and forensic services to organizations worldwide, announced Shane Sims has been chosen to become its new Chief Executive Officer. Sims brings decades of executive leadership and cybersecurity experience in forensic investigations, incident response, and strategy/risk/compliance as well as national security experience. Before joining Kivu, Sims was a Principal in KPMG's Cyber Security Services. In this role, he focused on driving business growth and delivering cyber risk and compliance strategies. Prior to that, Sims was a Principal at PwC, where he built and led the US Cybercrime and Data Breach Response Services business, supporting private sector organizations across all industries. He also served as Supervisory Special Agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation with a focus on cybercrime. "Shane is a proven cybersecurity leader with a distinguished track record of successfully leading international incident response engagements, developing counterintelligence strategies, and conducting complex investigations," said Winston Krone, Chief Research Officer, Co-founder, and Insurance Channel Leader. "We are excited to welcome Shane and believe his extensive expertise in leading high-growth businesses will be instrumental in advancing Kivu's market position and long-term growth strategy." Sims, who holds a Bachelor of Arts from Earlham College and a Master of Arts Degree from Duquesne University, also served as the CEO of Network Concepts, Inc. "Kivu is one of the original pure-play cybersecurity consultancies that has battled cyber threats for over 3500 engagements," said Sims. "Powered by a diverse, agile, and talented workforce, Kivu is well-positioned to defend organizations against cybercrime. It's a pleasure to join a team with such unparalleled capability in providing holistic, end-to-end cybersecurity solutions. I look forward to digging in once I have wrapped up obligations to my current company." About Kivu Consulting Kivu is a leading global cybersecurity firm that offers a full suite of pre-and post-incident services, specializing in forensic response to cyber-attacks and ransomware incidents. Kivu delivers cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions to organizations in need and is a trusted cyber incident partner to insurance. SOURCE Kivu Consulting Related Links https://www.kivuconsulting.com SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kwikbit, a leader in wireless broadband is addressing a burgeoning market in the U.S., delivering its low-cost, gigabit internet solution to manufactured housing communities. In early December, the company completed an installation at Alimur Mobile Home Park in Santa Cruz, CA. Alimur is a precursor to aggressive 2022 expansion plans for the Company, which forecasts 48 installations across 6 states in the next year. "We'd been promised things in the past that were not delivered, so we were definitely skeptical," said Timothy Norton, Alimur resident and HOA board member. "But Kwikbit delivered everything as promised and on time. We were up and running in one hour and couldn't be happier with the service," he went on to say. As Americans require greater bandwidth for remote work, remote learning, and telehealth, an affordable and scalable solution has proven elusive. Cable lacks the required performance and Fiber to the Home (FTTH) is prohibitively costly and time consuming for the last mile. Kwikbit's proprietary 60ghz wireless solution, or WiGig, delivers fiber-like performance at a small fraction of the cost and time to install fiber. "Our last mile advantages are critical, allowing us to efficiently deliver into sectors like manufactured housing, which have been largely ignored by legacy carriers," stated Kwikbit CEO, Joe Costello. "This is a very forward-looking sector. Every owner we are engaged with, whether independent (Alimur) or top 5 nationally sees the importance and urgency of reliable, low-cost broadband for their residents. It's a terrific fit." "My business requires that I have high-speed, reliable internet," said Clay Butler, Alimur's HOA President. "Having commercial grade broadband to my home is game changing, but to get it for $50 a month is simply remarkable." Kwikbit's offers a turnkey broadband service to its customers. The service is just $50 a month and includes all installation, equipment and comes with no contract. "Truthfully, our early challenge was convincing customers that we're actually delivering gigabit internet for $50 and with no hidden fees! But we do it every day," concluded Costello. The United States government's $1 trillion infrastructure spending package allocates nearly $65 billion to increasing broadband access. Without affordable, innovative, and commercially viable last mile solutions, these programs will not address the promise of broadband for all. Through its manufactured housing initiative, Kwikbit is narrowing the Digital Divide, rapidly delivering affordable broadband to the largest swath of affordable housing in the United States. About Kwikbit: Kwikbit (kwikbit.com) is wireless technology company based in Minneapolis, MN. Kwikbit's specialized 60 GHz millimeter wave radios driven by their cloud and edge automation tools enable the rapid deployment of multi-gigabit wireless networks when and where they're needed. SOURCE Kwikbit RENO, Nev., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of their omni-channel network fulfillment strategy, LEGACY Supply Chain has announced the relocation of their Ontario, California fulfillment operation to their Reno, Nevada fulfillment center. This decision is part of LEGACY's strategic response to the sharp rise in eCommerce and the corresponding demand for faster, more cost-effective delivery. Additionally, it creates a centralized West Coast fulfillment hub for LEGACY's eCommerce and omni-channel customers. Reno has been home to LEGACY's transportation and distribution operations for more than 40 years; this expansion deepens their connection to the area. Meanwhile, LEGACY still operates several large-scale distribution and dedicated fleet transportation operations in the Ontario, Inland Empire, and Southern California markets. Relocating fulfillment operations to the most centralized distribution location in the western United States will allow LEGACY to further deliver on consumer's shipping demands while also investing in the economic growth of Reno and the Northern Nevada region. Many new businesses are considering Northern Nevada due to its advantageous location and favorable business environment. Additional business synergies will be gained due to proximity of LEGACY's international and domestic transportation groups, as well as corporate marketing and other support resources operating within the same location. "It is rewarding to double down on our commitment to the Reno and Northern Nevada area, where we have been for over 40 years," said Mike Glodziak, President & CEO of LEGACY. "This operation is a critical piece of our North American eCommerce fulfillment strategy, and we look forward to leveraging it to drive value for our customers." Not only will this move provide geographic and transportation benefits, but it will generate significant new warehouse operations and leadership jobs as LEGACY doubles their workforce and expands their fulfillment capacity. LEGACY has made significant investments in warehousing and order management technologies, as well as facility infrastructure to support high-volume eCommerce and omni-channel customers' fulfillment needs. Additional investments in various automation and robotics technologies are planned for the near future. Mike Glover, LEGACY VP of eCommerce Fulfillment added, "We appreciate the partnership with our customers who are making this move with us to our Reno operation, as well as to other locations in our network. We also recognize the success of our team in Ontario over the years and are working to provide them employment opportunities in other LEGACY operations where possible." About LEGACY Supply Chain For over 40 years, Legacy Supply Chain has been the pioneering, mid-sized 3PL that businesses depend on to enable more control over their dynamic omnichannel supply chains - so they can stay more connected to their consumers and ultimately deliver better customer experiences. With over 30 operations in the US and Canada, Legacy provides truly tailored warehousing & distribution, e-commerce fulfillment, and transportation solutions. For more information, visit us at https://legacyscs.com/ . SOURCE LEGACY Supply Chain FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Legal Aid Service of Broward County (LAS) announced today the retirement of long-time Executive Director Anthony J. "Tony" Karrat, effective January 31, 2022. Karrat has served at the helm of the organization for the past 46 years, overseeing all programs for both Broward and Collier Counties. In honor of Karrat's incredible, unmatched contributions to the community, LAS has established the Anthony J. Karrat Endowment Fund to memorialize Tony's remarkable legacy and ensure that his work to serve the community will live on in the future. This endowment will be utilized to support "impact advocacy," which is advocacy that not only addresses an individual's legal problems but also seeks to address the root cause of these issues. "For almost five decades, Tony has been an extraordinary leader for Legal Aid, truly devoting his time and expertise to ensure the organization fulfills its mission of helping our most vulnerable and underserved in our communities," said Douglas Reynolds, Chairperson of the LAS Board of Directors and Director of Tripp Scott. "While we're saddened to see him leave us, we will be forever grateful for his invaluable leadership as Legal Aid would not be the successful and vibrant organization it is today without Tony. He leaves a solid foundation for the future." During the annual For the Public Good Gala fundraiser on Wednesday, December 1, Karrat received an Excellence in Justice Award, and the organization announced the creation of the Anthony J. Karrat Endowment Fund. Most recently, he was honored by the Harvey Milk Foundation and The Pride Center at Equality Park with the Diversity Honors Award. Additionally, he has been recognized by WPLG-ABC Local 10 News with their prestigious LIFEtime Award and received the Florida Bar Foundation's 2021 Jane Elizabeth Curran Distinguished Service Award for his tireless work over the past four decades to ensure low-income communities have access to the judicial system. He also is a recipient of the 2021 Russell E. Carlisle Advocacy Award presented by Legal Aid Programs in Broward County. Karrat joined Legal Aid in 1975 as a branch office supervising attorney prior to being named Executive Director in 1976. Under his leadership, Legal Aid has grown from a three-attorney office with a $250,000 budget to a regional law firm of 73 attorneys with a budget of $12 million. The program has significantly impacted low-income communities in Broward and Collier Counties, assisting in a broad scope including housing conditions for the poor, protecting victims of domestic violence, and helping the homeless, elderly, children, veterans and individuals affected by HIV/AIDS. In 1981, Karrat, in partnership with leaders of the Broward Bar Association, helped establish Broward Lawyers Care (BCL), the recognized pro bono program operating in Broward County. BCL enables more than 1,230 private attorneys to donate services to the poor each year. Since its inception, over 4,240 Broward lawyers have participated and roughly 18,450 clients and families have received assistance through the program's 36-year history. In 2004, he oversaw the merger with the then one-attorney Legal Aid program in Collier County, which is now a fifteen-attorney program with offices in Naples and Immokalee. Through Karrat's efforts and expertise spanning a 50-year career, LAS has successfully adapted its scope of services to meet the ever-changing needs of the community, with the goal of helping clients navigate legal issues and build self-sufficiency. Legal Aid Service of Broward County (LAS) is a nonprofit law firm established in 1973. The mission is to provide high quality free civil legal advice, representation, and education to the poor of Broward County so as to improve the lifestyle and living conditions of the low-income community and to encourage self-sufficiency. LAS (#SC-02337) is a 501(c)(3) corporation registered with the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer services. A copy of the official registration and financial information may be obtained from the Division of Consumer Services by calling toll-free 1-800-435-7352 within the state or visiting www.freshfromflorida.com. Registration does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by the State. CONTACT: Aimee Adler Cooke 561-302-6902 (or) [email protected] SOURCE Legal Aid Service of Broward County "Leigh has dedicated her career to customer-focused, transformative work. She recognizes the need to seamlessly integrate technology into everything we do to create a flawless, personal experience," said Joth Ricci, President and CEO of Dutch Bros. "We're excited about the expertise she brings to this role and look forward to her guidance in connecting with our customers in new ways." Gower assumed the role of Chief Technology Officer on Dec. 1, 2021. Prior to joining Dutch Bros, Gower served as Vice President, Technology at Blue Nile. Prior to Blue Nile, Gower served as a Senior Director, Product & Technology at T-Mobile and as a Management Consultant at Slalom Consulting. "My passion has always been enabling businesses with effective technology to power compelling customer experiences," said Gower. "Dutch Bros is a disruptive brand defining its own path, and passionate about speed, quality and service as core values. I look forward to working with an incredible team and approaching new ways of reaching our customers with a culture of curiosity and collaboration." About Dutch Bros Dutch Bros Coffee is a drive-thru coffee company dedicated to making a massive difference one cup at a time. Headquartered in Grants Pass, Oregon, where it was founded in 1992 by Dane and Travis Boersma, it's now sharing the "Dutch Luv" with more than 500 locations in 12 states. Dutch Bros serves specialty coffee, smoothies, freezes, teas, its exclusive Dutch Bros Blue Rebel energy drink and nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee. Its rich, proprietary coffee blend is handcrafted from start to finish. In addition to its mission of speed, quality and service, Dutch Bros is committed to giving back to the communities it serves. Through its Dutch Bros Foundation and local franchisees, the company donates several million dollars to causes across the country each year. To learn more about Dutch Bros, visit www.dutchbros.com , follow Dutch Bros Coffee on Instagram , Facebook , Twitter , & TikTok , and download the Dutch Bros app to earn points and score rewards! SOURCE Dutch Bros Coffee Related Links https://dutchbros.com/ UW Offers Support to Students Affected by Colorado Fires The University of Wyoming is individually reaching out and offering support to a number of students and prospective students who live in the area northwest of Denver devastated by last weeks wildfires. Meanwhile, the university encourages members of the UW community impacted by the fires who have questions or need support to email Vice President for Student Affairs Kim Chestnut at k.chestnut@uwyo.edu. Our hearts go out to those who suffered such terrible property and other losses in Boulder County, UW President Ed Seidel says. We are working to make contact with our students and prospective students to offer any assistance necessary for them to continue their studies and enroll at UW, even as they may be dealing with a very difficult situation. The fires swept through about 6,000 acres in just a couple of hours, destroying nearly 1,000 homes and other buildings, authorities say. Those wishing to provide assistance to fire victims can learn more about how to donate at www.boulderoem.com or www.coloradoresponds.org. As the global leader of P-OLED technology in the display industry, LG Display has been perfecting screen experience by introducing higher performing cutting-edge displays every year. In cooperation with LG Display, Brelyon can open new markets and categories of immersive experiences. "Brelyon's technology uses novel physics and computational technics to boost the performance and practicality in a fully scalable and affordable approach," said Justin Chang, President of LG Display America. "I think this is a timely alignment between LG Display and Brelyon." Building upon revolutionary work from the MIT Media Lab on wavefront engineering, Brelyon has been making waves across the industry with pilots of their virtual displays at several large OEMs and chip manufacturers. "Until now the richness of your desktop experience has been solely capped by the manufacturing limitations of physical panels, the panel size, and performance at pixel level," said Dr. Barmak Heshmat, CEO of Brelyon. "At Brelyon we are using novel physics along with the growing power of GPUs to introduce a set of new technologies that liberates us from those limitations and enables us to craft superior visual experiences. With our Ultra Reality monitors we have been able to break several performance records on conventional parameters; things like peak brightness, resolution, eye comfort, image size and more. This has created notable bookings for our product from industrial partners and high-end gaming applications. The cooperation with LG Display will help us to scale this level of performance and immersion beyond industrial applications." For years, the screen industry has been betting on new modalities such as 3D displays, Augmented and Virtual Reality headsets and bigger and bigger curved monitors. Unfortunately, most have seen slow adoption as they require transformations in content, manufacturing process or consumer behavior. Brelyon has invented a new category that merges the best of the alternatives: immersion without isolation, support for legacy content, huge virtual screen real estate without taking up desk space. ABOUT LG DISPLAY LG Display Co., Ltd. [NYSE: LPL, KRX: 034220] is the world's leading innovator of display technologies, including thin-film transistor liquid crystal and OLED displays. The company manufactures display panels in a broad range of sizes and specifications primarily for use in TVs, notebook computers, desktop monitors, and various other applications, including tablets and mobile devices. LG Display currently operates manufacturing facilities in Korea and China, and back-end assembly facilities in Korea, China, and Vietnam. The company has approximately 63,360 employees operating worldwide. For more news and information about LG Display, please visit www.lgdisplay.com. ABOUT BRELYON Headquartered in San Mateo, CA, USA Brelyon is a technology pioneer in hardware and software technologies for headset-less immersive experiences. Founded by scientists from MIT and UCF and with decades of industry experience, the company announced its innovative display platform in Jun 2020 and is now piloting its products for gaming and industrial applications with strategic partners. Please visit www.brelyon.com for more information. SOURCE Brelyon MIAMI, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Since the emergence of the Omicron variant, major vaccine manufacturers have announced their coronavirus defense plans anti-viral pills. Learn about the latest developments with South Florida PBS' Living Minute series. Click below to see two of the 200+ produced so far: What are COVID Pills? New anti-viral pills that can be taken at home can help fight COVID infections in the same way that anti-viral medications can fight influenza. The US government has already ordered several billion doses of the pills as part of a two-pronged approach to fight COVID: vaccines for the prevention and anti-viral pills for treatment. New Weapons that Continue to Fight Against COVID: Newly developed COVID-19 medications work by preventing the virus from replicating once it is inside the body. Researchers believe this may make them very effective against virus variants. The Living Minute series consists of daily one-minute reports infused with health and hope covering a range of topics. Reports air on South Florida PBS' channels, WPBT, WXEL and Health Channel and are published on social media @AllHealthGo and website (www.livingminute.tv.) Every day, reports are shared with PBS stations across the country through MyPBS and Wavelength at no cost. The Living Minute series is made possible by Thermo Fisher's ReadyCheckGo program a streamlined protocol for students, K-12, to swab and submit samples for testing each day. K-12 coronavirus testing can be quickly implemented with the Thermo Fisher Scientific ReadyCheckGo testing program. With pooled sampling to keep costs more efficient, swabbing is done by students themselves, and prepaid return shipping to the testing facility, this program is designed to make in-school coronavirus testing an easy reality for students, educators, and parents alike. About South Florida PBS: SOUTH FLORIDA PBS is Florida's largest public media company, including public broadcasting stations WXEL-TV, serving the Palm Beaches and the Treasure Coast, WPBT2, serving Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and South Florida PBS' newest digital channel, the Health Channel, (a division of AllHealthGo). AllHealthGo's 24/7 television channel, Health Channel and AHG's multi-platform health and wellness service consists of over 1000 hours of content, robust social media platforms, exceptional digital assets, free health counseling service, telehealth services (AllHealthGo Telehealth Care) and weekly virtual and in-person community outreach. CONTACT: Jeneissy Azcuy Anabel Cardenas Vice President of Marketing and Communication Social Media and Marketing Coordinator 305.424.4013 305.424.4009 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE South Florida PBS; Health Channel FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif., Jan. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing the momentum of its growing servicing portfolio, loanDepot, the nation's second largest nonbank retail lender, is bringing the servicing of FHA, VA and USDA funded Ginnie Mae loans in-house. The move leverages ongoing investment in loanDepot's servicing platform, allowing the company to scale for operational efficiency and enhanced customer service. Earlier this year, loanDepot began retaining servicing for newly funded Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loans, while laying the groundwork for Ginnie Mae Mortgage-Backed Securities. The approval from Ginnie Mae to service its loans in-house carries great significance, as iGinnie Mae remains the market's primary guarantor of securities containing FHA, VA, and USDA loans. "Servicing our Ginnie Mae loans in-house is important for loanDepot, because it enables us to provide the best-in-class care and service that our customers have come to expect from initial consultation through servicing for the life of their loans," said loanDepot Executive Vice President of Servicing and Capital Market Operations, Dan Binowitz. "We're relying less on third party sub-servicing partners, which streamlines the process and allows us to work directly with our customers so we can offer the outstanding service that they expect and deserve." To accommodate this move and continued growth, loanDepot recently upgraded its servicing portal with robust, intuitive technology. loanDepot is also in the midst of recruiting for positions across its servicing organization, with a particular focus customer-facing talent. For more information email [email protected] or visit https://loandepot.com/careers. About loanDepot loanDepot (NYSE: LDI) is a digital commerce company committed to serving its customers throughout the home ownership journey. Since its launch in 2010, loanDepot has revolutionized the mortgage industry with a digital-first approach that makes it easier, faster and less stressful to purchase or refinance a home. Today, as the nation's second largest retail mortgage lender, loanDepot enables customers to achieve the American dream of homeownership through a broad suite of lending and real estate services that simplify one of life's most complex transactions. With headquarters in Southern California and offices nationwide, loanDepot is committed to serving the communities in which its team lives and works through a variety of local, regional and national philanthropic efforts. Media Contact: Jonathan Fine VP, Public Relations (781) 248-3963 [email protected] SOURCE loanDepot, Inc. HOUSTON, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Main Street Capital Corporation (NYSE: MAIN) ("Main Street") is pleased to announce that it recently completed a new portfolio investment in a leading retailer of luxury goods in the United States (the "Company") to finance a management led buyout of the Company. Main Street, along with its co-investor, partnered with the Company's senior management team to facilitate the transaction, with Main Street funding $47.4 million in a combination of first lien, senior secured term debt and a direct equity investment. In addition, Main Street and its co-investor are providing the Company with a revolving credit facility to support its future growth initiatives and working capital needs. The Company operates retail stores throughout the Western and Southern United States in addition to maintaining an online sales presence. The Company has built a strong brand identity by delivering high quality products and superior customer service. ABOUT MAIN STREET CAPITAL CORPORATION Main Street ( www.mainstcapital.com ) is a principal investment firm that primarily provides long-term debt and equity capital to lower middle market companies and debt capital to middle market companies. Main Street's portfolio investments are typically made to support management buyouts, recapitalizations, growth financings, refinancings and acquisitions of companies that operate in diverse industry sectors. Main Street seeks to partner with entrepreneurs, business owners and management teams and generally provides "one stop" financing alternatives within its lower middle market investment strategy. Main Street's lower middle market companies generally have annual revenues between $10 million and $150 million. Main Street's middle market debt investments are made in businesses that are generally larger in size than its lower middle market portfolio companies. Main Street, through its wholly owned portfolio company MSC Adviser I, LLC ("MSC Adviser"), also maintains an asset management business through which it manages investments for external parties. MSC Adviser is registered as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Contacts: Main Street Capital Corporation Dwayne L. Hyzak, CEO, [email protected] Jesse E. Morris, CFO & COO, [email protected] 713-350-6000 Dennard Lascar Investor Relations Ken Dennard | [email protected]car.com Zach Vaughan | [email protected] 713-529-6600 SOURCE Main Street Capital Corporation IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total December sales of 19,422 vehicles, a decrease of 38 percent compared to December 2020. Full year sales totaled 332,756 vehicles; an increase of 19.2 percent compared to 2020. With 27 selling days in December, compared to 28 the year prior, the company posted a decrease of 35.7 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis. With 306 selling days in 2021, compared to 309 in 2020, the company posted an increase of 20.3 percent on a DSR basis for the year. Mazda Reports December and Full Year 2021 Sales Results Despite its challenges, 2021 was a memorable year for Mazda, as the brand focused on community appreciation and achieved many milestones in the US, including: The launch of the MX-30, Mazda's first battery-electric vehicle. The launch of the Essential Car Care Program for teachers, which helped provide free oil changes and enhanced cleaning to thousands of educator heroes. The global world premiere of the CX-50, the first vehicle to be built at Mazda's new Alabama manufacturing plant beginning in 2022. manufacturing plant beginning in 2022. For the second consecutive year, all tested Mazda vehicles earned the IIHS 2021 TOP SAFETY PICK+. These vehicles include the Mazda3 Sedan and Mazda3 Hatchback, Mazda6, CX-3, CX-30 (built after September 2020 ), CX-5 and CX-9. ), CX-5 and CX-9. A leading consumer publication ranked Mazda as the second most reliable brand. Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported December sales of 4,706 vehicles, a decrease of 2.8 percent compared to December last year. Year-to-date sales increased 1.7 percent, with 46,901 vehicles sold. Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts, and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States, Canada, and Mexico through approximately 780 dealers. Operations in Canada are managed by Mazda Canada Inc. in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at InsideMazda.MazdaUSA.com/Newsroom. Follow MNAO's social media channels through Twitter and Instagram at @MazdaUSA and Facebook at Facebook.com/MazdaUSA. Month-To-Date Year-To-Date December December YOY % % MTD December December YOY % % MTD 2021 2020 Change DSR 2021 2020 Change DSR Mazda3 2,019 3,256 (38.0)% (35.7)% 37,653 33,608 12.0% 13.1% Mazda 3 Sdn 1,262 1,939 (34.9)% (32.5)% 21,639 20,285 6.7% 7.7% Mazda 3 HB 757 1,317 (42.5)% (40.4)% 16,014 13,323 20.2% 21.4% Mazda6 542 1,687 (67.9)% (66.7)% 16,214 16,204 0.1% 1.0% MX-5 Miata 211 694 (69.6)% (68.5)% 10,547 8,807 19.8% 20.9% MX-5 83 255 (67.5)% (66.2)% 4,115 3,548 16.0% 17.1% MXR 128 439 (70.8)% (69.8)% 6,432 5,259 22.3% 23.5% CX-3 0 437 (100.0)% (100.0)% 5,100 8,510 (40.1)% (39.5)% CX-30 5,160 4,408 17.1% 21.4% 60,185 38,064 58.1% 59.7% CX-5 10,419 17,954 (42.0)% (39.8)% 168,383 146,421 15.0% 16.1% CX-9 1,010 2,872 (64.8)% (63.5)% 34,493 27,638 24.8% 26.0% MX-30 61 0 - - 181 0 - - CARS 2,772 5,637 (50.8)% (49.0)% 64,414 58,619 9.9% 11.0% TRUCKS 16,650 25,671 (35.1)% (32.7)% 268,342 220,633 21.6% 22.8% TOTAL 19,422 31,308 (38.0)% (35.7)% 332,756 279,252 19.2% 20.3% *Selling Days 27 28 306 309 SOURCE Mazda North American Operations Related Links www.mazdausa.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mission Rock Residential, a Denver-based multifamily property management company, is pleased to announce its newest management contract for the Hunters Glen Apartment Homes in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. The company was issued the new contract by Hamilton Zanze, a San Francisco-based real estate investment firm. The Hunters Glen Apartment Homes are under new management by Mission Rock Residential. The apartment community, located in the D.C. metro area, features community-wide amenities such as 24-hour fitness center, swimming pool, car care center, on-site playground, extra storage, and detached garages for lease. The community features 154 one, two, and three-bedroom pet-friendly apartment homes. Each home offers spacious floor plans, gourmet kitchens with built-in breakfast bars, stainless steel appliances, and full-size washers and dryers. Select homes also include walk-in closets, private patios or balconies, and a separate loft space. Community amenities include a 24-hour fitness center, swimming pool, car care center, on-site playground, extra storage, and detached garages for lease. "We are excited to expand our growing presence in the D.C. metro area with this beautiful community. Our Eastern Mission Rockers look forward to providing the highest quality of services to Hunters Glen residents. We will place a strong focus on enhancing their living experience and seamlessly managing many improvements to this community," said Meredith Wright, CPM, CAPS, President of Mission Rock Residential. The Hunters Glen Apartment Homes are located just 20 miles from the heart of Washington, D.C, just outside the I-495 loop. This convenient access to downtown, paired with its quiet location full of lush trees and landscaping, makes it a popular living option for commuters looking for a quieter lifestyle. Grocery stores and restaurants are also within walking distance. The Marlboro area is located Southeast of D.C., with excellent access to the beautiful Chesapeake Bay. The historic community is the official government seat of Prince George's County and hosts the County Courthouse, central library, and well-lauded schools. It also features a vibrant downtown Main Street, creating a strong sense of community and "small town" atmosphere. As of the most recent census, the median age in the town was a young 39.5 years, indicating the presence of young families residing in the community. To learn more, visit https://www.missionrockresidential.com/apartments/md/marlboro/huntersglen. About Mission Rock Residential Mission Rock Residential was established in 2012. The company now manages 123 multifamily properties and approximately 29,000 residential units across the United States. With more than 700 full time team members, the company is headquartered in Denver, Colorado and has regional offices in Phoenix and Atlanta. The company was also named one of the Best Places to Work by the National Apartment Association in 2021. For additional information, visit www.missionrockresidential.com. Media Contact: Nicole Marshall 504.644.7335 [email protected] SOURCE Mission Rock Residential VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Mobilum Technologies Inc. ("Mobilum'' or the "Company'') (CSE: MBLM) (OTC: MBLMF) (FRA: C0B), a technology-driven company making traditional finance accessible through digital payment infrastructure and digital asset management technologies, is pleased to welcome senior leaders in the fin-tech space, Kasha Piquette and Robert Niziol to its Board of Directors. Kasha Piquette's international leadership experiences in banking, investment management and capital markets with a special interest in ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) issues have fortified her ability to skillfully navigate complex financial matters in service of her teams and clients including the Province of Alberta. As the Director of Financial Services for Invest Alberta, her key responsibilities were directly related to increasing foreign direct investment into the Province's financial sector. Invest Alberta is a new and innovative Crown Corporation whose goal is to work directly with domestic and international investors to attract high-value and high-impact investments to the Province. With over 20 years of experience, Ms. Piquette is known for the pride she takes in supporting her clients to make informed investment decisions and achieving success. Prior roles with The National Bank, Barclays UK, Barclays Suisse SA, Barclays Dubai and Scotiabank garnered her ability to provide insightful advice and guidance, even amidst the most challenging of circumstances. Ms. Piquette's work for Invest Alberta utilized her local and international business experience as she advises senior leadership regarding entrepreneurial minded strategies to attract, secure and retain global investors to the Province. Ms. Piquette has a strong track record of building longstanding professional connections through meaningful networking founded in a shared interest in new technologies and its application (i.e., Blockchain, Deep Learning AI and FinTech). Ms. Piquette also brought unparalleled knowledge of local and international markets to Invest Alberta including FX, equities, fixed income including structured products, hedge funds, business development and ESG issues. Robert Niziol has over 25 years of experience in capital markets, venture capital, private equity, management, and business consulting. Since 2005, he has been a Partner at Penton Partners, a private equity fund investing in lower middle-market private companies, in Poland. Mr. Niziol is also a Founder of IGS Investment, an early-stage VC fund investing in innovative technologies, FinTech, and renewable energy, which has made 14 investments since its inception in 2018. He is also the Founder of several companies, including Pin4 Cardless Cash (branded as MasterCard Cash Pick Up in the USA), Invex Ionics, Innox, and Axen BioTech. He also previously held roles in the Credit Derivatives and Structured Credit Products Group at JPMorgan Chase in NYC. Throughout his career, Mr. Niziol has advised many SMEs, large corporations, and governmental agencies on various business-related matters, including restructuring, turnarounds, business development, and capital structures and has spoken at numerous international conferences related to private equity and venture capital. Mobilum Directors Peter Green, Michael Devine, and Aleem Nathwani have stepped down from the Board and remain strategic advisors to the new Board and management. Mobilum Chief Executive Officer, Wojciech Kaszycki commented, "I am very excited to have Kasha and Robert join the Board. Their seasoned experience in crypto, blockchain, and the financial markets are a welcomed addition to the team, and I look forward to kicking off the new year continuing the momentum which we built throughout 2021. I want to thank Peter, Michael and Aleem for their efforts in helping me put the corporate structure in place and look forward to their continued advisory, as the Company looks to continue to thrive and bring on new partners and customers." About Mobilum Technologies Inc. Mobilum Technologies Inc. (CSE:MBLM) (OTC:MBLMF) (FRA:C0B), a technology-driven Payment Service Provider (PSP) with a mission to make traditional finance accessible through digital payment infrastructure and digital asset management technologies. Our goal is to allow consumers around the world to convert fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat with Mobilum's on-ramp and off-ramp solutions. Mobilum has offices in Canada, Hong Kong, Poland, Estonia and the United States. For further information go to Mobilum.com . Related Links https://mobilum.com SOURCE Mobilum Technologies Inc. ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Movora, the veterinary medtech division of Vimian Group, today announced it is establishing a presence in the United States through a new US distribution center located in St. Augustine, Florida. Starting in January 2022, products from Movora's three brands BioMedtrix, KYON and Veterinary Orthopedic Implants will now ship from this facility, and customers will be able to order products from all three companies through a single point of contact. By streamlining operations through the new US sales and distribution center, customers will experience simplified ordering and billing processes, more comprehensive Continuing Education opportunities, and a more robust orthopedic product offering that ranges from general accessories to advanced Total Hip/Joint Replacement systems. "By uniting our Movora brands in the United States, we are able to better concentrate our efforts on the advancement of animal mobility through renewed focus in R&D and product development, continuing education courses for general practitioners and veterinary surgeons, and dedicated customer support teams that have a comprehensive view of the full Movora portfolio," said Fredrik Ullman, CEO of Vimian. "Each of Movora's brands has a rich history in veterinary orthopedics and we will continue to foster the knowledge, expertise and relationships they've built within the veterinary community." By utilizing Veterinary Orthopedic Implants' existing St. Augustine location and state-of-the-art lift systems, the facility is ready to accept products from its sister companies BioMedtrix and KYON and begin servicing those customers at the first of the year. "Each functional department of our team here in St. Augustine has been working tirelessly to prepare for this transition, and I'm confident that this will be an enhanced experience for Movora customers," said Patrick Gendreau, CEO of Veterinary Orthopedic Implants. As part of the Movora US launch, a new website and online ordering platform has been rolled out to further improve the experience for current and new customers. Additional region-specific webstores will be launched throughout the year. About Movora Movora is a global provider of orthopedic implants sold to veterinarians, veterinary surgeons, and universities. Through its brands, BioMedtrix, KYON, and Veterinary Orthopedic Implants, it offers one of the broadest product portfolios within companion animal orthopedics, ranging from fracture plates to complete hip replacement systems. Movora also believes in supporting veterinary professionals throughout their careers and offers one of the most comprehensive calendars of Continuing Education courses in the industry, teaching DVMs and Veterinary Surgeons new techniques and procedures. Movora has regional headquarters in Florida, USA; Ontario, Canada; Zurich, Switzerland; and Tokyo, Japan. Learn more by visiting www.movora.com. About Vimian Group Vimian is a global, fast-growing group of innovation-driven companies with a shared passion for making a positive impact through improving animal health. Together, we put science, technology and our customers' needs at the centre of everything we do to deliver effective solutions to veterinary professionals, labs, and pet parents around the world. We bring together pioneering and entrepreneurial businesses in animal health, with an aim to create a uniquely diversified proposition of products and services of the highest standard. Our group covers four essential and rapidly evolving areas within animal health: Specialty Pharma, Diagnostics, Veterinary Services and MedTech. Vimian provides individual businesses with access to our networks, expertise, infrastructure, and capital to accelerate innovation and growth. We are as passionate about supporting leadership within our existing businesses, as we are about welcoming new partners to the Vimian family together helping us make an even greater impact by improving animal health. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Vimian and our family of companies reach over 15,000 customers in +150 markets, employ more than 450 people and have a combined annual turnover of approximately EUR 140 million. FNCA Sweden AB is appointed the Company's Certified Adviser, [email protected], +46 (0) 8-528 00 399. For more information, please visit: www.vimian.com. SOURCE Movora There are about 50 million epileptic patients worldwide. Current treatment of epilepsy mainly includes anti-epileptic drugs, surgery, and ketogenic diet. About 20%-30% of epileptic patients are not sensitive to anti-epileptic drugs. TLE is a common drug-resistant epilepsy in adults. Its major pathological features include loss of hippocampal interneurons and proliferation of glial cells, which together lead to abnormal excitation of neural network activity. Drug-resistant TLE often requires surgical resection of the diseased hippocampus, which may be associated with certain surgical risks and complications. Other treatments have limited efficacy in controlling TLE. How to treat TLE more effectively without serious brain surgery is a worldwide problem that needs an urgent solution. In recent years, Chen's team has developed a novel neuroregenerative gene therapy that offers a potential new approach to treat a variety of neurological disorders. Neuroregenerative gene therapy is a new technology that uses viral vectors to deliver neural transcription factors to glial cells in the brain and directly convert glial cells into functional neurons in situ. Based on this innovation, Chen's team has published a series of research articles demonstrating effective brain repair in both ischemic stroke and Huntington's disease animal models. "In this work, we used adeno-associated virus (AAV) as the gene delivery vector to overexpress a neural transcription factor NeuroD1 specifically in hippocampal astrocytes of TLE rats. NeuroD1 significantly downregulates glial gene expression but upregulates neuronal gene expression, and ultimately converts astrocytes into neurons", said Dr. Jiajun Zheng, the first author of this work, explaining the principle of this work. "This is the first time we apply neuroregenerative gene therapy to treat epilepsy and achieved success in animal models. One of the highlights in this study is the clear capture of an intermediate state during the conversion of glial cells into neurons. The cells in such an intermediate state bear the properties of both glial cells (GFAP+ or Sox9+) and neurons (NeuN+) and only occur during early conversion stage. These intermediate cells with dual glial and neuronal markers (GFAP+NeuN+ and Sox9+NeuN+) do not exist in normal brains, providing strong evidence of glia-to-neuron conversion under the action of NeuroD1. More importantly, we discovered that cell conversion is highly dependent on NeuroD1 expression level as well as brain regions and animal disease models. For example, strong NeuroD1 expression in cortical astrocytes of stroke mice regenerates excitatory glutamatergic neurons, whereas weak NeuroD1 expression in hippocampal astrocytes of TLE rats regenerates inhibitory GABAergic neurons (although hippocampus has abundant excitatory neurons). This new discovery has important guidance for future clinical applications using neuroregenerative gene therapy to treat different neurological disorders", Professor Chen pointed out the potential clinical significance of this study. "Our electrophysiological and behavioral analyses demonstrated that the neuroregenerative gene therapy not only inhibited spontaneous recurrent seizures but also rescued the cognitive impairment and mood abnormalities of the epileptic animals. Different from traditional anti-epileptic drugs or surgery treatment, neuroregenerative gene therapy directly regenerates new neurons in the epileptic region to restore the balance between excitation and inhibition in neural networks. This novel technology may lead to a new path toward an effective treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy", the co-corresponding author Jiandong Yu gave an additional note. In addition to Professor Gong Chen, Associate Professor Jiandong Yu, Dr. Jiajun Zheng, other co-authors include Tingjie Li, Professor Bing Qin and Shuang Qi. This work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (U1801681 and 81671288) and the Science and Technology Department of Guangdong Province (2018B030332001). Article links: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2021.102198 For more information about NeuExcell Therapeutics, please contact: Lori Gavrin, Ph.D. Chief Business & Strategy officer NeuExcell Therapeutics, Inc. [email protected] +1-215-668-5442 www.neuexcell.com SOURCE NeuExcell Therapeutics FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 10; Released: December 2021 Executive Pool: 3504 Companies: 145 - Players covered include 3M Company; Advanced Sterilization Products; Belimed AG; Cantel Medical Corporation; Ecolab, Inc.; Getinge AB (Getinge Group); Halyard Health, Inc.; Matachana Group; Metrex Research LLC; Pal International Ltd.; Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC; Sotera Health LLC; Steris and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Products & Services (Protective Barriers, Sterilization Products & Services, Cleaning & Disinfection Products, Endoscope Reprocessing Products, Other Products & Services); End-Use (Hospitals & Clinics, Pharma & Medical Device Companies, Other End-Uses) Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific; Rest of World. Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry ABSTRACT- Global Infection Control Market to Reach US$62.3 Billion by the Year 2026 Infection control plays a critical role in activities related to sterile processing of devices, in addition to disposal and decontamination of potentially infectious bio-hazardous waste. The market for infection control is expected to witness rapid growth in the coming years due to the rapidly growing incidence of HAIs (Hospital Acquired Infections) and rising number of surgeries. Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) constitute one of the leading causes of death globally and constitutes for nearly 100,000 deaths every year in the US alone. Other market growth promoting factors include rising geriatric population, especially in developed countries, and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases. Market growth is also being positively influenced by the rising focus of nations on disinfection and sterilization. Pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies and hospitals are also increasingly outsourcing such sterilization jobs, which is also contributing to market growth. The market is witnessing the development of advanced sterilization equipment in response to the advanced medical equipment being developed. Factors, such as increasing public and professional awareness, need for reducing healthcare costs, shifting of patient care from acute care to alternate sites, growth of less invasive surgical and diagnostic procedures, and the rising number of transmittable and antibiotic-resistant infectious diseases, have led to the increased demand for safe and efficient sterilization equipment. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Infection Control estimated at US$40.3 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$62.3 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 7.2% over the analysis period. Protective Barriers, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 9.2% CAGR to reach US$26.1 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Sterilization Products & Services segment is readjusted to a revised 7.2% CAGR for the next 7-year period. Growing demand for surgical drapes, gowns and face masks and such other medical nonwovens, amid the pandemic, has been contributing to growth of protective barriers. The U.S. Market is Estimated at $12.9 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $9.2 Billion by 2026 The Infection Control market in the U.S. is estimated at US$12.9 Billion in the year 2021. The country currently accounts for a 27.5% share in the global market. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$9.2 Billion in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 8.8% through the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 5.7% and 7.1% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 6.7% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$3.4 Billion by the end of the analysis period. North America is the largest regional market for infection control attributed to increased adoption of disinfection and sterilization products and services and also increased focus of the population here on disease prevention and following healthy lifestyles. Another lucrative market for infection control is Asia-pacific where increasing HAIs incidence, especially in fast emerging countries, is leading to increased adoption of disinfection and sterilization equipment and services. Cleaning & Disinfection Products Segment to Reach $10.5 Billion by 2026 In the global Cleaning & Disinfection Products segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 5.5% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$5.9 Billion in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of US$8.6 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$1 Billion by the year 2026. More MarketGlass Platform Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide. Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years. CONTACTS: Zak Ali Director, Corporate Communications Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Phone: 1-408-528-9966 www.StrategyR.com Email: [email protected] LINKS Join Our Expert Panel https://www.strategyr.com/Panelist.asp Connect With Us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-industry-analysts-inc./ Follow Us on Twitter https://twitter.com/marketbytes Journalists & Media [email protected] SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. UW in the News State, national and international media frequently feature the University of Wyoming and members of its community in stories. Here is a summary of some of the recent coverage: Forbes published a feature on UWs Wyoming Infrared Observatory and its 2.3-meter telescope that remains one of the northernmost optical observatories in the Northern Hemisphere. UW professors Danny Dale and Mike Brotherton were interviewed for the feature piece. Chad Baldwin, UW associate vice president for communications and marketing, told WyoFile that the university would take a wait-and-see approach on how Wyoming responds to a federal government vaccine mandate for certain employees. The Gillette News Record noted that UWs Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources helped the Wyoming Game and Fish Department with a study to help manage a declining Upper Powder River mule deer herd near Kaycee and to help understand the biggest problems facing the herd. UW Professor Tim Considines report on job losses was cited in Casper Star-Tribune and WyoFile articles focusing on Gov. Mark Gordon signing a temporary emergency suspension order that allows Unit 2 of the Jim Bridger Power Plant to continue operating for at least four months, averting a shutdown of the unit this week. Forbes noted that UW experts are lending their wild plant expertise for a Jackson Hole businesswomans venture into foraging for the right wild plants in the valley for her moisturizing line of care products. Ana-Clara Bobadilla, an assistant professor in the UW School of Pharmacy, spoke with Wyoming Public Radio about the universitys partnership with a company -- CaaMTech, which is creating a library of pure compounds from psychedelic mushrooms -- on the possible medical benefits of the compounds. Prestigious Scholarships published the article. Outdoor Life interviewed UW Associate Professor Kevin Monteith for an article that focused on the history and the future of trophy big-game hunting in North America. UWs School of Energy Resources received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to assess the economic impacts of fossil energy production in Wyoming and evaluate opportunities and research needs to deploy clean hydrogen technologies. SweetwaterNow published UWs announcement. The Laramie Reporter noted that the UW Board of Trustees recently passed an indoor mask mandate for the start of the spring semester alongside other measures aimed at stopping the COVID spread. Trustees also tabled an additional proposal to require vaccinations in medical clinics. Tim Zhang, UW finance assistant professor, offered tips in a WalletHub question-and-answer format on loans for home improvement projects. Zhang discussed the pros and cons of this type of loan compared to other funding sources. Sheridan Media and WyoToday Media published UWs release noting that the new Saddle Up program -- initiated in the coming fall semester -- will help instill a sense of community and belonging from the beginning of a students university experience. The Wyoming Energy Authority and UWs School of Energy Resources recently presented an Advanced Nuclear 101 webinar to provide expert information and to answer questions involving the proposed Natrium nuclear plant to be built near Kemmerer. The article originally appeared in The Kemmerer Gazette and was published in The Laramie Boomerang. The Fence Post published UWs release noting that two agroecology majors are using free satellite images to help knock out musk thistle strangling rangeland productivity, and to scrutinize the effects of damage into the future from a heavy rain-caused event washing away dry beans in family-owned lands. COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Novo Holdings, a leading international life sciences investor, today announced that it has invested in Sound Bioventures Fund I as cornerstone investor in the first close of EUR 110 million. Sound Bioventures will be investing in private biotech companies and will focus on companies with assets in clinical or late pre-clinical stages, primarily within rare diseases. The fund will be managed by a founding team with extensive experience from venture investing and operational drug development. The team includes Casper Breum, who has a background from Novo Nordisk, Lundbeck and Lundbeckfonden Ventures, Johan Kordel who brings experience from Pharmacia, Biovitrum and Lundbeckfonden Ventures, and Bibhash Mukhopadhyay, with a background in J&J, AstraZeneca and NEA. "At Novo Holdings we are very excited to be one of the cornerstone investors of Sound Bioventures. In addition to making a profitable fund investment, we are looking forward to working with the experienced transatlantic team to translate more Scandinavian innovation into companies with a global footprint developing drugs that target critical unmet medical needs," said Sren Mller, Managing Partner of Novo Seeds, the early-stage investment arm of Novo Holdings. Anchor points in Scandinavia and the US Based in Scandinavia and the US, Sound Bioventures expect to invest one third of the funds in Scandinavian companies, one third in US- and UK-based companies, and one third will be invested in companies from across Europe. "Our bridgehead in the US makes us different from many other European-based life science venture investors. Apart from giving us access to a high- quality deal flow from the US, it also positions us to bringing relevant US-based investors into our European portfolio companies," said Casper Breum, managing partner and co-founder of Sound Bioventures. Saminvest, Vkstfonden and the European Investment Fund have also invested in the first fund of Sound Bioventures, together with other private investors. "We are pleased that Sound Bioventures have attracted such a solid group of both public and private investors to Sound Bioventures' first fund. Our experience from the pharmaceutical and biotech industries in areas such as R&D and business development, combined with the knowledge, experience and influence of the syndicate and portfolio companies, holds promise for a fruitful collaboration based on nuanced perspectives on biotech risks and opportunities," said Johan Kordel, managing partner and co-founder of Sound Bioventures. Investing in a biotech focused venture fund is attractive to Novo Holdings for several reasons, said Sren Mller: "We invest in venture funds' financial return and Sound Bioventures fulfill an additional strategic goal, namely to attract more capital to the Scandinavian ecosystem. As the biotech ecosystem continues to grow, in particular across the Nordics and the wider European region, the number of new investment opportunities also increases. By leveraging our capital through a fund, we are able to take part in more of these promising ventures with the added advantage of being joined by a more diverse set of investors. In addition, we believe that the cross-Atlantic focus of Sound Bioventures is a competitive advantage." About Novo Holdings A/S Novo Holdings A/S is a private limited liability company wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. It is the holding company of the Novo Group, comprising Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S, and is responsible for managing the Novo Nordisk Foundation's assets. Novo Holdings is recognized as a leading international life science investor, with a focus on creating long-term value. As a life science investor, Novo Holdings provides seed and venture capital to development-stage companies and takes significant ownership positions in growth and well-established companies. Novo Holdings also manages a broad portfolio of diversified financial assets. Further information: www.novoholdings.dk. About Sound Bioventures Sound Bioventures is a clinical stage Biotherapeutics focused venture fund, that with a strong foundation in the Nordic biotech ecosystem will invest in EU, UK and USA. The fund will seek opportunities addressing significant unmet medical needs for new therapies. Sound Bioventures is founded by a team of experienced life science investors and backed by a strong investor syndicate comprising Novo Holdings, Saminvest, Vkstfonden, the European Investment Fund (EIF), as well as additional private investors and the founders. Sound Bioventures Fund I AB is a registered alternative investment fund, under the Swedish Alternative Investment Funds Managers Act. http://www.soundbioventures.com SOURCE Novo TORONTO, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Odd Burger Corporation (TSXV: ODD) (OTCQB: ODDAF) (FSE: IA9), one of the world's first vegan fast-food chains and the first to go public, today announced it has signed a franchise agreement for Victoria, its first British Columbia location, continuing its expansion plans throughout Canada and the west. Franchisees John Bowker and Luke Ceraldi are currently seeking a site to introduce Victoria to Odd Burger's affordable, mainstream, healthy, and satisfying vegan fast food. "Victoria is the ideal spot to begin our West Coast takeover, and our partners Luke and John are ready to bring our brand to their city," said James McInnes, Odd Burger co-founder and CEO. "The community will love our indulgent, iconic fast food without the guilt, made from wholesome ingredients like chickpeas, jackfruit, and fresh veggies." The Victoria location is projected to open within three months of site selection and permit approvals. It will follow the model of Odd Burger's successful restaurants in Ontario compact footprints optimized for fast service, takeout and delivery, affordability, and simplified employee training. Odd Burger smart kitchens feature modern on-demand cooking technology, online ordering, self-checkout kiosks, and cashless transactions. Recently Odd Burger announced loans of up to 90 percent of the cost of opening a new location through the Canada Small Business Financing Program (CSBFP), administered by CIBC, to dramatically reduce up-front capital requirements. Loans of up to $350,000 through the government-guaranteed program can be used for new store financing, renovations, and more. Only Canadian franchisees are eligible for CIBC financing. Those interested in Odd Burger franchising opportunities can visit https://oddburger.com/pages/franchise-what-we-offer. Strategic franchises are part of Odd Burger's plans to expand throughout North America. Odd Burger already has locations in Toronto, London, Windsor, Vaughan, Waterloo, and Hamilton, with Calgary and Ottawa franchises currently in development as well as a U.S. location. In addition to restaurants, Odd Burger also operates a manufacturing facility in London, ON where it creates its proprietary plant-based proteins and dairy alternatives such as burgers, chickUn fillets, sausage, and dairy-free sauces. Board and Officer Composition Update Michael Fricker has joined Odd Burger's Board of Directors in place of Dean Cebulski, who has retired from the Board due to other commitments. The company extends its gratitude to Dean for his time and guidance during the last period. Michael Fricker is currently the CFO at Reunion Foods Inc. (makers of Mother Raw plant-based dressings and dips) and Qvella Corporation. Previously, he was CFO at Bento Sushi, North America's second largest sushi brand with over 900 franchised locations. He is a seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience in various finance roles across a variety of industries including QSR. Prior to his years as a CFO, his experience included private equity and venture capital (investment side), corporate finance and commercial banking. The common thread throughout his career is working closely with great management teams of high growth, entrepreneurial businesses. Michael is a CPA (CA) and CFA charter holder. He is currently a director of Hammond Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSX: HMM.A). The Board of Directors is now comprised of James McInnes (chairman), Vasiliki McInnes, Edward (Ted) Sehl, William MacDonald, and Michael Fricker. Officers of the company are comprised of James McInnes (president and CEO), Ted Sehl (CFO), Vasiliki McInnes (COO), Avra Epstein (vice president, marketing) and Trevor Wong-Chor (corporate secretary). Granting of Stock Options An aggregate of 150,000 options to purchase company shares exercisable at a price of $0.75 for a period of five years have been issued to Fricker in connection with his Board of Directors appointment. The Company has determined that exemptions from the various requirements of TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9 are available for the grant of these Options. The Options are subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance. About Odd Burger Corporation Odd Burger Corporation is a chain of company-owned and franchised vegan fast-food restaurants as well as a food technology company that manufactures and distributes a proprietary line of plant-based protein and dairy alternatives to its locations. Odd Burger restaurants operate as smart kitchens, which use state-of-the art cooking technology and automation solutions to deliver a delicious food experience to customers craving healthier and more sustainable fast food. With small store footprints optimized for delivery and takeout, advanced cooking technology, competitive pricing, a vertically integrated supply chain along with healthier ingredients, Odd Burger is revolutionizing the fast-food industry by creating guilt-free fast food. Odd Burger Corporation is traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol ODD, on the OTCQB under ODDAF, and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under IA9. For more information visit https://www.oddburger.com. Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including statements that relate to among other things, the Company's strategies, intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations and estimates, and can generally be identified by the use of words such as "may", "will", "could", "should", "would", "likely", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "objective" and "continue" and words and expressions of similar import. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Certain material factors or assumptions are applied in making forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include but are not limited to: general business and economic conditions (including but not limited to currency rates); changes in laws and regulations; legal and regulatory proceedings; and the ability to execute strategic plans. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements contained in this document, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. SOURCE Odd Burger Corporation Related Links https://oddburger.com/ BURLINGTON, Mass., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Officeworks announces its partnership with IMA Corporate Interiors, a boutique furniture dealer with over 20 years of experience serving the Atlanta region. "We are excited to join forces with Officeworks," says IMA CEO Bill Palmer. "Our vision and strategies are aligned, and most importantly, we both place an enormous value on our employees. Great employees equate to an amazing client experience. This partnership combines our resources, experience, and best-in-class service that will give us a competitive advantage in the ever-changing landscape of the workplace." The partnership with IMA provides a key opportunity for Officeworks to tap into southern markets by delivering stronger services, with a continued dedication to the customer experience. "IMA has an excellent reputation in the Atlanta market, this is a great brand to bring under the Officeworks banner. This partnership will bring together two companies with similar cultures, putting focus on employees first and delivering the personalized attention our clients expect and deserve," says Officeworks CEO, Mark Loughlin. This partnership marks the first stage of Officeworks' expansion into three new southern markets. "We will be further defining our overall footprint in the South with planned expansions into the Charlotte and Nashville markets. The recent market disruption has opened a path of opportunity, it is a very exciting time for both Officeworks and Teknion," explains Loughlin. Officeworks has grown to be Teknion's largest dealer in the U.S., with existing offices in Boston, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C. "We remain committed to providing a best-in-class service level to our existing client base in Atlanta. This partnership with Officeworks will give our team additional resources and support that will only strengthen our output to the community," says Yvonne Noack, Principal/Director of Sales at IMA. Officeworks is an experienced office space consulting firm dedicated to providing innovative office interior solutions. Officeworks believes in putting people first, investing in the best and brightest individuals who embrace the company's mission of providing unparalleled customer service. Officeworks is just as focused on Day 2 service as the entire design and installation process, delivering stunning designs, inspiring spaces, and a customer experience that is second to none. www.officeworksinc.com SOURCE officeworks, inc. OSAKA, Japan, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Panasonic Corporation today announced "Panasonic GREEN IMPACT," a commitment to reducing CO2 emissions generated from its own business operations and value chain as well as expanding our contributions to reduce CO2 emissions of society. In a message at Panasonic's press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Panasonic Group CEO Yuki Kusumi said, "First, we commit to reduce the CO2 emissions of all operating companies to net zero by 2030. But as we have seen, we have a far greater emission in the form of electricity consumption by our products. So we will reduce this by developing new technologies and solutions to increase their efficiency." "Furthermore, we will also reduce the CO2 emissions of society, through providing our energy-saving solutions and clean energy technologies to B2B and B2G customers. This is the category called 'Avoided Emissions,' the standards of which are being discussed at the International Electrotechnical Commission. We will strengthen our efforts in this area towards 2050, aiming to accelerate the society's transition to clean energy, which will also accelerate the reduction of CO2 from our own value chain." "Yes, we do have great impact. But we aim to have an even greater, positive impact. And that's why we have decided to call our contributions to reduce our customers' CO2 emissions 'Panasonic Green Impact.' This is our commitment to contribute to a more sustainable future." At CES 2022, Panasonic is featuring environmental solutions on the virtual site, including hydrogen energy such as pure hydrogen fuel cell, air to water heat pump as well as advanced batteries for electric vehicles. For more information on the technologies and solutions showcased by Panasonic at CES 2022, please refer to the following links: For more information: Panasonic at CES 2022 website here Panasonic GREEN IMPACT Website here (Opens at 10:00 pm PT on January 4, 2022) Panasonic GREEN IMPACT Group CEO Message Video About Panasonic Panasonic Corporation is a global leader developing innovative technologies and solutions for wide-ranging applications in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, and B2B sectors. The company, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2018, operates 522 subsidiaries and 69 associated companies worldwide and reported consolidated net sales of 6,698.8 billion yen for the year ended March 31, 2021. Committed to pursuing new value through collaborative innovation, the company uses its technologies to create a better life and a better world for customers. Learn more about Panasonic: https://www.panasonic.com/global SOURCE Panasonic Corporation LOS ANGELES, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The PARRIS Law Firm and Bloom Injury Law filed today the first mass tort lawsuit on behalf of residents living near El Segundo, CA, against L.A. Sanitation (LASAN) for exposing people to toxic hydrogen sulfide gas (H 2 S) and other dangerous toxins during and after the Hyperion Treatment Plant's (Hyperion) massive sewage spill earlier this year. LASAN's Hyperion Treatment Plant suffered a catastrophic failure on Sunday July 11, 2021 when all debris filtering machines, also known as bar screens, became clogged and inoperable. As a result, at least 72 acres at Hyperion flooded with raw sewage. In an effort to contain the sewage flooding, LASAN released 17 million gallons of untreated wastewater into the Santa Monica Bay. LASAN continued to release improperly treated sewage into the Santa Monica Bay, leading the California Water Board to issue 47 citations between July 17 and August 31. In reports to the State Water Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, LASAN claimed the sewage overflow was a result of excessive trash in the sewer system from an unknown source. But responsible monitoring would have identified both the volume and source of any debris before it reached Hyperion. Officials have yet to identify either. The complaint alleges the sewage spill was caused by defective bar screens that were designed to be run through an automatic control system that proved to be unreliable. Named as one of the defendants is Murray Plumbing and Heating Corporation, which installed the bar screens and the automatic control system in 2019. The Plaintiffs allege that LASAN knew the automatic control system (essentially, the "auto-pilot" feature of the bar screen) was unreliable in 2019, but chose to operate the bar screens in manual mode on fast-forward with no additional oversight added for these faster speed operations. Hyperion's bar screens failed before the flood in April 2021, and managers should have known a catastrophe was inevitable. LASAN documents also show a 23% increase in problems with the smaller screens since installation in 2019. Following the malfunctions in April, LASAN's general manager resigned. Even on July 11, the day of the sewage spill, there were multiple alarms, but none of those alarms appeared to go to the one employee physically present at Hyperion's Headworks. LASAN instead expected that employee to (1) manually operate the bar screen system and (2) visually monitor every aspect of operations at the Headworks including the bar screens. It is unclear who, if anyone at LASAN, knew of those early warnings. "This is a massive raw sewage spill from one of the world's largest water treatment facilities," said PARRIS Law Firm attorney Alexander R. Wheeler. "The warning signs were glaring leading up to the spill, and now El Segundo residents are paying the price for LASAN's disregard for public safety." Hydrogen sulfide is one of many gases created during the decomposition of organic materials in sewage. It is produced at virtually every point in sewage treatment and is a leading cause of death to workers in sanitary sewer systems. Hydrogen sulfide creates the well-known "rotten egg" smell that people notice from sewage treatment. Even at low levels, hydrogen sulfide irritates the nose, throat, and eyes and causes headaches, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. The noxious odors and emissions from the sewage spill led the South Coast Air Quality Management District to issued 39 notices of violation. "L.A. Sanitation knows how dangerous hydrogen sulfide gas can be, and yet they did nothing to protect people from the exposure," said attorney Mark Bloom of Bloom Injury Law. "Even with all of the warning signs, LASAN failed to invest in meaningful repairs after the bar screens clogged not once, but twice." The complaint highlights numerous instances where the health of residents was put at risk, where warning signs were ignored, and where mismanagement seemed to be a pattern at the facility. "There was a clear void of leadership at Hyperion long before Hyperion flooded with raw sewage," said PARRIS Law Firm attorney Patricia K. Oliver. "After the malfunction in April of 2021, the Director of L.A. Sanitation Enrique C. Zaldivar, P.E. quit, and L.A. Sanitation replaced him with Barbara Romero who had no engineering background. And on July 11, 2021, the screens had their worst failure yet," Oliver added. In the first two weeks after the spill, LASAN failed to test for hydrogen sulfide, and when testing began on July 26, LASAN only tested for hydrogen sulfide during the day when results would be at their lowest. But even still, LASAN's test results were alarming. Hydrogen sulfide levels tested at 657 ppb near the southern end of Hyperion, which was 21.9 times higher than 30 ppb, the amount set by the state of California for acute health impacts over one hour. 657 ppb is 130.8 times higher than the 5.02 ppb set by the World Health Organization as the levels known to cause odor irritations over 30 minutes. "Zero leadership, zero support, and zero guidance this is what L.A. Sanitation offered the residents whose health and well-being were put at risk because of LASAN's carelessness," said attorney Mark Bloom. The case is Katarina Abdelnur , et al. v. City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works, L.A. Sanitation & Environment, Los Angeles Superior Court, Case No. 22STCV00153. To read the complaint, click here. About PARRIS Law Firm The PARRIS Law Firm is a premier personal injury and environmental law firm representing individuals who have suffered injuries resulting from exposure to all manner of dangerous chemicals and toxins. PARRIS has achieved multiple eight and nine-figure verdicts and settlements on behalf of clients and aggressively works to obtain justice. To learn more about the firm, please go to: www.parris.com. About Bloom Injury Firm Bloom Injury Law is a leading California law firm specializing in personal injury and employment discrimination litigation. Founding attorney Mark Bloom has a decade of experience litigating high-stakes cases in trial courts, federal courts, and courts of appeal, securing multiple multi-million-dollar settlements and verdicts for clients. Learn more about Bloom Injury Law here. Contact Dante Hickles 661.949.2595 | [email protected] SOURCE PARRIS Law Firm BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Penske Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: PAG), a diversified international transportation services company and one of the world's premier automotive and commercial truck retailers, today announced the grand opening of a new, state-of-the art Honda dealership in Leander, Texas. The new location represents the company's 14th Honda dealership and will be named Honda Leander. The new dealership sits on over 9 acres and offers over 46,000 square feet of facilities, including 27 service bays. Commenting on the new dealership, President Rob Kurnick said, "We are pleased to add Honda Leander to Penske Automotive Group. The new Honda dealership adds to the company's existing dealership presence in the Austin/Round Rock, Texas market where we currently operate eight other dealerships and two collision centers." About Penske Automotive Penske Automotive Group, Inc., (NYSE: PAG) headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, is a diversified international transportation services company and one of the world's premier automotive and commercial truck retailers. PAG operates dealerships principally in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Japan and is the largest retailer of commercial trucks in North America for Freightliner. PAG also distributes and retails commercial vehicles, diesel and gas engines, power systems and related parts and services principally in Australia and New Zealand. Additionally, PAG owns 28.9% of Penske Transportation Solutions, a business that manages a fleet of over 350,000 vehicles providing innovative transportation, supply chain and technology solutions to North American fleets. PAG is a member of the Fortune 500, Russell 1000, and Russell 3000 indexes, and is ranked among the World's Most Admired Companies by Fortune Magazine. For additional information, visit the company's website at www.penskeautomotive.com. Inquiries should contact: Shelley Hulgrave Anthony R. Pordon Executive Vice President and Executive Vice President Investor Relations Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Development Penske Automotive Group, Inc. Penske Automotive Group, Inc. 248-648-2812 248-648-2540 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Penske Automotive Group, Inc. The benefits of this new investment will be seen in an improved experience for PPS discovery services customers. With integrated chemistry and biology services now available from a single site, we anticipate significant improvements to drug discovery cycle times. In addition, new personnel with experience in biology services are being added to the site team, complementing the existing technical and operational expertise. The new high-throughput screening technology enables PPS to evaluate and screen 1000 compounds per week using various assay platform technologies such as Fluorescent Imaging Plate Reader (FLIPR), TR-FRET/HTRF, Fluorescence Polarization (FP), absorbance, Luminescence/ Electrochemiluminescence (ECL), Alpha Screen, Lantha Screen, Flow Cytometry, and high content imaging. These platforms will be applicable to a variety of targets (e.g., G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and kinase-targeted therapies). Peter DeYoung, Chief Executive Officer, Piramal Pharma Solutions, said, "Assisting customers in the discovery process is synergistic with our efforts to be a patient-centric CDMO. With this investment, we are enhancing our discovery platform by adding new in vitro biology services to our existing capabilities, making us a more integrated partner." About Piramal Pharma Solutions: Piramal Pharma Solutions (PPS) is a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) offering end-to-end development and manufacturing solutions across the drug life cycle. We serve our customers through a globally integrated network of facilities in North America, Europe, and Asia. This enables us to offer a comprehensive range of services including drug discovery solutions, process & pharmaceutical development services, clinical trial supplies, commercial supply of APIs, and finished dosage forms. We also offer specialized services such as the development and manufacture of highly potent APIs, antibody-drug conjugations, sterile fill/finish, peptide products & services, and potent solid oral drug product. Our track record as a trusted service provider with experience across varied technologies makes us a partner of choice for innovator and generic companies worldwide. For more information please visit: www.piramalpharmasolutions.com | Twitter | LinkedIn About Piramal Pharma Ltd. Piramal Pharma Limited (PPL) offers a portfolio of differentiated products and services through end-to-end manufacturing capabilities across 15 global facilities and a global distribution network over 100 countries. PPL includes: Piramal Pharma Solutions (PPS), an integrated Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization; Piramal Critical Care (PCC), a Complex Hospital Generics business, and the India Consumer Healthcare business, selling over-the counter products. PPS offers end-to-end development and manufacturing solutions through a globally integrated network of facilities across the drug life cycle to innovator and generic companies. PCC's complex hospital product portfolio includes inhalation anaesthetics, intrathecal therapies for spasticity and pain management, injectable pain and anaesthetics, injectable anti-infectives, and other therapies. The Indian Consumer Healthcare business is among the leading players in India in the self-care space, with established brands in the Indian consumer healthcare market. In addition, PPL has a joint venture with Allergan, a leader in ophthalmology in the Indian formulations market. In October 2020, the company received growth equity investment from the Carlyle Group. For more information visit: www.piramal.com | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1718935/Piramal_Ahmedabad.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1718934/Piramal_Logo.jpg For Investors: Hitesh Dhaddha/Mayank Kumar Investor Relations [email protected] SOURCE Piramal Pharma Solutions SECAUCUS, N.J., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services, announced that it is scheduled to speak at the 40th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Steve Rusckowski, Chairman, CEO and President, will discuss the company's vision, goals, and capital deployment strategies. The virtual presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, January 12, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The presentation and Q&A session will be webcast live during the conference and will be available on the company's investor relations page which can be accessed at ir.QuestDiagnostics.com. In addition, the archived webcast will be available within 24 hours after the conclusion of the live event and will remain available until February 11, 2022. About Quest Diagnostics Quest Diagnostics empowers people to take action to improve health outcomes. Derived from the world's largest database of clinical lab results, our diagnostic insights reveal new avenues to identify and treat disease, inspire healthy behaviors and improve health care management. Quest annually serves one in three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in the United States, and our nearly 50,000 employees understand that, in the right hands and with the right context, our diagnostic insights can inspire actions that transform lives. www.QuestDiagnostics.com. SOURCE Quest Diagnostics Related Links www.questdiagnostics.com Transformative logo, brand identity revealed as Quoter embarks upon its next stage of growth. VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Quoter Software Inc., a cloud-based sales quoting platform for technology service providers, is excited to announce it has launched a new brand identity. More than $18B USD in quotes have been sent using Quoter since 2019, and the company now has over 1,000 partners in 26 countries. Quoter's fresh new look provides a visually distinct aesthetic that reflects the values of the company and its partners: instrumental, uncomplicated, supportive, and approachable. Along with the new brand identity, Quoter has made significant functionality improvements including: New quote builder interface Draft quotes Bundles Optionals Quote sections Etilize, Syncro, and Distributor integrations ConnectBooster integration New tax engine with county taxation (beta) Avalara integration (coming soon) The Quoter team has doubled in size in the past year and continues to grow rapidly. The team of 25 deeply understands the needs of modern IT service providers and is building quoting software that enables businesses to be more productive. "As firm believers in product-led growth, we've continued to invest heavily in our platform with the majority of our budget going toward engineering. With the feedback from over 1,000 partners, we've shipped a number of key features to help technology service providers eliminate bottlenecks and empower their sales teams to generate revenue." - Mike Walsh, Quoter CEO The new brand assets include a logo, colour palette, typography, iconography and textures that support their newly defined brand attributes along with their company mission and vision. Mission: Help the world's most productive sales teams eliminate bottlenecks while improving the buying experience for customers. Vision: To be the most indispensable sales platform for technology service providers to drive profitable growth. Quoter Software Inc. is a B2B software company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its innovative Software as a Service (SaaS) product optimizes the sale process for technology service providers, including managed service providers (MSPs), telecommunications companies, value-added resellers (VARs), and tech-enabled medical businesses. Co-founded in 2018 by Mike Walsh and Mike Polga, Quoter created its quoting software to help technology companies streamline their quote-to-cash process, eliminate mistakes, and improve the customer buying experience. Visit www.quoter.com to explore the new design and the brand. Full Release For further information: [email protected] Quoter Software Inc. 3200 - 1021 Hastings St W, Vancouver, V6E 0C3 SOURCE Quoter Software Inc. BOSTON, Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Recorded Future, the world's largest provider of intelligence for enterprise security, today announced that it has acquired SecurityTrails , the Total Internet Inventory and leading provider of Attack Surface Monitoring. With the addition of SecurityTrails' data, Recorded Future provides the foremost intelligence solution for unique threat landscape visibility, including insight into an organization's attack surface and shadow infrastructure. Global digital transformation has rapidly moved organizations and governments into a cloud-first world and companies and professionals are spinning up tools, systems, and entire ecosystems without proper security oversight and hygiene. The basic security principle to "know your network better than the adversary" simply cannot happen as CIOs and CISOs have little visibility into all of their internet-facing assets and infrastructure. SecurityTrails' technology collects hundreds of data points at an internet-wide scale, correlating and normalizing to get a near real-time snapshot as well as a historical view of all assets on the internet at any given time. The resulting intelligence enables organizations to manage both critical assets and shadow infrastructure for a complete understanding of their attack surface. "It has been said, 'If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.' By combining Recorded Future's unsurpassed Intelligence Platform with SecurityTrails' unrivaled view into an organization's attack surface, we make life miserable for the adversary." Dr. Christopher Ahlberg, CEO and Co-Founder, Recorded Future With this acquisition, Recorded Future will be launching its Attack Surface Intelligence Module within the Recorded Future Intelligence Platform. Existing Recorded Future clients will also continue to gain insight from SecurityTrails data in other existing Intelligence Modules, incorporated through the company's Intelligence Graph , and the company will continue to aggressively invest in SecurityTrails' Total Internet Inventory collection and intelligence capabilities to build out the world's deepest, real-time dataset of the internet. "Recorded Future has been a long-standing partner of SecurityTrails and our intelligence collection capabilities and inventories naturally complement each other in terms of providing risk landscape visibility. We're thrilled at this evolution in our relationship and the tremendous value that organizations can realize for proactive, actionable defenses." Chris Ueland, CEO and Co-Founder, SecurityTrails About SecurityTrails SecurityTrails is a comprehensive inventory that curates extensive domain and IP address data for users and applications that demand clarity. By combining current and historic data of Internet assets, SecurityTrails is the proven solution for 3rd-party risk assessment, attack surface reduction and threat hunting. Their powerful API uses real-time data foundations, and lightning-fast data stores to deliver internet assets faster and with greater accuracy. Over 100,000 users globally count on SecurityTrails' fast-detecting products to help prevent the next big threat and eliminate any potential blindspots. This includes Fortune 500 companies, top security vendors, and governments. From knowing an organization's attack surface, shadow infrastructure, and spotting new domains, SecurityTrails makes sure there's nothing left to be discovered. Learn more at www.securitytrails.com and follow us on Twitter @securitytrails. About Recorded Future Recorded Future is the world's largest provider of intelligence for enterprise security. By combining persistent and pervasive automated data collection and analytics with human analysis, Recorded Future delivers intelligence that is timely, accurate, and actionable. In a world of ever-increasing chaos and uncertainty, Recorded Future empowers organizations with the visibility they need to identify and detect threats faster; take proactive action to disrupt adversaries; and protect their people, systems, and assets, so business can be conducted with confidence. Recorded Future is trusted by more than 1,000 businesses and government organizations around the world. Learn more at www.recordedfuture.com and follow us on Twitter at @RecordedFuture. SOURCE Recorded Future Smoke rises from the Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, on Monday after a weekend fire reignited. ALBANY, N.Y., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The pyrite market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 4.65% during the forecast period from 2020 to 2030. The demand for sulfur compounds from various industries are creating lucrative opportunities in the pyrite market. Pyrite is mined as a source of iron and sulfur, and is readily oxidized to create sulfuric acid naturally as well as commercially. The growing demand for pyrite from grinding, paper & pulp, and consumer electronics industries is also fueling the growth of the pyrite market. The growth is influenced from its wide applications in photovoltaic devices, costume jewelry, marcasite jewelry, and semiconductor industry for lithium-ion batteries. Sales in the pyrite market are expected to receive impetus from the growing demand for pyrite for cost-effective sodium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Pyrite undergoes the same conversion reaction in sodium-ion batteries as lithium-ion batteries to form iron and sodium sulfide. Asia Pacific holds leading share of the pyrite market attributed to the expanding application of pyrite in various industries. China and India are key contributors to the pyrite market in Asia Pacific mainly due to rapid industrialization and urbanization. The demand for pyrite for electric vehicles propels the pyrite market in Europe. Get PDF Brochure for More Insights https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=60300 Pyrite Market Key Findings of Report Copious applications of sulfur dioxide in the food & beverages industry for preservation, food additive, and refrigerant boost the pyrite market Use of sulfuric acid in the chemical industry in the manufacture of fertilizers, dyes, drugs, pigments, explosives, detergents, and inorganic salts and acids presents lucrative growth opportunities in the pyrite market Commonly called fool's gold, naturally occurring iron disulfide mineral pyrite resembles gold to create value grab opportunities in the pyrite market. Pyrite is used in jewelry making including beads and necklaces. Virtues of healing properties of pyrite accounts for its use in gemstones. Advancements in geological and chemical industries are expanding the pyrite market Increasing demand for pyrite-based devices for photovoltaic systems in residential applications is anticipated to create lucrative opportunities in the pyrite market. This is due to the abundance and non-toxic semiconductor virtues of pyrite for use as an absorber material for deployment of solar photovoltaic panels. Cost advantages of sodium-ion batteries in comparison with lithium-ion batteries coupled with design feature for use as stationary units to store electrical energy to cement market growth Novel applications of pyrite in the solar industry to open new opportunities in the pyrite market. Ask for Special Discount on Report https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=60300 Pyrite Market Growth Drivers Extensive demand for pyrite in the production of sulfuric acid and sulfur dioxide that find applications in several end-use industries creates copious opportunities in the pyrite market Increasing applications of lithium-ion batteries in the consumer electronics and automotive sectors due to their virtues of high power capacity, elevated safety, and reduced pollution drive demand for pyrite in the production of lithium-ion batteries Request a Sample https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=60300 Pyrite Market Key Players Some of the key players operating in the pyrite market are: Hickman Washington Mills Foshan Pyrite Minerals Materials Co. Ltd Calumite Company LLC Vulcan Corporation Limited Miller and Company LLC Williams & Company Avrupa Minerals Ltd. Pakistan Minerals Company Luoyang Perfect Trading Co. Ltd. China Runlong Industry Co. Ltd. The pyrite market is segmented as follows; Pyrite Market, by End User Foundry Steel Abrasive Glass Battery Paper & Pulp Industry Others (including Chemicals) Pyrite Market, by Region North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany France U.K. Italy Spain Russia & CIS & CIS Rest of Europe Asia Pacific China Japan India South Korea ASEAN Rest of Asia Pacific Latin America Brazil Mexico Rest of Latin America Middle East & Africa & GCC Countries South Africa Rest of Middle East & Africa Buy an Exclusive Research Report at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=60300